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[martinuzz]

Misinformation aside, they do have a point that attacks in the MidEast and Africa aren't covered as intensely as ones that happen in the West. Their point seems to be more that it's not that they don't get reported, but they sometimes don't get equal coverage. At least in Trump's view.

He should be happy with that, right, if the media has a tendency of reporting America First?

[smjjames]

Misinformation aside, they do have a point that attacks in the MidEast and Africa aren't covered as intensely as ones that happen in the West. Their point seems to be more that it's not that they don't get reported, but they sometimes don't get equal coverage. At least in Trump's view.

He should be happy with that, right, if the media has a tendency of reporting America First?

More like 'western countries first and/or if westerners got killed'. Also, some of the examples might be debateable as terrorism, the smaller ones anyway.

Or maybe it's more that 'small events don't get covered in the same way as larger events'.

[PTTG??]

At this point, I wonder what reform would be possible. If we were able to get a constitutional amendment signed, we wouldn't need a constitutional amendment!

[smjjames]

At this point, I wonder what reform would be possible. If we were able to get a constitutional amendment signed, we wouldn't need a constitutional amendment!

For what? Education?

[muldrake]

Meanwhile, Betsy DeVos was confirmed after a Pence tiebreaker vote.

Great.  A pyramid scam operator for one of the most notorious swindles in history.

[PTTG??]

At this point, I wonder what reform would be possible. If we were able to get a constitutional amendment signed, we wouldn't need a constitutional amendment!

For what? Education?

Broader. What could we do in the USA that would, for instance, mandate a system to remove gerrymandering?

[smjjames]

Education seems like something that is too complex and has too many parts to do an amendment on.

Gerrymandering is something that could be done, though I don't know if any other countries have anything like that in their constitutions.

Although it would have to be VERY CAREFULLY worded so that it doesn't accidentially give one party a leg up over the other.

[muldrake]

Education seems like something that is too complex and has too many parts to do an amendment on.

Gerrymandering is something that could be done, though I don't know if any other countries have anything like that in their constitutions.

Although it would have to be VERY CAREFULLY worded so that it doesn't accidentially give one party a leg up over the other.

This is America.  It would be very carefully worded to do just that.  Intentionally.

[Lord Shonus]

For most states gerrymandering wouldn't necessarily be too hard to fix by using counties as a basis. Something along the lines of "All districts must be of equal population, and comprise the fewest possible counties. If a given county exceeds this population level, the county will be divided into districts of the appropriate population size, and any leftover regions will be assigned to neighboring counties. If it is necessary to combine multiple counties to reach the population level, no county in the district may be more than two counties away from another."

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The more complex the rules, the more likely a loophole can be found. Shortest-splitline districting is best, as it is both mathematically simple and does not rely on human judgement.

[PTTG??]

Ah, but we need these rules because current representatives are elected by a biased system. They will absolutely not vote for a system that eliminates that bias, regardless of what that system is.

That is the quandary.

[smjjames]

Besides, messing with county lines would just produce more trouble in the short term than it's worth.

Anyway, on legal immigration (finally), some Senators are trying to reform it in a way that cuts legal immigration in half, primarilly for low skilled workers. Politico's article

While the legal immigration system does need reform, it seems to me like this way would actually increase the illegal immigration problem. Though Cotton does say that it's just the first part in a series of reforms.

After years of attempting the whole amnesty thing, at least they're trying a different direction.

Ah, but we need these rules because current representatives are elected by a biased system. They will absolutely not vote for a system that eliminates that bias, regardless of what that system is.

That is the quandary.

Then we just have to convince them that it's a fairer system. Also, is it possible for a state to choose a different system from others? Someone is going to have to be the one willing to take that first bold step, which might be easier than trying to do it wholesale nationally.

[Descan]

Besides, messing with county lines would just produce more trouble in the short term than it's worth.

Who's proposing that? Someone (maybe you!) mentioned just using counties as the basis, without changing the actual counties. MSH proposed using shortest splitline for the *districts*... :V

[EnigmaticHat]

I feel like we're brushing past Besty Devos.

She's an "school choice" advocate.  What this means is that she wants people to be able to choose between public schools and charter schools.  Every now and again a "model" charter school gets paraded around for having better test scores than the public schools.  However across the nation, consistently every year, charter schools always average worse test scores even than public schools.  This is true if they're competing with underfunded poor schools or elite schools in richer areas, or anywhere in between.  They always come up short.  Furthermore charter schools frequently accept admissions via lottery; so unlike private schools they're not purely a playground of the rich, but on the other hand they are not a consistent answer for our education problems even if they were better (which they aren't).

Betsy Devos is even more toxic than that tho, because she believes that charter schools should receive government funding but not be bound by the regulations that apply public schools.  I don't think it needs to be explained why this would be god awful.

On top of all that she's completely unqualified for the job.  She's never been a teacher, she's never been a public school student, her kids aren't even attending public school.  She doesn't understand the system she's about to have a lot of power over.  I know since Trump won we've all become desensitized towards this but I want to emphasize that this is an important, fragile time for our school system.  It is generally agreed, by Republicans and Democrats, that our school system is inadequate, unfair and uncompetitive with other countries, at a time when our economy relies on the highly educated.  Many of our poor and our criminals never graduated high school, and in many cases they attended "dropout factories" with <10% graduation rates.  Part of the reason the rural poor are so uneducated is because schools are funded via local taxes, causing a cycle of poverty where people who go to those schools have no hope of better employment.  On top of that colleges (and some scholarships!) value applicants who took part in extracurricular activities, which is essentially code for whether you went to a rich school or not.  Can't afford textbooks, you damn well can't afford a basketball court.

The political will exists for change in the school system, and people have tried to fix things, but it hasn't worked yet (which is a whole different wall of text).  Betsy Devos' ideas are dangerous and foolish, her reaching her position with Republicans holding so many other positions is Bad News.

Edit: This is a good example of her history and why her policies are bad.

[Sergarr]

WH official: We'll say 'fake news' until media realizes attitude of attacking the President is wrong.

cool