Iridium is LEO and it works great, as long as you are at 2400 baud. There are pesky issues, like doppler shift, the speed of light, the transmission power required... you know, those pesky laws of physics.
Cuba has been trading with every other country except us and none of this has happened. The U.S. is SO FULL OF ITSELF thinking it's going to make a difference....
It's pretty funny, actually, for those of us with memory. When George Bush was in office the lefties screamed, howled, and wailed about how he was "shredding the constitution" with executive over reach. Then Obama gets in there, on promises he would do no such thing, and doubles down on damn near everything. And what are the lefties saying "Well, Obama has done nothing here that every president before him hasn't done"
And when a Republican gets elected, the howling and screaming about executive over-reach will come back - within a day.
But I disagree with the "derivatives are bad" argument. If a company creates a product, and it's a suck-ass product - and people buy it.... In the Web 2.0 world where information is readily available, public commentary exists for everything, and we are all incredibly powerful researchers... then who's fault is it? The buyer.
Before I buy a bloody toaster I Google the brand to see what people are saying about it. If you're buying some gazillion pound derivative and you don't do your research, and you get screwed.... Where does the blame lie?
Saying "Oh those horrible BANKERS how dare they create new products to sell to their customers, we need to stop them from innovating and coming up with new things" followed by "Oh those poor INVESTORS who gambled their money on the market, and didn't do their research, and bought a derivative that represented a loan that could never, ever be paid back, oh we feel so sorry for them, let's steal from the hardworking taxpayer to bail them out..." Sorry, Mate, it's hogwash.
Government can't possibly keep up with every new product introduced, unless you favor some Marxist central command banking system (and we all know how much that solution sucks), investing is GAMBLING done by the wealthy it is their money to loose.
With respect to 2008, if one couldn't see that coming.... they were blind, Governments forcing banks to loan money to people who had horrible credit ratings under the threat of racism, good lord, what a stupid fucking idea that was... And then in classic fashion blaming the same banks they forced to make those loans for creating the problem, it's shameful.
Below we see the usual attempt to declare that the actual data is misleading, instead we need to express it as a percentage of something else (Because the actual data tells the truth)
I have a degree in Business Economics from Northern Arizona University and am the owner of a small software development business.
In my opinion cries for more spending on education by the folks on the left has nothing to do what so ever with the quality of education, and everything to do with greed. The NEA and NTA are large contributors to the Democratic Party http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N... -- and thanks to Citizens United, we'll never know for sure how much dark money they contribute. The cycle works something like this:
Politician cozies up to the NEA/NTA and promises some favor if they donate money (openly, or to his PAC)
NEA/NTA give the money, which they have taken from the members, that are paid from the public trough.
Politician get elected and repays the bribe, er, contribution by doing something the NEA/NTA wants. Thanks to Citizens United the dark money given by the NEA/NTA is not reported.
After years and years and years this cozy incestuous little system creates a scenario where so many promises have been made, that the unfunded liabilities to pay for these perks and benefits far exceeds what the taxpayers will ever, possibly be able to pay for. Every possible dime gets cut from actual education, the bulk of the money is going to the administrators, or being extracted from the teachers in the form of dues, that's being returned to the greedy party apparatus. In many states, one either joins the Union or does not get a job. It's legalized extortion combined with legalized money laundering, and it is wrong on so many levels.
This is one of thousands of examples, both parties setup these little money laundering machines to feed their greed. I picked the NEA/NTA because this thread is about education, and it's blatant theft that is easy to verify. Just look at what we spend per pupil.vs. the results we get back and ask yourself WHY?
So when a political party, or a politician, wants to raise taxes in order to pay for something, and uses highly charged populist emotional rhetoric, one should be very, very, very suspicious of the motive. I would put it to you that some sixty percent of the local, state, and federal budgets represents this kind of crap, as opposed to giving we the people a fair value for the taxes we pay.
