How Trump Happened - a response from a Baby Boomer
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Today, on the website Slate, Jamelle Bouie penned their cover article, How Trump Happened: It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama. While she makes many valid points and I am sure that white racism form a significant part of the problem, I think she misses the bigger picture.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we were taught that once you got out of school, regardless of whether it was high school or college, you looked for a job with a good solid company. If the first one did not fit or proved unstable, there were others. You had about five or six shots before recruiters would discount you as a suitable employee. You then stayed with that company until you retired. If you were good, you might get promoted into management and up the corporate chain. We knew that most of us would not make it that far. In return, we expected a steady paycheck with regular increases and the promise of a pension when we reached retirement age.
Sound too good to be true? Not to us! We are "Baby Boomers!" We saw our parents, especially our fathers or our friends' fathers, do it successfully! Our families moved from the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods of the cities into the suburbs. Instead of renting an apartment, our families owned a little piece of land. While most of us were white, there was a sprinkling of non-whites in our suburban blocks (at least in my part of the country) – although I am of German-American stock, the ancestors others within a block of my parents house hailed from Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Egypt, the Netherlands, the American Midwest and the American South. The non-whites were just like us, with jobs in the defense industries, auto repair, banking, retail, restaurants and teaching. Racism and ethnic-ism were rampant, with derogatory slang for each of us – you learned to live with it and get into fights about it.
Perhaps I am presenting a romanticized version of life when I was growing up. But remember, I was a child. I now know that many families never escaped from the cities, living in much less comfortable surroundings with what is now called "food insecurity."
The first real crack in the bubble was the Vietnam War, when many of my cla
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Today, on the website Slate, Jamelle Bouie penned their cover article, How Trump Happened: It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama. While she makes many valid points and I am sure that white racism form a significant part of the problem, I think she misses the bigger picture.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we were taught that once you got out of school, regardless of whether it was high school or college, you looked for a job with a good solid company. If the first one did not fit or proved unstable, there were others. You had about five or six shots before recruiters would discount you as a suitable employee. You then stayed with that company until you retired. If you were good, you might get promoted into management and up the corporate chain. We knew that most of us would not make it that far. In return, we expected a steady paycheck with regular increases and the promise of a pension when we reached retirement age.
Sound too good to be true? Not to us! We are "Baby Boomers!" We saw our parents, especially our fathers or our friends' fathers, do it successfully! Our families moved from the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods of the cities into the suburbs. Instead of renting an apartment, our families owned a little piece of land. While most of us were white, there was a sprinkling of non-whites in our suburban blocks (at least in my part of the country) – although I am of German-American stock, the ancestors others within a block of my parents house hailed from Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Egypt, the Netherlands, the American Midwest and the American South. The non-whites were just like us, with jobs in the defense industries, auto repair, banking, retail, restaurants and teaching. Racism and ethnic-ism were rampant, with derogatory slang for each of us – you learned to live with it and get into fights about it.
Perhaps I am presenting a romanticized version of life when I was growing up. But remember, I was a child. I now know that many families never escaped from the cities, living in much less comfortable surroundings with what is now called "food insecurity."
The first real crack in the bubble was the Vietnam War, when many of my cla
Trump is all things to all men who imagine themselves disenfranchised, deprived, discarded, or discounted, of whom there is always a ready supply. There is no need of any explanation of his appeal or the success of his rabble rousing campaign for it is a well worn formula repeated hundreds of times in history always ending in disenchantment and disaster as those it brings to power become ever more dictatorial and censorious as they grow further and further divorced from reality.
I am not a number. I am a ... no, wait!
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Today, on the website Slate, Jamelle Bouie penned their cover article, How Trump Happened: It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama. While she makes many valid points and I am sure that white racism form a significant part of the problem, I think she misses the bigger picture.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we were taught that once you got out of school, regardless of whether it was high school or college, you looked for a job with a good solid company. If the first one did not fit or proved unstable, there were others. You had about five or six shots before recruiters would discount you as a suitable employee. You then stayed with that company until you retired. If you were good, you might get promoted into management and up the corporate chain. We knew that most of us would not make it that far. In return, we expected a steady paycheck with regular increases and the promise of a pension when we reached retirement age.
Sound too good to be true? Not to us! We are "Baby Boomers!" We saw our parents, especially our fathers or our friends' fathers, do it successfully! Our families moved from the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods of the cities into the suburbs. Instead of renting an apartment, our families owned a little piece of land. While most of us were white, there was a sprinkling of non-whites in our suburban blocks (at least in my part of the country) – although I am of German-American stock, the ancestors others within a block of my parents house hailed from Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Egypt, the Netherlands, the American Midwest and the American South. The non-whites were just like us, with jobs in the defense industries, auto repair, banking, retail, restaurants and teaching. Racism and ethnic-ism were rampant, with derogatory slang for each of us – you learned to live with it and get into fights about it.
