nittany ram wrote:

For the brief time I was a high school science teacher I used to give incoming sophomores a little quiz on the first day of class just to see where they were at from a scientific literacy standpoint.

One question I would ask is “How many species of human exist today?”

A common answer was “Two – Men and Women.”

This was over 20 years ago so it demonstrates that Goff’s gaffe isn’t just a millennial issue (although his was much worse).

Dummies.

But back then there wasn’t as much awareness of the LGBTQ community as individual species, too.

Ozoneranger wrote:

Zooey wrote:

Goff went to UC Berkeley for chrissakes. UC Berekeley has a high bar for entry. I was stunned he didn’t know where the sun rises. It was slightly disturbing, really, but I work with young people – high school kids – and it is hilarious what they don’t know at times.

I borrowed HBO Go from a friend, and watched this last night.

I liked it. But there is no WAY I would waste time on this show if it wasn’t the Rams. It isn’t that interesting unless it’s your team.

I smoked a lot of pot in high school. A LOT. But I also read a lot of books, too. Anything I could get my hands on. That’s how I learned to tell the time of day by placing a stick in the dirt. Had to be at least six inches, though. And yes, I knew at a very young age, no matter how stoned I was, in which direction the sun rose.

Kids today. Sheesh.

I know. It is just amazing.

But just yesterday…I teach dual-credit classes now. I am the only English teacher with a masters degree, so I am the only one who is “qualified” to teach college classes on this campus. The district recently formed a relationship with the community college down the street to offer classes here. And I teach them. So I have this class of Seniors who have GPAs over 3.0, and pass an admissions test to college, and have passed by English 1A class last year to qualify for the second college class, English 1B. They are motivated kids with above average brights.

Yesterday I learned that not one single one of them knew what Roe vs Wade was. Someone finally guessed it was probably a court case.

Now that’s not quite as astonishing as not knowing in which direction the sun rises, but it’s a bit of a surprise. Still I get these little jaw-dropping ignorances from time-to-time in my classroom.

It’s not like we refer to directions much anymore. Heck, kids think in terms of right turns, and left turns, to the extent that they think of directions at all. Nobody ever says, “Go north on Manzanita, turn west on Alhambra, and then veer Northwest on Allegheny.”

But still. I’m even now shaking my head.

Ozoneranger wrote:

I have a hard time taking Trump seriously no matter what comes out of his mouth. The thing with him is, he says whatever pops in his mind in the last second…He cannot help himself (I had the same problem early in my marriage- I recognized this flaw in the earliest days of his campaign.). I don’t for a second believe his words implied violence of any sort. More like blowback from gun advocates if she picked justices who may erode the 2nd in any way, shape or form.

That said, if elected his lack of disciplined thought and speech is dangerous. The president speaks for the country, his\her words are interpreted as policy and position, particularly overseas. That’s what scares me.

I don’t know. I am inclined to think it was talking smack rather than a seriously felt call for violence. But that doesn’t excuse it. It’s dangerous to say shit like that. Sarah Palin posted a map of the US on her website with crosshairs on candidates she thought should be targeted for political elimination. Well, one of those people was Gabrielle Giffords, who subsequently got shot in the head. So I don’t think it makes it any better if Trump was mildly kidding. I don’t have to convince anyone here that this country has an ample supply of examples of nutjobs who have gone off with guns, including Giffords’ assassin. Hell, Trump’s comment could have been an OBVIOUS joke and it would still have been completely reckless, irresponsible, and possibly criminal. I mean…go to an airport and jokingly announce your shaving cream is a bomb and see what happens to your ass. You can’t joke about killing politicians and judges. There is some asshole in the audience who may get to thinking hard about the idea. And, let’s face it: there already ARE several assholes out there who have fantasized about it, and along comes a hero of theirs who gives a little wink to the idea, and that is enough to push someone into action.

And you’re right. A president REALLY, REALLY can’t go off. As much as the red meat crowd would love it if President Trump insulted the French, and the Germans, and the Japanese, and Whoever, it’s just….

