There was also a strong correlation between socioeconomic status and test scores. Students from higher income households and those who attended schools with more affluent students had higher scores.

I’ll be darned.

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“I’m worried about the fact that violence in the country is just escalating so much,” she says. “That this is a symptom of everyone thinking violence will solve their problems, and that I find tremendously frightening.”

I don’t know if violence can solve our problems or not, but I can guarantee that not changing anything, and maintaining the status quo, absolutely will NOT solve our problems, in healthcare or otherwise.

Probably because she liked him.

it’d be ‘un-American’ for Elon Musk to wield political influence to harm rivals

Seems pretty darn American to me. What’s more American than trying to win the wealth and profit race by any means necessary? It’s as American as apple pie.

I didn’t draw these borders, Atlas Pro did, and he drew these borders because they better account for geography, rather than just arbitrary straight lines. This isn’t necessarily meant to be a final proposal, additions and refinements would be needed.

I like this one better:

Credit Atlas Pro

Only, these shouldn’t be united states, they should be independent nations.

We all know who really holds the power in the US, and it ain’t we the people.

Or, dissolve the United States and create an EU like union of North American nation states in its place.

Everyone’s always talking about how Teslas are the best EVs, and while I don’t doubt that they’re great, if that’s the best that an EV can be, I don’t think I’ll be switching over. I don’t care about sports car comparable 0 to 60 times, and while I appreciate clean and minimal, Teslas are a little too minimal for my tastes.

I hate that Tesla started this trend of having a giant touchscreens in the center of the dash. Maybe some people really like that, I don’t. I mean, it’s nice to have a screen for navigation and a backup camera, but the relatively small screen in my wife’s Rav 4 does perfectly well for all that, and it still has physical switches for climate control, and the like, which I prefer.

Also, I think they are kind of boring looking, too. Overall, I’m just not sure what it is that supposedly makes them better than every other EV, really. Maybe it’s just a perception thing. But the biggest issue for me is Elon Musk, I associate him with the Tesla brand and he embodies everything I hate about capitalism.

Maybe the biggest problem with capitalism is how many, if not most, entrepreneurs become convinced that they’re the primary reason for a company’s success, like that their brilliance and effort alone made the company great, and without their leadership nothing would ever get produced, economies would never grow, and humanity would never progress or develop. It’s the Steve Jobs mentality: capitalism works because it grants “great,” “superior” men (and they are almost always men) the power and freedom to direct and command development and production of products and services. This mentality treats workers as incidental, or at least interchangeable. Workers are just there to pull levers and do as they are directed by the “great” entrepreneurs.

If Teslas are great cars, it’s because of the talented engineers and technicians who design and put them together. I’m not sure what Musk’s real contribution to Tesla’s success has been, if any at all. Maybe he is the incidental one. But a $56 billion pay package is not incidental. But, I suppose men like Musk believe that because they are “great” entrepreneurs, they deserve great compensation.

Many of the same liberals who have been browbeating me over the past several years with their insistence that they are NOT the same as the Trump Republicans, are excusing this.

You’re right, liberals. Once again you prove that you are not the same as the Trumpists. Even with this pardon, you do continue to be better than them. You’re better than terrible. You’re better than horrible, better than abysmal, ever so slightly better than abhorrent. Congratulations.

Yeah, it doesn’t seem likely.

…it needs to be backed by an assurance that the fiat currency will be managed properly.

That’s the point of having a global central bank. They would manage it, and we would want to ensure that all appropriate mechanisms for oversight and accountability were in place. Transparency would also be of high importance.

Edit: I should point out that this is already somewhat in place. The US dollar, a fiat currency, is currently the world reserve currency, and it’s managed by the US federal reserve central bank. The problem is, the US federal reserve is the US central bank and it is not neutral, nor is it accountable to the rest of the world.

No, I don’t want that.

…capitalists will never agree to this.

I think this is the only way the capitalists can make their global, free market work. If the capitalists were smart, they’d want a neutral, global reserve currency. But, since most capitalists aren’t smart, it will probably never happen.

We’d want it to be in a neutral place, if at all possible. Perhaps a country would be willing to donate a small portion of their territory so an independent jurisdiction could be formed, not unlike Washington D.C.

It would be best if there were a global union of nations, maybe one with the authority to oversee and manage global trade, as well.

It would have to be issued by some world central bank.

Money doesn’t need to be backed by anything, necessarily. Or, I guess you could say money is “backed” by all the goods and services available to purchase.