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Trump's Second Term

Pacal said:
No doubt the Conditions in El Salvador will NOT be up to even the most minimal USA standards. There will be minimal oversight from the USA of Conditions. Since El Salvador will be paid to house such inmates there will be a powerful incentive to show a profit, by spending less than what they get from the USA. Oh and lots of room for corruption etc.

I doubt there will be much concern for the living conditions etc., of such prisoners by a Trump administration. Although to me the most obvious reason to send US citizens to El Salvador to serve their sentences is that once they serve their sentences all sorts of excuses can be made to not not allow them back in the USA, probably on the grounds they are convicted criminals. I sort of wonder about the constitutional validity of doing that.

And no I don't think I'm scare mongering.

And of course sending immigrants with no place to go to be detained in El Salvador sort of violates several UN Conventions.

Given that Trump has withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council we can be assured that he knows what he is doing and intends to violate International Human Rights norms.
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El Salvador is at the moment running a programme where people are being randomly grabbed off the streets and tossed into jail without charge, recourse to a lawyer or prospect of any sort of a trial. Their dictator Bukele says it's to combat the cartels (who were intsrumental in putting him in power), but my guess any cartel member above the lowest level is only in jail by accident.
 
Blue Mountain said:
Executive Order 14191: Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families

I don't want to repost the entire text, but here are a few snippets:


My question: what research?


I have provisionally scored this as 0 (neither positive or negative) since I haven't taken the time to look carefully at the claim that "education-freedom programs … cause nearby public schools to improve their performance." My initial take is such programs actually starve the public school systems of much needed funding.
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It's about a negitive one thousand. What is proposed is the whoesale destruction of education in America and it's replacement with nothing.
 
Orphia Nay said:
Trump's plan to get rid of the Education Department and leave it up to the states might get stopped by Congress.

apnews.com

In Trump's quest to close the Education Department, Congress and his own agenda may get in the way

President Donald Trump is preparing to gut the U.S. Education Department to the full extent of his power, directing his administration to slash spending while pressuring employees to quit.
apnews.com apnews.com

If Trump gets his way, he'll reduce Big Government so much even he won't have a job, and there will be no USA.
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I am not a Trump supporter and think he is literally crazy. But I think a case can be made for state control of education. It works quite well in Australia.
 
lionking said:
I am not a Trump supporter and think he is literally crazy. But I think a case can be made for state control of education. It works quite well in Australia.
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You are aware that there are a number of states where state control of education will immediately result in the cessation in the teaching of useful science and teaching a fictional version of history ?

Expect creationism to be taught instead of evolution and a revisionist version of history where bucolic Southern states were attacked for no reason by the North, where people from Africa acquired great life skills and where the Confederacy won the Civil War.

Expect no useful sex education being taught, bigotry being an integral part of education and a comprehensive defunding of education for minorities.
 
Silly Green Monkey said:
A simple Google search turned up a nationwide plan of protests today in every state capital. Did you look?

Edit: LA alone has seen massive protests about the crackdown on illegal immigrants. Why is it so important to you to think that USians are doing nothing while our country burns?
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No, I didn't look. I just assumed there is barely any protest since I haven't heard about it in the media.
Let's see how many turn up.
Has nothing to do with importance to me. But up until now it seems to me that mostly everything is business as usual in the US (apart from Trump going on).
 
The Don said:
You are aware that there are a number of states where state control of education will immediately result in the cessation in the teaching of useful science and teaching a fictional version of history ?

Expect creationism to be taught instead of evolution and a revisionist version of history where bucolic Southern states were attacked for no reason by the North, where people from Africa acquired great life skills and where the Confederacy won the Civil War.

Expect no useful sex education being taught, bigotry being an integral part of education and a comprehensive defunding of education for minorities.
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It certainly doesn’t have to be that way. Part of the transfer could be committment of each state to a common core curriculum.
 
lionking said:
It certainly doesn’t have to be that way. Part of the transfer could be committment of each state to a common core curriculum.
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I'm sure you've been paying attention these last couple of decades, that would still be federal control of education as far as the zealots are concerned.

