DNC funding, strategy lacking
To listen to the Left, you'd think they wish the 2018 election were today and the 2020 presidential election right around the corner, that the American people were ready to sweep the Democratic Party back into power.
Be careful what you hear.
The Democratic National Committee just suffered through its second lowest August fundraising month in the last 10 years, according to the Federal Election Commission. During the month, while raising just $4.4 million, the party's debt increased from $3.4 million to $4.1 million, and its spending edged its fundraising by $44,575. Its end-of-August debt was about 60 percent of its cash on hand.
In contrast, the Republican National Committee raised $7.3 million in August, had $45.9 million cash on hand and had no debt.
DNC Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison naturally wasn't going to panic in print.
There would be, he told the Washington Free Beacon, "some really good reports to share in the weeks to come." What that meant, he wouldn't say.
Hating President Trump appears to be the DNC's only current strategy. An echo chamber, though, only gets you so far.
Heavens to Betsy
One of the Left's favorite Trump administration punching bags, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, recently found herself the subject of misinformation put forth by The Hill and the Associated Press, both of which tweeted that she was using a private jet for work-related travel.
The implication, of course, is that she is routinely using a private jet for travel at taxpayers' expense.
The Hill's tweet said: "DeVos uses private jet for work-related travel." The AP, meanwhile, said, "Education Secretary DeVos uses a private jet to fly around the country to tour schools and attend other work events."
The kicker is that the plane belongs to DeVos or her family and that she is self-funding the trips.
The only way AP readers could learn, deep in the article, that she was flying her plane at her expense was to click on the tweeted link. The AP later deleted its tweet, saying it hadn't noted she owned the plane.
Several members of the Trump administration have drawn fire for using privately chartered jets, so the news outlets may have wanted to administer guilt by association to DeVos. Unfortunately, in an industry where details make the difference, the news outlets failed to check their facts.
Scoring your privilege
Dae Elliott's department head should have stopped the stunt before it ever got started, but the San Diego State University sociology professor recently offered her students extra credit if they took a quiz that gauged their level of "white privilege," according to College Fix.
The department head should have put a stop to it because the students in the class might not all be white. It would have been interesting to see how black and Hispanic students responded to such a racist offer.
The quiz, a "White Privilege Checklist," offered 20 questions that aimed to illustrate that "racial privilege is one form of privilege." The higher the score, the higher alleged level of privilege.
Among the statements on the list: "I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race"; "I can go into a music shop and count on finding music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the food I grew up with, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who will deal with my hair"; and "If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race."
Seriously? "The existence of their race?" "Music of my race?" "The food I grew up with?"
The most interesting one, though, may be the IRS mention. Elliott may not have been paying attention to the last eight years, but the only folks the IRS seems to target are not white, black or brown, but are conservative.
Elliott's response in defending the exercise was typical of the non-real world in which many in higher education exist.
"Only through processes that allow us to share intersubjectively," she said, "weigh all of our perspectives according to amount of shareable empirical evidence can we approximate an objective understanding of our society."
All mixed up
A fifth-grade teacher at Canopy Oaks Elementary School in Tallahassee, Fla., sent home a note to parents explaining that her students are to refer to her at Mx. Bressack.
In the letter, she tells parents she uses "gender neutral" terms in her classroom. "My prefix," she says, is Mx. (pronounced Mix). Additionally, my pronouns are 'they, them, their' instead of 'he, his, she, hers.'"
Instead of telling the teacher that instructors do not supply students with pronouns that are their personal preference, the principal of the school supported her.
"We support her preference in how she's addressed, we certainly do," said Paul Lambert. "I think a lot of times it might be decided that there is an agenda there, because of her preference - I can tell you her only agenda is teaching math and science at the greatest level she can."
Of course there's an agenda. If there hadn't been, such nonsense would not have been included in the letter sent home with students.
Imagine if all teachers had their own pronouns. In addition to Mx. Bressack, there might be Mp. Brown, Mu. Smith, Mj. Powers and Mw. Strickland.
Many parents are upset about the teacher, but nothing has changed ... yet.