DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Republican Right Wing Nuts - Part ????

I think that is a good thing. Parents should have ability to seek the best education for their kids. Tax dollars should be spent wisely and not on failing public educations where teachers care more about their union than the students, they are supposed to be teaching. get the union out of public education and it just might get better.

I think some of us get it. Taxes are paid to pay for public education. People who don't like that want to raid public education money to pay for private education while not supplying additional tax dollars to pay for it. So they make excuses as for why that's okay.

Then when you show them factually that some states spend the lowest price per student to educate them and also provide some of the lowest teacher pay in the country they blame it on the teachers union and the teachers while ignoring all of that.

Unions brought people 40 hour work weeks with overtime for more. They brought about worker safety. Paid holidays, paid sick days. It brought about workers making enough to live. Maybe you should look back at a little history to see what things were like before unions existed.

Workers deserve representation. These are college educated people who do not deserve to be punished by allowing individual school boards to run roughshod over them.

They're product is just inferior to private schools and even other forms of education. Too many regulations and quotas that public education has to follow from both the government and the corrupt NEA. Parents pay taxes and should have the rights to use their tax dollars in the best way possible for their children.

You do realize that private schools spend more per pupil, have higher teacher pay and smaller class sizes don't you? Here are a few reasons why you see these results.............

Socioeconomic Status and Family Background: Studies (including research by Christopher and Sarah Lubienski and data from the Brookings Institution) show that when you adjust for family income, parental education level, and home academic support, the private school test score advantage shrinks dramatically or disappears. Private school families generally have higher household incomes and college degrees.

Selective Admissions: Unlike public schools, which must legally enroll every child in their district (including students with learning disabilities, English language learners, or those facing poverty), many private schools use selective admissions, interviews, or academic requirements to admit students.

Smaller Class Sizes: Private schools typically maintain lower student-to-teacher ratios (averaging about 11–12 students per teacher compared to 16–20 in public schools), which allows for more individualized teacher attention.

And while all public education schools are required to give standardized tests to receive tax dollars private schools do not all take the exact same state-mandated exams or serve the same populations.

When conditions are different the results will be also. When you can pick and choose your students you will get better results.

President Donald Trump has fired Katie Zacharia after five days as the White House Press Secretary.

Even Anthony Scaramucci lasted 11 days as White House Press Secretary. That's a record I thought would never be broken and he lasted twice as long as she did!

I mean Kimberly Guilfoyle served as the U.S. Ambassador to Greece for 11 months and 9 days. And trump let her go for grifting? If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black.

Two down in a single week. They're dropping like flies! So much for "I only hire the best people".

Obviously she didn't lie well enough with enough bravado and shamelessness.

Well in football you have "next man up."

Now we have "next blond up."

Gee, should there be any scrutiny towards the person who hired her???

Now why would anyone do that? Trump blames intense and "unfair" media coverage for her firing. You know, the media made him do it!

Rep. Andy Harris threatens prosecution of student reporter for trying to record him after debate

Harris, R-Md., told the student reporter she was not allowed to record his answers even though they were in a public setting with other journalists who had recording devices.

A video taken by NBC Washington’s partners at The Baltimore Banner shows Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., telling a student reporter from the University of Maryland that she did not have permission to record him and threatening prosecution.

“You do not have my permission to record! If you record, we will refer you to the prosecutor,” Harris told the student reporter.

“Everyone in here is recording,” the student reporter said.

“But you are not allowed to. We are in a two-party state,” Harris said, citing Maryland’s Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act, which makes it a felony to record private conversations without consent from both participants. However, the law only protects private conversations, and recording is allowable in situations where there is no “reasonable expectation of privacy.”

The exchange went on for several minutes.

The reporter then tried to ask Harris his thoughts on the Iran war.

“You said that it could’ve gone smoother and it could’ve gone better. What did you mean by that?” she asked.

“You’re gonna have to take her camera,” said Harris, who is seeking re-election. “She is violating the law. In fact, get an officer in here.”

News4 reached out to Harris’ office for comment but has not heard back.

Harris, who is seeking a ninth term in the House, had just left a contentious debate, where he faced scrutiny from audience members over the Iran war and rising diesel prices.

Banner reporter Pamela Wood shared in a social media post Wednesday that Harris invited reporters to interview him after the debate. The video shows several journalists participating in the postdebate gaggle.

