FinnFooted

I get your concern in a sense because kids in Rochester do have it pretty rough. While crime stats in the us and NY are down, violent crime Rochester specifically has stayed pretty steady since the 90s and is higher than national and NY crime levels.

But I don't think this will be the thing that impacts these kids and school districts the most. The issues Rochester face come from poor incentive management for schools, high teacher burnout and poor employee retention, large classroom sizes, issues with corruption within specific school systems, and concentrations of low socioeconomic people.

I need to admit I left the public education world in NY a while ago. But it used to be that the worse a school performed the less money it got. Because schools only get a small percentage of funding from the federal government that gets pulled from them when they underperform (I very quickly looked at the numbers and it appears Rochester gets less than the national % average in federal funding, about 10% compared to the national 13% depending on what year you're looking at). So schools with students who needed the most help either lost money or just tried to cover up student issues to hide them instead of address them. As long as this and property tax funding is the model and admin dictates their own salaries, schools aren't going to improve.

IMO, it's even specifically DEI policies that briefly helped some schools excel in the us during school bussing. Bussing students forced integration of students from all different backgrounds and socioeconomic groups. Rich and attentive parents with more bandwidth made sure whatever school their kid was at was well funded and well run. Kids from different backgrounds became friends and humanized each other. Kids from poor backgrounds were offered support systems outside of gangs and violence. And these poor kids didn't poison the well and bring crime to their new schools. Kids are kids. If you offer them opportunities, they don't choose gangs and violence.

What will really fix schools and improve things for kids

• small class sizes (15 kids MAX)
• force integration
• better support for teachers
• free school lunches
• statewide tax funding instead of property tax

Some seeds need physical or chemical stress to actually germinate. You need rough them up with acid or fire or just sandpaper.

I still don't think this is a brilliant way to spread seeds. But there are some seeds it wouldn't destroy.

NYC hates Cuomo though. They hated him before the scandal.

Two low glycoalkaloid varieties are unlikely to create a high glycoalkaloid variety (and its unlikely to find a high glycoalkaloid variety outside of south America. But it's possible. Like two short people having a tall child.

Also its probably sterile.

If you want to pollinate it to collect seed (debatable if that's a good decision), use an electric toothbrush. The pollen needs the vibrations of a pollinator to be released.

I find the 33/33/33 rule works. 33% of people just like authoritarianism during this period of history. I'm not sure if that's a constant or because of the current climate making people stressed and weird. But they feel safer when someone says they're going to take control and fix everything and they feel like they don't have to think about it beyond that. They will agree with anything their in group says because it soothes them. These are your cultists.

Another 33% are just checked out. They're stressed in the same way, but instead of turning to an authoritarian to fix the problem they just bury their head in the sand. They feel like they're too small to fix anything so why even try. These people sometimes still vote if its convenient enough and are complete wildcards when they do because they really have no clue what's happening. They vote on vibes. This is also where trolls tend to sit.

That just leaves just 33% of people who are paying attention and either aren't stressed and have the emotional bandwidth, have interest, or have the persistence to pay attention even when stressed to try and do something to stop the authoritarianism (even if that's just vote).

This leaves 1% which is the literal 1% trying to pull the strings.

All these articles are pure hopeium. I check his approval rating daily hoping my country will gain some sense. His approval is higher than his first term. Half the population has has their brains turned to scrambled eggs by social media. And I get the irony of saying this on social media.

People are impressionable and the tech bros who control movement of information have fallen in line behind Trump. It's going to be a bumpy ride y'all.

Should we let perfect be the enemy of good?

This is the exact problem. The DNC get to watch Trump enact terrible legislation. The electorate will swing back to them. They then will then repeal all the legislation they don't benefit from and will look like the good guys. But they'll keep all the legislation that helps politicians pocket more money and humm and haw about bipartisanship making it difficult to change things.

They'd rather do this than have a shift within the party that causes the senior politicians to lose their crowns.

AI comic?

Exactly. After everything that's happened, barely negative is pathetic. Its game over.

I got a soda stream with glass bottles. You can make soda from fruit (lemons and oranges are especially delicious - plus I can control whatever sweetener I use). Also, if you really want cola, then you can get concentrated syrup so there's less plastic and liquid transport overall.