We recently discussed controversies on race criteria from college admissions cases pending before the Supreme Court to the threshold criteria used by President Joe Biden for his Supreme Court nominee. Now, a federal district court in Northern Virginia has handed down a major decision in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, ruling that a new admissions policy at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Fairfax, Virginia is unconstitutional. Recently, the county decided to change the admissions system for the elite school to increase minority enrollment. Judge Claude Hilton ruled that the county unconstitutionally engineered the reduction of Asian-American students to achieve greater racial diversity.
As a parent of Fairfax public school students. TJ was always the premier high school for the most gifted students in the county. Even if your kids did not get into TJ, there has been great pride for its ranking as one of the best high schools in the country. Many parents were opposed when the county announced that it would pursue greater diversity in admissions. We have been discussing a movement to eliminate gifted and talented programs in cities ranging from Boston to New York to San Francisco.
The Court details the push to diversify the top school after the death of George Floyd.
“In June emails, Corbett Sanders promised intentional action. In an email to Brabrand, Corbett Sanders wrote that ‘the Board and FCPS need to be explicit in how we are going to address the under-representation of Black and Hispanic students.’ At a June 18 Board meeting, Keys-Gamarra said that ‘in looking at what has happened to George Floyd, we now know that our shortcomings are far too great . . . so we must recognize the unacceptable numbers of such things as the unacceptable numbers of African Americans that have been accepted to T.J.'”
As in the cases on the docket for the Supreme Court, Asian Americans alleged discrimination against them in these diversification programs. Judge Hilton wrote that “emails and text messages between Board members and high-ranking FCPS officials leave no material dispute that, at least in part, the purpose of the Board’s admissions overhaul was to change the racial makeup of TJ to the detriment of Asian-Americans….” He noted that, due to the new policy, “Asian American representation dropped from roughly 70 percent to around 50 percent of the class.”
As noted earlier, I believe that TJ should select students entirely based on scholastic achievement irrespective of their race or other criteria. While the country as a whole continues to fall behind other nations in math and science, TJ is one of the few exceptions — attracting brilliant students who are given highly advanced training. Math and science are fields given to objective testing and scoring. Students should be assured that they will be measured on their objective scores and rewarded for the hard work necessary to achieve admission.
What is interesting is how the diversification was achieved. The county limited the number of students admitted from any given middle school. That effectively limited the number of Asian-American students.
“FCPS staff then developed a proposal for a ‘Merit Lottery’ for TJ admissions, which they presented to the Board on September 15. The proposal stated that ‘TJ should reflect the diversity of FCPS, the community and Northern Virginia.’ The proposal discussed the use of ‘regional pathways’ that would cap the number of offers each region in FCPS (and the other participating jurisdictions) could receive. It included the results of Shughart’s modeling, which showed the projected racial effect of applying the lottery with regional pathways to three previous TJ classes. Each of the three classes would have admitted far fewer Asian-American students under the proposed lottery system.”
The summary judgment decision will now allow the county to appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
From each according to his ability to each according to his needs. An idea professed by the trained Marxist who are the leaders of Black Lives Matter. The truth of black lives mattering taken and twisted into a mantra that is used as a means to power and money that is soon stolen. Lives do matter and should not be used by con artist to fill their bank accounts. It turns out that money earned by their abilities was not given to those according to their needs. Somehow they still use the poor versus the rich never ending screed to make themselves more wealthy. One should not be surprised by the lack of the morality by the socialists and semi socialists of the left. Did we somehow believe that they would not bring their philosophy to our high schools? There are many who believe it could not happen here. It is important that we recognize it for what it is and that it is happening here. Eight months from now you will have the ability to determine the direction of YOUR nation.
The Performance School issue is part of a larger issue in today’s politics. As Biden and the Democrats’ continue to do everything for one segment of the population they are losing almost all of the other segments. What do you think the Dems and Biden’s approval ratings are among Asians today? What do you think the Hispanic population thinks about BLM, Defund the Police, the open border and even Ukraine?
What do Asians, Latinos and every other minority group think when Biden announces that he will only pick a VP that is a Black woman and that he will only choose to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court (6% of the population)? Just as an aside: sure it is fine if a Black woman is on the Court, but Biden HIMSELF FILLIBUSTERED a Black woman moving up the chain to Justice. That’s right he used a relic of Jim Crow to stop a Black woman from advancing. But the point of this case and this issue is that when you favor one group over ALL others it will hurt you politically.
