JOANNE JACOBS: Dumber and dumber: Americans, young and old, are slipping.

“Americans are getting dumber,” writes Chad Aldeman on The 74. Achievement peaked about a decade ago on “a wide range of national and international tests, grade levels and subject areas.” Since then, students — and adults – are doing worse.

The pandemic made it worse, but the downward trend started years before lockdowns and zoom school.

Scores have fallen faster for lower-performing students, he notes. Achievement gaps, which were narrowing, are growing, points out Nat Malkus of the American Enterprise Institute. In a new report, he writes that “external societal factors — not just school-related influences —are at play.”

At the start of the decline, writes Aldeman, the Obama administration relaxed federal accountability rules. It would make sense to blame that — except that U.S. adults are doing worse in literacy and numeracy on international tests, with lower achievers again losing the most.

Just another case of the better-off closing doors of opportunity to potential competitors from the less well-off.

Thanks, Obama.

BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DO:

Astounding. Reporters at RFK hearing have pre-written negative headlines. pic.twitter.com/CY5VGXJH2O

— Calley Means (@calleymeans) January 29, 2025

“Astounding? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

More seriously, those anti-Trump/pro-government narratives don’t establish themselves, you know — and the busy little beavers in the legacy Complicit Media understand that their job is to further the Cause, not report the truth.

ROBERT SPENCER: Former CNN ‘Journalist’ Makes a Stunning Admission About Fauci. “I screwed up. Back in May 2020, I wrote how Anthony Fauci had ‘crushed’ Donald Trump’s lab-leak theory for how Covid-19 originated The CIA said over the weekend that they now believed the virus leaked from a lab.”

The screw-ups still always seem to go in the same direction.

CHANGE (IT BACK):

🔥 New EO:

“Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another…” pic.twitter.com/GkR8Yn9RpV

— Jon Herold (@patel_patriot) January 28, 2025

He doesn’t rest, does he?

BIGOTRY: Conservative events repeatedly blocked at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Hey, Elon — Take a Chainsaw to THIS.

Congratulations, taxpayers of America. Last year you spent more than $15 million on [checks notes] advanced concepts in yarn.

Courtesy of DataRepublican (small r) — a data-crunching genius on X — there’s now a searchable, online database of federal grants to nonprofits and NGOs. “Ever wonder exactly which government grants fund nonprofits? Now you can know—because I’ve cracked the code,” DataRepublican explained in her X announcement on Monday. “Unlike older tools that only sift through nonprofit 990s (which don’t directly show government dollars), I’ve mined the USASpending database to create fuzzy matches between nonprofits and their linked government grants.”

She set it up so you can search by keyword, recipient, funding agency, and much more. Or you can do what I did this morning and be a jerk about it. I thought, “What is the most boring thing in the world and how much taxpayer money is Washington giving away on it this year?”

“Yarn,” I immediately decided.

Much more at the link.

CHANGE: University of Miami is latest college to reinstate mandatory standardized testing.

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: Trump administration will offer all 2 million federal workers a buyout to resign.

A senior administration official told NBC News that they expect 5%-10% of the federal workforce to quit, which, they estimate, could lead to around $100 billion in savings.

“American taxpayers pay for the salaries of federal government employees, and therefore deserve employees working on their behalf who actually show up to work in our wonderful federal buildings, also paid for by taxpayers,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “If they don’t want to work in the office and contribute to making America great again, then they are free to choose a different line of work, and the Trump Administration will provide a very generous payout of 8 months.”

Those are permanent, annual savings, and I presume they’ll come on top of the savings generated by firing workers who refuse to come back to the office and DEI “burrowers” for insubordination.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: I’ll Take My New Immigration Policy on ICE, Please. “It’s so refreshing to see the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents being allowed to do their real jobs again. The fact that the Biden administration hamstrung them so severely while taunting them with open borders is yet another example of the Democrats’ hatred for all law enforcement.”

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Trump is following through with unprecedented and swift action to begin his presidency – which has reset the national mood.

THIS SEEMS MORE LIKELY TO PRODUCE A “BURN IT ALL DOWN” RESPONSE THAN SYMPATHY:

C’mon, guys, this is just playing into Trump’s hands. “My employer, the Federal government, can’t mass email me until there has been a systematic bureaucratic review of how much information the Federal government, which employs me, will need to send the emails” is not a valid… https://t.co/Rf2l7XZAVB

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) January 29, 2025

Related:

Interesting poll.

Downsizing government is the most popular issue by far! pic.twitter.com/8WqYNYE2aB

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2025

UPDATE:

The 8 month severance package is the first of several probable moves to reduce the size of govt. The reality that drives it is the bare fact that govt is running out of money to keep paying a bloated bureaucracy indefinitely but it can pay them for 8 months more.

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) January 29, 2025

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (MOSCOW EDITION): Putin growing concerned by Russia’s economy, as Trump pushes for Ukraine deal.

President Vladimir Putin has grown increasingly concerned about distortions in Russia’s wartime economy, just as Donald Trump pushes for an end to the Ukraine conflict, five sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

Russia’s economy, driven by exports of oil, gas and minerals, grew robustly over the past two years despite multiple rounds of Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But domestic activity has become strained in recent months by labour shortages and high interest rates introduced to tackle inflation, which has accelerated under record military spending.

That has contributed to the view within a section of the Russian elite that a negotiated settlement to the war is desirable, according to two of the sources familiar with thinking in the Kremlin.

Trump, who returned to office on Monday, has vowed to swiftly resolve the Ukraine conflict, Europe’s biggest since World War Two.

This week he has said more sanctions, as well as tariffs, on Russia are likely unless Putin negotiates, adding that Russia was heading for “big trouble” in the economy. A senior Kremlin aide said on Tuesday that Russia had so far received no specific proposals for talks.

