The country that was

[DMac]

The progressive movement is currently in control without even being a recognized party....Biden is Bernie in disguise

YA, I love ya, but THIS is a MAJOR part of the problem. The American Right is delusional as to who's running things.

Of the 1st world nations, we are waaaaaay the F to the right, YA.

-no .gov health care
-no free (or next to free) training and education
-next to no unions
-military bases all over hell's half acre

It would be the EXACT opposite if progressives were calling the shots, my man. Hell, it would be close to the opposite if moderates like me were in charge. It's not even a close call, YA.

So if you think that the left is taking over? How are you going to react? That's right-------push more to the right. To wit: packing courts and Roe v. Wade, something Republicans agree with, FFS, gets cast aside.

Everyone kept saying how we need to walk in TrumpVoter's shoes. Y'all forgot to do the same, my man. Look at how America looks from the left, or from a minorities perspective. It would do ya good, IMHO.

You see referencing minorities is part or the problem. We are all Americans. Pointing out differences is a problem.

While we are all Americans, as a country we have a long history of not treating all Americans the same and/or fairly.
To not recognize who those Americans, all of whom are said to be created equal, are who are experiencing inequality
and unfair treatment seems to me to be a bigger problem than pointing it out.

[Typical Lax Dad]

The progressive movement is currently in control without even being a recognized party....Biden is Bernie in disguise

YA, I love ya, but THIS is a MAJOR part of the problem. The American Right is delusional as to who's running things.

Of the 1st world nations, we are waaaaaay the F to the right, YA.

-no .gov health care
-no free (or next to free) training and education
-next to no unions
-military bases all over hell's half acre

It would be the EXACT opposite if progressives were calling the shots, my man. Hell, it would be close to the opposite if moderates like me were in charge. It's not even a close call, YA.

So if you think that the left is taking over? How are you going to react? That's right-------push more to the right. To wit: packing courts and Roe v. Wade, something Republicans agree with, FFS, gets cast aside.

Everyone kept saying how we need to walk in TrumpVoter's shoes. Y'all forgot to do the same, my man. Look at how America looks from the left, or from a minorities perspective. It would do ya good, IMHO.

You see referencing minorities is part or the problem. We are all Americans. Pointing out differences is a problem.

While we are all Americans, as a country we have a long history of not treating all Americans the same and/or fairly.
To not recognize who those Americans, all of whom are said to be created equal, are who are experiencing inequality
and unfair treatment seems to me to be a bigger problem than pointing it out.

+1

[MDlaxfan76]

The progressive movement is currently in control without even being a recognized party....Biden is Bernie in disguise

YA, I love ya, but THIS is a MAJOR part of the problem. The American Right is delusional as to who's running things.

Of the 1st world nations, we are waaaaaay the F to the right, YA.

-no .gov health care
-no free (or next to free) training and education
-next to no unions
-military bases all over hell's half acre

It would be the EXACT opposite if progressives were calling the shots, my man. Hell, it would be close to the opposite if moderates like me were in charge. It's not even a close call, YA.

So if you think that the left is taking over? How are you going to react? That's right-------push more to the right. To wit: packing courts and Roe v. Wade, something Republicans agree with, FFS, gets cast aside.

Everyone kept saying how we need to walk in TrumpVoter's shoes. Y'all forgot to do the same, my man. Look at how America looks from the left, or from a minorities perspective. It would do ya good, IMHO.

You see referencing minorities is part or the problem. We are all Americans. Pointing out differences is a problem.

While we are all Americans, as a country we have a long history of not treating all Americans the same and/or fairly.
To not recognize who those Americans, all of whom are said to be created equal, are who are experiencing inequality
and unfair treatment seems to me to be a bigger problem than pointing it out.

Excellent statement.

[youthathletics]

Our country will be fine and will continue to be the standard.....flaws and all. We are merely going through a transitional phase, based primarily on 'culture' and change for the better. The progressive movement is currently in control without even being a recognized party....Biden is Bernie in disguise. And remember when Bernie was considered the looney-tune guy...well, we are damned near here. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a slight move left ain't always a bad thing....just ruffles a few feathers.

YA, I love ya, but THIS is a MAJOR part of the problem. The American Right is delusional as to who's running things.

Of the 1st world nations, we are waaaaaay the F to the right, YA.

-no .gov health care
-no free (or next to free) training and education
-next to no unions
-military bases all over hell's half acre

It would be the EXACT opposite if progressives were calling the shots, my man. Hell, it would be close to the opposite if moderates like me were in charge. It's not even a close call, YA.

So if you think that the left is taking over? How are you going to react? That's right-------push more to the right. To wit: packing courts and Roe v. Wade, something Republicans agree with, FFS, gets cast aside.

Everyone kept saying how we need to walk in TrumpVoter's shoes. Y'all forgot to do the same, my man. Look at how America looks from the left, or from a minorities perspective. It would do ya good, IMHO.

You see referencing minorities is part or the problem. We are all Americans. Pointing out differences is a problem.