How do we fix this? We stand up and say ENOUGH is ENOUGH. We demand zero based budgeting for all local, state, and federal budgets, each and every year. We don't tolerate the foolishness where there is a 5% built in rate of growth in some department's budget, and it only grows 4%, and politicians declare a savings or a surplus. Not spending money you never had is not SAVINGS. We force every local, state, and federal department to be 100% transparent about where ALL the money goes. We demand Citizens United be repealed. We eliminate public sector unions, which have a monopoly over the public work force, abolishing forced unionization for public sector jobs in states that do not have right to work laws. We force government agencies to compete with private enterprise for as many services as possible, in order to incentivize efficiency. We quit throwing money at problems that we are clearly not solving, so many local, state, and federal programs are simply jobs programs, they add no value and accomplish little.
Plenty more good ideas, but I think you get the general sense of things. I am a social progressive and a fiscal conservative, but above all things I am against government greed...
Absolutely correct. But the TRUTH about all this... well, people aren't the least bit interested in that, because it's easier to scream populist rants. Being a raving populist is the easiest, most gutless decision one can make, all you have to do is look at something and say "Oh that's horrible"
I'm sure all these people ranting about the horrors of off shoring shop at Walmart and have houses full of cheap Chinese goods, don't drive cars made in America, have tools from Harbor Freight, and wouldn't pay a penny more for something made in the USA...
Your comments make no sense. Radio Shack lost money for 11 quarters. So they borrowed heavily. When the lending institution realized they might not get paid back, they found some sucker to take on the loans. And now those suckers are getting nervous.
So where does the fault lie? I'd say it lies in the guy who approved the loan in the first place, and the guy who bought the loans without doing due diligence. It's called Caveat Emptor, noting to see here. You don't like how the system works, fine, I get that, but it has nothing at all to do with "borderline legalized gambling of the type that hit the fan in 2008" -- all that's in common here is some of the same WORDS are being used.
You are absolutely correct. There is this crazy belief that the value of a stock actually bears some relationship to how the company is run, or what the P/E ratio is, or what the growth potential is. But the plain truth is that the value of the stock is investor perceptions of future potential.
And now that we have pumped trillions of dollars of money into the system by quantitative easing, we now have a new generation of idiots claiming that the value of the stocks is proof of overall economic performance! Downright frightening how naive that is.
Playing the market is gambling, plain and simple... You have better odds than the casino....
True. And let's not forget that by not passing a budget - something required by law - The Obama Administration was able to grow the Federal Government at pre-recession rates, as the mandatory spending increases were based on the 2008 federal income. At the same time, they raised taxes.
It's the same trick as "Hottest year on Record" - You change when "the record" starts! But not as big of a lie as "eight million insured!" when six million were cancelled... So many more examples abound.
The Federal "take" (Total income) is higher than it has ever been at any time in our history.... and you leftists howl and wail that we need more taxes, more taxes, and more taxes. Sorry but you can only bleed the pig so long, it runs out of blood eventually and then what?
In the countries where you have had your way with this (France comes to mind) things suck even more than they do here...
You approve not enforcing the immigration laws regarding "catch and release", but want the laws regarding employment verification to be strictly enforced. This makes no sense. All the laws on the books need to be enforced equally, and those who believe the executive branch can decide based on political expediency what laws are good, and what laws are bad quite simply do not want Democracy, this is not how it's supposed to work.
Developing Windows desktop apps in.net was fully matured, capable of doing everything the users wanted, moderately difficult to pick up but definitely not force bent at all!! But we (the industry) threw that out and replaced it with browser based apps... And although I have no personal experience with building desktop apps for MACs or Linux boxes I'd wager that was damn solid too.
What also got trashed with Web dev was a desire to standardize the code, using consistent naming conventions, and not place thousands of lines of dead code in every project. How many web sites have you worked on with 30,000 plus files, of which maybe 20 actually do something? How many CSS files have you seen that are so absurdly disorganized messes that you give up and just create yet another style?
Yeah, there were plenty of gawd-awful Visual Basic 3/4/5/6 apps written by n00bs, but the MFC C++ and C# guys (and some of the Visual Basic.net guys) strive to build elegant object models, name things consistently, keep everything tight.... Whereas the things you find on so may web sites are just horrible beyond belief.
So I predict that about the time we perfect browser based apps then it will all be scrapped for the next shiny toy.... And that it will take years and years and years before it's stabilizes. Why do we do this to ourselves?
