Russian Duma votes to decriminalize domestic violence

[Shofercia]

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia, which is neither liberal nor democratic. He advocated reversing the polarity of the Earth as a means of submersing Australia to punish it for aiding in the US invasion of Iraq.

Are you 100% not fucking with me now?

When he's talking about foreign policy, Zhirinovsky is trolling at least half the time, if not more. When it comes to foreign policy, we just tune him out, but his trolling of Russian Liberals is magnificent

[Bakery Hill]

Comrade, I would love to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25bwVWwkQIU

First 30+ seconds.

Are you 100% not fucking with me now?

When he's talking about foreign policy, Zhirinovsky is trolling at least half the time, if not more. When it comes to foreign policy, we just tune him out, but his trolling of Russian Liberals is magnificent

This man is brilliant.

[United Marxist Nations]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25bwVWwkQIU

First 30+ seconds.

When he's talking about foreign policy, Zhirinovsky is trolling at least half the time, if not more. When it comes to foreign policy, we just tune him out, but his trolling of Russian Liberals is magnificent

This man is brilliant.

He's polling at 11% in the Russian presidential election polling.

This is why I think people who call Putin an extremist know nothing about Russian politics. To Putin's right, there are literal fascists who want to violently restore the borders of the Russian Empire, then, to his left, he has the Communist Party trying to restore a technocracy with giant tractors and a government run by computers. Then, you have literal fifth columnists advocating for Western-style government.

Putin is pretty moderate.

[Gauthier]

This man is brilliant.

He's polling at 11% in the Russian presidential election polling.

This is why I think people who call Putin an extremist know nothing about Russian politics. To Putin's right, there are literal fascists who want to violently restore the borders of the Russian Empire, then, to his left, he has the Communist Party trying to restore a technocracy with giant tractors and a government run by computers. Then, you have literal fifth columnists advocating for Western-style government.

Putin is pretty moderate.

Today I Learned that establishing LGBTQs as personas non grata open to persecution is Moderate.

[Novus America]

He's polling at 11% in the Russian presidential election polling.

This is why I think people who call Putin an extremist know nothing about Russian politics. To Putin's right, there are literal fascists who want to violently restore the borders of the Russian Empire, then, to his left, he has the Communist Party trying to restore a technocracy with giant tractors and a government run by computers. Then, you have literal fifth columnists advocating for Western-style government.

Putin is pretty moderate.

Today I Learned that establishing LGBTQs as personas non grata open to persecution is Moderate.

By Russian standards it is. Plenty want to do much worse. Putin is a moderate in Russia. This is true. However remember what this tells you about Russia.

[United Marxist Nations]

He's polling at 11% in the Russian presidential election polling.

This is why I think people who call Putin an extremist know nothing about Russian politics. To Putin's right, there are literal fascists who want to violently restore the borders of the Russian Empire, then, to his left, he has the Communist Party trying to restore a technocracy with giant tractors and a government run by computers. Then, you have literal fifth columnists advocating for Western-style government.

Putin is pretty moderate.

Today I Learned that establishing LGBTQs as personas non grata open to persecution is Moderate.

Oh, that's not what happens at all. Assault is still illegal, the laws on the books only make it illegal to do things like host pride parades, etc.

[Gauthier]

Today I Learned that establishing LGBTQs as personas non grata open to persecution is Moderate.

By Russian standards it is. Plenty want to do much worse. Putin is a moderate in Russia. This is true. However remember what this tells you about Russia.

There's worse than essentially pogroming LGBTQs with the state turning a blind eye now?

[United Marxist Nations]

By Russian standards it is. Plenty want to do much worse. Putin is a moderate in Russia. This is true. However remember what this tells you about Russia.

There's worse than essentially pogroming LGBTQs with the state turning a blind eye now?

I'll take "things that never happened" for 500, Gauth.

[Greater Slavic Union]

Today I Learned that establishing LGBTQs as personas non grata open to persecution is Moderate.

By Russian standards it is. Plenty want to do much worse. Putin is a moderate in Russia. This is true. However remember what this tells you about Russia.

