I’m not a fan of that idea, it makes all political views irrelevant other that those of the dominant factions in the two major parties.
I will admit it was a useful lie for those pushing neo-liberalism though
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I’ve also heard that repeated quite a bit by corporatist pundits as a hollow talking point against Bernie Sanders and his plan to educate more American kids. The audacity!
I think it’s vastly more expensive to continue to pump out uneducated kids into the world whose only crime was not having the dumb luck of being born into wealth.
Public education is an investment with a very high ROI. The downside of dodging that initial investment is an idiocracy where silver-spooned brats have the upper hand… and upward mobility is a joke for most everyone else.
If the ridiculously wealthy have to “sacrifice” a few mansions and yachts in the process, that’s fine by me. Within their corporate media vehicles, they’ll of course scream class war shit such as that they’re the “job creators” and “free xxx isn’t free”, but in the end they’re just attempting to hoard their wealth. Let’s not fool ourselves here or continue to allow them to fool us.
Draconian, trickle-down economics have failed and have failed miserably in quantifiable ways. It’s time for the rich to pay their fair share and give back some of what they’ve looted on the backs of other Americans who did much more than their fair share of hard work and increased productivity while seeing very little of the dividends.
tl;dr - Education is an investment. It’s vastly more expensive to continue to dodge it. The corporate media doesn’t want you to know this, but there’s plenty of money for the investment. It’s just hidden from view and located up scrooge’s tight ass (see red line in chart above).
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Epic observation skills there… I’m off to the meme-mines to add some text 
That false.
You should research the issue before attempting to speak from authority on it.
Latest National Poll Shows Bernie Sanders Beating Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/30/politics/bernie-sanders-donald-trump-poll/
Sorry, but your theory that Sanders doesn’t have a chance doesn’t hold any water.
[quote=“billstewart, post:44, topic:65535”]
far better than a Republican
[/quote]Well, that we can agree on. Clinton is Republican-lite. Same shitty beer, but far less calories.
[quote=“billstewart, post:44, topic:65535”]
Republicans will probably be able to hang onto Congress, or at least the House.
[/quote]The same, massive, ever-growing, powerful grassroots movement (organizations, activists, supporters) that’s in process of getting Bernie Sanders elected will turn our powerful focus on obstructionist Republicans and bluedog, establishment Democrats after Sanders is elected. We will unseat them.
It is written.
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Oh, man, look at that massive dip the earnings of the top 1% took in the early noughties… great to see that they have bounced back… :’(
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You can thank Edward Bernays for the Blair/Clinton “what do you want to hear” attitude towards politics" I think - they way what they think we want to hear (based on focus groups), but they do what they deem best, as the “invisible elite”:
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Shocking of you to suggest that. Bernays! The sauce of the man!
To be fair, it was Adam Curtis who suggested it first, but he’s kind of right on the money, yeah? The parties that are supposed to be further left, have moved further right and are kinder to neo-liberalism, and play to the perceived middle of the road. They work to be as bland as possible.
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Um… I was making a bad Béarnaise sauce joke… but your point is well expressed
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Oh! Derp! Went right over my head!
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There’s an excellent Adam Curtis documentary called ‘The Century of the Self’ which features a lot of old Eddie.
ETA
Oops, sorry, just saw your Adam Curtis reference.
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tl;dr of the tl;dr
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
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It always bears repeating! I need to get that on DVD at some point. It’s always fun to show the undergrads.
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His last documentary ‘Bitter Lake’ (also available on DailyMotion.com) is another tour de force in journalism, and is IMO a clearer narrative of many of the same issues, especially in regard to current Middle East issues.
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Adam Curtis is awful
You can’t have too much Adam Curtis…
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50’s footage of happy Americans driving
- This is the story of an idea.
- A powerful idea that has, until now
60’s footage of race riots - been suppressed by those who benfit most from it.
Comedy black and white silent movie loops - The idea is this: By selectively choosing your sources
Dolly shot of library shelves - and speaking with an authoritative tone
Charasmatic politician addresses a rally. note: not hitler, that would be too obvious. Use Kennedy instead, that’ll get em! - over a hypnotic collage of interesting stock footage
A hypnotic collage of interesting stock footage - any half-baked political theory can be presented as irrefutable fact
obama_it_is_law.gif
He makes entertaining films and I think he’s on the side of the good guys, but I’d hesitate to call him a journalist.
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It’s actually the other way round-- the UK bakes its own nucular warheads (at least nominally) and the submarines to launch them, but the Trident missiles themselves are leased from the US. The UK doesn’t physically or legally need US permission to use those missiles.
This is completely separate from the nuclear weapons that the US also has stationed in the UK (and Germany and Turkey and elsewhere). But it’s the native nucular “deterrent” that’s really controversial, because of how its cost-to-pointfulness ratio is somewhere in the infinity region.
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I don’t think it is normal (or useful) to call a government which has an office called ‘president’ that holds very little power a ‘presidential system’. So, if that’s what is meant here, sure fine. Find a better way to talk about it though.
I think that when political scientists talk about a ‘presidential system’ they mean a strong executive separate from the legislature, as opposed to a parliamentary system where the executive head of state is somehow beholden to the legislature (actually selected by the legislature or new elections can be called by the legislature or something like that).
Like I said, if its pretty much just a figurehead (as in German) fine.
But for an actual ‘presidential system’. Well read this:
And look at that list of countries. I mean, geez. It’s pretty much the US and a list of places you don’t want to be born in. Surely not entirely for this reason… but… i’d not bet my country on that.
I also suspect that the actual historical hereditary monarch the UK has might be acting as a more effective lighting rod for stupid authoritarian follower-hood than anything else conceivable. There is probably some value to having a bunch of empty headed people focusing their identity on the monarchy rather than a politician with real power, quite possibly more value than the cost keeping one large family in mansions and fancy houses.
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