Schools are failing, Bennet is flailing, could Mar-A-Lago lead to jailing?
...each one an ever-falling piece of this ever-falling-down cathedral.
→ The public school monopoly has failed in Colorado. As is the case in many states across the country, Colorado’s public education system is an abject failure. Test scores were released recently, and the results are abysmal.
45.4% of 5th graders are reading and writing at grade level or above, which means that a majority of 5th graders are not reading or writing at grade level. That number is the highest of any tested grade.
39.4% of 3rd graders are doing math at grade level or above, which means more than 60% of them are not. That is also the highest percentage of any grade, with the lowest being just a hair over 25% of 7th graders performing at grade level or above.
It’s not the money, or at least not the way we think. The United States spends on average $14,400 per student for K-12 education. That’s higher than most first-world nations, and yet our results are not matching our investment.
Teacher salaries should be higher, no doubt, but it’s not as easy as shoveling dollars into the public education furnace. Canada, which spends approximately $2,200 less than the United States per student, somehow manages to pay its teachers approximately $9,000 more. If you’re wondering, Canada does beat the United States in test scores as well.
The Harvard College Economic Review did find a “weak positive correlation” between per-pupil funding and test scores. I imagine this weak correlation is simply a game of probability.
Think basketball. If you have six shots to land as many baskets as you can, but your friend only has five, are you really better if you landed one more basket than the friend? For all we know, had he had an equal amount of shots, he could have landed the same amount. I figure that education dollars operate in much the same way. Your chances of the dollars actually reaching the classroom and have a positive impact increase with the more money thrown at the system, but that doesn’t mean it’s good policy.
If you want to read more on education spending and where the United States stands, read this great piece from the Manhattan Institute.
→ Michael Bennet’s (and his cronies’) ridiculous attack on Joe O’Dea. I’m pro-life, so perhaps it is surprising that I find myself defending a pro-choice candidate for office against a smear campaign launched against him by a Senator with a 13-year track record of doing little more than failing at running for President and yelling at Ted Cruz.
Here’s the gist: Joe O’Dea is the only Republican candidate for statewide office in the entire nation (I believe, at least on record) this year that is pro-choice. He supports abortion rights up until 20 weeks during the pregnancy, and supports it in the case of rape, incest, or the life of the mother should it be past 20 weeks.
According to the CDC, only 1.2% of abortions (at least in 2016) occur after 21 gestational weeks. Other research has found that the majority of that 1.2% of abortions are because of a medical emergency.
From that, we can state that Joe believes that over 95% (let’s assume a few percent happen between week 20 and 21) of abortions should remain legal in the United States, and that number is probably even higher when you consider the reasoning for late-term abortions.
Regardless of how you feel about this stance, imagine what your reaction would be if you were a pro-choice advocate?
Perhaps, “well, I’m going to support the Democrat because he’s got a voting record, but I’m glad to see somebody in the Republican Party change their tune!” would come to mind?
If so, congratulations, you’re reasonable! Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the response from Senator Michael Bennet or the “non-partisan” groups that are supporting his candidacy. Bennet released an attack ad grilling Joe for not being a defender of women’s rights, while groups like COBALT (I’m sure you’ve heard of them, right?) have launched an all-out assault on Joe.
Why? Because Michael Bennet has nothing else to campaign on. It’s really as simple as that. He knows that the moment that Colorado’s unaffiliated voters (who tend to lean pro-choice) hear that Joe O’Dea isn’t trying to ban abortion, the likelihood of their vote going to somebody who hasn’t been a do-nothing Senator skyrockets. It is worth noting that Cook Political Report moved the Colorado Senate race from “likely Democratic” to “lean Democratic” on the same day Bennet released his ad. It was originally pegged as a “safe Democratic” seat at the beginning of the year.
Polling has been a little erratic, with recent polling showing O’Dea 8, 6, and 11 points down. However, another poll showed O’Dea down just 1 point - a statistical dead heat. The national atmosphere is…weird, to say the least. Should be a fascinating race.
Full disclaimer: I work with Joe O’Dea’s campaign. It does not alter my opinion on the situation, nor was I asked to write about it by anybody I work with.
→ The Mar-A-Lago raid. It is entirely possible for both Donald J. Trump and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to not be all that perfect. If you start from this position, like many reasonable people do, then the typographical squealing coming through the Twitter machine (alongside actual squealing on mainstream media) may make you consider the simple life a Buddhist monk.
As per usual, the issue of the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago has resulted in the line being drawn in the sand and everybody of note picking one side or the other; “Donald Trump bad” or “FBI bad.”
As most things are not, this is also not that simple.
It is entirely plausible that Trump had documents he shouldn’t have - or perhaps was doing things with certain documents he shouldn’t have. It’s equally possible for the FBI to have political motivations - or to have utilized legitimate power in an unfair way.
Many of those on the right went from “back the blue” to “defund the hell out that corrupt shit” really quick, and those on the left went from “all cops are bastards” to “we have to trust the authorities” quicker than I can scarf down a corndog (I haven’t timed it, but trust me here).
There is much we do not know, but will that stop the pundits from drawing conclusions? I think you know the answer.
