Why it's ok to be a rambling fool.

[Toni]

Immigration is a good thing and a bad thing. From my personal knowledge, increasing the non-English speaking population at schools drains schools budgets. It just does. People who have lived here for years or generations can be very upset about resources being taken from their kids and used for someone else’s kids. This is true whenever school budgets get tight and programming and staffing gets cut—regardless of the reasons. Raising property taxes ( a major source of public school funding in the US) is also

And even if it doesn't drain budgets it lowers the average student ability and thus the education that students will get. This is inevitable as a teacher can't teach at different levels to different students in the same class. You either don't challenge the best ones or you leave the worst ones behind. This is a big force behind white flight and it's a big force in why private schools can outperform public ones. (Everything else being equal a selective admissions policy will improve education.)

No, it does NOT.

You seem to be equating English proficiency with learning ability. Given that your wife is not a native English speaker, I would think you would know better.

A classroom with students of different backgrounds and abilities and different t cultures is a golden opportunity to learn MORE, not less.

Yes students may need extra help with English proficiency just as some students need extra help with math or science or art or music. That’s why schools exist.

Schools have special programs to help non-native English speaking students gain the proficiency they need. But those cost money. Not a problem for well endowed schoolboy many struggle to provide education and programming with thought the extra cost of ESL teachers.

 

[southernhybrid]

Well, I was born right around the birth of the McCarthy Era and although I was just a toddler or young child during most of it, I do wonder if things really will be worse than they were back then, if the Republicans gain the power of Congress and the presidency or are we just shitting in our pants, without considering that just maybe there will be enough people both in and out of government who won't let what we all fear happen?

What people in government??

He intends to make everything that matters into political appointments. There won't be anyone inside who can do anything. And when the courts only hear the cases he wants them to hear there's nothing someone outside can do, either.

Sometimes when I read these comments, I feel as if we've lost our collective minds. We survived the McCarty era, which was one of the biggest threats to democracy in the past 100 years. We survived the Civil War, and the end of slavery, ( I'm not talking about the current problem of how prisoners are often mistreated etc. but how a person was literally owned and sold as something less than human ) Maybe we need to calm down, and help get out the vote. There are more Republicans, not just Liz Cheney, and the mayor of Mesa, Arizona coming out to speak against Trump and encourage people to vote blue as in country over party.

This isn't McCarthy, this is Hitler.

He's way too incompetent to do what he supposedly plans. It will be awful if he becomes president, but there is no way he will accomplish the things he plans or we think he plans on doing. For example, besides the impossible task of sending all the undocumented immigrants back, if he fires all of the government workers, they will be replaced with newbies with no experience or if we don't have people in these jobs, everything will be a mess. I think enough people will resist him, if he tries to do what he says. Besides that, he has obvious signs of senility, so he will be overwhelmed. And, evangelicals are not the dominate members of society. Plus, about 20% of them don't even support Trump. When he loses, he will try to deny the results, but I think. people are getting tired of this shit and the Trump supporters I know certainly aren't going to do something stupid. They might whine about the results, but that's about it. I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned. I'm saying we should help get out the vote and stop acting terrified.

Hitler? Are you suggesting he's going to round up the atheists and put us in a gas oven? He's more like Mussolini, if we must compare him to a horrible autocrat, but I think he's so incompetent that he won't be able to get much done. Again, my biggest fear is climate change, so there is something that worries me, but I'm not sure that any leader is going to get much done in that area. People are still driving gas guzzling SUVs and pick up trucks. People are still flying all over the place. People are still eating lots of red meat. People are wasting food, which put out methane. etc. etc. etc. We can each do a little bit. I try, but it's going to take a huge effort to decrease the things that are impacting our rapidly changing climate. No more rambling for now.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Immigration is a good thing and a bad thing. From my personal knowledge, increasing the non-English speaking population at schools drains schools budgets. It just does. People who have lived here for years or generations can be very upset about resources being taken from their kids and used for someone else’s kids. This is true whenever school budgets get tight and programming and staffing gets cut—regardless of the reasons. Raising property taxes ( a major source of public school funding in the US) is also

And even if it doesn't drain budgets it lowers the average student ability and thus the education that students will get. This is inevitable as a teacher can't teach at different levels to different students in the same class.