The left and the media, pardon the redundancy, love to tell all of us that Asians are being attacked due to Trump’s rhetoric all the while the Asians are seeing the attacks on them coming from black Americans. The Asians know what is happening.
The left and the media, see above, tell us that Latinos are for the Democrats and their policies as they see their communities being destroyed by crime that is ignored by LEFTIST, DEMOCRATIC prosecutors. Hispanics know what is happening. many Blacks also see what is happening to their cities and they also hate it.
Suburban Independents are seeing their daughters losing scholarships due to trans swimmers and other athletes and they see their heating bills, gas bills and grocery bills skyrocket. They also see crime on the LOCAL NEWS, since the Networks ignore it.
So we have Asians leaving the Democrats in droves, Hispanics leaving in droves, Independents leaving in droves and even a decent percentage of Blacks leaving the party. This is what policies of the far left have done to the party and until it stops there will be a serious reckoning at the ballot box, the only place where Americans can still have an opinion IN PRIVATE.
Is TJ, without question and by all objective standards, a top-performing school? No doubt then it produces high performing graduates of all demographics. So if discriminating by immutable characteristics violates the rights of man, then clearly it cannot be used to secure rights.
“We have been discussing a movement to eliminate gifted and talented programs…”
We also need to discuss the opposite tactic that is being used in Charlottesville where they have declared 86% of their students “gifted” to achieve racial equity. It is every bit as racist, dysfunctional and wrong as eliminating gifted programs.
Woke racism is a religious cult that must be resisted. It is both disrespectful to and harmful to black people. It is disrespectful in that it assumes black people cannot succeed on their merits. It is harmful in that it prevents us from addressing the very real problems stemming from our failure to teach all students to read.
Lefty665, so now 86% of students are declared to be gifted. Every day I am more amazed how prescient George Orwell was when he wrote about doublespeak in his novel 1984. The common approach by the leftist is “If we want your opinion we will tell you what it is.” What side of the political spectrum is using doublespeak to its greatest advantage? It’s the side that considers you to be in the basket of the deplorables.
Dumb our children down so they can have the same IQ and Values. And everyone will be equal. But how does the school change the color of their skin and to which color will they chose?
“Dumb our children down so they can have the same IQ and Values. And everyone will be equal.”
– anolesman
__________
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
– Karl Marx
_________
Total “dictatorship of the proletariat (i.e. striking teacher, police, fire, public worker et al. unions).”
– Central Planning (directed taxation, voided private property rights)
– Control of the Means of Production (regulation)
– Redistribution of Wealth (confiscatory taxation)
– Social Engineering (affirmative action)
– Karl Marx
_________
Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto 59 years after the adoption of the Constitution because none of the principles of the Communist Manifesto were in the Constitution. Had the principles of the Communist Manifesto been in the Constitution, Karl Marx would have had no reason to write the Communist Manifesto. The principles of the Communist Manifesto were not in the Constitution then and the principles of the Communist Manifesto are not in the Constitution now.
The entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional.
A very fair interpretation of our current mess with an engorged federal government and its parasitic bureaucracy.
The best and most lasting way to bring underserved students to the academic level required for admission in such an institution is to create a program that identifies and nurtures young students.
Provider for them an academic team to coach them and prepare them for this level of academic performance.
To quote one of my favorite mathematics professors, “There are two kinds of math. Hard math and easy math. Hard math is the kind of math that you don’t know how do. Easy math is the kind of math that you know how to do.”
He also said, “Paper is cheap.” (Practice)
I spent several years of my early career as a classroom teacher in an extremely underserved community. Many of our children lived in squalor, were poorly bathed, and struggled academically. The principal was a true school master and gifted individual. She formed a “Battle of the Books” team and coached them in her office during certain times of the day and after school was over.
They read fifty books and drilled on the content, characters, plots and went to the competition. They blew away all their competition and humiliated the students from the rich kid school. They repeated their level of performance year after year. The rich kid school cried foul. “It’s not fair that they are coached by the principal!”
Our principal who had twenty six years in classroom before becoming an administrator replied, “You can do the same.”
The teacher is the key factor for success.
We now have an environment where much more money is expended per child and there is an abundance of curricular programs and a never ending surplus of administration and politicians with their fingers in the pie.
There are also an abundance of talented students who have been cheated out of a good education because of schools where they enact their social experiments. What should be done instead is recruit gifted and talented teachers and create an environment where they can thrive and want to stay. Many have been driven away. Their hands are tied.
