Polite Politics

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Going to be interesting to see how the school funding debates play out over the next decade as enrollment and birthrates continue to decline. Portland schools are still closed as their teachers continue to strike. The state made an unprecedented investment in schools this past session, but teachers unions say it still isn't enough, even as they push back on staff reductions, despite record low class sizes. At the end of the day something has to give, we cannot continue to invest more and more money on a failing enterprise which serves fewer and fewer students each year. In Portland they have a clear solution to a new contract. Cut teachers and pay the ones remaining more. They also need to look at cutting as many administrative positions as possible to ensure that money is being put into the class room. How many DEI staff could the district cut to ensure the best most well paid teachers are in the classroom? 

[Deweydog]

This is one of several reasons I think dogs really have it made. They don’t worry about this kind of stuff.

[Jim Tezeta]

7 hours ago, Minny_Weather said:

You don't need a doctor to tell you that.

They had to do the vasectomy. Its a minor surgery but you can’t just let anyone do it. 

[Meatyorologist]

7 hours ago, Deweydog said:

This is one of several reasons I think dogs really have it made. They don’t worry about this kind of stuff.

We can learn from them.

[hawkstwelve]

Probably one of the more interesting turns on the foreign policy front. 

Still not quite sure what to make of it. 

https://dnyuz.com/2023/11/14/as-xi-heads-to-san-francisco-chinese-propaganda-embraces-america/

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Non-binary news

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/13/mexico-magistrate-lgbtq-jesus-ociel-baena-found-dead

[Andie]

32 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Non-binary news

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/13/mexico-magistrate-lgbtq-jesus-ociel-baena-found-dead

Article is a kind of “Nothing to see here. Move along.”   So much corruption and manipulation in Mexico.  I’m surprised it got out as it did. 
Clearly assassination, progress on this front in such a conservative nation will go incredibly slow.  South America will be similar.  Although there will be progressive pockets in So. America.  

[SilverFallsAndrew]

President Trump has surged to an 8% lead in crucial Arizona, in most recent polling. 

[Iceresistance]

13 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

President Trump has surged to an 8% lead in crucial Arizona, in most recent polling. 

What about Haley, if she has the polling

[Iceresistance]

14 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

President Trump has surged to an 8% lead in crucial Arizona, in most recent polling. 

DeSantis has a 3% lead in AZ

[SnarkyGoblin]

15 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

President Trump has surged to an 8% lead in crucial Arizona, in most recent polling. 

Source?  The most recent polling I found was 2-3 percent.

[Iceresistance]

4 minutes ago, SnarkyGoblin said:

Source?  The most recent polling I found was 2-3 percent.

 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

9 minutes ago, Iceresistance said:

What about Haley, if she has the polling

She's polling at 8% behind Vivek in the Arizona primary. 

[Iceresistance]

1 minute ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

She's polling at 8% behind Vivek in the Arizona primary. 

AZ hasn't recognized her very well

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Just now, Iceresistance said:

AZ hasn't recognized her very well

To their credit. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

More non-binary news!

[Iceresistance]

7 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

More non-binary news!

Seriously? Like, come on!

[Anti Marine Layer]

On 11/13/2023 at 9:42 AM, SnarkyGoblin said:

So the people out there who don't feel like they are a boy or girl are just lying?  What gain do they have doing that?

Just because people feel like they were born in the wrong body or are the opposite gender or nonbinary, it does not mean they are that gender. They still have male or female chromosomes. In general, males are more athletic than females, so someone could fake being transgender to be on the woman's sports team to set new records or simply because it's the cool thing to do today.

Some people, for example, have bodily integrity dysphoria, in which they want to have body parts amputated because they don't feel they should be there or they don't feel like their true self. Does that mean those body parts don't exist or they'd be better off without them?

Children are way too young to even know if they are transgender or not. They are not sexually mature. Some people such as Chloe Cole have seriously regretted getting sex change surgery and have even sued doctors for pressuring them to do so.

It's a difficult issue and I feel sorry for such people. I know some people feel depressed if they don't get gender affirming care, but so do people who are trying to break free from an addiction when they can't have what they are addicted to.

