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The scandal of a child molester given a soft sentence by Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascn may finally mark the beginning of the end of Americas disastrous experiment with progressive justice.

At the age of 17, James Tubbs went into a ladies public bathroom, pushed into a stall and forced one hand down the pants of a 10-year-old girl in a violent sexual assault only halted by someone else coming into the bathroom.

When Tubbs was identified as the attacker some years later, following arrest on another offense, progressive Gascn insisted on trying the case under juvenile rules despite Tubbs being well into adulthood.

Gascn was further induced to soften the sentence by the fact that Tubbs now identifies as a woman and goes by the name Hannah.

Concerned for Tubbs supposed risk of victimization as a transgender woman in an adult prison, Gascn cited a probation report that had recommended home confinement. Tubbs was eventually sent to a facility for violent juveniles, despite being 26 at the time.

The things he did to me and made me do that day was beyond horrible for a 10-year-old girl to have to go through, Tubbs victim said in vain. I want him tried as an adult for the crimes he committed against me.

Gascns choices here reflect progressive beliefs that date back to the dawn of the liberal era, summed by the 1762 claim of French philosopher Rousseau, Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains.

That is: People are naturally good, and we only do bad things because society hurts and distorts this natural virtue.

Progressives argue that if only we could meet crime with compassion, all of us will become the good person we naturally are deep down.

We see this belief behind every liberal attack on boundaries, rules or limits. Its especially evident, and especially dangerous, in the push to replace drug prohibition with harm reduction, to defund the police in favor of community programs and to swap prison for therapy and rehabilitation, as if it all will magically make crime go away.

Across the country, progressive prosecutors have taken office in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Manhattan, promising to transform society with empathy instead of just locking up criminals.

And you believe people only do bad things because society is broken, of course youll err on the side of the second chance. And youll do so even when the crime is sexual violence perpetrated by a mentally ill repeat offender on the cusp of adulthood, against a defenseless 10-year-old girl.

But faced with a criminal whos less victim than manipulative predator, this just looks like weakness.

In leaked audio from a prison phone call, Tubbs mocks the DAs leniency.

Im gonna plead out to it, plead guilty, Tubbs says. Theyre gonna stick me on probation, he gloats. I wont have to register, wont have to do nothing.

Even Tubbs father sounds shocked.

You wont have to register? he asks, meaning as a sex offender.

I wont have to do none of that, Tubbs replies.

So what are they going to do to you then?

Nothing, Tubbs answers, then laughs.

Its not even clear whether the gender switch is sincere. Tubbs seems to suggest being transgender will make prison easier.

So now theyre going to put me with other trannies that have seen their cases like mine, Tubbs says, coaching Pop to use the right pronouns in front of the judge: So when you come to court, make sure you address me as her.

The victim is not impressed. In an interview with Fox News she called it unfair to try him as a woman as well, seeing how he clearly didnt act like one on January 1st of 2014.

Gascn reportedly knew of Tubbs bragging calls about soft treatment, before sentencing took place. But he still opted to handle this violent pervert with kid gloves.

Gascn has said he now regrets the leniency, telling the Los Angeles Times, Its unfortunate that [Tubbs] gamed the system and accepting the transgender claim may have been to secure further concessions.

But in his statement following the Fox revelations, he doubled down on his rosy vision of human nature. He acknowledged the need to make exceptions but insisted, People change and evolve most often, for the better.

Others are not so naive. Opponents are well on their way to getting enough signatures by July to force a recall vote of Gascn. Already, the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County voted Tuesday to recall Gascn by 90% of the vote.

More than 30 of the countys city councils have issued votes of no confidence in Gascn.

Similar movements are happening across the country, as the public recoils from the policies of progressive DAs. In Chicago, the police have gone to federal prosecutors to go after race-attack faker Jussie Smollett, when District Attorney Kim Foxx wouldnt. Theyre also looking to try to some gun and gang cases shes ignored.