And? Clinton (H) is a moderate in the US, isn't she? But I remember her foreign policy advisor stating the us should bomb Assad's office, bomb his presidential airplane to the ground, kill his guards and the people around him.
Now, by your standards, we should be very preoccupied about what the american political spectrum is.

I would not call Putin a moderate because he is. His vision variates from left to right depending on the issue, this is what makes him "moderate".

[Novus America]

By Russian standards it is. Plenty want to do much worse. Putin is a moderate in Russia. This is true. However remember what this tells you about Russia.

There's worse than essentially pogroming LGBTQs with the state turning a blind eye now?

Well Russia is not that extreme. The have restricted the speech rights of LBGTs and violence against them, often overlooked by a the state is a problem. But it is not to the extreme you make it out to be. LGBTs are not being pogromed en masse, even though the do face some persecution.

But many Russians want LGBT people banned altogether.

"Homophobia in Russia: Public opinion in Russia tends to be among the most hostile toward homosexuality in the world—outside predominantly Muslim countries and some parts of Africa and Asia—and the level of intolerance has been rising.[10] A 2013 survey found that 74% of Russians said homosexuality should not be accepted by society (up from 60% in 2002), compared to 16% who said that homosexuality should be accepted by society.[11] In a 2007 survey, 68% of Russians said homosexuality is always wrong (54%) or almost always wrong (14%).[12] In a 2005 poll, 44% of Russians were in favor of making homosexual acts between consenting adults a criminal act;[13] at the same time, 43% of Russians supported a legal ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[13] In 2013, 16% of Russians surveyed said that gay people should be isolated from society, 22% said they should be forced to undergo treatment, and 5% said homosexuals should be "liquidated".[14] In Russian psychiatry, Soviet mentality about homosexuality has endured into the present day.[15] For instance, in spite of the removal of homosexuality from the nomenclature of mental disorders, 62.5% of 450 surveyed psychiatrists in the Rostov Region view it as an illness, and up to three quarters view it as immoral behavior.[15] The psychiatrists sustain the objections to pride parades and the use of veiled schemes to lay off openly lesbian and gay persons from schools, child care centers, and other public institutions.[15] A Russian motorcycle club called the Night Wolves, which is closely associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and which suggests "Death to faggots" as an alternate name for itself,[16] organized a large Anti-Maidan rally in February 2015 at which a popular slogan was "We don't need Western ideology and gay parades!"[17]"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia

[Novus America]

By Russian standards it is. Plenty want to do much worse. Putin is a moderate in Russia. This is true. However remember what this tells you about Russia.

And? Clinton (H) is a moderate in the US, isn't she? But I remember her foreign policy advisor stating the us should bomb Assad's office, bomb his presidential airplane to the ground, kill his guards and the people around him.
Now, by your standards, we should be very preoccupied about what the american political spectrum is.

I would not call Putin a moderate because he is. His vision variates from left to right depending on the issue, this is what makes him "moderate".

And that tells you the the US tends to be trigger happy. Which is true.

Putin is moderate by Russia standard as he is towards the middle of the political spectrum in Russia and avoids the extremes in Russia.

Russia is just on average extremely socially conservative and reactionary as compared to most countries.

[The Objectivist Commonwealth]

I actually remember that "police will not intervene in domestic violence unless there is a fatality" thing to be their default response since years and years back, and nothing unusual. That case was simply noticed because that time it actually occurred.

On the whole, nothing surprising. The country has seen only a few periods of reform amid a prevailing reactionary atmosphere since it first came into existence. Even communist repression simply drove the overt feudal and orthodox memes underground, while the patriarchal and authoritarian mindset never really changed, generally.

[Shofercia]

By Russian standards it is. Plenty want to do much worse. Putin is a moderate in Russia. This is true. However remember what this tells you about Russia.

There's worse than essentially pogroming LGBTQs with the state turning a blind eye now?

If you essentially pogrom LGBTQs, you will essentially end up in jail sooner or later. You might want to look up what pogrom actually means. And yes, there's worse, since they get executed in Saudi Arabia and thrown in jail in Iran.

[Bakery Hill]

This man is brilliant.

He's polling at 11% in the Russian presidential election polling.

