it's a wholly owned subsidiary of the right. Seriously. The Koch bros et al funded it from day 1 though their think tanks. Didn't you ever wonder where all the money came for the facilities and organization for those 'spontaneous' tea party rallys? I hate to break this to you, but you're being manipulated. Artfully, skillfully manipulated.
And it's not hero worship. He's better then McCain, and that's all we can hope for what with all the derp out there:(.
so all that increased productivity will be passed on to the working class, right?
Seriously though, anyone know what we're going to do with all these people we don't need any more. I'll trot out my favorite example, the sleeping bag factory that cranks out 2 MILLION bags/year with a total staff of 500 people (including marketing, sales staff, ceo, cfo, IT support, EVERYONE). So far the only viable option I've heard is a) socialism and b) die in a gutter. There's just not enough work for all these people. The saying goes, the world needs ditch diggers too, but you know what... it doesn't.
The Dems are pandering because they think they HAVE TO. Show them they don't have to, and they'll stop pandering. You know, there's always the caucuses. If you want the right people in the pre-election stuff.
That won't work. You'll never get enough people to go for that to enact real change. What you will do is divide and conquer so that the same sort of jerks that're screwing us now can completely run roughshod over us all. The trouble it, the world's too complex for that sort of hardline ideology. You've got to deal with the world as it is, not as you want it to be. You can't just say it'll never improve. You've got to do it step by step. So the Dems get a back bone, put more money behind education, maybe a little birth control so there aren't so many people, and before you know it things are better. But if you just say screw it, they Repubs will divide & conquer, and they'll be laughing all the way to the bank with your money.
I know the Democrats are screwing up here. As a card carrying Dem I'll apologize for my people. Something that would help us help you though is if we could get a more solid base. The Dems are running scared, and they're pandering to Hollywood just to get enough money to fight the good fight. Ideologically I don't think my party wants to put people in Jail for this nonsense. It's an awful comprise. Obama basically said as much about the compromises he's making to get anything done.
Anyway, I've said it before and I'll say it again, stop voting Republican. Yes, the Dems do crap like this. But they at least have to pretend to support the little man. Yes, a 2 party system sucks. Yes, Canada is a better run country than us. But a general goes to war with the army he's given, and the Dems stated ideology puts SOME limitations on the damage they can do. It's a start.
I live paycheck to paycheck and I'm 1 illness or 2 financial problems away from homelessness. And just because the rest of the world is a hell hole doesn't make my situation better. I didn't study logic, and I didn't get to go to school and study hard for years (didn't have the money as a kid, don't have it now), so maybe you can help me out: which logical fallacy does "it could be worse" fall into?
And you're not being penalized, you're paying your share of the cost of keeping American society from descending into a 3rd world country. Don't want to? Go play John Galt in some desert somewhere and see how long you last.
Jesus, I wish people would stop spreading this myth. The poor pay sales tax, license taxes, state taxes (yes, the poor pay state taxes) and of course PAY ROLL TAXES. The poor, and I mean the really poor since we haven't raised the poverty line since Regan, don't pay Federal Income Tax. I make 30k/yr, I pay about 2k of that in Federal income tax, and I'm poor. I have no security, lousy health care and no safety net. I have a lot of electronic crap bought cheap & used. That doesn't make me rich. Stability & security make a man rich.
Seriously. Just raise the income tax back to pre-Regan era levels. Problem solved. What are they going to do? Leave? They don't just stay here for low taxes, we've got 2 weak neighbors (Canada & Mexico) and a stable society that protects them & their money. Seems to me they should start paying for all that security and wealth, instead of balancing the budget on the backs of the poor.
but there were still plenty of regulations in place that could have (should have) stopped the bubble. The Bush administration wasn't enforcing them, cut funding to the agencies, and staffed the gov't with Goldman Sachs employees. So yes, Bill Clinton screwed up, but not so severely that we couldn't recover. The real problem was the Republicans were given unfettered control of our countries policies for 8 years while we ran scared from terrorist threats.
Actually, it's based on soviet error fascism. George Orwell was himself a democratic socialist. Here, from the wikipedia article:
In his 1946 essay "Why I Write", Orwell explains that the serious works he wrote since the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) were "written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism".
I don't see how the Apple add is appropriate. I guess Clinton and Apple are both kinda hip, but Clinton hasn't been hip since 1990, and Apple is looking more and more like an evil empire every day. Whatever the case, I never said I was a totalitarian, just a socialist. That's the trouble really. The problems of the world are complex, and you can't paint everything black and white and then hope for the best.
he'd be pretty dumb if he did. Seriously. The wars have mostly been a money grab for Halliburton and co, which suits the American Corporate ruling class just fine. Hell, fear of terrorists has set back the labor movement in the US 100 years, again, good for the sort of folk that have been in favor of meddling in the Middle East for years. Plus the wars are helping to keep these people in power. 9/11 was the best thing that could happen to global corporations. People stopped asking why their wages are falling and started cringing in fear of all them tarrafyin' tarrarists.
