From the article -- The United States and Europe continue to see declining performance, particularly in math and reading. Some experts blamed the pandemic for the educational gap affecting new generations; six years later, there is no trace of the pandemic left (except in mental health clinics), and Western children are getting dumber by the day. On the other side of the scale, all those children from the East (Singapore, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan) keep improving their results, especially in math, though I am not suggesting for a moment that we should slit our own children’s eyes.
For decades, the Left has harped on about academic inequality, claiming that disadvantaged children get worse results because they have fewer resources, rather than encouraging them to study hard and exercise their right to social and economic mobility. Now we see the consequences of trying to close that gap: the current PISA disaster no longer distinguishes between the privileged and the disadvantaged; everyone is becoming equally thick. The Left, remember, always levels down.
2) “WTH -- The Trump Administration Is Giving Billions to the United Nations” (Danielle Pletka, AEI)
From the article -- The new arrangement with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), involving a total of $3.8 billion to date, has fundamentally weaker oversight than even the deficient procedures that allowed U.S. funding to facilitate terror in Gaza.
That’s not a typo. The Donald J. Trump administration has funneled — to date!! — $3.8 billion to OCHA. What is OCHA? Exactly as it sounds, OCHA coordinates humanitarian affairs for the United Nations. What did OCHA do in Gaza, exactly? Here’s an example: On November 14, 2023, the Department of Defense revealed that the United States had information that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operated a command-and-control node from Al-Shifa Hospital, stored weapons there, and used hospitals to conceal military operations and hold hostages...
Historically, those managing U.S. assistance, whether at the now defunct AID or at the State Department have confronted challenges in dealing with NGOs too cozy with unsavory governments and groups. Bad things tend not to happen in places filled with angels, and that’s natural. What’s unnatural is the State Department’s evident lack of effort to mitigate the risk that, um, American tax dollars are being used by terrorists to, um, kill Americans.
3) “A Booming Economy: Who Cares?” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)
From the article -- So why is the Trump administration seemingly on the ropes, with the Republicans’ midterm prospects considered to be bleak? The main reason is the Iran war; not because of casualties we have suffered in that conflict, which have been almost nonexistent–rather, because of the transitory impact on the price of gasoline.
I think the root cause of the administration’s current malaise is the fact that Donald Trump is not a good politician. A competent politician would have handled the Iran conflict quite differently. It would have begun with an address from the Oval Office in which the president would announce the beginning of the conflict, explain the reasons for it, and outline the administration’s goals. Trump never did that, and his Truth Social posts–which he seems to think fill the role of the traditional address to the nation–have been sporadic, amateurish and inconsistent.
A competent politician would not have empowered the IRGC by wasting months trying to achieve a “deal” that would, in any event, have been worthless. Trump should have carried out the military operation until his announced goals had been achieved, and then terminated it.
And a competent politician, instead of spouting off on everything under the Sun on a daily basis, thus giving his opponents endless ammunition to attack him, would stick to consistent messaging on the most important topics, like the economy and immigration. Instead, Trump’s significant achievements have largely been lost in a blizzard of irrelevant news headlines, usually enabled by Trump himself.
4) “What the hell is a ‘non-practising white’? -- The reaction to the black juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial has exposed the ugliness of woke identity politics.” (Ada Akpala, spiked!)
From the article -- The case generated intense discussion about mental health, postpartum depression and the extent to which severe mental illness can affect a person’s responsibility for their actions. Many of us also watched, with some bewilderment, as hordes of women rallied behind a mother who had admitted to taking the lives of her own children. Throughout the trial, groups of supporters gathered outside the courthouse in a show of support for Clancy, either proclaiming her total innocence (some suggested her husband was really the murderer) or suggesting that, because of her mental health, Clancy was just as much of a victim as her dead children.
Since the jurors’ identities came to light, race has dominated the discussion. Put simply, Clancy’s progressive supporters are struggling to get to grips with the fact that the lone juror who thought she was guilty is black. One Clancy supporter’s disappointment has since gone viral. ‘As a non-practising white’, she said on TikTok, ‘I am surprised, and that changes the landscape of the conversation’.
This is where identity politics starts to become genuinely surreal. Why should the race of a juror ‘change the landscape’ of the debate? What does one man’s skin colour have to do with whether Clancy’s mental state absolved her of responsibility? For one thing, Clancy is a white woman, as were the three children she killed. Race had nothing to do with this case at all. And what in the world is a ‘non-practising white’?
We need to speak honestly: this is a form of racism. In the woke worldview, ‘white’ is no longer simply a description of someone’s race or ethnicity. It is a signal of politics and morality. Whiteness is oppression, the thinking goes, so the more distance you put between yourself and it, the more naturally aligned you become with the ‘victim’ of the story.
Related article – “The Dangers Of The Modern Therapeutic Culture: When Moral Responsibility Is Erased, Justice Is the Casualty” (Alex McFarland, Harbinger’s Daily)
5) “Piddington: roar of the Waitrose mums: The middle classes might finally be waking up to the lunacy of illegal migration.” (Tom Slater, spiked!)
From the article -- That sound you hear in the distance is the roar of the Waitrose mums. Piddington, a tiny, well-to-do village in Oxfordshire, has voted to secede from the United Kingdom over government plans to stick 1,256 male illegal migrants on a nearby military base. When and if they arrive, the newcomers will dwarf the 350-strong Piddington population by four to one. Long the preserve of the working classes, opposition to asylum policy is now reaching into the ‘centrist’ Home Counties. And all it took was for them to be personally affected by it.
The vote is purely symbolic, of course. The rebels of Piddington aren’t about to erect border posts or seize the post office. Not yet, at least. But what a signal it sends. The newly dubbed Principality of Piddington represents a broadening of the public agitation against the small-boats crisis, and it will be emulated elsewhere. Rebel leader Tim McNally, chairman of Piddington parish council, has said hundreds of councillors from across the country, keen to resist the imposition of asylum accommodation on their own areas, have been in contact with him to discuss the Piddington ‘blueprint’.
That Piddingtonians fought back through the ballot box is telling. Asylum policy has become an affront to democracy, national and local. The potential repurposing of Bicester barracks was announced over the heads of residents and their representatives, via Crown-estate powers that blindsided the council. McNally says the village was given just 10 days to respond to a 1,000-page planning document for the site. In its desperation to close migrant hotels and force richer areas to take their ‘fair share’, Labour is succeeding only in spreading public fury with the asylum system more evenly across the country and the income brackets.
Related articles: “The Invasion of Britain: The UK No Longer Belongs to Its Own People” (Robert Williams, Gatestone Institute)... "Why is the Church of England fawning over a hardline Muslim? -- On the anniversary of 9/11, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave an award to a man who once gushed over Osama bin Laden. This is insane." (Brendan O'Neill, spiked!)
Other Excellent Articles
* “The suicide of American Jewish leadership: American Jews must understand that their current leaders cannot save them. And so, they must save themselves.” (Benjamin Kerstein, Jewish News Service)
* “There Is No Such Thing As A Moderate Democrat Anymore” (Brianna Lyman, Federalist)
* “Iran, the Midterms, and October Surprises: The Iran war could reshape the midterms as Democrats, Iran’s regime, dissidents, and Kurdish rebels weigh the political and military stakes of the next 50 days.” (Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness)
* “‘Without Excuse’: From A Child To A Genius, Intelligent Design Is Common Sense” (Ray Comfort, Harbinger’s Daily)
* “Nearly 100% of Princeton faculty donations went to Democrats -- zero to Republicans” (Jennifer Kabbany, College Fix)