Perhaps I am presenting a romanticized version of life when I was growing up. But remember, I was a child. I now know that many families never escaped from the cities, living in much less comfortable surroundings with what is now called "food insecurity."
The first real crack in the bubble was the Vietnam War, when many of my cla
The problems you have described are the same the world over, not just in the US. My parents and grandparents had steady jobs where a single salary could support an entire family. That certainly can't be said for me and my siblings living today. Maybe the citizens of the US don't comprehend this because as a nation they tend to be more inward gazing. Maybe if they spent the time looking into global politics they would understand this and therefore be less likely to fall for the rhetoric that comes out of someone like Trump. Any fool can make a promise, but it takes a bigger fool to believe it.
"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult." - C.A.R. Hoare Home | LinkedIn | Google+ | Twitter
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Today, on the website Slate, Jamelle Bouie penned their cover article, How Trump Happened: It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama. While she makes many valid points and I am sure that white racism form a significant part of the problem, I think she misses the bigger picture.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we were taught that once you got out of school, regardless of whether it was high school or college, you looked for a job with a good solid company. If the first one did not fit or proved unstable, there were others. You had about five or six shots before recruiters would discount you as a suitable employee. You then stayed with that company until you retired. If you were good, you might get promoted into management and up the corporate chain. We knew that most of us would not make it that far. In return, we expected a steady paycheck with regular increases and the promise of a pension when we reached retirement age.
Sound too good to be true? Not to us! We are "Baby Boomers!" We saw our parents, especially our fathers or our friends' fathers, do it successfully! Our families moved from the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods of the cities into the suburbs. Instead of renting an apartment, our families owned a little piece of land. While most of us were white, there was a sprinkling of non-whites in our suburban blocks (at least in my part of the country) – although I am of German-American stock, the ancestors others within a block of my parents house hailed from Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Egypt, the Netherlands, the American Midwest and the American South. The non-whites were just like us, with jobs in the defense industries, auto repair, banking, retail, restaurants and teaching. Racism and ethnic-ism were rampant, with derogatory slang for each of us – you learned to live with it and get into fights about it.
Perhaps I am presenting a romanticized version of life when I was growing up. But remember, I was a child. I now know that many families never escaped from the cities, living in much less comfortable surroundings with what is now called "food insecurity."
The first real crack in the bubble was the Vietnam War, when many of my cla
I am from the same generation and your story could just as well apply to the UK in every detail. Politicians continue to spout platitudes but get further and further away from what the majority of the public really want. Margaret Thatcher was the only one in my lifetime who really tried. Unfortunately her mistakes cost her the premiership and we then had the weakest Prime Minister since Ted Heath.
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Today, on the website Slate, Jamelle Bouie penned their cover article, How Trump Happened: It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama. While she makes many valid points and I am sure that white racism form a significant part of the problem, I think she misses the bigger picture.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we were taught that once you got out of school, regardless of whether it was high school or college, you looked for a job with a good solid company. If the first one did not fit or proved unstable, there were others. You had about five or six shots before recruiters would discount you as a suitable employee. You then stayed with that company until you retired. If you were good, you might get promoted into management and up the corporate chain. We knew that most of us would not make it that far. In return, we expected a steady paycheck with regular increases and the promise of a pension when we reached retirement age.
Sound too good to be true? Not to us! We are "Baby Boomers!" We saw our parents, especially our fathers or our friends' fathers, do it successfully! Our families moved from the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods of the cities into the suburbs. Instead of renting an apartment, our families owned a little piece of land. While most of us were white, there was a sprinkling of non-whites in our suburban blocks (at least in my part of the country) – although I am of German-American stock, the ancestors others within a block of my parents house hailed from Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Egypt, the Netherlands, the American Midwest and the American South. The non-whites were just like us, with jobs in the defense industries, auto repair, banking, retail, restaurants and teaching. Racism and ethnic-ism were rampant, with derogatory slang for each of us – you learned to live with it and get into fights about it.
Perhaps I am presenting a romanticized version of life when I was growing up. But remember, I was a child. I now know that many families never escaped from the cities, living in much less comfortable surroundings with what is now called "food insecurity."
