Instead of wanting to transform the agencies of government to dominate and control the American people like DeSantis promises, he wants to simply destroy them...
Greed and ignorance, fear and ‘other loathing ‘is what these Republicans are selling.
There is no tolerance or desire to see others do well.
No compassion, no trust, no sense of worthwhile existence , unless you have a great deal of money.
The wealthy , have no use for poor to be educated , accepted or treated well on any level .
They are seen as unnecessary and are unworthy of consideration.
As are Senior Citizens, as are people of color, immigrants ( don’t bother to remind these wealthy fools that they or their recent ancestors were also immigrants)
They are the ‘ me’ people .
Greedy seekers of more money and more power .
Power to insulate their lives from any distress or misery.
But they cant , they are bluffing.
Their only purpose is to themselves.
They can lie , cheat , break the law with impunity.
They can afford to.
This country was not built for them .
Thats why they attempt to destroy whats good and just.
Trump reinforced this greed and self seeking . Its time to push back at the ballot box.
In spite of their efforts to distort this right, we need to protect these rights by showing up to vote . No matter what .
A big media event that should be ignored. Republicans = media domination. To contest that formula, please focus on more important topics.
Besides, from the materials and comments here, it's doubtful that many of the folks reading this today have read the indictments - critical documents that our media won't adequately inform about. Republicans would be happy to know that people are watching their media events rather than reading indictments about their criminal conduct. And with our media generally - that's the whole objective - to weaken the intellect, distract and confuse.
The fact that President Trump had the single longest telephone call ever conducted by a president with a back office IT worker is more important than any of this, especially on the day after that maintenance worker flipped on him.
Newspeak is designed to narrow the range of potential thought, eventually making any unorthodox thought impossible - acc to Orwell.
Fred Koch came back from building oil wells and refineries for Stalin, much enamored with Stalin
For instance the USSR was on a 100% gold standard where one ruble was worth .9851 grams fine gold.The Soviet Citizen could not redeem a ruble, but a foreigner could by presenting it to their window to the world, the NordBank in Paris, and trying to sneak rubles out of Russia was a felony if not a capital offense if Russian.
His art 12 of the 1936 Constitution reads, essentially, "if you don't work you don't eat"
He also criminalized abortions
Stalin's Russia and Ayn Rand, which wasn''t much different, are the Kochian ideals for America.
Vivick Ramasmarmy is the lovechild of Elon Musk and Milton Friedman's undead ghost.
The real world consequences of fascism (DeSantis) or libertarianism (Ramaswarmy) are a matter of nuance, IMO. Both ideologies produce F'ers - clearly. These F'ers (Fanatical Fringe Factions) commit the same crimes, but differ on the strategy used to do so.
As Thom illustrated, fascists takeover existing administrative entity's (ie, government) and reshape them to acquire power and wealth for their F'ers.
Libertarians abolish existing administrative entity's (that's right, gubmint again) and replace them with illegitimate privately operated shams to acquire power and wealth for THEIR F'ers.
For you and I and everyone else not invited to the palaces of fascist/ libertarian overlords - poverty and political impotence will abound. Same end, different route.
I must say, Vivick put on quite an audition Wednesday night. Not for We, the human people - but for the self-anointed kings he hopes to carry water for. Our reviled cartel of anti-Amercan billionaires certainly heard his message, and more troubling, know full well it was for their ears only.
I'd expect a nontrivial amount of heisted cash to find its way into a very smarmy campaign.
Libertarianism is Anarchy with a pretend safety net (figment of their imagination, or lack there of.) Anarchy tends to look good to those currently in power, but quickly looks like a big mistake when a bigger fish comes along...
Chris Christy put it best regarding the youthful Vivek Ramaswamy--ChatGPT. So he punches into ChatGPT’s dialog box: “what are the best ways to destroy America from within?” And AI does his job with the diarrhea of words he came to spew on the debate stage. Forget thoughtful understanding of complex USA.
The mass media in the U.S. have helped to elevate another dangerously-psychotic, morbidly rich predator to the level of a serious person ,legitimately contending for national leadership: Vivek Ramaswamy. Ordinarily I would say that only a science fiction author could create such a character in this country. But "truth is stranger than fiction."
Stark scary future,wealth doesn’t produce benevolence and generosity, instead it produces vicious need for much more than enough. They imagine their hard working employees are ripping them off. They start
Breaking tax laws and using extreme means to lower taxes. As business owners and employers they have a massive advantage yet complain constantly about everything.
Name calling and demonizing people are not usually at all effective in attempting to influence people and advocate for political action or change. I do have to confess though, that I have been guilty on occasions of being strident and even militant in my attacks on certain extreme so-called conservatives and Republicans. I have not had kind words for the libertarians and others on the right who are doing their level best to privatize schooling or government services and agencies.
