Archive for 2024

TO BE FAIR, THE POINT OF THE MONEY ISN’T EDUCATING STUDENTS, IT’S GRIFT AND GRAFT AND VOTE-BUYING, AND THAT PART HAS SUCCEEDED BRILLIANTLY: Chicago Teachers Union fails to turn $68K per student into even 1 academic win. “Douglass Academy High School spends the most per student compared to any other school in CPS, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2023 Report Card. With that kind of spending, one would expect academic proficiency to soar, but that’s not the case. The most recent test data available shows no 11th grade students could read or perform math at grade level on the SAT in the 2021-2022 school year, and 86% of tested students scored in the lowest proficiency level for reading.”

SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK:

HMM: While Union Leaders Line Up for Biden, Trump Has Backing of the Rank and File.

Give President Biden the union elites, while President Trump takes the rank and file.

Mr. Biden met with the AFL-CIO union leaders Wednesday, repeating his boast that he’s the most pro-union President in American history. So you say, Mr. Biden, but we shall see.

In fact, while the liberal, left-wing union leaders are lining up for Mr. Biden, you can bet that Trump is going to take a record share of the rank and file.

Actually, the Teamsters president, Sean O’Brien, plans to speak at the Republican National Convention at Milwaukee next week.

He’s got 1.3 million members, and I’m going to guess Trump is going to win a big majority of that group.

Here’s what’s bothering the Teamsters and the rank and file of the other unions as well: Mr. Biden has created an affordability crisis for working families.

For whatever they’re worth, polls showed that traditionally Democrat union guys who voted for Trump in 2016 “came home” for Biden four years later — an expensive mistake they’re unlikely to make again.

LOL: Dems, Media Begin Captain Louis Renault Award Contest Over Declinin’ Biden.

Related: A Short History of the Coverup. “I have been pounding the drum on what I think is the most important thing to focus on right now, and it’s not the decline of the president. Everybody knows that, can see it, and it is baked into the cake. What conservatives need to do is open everybody’s eyes to the real villains in this story, and that is the mainstream media.”

Plus:

UPDATE: A friend writes:

Big boy. What are these people thinking?

OK, let me rephrase that. Big boy. What are these people…

No, that’s all I got.

Are they out of their fucking minds?

Imagine the flaming media cyclone if Trump ever billed anything “big boy.”

Like, before you get to how drool-cup/bring out your dead that looks to actual Americans?

“Are they out of their fucking minds?” was rhetorical, btw.

Woke politics makes you stupid.

RACE DISCRIMINATION IN FINANCIAL AID:  For a long time, many colleges and universities have been assuming they could get away with discriminating on the basis of race in allocating financial aid.  SFFA v. Harvard has drawn that into question.  It’s is hard to imagine the Supreme Court would prohibit race discrimination in admissions, but allow it in financial aid.

You should expect to see a new generation of financial aid driven lawsuits (like this one against the University of Oklahoma) in the near future.  Unlike previous lawsuits, these new class actions will likely involve big money in damages.

The University of Oklahoma case is special.  If the allegations against it are true, it won’t even have the excuse that it believed what it was doing was legal.  Oklahoma has a state constitutional provision modeled after Prop 209.  This could cost the university an extraordinary amount of money.

If other colleges and universities haven’t fallen into line yet, they’d best do so right away.  If they wait to be sued, the damages just keep growing.

HE FIGHTS: Trump Is Planning for a Landslide Win.

There was always a certain danger inherent to this assault on Biden’s faculties. If Wiles and LaCivita were too successful—if too many Democrats decided, too quickly, that Biden was no longer capable of defeating Trump, much less serving another four years thereafter—then they risked losing an ideal opponent against whom their every tactical maneuver had already been deliberated, poll-tested, and prepared. Campaigns are usually on guard against peaking too soon; in this case, the risk for Trump’s team was Biden bottoming out too early.

In my conversations with LaCivita and Wiles over the past six months, they assured me multiple times that the campaign was planning for all contingencies, that they took quite seriously the possibility of a substitution and would be ready if Biden forfeited the nomination.

I’m not underestimating Kamala Harris if she ends up the nominee. Or to be more precise, I’m not underestimating the lengths the DNC-Media Complex will go to to drag her over the finish line.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: In the St. Louis district of Rep Cori Bush (D-Mo.). She boasted recently of securing nearly $1 million in federal tax dollars for a Far-Left pro-Palestinian activist group, Young Voices with Action. Washington Free Beacon’s Meghan Blonder reports.

TO BE FAIR, THAT’S THE GOAL: Excessive Calls for Recusal Threaten Judicial Independence. “In this latest trend of coordinated recusal attacks, however, I see a much more malicious and dangerous long-term objective. These unfounded attacks are ultimately aimed at undermining the independence of the federal judiciary as a whole. . . . This is a well-financed and coordinated effort to lay the foundation for calls for court packing and other reform measures that would destroy the judiciary’s independence.”

EXPERT THINKS J.D. VANCE IS THE VP PICK:

The three reported finalists for vice presidential nominee are Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, North Dakoka Gov. Doug Burgum and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.

Christopher Devine, an associate political science professor at the University of Dayton, has written two books on the impact running mates have on a ticket.

Devine said vice presidential candidates can influence voters by providing a boost based on geography or demographics. For instance, a running mate night help deliver their home state, while a woman or candidate of color might rally voters who see themselves in the V.P. nominee.

However, Devine said those affects tend to be minimal. A more significant impression the running mate leaves is as a reflection of the presidential candidate’s judgement.

“Who they pick tells you something about their priorities in politics,” Devine said. “It tells you about how serious they are in terms of the decisions that they make.”

Devine said a V.P. nominee is most impactful when the presidential candidate isn’t particularly well-known, pointing to the 2008 campaign when voters who didn’t closely follow politics probably didn’t know much about either Barack Obama or John McCain.

He said polling showed voters thought less of McCain’s judgement after he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin, and her series of speaking gaffes, contrasted with Obama’s running mate, then-longtime Senator Joe Biden.

Well, that’s not a mark in favor of voters’ judgment.

REMAIN CALM. ALL IS WELL! PepsiCo, After Years of Price Hikes, Sounds an Alarm on Consumer Spending: Frito-Lay North America reports 4% drop in sales volume, warns that consumers are looking for more deals.

Inflation-weary shoppers are finally cutting back on potato chips.

For the past few years as prices soared, many consumers kept buying affordable treats like Doritos and Lay’s in lieu of bigger-ticket splurges such as restaurants, concerts or travel. But now, they are limiting their spending in all areas, said Jamie Caulfield, PepsiCo’s chief financial officer. . . .

Inflation in the U.S. is moderating but consumers are feeling the cumulative impact of years of steep price hikes, particularly in their grocery bills. Consumers in recent months have been pulling away from big brands like Starbucks, Chips Ahoy and McDonald’s.

Shares of Conagra Brands declined in Thursday trading after the maker of Slim Jim meat snacks and Vlasic pickles reported lower sales for its latest quarter and issued a disappointing profit outlook for its current fiscal year. . . . Shoppers are now less interested in buy-one-get-one-free promotions and want lower price points for single items, Caulfield added.

Everything is going swimmingly.

HOW TO VOTE WHEN BOTH CANDIDATES STINK: That is not meant as an allusion to any particular race on the ballot in 2024, but being unsure of who to support can especially be a problem in local and state elections. The latest “What Would You Say” video on HillFaith from the Colson Center offers three interesting suggestions.