You’re all set, the GOP has the house

[Pete F.]

When you see Republicans trashing helping people with Medicare and Social Security, REMEMBER that they GAVE 2 TRILLION in Tax Forgiveness to 600 Billionaires, that WE are paying for.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

When you see Republicans trashing helping people with Medicare and Social Security, REMEMBER that they GAVE 2 TRILLION in Tax Forgiveness to 600 Billionaires, that WE are paying for.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I concede SS and Medicare are helpful to those who benefit. No one disagrees.

Pete, tell us how you'd pay for current benefits to remain in place. This is another example. You are bashing Republicans who say benefits need to be reduced so that cash out more closely resembles cash in.

You and Wayne say that's evil. Fine. Tell us why the GOP is wrong when they say it's necessary. And saying "people want that money", doesn't come close to showing that changes aren't required.

this is something I know about. Those programs run massive annual deficits. They have surpluses from older years to rely on, but those reserves are running out, the actuaries know when they will be gone.

Are you saying the actuaries are wrong who say that those programs are heading towards bankruptcy unless we do something?

If they're not wrong, either we need to trim benefits, or raise the tax, or both.

Since you are opposed to making cuts, tell me how you'd pay for them. If you have no clue how to pay for them, you have no business bashing those who say we can't afford them.

I'll wait.

And I hope there's a viable plan. But we can't tax everyone 5% more and funnel that money top SS and Medicare, and that might not be enough anyway.

SS and Medicare are going broke. Here in CT, the teachers pensions and healthcare plans are similarly going broke, and for the same exact reasons. The Baby Boomers are retiring in massive numbers, they want that money, and they're going to expect it for decades. But the contributions were NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH to fund the benefits.

Whose fault is that? It's the fault of elected officials who have known this for 40 years, but did nothing (that's both parties, but at the state level in CT, it's mostly democrats who doomed us, and we are doomed).

What do we do about it? Beats me, but what I do know, is that I put every cent of my retirement savings into a Roth IRA, not traditional, so that if huge tax hikes take place, I'll be protected.

[Pete F.]

Today in the U.S., corporations will steal $137 million in wages, rich people will steal $2.75 billion in taxes, and 1,300 people will die from poverty, air pollution, and medical error. Think about who benefits from ignoring this and focusing on low-level crime instead.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Today in the U.S., corporations will steal $137 million in wages, rich people will steal $2.75 billion in taxes, and 1,300 people will die from poverty, air pollution, and medical error. Think about who benefits from ignoring this and focusing on low-level crime instead.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Vintage Pete.

The GOP doesn't care about rape, murder, fentanyl poisoning. Nope. They want to focus all their attention on jaywalking.

There's nothing you won't say, no matter how stupid it is.

"Today in the U.S., corporations will steal $137 million in wages"

How will they do that? And which political party do the largest corporations donate to? These things are called "facts".

Business donates more to democrats than to the GOP. So who is in bed with big business?

https://www.businessinsider.com/wall...esident-2021-4

[wdmso]

when you can’t concede that 12.4 is larger than 7,

Still waiting are you self employed

If not you only pay 6.2%

And if you are the business pays 6.2 and the employees pay 6.2

And I don’t insist Dems had balanced. Budgets after Clinton

I basically said there wasn’t a balance budget since Clinton.. never used the word after Clinton now with all the complaints of my spelling and grammatical errors suddenly you take what I say to heart?


An equally impressive trick, is the lefts ability to convince seemingly normal Americans

No the average American doesn’t care what people sex is where they use the bathroom or who they love or if you’re an immigrant

But Republicans have convinced their followers drag queens are evil gays are evil transgender are evil liberals are evil immigrants are evil mail in drop boxes and early voting are evil the FBI IRS the courts and the Government itself are enemies of the American people all the from the party who


Supported Trump and his attempt to steal the election. Seat fake electors. Ask for a certain number of votes to be found. and all the republicans who voted against the certification of the election after the capital was attacked and repeated his election lies ..and now republicans are trying to re write history by investigating trumps investigators With their alternative facts

And everyone is coming to take your white Christian way of life with your jobs and only we the GOP can save you!


Only the cults ignorance allows thid logic to resonate with them and they see Republicans at least in the house as patriots
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by wdmso

when you can’t concede that 12.4 is larger than 7,

Still waiting are you self employed

If not you only pay 6.2%

And if you are the business pays 6.2 and the employees pay 6.2

And I don’t insist Dems had balanced. Budgets after Clinton

I basically said there wasn’t a balance budget since Clinton.. never used the word after Clinton now with all the complaints of my spelling and grammatical errors suddenly you take what I say to heart?


