This Is Fine

12:45 AM

Ben Shapiro wants to Do a Civil War because Chick-Fil-A stopped donating to two discriminatory groups and now is only doing all the other discrimination it usually does

Very intelligent-brained

murgatroid99

Does it actually matter, in any way, what Ben Sapiro wants?

Tim Stone

I mean the continued rhetoric that we should have a Civil War II seems a bit alarming

People have already watched him and folks like him and then gone to do right-wing terrorism so it's not ideal, at least

murgatroid99

OK, fair

Tim Stone

2:55 AM

The President supposedly has half my cholesterol levels, which if true seems remarkable

Or it just says something really bad about me, also possible

Memor-X

3:59 AM

@TimStone or it's a lie

Stormblessed

6:39 AM

Aw...no more John Oliver until February

Memor-X

11:18 AM

@Stormblessed unless you're one more episode ahead of me (i just saw the Census one) there's one more episode left because he said at the start they had one more episode to go but wanted to talk about something that he knew would be happening during the break

but yeh my mum enjoys watching him and with alot of the shows my and my mum watch ending (The Outpost, Krypton, Killjoys, Call the Midwife) we're running out of stuff to watch

hesitant to introduce a long running Anime because watching Batwoman she was asking who Batwoman was fighting in tonight's episode and if they were a good guy or a bad guy. trying to answer her i almost missed the character's name and i didn't even know how Kate knew them

can not imagine how Mum will do if she watched like One Piece or Naruto

GnomeSlice

1:00 PM

NASA Scientists confirm water vapour on Europa

Nzall

1:10 PM

@Memor-X I really hope it's about the impeachment hearings

Memor-X

@Nzall the start of every episode has been with Stupid Watergate II

Nzall

@Memor-X I see. I only watch online, so I miss those sections since they're not included

Memor-X

@Nzall ahhhh, i see. well yeh at the start since the ukraine call there's been Stupid Watergate II which covers the latest updates. it follows from Stupid Watergate which wasn't every episode

i wouldn't not be surprised if the next episode's main story is on the British Elections

Nzall

@Memor-X ooh yeah, that's something

@Memor-X Unfortunately noone has uploaded them to youtube from what I can tell

Wipqozn

1:59 PM

The University of Calgary is cutting 250 positions as it works to deal with budget shortfalls the school said are the result of the UCP government’s first provincial budget. globalnews.ca/news/6184984/…

More people unemployed. Just what Alberta needs. Keep voting Conservative Alberta!

Tim Stone

Really shouldn't have broken the bank by killing all the rats tbh

GnomeSlice

2:35 PM

boredpanda.com/school-fight-girl-bullying-boy-fights-back

Bullying still alive and well I see, with added insult to injury thrown in

GnomeSlice

2:59 PM

Mysterious Oxygen spikes in martian spring and summer puzzle scientists

Apparently the guards watching Epstein the night of his death have been arrested

Tim Stone

> At news conference in Kyiv, @ZelenskyyUa says #Ukraine is "tired" of questions related to #ImpeachmentInquiry. "We have our country, we have our independence, we have our own problems."

"Please just leave us alone"

Frank

3:14 PM

@TimStone Can't say I blame them.

It's not like any leader is going to come out and say they were pressured into doing something; it'll call their competence into question.

Tim Stone

Well doubly so when, you know, the President of the United States said Actually it was Good that Russia took part of your country

"Nice nation you have there would be a real shame if I tweeted out that Putin could have the rest of it too"

Frank

@TimStone Trump's sounding more and more like a mafia don than a businessman, much less the president.

Nzall

Is it me, or does Vindman look a bit like John Oliver?

Tim Stone

3:43 PM

NY AG has sued JUUL

Elva

@Nzall I see it, a bit less lean in the face

Tim Stone

> "Ranking member, it's Lieutenant Colonel, please"

lol, after Nunes called him "Mr. Vindman"

BradC

4:01 PM

Good splash of cold water: Stop Assuming Republican Senators Will Do the Right Thing: A new genre of impeachment fantasy theorizes that Trump accomplices will suddenly find their spines. Don’t buy it.