The first real crack in the bubble was the Vietnam War, when many of my cla
The lower standards of living for ordinary workers comes from the U.S. government spending so much money on things that don't help our standard of living. To name a few: 1. Wars on foreign nations 2. Wars on abstract concepts 3. Worthless social programs 4. Corporate welfare 5. Protectionist regulations The reason why people's standard of living is so low is beacuse so few actually make products that improve our standard of living. Today, we employ our smartest and most talented people in either creating or dealing with complex governmental regulations; it's the same thing as paying them to run on hamster wheels all day (but without the aerobic health benefits).
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Today, on the website Slate, Jamelle Bouie penned their cover article, How Trump Happened: It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama. While she makes many valid points and I am sure that white racism form a significant part of the problem, I think she misses the bigger picture.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we were taught that once you got out of school, regardless of whether it was high school or college, you looked for a job with a good solid company. If the first one did not fit or proved unstable, there were others. You had about five or six shots before recruiters would discount you as a suitable employee. You then stayed with that company until you retired. If you were good, you might get promoted into management and up the corporate chain. We knew that most of us would not make it that far. In return, we expected a steady paycheck with regular increases and the promise of a pension when we reached retirement age.
Sound too good to be true? Not to us! We are "Baby Boomers!" We saw our parents, especially our fathers or our friends' fathers, do it successfully! Our families moved from the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods of the cities into the suburbs. Instead of renting an apartment, our families owned a little piece of land. While most of us were white, there was a sprinkling of non-whites in our suburban blocks (at least in my part of the country) – although I am of German-American stock, the ancestors others within a block of my parents house hailed from Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Egypt, the Netherlands, the American Midwest and the American South. The non-whites were just like us, with jobs in the defense industries, auto repair, banking, retail, restaurants and teaching. Racism and ethnic-ism were rampant, with derogatory slang for each of us – you learned to live with it and get into fights about it.
Perhaps I am presenting a romanticized version of life when I was growing up. But remember, I was a child. I now know that many families never escaped from the cities, living in much less comfortable surroundings with what is now called "food insecurity."
The first real crack in the bubble was the Vietnam War, when many of my cla
As a child of the 70's I agree with you regarding the very different work climate we now live in compared to our parents. In IT it almost seems quite normal to swap companies every 4 to 7 years - I have personally found that a great shame as work is not just about a company I work for but relationships and work friendships I build up over a number of years. I also find that in the jobs I have worked, my IT skills are what are perceived as my marketable skills - however after three and a half years in a job I know much more and am much more productive than just being a code monkey. Unfortunately my current company does not see this - or at least the management do not while all my peers certainly do(which is why I leave my current job on the 31st). All the systems and business knowledge I have gained in my time in my current company is going to have to be re-learnt, or not learnt at all, by others who replace me. While we are not indispensable it is expensive having a turnover of staff at the levels I see nowadays. My father stayed in the same job for over twenty years - to do that nowadays is almost seen as a failure.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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As a child of the 70's I agree with you regarding the very different work climate we now live in compared to our parents. In IT it almost seems quite normal to swap companies every 4 to 7 years - I have personally found that a great shame as work is not just about a company I work for but relationships and work friendships I build up over a number of years. I also find that in the jobs I have worked, my IT skills are what are perceived as my marketable skills - however after three and a half years in a job I know much more and am much more productive than just being a code monkey. Unfortunately my current company does not see this - or at least the management do not while all my peers certainly do(which is why I leave my current job on the 31st). All the systems and business knowledge I have gained in my time in my current company is going to have to be re-learnt, or not learnt at all, by others who replace me. While we are not indispensable it is expensive having a turnover of staff at the levels I see nowadays. My father stayed in the same job for over twenty years - to do that nowadays is almost seen as a failure.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
Also of the same generation but it is only in the last 15 years that I have had a job much longer than 2-3 years and most were not in the IT industry. I now pride myself on the fact that the core of our team of 10 developers has been with us for more than 8 years in a VERY dynamic IT industry. The company regularly uses external services for additional project, EVERY time there is a complaint from business at the time cost of dealing with them. The sheer depth of business IP in the team is impressive and thankfully management recognises the value.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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As a child of the 70's I agree with you regarding the very different work climate we now live in compared to our parents. In IT it almost seems quite normal to swap companies every 4 to 7 years - I have personally found that a great shame as work is not just about a company I work for but relationships and work friendships I build up over a number of years. I also find that in the jobs I have worked, my IT skills are what are perceived as my marketable skills - however after three and a half years in a job I know much more and am much more productive than just being a code monkey. Unfortunately my current company does not see this - or at least the management do not while all my peers certainly do(which is why I leave my current job on the 31st). All the systems and business knowledge I have gained in my time in my current company is going to have to be re-learnt, or not learnt at all, by others who replace me. While we are not indispensable it is expensive having a turnover of staff at the levels I see nowadays. My father stayed in the same job for over twenty years - to do that nowadays is almost seen as a failure.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
GuyThiebaut wrote: after three and a half years in a job I know much more and am much more productive than just being a code monkey That is so true! There is so much more to learn about working for a company than just your particular skill set. I worked most of my life as a machinist in the aerospace (defense) industry. But the last 20 years I worked for a large commercial airline in jet engine overhaul. I had so much to learn about the business after (and before) I got into IT to be a productive employee.
