They didn't have any photos of the spy balloon on Getty, so we're running our favorite photo of Biden again. JOSHUA LOTT/GETTY IMAGES

Comments

1

Well yeah, if you are barreling towards a deficit of 10% of operating costs, and an enrollment drop approaching 10%, of course you scale back services. The only question is how poorly will the district bungle the process? Bellevue Schools are at least being straight with families by using clear language and kicking off engagement, whereas SPS waits for media to sniff out major changes cloaked in bureaucrat-speak at a work session.

4

hmmm something's a
little Fishy re your Timestamp

AMC seating* arrangements:
well you know what They say: all
you Beggars cannot be Choosers so
STFUA and please pass the tomatoes

a Movement
approaches

5

SwampThing dear, having a union doesn't mean no layoffs. It means structured layoffs, usually based on Seniority, but can also take things like educational level into consideration. It depends on the contract.

But more to the point: The citizens of Seattle have never met a school levy they didn't like. There's a huge number of school replacements and new schools in the pipeline, but yet they are thinking of closing schools?

6

I would bet the contract has layoff language. Typically, last hired, first fired in layoff world. I've laid off teamsters due to budget cut backs and I can't believe the teacher's union is any different.

8

Biden too old? Who merely passed one of the largest, progressive bills for COVID relief, infrastructure AND green energy implementation based on his long experience in the Senate? With the barest of Congressional margins?

Heaven save us from similar perils of old age?

9

Biden may be old as dirt, but the Dems don't have a viable alternative. Don't change horses midstream.

He is doing an objectively good job herding the cats in this armed madhouse. If he starts getting more 2nd Term Reagan-y, it will be apparent.

10

@7, so parents, you’re now on the hook to give your kids a high school education and socialize them with their peers; quit yer job? That is a not a reasonable ask. Srsly no one will be able to retire on account of this generation having zero skills. “Homeschooling” during the pandemic was a complete failure.

11

jeez a pro-home school commenter. just what Slog needed.

13

SaneSeattle dear, I’ve never met a person who was home-schooled for any religious or ideological reason who can function in society. They just become co-dependent anchors around their parent’s necks, and then flounder when those parents die, at which point they become leeches on society.

15

@12 whatever, you’re underestimating what it takes to raise and educate a child. Don’t make me choose between paying rent and leaving my child unsupervised/without basic skills. This is some anti-family rhetoric.

16

@7,

And trash slog commenters!

"Brainwashed by transgenderism," that's good times.

18

SaneSeattle dear, the Amish and Mennonites deliberately separate themselves from society (plus, many of them have schools). The Jehovah's Witnesses and 7th Day Adventists don't necessarily homeschool, but nice try.

Your comments show that you are anti-social and have unresolved issues. You would be the worst homeschooler because you would pass your neurosis and bad manners onto your children. Let's hope you are one of those incels I was reading about.

20

@9....Biden is not much more than a figurehead president in the manner of George Bush (younger) and Ronald Reagan. Biden was quite competent in his younger years but it seems that senility is starting to creep up in him.

21

Nothing reminds us quite so well as natural catastrophes that, essentially, we are all in this thing together. An earthquake at any time is unwanted, but at night and in freezing weather? It makes me want to cry.

Can we all generally agree on what would have happened to an American “weather” balloon that had drifted eastward toward the Chinese border?

Biden is doing many things well. I know in some quarters it is considered ageist to consider that because of his years, tomorrow, possibly, his heart might just give out (or not). That is something that causes more actuarial concern with someone his age as opposed to someone, say, sixty even though we all know stories of people supposedly in good health dropping dead at sixty. I don’t know where I stand on this issue. Is 84 too old to be President? I feel guilty thinking maybe it is, but really, I don’t know. And if he’s alert and involved, unlike Reagan in his last couple of years in office, who’s to say? One concern, though, is that should he start losing certain abilities, it mustn’t be covered up, like it was with Reagan and Wilson – allowing staff and spouses to run the country. He must step down if the time comes. Can we count on any proud politician to do that?