While we are all Americans, as a country we have a long history of not treating all Americans the same and/or fairly.
To not recognize who those Americans, all of whom are said to be created equal, are who are experiencing inequality
and unfair treatment seems to me to be a bigger problem than pointing it out.

Since afan only cited a partial of my comment....I felt it necessary to re-insert my entire comment and bold his cite. I agree with what he is saying (as a moment in time), as I do with Dmac's post, which is why I reference 'cultural and change'.

"I" believe my comment does the very thing afan suggests in his last sentence, AND, I believe so will most Americans after we all come to our senses.

[Farfromgeneva]

Pretty much defines the reason for the post, agree across the board. This country is not in good shape and I'm very doubtful that it's fixable.

So, it ends in Civil War? When state legislatures are given supreme power by this corrupt court...do states start to secede and it becomes a mash-up of single "country-states" or groups of country-states occupying the same parts of North America? A Fan's rural dystopia can't be far behind...

Anarchy?

I need to start polishing up my novel on the subject...it may be about to become non-fiction...

I don't think it gets to that point. Abortion is the issue currently. If state laws don't fix it then a national law that passes Constitutional muster will. Wait until all the states have acted on abortion & see where we are.

That's not the problem that would lead to Civil War.

The problem is that your team (and you personally) keep playing with the "elections are fraudulent" fire. Keep adding fuel to THAT fire? The whole country will fall apart as armed nutjobs reject our elections.

Abortion or any other issue won't do anything close to that.

Yeah. I wish Hillary & Stacey Abrams would stop undermining faith in election results.

Bring back the dancing drop boxes.

Donald Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ may have actually influenced voters in Georgia runoff, research shows

Tanner SteningAugust 16, 2022
donald trump silhouetted from behind with white light
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Donald Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ may have actually influenced voters in Georgia runoff, research shows

Up Next


How did former president Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in Georgia during the 2020 general election impact the state’s subsequent Senate runoff election? Might it actually have tipped the scale in favor of Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock?

It’s a question that political scientists have been asking in the aftermath of the runoff that handed the Democrats a thin majority of seats in the Senate. And while it’s difficult to measure the effects that such claims have on voting behavior, researchers at Northeastern were able to show in a new paper that there were at least modest links between Trump’s “big lie” and how Georgians cast their vote in the crucial contest.

The study, published Tuesday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), looked to examine, broadly speaking, whether “public endorsements of conspiracy theories are associated with real-world voting behavior.”


Would a second term save Donald Trump from prosecution–even jail time?
read more
“In this, we test whether Georgia citizens who publicly endorsed or rejected conspiratorial content on Twitter prior to that state’s Senate runoff election turned out in that election at different rates than similarly situated Twitter users in Georgia who did not,” the authors wrote.

Researchers analyzed the social media posts from roughly 45,000 Georgia voters, which they cross-referenced with a digital voter identification database. What they found was that those voters whose Twitter posts promoted Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election turned out in fewer numbers than those voters whose posts expressed the opposite sentiment.

Specifically, the researchers found that “liking or sharing messages” opposed to the conspiracy theories was linked to higher-than-normal turnout at the polls. Those who liked or shared tweets that endorsed Trump’s falsehoods, on the other hand, were less likely to vote.

On their own, the results don’t definitively prove that belief in Trump’s election theft conspiracy actually deterred his base from voting (because believing it, it is reasoned in the paper, might lead adherents to think they couldn’t affect the outcome of a “rigged” election). Nor does it suggest that such bold lies galvanized Democrats to turn out in greater numbers.

Ahead of their findings, the researchers laid out other theories to explain how voters might respond to conspiracy theories about the election. Voters who bought into the conspiracy claims may have thought that Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler—in lending credence to the potential Democratic “trifecta” in the House, Senate and presidency (therefore, Joe Biden’s victory)—weren’t demonstrating “sufficient commitment to … Trump” and his claims of conspiracy and, therefore, were not worth supporting.

“However, election conspiracy theories could also encourage participation in subsequent elections by stoking political anger, directing adherents to continue democratic participation as a means of rectifying political opponents’ previous malfeasance,” the authors wrote.

The results of the study provide a foundation to analyze the voting behavior during the midterms and future elections, as more candidates embrace election disinformation as political strategy, says David Lazer, university distinguished professor of political science and computer science, and co-author of the research.

“The lesson we cannot quite draw is that pushing conspiracy theories will suppress turnout; but it does suggest caution [in deploying conspiracies] as a political strategy,” Lazer says. “This is very important to explore, because conspiracy theories around whether votes are being counted or miscounted in elections are now firmly ensconced in the American psyche.”

Lazer says the U.S. experiences “cyclical bouts of paranoia” in its electoral politics, but warns that Trump’s “big lie” represents a dangerous slide away from democratic norms.

“In the absence of meaningful consequences … this is an option that’s just on the table now for candidates,” says Jonathan Green, a senior research scientist at the Lazer Lab, the research outfit that conducted the study.

