RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week June 22 to June 28 Featured Investigation: Pride Month book displays at public libraries have evolved from promoting LGBTQ+ visibility to advancing a broader, ideologically driven agenda. Focusing on libraries in Wake County, North Carolina, John Murawski reports for RealClearInvestigations that Pride Month displays, present in all branches per library policy, showcase queer-themed content across age groups—from toddlers to adults—sparking concerns about ideological imbalance and the politicization of public spaces. - Libraries in Wake County, which include the state capital of Raleigh, feature Pride Month displays with "queer-themed" titles for all ages, from toddlers to adults, including books about cross-dressing, drag queens, kink, BDSM, and various sexual identities and practices.
- Children's books aimed at ages 2-5 introduce concepts like gender fluidity and encourage questioning biological sex, with one board book stating "some babies grow into a different gender than the one that grown-ups call them."
- Elementary school books for ages 7-10 introduce complex gender terminology including agender, bigender, pangender, genderfluid, and political concepts like patriarchy, colonization, and intersectionality.
- Teen and adult selections include graphic novels with explicit sexual content and books that questions the legitimacy of monogamy and the nuclear family linking them to white supremacy and the “heteropatriarchy.”
- The American Library Association actively promotes LGBTQ+ programming through conference panels focused on "queering childhood" and providing year-round Pride programming, including activities for K-5 students.
- Wake County's collection includes over 100 queer-themed books but offers limited titles that question or critique the movement's ideology, creating an apparent ideological imbalance on this controversial topic.
- Library policy requires all branches to have Pride Month displays, typically featuring prominent placement near entrances, treating what critics view as a political movement as a matter of kindness and acceptance rather than contested ideology.
Featured Investigation: Ben Weingarten reports for RealClearInvestigations that the Trump administration is seriously considering reviving its first term effort to exclude illegal aliens from the census. The move could profoundly impact political representation across states because the census count – which now includes all residents – is used to apportion House seats, allocate Electoral College votes, and distribute federal funds. Weingarten reports: - Trump aims to “clean up the census” by omitting illegal immigrants, a move that could shift political power toward red states. A study showed states like North Carolina and Ohio would gain seats, while California and Texas could lose them if undocumented residents were excluded.
- The Constitution mandates counting “persons,” historically interpreted to mean all residents. Critics argue that counting non-citizens dilutes citizen representation and incentivizes illegal immigration. Supporters of the current system stress fairness and the need to represent all residents.
- The administration contends the 14th Amendment allows for discretion in defining “inhabitants,” citing historical exclusions like foreign diplomats and military personnel. Legal scholars like John Eastman argue only citizens should be counted.
- The Supreme Court has so far avoided ruling on whether the president can exclude undocumented migrants. A 2020 Trump memorandum on the issue was challenged but not adjudicated on its merits.
- Four states have sued to overturn the Census Bureau’s Residence Rule, and congressional Republicans have reintroduced the Equal Representation Act to count only citizens. The House passed it, but the Senate has not advanced the bill.
- Democrats argue the move suppresses minority-heavy states’ representation. Legal experts warn of politicizing the census, while Republicans insist it protects democratic integrity. The outcome may rest with the courts or the 2025 Congress.
Waste of the Day by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books Attorney Gets Paid During 4-Month Cruise, RCI Kenya Has A Pile of Unused Money, RCI Texas Bets Big on Nuclear, RCI Throwback Thursday - Chicago Station, RCI California Fueled Immigration Advocacy, RCI Trump 2.0 and the Beltway Early US Intel Suggests Strike Did Not Destroy Nuclear Sites, CNN Iran Says U.S. Strikes ‘Badly Damaged’ Nuclear Sites, National Review UN Says Iran Strikes Caused More Damage Than First Thought, New York Post Iran May Have Removed Nuclear Material Before Strike, Free Press Smashing the Illusion of Iran's Power, Tablet ICE Has Arrested Only 6% of Migrant Murderers, NBC Sinwar's Folly: Oct. 7 Attack Was an Epic Miscalculation, Atlantic ‘Mind-Boggling’ Tensions Inside the DNC, Guardian Before Prosecuting LA Rioters, He Defended Jan. 6ers, Intercept Other Noteworthy Articles and Series New York Times The Supreme Court’s recent ruling that the Trump administration can expel people to countries other than their own is likely to accelerate ongoing efforts by American diplomats who are reaching out to countries in every corner of the globe, even some shattered by war or known for human rights abuses. For years, both Republican and Democratic administrations have asked countries to take back some of their own citizens. Mr. Trump is doing the same, but is also trying to set up a network of nations that accept people from anywhere in the world and put them in prisons, camps or other facilities. In some cases, the foreign governments could allow the people to apply for asylum or try to send them back to their countries of origin. … U.S. officials have approached Angola, Mongolia and embattled Ukraine. Kosovo has agreed to accept up to 50 people. Costa Rica is holding dozens. The U.S. government paid Rwanda $100,000 to take an Iraqi man and is discussing sending more deportees there. Peru has said no so far, despite having been pressed repeatedly. A New York Times analysis found that the State Department has asked diplomats in at least 58 countries to test the waters. “Many of the 58 nations are subject to a new full or partial travel ban to the United States by the Trump administration or are being considered for the ban.” Wall Street Journal Opportunity and hope have ebbed away in parts of rural America, as farming has declined and economic dynamism has concentrated in urban centers. While some small communities have tried to turn around their fortunes by luring high-tech