The Democrats

[RockyRoadTravel]

1 hour ago, Suckrates said:

"Communist" is just the word du jour for the GOP, because they know it will fire up MAGA.   I doubt they even know the history of Communism and what it means....   It's as scary for MAGA as "Trans"......

You're saying MAGA conspiracies are just lazy thinking?  Wow.  Glad I was sitting down.   

[stevenkesslar]

1 hour ago, bucknaway said:

 

 

The bad stupid barking dog does not want to kill you.   This is not intentional.

The bad stupid barking dog does not want to kill children.  Hundreds of thousands of kids and adults are dying from HIV thanks to Elon Musk.  But the bad stupid barking dog does not intentionally want children to die.

The bad stupid barking dog is not a mass murderer.   In fact, I worry that Trump will turn our barking pup into Trump Steaks to feed the troops in Iran.

 

The bad stupid barking dog is dangerous because he is stupid, and stupid because he is dangerous.  But the bad stupid barking dog just wants to be seen as good and loyal and true.

New: Michigan counties that voted heavily for Trump have more COVID-19 cases, deaths

 

The fact that we are relitigating mass death from years ago, and facts that have long been established as facts, tells us that the bad stupid barking dog - like Elon Musk and Joe Rogan - is deeply committed to being stupid and dangerous.  At least Joe Rogan calls himself a "moron" and disavows the idea that he knows shit about viruses and death.

The bad stupid barking dog is too stupid and dangerous to even understand that he is a moron.  

 

Being an American during COVID meant you were more than twice as likely to die from the virus as a Canadian.  And about 5 times more likely to die than an Australian.  That said, many older vaccinated Australians died of COVID.   Here's a news flash.  Older people are just more likely to die from flu or COVID, even when vaccinated.

It's a weird Trumpian standard.  If Fauci opens his mouth, he proves he wants to kill us and is a publicity whore.  If he shuts his mouth because he understands the bad barking dog is stupid and dangerous, he proves he wants to kill us and won't be accountable.

Meanwhile, you were more than 5 times more likely to die if you lived in one of the reddest parts of Michigan after the vaccines came out.  Michigan's Canadian neighbors knew better.  But the bad barking dog does not want accountability, or truth.  He does not want to save the lives of kids dying of HIV.  He wants to be good and loyal and true.

I wish I kept a screen shot of US death rates around when the vaccine came out.  DeSantis was a poster child for one particular approach to COVID.  And California was a typical blue state.  Around the time the vaccines came out, I know California and Florida were both in the middle of the rankings of COVID death by state.  I'd guess they were both clustered around #20 or so.

Today, Florida was the 7th most deadliest state, right behind Michigan which was #6.  Blue California was # 38, and had a death rate about 35 % less than Michigan or Florida. 

Michigan was Whitmer and Florida DeSantis.  Poor Blacks in Wayne County with less access to affordable health care were more likely to die.  Michigan was also one of the national focal points of Trumpian COVID resistance, and Whitmer assassination plots.  The Trumpian resistance did result in more deaths in Michigan, as the chart above proves.  Unless you are a bad stupid barking dog who has been vaccinated against facts.  

 

 

Poor thing.  You really have to feel sorry for him.  

Fetterman actually wore a suit and made a good point at the Fauci Lynching Hearing.  He said the facts around COVID got too polarized too quickly in 2020.  True. I think it's fair to blame that mostly on Trump.  But that just makes me a partisan.  Trump voters did often pay for their resistance with their lives. 

I think Democrats were the most wrong on kids and schools.  Test scores dropped like a rock and kids lost a part of their education.  Older kids who were young adults by 2024 actually said they voted for Trump in part for that reason.  

That said, Fauci and the vaccine saved lots of lives.  Just like Fauci and PEPFAR have saved the lives of millions of HIV patients all over the world.   But the bad stupid barking dog insists Fauci wanted to kill himself.  And you.

The bad barking dog does not want to kill you.  He does not intend children with HIV to die.

The bad barking dangerous dog is good and loyal and true.

 

 

[RockyRoadTravel]

11 minutes ago, stevenkesslar said:

 

The bad stupid barking dog does not want to kill you.   This is not intentional.

The bad stupid barking dog does not want to kill children.  Hundreds of thousands of kids and adults are dying from HIV thanks to Elon Musk.  But the bad stupid barking dog does not intentionally want children to die.

The bad stupid barking dog is not a mass murderer.   In fact, I worry that Trump will turn our barking pup into Trump Steaks to feed the troops in Iran.

 

The bad stupid barking dog is dangerous because he is stupid, and stupid because he is dangerous.  But the bad stupid barking dog just wants to be seen as good and loyal and true.