And of course, who could for get the Best. Chart. Ever. Thanks Bush. It's amazing how much damage one administration can do in such a short time when you let 'em do whatever the heck they want...
I actually started eating vegetarian because it was an easy way to steer clear of fast food. At the end of a long hard day it's tough to say no, especially since I don't drink...
Mole-people. But as already been pointed out they're not very interesting to meet. You might say that they're.... (wait for it)... not very interesting.
Microsoft is good about not letting feelings get in the way of business. They famously ignored the Internet for a long time and then caught up fast. They saw the threat of Netbooks immediately. They might not always get things right, but they keep on trying.
and it's got nothing to do with ideology. It's all about practicality. Corporations have massive economic power. So much so that nothing else can stand against that power except the government. Nothing. This is not a false dichotomy, at least as far as I know. I don't know any other way to keep something as massive as a modern global corporation in check.
You can't just say the free market will sort it out, because the same people running one corporation are on the board of directors of the others. You can't stop buying from them and hope that'll keep them in check, because you'll have to buy from a "competitor" and that competitor is owned, through the stock market, by the same people. They're completely pervasive in our economy. In short, they're our ruling class, and we need government to replacement.
because they have to at least PRETEND to be pro-labor & pro-middle class. The Republicans just say the magic of the free market will fix everything. Unfortunately, the Dems have complex answers to complex problems, and the Repubs have simple answers. The simple answers resonate better with voters. Americans hate elitism. Personal, I love elitism. I recognize that I'm a mediocre leader, economist and strategist at best. That might propel me to the top in my little neck 'o the woods, but it doesn't cut it when you're solving global economic crisis. I WANT elitists in charge. I want people better, smarter, and faster than me running things. Most Americans don't feel that way. They're honestly convinced they could run the country, and the only thing holding them back is they can't pencil it in around their kid's soccer practice. It's hard to say what frightens me most about American ignorance, but I think that'd make my top 5...
"The rich actually provide much more benefit to society than any particular poor, because they do invest the money that they do not spend on themselves"
The rich have that money (wealth) because it is produced by society. Period. Donald Trump doesn't produce anything I want or need. He's not even terribly effective as a business leader. He's a member of the ruling class, part of a privileged elite. Everything he has he owes to a society that allows and encourages him to have it.
Oh, and as for only private enterprise creating wealth, read up on the history of the rail roads. Or look into how drugs are researched before the 'test it and make money off it' phase. The gov't does all the heavy lifting. Always has. Then you're precious rich folk move in, buy off a few congress critters, and pocket all the wealth. It's been like that for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Pick up a copy of 'A People's History of the United States'. That's a good start.
As for small businesses training: well, isn't that nice? But they are also too small to train people to do anything more complex than run a lathe or edit spreadsheets. If you're talking about the kind of training that replaces Universities, they can't do that. Large corps can, but why should they when people will do it themselves, go hopelessly in debt to doing it, and when they fall by the wayside they're easily replace.
Don't forget, life is nasty, brutish and short. Viva la Adam Smith!
companies have long since figured out they don't need to train on the job. Now, they send you to a diploma mill where you spend your own time and not only don't get paid but actually PAY THEM to be trained. Public universities subsidized by the taxes on the profits these companies make from a trained workforce they benefit from seems reasonable to me. It's all just infrastructure they're using. People ask me why the rich should pay 90% of their net worth in taxes? Easy, they're the ones that get the most benefit out of society, so they should pay the most. Either that, or don't complain when me and a thousand of my pals bash your head in and take your stuff while you die of cancers you can't get treated.
the cost savings are always much higher than any penalties, so you just ignore the laws. The only place this isn't true is medical because the AARP actually takes care of it's voting block. Besides, even if you're breaking these laws you're liable to be fined in India, where the currency exchange make it dirt cheap to pay. This doesn't really matter.
and I'm going to be cleaning coffee spray off it for a week. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got articles to read about death panels, abortion, gay marriage, supply side economics; plus a local tea party rally to attend (but not national, musn't have those fellas split the vote and let progressives in office).
people are constantly coming to me and asking me how their computer could possible break. It's a machine, like any other. They don't last for ever. Caps Pop, hard drives wear out, cooling & heating breaks circuit board connections to RAM, shit happens. But they just don't believe it. Gotta be a virus, right?
Slashdot Mirror
Duke Nuk'em in Name Only. They hired a hack job studio to slap together a game. It might be ok, but it won't be the amazing game Duke Nuk'em was.
