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

[Gray Lensman]

I was reminded of it with the talk on the news being about Afghanistan and getting those people who helped the US out if there. It seems like Biden should have airlifted those people out before the troop withdrawal, not after. Last night the Governor it Guam was talking to Maddow about how her Island has been used as a transition spot in the past for such things, and that she wrote a letter to Biden say that her and her people were ready and willing to take that role on again in regards to the Afgans, but she hasn't heard back yet.

Then there is Voting Rights. It may be too late for the summer primaries, but November General Elections are coming up soon and something needs to be done.

Cleaning house is another issue. Last I checked, DeJoy is still in charge of the Postal Service, for example.

There are other issues as well, and I worry that Biden and his people are being too cautious, too slow and methodical in dealing with these issues.

He, his Admin and the Democrats in Congress, did real well with COVID. But there is no certainty that they can do anything starting in 2023 if the Republicans take back any part of Government.

At least with DeJoy, Biden needs to have the spots filled just below him with the right people. They are the ones that hire and fire the Postmaster General rather than the President directly. It's one of those positions that is supposed to be insulated from politics.

[Mister Mets]

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.

I think you are misrepresenting what I said.

My viewpoint is that education is more important. I was addressing his view that a diabetic may disagree. However, I also explicitly said that we should be able to solve both problems.

For a moment, I thought that you were replying to a different post, and didn't read my other comment, but that's not what happened. You edited out the part of the post in which I addressed the point you said I didn't.

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.

While twisting what I said, you wrote "Spoken like a conservative."

Are you actions representative of critics of conservatism?

[Tami]

Rick Santorum: “We have a bunch of people running around, particularly progressives, who all they want to talk about is let the people’s will be done.”

“No! No, no no, we don’t want the people’s will to be done immediately”

Twitter Link

This might get some airtime tonight

[Tami]

The Biggest Threat to Democracy Is the GOP Stealing the Next Election

The greatest threat to American democracy today is not a repeat of January 6, but the possibility of a stolen presidential election. Contemporary democracies that die meet their end at the ballot box, through measures that are nominally constitutional. The looming danger is not that the mob will return; it’s that mainstream Republicans will “legally” overturn an election.

In 2018, when we wrote How Democracies Die, we knew that Donald Trump was an authoritarian figure, and we held the Republican Party responsible for abdicating its role as democratic gatekeeper. But we did not consider the GOP to be an antidemocratic party. Four years later, however, the bulk of the Republican Party is behaving in an antidemocratic manner. Solving this problem requires that we address both the acute crisis and the underlying long-term conditions that give rise to it.

[Mister Mets]

Again...

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

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

There are many issues of legitimate importance, but we should be able to prioritize and to consider tradeoffs. We can't spend unlimited amounts of money on everything anyone cares about.

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

Some parents might not care for this in a book aimed at babies.

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

I think the term critical race theory means several things, so let's look at the different usages.

If you think CRT exclusively refers to a school of legal theory, I do not think that American high school students are taught material from law school textbooks. I would also say that's a misleading way of looking at it, as understandings from legal academia have moved to other fields, and research in CRT is often credited in work for education, while CRT texts have also called for activism in education.

Critical Race theory, as a method of considering the law, started out with some useful observations about systemic racism. It has come to inform policy discussions in other fields, including education. This informs both what teachers are taught and what students are taught, and it also influences work made for a popular audience. In this context, critical race theory is taught in American high schools, but it's a good thing. It's valid to consider the effects of redlining, or post-World War II financial support for white veterans.

In a discussion about Critical Race Theory for the New York Times Argument podcast, linguist John McWhorter said that at some point Critical Race Theory had changed.

I usually don’t refer to all of this as critical race theory or CRT. I think that what’s happened today has evolved so far beyond those basic and interesting ideas that after a while, you have to start calling it something else, after a while what once was Latin has become French. The idea is that a movement now takes a page, maybe two pages from CRT, and instead has become a kind of punitive mob-like mentality that acquires disproportionate influence because most people are deeply afraid of being called a racist on social media.

This thing that he believes to be different than Critical Race Theory, which is what right-wing and moderate critics of CRT in Education are referring to, is also taught in some high schools, and informs the training that teachers receive. That said, I can completely understand calling it something else.