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The problems you have described are the same the world over, not just in the US. My parents and grandparents had steady jobs where a single salary could support an entire family. That certainly can't be said for me and my siblings living today. Maybe the citizens of the US don't comprehend this because as a nation they tend to be more inward gazing. Maybe if they spent the time looking into global politics they would understand this and therefore be less likely to fall for the rhetoric that comes out of someone like Trump. Any fool can make a promise, but it takes a bigger fool to believe it.
"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult." - C.A.R. Hoare Home | LinkedIn | Google+ | Twitter
Dominic Burford wrote: less likely to fall for the rhetoric that comes out of someone like Trump Or Barack Obama who promised "Hope and Change". The "Hope" became divisiveness and the change is that the country is now 20 trillion dollars in debt.
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Today, on the website Slate, Jamelle Bouie penned their cover article, How Trump Happened: It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama. While she makes many valid points and I am sure that white racism form a significant part of the problem, I think she misses the bigger picture.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we were taught that once you got out of school, regardless of whether it was high school or college, you looked for a job with a good solid company. If the first one did not fit or proved unstable, there were others. You had about five or six shots before recruiters would discount you as a suitable employee. You then stayed with that company until you retired. If you were good, you might get promoted into management and up the corporate chain. We knew that most of us would not make it that far. In return, we expected a steady paycheck with regular increases and the promise of a pension when we reached retirement age.
Sound too good to be true? Not to us! We are "Baby Boomers!" We saw our parents, especially our fathers or our friends' fathers, do it successfully! Our families moved from the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods of the cities into the suburbs. Instead of renting an apartment, our families owned a little piece of land. While most of us were white, there was a sprinkling of non-whites in our suburban blocks (at least in my part of the country) – although I am of German-American stock, the ancestors others within a block of my parents house hailed from Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Egypt, the Netherlands, the American Midwest and the American South. The non-whites were just like us, with jobs in the defense industries, auto repair, banking, retail, restaurants and teaching. Racism and ethnic-ism were rampant, with derogatory slang for each of us – you learned to live with it and get into fights about it.
Perhaps I am presenting a romanticized version of life when I was growing up. But remember, I was a child. I now know that many families never escaped from the cities, living in much less comfortable surroundings with what is now called "food insecurity."
The first real crack in the bubble was the Vietnam War, when many of my cla
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Dominic Burford wrote: less likely to fall for the rhetoric that comes out of someone like Trump Or Barack Obama who promised "Hope and Change". The "Hope" became divisiveness and the change is that the country is now 20 trillion dollars in debt.
ineedajobsoon wrote:
Or Barack Obama who promised "Hope and Change". The "Hope" became divisiveness and the change is that the country is now 20 trillion dollars in debt.
As always - you seem to have the order just a bit backwards: most of the debt was still there - the trillions brought to you, in particular, by Iraq and Afghanistan (W didn't include them in his budget but it still built up the debt). The divisiveness is the only currency - the only solution - the GOP had to offer for all of these last seven years. Whatever the problem, obstruct a solution and blame it on Obama. You need to get over blaming everything on Obama - the crap-whole the country was pushed into was the result of the Koch brothers and their tea-party slaves. The gutless remainder of the GOP was afraid to oppose them (lest the Koch's finance opposition to them in their primaries). The talk-radio; the Fox "News"; all they spew is divisiveness. Apparently, no questions asked from a poorly educated populace who've not the wit to think before they react.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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The lower standards of living for ordinary workers comes from the U.S. government spending so much money on things that don't help our standard of living. To name a few: 1. Wars on foreign nations 2. Wars on abstract concepts 3. Worthless social programs 4. Corporate welfare 5. Protectionist regulations The reason why people's standard of living is so low is beacuse so few actually make products that improve our standard of living. Today, we employ our smartest and most talented people in either creating or dealing with complex governmental regulations; it's the same thing as paying them to run on hamster wheels all day (but without the aerobic health benefits).
