Electile Dysfunction (Current students plz look!)

[.RJ]

I thought for sure it was about something related to not being able to conceal carry because the 'crats are gonna make it illegal.

I dont think Rex believes in boogeymen

I mean they are gonna do that and more.

It didnt happen in 2008 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  But I agree with you the day is coming.  A handful of people have gotten sick on black market vapes and now the fed wants to ban all of them.... 

[CaptainHenreh]

I thought for sure it was about something related to not being able to conceal carry because the 'crats are gonna make it illegal.

I dont think Rex believes in boogeymen

I mean they are gonna do that and more.

It didnt happen in 2008 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  But I agree with you the day is coming.  A handful of people have gotten sick on black market vapes and now the fed wants to ban all of them.... 

One might argue that it "didn't happen in 2008" because a bunch of people worked hard to make sure it didn't, not because "oh well the Democrats don't really care about it."


But the vape thing is a perfect example, actually. A handful of people get sick from a fringe black market product that only exists because of racist legislation, so let's ban all of them. Good plan. Fuck freedom.

[Senor_Taylor]

As if Tobacco lobbyists don't have anything to do with the vape ban.

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[CaptainHenreh]

As if Tobacco lobbyists don't have anything to do with the vape ban.

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I mean...Juul, far and away the most popular vape brand is owned by...who?

I mean your point is taken. But it just reinforces that most laws aren't made because they will be effective at solving a societal ill, but because money.

[.RJ]

As if Tobacco lobbyists don't have anything to do with the vape ban.

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I mean...Juul, far and away the most popular vape brand is owned by...who?

I mean your point is taken. But it just reinforces that most laws aren't made because they will be effective at solving a societal ill, but because money.

Or that gun control laws are a third rail because NRA lobbying.  Same thing really because gov't is serving the money, not the people.

[CaptainHenreh]

As if Tobacco lobbyists don't have anything to do with the vape ban.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

I mean...Juul, far and away the most popular vape brand is owned by...who?

I mean your point is taken. But it just reinforces that most laws aren't made because they will be effective at solving a societal ill, but because money.

Or that gun control laws are a third rail because NRA lobbying.  Same thing really because gov't is serving the money, not the people.

I mean the NRA has its issues, but money spent, dog this ain't it. The NRA is like, pennies compared to corn or pharma or Bloomberg.


Errybody acts like the NRA is just slinging campaign funds but the numbers are public, and they aren't really.

Of course if you don't like the NRA (And I don't blame you) they'll evaporate if progressives stop obsessing over zomg gunsrscurry.

[.RJ]

can you share some of that data? I'm curious.

[CaptainHenreh]

can you share some of that data?  I'm curious.

If this were Twitter, I think I'd be pressed to throw the "it's not my job to educate you!" 

But opensecrets has it all.

2018 lobbying expenditures from the NRA, and all its subsidiaries:
$5,076,000

Same for Comcast:
16,800,000

Let's try.... Altria:
10,260,000

Amazon spent 14,000,000, my own employer a little over a Million, Alphabet 21 million. So if dollars equal influence, your cable company has about 3x more to say than the NRA. 

Now, that's not ALL the progun dollars, the NSSF spends more than the NRA but I think this narrative that the NRA is so powerful because in a key election year they spent half what one tobacco company spent is...not convincing? Not to me, anyway. The NRA is powerful because of Votes, which other lobbies have difficulty bringing in. We will see if that remains.

[.RJ]

That's insightful - thanks for not hitting me with the LMGTFY. Certainly seems they're getting good return on their money, compared to the other heavy hitters.

[HAULN-SS]

The thing about the NRA is, they spent less than half in Virginia during the last midterm, and this off year election, than they did in the previous election. I am not near the fan of them I was, say, 15 years ago, but they did have an ability to mobilize votes. I don't know why they didn't spend this cycle; whether they are as corrupt as it seems like they might be at the top, or if they already consider Virginia a lost cause, I guess we'll find out how much pushback comes along.
Virginia also lost a court case, and the D's got to redistrict earlier this year. I haven't looked closely at which districts flipped and which didn't and see if there is any correlation there. All that is to say, I am not going to be too convinced of polling that says things like "70% of virginians" support this or that as it comes to gun control, unless it has the caveat "of likely voters in districts x, y,z"

Also, I hope you Fairfax county folks are ready for bussing. The more relevant local elections - we now have a board of supervisors, and a school board, which is ready to mix the kids up based on socio-economic diversity. They are all in on the "one fairfax" plan, and recently installed a "Chief Equity Officer." So fuck me for scrimping and saving to be able to buy a house in the Langley school district - it's looking like my kid will probably get sent to Herndon HS instead. "North Reston" is probably going to get the same treatment (some of which is in Langley) That's approximately "half as good" of a high school, for paying twice the property taxes, if you're keeping score.

