***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[whywesteppin]

 

[getback]

 

 

[whywesteppin]

^

 

[EddieDoyers]

That's an insult to chimps

 

[ninjahood]

IDK bout promote...it's definitely gonna open it up for all creeds though.

So you're good with taxpayer dollars being spent to send children to private religious schools without public accountability?

define "accountability"..if da school is bad da kids will vote with their $$

I seen how he looks, imagining him reading his monologue to me live looking like he styles Prince Royce talking bout alpha male.. ite b.

Did you ever get around to explaining why Devos is right for the job?

Im indifferent...I thought da success academy boss was gonna fill the role.

 

[dathbgboy]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but for this whole voucher thing to work, wouldn't private schools have to accept them? They aren't federally funded so they don't have to adhere to what the federal and state education depts want.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Schools don't have to take them, but their will ton of companies ready to start Charter schools to accept them

The finesse game with them is basically they keep all the high performing, "cheap" students to educate, and the suspend and kick out all the low performing, "expensive" kids to educate back to public school.

 

[Belgium]

define "accountability"..if da school is bad da kids will vote with their $$
Im indifferent...I thought da success academy boss was gonna fill the role.

Do you believe Devos for secretary of education should be confirmed or rejected when she has demonstrated a complete lack of competence for the job? Do any of the quotes below change your indifference on her confirmation?

Do you believe the quotes below present adequate competency for the very important position she will be filling?

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/betsy-devos-education-trump-religion-232150

She has advocated spending tax dollars on private and religious schools and has cited she wants to expand God's kingdom through education policy

 
Trump’s pick, Betsy DeVos, a national leader of the school choice movement, has pursued that work in large part by spending millions to promote the use of taxpayer dollars on private and religious schools.

Her comments came during a 2001 meeting of “The Gathering,” an annual conference of some of the country’s wealthiest Christians. DeVos and her husband, ****, were interviewed a year after voters rejected a Michigan ballot initiative to change the state’s constitution to allow public money to be spent on private and religious schools, which the DeVoses had backed.

In the interview, an audio recording, which was obtained by POLITICO, the couple is candid about how their Christian faith drives their efforts to reform American education.

School choice, they say, leads to “greater Kingdom gain.” The two also lament that public schools have “displaced” the Church as the center of communities, and they cite school choice as a way to reverse that troubling trend.

The audio from the private gathering, though 15 years old, offers a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of DeVos’ personal views — views that may guide her decision-making as the nation’s top education official. DeVos has repeatedly said she wants policies that give families choices about their children’s education — the choice of public schools included — but her critics fear that her goal is to shift public funding from already beleaguered traditional public schools to private and religious schools.

DeVos remains a harsh critic of the traditional education system, which she calls a “monopoly” and a “dead end.” But she said in the audio that she doesn’t want to destroy public education — only inject competition.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...nts-with-disabilities/?utm_term=.357537e12ef8

And failed to demonstrate her competence in the hearings with a lack of knowledge on a number of key issues

 
Betsy DeVos displayed at best confusion and at worst a lack of knowledge about a key federal law involving students with disabilities during her Tuesday confirmation hearing before a Senate panel that will vote on whether she should become President-elect Donald Trump’s education secretary.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) asked DeVos about the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires public schools to provide children with disabilities a “free appropriate public education” and governs how states and public agencies provide various services to millions of students.

Kaine asked her if she believes that all schools that receive federal funding — whether public, public charter or private — should be required to meet the requirements of IDEA.

She responded: “I think they already are.”

Kaine: “But I’m asking you a should question. Whether they are or not, we’ll get into that later.” He then repeated his question.

DeVos said: “I think that is a matter that is best left to the states.”

Kaine responded: “So some states might be good to kids with disabilities and other states might not be so good and, what then, people can just move around the country if they don’t like how kids are being treated?”

Devos repeated: “I think that’s an issue that’s best left to the states.”

Kaine said: “What about the federal requirement? It’s a federal law, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act,” and he repeated his question.