This is why I think people who call Putin an extremist know nothing about Russian politics. To Putin's right, there are literal fascists who want to violently restore the borders of the Russian Empire, then, to his left, he has the Communist Party trying to restore a technocracy with giant tractors and a government run by computers. Then, you have literal fifth columnists advocating for Western-style government.

Putin is pretty moderate.

And he more or less controls them all. Thank you Surkov.

tbf a tractor technocracy sounds pretty cool

[Gauthier]

There's worse than essentially pogroming LGBTQs with the state turning a blind eye now?

If you essentially pogrom LGBTQs, you will essentially end up in jail sooner or later. You might want to look up what pogrom actually means. And yes, there's worse, since they get executed in Saudi Arabia and thrown in jail in Iran.

Saudi Arabia and Iran treating them like shit is intolerable, but what Russia does is tolerable because it's "moderate". Rather consistent argument.

[Bakery Hill]

If you essentially pogrom LGBTQs, you will essentially end up in jail sooner or later. You might want to look up what pogrom actually means. And yes, there's worse, since they get executed in Saudi Arabia and thrown in jail in Iran.

Saudi Arabia and Iran treating them like shit is intolerable, but what Russia does is tolerable because it's "moderate". Rather consistent argument.

UMN clearly said that Putin is moderate compared to Zhirinovsky. I don't understand how this is controversial.

[United Marxist Nations]

If you essentially pogrom LGBTQs, you will essentially end up in jail sooner or later. You might want to look up what pogrom actually means. And yes, there's worse, since they get executed in Saudi Arabia and thrown in jail in Iran.

Saudi Arabia and Iran treating them like shit is intolerable, but what Russia does is tolerable because it's "moderate". Rather consistent argument.

All Russia does is not allow gay pride parades and other LGBT advocacy. I would say it's pretty moderate, and honestly a pretty traditional stance. But you'll never be satisfied until Russia completely capitulates to Western values.

[Gauthier]

Saudi Arabia and Iran treating them like shit is intolerable, but what Russia does is tolerable because it's "moderate". Rather consistent argument.

UMN clearly said that Putin is moderate compared to Zhirinovsky. I don't understand how this is controversial.

Excusing the shit status of LGBTQ rights in Russia by bringing up Saudi Arabia and Iran as relative privations is rather telling actually.

[NeoLiberia]

mispost

[Novus America]

There's worse than essentially pogroming LGBTQs with the state turning a blind eye now?

If you essentially pogrom LGBTQs, you will essentially end up in jail sooner or later. You might want to look up what pogrom actually means. And yes, there's worse, since they get executed in Saudi Arabia and thrown in jail in Iran.

Well sure. Russia is not as bad as he claimed and could be much worse. This does not however mean it is good.

Actually the Comunist Party did submit a bill banning people identifying as homosexual. But to Russia's credit in that case it did not pass. At the same time the fact the second largest party submitted the bill at all was much to Russia's discredit.

Russia is bad, but not as bad as many say. It is just medium bad sure. Still not good.

The bill in the topic is the same. Bad but could be much worse.
At the same time considering the way things are going it things will likely only get worse as time goes on.

[Shofercia]

There's worse than essentially pogroming LGBTQs with the state turning a blind eye now?

Well Russia is not that extreme. The have restricted the speech rights of LBGTs and violence against them, often overlooked by a the state is a problem. But it is not to the extreme you make it out to be. LGBTs are not being pogromed en masse, even though the do face some persecution.

But many Russians want LGBT people banned altogether.

