EMILY YOFFE: The Question of Race in Campus Sexual-Assault Cases: Is the system biased against men of color?
Yes, but shut up because equality.
Archive for 2017
September 12, 2017
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT AUNG SAN SUU KYI UPDATE: Apparent ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ Is Now Unfolding In Myanmar, U.N. Says.
THE PRESS STARTS ROWING BACK THE PRE-IRMA HEADLINES: “That headline at The Washington Post makes me think about all the headlines, as the hurricane was approaching, about how the hurricane is worse because of climate change. If [it] wasn’t worse, was that because the earlier talk about the effect of climate change was exaggerated? . . . The article is about luck and happenstance — ‘shifts and wobbles.’ And I can’t help feeling suspicious that if the hurricane had bounced into more damaging locations, it would be framed in terms of climate change.”
THE TRUTH ABOUT “DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION,” REVEALED: A member of Lafayette College’s student government recently resigned because it included “conservative students” in a report on “inclusive dialogue.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Anti-US Banner at Amherst College on 9/11 sparks outrage.
ED MORRISSEY IS ALSO WONDERING WHY THE MEDIA IS OKAY WITH THE FBI PROBING A MEDIA ORGANIZATION.
These aren’t questions designed to let Sputnik and RT off the hook. Both of them have reputations as shills for Putin and harbors for anti-American cranks, which is why they have about the same level of credibility that TASS and Pravda had back in the day. The White House Correspondents Association could have denied Sputnik credentials without getting the FBI involved, however, which might have reduced their credibility even further. Their market reach surely has been limited by their laughable propaganda.
The issue here is whether the FBI and DoJ should get into the business of regulating foreign news agencies, regardless of their connection to foreign governments. FARA is intended to heighten transparency in lobbying, not news media, and expanding it into the media realm could set dangerous precedents down the road for Americans engaged in free speech. Will the FBI look into those websites who regurgitated Sputnik’s nonsense for FARA violations, merely for publicly agreeing with it? In another administration, might pro-Israel websites and journalists get similarly probed for backing them?
I don’t find this entirely reassuring: “Asha Rangappa, a former FBI counterintelligence agent, noted that the FBI ‘stays away from REAL journalists.'” I actually know and like Asha Rangappa, but I also remember the Vanessa Leggett case, where the DOJ’s judgment on that question seemed poor. I wrote a piece on that subject for the Wall Street Journal.
BREXIT CATCH-UP: The EU Withdrawal Bill passed the UK House of Commons last night 326-90, which is good, but the Bill allows the executive to alter laws by enacting “Henry VIII powers,” which is bad. My colleague Rory Broomfield and I proposed a different approach to reducing EU regulation (based on the successful US experience with BRAC) in our book “Cutting the Gordian Knot.” Meanwhile, Cato Unbound is having a discussion on Brexit this week with some of the smartest freedom-loving minds around – starting with a lead essay from Brexit’s most articulate supporter, Dan Hannan MEP.
GNATS ON THE WEST SIDE, BEDBUGS UPTOWN. Insects Attack: Swarm Of Bugs Creating Buzz In Philadelphia.
If only there was an easy, proven solution to this problem.
METAPHOR ALERT: Public university washes away conservative group’s 9/11 chalk memorial.
Like many, Cleveland State University’s Turning Point USA chapter wanted to recognize the 16th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. So members of the pro-capitalist student group gathered Sunday evening to chalk a memorial onto the sidewalks of the public university’s campus, an exhibit that included an American flag with the words “No day shall erase you from the memory of time” under it.
However, the artistic memorial didn’t last long. Hours after it was created, the university removed it. An image tweeted by Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, shows a maintenance employee washing away the memorial with a power washer this morning.
Tiffany Roberts, chapter president of CSU’s Turning Point USA club, told The College Fix that members of the chapter gathered around 6 p.m. Sunday evening to chalk a 9/11 tribute onto the sidewalks of the public university to honor those killed in the terrorist attacks. Roberts said that around 7:45 a.m. Monday morning, a university employee arrived at the memorial with a power washer and removed the memorial.
Like many, Cleveland State University’s Turning Point USA chapter wanted to recognize the 16th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. So members of the pro-capitalist student group gathered Sunday evening to chalk a memorial onto the sidewalks of the public university’s campus, an exhibit that included an American flag with the words “No day shall erase you from the memory of time” under it.
However, the artistic memorial didn’t last long. Hours after it was created, the university removed it. An image tweeted by Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, shows a maintenance employee washing away the memorial with a power washer this morning.
Tiffany Roberts, chapter president of CSU’s Turning Point USA club, told The College Fix that members of the chapter gathered around 6 p.m. Sunday evening to chalk a 9/11 tribute onto the sidewalks of the public university to honor those killed in the terrorist attacks. Roberts said that around 7:45 a.m. Monday morning, a university employee arrived at the memorial with a power washer and removed the memorial.
“When we asked why he was destroying our tribute to the victims of 9/11, [the employee] informed us that he had been ordered to do so by the university’s Director of Facilities Maintenance, Shehadeh Abdelkarim,” Roberts said.
Well, that looks shady.
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EMBRACE THE SUCK ALERT: The Second Edition pre-order page is already up at Amazon. So get moving. Don’t stand around looking like a pig with a wrist watch.
I HAD BEEN ASSURED THAT WIDESPREAD VOTER FRAUD WASN’T AN ISSUE: Study Finds Non-Citizens Are Unknowingly Registered to Vote. “Bill Clinton’s Motor Voter law looks like the culprit.”
