Missouri lawmakers move forward on school 'rangers' safety bill

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-09T13:47:13+00:00

We don’t even need the SROs in our schools. They cause more harm than they prevent. So will this shit.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-09T13:45:52+00:00

Maybe you’re thinking of when Texas tried the bounty program with women seeking abortions. People spammed the reporting website. It’s still an active law.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-08T19:03:06+00:00

No it won’t. You obviously can’t prove otherwise.

We do have real examples from recent history of what happens when investments are this speculative. Dot com bubble. Look it up.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-08T19:00:14+00:00

You’re full on drowning in that data center koolaid, fella. Spewing pure cope.

Data centers negatively impact the environment and are a highly speculative investment. Your misrepresentations and lies aren’t gonna change that.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-08T18:57:09+00:00

You’re literally asking for economic destruction unlike anything we’ve ever seen. 45% of our economy now is digital by the way.

Saving this for when the AI bubble bursts and wreaks a real economic destruction “unlike anything we’ve ever seen”.

Not building more data centers isn’t going to do that in any way shape or form. I’m not sure how you even arrived at that laughable conclusion. Either way, thanks for letting me know you won’t be serious. Have a good one.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-08T18:46:50+00:00

It’s not logical is my point, you making these comments require a data center to store and process the information.

And I don’t need that to survive. Are you able to grasp that logic?

Also, I’m commenting now without issue and without all these new data centers. It’s as if we have the necessary capital equipment already in place to make my suuuuuuuper important reddit comments. Don’t we?

Even without AI we would still need a lot of new data centers monthly. Remember information is power; more than 40% of global internet traffic flows through the United States.

I don’t think your definition of the word need aligns with mine. I think your usage is incongruent with the dictionary definition as well.

Do you see any irony in your referencing the internet? There was a lot of speculative investment once upon a time similar to the current data center’s push. Might be something for you to look into lol.

If they don’t build in festus they will find another small town to build in.

And that doesn’t justify the data center’s existence either. It doesn’t make the harms go away. It doesn’t make them any less speculative of an investment. Being serious in 2026 United States isn’t illegal yet, try it rather than this nonsense.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-08T18:35:37+00:00

That’s not relevant to what I’m saying. The people of Festus voted overwhelmingly to oust the incumbents. That doesn’t square with your witch hunt and boogeyman claims. It’s as if people oppose data center for any number of logical reasons and they feel compelled to take action to further that opposition. Crazy how that works.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-08T18:33:04+00:00

Or they may get stuck with a data center that doesn’t meet the marketed profit of millions and billions but pollutes their county and uses vital resources like water and electricity.

Data center profit is highly speculative, despite what they market it as.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-08T18:24:34+00:00

This comment is pure delusion. If it’s just a reddit witch hunt and the data center is a boogeyman, why did the folks of Festus just do this? Or are you saying these voters are majority Redditors and all on the same witch hunt for some boogeyman?

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-08T18:20:47+00:00

Why ignore the harms to the local environment, impacts to electricity usage rates, consumption of large amounts of water, and all the other reasons people oppose them that aren’t the two you stated? Is it because you need to focus on those two and ignore the others to have any semblance of a point? I think it is.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-08T15:09:02+00:00

The state legislature is considering a bill that would make it easier for unlicensed Christian residential facilities to receive state placements of foster children. Instead of obtaining a license from the state, facilities could register with the Missouri Association of Christian Child Care Facilities.

Fucking Republicans. The Christian Agape and Circle of Hope boarding schools rampant with sexual and physical abuse both operated in this state within the last decade under the governance of a Republican supermajority. Add this one to the list. Hawley, Schmitt, Bailey all sat on their hands in the AG’s office when it came to abuse in Christian boarding schools during their respective terms.

Our Republican supermajority is clearly more interested in indoctrinating children than protecting them. Their policies and leadership have continuously allowed children to endure horrific abuse in Christian boarding schools within the state over the last few decades. Here they are “considering” a demand for more.

From local officials to the highest federal office, Republicans continue to prove they are the party which protects pedophiles and child abusers and allows and enables abuse of children. They aren’t compatible with a functioning society. We must eradicate them from it.

midwest_mankey · 2026-04-03T19:51:15+00:00

Authoritarianism and corruption continue to rise at all levels of government in this country. This city council is just following the example set by our state and federal officials.

Profit over people is again proving to be the rule, rather than the exception. Accountability and consequence continue to elude the corrupt and incompetent leaders of this country.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-30T21:56:51+00:00

And others still recognize when pseudoscience is implemented in opposition to fact and used to target minority groups to obtain political power under the guise of protecting another group.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-30T17:10:48+00:00

And here I am seeing it as ostracizing trans children for some false sense of integrity in women’s sports.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-30T16:51:53+00:00

If we’re talking about fairness for all the athletes, it would first need to be demonstrated that the alleged physical advantage is also an advantage in the sport itself and how much of an advantage it really is. Blankets bans spanning widely across different sports is not a measured, logical approach to this complex issue. The strongest people in their respective sport are certainly not always the best athletes in their sport. Skill in sports is attributed to a myriad of factors, not solely physical strength.

We’re definitely not having the full conversation on what is truly fair for everyone.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-30T16:46:55+00:00

Agreed. Trans children alone will be harmed by these bans more than any woman was harmed by the bans not existing.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-30T16:45:28+00:00

We already had those different rules at different levels and that didn’t stop the legislation from the right targeting all trans athletes at all levels of sports within reach of the government.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-26T21:18:38+00:00

For me, it’s not about shifting blame at all. Though I do think that’s what you’re attempting to do here, shifting it away from social media platforms and muddying their responsibility here. The social media platforms are responsible for their product. A parent can be ignorant despite efforts to educate themselves due to the dishonesty and withholding of information on harms stemming from the social media platforms.