Corporate welfare: Don't leave out the farmers and their price supports and subsidies. Typically, this is paid to farmers from those states that claim they want smaller government - generally smaller government is an excuse to use presumed States Rights to quash constitutionally enumerated civil liberties. Protectionist regulations? Actually, it's the opposite that's killing us. We don't protect our industries as much as everyone else. That's why we have such a huge trade deficit. You have heard about TPP: it will drop even more barriers to the far-eastern slave-labor production and that will do further harm to our economy. Actually - the smartest people are easily bought by private industry, who can pay them far more than the government ever can.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Today, on the website Slate, Jamelle Bouie penned their cover article, How Trump Happened: It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama. While she makes many valid points and I am sure that white racism form a significant part of the problem, I think she misses the bigger picture.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we were taught that once you got out of school, regardless of whether it was high school or college, you looked for a job with a good solid company. If the first one did not fit or proved unstable, there were others. You had about five or six shots before recruiters would discount you as a suitable employee. You then stayed with that company until you retired. If you were good, you might get promoted into management and up the corporate chain. We knew that most of us would not make it that far. In return, we expected a steady paycheck with regular increases and the promise of a pension when we reached retirement age.
Sound too good to be true? Not to us! We are "Baby Boomers!" We saw our parents, especially our fathers or our friends' fathers, do it successfully! Our families moved from the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods of the cities into the suburbs. Instead of renting an apartment, our families owned a little piece of land. While most of us were white, there was a sprinkling of non-whites in our suburban blocks (at least in my part of the country) – although I am of German-American stock, the ancestors others within a block of my parents house hailed from Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Egypt, the Netherlands, the American Midwest and the American South. The non-whites were just like us, with jobs in the defense industries, auto repair, banking, retail, restaurants and teaching. Racism and ethnic-ism were rampant, with derogatory slang for each of us – you learned to live with it and get into fights about it.
Perhaps I am presenting a romanticized version of life when I was growing up. But remember, I was a child. I now know that many families never escaped from the cities, living in much less comfortable surroundings with what is now called "food insecurity."
The first real crack in the bubble was the Vietnam War, when many of my cla
Really, if you drop the GOP rhetoric you can easily tell where Trump came from. For the last seven years we were taught to hate the government "insiders" by the talk-radio, Fox News, and the GOP's master, the Tea Party/Koch brothers. Obstructionism for the sake of obstruction became the normal working tools of the House of Representatives, and more recently, the senate. Well, if you keep teaching people that stuff they start to believe it. So we have an irresponsible showman (Trump), a true Goose-stepper (Cruze), and a low-key bastard with no respect for the rule of law (such as abiding by contracts, educating children, woman's rights, etc.). I'm amused in that Trump has cleverly (and I never said he wasn't clever) avoided giving any substance on how or what he'd really do. I believe, in the US South, it's called buying a pig in a poke. The concept of "Double Think", from the book "1984" apparently did come true - 30-odd years later than expected. Clinton did not destroy our economy: It was the Shrub's administration. The stopped regulators from cracking down on bad business practices, allowed ridiculous mergers that all but eliminate competition. Would not pass laws to prevent corporate tax evasion (although other countries do so: that's why we're holding the bag, financially). Trump isn't offering you anything but glittering generalities so you can fill in your own imaginings as to what he is offering. He claims he'll make whatever it is he's talking about better. He knows how to fix it. The problem is, he can never and knows better than to actually say how he'll work this magic. Oddly, you condemn those with real plans as pretty speaches. Recursive as it seems, your only hope from trump is that you hope he's giving you hope. The technique's old but still effective. Your right-wing media numbed you into a state of supporting the so-called outsider: who's more inside than the man with the big wallets and list of donations he's made to pay for his profits?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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ineedajobsoon wrote:
Or Barack Obama who promised "Hope and Change". The "Hope" became divisiveness and the change is that the country is now 20 trillion dollars in debt.