For media inquiries, please contact [email protected]

[Farfromgeneva]

In our seemingly inexorable march to cancel ourselves, how much longer do you figure it will be before the United States (a misnomer at best) is a country that was?

I questioned this about 6-8 years ago and people thought I was nuts. I don’t like what I am seeing. This country is very young….been saying it for years. What I didn’t also consider is that it’s the oldest democracy on the planet. I don’t believe people that want to be in power, want a democracy. It requires a certain degree of selflessness and country before the ego. I am note hopeful. January 6th was a HUGE deal in this country. Not because of the clowns climbing the walls but because of a criminal administration working to steal and election. The media is the enemy is the first step in overturning a democracy. When a coup takes place, media outlets are the first thing to be taken over. It’s not an accident.

I used to think the biggest risk to my grandkids living in the US was would the national debt be addressed. Now I believe it's politicians and political parties (honestly only one of them) willing to do anything to be elected and stay in power. We may have crossed the Rubicon in 2020.

What surprises me this election cycle is that election denial isn't the highest candidate criteria. It is for me.

Glad my parents, sensible, lifelong, Republicans aren’t around to see what’s going on today. The unreasonable following of a white-supremacist con man, followed by politicians too weak to say anything and citizenry too loyal to a party to care. It just doesn’t look good for the future.

How would they react to much of what the Dems are trying to do ?

Is that you talking or the Camp Lejeune water?

My Dad was on our local school board. My future father-in-law was President of that Board.
If they're looking down, they're grateful they didn't have to deal with today's issues.

Yep. Best to teach what’s always been taught. Got us through the 40’s and 50’s just fine and things started falling apart in the 60’s. Only gotten worse sense then. From 40’s to 60’s was the golden age. Halcyon days indeed.

I'm grateful for my humble Rural District #1 public school education. It prepared us well for a successful future. I hope that's still the case.

Times change-grandfather use to be grandmaster or whatever running this festival in WNY. https://www.ihsnet.org/steuben-county-d ... -schedule/

Also ran the local chapter of the Grange. Now it’s 67% free and reduced lunches and a massive Meth and opioid problem that’s growing like a cancerous weed.

Evaporating enrollment: Can New York’s rural school districts survive?

By syracuse.com | The Post-Standard
The Rural Data Journalism Project is a cooperative of journalists and data scientists focused on topics that matter to rural communities. The project team includes former Post-Standard journalists Richard Sullivan, Tom Foster and Lori Duffy Foster.

The Ripley Central School District, tucked away in a quiet corner of Western New York state near the banks of Lake Erie, served more than 500 students in 1994. Today, only 137 students are enrolled in the district, a loss of about 73 percent.

Some of that loss was intentional. Ripley pays to send its 100 high schoolers elsewhere so they will have more and better opportunities. It is a solution that is attracting attention in a state where enrollment in rural districts has declined steadily over the past 25 years.

"They are still our kids, so we are still invested in their successes," said Paul McCutcheon, president of the Ripley school board. "It works like a regional high school probably would."

Rural migration is a disturbing trend for those concerned about equality in education in New York state.

Economics and natural change are to blame for the decrease in rural populations nationwide, according to an analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But in New York's school districts, where two-thirds of nonfederal funding comes from local property taxes, the impact is particularly intense.

Even the brightest students in rural schools find it hard to compete for employment and college admissions with students from more populated areas, where advanced classes and electives are plentiful, experts say.

"The kind of educational programming and the breadth of curriculum you get is far too dependent on what the community itself can afford," said David Little, executive director of the Rural Schools Association of New York State. "That’s exactly the opposite of the way it is in virtually every other state in the union. Most states pay two thirds the cost of education, and the one third that locality pays for is really kind of curriculum enhancement."

When economies decline, so do property tax revenues. Fewer students and less local money means fewer opportunities. While their peers in urban and suburban school districts can choose from full menus of advanced placement, honors and college courses, many rural school districts can offer only a select few.

Foreign language courses are often limited to one or two choices. Classes like dance, theater and photography are nearly unheard of. Those limited options can make students less appealing to colleges and universities, Little said. His own son was rejected by his dream college because his high school did not offer the electives they were looking for.

"It is kind of this downward spiral that we are only now economically starting to get out of," Little said. "And until the state recognizes that these communities have a burden that’s far too dramatic for them to overcome on their own and the state agrees to alter the way that it funds public education, we won’t stop the spiral."

The state Education Department declined interview requests for this story, instead issuing a statement that says it is committed to ensuring all students thrive and succeed. The state received $1.6 billion in federal funds under the Every Student Succeeds Act to work on such strategies beginning in the spring of 2018, according to the statement. Of that money, $80 million is earmarked for improvements and programs in the state's lowest-performing districts, which includes rural schools.