In San Francisco, theres a recall election of radical DA Chesa Boudin on June 7.In New York, business leaders have complained about Manhattan DA Alvin Braggs unwillingness to charge armed robbers as felons. In a new poll, 65% of voters want the no bail law changed to allow judges to lock up repeat offenders.

Rehabilitating criminals is a noble goal. But not everyone can be cured of lawlessness. Progressive DAs are hoping that somewhere along the way well have made the world perfect enough that the violent criminals they treat so softly will no longer be tempted to offend. Theyre chasing this dream over the bodies of 10-year-old girls. Every time they get it wrong, they endanger innocent citizens.

The Tubbs case is turning into the last straw for those who have a more realistic grasp of human nature than Gascn, Boudin, Foxx and Bragg. Their pity seems all for the criminals. Who will stand up for the 10-year-old girl?

Mary Harrington is a contributing editor at UnHerd and author of the forthcoming Feminism Against Progress.

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Could the outrageous pedophile case finally end the 'progressive' justice farce? - New York Post

Joe Biden isnt floundering alone in the current culture war. The Democratic Partys brand has chosen the wrong side of some hot-button issues, ranging from soft on crime policies to COVID-19 shutdowns to critical race theory. It has gotten so bad that, according to Politico, the Democratic Partys congressional campaign arm is warning their candidates that they risk losing significant ground to Republicans in the midterms. If Dems dont adequately respond to Republican attacks on these culture-war issues, party operatives say the GOPs lead on the generic ballot balloons to 14 points from 4 points... This could be the difference between a wave and a tsunami.

Its tempting to dismiss the culture war as ginned-up or phony. But the problem with brushing off the culture war writ large is that culture is everything. Democrats should not dismiss peoples concerns about their culture being threatened as beneath them because it encompasses a persons way of lifeincluding their institutions, worldview, and sacred values.

Native Americans struggled against colonists and settlers to preserve not just their lives but their way of life. Today, conservationists fight against overdevelopment to conserve not just their environment but their culture. There is nothing inherently ignoble about this, except to those who view these fights as hindering progress. When it comes to social progress, we call these folks progressives.

Now, because some forms of change, like most technological advancements, are both salutary and inexorable, progress has a positive connotation. But when change is either perceived as harmful to a persons way of life and/or is radically thrust upon people, you can expect a visceral backlash. Such is the case in American politics today.

You might wonder how the Democratic Party preemptively and prematurely picked a culture war fight they couldnt win. I believe its because a) ideology is blinding, and b) they assumed a coalition of the ascendant would counter any attrition that might come from working-class voters defecting. (This is not an endorsement of replacement theory.)

The latter obviously hasnt panned out for them. For the purposes of this discussion, Im more interested in the former.

The loudest voices on the left today are very onlineyoung, educated woke white progressives. As Democratic data guru David Shor noted last year, as Democrats have traded non-college-educated voters for college-educated ones, white liberals share of voice and clout in the Democratic Party has gone up.

And since white voters are sorting [based] on ideology more than nonwhite voters, Shor continues, weve ended up in a situation where white liberals are more left wing than Black and Hispanic Democrats on pretty much every issue

In their minds, they are on the right side of history; and that history must be constantly progressing. And because progressives are always pushing for progress, they are the aggressors in the culture war. Or, as Kevin Drum, the liberal journalist formerly with Washington Monthly and Mother Jones, put it last year, It is not conservatives who have turned American politics into a culture war battle. It is liberals.

Thats because, according to Drum (who charted changes in public attitudes on issues like abortion, guns, gay marriage, taxes, and religion), Since 1994, Democrats have moved left far more than Republicans have moved right.

Not surprisingly, this shift is most acutely felt in rural and small-town America, which tends to be more non-college white and culturally conservative. The [Democratic] partys brand is so toxic in the small towns 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, the AP tells us, that some liberals have removed bumper stickers and yard signs and refuse to acknowledge publicly their party affiliation.