[Iceresistance]

56 minutes ago, Anti Marine Layer said:

Just because people feel like they were born in the wrong body or are the opposite gender or nonbinary, it does not mean they are that gender. They still have male or female chromosomes. In general, males are more athletic than females, so someone could fake being transgender to be on the woman's sports team to set new records or simply because it's the cool thing to do today.

Some people, for example, have bodily integrity dysphoria, in which they want to have body parts amputated because they don't feel they should be there or they don't feel like their true self. Does that mean those body parts don't exist or they'd be better off without them?

Children are way too young to even know if they are transgender or not. They are not sexually mature. Some people such as Chloe Cole have seriously regretted getting sex change surgery and have even sued doctors for pressuring them to do so.

It's a difficult issue and I feel sorry for such people. I know some people feel depressed if they don't get gender affirming care, but so do people who are trying to break free from an addiction when they can't have what they are addicted to.

It also needs to be factored that there is possible child exploitation, the hospitals make a huge amount of profit doing this apparently.

 

Our Healthcare system is not what is used to be, it is now profit-hungry.

[Deweydog]

2 hours ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

More non-binary news!

[Minny_Weather]

Believing polls again in this thread, are we now?

[SnarkyGoblin]

Looks like they passed another extension to pay for the government.  Not everyone wanted to.

Quote

The House passed legislation on Tuesday to keep federal funding flowing into early 2024, after Democrats stepped in to rescue a plan opposed by many Republicans to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week.

A coalition of Democrats and mainstream Republicans overcame the opposition of G.O.P. conservatives to approve the bill under special expedited procedures that required a supermajority. That approach, hatched by Speaker Mike Johnson, amounted to a gamble that a substantial number of Democrats would rally to help pass a package that Mr. Johnson’s own party was unwilling to back.

The vote was 336 to 95, clearing the two-thirds threshold required for passage. In the end, 209 Democrats and 127 Republicans joined to pass the bill. Ninety-three Republicans opposed it, as did two Democrats.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, told reporters that he wanted the Senate to vote on the bill “as soon as possible.”

Despite criticism of the Johnson plan by the White House when it was released last weekend, Mr. Schumer said he had consulted with the administration and “both of us agreed, the White House and myself, that if this can avoid a shutdown, it will be a good thing.”

 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

2 hours ago, Iceresistance said:

Our Healthcare system is not what is used to be, it is now profit-hungry.

"Now"? LOL.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

3 hours ago, Anti Marine Layer said:

Just because people feel like they were born in the wrong body or are the opposite gender or nonbinary, it does not mean they are that gender. They still have male or female chromosomes. In general, males are more athletic than females, so someone could fake being transgender to be on the woman's sports team to set new records or simply because it's the cool thing to do today.

Some people, for example, have bodily integrity dysphoria, in which they want to have body parts amputated because they don't feel they should be there or they don't feel like their true self. Does that mean those body parts don't exist or they'd be better off without them?

Children are way too young to even know if they are transgender or not. They are not sexually mature. Some people such as Chloe Cole have seriously regretted getting sex change surgery and have even sued doctors for pressuring them to do so.

It's a difficult issue and I feel sorry for such people. I know some people feel depressed if they don't get gender affirming care, but so do people who are trying to break free from an addiction when they can't have what they are addicted to.

Gender perception is distinct from biological chromosomes.

OF COURSE their chromosomes are XX or XY (almost always, exceptions do exist, though they are unusual).

[Iceresistance]

29 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

"Now"? LOL.

Blame Nixon! He started it!

[Rubus Leucodermis]

24 minutes ago, Iceresistance said:

Blame Nixon! He started it!

 

[roadtonowhere08]

2 hours ago, Minny_Weather said:

Believing polls again in this thread, are we now?

But polls are always right 

[SnarkyGoblin]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

Project 2025 is a plan to reshape the executive branch of the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 United States presidential election.[1][2] Established in 2022, the project seeks to recruit thousands of conservatives to Washington, D.C. to replace existing federal civil service workers it characterizes as the "deep state" to further the agenda and policies of Donald Trump.[3] The plan would perform a swift takeover of the entire executive branch under a maximalist version of the unitary executive theory — a theory proposing the president of the United States has absolute power of the executive branch — upon inauguration.[4]

