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[LadyBrassroast]

When republicans are in the minority in Congress, they always stymie and hold up the omnibus bill for concessions or just to make the Democrats look bad for "failing to prevent" a government shutdown

[Folly]

When republicans are in the minority in Congress, they always stymie and hold up the omnibus bill for concessions or just to make the Democrats look bad for "failing to prevent" a government shutdown

Though 'always' is a relatively recent development. Partisanship, particularly in Congress, has gotten so bad in the last couple decades that many of the critters will eagerly hurt their own country if they can blame it on the other side.

[hector13]

When republicans are in the minority in Congress, they always stymie and hold up the omnibus bill for concessions or just to make the Democrats look bad for "failing to prevent" a government shutdown

Last two shutdowns were the Republicans fault though and people know that.

Particularly when Trump was all “I could stop this shutdown now but I won’t because I’m a cunt!”

[Lord Shonus]

Shutdowns basically never go well for the faction that forced them.

[Dostoevsky]

As Shonus said. As to a bit more on the omnibus...

Under hypothetical normal circumstances (which historically have been very abnormal indeed), congress passes 12 appropriations bills covering various facets of the "discretionary" spending of the government, i.e. the spending that isn't "mandatory," i.e. the spending that doesn't happen automatically pursuant to existing statute.

Percentage-wise, Roughly 2/3 of spending is mandatory - this includes social security, medicare & medicaid, food stamps, some ongoing covid aid, etc. The other 1/3 is discretionary, of which roughly half is the military budget. So the remaining 1/6 of federal spending is all the agencies you know and love like the EPA, IRS, etc. etc. For all discretionary spending, congress has to affirmatively pass legislation every year allotting that money.

Congress somewhat arbitrarily splits this discretionary spending into 12 bills, one of which is military spending (well, 2 really) and the rest of which are various functions, e.g. "State & Foreign Operations," "Interior & Environment," or "Energy & Water." Under hypothetical normal circumstances each one would get separate floor votes and be signed into law separately, before the end of September (the end of the government fiscal year). In practice, they fail to do that by October and cobble together a bill spending agreement by the end of the year... and since it's a big must-pass bill at the end of a term, more legislation hitches a ride, including in this case some reforms to the Electoral Count Act and blocking endangered species protections for the Right Whale for 6 years, potentially leading to its imminent extinction.

Anyways, if there's a shutdown then the various discretionary agencies can no longer operate, except as absolutely needed (i.e. limited exceptions). A quirk of this is that while things like social security are mandatory, the salary and time of the staff who implement them may not be, so a shutdown will effectively disrupt mandatory programs regardless.

[Duuvian]

Thousands of Teens Are Being Pushed Into Military’s Junior R.O.T.C.

In high schools across the country, students are being placed in military classes without electing them on their own. “The only word I can think of is ‘indoctrination,’” one parent said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/us/jrotc-schools-mandatory-automatic-enrollment.html


J.R.O.T.C. Textbooks Offer an Alternative View of the World

Descriptions of civic life and some key historical events differ from the way they are taught in typical public school textbooks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/us/jrotc-textbooks.html

In Public Schools, the N.R.A. Gets a Boost From Junior R.O.T.C.

Instructors in military-sponsored J.R.O.T.C. classes have offered to promote the N.R.A. in high schools in exchange for money for their marksmanship programs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/us/jrotc-nra-schools.html

As a foreign example:
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/12/20/7381533/
Russians create "youth movements" for brainwashing children in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine


Here is the solution for the US government IMO: Remove the avenues for the JROTC to be influenced by financial donations while fully funding their marksmenship training.

[hector13]

Could just take them out altogether. Neither the military nor guns belong in school.

[Duuvian]

I disagree in the case of JROTC. Some young people plan to join the military after graduation and should have vocational training open to that life choice. They use air soft and pellet guns for training. However I would suggest that having an off campus location would be better, if that is not the current implementation and that it should absolutely be politically neutral. One common refrain of nonsense I heard many times from Trumpists was their delusion that "the army supports us". I'd rather this not be truth in 10-20 years.

