It used to be that private and parochial schools were more expensive than public schools. Public schools are now much costlier per student. Increased regulation of education drives up private education costs. Resource crowding increases the costs of public education, as private schools must increase pay to compete with inflated public school wages. And yet private schools are still more cost effective. The average out of pocket cost to send a kid to Phillips Andover Academy, with room and board, is about the same as the costs of sending a kid to a New York City public school, once you factor in infrastructure costs.
The public employee unions are desperate to kill the goose laying the golden eggs.
Parents are waking up to this nonsense. The New York City public school system is a failure not worth saving. Chancellor Caranza can not keep blaming white supremacy for the system's failures forever.
Most of the middle class in New York State are government workers, or work in fields like medicine that depends on government funding for survival. Many support Trump in principle but vote Dem because it is in their financial interest.
They are still getting paychecks, so Cuomo and DeBlasio still get their support. Watch the loyalty disappear when the money does -- New York, city and state, is fucked without a massive bailout.
If Trump had not flooded the economy with the massive relief bill in March, this pandemic would have been over in a month.
We financed the lockdown.
The way we fight is not with guns but by thoughtful engagement with our friends and neighbors. Violence and threats of violence weaken our political position.
The internet has proved itself a poor substitute for real life. Not everyone who disagrees with us is brainwashed. You do not need to shoot them. You can talk to them. Best of all, you can listen. You will accomplish much more buying rounds of drinks than rounds of ammunition.
Stay off the internet as much as possible. Engage with real life.
So assuming Trump concedes...
Biden is inheriting a huge mess. The urban centers, which are the base of Democratic and Progressive power, are about to implode economically. Now they can't use Trump as a whipping boy.
The Democrats will find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Napoleon won every major battle when he invaded Russia.
And maybe, just maybe, the lawyers working for Trump manage to present evidence so compelling that we win over public opinion and cases in court and he serves another four years.
The Soviet Union was just as evil as Nazi Germany, but we allied with them to win WWII. Susan Collins isn't Stalin.
Most Biden supporters are decent people who don't like Trump. I can get Trump fatigue. Villifying every person who you do not completely agree with is a toxic political attitude. It is the hallmark of totalitarianism.
I don't want to throw anyone out of a helicopter. I think it is a sick joke. I like a sick joke myself every now and then, but I start thinking that people are not joking when the joke gets endlessly repeated.
Your jihad isn't my jihad. Your honour is not well-served when you hate more than half the country. Biden got just about as many votes as Trump did. Even allowing for fraud, he probably got more. Even if he got less, he still got plenty.
I support Trump because he is an effective advocate for policies I support. This is not a war, it is politics. Your glorious pronouncements about honor are ridiculous.
I am looking forward to Trump refusing to enforce criminal copyright violations. and letting all legal action be civil and then shutting down most civil enforcement on antitrust grounds and killing all the big media that hate us.
Then he runs on the Pirate Party ticket.
Copying is a basic human right. All human progress is dependant on stealing ideas. Ideas cannot be owned. They cannot be property. Copyright is a LIMITED government granted monopoly.
Refuse to grant copyright on academic and teaching texts. Save College students thousands of dollars a year. Break the academic publishing cartel.
We all have our priorities. Mine is to have an era of unprecedented creative production and innovation no longer motivated or corrupted by greed.
Then Roe v Wade gets reversed. We end the 60 year baby holocaust. God smiles and decides the end of the world is no longer warranted.
At least for another 10 years. Then, yeah, we will have to get over our complacancy and fight again.
Hold on there, pedes. We still gotta win two Senate seats in Georgia so that Mike Pence does not have to babysit the Senate for the next 4 years.
Let's hold off on the circular firing squad. I may have a lot of disagreement with Susan Collins, but she is still in our caucus. Mitt Romney can lick my wrinkled nutsack but he still caucuses GOP.
Medical tyranny is still tyranny. Medical tyranny kills. People have the right to choose their own doctor, to direct their own medical care over the objections of doctors, and to refuse any medical treatment explanation.
If masks are a sign of respect, then mask mandates are government-enforced speech and unconstitutional.
I though Gore conceded too quickly in 2000 and I still think so today. I thought Bill Clinton was a good President and I still think so today. I hated Bushes Sr and Jr. when they were President, but now I just don't like them. I voted for Obama against McCain and I think McCain would have started WWIII over Abkazia so I'm gonna stand by that decision too. I voted for Romney in 2012, but I am glad he lost because otherwise Trump would not have run in 2016.
I think Biden has more on the ball than we give him credit for, or at least his handlers do., but who can tell the difference?
You gotta give those Chinese Communists credit -- they have managed to fuck us up better than the Russians ever did in the Cold War, and they did it with our money (via foreign trade)! Hugo Chavez was a pig of a man, but he interfered in US elections (via Dominion), even after death, more effectively than we could interfere in Venezuala's.