"Above all, our ESSA plan emphasizes the importance of fostering equity in education for all of New York’s students. And one of the most important ways we do this by incentivizing districts to provide opportunities to all high school students to engage in advanced coursework that is often unavailable in smaller, rural school districts," according to the statement.

Little said the state's plans for the federal grant money give him hope, but he noted that New York City, as a high-needs district, will likely get half of the $80 million designated for program improvements, leaving only $40 million for the 320 rural districts that need it. Even if the money is well-used, the impact will not be great enough, he said.

Like Little, many experts agree that the long-term solution is to change the way public schools are funded in New York state. In the meantime, however, rural communities are getting creative. They are experimenting with regional high schools, community school districts and distance learning programs that offer students more options. They are working with local colleges and businesses to provide more jobs and train students for existing jobs.

They are evolving in order to survive, and Ripley has taken the lead.

"We had reached a point where we couldn't sustain what we needed to for a high school in terms of giving students educational options," McCutcheon said. "We had the bare necessities, but it was really difficult to have any kind of electives programs because we didn't have enough student body and enough tax base really to have a successful high school program."

In 2013, Ripley eliminated its high school classes and began paying tuition for its students to attend nearby Chautauqua Lake Central High School. Its students now have access to college courses, electives such as Mandarin Chinese and television production, and a variety of STEM classes. The two districts share administrative services as well, such as a transportation supervisor and a building manager.

Despite the enrollment loss, Ripley's halls are far from empty. To fill the void, Ripley leases office space to the town at cost. The district has also opened up its building to the community, housing a local food pantry and maintaining a fitness center that is free to residents.

The USDA's Department of Economic Research studies population migration. Their research reveals two major forces behind population decline in rural areas. The economy is one factor. Jobs are harder to find in rural areas, making urban and suburban areas more attractive, especially to recent college graduates.

The second reason is natural change. Elderly residents are dying at typical rates, but young people are having fewer babies. Recent statistics show slight increases in natural change in the past two years, offering some hope that losses overall will at least slow down.

Little said New York's rural districts have been particularly hard hit in the past seven years. He believes the state's high taxes are not only driving people out of rural areas but out of the state as a whole, worsening the problem.

"If I come out of college, and I am in a rural area, I not only have very few economic opportunities within a rural area to come back home to, but I also have to be willing, in addition to my student loans, to accept higher taxes and the higher debt load that will ensure that my taxes are higher going into the future," he said.

Little's organization is lobbying for an overhaul in the state funding system, but that will not help today's students. So, districts are exploring and implementing short-term solutions.

Mergers, once a popular answer to the problem, have mostly failed in recent years. Community schools and distance learning program are gaining popularity.

The concept of regional high schools has been tossed around for years, but the state has done little to promote it, said Bob Lowry, deputy director of the state’s Council of School Superintendents. Under a regional high school system, participating districts would retain their elementary and middle schools but would pick one building to serve all the area's high school students.

Such systems are popular in other states and have been successful in parts of Long Island, Little said.

"It really has the opportunity to transform rural New York,” he said

Regional high schools would be supported by all involved districts. The concept is similar to that of the state's Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which provides shared educational services and programs to school districts, mostly in special education, and career and technical education.

Each region has its own BOCES and each participating district has a representative on the BOCES school board. Districts decide each year what services they need, and then pay for those services out of their annual budgets.

Ripley's solution differs from the regional high school concept in that district residents have no representation on the Chautauqua Lake school board. The district pays nearly $8,000 per student each year. Ripley has no official say in class offerings, policy decisions or any other issues related to Chautauqua Lake High School.

The state's teachers union has traditionally opposed the creation of regional high schools, Lowry said. Teachers fear that merged high schools will lead to job losses, he said.

"We’ve already had the loss of jobs," Lowry said. "Now we are trying to save jobs and expand the curriculum. We need every teacher we can get."

Matthew Hamilton, spokesperson for New York State United Teachers, declined to comment specifically on the union's position on regional schools.

Don Carlisto, dean of students for Saranac Lake's middle school, sits on the NYSUT board of directors and is president of the Saranac Lake chapter. He said mergers and regional schools can succeed when all parties work together to do what is best for kids, teachers and residents.

Carlisto pointed to a recent merger of the Elizabethtown-Lewis and Westport central districts as an example.

"I think that we would be doing a disservice if we just sort of had this reflexive, kind of knee-jerk reaction that the teachers union are obstructionists," Carlisto said. "There are always going to be obstructionists. There are plenty of examples that I can cite where teachers unions are at the table with communities sort of moving issues forward."

Saranac Lake’s enrollment has dropped almost 35 percent since 1994, forcing the closing of all but one neighborhood elementary school. The district is already the state’s largest at more than 600 square miles. Some students sit on buses for more than an hour each way. Merging with another district would be impractical.

Saranac Lake has instead adopted the community schools concept with the support of the teachers union, the superintendent and the school board, Carlisto said. Community schools attempt to stave off migration by making rural life more appealing and more feasible. Schools become community centers, offering everything from medical services to day care to wellness centers.