???

Yes, I will agree that not being able to speak English would create a strain on an elementary school teacher. However, the idea that teachers can't teach different levels to different students in class... what school did you go to? Most classrooms are like that! In elementary school we had the good reading group and not as good reading group. In college, we had the engineering classes with the brightest folks and the what are you doing here folks.

The closest I was to being in a class with everyone around the same ability were the AP and Accelerated courses in High School.

 

[Toni]

Trump is way to

Well, I was born right around the birth of the McCarthy Era and although I was just a toddler or young child during most of it, I do wonder if things really will be worse than they were back then, if the Republicans gain the power of Congress and the presidency or are we just shitting in our pants, without considering that just maybe there will be enough people both in and out of government who won't let what we all fear happen?

What people in government??

He intends to make everything that matters into political appointments. There won't be anyone inside who can do anything. And when the courts only hear the cases he wants them to hear there's nothing someone outside can do, either.

Sometimes when I read these comments, I feel as if we've lost our collective minds. We survived the McCarty era, which was one of the biggest threats to democracy in the past 100 years. We survived the Civil War, and the end of slavery, ( I'm not talking about the current problem of how prisoners are often mistreated etc. but how a person was literally owned and sold as something less than human ) Maybe we need to calm down, and help get out the vote. There are more Republicans, not just Liz Cheney, and the mayor of Mesa, Arizona coming out to speak against Trump and encourage people to vote blue as in country over party.

This isn't McCarthy, this is Hitler.

He's way too incompetent to do what he supposedly plans. It will be awful if he becomes president, but there is no way he will accomplish the things he plans or we think he plans on doing. For example, besides the impossible task of sending all the undocumented immigrants back, if he fires all of the government workers, they will be replaced with newbies with no experience or if we don't have people in these jobs, everything will be a mess. I think enough people will resist him, if he tries to do what he says. Besides that, he has obvious signs of senility, so he will be overwhelmed. And, evangelicals are not the dominate members of society. Plus, about 20% of them don't even support Trump. When he loses, he will try to deny the results, but I think. people are getting tired of this shit and the Trump supporters I know certainly aren't going to do something stupid. They might whine about the results, but that's about it. I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned. I'm saying we should help get out the vote and stop acting terrified.

Hitler? Are you suggesting he's going to round up the atheists and put us in a gas oven? He's more like Mussolini, if we must compare him to a horrible autocrat, but I think he's so incompetent that he won't be able to get much done. Again, my biggest fear is climate change, so there is something that worries me, but I'm not sure that any leader is going to get much done in that area. People are still driving gas guzzling SUVs and pick up trucks. People are still flying all over the place. People are still eating lots of red meat. People are wasting food, which put out methane. etc. etc. etc. We can each do a little bit. I try, but it's going to take a huge effort to decrease the things that are impacting our rapidly changing climate. No more rambling for now.

TRUMP is way too incompetent to be Hitler but those backing him are not. They are fully willing to use him as their useful idiot and he’s too incompetent t or too scared to object—or to object right now. It is vaguely possible that he would manage to not propose the worst of either 2025 or 47 plans. But that is not a non-horrific chance.

 

[Elixir]

They are fully willing to use him as their useful idiot and he’s too incompetent t or too scared to object—or to object right now.

If you look up the word "KOMPROMATTED" in any respectable dictionary, Cheato's picture will be under the definition.
I can't even imagine anyone being more vulnerable to any foreign power or actor who offers to throw him a lifeline.
Even when he loses the election, Trump will keep trying to do the bidding of his biggest benefactors in the hope that they can keep his sorry bloated ass out of jail.

