Yeah, as much as I'd love for there to be public proof of extraterrestrial intelligence in my lifetime, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a spook version of the telephone game going on here. Some off the books program where they are bending a few budgetary rules that would get them in hot water with Congress, maybe. That program is compartmentalized from the rest of the intelligence community for obvious reasons (wild technology, rule bending). But eventually someone else inside the government figures out that "they have something". That "something" gets passed along, and passed along in internal discussions, getting slightly wilder with each retelling, until voila ... aliens.
This is the actual point. The GOP is bent out of shape at the moment, not only because the kids want some semblance of economic justice and vote accordingly, but also because higher education accreditors are low key threatening to withdraw accreditation from institutions (like the New College of Florida) in states where GOP governors are stripping faculty of academic freedom and imposing political points of view in the classroom.
So, of course, politicians like DeSantis who depend on culture war bullshit for support are suing over the higher education accreditation system, arguing that accreditation as a gateway to Federal funding should be in the hands of state departments of education. See: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/06/23/desantis-sues-biden-administration-over-accreditation
So just to be clear what is going on: the "free market / free speech" GOP is suing to impose a state takeover of higher education standards so that they can impose political content in the classroom ("the happy, happy slaves learned valuable skills in Ole' Dixie, yay!"). That is straight up Orwellian.
This is reason #1001 as to why we need to get out and vote.
Y’all went off the rails right about here when this got personal. You can try again, or better yet just disengage since this seems like a fairly low stakes disagreement.
I can tell you from first-hand experience that (a) this is real, and (b) it is no different strategically than what the United States has done for years with some of its own foreign aid programs.
In fairness, there has been something of an evolution over the last 30 years in the way institutions like USAID approach development assistance. There is now at least some semblance of self-reflection over the need for co-creation with local stakeholders, an emerging focus on inclusivity, and attention to actual aid effectiveness (as opposed to the naked bribery described in this article). And of course, many elements in the GOP now want to cut back or kill those programs, but that is another discussion entirely.
And before someone calls me out, yet another discussion would be the U.S. track record of starting wars with suspicious links to oil reserves. At that point the mask is off and foreign aid only appears as an afterthought, if it does at all (bricks of cash flown to Iraq being a prime example).
The internet is full of places where low grade antagonistic sarcasm is considered a desirable way to communicate. Those places tend to be toxic shitholes, but whatever. Point is, if you feel like that communication style fits you better, go forth and prosper.
I thought we settled this shit in 1865.
It is totally OK to be young and still forming your opinions! It is doubly OK, a sign of maturity even, to be self-aware about where those opinions are abased in fact and where they are driven by emotion (well done, there).
Now, if you can add a healthy understanding of how your opinions might impact the emotions of others (say, pregnant people whose health is under threat), why, you’ve got yourself the makings of an adult conversation.
So maybe go back, re-read the title of the article and give it a think. You’ll be miles ahead of 99% of the ‘adults’ on the internet if you do.
So “Arbeit Macht Frei” basically.
I don’t know what is more disturbing, that they are incorporating actual fascist ideology into their curricula, or that these supposed ‘educators’ are so ignorant of history that they don’t realize they are doing so.
The problem is that a vocal minority (edit: majority, these days) of GOP voters care deeply about culture war FUD and reliably show up at the ballot box. In the meantime, large swathes of the Democratic base are just not seeing anything in the candidates who claim to speak on their behalf that inspires them to get out and vote.
Add a demographic tilt toward older voters who are easy to scare and have time on their hands to turn out and run the gauntlet of election day inconvenience, and this is what you get.
If you are planning 3D designs, Fusion360 takes a bit of getting used to but is extremely powerful.
https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/
You can register for a free hobby license for the scaled down version, or a free educational license of the full version. It has good CAD capabilities and on the CAM side can generate g-code for 3D printing and CNC, or else allow you to export STL models direct to a slicer.
He wants to be able to direct the Justice Department to ignore his crimes and persecute his political enemies. <— Writing this, I realize it flows off the keyboard as the sort of breathless rage bait that you see on Twitter, but in this case it is literally true.
No doubt. I was thinking about Southern ‘patriots’ deciding they can ignore the federal government when it suits them. But to your point, they had to send in marshals just so little kids could go to school, and that happened in living memory so … yeah.