An equally impressive trick, is the lefts ability to convince seemingly normal Americans

No the average American doesn’t care what people sex is where they use the bathroom or who they love or if you’re an immigrant

But Republicans have convinced their followers drag queens are evil gays are evil transgender are evil liberals are evil immigrants are evil mail in drop boxes and early voting are evil the FBI IRS the courts and the Government itself are enemies of the American people all the from the party who


Supported Trump and his attempt to steal the election. Seat fake electors. Ask for a certain number of votes to be found. and all the republicans who voted against the certification of the election after the capital was attacked and repeated his election lies ..and now republicans are trying to re write history by investigating trumps investigators With their alternative facts

And everyone is coming to take your white Christian way of life with your jobs and only we the GOP can save you!


Only the cults ignorance allows thid logic to resonate with them and they see Republicans at least in the house as patriots
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

"Still waiting are you self employed"

Yes and no. I own an LLC that does actuarial consulting. And I also have a job with a company.

"If not you only pay 6.2% "

If not, my employer and I each pay 6.2. So 12.4% goes into SS on my behalf, attached to my SS#. Teachers currently pay 7% (it was 6% when I taught), and the rest has to come from taxpayers.

I'll ask again, is 12.4 more than, or less than, 7?

If 12.4% doesn't fund my SS benefit (and it doesn't), there's no way that 7% of a teachers salary comes close to funding their pension.

"And I don’t insist Dems had balanced. Budgets after Clinton "

You did insist it recently.

"I basically said there wasn’t a balance budget since Clinton"

Go read what you wrote. You said only democrats had balanced the budget after Clinton.

"No the average American doesn’t care what people sex is where they use the bathroom"

I don't think the average american wants their girls to be forced to undress in front of boys at school.

"Republicans have convinced their followers drag queens are evil "

We feel draq queens who enjoy doing their thing in front of children, are weird. As are parents who see nothing wrong with it.

"Supported Trump and his attempt to steal the election"

Democrats supported the house democrats who tried to steal the 2016 election. You won't condemn that. You can't. Because they are democrats, and democrats can never be wrong.

"And everyone is coming to take your white Christian way of life with your jobs and only we the GOP can save you!"

Your side tells Christians they must participate in gay marriage, under penalty of law. Your side said that churches had to close during covid, but liquor stores could stay open, and that mass protests against police could continue. So you could gather with a huge crowd and chant for dead cops, but your side wouldn't let people gather in small crowds to pray.

That's what happened. Whether you like it or not, that's what happened. People who believe in a big god, don't have any need for a big government.

[wdmso]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

"Still waiting are you self employed"

Yes and no. I own an LLC that does actuarial consulting. And I also have a job with a company.

"If not you only pay 6.2% "

If not, my employer and I each pay 6.2. So 12.4% goes into SS on my behalf, attached to my SS#. Teachers currently pay 7% (it was 6% when I taught), and the rest has to come from taxpayers.

I'll ask again, is 12.4 more than, or less than, 7?

Keep moving the goal post you personally pay 6.2 so that’s less than 7 . where the rest comes from is irrelevant and they aka teachers in no way impact your benefits

If 12.4% doesn't fund my SS benefit (and it doesn't), there's no way that 7% of a teachers salary comes close to funding their pension.

Neither plan is designed to Fund your retirement your contributions fund those who retire ahead of you

"And I don’t insist Dems had balanced. Budgets after Clinton "

You did insist it recently.

"I basically said there wasn’t a balance budget since Clinton"

Go read what you wrote. You said only democrats had balanced the budget after Clinton.

I know what I wrote and I’ve told you that’s not what I meant it was worded incorrectly . I fully aware there hasn’t been a balanced budget since Clinton
.


"No the average American doesn’t care what people sex is where they use the bathroom"

I don't think the average american wants their girls to be forced to undress in front of boys at school.

"Republicans have convinced their followers drag queens are evil "

We feel draq queens who enjoy doing their thing in front of children, are weird. As are parents who see nothing wrong with it.

But only Republicans are passing laws to prevent drag show?

"Supported Trump and his attempt to steal the election"

Democrats supported the house democrats who tried to steal the 2016 election. You won't condemn that. You can't. Because they are democrats, and democrats can never be wrong.

