As the resident education PhD in the room, I’ll just reiterate that this is bad, although it’s complicated and it sounds like a lot of the mandatory things (e.g FAFSA for college) would be moved to Treasury or other departments. It’s not as bad as getting rid of schools entirely, and it does have the added benefit of defanging Trump’s education goals. Just, you know, there won’t be transgender kids playing in girls sports if there’s no girl’s sports anymore since schools aren’t required by the feds to have it.

The biggest blow will mostly be in civil rights and in research, honestly. Civil rights because it’s funding is used as leverage to get schools not to discriminate on race, class, gender, etc, in so much so that you could even say sexual abuse under Title IX prevents teachers from diddling the kids. IDEA is also under them (that’s the disabilities bill for schools) so you may see less or no additional assistance for people with autism, intellectual disabilities, etc… In about a decade or two will actually lead to more crime and incarceration as education has a direct effect on reducing poverty and giving people purpose.

As you research, the DOE is a major contributor to education research, much in the same way as CDC was for health. I got my dissertation done using their data, and it is solid. They also provide grants to thousands of projects, and you can thank a lot of advancements in education to it, like improvements in pedagogy and establishing importance of after school programs and such. The system had some flaws, like rewarding grants based on established people only and ignoring young progressive researchers, but it was still better than nothing.

I think whatever damage he does can be undone and the department can be made better than it was because even I admit there’s bloat and the current system could be a lot better if it wasn’t so entrenched in neolib values. Lots of bullshit accountability stuff, similar to how we require hoops to jump through with welfare. Just, in the short term, it’s going to be extra hard for parents in red states and rural counties in particular because they receive the most aid from the department.

I want to add to the other good answers that DoE is also responsible for enforcing special education in schools, along with all other protections against discrimination and support for low income families. This in particular helps red states more, usually, and is a big reason Congress hasn’t acted when Reagan took office and had a hate boner for the department.

They’re evil, yes, but they’re also stupid.

Another tough but not impossible migration for my crew, but there isn’t a good enough alternative yet. Plus they finally got around to fixing streaming on Linux, apparently, and I’m about to swap back once my new m.2 is installed.

I think it was already more direct when he flooded their fields with reserve water using a federal aquaduct that doesn’t even reach LA to “put out fires” in LA a few days after a rain already did that. That water isn’t going to be available come summer when it’s needed, and I’d laugh if it wasn’t so pathetic and sad.

Fairly neutral way of looking at it, and that’s a nice thing to consider although I’m not sure if the U.S. is executing that correctly if you’re correct. After all, making security guarantees is an even easier way to end the war, including appeasing Russia by at least allowing them to continue their occupation.

Hawks also have the possibility that Ukraine makes headway in the war itself, which was the hope of the Biden administration providing support in the first place since US-Russia relations aren’t as valuable to most people as US-EU+others, even if China allies with Russia (which could still happen, as Russia hasn’t proven to be trustworthy in the past, anyway).

In other words, hawks probably have it right that U.S. is better off with it’s current allies, but if we give Trump the benefit it the doubt (a literal devil’s advocate) then at least there’s some rational, even if misguided. Plus, there is the truth that Ukraine is having difficulty taking back, although you could certainly say the US and EU haven’t given them enough to push forward out if fear of nuclear retaliation.

The whole situation sucks, though, rationale or not.

I’m taking very long term, honestly. Germany is a fine example, except we had to have WW2 to undo it. I hope the US and Russia don’t need WW3.

YouGov is definitely crap compared to actual research, but their hacks are mostly paid for speed over quality so it should be assumed. Later on, Pew Research or something tends to tell a better picture, although they aren’t perfect either.

Oh, I’m in LA and you should definitely come; just wait until after our civil war or coup or whatever it is that happens to get things to settle down. It’s a lovely city if you know where to go.

Also if it’s any consolation, we’ve practically got ICE protests almost every day. People here are fucking livid over this shit, particularly the Latino parts of town. (Although in typical LA fashion, part of the protesting is because of a TikTok trend).