I believe the correct response is 'DO NOT WANT'....
it's a wholly owned subsidiary of the right. Seriously. The Koch bros et al funded it from day 1 though their think tanks. Didn't you ever wonder where all the money came for the facilities and organization for those 'spontaneous' tea party rallys? I hate to break this to you, but you're being manipulated. Artfully, skillfully manipulated.
:(.
And it's not hero worship. He's better then McCain, and that's all we can hope for what with all the derp out there
so all that increased productivity will be passed on to the working class, right?
Seriously though, anyone know what we're going to do with all these people we don't need any more. I'll trot out my favorite example, the sleeping bag factory that cranks out 2 MILLION bags/year with a total staff of 500 people (including marketing, sales staff, ceo, cfo, IT support, EVERYONE). So far the only viable option I've heard is a) socialism and b) die in a gutter. There's just not enough work for all these people. The saying goes, the world needs ditch diggers too, but you know what... it doesn't.
The Dems are pandering because they think they HAVE TO. Show them they don't have to, and they'll stop pandering. You know, there's always the caucuses. If you want the right people in the pre-election stuff.
That won't work. You'll never get enough people to go for that to enact real change. What you will do is divide and conquer so that the same sort of jerks that're screwing us now can completely run roughshod over us all. The trouble it, the world's too complex for that sort of hardline ideology. You've got to deal with the world as it is, not as you want it to be. You can't just say it'll never improve. You've got to do it step by step. So the Dems get a back bone, put more money behind education, maybe a little birth control so there aren't so many people, and before you know it things are better. But if you just say screw it, they Repubs will divide & conquer, and they'll be laughing all the way to the bank with your money.
I know the Democrats are screwing up here. As a card carrying Dem I'll apologize for my people. Something that would help us help you though is if we could get a more solid base. The Dems are running scared, and they're pandering to Hollywood just to get enough money to fight the good fight. Ideologically I don't think my party wants to put people in Jail for this nonsense. It's an awful comprise. Obama basically said as much about the compromises he's making to get anything done.
Anyway, I've said it before and I'll say it again, stop voting Republican. Yes, the Dems do crap like this. But they at least have to pretend to support the little man. Yes, a 2 party system sucks. Yes, Canada is a better run country than us. But a general goes to war with the army he's given, and the Dems stated ideology puts SOME limitations on the damage they can do. It's a start.
I live paycheck to paycheck and I'm 1 illness or 2 financial problems away from homelessness. And just because the rest of the world is a hell hole doesn't make my situation better. I didn't study logic, and I didn't get to go to school and study hard for years (didn't have the money as a kid, don't have it now), so maybe you can help me out: which logical fallacy does "it could be worse" fall into?
And you're not being penalized, you're paying your share of the cost of keeping American society from descending into a 3rd world country. Don't want to? Go play John Galt in some desert somewhere and see how long you last.
nitpick solved.
Jesus, I wish people would stop spreading this myth. The poor pay sales tax, license taxes, state taxes (yes, the poor pay state taxes) and of course PAY ROLL TAXES. The poor, and I mean the really poor since we haven't raised the poverty line since Regan, don't pay Federal Income Tax. I make 30k/yr, I pay about 2k of that in Federal income tax, and I'm poor. I have no security, lousy health care and no safety net. I have a lot of electronic crap bought cheap & used. That doesn't make me rich. Stability & security make a man rich.
It's still money that could be put to good use instead of being hoarded by the rich. As for the deficit, you just need to see the Best. Chart. Ever.
Seriously. Just raise the income tax back to pre-Regan era levels. Problem solved. What are they going to do? Leave? They don't just stay here for low taxes, we've got 2 weak neighbors (Canada & Mexico) and a stable society that protects them & their money. Seems to me they should start paying for all that security and wealth, instead of balancing the budget on the backs of the poor.
but there were still plenty of regulations in place that could have (should have) stopped the bubble. The Bush administration wasn't enforcing them, cut funding to the agencies, and staffed the gov't with Goldman Sachs employees. So yes, Bill Clinton screwed up, but not so severely that we couldn't recover. The real problem was the Republicans were given unfettered control of our countries policies for 8 years while we ran scared from terrorist threats.
Actually, it's based on soviet error fascism. George Orwell was himself a democratic socialist. Here, from the wikipedia article:
In his 1946 essay "Why I Write", Orwell explains that the serious works he wrote since the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) were "written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism".