We don’t know what documents Trump had, just what classification levels the documents had. Could that be concerning? Of course it could. But as many journalists will tell you, the FBI (and other government agencies) likes to slap “TOP SECRET” and “CLASSIFIED” stamps on a whole lotta paperwork that would otherwise seem ridiculous to keep from the general public.
I’ve also seen and heard some incredible claims as to what Trump was doing with those documents. Selling them to the Saudis, perhaps? That’s plausible, I guess, but it is just as likely some staffer accidentally put them those papers boxes and he hasn’t even looked at the damn things. I even heard of one conspiracy that many of the papers were buried with the body of Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana.
At the end of the day, it’s okay to say these words: “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’d like to find out more, and it’s entirely possible that nobody is perfect in this scenario.”
Will Trump be prosecuted? Will he go to jail? I don’t know - and quite frankly, neither do you. I’m not suggesting that one trust authority, simply to reject the temptation of having an unbudging opinion on everything.
Want to hear another interesting perspective? Listen to one of Eli Lake’s recent podcast episodes (just 30 minutes long), where he examines whether there was a double standard between the FBI’s handling of Trump’s documents and Hillary Clinton’s usage of a private email server that came to light during the 2016 election.
→ Who is Alexander Dugin? Recently, the assassination of Darya Dugina, a 29-year-old Russian journalist, has made international news. While Darya herself was a loud pro-Putin and pro-Ukrainian invasion voice in Russia, it is widely suspected that the car bomb that ended her life was meant for her father, Alexander Dugin, who has been described as “Putin’s Rasputin” for his suspected close friendship with the Russian leader.
Admittedly, I had never heard of either Darya or Alexander, and I suspect you may have not either. He’s a pretty weird dude, and it’s a bit difficult to digest his beliefs relative to mainstream American political beliefs.
Anyways, Dugin is considered one of the most prominent champions of “Eurasianism” - a Russia-centric nationalist political philosophy that believes in a “Greater Russia” where the nation annexes (by force, if necessary) nations such as Georgia and Ukraine. His beliefs are most accurately represented by the term fascism, though totalitarian is used a great deal as well. It’s very difficult to describe a fascist ideology, as it normally is quite nonsensical. All in all, weird dude with dangerous beliefs.
If you want to read more about Dugin, the Milken Institute pulled together an overview of many of his beliefs. I’m sure there are plenty of other profiles out there as well.
But, here’s what caught my eye in doing some Googling.
Dugin is seemingly a fan of Donald Trump. Here are a few excerpts from a piece of writing he published in 2016, just after Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the Presidency:
“Putin, standing in the vanguard of the struggle for multipolarity, led up to this. November 8th, 2016 was a most important victory for Russia and him personally. There is no alternative to the multipolar order, and now we can finally create the architecture of this new world order - not through war, but through peace. Trump has brought this with him.”
“This means the emergence of a new information sphere, a symbol of which is Alex Jones’ Infowars, which has turned into the most powerful resource of true information in the US and whose audience has rapidly grown to 20,000,000 in a matter of days and bypassed the big-budget channels.”
“Unlike Clinton, Trump does not consider LGBT, feminism, and postmodernism to be the last words of progress, but a disease. The most that they will be able to get out of America now is treatment for their perversions.”
Regardless if you feel this praise is justified, or not, correct, or not, it is rather interesting to take a moment to peek into the mind of one of Putin’s supposedly most trusted advisors (This is disputed, so I won’t draw a conclusion as to his impact on Putin’s actions). Even if you disagree with whatever crap Dugin is peddling, it should be alarming that he heaps such praise upon Donald Trump.
Interesting hole to travel down if you have a few hours, or days.
→ Colorado Inside Out. I had the pleasure of yet again sitting on PBS12’s weekly political roundtable, Colorado Inside Out, two weeks ago. Please take a few minutes to hear about Colorado’s water troubles, a police shooting case in Denver, and two topics discussing public schools falling to pieces.
(In this episode, I replaced “quite frankly,” with “the fact is” on your bingo card. Thankfully, I didn’t repeat the names of any Broncos players unnecessarily.)
→ And now, a photo of my child.
We got to go to our local water park a few Sundays ago and enjoy some pool time with this little guy. He absolutely loves the water. He’s also enrolled in swim classes as well.
Claremont is now 9 months old and doing fantastic. His first four teeth are coming in, he’s crawling around, he’s learned how to pull himself up on furniture, and is loving the new foods he’s been able to try. Guess it’s time to baby-proof the house, eh?
→ Tidbits from the web.
VIDEO: Architect Breaks Down Iconic Baseball Stadiums, Architectural Digest. A wonderful 18-minute breakdown of some of baseball’s early stadiums.
VIDEO: Awesome drone video of the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey in Normandy, France.
ARTWORK: Specifically, AI-generated artwork. It’s quite incredible. The photos (except for the one of Claremont) above are all AI-generated using Jasper’s new art tool.
ALBUM: “The Other Side of Make Believe” by Interpol. My favorite band since I was about 10 years old (Spotify).
SONG: From the preview text of this email, a song I’ve been jamming out to a bit. “Lazarus Online” by Wolf Parade (Spotify).