The development of the plan is led by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative U.S. think tank, in collaboration with some eighty partners including Turning Point USA, the Conservative Partnership Institute and the Center for Renewing America.[5][6] It envisions widespread changes across the entire government, particularly with regard to economic and social policy and the role of the federal government and federal agencies. The Washington Post reported Project 2025 includes immediately invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement and directing the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue Trump adversaries.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

1 minute ago, SnarkyGoblin said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

Project 2025 is a plan to reshape the executive branch of the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 United States presidential election.[1][2] Established in 2022, the project seeks to recruit thousands of conservatives to Washington, D.C. to replace existing federal civil service workers it characterizes as the "deep state" to further the agenda and policies of Donald Trump.[3] The plan would perform a swift takeover of the entire executive branch under a maximalist version of the unitary executive theory — a theory proposing the president of the United States has absolute power of the executive branch — upon inauguration.[4]

The development of the plan is led by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative U.S. think tank, in collaboration with some eighty partners including Turning Point USA, the Conservative Partnership Institute and the Center for Renewing America.[5][6] It envisions widespread changes across the entire government, particularly with regard to economic and social policy and the role of the federal government and federal agencies. The Washington Post reported Project 2025 includes immediately invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement and directing the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue Trump adversaries.

Or, in the original German, gleichschaltung.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Just now, SnarkyGoblin said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

Project 2025 is a plan to reshape the executive branch of the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 United States presidential election.[1][2] Established in 2022, the project seeks to recruit thousands of conservatives to Washington, D.C. to replace existing federal civil service workers it characterizes as the "deep state" to further the agenda and policies of Donald Trump.[3] The plan would perform a swift takeover of the entire executive branch under a maximalist version of the unitary executive theory — a theory proposing the president of the United States has absolute power of the executive branch — upon inauguration.[4]

The development of the plan is led by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative U.S. think tank, in collaboration with some eighty partners including Turning Point USA, the Conservative Partnership Institute and the Center for Renewing America.[5][6] It envisions widespread changes across the entire government, particularly with regard to economic and social policy and the role of the federal government and federal agencies. The Washington Post reported Project 2025 includes immediately invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement and directing the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue Trump adversaries.

Scared yet?

[Iceresistance]

Suppose someone else instead of Trump becomes frontrunner? Project 2025 might be useless

[SnarkyGoblin]

50 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Scared yet?

Shouldn't we all be?

[roadtonowhere08]

5 minutes ago, SnarkyGoblin said:

Shouldn't we all be?

Depends on whether one places more value in political pragmatism or tribalistic chest thumping.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Anti-Marine Layer, sink your teeth into this.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/but-johnny-cant-spell-g-a-y

[Anti Marine Layer]

1 hour ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Anti-Marine Layer, sink your teeth into this.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/but-johnny-cant-spell-g-a-y

Very critically theoretical

[Andie]

I love that Oklahoma  Senator Mullin wanted to take on a bloated mob boss yesterday while in session.  
Nothing like taking it to the street. Perhaps we need more venting and less posturing.  Just blurt it out. 

I’m reminded of the contentious sessions in Congress I read about regarding the Civil War.  It’s over due. Let ‘er rip!! 

[Andie]

In another arena…..

Here comes Chiiiina!
 You’ve got to see this. Turn the sound on!  
 

https://t.co/4h8cvpgk0mhttps://x.com/ericmmatheny/status/1724759189136756738?s=51&t=JgUuw7-5fL-9WTMoZstSRQ

[Minny_Weather]

13 hours ago, Iceresistance said:

Suppose someone else instead of Trump becomes frontrunner? Project 2025 might be useless

As much as I wish it were so, it ain't gonna happen.

My only hope is that Biden somehow comes to his senses and we get someone competent on the Democrat side of the aisle, but that's about as unlikely as Trump kicking his ego.

[Iceresistance]

45 minutes ago, Minny_Weather said:

As much as I wish it were so, it ain't gonna happen.

My only hope is that Biden somehow comes to his senses and we get someone competent on the Democrat side of the aisle, but that's about as unlikely as Trump kicking his ego.

It could happen, suppose an upset win with Haley as the frontrunner and DeSantis drops out before Super Tuesday.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

2 hours ago, Iceresistance said:

It could happen, suppose an upset win with Haley as the frontrunner and DeSantis drops out before Super Tuesday.

Suppose pigs start flying, then people pooped on by mere pigeons will consider themselves lucky by comparison.