I cannot believe that Hillary Clinton is actually preferable to somebody else. But she is.

sdram wrote:

wv wrote:

90,000 ? Holy shit. That should be a thread all by itself.

w
v

That’s a lot of preseason fans. Two things come to mind.

One is I think they’ll be very big until they’re not the new kid in town anymore. Kind of like the new restaurants in the town I live in – they’re popular until everybody eats there a few times. Many of those fans will get introduced to the NFL’s style of money grubbing.

The second is I watch the Dodgers almost every evening and Vinny reads the attendance figures about the 7th or 8th inning. I’m thinking – there’s rarely even half that many people in the park – he’s listing the paid attendance which includes season ticket holders and they seemingly only show up when Kershaw starts or the Giants are in town.

I don’t think there will be a lot of no shows at this football game. Whether they are there in the 4th quarter or not….

Goff went to UC Berkeley for chrissakes. UC Berekeley has a high bar for entry. I was stunned he didn’t know where the sun rises. It was slightly disturbing, really, but I work with young people – high school kids – and it is hilarious what they don’t know at times.

I borrowed HBO Go from a friend, and watched this last night.

I liked it. But there is no WAY I would waste time on this show if it wasn’t the Rams. It isn’t that interesting unless it’s your team.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/opinion/trumps-ambiguous-wink-wink-to-second-amendment-people.html

• This reply was modified 9 years, 7 months ago by Zooey.

We can’t do a thing for the less fortunate unless we have a stronger economy.

I don’t believe that.

The economic numbers are actually really good right now.

Everyone thinks the economy is weaker than it really is because all of the money is going to the top 1%.

So. We can do plenty for the less fortunate.

Yeah, I think he can win.

Hillary is awful, you know. And it isn’t hard to make that case.

So what we have here is a contest between which candidate makes the voters gag the most. Rather than a contest between which is more desirable.

And Hillary’s undesirables are huge.

But I think that the entire establishment…which includes people of all stripes…mostly doesn’t want Trump. Although Trump has supporters, I think most of the people in the media don’t like him, and will spin shit against him. He is on an uphill battle in the media. The coverage of him is going to be negative.

So I think Hillary is likely to win with the media’s assistance, but I can’t rule out the anti-establisment sentiment entirely. A LOT of people are sick of this shit.

bnw wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

Zooey wrote:

Jesus made the plants the way they are, Nittany.

Yeah but he didn’t make them productive, flood resistant or pest resistant enough to feed all his children.

Fortunately the devil came along and created GMOs. Thank God.

I think it is weird that the two of you viw man made global warming as the ultimate disaster to mankind when the very food supply for your survival into the next month is truly threatened to become a monopoly of a few corporations. So odd.

I haven’t said anything about gmos so far.

As it happens, I have concerns.

But if corporations start threatening our survival, there are things that governments can do to address that. And, as Nittany points out, patents expire. Furthermore, most of the food supply is still the same as it always was. So there is no danger of our food supply completely shutting down next month.

Global warming, otoh, can’t be controlled simply by passing a bill stating that the planet cannot warm up any more. The two things aren’t even comparable in their threat level.

So they’re not that far behind us.

waterfield wrote:

Unfortunately Zooey-I think your wrong. People in this country have come to love the bully. People hear a baby cry in church “want” to say take the baby out of her. Same with people in a theater and a restaurant, etc. But they don’t. People identify with the guy and wish they could do the same thing. Were a country in love with ass holes. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

I’m not sure what I’m wrong about. I concede that people love a bully. What I posited is that the bull-lovers are already lined up behind him, and if he wants to expand his appeal, it won’t be through bullying MORE. Unless you think there are some diehards out there who aren’t convinced that he is enough of a bully, and are waiting to see some serious bully action, like attacking crying babies.

sdram wrote:

I’m not trying to stir up anything but this last week makes me wonder about him. Is he truly trying to win or is it all a sham?

Seems like he’s playing the snidely whiplash role – to lose intentionally.

I don’t think he thought he had any chance to win when he first entered the race. I think he was running for the media exposure, and thought he could spend his campaign money on his own companies. Which he did.

Then, I think, his ego got the better of him once he took the lead. But all along, he has not taken campaigning seriously. He has brought in no real help, has no organization in his organization, morale is low on his staff (allegedly), and it doesn’t look good.

