STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Conservatives continue to outnumber liberals, 35% to 26%
• Nine-point difference ties last year for slimmest in Gallup trends
• For first time, majority of Democrats identify as liberal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ assessment of their political ideology was unchanged in 2018 compared with the year prior when 35% on average described themselves as conservative, 35% as moderate and 26% as liberal. Although conservatives continue to outnumber liberals, the gap in conservatives’ favor has narrowed from 19 percentage points in Gallup’s 1992 baseline measurement to nine points each of the past two years.

Since 1992, the percentage of Americans identifying as liberal has risen from 17% then to 26% today. This has been mostly offset by a shrinking percentage of moderates, from 43% to 35%. Meanwhile, from 1993 to 2016 the percentage conservative was consistently between 36% and 40%, before dipping to 35% in 2017 and holding at that level in 2018.

These ideology figures are based on combined data from Gallup’s monthly GPSS and other standalone surveys conducted each year. The 2018 aggregate includes 13 surveys totaling more than 13,000 national adults.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/245813/leans-conservative-liberals-keep-recent-gains.aspx?utm_source=tagrss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=syndication

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• 31% of Catholics rate the clergy’s honesty highly, down from 49% in 2017
• 44% of Catholics confident in organized religion; an 8-point drop
• 52% of Catholics say religion is a “very important” part of their lives

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amid turmoil in the Roman Catholic Church in the ongoing fallout from priest sex abuse scandals, a record-low 31% of U.S. Catholics rate the honesty and ethical standards of the clergy as “very high” or “high.” This marks an 18-percentage-point drop between 2017 and 2018, when more sexual abuse allegations against priests surfaced and questions arose about the Vatican’s response.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/245858/catholics-faith-clergy-shaken.aspx?utm_source=tagrss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=syndication

Global warming will do this. 

In some parts of Austria the snow is so high that cable cars are engulfed by it

From F.A. Hayek (pictured above) writing in 1941 in Nature:

In theory Socialism may wish to enhance freedom, but in practice every kind of collectivism consistently carried through must produce the characteristic features which Fascism, Nazism and Communism have in common. Totalitarianism is nothing but consistent collectivism…

Quotation of the day on socialism in theory vs. practice…..

From the PJMedia article “Female Lawyer Gets Tulane University to Stop Discriminating Against Men” by Toni Airaksinen:

Tulane University has agreed to stop financially discriminating against male students in an unprecedented response to a Title IX complaint made against the school. As PJ Media initially reported, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) launched an investigation into Tulane University in August amid concerns that six of the school’s scholarships violated Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination.

The complaint was filed by Margaret C. Valois, a Virginia Title IX attorney and mother of two sons. Though she typically provides legal counsel to students accused of sexual misconduct, she said she was inspired to file the complaint to fight educational inequity. “Tulane’s implementation of Title IX provides greater educational opportunities for female students than for male students. When opportunities and benefits are offered to one group because of their sex… it is patently unfair,” said Valois at the time.

Four months later, Valois got unprecedented news. On December 14, Tulane University quietly entered into a resolution agreement with the OCR, which dictates that Tulane is now undertaking steps to ensure that financial assistance is fairly distributed.

“By September 6, 2019, the University will ensure that it is not treating male students differently on the basis of sex by providing different amounts of financial assistance, limiting eligibility for financial assistance… or otherwise discriminating with respect to financial assistance,” details the resolution agreement.

To help ensure this, Tulane also agreed to arrange training for all financial aid officers and other administrators to ensure “nondiscrimination in financial assistance” and nearly all other aspects of campus life. Tulane University will have until September 2019 to ensure compliance. From now on, OCR officials will monitor Tulane until the terms are met, and may send officers to campus to interview students, staff and administrators to assess progress.

While Valois is sympathetic to Title IX’s original goal of ensuring equity for women, Valois also argues that in many ways, men are not only underrepresented on college campuses, but also discriminated against in Title IX trials that violate due process.

Trump’s one lasting legacy could be his setting the direction of the Supreme Court for decades to come. 

And with the Senate in his pocket…

The White House is reaching out to political allies and conservative activistgroups to prepare for an ailing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s possible death or departure from the Supreme Court — an event that would trigger the second bitter confirmation battle of President Donald Trump’s tenure.

The outreach began after Ginsburg, 85, on Monday missed oral arguments at the court for the first time in her 25 years on the bench. The justice, who was nominated to the court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, announced in late December that she underwent a surgical procedure to remove two cancerous growths from her lungs.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/10/trump-white-house-urging-allies-to-prepare-for-possible-rbg-departure-1096102

Idaho is #4. 

The video starts with Idaho at 4:56 

Protesters want deeper changes to France’s economy and politics.

They want more socialism at lower cost. 

They clearly have no mathematical skills. 

