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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#157951: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:20:54 PM

This election cycle seems like something that would look like the joint project between the writers of House of Cards and Veep. While on a bender.

Disgusted, but not surprised
MonsieurThenardier Searching from Murika Since: Nov, 2016 Relationship Status: Getting away with murder
Searching
#157952: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:21:18 PM

I think a large part of Sanders' appeal to the younger voters was his promise of free college. And the whole "anti-establishment" thing.
This seems very likely. Which is hilarious, since college already is free to those who are actually poor (in the UC system I'm in for example, 55% of students pay zero tuition), Clinton already promised to make community college free, and the system we use to pay for college stipends for lower class students right now is much more progressive than the actual tax system. Sanders' campaign was dependent on the idea of taxing the middle class to give well-off yet academically unremarkable white kids more free stuff. How liberal.

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#157953: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:21:28 PM

[up][up][up]Bill apparently kept telling Hillary and her team they needed the Rust Belt and they needed to work a ground game there to win them.

Team Hillary blew him off on the basis of "The Demographics will carry us."

edited 22nd Nov '16 7:22:55 PM by PotatoesRock

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#157954: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:23:45 PM

[up][up] There's no economic future for people without a college degree (and soon enough there'll be no economic future for anyone without a graduate degree), and the general trends of the modern economy are gradually pushing more and more people out of the middle class.

edited 22nd Nov '16 7:24:17 PM by CaptainCapsase

henry42 [REDACTED] from Western Hemisphere Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
[REDACTED]
#157955: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:24:36 PM

[up][up] Well, he may have been right, but he really screwed those people over during his own presidency.

One does not shake the box containing the sticky notes of doom!
Julep Since: Jul, 2010
#157956: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:25:38 PM

Dear American Press.

Please stop comparing Trump's "golden loft" with Versailles.

Having similar colors isn't sufficient ground to compare stuff.

You don't compare a beef stew cooked by one of the greatest chefs on the planet with a turd.

Sincerely,

France in its entirety.

edited 22nd Nov '16 7:25:58 PM by Julep

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#157957: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:25:58 PM

[up][up] Bill signing NAFTA probably cost HRC many of their votes.

[up] On behalf of America, I am so, so sorry.

edited 22nd Nov '16 7:26:52 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#157958: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:29:04 PM

There's no economic future for people without a college degree (and soon enough there'll be no economic future for anyone without a graduate degree
This seems like something asking for trouble with ever increasing specification.

Perhaps I'm the only one who sees the issue that in the last century or so we're demanding further potential delays of workers because "Not enough specialized training".

Seems like something rife for imploding in on itself.

Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#157959: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:30:05 PM

Jerry Fucking Falwell as head of the Dept. of Education? Ironically, the only reaction I can think of is 'god damn it'.
Mine was "oh no no nononono." The last thing anyone needs is his idea of 'education reform.' Or Carson's. Urgh.

Also, 'Help us, Mitt Romney. You're our only hope,' is something I never thought I would find myself saying.

edited 22nd Nov '16 7:32:56 PM by Pseudopartition

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#157960: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:31:56 PM

[up] Seriously, American public education is bad enough as it is. We do not need some zealous moron who couldn't even handle managing the school his daddy founded put in charge of it.

Mitt Romney is still wondering to himself about how ludicrous it is that his campaign was sunk by that 47% remark while Trump won despite...well, everything.

edited 22nd Nov '16 7:36:00 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#157961: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:32:18 PM

There's no economic future for people without a college degree (and soon enough there'll be no economic future for anyone without a graduate degree), and the general trends of the modern economy are gradually pushing more and more people out of the middle class.

...this is going to end up being a massive problem in the long term isn't it?

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#157962: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:34:30 PM

[up] It's a problem right now. And it's getting worse.

Kind of like climate change.

edited 22nd Nov '16 7:35:10 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#157963: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:35:25 PM

Yes. They typically end in societal revolts and governments being overthrown.

Ditto the massive growing inequality gap.

Bad things typically happen when the economy becomes too lopsided for too long, and the Working/Middle Class feels they've been hosed for too long.

Such as electing a complete goofball like Trump to the Presidency.

edited 22nd Nov '16 7:35:54 PM by PotatoesRock

Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#157964: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:39:01 PM

Cabinet appointments come from one of four categories: Agency careerists, experts, and two kinds of political appointments. The first kind is the "pipeline," where you give somebody's career a boost with a cabinet appointment, like Clinton with Sec State or like Castro with HUD, people who need to boost their resume for a future jump. The other kind is, well, charitably it could be the "lifetime achievement award," something you give to people who are never going to get elected to a higher office in their lives and are at the end of their careers.

henry42 [REDACTED] from Western Hemisphere Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
[REDACTED]
#157965: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:44:09 PM

There's no economic future for people without a college degree (and soon enough there'll be no economic future for anyone without a graduate degree), and the general trends of the modern economy are gradually pushing more and more people out of the middle class.
Quality education is important, but a common theme in liberal elitism is to see it as a solution for everything. Thing is, it really only benefits the individual. If the workers are all competing with each other for jobs, more education for everyone doesn't really benifit them, it just benefits their employers.