"The community schools model basically says, let's make the school the hub of the community and house the services that kids need in the school building, where we have them for eight hours a day instead of making them travel to Glens Falls for a dentist appointment because that is the only place that they’ll be able to have their Medicaid accepted," Carlisto said. "We are trying to bring the services that they need into the school because, ultimately, if you are able to provide the resources and have a student be made whole, it leads to better educational outcomes."

The concept originated in McDowell County, West Virginia, ranked as one of the poorest counties in the nation.

In 2011, the local teachers union spearheaded the launch of Reconnecting McDowell, an effort to improve educational outcomes by addressing poverty and its impact on students and families. The effort has evolved into a partnership among Fortune 500 corporations and labor unions; national, state and local nonprofits and agencies; parents and pastors; school personnel and students, and local residents, according to a press release from the American Federation of Teachers.

Together, the groups have created community schools that have seen graduation rates increase from 74 percent in 2010-11 to 88 percent in 2015-16, and drop-out rates decrease from 4.5 percent to 1.6 percent during that same period, according to the union. Test scores increased overall and the number of students attending college jumped from 24.6 percent to 40.3 percent.

Carlisto gets excited when he talks about the role teachers unions can play in improving education and economies in rural areas. In Massena, the possible closure of an Alcoa plant, the area's biggest employer, in 2015 led to the creation of The People Project, an initiative of the Massena Federation of Teachers. The People Project focuses on economic development, health and wellness, and community schools. Its latest effort is the creation of a regional chamber of commerce.

“Teachers unions are engaging with communities in ways that maybe we haven’t before to defend the communities when their economic vitality is threatened,” Carlisto said. “I think ultimately that’s one of the strategies going forward to kind of start to mitigate and, hopefully, reverse this trend in declining involvement— enrollment. Making sure that communities are viable and sustainable and brimming with opportunity for folks.”

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[Farfromgeneva]

Pretty much defines the reason for the post, agree across the board. This country is not in good shape and I'm very doubtful that it's fixable.

So, it ends in Civil War? When state legislatures are given supreme power by this corrupt court...do states start to secede and it becomes a mash-up of single "country-states" or groups of country-states occupying the same parts of North America? A Fan's rural dystopia can't be far behind...

Anarchy?

I need to start polishing up my novel on the subject...it may be about to become non-fiction...

..

Guns N Roses?

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before
Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before
My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars
D'you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land
And
I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
Ow, oh no, no, no, no, no
Look at the shoes you're filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more
My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars
I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
I don't need one more war
I don't need one more war
No, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
Whaz so civil 'bout war anyway?


(Sidebar-my son is getting deep into music and made these two rockstar comments recently:

- Thor Ragnarok is better than Thor Love and Thunder because Led Zeppelin is better than Guns N Roses

- (with his sister watching the November Rain video) My 8yr old daughter: “why is that girl dead?!?!; (my son) “Bridget, don’t focus on the girl focus on slash!”

[Farfromgeneva]

If any and/or all of the above is an option for the answer to your questions I'd choose that one.
I'm kind of hoping it goes the civil war way as I'm kind of hoping I get the opportunity to pick
a few folks off from my bedroom window with my 30-30 (I rarely miss with that).
I really don't see how we stand too much longer if we don't become closer to united than we
once were, have a sense of pride in country, know who we are and what we are, and stop
pitting the citizenry against one another. It all looks pretty ugly to me, hopefully I'm seeing
it wrong but I wouldn't bet on that.

I’m a Mad Monk kind of guy myself.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=20U8WhABy1c

[Farfromgeneva]

Pretty much defines the reason for the post, agree across the board. This country is not in good shape and I'm very doubtful that it's fixable.

So, it ends in Civil War? When state legislatures are given supreme power by this corrupt court...do states start to secede and it becomes a mash-up of single "country-states" or groups of country-states occupying the same parts of North America? A Fan's rural dystopia can't be far behind...

Anarchy?

I need to start polishing up my novel on the subject...it may be about to become non-fiction...

..

One of my all time favorite movies suggest the path I would take in an all out civil war…

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/0c470a66-b ... e5306f67ef

[DMac]

Nah, I'm not swayed. The comfort of a toasty room with a mattress and windowsill for a gun rest sounds much more appealing to me.
Comes with nice snacks and hot or cold drinks too.

[Typical Lax Dad]

In our seemingly inexorable march to cancel ourselves, how much longer do you figure it will be before the United States (a misnomer at best) is a country that was?

I questioned this about 6-8 years ago and people thought I was nuts. I don’t like what I am seeing. This country is very young….been saying it for years. What I didn’t also consider is that it’s the oldest democracy on the planet. I don’t believe people that want to be in power, want a democracy. It requires a certain degree of selflessness and country before the ego. I am note hopeful. January 6th was a HUGE deal in this country. Not because of the clowns climbing the walls but because of a criminal administration working to steal and election. The media is the enemy is the first step in overturning a democracy. When a coup takes place, media outlets are the first thing to be taken over. It’s not an accident.