Attorney Kevin Goldberg, vice president of the Freedom Forum, a nonprofit that supports the First Amendment, said Maryland’s two-party consent laws wouldn’t apply in this case because Harris was speaking to a group of reporters in a public space.

“If a reporter has a right to be in a space and work as a reporter, they cannot be denied that right simply because somebody doesn’t like the coverage or somebody doesn’t like the questions or somebody doesn’t like their viewpoint,” Goldberg said.

This was how Harris’ conversation with the reporters eventually ended:

“Congressman, you said that you supported the First Amendment — what does this say about that?” the college reporter asked.

“All right, guys, she’s ruining your chance to get an answer about anything. See y’all. Thank her profusely,” Harris replied.

Harris’ Democratic opponent, Dan Schwartz, released a statement saying in part that the “message of the night was clear, Andy Harris is out of touch, out of practice talking to voters, and much more interested in picking fights and spinning his story than offering real answers.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/co...-prosecution-student-reporter-rcna603687

Trump only hires the best

Private school parents deserve to get some of that money. They pay the taxes yet don' put their kids in to the public schools. It's like that in all states. If every private school closed tomorrow, the public school systems would be swamped. People who send their kids to private schools should be thanked by you and others. Otherwise your taxes would skyrocket.

#math

That's a "choice" they make. Just like the "choice" to go to a state university or a private university. In many states private schools are already getting tax payer funded money to fund them. That money would just go back to public education instead of to those private schools.

• Per-Student Voucher Amount: For the 2025–26 and 2026–27 school years, Tennessee provides $7,295 to $7,500 per student through programs like the Education Freedom Scholarship and expanded voucher initiatives. By comparison, the state's average state-level funding formula allocation per public school student is about $7,023 (though public schools receive additional local and federal dollars).

• Program & Expansion Costs: The state's private school voucher and scholarship expansion covers up to 35,000 students, with annual program costs scaling past $270 million to over $300+ million per year (projected at over $1.1 billion across initial multi-year rollouts).

I'm not going to thank anyone for that. I don't have a problem with people sending their children to private schools. But if that's the "choice" they want to make, let them pay for it. Nobody makes them send their kids there. Why should we pay for something they choose to do as a luxury that they don't have to?

Not a small amount I am sure.

I don't question that public schools are underfunded. That is why we sent our kids to private schools.

The question is how are we going to get the funding of public schools up to an amount near private school funding? Raising taxes is the only real answer, and even then it won't get up to the same amount. If we raise taxes, I would only be in favor of a sales tax increase being the majority form of the additional funding. Education is a burden everybody in the state should share, not just property holders. A sales tax would also bring in more dollars from outside the state.

The problem is everybody is in favor of taxing as long as you are taxing someone else. You regularly see small 2-3 mil tax proposals for education fail at the local level.

You know something like that wouldn't fly. You also have the factor of gifting that will always favor the private schools. Ted Turner gifted his old HS here in Chattanooga $75 million some years ago. I am not even sure if a person who went to public HS can gift his/her school in such a way without it getting sucked up in to the general fund, be it local school boards or the state agency where it gets diluted from the intent of the gift. They can give to help build a new stadium or something like that but they can't give to hire better teachers or expand the school infrastructure. That has to be doled out by various boards in any way they see fit.

I would have no problem funding schools through sales taxes. Just not sales taxes on food. Too many people have a hard time feeding their families as it is. You know, like a lot of those public school families.

But what make it hard for public schools to "offer the same level of education" as people put it, is that public schools have to accept everyone. They can't pick and choose which students they accept and which ones they turn away the way private schools can. So of course when you choose better students you get better results. That's sort of like cooking the books.

I don't know if it is cooking the books. No doubt public schools have to take a lot of non-motivated students. On the other hand you have parents shelling out up towards $40,000 a year for a private HS education who are going to take a keen interest in seeing the Jr. isn't screwing around and making the grade.

Note, that $40000 figure is the top end schools. I say on average parents pay around $10,000 a year.

As for taxation, I'd include food. Most folks who need assistance get their snap. I don't care what is and isn't taxed. I don't care if it isn't an across the board tax, meaning you want zero or a small percentage on food and a higher levy on gas, or whatver.. It just needs to be high enough to cover costs and a tax everybody pays.