I think it's a very bad law. But it benefits Unions just as much as Corporations, and guess where the Democrats get boatloads of money?
Unions
And many of these setups involve situations where people are forced to join, and then the wages are artificially inflated to account for Union dues, and then the Unions are not required to disclose how much of their take goes back to the party. When you consider that just about all the Federal Workforce belongs to the mandated Federal Employees Union, it is a money laundering/theft from the taxpayer scheme of massive proportions and Citizens United allows this to continue. The result is an ever increasing death spiral of massive unfunded liabilities. This is EXACTLY what killed my home town, who's name begins with D. Took 40 years, but they bled the thing dry and guess who got fucked? The little people of course.
Democrats have just as many dark money PACS as the Republicans do. Democrats pretend they are all indignant over the PAC money, but say nothing about the Union money, and big surprise every time there's some rider/something slipped into some bill that allows more money to flow into the parties, and the PACS, Democrats make a big stink about something ELSE but approve the theft in large numbers. Did you hear a single politician complaining about the increased contribution allowance in the Cromnibus? A single one from either party? Who's lying to you now?
I am no fan of either party, and am as anti-corruption as they come. But to pretend that one side is less guilty than the other one, I'm sorry my new slashdot friend, it's just naive. One party lies one way, the other party lies a different way, but when it comes to money, they are both insanely greedy, just as much so as the "evil corporations" they claim to be protecting us from, or the "evil bankers" they are in bed with... Dividing people over party lines is exactly what keeps the corrupt money train rolling. If everybody stood up and said ENOUGH then it would stop. The Tea Party people tried, look what happened to them... Not that I'm a Tea Party person...
I think a lot of it depends on the brand... And the age of the sales guy. And how what his boss sets as top priority.
People would be wise to visit several dealerships and choose carefully FOR SURE. I like having a nice car as I drive a lot. If I'm going to spend thirty grand or so I expect to be treated like Royalty.
As I understand things they make money on Service not initial sale so it's in their interest to treat you well. Doesn't mean they do that though:-)
Donations to PAC's do not have to be reported, thanks to Citizen's United. Which benefited both Democrats and Republicans...
And in the 2014 Cromnibus spending bill, individual yearly donation limits were raised. Funny you didn't hear a peep from either party about how evil that was. Not much in the news about that either.
I don't work in the business (Although my company does do some automotive web development work). But I've bought cars for 40 years. Some dealers are scum. But certainly not all. The Ford dealership where I bought my last vehicle was absolutely awesome in every respect and they continue to be. The Suzuki dealer where we bought the wife's car, they were lying sleazebags.
The article referenced to seems like a pathetic attempt to create a conspiracy theory out of nothing...
It's not really shocking that business people donate money to politicians - on both the left and the right, big surprise.
What "scummy tactics" are you referring to? Are you talking about the big 3, or all automakers? I believe with a little research you'll determine that much of the infrastructure that exists here grew out of consumer protection laws and warranty service requirements that started with the safetycrat darling Ralph Nader. So it's the hand of government that led to much of this. And yes, they use scummy tactics too, but let's make sure and spread the blame around where it belongs instead of knee-jerk "Oh those eeeevil corporations" response.
The hypocrisy is staggering alright. Consider Brenden Eichs, who lost his job over opposition to gay marriage, or Kevin Williamson, who was fired over a transgender article. The NYT boldly proclaims freedom of the press - when it is printing anti-Jewish and anti-Asian cartoons, but in 2005 when the Danish cartoons about Mohammed came out, and today?
Obama says of Sony: "We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States" but then his press secretary in 2012 says "...we question the judgement behind the decision to publish it" where it were cartoons from Charlie Hebdo. Again, the hypocrisy on display is absolutely stunning. And what are they saying about this? We need to prioritize Islamophobia!!
Plagerized from another opinion piece by Clarice Feldman but worth reading:
On Thursday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest announced that the Obama administration would prioritize fighting Islamophobia in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in France. Never mind that most Westerners aren’t Islamophobic, but rather GettingShotInTheFaceForExpressingMyOpinion-Phobic....
