First, those terms would be illegal if they were on anything but student loans in the U.S. Civilized countries recognize bankruptcy, they don't pat themselves on the back for only having indentured debt servitude instead of debt slavery.
Secondly, think for a minute about how that impacts the economy, both locally and nationally.That only $300 is money going OUT of your local economy, that's not being spent on good and services - instead it's going to a (non-local) bank, where it's velocity will be much lower. (And that's assuming it doesn't end up supporting speculation that raises the price of basic goods like fuel and food.)
But then there would be no fat gravy train for the parasites to drink from. Sometimes it seems like the dominant factor in the American economy is making sure enough money gets spent (wasted, really) in ways that allow those with the right connections to make a fat profit for nothing. From KBG driving empty trucks around Iraq to giving people huge loans they'll never be able to repay, it's all the same methodology.
Isn't giving someone a loan for a degree that you *know* won't earn them enough to pay it back an act of bad faith, or at least as equally foolish as taking the loan in the first place? Why should the public, via the government, subsidize foolish loan practices?
Eliminate the government subsidies, and suddenly the banks will start caring about what degree you want and what aptitude you show for it before handing you a check.
There's more than enough resources to go around. Just sort out free education and decent accomodation for everyone. It just isn't difficult to do these days. Productivity has largely tripled since the 70's, think about it!
But then where would the billionaires find large enough monetary flows to let them skim off enough money to buy megayatchs and private islands?
or easily retargeted to hit DC? How long before the politicians demand trillions on behalf of their owners to protect the U.S. from the "asteroid threat". War on Space, here we come!
Why are these two still employed by the U.S. Government? Ortiz and Hyemann need to pay for their misconduct in this case, preferably by being disbarred for life, and at the least with their careers as U.S. Attorneys. That they are allowed to continue working for the so-called United States Department of Justice is one more indictation of the disfunction and failure of America's legal system.
Full investigation and prosecution of NSA officials.
Repeal of retroactive warrants, retroactive teleco immunity, secret NSL orders, and other extra-judicial bullshit.
Immediate legislation to broaden the definition of domestic surveillance and establish strict penalties for companies who cooperate with it.
Amnesty/whistleblower protection for Snowden. Oh, and his passport back.
Those things would require Obama to immediately take action, or be exposed for the lying fraudster he (like most every other modern president) actually is. Instead he's proposing vague generalities designed to dampen public anger long enough for the tame media to shift public awareness onto something less damaging to America's government. Obama should be judged by his actions and not his words - since his 2008 campaign that's become very clear to anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
If Obama meant anything he said (which he obviously doesn't) he would have fired National Intelligence Director Clapper and pardoned Snowden before or during his speech. For crying out loud, the only reason he's even giving this speech is because of the information Snowden made public.
Can the government track what sites I sign into with Persona? And if they can't, can they do so once they serve the Mozilla Foundation with a Writ of Assistance ^W^W^W National Security Letter.
The Founding Fathers (ugh) can't complain about how craptacular the U.S. government is, being safely dead. You'll note that aside from the occassional pro-forma publicity quote, no one presently in power actually bases decisions based on the Revolutionaries said, wrote, or did.
No, the U.S. is damn well not a democracy any more. Democracy doesn't mean, "going to vote every 2 or 4 years", although the so-called, "Republican" and "Democratic" branches of the Establishment Party would certainly like you to think that it does. Democracy requires (among other things) an informed electorate, a free press, and a government that is both accountable and responsive to its citizens. The U.S. does not have these things. It is not the public that panics in response to "political winds", it is the establishment that uses major events as excuses to do what they wanted to accomplish anyway.
Yeah, they should go to their government-Designated Free Speech Zones, so that they can be identified and put on the No Fly List. (I'd add that they'd also be spied on, but the government is already doing that to everyone.
Oh, we still have one, we're just not bothering to put any effort into following it. (Although lots of effort gets put into avoiding the bits of it that people in power dislike.) The Constitution, for all the nigh-divine reverence it gets, it just a piece of paper with a set of rules on what the people who wrote it thought was a good way to run a government. When the people running the country are no longer interested in good government, then the Constitution is irrelevant, no matter whether it is ignored or twisted into a semantic pretzel.
Certainly there's a grain of truth - anyone who values freedom is likely to be unhappy with the Fed's nascent police state, and some of them will act out violently against their corrupt and unaccountable rulers. When that starts to happen more and more frequently, it's important not to see it not as justification for repression, but as a sign of just how hated and undemocratic the U.S. government has become.
As John F. Kennedy once said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
Hey, now, be fair to the FISA court! Per wikipedia, they've only approved 99.97% of all warrant requests. (Maybe the remaining 0.03% had jelly donught stains, or used the wrong ink, or a #3 pencil or something?)
Go read the first linked article. Then read the years worth of articles on the subject by the author, filled with the references you claim to want. This is exactly what good journalism is - that you can't understand that because you're unwilling or unable to do a modicum reading doesn't give your dismissal any validity.
I'm glad to see an older Doctor. Matt Smith and David Tennant did brilliant work, but the next Doctor needed to be a step in a different direction.(Personally, I was hoping for a female Doctor, but I'm more than happy with the choice of Peter Capaldi.
Guilty of somehow offending Goldman-Sachs. In corporate America, that's more than enough to get him thrown in jail. Anyone who doesn't understand this is deluding themselves about the nature of 21st century American's government and legal system.
It's not patriotism, it's just that America's odd system of post-facto and indirect bribery confuses foreigners, who are used to more honest corruption.
Slashdot Mirror
Realisitically, what are the chances that even the most vile possible behavior by Facebook will even scratch their bottom line?
Facebook delenda est.
