In The News Today...

17 year cycle cicadas ask, “what’s the meaning of life?”

Quote:

One of 15 broods of periodical cicadas found in the eastern United States, Brood X is among the largest by geographical extent of 17-year cicada broods, the university said.
Unlike annual cicadas, periodical cicadas live underground in larval form for most of their lives and emerge every 13 or 17 years as adults to mate, according to the National Wildlife Federation.
After mating, female cicadas excavate furrows in slender tree branches to deposit their eggs.

Once the eggs hatch, young cicadas drop to the ground and burrow beneath the soil, waiting more than a decade to emerge in the open air again.

74 million people voted for a Trump 2nd term. Some of them committed insurrection on our capital in his name. And some of them didn't even know what the Senate floor looked like. "IS THIS THE SENATE???"

We need some education reforms. There's common ground here.

Quote: AZDuffman

Because when they get to the point that the so dominate they need to be considered a "common carrier" and be obliged to accept all comers. Like when TV stations had to "give equal time." Same as radio stations have to accept any political ad at the lowest rack rate available.

For that matter, same as colleges who demand Christian groups accept atheists and others who do not fit the mission of the group.

The standard was set long ago.

Why don't Conservatives like the free market anymore?

Facebook competed with other social media platforms and, for the time being, has basically won. That said, I think it would be ridiculous to argue that they have become a monopoly (or the equivalent of a utility, 'common carrier') because not only is social media unnecessary, but there are any number of social media competitors out there.

At its core, social media is nothing more than an entertainment platform. I don't know that excluding the far right is something I would do if I ran Facebook, one would think having some number of political extremists would increase the entertainment value...especially if you can get a far left nutjob talking to a far right nutjob. I'd alienate or make feel unwelcome as few people as possible, but that's their choice.

In any case, Zuckerberg competed in the Internet/Social Media market and Facebook kicked their asses fair and square. MySpace is basically gone or has something to do with music exclusively...as if Youtube and the major cell phone providers don't already do that...but okay. Google tried to launch a service that would compete directly with Facebook, but gave up and pulled the plug on it.

Anyway, I don't think any of this discussion really matters. My position is that anyone who likes (or supposedly likes) the free market should just let Facebook do whatever the hell Facebook wants to do.

Quote: rxwine

Republicans start focusing their talking points on the people hiring them instead of poor illegals seeking work, I’ll start listening.

Fine. We can start with CA liberals who want cheap gardeners, maids, and nannys.

Quote: fleaswatter

This is what happens when you have the democrats in charge of schools:

City student passes 3 classes in four years, ranks near top half of class with 0.13 GPA

It started with No Child Left Behind and then became ESSA.

It's ultimately pretty simple: If you don't want the Government (even though public school is a Government function) micromanaging the hell out of you just have high graduation rates.

Read all about it:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/03/02/are-americas-rising-high-school-graduation-rates-real-or-just-an-accountability-fueled-mirage/

It's pretty much all there and very worth reading. Did anyone think that the schools actually improved since 2001? That's cute.

If nothing else, the schools were better off before...in my opinion, anyway. For one thing, you didn't teach with a single-minded devotion to kids passing the standardized tests. State tests (in the public schools I attended) were a thing and you spent maybe a month of your time prepping for those, but I actually witnessed it become nearly the sole focal point of your basic class subjects (math, reading, history, science).

Another thing that happened was that nobody really gave a crap about the kids who didn't want to show up for school, at least, by the time you got to the High School level. On the rare occasion these students would appear, they'd usually just get tossed in In-School Suspension for excessive missed time...which is kind of okay because they'd have had no idea what was going on in the class anyway.

At that time, kids would also be encouraged to go into the GED program upon hitting a certain age, but as you can see from my link, that doesn't count as graduating anymore. The idea at one time was that they could basically just learn (theoretically) enough to function as an adult (demonstrated by passing the GED test) and could go about their lives doing whatever it is they wanted to do.

