All Democrats. That makes you a dirty hippie and probably a communist, according to mainstream American political thought as expressed on the AM radio.
Heck, even most Democrats are hostile to actual Democrats. Today, you have to be a "pro-business Democrat" which means you don't believe in workers' right to organize unions and believe corporate lobbyists should write all the laws.
I'll bet Rush Holt, Ron Wyden and Zoe Lofgren have to eat lunch at their own table in the Congressional cafeteria, and constantly have other congressmen knocking over their trays. Thomas Jefferson and FDR would weep.
No kidding. In Texas, if two employees of the same company are seen talking together privately, they string them both up.
There's a story of a Wal-mart employee who was heard to say the word "union" and they tied him to a stake in the desert and left him to be eaten by the vultures. In a wealthy Dallas suburb.
When it comes to anything conceivably weapon-related (pop tart, 2-inch toy gun, fingers in a gun shape), most schools tend to overreact. This is largely due to a federal requirement that ties school funding to mandatory expulsions of students who bring weapons on campus.
How are those two sentences connected? What is it about "mandatory expulsions for bringing weapons to school" that forces schools to apply it to kids with pop tarts?
Or is it just that the ridiculous gun culture in Texas that they want to take a sensible federal regulation and turn it into something that looks foolish, in the hope of making sure no guns can ever be regulated, anywhere?
I'd like someone to take a closer look at the people at these schools where pop tarts and finger-guns caused expulsions or suspensions. I'm betting if you scratch the dirt a little bit, you might uncover a few NRA extremists. Considering we're talking about Texas, I'd say that's a pretty good bet.
I don't see the US (or most EU countries) lowering the retirement age any time soon, considering the prevalent political view at the moment (at least among elites) is to RAISE the retirement age.
That's my concern. In view of high unemployment, greater income disparity, etc, these countries are doing everything they can to make those problems worse.
I hope you don't believe that when physical jobs are "reduced" to information jobs, that there is anything like a one-to-one relationship between the number of jobs before reduction and the number after.
Nor is there a one-to-one relationship in the wages.
What you say does not address my concerns about peak labor and the fallacy of "full employment".
The people who lead our biggest economies are just not ready for what's going to happen when we just don't need to have everyone working in order to provide for the goods and services that we need and want. Here in the US, instead of adjusting to a lower workforce participation rate, we've spent the past 50 years, a period of greater automation AND far greater worker productivity INCREASING the workforce participation rate. Instead of looking at the benefits to be had from having people working less, we have corporations trying to get their workers to do more.
On top of that, we have this superstitious Calvinist notion that "everybody has to work" or they are useless. That somehow, working all the time is a good thing - even that God wants us to work all the time (idle hands...).
At least some of the more sophisticated economies in Northern Europe have figured out job sharing.
What happens when we reach "peak labor"? What happens to people put out of work due to automation? We just don't need everyone to start their own business. Not everyone can or should be, an entrepreneur. How many maids and baristas do we really need? And are we willing to pay even the lowliest job a wage sufficient for survival (currently, we are not and we are fighting over whether to even have a minimum wage)?
And finally, how long can we sustain an increasing consolidation of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer, especially considering that just may not need everyone to be working - or certainly not working so goddamn hard?
The senior people at the Washington Post have been nothing but government stenographers for a long time. While there is some good reporting at the paper, you'll never see any serious challenges to the government's agenda, especially if there is intelligence contractor money at stake.
Just take a look at their editorial pages to know what I mean.
If they're willing to include downloaded mp3s, and the sound quality is better, it's not a horrible idea. I think musicians might like this new format.
It also allows for richer artwork. One of my friends just released a beautifully packaged CD of some of his work, and he did pretty well with it. Sold them at shows, and a lot more people bought them than I expected.
As long as they're not crippled with DRM or malware, I think it's actually kind of a good idea to sell music on something that you can hold in your hand.
I don't think it works for people like Lady Gaga who are trying to support an entire industry and management with their work, but for musicians trying to make a solid living, this is a good idea.
Thank god there are still some people in this country who remember how important it is to occasionally remind law enforcement that THEY work for US, not the other way 'round.
I hope at the very least that this thug Texan trooper is catching a lot of hell from his fellow officers for getting embarrassed on the internet by a '74 year old lady who was trying to exercise her constitutional rights.
Texans are big on the Constitution when it comes to guns, but not so much when it comes to speech, apparently, or women's rights.
I find it interesting that any time there is a story about Snowden or Assange, you can set your clock by the influx of comments that attack them, their "egos" and wish harm on them.
