As bad as these Sociopathic Oligarchs are now, imagine when they start reaching Trillionaire status, and can start competing with entire nations. They will manufacture their own armies of Slaughterbots, and demand anything they want.

It is inevitable. Unless we end them.

Sounds like that’s one of the new MAGA amendments we’re going to have to pass.

Giggity

Yeah, that was the era of the one party system, when Republicans ran everything, and the Corporate Dems let them, because they believed in Lite Conservativism.

The fact that “Democratic” legislation was introduced during a Republican administration, and was voted for by most Republicans, and then signed by a Republican president, would indicate that it was probably not a very “Democratic” piece of legislation.

Back then, it was often hard to tell the difference between the parties. Those differences have widened greatly, and will continue to widen into the future. Just because Conservatives, and Conservative Lites, all backed multiple bills that were engineered to fail, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take another crack at it, but in Good Faith this time.

No, not the MAGA Federal government. But when they’re out, and they’ve been crushed, we are going to have to reconfigure the new government. We should take that opportunity to create a new paradigm that serves the people, and then Yes, I expect the government to convene a panel of educators to create a new Federal Educational Curriculum.

That curriculum would look to the future, and not worship dead old ideas from the past. In Florida, DeSatan wants to make Cursive Writing mandatory again, instead of teaching kids real history “that makes white kids feel guilty about being white” (he actually said that). We need a history curriculum that acknowledges and teaches about Slavery and the Native American Genocide, and how to avoid such atrocities in the future. We need two math tracks, one for those who want to go into engineering, sciences, etc., and one that emphasizes Business Math, for everyone else who mostly uses math for their personal finances, or perhaps to start a business.

But mostly, the Federal curriculum would have a strong emphasis on Critical Thinking Skills, which help people recognize and reject propaganda from both sides, and avoid dumb conspiracy theories.

Critical Thinking Skills are literally the most important think any human can learn. All the knowledge you pick up in school is right there on the phone on your pocket, you can look that up in seconds, learning all that is not that important. Critical Thinking is how we are supposed to think, and it has to be taught and practiced at a Elementary/High School level, so students can flourish in college and beyond. Without Critical Thinking Skills, we substitute a chaotic ad hoc style of thinking that is easy to manipulate by bad people, and leads to destructive lifestyles like poverty and crime.

Critical Thinking Skills are what kept the Conservative scourge from rising and morphing into MAGA for so many years. So Cons took advantage of the 50 separate curriculums to deliberately suppress the teaching of Critical Thinking Skills for decades, claiming that it teaches children to defy authority, when what it really does is teach people to think for themselves. Authoritarians don’t want to teach kids how to challenge their power.

We also need free college education, and free trade school educations for all American citizens.

We also need to cancel all outstanding private and Federal student loans. They are a looming and increasing economic time bomb, that is already damaging the economy. They are so high because the federal government loosened up requirements for student loans so all kids could go, but didn’t put any guardrails on it. So the colleges responded by jacking up their tuitions to the max, and making kids mortgage their financial futures for the rest of their lives, enslaving them to mediocre paying corporate jobs, just to keep their healthcare, and make that onerous monthly student loan payment instead of a mortgage payment or take a vacation or get married or have kids…

Colleges and banks became the worst sorts of parasites over student loans, and have destroyed countless lives. It needs to end. They stole enough from our students, that’s enough. Forgive all current student loans, and if the colleges and banks whine about it, threaten to make them pay back all the past loans, too. That will shut them up real quick. Imagine the economic boom that would follow if millions of Americans suddenly got enormous student loans rebates of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of dollars? The housing market would immediately explode, as many people use that money for a down payment.

We could do all this if we had a government that serves the people, instead of the wealthy. Remember that when we get it all back (and we WILL get it ALL back).

No Child Left Behind was signed into law by George Bush, so it was a Conservative scam from the beginning. Like all Conservative scams, it’s meant to work poorly, or not work at all, so that worse corrupt partisan concepts get promoted as government solutions. And surprise, what followed was the rise of Charter Schools and School Vouchers, siphoning tax money into private and religious educational enterprises where a most of the most gets converted into profits instead of education.

The educators - the people who actually gave enough of a fuck to go through years of college and take a dirt poor job because they believed in teaching - should be setting the curriculum. Not some bullshitting politician on the hill.

I don’t mind politicians who take the issue seriously being part of the solution, as long as they are participating in good faith. Conservative/ MAGA politicians should be totally banned from the table, we’re already too familiar with their “solutions.” They don’t get any input next time, they’re too stupid and corrupt, which is exactly what education is supposed to avoid, not encourage.

First of all, there should be one Federal curriculum for all schools. 2+2=4, CAT spells cat in every state. There is no reason to have 50 separate curriculums. The ONLY reason that exists is so MAGA states can use the schools to indoctrinate American schoolchildren into Confederate Treason, instead of giving their children an education that allows this country to compete in the world, instead of just compete against each other.

Oh they’re out there. Talking ABOUT them, instead of talking TO them pisses them off because they are looking for an argument with a “Liberal®” so they can practice the conservative debate skills they hear on the radio or TV when the host sounds so smart debating nobody. They think they can do it for real (they can’t), so it is immensely frustrating when their intended target won’t engage, and mocks them instead.

MAGAs. Sometimes I don’t even debate them, I ignore them and talk about them as if they weren’t there, make fun of their arguments, laugh at them, mock them, just generally bully them, without even addressing them directly. They really hate that.

MAGAs and Anti-Vaxxers are about the only acceptable bullying targets, and they should be bullied as viciously and as relentlessly as possible. The damage they have done is incalculable, they deserve it.

I loved to read, so if I got my work or test done quickly, I had time to read while everybody else was still.workung.

I was especially good with reading tests, because I was always the best reader in my classes in elementary school. I was always the first done.

You just described MAGA.

He spills enough alcohol on his hands that it kills the germs.

Dig deep enough, you’ll find something on anyone.

Yeah, because it isn’t about that. They don’t give a fuck about kids seeing porn. Even when there are age checks, there will be plenty of free porn.

It’s all about being able to connect an online post with the author.

Hey, Slaughterbot! Want some candy?

GRAB HIM!

Years ago, we had a big garden with snapdragons, and those big fat bumble bees would root deep inside the blossoms, with their big butts hanging out. My cat would go up and put her nose right on their butts to get a good whiff! Never got stung. The bees didn’t even really mind, it seemed.

Like Classical, Jazz is not a casual musical language. It requires extensive knowledge by both the artist and the listener.

Edit: Getting some resistanc, which is more than fair. I was a bit flippant with this answer. Like most genres of music, when someone mentions it, people think of the style that they know most.

For me, jazz is best represented by BeBop, which MANY people are imagining when they think of dense, non-melodic jazz that they hate, and that’s what I was thinking of. To understand Bop, it really, really helps to understand the underlying music theory. Bird and Diz and Miles and Trane were doing some amazing things, that become even more amazing when you know the theory.

OTOH, if the mention of jazz calls up Big Band music, or the Smooth Jazz of the 90s, you wouldn’t need any more musical knowledge to enjoy those, any more than any other more popular music.

Those genres are legitimate jazz as well, as are others, and I am actually a huge Big Band fan, so I shouldn’t have been so dismissive.

I’m going to start calling corn dogs Redneck Beef Wellington.

I like the idea of painting it, but to doesn’t have to be circus colors.

What? You mean when they are giving excuses for layoffs, the excuses are NOT the real reason? I’ve ALWAYS assumed they were ALWAYS telling us the truth! How can they do this? My entire world-view is smashed! I’m shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you!