Progressives sometimes lament the fact that working-class and/or rural Americans vote against their self-interest, by which they generally mean economic self-interest. To the degree their premise is correct, it comes down to culture. The materialists cant fathom how intangibles like honor, respect, tradition, loyalty, religion, status, or identity so often trump pecuniary concerns. The truth is that not only will people often vote against their presumed self-interest to preserve their way of life, they will sometimes even die for it. This can be noble (as is the case with a war hero willing to die for his country) or even silly (think of the Americans who were so wedded to the anti-vax tribe that they would rather die than get a vaccine).

Of course, sometimes these culture war issues are not so esoteric. In some cases, the worry is not about losing ones way of life, but about losing ones life. Progressives can try to dismiss the defund the police phrase as a culture war slogan, but violent crime is a serious issue. What is more, its plausible that some of the problem is the result of a left-wing political culture where district attorneys are increasingly soft on crime and police officers feel like we have abandoned them. The crime issue isnt going away, and the latest front in this ongoing culture war seems to be bail reform.

As National Journals Josh Kraushaar pointed out, this week we saw the man who allegedly stabbed a 35-year-old Asian woman to death in New York City released without bail, and a local Black Lives Matter chapter posting bail for a man accused of attempting to murder a Louisville, Kentucky, mayoral candidate. Part of the political problem for Dems is that theyre months behind in appreciating how damaging their positions at the time are, Kraushaar tweeted.

It might be too obvious to say that the Democratic Party had better change if they want to mitigate their looming electoral losses in the coming November midterms. But if they want to remain a viable party in the near future, they better pump the brakes on progress and ease up on stoking the left-wing culture wars.

Read more here:
Democrats are losing the culture wars by blindly pushing progressive ideals - The Daily Beast

RIGA - As Ukraine is being targeted by Russia's aggression, Latvia's Progressives party is calling on the government to impose "comprehensive sanctions" on persons in Latvia that are close to Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, said the party's co-chairperson Antonina Nenaseva.

The Progressives are urging the Latvian government to decide on freezing Latvia-based assets of officials of Russia's ruling United Russia party, entrepreneurs subject to other sanctions and close to the Kremlin, as well as their family members, the party says in a statement.

The Progressives strongly condemn Putin's decision to recognize the independence of the so called "People's Republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to the statement.

The party denounces in especially strong terms the sending of Russian forces into these territories without the Ukrainian government's consent, which should be considered a repeated occupation of Ukraine's territories.

Nenaseva indicated that that the Latvian government should "set an example by introducing comprehensive sanctions against persons in Latvia that are close to the Putin regime".

The regions of Donetsk and Luhansk are part of sovereign Ukraine's territory and the recognition of their "independence" by Russia, like the annexation of Crimea in 2014, is a gross violation of international law, the Progressives stress in their statement.

"We are calling on Latvia and the international community to immediately introduce comprehensive economic and financial sanctions that would target Russia's political leadership, military industrial complex, military command and the country's economic structures, and to leave the sanctions in place until Russia stops its provocative actions against Ukraine," the party said.

"Although Ukraine's has the right to defend its territory, we are calling on the Ukrainian government to keep calm and refrain from direct military confrontation, restore the Minsk agreement process if possible and rely on diplomatic solutions in settling the situation," representatives of the Progressives said, adding that they are against any military resolution of the conflict as people's lives are the highest value.

Originally posted here:
Progressives call for sanctioning persons in Latvia with close ties to Putin's regime - Baltic Times

The progressive wing of the Democratic party lashed out angrily over a report in Axios detailing how top Democrats believe the politics of "the quad" has damaged the party and sunk their chances in the midterm elections.

The report says that many Democrats blame the group of far left progressives for pushing unpopular policies like defunding the police, renaming schools, and toppling statues.

Democrats faced an uphill battle already in the midterm election given that more of their seats are up for election than those currently belonging to Republicans. Polling in recent months shows that Americans are rejecting Democratic policies, further worsening their chances.

The report highlighted the stunning recall of three progressive members of the San Francisco school board, explaining, "the most liberal city in the most liberal state decided that liberal activists had gone too far."

