Monday, August 19, 2019

Clouded Landscape



7 comments:

  1. 59% of Republicans Now Think College Is a Negative [Click] Well, someone has to wash the cars.

    The Irony Of Conservative Christians’ Opposition To Immigration [Click]

    The Longer Trump Stays in Office, the More Americans Oppose His Views [Click] “The president is reshaping Americans' political views, just not the way he intended.”

    Governors Are Losing the Space to Govern [Click] “As the bulk of state spending shifts toward mandatory programs, experimentation is grinding to a halt in the laboratories of democracy.”

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    1. As an Illnoisian, I don't find that last article convincingly relevant. And it's not just that Illinois has the lowest mandated percentage of any state mentioned, it's that in Illinois mandates are not necessarily mandates. The mandate that the state provide 25% of the funding for K-12 education is routinely ignored. And Illinois notorious financial mess derives from politicians routinely using slight-of-hand to avoid actually funding public employee pensions: The money is appropriated, then immediately lent back to the state's general fund.

      So what Illinois is doing under J. B. Pritzker is look for new sources of revenue. And use the new revenue for, among other things, a broad and even experimental infrastructure initiative. I'm not suggesting this will make Pritzker a presidential candidate down the road, which is a totally different matter, but it does point out that there is still room for experimentation.

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    2. Can't vouch for it myself, Bill. But if there is any truth to it, it seems interesting.

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    3. I think there is certainly some truth to it. My point is that there is more state-to-state variation than the article gives credit to.

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    4. Fair enough; the old nut about states being the laboratories of democracy certainly implies that some of their experiments will be less than successful.

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  2. The five: surprising talents of the Neanderthals [Click] It seems now well established that they started fire easily and regularly using flint handaxes and pyrite strikers, using manganese oxide to make the tinder easier to ignite. Here [Click] is a SIXTEEN SECOND video of igniting tinder with the same technology.

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