It is like growing a tree. It takes years of methodical care before it truly bears fruit.
You are partly correct but all the efforts of schools cannot change a vacant, absent home environment where generational welfare subsistence and crime are endemic because of 60+ years of that failed anthropological experiment “The Great Society” legislation of the democrats.
Alma this is not true. Roland Fryer and Thomas Sowell have shown that charter school methods, which boil down to good teaching of basic skills, time on task, high expectations, and discipline, can largely overcome disadvantages of the kind you mention. The educational establishment doesn’t care, however, because it is contrary to their “anti-racist” ideology and would end the role for DEI apparatchiks.
Sowel is partly correct but if the inherent home life or lack of nurturing on a personal family level is missing, there is little that any agency can do to fill that gap and single parent families are the most prevalent reason for this and the welfare state is the single most prevalent reason for this. Stop the nanny state to recreate the traditional family structure, then you can tackle the educational needs of low income.
The schools Sowell examined substantially eliminated the achievement gap despite difficulties of the kind you mention. Schools can’t do everything for everyone but they can do a lot more than they are doing now. The educational establishment uses your argument as a means of shifting responsibility for poor outcomes away from themselves to society at large, and its “systemic racism.” Like you they believe society must be fixed first, before educational results can be improved. They just have a different diagnosis of the nature and causes of, and solutions for, society’s ills.
I agree but the stumbling block is the unionized education industry (including the universities that start this ball rolling). And if you broke up the public school; monopoly you would also break up the strangle hold on academic publishing.
I agree with that. Sowell views the teachers unions as a major impediment to educating disadvantaged black and Hispanic students, along with the Democrat politicians they fund. They are tenacious in their opposition to charter schools.
Daniel, the schools you mentioned, require engaged parents. Student wont find their way without help. If you get them there, zero support, or negative support short circuits the process.
My daughter taught elementry, in low income schools. The kids do not show up,Clean, rested or fed. It doesn’t take money for that to happen.
After 3 years I asked my daughter what she discovered about teaching that shocked her. After some thought, she said the number of students that don’t know they are loved.
That sums up the problem
That sort of testimony needs to be highlighted more when discussing the reason for our failing schools. It is not just about lack of funds, it is about a collapsed family structure that was destroyed by the failed dream of progressives to “perfect mankind” via government fiat on the taxpayer’s dime but without the taxpayer’s input.
Sowell compared the students who won the lottery and went to charter schools to students who applied but did not win the lottery. The parents of both groups could not have been very different in terms of motivation, care, attention, etc. The students in the charter schools did well; the students in the standard public schools did not. The difference was the schooling not the parenting.
Is it fair to ask if this “disparate outcome” standard is simply the “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” logical fallacy?
1). If racism causes disparate impact, we’ll see disparate impact.
2). We DO see disparate impact!
3). Therefore, we see the consequences of racism.
1). If Ford builds cars, I’ll see a car on the street.
2). I DO see a car on the street!
3). Therefore, I see a Ford.
Well, excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me. I thought this was a free speech blog. Oops, my mistake.
At 20 billion per day for 4 days, the war has cost Putin 80 billion dollars so far. Oligarchs likely not impresssed, nor Xi of China.
You can have legal equality or you can have ‘diversity’; you can’t have both.
You can have “a level playing field” or you can have one tilted to favor a specific race; you can’t have both.
You can be honest or you can cheat; but you can’t do both.
The US has never had a level playing field. The poor have never had the same playing field as the rich.
Then how is it that persons such as Ben Carson can rise above this so-called restriction of poverty. Your attitude and your perseverance mean much more than the color of your skin and until POC realize that in many ways they cultural choices (such as generational welfare and single family households) have far more to do with their success or failure gimmicky government interference will just harm the overall culture and society in general as we have well observed these past 60 years since the dem concept of “The Great Society”
Alma, I totally agree and add Thomas Sowell to that list. Read more of his books and you will better understand the liberal woke message is BS and a tool to keep political power by Democrats.
Alma, the existence of Ben Carson does not imply a level playing field, and he would not claim that there is a level playing field for rich and poor. As a simple example, he said that he only applied to one college because that’s all he could afford. Wealthy kids can afford to apply to multiple colleges, and the wealthy are often legacy admits.