New: Michigan counties that voted heavily for Trump have more COVID-19 cases, deaths

 

The fact that we are relitigating mass death from years ago, and facts that have long been established as facts, tells us that the bad stupid barking dog - like Elon Musk and Joe Rogan - is deeply committed to being stupid and dangerous.  At least Joe Rogan calls himself a "moron" and disavows the idea that he knows shit about viruses and death.

The bad stupid barking dog is too stupid and dangerous to even understand that he is a moron.  

 

Being an American during COVID meant you were more than twice as likely to die as a Canadian.  And about 5 times more likely to die than an Australian.  That said, many older vaccinated Australians died of COVID.   Here's a news flash.  Older people are just more likely to die from flu, even when vaccinated.

It's a weird Trumpian standard.  If Fauci opens his mouth, he proves he wants to kill us and is a publicity whore.  If he shuts his mouth because he understands the bad barking dog is stupid and dangerous, he proves he wants to kill us and won't be accountable.

Meanwhile, you were more than 5 times more likely to die if you lived in one of the reddest parts of Michigan after the vaccines came out.  Michigan's Canadian neighbors knew better.  But the bad barking dog does not want accountability, or truth.  He does not want to save the lives of kids dying of HIV.  He wants to be good and loyal and true.

I wish I kept a screen shot of US death rates around when the vaccine came out.  DeSantis was a poster child for one particular approach to COVID.  And California was a typical blue state.  Around the time the vaccines came out, I know California and Florida were both in the middle of the rankings of COVID death by state.  I'd guess they were both clustered around #20 or so.

Today, Florida was the 7th most deadliest state, right behind Michigan which was #6.  Blue California had a death rate about 35 % less than Michigan or Florida.  Michigan was Whitmer and Florida DeSantis.  Poor Blacks in Wayne County with less access to affordable health care were more likely to die.  Michigan was also one of the national focal points of Trumpian COVID resistance, and Whitmer assassination plots.  The Trumpian resistance did result in more deaths in Michigan, as the chart above proves.  If you are not a bad stupid barking dog who has been vaccinated against facts.  

 

 

Poor thing.  You really have to feel sorry for him.

Fetterman actually wore a suit and made a good point at the Fauci Lynching Hearing.  He said the facts around COVID got too polarized too quickly in 2020.  True. I think it fair to blame that mostly on Trump.  But that just makes me a partisan.  Trump voters did often pay for their resistance with their lives.  I think Democrats were the most wrong on kids and schools.  Test scores dropped like a rock and kids lost a part of their education.  Older kids who were young adults by 2024 actually said they voted for Trump in part for that reason.  

That said, Fauci and the vaccine saved lots of lives.  Just like Fauci and PEPFAR have saved the lives of millions of HIV patients all over the world.   But the bad stupid barking dog insists Fauci wanted to kill himself.  And you.

The mad barking dog does not want to kill you.  He does not intend children with HIV to die.

The mad barking dangerous dog is good and loyal and true.

 

 

MAGAism survives in low information environments.  That's why as The Great Incompetent said he "loves the poorly uneducated."  Linda McMahon, Department of Education just ran with that sentiment to try and damage public education as much as possible.  

In the Information Age where technology and new applications of knowledge is driving the economy we have an anti-science and anti-education regime in the White House.  

New White House motto:  "preparing the non-college educated white working-class for the 20th Century economy one book banning at a time."  

[stevenkesslar]

2 hours ago, RockyRoadTravel said:

Linda McMahon, Department of Education just ran with that sentiment to try and damage public education as much as possible.  

I like to say that one of my brothers is a Bloomberg Democrat, and one a McCain Republican.  And they are both more rabidly anti-Trump than me, the liberal Democrat.

Of course, Bloomberg governed NYC as a liberal Republican.  My own worldview is that the things that Bloomberg did in his three terms, I'd argue more for good than bad,  set the stage for Mamdani to come in as a corrective.  The reason NYC is so damn expensive is that it is thriving.  To me, you never want to throw out the capitalism with the bathwater.  

We Can’t Fix America’s Schools Without Data

So there you have a full-throated defense of the Department of Education, and facts, from a billionaire who served as a Republican.

You also have this:

Quote

Politicians call it “the Mississippi miracle.” But it wasn’t divine intervention that led to the transformation. It was data-based reforms. No data, no reforms. No reforms, no student turnaround. No student turnaround, no turnaround to their career prospects — or to hopes of ending racial and ethnic inequalities across a broad range of measures.

I had never heard of the Mississippi Miracle.  Here's an explanation.

It makes sense that Bloomberg would focus on this.  It echoes what happened in NYC when he was Mayor.

At a minimum, test scores did not get worse under Bloomberg.  And they probably got better.  I think there's little dispute about Bloomberg's initial years.  Gaps between Black and White students narrowed.  As that chart suggests, progress seems to have stalled out later on.  In part because test scores dropped when NYC adopted tougher common core standards.

