Links - 1st April 2020 (1)

Stanford tells College Republicans they can’t use donor to pay $19,000 security fee for D’Souza event - "Stanford University is refusing to let Dinesh D’Souza speak on campus because the security fee would be paid by a donor, according to the student group that invited the conservative author and filmmaker.The student government did not answer multiple email and phone queries from The College Fix to explain why it demanded $19,000 for security – more than fivefold greater than the College Republicans suggested – or confirm it required at least half the fee to come from campus sources."

Supreme Court turns away challenge to high school coursework about Islam - "The US Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a petition to hear Wood v. Arnold, a case brought by former Christian high school student Caleigh Wood who alleged that the coursework surrounding Islam in her world history class violated her First Amendment rights... Wood enrolled in World History because it was a requirement for graduation. As part of the class, Wood was required to complete a section on the Muslim World where the school used a PowerPoint slide to describe the Muslim faith, containing the statement, “Most Muslim’s [sic] faith is stronger than the average Christian.” In addition, Wood was required to profess in writing that, “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” This statement is known as the shahada, the Islamic conversion creed, the declaration a person recites to convert to Islam and then prays and repeats during the Muslim call to prayer. The Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of the high school, holding that the challenged coursework materials, “viewed in the context in which they were presented, did not violate Caleigh’s First Amendment rights, because they did not impermissibly endorse any religion and did not compel Caleigh to profess any belief.” The Supreme Court’s refusal to take up the case lets the lower court ruling stand."
Would a Muslim pupil have been forced to recite the Nicene Creed?

Opinion | Britain Now Has a Politicized Supreme Court, Too - The New York Times - "The court’s 11 justices ruled unanimously that the government, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, had illegally suspended — or “prorogued” — Parliament earlier this month at the height of the debate over Brexit... Prorogation is a royal prerogative. As a constitutional matter it was Queen Elizabeth’s authority that was dented on Tuesday. But no one, least of all the court, was eager to put things in quite that light. Instead the court accused Mr. Johnson, a Brexit supporter, of having given the Queen “unlawful advice,” though it did not quote any of it. The plaintiffs exulted in Mr. Johnson’s defeat and called it a victory for democracy.It was murkier than that... The British Supreme Court is a brand-new institution, still not even a decade old. It arose from Britain’s entanglement with the Continent and was drawn up, under Prime Minister Tony Blair, partly to harmonize British law with the European Convention on Human Rights. Parliament, by contrast, is ancient enough to need no BBC sidebar, and the royal prerogative goes back centuries. Prime Minister John Major, a Tory, used prorogation as a tactic in the 1990s, as did his Labour predecessors in the 1940s. Cases such as the one decided on Tuesday often seem less about adjudicating between quarreling parties than effecting a transfer from one constitutional framework to another. Over the centuries, Parliament has taken various monarchical prerogatives and rendered them essentially democratic, while allowing Britain’s institutions to retain, superficially, their royal pomp. The new Supreme Court is taking those democratic prerogatives and rendering them subject to judicial correction, while retaining the language of democracy. The court is an arm of the class that brought Britain into the European Union, a homegrown element of the now-repudiated European Union itself. Such institutions are changing the whole of British politics. The country’s “unwritten constitution” consists of the laws Parliament passes and certain customs associated with them. Without a written constitution to circumscribe its powers, a court can seize on anything and interpret it in any direction... Tories did have reasons to prorogue Parliament. This is already the longest serving Parliament since England’s 17th-century civil war, and leaving it unprorogued could keep it in session for months longer."

Why President Trump Will Likely Be Reelected, And What It Means For Global Security - "polls showing weak approval of the president’s performance have lulled Democrats into thinking his defeat is nearly inevitable in 2020. But Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were both unpopular during their first terms, and then went on to score landslide victories against opponents who made the incumbent look good. Surveys indicating that a majority of voters aren’t inclined to vote for Trump again are misleading, because we don’t know who his Democratic rival will be in 2020. That will be a decisive factor drawing voters to the polls—as often as not because they are so eager to cast their ballots against a contender they detest."

Research Shows Spanish Speakers Take Longer To Learn English. Why? - "Students whose home language was Spanish were considerably less likely to reach proficiency than any other subgroup. And, on the extreme end, Spanish speakers were almost half as likely as Chinese speakers to cross the proficiency threshold... The report cited 12 studies — dating back to 2004 — that found this gap between Spanish-speaking English learners and other groups... here are three basic theories.
Spanish saturation
There are nearly 150,000 Spanish speakers in Philadelphia...
Family income and segregation
It could be true that Spanish-speaking English learners in Philadelphia are generally poorer than, say, Vietnamese-speaking students, but it's unlikely family income totally accounts for the achievement gap.It's no surprise that researchers studying this trend in the past have used income-based controls — such as whether a child qualifies for free or reduced lunch. Those researchers have still found Spanish speakers lagging.
Family background
Relative to their parents, the children of Mexican immigrants progressed further educationally from one generation to the next. But the children of Chinese immigrants progressed further overall, in large part because their parents started many steps ahead."