> Like the bad boy in the leather jacket chewing gum in the parking lot outside the high school gym, underneath the thuggish exterior, there sometimes lurks merely a thuggish interior. Republicans who can no longer even explain why they will vote to acquit Donald Trump will do it anyway, but despite all the cover, and the wishing, and the convenient off-ramps we devise, nothing will lead them to avail themselves of the opportunity to dump this president.

> Senate Republicans may be fussing internally about how best to play out the impeachment trial, but not one of them, with the possible exception of Mitt Romney, is casting around for any kind of off-ramp here. As Renae Reints notes in Fortune, this isn’t even a close call. Republicans in the Senate are not looking for a principled reason, or even a pretext, that might allow them to follow their heart’s true desire and break with this president.

Sobering, but likely true.

Frank

@BradC An unfortunate reality that Republicans just don't care about the job they were elected to do.

Hopefully this brings that corruption to the fore, and causes massive losses next year.

Unionhawk

yes they do

this is what their donors elected them to do

BradC

@Frank yep, that's what I'm hoping too.

murgatroid99

4:20 PM

@Memor-X The Census episode was definitely the season finale

Elva

@Unionhawk well, it's the job their donors paid them to do, but not the job the votors elected them to do :p

Unionhawk

in the united states these two things are not meaningfully different

Elva

The donors definitly bought the votes, but they weren't the (majority of) voters

Frank

@Unionhawk I think they are, but as long as at least lip service can be paid to that, they carry water for their donors.

Being blatant enough about ignoring the will of the people will (hopefully) result in a quick ouster from office.

Tim Stone

It does seem rather unfortunate for everyone else that the President being so bad at corruption has made things difficult for those who are better at it

John Bolton getting extremely mad that this was not at all how you organize a foreign intervention

Unionhawk

4:26 PM

I mean, republican voters think this kicks ass actually so idk what anyone expects with regards to them splitting away because they can't stand to see crimes or whatever

that isn't going to happen

BradC

I'm desperately hoping for a blue sweep in 2020, but even in that happy fantasy I can't help but wonder what the GOP will do afterwards; will they double down on the politics of racial resentment and their "war against the libs"? Will they have a "reckoning" about their support of Trump? Will the GOP entirely implode and something new and different and yet the same re-form in its place?

Frank

@BradC You'd think corruption and incompetence of this scale would ensure the GOP lose power for the foreseeable future, if they survive at all.

Tim Stone

@Unionhawk I'm on the fence on how universally true that is versus people literally just not caring about the reality of anything, which ultimately works out to the same calculus anyway so meh (i.e. "I'll vote Republican because I like this" vs. "I'll vote Republican because, whatever, I vote Republican")

BradC

@Frank You'd think. You'd hope. Far from certain, however.

Trump press secretary claims departing Obama aides left nasty notes

I find this claim to be... outrageously implausible

Frank

@BradC At three years in? Come on.

BradC

4:38 PM

Best response, though, from speechwriter Jon Favreau: "It's appalling that she thinks our notes would have been that lame."

Yuuki

@BradC Speechwriter and noted person-who-didn't-direct-Iron-Man-1-or-The-Jungle-Book-or-The-Mandalorian.

BradC

@Yuuki Correct. Former speechwriter, now podcaster. Hmm, red wavy underline on "podcaster", I imagine that'll change in the next few years.

MBraedley

@Frank They were so disorganized they just found the keys to the filing cabinets the notes were in. </s>

Frank

@MBraedley "Oh, hey, here's all the info about Iran and Israel! ...Oops. We should maybe have read this before deciding policy."

Yuuki

@BradC Hmm... I'd still say "noted person-who-didn't-direct-Iron-Man-1-or-The-Jungle-Book-or-The-Mandalorian" is the most important title for someone named "Jon Favreau".