I used to think the biggest risk to my grandkids living in the US was would the national debt be addressed. Now I believe it's politicians and political parties (honestly only one of them) willing to do anything to be elected and stay in power. We may have crossed the Rubicon in 2020.

What surprises me this election cycle is that election denial isn't the highest candidate criteria. It is for me.

Glad my parents, sensible, lifelong, Republicans aren’t around to see what’s going on today. The unreasonable following of a white-supremacist con man, followed by politicians too weak to say anything and citizenry too loyal to a party to care. It just doesn’t look good for the future.

How would they react to much of what the Dems are trying to do ?

Is that you talking or the Camp Lejeune water?

My Dad was on our local school board. My future father-in-law was President of that Board.
If they're looking down, they're grateful they didn't have to deal with today's issues.

Yep. Best to teach what’s always been taught. Got us through the 40’s and 50’s just fine and things started falling apart in the 60’s. Only gotten worse sense then. From 40’s to 60’s was the golden age. Halcyon days indeed.

I'm grateful for my humble Rural District #1 public school education. It prepared us well for a successful future. I hope that's still the case.

Times change-grandfather use to be grandmaster or whatever running this festival in WNY. https://www.ihsnet.org/steuben-county-d ... -schedule/

Also ran the local chapter of the Grange. Now it’s 67% free and reduced lunches and a massive Meth and opioid problem that’s growing like a cancerous weed.

Evaporating enrollment: Can New York’s rural school districts survive?

By syracuse.com | The Post-Standard
The Rural Data Journalism Project is a cooperative of journalists and data scientists focused on topics that matter to rural communities. The project team includes former Post-Standard journalists Richard Sullivan, Tom Foster and Lori Duffy Foster.

The Ripley Central School District, tucked away in a quiet corner of Western New York state near the banks of Lake Erie, served more than 500 students in 1994. Today, only 137 students are enrolled in the district, a loss of about 73 percent.

Some of that loss was intentional. Ripley pays to send its 100 high schoolers elsewhere so they will have more and better opportunities. It is a solution that is attracting attention in a state where enrollment in rural districts has declined steadily over the past 25 years.

"They are still our kids, so we are still invested in their successes," said Paul McCutcheon, president of the Ripley school board. "It works like a regional high school probably would."

Rural migration is a disturbing trend for those concerned about equality in education in New York state.

Economics and natural change are to blame for the decrease in rural populations nationwide, according to an analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But in New York's school districts, where two-thirds of nonfederal funding comes from local property taxes, the impact is particularly intense.

Even the brightest students in rural schools find it hard to compete for employment and college admissions with students from more populated areas, where advanced classes and electives are plentiful, experts say.

"The kind of educational programming and the breadth of curriculum you get is far too dependent on what the community itself can afford," said David Little, executive director of the Rural Schools Association of New York State. "That’s exactly the opposite of the way it is in virtually every other state in the union. Most states pay two thirds the cost of education, and the one third that locality pays for is really kind of curriculum enhancement."

When economies decline, so do property tax revenues. Fewer students and less local money means fewer opportunities. While their peers in urban and suburban school districts can choose from full menus of advanced placement, honors and college courses, many rural school districts can offer only a select few.

Foreign language courses are often limited to one or two choices. Classes like dance, theater and photography are nearly unheard of. Those limited options can make students less appealing to colleges and universities, Little said. His own son was rejected by his dream college because his high school did not offer the electives they were looking for.

"It is kind of this downward spiral that we are only now economically starting to get out of," Little said. "And until the state recognizes that these communities have a burden that’s far too dramatic for them to overcome on their own and the state agrees to alter the way that it funds public education, we won’t stop the spiral."

The state Education Department declined interview requests for this story, instead issuing a statement that says it is committed to ensuring all students thrive and succeed. The state received $1.6 billion in federal funds under the Every Student Succeeds Act to work on such strategies beginning in the spring of 2018, according to the statement. Of that money, $80 million is earmarked for improvements and programs in the state's lowest-performing districts, which includes rural schools.

"Above all, our ESSA plan emphasizes the importance of fostering equity in education for all of New York’s students. And one of the most important ways we do this by incentivizing districts to provide opportunities to all high school students to engage in advanced coursework that is often unavailable in smaller, rural school districts," according to the statement.

Little said the state's plans for the federal grant money give him hope, but he noted that New York City, as a high-needs district, will likely get half of the $80 million designated for program improvements, leaving only $40 million for the 320 rural districts that need it. Even if the money is well-used, the impact will not be great enough, he said.

Like Little, many experts agree that the long-term solution is to change the way public schools are funded in New York state. In the meantime, however, rural communities are getting creative. They are experimenting with regional high schools, community school districts and distance learning programs that offer students more options. They are working with local colleges and businesses to provide more jobs and train students for existing jobs.

They are evolving in order to survive, and Ripley has taken the lead.