 

[southernhybrid]

Trump is way to

Well, I was born right around the birth of the McCarthy Era and although I was just a toddler or young child during most of it, I do wonder if things really will be worse than they were back then, if the Republicans gain the power of Congress and the presidency or are we just shitting in our pants, without considering that just maybe there will be enough people both in and out of government who won't let what we all fear happen?

What people in government??

He intends to make everything that matters into political appointments. There won't be anyone inside who can do anything. And when the courts only hear the cases he wants them to hear there's nothing someone outside can do, either.

Sometimes when I read these comments, I feel as if we've lost our collective minds. We survived the McCarty era, which was one of the biggest threats to democracy in the past 100 years. We survived the Civil War, and the end of slavery, ( I'm not talking about the current problem of how prisoners are often mistreated etc. but how a person was literally owned and sold as something less than human ) Maybe we need to calm down, and help get out the vote. There are more Republicans, not just Liz Cheney, and the mayor of Mesa, Arizona coming out to speak against Trump and encourage people to vote blue as in country over party.

This isn't McCarthy, this is Hitler.

He's way too incompetent to do what he supposedly plans. It will be awful if he becomes president, but there is no way he will accomplish the things he plans or we think he plans on doing. For example, besides the impossible task of sending all the undocumented immigrants back, if he fires all of the government workers, they will be replaced with newbies with no experience or if we don't have people in these jobs, everything will be a mess. I think enough people will resist him, if he tries to do what he says. Besides that, he has obvious signs of senility, so he will be overwhelmed. And, evangelicals are not the dominate members of society. Plus, about 20% of them don't even support Trump. When he loses, he will try to deny the results, but I think. people are getting tired of this shit and the Trump supporters I know certainly aren't going to do something stupid. They might whine about the results, but that's about it. I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned. I'm saying we should help get out the vote and stop acting terrified.

Hitler? Are you suggesting he's going to round up the atheists and put us in a gas oven? He's more like Mussolini, if we must compare him to a horrible autocrat, but I think he's so incompetent that he won't be able to get much done. Again, my biggest fear is climate change, so there is something that worries me, but I'm not sure that any leader is going to get much done in that area. People are still driving gas guzzling SUVs and pick up trucks. People are still flying all over the place. People are still eating lots of red meat. People are wasting food, which put out methane. etc. etc. etc. We can each do a little bit. I try, but it's going to take a huge effort to decrease the things that are impacting our rapidly changing climate. No more rambling for now.

TRUMP is way too incompetent to be Hitler but those backing him are not. They are fully willing to use him as their useful idiot and he’s too incompetent t or too scared to object—or to object right now. It is vaguely possible that he would manage to not propose the worst of either 2025 or 47 plans. But that is not a non-horrific chance.

At this point, I feel very optimistic that Harris will win. Of course that might lead to some kind of crazy Jan 6th crap, but since I know a lot of Trump supporters and since none of them would do anything crazy, I'm just not as pessimistic as I was in the past.

I went out to lunch wearing my t-shirt that says, "Vote Blue" with a big blue wave on it. A young waitress saw it and told me she loved it. Then she came over to our table and we chatted about how excited we were about the upcoming election and what a good job Harris was doing campaigning. I've never seen young people in Georgia so energized like this, not even when Obama ran. The girl is registered to vote and said she can't wait to vote. I like wearing shirts with expressions on them, as it often gives me opportunities to engage in conversations with strangers.They aren't always political either.

Afterwards, we visited our car salesman, who is now our friend, so we could invite him to have dinner with us this weekend. We sat and chatted with him for nearly an hour and he is also excited about the election. He's 61. He pointed out his MAGA coworkers and we laughed a little. We all agreed that Harris has an excellent chance of winning in Georgia, and we are hoping more people will register to vote and vote early! When I was still working with young women, it was like pulling teeth to get them motivated to vote. Things have changed drastically since then. And part of the reason is probably Trump. People don't want that nasty, bully to have another term and more are realizing that the only power we have is the vote!