Keep twisting that same factually dishonesty knot

"And everyone is coming to take your white Christian way of life with your jobs and only we the GOP can save you!"

Your side tells Christians they must participate in gay marriage, under penalty of law.

Yes Jim discrimination is against the law . Offering services to the public including all citizens if I buy invitation from you you’re not participating in my wedding. You sold a product
Just more twisted logic


Your side said that churches had to close during covid, but liquor stores could stay open, and that mass protests against police could continue. So you could gather with a huge crowd and chant for dead cops, but your side wouldn't let people gather in small crowds to pray.

Clearly you don’t understand why liquor stores remained open shocking it’s called alcoholism and good forbid they didn’t want half the country going into withdrawal


Why they stopped people from gathering in mass inside and why outdoor was different had nothing with attacking religion

You’re side that’s funny Trump was potus Most states have religious exemptions to COVID-19 social distancing rules States that had bans. Alaska California WA state Idaho Montana Minnesota Ny New Jersey and Vt again facts aren’t on your side
Not shocked. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...exemptions_01/

That's what happened. Whether you like it or not, that's what happened. People who believe in a big god, don't have any need for a big government.

No Jim everything happened for a reason and are easily explained and justified and temporary

Conspiracy Theories don’t help




Texas legislature, which saw the introduction of 10 separate bills designed to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth, criminalize drag shows, ban trans kids in sports (again), limit changes to gender markers on the birth certificates of minors, and limit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.


Louisiana lawmaker wants to deny minors access to gender-affirming health care, even if parents approve of the procedures. The sweeping proposal would also override medical advice and stop insurers from covering transgender treatments.

A top Republican in the Oklahoma Senate wants to ban all gender reassignment surgeries for people under 26 years old. But you can buy an AR at 18 or shoot a teacher at 6. Don’t blame the gun

Keep thinking Jim the GOPs about freedom. We’ll they are just the freedoms they agree with
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by wdmso

No Jim everything happened for a reason and are easily explained and justified and temporary

Conspiracy Theories don’t help




Texas legislature, which saw the introduction of 10 separate bills designed to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth, criminalize drag shows, ban trans kids in sports (again), limit changes to gender markers on the birth certificates of minors, and limit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.


Louisiana lawmaker wants to deny minors access to gender-affirming health care, even if parents approve of the procedures. The sweeping proposal would also override medical advice and stop insurers from covering transgender treatments.

A top Republican in the Oklahoma Senate wants to ban all gender reassignment surgeries for people under 26 years old. But you can buy an AR at 18 or shoot a teacher at 6. Don’t blame the gun

Keep thinking Jim the GOPs about freedom. We’ll they are just the freedoms they agree with
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

i love it. “everything happened for a reason.”

but you don’t tell us the reason. because you don’t know what it is and the courts threw it out.

but nothing to see, because nothing can be wrong of democrats do it. everything the left does has a good reason. everything the right does has an evil reason. right?

Florida is now synonymous with “freedom.”

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by wdmso

No Jim everything happened for a reason and are easily explained and justified and temporary

Conspiracy Theories don’t help




Texas legislature, which saw the introduction of 10 separate bills designed to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth, criminalize drag shows, ban trans kids in sports (again), limit changes to gender markers on the birth certificates of minors, and limit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.


Louisiana lawmaker wants to deny minors access to gender-affirming health care, even if parents approve of the procedures. The sweeping proposal would also override medical advice and stop insurers from covering transgender treatments.

A top Republican in the Oklahoma Senate wants to ban all gender reassignment surgeries for people under 26 years old. But you can buy an AR at 18 or shoot a teacher at 6. Don’t blame the gun

Keep thinking Jim the GOPs about freedom. We’ll they are just the freedoms they agree with
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

you can shoot a teacher at 6? that was legal? funny the kid was taken into custody.

[wdmso]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

you can shoot a teacher at 6? that was legal? funny the kid was taken into custody.

Don’t read much into taken into custody sounds worse than it is

Should read mother taken into custody honestly
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[wdmso]

Meanwhile republicans vote back in the Holman Rule, from 1875

allowing lawmakers to reduce or eliminate federal agency programs and to slash the salaries of individual federal employees.

During the House floor debate, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), an ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), blasted federal officials as “unelected bureaucrats, the true, real swamp creatures here in D.C.,” saying they had “run roughshod over the American people without consequence.”

