POLITICAL JUNKIES

I realize that Ivana is not the Donald, but that may be the elite of elitist comments! Let's not forget who picks our crops and provides us with relatively low cost produce... Oh, wait many of those migrants are illegal..

Carol, I meant the collective "you," not YOU. I think he is going in the wrong direction with this assault on NATO and our allies. I was making a very important point. He is dangerous and can cause a serious breach with countries that are our most important allies.

PATRN,I never said I was more afraid than Donald Trump than I am of N. Korea. Can you please show me where I said that?

Kayb, thank you for understanding the point I was trying to make.

With all the truly serious topics and issues being discussed, I thought we might occasionally need a little comic relief:

WI is going to be very interesting!!! I wonder how accurate the polls are going to be this time? My prediction is that DT will do better than what they had him at last week and I bet Bernie pulls a win-

HRC was about an hour away from me today in Cohoes, NY - I don't mind listening to her when she talks in her normal voice, but holy voice BATMAN, when she shouts.. It's not hard to do a perfect impersonation of her -- She may be a tad nervous about upstate NY- she has had upstate support in the past but lots of people here feeling the Bern...

From what I can tell, there seem to be at least three DT supporters on this thread. It good to hear those views, it's not about, hey let's all jump on the Dmocratic orHRC bandwagon.

Ruth, love the Ann Landers archive...there's a poster on the same subject matter which I gave my son when he was in college.

Exbrnxgrl, I think it is interesting that you and I come from states that have adopted very different approaches to Common Core, and clearly this colors our response to it in a big way. NY adopted CC and testing together, diving in several years ago before a curriculum was in place with high-stakes tests that carried enormous penalties for teachers whose students didn't test well, even if those teachers didn't teach relevant subjects. The reaction has been terrible. Many parents don't trust the tests anymore, and by extension, do not trust Common Core. Students with disabilities, students of color, and english language learners have been especially penalized by tests that are not grade-appropriate. The new, Common Core-aligned SATs were introduced this spring, and all the juniors in my son's high school were asked to take it without cost. 3/4 of them opted out. And this is a high-scoring group who had to take a very high-stakes test to gain admission to this school. So it wasn't the thought of a test, per se.

It sounds as if California is doing the much smarter thing and adopting the standards well in advance of testing, whether that testing is high-stakes or punitive or not. Hence your positive reaction--you're not threatened by the standards as the NY teachers are. And your classrooms are not hijacked for weeks and weeks of test-prep.

EngageNY, by the way, is the default NYC curriculum for math. I am very happy that I do not have a child in the grades where it is taught.

Now back to our regularly scheduled presidential candidate bashing.

Rainy,

Yes, I'm aware of EngageNY's origins. Since it was developed with RTT funds it is available on line free of charge. For the lower grades it is not at all engaging! It was the first program I piloted and although it meets the rigor standard, I will not be voting for it. But, I am only one person so I have no idea which way it will go.

Yes, CA and NY did take different approaches, and other states made their own choices as well. Ergo, education issues are still very much a state by state thing .

ELL , students with disabilities etc. we're "punished" long before Common Core. No Child Left Behind almost put my school into program improvement because our Special Day students and EL students were not meeting grade level standards. Once those groups were separated out, we were in the top three schools in the county. Very silly if you ask me

I think we keep each other balanced. I am really a Cruz person but would support DT over HRC or BS in a general election.

Ruth, I grew up reading Ann and Abby every day and learned so much. Thank you for that great column! Just what we needed.

MY DH is out of town. I get to own remote!!

Badger, you're right; there is something exciting about seeing crowded polling places and being reminded this really does matter!

I remember 2008; the primary came two days after the worst stomach virus ever. My DH actually drove me the three blocks to the polling place, because I could barely stand up. My son was in 3rd grade and very patiently explained to me that this election was important because we'd either be electing the first African American president or the first woman president. (He was a little hazy at that point about the difference between the primary and the general election.)

Two weeks to go for us. Sanders and Clinton will be debating next week; the location is a ten-minute walk from where we live.

I came across an article with the headline "How everyone wins if Donald Trump loses...including Trump". and it mentions does Trump even want to be president, which is still a nagging question I have about him. He comes across as running for office for the sport of it, not sincere about his motives. Here's part of the article:

"Every so often he has a way of signaling that the White House doesn't seem that appealing to him. Last week, for example, he said he thought his "Muslim ban" would be end of his campaign. According to a New York magazine piece this week, Trump always expected that he'd be back to hosting "The Apprentice" by now, which if true would explain a lot of his misguided strategic decisions in recent months. Presidential candidates are typically known for their insatiable appetite for the job. Trump, on the other hand, appears to be a guy who isn't even studying up on the issues he's going to be asked about for months.

I look forward to seeing what happens in he New York and Pennsylvania primaries.

I have been wondering for ages if Trump would pull a Sarah Palin and just pack up and go home when it became less fun.

Fascinating Bernie Sanders interview here: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/transcript-bern...

Kay, on your recommendation, I'll listen to the interview soon when time permits. How ironic he says the press changes his words. When he blurts out something totally controversial that spurns voters, his spin committee is ultra quick to issue a statement rewording his remarks saying, in essence, "this is what Trump really means!" So it's okay for his committee to rephrase but not thou press?

I don't think Trump will admit it, but especially at the beginning of the campaign when he started losing shows and endorsements like the Apprentice and Macy's and more, he hadn't seen that coming. He thought he'd make ignorant remarks about all kinds of people and that the American public wasn't listening. He took the American public for fools. Then, as he gained a following, he wasn't going to back out, he wants run out to save face.

Now he seems trying to win over women voters, saying Ivanka and Melania want him to act more presidential (but they're.....women.....so he's not gonna listen to them because what do they know?) and I see more female spokespersons for Trump on the news shows. And while you may not be thinking of Melania as First Lady, she gave a very brief speech the other day on the campaign trail which I found very basic. Not much substance. She read short sentences in choppy English. Looked great, tho

LovesMaltese, I don't speak for anyone else on this thread but if Bernie comes on and takes the nomination away from Hillary Clinton, I for one would be thrilled. Guess I am a "Socialist" and proud of it.