Two points.
First, those terms would be illegal if they were on anything but student loans in the U.S. Civilized countries recognize bankruptcy, they don't pat themselves on the back for only having indentured debt servitude instead of debt slavery.
Secondly, think for a minute about how that impacts the economy, both locally and nationally.That only $300 is money going OUT of your local economy, that's not being spent on good and services - instead it's going to a (non-local) bank, where it's velocity will be much lower. (And that's assuming it doesn't end up supporting speculation that raises the price of basic goods like fuel and food.)
But then there would be no fat gravy train for the parasites to drink from. Sometimes it seems like the dominant factor in the American economy is making sure enough money gets spent (wasted, really) in ways that allow those with the right connections to make a fat profit for nothing. From KBG driving empty trucks around Iraq to giving people huge loans they'll never be able to repay, it's all the same methodology.
The schools and the banks are the ones profiting at the expense of the public and the debtors.
Isn't giving someone a loan for a degree that you *know* won't earn them enough to pay it back an act of bad faith, or at least as equally foolish as taking the loan in the first place? Why should the public, via the government, subsidize foolish loan practices?
Eliminate the government subsidies, and suddenly the banks will start caring about what degree you want and what aptitude you show for it before handing you a check.
There's more than enough resources to go around. Just sort out free education and decent accomodation for everyone. It just isn't difficult to do these days. Productivity has largely tripled since the 70's, think about it!
But then where would the billionaires find large enough monetary flows to let them skim off enough money to buy megayatchs and private islands?
How long until some C-level stuffed suit at Cisco complains about "lack of employee loyalty"?
or easily retargeted to hit DC? How long before the politicians demand trillions on behalf of their owners to protect the U.S. from the "asteroid threat". War on Space, here we come!
Oracle man hates Java man
They have a fight, Oracle wins
Oracle man
Why are these two still employed by the U.S. Government? Ortiz and Hyemann need to pay for their misconduct in this case, preferably by being disbarred for life, and at the least with their careers as U.S. Attorneys. That they are allowed to continue working for the so-called United States Department of Justice is one more indictation of the disfunction and failure of America's legal system.
Those things would require Obama to immediately take action, or be exposed for the lying fraudster he (like most every other modern president) actually is. Instead he's proposing vague generalities designed to dampen public anger long enough for the tame media to shift public awareness onto something less damaging to America's government. Obama should be judged by his actions and not his words - since his 2008 campaign that's become very clear to anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
If Obama meant anything he said (which he obviously doesn't) he would have fired National Intelligence Director Clapper and pardoned Snowden before or during his speech. For crying out loud, the only reason he's even giving this speech is because of the information Snowden made public.
Can the government track what sites I sign into with Persona? And if they can't, can they do so once they serve the Mozilla Foundation with a Writ of Assistance ^W^W^W National Security Letter.
The Founding Fathers (ugh) can't complain about how craptacular the U.S. government is, being safely dead. You'll note that aside from the occassional pro-forma publicity quote, no one presently in power actually bases decisions based on the Revolutionaries said, wrote, or did.
No, the U.S. is damn well not a democracy any more. Democracy doesn't mean, "going to vote every 2 or 4 years", although the so-called, "Republican" and "Democratic" branches of the Establishment Party would certainly like you to think that it does. Democracy requires (among other things) an informed electorate, a free press, and a government that is both accountable and responsive to its citizens. The U.S. does not have these things. It is not the public that panics in response to "political winds", it is the establishment that uses major events as excuses to do what they wanted to accomplish anyway.
Yeah, they should go to their government-Designated Free Speech Zones, so that they can be identified and put on the No Fly List. (I'd add that they'd also be spied on, but the government is already doing that to everyone.
Oh, we still have one, we're just not bothering to put any effort into following it. (Although lots of effort gets put into avoiding the bits of it that people in power dislike.) The Constitution, for all the nigh-divine reverence it gets, it just a piece of paper with a set of rules on what the people who wrote it thought was a good way to run a government. When the people running the country are no longer interested in good government, then the Constitution is irrelevant, no matter whether it is ignored or twisted into a semantic pretzel.
Certainly there's a grain of truth - anyone who values freedom is likely to be unhappy with the Fed's nascent police state, and some of them will act out violently against their corrupt and unaccountable rulers. When that starts to happen more and more frequently, it's important not to see it not as justification for repression, but as a sign of just how hated and undemocratic the U.S. government has become.
As John F. Kennedy once said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
The Japanese just launched a robot Kibo into orbit. Words fail.
Hey, now, be fair to the FISA court! Per wikipedia, they've only approved 99.97% of all warrant requests. (Maybe the remaining 0.03% had jelly donught stains, or used the wrong ink, or a #3 pencil or something?)
Go read the first linked article. Then read the years worth of articles on the subject by the author, filled with the references you claim to want. This is exactly what good journalism is - that you can't understand that because you're unwilling or unable to do a modicum reading doesn't give your dismissal any validity.
I'm glad to see an older Doctor. Matt Smith and David Tennant did brilliant work, but the next Doctor needed to be a step in a different direction.(Personally, I was hoping for a female Doctor, but I'm more than happy with the choice of Peter Capaldi.
Guilty of somehow offending Goldman-Sachs. In corporate America, that's more than enough to get him thrown in jail. Anyone who doesn't understand this is deluding themselves about the nature of 21st century American's government and legal system.
Ditto, although only 20 years for me. Perhaps they should have arranged to get slashdotted before they went out of business?
It's not patriotism, it's just that America's odd system of post-facto and indirect bribery confuses foreigners, who are used to more honest corruption.
I got really excited for a moment after reading the article, before I realized he's talking about this Orion, and not this one.