Schools, especially public schools, have increasingly become like prisons. American society has become a prison, only our lockdowns are longer, crueller, and less justifiable.
Alex Jones has ended up being the most prophetic political pundit of our age with just two words -- prison planet.
Here's what makes no sense: the playboy luxury real estate developer Donald Trump is the common man's greatest advocate, while the socialist Bernie Sanders is the favourite politician of the well-heeled elite.
There is a difference between randomness and imprecision. I cannot tell you to the exact inch the distance from the earth to the sun, but it is about 93 million miles. This does not make it a random number. the motions of the planets has been predictable since Newton, and this predictability allowed for, among other things, very precise and useful reckonings of location by seafarers with an astrolabe for centuries before GPS. GPS actually just subsitutes satellites as reference points rather than stars -- they work on the same principles as an astrolabe.
The notion of the Butterfly Effect is related to both randomness and imprecision but really hinges upon complexity. Earth's weather is very complex and seemingly random beyond certain broad patterns, like seasons, but the motion of planets is much simpler in principle even as the forces involved are much greater in magnitude than the weather.
This is why when some schmuck starts harping about climate change you can shut him up by asking what caused the Ice Age(s). As he stutters and gasps for breath, tell him it was likely variances in Solar activity. Have an umbrella handy when his head explodes.
randomness is a tricky concept. In a truly deterministic universe, there is no real randomness, only the appearance of randomness.
Current computer technology operates entirely deterministically, and that makes true randomness so hard. Generally the machine depends on an outside agent to input something that generates a number. So it might look at the microsecond timestamp of a keypress, take the last few significant digits, and run some algorithns to produce even more numbers from the initial input.
That's what happens in this timeline and universe, anyway
How about we stop telling people what to think and say because it hurts someones feelings?
Vigorous debate and the open exchange of ideas is how we learn. Groupthink is toxic whether it comes from the left or right. There is a difference between positive thinking and self-delusion. Self delusion leads to complacency.
Yay! We're winning because if we aren't winning we do not exist.
This is what thedonald.win said'
GEOTUS will always get it right. Stacey Abrams is a stupid fatso. Joe Biden is a senile old fool.
What we should have said is this:
Donald Trump needs to stand up to these lockdown governors with more than rhetoric. Stacey Abrams has a lot of energy and is putting Georgia in play. Joe Biden is a smart, experienced political operator.
Maybe then we would have gotten up off our asses and stopped deluding ourselves that thedonald.win made up for being deplatformed on reddit. Thedonald.win is great, but it isn't as effective as GoogleFacebookTwitterReddit to shape public opinion.
I get that the memes are propaganda. I enjoy them. They lift me up sometimes. There's also a place for serious discussion.
I'm going to tslk about the big picture of all that's going on and not just this court case.
America has become complacent in policing her elections. We must always be vigilant in maintaining free and honest elections. Elections have always been subject to fraud and error and they always will be. It is a constantly evolving problem. We must be careful therefore to not just guard against past malpractice, but to guard against new methods of malpractice. It is not easy, and it never will be. It is, however, necessary if we are to maintain a functioning democratic republic. All this is our wake-up call.
So what good does all this litigation and investigation do? It does a lot. It firstly shines a light on the problem in the public eye so it can be addressed, Twitter's misinformation campaign notwithstanding. To fix a problem you have to first acknowledge it. Secondly, It allows lawmakers to craft laws that stop malfeasance and ensure effective oversight and remedy. Thirdly, it motivates people to get involved in the voting process as observers and workers.
Different places have different problems, and they change with time. Big cities have always been subject to ballot stuffing by party machines. In the last 50 years, these big city machines are overwhelmingly Democrat. JFK beat Nixon because Chicago Dems stuffed the ballot box
Suppression of the negro vote was once a real problem in the South. It was so bad the 24th Amendment to the Constitution was passed to combat certain practices like the poll tax. Other practices like the infamous literacy or intelligence tests were also used. This type of voter suppression is no longer a problem. What is a problem is that the remedies and reasoning to fight this past problem is now used as an excuse to allow practices that encourage voter fraud, chiefly arguments against Voter ID laws. The argument is that Voter ID requirements disproportianately affect poor voters, who are disproportionately black, and are therefore bad. This is bullshit (to use a technical term) but it gives you an idea of how complex problems and solutions can be.
So all this trouble that people are going through by litigation and independent journalism makes a big difference. Whatever the result of this election, there is an always an upcoming election that can be stolen. If Trump had won this election without voter fraud scandal, the next election would still be ripe for the taking. So ultimately this election, even if we lose, paves the path to future victory, providing we take concrete actions going forward and remain vigilant.
The governor’s lawyer unsuccessfully argued that the June order was rendered moot by the Legislature's passage of a similar bill.