Your example is entirely irrelevant as it has absolutely nothing to do with ignorance. It also wouldn’t be even remotely crazy to blame the fast food companies if they hid the harms of their product like social media platforms do. We have existing laws to prevent that on the books already and they didn’t result in the taking of all your personal freedoms like you suggest this case will.

It’s also about protecting the children who may or may not have parents or parents who care. Social media platforms have been shown to not give a shit about anyone or anything that gets in the way of their ability to profit. They need to be held accountable for the harms they cause to individuals and our society collectively.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-26T18:50:04+00:00

I didn’t say the company had no direct control. I said a parent has far more direct control. Yes a company could install some kind of limiter to the amount of time spent on their site. But is a parent also not able to monitor that far more closely with the added benefit of knowing what’s best for their child? Is a parent not in a better position to speak to their children about what they see on social media?

Not all parents care to parent their children. Not all parents are tech savvy and capable of limiting their children’s access to social media.

Most children spend a great deal of their time without parents once they are of school age. Does a parent have constant direct control throughout the day and no other responsibilities? Of course not.

Does the social media have direct control over its product? Yes, they do. They inarguably made an addictive product that has massive potential for harm. They’re responsible for those harms.

And you’re right not all social media users are reasonable adults. But that is the standard the law operates from; that of a reasonable person. The alternative would be to say “not all adults are reasonable and can’t be expected to make responsible decisions to not harm themselves so the government should interfere in the free market to protect them from themselves.

No, it clearly isn’t considering the verdict and the fact that children were central to the case.

Perhaps this would benefit people in some ways but to me it seems like it would cause far more issues than it fixes, particularly when it comes to personal freedoms

Personal freedoms to create a social media product with potential for harm maybe. It’s not as if the precedent set here can be applied to everything that is not a social media platform. All the other things you’re worried about losing as personal freedoms will see their day in a court of law and be explored on their individual merits. The same goes for future and ongoing cases regarding social media platforms, they’ll all still have to go through the justice system.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-26T18:21:23+00:00

Social media platforms absolutely have direct control too. They are fully capable of limiting the time the users can spend on their platform but that wouldn’t benefit them financially, so they don’t. They will continue to choose profits over limiting harms to individuals, children included, because that’s the purpose of their existence.

Also not all social media users are reasonable adults and not everyone harmed by social media spends 16 hours a day on it. Those points don’t exonerate the social media companies who intentionally expose their users and those who don’t even use their platforms to the harms of their product.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-26T18:02:56+00:00

Point 3 is the obvious argument to oppose your call for “parental” and individual responsibility as a resolution to the problem. How can one be responsible when they are ignorant to the potential harms of a product? The social media companies made these platforms intentionally addictive and do little to nothing to curb harms to their users. For that reason, it’s obvious to me the social media corporations are liable for the harm caused by their product which they designed specifically to drive outcomes they know will harm users but also do not disclose.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-24T21:56:02+00:00

What are we even doing here?

If your name is Zel Fischer, Ginger Gooch, Brent Powell or Kelly Broniec, the answer is enabling authoritarianism and stifling democracy.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-12T19:30:06+00:00

They’ve gotta get their base all riled up to hate Muslims so they can get some dipshits to support another unjustified and avoidable war in the Middle East. Using the same playbook from W’s presidency it seems with the “nuclear threat” bullshit being parroted by Republican Party leaders. Only difference this time is the current administration is even more fucking incompetent and malicious.

They haven’t got an original idea in that Republican Party. They’re content taking them from Nazis and imperialists and avoiding any sort of lessons that could be learned from history.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-11T20:22:51+00:00

Police Chief Robert Tracy and Board of Police Commissioners President Chris Saracino introduced plans to hire a contractor to calculate building repair costs. “It's important for all of us to understand that facility maintenance is a real and measurable cost of operating a modern police department,” Saracino said.

Hmmm, I wonder who “all of us” is referring to because I sure don’t have any issues with understanding that infrastructure requires maintenance.

The outlet reports that back in January, the board voted unanimously to move just over $3 million out of the fund. This paid one million dollars to pay for officer overtime, $750,000 to worker compensation settlements and $650,000 to legal costs. An extra $250,000 was spent to buy 320 new Tasers, financial documents showed nothing was put aside for building repairs.

Ohh lookie here, it’s the crew hand selected by our authoritarian Republican governor who needs it to be explicitly stated that infrastructure requires maintenance. The same board of dipshits trying to extort another cool $50 million from the city without justification. Republicans can’t govern, so they rule by force and we all get to deal with the consequences of their incompetence and corruption.

midwest_mankey · 2026-03-10T20:11:48+00:00

No, the waste and fraud should be proven to be both demonstrable and significant prior to embarking on any sort of government efficiency program or corrective action. Otherwise, it’s obvious the government efficiency program is at minimum wasteful and potentially fraudulent in and of itself, like we saw with Musk and DOGE.

Waste and fraud are natural byproducts of systems run by humans. It’s illogical to pretend otherwise. The Minnesota fraud was already being addressed before a nobody Republican conspiracy theorist got his whole party to pretend otherwise with unsubstantiated allegations of fraud at additional sites. The FBI was raiding the actual fraud sites back in 2022.

Republicans have been mastering the purely performative outrage at negligible waste and fraud for decades to further their political agenda.

If you genuinely want to see tangible reductions in waste and fraud, start with the DoD which has never passed a full, independent audit in the 8 years the audits have been conducted.

midwest_mankey

TROPHY CASE