It’s striking that I make a comment about rich and poor, and you respond about people of color. The poor are disproportionately people of color, but there are also millions of poor white people in the US.
There is no level playing field for the poor in the US. Why is that hard for you to admit?
There has never been nor can there be created a “level playing field”. The best we can opt for is equal access. That access should ALWAYS consider effort, ability and preparedness. No government “step up” can replace a good solid educational base for entering college. I will use Sheila Jackson Lee as a prime example of the failure of affirmative action. A donated degree from Yale and still dumb as a stump. All that was achieved there was lowering the value of a degree from Yale. If a person cannot make it, then that sad truth must also be accepted, not everyone can be a brain surgeon but using skin color as the excuse in a toto for minority failure does not pass the smell test and it makes a mockery of genuine needs within minority communities.
Alma,
Yet again: I haven’t been talking about race, but about poverty.
I disagree that “Sheila Jackson Lee … [is] dumb as a stump,” and I believe instead that you disagree with her politics and want to insult her because of that.
We could do much more to level the playing field, for example, by making sure that schools that disproportionately serve poor students have excellent teachers (just as the wealthy pay for excellent teachers), have enough school supplies (just as the wealthy have enough school supplies), have tutors to help kids who are struggling (just as the wealthy can pay for tutors), …
Survival of the fittest is the way to succeed not only as a nation but as a species. Government programs work, consistently, against this imperative. As for Lee, her choice of ideologies are the best determination of her stupidity. Cleavor is not the same as educated. She, like many politicians, may be adept at manipulating but she does not display an inkling of erudition.
You’d rather that the poor starve? That says a great deal about you.
I am saying that the entire educational edifice of the left is firmly fixed with Darwin as opposed to divine creation so if that is the ideology of the left, let them practice what they preach. It has always been this way as history will attest. You cannot have it both ways; the nature of life is competitive.
Actually, Alma, you’re advocating for social Darwinism, which is NOT what Darwin advocated. Learn the difference.
As for your desire to put Darwin and your God in opposition, are you suggesting that your God isn’t powerful enough to set evolution in play and have humans evolve? I thought your God was almighty. The Bible was written by men, and they got many things wrong. Thankfully, our species has continued learning.
Why do you refer to it as “my God”? presumption can get you far afield my friend. Do not attempt those tricks about religion on me, I am just pointing out the deficiencies and inconsistencies in the ideology of the left.
I’m referring to the God you introduced when you said “divine creation.”
And, by the way, Hunter biden was given ALL the advantages and look how he turned out.
Anonymous, there lives a man who rose from the projects in Philadelphia. He first met his father when he was 9 years old. As a child he was one of the poor people of our nation. His name is Clarence Thomas. His testimony tells us that a caste system does not exist in America. If one wishes to take the time many more examples of black men rising from poverty to success can be found. Your belief in a caste system in America is easily explained away by an abundance of evidence. I understand. You have it in your head and once there it is almost impossible to get it out. The operative word is “almost”. You could start by reading the book written by Clarence Thomas named “My Grandfather’s Son. It might help with your understanding of the nation in which you live. This man was really poor. Are you?
Thinkitthrough asks ATS: “This man was really poor. Are you?”
+++
I suspect he/it had a pampered and privileged life and was never poor enough to learn better than to avoid his snobbish patronizing of those who have advanced on their own merits or been content with their lives outside the Snob Bubble of virtue signalers.
Your suspicions are false, and it’s bizarre that that’s what you fantasize.
I didn’t say that there is a caste system, Idiot, so drop the straw man argument.
I said that there isn’t a level playing field for the poor in the US. Thomas would not claim there is. He grew up without running water and electricity. Have you ever lived without these? (I have, when I served as a Peace Corps vol overseas.) He’s talked about the “horrible feeling” of being hungry and not having enough to eat. The rich do not have to worry about a single one of these things.
Maybe YOU need to listen to what Thomas has said about growing up poor.
ATS- ” grew up without running water and electricity. Have you ever lived without these?”
+++
Yes, and it wasn’t on a volunteer basis with the comfortable knowledge that we could quit whenever we got bored with it.
Young, that is unusual. Kindly disclose more, if you will.
David,
Mining community during strikes.