Thousands of yellow vest protesters have marched through Paris and other French cities for a ninth straight weekend to denounce President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies.

Sporadic violence broke out during protests Saturday in Paris, Bourges, Bordeaux, Rouen, Marseille and Toulouse. The Interior Ministry said more than 100 people had been arrested.

Protesters walked peacefully through central Paris from the Finance Ministry in the east of the French capital to the Arc de Triomphe in the west. But scuffles between police and activists then broke out at the end of the march. Police used tear gas and water cannon to push back some protesters throwing rocks and other objects at them.

French armored vehicles blocked protesters from going onto nearby Champs-Elysees Avenue.

The movement for greater economic equality appears to be resurging, despite Macron’s promises of billions of euros in tax relief.

Global warming is a funny thing, doing the exact opposite of the predictions. 

BELGRADE, Serbia – Heavy snowfall this week in the Balkans has closed down schools, left some remote villages cut off and disrupted traffic and power supplies in the region, while authorities in Bulgaria said two snowboarders died in an avalanche Friday.

The Bulgarian Red Cross said in a statement the snowboarders’ bodies were found at noon local time in the Pirin Mountains. The statement alleged the two triggered the avalanche that killed them after ignoring warnings and weather alerts.

At least 20 weather-related deaths have been reported in Europe in the past week. In Germany, the driver of a snow plow died Friday after his vehicle toppled into an icy river. Albania’s Energy Ministry said a power company employee suffered a fatal heart attack while repairing damaged supply lines.

About 2,000 soldiers and other emergency workers in Albania were assigned to help people trapped by snow and to clear roads to restore access to rural areas.

Via the AP. 

Democrats have reportedly used the burial ground with supernatural resurrection power numerous times, most notably during voter registration drives.

“It’s the least we can do for ol’ Ginsburg,” Senator Kamala Harris told reporters as she and a group of Democrats trudged through an old pet cemetery and climbed over a sharp, treacherous deadfall to pick out a plot for the ailing justice. “We know this barrier wasn’t meant to be crossed, and that the locals don’t want us to go beyond the deadfall, but we think it’ll all work out.”

“We have to try the Indian burial ground to see what’s in it,” Pelosi chimed in as she skipped across the deadfall and past a creature called a “Wendigo,” which let them pass as he’s a strong Democratic supporter.

https://babylonbee.com/news/to-prepare-for-the-worst-democrats-purchase-funeral-plot-for-ginsburg-on-ancient-indian-burial-ground/

Trump is looking for educated and skilled immigrants. 

More than 100,000 workers are brought to the on the visas each year, and are allowed to stay for up to six years.

The latest plan offers a pathway to citizenship for those in Silicon Valley, who are working for major tech companies.

However, there are concerns about the effects it could have on American workers.

Every year, more than 85,000 Americans potentially lose their jobs to foreign labor through H1B visas.

So who exactly is concerned about this? Those who support illegal immigration? 

White House pushing for H1B visas

This ought to be a no-brainer. You would hope that Democrats could get behind making child marriage via immigration illegal. 

The discovery has prompted lawmakers to consider new restrictions, because the grants were approved legally under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which does not set minimum age requirements.

“It’s really U.S. government policy to try to prevent child marriages and forced marriages — it’s easier said than done though,” said Senator Ron Johnson.

President Trump has made it a top priority for his administration to address what he calls the ‘nation’s broken immigration system’.

Word of the caravan has reached the U.S. as well, with President Trump saying this is another example of why Democrats need to provide border wall funding.

“A caravan is forming right now in Honduras,” said President Trump. “It’s supposed to be bigger than the other caravans. We will handle that as it comes up. If we had a wall, we wouldn’t have any problems. But we don’t, so we will handle it”.

If the caravan departs as scheduled next week, the migrants could begin arriving as early as mid February.

Caravan forming in Honduras, could be larger than previous attempt

Stay healthy out there! 

“The Flu virus is easily transmitted person to person through coughing, sneezing and unwashed hands,” explained. Dr. Lisa Maragakis, Director of Infection Prevention at Johns Hopkins Medicine. “Particularly when people are indoors in close proximity to each other, flu and other respiratory viruses are transmitted quite quickly through populations.”

Flu season picking up across U.S.

The New York Republican Party has since slammed Ocasio-Cortez as a hypocrite, saying the violation is “not a good look” for someone who claims to be a champion for workers.

Woman who wants more government in her utopian vision to help workers fails to comply with law to protect her own employees. https://t.co/YIQKxAgh0W

— Razor (@hale_razor) January 12, 2019

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign fined for not providing workers’ comp coverage

Does anyone know if there’s a policy/practice that a SCOTUS judge cannot vote on any case they haven’t heard? 

Justice Ginsburg to miss second straight week on bench