Of course, such comments never mention the important part of the story, which is the police state that's been created in the US in the name of "security". How every American's phone calls are now registered, whether they are suspected of anything or not, whether they're accused of anything or not. That's pretty much the definition of "police state".
No, the comments go after Assange or Snowden for various personality traits, because they're attention hounds, etc. Turn it into a soap opera and maybe nobody will notice the secret courts, deciding the fates of secret defendants, held in secret prison, for breaking secret laws.
It's almost as if the people making the story about Assange and Snowden don't want people to pay attention to the real story.
You answered your own question. You said, "...it is the insurance companies that are holding back better health care", then you followed with "Isn't Medicare an insurance program?"
The operative word is "companies". There was a time at least in US history, when almost all medicine was non-profit. Of course, doctors did well, made good middle-class incomes, but all hospitals were non-profit.
You can trace the collapse of US health care to the Reagan Era, when health care insurance was deregulated and insurance companies started buying up hospitals. This "free market" innovation did nothing but cause prices to shoot skyward. Reagan always hated Medicare (which until then was keeping costs down) and sought the deregulation in order to destroy it. Instead, the whole system metastasized.
We need to learn to value "non-productive" pursuits
Further, we need to learn to value "non-productive" people. It looks like we've already hit "peak labor" but the antiquated and useless idea that "everybody has to work to live" is doing nothing but dividing people and causing further misery and strife, especially in developed nations.
In America, we have this sick Calivinist notion of "earning a living", as if the only acceptable life is a life spent toiling 70% of your waking hours to make someone in the economic elite richer.
The fact that we have people working longer hours than ever even though a greater number of people are unemployed shows just how badly we need a change of values.
It's also what corporations do best: kill competition.
Welcome to cancer-stage capitalism, where corporations hate free markets.
Make no mistake, these anti-competitive laws are not coming from "politicians". They're not smart enough for that. These laws are coming from the people who pull politicians' strings.
On the post: Texas Lawmaker Proposes Bill To Strip Funding From Schools That Abuse Zero Tolerance Weapons Policies
Re: Re: Wait
Since the requirements for the laws are uniform, why do the abuses always seem to happen in states that have high populations of gun nuts, like Texas?
On the post: NJ Congressman Rush Holt Is Attempting To Repeal The Patriot Act And FISA Amendments Act
Re: Physicist
Heck, even most Democrats are hostile to actual Democrats. Today, you have to be a "pro-business Democrat" which means you don't believe in workers' right to organize unions and believe corporate lobbyists should write all the laws.
I'll bet Rush Holt, Ron Wyden and Zoe Lofgren have to eat lunch at their own table in the Congressional cafeteria, and constantly have other congressmen knocking over their trays. Thomas Jefferson and FDR would weep.
On the post: Texas Lawmaker Proposes Bill To Strip Funding From Schools That Abuse Zero Tolerance Weapons Policies
Re: Re: Re: I have a better idea...
There's a story of a Wal-mart employee who was heard to say the word "union" and they tied him to a stake in the desert and left him to be eaten by the vultures. In a wealthy Dallas suburb.
On the post: Texas Lawmaker Proposes Bill To Strip Funding From Schools That Abuse Zero Tolerance Weapons Policies
Re:
On the post: Texas Lawmaker Proposes Bill To Strip Funding From Schools That Abuse Zero Tolerance Weapons Policies
Wait
Or is it just that the ridiculous gun culture in Texas that they want to take a sensible federal regulation and turn it into something that looks foolish, in the hope of making sure no guns can ever be regulated, anywhere?
I'd like someone to take a closer look at the people at these schools where pop tarts and finger-guns caused expulsions or suspensions. I'm betting if you scratch the dirt a little bit, you might uncover a few NRA extremists. Considering we're talking about Texas, I'd say that's a pretty good bet.
On the post: DailyDirt: Robots For Farming
requires political change
That's my concern. In view of high unemployment, greater income disparity, etc, these countries are doing everything they can to make those problems worse.
On the post: DailyDirt: Robots For Farming
reductio ad absurdum ad absurdum
Nor is there a one-to-one relationship in the wages.
What you say does not address my concerns about peak labor and the fallacy of "full employment".
On the post: DailyDirt: Robots For Farming
Peak labor
On top of that, we have this superstitious Calvinist notion that "everybody has to work" or they are useless. That somehow, working all the time is a good thing - even that God wants us to work all the time (idle hands...).
