Senate The US Politics discussion

You start off, and end, going back to the rich. Which you keep primarily focusing on. I even noted that in the quote.

Try again.

 

Though not every state has adopted Common Core, it was just "heavily suggested" to the states.

 

Is it one of those "hostile battles" up on the Hill?

 

Can't say that about college, but not in the elementary and high school levels. Certain schools have curriculum that isn't mandatory. Something like "French Week" isn't going to happen in many US schools. Not the smaller, rural areas. Mexican and Spanish culture appreciation are more likely to be found in schools, especially with a significant Mexican-American population.

Part of it is education, but part of it is just sheer stubbornness brought on by upbringing. They would rather remain ignorant than being more enlightened. To me, I wouldn't complain about life in Japan or Scotland. I've learned from reading on my own and through other media that their ways are indeed different, but I can appreciate them for what they are. But then you have cultures where things are so radically different that it is just breeds a form of contempt. Especially with religion and that's a hurdle that's way too difficult to overcome for too many people.

Recently, there was a news editorial piece from my local television station, which talked about how a local resident was xenophobic towards Muslims, until discovering and meeting his neighbors who were Muslim and saw his whole world view change. Now he understands the difference between peaceful Muslims and radical extremists.

This too. It's not just in foreign culture, but in other areas of education. There were points in American history that wasn't taught in my mother's day, that was during my time and I know it's the same with my younger cousins.

 

I literally acknowledged the poor (In fact, I agreed with you in my first response).

 

You pretty much see this in my state (Virginia), only instead of complaining about foreign countries, they are talking about metros.

 

Right. We had a big Spanish class at my Alma matter, but we did have other foreign language classes that were taught via satellite, but enrollment was often very small and as such, the classroom was a small room in the library. Growing up in a small town of 1600. Not sure if those classes are still taught, but the rest of it is about right. Hell, you still find ignorant people that say that they're sick of having options in Spanish and seeing Mexicans, both legal and illegal, using Spanish to converse.

 

Ugh.

Heaven’s model immigration policies haven’t gone unnoticed by the great and the good of conservative America. Indeed, a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) conference, which kicked off today, is titled: “If Heaven Has a Gate, A Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why Can’t America?”​

​

Sceptics, heathens, and Stephen Hawking might say: well, you know, because heaven is a fairy story. But sceptics, heathens and Stephen Hawking are not in charge of America. Evangelical fundamentalists like Vice President Mike Pence, who doesn’t believe in evolution, are.​

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-vetting-republicans-legislate-from-the-bible

Ugh, just ugh.

Congress can't decide this... but it is a super-charged battle in every State House, City Council, School District, Teachers' Conference, etc. This thread tends to be more about the talk on the national scale, but for talk on the state/local scale this has to be one of the issues that gets people's passions going the most. Like, you have no idea how much bubbling tension there is about this.

I agree with anakinfansince1983... a high school diploma should mean the same thing in every state. If a student is in 5th and moves to another school or district or state, they should be at about the same level.

But Common Core, and all the standardization before Common Core, is over-regulated and over-standardized. Teachers and schools are often punished for not doing well... even if, for example, their school is the one that all schools in the district send their special education students, or ESL students, or if they're in a poorer neighborhood where most kids don't have a healthy, filling breakfast and dinner each day.

And another thing is this standardization often prioritizes data over the students: maybe the classroom needs an extra week to go over a new math or reading concept, or the teacher wants to have adequate time to review old material or preview future material, or do something a little different but it's fun and engaging and educational, etc., but that flexibility isn't allowed.

There's also a lot of "teaching to the test" encouraged, that's not useful for anything but this test, which might be thrown out in 3 years anyways.

Or teaching to whatever new thing the curriculum-designers decide to impose for a year or two, then decide it's garbage and move on to the next new shiny thing... like "oh, let's not teach students phonics, they can figure it out on their own, but start teaching exponents in 2nd grade before they learn multiplication so they all become STEM majors! ... (2 years later).... Wait, what do you mean math scores and reading scores are going down? Let's bring back phonics, but this time let's begin teaching multiplication in 1st grade!"

 

I live in a city that is 50+% immigrants and we have one of the lowest crime rates in Canada. And a ton of tasty restaurants.

We also let in 40 000 Syrian Refugees (using the same extensive vetting process the US refugees would have been subject to) and haven't had a single terrorist attack. The only recent terrorist attack was a white guy shooting up a mosque.

 

CBS News just reported that NASA has discovered up to 7 planets that could be just like earth.

For the sake of the lifeforms that might exist on those other worlds, I really hope that's not the case.

 

I'm still trying to find it on this planet!

Geez, Imagine what higher lifeforms would think of Trump and a nation that elected him. Once the radio waves made it that far, they'd just turn their saucers right around and head home.

 

The DNC Chair debate starts on CNN in a few minutes.

 

I think they would come more quickly, to restore His Excellency to power.

 

Oversimplification.

Supply side economics works and if you need proof to overcome your cynicism, how about China?

Reagonomics however follows the proud tradition of ideological infancy in the US, and is some sort of farce.

 

But that's an oversimplification too, isn't it? China is also a very protectionist nation. So, it can be argued that the supply side is not the only reason for their success, or if China shows that supply side economics is beneficial then it also shows that protectionism is beneficial.

 

Fair enough.

I should have said Reagonomics

 

Well that debate sure was something.

I've decided I like Buttigieg better than Ellison. He seems to "get it," with messaging, with grassroots support, with the right experience and youthful optimistic energy.

Jaime Harrison was super-annoying (most besides the big 3 could be at times). "Elect me. DNC Chair is a job. Like, it seems to really be a job. It's about building. The Chair needs a builder! And a fighter! Thank you for everything mom. Oh, an no one else knows that being poor sucks!" (*literally bounces up and down and moves his hands excitedly*) He needed to calm down and stop taking everything personally.
Brown and Greene were annoying too.

Perez dodged a lot of questions, but showed some charm. Though the question about the Donors' Summit was bad. "Well, everyone here was at the Donor's Summit instead of the Women's Marches, except for Buttigieg and the John Kerry clone, but that's not fair, I go to marches too. Everyone else went to the Donors' Summit!" And Greene adding on "the DNC should stop caring about PR and make policy happen!" Well the point of the DNC is to have good PR and communication, to help get people elected, so they can make policy, jeesh. And no, Greene, the Civil War was worse than Trump.

And thank you Buttigieg for realizing that people should stop talking about Millennials like we're all preteens, the oldest of us are approaching 40.

Ronan was just this cynical "you guys all suck, the Democrats suck" candidate... but somehow not annoying, he was pretty funny. No chance of winning though."Ronan: he's just like your cynical Generation X second-cousin... elect him, and listen to him arrogantly complain about the DNC he leads with an occasional valid point. Ronan."

 

So... Ronan the Accuser?

//I'll show myself out...

 

I don't think anyone is seriously considering anyone outside of Ellison, Perez, and Buttigieg.