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Just look at Texas, really. They get to choose the textbooks we use, even though Texas has terrible education standards, and a bunch of lawmakers trying desperately to destroy science education in favor of religion. It affects all of us.
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Exactly. If you look closely at the laws, policies, etc. of states like Mississippi and Alabama, they are entirely predicated on the notion that the people who have wealth should be able to keep it, and add to it, without impunity. If you are franchised in MS or AL, you’re all set. Disenfranchised? Well, my friend, you’re fucked.
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Yeah, it does sound like a reduction in the prison population is part of it, thankfully. (That’s good!)
It’s a total myth - and we know it’s a myth. That’s just not how consumer economies work and we have plenty of evidence to back that up. That Republicans have been able to spin this as if it’s not something that just benefits the people getting the tax cuts is totally insane.
Yeah, it’s true. Reading about Trump supporters who are older, uneducated, unemployed people in former industrial areas, it becomes clear that economically they’re screwed no matter what and nothing is going to fix that. The economy shifted and the jobs that were there aren’t coming back (because many of them don’t even exist anymore), and whatever new jobs appear, they’re not the ones getting hired (because they either require an education or a strong back and willingness to work for minimum wage). The kind of Republican economic policies they’ve been voting for (businesses-first, no social safety net) has nothing for them. Government retraining and heavy regional coordination with industry might be able to employ some of them (neither of which exist), but welfare systems (that no longer exist) are the only means of survival for many of them. They’ve been sold this idea that the free market does things best - more efficiently and trims away the waste - without realizing they were the inefficiency, the “waste” that got discarded.
That is such a disturbing thought - because it seems to be so true, on many different levels, in so many parts of the economy. Late stage capitalism?
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Do I have to? (Yes, Jilly, you do.) I will say this: It is important to decide what to do where, and if I’m committing a capital crime, I’m following Louise’s advice and avoiding Texas after.
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I didn’t want my comment to taken as sarcastic or an attempt at humor. It comes more from nihilism, which is the mood I have been in lately.
I was wish you the best in making small changes where you can, but I don’t think in the end they will be enough.
And to be fair to the South, I couldn’t live in Washington State or Minnesota either.
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Except the Tea Party isn’t the only group to blame, not by a long shot. The Clintons, as a perfect example, both contributed heavily to the problem; Bill has even apologized for exactly that.
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Why couldn’t you live in WA…?
They do far more than “bet”; the private prisons in question have guaranteed occupancy in their contract with the state.
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I am tempted to take back my like…
I mostly wouldn’t move to those states because of the weather… I have done my time for hot+humid climate and wish to avoid it if at all possible.
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Well, I’m sure if I had lived in a city my experiences would have been different. But out in the Snoqualmie valley it is the only place I have ever lived where:
-Neighbors distrusted and hated each other.
-People drove around in pick-up trucks with gun racks in the rear window.
And last but not least
-I have seen Confederate flags flying.
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Good. No sympathy for those towns or Tea Party states.
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I have answered this one above, but I haven’t yet figured out how to reply to two people at the same time.
You get that in Idaho and Oregon too. Snoqualmie is a bit of a… lost world. Economically depressed, neglected infrastructure. It’s a casualty of Boeing and Microsoft and Amazon demanding Washington be as friendly to business as Galt’s Gulch.
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Highlight text - click quote reply. Reply box should open.
Highlight text from second poster, click quote reply. Text should appear attributed and pasted in reply box. HTH.
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You can reply to multiple people in the same post by using @ tagging. For instance, @SlyBevel and @LDoBe and @TheGreatParis and @TobinL are all included in this reply now.
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'Sup. I got summoned.
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