We never thought we were poor. In our minds we were middle class but just out of money, low on food and with something less than a mini-mansion to live in, a modified chickencoop in fact and that was a step up from the previous lodging. Others were worse off, we thought, partly because they thought of themselves as poor. We gave them spare clothing but, young as I was, I was annoyed with their neediness when we took it to their shack on the hillside. It wasn’t an expression then but in current terms I thought they should suck it up, endure what they must without whining, and do more for themselves. Their shack was a mess. They could at least tidy up. I probably wouldn’t have given them anything but Mom was in a do-gooder mood. They were using some of their own clothes to stuff gaps to keep out the cold.
Thanks for asking. I wouldn’t normally say but I need to get my mind back in that time for another project.
So we have a starting point: having lived without running water and electricity, do you believe that there is a level playing field between (1) those who are too poor to have running water and electricity and (2) those who not only have running water and electricity, but also have swimming pools and chandeliers?
Probably. I have experienced both.
You think there’s “probably” a level playing field between (1) those who are too poor to have running water and electricity and (2) those who not only have running water and electricity, but also have swimming pools and chandeliers?
What makes you hesitant to say “definitely”?
Young says he:
“grew up without running water and electricity.”
You were lucky! I grew up without a roof over my head. Slept outdoors like wild animals we were so poor.
Rodents usually do.
If only I had the life of a rodent. That would have been heavenly.
Many here think you do.
Undoubtedly because I am a Jew.
Not because you are a Jew, if you are, but because you are a rodent.
First, you call me a “whoopie cushion” now a “rodent.” How old are you?
Did you ever actually read the book? It doesn’t sound like it. Clarence Thomas was not born in the projects in Philadelphia. He was born in Pin Point, GA. His father abandoned the family when CT was 2. His mother worked as a domestic. When CT was 7, he and his younger brother went to live with his grandparents in Savanah. His sister had to stay in Pin Point, where there was no indoor plumbing. Apparently the sister was not as important as the boys. In any case, the grandfather owned a successful fuel and ice delivery business, as well as a farm. He sent CT and his brother to Catholic school, where they got a good education. So no, CT did not “grow up” in poverty. His very early years were impoverished, but from age 7 on, he was solidly middle-class. That’s why he titled his book “My GRANDFATHER’S Son,” because he credits his GF with his success.
TIN,
I haven’t read the book so thank you for the interesting summary.
Anonymous, there is another man who came from a life of poverty. His net worth is now fifteen million dollars. What would guess his name is? You can find it in the following link. https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2018/02/28/jesse-jackson-rose-poverty-greenville-become-national-civil-rights-leader/377119002/. Let those who have eyes see and those who have ears hear.
And he wouldn’t claim that there’s a level playing field for the poor either.
It’s truly amusing that some of you are so desperate to deny the fact that there isn’t a level playing field for the poor in the US that you try to use examples of people who are no longer poor, but you ignore that they’d agree with me that there isn’t a level playing field for the poor. Do you think that people who’ve grown up hungry are going to suggest that there is no difference between often going hungry and never having to worry about any of your meals?
There is no such thing as a level playing field, and the attempt to create one would require a concentration of governmental power unprecedented in the US. Even then it would not succeed, but would destroy the basis for a prosperous economy and society.
Improvements in the lives of the least advantaged require a stable and nurturing family, safe and secure neighbourhoods, schools where the capabilities are taught that equip students with the skills they need to succeed in the economy they will confront when they leave the education system, and equality before the law to ensure that their way forward is not impeded because of prejudice.
Little in the progressive agenda will bring any of this about. Quite the contrary.
In fact, it was just such a misguided attempt by progressives with their “Great Society” legislation of the ’60s that started the downward spiral of disjointed and destroyed social structures such as family, community and individual accountability that has shattered all communities of lower economic strata. Pipe-dream musings in faculty lounges that produced our nanny state have, instead, lead to the swift deterioration of our culture and soon our nation.
Daniel, if you believe that “There is no such thing as a level playing field,” then you disagree with Young, who said it’s possible to have a level playing field (“You can have “a level playing field” …”). It’s his claim that I was responding to.
As for “Little in the progressive agenda will bring any of this about,” in my experience, liberals invest more in trying to bring it about than conservatives do, but both are failing.
The liberals/progressives claim to have good intentions but their policies have contributed time and time again to the very problems they claim to be solving. They are now allied with the teachers unions and the DEI “anti-racist” racket, who prevent educational solutions shown by Roland Fryer and Thomas Sowell to be effective. Ironically, school choice, which is desired by disadvantaged minorities, is favoured by conservatives but is anathema to liberals/progressives.