Yes. Trump is a horror and the economy will tank should he actually get elected. I think that will freak out some of his dangerous supporters, and make them realize they made a big mistake thinking he was a good choice. At this point, I don't see it happening, and I am not going to live in fear. I learned a long time ago that standing to bullies works and engaging with people who disagree with you, sometimes works too. More people in power need to come out and put country over party, like Cheney did. I think more will and hopefully, the more thoughtful Republicans will follow suit, or simply not vote for president, which is better than voting for Trump.

The sexist racist tropes don't seem to be working and neither do the lies. I've seen the Trump ads and they are pathetic. I've rambled enough for now....

 

[southernhybrid]

One more thing. I gave my neighbor a shirt like mine and she told me she's wearing it today and loves it. I told her we should go out together one day wearing our "Vote Blue" shirts. Now I need to find one that says, "I fell out of a coconut tree".

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Immigration is a good thing and a bad thing. From my personal knowledge, increasing the non-English speaking population at schools drains schools budgets. It just does. People who have lived here for years or generations can be very upset about resources being taken from their kids and used for someone else’s kids. This is true whenever school budgets get tight and programming and staffing gets cut—regardless of the reasons. Raising property taxes ( a major source of public school funding in the US) is also

And even if it doesn't drain budgets it lowers the average student ability and thus the education that students will get. This is inevitable as a teacher can't teach at different levels to different students in the same class. You either don't challenge the best ones or you leave the worst ones behind. This is a big force behind white flight and it's a big force in why private schools can outperform public ones. (Everything else being equal a selective admissions policy will improve education.)

No, it does NOT.

You seem to be equating English proficiency with learning ability. Given that your wife is not a native English speaker, I would think you would know better.

To learn something you have to understand it. If you're a poor speaker you're going to be spending more time figuring out what was said rather than actually learning it. 四 + 五 = 九. You're going to have to figure out what that means before you can learn the underlying math. And unless you already know it the understanding is going to be by far the hardest part of it.

(And I've seen it from the other way around--teacher who butchered English so badly that I couldn't follow much of what he was saying. I could puzzle out any given sentence but not in realtime. Fortunately, he didn't have much of anything actually worth saying anyway.)

A classroom with students of different backgrounds and abilities and different t cultures is a golden opportunity to learn MORE, not less.

Yes students may need extra help with English proficiency just as some students need extra help with math or science or art or music. That’s why schools exist.

Schools have special programs to help non-native English speaking students gain the proficiency they need. But those cost money. Not a problem for well endowed schoolboy many struggle to provide education and programming with thought the extra cost of ESL teachers.

The pool of available effort is never infinite. When you add those who need more to the pool the average inherently drops.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

He's way too incompetent to do what he supposedly plans. It will be awful if he becomes president, but there is no way he will accomplish the things he plans or we think he plans on doing. For example, besides the impossible task of sending all the undocumented immigrants back, if he fires all of the government workers, they will be replaced with newbies with no experience or if we don't have people in these jobs, everything will be a mess. I think enough people will resist him, if he tries to do what he says. Besides that, he has obvious signs of senility, so he will be overwhelmed. And, evangelicals are not the dominate members of society. Plus, about 20% of them don't even support Trump. When he loses, he will try to deny the results, but I think. people are getting tired of this shit and the Trump supporters I know certainly aren't going to do something stupid. They might whine about the results, but that's about it. I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned. I'm saying we should help get out the vote and stop acting terrified.

He's incompetent but that doesn't mean those who are using him are incompetent.

Hitler? Are you suggesting he's going to round up the atheists and put us in a gas oven? He's more like Mussolini, if we must compare him to a horrible autocrat, but I think he's so incompetent that he won't be able to get much done. Again, my biggest fear is climate change, so there is something that worries me, but I'm not sure that any leader is going to get much done in that area. People are still driving gas guzzling SUVs and pick up trucks. People are still flying all over the place. People are still eating lots of red meat. People are wasting food, which put out methane. etc. etc. etc. We can each do a little bit. I try, but it's going to take a huge effort to decrease the things that are impacting our rapidly changing climate. No more rambling for now.

