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Saturday, August 16, 2025

Hell Freezes: Hillary Says Trump Has Been "Great" And Would Nominate Him For Peace Prize

  by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Hillary Clinton has praised President Trump. Yes you read that right, she said something nice about him. 

What’s she up to?

Hillary declared on the ‘Raging Moderates’ podcast that she is pleased with the way Trump has dealt with NATO in recent months.

“I actually was encouraged by the events of the last several months. First of all, the NATO commitment by individual member states to increase their defense spending is very welcome. It’s something that prior administrations have certainly sought,” Clinton said.

Trump has pressured the other member states to boost spending from just 2 percent of their GDP to 5 percent, and made a deal for NATO to foot the bill for US weapons going to Ukraine.

“I think it’s great that we are seeing these commitments that now have to be followed through on,” Hillary stated.

‘Great’ is an interesting choice of word.

She added that “The willingness of European countries to support Ukraine, and by doing so by American weapons in order to provide them to the Ukrainians,”

Of course, she wants more weapons for Ukraine, and Trump had to do that deal.

Under the agreement, European NATO members—Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the UK, and Canada—commit to purchasing billions of dollars worth of American military equipment, including Patriot air defense systems, missiles, artillery, and ammunition.

These allies then either send the newly acquired U.S. weapons directly to Ukraine or donate their existing stockpiles to Kyiv while replenishing their own inventories with U.S. replacements.

This setup marks a shift from direct U.S. aid packages, which Trump has heavily criticized as overly burdensome on American taxpayers.

“I think all of that is a very good signal that there is beginning to be a better understanding, both by the president and the people around him, as well as by the leaders of our European allies, that there can be common ground amongst us,” Clinton further suggested.

“And the kind of dismissiveness that we saw in the first Trump administration has been replaced by a much more obvious working relationship to the good of European security, transatlantic security, and hopefully Ukrainian security. So I’m actually encouraged,” she added.

Elsewhere during the podcast, Hillary commented on Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin scheduled for today, noting “Honestly, if he could bring about the end to this terrible war, if he could end it without putting Ukraine in a position where it had to concede its territory to the aggressor, could really stand up to Putin — something we haven’t seen, but maybe this is the opportunity — if President Trump were the architect of that, I’d nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize.”

“Because my goal here is to not allow capitulation to Putin,” Clinton added.

Trump responded to Clinton’s comments in his inimitable style.

As we highlighted earlier, Trump has announced that his meeting with Vladmir Putin on Friday was “very successful” and that a full peace deal, not merely a ceasefire, is in the works.

Trump cautioned that this is highly dependent on Ukrainian President Zelensky playing ball, but that he is ready to act as mediator between Zelensky and Putin.

Can Trump pull off what would be an historic outcome?

*  *  *

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hell-freezes-hillary-says-trump-has-been-great-and-would-nominate-him-peace-prize

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West Virginia National Guard to help Trump restore safety in nation’s capital

 West Virginia is sending National Guard troops to support President Donald Trump’s initiative to restore safety in Washington, D.C.

The West Virginia National Guard will deploy roughly 300 to 400 troops to the nation’s capital at the request of the Trump administration, WVNews reported Saturday.

Gov. Morrisey announcing agreements between ICE and West Virginia law enforcement.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey has directed his state’s National Guard to support President Donald Trump’s initiative to restore safety in Washington, D.C.facebook/WVGovernor
National Guard soldier preparing for search and rescue operations near a helicopter.
Airmen with the West Virginia National Guard.Getty Images

“West Virginia is proud to stand with President Trump in his effort to restore pride and beauty to our nation’s capital,” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said. “The men and women of our National Guard represent the best of our state, and this mission reflects our shared commitment to a strong and secure America.”

National Guard vehicle on patrol in Washington, DC, with the US Capitol in the background.
Members of the National Guard patrol in and around Union Station, which is a major transportation hub several blocks from the U.S. Capitol.Kyle Mazza/UNF News/CNP/INSTARimages
The troops will be led by West Virginia Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Jim Seward, and the operation will be fully funded by the feds.

Other National Guard troops began deploying to the streets of Washington, D.C., Tuesday, one day after Trump signed an executive order aimed at addressing crime concerns in the nation’s capital. 

https://nypost.com/2025/08/16/us-news/west-virginia-national-guard-to-help-trump-restore-safety-in-nations-capital/

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New York State lowered the bar for some students to pass 2025 reading, math exams

 City officials are crowing over gains on the 2025 reading and math exams, but the state lowered the passing benchmarks for some students — raising questions about boasts of substantial academic progress, experts told The Post.