Disney cast their first gay character in a kid's film, but LGBTQ activists still aren't happy. - "Disney has reportedly cast their first openly gay character, but LGBTQ activists aren’t happy. Actor Jack Whitehall will play the role of the “hugely effete, very cramped and very funny” gay man in Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming film The Jungle Cruise. But there’s just one problem, according to angered fans. He’s just not gay enough... “So are we allowed to be outraged when gay actors play straight characters?”  “Disney is putting an openly gay character in a kid’s film for the first time,” Walsh added. “The Left is outraged that the actor playing the character is straight. A crucial dynamic is on display here.”  “The Left get what it wants, but demands more. Always more. It is never satisfied. Meanwhile, Christians cede more and more of the culture, rarely offer a peep of protest, and make do with whatever crumbs they are thrown.”"

Disney Sends Beautiful Message With First 'Boy Princess,' Complete With Chest Hair
From 2017, even

Generational Wealth: Why do 70% of Families Lose Their Wealth in the 2nd Generation? - "If all it took was knowledge to become wealthy, then most business people, professors, financial planners and others would be very wealthy. The reason they’re not is because becoming wealthy requires a lot more than knowledge. It requires hard work, discipline, sacrifice and many other traits that are very hard to teach and pass on. The generation that earns the wealth is the generation that worked and experienced hardships to make sure they achieve something better for themselves. They work hard and diligently save to achieve their goals. Their efforts pay off and by the time they are ready to retire and live comfortably, with assets to pass on. The next generation, while growing up, sees their parent's struggles and have a good understanding of the value of sacrifice and hard work. While they may be more comfortable as adults, they can still remember the frugal aspects of their lives growing up. Since they are aware, they make better decisions surrounding education and financial choices enabling them to build on the foundation given to them by their parents. The third generation never realizes the struggles and sacrifices the previous generations endured. The only thing they know if a life of plenty and have a real lack of understanding of what is needed to create and maintain the lifestyle they have grown accustom to. It is estimated that 70% of wealthy families will lose their wealth by the second generation and 90% will lose it by the third. There are a variety of reasons why this happens:
    Generations are taught not to talk about money
    The prior generations worry that the next generation will become lazy and entitled
    Many have no clue about the value of money or how to handle it
Most parents find it very difficult to discuss their wealth, and what happens when they’re gone, with their children. Whatever the reasons for lack of transparency, the failure to discuss will likely end with such issues like unnecessary taxes, costly estate fees, and possible family strife. Also, by not detailing their intentions, you run the risk of eroding the value of your estate."
In other word, the rich don't generally become richer and inherited inequality is exaggerated

The New York Times - Posts - "The U.S. recalled its ambassador to Zambia on Monday after he criticized the government for sending a gay couple to prison, and accused officials of stealing millions of dollars of public funds."
ITT: New York Times readers show they have no understanding of the role of a diplomat, are unwilling and/or unable to process the fact that Zambia was the one that wanted the ambassador out, and that they only know how to chant "Orange Man Bad"

Meme - "Earth Angel: I'm Sending Nudes to Every Person Who Donates At least $10 to Any One of These Fundraisers for the Wildfires in Australia. Every $10 You Donate = One Nude Picture From Me to Your DM. You Must Send Me Confirmation That You Donated Please RT #AustraliaOnFire #AustraliaFires"
"Y'all This Chick Raised Over $10k for Australia in Less Than a Day Just by Sending Nudes. Some Heroes Don't Wear Capes... Some Don't Wear Anything. Next Time Y'all Wanna Shame Sex Workers I'm Gonna Ask How Much You've Raised for Charity"

Model Kaylen Ward banned from Instagram for offering nudes in exchange for Australia bushfire donations - "An Instagram model has raised $500,000 for Australia bushfire relief after she pledged to send her nude photos to anyone who donates toward the natural disaster. But when she tried to spread the word of her unconventional philanthropic efforts on Instagram, the social media platform deactivated her account... "My IG got deactivated, my family disowned me, and the guy I like won’t talk to me all because of that tweet. But fuck it, save the koalas""

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Frances Arnold retracts paper - "The announcement is the latest example of the "reproducibility crisis" facing the sciences.In October 2018, the journal Nature wrote online that there was "growing alarm about results that cannot be reproduced".An earlier survey conducted by the journal found that more than two-thirds of researchers had tried and failed to reproduce another scientist's experiments.Reaction to Prof Arnold's tweets was mostly positive, however, as her colleagues commended her honesty."

New York City Paid McKinsey Millions to Stem Jail Violence. Instead, Violence Soared. - "What happened at Rikers is a cautionary tale of a public-sector consulting boom that has emerged over the past decade"

BitChute on Twitter - "Yuri Bezmenov's well known lecture on the process of subversion. Removed from YouTube for 'hate speech' https://t.co/0tvmLXMG55 #YouTubePurge #HateSpeech"

‘Being Nice’ is Now a ‘Tool Of White Supremacy,’ Says Social Justice Group - "An activist group standing for “painfully honest conversations between white women and BIWOC (Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color)” has announced that white women and their “obsession” with “being nice” is a “tool of white supremacy,” adding to an ever-growing list of bizarre things included as “white supremacy.” The group responsible for the tweet, Race2Dinner, headed by Saira Rao, who is well known for outlandish tweets, specifically railing against white women, and Regina Jackson, is an organization designed to extend to white women the opportunity to “smash” their “white fragility” by hiring women of color... Rao’s tweets in the past have led social media users to believe she is a parody account."