POLITICS SCHMALITICS

[CMRivdogs]

Hopefully the link works

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/05/08/why-i-chose-university-florida-santa-ono-opinion?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR4TAB-1AAF3P7lYHXW9qe2pNHwCSKWsp0SquJIRTR4oiRin7oA1iFpcIQHMjw_aem_bIZ76-0Ckx0aUADL3yXVLQ

 

 

[gehringer_2]

4 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Hopefully the link works

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2025/05/08/why-i-chose-university-florida-santa-ono-opinion?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR4TAB-1AAF3P7lYHXW9qe2pNHwCSKWsp0SquJIRTR4oiRin7oA1iFpcIQHMjw_aem_bIZ76-0Ckx0aUADL3yXVLQ

 

 

I think the same story is in the A^2 News.

[romad1]

On 5/9/2025 at 3:50 PM, gehringer_2 said:

I think the same story is in the A^2 News.

Asian parents hate them some DEI.  They do not benefit from all the hard work they put into training their kids to take tests and padding resumes with as Tracy Flick from Election would put it: "their myriad achievements".  

[gehringer_2]

10 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Asian parents hate them some DEI.  They do not benefit from all the hard work they put into training their kids to take tests and padding resumes with as Tracy Flick from Election would put it: "their myriad achievements".  

and the joke was that UM's DEI program hardly moved the needle for Black enrolment. The factors that matter there are largely outside the University and no amount of training, programming,  or navel gazing taking  place by people sitting in A^2 (good or bad) has any impact on that at all. I often though the best thing the U could have done to improve minority enrolment was take all that DEI money and use it to open it's own charter schools in Det, Pontiac, Flint.

Edited May 12 by gehringer_2

[romad1]

5 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

and the joke was that UM's DEI program hardly moved the needle for Black enrolment. The factors that matter there are largely outside the University and no amount of training, programming,  or navel gazing taking  place by people sitting in A^2 (good or bad) has any impact on that at all. I often though the best thing the U could have done to improve minority enrolment was take all that DEI money and use it to open it's own charter schools in Det, Pontiac, Flint.

UM could just say its open for business for Asian F1 kids and Asian American kids and set up shop that way and profit handsomely.   Like NIL but in reverse.  

Edited May 12 by romad1

[Motown Bombers]

 

[ewsieg]

I heard a report about LA county and how it's handling the rebuild for areas affected by the fire.  There have been 7 permits issued, up from 4 last month.  They are on pace to have everything rebuilt in 400+ years per the report.  

https://recovery.lacounty.gov/rebuilding/permitting-progress-dashboard/

Newsom needs to find a way to ramp this up otherwise it's going to be front and center for him to deal with when he runs.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, ewsieg said:

I heard a report about LA county and how it's handling the rebuild for areas affected by the fire.  There have been 7 permits issued, up from 4 last month.  They are on pace to have everything rebuilt in 400+ years per the report.  

https://recovery.lacounty.gov/rebuilding/permitting-progress-dashboard/

Newsom needs to find a way to ramp this up otherwise it's going to be front and center for him to deal with when he runs.

does this refer to all rebuilding, or just rebuilding that accompanied by a zoning change request? The City of LA normally processes tens of thousands of ordinary building permits in a year.

Edited May 14 by gehringer_2

[Motown Bombers]

Newsom gave out an executive order a while ago waiving permits for people rebuilding. These permits are mostly likely on the local level. 

[ewsieg]

3 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

Newsom gave out an executive order a while ago waiving permits for people rebuilding. These permits are mostly likely on the local level. 

Yeah, this is LA county specific and to Gehringer, I don't know the full details, just heard the 450 years or so at this pace on the report.  

I thought Newsom waived clean up permits, or made them much easier.  Regardless, even if outside his direct authority, if LA County fails, it'll look like a dem failure to those that publicize it.  Newsom needs to push LA to get moving.

[Dan Gilmore]

I had read about the fires releasing lots of toxic substances, getting cleanup of those is bound to delay rebuilding. Like remodeling a house with asbestos or lead paint requires significant mitigation first. 

[gehringer_2]

This just sounds too much like the right wing machine latching on to some number they don't know the meaning of to bash CA. Remember the big story about the fire trucks that were being stopped from helping during the fires? Neither does anyone in CA.

[gehringer_2]

Just for scale reference, unincorporated LA county is 65% of the total land area and about 10% of the total population of the county (there be mountains...)

[Motown Bombers]

Excellent choice to follow Benson.

 

[romad1]

45 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Excellent choice to follow Benson.

 

No quibbles... do we have a Michigan politics thread?   Might need to start one.  "Speak to the Hand" sounds like a good name.   Maybe best if I wait until I retire back there so i can track it first hand. 

Edited May 21 by romad1

[oblong]

This is interesting and I believe most of it.  Trying to correct their idiocy just plays into their goals.  You can quibble over whether they really are that dumb that's beside the point.  It appeals to their base.  We've had idiotic reality TV for a generation now and it's been normalized.  

https://www.salon.com/2025/05/23/kristi-noems-proud-maga-bimbo-act-builds-on-the-legacy-of-sarah-palin/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKdX4dleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFPZnFkVGtzbjBac25uMG0wAR4fT_RsaqNf5yFOF3WEK_FW-7ljh5CmLXsgx22rTlQKYQCfJqj2mgJYhxpsZg_aem_nLQ7yI5WE3-TYwJp6zubmA

 

[antrat]

Another example of the evilness of right wingers. This is monstrous.

