Current events discussion

[RobGMN Premium Member]

Let me reiterate. This thread will be closed if members can’t spend a little more time in the actual part of this site it’s intended for and less in this thread. The bickering does NOTHING to support the site and members looking for car audio advice.

Like I've said before, I think the lack of volume of posts in other threads is due to lack of bickering in those threads. That said we can pump up volume in the those threads with "BS" such as confirming what other vets have said or wishing the OP good luck solving their issue or congrats fir solving the problem, etc. Basically, we can fluff up those threads. It doesn't add much true value, but maybe the search engines can't tell the difference.

Agreed. I've made an effort to look at new threads when I log on, and contribute where possible. I feel it's disingenuous to fluff up the threads that have been "resolved" (especially the 2AM ones answered by the bot before 4AM, with a 9 paragraph instruction manual), but will gladly do so if it helps the site ranking and traffic numbers.

 

[RobGMN Premium Member]

Did you click the link. My figure is from the comptroller's report.

Congress didn't appropriate funds specifically for hotels for immigrants in NYC.

Does Congress approve as a "block grant", and then the agencies use the money, or does Congress spell out where and how each dollar gets spent?
Because the money was apparently approved for use under the Shelter Services Program:
"The office of Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday it received two payments from the federal government related to migrant assistance last week totaling over $80.5 million. One payment was for $58.6 million and the other was for $21.9 million, under two tranches of the Shelter and Services Program, city spokesperson Liz Garcia said. The money covered reimbursements for services delivered between November 2023 and October 2024 and included reimbursement for hotels, security, food and other costs. About $19 million in reimbursement claims were for hotel costs, she said."
"The Shelter and Services Program, also known as SSP, is administered by FEMA in partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. Congress appropriated $650,000,000 for the program in fiscal year 2024 to provide financial support to nonfederal entities. Of that, $640.9 million was “to support sheltering and related activities provided by non-Federal entities, in support of relieving overcrowding in short-term holding facilities of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”

The number from the Comptroller strikes me as the most accurate number to use. That said, I don't really care how much they paid per night. Trump told FEMA not to make those payments and they did so anyway.

Again, Vice President Trump doesn't get to just cancel something that was approved by Congress, simply because he doesn't like it, or because his boss Musk told him to.
The Constitution clearly says so.
Or do we just toss the COTUS out the window, now that Trump is in office? If that's the case, then it can go severely both ways, because that strips him of pretty much any power he has.

So, which is it? COTUS is the law of the land, or not?

 

[spokey9 5,000+ posts]

Yet now we have kids that can't read. They do these stupid reading round tables at school, where they're supposed to take turns reading and it ends up only 2-3 of the 5 kids actually do the reading because 1/2 of them can't read. But they're really good at playing mine craft.

That's why doe shouldn't exist...there's been nothing but decline in the results...the only people benefiting are the people employed by doe

 

[Jimi77 Premium Member]

Does Congress approve as a "block grant", and then the agencies use the money, or does Congress spell out where and how each dollar gets spent?
Because the money was apparently approved for use under the Shelter Services Program:
"The office of Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday it received two payments from the federal government related to migrant assistance last week totaling over $80.5 million. One payment was for $58.6 million and the other was for $21.9 million, under two tranches of the Shelter and Services Program, city spokesperson Liz Garcia said. The money covered reimbursements for services delivered between November 2023 and October 2024 and included reimbursement for hotels, security, food and other costs. About $19 million in reimbursement claims were for hotel costs, she said."
"The Shelter and Services Program, also known as SSP, is administered by FEMA in partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. Congress appropriated $650,000,000 for the program in fiscal year 2024 to provide financial support to nonfederal entities. Of that, $640.9 million was “to support sheltering and related activities provided by non-Federal entities, in support of relieving overcrowding in short-term holding facilities of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”

Again, Vice President Trump doesn't get to just cancel something that was approved by Congress, simply because he doesn't like it, or because his boss Musk told him to.
The Constitution clearly says so.
Or do we just toss the COTUS out the window, now that Trump is in office? If that's the case, then it can go severely both ways, because that strips him of pretty much any power he has.

So, which is it? COTUS is the law of the land, or not?

Clearly Trump feels that the Hurricanes should take priority. Or maybe he wants to sit on the money in anticipation of future emergencies. I can certainly see why he doesn't feel like bailing out NYC over a problem they created. Should FEMA be sheltering people who are in the country illegally or sheltering its own citizens?

 

[RobGMN Premium Member]

Clearly Trump feels that the Hurricanes should take priority. Or maybe he wants to sit on the money in anticipation of future emergencies. I can certainly see why he doesn't feel like bailing out NYC over a problem they created. Should FEMA be sheltering people who are in the country illegally or sheltering its own citizens?

Again, you are saying he should have authority to change what was already approved by Congress.
The Constitution says he does not have that authority.

So do we follow the Constitution, or do we just give Trump free reign to do what he wants?

If we ignore the COTUS and give him free reign, doesn't that also mean OTHER people get to ignore it and get free reign do what THEY want? Maybe just walk into the Oval Office and assume control, since his powers are COTUS-based? Without COTUS, he has no power.

An interesting question, since you are assuming every migrant that received help is here illegally.
But, there are state programs to assist in sheltering our own citizens. The FEMA funding is separate from that, and was granted on an emergency basis. Just like it was granted to NC and Florida to help with an emergency they were not able to handle alone.
And it was granted by Congress when Trump was not president. Even though he IS president now, he doesn't have the power to change that decision of Congress that happened when he was NOT president.