Internal polling showed that Americans saw Democrats as "preachy," "judgmental," and "focused on culture wars" instead of solving real problems.

While the aides to the squad members didn't comment for the report, some of the congress members responded on Twitter.

"In case you hadnt caught on by now, every time theres a media push blaming progressives, theres something conservative Democrats are trying to cover up. This time its that they sent 4 million kids into poverty because they killed the Child Tax Credit. Dont get distracted," replied Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.).

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded with an emoji symbol of agreement, but in her own tweet, she blamed capitalism for the report.

"Truly wild how these folks called the shots & got their desired nominees, agenda, priorities, legislative order, and excluded us from participating in campaigns yet find no shortage of ppl willing to write as their uncritical stenographers. This is how capital & power works folks," she tweeted.

Others on social media responded by calling the report "racist and sexist."

The social media kerfuffle is just the latest in the battle waged by far left progressives to wrestle control of the Democratic party away from the centrist establishment wing.

56 percent of Americans approve of nothing Biden has done: CNN pollwww.youtube.com

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Progressives bitterly lash out at Democrats over report that 'squad politics' has tanked the party's chances in the midterms - TheBlaze

With gas prices hitting $3.50 a gallon nationally and the threat of war in Europe driving fuel costs higher, right-wing lawmakers are scrupulously on message: Blame inflation and effete environmentalism.

Democrats, on the other hand, are scrambling for a story. As the electoral threat sinks in, proposals abound. Tax fossil fuels less; tax fossil fuel producers more; limit crude exports; invest in clean energy to compete with China; improve supply chains; break up monopolies. Yet both progressives and moderates conceded in interviews that the short term may be a wash.

Is there an immediate solution available that is both pro-worker and pro-climate?

Short answer is no, Justin Guay, a policy strategist at the Sunrise Project, told the Prospect.

These are long-term structural challenges with no easy short-term fix, Guay said. The only way to reduce the economic pain from surging and volatile gas prices is to get off the stuff.

SEVERAL VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS are currently proposing one response to relieve public frustration: Suspend the federal gas tax.

Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), who anticipate grueling re-election campaigns, say suspending the levy at gas pumps would blunt the pain faced by working families, who are also seeing elevated costs in health and housing.

The White House is reportedly sympathetic, though some staffers worry the tax will be hard to reinstate once lifted. Jamal Raad, executive director of Evergreen Action, a clean-energy organization with close ties to the White House, declined to take a position on the lawmakers proposal, but said we should give them some latitude.

There is a direct line between the price of gas and presidential approval, he added.

Yet even if climate activists are willing to subordinate short-term priorities on energy use to electoral ones, a gas tax holiday wouldnt necessarily achieve much. While it sounds populist, energy economists and market analysts said it could increase gas consumption without bringing down prices.

More from Lee Harris

At current levels, the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon accounts for around 5 percent of the nationwide price. Thats much lower than it used to be in real terms, according to Ben Cahill, an energy analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, because it is fixed and never adjusts for inflation. All else being equal, Cahill told the Prospect, a gas tax holiday would encourage more consumption, adding to market tightness.

The supply of gas available to consumers also isnt very flexible. The growth of frackinga form of oil extraction that can be revved up faster in response to new demandhad relaxed that rule somewhat. But wells have been allowed to close after a years-long shale oil binge proved unprofitable, so oil and gas supply remains fairly inelastic in the short term.

As a result of inelastic supply, said J.W. Mason, an economist at John Jay College CUNY, most of the gains of suspending the gas tax are going to be captured by producers, not by consumers.

As debate has intensified over the proposal, the politics have become increasingly scrambled. While it was originally proposed by moderates in swing districts, Sen. Ron Wyden, the progressive climate hawk who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, has since backed suspending the tax, along with some left-leaning groups.

Gas taxes are fundamentally regressive. They hit the poorest people the hardest, Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Wednesday. Green wants to sever the link between the gas tax and highway spending, preferring to fund infrastructure through general revenues. Whether or not we were going through inflation and massive price-gouging by corporations right now, it would be a good idea to get rid of the gas tax for the benefit of working families.

