MEDIA Comments turned off

Will Americans Ever Trust The Media Again? — I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/07/06/will-americans-ever-trust-the-media-again-ii-tipp-poll/

Each month, the I&I/TIPP Poll seeks to gauge how much the public trusts the media to do their jobs. And, as time goes by, the answer seems increasingly clear: Average Americans no longer trust the media to tell the unvarnished truth about what’s going on in our country and the world.

June’s media indexes show that, whatever else our major news and information outlets might have going for them, trust among the reading public isn’t one of them.

The online June I&I/TIPP Poll of 1,310 adults, taken from June 8-10 with a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points, asked the following questions, as it has each month since March of 2021:

“Generally speaking, how much trust do you have in the traditional or established news media (Example: Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, CBS News, etc.) to report the news accurately and fairly?”
“Generally speaking, how much trust do you have in the alternative news media (Example: New York Post, Washington Times, NewsMax, The Daily Caller, RealClearPolitics, etc.) to report the news accurately and fairly?”

From these two questions, I&I/TIPP has created a monthly Traditional Media Index and an Alternative Media Index. This lets us gauge how the public view the major media over time.

First, look at June’s monthly data: Just 34% of Americans say they trust the “traditional” or established news outlets, while 58% say they have no trust. Diving a bit deeper into those numbers, only 12% describe themselves as having “a lot of trust,” while 22% say they have “quite a bit” of trust.

On the other side, 27% say they have “no trust at all” in the big media. None. And 31% express “little trust.”

Not exactly a big vote of confidence.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

U.S. Oil & Gas Association Savagely Burns Biden for His ‘Bring Down Gas Prices’ Tweet By Chris Queen

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/chris-queen/2022/07/05/u-s-oil-gas-association-savagely-burns-biden-for-his-bring-down-gas-prices-tweet-n1610448

The official presidential Twitter account for the Biden administration sent out a strongly worded tweet on Saturday urging oil and gas companies to lower the price that Americans are paying for gasoline — as if it’s as simple as changing the numbers on the sign at gas stations.

Joe Biden and his team of incompetents want the oil and gas industry to decrease prices to “reflect the cost [they’re] paying for the product” — in other words, to not make any money — in order to save the Democrats from a bloodbath in November.

People on Twitter with smarter economic minds clapped back at Biden with some brutality. My PJM colleague Rick Moran pointed out some of the most prominent examples of pushback on Sunday, including a notable tweet from Jeff Bezos.

Rick also gave the White House a reality slap of his own when he wrote, “Biden apparently doesn’t know that gas station owners are mostly independent small businesses whose razor-thin profit margins make it impossible to willy-nilly lower prices at the pump just because the president orders them to.”

But when an entire industry issues a brutal, clever response to an ignorant tweet from the president, it’s a pretty rough burn.

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Another Liberal Celebrity Bravely Tells Truth About Transgenderism By Matt Margolis

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/07/05/another-liberal-celebrity-bravely-tells-truth-about-transgenderism-n1610401

If you dare to speak out against transgender ideology, you’ll likely find yourself censored from social media and ostracized by your woke friends. The far left has highly politicized the issue of transgenderism, using its influence in pop culture and government to brainwash the public, particularly children, and force them into compliance with bully tactics.

So when someone on the left dares to speak out, it’s noteworthy. Why? Because they know the risks of doing so and have decided the truth is more important. As such, I applaud Grammy-winning singer Macy Gray for having the courage to speak the truth during her recent interview with Piers Morgan.

Morgan said he believed that transgender people deserve “fairness and equality,” and Gray agreed; however, he did point out that when it comes to sports, males have a clear biological advantage over females, and Gray agreed.

“I totally agree,” Gray told him. “And I will say this, and everybody’s going to hate me, but as a woman, just because you go change your parts doesn’t make you a woman. Sorry.”

“You feel that,” Morgan followed up.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Exoneration Hustle Are radical prosecutors freeing guilty murderers? Thomas Hogan

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://www.city-journal.org/the-exoneration-hustle

The headline is becoming more common: “Innocent Man Freed After Decades in Jail for Murder!” As a matter of statistical probabilities, it must be true that some innocent defendants are convicted. But experienced law enforcement officials are growing concerned that progressive prosecutors are freeing guilty murderers in their rush to enforce their own politics of decarceration and equity. A close look at how this exoneration hustle works is worth reviewing because the pattern becomes clear.

The homicide facts usually look something like the following. Two drug crews in Big City, USA are having a territorial dispute about who controls a certain street corner. Sam “Bam” Suber sees rival drug crew member Mark “Shark” Trowbridge dealing drugs on the disputed corner. Bam drives up in a car and shoots Shark, killing him. The murder is witnessed by a drug addict, a sex worker, and another member of Shark’s crew. Bam borrowed the car from his cousin and has been seen with a 9 mm handgun by multiple other individuals on the criminal fringe. Because Bam simply drove up, shot Shark, and drove off, police have not recovered the gun, and they don’t have DNA or fingerprints. At trial, the drug addict and sex worker identify Bam as the shooter, with both of them facing unrelated criminal charges for drug possession and prostitution. Shark’s buddy, facing a ten-year mandatory sentence in an unrelated drug case, also identifies Bam as the shooter. Various witnesses link Bam to the car and the gun. Bam is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. This scenario describes a typical drug-related murder conviction in the United States.