"We had reached a point where we couldn't sustain what we needed to for a high school in terms of giving students educational options," McCutcheon said. "We had the bare necessities, but it was really difficult to have any kind of electives programs because we didn't have enough student body and enough tax base really to have a successful high school program."

In 2013, Ripley eliminated its high school classes and began paying tuition for its students to attend nearby Chautauqua Lake Central High School. Its students now have access to college courses, electives such as Mandarin Chinese and television production, and a variety of STEM classes. The two districts share administrative services as well, such as a transportation supervisor and a building manager.

Despite the enrollment loss, Ripley's halls are far from empty. To fill the void, Ripley leases office space to the town at cost. The district has also opened up its building to the community, housing a local food pantry and maintaining a fitness center that is free to residents.

The USDA's Department of Economic Research studies population migration. Their research reveals two major forces behind population decline in rural areas. The economy is one factor. Jobs are harder to find in rural areas, making urban and suburban areas more attractive, especially to recent college graduates.

The second reason is natural change. Elderly residents are dying at typical rates, but young people are having fewer babies. Recent statistics show slight increases in natural change in the past two years, offering some hope that losses overall will at least slow down.

Little said New York's rural districts have been particularly hard hit in the past seven years. He believes the state's high taxes are not only driving people out of rural areas but out of the state as a whole, worsening the problem.

"If I come out of college, and I am in a rural area, I not only have very few economic opportunities within a rural area to come back home to, but I also have to be willing, in addition to my student loans, to accept higher taxes and the higher debt load that will ensure that my taxes are higher going into the future," he said.

Little's organization is lobbying for an overhaul in the state funding system, but that will not help today's students. So, districts are exploring and implementing short-term solutions.

Mergers, once a popular answer to the problem, have mostly failed in recent years. Community schools and distance learning program are gaining popularity.

The concept of regional high schools has been tossed around for years, but the state has done little to promote it, said Bob Lowry, deputy director of the state’s Council of School Superintendents. Under a regional high school system, participating districts would retain their elementary and middle schools but would pick one building to serve all the area's high school students.

Such systems are popular in other states and have been successful in parts of Long Island, Little said.

"It really has the opportunity to transform rural New York,” he said

Regional high schools would be supported by all involved districts. The concept is similar to that of the state's Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which provides shared educational services and programs to school districts, mostly in special education, and career and technical education.

Each region has its own BOCES and each participating district has a representative on the BOCES school board. Districts decide each year what services they need, and then pay for those services out of their annual budgets.

Ripley's solution differs from the regional high school concept in that district residents have no representation on the Chautauqua Lake school board. The district pays nearly $8,000 per student each year. Ripley has no official say in class offerings, policy decisions or any other issues related to Chautauqua Lake High School.

The state's teachers union has traditionally opposed the creation of regional high schools, Lowry said. Teachers fear that merged high schools will lead to job losses, he said.

"We’ve already had the loss of jobs," Lowry said. "Now we are trying to save jobs and expand the curriculum. We need every teacher we can get."

Matthew Hamilton, spokesperson for New York State United Teachers, declined to comment specifically on the union's position on regional schools.

Don Carlisto, dean of students for Saranac Lake's middle school, sits on the NYSUT board of directors and is president of the Saranac Lake chapter. He said mergers and regional schools can succeed when all parties work together to do what is best for kids, teachers and residents.

Carlisto pointed to a recent merger of the Elizabethtown-Lewis and Westport central districts as an example.

"I think that we would be doing a disservice if we just sort of had this reflexive, kind of knee-jerk reaction that the teachers union are obstructionists," Carlisto said. "There are always going to be obstructionists. There are plenty of examples that I can cite where teachers unions are at the table with communities sort of moving issues forward."

Saranac Lake’s enrollment has dropped almost 35 percent since 1994, forcing the closing of all but one neighborhood elementary school. The district is already the state’s largest at more than 600 square miles. Some students sit on buses for more than an hour each way. Merging with another district would be impractical.

Saranac Lake has instead adopted the community schools concept with the support of the teachers union, the superintendent and the school board, Carlisto said. Community schools attempt to stave off migration by making rural life more appealing and more feasible. Schools become community centers, offering everything from medical services to day care to wellness centers.

"The community schools model basically says, let's make the school the hub of the community and house the services that kids need in the school building, where we have them for eight hours a day instead of making them travel to Glens Falls for a dentist appointment because that is the only place that they’ll be able to have their Medicaid accepted," Carlisto said. "We are trying to bring the services that they need into the school because, ultimately, if you are able to provide the resources and have a student be made whole, it leads to better educational outcomes."

The concept originated in McDowell County, West Virginia, ranked as one of the poorest counties in the nation.

In 2011, the local teachers union spearheaded the launch of Reconnecting McDowell, an effort to improve educational outcomes by addressing poverty and its impact on students and families. The effort has evolved into a partnership among Fortune 500 corporations and labor unions; national, state and local nonprofits and agencies; parents and pastors; school personnel and students, and local residents, according to a press release from the American Federation of Teachers.

