Quick Hits

Liberal "male" reporters are just ugly, poorly-dressed girls:

WSJ: Rumors of the death of the American economy and stock markets have been greatly exaggerated. By us liberals, mostly.

A historic and tumultuous quarter is wrapping up with U.S. stocks at records and many investors betting the ride isn't over yet.

The April swoon that carried the S&P 500 to the brink of a bear market has been erased and then some. The broad index has now added more than 8% since President Trump announced sweeping tariffs that sparked havoc in markets.

Now, investors have more reasons to feel upbeat. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index hit fresh all-time highs on Friday. Robust corporate earnings and solid economic data suggest that growth remains resilient. Inflation is trending near the Federal Reserve's 2% target. Banks that slashed their year-end targets for the S&P 500, such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, are raising them again.

The DOJ has formally found Harvard in violation of federal civil rights law, and instructs it to either bring itself into compliance with federal law immediately or lose all federal funding.

Ed Morrissey, with quotes from the WSJ:

In a letter sent to Harvard President Alan Garber on Monday and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, attorneys for the administration said the investigation found that Harvard knew Jewish and Israeli students felt threatened on its campus and acted with deliberate indifference.

The DoJ offered Harvard to explore the Hillsdale College option to avoid any further consequences for its failure to abide by Title VI. If not, the DoJ warns, the direction of the next lawsuit will get inverted and Harvard may have more legal trouble than it bargained for:

"Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard's relationship with the federal government," the letter states. "Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again."

Harvard didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

A formal "notice of violation" of civil-rights law generally is a step that can come before either a lawsuit from the Justice Department or a voluntary resolution with the school. Under past presidential administrations, civil-rights investigations at universities usually ended with voluntary resolution agreements.

This finding not only complicates any efforts to restore funding that has already been cut off, it disqualifies Harvard from any further access to federal funds. They have three options, none of which are going to be pleasant for Garber under the circumstances. They could go the Hillsdale College route and eschew any federal funding to remain completely independent, as the DoJ letter suggests, but Hillsdale built their financial model with that policy in mind. Harvard's business model entirely depends on federal subsidies and grants. They would have to pare down their offerings significantly to compete in the marketplace against schools that comply with the law and still have access to those federal funds.

Law schools usually offer prestigious slots on the school's law review based on grades and a blindly-graded writing sample.

This is therefore a pure meritocracy -- which makes DEI types hate it.

Duke Law found a work-around for rules against racial discrimination, though: They sent minorities and minorities only an email telling them that while they cannot just mark each application by race so they can make sure they give minorities the slots and take them from the White Devils, if the minorities just let them know in their writing samples that they are minorities, they'll grade those writing samples more charitably and get them spots on the law review they're not qualified for based on objective criteria.

At the end of finals period each May, the Duke Law Journal hosts a two-week-long competition to select its next crop of editors. Applicants write a 12-page memo, or casenote, analyzing an appellate court decision, as well as a 500-word essay about what they would "contribute" to the journal.

Students are chosen based on their grades, casenotes, and personal statements. Less than 20 percent of the class makes it onto the law review, which is overseen by Duke Law School and has no legal existence apart from it.

To help students prepare for the competition, the journal circulates a guide on how to write the casenote. Last year, however, it decided to give some students an additional document.

In a packet prepared for the law school's affinity groups [that is, its race and sexuality-based exclusionary clubs], the journal instructed minority students to highlight their race and gender as part of their personal statements--and revealed that they would earn extra points for doing so.

The packet, obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon, included the rubric used to evaluate the personal statements. Applicants can earn up to 10 points for explaining how their "membership in an underrepresented group" will "lend itself to ... promoting diverse voices," and an additional 3-5 points if they "hold a leadership position in an affinity group."

To drive home the point, the packet included four examples of personal statements that had gotten students on the law review. Three of those statements referenced race in the first sentence, with one student boasting that, "[a]s an Asian-American woman and a daughter of immigrants, I am afforded with different perspectives, experiences, and privileges."

A fourth student waited until the last paragraph to disclose that she was "a Middle Eastern Jewish woman," an "intersectional identity" she said would "prove useful" in a "collaborative environment."

"As a woman," the student wrote, "and a woman with Middle Eastern heritage, I also understand of [sic] the importance of presenting a solid work product and building credibility."

The packet was only distributed to the affinity groups, according to a person familiar with the matter, which meant that minority students had access to inside information about the scoring process. The journal explicitly told those groups not to share the packet with other students, according to messages reviewed by the Free Beacon, and indicated on the first page that it had been made for affinity groups.

When the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in 2023, it said that colleges and universities could not use essays as a Trojan horse for racial preferences. The documents from Duke illustrate how a top law review has skirted that directive, creating a points-based system that foregrounds race and could put the law school in legal jeopardy.

"This is clearly illegal," said David Bernstein, a professor of constitutional law at George Mason University. "They're using the personal statement as a proxy for race."

Harmeet Dillon, head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, weighs in:

Harmeet K. Dhillon @HarmeetKDhillon

Not good

An 82-year-old woman, set afire in Boulder last month by a crazed Egyptian illegal alien for the crime of being Jewish, has succumbed to her horrific injuries and died.

Yashar Ali @yashar

DENVER (AP) -- An 82-year-old Colorado woman who was injured in a Molotov cocktail attack on demonstrators in support of Israeli hostages this month has died, according to court documents filed Monday.

Todd Richman @toddrichman

This is what the phrase Globalize the Intifada means @ZohranKMamdani, but G0D forbid you condemn it. Also your chants of AntiZionism is not AntiSemitism is a danger to our community. May Karen's memory be a blessing....

He knows what it means. They all do. They're terrorists.

Zohran is also repeating the communist mantra of "seizing the means of production," taken straight from Marx: "Our end goal is seizing the means of production."

The left is insisting No You Bigots This Doesn't Akshually Mean He's a Communist.

Bonchie @bonchieredstate

"We can't hold Zohran Mamdani accountable for the things he said when he was 30 because he was just young."

The dude is 33.

att Taibbi @mtaibbi

For people asking the difference between Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani, I don't recall Bernie talking about "seizing the means of production."

And so begins Pete Bootyjudge's rebranding effort to show that he's akshually a very traditionally masculine guy-type guy:

I don't know about you, but what impresses me most about the Democrat-Media Party is its deep in the bones authenticity.

If only:

posted by Ace at 06:45 PM

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