I don’t know. He certainly doesn’t act like a man who is seriously trying to win.

And all throughout the Dem Conv, I noted hearing about the Middle Class again and again and again. To the Democrats, the Middle Class seems to be synonymous with the “bottom 90%.”

Poor people are so unpopular, talking about relieving their poverty with programs is so unpopular, they never got mentioned. The closest thing, iirc, was saying that a person who works 40 hours a week should get paid a living wage.

Otherwise…invisible.

Clinton supporter.

Got both Sanders’ supporters and Trump wrong.

Sure, Clinton has started saying a lot of Sanders’ things, but he misses the point that one of the criticisms of Clinton is she “will say anything, and do nothing.” And he acts like Sanders supporters are babies because they have trouble believing a woman who has been erratic in her promises, and consistent in her actions.

Meanwhile, Trump is not outwardly threatening fascism, or even implying it. Perhaps the author doesn’t know what fascism is.

wv wrote:

Zooey wrote:

No

Trump is the end of the world.

————–
I dunno, Zooey. Clinton is a known quantity.

But Trump has never held office before, right?
Do we really know what he would do or try to do?

I am not persuaded we do. And I am not persuaded that 8 years of Clinton
would be better than four years of Trump.

I dont think the Dems ever
change if Clinton wins. I think the only way they move left
is if Clinton loses.

So for me, its complicated. For me, Trump is a very strange mix of knowns
and unknowns.

I’m not trying to ‘persuade’ anyone of anything. Not the least bit
interested in that. Just sharing my own view.

Now the Supreme Court is a big deal, and it ‘almost’
decides things for me. But in the end, I dont trust Clinton
to nominate anyone that would vote against Corporate Personhood. Citizens United, maybe, but not Corporate Personhood — and the biosphere was being destroyed long before Citizens United. It just speeded things up. So, i dont see her as changing the trajectory of the war against the poor and the biosphere. I think she’d do all the usual things with regard to identity politix…..

w
v

I understand all of that, and have voiced the theory that 4 years of Trump > than 8 years of Clinton myself.

But in order to swallow that theory, one has to assume that congress wouldn’t let him do anything too outrageous, and that he would lose after one term. Now while I thought that was reasonable a couple of months ago – and still think it is partially (i.e. Congress wouldn’t build a damn wall, and he wouldn’t get a second term in all likelihood), I’ve started to consider him as more dangerous than before in light of revelations in the past month about the depth of his sociopathic behavior.

This guy has repeatedly, deliberately shafted small businesses. He has no honor. One of his signature glories is yelling, “You’re fired!” He actually enjoys crushing human beings. His ignorance of both domestic and foreign affairs is breathtaking for a 70-year old. He doesn’t have anything but the most superficial understanding of what policies are, or what they’re for, let alone how they work and affect people. And he doesn’t care.

You read, I presume, the Kasich insider claim that Trump offered Kasich oversight of domestic and foreign policy? Leaving Trump the task of Making America Great? Kasich refused, so he settled on Mike Pence. Mike Pence is one of those…I don’t even think there is a term for it. The conservatives who are so far to the right that they are terrifying – guys like Walker, Ryan, Cruz, Huckabee, McConnell, Bachmann, Coulter, Ingraham…oh, man, there are a LOT of names. And congress is filled with people like that.

So if you have Mike Pence basically being in charge of policy while Trump provides the bluster, you are looking at an agenda that wants to dismantle everything. They will lay assault on what’s left of unions, environmental protections, consumer protections, pensions, social security, public education, women’s rights, voting ID, overtime pay, the minimum wage for god’s sake, national parks, the Entire Wet Dream Agenda of the sociopathic corporatists. And then entrench it all permanently by making the Supreme Court a 7-2 majority of Thomases and Alitos.

The damage could be vast and irreversible.

You are handing over all three branches of government to a party filled with goblins.

You think that won’t happen? I don’t see how they could be stopped.

And that’s not even considering stuff like the likely increase in Hate crimes since Trump implicitly condones violence against the Others.

No.

Trump is the end of the world.