One does not shake the box containing the sticky notes of doom!
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#157966: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:50:07 PM

There's something to be said for the existence of trade schools, which have the advantage of training you for a specific thing with concrete results. If you're sure you want the thing the trade school trains you for. But again, that's education, just a more focused kind of education.

MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#157967: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:50:32 PM

President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses or their families.

That admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation’s IRS tax filings for 2015, which were recently posted online at the nonprofit-tracking site Guide Star. A Guide Star spokesman said the forms were uploaded by the Trump Foundation’s law firm, Morgan, Lewis and Bockius.

The Post could not immediately confirm if the same forms had actually been sent to the IRS.

In one section of the form, the IRS asked if the Trump Foundation had transferred “income or assets to a disqualified person.” A disqualified person, in this context, might be Trump — the foundation’s president — or a member of his family, or a Trump-owned business.

The foundation checked “yes.”

Another line on the form asked if the Trump Foundation had engaged in any acts of self-dealing in prior years. The Trump Foundation checked “yes” again. Philip Hackney, who formerly worked in the IRS chief counsel’s office and now teaches at Louisiana State University, said he wanted to know why the Trump Foundation was now admitting to self-dealing in prior years — when, in all prior years, it had told the IRS it had done nothing of the kind.

“What transactions led to the self-dealing that they’re admitting to? Why weren’t they able to recognize them in prior years,” Hackney said. He said that, since the prior years’ returns were signed by Trump, that opened the president-elect to questions about what he had missed and how.

The Trump Foundation admitted to corruption.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#157968: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:52:28 PM

[up] Wow, every accusation Trump made against others really is projection.

...didn't he once call Mexican border crossers rapists, murderers, and thieves?

Disgusted, but not surprised
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#157969: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:56:21 PM

Well, we already have very good grounds upon which to accuse him of being a rapist.

InAnOdderWay Since: Nov, 2013
#157970: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:57:45 PM

Well I leave for three minutes and the world's already ending. See this is why I don't follow 24 hour news, it just gets you into a constant state of fear and panic.

These are conversations that the Democratic Party (and liberals, yes even the independents, in general) NEEDS to be having right now. Whether the future lies in the center, further to the left, more like Obama, less like Obama, whatever the hell it may be it needs to happen, and fast. Unity was important when Hilary was literally the only viable option left, now not so much. We can afford to have these conversations now, while the Dems still have time to refocus a new strategy for 2017, 2018, and so on.

Anywho, the Republicans are all being forced to take some risky bets. Some folks already jumped ship with Trump when a Hilary victory seemed almost certain, to their own political suicides. So you either side with Trump and bask in the GOP golden age, or you stay in the backgrounds, hoping and praying that it all goes to hell so that you can swoop in for the 2024 nomination with a big serving of "I told you so".

As for the Falwell nom.... eh. Meh. He's shit, what else is new, but I can't quite see what exactly this means for the Dept. of Education. I highly, highly doubt that this would mean that middle schoolers in Massachusetts next year are going to open up their textbooks and read about how God created the universe in 6 days and that the dirty muslims are the reason for 90% of the problems throughout history. It's more likely a continuation of the whole "voucher" push from the religious base to save the struggling religious schools, an assurance that the states actually fucking up education (looking at you Texas) will get no reprimands for doing so, and just a general assurance that jackshit will be done in the department over the next 4 years, in keeping in line with the classic Republican policy of letting businesses run the government.

MonsieurThenardier Searching from Murika Since: Nov, 2016 Relationship Status: Getting away with murder
Searching
#157971: Nov 22nd 2016 at 7:58:45 PM

[up][up] Well, he may have been right, but he really screwed those people over during his own presidency.
What? No he didn't. Frankly I'm getting annoyed by this ridiculous lie that's been spouted every day since the election season started, been debunked every single time, yet its proponents still spout it constantly. Manufacturing never left. It was automated. Manufacturing employment has been declining due to automation for a while. NAFTA had little to nothing to do with it.

edited 22nd Nov '16 8:54:27 PM by MonsieurThenardier

"It is very easy to be kind; the difficulty lies in being just."
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#157972: Nov 22nd 2016 at 8:03:00 PM

That might be the truth.

But the Truthiness to the Rust Belt is NAFTA killed their jobs. Bill signed it. So Hillary is to blame for it.

And Truthiness is all that matters.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#157973: Nov 22nd 2016 at 8:10:14 PM

[up][up]

this ridiculous lie that's been spouted every day since the election season started, been debunked every single time, yet its proponents still spout it constantly

The Trump campaign's strategy in a nutshell. The biggest lie of course being "Trump is more qualified to be POTUS than HRC." Sadly, it seems to have worked.

@ 157941 Draghinazzo

Stiffing contract workers counts as theft in my book too. Which I guess leaves murder...

edited 22nd Nov '16 8:13:33 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#157974: Nov 22nd 2016 at 8:16:51 PM

If nothing else, Trump proved Goebbels thesis.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
henry42 [REDACTED] from Western Hemisphere Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
[REDACTED]
#157975: Nov 22nd 2016 at 8:17:29 PM

I never said the trade deal was the only cause. But the fact that American workers suddenly had to compete with workers in a developing country with shitty labor laws certainly didn't help.

edited 22nd Nov '16 8:25:47 PM by henry42

One does not shake the box containing the sticky notes of doom!

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