As always - you seem to have the order just a bit backwards: most of the debt was still there - the trillions brought to you, in particular, by Iraq and Afghanistan (W didn't include them in his budget but it still built up the debt). The divisiveness is the only currency - the only solution - the GOP had to offer for all of these last seven years. Whatever the problem, obstruct a solution and blame it on Obama. You need to get over blaming everything on Obama - the crap-whole the country was pushed into was the result of the Koch brothers and their tea-party slaves. The gutless remainder of the GOP was afraid to oppose them (lest the Koch's finance opposition to them in their primaries). The talk-radio; the Fox "News"; all they spew is divisiveness. Apparently, no questions asked from a poorly educated populace who've not the wit to think before they react.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
W∴ Balboos wrote: most of the debt was still there - the trillions brought to you, in particular, by Iraq and Afghanistan So it's still "Bush's fault" after almost eight years... And you say I blame everything on Obama? You are really on your talking points today hitting all the big ones: The poorly educated, Talk radio, The GOP, The Koch Bros, The Tea Party, and last but not least - Fox News. Even Obama doesn't hit that many in one speech. I read your opinion, which I respect, but no facts. You have expressed your opinion, and I, mine. My statements have been substantiated below. Here are the facts without spin or blame: Here is the National Debt by year by percent of GDP and dollars. http://useconomy.about.com/od/usdebtanddeficit/a/National-Debt-by-Year.htm https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt\_histo5.htm The debt under Obama rose almost 2 Trillion a year. current debt ~19 Trillion The debt under Bush rose less than 1 Trillion a year. End of FY 2008 debt ~10 Trillion Decisiveness: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/politico-poll-race-relations-under-obama-110924 http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/226262-race-relations-worse-under-obama-poll-says someone else's tag line, but it fits so well in this case. “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” -- Christopher Hitchens
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Really, if you drop the GOP rhetoric you can easily tell where Trump came from. For the last seven years we were taught to hate the government "insiders" by the talk-radio, Fox News, and the GOP's master, the Tea Party/Koch brothers. Obstructionism for the sake of obstruction became the normal working tools of the House of Representatives, and more recently, the senate. Well, if you keep teaching people that stuff they start to believe it. So we have an irresponsible showman (Trump), a true Goose-stepper (Cruze), and a low-key bastard with no respect for the rule of law (such as abiding by contracts, educating children, woman's rights, etc.). I'm amused in that Trump has cleverly (and I never said he wasn't clever) avoided giving any substance on how or what he'd really do. I believe, in the US South, it's called buying a pig in a poke. The concept of "Double Think", from the book "1984" apparently did come true - 30-odd years later than expected. Clinton did not destroy our economy: It was the Shrub's administration. The stopped regulators from cracking down on bad business practices, allowed ridiculous mergers that all but eliminate competition. Would not pass laws to prevent corporate tax evasion (although other countries do so: that's why we're holding the bag, financially). Trump isn't offering you anything but glittering generalities so you can fill in your own imaginings as to what he is offering. He claims he'll make whatever it is he's talking about better. He knows how to fix it. The problem is, he can never and knows better than to actually say how he'll work this magic. Oddly, you condemn those with real plans as pretty speaches. Recursive as it seems, your only hope from trump is that you hope he's giving you hope. The technique's old but still effective. Your right-wing media numbed you into a state of supporting the so-called outsider: who's more inside than the man with the big wallets and list of donations he's made to pay for his profits?
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
It was never my intention to show any sort of support or praise for Donald Trump. The only thing he is offering is empty hope. The programs he has proposed so far are not viable. His rhetoric has damaged us with both allies and adversaries alike, undoing what little diplomatic progress our previous NINE administrations have tried to make.
He talks about bringing the off-shored jobs back. Where is the money to rebuild the factories that were closed long ago and are now obsolete ruins? Where is the skilled labor force to run these factories going to come from? There are manufacturing operations coming back to the US, but guess what? Instead of the hundreds of jobs a similar operation would have created even as little as ten years ago, the new factory creates twenty or thirty jobs - everything else is done by machine!
He talks about a trade war with Mexico. Doesn't he know where half of our fresh vegetables comes from? The land to grow water-intensive "truck crops," such as vegetables, has long been eaten up by suburbia. Much of the great expanse of farm land in this country are best suited for grains, especially corn, wheat and soy beans, which require less water per acre.
The bulk of the other half of our fresh vegetables comes from the Central Valley and the Imperial Valley of California. Both are subject to the mercy of the California drought. Others are raised in areas dependent upon Colorado River water - another source at the mercy of the same weather as California.
He talks about sending the immigrants back, especially those from south of the border. Harvesting truck crops must still be mostly done by hand, so as not to bruise the crop. Believe me when I say that harvesting by hand is hard work! It is seasonal work. It is a job that few want to do. Many of those on the harvesting crews would prefer to get steady full-time employment. The more immigrants you deport, the more move from harvesting our food to the other steady work. Then either the wage paid to the harvesters goes up or the crops rot in the fields - either way, the price of food goes up.
We are living with the result of stupid, wasteful policies since President Johnson pushed for "guns and butter." Administration after administration has thrown our tax money away, instead of using it to build up America. Administration after administration has pushed to concentrate power in Washington, building up the size of the Federal government. Our tax money flows to Washington, inst
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Hoover, not FDR. But yes.
We won't sit down. We won't shut up. We won't go quietly away. YouTube and My Mu[sic], Films and Windows Programs, etc.
You are correct. It was Herbert Hoover's campaign line. FDR's famous lines include "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" and, in referring to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, "a day that will live in infamy."