Daniel, one could just as easily say that “conservatives claim to have good intentions but their policies have contributed time and time again to the very problems they claim to be solving,” and that, too, would be counterproductive hyperbole. Some liberals and some conservatives advocate productive policies, and some liberals and some conservatives advocate counterproductive policies, and whether one considers a policy to be effective or not often may well depend on ones values, which clearly differ among people.
I’m not sure what educational solutions you’re referring to and what research has shown these solutions to be effective (effective for whom — for all? effective in what ways? …). If you cite some educational research (not opinion pieces), I’ll read it.
That gentleman was a snitch for the FBI. HE was responsible for MLK being transferred from a downstairs room to one upstairs —easier target doncha.
Literally, 110’s of millions of poor have succeeded in America.
The did a local story if a Bosnian immigrant that came to Iowa with no money and no English language skills. He got a job in a big hotel doing laundry. In ten years he was the hotel mgr.
“[A] level playing field.”
What does that (alleged) ideal even mean?
A legal “level playing field?”
An economic “level playing field?”
If the latter, how is that to be achieved — massive redistribution of income?
If true to form, you’ll provide a soppy reply such as: “It means equality of opportunity.” Which, of course, just returns us to the original three questions.
You prefer the tilted playing field even though now a black kid from an affluent family can [and regularly has been] given help over a white kid from a relatively poor family?
Not all blacks are poor and not all whites are affluent, but the tipped playing field is tipped for race more than position.
Verygood illustration of the failure of most government ideas required to reach their “perfected man” via government fiat.
I haven’t been discussing race, but income, and especially poverty. It’s striking that you and a number of other conservatives here keep trying to turn it into a discussion of race. No, I do not prefer the specific tilted playing field that you’ve asked about. Let’s be clear, though: you don’t care what I actually believe. You prefer straw man arguments that assume beliefs that aren’t mine.
When you say “the tipped playing field is tipped for race more than position,” I’m not sure what you mean by “position.” You clearly aren’t talking about income, or you’d have used some synonym for income. So whatever you’re talking about, it’s not what I’ve been talking about: poverty and wealth.
It seems that whenever an issue of poverty is initiated the left’s first response is systematic racism. I don’t buy that ideology but it certainly links the two concepts, endlessly – daily- on TV, in education, on any media and we know for certain which elements of our society can control most of these venues. No one is running with their hair on fire when poor white students are eliminated from the competition strictly based on their race, so yes, there is now a very unequal playing field in certain areas and it has helped less than it has created a new and more virulent strain of racism in this nation – fueled mainly by the left’s obsession with race at every turn.
I introduced poverty, not race. You are so blinded that you cannot even see that I’m a counterexample to your claim “that whenever an issue of poverty is initiated the left’s first response is systematic racism.”
And I am saying that poverty has become a dog whistle for race especially from the left. If you want a pure discussion of poverty then eliminate and “diversity” or affirmative action programs and let the qualifications be strictly economic and academic potential, eliminate race from all discussions. But then how to explain away discrepancies in statistics which indicate race. I think the best thing for the left to do is to not talk about race at all.
You’re the one introducing a dog whistle, not me.
But it is the left’s dog whistle, inexorably tied to any discussion of anything. Anyone mentioning removal of affirmative action is immediately classified as a racist white supremacist.
You seem unwilling to discuss poverty.
Now that we are certain what their intentions are, NATO should bomb the Russian tanks and trucks in reserve, waiting to be the next wave.
I can imagine Putin ranting in his mountain lair like Hitler did in his bunker in the movie “Downfall”. It puts a smile on my face 🙂
What if Putin uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine? Would this create a special emergency situation that overrides Article 5 restrictions to help Ukraine?
Anny-The Bum is getting desperate. He thought the Ukraine was going to be a cakewalk but the Ukrainian’s are making him pay. We should be airlifting their people here as we did in Afghanistan and doing on our southern border.
Margot and Anonymous– To me the decision to escalate the nuclear readiness level is very, very serious because I am not sure a stable world leader would do this. Putin must know that other nuclear powers must now follow suit. Unlike most conventional warfare, there is practically no opportunity to evaluate a “launch” before making the decision to respond or not. In this environment, a mistake could trigger a nuclear war.
Ukraine, interesting game, the estimates are that at any one second that 25 minutes later could be the rest of our lives.