Flash forward 20 years. Bam loses every direct appeal of his conviction. He is now into collateral appeals in federal court, the endless habeas proceedings of a convicted murderer serving life. But suddenly, a progressive prosecutor is elected in Bam’s hometown. This prosecutor is a former criminal-defense lawyer who believes that no one should do more than ten years in prison and that all eye-witness identifications are flawed. How does this progressive prosecutor go about exonerating Bam, burnishing her progressive credentials?

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

US is playing risky game with Saudi Arabia and Iran :Lawrence Haas

Posted By on July 6th, 2022

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3544622-us-is-playing-risky-game-with-saudi-arabia-and-iran/

“This summit,” Khaled Al-Suleiman, a Saudi Arabian columnist, wrote of President Biden’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, “may be a golden opportunity for the American president to restore the [regional countries’] faith in America as a trustworthy historical ally with a solid policy that can be relied upon.

“For the alternative,” he warned, “is that these countries will actually change the map of their international alliances in order to safeguard their interests and enhance their ability to overcome the miscalculations of some of their traditional Western allies regarding the need to defend them from the threat of Iran, whose aggression is known to all and which never stops threatening and igniting fires and wars in the region!”

As Riyadh was planning to seek Biden’s assurances that Washington remains a reliable partner in confronting Iran’s regional expansionism, U.S. and Iranian officials met in Doha in hopes of reviving the 2015 global nuclear deal with Iran — the very deal that Riyadh opposes because it won’t prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons over the long term and because it would do nothing to curb Tehran’s terror sponsorship and other destabilizing regional activities.

For Washington, the question is whether it can have its cake and eat it too — reassure a leader of Sunni Arab nations that seek to contain Shia Iran and reach a nuclear modus vivendi with the latter. The risk, of course, is that Washington will lose on both fronts — fail to revive the nuclear deal and feed more concerns among Saudi officials that Riyadh may need to reconsider its heavy reliance on Washington for regional security.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Liz Peek: Biden’s presidency looks ‘out of control,’ but could it get worse?

Posted By on July 5th, 2022

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-presidency-looks-out-control-worse

The Fourth of July weekend began with #ImpeachJoeBiden trending on Twitter. There appeared to be no illegal act cited as a basis for impeachment; instead, people were reacting to this tweet: “Former Senior Obama advisor David Axelrod to Jake Tapper of CNN: Things in the country are ‘out of control’ and Biden is ‘not in command.’”

Americans are furious, despondent, and fed up with President Joe Biden. They agree with David Axelrod; the country has gone off the rails and the president seems utterly incapable of fixing what’s wrong.

That’s not to say Biden isn’t making history. The president is causing a series of firsts, including some of the worst presidential approval ratings ever, some of the worst consumer sentiment, some of the worst bond market in modern times, and the worst-ever small business pessimism about the future.

And that was just in the first half of 2022. Can it get even worse?

Yes, unfortunately, it can. The economy is slumping, COVID confusion reigns, high energy prices are raising the cost of everything, air travel is a disaster, the chaos at the border is about to escalate and crime is surging. And, we remain disastrously low on baby formula.

All this at a time when even Democrats have decided President Biden can’t cut it.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Georgetown Promotes Former Chávez-Regime Official after Sidelining Ilya ShapiroBy Charles Hilu

Posted By on July 5th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/07/georgetown-promotes-former-chavez-regime-official-after-sidelining-ilya-shapiro/

At the prestigious university, poorly worded tweets can get you canceled, but working in a dictatorial regime can get you promoted.

Georgetown University recently promoted Angelo Rivero Santos, a former official in the regime of Venezuela’s late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez, to the role of interim director of its Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS). Between 2006 and 2013, Rivero Santos held various positions in the Venezuelan embassy in the United States, eventually serving twice as acting ambassador for the Chávez regime. “As of today, I am humbled to follow in the footsteps of those that have served as Directors of CLAS in the past by serving as your interim-Director for the academic year 2022–2023,” Rivero Santos wrote in a July 1 statement to the university department.

This is the same university that stirred controversy in January for placing Ilya Shapiro, who was set to lead its law school’s Center for the Constitution, on administrative leave during a four-month “investigation” for three tweets in which he questioned President Biden’s reliance on racial and gender preferences in promising to nominate a black woman — to the exclusion of all other possible nominees — to replace Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer. In the end, the law school reluctantly retained Shapiro, though it legitimized the tactics and concerns of the woke mob attacking him. Shapiro resigned days later, citing his belief that the school had “yielded to the progressive mob, abandoned free speech, and created a hostile environment.”