GenJerDan wrote:
We won't sit down. We won't shut up. We won't go quietly away.
I will suggest that we will go away quietly - one by one, as we die waiting for our politicians to fix the mess that they created, and are interred "in the shade of the old oak tree 'neeth the green, green grass of home." :((
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock
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Today, on the website Slate, Jamelle Bouie penned their cover article, How Trump Happened: It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama. While she makes many valid points and I am sure that white racism form a significant part of the problem, I think she misses the bigger picture.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, we were taught that once you got out of school, regardless of whether it was high school or college, you looked for a job with a good solid company. If the first one did not fit or proved unstable, there were others. You had about five or six shots before recruiters would discount you as a suitable employee. You then stayed with that company until you retired. If you were good, you might get promoted into management and up the corporate chain. We knew that most of us would not make it that far. In return, we expected a steady paycheck with regular increases and the promise of a pension when we reached retirement age.
Sound too good to be true? Not to us! We are "Baby Boomers!" We saw our parents, especially our fathers or our friends' fathers, do it successfully! Our families moved from the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods of the cities into the suburbs. Instead of renting an apartment, our families owned a little piece of land. While most of us were white, there was a sprinkling of non-whites in our suburban blocks (at least in my part of the country) – although I am of German-American stock, the ancestors others within a block of my parents house hailed from Ireland, England, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Egypt, the Netherlands, the American Midwest and the American South. The non-whites were just like us, with jobs in the defense industries, auto repair, banking, retail, restaurants and teaching. Racism and ethnic-ism were rampant, with derogatory slang for each of us – you learned to live with it and get into fights about it.
Perhaps I am presenting a romanticized version of life when I was growing up. But remember, I was a child. I now know that many families never escaped from the cities, living in much less comfortable surroundings with what is now called "food insecurity."
The first real crack in the bubble was the Vietnam War, when many of my cla
yes but Trump is f***ing mental.
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Corporate welfare: Don't leave out the farmers and their price supports and subsidies. Typically, this is paid to farmers from those states that claim they want smaller government - generally smaller government is an excuse to use presumed States Rights to quash constitutionally enumerated civil liberties. Protectionist regulations? Actually, it's the opposite that's killing us. We don't protect our industries as much as everyone else. That's why we have such a huge trade deficit. You have heard about TPP: it will drop even more barriers to the far-eastern slave-labor production and that will do further harm to our economy. Actually - the smartest people are easily bought by private industry, who can pay them far more than the government ever can.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
What work exists for the smartest people in private industry? Medical doctors work in private industry, and they spend most of their time filling out government paperwork. CPA's and their accounting staff work in private industry, and they spend most of their time filling out government paperwork. The private banking, insurance, and investment industries are full of people who do nothing but fill out government paperwork. In software development, the best jobs are for writing software to help corporate workers fill out government paperwork. You can poll U.S. developers on "Who uses the software you write?", and you'll get an awful lot of "Tax / compliance / regulation people". It's obscene how much software is needed for handling government regulations and taxes. As for the trade deficit, for every uneven trade where the U.S. sends money abroad and never receives money back, there's a product deficit, where foreigners send products to the U.S. and never receive American products in return. The foreign workers who never receive American products suffer far worse than the American workers who never receive foreign money. Ask a Chinese factory worker who barely survives working fourteen hours a day how much he loves the Chinese government for protecting its industry and making him a winner.
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It was never my intention to show any sort of support or praise for Donald Trump. The only thing he is offering is empty hope. The programs he has proposed so far are not viable. His rhetoric has damaged us with both allies and adversaries alike, undoing what little diplomatic progress our previous NINE administrations have tried to make.
He talks about bringing the off-shored jobs back. Where is the money to rebuild the factories that were closed long ago and are now obsolete ruins? Where is the skilled labor force to run these factories going to come from? There are manufacturing operations coming back to the US, but guess what? Instead of the hundreds of jobs a similar operation would have created even as little as ten years ago, the new factory creates twenty or thirty jobs - everything else is done by machine!
He talks about a trade war with Mexico. Doesn't he know where half of our fresh vegetables comes from? The land to grow water-intensive "truck crops," such as vegetables, has long been eaten up by suburbia. Much of the great expanse of farm land in this country are best suited for grains, especially corn, wheat and soy beans, which require less water per acre.
The bulk of the other half of our fresh vegetables comes from the Central Valley and the Imperial Valley of California. Both are subject to the mercy of the California drought. Others are raised in areas dependent upon Colorado River water - another source at the mercy of the same weather as California.