I guess there are no Republicans working in government or will they use past voting records to determine who stays and who goes.

Installing loyalists and calling it draining the swamp wow republicans are twisted




If you’re a federal employee, this now becomes a risk that you have to think ‘I may get myself get in hot water or have my salary dropped to zero or my job could get axed’”

But none of it will get pass the senate
But they’ll waste the time grandstanding
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by wdmso

Meanwhile republicans vote back in the Holman Rule, from 1875

allowing lawmakers to reduce or eliminate federal agency programs and to slash the salaries of individual federal employees.

During the House floor debate, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), an ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), blasted federal officials as “unelected bureaucrats, the true, real swamp creatures here in D.C.,” saying they had “run roughshod over the American people without consequence.”

I guess there are no Republicans working in government or will they use past voting records to determine who stays and who goes.

Installing loyalists and calling it draining the swamp wow republicans are twisted




If you’re a federal employee, this now becomes a risk that you have to think ‘I may get myself get in hot water or have my salary dropped to zero or my job could get axed’”

But none of it will get pass the senate
But they’ll waste the time grandstanding
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Wayne, using your exact words, can I simply say "there was a reason" and that's good enough? Or is that only good enough for you to use?

I'm not an extremist. But there are unelected people in DC who are very powerful and have been there way too long. Obviously not every federal employee fits into that category. But there are some.

In a democracy, only those we elect should be able to make policy. That way we can vote them out if we don't like what they're doing.
Not judges, not bureaucrats. Do you disagree? That's a sincere question, not a gotcha question.

[wdmso]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Wayne, using your exact words, can I simply say "there was a reason" and that's good enough? Or is that only good enough for you to use?

I'm not an extremist. But there are unelected people in DC who are very powerful and have been there way too long. Obviously not every federal employee fits into that category. But there are some.

In a democracy, only those we elect should be able to make policy. That way we can vote them out if we don't like what they're doing.
Not judges, not bureaucrats. Do you disagree? That's a sincere question, not a gotcha question.

1st I said everything happened for a reason and are easily explained and justified

The gop has not shown explanation or a justification for needing an 1875 rule. Or investigating the investigators


Of course their are unelected bureaucrats in DC we have a supreme court full of them

Not sure why unelected maters when the position . Doesn’t require it

Of course the GOP won’t name these unelected positions and would they just replace them with other unelected people?who have pledged allegiance to them not the nation?

To answer you question as I understand it.

Federal bureaucrats don’t make policy they interpret laws and apply the rules and make decisions because congress has empowered them to do.

The reason judges seem to be making policies is the congress won’t fix what’s broken and some courts like the SJC. Are accepting cases they should be refusing. So state’s attorney keep going back because their nonsensical arguments keep being entertained

We have a court taking a case based on a woman’s business

That only exists on paper?



Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by wdmso

Of course their are unelected bureaucrats in DC we have a supreme court full of them

Not sure why unelected maters when the position . Doesn’t require it

Of course the GOP won’t name these unelected positions and would they just replace them with other unelected people?who have pledged allegiance to them not the nation?

To answer you question as I understand it.

Federal bureaucrats don’t make policy they interpret laws and apply the rules and make decisions because congress has empowered them to do.

The reason judges seem to be making policies is the congress won’t fix what’s broken and some courts like the SJC. Are accepting cases they should be refusing. So state’s attorney keep going back because their nonsensical arguments keep being entertained

We have a court taking a case based on a woman’s business

That only exists on paper?



Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

"Of course their are unelected bureaucrats in DC we have a supreme court full of them

Not sure why unelected maters when the position . Doesn’t require it"

I guess I didn't say it well. If someone isn't elected, that means "we the people" can't vote them out, which means they are not answerable to us. That's why they should not be setting policy. Especially supreme court judges who are there for life, that's exactly why my side likes to say "they shouldn't legislate from the bench", because we have no mechanism to keep them in check. That would be totalitarian. Setting laws and policies were meant to only be the purview of people who are elected by us. The job of unelected bureaucrats is to implement policy, not to create it. If you think about it, it's very logical and democratic. In a democracy, policies and laws should only be created by those who are directly answerable to us.

Obviously in the real world there are grey areas. But we should strive for that ideal, not venture too far away from it.

