All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Mister Mets]

It baffles me why they didn't just cancel the Olympics. Between the pandemic and all of the recent controversies, they should have called it a day and come back in four years.

Many of the costs of the Olympics are already set. Tokyo had to build a lot of stuff in order to get the Olympics.

A major problem with just waiting until 2024 is that it means many great talents will never be able to perform, because they missed their window.

Ivanka I would say ... 33% chance indicted.

Jared ... 14% chance.

You need a slam dunk on them to indict. Which is why IF they are ... they flip on daddy.

I however think that harassing surrogates will be the NYDA play till the Trumps leave America due to bleeding too much money. It is smarter and the base will not like that he fled the country.

I would put Rudy on 55% though ... Given all his disbarments.

He might be the better cog to break.

I do suspect the odds are lower than you think, but I do respect you for sharing your answer.

[Jack Dracula]

The GOP has recognized that some on the left have some extreme views on race, and this affects schools in multiple ways (curricula, workplace training, etc.)

This is politically useful for Republicans, but they sure as hell aren't in secret agreement with progressives here, and don't believe that kindergarteners should be taught to accept whiteness.

I wasn't saying the Democrats and Republicans were in a secret agreement.
I have no idea what the last part of your post is about.

[Spike-X]

The GOP has recognized that some on the left have some extreme views on race, and this affects schools in multiple ways (curricula, workplace training, etc.)

How so?

[Mister Mets]

As for this particular observation...

Have a serious conversation with diabetics about the cost of insulin or if that insulin is even covered.

Never mind actually putting more than just cursory thought into the actual "Big Picture..." when it comes to those earlier conditions.

We may still be arguing past one another.

I said that "The education of the next generation is one of the most important topics." This remains true whether you think we're currently doing a good job on education.

A diabetic may be willing to compromise on the quality of education to get insulin prices lower, but that doesn't mean insulin is a more important topic.

That said, paying attention to education doesn't mean we can't sort out solutions to the cost of insulin.

Since insulin is vulnerable to various market fluctuations and price gouging, we could probably resolve it by having the government manufacture it.

Put simply, no one(that I have seen...) has asserted that.

Having established that?

Focusing on some sort of educational equivalent of "Candyman..." like it amounts to anything like an actual issue?

That is not even as important as an ethics probe into if government should be handing money over to a former President's company for housing the agents who make up his protection detail.

There are numerous complaints about American education, from the low percentage of children reading or performing math at grade level, the cost of college, and the number of high school graduates unprepared for college.

All of those subtopics are more important than an ethics probe into something sketchy Trump did.

Here is a good discussion of the issue published in Education Week

What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?





CRT is a Law School topic. Conservatives have latched onto it as a way of scarring White People into believing that their children (It's not being taught in any school other than Law Schools) to hate themselves.

The GOP’s ‘Critical Race Theory’ Obsession

Critical Race Theory does inform education policy.

The NEA has called for defending Critical Race Theory.

https://reason.com/2021/07/06/critic...ht-in-schools/

The writer Andrew Sullivan phrases it well: kids are not taught CRT, they are taught in CRT.

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/...-expose-it-2d9

And no, 6-year-olds are not being taught Derrick Bell — or forced to read Judith Butler, or God help them, Kimberlé Crenshaw. Of course they aren’t — and I don’t know anyone who says they are.

But they are being taught popularized terms, new words, and a whole new epistemology that is directly downstream of academic critical theory. Ibram X. Kendi even has an AntiRacist Baby Picture Book so you can indoctrinate your child into the evil of whiteness as soon as she or he can gurgle. It’s a little hard to argue that CRT is not interested in indoctrinating kids when its chief proponent in the US has a kiddy book on the market.

This is not teaching about critical race theory; it is teaching in critical race theory. And it is compulsory and often hidden from parents. It contradicts the core foundations of our liberal society; and is presented not as one truth to be contrasted with others, but as the truth, the basis on which all other truths are built. That’s why teaching based on CRT will make children see themselves racially from the get-go, why it will separate them into different racial groups, why it will compel white kids to internalize their complicity in evil, tell black kids that all their troubles are a function of white people, banish objective measurements of success to avoid stigmatizing failure, and treat children of different races differently in a classically racist hierarchy.