 

[Jimi77 Premium Member]

That's why doe shouldn't exist...there's been nothing but decline in the results...the only people benefiting are the people employed by doe

I'm not 100% on that. We have alot of other issues going on. Children aren't disciplined at home. We have society that coddles our youth at every turn, etc. There is the feminization of boys & men in society, media, etc. I think Feminism in general is a big contributing factor. Accountability for the money they are spending is a huge deal. My kids' schools are always short of resources, but it's well funded ($15k/student) - WTF??? And they sure as fvck don't want input from students & parents that isn't convenient for them.

In my opinion, DOE could be a great resource to fix this multi-pronged issue. The problem is, can we recreate a DOE that's primary goal/function is better education vs pushing personal/political narratives?

 

[Jimi77 Premium Member]

Again, you are saying he should have authority to change what was already approved by Congress.
The Constitution says he does not have that authority.

So do we follow the Constitution, or do we just give Trump free reign to do what he wants?

If we ignore the COTUS and give him free reign, doesn't that also mean OTHER people get to ignore it and get free reign do what THEY want? Maybe just walk into the Oval Office and assume control, since his powers are COTUS-based? Without COTUS, he has no power.

An interesting question, since you are assuming every migrant that received help is here illegally.
But, there are state programs to assist in sheltering our own citizens. The FEMA funding is separate from that, and was granted on an emergency basis. Just like it was granted to NC and Florida to help with an emergency they were not able to handle alone.
And it was granted by Congress when Trump was not president. Even though he IS president now, he doesn't have the power to change that decision of Congress that happened when he was NOT president.

How is sheltering citizens affected by hurricanes misappropriation of funds? Are you claiming Congress specifically set this money aside for NYC immigrants?

I don't think I've ever implied that every immigrant is illegal. Both my mom & wife are legal immigrants.

 

[spokey9 5,000+ posts]

The problem is, can we recreate a DOE that's primary goal/function is better education vs pushing personal/political narratives?

I don't think it is. Beyond setting a baseline standard for graduation, the Fed is too far remove from the actual schools to be effective

 

[spokey9 5,000+ posts]

I don't think I've ever implied that every immigrant is illegal.

By just saying immigrant he's trying to box you into a position where you're against all immigration...it's a very lazy and deceptive method of "debating"

 

[Jimi77 Premium Member]

Again, Vice President Trump doesn't get to just cancel something that was approved by Congress, simply because he doesn't like it, or because his boss Musk told him to.
The Constitution clearly says so.
Or do we just toss the COTUS out the window, now that Trump is in office? If that's the case, then it can go severely both ways, because that strips him of pretty much any power he has.

So, which is it? COTUS is the law of the land, or not?

I'm still unaware of Congress specifying that that $19m was specifically for NYC shelters. I'll be happy to admit that Trump violated COTUS if you can document that. Again, I don't see that the Fed or Trump owes NYC a bailout for a problem they created. Perhaps cities shouldn't take on responsibilities they aren't capable of meeting and expect a federal bailout.

 

[Jimi77 Premium Member]

Agreed. I've made an effort to look at new threads when I log on, and contribute where possible. I feel it's disingenuous to fluff up the threads that have been "resolved" (especially the 2AM ones answered by the bot before 4AM, with a 9 paragraph instruction manual), but will gladly do so if it helps the site ranking and traffic numbers.

I'm just looking at how DIYMA gets more Google love. Yeah, there is a more knowledge over there, but it seems like it's alot more of long threads full of nothing and repetitive info.

 

[Jimi77 Premium Member]

I don't think it is. Beyond setting a baseline standard for graduation, the Fed is too far remove from the actual schools to be effective

From a point of managing the schools, you're right doe is too far removed. Setting standards and aggregating data would also be useful. The big problem is how to hold these schools accountable? That might require just blowing the whole thing up!

 

[Jimi77 Premium Member]

By just saying immigrant he's trying to box you into a position where you're against all immigration...it's a very lazy and deceptive method of "debating"

And I specified illegal immigrants. The left has tried redefining illegals, making it impossible to be illegal, lumping them together, using the "we're all immigrants" reasoning, etc. It's pretty much the same type obfuscation tactics they used with gender. If nothing has an actual meaning or ever changing meaning, then how can it be debated? It's an interesting approach to avoid the debate, but most people still prefer a concrete objective reality.

 

[spokey9 5,000+ posts]

From a point of managing the schools, you're right doe is too far removed. Setting standards and aggregating data would also be useful. The big problem is how to hold these schools accountable? That might require just blowing the whole thing up!

There's the whole teacher's union stuff too. It's almost impossible to fire a bad teacher. So a terrible teacher can spend a career essentially ruining kids lives with no real repercussions.

If the doe could be change just to maintaining education standards for teacher's, administrators, and students and not deviate from only that...doe could be useful...but I can't see a scenario where overreach or pushing agendas wouldn't be a problem

 

[Jimi77 Premium Member]

There's the whole teacher's union stuff too. It's almost impossible to fire a bad teacher. So a terrible teacher can spend a career essentially ruining kids lives with no real repercussions.

If the doe could be change just to maintaining education standards for teacher's, administrators, and students and not deviate from only that...doe could be useful...but I can't see a scenario where overreach or pushing agendas wouldn't be a problem

I agree on the Unions, but from what I'm seeing, the older teachers tend to be better and the newer ones are just quitting because they can't cope with bad kids and bad parents. I am more concerned with how soy the education system has become. The have weekly talking circles and talk about feelings, blah, blah, blah. Zero tolerance for bullying doesn't help. They keep don't let the boys act like boys.