Nevertheless, placing blame indiscriminately without considering all relevant factors is not wise or responsible. It is bad policy to privatize schooling for the general public. But it must be recognized that the opportunities for exploiting the situation have been created by the massive failures in the arena of public schooling, as I have reiterated a million times. The American people are well aware of the failures, even if they do not talk about it.
Koch revealed his ignorance when he said that “…we condemn compulsory education laws.” “Compulsory education” is an oxymoron if ever there were one. ONCE AGAIN, I REPEAT, EDUCATION CANNOT BE FORCED. This must be the starting point for that part of this discussion. Ignorance about the middle class is not merely the result of ending civics classes by Bill Bennett. That is an inaccurate, meaningless, and tired old excuse. Civics classes were ended because most students (well over 50%) left those classes with a highly truncated and inadequate understanding of anything in that curriculum. Why is that so hard to admit?
A personal example illustrates my point and my extreme dissatisfaction. Livid does not begin to describe my rage right now, in fact. My great grandson did not say a single word until well after his third birthday, which was terribly worrisome because kids usually start talking much earlier. But with the help and advice of a speech therapist paid for through a government program (probably within Medicaid) he has become very talkative and appears to be developing normally. He is clearly very bright, spirited, dynamic, and loving. I have filled in several times as a babysitter for him and his little sister when both parents were working or otherwise occupied and I see them almost daily, since I live within walking distance from them. He is now six and in first grade in a school, also within easy walking distance from where they live in a small apartment.
The reason I am enraged is because a full century after Dewey first proposed significant changes in school practices and policies, followed by thousands of others with progressive and workable ideas for making schools much more safe and hospitable, my beautiful great grandson is being abused and punished for being a vivacious, energetic, and highly social normal child. I will call him Justin here for the sake of anonymity. He has a tendency to talk when the teacher expects silence. He is being treated as a bad kid in class and his parents are being pressured to force him to submit to misanthropic expectations and conditions through threats, browbeating, and punishments. I cannot protect him and neither can they because laws give people who are obsessed with their own importance and with false notions about learning, education, discipline, human behavior, and truth nearly unlimited power over healthy, happy children and their parents.
The teacher MUST have complete control. The other students MUST NOT be distracted. The lesson and the plan for the hour or day MUST be presented on schedule. FOR SIX YEAR-OLD FIRST GRADERS! BULL$HIT!!! What does that teacher need to say to a class of twenty or more kids that is more important than what my grandson has to say in that classroom? She is a teacher, not a prison guard.
I’m going to give you your lesson for today. Kids need to express themselves; they need to feel respected and cared for; they need to move, breathe deeply, exercise, communicate, and learn in an organic manner in a hospitable environment. The teacher will have plenty of opportunity to convey her message in several hours each day in 180 days in the year. Who the hell is kidding whom?????
Yes, I know, pastor. Kids also must learn self-control, social etiquette, respect for adults and their peers. They need to listen to instructions at times and to focus on tasks which allow them to develop skills. A busy boss someday will not have any patience for backtalk. But despite the never-ending stream of platitudes such as those,
“…about half of all American adults cannot read a book written at an eighth-grade level, according to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy. Only 39 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government, leaving our nation vulnerable to racist white nationalists and fascists wanting to transform the democratic experiment our Founders began with our American republic.”
That is from yesterday’s Daily Take. It has been ever thus. I repeat again, who is kidding whom?
Formal schooling, instruction, or “education” are not the only things which contribute to and determine the future of a child or their adulthood. There are innumerable moments, events, and occasions which have meaning and consequences in the life of a child. A child remembers and is affected by hurts, humiliations, and punishments, and those things most often do not result in a more positive attitude or a more productive life.
Furthermore, in a class of six year-old kids, if more than a very few are able to concentrate, comprehend, process, appreciate fully and recall anything which the teacher says at any given moment, that is indeed a rare occasion. That is an argument for training and repetition if you are naïve enough to believe that a teacher frequently offers truly educational and significant data, information, or advice. But teachers should not overestimate their abilities or the power of their admonitions and insights.
If the issue were that Justin is significantly different from his classmates, or at least from the other boys, we might ask for special treatment or some kind of special arrangement. Every kid is an individual and is therefore different, and Justin may in fact benefit from an approach based on his particular characteristics, disabilities, or problems. However, the issue is that he is a six year-old boy who has enough good sense to know that much of what passes for instruction or learning material is not suited to his mode of learning or of little meaning or interest, or is too slow-moving and abstract to hold his attention. If he is easily distracted or inclined to distract others, one should ask why that should be a problem or why in all fairness it should not be the school’s problem, rather than his problem. He did not ask to go there.