US debt interest costs hit $3 billion a day and jumped 8% in 2026—faster than spending, revenue, GDP | Fortune https://share.google/ultrl3fUO4MWE4PEK

Winning!¡!! Murica!!!

U.S. debt interest payments hit $3 billion a day and jumped 8% in fiscal 2026

You want to send your kids to private schools, pay for it. That's a choice you're making because you "want to". Not a choice you have to make. It's not my job to pay for your kids school because you think your kid is better than everyone elses.

And no Peen all the people who need food assistance are not getting it. Over half of American households are living paycheck to paycheck. Those people shouldn't have to be helping you pay for a luxury choice.

Trump's big beautiful bill cut 186b billions from the SNAP program. More than 5 million people have lost SNAP benefits since the legislation passed.

I understand how you might think those people should help the more wealthy pay for their kids to go to private school but I think that's absurd.

That's due to those fiscal conservative values they keep talking about. You know, cut taxes and spend more. That's how math works for them.

It's trickle up economics ... and it bloody well works darn well.

There is a huge difference in how they tell voters it works and how it really works.

In other twitter news..........



Chelsea Clinton was married at the Astor Courts estate in Rhinebeck, New York.

Chelsea Clinton's wedding reception was held on the grounds of Astor Courts, a historic Beaux-Arts estate in Rhinebeck, New York, sitting along the Hudson River.

The problem is that nobody wants to cut services. It's going to take a come to Jesus meeting where people have to understand that it is going to require cuts, tax increases and stimulating economic growth.

The problem is you and I might be able to go with two of those options, even if different options, but the 3rd is the hard pill to swallow. Economic growth is the no brainer, but that takes time. We are starting to see that as more and more companies are investing in this country, but in order to see that we have to give tax incentives, which turns a lot of people off, even if that is what it takes. It also takes time for that to take hold. People don't have the patience required for that to happen in full.

What we are seeing is more and more countries corporations are promising trump they "will be" investing in this country to garner favoritism and not have his wrath imposed upon themselves. As we should have learned from such promises during trump's first term, most of them never come to fruition and even when some of them do to any extent the amount of jobs they promise for those tax breaks is often times fall woefully short and certainly not to the dollar amount they promise.

During this administration tariffs have been used as leverage for these "promises" but we both know those tariffs are short term. Once the threat of tariffs is gone, do you really think they'll follow through with these promises?

During trump's first term much of those tax breaks and incentives handed out to corporations already here and U.S. businesses ended up being used instead of for domestic plant construction, equipment or job expansion by most major corporations were instead heavily prioritized for stock buybacks and shareholder distributions. That doesn't help the economy.

Those are the biggest reasons why I have a problem with it. Once people figure that out it tends to cause their patience to run thin.

One basic fact that seems to be overlooked so much is that putting those tax breaks in the hands of consumers is the best way to grow the economy. Corporations don't build factories or hire employees just because you put money in their pockets. That wouldn't make any sense. That would be a dereliction of duty to their stock holders and go against the grain of the corporate structure itself.

Jobs are created and factories are built on the condition of need. Need for more products and more jobs is driven by consumer spending. Yet a great bulk of all tax breaks go into the hands of the very wealthy and corporations. That's a very backwards approach to creating a stronger economy.

What we do both agree on is you can't just keep cutting taxes and continue to spend like a drunken sailor when most of that money is being used for stock buybacks and shareholder distributions.

The problem is people who get their information from Trump supporting sources won't know factual data - Trump blames others for anything bad and takes credit where something is perceived as good.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tr...-investment-made-under-biden-2025-07-08/

Trump website claims credit for $2.6 trillion in new investments in US
Reuters review found $1.3 trillion began under Biden or was routine spending

You only have to listen to him now - telling people that inflation isn't real or a problem, that they are much better off than they realize, that the inflation and oil price is high because of Ukraine .... it's one lie and one spin after another. All the claims of investment and jobs from term 1 didn't materialise ... but they aren't hearing those details. Only the announcement that 'it is planned'....

I do get it. When you have been supporting someone since 2015, even when it becomes painfully obvious who he is now, it would be very embarrassing to admit you have been conned the entire time.

Vance says he’s ‘disgusted’ by GOP pushback to Ramaswamy ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Vice President JD Vance said during a campaign visit to Ohio on Wednesday that he is “disgusted” by the Republican pushback against an ad by Vivek Ramaswamy that features the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, Dr. Amy Acton, and raises questions about her traumatic childhood.