Remember who else Hitler sent to the ovens? The disabled. And The Felon has already suggested that they just be allowed to die.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Immigration is a good thing and a bad thing. From my personal knowledge, increasing the non-English speaking population at schools drains schools budgets. It just does. People who have lived here for years or generations can be very upset about resources being taken from their kids and used for someone else’s kids. This is true whenever school budgets get tight and programming and staffing gets cut—regardless of the reasons. Raising property taxes ( a major source of public school funding in the US) is also

And even if it doesn't drain budgets it lowers the average student ability and thus the education that students will get. This is inevitable as a teacher can't teach at different levels to different students in the same class.

???

Yes, I will agree that not being able to speak English would create a strain on an elementary school teacher. However, the idea that teachers can't teach different levels to different students in class... what school did you go to? Most classrooms are like that! In elementary school we had the good reading group and not as good reading group. In college, we had the engineering classes with the brightest folks and the what are you doing here folks.

The closest I was to being in a class with everyone around the same ability were the AP and Accelerated courses in High School.

Beyond the intro classes I never saw a big range of ability in a college course. Once you got past the first-year weedout classes most everyone was reasonably competent.

And I'm not saying it's impossible to teach to a mixed class, but that teaching to a mixed class will lessen the learning. They're no way to challenge the good ones without leaving the poor ones behind.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Hitler? Are you suggesting he's going to round up the atheists and put us in a gas oven?

As I've already stated multiple times, he wants to create a federal "anti-Christian bias task force". That's a direct quote from him. That's the religious police. So, basically, yeah.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

TRUMP is way too incompetent to be Hitler but those backing him are not. They are fully willing to use him as their useful idiot and he’s too incompetent t or too scared to object—or to object right now. It is vaguely possible that he would manage to not propose the worst of either 2025 or 47 plans. But that is not a non-horrific chance.

Why would he object? He clearly looks up to autocrats and would like to be one.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

They are fully willing to use him as their useful idiot and he’s too incompetent t or too scared to object—or to object right now.

If you look up the word "KOMPROMATTED" in any respectable dictionary, Cheato's picture will be under the definition.
I can't even imagine anyone being more vulnerable to any foreign power or actor who offers to throw him a lifeline.
Even when he loses the election, Trump will keep trying to do the bidding of his biggest benefactors in the hope that they can keep his sorry bloated ass out of jail.

The language police are going to be coming for you for butchering that word! How dare you put an English modifier on a Russian word?!

(Although I'm not at all sure it even applies. Loose lips sink ships--would Moscow actually use a hook if they had it? I think it's much more likely one or more near him.)

 

[Toni]

Immigration is a good thing and a bad thing. From my personal knowledge, increasing the non-English speaking population at schools drains schools budgets. It just does. People who have lived here for years or generations can be very upset about resources being taken from their kids and used for someone else’s kids. This is true whenever school budgets get tight and programming and staffing gets cut—regardless of the reasons. Raising property taxes ( a major source of public school funding in the US) is also

And even if it doesn't drain budgets it lowers the average student ability and thus the education that students will get. This is inevitable as a teacher can't teach at different levels to different students in the same class.

???

Yes, I will agree that not being able to speak English would create a strain on an elementary school teacher. However, the idea that teachers can't teach different levels to different students in class... what school did you go to? Most classrooms are like that! In elementary school we had the good reading group and not as good reading group. In college, we had the engineering classes with the brightest folks and the what are you doing here folks.

The closest I was to being in a class with everyone around the same ability were the AP and Accelerated courses in High School.

Beyond the intro classes I never saw a big range of ability in a college course. Once you got past the first-year weedout classes most everyone was reasonably competent.

And I'm not saying it's impossible to teach to a mixed class, but that teaching to a mixed class will lessen the learning. They're no way to challenge the good ones without leaving the poor ones behind.