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Bette Midler sparks debate by saying trans-inclusive language erases women By Samantha Ibrahim

Posted By on July 5th, 2022

https://nypost.com/2022/07/05/bette-midler-sparks-debate-by-saying-trans-inclusive-language-erases-women/

Bette Midler caught some fire on Twitter on Monday when she tweeted about the trans community and the language used to describe them.

The “Hocus Pocus” star, 76, scribed: “WOMEN OF THE WORLD! We are being stripped of our rights over our bodies, our lives and even of our name!”

“They don’t call us ‘women’ anymore; they call us ‘birthing people’ or ‘menstruators,’ and even ‘people with vaginas!’ Don’t let them erase you! Every human on earth owes you,” she continued.

Fans slammed the “First Wives Club” star for her tweets about women and the LGBTQ community on

Twitter users slammed Midler on social media, with several arguing that her words were false.

“Really disappointed in this as a trans man and a Bette Midler fan. Bette, including trans men in the conversation about reproductive health does not harm women. We have the same organs, and even greater vulnerability, as cis woman,” one person replied to the “First Wives Club” alum.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Oil from U.S. reserves head overseas as gasoline prices stay high By Arathy Somasekhar

Posted By on July 5th, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-us-reserves-head-overseas-gasoline-prices-stay-high-2022-07-05/

HOUSTON, July 5 (Reuters) – More than 5 million barrels of oil that were part of a historic U.S. emergency oil reserves release aimed at lowering domestic fuel prices were exported to Europe and Asia last month, according to data and sources, even as U.S. gasoline and diesel prices touched record highs.

The export of crude and fuel is blunting the impact of the moves by U.S. President Joe Biden designed to lower record pump prices. Biden on Saturday renewed a call for gasoline suppliers to cut their prices, drawing criticism from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

About 1 million barrels per day is being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) through October. The flow is draining the SPR, which last month fell to the lowest since 1986. U.S. crude futures are above $105 per barrel and gasoline and diesel prices above $5 a gallon in one-fifth of the nation. U.S. officials have said oil prices could be higher if the SPR had not been tapped.

The fourth-largest U.S. oil refiner, Phillips 66 (PSX.N), shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour crude from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy, according to U.S. Customs data. Trieste is home to a pipeline that sends oil to refineries in central Europe.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Why I’m Leaving the University

Posted By on July 5th, 2022

https://josephhmanson.com/2022/07/04/why-im-leaving-the-university/

I’m a professor, retiring at 62 because the Woke takeover of higher education has ruined academic life. “Another one?” you ask. “What does this guy have to say that hasn’t already been said by Jordan Peterson, Peter Boghossian, Joshua Katz, or Bo Winegard1?

There’s only one way to find out.

Defenestration of a Colleague

I’ve been a tenure-track professor since 1996 (tenured since 2000) in the Anthropology Department at UCLA. (My research, which I plan to continue doing, has spanned topics ranging from nonhuman primate behavior to human personality variation). For decades, anthropology has notoriously been riven by conflict between scientific and political activist factions, leading many departments to split in two, but UCLA’s department remained unusually peaceful, cohesive, and intellectually inclusive until the late 2000s. Gradually, one hire at a time, practitioners of “critical” (i.e. far-left postmodernist) anthropology, some of them lying about their beliefs during job interviews, came to comprise the department’s most influential clique.  These militant faculty recruited even more extremely militant graduate students to work with them.

I can’t recount here even a representative sample of this faction’s penchant for mendacity and intimidation, because most of it occurred during confidential discussions, usually about hiring and promotion decisions. But I can describe their public torment and humiliation of one of my colleagues, P. Jeffrey Brantingham. Jeff had developed simulation models of the geographic and temporal patterning of urban crime, and had created predictive software that he marketed to law enforcement agencies. In Spring 2018, the department’s Anthropology Graduate Students Association passed a resolution accusing Jeff’s research of (among other counter-revolutionary sins) “entrench[ing] and naturaliz[ing] the criminalization of Blackness in the United States” and calling for “referring” his research to UCLA’s Vice Chancellor for Research, presumably for some sort of investigation. This document contains no trace of scholarly argument, but instead resembles a religious proclamation of anathema. As you won’t be surprised to hear, Jeff is not a racist, but a standard-issue liberal Democrat. The “referral” to the Vice-Chancellor never materialized, but the AGSA resolution and its aftermath achieved its real goal, which was to turn Jeff, who had been one of the most selfless citizens of the department, into a pariah. He taught (still teaches) a course, “The Ecology of Crime,” that consistently drew 150+ students and earned rave reviews. This course had a catalogue number that grouped it with sociocultural anthropology, and it fulfilled a sociocultural anthropology requirement for anthro majors. In an act of petty spite, ritual moral purification, or both (take your pick), the Woke faculty clique, which comprised a majority of the sociocultural anthro faculty, banned him from using (polluting?) any of their course numbers. Jeff continued to offer the course, just under a different kind of number.