BradC

4:58 PM

Ha. Former co-speechwriter Tommy Vietor's response:

> This is false. I left my successor a note that said “if you want advice you can talk to my fist” and then i punched a series holes in the wall that spelled out “JCPOA 4 LYFE BITCH” but then again i quit in 2013

Tim Stone

5:21 PM

> A Democrat in Pennsylvania’s state Senate is switching his registration to become an independent and will caucus with the Republican majority. Sen. John Yudichak's departure comes after Democrats picked up six seats in the past year

🙄

BradC

@TimStone Hmm, at least it didn't swing the chamber or anything.

Tim Stone

It sets them back on any chance of winning a majority in 2020 though, sigh

> China signs defense agreement with South Korea as U.S. angers Seoul with demand for $5 billion troop payment

Hmmmmmm that seems not ideal!

BradC

5:43 PM

@TimStone Wow. He's going to f'ing destroy all our partnerships and military agreements with, like, everyone around the world. All in the span of 4 years.

Wipqozn

6:33 PM

Alberta’s Provincial Legislature Is “On Track to Enacting Pro-Life Policy” friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/11/08/…

> Canada may have staved off the specter of a Conservative government in the recent federal election, ensuring the continued protection of reproductive rights across the country. But it’s cold comfort for concerned parties in Alberta, where Jason Kenney’s party stands poised to roll back abortion access for the entire province.

user15026

@Wipqozn Everything I hear about Kenney makes me so angry

Wipqozn

6:57 PM

@Ash He's worse than Ford, and that's a really high bar of terribleness to surpass.

user15026

@Wipqozn Yep. it's bad when Ford feels almost okay in comparison...

Wipqozn

7:13 PM

A Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) trustee is under fire over comments he made at a marathon board meeting this month where he connected debate over LGBTQ issues with bestiality, pedophilia, cannibalism and more. cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/…

He used to work for Doug Ford. SURPRISE!

> TCDSB Vice-Chair Michael Del Grande made the comments toward the end of a six-hour meeting on Nov. 7 where trustees eventually voted to amend the board's code of conduct to include broader protections for LGBTQ students.

> Del Grande, who is a former Toronto city councillor and budget chief during Rob Ford's mayoralty, moved an amendment at the meeting asking for other terms to be added to that list, including bestiality, pedophilia, cannibalism, auto-erotic asphyxiation and "auto-vampirism."

> Adding things like gender identity to the board's code of conduct amounts to a "slippery slope," Del Grande said.

Fuck this guy.

Unionhawk

congrats to that guy for bringing a textbook use case for "objection to the consideration of the question"

(an incidental motion that does not require a second, is not debatable or amendable, is in order after a question has been posed but before debate, and moves to an immediate vote, 2/3 in favor of the objection and the question is not considered)

Yuuki

@Wipqozn There was something I saw the other day that I'm reminded of. Went something along the lines of: "That comparisons are being drawn between homosexuality and bestiality or paedophilia is proof that these people's concept of marriage is that of a man and his sex object rather than the union of two people with a shared bond of love."

Wipqozn

@Yuuki I like this

As in, the viewpoint is perfectly accurate at describing why these people are bigots.

Unionhawk

7:29 PM

The Quiet Rooms: Children are being locked away, alone and terrified, in schools across Illinois

Yuuki

> School employees use isolated timeout for convenience, out of frustration or as punishment, sometimes referring to it as “serving time.”

i suppose there's no better time to educate our children on the realities of our mass incarceration rate

Unionhawk

you thought "elementary school lunch debt" was bad now check out "elementary school solitary confinement"

Wipqozn

@Unionhawk Do these policies disproportionately target children of colour?

Because that'll be giving these kids the real life experience!

Experience racism and white privileges first hand kids! You'll be dealing with it your whole life!

Tim Stone

@Unionhawk jfc

Unionhawk

@Wipqozn unclear, but it does say that most are students with disabilities

so

either way

user15026

7:34 PM

@Unionhawk This makes me SO angry.