From what little I know on the outside is that Puntin’s moves a very understandable if he doesn’t want to have their nation or it’s people enslaved/looted/genocided again by the US/UK Bolsheviks.
Dr. Strangelove – Ending
Honestlawyer says:
“To me the decision to escalate the nuclear readiness level is very, very serious because I am not sure a stable world leader would do this.”
Would anyone be surprised if Trump calls this move by Putin “genius”?
More importantly, what would happen if you stayed on topic? Is Putin a party to lawsuit discussed in this post?
This push for diversity, like all others, is based on the fundamental racist belief of the schools board and universities who manipulate admissions standards that blacks and Hispanics are inferior and incapable of competing with other races or ethnic groups. I do not understand why Progressives and outspoken black leaders do not pin the racist label on the people who endorse such ideas? I guess they consider achieving an unfair advantage to be a sufficient trade for accepting the label of inferiority.
After 60 years of positive discrimination and affirmative action in hiring and admissions, they keep doing it, is it still being done to correct the discrimination wrongs of the past, or is it to correct a continuing disparity of performance in the present?
“The Court details the push to diversify the top school after the death of George Floyd“
George Floyd’s death a reason to set up a program to discriminate? Was George Floyd such a stellar individual a reason to set up any program?
He’s all they got.
Margot……….Black liberals have decided that a street thug should be the face that identifies their culture. Oh, and they want to be paid for that decision. That’s how sick they are.
Truly one of the more stupid developments in “education” in this country. If they eliminate these programs then that will guarantee that the parents of truly gifted children will somehow move themselves out of the public school system and into private schools. Gifted and high achieving individuals improve the children around them by their hard work and example. Competition does spur us to better performance. Gifted students are a like a rare flower that grows and expands and shows it’s beauty but it has to be nurtured and directed early or it can whither away. Gifted children respond best to challenges and obstacles that make them stretch their minds and talents but will decline and lose interest when they are bored in slow moving classes. I’ve seen too many gifted children wasted by indifference and lousy teachers and administration. I would suspect most of us here remember those teachers who challenged us, made us critically re-asses our biases, and forced us to aim higher. And we learned to work harder when someone else got the better grade or award. The thought “I will show them who’s really best” certainly comes to mind. It worked for me. San Francisco, I believe, also is trying to limit Asians in their gifted programs. Whatever happened to “reinforce success, starve failure”.
“Whatever happened to “reinforce success, starve failure”.
It became “failures reinforcing failures by starving the successful.”
Quick and ugly fixes such as lotteries are inherently in and of themselves automatically racist. They also signal a serious problem in the conduct of the school system and schools themselves. As a racist method they should not only be banned but the underlying problem of a poorly operated school system should be banned. Racism, sexism, bigotry in any form signals the results of socialism at it’s worst. An easy call since nothing about socialism is any better than a nation’s worst. That brings us to allowing socialists to be allowed in government. It’s an easy call when you compare the words in their oath of office to their results. An automatic violation of their oath of office. Try something called actually applying Constitutionalism instead of Marxist PC-rap. It has no place in our society nor it’s practitioners in our in our country
This is a good decision. One of the interesting aspects of it is that there was no dispute over the facts or what they meant — the decision in favour of the plaintiffs was on summary judgment, meaning there was no material dispute about the facts.
The local authorities were open and explicit that the intent of their changes to the admission policy was to alter the racial balance of the school. They did not deny this. So the dispute is entirely over whether this is permitted as a matter of law.
It is a disgrace, and a testament to the failure of our judicial system to say clearly what the law is, that a dispute so fundamental has been allowed to persist. And it is not unique to Fairfax. As Professor Turley notes, educational authorities in Boston, NYC and other major cities have done the same thing, apparently believing it is permitted by our constitution and law. And hiring practices, not just in education, are the same. And now even the allocation of medical treatments is twisted to promote racial balance.
It is long past time that the courts need to speak clearly about this. Our educational, corporate and medical establishments have taken it upon themselves to engineer racial balance in those areas where they have chosen to do so. Unless they are told clearly that doing so is illegal they will not stop.
TIME for THE BIG PUSH BACK against diversity/social justice programs and etc. Net will be the Harvard case to nullify their DIVERSITY/ SOCIAL JUSTICE policies. Then sports and etc.
Enlarge the school.
I will buy into this claptrap when the same “diversity” dogma is applied to NCAA basketball and football programs who clealy do not “look like America” and cling to such antiquated ideas as hard work and talent.