firms, this article reports that North Platte, Nebraska is taking a different route, embracing an industry that has long conjured images of bloody, hazardous working conditions: meatpacking. While the town has convinced Sustainable Beef to set up shop there, the questions is whether it will be able to attract enough American workers to run it in light of President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The company believes the gleaming plant will appeal to locals who never would have considered doing such work. Nationwide, over half of all front-line meatpacking workers are immigrants, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and turnover is high. Sustainable Beef has tried to lure local workers, including Americans such as Jones, with starting pay of $22 an hour – about $46,000 a year – on par with average wages locally. The facility’s single daytime shift lets employees attend their children’s sports games after work. The company touts ergonomic work stands and individual lockers – even the plentiful toilets are an upgrade from typical meat plants. “This isn’t the same old meatpacking plant!” its hiring ads promise. The implicit pitch: In a city that is 85% non-Hispanic white, this work isn’t just for immigrants. Whether locals step up remains uncertain, especially on the production floor where knife workers slice cattle into cuts. Wall Street Journal Several women who said they were sexually harassed by Alkiviades “Alki” David have won more than $150 million in civil claims against the Cypriot-British billionaire who is heir to a Coca-Cola bottling fortune. But, this article reports, they have so far received little of the money. The cases reveal an unpleasant reality about #MeToo verdicts and other civil judgments: Winning is hard enough, but collecting can be even harder. A pack of debt-collecting lawyers and finance companies have entered the picture, offering to help pursue David’s wealth for a cut of the money. David, who has been spending much of his time in London and the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, is fighting them at every turn. For plaintiffs, the collection expenses come on top of the sizable percentages due to the lawyers who brought the cases, potentially reducing their share of money recovered to as little as 30 cents on the dollar. So far, most of the several million dollars that have been extracted from David have gone to pay the cuts owed to trial lawyers, collection lawyers and a funding firm, and it isn’t clear how much more is available to make good. This article reports that failure hasn’t stopped some of the lawyers who won the cases against David on behalf of former employees from featuring the headline-making awards on their websites and other promotional material. Manhattan Institute From the Annals of The Food is Lousy and the Portions Are So Small, this report finds that college professors at top schools are rarely in the classroom. At the nation’s most expensive colleges faculty teach just two to four courses per year (amounting to three or six hours a week of classroom time each semester). At these institutions, faculty devote the lion’s share of their time to research, bureaucratic duties, and chasing grants. The result? Colleges have resorted to relying on part-time faculty to provide the requisite teaching. Between 1999 and 2022, the 45% growth in faculty substantially outpaced the 25% increase in undergraduate enrollment. At the same time, the share of full-time professors on the tenure track declined from 72% in 2002 to 62% in 2023. The number of graduate teaching assistants jumped by 40% in that same period. The result is that more and more teaching is being shouldered by part-timers, adjunct faculty, and teaching assistants, who have limited opportunity or incentive to invest themselves in students’ academic lives. At community colleges and many regional institutions, faculty routinely teach four or more courses each semester. If colleges adopted the not-so-radical norm that faculty should devote half their working hours to instructional responsibilities, it would have massive benefits for colleges: reducing costs, alleviating the need for adjunct faculty, and increasing faculty–student interaction. This report states that “across a large swath of academe, teaching is perceived as a burden to be endured. Faculty bemoan heavy teaching loads. Prized faculty teach light loads, with courses “bought out” by research grants or fellowships. (Deans and department chairs similarly negotiate for reduced teaching loads.) In short, a lighter teaching load is a badge of professional success.” New York Times The 60-fold increase in reported rates of autism is so alarming, it has led to many alarming explanations. Perhaps the best known is Robert F. Kennedy’s claim that vaccines and environmental toxins may be the cause. But this article says the rise reflects the far more expansive way the condition is defined. Written by a psychiatrist deeply involved in that process, this article reports: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was the chair of the task force charged with creating the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the D.S.M.-IV. Sometimes called the “bible of psychiatry,” the D.S.M. influences medical practice, insurance coverage, education and treatment selection. In the third edition of the D.S.M., published in 1980, autism was tightly defined and considered extremely rare. Criteria for the diagnosis required a very early onset (before age 3) of severe cognitive, interpersonal, emotional and behavioral problems. But my task force approved the inclusion of the new diagnosis, Asperger’s disorder, which is much milder in severity than classic autism and much more common. … Based on careful studies, our task force predicted that the addition of Asperger’s disorder would modestly increase the rate of children given an autism-related diagnosis. Instead, the rate increased more than 16-fold, to one in 150 from an estimated one in 2,500 in the span of a decade. It has been climbing more gradually ever since and is one in 31 today. Our intentions were good, but we underestimated the enormous unintended consequences of adding the new diagnosis. The piece reports that “the resulting explosion in cases included many instances of overdiagnosis – children were labeled with a serious condition for challenges that would better be viewed as a variation of normal. It also sowed the seeds of conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine beliefs as people wondered how to explain the rising cases.” |