Recreating a Past Success

New York City once led the charge to improve inner-city schools—can it do so again?https://www.city-journal.org/article/recreating-a-past-success

That article from right-of-center City Journal argues that deBlasio killed a period of innovation and improvement.  Test scores did not improve.  And then they plummeted - especially for the lowest income kids - under COVID. COVID was, in effect, the opposite of the Mississippi Miracle.  Mississippi added resources to help teachers and focus on the best proven teaching techniques.  COVID took away even the basics for the poorest kids.  Like classrooms.

This also makes me think of John McWhorter, who describes himself as a contrarian liberal Democrats.  He was a one man attack machine against Black Lives Matter.  His point was we don't need to defund the police.  We need to fund phonics.  The Mississippi Miracle suggests he has a point.

I think it's true that there was a time in the US where better public education was a bipartisan issue.  Legislators could meet in the middle.  W was President No Child Left Behind.  Those days are gone, at least in Trump's White House.

Looking on the bright side, at least he hasn't come up with schemes to enrich his family through Trump U education. Who needs that when Genocide-Adjacent Jared can pander to the Genocide Jew and suck up billions from the Saudis?  And besides.  We will always have crypto.

I don't know that Democrats really have an answer on public schools.  It's fine to say we're not for charter schools as a solution.  But what are we for?

Oregon educators led the way to historic school funding victory

I do like to brag.  This is an example of be careful what you wish for. 

One of the funnest organizing campaigns of my life was "Kickers For Kids."  The kicker is a weird law in Oregon that says if the state gets more tax revenue than it estimated, it has to refund the money to taxpayers.  Corporations estimate their tax revenues.  So there is an incentive to underestimate.  One particular year in the 90's Oregon corporations were getting something like a 50 % tax refund due to the kicker, while Portland public schools were crippled by state initiatives that enacted property tax cuts.

A County Chair, who literally was a former democratic socialist, told us in private that she could not support our goal of enacting a progressive county tax on the largest corporations to fund public schools.  She was worried corporations would target her and drive her out of office.  We did it anyway. She held her breath and backed us.  The County Chair won re-election handily.  Later she ran for Governor, but narrowly lost in the Democratic primary.

We won a one year increase in the county business income tax.  And all the ideas stuck.  A few years later a state initiative passed saying any future corporate kickers have to go to public education.  It helped, but mostly was a drop in the bucket.  The very big deal was the 2019 law above, enacted over 20 years after these local organizing skirmishes.  

Quote

Oregon passed the Student Success Act (House Bill 3427) in May 2019, creating a 0.57% Corporate Activity Tax (CAT) on commercial sales exceeding $1 million. The measure generates billions of dollars every biennium to fund public schools, early learning programs, and student health services

In the 90's when we were picking on Oregon corporations, the Republicans had solid majorities in both the House and Senate.  Out most effective spokesperson was Avel Gordly, Oregon's only Black State Senator at the time. And an amazing talented leader who just passed away.  By 2018 Democrats had solid majorities in the Oregon House and Senate.  Which is why they could pass a 0.57 % gross receipts tax on Oregon's largest corporations to fund schools.

Presumably this is where Wisconsin is headed, if we have a Governor Hong in 2027.  And a Democratic legislative majority in Wisconsin in the future.

This happened to kick in just as COVID did.  So of course test scores were going to go down, just like they did all over the US and the world.  Including in Mississippi.

Spending more, Achieving less

Oregon's Education Challenge

Quote

Oregon’s 8th-grade reading scores were consistently above the national average until 2022 but have since fallen slightly below, while 4th-grade reading scores have remained below the national average throughout the last two decades, with the gap widening further in recent years.

One day a few weeks ago I did a deep dive into what has happened in Oregon schools now that they finally have the political conditions to tax wildly profitable corporations more to fund schools.  

It is not a rosy scenario, as that headline documents.  Test scores went down due to COVID.  And they have not come back up.  Both US and Oregon test scores dropped between 2022 and 2024.  Oregon scores actually got slightly relatively worse, compared to the US as a whole.  That can't be blamed on COVID.

I haven't been in touch with politicians and school leaders in Oregon on this issue for decades.  But even as a liberal Democrat, I thought of John McWhorter.  Too much woke bullshit, and not enough phonics.  That was my Joe Rogan-like conclusion.  But I base it on facts laid out in that report above.

Quote

Oregon’s consistent underperformance relative to national averages highlights the need for targeted, data-driven interventions. More funding alone does not guarantee better results — strategic, evidence-based investments are necessary to improve instructional quality, support students effectively, and close achievement gaps.

Whatever the cause, if that headline above is still true five years from now the tide will turn again.  And Bloomberg-like Republican reformers will come roaring back in Oregon.

Or is this what pragmatic, fact-driven and results-driven Democratic reformers in Wisconsin may do?

Time will tell.

 

 

[bucknaway]