DeVos began speaking about a Florida voucher program for students with disabilities that requires students to sign away their IDEA due process rights.

Kaine interrupted her saying, “Just yes or no.” But she continued, saying many parents are happy with the program. Kaine persisted: “I think all schools that receive federal funding — public, public charter, private — should be required to meet the conditions” of IDEA. He asked if she agreed.

DeVos said: “I think that is certainly worth discussion.”

Kaine interrupted her saying, “So you cannot yet agree with me.”

And he moved on to another subject, on which they didn’t agree.

Near the end of the hearing, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) returned to the issue, telling DeVos that IDEA is a federal civil rights law and noting that federal law must be followed. She asked DeVos if she stood by her statement that it was up to the states to follow it, and DeVos responded, “Federal law must be followed where federal dollars are in play.”

Hassan asked, “So were you unaware when I just asked you bout the IDEA that it was a federal law?”

DeVos responded, “I may have confused it.”

Hassan then explained to DeVos what IDEA actually guarantees to students with disabilities, and urged her to learn about it, saying she was “concerned” that DeVos was unfamiliar with it. DeVos responded that if she is confirmed as education secretary, she would be “very sensitive” to the needs of special needs students.

And declined to denounce the idea of guns in schools

 
Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary, declined to take a stand on whether guns belong in the nation’s schools while answering senators’ questions during her confirmation hearing Tuesday.

Decisions about firearms in schools should be left to local and state officials, DeVos said in response to a question from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). DeVos pointed to a rural Wyoming school that is surrounded by a fence to keep bears out. “I would imagine there’s probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies,” she said.

And failed to answer a basic question on education policy, which is pretty essential to the role she will be filling

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...nswer-question-education-policy-a7533131.html

 
Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary has come under scrutiny after failing to answer a basic question on education policy.

Speaking at her Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Republican donor Betsy DeVos  was asked to explain her views on how test scores should be used in schools.

The proficiency-versus-growth argument is one that has been widely debated among US policy-makers. Assessing pupils on “proficiency” means to mark them on benchmark grades, whereas judging them by “growth” would be to measure the degree of progress they have made over time.

Answering her interviewer Sen. Al Franken in the live broadcast, Ms DeVos made it clear she was unaware of the difference.

“I think if I am understanding your question correctly around proficiency, I would correlate it to competency and mastery, so each student according to the advancements they are making in each subject area,” she said.

“That’s growth,” Franken replied, “that’s not proficiency”. 

By the time Ms DeVos appeared to understand Mr Franken’s question, she had run out of time to answer.

The idea that growth and proficiency are both important tools for assessing of schools’ progress, but that growth is a key factor in determining teaching quality overall, was one that came up frequently in recent debate over rewriting the US law.

At the hearing on Tuesday, Ms DeVos also appeared to struggle when questioned on other Education Department issues including the private schools voucher scheme, student debt and the bedrock federal law guaranteeing an education to students with disabilities.

As education secretary, Ms DeVos would lead the agency responsible for policies affecting public schools, and be in charge of executing Mr Trump's campaign promise to use $20 billion in federal funds to create school choice programmes.

Should she win the post, Ms DeVos would also be responsible for deciding whether to rewrite the Obama administration’s rules for what individual state requirements for schools should adhere to.

 

[whywesteppin]

they adjourned the court... decision will come later this week on the travel ban.

i'm no lawyer and i have no idea about most of what they were talking about but the tone of the judges made it sound like they will uphold the ban of the ban.

 

[RustyShackleford]

That's exactly what NH came in here to do...lmao my dude has 0 aspirations of having a family from what I can tell, yet he wants to parade as an advocate for anti-abortion laws and is celebrating the nomination of quite possibly a worst qualified person than Trump is as president....**** is laughable...

The notion of ninjahood with a family has me dying over here.  Where is his wife and the kids gonna stay?   