The whole deal with No Child Left Behind is that you can have all kinds of different reasons for kids to be prevented from attending school or being productive in their studies outside of the school building. You can also maybe have students that were basically being ignored in favor of teachers focusing attention on the most intelligent and productive (who also tend to be the most interested) students.

In many cases, school failings and lack of attendance come down to something to do with the familial situation and even sometimes forms of abuse going on. While that's extremely unfortunate, NCLB and ESSA do exactly nothing to actually address the underlying problem.

Quote: Tripdufan

74 million people voted for a Trump 2nd term. Some of them committed insurrection on our capital in his name. And some of them didn't even know what the Senate floor looked like. "IS THIS THE SENATE???"

We need some education reforms. There's common ground here.

You can't REALLY fix education, because to do it, you would have to be able to, 'fix,' every person. Hopeless cause. It's kind of tough to balance accountability for the school and forcing them to gimmick everything to make it look like they're successful.

I say you just set your attendance criteria, you set the criteria required to pass the classes and then whatever happens, happens. If people don't like the result, then turn to the public (in the applicable school district) and see if you can get increased funding out of them...preferably on a voluntary basis. The only accountability I would have is that the teachers (of individual subjects) must pass no fewer than 60% of their students.

There are definitely some issues with troubled homes; I don't deny that. Have the guidance counselors do what they can and get CPS in there to do a wellness check if you think something untowardly might be going on. At least do your level best to try to help those students who would otherwise have a chance to succeed.

As to the rest, you can't turn stupid people into reasonably intelligent people. Some people are just stupid, full stop. It shouldn't be possible for every student to graduate from a particular school, because if it is, then graduating from it means nothing.

Even more difficult than that is to turn an apathetic person into someone who cares. I'd have definitely failed High School and College if not for being intellectually gifted, because were I not, I'd have actually had to put more than minimal effort into passing (and acing most of) my classes. I'm the guy who specifically chose his college major because he knew he'd breeze through it, if that tells you anything.

Quote: gamerfreak

Which Internet carriers are censoring content?

I'm not sure of the term "carriers", I think there is only one "carrier"? But multiple ISP's.

This is an example of what I consider "wrongful censorship" https://nypost.com/2021/01/11/facebook-censors-ron-paul/

Quote: Mission146

Anyway, I don't think any of this discussion really matters. My position is that anyone who likes (or supposedly likes) the free market should just let Facebook do whatever the hell Facebook wants to do.

Also, aren't corporations legally the equivalent of people anyway? That's something else Conservatives used to like, or maybe still like.

I don't know what Conservatives like or don't like anymore. I guess I'd have to ask Donald Trump as he is the only one who would know.

You have the Citizens United SCOTUS decision, for one thing, which essentially decided that corporations can make unlimited political spending as an extension of their Freedom of Speech.

And similarly, Facebook enjoys Freedom of Speech, which can even include kicking people they don't like off of their platform. That's also Freedom of Association and property rights, at least to such extent that a website can be considered property. I guess they own the servers that host the website.

Quote: AZDuffman

Fine. We can start with CA liberals who want cheap gardeners, maids, and nannys.

Fine with me. If we had been heavily focused making sure people aren't undercutting the US labor market hiring cheap illegal labor, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

Problem solved!

Quote: Mission146

Also, aren't corporations legally the equivalent of people anyway? That's something else Conservatives used to like, or maybe still like.

I don't know what Conservatives like or don't like anymore. I guess I'd have to ask Donald Trump as he is the only one who would know.

You have the Citizens United SCOTUS decision, for one thing, which essentially decided that corporations can make unlimited political spending as an extension of their Freedom of Speech.

And similarly, Facebook enjoys Freedom of Speech, which can even include kicking people they don't like off of their platform. That's also Freedom of Association and property rights, at least to such extent that a website can be considered property. I guess they own the servers that host the website.

For all intents and purposes, FB and a couple other SM corporations [affiliated with NSA] own the public square. They control the message, just like prior to the domination of eyeballs that was held by big tv company's. The message is being manipulated to steer the public.

"The last official act of any government, is to loot the treasury". GW