Tim Stone

It's like someone saw "School to prison pipeline" and went "But what if we didn't need the pipeline?"

Yuuki

@TimStone or the 'to'

Unionhawk

> Analysis of those records shows more than half of seclusions there were prompted by something other than a safety issue. [this is illegal]

> "I understand this isn't going to look good for us."

you understand correctly indeed

Wipqozn

7:53 PM

> Children were sent to isolation after refusing to do classwork, for swearing, for spilling milk, for throwing Legos. School employees use isolated timeout for convenience, out of frustration or as punishment, sometimes referring to it as “serving time.”

jfc

Nzall

@Unionhawk This is not just the case in the USA. This is most likely something that was ported over from Special Ed schools, where such rooms are more common. At the very least, at my school in Bruges in Belgium in high school, there were 3 such rooms for unruly students

Wipqozn

Holy fucking shit

I assumed by "rooms" they meant, you know, rooms.

But no, they actually mean small bloody boxes.

BradC

@Wipqozn O.o

Wipqozn

trbimg.com/img-5dc970eb/turbine/…

> The Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative, near St. Louis, has two timeout rooms. Scratch marks are visible in the blue padding inside and on the windows in the heavy, locking doors.

BradC

I was going to volunteer an anecdote about my wife who subs in a (non-Illinois) district, and the measures they have to deal with especially violent learning-disabled kids. But cramming them into small wooden boxes is not one of them

Unionhawk

8:02 PM

Ohio appears to also be on the list of states that have not banned isolated timeout

Wipqozn

> In fact, reporters identified several schools that have added more seclusion rooms in the past year or so. North Shore School District 112 converted two coat closets to isolation rooms. The McLean district in Normal opened two rooms in an elementary school.

Coat closets. Wtf.

Unionhawk

seeing a similar story from Columbus Dispatch in 2012

Wipqozn

> And at Dirksen Elementary School in Schaumburg, two new 6-by-6 rooms are in use. They’re called “resolution rooms.”

> Illinois created rules on timeout spaces years ago, after a school was found to be isolating students in a plywood box that was 3 feet square and 7 feet tall. Today, floor plans obtained through public-records requests show the rooms' dimensions vary widely.

Unionhawk

and a mother jones from 2015

Wipqozn

> By 8:35 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2017, all five of the timeout “booths” at Bridges Learning Center near Centralia were already full. School had been in session for five minutes.

> Each booth is about 6 by 8 feet, with a steel door. That day, one held a boy who had hung on a basketball rim and swore at staff when they told him to stop. In another, a boy who had used “raised voice tones.”

> Two boys were being held because they hadn’t finished classwork. Inside the fifth room was a boy who had tried to “provoke” other students when he got off a bus. Staff told him he’d be back again “to serve 15 minutes every morning due to his irrational behavior.”

> None of those reasons for seclusion is permitted under Illinois law

Can we please send all these school officials to jail, ideally in permanent never ending isolation?

Tim Stone

8:04 PM

@BradC Yeah, like I don't doubt that there are many situations in which there are safety concerns, but the implication that shoving them into these spaces somehow improves the behaviour is just like, whew, no

Wipqozn

> Yet, over the course of that one day, the rooms stayed busy, with two turning over like tables in a restaurant, emptying and refilling four times. The other three were occupied for longer periods, as long as five hours for the boy who hung off the basketball rim. In all, Bridges staff isolated students 20 times.

Five hours. Wtf.

Tim Stone

> The Illinois State Board of Education does not collect any data on schools’ use of isolated timeout and has not updated guidelines since issuing them 20 years ago

Wipqozn

> Bridges used seclusion 1,288 times in the 15 months of school that reporters examined. The school has about 65 students.