Oh those mischievous 40 year old kids. I say let her go with a warning.

Look, stranger things have happened but I get the sense it’s more likely Putin dies and the whole thing kind of crumbles. That’s the likelier, although still entirely unlikely scenario.

It’d still be pretty nice to see less reliance on the US except global peace relies on more trust, not less. The US might need systemic reforms to get there, but even Russia looked like it could be an ally to EU prior to Putin, just all countries need better safeguards to avoid backsliding into authoritarianism. I’m not sure what those would be, but you can’t have global peace without addressing these countries.

I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if in my lifetime we end up with a unified world government that excludes literally just US and Russia. Israel would be excluded too except who the hell knows what’ll happen to the middle east after yet another world war.

With an airplane, yes. That’s how most undocumented folks do it, after all. Lol

X is around the time FF lost it’s main architect, Sakaguchi (technically sooner , but dev times I imagine it overlapped). Guys a class act that was with them since the beginning, but he started his own company after a falling out with the direction SE brass wanted to take things. He was the one pushing to always have life and death as main themes and kept certain other producers in line.

I always recall an anecdote on FF7, as him, Kitase and Nomura were working out story. Sakaguchi required a meaningful death in the plot. Kitase (who we can thank for FF6s second half) suggested the whole cast die except one who the player chooses. Nomura talked them down from that. FF7 was his baby (so much so that he’s the character designer and artist), hence why he’s so present on the remake. That said, they kept each other in check and Nomura gets really weird ideas (KHs being his lead, for example).

After Sakaguchi departure, 11 was modeled after EverQuest and had a newish team, 12 was written most by FFT scenario team but had a change mid devolpment midway (the SE brass wanted a plucky young protag, Vaan was late development), 13 was so overbudget that they had to make sequels to recoup costs, 14 1.0 was mostly old guard 11 people with no idea about optimization, 14 2.0 was Yoshida learning from WoW success (flaws and all) but adding “FF theme park” plus a great writing staff, 15… similar to 12 in changes mid production, but iirc it was the SE brass shoehorning bad ideas and plot required DLC, and 16 is Yoshida and his core team making a pretty solid ARPG but with some tedium due to his MMO roots (and if you like 7R you’d probably be ok with 16).

Anyone can like or dislike a game, so I’m just giving you the long range of production issues that are objectively damaging the experience. It’s ok to like flawed games. I know an unhealthy amount of video game industry lore, and the biggest thing I can’t even say because of an NDA. lol

(Bonus fun fact, FF6 was meant to end at the halfway point but was so ahead of schedule and funds they went ahead and created the second half. It’s my favorite FF lol)

I still think Mexico is looking pretty cool lately with their badass President.

Yeah, unfortunately with how people think, you’re probably right. The average person anywhere isn’t noticing a global trend here.

Did I imply that? EU has done more than the US on this issue, but to galvanize in this context means to excite or stimulate. After 3 years it’s rather easy to grow complacent, and scenes like this remind people to remain pissed off.

I do hope that Trump is the galvanizing force that pushes the people of the EU (and perhaps others) towards Ukraine support, as well as everything else Trump and the right hate. The far right is gaining too much support, but if your average right leaning or moderate EU citizen sees just how bad it’s working out for the US, it might chill that movement a bit. At least, I hope so.

That was my take away too, especially side by side with illegally dismantling USAID (and with it, US soft power) and a ton of functional agencies (e.g. NOAA, FDIC) that don’t cost much and protect us both physically and financially. If I wrote a playbook of how to quickly cripple a county, it would pretty much be this.

Meh. I wasn’t going to shop anyway but this won’t accomplish much. Granted, I don’t even think regular protests will do the trick. Do make long term strives towards weaning off the bad stuff, though. It won’t make a statement, but the only statements that’ll be taken seriously are the ones that land you in a NYC courthouse wearing an unnecessary bullet proof vest.