BRIGHT NEWS ABOUT DARK MATTER: Education Secretary DeVos may withdraw the toxic guidance documents that have helped spread the poison of disciplinary intimidation on campuses. Joanne Jacobs has more here.
HMM: Eyes on 2018 as 3rd House Republican Says He’ll Retire.
The decision by Rep. Dave Trott of Michigan followed retirement announcements last week by Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Dave Reichert of Washington, three members Democrats planned to try to unseat next year. Though all would have been difficult incumbents to unseat, the districts are likely to be much more competitive for Democrats as open races. Several nonpartisan handicappers immediately switched Trott’s district to a “toss up” after his announcement.
Though the trio of retirements hasn’t invited panic among Republicans, it could be a warning sign of a tough political environment facing GOP lawmakers next year. On average, the party in power tends to lose seats in a president’s first midterm election, and Republicans worry that struggling to accomplish their agenda on Capitol Hill and the tumult of President Trump’s first year leave them vulnerable in 2018.
“It’s clear the political environment is trending away from Republicans; the question is, to what extent?” said GOP consultant Ken Spain, who ran communications for the National Republican Congressional Committee during the 2010 cycle. “The next six months are going to tell the story.”
On the Senate side, even Tennessee Republican Bob Corker is “unsure about running for reelection.”
Perhaps if this Congress were delivering on the promises they made to the constituents who put them in office, they’d be reading the tea leaves differently.
THINGS THAT WERE ONCE PUNCHLINES ARE NOW POLICY: A rapist in a women’s prison? Society has lost the plot. “Incredibly, Martin Ponting, who was sentenced to life in 1995 for the rape of two girls under the age of 16, was recently moved to the all-women prison of Bronzefield in Surrey because he now identifies as a woman and goes by the name of Jessica Winfield. He has now been segregated from the other prisoners at Bronzefield presumably for some serious misdemeanour. (For making advances to women, say sections of the press, though the prison authorities deny this.) To place a rapist among women because he claims to be a woman might prove to be the moment the cult of genderfludity crossed the line from irritating to psychotic.”
CHRISTIAN TOTO: What Are Critics Saying About Kennedy in “Chappaquiddick?”
FIRST AMENDMENT UPDATE: FBI gets Sputnik emails, critics see ‘red line for media’ crossed in Russia probe.
A fired White House correspondent gave the FBI a thumb drive of internal communications and sat for a two-hour interview this month related to whether the Sputnik news outlet is illegally spreading propaganda without disclosure under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Some press freedom advocates say Americans should be concerned regardless of whether the meeting between journalist Andrew Feinberg, an FBI agent and a Justice Department attorney turns out to be related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s role in the 2016 election.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, responding to Yahoo News’ Monday reporting on the inquiry, said “the investigation into Sputnik crosses a long-observed red line for media.”
“Countries around the world have long accused media of being tools of foreign governments as a pretense for investigations and arrests,” he said. “The line between government direction and pro-government bias is a subtle one [and] many media moguls have a bias and close ties to governments.”
Turley said “the taking of computer records and communications raise serious free press questions” and that “ironically, since it is part of the Russian influence investigation, many of those normally supportive of the free press are silent.”
Yes, the First Amendment only matters when it helps Democrats.
THE SCIENCE WASN’T SETTLED: “I placed too much faith in underpowered studies:” Nobel Prize winner admits mistakes. It’s about research on “priming,” which a lot of people have made a big deal of, but which turns out not to be so much of a thing.
FAKE NEWS? Illegal immigration in Southwest doubled over past four months.
More than 30,000 illegal immigrants were nabbed in August, up 22 percent compared to July and up nearly 100 percent compared to April, when fewer than 16,000 illegal immigrants were arrested by the Border Patrol or stopped at ports of entry by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers.
The numbers are still lower than they were a year before under Mr. Obama, but the gains Mr. Trump made in his first months in office are dissipating.
Actually, I’m not sure you can read anything into these numbers. July of 2017 should be compared to July of 2016 — not to the previous month of the same year. Month-to-month figures are probably worthless for a variety of reasons.
I’VE HEARD A LOT OF TENNESSEE RUMORS: Corker unsure about running for reelection.
OBAMA’S LEGACY ISN’T ALL BAD: Poll: More Americans Have a Gun in Home Than Ever Before.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Trump’s Tax Reform Dinner, NorKs Get Sanctions and Much, Much More.
KID ROCK: ‘Pretty funny how scared I have them.’
Musician Kid Rock on Monday defended himself against charges of racism from a Detroit-based civil rights group, claiming he wouldn’t be facing such attacks were he not considering a run for the U.S. Senate.
A Detroit-based affiliate of the National Action Network said last week it would protest Kid Rock’s six-show run opening the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit this week, aiming to get the concerts canceled.
Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, said in a statement that people should ignore “the garbage the extreme left is trying to create!”
“They are trying to use the old confederate flag BS, etc. to stir the pot, when we all know none of this would be going on if I were not thinking of running for office. Pretty funny how scared I have them all and their only agenda is to try and label people / me racist who do not agree or cower to them!!” wrote Ritchie, who lives in Clarkston.
“My track record in Detroit and Michigan speaks for itself, and I would dare anyone talking trash to put theirs up against mine.”
In closing, he said, “I LOVE BLACK PEOPLE!!”
The Senate could do far worse — and has.