I'm not a thoughtless conspiracy nut. You know that I believe Biden won fair and square. But I do believe there are unelected people out there, who have bene there way too long, who have way too much power. That's what MAGA folk refer to as "the swamp". It's healthy to keep that to a minimum.

"Federal bureaucrats don’t make policy"

They aren't supposed to. Sometimes it ends up happening though. That's what happened when SCOTUS legalized abortion, that was obviously legislating from the bench. When the attorney general decides that parents protesting school board meetings are committing a federal crime. Anthony Faucci had too much power. Lobbyists have too much power (like the NRA, for example). Defense contractors have too much power.

I'm not saying everything is completely broken. I think it can be improved.

But it won't be improved. The GOP likes to talk, they don't always like delivering.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by wdmso

The reason judges seem to be making policies is the congress won’t fix what’s broken

Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

But the constitution doesn't say judges can change their role if congress isn't doing a good job. It's up to the voters, not the courts, to fix a broken legislature. What you just said, seems to imply that you agree with me.

Judges aren't supposed to make decisions, based on whether or not they personally like what congress is doing. That's the definition of totalitarianism.

[wdmso]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

But the constitution doesn't say judges can change their role if congress isn't doing a good job. It's up to the voters, not the courts, to fix a broken legislature. What you just said, seems to imply that you agree with me.

Judges aren't supposed to make decisions, based on whether or not they personally like what congress is doing. That's the definition of totalitarianism.

Tell that to the conservatives majority in the us supreme court

And Republicans who want them to legislate from the bench

IT’s Republicans who are pushing
The The independent state legislature theory posits that the Constitution of the United States delegates authority to regulate federal elections within a state to that state's elected lawmakers without any checks and balances from state courts, governors, or other bodies

There’s a thread that links the partisan gerrymandering of congressional maps in North Carolina, attempts to dissolve the Wisconsin Election Commission, and efforts to overthrow the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. In each case, the participants have invoked a dubious interpretation of the Constitution called the “independent state legislature theory.”

Long relegated to the fringe of election law, the theory will soon be front and center before the Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear a case concerning the North Carolina congressional maps in the fall. If the Supreme Court were to adopt the theory, it would radically change our elections.


Then, after the 2020 election, President Trump and his allies used the independent state legislature theory as part of their effort to overturn the results. For a third time, the Supreme Court declined to adopt the theory. But three sitting justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch —endorsed it.

But this court took up the case with the 3 above acceptance of the case


Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

But the constitution doesn't say judges can change their role if congress isn't doing a good job. It's up to the voters, not the courts, to fix a broken legislature. What you just said, seems to imply that you agree with me.

Judges aren't supposed to make decisions, based on whether or not they personally like what congress is doing. That's the definition of totalitarianism.

The Constitution doesn’t say they can’t, so…..
Totalitarianism’s having a cult appointed now constituting a majority of the Supreme Court and imposing their religious beliefs.
Kinda like the guys who wear the robes in Afghanistan
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

It’ll be interesting to see what Schumer does with the stupid MAGA stuff, does he just let it die or does he force GOP senators to take a vote on the actual House bills.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Jim Jordan is now officially the Chair of a subcommittee that will investigate why the Biden Administration imprisoned untold numbers of parents all across America just for speaking at School Board meetings, also known as Biden’s Concerned-Parent Pogrom.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Don’t we have existing laws that this falls under?
Do we need a new law for every special interest group?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[wdmso]

Alito and Thomas encourage opponents of gun control laws to keep pressure on the courts

So now it’s open activism
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by wdmso

Alito and Thomas encourage opponents of gun control laws to keep pressure on the courts

So now it’s open activism
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

what did they say/do, exactly?

[wdmso]

From Sara


We will show the world that there is still a place in America where freedom reigns and liberty will never die, and that place is Arkansas.

What a loser
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Got Stripers]

Ah but to some degree, sounds like a change of tune, damn and it was one of your greatest hits.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

Ah but to some degree, sounds like a change of tune, damn and it was one of your greatest hits.

no change of tune. saying what i always say. i guess it was just to fast for you.

i’ll stop bringing it up, when you guys stop
claiming that trump didn’t do anything good, and that the gop is a lunatic fringe party.

this is why you’re all scared of Desantis. He’ll advocate for popular and effective policies, and while he’s far from perfect ( i didn’t like him going after disney) he’s not nearly as repulsive as Trump. He appears to be a very formidable candidate. which is why the left never stops
lying about him.