"Homophobia in Russia: Public opinion in Russia tends to be among the most hostile toward homosexuality in the world—outside predominantly Muslim countries and some parts of Africa and Asia—and the level of intolerance has been rising.[10] A 2013 survey found that 74% of Russians said homosexuality should not be accepted by society (up from 60% in 2002), compared to 16% who said that homosexuality should be accepted by society.[11] In a 2007 survey, 68% of Russians said homosexuality is always wrong (54%) or almost always wrong (14%).[12] In a 2005 poll, 44% of Russians were in favor of making homosexual acts between consenting adults a criminal act;[13] at the same time, 43% of Russians supported a legal ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[13] In 2013, 16% of Russians surveyed said that gay people should be isolated from society, 22% said they should be forced to undergo treatment, and 5% said homosexuals should be "liquidated".[14] In Russian psychiatry, Soviet mentality about homosexuality has endured into the present day.[15] For instance, in spite of the removal of homosexuality from the nomenclature of mental disorders, 62.5% of 450 surveyed psychiatrists in the Rostov Region view it as an illness, and up to three quarters view it as immoral behavior.[15] The psychiatrists sustain the objections to pride parades and the use of veiled schemes to lay off openly lesbian and gay persons from schools, child care centers, and other public institutions.[15] A Russian motorcycle club called the Night Wolves, which is closely associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and which suggests "Death to faggots" as an alternate name for itself,[16] organized a large Anti-Maidan rally in February 2015 at which a popular slogan was "We don't need Western ideology and gay parades!"[17]"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia

Erm, I'd like to see the methodology behind those polls. In Russia, there's a strong opinion that what happens to you depends on where the act occurred. I doubt that most Russians would support someone raiding private homes in order to stop the gay. I wouldn't be surprised if most Russians want gay sex to be banned in public, but how are you going to enforce that in private, without trampling on local rights? If the entire process of stopping a gay orgy inside a dacha gets explained to the average Russian Voter, I highly doubt that the majority would be supporting it.

Furthermore, in the Russian language, there are different variations on words, and yes, Gay and Faggot can mean two completely different things. Gay can refer to someone who's homesexual, whereas a Faggot can be someone who supported even the most radical version of Maidan, irrespective of their sexual orientation. Russians don't usually curse in English. So until I see the original quote, in Russian, in the original context, I am going to reserve judgement. Obviously killing people for their sexual orientation is completely fucked up, but I highly doubt that's what the original quote actually meant.

[Senkaku]

To Putin's right, there are literal fascists who want to violently restore the borders of the Russian Empire,

I mean, he hits the fascism mark with this bill, the various anti-LGBT actions, the suppression of an independent press and opposition parties, the growing state security apparatus, and the massive propaganda efforts, and he's certainly trying to violently restore at least part of the Russian Empire- he just hasn't broken out the nukes or any declarations of war yet.

then, to his left, he has the Communist Party trying to restore a technocracy with giant tractors and a government run by computers.

That sounds lit tbh

Then, you have literal fifth columnists advocating for Western-style government.

And by "Western-style government" you mean crazy shit like democracy? Yeah, those "fifth columnists"!

There's worse than essentially pogroming LGBTQs with the state turning a blind eye now?

Well Russia is not that extreme. The have restricted the speech rights of LBGTs and violence against them, often overlooked by a the state is a problem. But it is not to the extreme you make it out to be. LGBTs are not being pogromed en masse, even though the do face some persecution.

But many Russians want LGBT people banned altogether.

"Homophobia in Russia: Public opinion in Russia tends to be among the most hostile toward homosexuality in the world—outside predominantly Muslim countries and some parts of Africa and Asia—and the level of intolerance has been rising.[10] A 2013 survey found that 74% of Russians said homosexuality should not be accepted by society (up from 60% in 2002), compared to 16% who said that homosexuality should be accepted by society.[11] In a 2007 survey, 68% of Russians said homosexuality is always wrong (54%) or almost always wrong (14%).[12] In a 2005 poll, 44% of Russians were in favor of making homosexual acts between consenting adults a criminal act;[13] at the same time, 43% of Russians supported a legal ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[13] In 2013, 16% of Russians surveyed said that gay people should be isolated from society, 22% said they should be forced to undergo treatment, and 5% said homosexuals should be "liquidated".[14] In Russian psychiatry, Soviet mentality about homosexuality has endured into the present day.[15] For instance, in spite of the removal of homosexuality from the nomenclature of mental disorders, 62.5% of 450 surveyed psychiatrists in the Rostov Region view it as an illness, and up to three quarters view it as immoral behavior.[15] The psychiatrists sustain the objections to pride parades and the use of veiled schemes to lay off openly lesbian and gay persons from schools, child care centers, and other public institutions.[15] A Russian motorcycle club called the Night Wolves, which is closely associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and which suggests "Death to faggots" as an alternate name for itself,[16] organized a large Anti-Maidan rally in February 2015 at which a popular slogan was "We don't need Western ideology and gay parades!"[17]"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia

Was Gauth exaggerating in the use of the word "pogrom"? Sure. But LGBT people in Russia don't just face "some" persecution that is "overlooked" by the state. The state is actively helping unleash Russian society's worst impulses towards the LGBT community to use it as a scapegoat for Russia's problems and a sort of effigy of the West's success to beat up on, and LGBT people in Russia are enduring extreme suffering and hardship as a result.