He talks about sending the immigrants back, especially those from south of the border. Harvesting truck crops must still be mostly done by hand, so as not to bruise the crop. Believe me when I say that harvesting by hand is hard work! It is seasonal work. It is a job that few want to do. Many of those on the harvesting crews would prefer to get steady full-time employment. The more immigrants you deport, the more move from harvesting our food to the other steady work. Then either the wage paid to the harvesters goes up or the crops rot in the fields - either way, the price of food goes up.
We are living with the result of stupid, wasteful policies since President Johnson pushed for "guns and butter." Administration after administration has thrown our tax money away, instead of using it to build up America. Administration after administration has pushed to concentrate power in Washington, building up the size of the Federal government. Our tax money flows to Washington, inst
Very realistic. The need for (what they used to call) migrant workers has been around for many scores of years. I only take exception with your last point: ; local governments would do better with the money than the federal with respect to building up infrastructure. My first-hand accounting of how money is spent at the state level (and below), is that it's the worst cronyism imaginable. That includes my my recent two locals (one in WV, one in NY). And for the use of the money for education? Just see what the Ohio governor did to his state and teachers. Ohio governer and teachers - Yahoo Search Results[^] State control of the purse stings always means far worse: special interests getting more and giving less. Case in point: the flooding for Hurricane Sandy, where I live now, would have been significantly less if the north shore of this Island had a sea wall. The federal government sent the Army Core of Engineers to study it, propose a plan, and then fund it. The wall was never built. Why? Because the very wealthy folk living along the north shore didn't want their views obstructed. City government at work! Even now, years late, they're only just getting started on the plan for the sea-wall. 3 1/2 years later and they don't even know how high they want to build it. What they do know is that they can run up the cost by installing moving walls (hydrollic, from below). The local government is just starting to study it. The local governments are more likely to have religious and political bias in their use of the funds - either of which is an abomination. Giving more financial power to the local levels is like privatizing social security: The big banks and brokers will make a quick fortune. The elderly will be left to fight over dog-food.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then yo
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Very realistic. The need for (what they used to call) migrant workers has been around for many scores of years. I only take exception with your last point: ; local governments would do better with the money than the federal with respect to building up infrastructure. My first-hand accounting of how money is spent at the state level (and below), is that it's the worst cronyism imaginable. That includes my my recent two locals (one in WV, one in NY). And for the use of the money for education? Just see what the Ohio governor did to his state and teachers. Ohio governer and teachers - Yahoo Search Results[^] State control of the purse stings always means far worse: special interests getting more and giving less. Case in point: the flooding for Hurricane Sandy, where I live now, would have been significantly less if the north shore of this Island had a sea wall. The federal government sent the Army Core of Engineers to study it, propose a plan, and then fund it. The wall was never built. Why? Because the very wealthy folk living along the north shore didn't want their views obstructed. City government at work! Even now, years late, they're only just getting started on the plan for the sea-wall. 3 1/2 years later and they don't even know how high they want to build it. What they do know is that they can run up the cost by installing moving walls (hydrollic, from below). The local government is just starting to study it. The local governments are more likely to have religious and political bias in their use of the funds - either of which is an abomination. Giving more financial power to the local levels is like privatizing social security: The big banks and brokers will make a quick fortune. The elderly will be left to fight over dog-food.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then yo
Cronyism is not just a problem at the state and local level. It is a major problem on the Federal level, too. Just look at the F35 combined use fighter. There are numerous articles ([^][^][^] to highlight a few) of all political stripes showing how the cost per plane has ballooned and why this white elephant is politically "impossible to cancel." And it is not just the Department of Defense. Every Federal office that lets contracts has been shown to have this problem.
The standard answer for this problem is investigative journalism and a public that wants to hear about these stories. Unfortunately, these stories seldom fit the current mode of "sound bite" journalism. The media, with all its concentration on national politics, is ignoring the cronyism and corruption behind much of the Federal government's spending. My guess is that news organization management is either afraid of the political heat they may receive or, because they are owned by the same corporate overlords as the contractors, have been ordered to stay away from those stories.
State and local corruption also manages to hide in plain sight from the media.
The big stories on the local news are often nasty auto accidents, violent crime and sports, especially when a fight breaks out on the field or in the stands. A person who steals $50 from a local convenience store gets more air time and more prison time than the person who steals millions of dollars from some level of government. Most people who steal big from governments are so politically protected that they will never even be accused, arrested or charged.
__________________ Lord, grant me the serenity to accept that there are some things I just can’t keep up with, the determination to keep up with the things I must keep up with, and the wisdom to find a good RSS feed from someone who keeps up with what I’d like to, but just don’t have the damn bandwidth to handle right now. © 2009, Rex Hammock