“Politics is a tough business,” Vance said to reporters.

In Cincinnati, the vice president said it was “not really my concern” whether the controversial 60-second spot was appropriate, and said he was focused on supporting Republican candidates in their midterm races.

“I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America,” Vance said in his first public comments on the ad, which has roiled one of the most contentious and expensive governor’s races in the country.

The advertisement features Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, calling her “a liar” and insinuating she has mental health issues. It was criticized by both Democrats and Republicans when it exploded into public view Tuesday, just two weeks before Election Day.

Ramaswamy, a billionaire tech entrepreneur and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, claimed credit for the ad and said he will spend $4 million to promote it despite the backlash from some members of his own party. He didn’t address it in remarks before Vance spoke at a rally outside Cincinnati.

Acton, Ohio’s former health director, has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child.

Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather was indicted for raping Acton. Police and court records show Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of his stepdaughter, then 12, in July 1978, after Acton’s biological father reported him to authorities. The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978.

Her campaign on Tuesday posted a video of her brother who supported her backstory about living in a tent and being abused.

In his remarks to reporters ahead of the rally, Vance said Acton, “lies about every single one of her positions.”

https://apnews.com/article/election...-mother-93ab182c3e0a95d25ddb409ec0628231

Amy Acton survived childhood abuse. Her Republican opponent is using it to attack her.

From mocking the Democrat's therapy to an ad featuring her estranged mother, Vivek Ramaswamy and his allies have made it his closing argument against her in the Ohio governor's race.

Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is closing out one of the nastiest races of the 2026 cycle by suggesting that Democrat Amy Acton, his opponent in the Ohio governor’s race, has lied about the well-documented childhood sexual abuse she experienced for political gain.

In a contest marked by sharp personal attacks and partisan rancor, Ramaswamy’s latest attempt to paint Acton as unfit for office came in the form of a minute-long ad that began circulating Monday night featuring Donna Arthur, Acton’s estranged mother. It was widely condemned on both sides of the political aisle.

Arthur lost custody of Acton and her younger brother in 1978 after her second husband, Cledith Arthur, was arrested, charged and indicted for raping then 12-year-old Acton. In the ad, Donna Arthur said her daughter has “lied her entire life.”

“Amy has a serious problem, she is a liar, she lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent, none of that is true. She’s lied her entire life. My daughter needs help. And she can’t help you if she needs help herself,” Arthur said.

Acton, a pediatrician and former health director under Ohio’s current Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, has spoken openly during her campaign about facing abuse and neglect as a child, while in her mother’s custody. Acton has said that for a time the family lived in a tent before she and her brother moved in with their biological father.

Court records and local media reports at the time confirm key details of Acton’s story and contradict Donna Arthur’s suggestion that her daughter lied about the abuse.

“My birth mother did nothing to protect me. I’ve always known that she was deeply sick and unwell,” Acton wrote on Tuesday in a Facebook post responding to the ad. “It’s sad to see Vivek Ramaswamy exploit her all for his own political gain.”

Cledith Arthur did not show up for a court hearing following his 1978 indictment. He and Donna Arthur left the state, and there were warrants out for his arrest. The Arthurs remained married until Cledith Arthur’s 2004 death in Pennsylvania.

Acton has said the last time she saw her mother was in the courtroom after her stepfather was charged, when her mother rebuffed her kiss. “That was the last time I ever saw her,” Acton told the Vindicator, her hometown newspaper in Youngstown, when she was selected by DeWine as the state’s health director.

Ohio’s gubernatorial race is one of the most competitive in the country despite the Midwestern state solidly backing Republican President Donald Trump in all three of his White House bids. Acton is vying to be the state’s first elected woman governor and the first Democrat elected to the office since 2006.

The most recent reliable nonpartisan polls show her with a 4-to-9 point lead over Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and failed Republican presidential candidate.

The contest has been notably light on policy. Though Acton and Ramaswamy have staked out different positions on everything from reproductive rights to data centers, neither candidate faced a competitive primary that compelled them to outline their policies in detail. Acton has tightly controlled media access at her events and declined to debate Ramaswamy in the general election.