Wednesday, Thom spoke about having been trained as a hypnotist and having trained others. He spoke about how groups can be hypnotized by using techniques and patterns and methods for focusing thinking and directing attention. What do you think a teacher is doing when he repeats a message about “paying attention”, following instructions, following orders, proper behavior and discipline, doing exercises and assignments on time, etc., etc., ad infinitum? I prefer the terms indoctrination or brainwashing, but all that inane garbage is most certainly a form of mass hypnosis, and does not contribute in the least to authentic education or to learning “critical thinking, autonomy, or living free in a democracy.
A rating of “AAA+” for our schools? My foot (or a different part of my anatomy which I am getting tired of sitting on right now). Anyone who is in such denial should check in for rehabilitation and deprogramming. Anyone who is unwilling to speak up loudly and often in defense of innocent children who are being prodded and pushed and silenced in the name of education, in a school where education and intellectual pursuits are as rare as hen’s teeth, should hang their head in shame. There are more books, papers, and articles decrying the destruction of the spirit and the dignity of school children than there are on how to get rich quickly, and there is certainly no shortage of those.
You cannot complain about the economic royalists, rampant deregulation, and privatization if you adamantly defend dysfunctional schools which mass produce indifference and ignorance and forced attendance. A new generation is being undermined today and every day because no one will demand democracy in schools. The billionaires love the school boosters who support that capitalistic indoctrination.
Vivek and the rest of the presidential grifter class need to answer a simple question, “what would be your Constitutional purpose if elected?” Presidents must take the following oath, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." That’s nice and all, but almost impossible to agree on what that means. As a citizen, I submit that their oath to the Constitution must also include that their purpose (their Constitutional purpose) while in office is to satisfy the six (or seven) objectives in the Preamble, and my expectations are that they will use best practice-based principles to meet that purpose. In addition, I want the candidates that I vote for to acknowledge that as long as corporations are persons and money is speech, our democracy will continue its backslide into autocracy.
As far as outsourcing and public/private partnerships to manage our commons, Daphne Greenwood (Professor of Economics at UCCS) wrote in her 2014 book (found at The Decision to Contract Out: Understanding the Full Economic and Social Impacts - In the Public Interest-check out the Key Findings of the full report) “unless there is real innovation that leads to greater efficiency or higher quality, communities will see a net negative effect on the wider social and economic level.”
What amazes me is those who denounce our government are the first to scream for help from the government when tragedy arises. Florida ( hurricanes ), Texas ( hurricanes, extremely cold and heat ) and now Arizona ( extreme heat ). Its amazing when my wife and I go to these free financial seminars and the first thing that's asked or stated is how do you get out from under paying taxes or get the most out of Social Security!!! You should see the looks on the faces around us when we say that we don't mind being taxed as it supports our lives ( ability to receive Social Security, health care, first responder support when its needed, roads, clean air and water, the ability to help those in need and less fortunate than we are ), and in doing so we are honored and privileged. 😊
Ahhh---the magical world of libertarians and the "free market".
Just what America needs---another needy, ego-driven, contrarian billionaire trying to suck up all the oxygen in every room he enters. They are completely disconnected from humanity, ours and theirs.
Seeing Ramaswamey and Trump together in any capacity will be disgusting. Is he different? NOPE!
No doubt the guy is a self-serving sociopath as have been most presidents in recent history to varying degrees. But he is high on the scale. It is interesting to note that the failed states you cite have all become that either directly due to the actions of Democrats, Obama and Hillary Clinton in Libya and the Clintons in Haiti, or the combined efforts of both parties as we see in Afghanstan (if you want to blame only Geroge W I urge you to read the Afghanistan Papers). As for your Putinphobia, you join Nikki Haley in freaking out at the prospect of "abandoning" Afghanistan, as you join the warhawks in spreading the Domino Theory and equating Putin to Hitler. You seem to embrace the neo-Nazis/fascists in Ukraine while being petrified of those in our country. And it's not something to minimize, along with major questions as to where all the weapons we are sending are actually going and at what point Putin will resort to nuclear weapons. I apologize in advance for condemning the Biden administration for failing to pursue any vestige of diplomacy even in the many months leading up to the invasion. But I understand that anyone who wants peace instead of the utter and complete destruction of Ukraine and does not believe its people should be cannon fodder for our desire for global economic domination is working for Putin. Funny how McCarthyism and propaganda and the guilt and shame for supporting imperialism and hegemony to favor your own political party makes for strange bedfellows.
Greed and ignorance, fear and ‘other loathing ‘is what these Republicans are selling.