I don't see how the Apple add is appropriate. I guess Clinton and Apple are both kinda hip, but Clinton hasn't been hip since 1990, and Apple is looking more and more like an evil empire every day. Whatever the case, I never said I was a totalitarian, just a socialist. That's the trouble really. The problems of the world are complex, and you can't paint everything black and white and then hope for the best.
he'd be pretty dumb if he did. Seriously. The wars have mostly been a money grab for Halliburton and co, which suits the American Corporate ruling class just fine. Hell, fear of terrorists has set back the labor movement in the US 100 years, again, good for the sort of folk that have been in favor of meddling in the Middle East for years. Plus the wars are helping to keep these people in power. 9/11 was the best thing that could happen to global corporations. People stopped asking why their wages are falling and started cringing in fear of all them tarrafyin' tarrarists.
And of course, who could for get the Best. Chart. Ever. Thanks Bush. It's amazing how much damage one administration can do in such a short time when you let 'em do whatever the heck they want...
I actually started eating vegetarian because it was an easy way to steer clear of fast food. At the end of a long hard day it's tough to say no, especially since I don't drink...
Mole-people. But as already been pointed out they're not very interesting to meet. You might say that they're.... (wait for it)... not very interesting.
What, what were you expecting me to type?
Microsoft is good about not letting feelings get in the way of business. They famously ignored the Internet for a long time and then caught up fast. They saw the threat of Netbooks immediately. They might not always get things right, but they keep on trying.
and it's got nothing to do with ideology. It's all about practicality. Corporations have massive economic power. So much so that nothing else can stand against that power except the government. Nothing. This is not a false dichotomy, at least as far as I know. I don't know any other way to keep something as massive as a modern global corporation in check.
You can't just say the free market will sort it out, because the same people running one corporation are on the board of directors of the others. You can't stop buying from them and hope that'll keep them in check, because you'll have to buy from a "competitor" and that competitor is owned, through the stock market, by the same people. They're completely pervasive in our economy. In short, they're our ruling class, and we need government to replacement.
because they have to at least PRETEND to be pro-labor & pro-middle class. The Republicans just say the magic of the free market will fix everything. Unfortunately, the Dems have complex answers to complex problems, and the Repubs have simple answers. The simple answers resonate better with voters. Americans hate elitism. Personal, I love elitism. I recognize that I'm a mediocre leader, economist and strategist at best. That might propel me to the top in my little neck 'o the woods, but it doesn't cut it when you're solving global economic crisis. I WANT elitists in charge. I want people better, smarter, and faster than me running things. Most Americans don't feel that way. They're honestly convinced they could run the country, and the only thing holding them back is they can't pencil it in around their kid's soccer practice. It's hard to say what frightens me most about American ignorance, but I think that'd make my top 5...
"The rich actually provide much more benefit to society than any particular poor, because they do invest the money that they do not spend on themselves"
The rich have that money (wealth) because it is produced by society. Period. Donald Trump doesn't produce anything I want or need. He's not even terribly effective as a business leader. He's a member of the ruling class, part of a privileged elite. Everything he has he owes to a society that allows and encourages him to have it.
Oh, and as for only private enterprise creating wealth, read up on the history of the rail roads. Or look into how drugs are researched before the 'test it and make money off it' phase. The gov't does all the heavy lifting. Always has. Then you're precious rich folk move in, buy off a few congress critters, and pocket all the wealth. It's been like that for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Pick up a copy of 'A People's History of the United States'. That's a good start. As for small businesses training: well, isn't that nice? But they are also too small to train people to do anything more complex than run a lathe or edit spreadsheets. If you're talking about the kind of training that replaces Universities, they can't do that. Large corps can, but why should they when people will do it themselves, go hopelessly in debt to doing it, and when they fall by the wayside they're easily replace.
Don't forget, life is nasty, brutish and short. Viva la Adam Smith!
companies have long since figured out they don't need to train on the job. Now, they send you to a diploma mill where you spend your own time and not only don't get paid but actually PAY THEM to be trained. Public universities subsidized by the taxes on the profits these companies make from a trained workforce they benefit from seems reasonable to me. It's all just infrastructure they're using. People ask me why the rich should pay 90% of their net worth in taxes? Easy, they're the ones that get the most benefit out of society, so they should pay the most. Either that, or don't complain when me and a thousand of my pals bash your head in and take your stuff while you die of cancers you can't get treated.
the cost savings are always much higher than any penalties, so you just ignore the laws. The only place this isn't true is medical because the AARP actually takes care of it's voting block. Besides, even if you're breaking these laws you're liable to be fined in India, where the currency exchange make it dirt cheap to pay. This doesn't really matter.
and I'm going to be cleaning coffee spray off it for a week. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got articles to read about death panels, abortion, gay marriage, supply side economics; plus a local tea party rally to attend (but not national, musn't have those fellas split the vote and let progressives in office).
people are constantly coming to me and asking me how their computer could possible break. It's a machine, like any other. They don't last for ever. Caps Pop, hard drives wear out, cooling & heating breaks circuit board connections to RAM, shit happens. But they just don't believe it. Gotta be a virus, right?