In Public school a staggering sum goes into the pockets of the NTA or the NEA, who are larges contributors to the Democratic Party. So the $10,000 a year turns into less than half of that per student. Look it up. The price is set by the greed of the participants, supported by politicians who take money from the NTA/NEA and are beholden to give them what they want, in return to keep the "money laundering machine" flowing.
This always ends the same. Eventually the bribes becomes so large the system collapses. Think Detroit... Or lookup "unfunded liabilities" which is a nice way of saying "shit we promised to get elected that we can never pay for"
In Private school the parents demand the best teachers, the best food, and state of the art facilities. Private schools often take care of the kids from 9-6 too. The market will bear that price. The schools are run as efficiently as possible, and they are laser focused on the students and the parents. They are really nice places too.
That's the reality of the situation. Both systems have completely different goals, and of course the public system has a vested interest to lie, there's a lot of money to be split between the liars, and greed makes people do very strange things, Like most public projects, it's the poor and disenfranchised that get the biggest screwing. And the rich folks, who can afford private school, come out just fine. And every time time some well intentioned person tries to "fix" this, they fuck it up more. Could it be some form of natural selection at play? Maybe.
borrowing money right now is free for the government.
And this condition will last forever? We can forever control the interest rate? So, if 1/2 percent = free, and you can borrow money at that rate, why work? Just keep borrowing and partying. You should try this and see how it works out.
Yes, but if I pay for your college will you vote for me? For Life? If so, then no price is too large. Because once I am elected, I have a license to legally rape, pillage, and plunder the treasury (and as much as I can borrow) without consequence. I don't care who gets fucked to maintain that lifestyle.
Slashdot Mirror
You're absolutely right, of course. Office/Exchange are the same as Democracy. It sucks, but not nearly as bad as all of the other alternatives.
You left out SharePoint, which is also a massive piece of bloated crapware -- that doesn't something in the Enterprise nobody else comes close too...
Iridium is LEO and it works great, as long as you are at 2400 baud. There are pesky issues, like doppler shift, the speed of light, the transmission power required... you know, those pesky laws of physics.
Cuba has been trading with every other country except us and none of this has happened. The U.S. is SO FULL OF ITSELF thinking it's going to make a difference....
It's pretty funny, actually, for those of us with memory. When George Bush was in office the lefties screamed, howled, and wailed about how he was "shredding the constitution" with executive over reach. Then Obama gets in there, on promises he would do no such thing, and doubles down on damn near everything. And what are the lefties saying "Well, Obama has done nothing here that every president before him hasn't done"
And when a Republican gets elected, the howling and screaming about executive over-reach will come back - within a day.
OK, I get where you are coming from.
But I disagree with the "derivatives are bad" argument. If a company creates a product, and it's a suck-ass product - and people buy it.... In the Web 2.0 world where information is readily available, public commentary exists for everything, and we are all incredibly powerful researchers... then who's fault is it? The buyer.
Before I buy a bloody toaster I Google the brand to see what people are saying about it. If you're buying some gazillion pound derivative and you don't do your research, and you get screwed.... Where does the blame lie?
Saying "Oh those horrible BANKERS how dare they create new products to sell to their customers, we need to stop them from innovating and coming up with new things" followed by "Oh those poor INVESTORS who gambled their money on the market, and didn't do their research, and bought a derivative that represented a loan that could never, ever be paid back, oh we feel so sorry for them, let's steal from the hardworking taxpayer to bail them out..." Sorry, Mate, it's hogwash.
Government can't possibly keep up with every new product introduced, unless you favor some Marxist central command banking system (and we all know how much that solution sucks), investing is GAMBLING done by the wealthy it is their money to loose.
With respect to 2008, if one couldn't see that coming.... they were blind, Governments forcing banks to loan money to people who had horrible credit ratings under the threat of racism, good lord, what a stupid fucking idea that was... And then in classic fashion blaming the same banks they forced to make those loans for creating the problem, it's shameful.
http://www.usgovernmentrevenue...
.vs. the results we get back and ask yourself WHY?