The ads blanketing the battleground state have therefore largely been personal attacks. Acton has suggested Ramaswamy is an out-of-touch billionaire and a biotech fraud. Ramaswamy and others in his orbit have sought to portray Acton as unfit to lead Ohio, zeroing in on a 2019 incident when Acton’s daughter called police and said her mother and stepfather were arguing — and that Acton had been drinking.

The disagreement had ended by the time police arrived. Acton’s husband has taken responsibility for starting the argument and said that his wife had a single drink. Ohio’s Republican Party nevertheless posted a computer-generated image of Acton’s Jeep with the license plate: “Drunk Mom.”

Previous Ramaswamy-aligned ads have suggested that the childhood abuse Acton experienced — and her response to it — should be disqualifying.

Childhood abuse is common. At least one in seven children in the country experience abuse or neglect each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and rates of child abuse and neglect are higher among families experiencing poverty or economic insecurity.

Ramaswamy in April shared a video on the social media site X of a speech in which he said Acton had no positive vision to lead Ohio, “other than to complain about what someone else did to her,” seemingly referring to her childhood abuse.

Ads run by the Ramaswamy-aligned V-PAC — the name stands for Victors, not Victims — highlighted Acton’s disclosure on her medical licensing application that she sought therapy to process childhood abuse. V-PAC is funded by a group of out-of-state billionaires that includes Elon Musk, the owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX.

“I won’t normalize somebody who said my childhood is just something I’m complaining about,” Acton said in a Tuesday appearance on Spectrum News.

Acton added that Ramaswamy has shown a “pattern” of using his opponents’ family dynamics for political attacks. She pointed to Ramaswamy’s comment directed at Nikki Haley in a 2016 Republican presidential primary debate that she should “take care of your family first” during an exchange over TikTok and her adult daughter’s use of the video-sharing platform.

When the video with Acton’s estranged mother initially surfaced on social media Monday night, it did not state who paid for it or which candidate it supported, as is legally required for a political ad to air on television. By Tuesday evening, Ramaswamy confirmed to an ABC affiliate in Columbus that his campaign was responsible for it and defended its contents. Axios reported early Wednesday that Ramaswamy’s campaign will drop $4 million to get the ad in front of Ohio voters in the final stretch before Election Day.

His Tuesday night campaign event was interrupted when an attendee attempted to confront him over the ad. Television personality Meghan McCain, the daughter of late GOP senator and Republican presidential nominee John McCain, wrote on X that the Ramaswamy spot was a “dastardly ad” that “never should have been created.” Democrat Sherrod Brown, who is vying to reclaim his former U.S. Senate seat representing Ohio, called the ad “disgusting.” The conservative National Review obtained court records that corroborated Acton’s account. A Republican member of DeWine’s cabinet denounced the advertisement.

Acton’s campaign released a response ad featuring her younger brother, Phil Stearns, who has said that Acton shares their childhood abuse not to complain but because it is “something that informs who she is and builds this core of strength that she has.”

“She was 11- and 12-years old, and to think that’s somehow a talking point? Shame on Vivek. It’s the contempt he has for Amy, it’s the contempt he has for Ohio. He’s not fit to lead,” Stearns said in the ad.

https://19thnews.org/2026/10/amy-acton-childhood-abuse-ad-vivek-ramaswamy/

Acton has done nothing but lie about Vivek. Her own mother says she is lying about her abuse's stories. Acton lied continuously about covid saying it had a 50% death rate. So, half the population died during covid? She is the clown show her not Vivek.

"Her own mother says she is lying about her abuse's stories."

I'm sorry, but this is patently awful thing to say after reading through that article and researching her background. You can vote however you want and base policies on whatever, but it was just plain awful for the Ramaswamy campaign to have done this. Did you read the whole story?

Regardless, I don't know how the election will turn out, but running this ad objectively did his campaign no favors by any poll standard. Candidates, regardless of party, need to stay away from this kind of ish. It's low and awful. Husted, Meghan McCain and Nikki Haley all have come out against it, as far as I know.

This circles back to the ad campaigning I talked about earlier. We are finding new low depths beyond rock bottom.

Why am I not surprised it would be you to try and excuse a worthless POS mother who chose her child's rapist over her own children. Willing to give up her rights to her children over a rapist. I mean with you being all "Christiany" and all. Disgusting.

Do you really think he actually bothered to read the article? I mean really?