[United Marxist Nations]

To Putin's right, there are literal fascists who want to violently restore the borders of the Russian Empire,

I mean, he hits the fascism mark with this bill, the various anti-LGBT actions, the suppression of an independent press and opposition parties, the growing state security apparatus, and the massive propaganda efforts, and he's certainly trying to violently restore at least part of the Russian Empire- he just hasn't broken out the nukes or any declarations of war yet.

then, to his left, he has the Communist Party trying to restore a technocracy with giant tractors and a government run by computers.

That sounds lit tbh

Then, you have literal fifth columnists advocating for Western-style government.

And by "Western-style government" you mean crazy shit like democracy? Yeah, those "fifth columnists"!

Well Russia is not that extreme. The have restricted the speech rights of LBGTs and violence against them, often overlooked by a the state is a problem. But it is not to the extreme you make it out to be. LGBTs are not being pogromed en masse, even though the do face some persecution.

But many Russians want LGBT people banned altogether.

"Homophobia in Russia: Public opinion in Russia tends to be among the most hostile toward homosexuality in the world—outside predominantly Muslim countries and some parts of Africa and Asia—and the level of intolerance has been rising.[10] A 2013 survey found that 74% of Russians said homosexuality should not be accepted by society (up from 60% in 2002), compared to 16% who said that homosexuality should be accepted by society.[11] In a 2007 survey, 68% of Russians said homosexuality is always wrong (54%) or almost always wrong (14%).[12] In a 2005 poll, 44% of Russians were in favor of making homosexual acts between consenting adults a criminal act;[13] at the same time, 43% of Russians supported a legal ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[13] In 2013, 16% of Russians surveyed said that gay people should be isolated from society, 22% said they should be forced to undergo treatment, and 5% said homosexuals should be "liquidated".[14] In Russian psychiatry, Soviet mentality about homosexuality has endured into the present day.[15] For instance, in spite of the removal of homosexuality from the nomenclature of mental disorders, 62.5% of 450 surveyed psychiatrists in the Rostov Region view it as an illness, and up to three quarters view it as immoral behavior.[15] The psychiatrists sustain the objections to pride parades and the use of veiled schemes to lay off openly lesbian and gay persons from schools, child care centers, and other public institutions.[15] A Russian motorcycle club called the Night Wolves, which is closely associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and which suggests "Death to faggots" as an alternate name for itself,[16] organized a large Anti-Maidan rally in February 2015 at which a popular slogan was "We don't need Western ideology and gay parades!"[17]"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia

Was Gauth exaggerating in the use of the word "pogrom"? Sure. But LGBT people in Russia don't just face "some" persecution that is "overlooked" by the state. The state is actively helping unleash Russian society's worst impulses towards the LGBT community to use it as a scapegoat for Russia's problems and a sort of effigy of the West's success to beat up on, and LGBT people in Russia are enduring extreme suffering and hardship as a result.

Putin didn't propose any of the underlined. That stuff happened because of the legislature.

[Novus America]

Well Russia is not that extreme. The have restricted the speech rights of LBGTs and violence against them, often overlooked by a the state is a problem. But it is not to the extreme you make it out to be. LGBTs are not being pogromed en masse, even though the do face some persecution.

But many Russians want LGBT people banned altogether.