[worstblogever]

Some parents might not care for this in a book aimed at babies.

Some parents are ***holes who can't imagine that they're unconsciously contributing to white supremacy by not having their children taught to be better.

[worstblogever]

Twitter Link

This might get some airtime tonight

It should. The GQP are literally admitting they're doing things counteractive to what the people need and want.

Like... why would you identify as a Republican? Is "owning the libs" so important to you that you'll let these people die for policies that amount to "we don't want to bruise Trump's ego"?

It's a death cult. You don't need to sacrifice yourselves, for f***'s sake start voting blue before you're in your graves.

[Tami]

There are many issues of legitimate importance, but we should be able to prioritize and to consider tradeoffs. We can't spend unlimited amounts of money on everything anyone cares about.


Some parents might not care for this in a book aimed at babies.



I think the term critical race theory means several things, so let's look at

I do not think that American high school students are taught material from law school textbooks. I would also say that's a misleading way of looking at it, as understandings from legal academia have moved to other fields.

Critical Race theory, as a method of considering the law, started out with some useful observations about systemic racism. It has come to inform policy discussions in other fields, including education. This informs both what teachers are taught and what students are taught, and is also influences work made for a popular audience. In this context, critical race theory is taught in American high schools, but it's a good thing. It's valid to consider the effects of redlining, or post-World War II financial support for white veterans.

In a discussion about Critical Race Theory for the New York Times Argument podcast, linguist John McWhorter said that at some point Critical Race Theory had changed.



This thing that he believes to be different than Critical Race Theory, which is what right-wing and moderate critics of CRT in Education are referring to, is also taught in some high schools, and informs the training that teachers receive. That said, I can completely understand calling it something else.

Look, I'm a Librarian. There are millions of books out there. Once a book is published, it's out there and there is no turning back. Banning books is a bad idea. A decision as to what a child should or should not read should be up to the parents. Parents can form their own children's book clubs to preview children's books and discuss if the book should be read by their children, but they can't tell other parents what their children should or should not read.

I'm not prejudging the book based on one page, and I won't say if I would give it to my child if I had any children, which I don't.

I will say that for every book published taking this position, you will find other books taking a different position, most of which were written before either of our Parents were born.

You will find a lot more children's books about diversity, racism, and similar topics now because they were never addressed in the past. Racism was a common trope in many children's books in the past. How do you think the parents of young black children felt about the only children's books available were the ones that portrayed Blacks as slaves, as inferior, or in some other way negatively?

So are you saying that we should stop there, refuse to teach children about the dangers of racism simply because it hurts white people's fragile feelings?

[Ragged Maw]

Some parents are ***holes who can't imagine that they're unconsciously contributing to white supremacy by not having their children taught to be better.

The book's about racism (in the form of individual bigotry, presumably). Not white supremacy......

[Tami]

The book's about racism (in the form of individual bigotry, presumably). Not white supremacy......

I assume WBE was not specifically talking about that one book.

[Ragged Maw]

I assume WBE was not specifically talking about that one book.

Oh. My mix-up then. The direct quote-based response I interpreted as specifically pertaining to that.

[Kirby101]

Maybe Mets should learn more about the book. I am sure whatever right-wing site he got that from did not tell thermal story.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/sto...-adults-learn/

Why shouldn't parents read that to their children? Is this a bad lesson?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Some RACIST parents might not care for this in a book aimed at babies.

Fixed that for you, homeslice. No need to thank me.

[Tami]

CPAC attendee sent me this pic of a card they were handed about a “7-pt. plan to restore Donald J. Trump in days, not years,” which involves installing Trump as speaker and ousting Biden & Harris.



Whomever wrote this must have been high on something illegal.

[The Cool Thatguy]

CPAC attendee sent me this pic of a card they were handed about a “7-pt. plan to restore Donald J. Trump in days, not years,” which involves installing Trump as speaker and ousting Biden & Harris.



Whomever wrote this must have been high on something illegal.

Yeah, the Black Caucus is totally gonna flip in favor of the GOP.

Reminds me of this Facebook meme I saw. "The GOP gave slaves the privilege of voting 150 years ago! Why are they loyal to the Democrats?"

Completely serious, they were riding on something from 150 years ago.