The tests, given statewide to NYC public school kids in grades 3 through 8, required third graders to get just 57% of questions correct on the English Language Arts exam to pass, down from 60% last year.

Fourth graders had to get 56% right, down from 65%, and 6th graders had to answer 57% correctly, down from 63%, according to a stunning analysis by the Times-Union.

Commissioner of Education and president of the University of the State of New York Betty A. Rosa, li
State education commissioner Betty A. Rosa oversees the administration and scoring of annual state reading and math exams.AP

The test-tinkering resulted in big improvements in NYC. Third-graders showed an 8.4 point increase in reading, with a whopping 63.6 % of students showing proficiency on the exam compared to 52.5% last year.

On the math exam, the state lowered the proficiency bar — Level 3 — from 56% to 54% for 3rd-graders, and from 54% to 51% for 4th-graders, the Albany-based newspaper reported, based on available data.

The tweaking occurred after test analysts found some questions on the 2025 exams more difficult than those on the 2024 exam, state education department spokeswoman Rachel Connors explained.

“If there is a greater or lesser number of difficult questions one year, the number of questions that must be answered correctly is adjusted,” she told the outlet. “This helps ensure that all tests in a subject are equated — no test is harder or easier to pass from year to year.”

Both ex-mayors Mike Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio have trumpeted ballooning test-score gains that later deflated. In the most scandalous example, Bloomberg, who was seeking a third term and pushing state lawmakers to extend mayoral control of schools, hailed a huge rise in test scores from 2006 to 2009 as an “enormous victory.” 

NYC Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos
Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos touted state test score results as “proof that initiatives like NYC Reads and NYC Solves” are working.James Messerschmidt

But investigators later found that Richard Mills, then-state education commissioner, had instructed the company administering the tests to gradually lower the “cut scores,” the minimum points kids needed to show proficiency.

The latest revelation casts a cloud over the NYC test results, which Mayor Adams hailed as “a testament to what’s possible when we invest in our young people and believe in their potential.” 

Citywide, 56.3% of students met the proficiency level in ELA, up 7.2-percentage points from the 49.1% who passed in 2024, officials reported.

In math, 56.9% of NYC students passed the math exam, up 3.5 percentage points from 53.4% in 2024, according to released data. Officials did not disclose any changes in the scoring.

The state uses “a really complicated statistical model” to determine whether some test questions are harder or easier for students than questions given the year before, said Aaron Pallas, a professor of education and sociology at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

student at a desk taking test
In NYC, about 58 percent of 3rd-graders showed reading proficiency, a nearly 13-point gain, but the state lowering the benchmark for passing, claiming the test was more difficult than last year.insta_photos – stock.adobe.com

“What the state is saying happened is that this year’s test turned out to be slightly more difficult than expected, and that means that students didn’t have to score as highly,” Pallas told The Post.

Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos credited the city’s 2024 overhaul of literacy  and math curriculums for the test-score increases.

“The gains we’re seeing are proof that initiatives like NYC Reads and NYC Solves are delivering for our children,” she said.

 Pallas isn’t sold.

“I understand that you’ve got a mayor who’s up for re-election and a chancellor who is tethered to him, so of course they want to claim that it’s stuff that they did that is largely responsible. But I think it’s a little too early to tell. I want to see next year’s data before claiming victory for the curriculum.”

chart showing test scores
This chart shows proficiency on this year’s reading and math exams.Tam Nguyen / NYPost Design

David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College and CUNY Grad Center education professor, agreed.

“While there’s good news here, the city’s celebrations should be more muted,” he said. “Revelations that the state decreased some scores needed to show proficiency blurs the picture — especially for third and fourth graders who saw some of the greatest increases.”

The state did not change the passing levels in ELA for fifth, seventh and eighth graders, the Times-Union analysis found.

But in math, reaching proficiency was harder. Fifth-graders had to correctly answer 51% of the items, up from 48% in 2024. Seventh and 8th graders had to get 53% of the points, up from 50% and 49% respectively last year.

Because the state revamped the standardized tests in 2023 due to new learning standards, it’s impossible to gauge progress over prior years.

Connors refused The Post’s request for the 2025 cut scores, saying they will be released in a “technical report” several months from now.

“We need the raw scores,” said Danyela Souza Egorov, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where she co-authored a recent report showing that NYC’s 4th and 8th graders have for years performed below the state in reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), considered the “gold standard” and most reliable of standardized tests.

It’s unclear whether the scoring changes are the result of “poor test writing or intentional number fudging,” she said. “We just need more transparency so we can make sure that the public can trust the results being published.”

https://nypost.com/2025/08/16/us-news/nys-lowered-the-bar-for-some-students-to-pass-2025-reading-math-exams/

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