"Homophobia in Russia: Public opinion in Russia tends to be among the most hostile toward homosexuality in the world—outside predominantly Muslim countries and some parts of Africa and Asia—and the level of intolerance has been rising.[10] A 2013 survey found that 74% of Russians said homosexuality should not be accepted by society (up from 60% in 2002), compared to 16% who said that homosexuality should be accepted by society.[11] In a 2007 survey, 68% of Russians said homosexuality is always wrong (54%) or almost always wrong (14%).[12] In a 2005 poll, 44% of Russians were in favor of making homosexual acts between consenting adults a criminal act;[13] at the same time, 43% of Russians supported a legal ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[13] In 2013, 16% of Russians surveyed said that gay people should be isolated from society, 22% said they should be forced to undergo treatment, and 5% said homosexuals should be "liquidated".[14] In Russian psychiatry, Soviet mentality about homosexuality has endured into the present day.[15] For instance, in spite of the removal of homosexuality from the nomenclature of mental disorders, 62.5% of 450 surveyed psychiatrists in the Rostov Region view it as an illness, and up to three quarters view it as immoral behavior.[15] The psychiatrists sustain the objections to pride parades and the use of veiled schemes to lay off openly lesbian and gay persons from schools, child care centers, and other public institutions.[15] A Russian motorcycle club called the Night Wolves, which is closely associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and which suggests "Death to faggots" as an alternate name for itself,[16] organized a large Anti-Maidan rally in February 2015 at which a popular slogan was "We don't need Western ideology and gay parades!"[17]"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia

Erm, I'd like to see the methodology behind those polls. In Russia, there's a strong opinion that what happens to you depends on where the act occurred. I doubt that most Russians would support someone raiding private homes in order to stop the gay. I wouldn't be surprised if most Russians want gay sex to be banned in public, but how are you going to enforce that in private, without trampling on local rights? If the entire process of stopping a gay orgy inside a dacha gets explained to the average Russian Voter, I highly doubt that the majority would be supporting it.

Furthermore, in the Russian language, there are different variations on words, and yes, Gay and Faggot can mean two completely different things. Gay can refer to someone who's homesexual, whereas a Faggot can be someone who supported even the most radical version of Maidan, irrespective of their sexual orientation. Russians don't usually curse in English. So until I see the original quote, in Russian, in the original context, I am going to reserve judgement. Obviously killing people for their sexual orientation is completely fucked up, but I highly doubt that's what the original quote actually meant.

Well there are links to the polls you can check. Also it does seem the majority of Russians do not want them all hunted down and killed, only 5% wanted that (still a bit scary).

Certainly many seem to want to ban people publicly identify as gay, that is what the Communist parties proposed bill would do, basically force "don't ask don't tell" on everyone.

"16% of Russians surveyed said that gay people should be isolated from society, 22% said they should be forced to undergo treatment, and 5% said homosexuals should be "liquidated"."

Assuming this is correct 41% actually wanted them hunted down, and 59% do not.

Point remains though Russia is very reactionary and socially conservative compared to much of the world though.

[Shofercia]

If you essentially pogrom LGBTQs, you will essentially end up in jail sooner or later. You might want to look up what pogrom actually means. And yes, there's worse, since they get executed in Saudi Arabia and thrown in jail in Iran.

Well sure. Russia is not as bad as he claimed and could be much worse. This does not however mean it is good.

Actually the Comunist Party did submit a bar banning homosexuality. But to Russia's credit in that case it did not pass. At the same time the fact the second largest party submitted the bill at all was much to Russia's discredit.

Russia is bad, but not as bad as many say. It is just medium bad sure. Still not good.

Again, who was behind it? There's division within the CPRF. Zyuganov is an inept leader, who actually asked United Russia to tone down their election attacks against the CPRF, threatening to resign if that doesn't happen. The attacks were softened. While the CPRF remains Russia's second largest party, unless the leadership changes, they might be the third or fourth fairly soon.

Zyuganov got 17% of the vote in 2012. 18% in 2008. Compare that with 30% in 2000. Furthermore, in 2011, the Commies staged a resurgence, almost getting 20% of the vote. So while the party's vote rose from 12% to 19%, Zyuganov's vote fell from 18% to 17%. Either Vladimir Putin personally rigged Zyuganov's Election, (perhaps as practice for changing the Vermont Vote,) or Zyuganov fucked up. It's the latter.

Anyways, Civil Rights in Russia need improvement. Social Rights in the US need improvement. When a Russian friend of mine saw America's Federal Education Budget, his reaction was similar to your guys' reaction against this, rather stupid, law.