And this is why — crucially — it will suppress any other way of seeing the world — because any other way, by definition, is merely perpetuating oppression. As Kendi constantly reminds us, it is either/or. An antiracist cannot exist with a liberalism that perpetuates racism. And it’s always the liberalism that has to go.

The semantic argument about whether CRT is just a model of legal study sidesteps the more important question about whether parents are right to have concerns about how issues of race are framed in schools, whether it is CRT, informed by CRT or something else.

[numberthirty]

We may still be arguing past one another.

I said that "The education of the next generation is one of the most important topics." This remains true whether you think we're currently doing a good job on education.

A diabetic may be willing to compromise on the quality of education to get insulin prices lower, but that doesn't mean insulin is a more important topic.

That said, paying attention to education doesn't mean we can't sort out solutions to the cost of insulin.

Since insulin is vulnerable to various market fluctuations and price gouging, we could probably resolve it by having the government manufacture it.

...

Again...

There are literally hundreds of issues with varying degrees of legitimate importance versus what?

Something that is the educational equivalent of "Candyman..."?

[numberthirty]

Past that, no one really said that insulin in and of itself is a more important topic. Even though, let's face it, it is certainly more important than "Candyman..." nonsense when it comes to education that doesn't amount to tollway change.

Meanwhile, out in the actual world?

Think about the cost of just managing diabetes in America today.

It is borderline nonsense to propose that some "Candyman..." sideshow when it comes to education is actually more important than addressing a situation that could potentially put more than millions back into the pockets of a notable amount of American citizens.

[Malvolio]

It's a luxury, at this point. It's proven to be a burden upon the host city economically for the past twenty years of summer and winter games at least...

But it's a stage for the best in human physical achievement and competition. I'm like, "yeah, expensive, but... I wanna see Simone Biles defy the laws of gravity and Usain Bolt give us the closest human equivalent to the Flash and the like."

The only reason people want to host them is to be able to cheer on their own countrymen without traveling. But with television... streaming, etc.... that's not really a concern in the modern era. Thus why the economic impact of the games has changed. It's all in the TV deal, which I believe the IOC milk the money out of, not the host city.

It wouldn't be the first time they've completely canceled the Olympics. They did it twice during World War II, 1940 and 1944. So yes, many athletes who would have competed in those years never got their chance. It's sad, but it did set a precedent.

[worstblogever]

We may still be arguing past one another.

I said that "The education of the next generation is one of the most important topics." This remains true whether you think we're currently doing a good job on education.

A diabetic may be willing to compromise on the quality of education to get insulin prices lower, but that doesn't mean insulin is a more important topic.

That said, paying attention to education doesn't mean we can't sort out solutions to the cost of insulin.

Since insulin is vulnerable to various market fluctuations and price gouging, we could probably resolve it by having the government manufacture it.

Spoken like a conservative, "We can't spend money on both education AND insulin. One must be sacrificed to fund the other."

Or, y'know, there's the very sane solution progressives have to actually tax billionaires at the rate they deserve to be and fund both.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It's a luxury, at this point. It's proven to be a burden upon the host city economically for the past twenty years of summer and winter games at least...

But it's a stage for the best in human physical achievement and competition. I'm like, "yeah, expensive, but... I wanna see Simone Biles defy the laws of gravity and Usain Bolt give us the closest human equivalent to the Flash and the like."

The only reason people want to host them is to be able to cheer on their own countrymen without traveling. But with television... streaming, etc.... that's not really a concern in the modern era. Thus why the economic impact of the games has changed. It's all in the TV deal, which I believe the IOC milk the money out of, not the host city.

And with NBC having sunk billions into advertising and covering the games, the Peacock wasn't about to give up on the Olympics going forward without a fight, regardless of if there's fans in the venues or not.

[numberthirty]

Spoken like a conservative, "We can't spend money on both education AND insulin. One must be sacrificed to fund the other.