At least some of the more sophisticated economies in Northern Europe have figured out job sharing.
What happens when we reach "peak labor"? What happens to people put out of work due to automation? We just don't need everyone to start their own business. Not everyone can or should be, an entrepreneur. How many maids and baristas do we really need? And are we willing to pay even the lowliest job a wage sufficient for survival (currently, we are not and we are fighting over whether to even have a minimum wage)?
And finally, how long can we sustain an increasing consolidation of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer, especially considering that just may not need everyone to be working - or certainly not working so goddamn hard?
On the post: SOPA Should Have Ended Backroom Deals About Copyrights & Patents; So Why Is TPP Still Secret?
Not down with TPP
On the post: Washington Post Makes Bizarre, Factually Incorrect Claims About Glenn Greenwald, Can't Figure Out How To Update
stenographers
Just take a look at their editorial pages to know what I mean.
On the post: Brooklyn City Council Member Wants The Police Invited To Any House Party
Re:
On the post: Copyright Claim By Freddie Mercury's Charity Results In Removal Of Another Charity's Freddie Mercury Gorilla
on its face
On the post: Court Skeptical That LA Cops Can Just Look At Any Motel Guest Record Without A Warrant
Pulp
They either slip the clerk a pair of twenties or give him a pistol whipping and then they just whip that registry book around and have a look.
On the post: If Only Ed Snowden Worked On Wall St. He'd Be Free From Prosecution Risk
Re: Re: Holy cow! Mike takes a swipe at Wall Street!
On the post: Universal Music's Latest Bet On The Future: People Will Buy Music On Plastic Discs, Right?
Not too bad
It also allows for richer artwork. One of my friends just released a beautifully packaged CD of some of his work, and he did pretty well with it. Sold them at shows, and a lot more people bought them than I expected.
As long as they're not crippled with DRM or malware, I think it's actually kind of a good idea to sell music on something that you can hold in your hand.
I don't think it works for people like Lady Gaga who are trying to support an entire industry and management with their work, but for musicians trying to make a solid living, this is a good idea.
On the post: Texas Trooper Shoves 74-Year-Old Then Arrests Her For Felony Assault When She Hits Him With Her Purse
Founding Mothers
I hope at the very least that this thug Texan trooper is catching a lot of hell from his fellow officers for getting embarrassed on the internet by a '74 year old lady who was trying to exercise her constitutional rights.
Texans are big on the Constitution when it comes to guns, but not so much when it comes to speech, apparently, or women's rights.
On the post: Ecuador Pulls Ed Snowden's Travel Papers Because Julian Assange Thinks He's In Charge
Ego=death?
Of course, such comments never mention the important part of the story, which is the police state that's been created in the US in the name of "security". How every American's phone calls are now registered, whether they are suspected of anything or not, whether they're accused of anything or not. That's pretty much the definition of "police state".
No, the comments go after Assange or Snowden for various personality traits, because they're attention hounds, etc. Turn it into a soap opera and maybe nobody will notice the secret courts, deciding the fates of secret defendants, held in secret prison, for breaking secret laws.
It's almost as if the people making the story about Assange and Snowden don't want people to pay attention to the real story.
On the post: Why Even Good Hospitals And Doctors Are An Obstacle To Better, Cheaper Healthcare
Re: Wrong target. Medicare is insurance
The operative word is "companies". There was a time at least in US history, when almost all medicine was non-profit. Of course, doctors did well, made good middle-class incomes, but all hospitals were non-profit.
You can trace the collapse of US health care to the Reagan Era, when health care insurance was deregulated and insurance companies started buying up hospitals. This "free market" innovation did nothing but cause prices to shoot skyward. Reagan always hated Medicare (which until then was keeping costs down) and sought the deregulation in order to destroy it. Instead, the whole system metastasized.
On the post: Rice University Professor: SkyNET's Gonna Take Ur Jerbs!
Re: The new Socrates
In America, we have this sick Calivinist notion of "earning a living", as if the only acceptable life is a life spent toiling 70% of your waking hours to make someone in the economic elite richer.
The fact that we have people working longer hours than ever even though a greater number of people are unemployed shows just how badly we need a change of values.
On the post: Politicians, Car Dealers Trying To Make It Illegal To Buy A Tesla In North Carolina
Half-right
Welcome to cancer-stage capitalism, where corporations hate free markets.
Make no mistake, these anti-competitive laws are not coming from "politicians". They're not smart enough for that. These laws are coming from the people who pull politicians' strings.
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