Together, the groups have created community schools that have seen graduation rates increase from 74 percent in 2010-11 to 88 percent in 2015-16, and drop-out rates decrease from 4.5 percent to 1.6 percent during that same period, according to the union. Test scores increased overall and the number of students attending college jumped from 24.6 percent to 40.3 percent.

Carlisto gets excited when he talks about the role teachers unions can play in improving education and economies in rural areas. In Massena, the possible closure of an Alcoa plant, the area's biggest employer, in 2015 led to the creation of The People Project, an initiative of the Massena Federation of Teachers. The People Project focuses on economic development, health and wellness, and community schools. Its latest effort is the creation of a regional chamber of commerce.

“Teachers unions are engaging with communities in ways that maybe we haven’t before to defend the communities when their economic vitality is threatened,” Carlisto said. “I think ultimately that’s one of the strategies going forward to kind of start to mitigate and, hopefully, reverse this trend in declining involvement— enrollment. Making sure that communities are viable and sustainable and brimming with opportunity for folks.”

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Back when this country made sense.

[old salt]

Back when this country made sense.

The first drag queen story time.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Back when this country made sense.

The first drag queen story time.

You would know.

[old salt]

Back when this country made sense.

The first drag queen story time.

You would know.

I missed the show.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Back when this country made sense.

The first drag queen story time.

You would know.

I missed the show.

You need some p*ssy.

[PizzaSnake]

The "is" is always the "was". There is no future, only the present.

Having said that, I think the changes that the increasing pace of climate change will have on the pillars of civilization: readily available potable water, relatively temperate climate (lack of temperature and precipitation extremes), will induce such unimaginable variations from the generally expected that we will have no idea what hit us.

Or, to employ the vernacular, "we fncked".

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environ ... -rcna53900

"The amount of carbon dioxide and two other greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere hit record highs last year, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report published Wednesday.

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the three main greenhouse gases responsible for trapping heat in the atmosphere and driving global warming. The WMO’s latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, published annually, found that concentrations of all three reached new highs last year — a worrying trend and a sign that the world is not doing enough to fight climate change.

“WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin has underlined, once again, the enormous challenge — and the vital necessity — of urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global temperatures rising even further in the future,” Petteri Taalas, the WMO’s secretary-general, said in a statement.

The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from 2020 to 2021 was larger than the average annual growth rate over the past decade, according to the report. The WMO also said last year's rise in methane levels was the biggest year-on-year jump since such measurements began almost 40 years ago."

Know you like it so heres Rust Cohle confirming your thesis

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0mhZBLUyybo

One of the greatest characters in cinematic history.

Word! Have watched season 1 four times. That scene he’s undercover robbing the drug dealers is straight up seminal filmography.

I sadly feel him a lot in his nihilism and breakdown at the end though I can’t tell if it’s because I’m twisted up or because that’s freaking great art.

It’s freaking great art.

And “Art is truth.”

It takes you to that place and reveals/teaches a basic human truth you can’t escape.

It’s why art is so important.

'When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."'

John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/ ... recian-urn

[PizzaSnake]

Back when this country made sense.

The first drag queen story time.

You would know.

I missed the show.

Looks like ole Jason has some repressed urges he needs to confront.

[wgdsr]

"Regional high schools would be supported by all involved districts. The concept is similar to that of the state's Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which provides shared educational services and programs to school districts, mostly in special education, and career and technical education.

Each region has its own BOCES and each participating district has a representative on the BOCES school board. Districts decide each year what services they need, and then pay for those services out of their annual budgets."


boces reference!

[Farfromgeneva]

"Regional high schools would be supported by all involved districts. The concept is similar to that of the state's Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which provides shared educational services and programs to school districts, mostly in special education, and career and technical education.

Each region has its own BOCES and each participating district has a representative on the BOCES school board. Districts decide each year what services they need, and then pay for those services out of their annual budgets."


boces reference!

BOCES is a good program isn't it? I'm sure I made fun of the kids in HS who were in it becuase I am a slowly, eventually reforming a+hole, but believe it was a good thing.

[wgdsr]

"Regional high schools would be supported by all involved districts. The concept is similar to that of the state's Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which provides shared educational services and programs to school districts, mostly in special education, and career and technical education.

Each region has its own BOCES and each participating district has a representative on the BOCES school board. Districts decide each year what services they need, and then pay for those services out of their annual budgets."


boces reference!

BOCES is a good program isn't it? I'm sure I made fun of the kids in HS who were in it becuase I am a slowly, eventually reforming a+hole, but believe it was a good thing.

of course it's a good thing. we were idiots. ftr, i was an ass at times, too, and some might say i still am.

but i moved around a lot as a kid. one thing i was always cognizant of was not picking on anyone who was out of the popular crowd. did i laugh at jokes as those folks weren't around, not do enough to squash that behavior and in effect promote it? unfortunately, yes.