Or, y'know, there's the very sane solution progressives have to actually tax billionaires at the rate they deserve to be and fund both.

Man, politely?

The cost of insulin is a straight up shameless racket.

While I do think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with government funding insulin use(or serious research into making serious progress in treating some of those other disease...)?

I'm not really down with the idea of government pitching cash into the fireplace in order to do so.

[CSTowle]

I believe there are helpful and necessary arguments on race and the way our system has been designed to cater to one over others that CRT addresses. I also believe there are problematic elements such as labeling things like logic, reason, lack of bias, the scientific method, etc. as "white" traits and tools to oppress others, and the labeling of white people as inherently flawed based on their skin color. It comes off like old timey religion, where some are guilty of an "original sin" that they can never be wholly cleansed of and need to be repentant. Rather than us all being born into a culture/system/society that was shaped over thousands of years that at best we can recognize the flaws of (which again, this Theory helps with) and work to change slowly from within but didn't have a choice or vote on when we popped out of the womb.

Nor do any of us have real lack of bias, because we're shaped in thousands of ways throughout our lives based on our interactions with others and events beyond our control. Trying to assign blame for the sins of the past to those here now, as if you could punish those responsible in the past by punishing those who resemble them today, is only going to serve to further divide us. It might feel better to lash out at someone for the very real and continuing injustice and imbalances in our society, but it doesn't really accomplish anything (at least anything good). The slower, more difficult way to go about things is to try to educate those who have the luxury or privilege of not having to think about these things on a daily basis why and how it impacts those who don't have that privilege. It's not as cathartic, and it won't get clicks or attract eyeballs (part of why everyone from Fox to MSNBC are talking about CRT), but it's in my opinion the better way to go about it if you want to change things.

And also, it is a handy tool for Republicans to distract their base like Gay Marriage and the Death Tax that won't impact 99.999% of them and Sharia Law and MS13 and and and....

On the Olympics, I like seeing countries go all out in their displays and celebration of the Games but like FIFA the whole thing seems pretty corrupt. I'd say no fans is probably the best way to go about it, I think at this point it's safe enough with protocols to avoid problems with the athletes themselves (and I'd hope most of them are vaccinated).

[Spike-X]

Ibram X. Kendi even has an AntiRacist Baby Picture Book so you can indoctrinate your child into the evil of whiteness as soon as she or he can gurgle.

It's really hard to take anything Sullivan says seriously after this.

Or before this.

Or at all, really.

[numberthirty]

One other thing on the "Investing In Research..." front...

This is Mike Huckabee years ago... While I get that the guy is anything but where the bulk of his party is, it always feels like a miss when Dems don't make really serious attempts at getting something like that rolling. There is a lot of "Let Republicans Go On Record As Not Supporting X/Y/Z..." talk. I can't think of one good reason not to give them a chance to go on the record as being against funding research into attempting to cure some of the diseases Huckabee mentions.

https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-bl...sing-us-health

Mike Huckabee stands alone in addressing US health crisis

Huckabee stated that if sufficient research dollars were directed to medical cures for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, the positive impact on the economy and lives would be phenomenal. His statement, combined with his personal experience in controlling Type II diabetes, are important messages for voters.

[Spike-X]

This is the #1 New York Times bestselling introduction to racism from award-winning author and academic, Ibram X. Kendi

Take your first steps with Antiracist Baby! Or, rather, follow Antiracist Baby's nine easy steps for building a more equitable world.

With bold illustrations and thoughtful, yet playful, text, Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.

This edition includes additional discussion prompts to help readers recognise and reflect on bias in their daily lives

Doesn't sound nearly as scary and shocking when you put it like that, does it?

[CaptainEurope]

Public schools are a policy matter. Politicians at multiple levels make all sorts of decisions related to education.



Tami found it strange that Fox is spending time on Critical Race Theory, but it connects to one of the most important topics in America, and one that viewers are concerned about: the education of the next generation.

Do you believe that Critical Race Theory is being taught in American high schools, then?