Well, we are talking about K-12 or pre-k-12. Or I was. Yes, university classes seem to be able to get students on the right area of class work pertinent to their ambitions and abilities. At least public K-12 take all comers. Universities also have special courses for non-native speakers to boost their competency. And usually mandate TOEFL tests prior to admissions—or that used to be so….

 

[southernhybrid]

I'm glad I'm not as pessimistic as some of you. Did anyone watch Trump meeting with the Black news reporters earlier today? OMG! He made such a fool of himself. Did he do this for attention or did he honestly think he would get more support from Black voters. He got angry at the first moderator and went into one of his little rages. The audience laughed through most of it. He did his usually nonsense about how he's done more for Black people since Abe Lincoln. Yeah sure. And inflation is the highest it's been in over 100 years along with interest rates. I guess he slept through the 80s. Anyone else have a mortgage of 13% or more during the 80s. Of course, the old people of that era loved getting such high interest rates on their CDs, and inflation has been a global problem. The US has been able to lower it more than most any other country. I'd say Trump was lying, but he's so fucking dumb, he might not remember the 80s Anyway, it was good for a laugh. Gotta stop rambling again.....

Btw, supposedly the work on Project 2025 has stopped because Trump got in a rage over it. I hope the idiots that designed that shit realize it's not a winning issue for the majority of the country.

 

[Elixir]

Trump rage over work stopping or did he stop himself it in a rage, thinking that horse was still in the barn?

 

[RamblingFool]

I'm glad I'm not as pessimistic as some of you. Did anyone watch Trump meeting with the Black news reporters earlier today? OMG! He made such a fool of himself. Did he do this for attention or did he honestly think he would get more support from Black voters. He got angry at the first moderator and went into one of his little rages. The audience laughed through most of it. He did his usually nonsense about how he's done more for Black people since Abe Lincoln. Yeah sure. And inflation is the highest it's been in over 100 years along with interest rates. I guess he slept through the 80s. Anyone else have a mortgage of 13% or more during the 80s. Of course, the old people of that era loved getting such high interest rates on their CDs, and inflation has been a global problem. The US has been able to lower it more than most any other country. I'd say Trump was lying, but he's so fucking dumb, he might not remember the 80s Anyway, it was good for a laugh. Gotta stop rambling again.....

Btw, supposedly the work on Project 2025 has stopped because Trump got in a rage over it. I hope the idiots that designed that shit realize it's not a winning issue for the majority of the country.

Maybe he is just a babbling fool (quite different from a rambling fool).

 

[southernhybrid]

I'm glad I'm not as pessimistic as some of you. Did anyone watch Trump meeting with the Black news reporters earlier today? OMG! He made such a fool of himself. Did he do this for attention or did he honestly think he would get more support from Black voters. He got angry at the first moderator and went into one of his little rages. The audience laughed through most of it. He did his usually nonsense about how he's done more for Black people since Abe Lincoln. Yeah sure. And inflation is the highest it's been in over 100 years along with interest rates. I guess he slept through the 80s. Anyone else have a mortgage of 13% or more during the 80s. Of course, the old people of that era loved getting such high interest rates on their CDs, and inflation has been a global problem. The US has been able to lower it more than most any other country. I'd say Trump was lying, but he's so fucking dumb, he might not remember the 80s Anyway, it was good for a laugh. Gotta stop rambling again.....

Btw, supposedly the work on Project 2025 has stopped because Trump got in a rage over it. I hope the idiots that designed that shit realize it's not a winning issue for the majority of the country.

Maybe he is just a babbling fool (quite different from a rambling fool).

I think a babbling fool can ramble on, but I'm getting silly now.

 

[Elixir]

I don’t get the point of “stop work”.
Were they going to ADD to their 900pg document? Will stopping work erase any of those pages?
No, in fact it’s like putting his entire handprint on it.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Btw, supposedly the work on Project 2025 has stopped because Trump got in a rage over it. I hope the idiots that designed that shit realize it's not a winning issue for the majority of the country.

Do you honestly believe it stopped just because it started getting attention? That's not how religious fundamentalists operate. They're going to keep working on it.