So the Judge's ruling says do not do it again. It does nothing for this past election, but it impedes these shenanigans happening in the future and that matters a great deal going forward. This fight we are fighting continues. It will never stop. There will be victories and defeats. We fight on.
Tough guys aren't people who beat people up. Tough guys take a beating and do not quit. Tough guys fight even when they know they will take a beating. Tough guys lose a hell of a lot more than they win.
Before the whole coronavirus hit, we had no home internet except through my wife's phone. I had very limited data for my phone. If I wanted Internet, I had to go out and go to starbucks. I would end up people-watching and eavesdropping and chatting with people as much as I was online. The same for my teenaged kids. It was great. I would go dancing and go to bars and go singing and have organized discussions and debates in restaurants. It was a real life.
With the lockdowns and remote learning, we had to all get internet connections. All those other wonderful things in my life disappeared and thedonald.win, for all its greatness, is a pale comparison. Hearing repeated skepticism about Cancel Culture in one evening at an LGBTQIA+ square dance gave me more satisfaction than every shitpost ever posted here combined.
Those pedes in Freedom Plaza have got it figured out. Online is no substitute for real life.
No matter how this voting-drama turns out, the supreme court should be able to name Trump the president. They have the final say.
This is completely and utterly false. The Constitution and US legal code is quite clear that each individual state has great latitude in choosing electors. Federal courts may step in under limited circumstances. The Supreme Court may ultimately step in, but to assume they will do so in a way that wins us the election is an assumption that even Rudy Giuliani has stated is not assured.
While courts have stepped in to change election results, they are understandably reluctant to do so, and they very rarely take steps that overturn results.
Here's a link to the federal law governing election of the President:
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/[email protected]/chapter1&edition=prelim
You can read it yourself. The following are what I think are some important facts and dates.
The individual states, through their electors in the Electoral College, decide who the President is and that result is ultimately adjudicated by a joint session of Congress.
The votes for Electors are being separately counted in the various 50 states and the District of Columbia. Those will start being certified in the next week. Any redress through individual state legislatures to override the selection of their states' electors must be completed six days before the Electoral College votes on the first Monday following the second Wednesday of December. I have seen no meaningful indication that that will happen. I would be pleased to see evidence to the contrary.
January 6 is when Congress meets to process the vote of the Electoral College. That is the earliest date that we will know for sure who is the true President-Elect, who will be inaugurated at noon on January 20, as required by the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. It is likely that Congress' decision will be a foregone conclusion before January 6. It is likely that the Electoral College's vote will be a foregone conclusion before they convene December 14.
I also know that Trump can take actions from now to January 20 to preserve his legacy and promote future victories even if this election for President is lost. Energies and time spent pursuing a doubtful win cannot be spent mitigating the ill effects of a likely loss to Joe Biden.
We cannot allow our passion to override our reason. The passion of your arguments is commendable. The basis of fact behind your arguments is poor.
I hope events prove your passion well-founded, and my reasoning erroneous. I also think there's still a chance we win this thing, and it will certainly take both passion and reason to win. Let us not let reason extinguish our passion, nor passion dull our wits.
But I am sick of people trying to outdo each other in hyperbolic claims of certain victory. This hubris sunk Hillary and I wonder if it ended up sinking us.
I hope you are right. I think you might be. We are going to find out in the next few weeks. We should not let impassioned rhetoric on both sides distemper our wits.
Election chicanery to this degree is not unprecedented. The 1876 election of Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel Tilden was a bigger shit show. John Quincy Adams' defeat of Andrew Jackson in 1824 stunk to high heaven. The ballot stuffing under Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed in New York City makes today's Dems seem like rank amateurs. This is a fight that all republics must always fight, and have always fought. The good guys don't always win every battle and every war.
If we win, we have to keep fighting. If we lose, we have to keep fighting. And by fighting I mean engaging with our neighbors and fellow citizens, even those that oppose us.
You keep talking about "letting this stand", as if Biden has no real supporters. He has as many as we do. They feel just as strongly as we do and plenty of them are good and decent people who can be brought over to our side, but it is too late to do it this election cycle.
We learn from our mistakes and we move on to the next battle, better prepared.
The last time Americans refused to accept an election was in 1860 and it did not end well.
Even Robert E Lee knew that you had to stop fighting at a certain point and back in1865 the stakes were much higher than they are now.
that is the worst kind of defeatism. It took the Poles 44 years, but they got their country back. I think we could do it in four years, with significant progess in two years.
I am not going anywhere. This is my home. I am not ready to give up because of temporary setbacks.
The GOP is now the party of the Trump voter. Even with Trump gone from office, we will still be here.
And who knows, maybe the damned pig will fly, and we will win this election.
I question everything. There is a lot of crap on thedonald.win .
Trust god. Question man and his vanities.