[Sijray21]

So fuck me for scrimping and saving to be able to buy a house in the Langley school district - it's looking like my kid will probably get sent to Herndon HS instead. "North Reston" is probably going to get the same treatment (some of which is in Langley) That's approximately "half as good" of a high school, for paying twice the property taxes, if you're keeping score.

I've always laughed at the Fairfax County High School jurisdiction lines. Kids that are next door to Loudoun County get bussed all the way inside the beltway to Langley because money creates the boundary lines despite living closer to 1 or 2 High Schools. I'll be glad if they even out the lines a bit and i'll be happy since i'm paying less in property taxes living in Herndon (only due to less value of a house as the rates are pretty similar).

I, honestly, don't think that's going to happen because money talks and there are too many powerful people with a lot of money in the right zip codes that will determine where the high school boundaries are. Langley may as well be a private school. McLean and Fairfax High Schools also have some ridiculous lines.

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files...utline.pdf

[Apoc]

The first mistake was letting the government decide where you kids go to school. I've pretty much decided on private school because of the school board and city council fuckery around here.

[HAULN-SS]

There are other perks to living here besides the schools, if forced to live in Nova at all. My wife went to private schools her whole life. I've been in the midst of planning a whole lot of improvements to the house and lot in a 3 phase approach. I might stall on some of that until they make a decision, as I suspect property values will follow. Might make sense to move to Mclean. I don't particularly have anything against Herndon schools, I just suspect that this approach will not guarantee them the test scores they desire, and want no part of the social engineering part of it.

[Sijray21]

a decision, as I suspect property values will follow.

This is the exact reason I think there won't be huge changes (if any). If there is a possibility of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on home values due to school redistricting there will be major pushback. Are you on the border? I wouldn't be that concerned unless you are south of rt 7.

[.RJ]

private schools and great falls property values, tell me more about your rich people problems

[JPolen01]

Howard County (where I live) is leading the way on forced equity and bussing. There are thousands and thousands of people in opposition. Supporters of the plan paint opposers as racists/privileged/haters of the poor. It’s becoming quite an ordeal.

[ScottyB]

i'd be curious to know just how much more expensive it is in fuel to have these busses driving huge, complex routes all over the place to collect kids from random areas.

[JPolen01]

i'd be curious to know just how much more expensive it is in fuel to have these busses driving huge, complex routes all over the place to collect kids from random areas.

That’s one of the big things the opposition is pushing. Initial expectations are into thy millions.

The bigger concern is commute time for students. People like to look at travel time on google maps and say x to y is not so bad. They fail to factor in that a school bus stops about 50 times on the way to school which adds an enormous amount of time to commutes.

There’s a million reasons why this is not the way to redistrict, but the superintendent and county executive are pushing this hard. Rumors that the CE is going to run for Governor and equity is one of his big campaign items. They are pushing the same bullshit in PG county right now and are facing similar opposition.

[Apoc]

Howard County (where I live) is leading the way on forced equity and bussing. There are thousands and thousands of people in opposition. Supporters of the plan paint opposers as racists/privileged/haters of the poor. It’s becoming quite an ordeal.

You just described how many people respond in Seattle when you have a dissenting opinion on ANYTHING. It is maddening and has pushed me more socially conservative. I'm not kidding when I say I've been looking as this week's election (i.e. reelecting a socialist who doesn't govern her district and/or voting affirmative action back in) as a strong signal whether we stay or go. We do polling by mail, so I won't know for another week. 

Read this BS: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/11...ut-seattle

[JPolen01]

It’s fucked here. There’s video of a local pastor (with the CE in the audience) saying black and brown people have been beaten down too long and “if white people need to suffer than so be it.”

It’s not the job of the school system to implement a socioeconomic experiment in order to fix a problem of no affordable housing anywhere in this county and lack of public transport in the western part of the county.

Developers are deep in the pockets of this CE and instead of increasing their per square foot building fee that goes to schools he would rather implement this ill advised plan. It’s disgusting.