Tim Stone

Makes sense, child detainment is definitely one of those "set it and forget it" kind of things 🙄

Unionhawk

I kind of want to send my local school district an open records request on this

mostly so I can be fancy writing them a letter like "pursuant to ORC 149.43,"

BradC

8:07 PM

@TimStone That's really the only reason to use these rooms; to isolate a child having a violent tantrum. All these examples of casual or "routine" disciplinary use are nauseating

Wipqozn

> Several parents said their children became afraid of school. Some said their children didn’t want to sleep alone. Other families said the rooms were so distressing that their children would not talk about them.

> One incident lasted 10 hours, with the student kept inside from breakfast into the evening.

Holy fuck

> Ross Greene, a clinical child psychologist and author of the book “The Explosive Child,” said repeated seclusion fuels a harmful cycle. Children who are frustrated and falling behind academically are taken out of the classroom, which makes them more frustrated and puts them even further behind.

Unionhawk

here we go though, I found the relevant section in the Ohio Administrative Code... and there it is OAC 3301-35-15 Standards for K-12, Standards for the implementation of positive behavior intervention supports and the use of restraint and seclusion (C) Prohibition on certain practices (10) seclusion in a locked room or area

good work ohio

get your shit together illinois

user15026

@Wipqozn Wait, how?

user15026

Like...doesn't the kid have to go home?

user15026

Also, all of this is starting to remind me of the Pokey in Roald Dahl's Matilda...you know, that SUPER FICTIONAL BOOK that isn't supposed to be REAL

BradC

8:15 PM

@Ash Some districts have before- and/or after-school child care for parents that work a full day

Frank

@TimStone Well, yeah. If they collected data, then someone could FOIA it, and then the school would look bad.

user15026

@BradC Oh, right, yes that makes sense but still 10 hours of isolation has GOT to be damaging.

BradC

@Ash horribly damaging, I imagine

Unionhawk

@Frank I assume districts need to keep records per illinois open records laws, and that's how propublica was able to do the thing here

user15026

@BradC And even then, you don't put them in there for HOURS, just until they can find their calm, or whatever.

user15026

8:18 PM

And you monitor them, and make sure they're okay.

BradC

@Ash yep, exactly

Frank

@Unionhawk Maybe usage records, but probably as little as they can get away with.

Unionhawk

(also I did read later on in the Ohio rules and section E outlines seclusion procedures specifying similar rules to illinois ("may be used only if a student's behavior poses an immediate risk of physical harm, no other safe or effective intervention is available, as a last resort, for the minimum amount of time necessary"), but also "in a room or area that is not locked, does not prevent the student from leaving if staff is incapacitated somehow, is adequately lit, ventilated, etc")

Tim Stone

> House passes a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown 231-192, with 181 Republicans and 10 Democrats voting no, and 12 Republicans and 219 Democrats voting yes

Yuuki

@Unionhawk didn't the article say it's illegal in illinois too?

Unionhawk

8:29 PM

@Yuuki It is illegal to use seclusion for anything other than an immediate risk of physical harm, but it is not illegal to lock the door in that event

which I mean idk how much of a difference that is in practice after I scrolled down

Wipqozn

@Ash probably An after school sitting program

Nzall

@Ash It's called the Chokey, but the name isn't really relevant here

Also, I'm fairly sure that none of these schools have a 10" cupboard as their isolation cell, let alone have their isolation cells padded with glass shards and nails

user15026

8:54 PM

Either way, it's too close for comfort.

Nzall

9:10 PM

@Ash That I agree with

Nzall

9:22 PM

For those still interested in UK politics: the Conservative party essentially broke the Twitter rules by changing the name of their verified Twitter account to ~~spread misleading information~~ propaganda

Memor-X

11:25 PM

@BradC next he's going to say "NATO's Article 5 is unless because we are forced to help everyone but no one helps us", forgetting that Article 5 has only been invoked once and that was for the US

because lets not yet reality and truth ruin his day

but yeh, 4 years he's done this much damage, imagine another 4 years

@Wipqozn is there something wrong with Alberta? it seems alot of bad things have been happening there recently

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