[nenjin]

I disagree in the case of JROTC. Some young people plan to join the military after graduation and should have vocational training open to that life choice. They use air soft and pellet guns for training. However I would suggest that having an off campus location would be better, if that is not the current implementation and that it should absolutely be politically neutral. One common refrain of nonsense I heard many times from Trumpists was their delusion that "the army supports us". I'd rather this not be truth in 10-20 years.

How does this square with enrolling students in those classes without their consent? That's some straight up dystopian shit. If I were a parent, I'd be fucking outraged. I tried to open the NYT article read more but it won't load.

[McTraveller]

It's been a long time since I was in high school - but I recall that there were some classes in which you could get auto-enrolled if you didn't explicitly make a selection, often based on which period was free.

I chalk this up as 50% people looking for things about which to be outraged and 50% people wrangling to make JROTC be "at the top of the list" to put into those unselected slots.

[Lord Shonus]

Reading up on it, it is entirely lower-level school officials pushing this, not a mandate from the Pentagon. The program is subsidized, so the schools can save on budget, and there's some other funding incentives. JROTC students also have a very pronounced difference compared to non JROTC students in terms of causing trouble and poor academic performance*. So lower-level school administrators are taking the easy way out and pushing it.


*This may very well be an inverted relationship. An optional program like JROTC tends to attract the kind of motivated student that will do well in general and is not likely to cause trouble.

[EuchreJack]

When republicans are in the minority in Congress, they always stymie and hold up the omnibus bill for concessions or just to make the Democrats look bad for "failing to prevent" a government shutdown

Last two shutdowns were the Republicans fault though and people know that.

Particularly when Trump was all “I could stop this shutdown now but I won’t because I’m a cunt!”

Trump did clearly fail in the last shutdown. I was going to say he lost, but I think the government employees that had to dip into their savings to stay alive during the winter were the real loser.

[EuchreJack]

Thousands of Teens Are Being Pushed Into Military’s Junior R.O.T.C.

In high schools across the country, students are being placed in military classes without electing them on their own. “The only word I can think of is ‘indoctrination,’” one parent said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/us/jrotc-schools-mandatory-automatic-enrollment.html


J.R.O.T.C. Textbooks Offer an Alternative View of the World

Descriptions of civic life and some key historical events differ from the way they are taught in typical public school textbooks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/us/jrotc-textbooks.html

In Public Schools, the N.R.A. Gets a Boost From Junior R.O.T.C.

Instructors in military-sponsored J.R.O.T.C. classes have offered to promote the N.R.A. in high schools in exchange for money for their marksmanship programs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/us/jrotc-nra-schools.html

As a foreign example:
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/12/20/7381533/
Russians create "youth movements" for brainwashing children in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine


Here is the solution for the US government IMO: Remove the avenues for the JROTC to be influenced by financial donations while fully funding their marksmenship training.

You forgot to mention the time that the NRA was being targeted for influencing by the Russian Government.

Ergo, you could say that it's the Russians that are subverting tomorrow's US Military Leaders. Follow the money.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I don't necessarily believe that line of reasoning, BUT it exists!

[anewaname]

To kids, offering the ideas of subordination and obedience, then embedding those ideas with the serotonin/dopamine/endorphin/oxytocin hammer.

Meat for the machine...

[Strife26]

Reading up on it, it is entirely lower-level school officials pushing this, not a mandate from the Pentagon. The program is subsidized, so the schools can save on budget, and there's some other funding incentives. JROTC students also have a very pronounced difference compared to non JROTC students in terms of causing trouble and poor academic performance*. So lower-level school administrators are taking the easy way out and pushing it.


*This may very well be an inverted relationship. An optional program like JROTC tends to attract the kind of motivated student that will do well in general and is not likely to cause trouble.

Last time we did the "OMG MANDATORY JROTC IN HIGH SCHOOL" thing, it was one school that counted it as one way to meet the gym class credit.