[wdmso]

Now in the fantasy world of the Maga GOPQ. The Secretary of Transportation

Was responsible for the south west air line meltdowns

And now he’s responsible for the flight system crashing

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who tweeted: "Pete Buttigieg couldn't organize a one-car funeral.



The Republicans intellectual dishonesty is amazing
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Debating the house rules on the floor today, and the first amendment offered by a Republican is about making stricter the rules of what women have to wear in the house.
After they get done with that, do you think they’ll make the runt wear a jacket?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

You talking about this DeSantis?

Florida’s education system is vastly underperforming.
A close look at ‘the Nation’s Report Card’ shows how Florida fails its students as they move up through the grades.
A few years ago, just before COVID hit, a Stanford University study of state-level standardized tests showed that Florida’s “learning rate” was the worst in the country — by a wide margin.
Florida students learned 12 percent less each year from third to eighth grade than the national average from 2009 to 2018. The next worst state was Alabama, according to The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University. Florida’s political and education leaders completely ignored that finding.

Billy Townsend
Billy Townsend [ Provided ]
Contrast that deafening silence with the hype and misinterpretation that comes with the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), “the Nation’s Report Card.” When those results came out last fall, Gov. Ron DeSantis crowed on Twitter that, “We kept schools open in 2020, and today’s NAEP results once again prove that we made the right decision. In Florida, adjusted for demographics, fourth grade students are #1 in both reading and math.”

Tellingly, DeSantis ignored the eighth grade results, which came out far worse than fourth grade — just as they have in every NAEP cycle since 2003.

The “Nation’s Report Card” is a snapshot of group proficiency taken by different cohorts of kids every two years in reading and math in fourth grade and eighth grade. It produces state-by-state results and proficiency rankings. It does not track individual kids year over year. But it does tell you how Florida’s fourth and eighth graders compare with students in other states. I crunched the data, and here’s the bottom line: Florida’s students perform worse as they move up through the grades. There is consistent, massive systemic regression with age. And the gap is widening.

This is a state failure, not a local one attributable to individual districts. Yet, in every NAEP cycle, Florida politicians and education leaders brag about fourth-grade NAEP results in press releases.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Or this DeSantis

Ron DeSantis just summarily declared an election null and void and vacated the seat of an elected official. He announced he would select the replacement.

And you think someone who does this has conducted fair and honest state elections? He stopped federal election monitors from being allowed inside polling places across the state in 2022. So you tell me. 🤔

DeSantis is erasing democracy in Florida.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Or this DeSantis?

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ second inaugural address Tuesday sounded word-for-word like a re-election campaign rally — only shorter. It was delivered from a familiar place, the steps of the historic Capitol in Tallahassee, but was aimed at a faraway national audience of Republican presidential primary voters.

[ RELATED: DeSantis declares 'freedom lives here' as he begins 2nd term ]

The governor’s talk carried a lot of the usual DeSantis rhetorical flourishes, and very little in the way of specifics.

If you didn’t catch it, here’s some of what you missed:

“When the world lost its mind — when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue — Florida was a refuge of sanity.”

Here in Florida, the state’s chief public health officer doubted the efficacy of vaccines or masks at the height of the pandemic. Some 84,000 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19 in this “refuge of sanity.” Unlike in California and New York, a huge portion of those deaths came after the development of vaccines, and, according to a Yale study, largely among the very Republican voters who were most likely to believe the anti-vaccine lies offered by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.

Is that enough sanity for you?

The myth of ‘the freest state’

“We choose to navigate the boisterous sea of liberty rather than cower in the calm docks of despotism,” DeSantis said.

Freedom and authoritarianism don’t mix. The notion of Florida as “the freest state” is a myth, manufactured by DeSantis and his image-makers to sharpen the narrative of his expected presidential candidacy.

His is a curious definition of freedom.

Florida has become a place where it’s easier than ever to remove books from school libraries, but harder than it should be for people to request vote-by-mail ballots.

In the “freest state,” Florida teachers fear talking about the country’s racist history. A vote of the people to ban large cruise ships in Key West was wiped away by DeSantis and Tallahassee politicians. How free is that?

In this supposedly “free” state, academic freedom faces the most dangerous sustained assault in Florida’s recent history.

In “the freest state,” higher education is perpetually under the thumb of the governor’s office. On Wednesday, DeSantis demanded that all colleges and universities report every dime spent on “diversity, equity, inclusion and critical race theory.”
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device