Below we see the usual attempt to declare that the actual data is misleading, instead we need to express it as a percentage of something else (Because the actual data tells the truth)
http://www.factcheck.org/2013/...
I have a degree in Business Economics from Northern Arizona University and am the owner of a small software development business.
In my opinion cries for more spending on education by the folks on the left has nothing to do what so ever with the quality of education, and everything to do with greed. The NEA and NTA are large contributors to the Democratic Party http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N... -- and thanks to Citizens United, we'll never know for sure how much dark money they contribute. The cycle works something like this:
Politician cozies up to the NEA/NTA and promises some favor if they donate money (openly, or to his PAC)
NEA/NTA give the money, which they have taken from the members, that are paid from the public trough.
Politician get elected and repays the bribe, er, contribution by doing something the NEA/NTA wants. Thanks to Citizens United the dark money given by the NEA/NTA is not reported.
After years and years and years this cozy incestuous little system creates a scenario where so many promises have been made, that the unfunded liabilities to pay for these perks and benefits far exceeds what the taxpayers will ever, possibly be able to pay for. Every possible dime gets cut from actual education, the bulk of the money is going to the administrators, or being extracted from the teachers in the form of dues, that's being returned to the greedy party apparatus. In many states, one either joins the Union or does not get a job. It's legalized extortion combined with legalized money laundering, and it is wrong on so many levels.
This is one of thousands of examples, both parties setup these little money laundering machines to feed their greed. I picked the NEA/NTA because this thread is about education, and it's blatant theft that is easy to verify. Just look at what we spend per pupil
So when a political party, or a politician, wants to raise taxes in order to pay for something, and uses highly charged populist emotional rhetoric, one should be very, very, very suspicious of the motive. I would put it to you that some sixty percent of the local, state, and federal budgets represents this kind of crap, as opposed to giving we the people a fair value for the taxes we pay.
How do we fix this? We stand up and say ENOUGH is ENOUGH. We demand zero based budgeting for all local, state, and federal budgets, each and every year. We don't tolerate the foolishness where there is a 5% built in rate of growth in some department's budget, and it only grows 4%, and politicians declare a savings or a surplus. Not spending money you never had is not SAVINGS. We force every local, state, and federal department to be 100% transparent about where ALL the money goes. We demand Citizens United be repealed. We eliminate public sector unions, which have a monopoly over the public work force, abolishing forced unionization for public sector jobs in states that do not have right to work laws. We force government agencies to compete with private enterprise for as many services as possible, in order to incentivize efficiency. We quit throwing money at problems that we are clearly not solving, so many local, state, and federal programs are simply jobs programs, they add no value and accomplish little.
Plenty more good ideas, but I think you get the general sense of things. I am a social progressive and a fiscal conservative, but above all things I am against government greed...
Absolutely correct. But the TRUTH about all this... well, people aren't the least bit interested in that, because it's easier to scream populist rants. Being a raving populist is the easiest, most gutless decision one can make, all you have to do is look at something and say "Oh that's horrible"
I'm sure all these people ranting about the horrors of off shoring shop at Walmart and have houses full of cheap Chinese goods, don't drive cars made in America, have tools from Harbor Freight, and wouldn't pay a penny more for something made in the USA...
Your comments make no sense. Radio Shack lost money for 11 quarters. So they borrowed heavily. When the lending institution realized they might not get paid back, they found some sucker to take on the loans. And now those suckers are getting nervous.
So where does the fault lie? I'd say it lies in the guy who approved the loan in the first place, and the guy who bought the loans without doing due diligence. It's called Caveat Emptor, noting to see here. You don't like how the system works, fine, I get that, but it has nothing at all to do with "borderline legalized gambling of the type that hit the fan in 2008" -- all that's in common here is some of the same WORDS are being used.
You are absolutely correct. There is this crazy belief that the value of a stock actually bears some relationship to how the company is run, or what the P/E ratio is, or what the growth potential is. But the plain truth is that the value of the stock is investor perceptions of future potential.
And now that we have pumped trillions of dollars of money into the system by quantitative easing, we now have a new generation of idiots claiming that the value of the stocks is proof of overall economic performance! Downright frightening how naive that is.