I'm happy to agree that state control of education could work within a national framework to ensure the quality and funding of education but that's more than the Department of Education already does. Almost all education decisions are taken at a local or state level and hardly anything is done at a federal level.
 
carlosy said:
No, I didn't look. I just assumed there is barely any protest since I haven't heard about it in the media.
Let's see how many turn up.
Has nothing to do with importance to me. But up until now it seems to me that mostly everything is business as usual in the US (apart from Trump going on).
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Look up the 50501 Movement for your local protest schedule.

 
lionking said:
I am not a Trump supporter and think he is literally crazy. But I think a case can be made for state control of education. It works quite well in Australia.
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Yeah, but there is probably not much creationism being taught in Australia, is there? (Actually, not a rhetorical question. Maybe there is?)
lionking said:
It certainly doesn’t have to be that way. Part of the transfer could be committment of each state to a common core curriculum.
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Yeah, but wouldn't this be overseen by a central body to whom the commitment is made and who can check if the various states are compliant?
 
Blue Mountain said:
As of the close of the day on February 4, the +/- score stands at -66.

4 February 2024
0: First flights from the United States to Guantanamo Bay with illegal migrants (0 for unable to determine +/-)
-1: El Salvador offers to house US criminals (even US citizens) in its huge max-security prison (immoral and maybe illegal)
-1: Trump falsely claims American banks can't do business in Canada (they can, but regulations make it tough)
-1: Trump suggests resettling Palestinians out of Gaza because it's unlivable [12]
-1: Trump claims he wants the US to own Gaza and redevelop it [13]
-1: Musk claims a poster on X committed a crime when the poster named people working in the DOGE office
-1: A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System (wired.com)
-1: Musk: ONE CHANCE to return POWER to the PEOPLE from an unelected BUREAUcracy back to DEMOcracy!! (says an unelected billionaire who just shut down USAID)
-1: Trump's acting CFPB director (Scott Bessent) stopped the agency's work (Robert Reich on threads.net) [14]

[Continues above]
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Very nice list.

The time for outrage was under Bush II, when Abu Ghraib was exposed and the official use of torture was normalized. Once cruelty becomes the point, well, it is the point. I give you: today's USA. Mind you, it's not just the Right preying on the defenseless, the so-called LibDems were complicit with all the wars and bombings. Moral amnesia and self-dealing in international justice have characterized US political debate, policy, and actions for a long, long time. After 'Nam, journalists have been barred from witnessing the atrocities guaranteed by a closed professional military absent dissenting conscripts, leading to what is described in Brown University's Watson Institute's 2020 estimate of 37 million displaced by US-led wars.

The other major turning point was the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, when government of the people was spreadeagled and raped by the aristocracy neo-feudal Libertarians. Together with the 1996 Telecommunications Act, oligarchy was guaranteed to win, and here we are, with Trump and Musk in 2025 with their hands on the piggy bank, laughing, threatening and pulling triggers.
 
The US Postal Service said it has stopped accepting any parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong until further notice.
 
Andy_Ross said:
The US Postal Service said it has stopped accepting any parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong until further notice.
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Is this about the "de minimis" loophole? If so then I'm for it, it's hard enough for small retailers to compete without the likes of Temu's prices being less VAT/sales tax compared to an in-country retailer.

ETA: Sounds as if it is https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3w83x38zvwo
 
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The Don said:
You are aware that there are a number of states where state control of education will immediately result in the cessation in the teaching of useful science and teaching a fictional version of history ?

Expect creationism to be taught instead of evolution...
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You seem to have forgotten about the First Amendment, Kitzmiller vs. Dover, etc. If a school tried to teach creationism it would be blocked in about 5 minutes by the federal courts.
 
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Pete Hegseth says there's plenty of cannon fodder to send to Gaza and Canada

Pete Hegseth
@PeteHegseth
BREAKING: In December 2024, the @USArmy had its best recruiting number in 12 years.

In January 2025, the Army hit its best recruiting number in 15 YEARS.

BOTTOM LINE: America’s youth want to serve under the bold & strong “America First” leadership of @realDonaldTrump.[/ quote]
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stanfr said:
At least the FBI agents are fighting back, filing a class action lawsuit to prevent their info from being given to the DOJ.
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A class action lawsuit isn't really fighting back when you are dealing with an opponent who doesn't give a ◊◊◊◊ about juris prudence.
It's like bringing a lawsuit to a fascist takeover.
 
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