“Russia, of course, is economically interested in negotiating a diplomatic end to the conflict,” Oleg Vyugin, former deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia said in an interview, citing the risk of growing economic distortions as Russia turbo-charges military and defence spending.

I don’t pretend to know what Putin’s concerns are and, for all anybody outside the Kremlin knows, Reuters’ five sources could be deliberately spreading misinformation about Putin’s concerns.

That said, Russia’s 21% interest rate is real, is expected to rise, and is unlikely to do much to combat inflation. Most of Russia’s inflation is due to the war, and reducing war expenditures won’t happen until there’s peace.

As for Putin’s cheerleaders in the West who seemed convinced Trump would sell out Ukraine, Trump says he’ll go after the Russian economy even harder.

Trump wants peace. Hopefully he’ll get it. But selling out to Putin is no way to get it — something Trump clearly understands.

I’VE BEEN ARGUING SINCE THE BEGINNING OF INSTAPUNDIT THAT THE NONPROFIT SECTOR NEEDS TO BE CLEANED UP:

Interesting from @QuasLacrimas pic.twitter.com/yDArXkGUC1

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2025

Related:

Interesting poll.

Downsizing government is the most popular issue by far! pic.twitter.com/8WqYNYE2aB

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2025

CHANGE: Virginia turning red: Dead heat in governor’s race, and Youngkin popularity soars.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: This Steams My Clams! All the News That’s Fit to Ignore but Still Makes Me Cranky.

FEDS IGNORE 13K+ COST-CUTTING WATCHDOG RECOMMENDATIONS: House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky) has some thoughts about that, BUT they won’t set well with more than a few long-serving Members of Congress from both political parties.

UPDATED

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Columbia Student Group Observes Holocaust Remembrance Day—By Noting ‘Parallels’ Between Auschwitz and ‘Zionist Dungeons and Torture Camps.’

GOODER AND HARDER, SAN FRANCISCO: New ‘neckdown’ road configuration is annoying drivers in San Francisco’s Sunset District.

The goal is to slow down drivers to make the street safer for cyclists and pedestrians.

Ralston Clarke lives on Kirkham Street and appreciates the city trying to manage traffic, but says there needs to be another solution.

“I appreciate that we’re attempting to do something to calm the street there,” Clarke said. “I think this particular iteration is confusing. West side has to yield, east side doesn’t know that, and so often there’s a standoff and people don’t know which way to go. So I think we tried something, I’m glad we tried something. I’d like to try something else.”*

This is a trial as part of SFMTA’s slow streets program. This summer, it will decide whether to keep the “neckdown” in place.

* In the state that gives its motorists “road diets” and attempts to ban new gas stations, it’s a safe bet they will.

Via Small Dead Animals, who note: “Educated” Bureaucrats Designed This.

DON’T GET COCKY: Democrats’ 2026 Problems Have Already Started.

Democrat Gary Peters won’t seek re-election in 2026, the two-term Michigan senator said Tuesday, complicating Democrats’ path to reclaiming a majority in the chamber.

“At this point in my life, I have been able to write many different chapters, and I look forward to the new ones with both anticipation and excitement,” Peters said in a video message. He cited the birth of his grandson as a reason for stepping away from Congress.

Peters’s announcement comes after a bruising 2024 election for Democrats in which they failed to win back the House and lost control of the Senate and the White House. Republicans now have a 53-47 Senate majority, and Democrats were hoping to claw back seats in 2026 in competitive states such as North Carolina and Maine. Michigan was already expected to be a tossup seat, as is Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s in Georgia.

President Trump won Michigan last fall—49.7% to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’s 48.3%—en route to his demolition of the “blue-wall” states, and Republicans hold the majority in the state’s delegation to the House.

There might not be anything better Trump can do to secure midterm victories than to keep delivering on his campaign promises.

LIGHTNING DEAL: Veise Fingerprint Door Lock with 2 Lever Handles. #CommissionEarned

A SMALL MEASURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: Columbia Suspends Student Who Disrupted Israeli History Class.

FOR THE TIMES, THEY ARE ACHANGING:  PepsiCo puts out ‘viewpoint neutral’ media-buying and content policy on website.

TRUTH:

Trump has done more to save this country in the last week than every elected Republican before him combined did over the last 30 years. And at a far greater personal cost to himself and his family.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) January 29, 2025

‘WE WILL CALL YOU OUT:’ Karoline Leavitt Issues Warning To Reporters At WH Press Briefing.

During the first White House press briefing of Trump’s second term on Tuesday, Leavitt issued a promise to the American people that she commits “to telling the truth from this podium every single day” and called on the reporters in the room to do the same.

“I commit to speaking on behalf of the President of the United States, that is my job,” the press secretary said. “And I will say, it’s very easy to speak truth from this podium when you have a president who is implementing policies that are wildly popular with the American people, and that’s exactly what this administration is doing.”

“It’s correcting the lies and the wrongs of the past four years, many of the lies that have been told to your faces in this very briefing room,” she added. “I will not do that, but since you brought up truth … I would like to point out, while I vow to provide the truth from this podium, we ask that all of you in this room hold yourselves to that same standard.”

“We know for a fact there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family, and we will not accept that,” Leavitt continued. “We will call you out when we feel that your reporting is wrong or there is misinformation about this White House. So yes, I will hold myself to the truth and I expect everyone in this room to do the same.”

Related: Why Karoline Leavitt’s First White House Press Briefing Was Pure Gold.

More: Trump’s White House welcomes independent media. New video from Reason TV:

It’s an idea so crazy, it just might work.

LEFTISM AS A NEUROSIS, PART #1,000,006: Leftists Are so Upset About Trump That Even the Shrinks Need Shrinks.