Playing the market is gambling, plain and simple... You have better odds than the casino....
True. And let's not forget that by not passing a budget - something required by law - The Obama Administration was able to grow the Federal Government at pre-recession rates, as the mandatory spending increases were based on the 2008 federal income. At the same time, they raised taxes.
It's the same trick as "Hottest year on Record" - You change when "the record" starts! But not as big of a lie as "eight million insured!" when six million were cancelled... So many more examples abound.
Oh gosh, don't bring FACTS into this.
The Federal "take" (Total income) is higher than it has ever been at any time in our history.... and you leftists howl and wail that we need more taxes, more taxes, and more taxes. Sorry but you can only bleed the pig so long, it runs out of blood eventually and then what?
In the countries where you have had your way with this (France comes to mind) things suck even more than they do here...
You approve not enforcing the immigration laws regarding "catch and release", but want the laws regarding employment verification to be strictly enforced. This makes no sense. All the laws on the books need to be enforced equally, and those who believe the executive branch can decide based on political expediency what laws are good, and what laws are bad quite simply do not want Democracy, this is not how it's supposed to work.
For the record I think both parties suck.
I don't disagree in the least.
.net was fully matured, capable of doing everything the users wanted, moderately difficult to pick up but definitely not force bent at all!! But we (the industry) threw that out and replaced it with browser based apps... And although I have no personal experience with building desktop apps for MACs or Linux boxes I'd wager that was damn solid too.
.net guys) strive to build elegant object models, name things consistently, keep everything tight.... Whereas the things you find on so may web sites are just horrible beyond belief.
Developing Windows desktop apps in
What also got trashed with Web dev was a desire to standardize the code, using consistent naming conventions, and not place thousands of lines of dead code in every project. How many web sites have you worked on with 30,000 plus files, of which maybe 20 actually do something? How many CSS files have you seen that are so absurdly disorganized messes that you give up and just create yet another style?
Yeah, there were plenty of gawd-awful Visual Basic 3/4/5/6 apps written by n00bs, but the MFC C++ and C# guys (and some of the Visual Basic
So I predict that about the time we perfect browser based apps then it will all be scrapped for the next shiny toy.... And that it will take years and years and years before it's stabilizes. Why do we do this to ourselves?
I think it's a very bad law. But it benefits Unions just as much as Corporations, and guess where the Democrats get boatloads of money?
Unions
And many of these setups involve situations where people are forced to join, and then the wages are artificially inflated to account for Union dues, and then the Unions are not required to disclose how much of their take goes back to the party. When you consider that just about all the Federal Workforce belongs to the mandated Federal Employees Union, it is a money laundering/theft from the taxpayer scheme of massive proportions and Citizens United allows this to continue. The result is an ever increasing death spiral of massive unfunded liabilities. This is EXACTLY what killed my home town, who's name begins with D. Took 40 years, but they bled the thing dry and guess who got fucked? The little people of course.
Democrats have just as many dark money PACS as the Republicans do. Democrats pretend they are all indignant over the PAC money, but say nothing about the Union money, and big surprise every time there's some rider/something slipped into some bill that allows more money to flow into the parties, and the PACS, Democrats make a big stink about something ELSE but approve the theft in large numbers. Did you hear a single politician complaining about the increased contribution allowance in the Cromnibus? A single one from either party? Who's lying to you now?
I am no fan of either party, and am as anti-corruption as they come. But to pretend that one side is less guilty than the other one, I'm sorry my new slashdot friend, it's just naive. One party lies one way, the other party lies a different way, but when it comes to money, they are both insanely greedy, just as much so as the "evil corporations" they claim to be protecting us from, or the "evil bankers" they are in bed with... Dividing people over party lines is exactly what keeps the corrupt money train rolling. If everybody stood up and said ENOUGH then it would stop. The Tea Party people tried, look what happened to them... Not that I'm a Tea Party person...
I think a lot of it depends on the brand... And the age of the sales guy. And how what his boss sets as top priority.
:-)
People would be wise to visit several dealerships and choose carefully FOR SURE. I like having a nice car as I drive a lot. If I'm going to spend thirty grand or so I expect to be treated like Royalty.