Mannnnn, I'm trying to be better and not make the low hanging fruit jokes about Ninja, but you'll be hanging these curve balls over the plate

 

[Belgium]

The Netherlands' own Donald Trump on steroids has reached a new low. Prosecuted for hate speech twice, convicted once but with no penalty.

http://www.businessinsider.de/geert...r-pechtold-radical-islamists-2017-2?r=US&IR=T

Geert Wilders, the head of the anti-Islam, anti-immigration Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands, has tweeted an extraordinary fake picture of a rival surrounded by radical Islamists.

Wilders shared the doctored picture of pro-European, pro-democracy, social-liberal D66 leader Alexander Pechtold at a protest holding up a sign that reads: "Islam will dominate the world, freedom can go to hell."

In the image, Pechtold is surrounded by other signs reading "Islam will conquer Europe" and "Shariah for the Netherlands."

The tweet, in which Wilders asks "Pechtold demonstrates with Hamas terrorists. What is the next step?," has sparked a row over fake news in the Netherlands with the country's election just over a month away.

Pechtold responded in a post on his Facebook page. He said: "Usually I laugh at photoshopped pictures on the internet. But not this time. Not because I can't stand up for myself... but because it gives people false impressions."

"In these times of fake news and alternative facts, we can't just ignore the consequences that such a fake image can have. I draw the line today. And I hope many will join me."

He also wrote about how a few months ago he sued a PVV supporter who sent him death threats, adding that he told the judge it was not a normal way to treat each other in the Netherlands.

Many Dutch politicians supported Pechtold. Jesse Klaver, leader of GroenLinks (Green Left), called Wilders' tweet "low and irresponsible," according to AFP. Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher, leader of the Labour party, re-tweeted Wilders' tweet with "delete your account."

Wilders hit back against Pechtold on Twitter, saying: "Stop complaining, drama queen. You have demonstrated standing among Palestinian flags, with friends of Hamas. #hypocrite."

On Tuesday morning, Wilders posted another doctored picture of Pechtold on Twitter in which his head is pasted on the body of a woman drinking a glass of wine:

 

[dathbgboy]

Schools don't have to take them, but their will ton of companies ready to start Charter schools to accept them

The finesse game with them is basically they keep all the high performing, "cheap" students to educate, and the suspend and kick out all the low performing, "expensive" kids to educate back to public school.

Then they will lose the money since the money is tied to the student.

 

[whywesteppin]

How is this real life?

Adults acting like 3rd grade trolls.

 

[EddieDoyers]

Baby boomers are wack dawg

 

[whywesteppin]

The faces of evil:

They sure are a bunch of ugly mother *******

They pose the biggest threat that our nation has faced since WWII.

Evil must be defeated.

**** it, i'm adding ***** boy brady too:

 

[MVP]

Jake Tapper has had it!

 

[EddieDoyers]

Jake Tapper has had it!

What did he say?

 

[mister friendly]

Jake Tapper has had it!

What was said?

 

[MVP]

What did he say?

That video on the last page. Basically calling them out on their BS. The Cryptkeeper tried her best to dodge, but he kept at it.

 

[Belgium]

Sen. Warren was going all the way in on Sessions and was using past material from when he was denied for a federal judge position but another senator (sounded like McConnell) objected to letting her continue speaking because she "broke rule 19"

Chairman agreed. 

Warren asked for a live quorum in response, not sure what that means though

https://www.c-span.org/video/?423651-101/us-senate-debates-attorney-general-nomination&live

Edit: It's a vote on Warren's appeal of the ruling that she violated rule 19 on impugning a senator

 

[Nike Jordan]

I posted the original video yesterday, but it was taken down by CBS News.

 

[getback]

I just wanna see Bernie lose it and punch Cruz's face in.

 

[Nawzlew]

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

 

[everysingletime]

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

Whose quote is that. Nice quote.

 

[everysingletime]

I wonder what the Trump voters who criticized Hilary about pay to play have to say about Betsy DeVos. Isn't chica basically a walking definition of pay to play