I gave up on the Grammys several years ago. I find them largely appalling. Yes, I know part of the fun for the 14-year-olds, who believe the award is for artistic merit, is knowing it is so culturally vulgar for someone like me. I still don’t get women singing about how empowered they are and then showing us by shaking those tits and wobbling that ass. How can it be empowering when you are only catering to testosterone? Oh, I see. You’re doing it on YOUR terms. Uh-huh. Also, there doesn’t seem to be much humility anymore. It’s like, “It’s about time you give me an award. Don’t you know I’m deity?” Umm, no. The Oscars have more humility, but they aren’t any better at awarding excellence than the Grammys are. Anyway, once cared, now couldn’t care less. Used last night to get caught up with “Poker Face.” Now ya talkin’.

I know. Let’s save an industry in trouble by charging more for the service! AMC couldn’t have come up with a sharper dagger to plunge into its chest than to charge for seating. You know, I used to love going to the movies – before it became an investment. Does anyone remember the $5 matinee? Of course, popcorn and a coke always ran an outlandish few bucks in the modern era (I remember 25-cent popcorn and dime cokes in the 60s – admission was around $1.25 give or take), but now a movie evening out is like, well, an evening out. Can a family of four even afford a movie anymore? So, as much as I love the cinema, and I really, really do, looks like it’s gonna be streaming for this guy from here on out.

22

I'm so glad to hear that your highly theoretical children are so well-adjusted, SaneSeattle dear. Maybe it was the influence of your highly theoretical spouse in their highly theoretical education.

24

Hey China, this is what’s known in the West as “fuck around and find out.” Nobody believes you about anything anymore, except perhaps your own mercilessly gaslighted citizens. Your international reputation for truth telling is floating in the shitter right next to Vladimir Putin. You are incapable of even the most basic transparency, and you can shove the remains of your stupid spy balloon straight up your authoritarian asses.

25

@22 It'll be a while before we hear back. SaneSeattle only hears from their kids on Mother's/Father's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It's a short call too. Funny thing, the kids' jobs have taken them across the country and it's really, really difficult to get back for a visit. If you know what I mean.

That could all be wrong. It's par for the course for anyone who raises their kids the way SS purports to have done.

26

"Woke?"

Christ. I swear it's embarrassing how the trolls here just obsess over this culture war nonsense. They are so easily manipulated. I almost wish I had fewer scruples so I could join in on the grift.

Anyway. Any one who shits their pants over so-called 'wokeism,' what ever that even means, is a giant fucking dipshit and can be ignored. Or grifted. What ever.

27

I prefer the octogenarian centrist over the extremists occupying larges swathes of our political parties.

28

@26: What is a woman?

29

Hi, Melissa Westbrook from the Seattle Schools Community Forum blog. I was on the last Closure and Consolidation committee and boy, that was not fun.

I actually watched the entire Work Session on the Budget for Seattle Schools. Here are two of my posts on closing schools (and yes, it will happen).
https://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2023/02/seattle-schools-potential-closure-and.html
https://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2023/01/is-seattle-public-schools-gonna-close.html

To note:
- Fred Podesta, COO, said that they believe "focusing on consolidating into larger schools that have the resources they need is a good strategy whether you have money problems or not." (Hersey, seated nearby, nods his head vigorously.) Podesta, continuing, "There are benefits to this and we are trying to focus on the positive" and "those schools (left) will have all the resources they need to be the best schools they can be." He also said they wanted to "find different ways of doing business; do more with less and you can work smarter." He gave no examples.

Director Michelle Sarju had some of the more cogent remarks of the evening. She said that the slide that stated the district needs to "advocate and hope" for better from the legislature reminded her of Obama's thinking that "hope is not a strategy."

She said that the choice of language in "consolidate into a system of well-resourced schools" was "a sophisticated statement." She said many parents who do not speak English would find that a difficult statement to understand.