As I understand things they make money on Service not initial sale so it's in their interest to treat you well. Doesn't mean they do that though
Trying to prevent being flamed.... Because every time I mention Citizens United I hear about how those nasty Rethugnicans were behind it....
Donations to PAC's do not have to be reported, thanks to Citizen's United. Which benefited both Democrats and Republicans...
And in the 2014 Cromnibus spending bill, individual yearly donation limits were raised. Funny you didn't hear a peep from either party about how evil that was. Not much in the news about that either.
Dealers are scum.
I don't work in the business (Although my company does do some automotive web development work). But I've bought cars for 40 years. Some dealers are scum. But certainly not all. The Ford dealership where I bought my last vehicle was absolutely awesome in every respect and they continue to be. The Suzuki dealer where we bought the wife's car, they were lying sleazebags.
The article referenced to seems like a pathetic attempt to create a conspiracy theory out of nothing...
It's not really shocking that business people donate money to politicians - on both the left and the right, big surprise.
What "scummy tactics" are you referring to? Are you talking about the big 3, or all automakers? I believe with a little research you'll determine that much of the infrastructure that exists here grew out of consumer protection laws and warranty service requirements that started with the safetycrat darling Ralph Nader. So it's the hand of government that led to much of this. And yes, they use scummy tactics too, but let's make sure and spread the blame around where it belongs instead of knee-jerk "Oh those eeeevil corporations" response.
The hypocrisy is staggering alright. Consider Brenden Eichs, who lost his job over opposition to gay marriage, or Kevin Williamson, who was fired over a transgender article. The NYT boldly proclaims freedom of the press - when it is printing anti-Jewish and anti-Asian cartoons, but in 2005 when the Danish cartoons about Mohammed came out, and today?
Obama says of Sony: "We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States" but then his press secretary in 2012 says "...we question the judgement behind the decision to publish it" where it were cartoons from Charlie Hebdo. Again, the hypocrisy on display is absolutely stunning. And what are they saying about this? We need to prioritize Islamophobia!!
Plagerized from another opinion piece by Clarice Feldman but worth reading:
On Thursday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest announced that the Obama administration would prioritize fighting Islamophobia in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in France. Never mind that most Westerners aren’t Islamophobic, but rather GettingShotInTheFaceForExpressingMyOpinion-Phobic....
In Public school a staggering sum goes into the pockets of the NTA or the NEA, who are larges contributors to the Democratic Party. So the $10,000 a year turns into less than half of that per student. Look it up. The price is set by the greed of the participants, supported by politicians who take money from the NTA/NEA and are beholden to give them what they want, in return to keep the "money laundering machine" flowing.
This always ends the same. Eventually the bribes becomes so large the system collapses. Think Detroit... Or lookup "unfunded liabilities" which is a nice way of saying "shit we promised to get elected that we can never pay for"
In Private school the parents demand the best teachers, the best food, and state of the art facilities. Private schools often take care of the kids from 9-6 too. The market will bear that price. The schools are run as efficiently as possible, and they are laser focused on the students and the parents. They are really nice places too.
That's the reality of the situation. Both systems have completely different goals, and of course the public system has a vested interest to lie, there's a lot of money to be split between the liars, and greed makes people do very strange things, Like most public projects, it's the poor and disenfranchised that get the biggest screwing. And the rich folks, who can afford private school, come out just fine. And every time time some well intentioned person tries to "fix" this, they fuck it up more. Could it be some form of natural selection at play? Maybe.
Its called Political Science...
borrowing money right now is free for the government.
And this condition will last forever? We can forever control the interest rate? So, if 1/2 percent = free, and you can borrow money at that rate, why work? Just keep borrowing and partying. You should try this and see how it works out.
Absolutely right. In the National Parks, why do you think they have signs "Don't Feed the Animals". Why is this?
Why don't we treat humans the same way we treat our forest friends?
It really is that simple....
Yes, but if I pay for your college will you vote for me? For Life? If so, then no price is too large. Because once I am elected, I have a license to legally rape, pillage, and plunder the treasury (and as much as I can borrow) without consequence. I don't care who gets fucked to maintain that lifestyle.