OIL AND GAS SUPERMAJORS, as Green alluded to, are seeing their highest profits since 2014. Producers including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and BP recorded windfall gains last year and project elevated barrel prices over the coming months. Some lawmakers are crying out for their colleagues to connect the dots.

Energy companies are recording massive profits and one of the best ways that we can cut the costs of gasoline at the pump is to break up the monopolies that are price gouging American families, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said in a statement to the Prospect.

This is a story about the greed of the fossil fuel industry and we need to make sure the American people know that, Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a climate-hawk progressive, told the Prospect. If we get rid of the gas tax and keep everything else status quo, the oil majors would likely pocket the extra money rather than lower prices for drivers. Its time to consider a windfall tax on the industry.

That idea has scarcely been raised in the U.S., but a debate is raging in the U.K. over whether to tax oil majors windfall profits. Originally proposed by the British Labour Party as a way to lower home heating costs, it earned the backing of Liberal Democrats and even some Conservative members of Parliament before being shot down by Boris Johnson. Still, backers pointed out that the proposal put the prime minister in the unenviable position of defending oil majors amid the countrys cost-of-living crisis.

While the Build Back Better bills investments would bring down energy costs, that takes time, and midterm elections are looming.

It wouldnt be the first time Americans levied extra taxes on oil. In 1980, following deregulation of domestic price controls, President Jimmy Carter signed the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act, which generated some $80 billion in revenue. And Californiathe only state in the nation that doesnt tax companies for taking oil out of the groundis proposing to rectify that with a new oil severance tax.

But new oil taxes imposed now carry optics concerns of their own.

Its sort of tone-deaf, said RL Miller, president of Climate Hawks Vote, a grassroots environmental advocacy group. While she is infuriated by producers high profits, Miller said she worries about imposing any tax right now that could be passed on to hard-hit consumers.

Instead, Miller pointed to New York Sen. Chuck Schumers electric-car incentive program, which includes a cash-for-clunkers provision that would pay drivers to ditch their gas-guzzlers. If theyre talking about resurrecting the climate parts of the Build Back Better bill, this looks like a lovely place to start.

THE PANIC OVER high gas prices comes after the excruciatingly drawn-out failure to invest in cheaper, independent energy through Democrats infrastructure and jobs bill. The recent gas price run-up has made renewables even more cost-competitive with fossil fuels, which are highly volatile commoditiesbut making the glaring logical case for Building Back Better is moot if the Senate cant deliver.

Many say now is the time to salvage energy provisions in that legislation. Asked on Wednesday by the Prospect about short-term solutions to gas prices, Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) said, Its really important that we get the climate investments from Build Back Better across the finish line.

But while the bills investments would bring down energy costs, that takes time, and midterm elections are looming.

On a press call Wednesday meant to rally support for Build Back Better, New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski lamented that the supply chain shortage is slowing electric-car sales. The short-term fix, he said, isnt actually Build Back Better, but a new bipartisan bill to spur microchip manufacturing.

In the medium to long run, we do need to strengthen the incentives, because we want to get to 100 percent use, Malinowski added. But right now, its also an argument for getting the supply chain legislation. Raad, of Evergreen Action, said electric-car uptake is promisingand is a reason to think twice before passing a tax holiday that could make gas cars more attractive.

The internal debate reveals that even with much of the business lobby bullish on a clean-energy transition, the short-term politics of easing gas prices for regular Americans remain intractable.

As a result, climate policy in an era of high gas prices is starting to be coded, in the culture wars, a little like masks in schools. Some segments of the commentariat who cast progressives as out-of-touch elites have begun to grumble about the electoral costs of climate action.

Blunt assessments from centrist and left-wing Democrats alike, however, say long-run investment is the only serious way to bring down Americans energy bills. Climate hawks may be losing the battle, but they believe they will win the war. The plan, Raad said, is to make sure that in the long term, the price of oil doesnt matter for working families.

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What's the Progressive Answer to High Gas Prices? - The American Prospect