  • Director Chandra Hampson - "We have managed to make it (the budget) work every year and yet spend more than we have."

The district makes it sound like this will be a long process; that is unlikely because in November 2023, the majority of the Board is up for reelection. If there are two or more new people, it may change the Board vote to proceed with closures. Given one person up for reelection is Director Chandra Hampson who is STILL currently suing the district she claims to serve, I'd say one seat will probably be filled by someone else.

Several comments have asked why the district is now continuing to expand the size of several elementaries that are being renovated. That is likely because they need to consolidate one school's population into another, for example, McGilvra into Montlake. But the district is building Montlake so much that they are depleting the playground size even as they will have more kids.

What will the criteria be to close a school? Probably two main things - building condition and race of the school population. I say the latter because the strategic plan is all about race and that has been the focus for years.

Interestingly, the teachers union seems to regard these cries of poverty from SPS with a grain of salt. This is a HUGE issue for the district because it appears both the Superintendent/district and the Board want to present a united front to the public and having Labor with them is key.

Those closed school buildings? They will lease them to charter schools and it becomes a new revenue stream for SPS.

What has the Board been doing? All of them except Director Leslie Harris attended a conference last October. Just for the Board and a staffer, it was $20,000 (Hersey apparently flew business/first class because of an injury and his ticket alone was $2,000. Maybe he could have just stayed home.) That $20K doesn't include the Superintendent and whatever staff he took.

30

@25: I doubt ss has children, or even a spouse, and for that matter I suspect it is only a matter of time before he claims to own a house in Italy

31

@26, 28,

Everything surrounding the moronic "debate" around that dumb term is painfully dense, reductive and counterproductive to meaningful discourse, though I would be willing to quote a lawyer for Ron Desantis who, when asked to define it, replied "It would be the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them." The horror.

33

@20: I don't see any evidence of a. "Caretaker" status or b. senility. I'm sure you've got some RW podcast that has the goods on old Joe, though.

He's never been a gifted off-the-cuff bullshitter because he stutters. Will it happen at age 82? 84? 86? No way to know. If he declines, I think he's an honorable enough man that he'd resign. He's not DiFi or Strom Thurmond.

34

Merchant Seaman dear, I was thinking that also. Remember awhile back we had that troll named Piper who blabbed on about how great it was to take care of his aging parent who should have been in a home? Was he the one who supposededly had the house in Italy?

Then there was some dumb would-be cop. I think he called himself SeattleBlue or something dopey like that. Same mentality.

36

@30 That's a distinct possibility too.

My FIL was a high school teacher in a red corner of a red state. Parents would homeschool their kids K-11 and then put them into the public school for senior year so they could get a "normal" diploma. He called it fixing the parents' mistakes. The kids were almost invariably 2-3 grades behind on more than one subject.

37

I have never met an adult that was homeschooled as a kid that wasn't the worst kind of loser imaginable. So like antivaxerism it's a problem that solves itself, really.

38

Binary thinkers will never see more than two genders.

39

who Needs
stupid Schools?

Magical thinking'll
ALWAYS trumpf Critical
thinking!* which is why Fascists
LOVE the former and Outlaw the latter
not to mention all those Flammable books.

like Jesus always said:
if it's worth Writing
it's Worth being
Written on
Stone

*unless you're worried about
Science Math & all those
Devil-worshipping mean-
ingless subjects the
Commies are Al-
ways Coming
Up with.

42

@24 probably needs to take a good long look at his own country in the mirror.

Think things are bad now? All of those pushing for war with China really will find out how bad things can get if they and their corporate media stooges get their way.

43

When they say "consolidate schools" what I hear is "worsen student-teacher ratios". Maybe the expansions that westello mentioned actually make up for that, but that would either mean the schools they're absorbing are tiny or the expansions are massive, and I doubt that either are the case.