Woman Forced to Carry Deceased Fetus to Term

[Kacie]

38 minutes ago, antrat said:

Another example of the evilness of right wingers. This is monstrous.

Woman Forced to Carry Deceased Fetus to Term

What's especially infuriating, is the child has been diagnosed with having fluid on the brain, and will likely be born, if he survives, with severe disabilities.  The same mother****ers who claim to be "pro life" just voted to cut all the services this little boy will need to have any chance at life, Medicaid, SNAP, etc.  Plus, the dead Mom's family will probably be billed hundreds of thousands of dollars for "medical care" for forcing their dead daughter to be an incubator.  Hate is too kind of a word for these people. 

[smr-nj]

37 minutes ago, Kacie said:

What's especially infuriating, is the child has been diagnosed with having fluid on the brain, and will likely be born, if he survives, with severe disabilities.  The same mother****ers who claim to be "pro life" just voted to cut all the services this little boy will need to have any chance at life, Medicaid, SNAP, etc.  Plus, the dead Mom's family will probably be billed hundreds of thousands of dollars for "medical care" for forcing their dead daughter to be an incubator.  Hate is too kind of a word for these people. 

Exactly.  I am furious

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, Kacie said:

What's especially infuriating, is the child has been diagnosed with having fluid on the brain, and will likely be born, if he survives, with severe disabilities.  The same mother****ers who claim to be "pro life" just voted to cut all the services this little boy will need to have any chance at life, Medicaid, SNAP, etc.  Plus, the dead Mom's family will probably be billed hundreds of thousands of dollars for "medical care" for forcing their dead daughter to be an incubator.  Hate is too kind of a word for these people. 

They have also made cuts to services for people with disabilities.  But they have enough money where they can cut taxes for the wealthy and give their baby dictator a 40 million dollar birthday party.

[GalagaGuy]

I wouldn't stop at just getting rid of the penny, ditch the nickel and dime as well.  The quarter is the only coin that matters and people won't even notice rounding up or down to the nearest quarter dollar when they pay with cash. 

[CMRivdogs]

Remember they let an orange man play with the fry machine and stand in the drive-thru window, once.

Now if they'd just fix their "ice cream" dispensers

 

[ewsieg]

I'm going to keep my companies name out of this post, but I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before.  Regardless, nothing I'm saying is confidential.

My company needed some gov't approval related to a company we're buying out.  Exec mgmt was telling us everything was on track but we weren't seeing any news about it.  We get an invite to an all hands call where they tell us we're eliminating DEI.... not eliminating DEI programs, but it definitely came out in a way that is sounded like we're basically going to do a "find all" for DEI and just delete it.   The employee resource groups remain and we're encouraged to join one or more and we will not change in regards to hiring the best person for the job with the understanding that differences amongst our team fosters "inclusion, innovation, and collaboration"

We received approval to move forward later that day.

[gehringer_2]

9 minutes ago, ewsieg said:

I'm going to keep my companies name out of this post, but I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before.  Regardless, nothing I'm saying is confidential.

My company needed some gov't approval related to a company we're buying out.  Exec mgmt was telling us everything was on track but we weren't seeing any news about it.  We get an invite to an all hands call where they tell us we're eliminating DEI.... not eliminating DEI programs, but it definitely came out in a way that is sounded like we're basically going to do a "find all" for DEI and just delete it.   The employee resource groups remain and we're encouraged to join one or more and we will not change in regards to hiring the best person for the job with the understanding that differences amongst our team fosters "inclusion, innovation, and collaboration"

We received approval to move forward later that day.

what is situation where we have to placate a racist, bigoted government administration.

Of course on one level, with regard to your personal situation, I guess I would rather work a company that decides to do the right things even if they have to do them under cover (assuming they follow through.....)  than for one that  isn't really interested in doing the right thing but had adopted all the public trappings for the sake of virtue signalling and/appeasement of an admin on the other side.

 

[ewsieg]

On 5/14/2025 at 4:36 PM, gehringer_2 said:

This just sounds too much like the right wing machine latching on to some number they don't know the meaning of to bash CA. Remember the big story about the fire trucks that were being stopped from helping during the fires? Neither does anyone in CA.

I was honest in that I said I didn't know the meaning of it either, but it doesn't sound good and sometimes taking things on their face turns out correct also.  Additionally, I heard this number from a very sympathetic voice to democrats (Bulwark).  Breaking Points has discussed some challenges they'd had, like all new homes have to be electric only - based on newer California laws, despite that law not really put into law based on these circumstances.  California is working at it, but it simply sounds like they legislated themselves behind an eight ball and then these fires dropped on top of it. 

It took Bill Maher 1131 days to get a solar system installed and go live.  This was way before the LA fires.  The progressive left, which hates people on their side that call for incremental change versus asking for everything and getting nothing, mocked him as an old man for complaining about it.  For people dealing with this stuff though, it's difficult.  

I hope California was able to fix everything over the last few months to help all these folks get back into their own homes, but that doesn't appear like it's happening anytime soon.