I wish we would stop obsessing over the office of the president. It's supposed to be an office that's completely subservient to the legislature, who has the actual authority to enact change. But it seems like everyone, whether on the left or the right, just wants "good person take powerful seat and to strong things to make good" which is so dysfunctional and problematic it's looped back around to being funny.

44

well with that lull in the convo
in other news of the Apocalypse:

Brandon Russell: Leader of neo-Nazi Atomwaffen
group charged with Baltimore power grid plot

Two people, including the founder of a neo-Nazi group,
have been arrested after allegedly plotting to
shut down power to the Baltimore area.

Brandon Russell, 27, and Sarah Clendaniel, 34, were
charged with conspiracy to damage an energy facility.

The crime carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Authorities say the couple planned to shoot five electricity substations in the state of Maryland.

The pair met while both were in prison, and began discussing the alleged plot last year. Ms Clendaniel described their plan as "legendary" and said the attack "would completely destroy the whole city".

"This planned attack threatened lives and
would have left thousands of Marylanders in the
cold and dark," US Attorney Erek Barron said in a statement.

Mr Russell is the founder of Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi
group which has been linked to several murders, bombings
and plots in the United States and other countries.

Although relatively small, the group has become known for its extreme violence. Members subscribe to a Neo-Nazi version of "accelerationist" philosophy - the idea that political goals can be achieved only via social collapse.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, Atomwaffen members "believe that the modern, post-industrial society cannot be redeemed. Instead, they believe it ought to be driven into apocalyptic collapse so a white ethnostate or whites-only utopia can be constructed in its wake".
--by Mike Wendlings
BBC News

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64493319?zephr-modal-register

always with the Power
the Perfect metaphor

45

@38: No need to think about it, nature has already established the two.

46

@45

XXY?
No, nature is not "binary".
Maybe you should talk to an actual biologist before you spout off next time... oh wait, money quote here... "No need to think about it".
Welp, that explains a lot. Thinking hurts the brainz, apparently.

48

"I need a good laugh."

'less you're a Vampire
succor's just one
(honest) reflect-
ion away

good luck.

49

Even if you accept the idea that there are 2 sexes, gender is more complicated than biology. What is the causal relationship between chromosomes and the decision to wear a dress vs a suit? The decision to wear makeup? The expectation to enter socially reproductive work vs materially productive work? These things have strong correlations with sex, in some cultures, due to gender, which is related to but not identical to sex.

50

@49: Agreed! All these things, like the decision to wear makeup, fall under the umbrella of "sexual identity and expression". This isn't my terminology, it was heralded by the LGBT community for years up until it collided with current political squabbling over the definition of gender.

51

Some of these terms are imprecise or have different meanings in different contexts, so I'm not actually sure where you stand.

When I hear the term "sexual identity", what I think is "sexual orientation". If by "sexual identity" you're referring to what I would call "gender expression", then I would argue that it is useful to use a separate word for gender and sex to avoid avoid conflating separate concepts. The makeup of your genetics and the physiological features of your anatomy is irrelevant to the majority of your day-to-day interactions, while your gender expression is highly relevant to day-to-day interactions (artificially so, there is no need to center gender so much in our language, but changing language takes a lot of concerted effort).

Separately, I feel a little self-concious about using such stereotypically "feminine" examples when discussing womanhood. There are plenty of legitimate ways to embody womanhood as butch women and punk women demonstrate, but traditionally feminine things are also associated with womanhood.

52

Why should you feel self-conscious about that? Multiple expressions of feminine are all valid. Nobody owns the copyright on feminine or masculine.

53

Yeah but constantly and exclusively referring to the most stereotypical forms of feminine, which some parts of society consider the only valid form of feminine, reinforces the idea that it is the"correct" way to be feminine. Its a small action in this instance, but my perspective is that these tiny actions add up over time and when many people perform them, so I try to be careful about how I say things. I understand that an overemphasis on language can get in the way of doing more useful things, but language is still important and I don't think there's anything wrong with being careful about it.

54

Just keep in mind that people love to play the role of the offended party.


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