There is no tolerance or desire to see others do well.
No compassion, no trust, no sense of worthwhile existence , unless you have a great deal of money.
The wealthy , have no use for poor to be educated , accepted or treated well on any level .
They are seen as unnecessary and are unworthy of consideration.
As are Senior Citizens, as are people of color, immigrants ( don’t bother to remind these wealthy fools that they or their recent ancestors were also immigrants)
They are the ‘ me’ people .
Greedy seekers of more money and more power .
Power to insulate their lives from any distress or misery.
But they cant , they are bluffing.
Their only purpose is to themselves.
They can lie , cheat , break the law with impunity.
They can afford to.
This country was not built for them .
Thats why they attempt to destroy whats good and just.
Trump reinforced this greed and self seeking . Its time to push back at the ballot box.
In spite of their efforts to distort this right, we need to protect these rights by showing up to vote . No matter what .
A big media event that should be ignored. Republicans = media domination. To contest that formula, please focus on more important topics.
Besides, from the materials and comments here, it's doubtful that many of the folks reading this today have read the indictments - critical documents that our media won't adequately inform about. Republicans would be happy to know that people are watching their media events rather than reading indictments about their criminal conduct. And with our media generally - that's the whole objective - to weaken the intellect, distract and confuse.
The fact that President Trump had the single longest telephone call ever conducted by a president with a back office IT worker is more important than any of this, especially on the day after that maintenance worker flipped on him.
Newspeak is designed to narrow the range of potential thought, eventually making any unorthodox thought impossible - acc to Orwell.
Fred Koch came back from building oil wells and refineries for Stalin, much enamored with Stalin
For instance the USSR was on a 100% gold standard where one ruble was worth .9851 grams fine gold.The Soviet Citizen could not redeem a ruble, but a foreigner could by presenting it to their window to the world, the NordBank in Paris, and trying to sneak rubles out of Russia was a felony if not a capital offense if Russian.
His art 12 of the 1936 Constitution reads, essentially, "if you don't work you don't eat"
He also criminalized abortions
Stalin's Russia and Ayn Rand, which wasn''t much different, are the Kochian ideals for America.
Vivick Ramasmarmy is the lovechild of Elon Musk and Milton Friedman's undead ghost.
The real world consequences of fascism (DeSantis) or libertarianism (Ramaswarmy) are a matter of nuance, IMO. Both ideologies produce F'ers - clearly. These F'ers (Fanatical Fringe Factions) commit the same crimes, but differ on the strategy used to do so.
As Thom illustrated, fascists takeover existing administrative entity's (ie, government) and reshape them to acquire power and wealth for their F'ers.
Libertarians abolish existing administrative entity's (that's right, gubmint again) and replace them with illegitimate privately operated shams to acquire power and wealth for THEIR F'ers.
For you and I and everyone else not invited to the palaces of fascist/ libertarian overlords - poverty and political impotence will abound. Same end, different route.
I must say, Vivick put on quite an audition Wednesday night. Not for We, the human people - but for the self-anointed kings he hopes to carry water for. Our reviled cartel of anti-Amercan billionaires certainly heard his message, and more troubling, know full well it was for their ears only.
I'd expect a nontrivial amount of heisted cash to find its way into a very smarmy campaign.
Lessee...
Professional liar - check
Obnoxious asshole - check
Dreadful person - check
Someone you want to punch in the face, repeatedly - check
Braindead moron who thinks he's a genius - check
Malevolent shitbird - check
Shameless idiot - check
Publicly celebrates his moron stupidity - check
Complete shithead - check
Nope, nothing new here. Just another Standard-Issue Modern Republican.
Libertarianism is Anarchy with a pretend safety net (figment of their imagination, or lack there of.) Anarchy tends to look good to those currently in power, but quickly looks like a big mistake when a bigger fish comes along...
Chris Christy put it best regarding the youthful Vivek Ramaswamy--ChatGPT. So he punches into ChatGPT’s dialog box: “what are the best ways to destroy America from within?” And AI does his job with the diarrhea of words he came to spew on the debate stage. Forget thoughtful understanding of complex USA.
The mass media in the U.S. have helped to elevate another dangerously-psychotic, morbidly rich predator to the level of a serious person ,legitimately contending for national leadership: Vivek Ramaswamy. Ordinarily I would say that only a science fiction author could create such a character in this country. But "truth is stranger than fiction."
Stark scary future,wealth doesn’t produce benevolence and generosity, instead it produces vicious need for much more than enough. They imagine their hard working employees are ripping them off. They start
Breaking tax laws and using extreme means to lower taxes. As business owners and employers they have a massive advantage yet complain constantly about everything.
Name calling and demonizing people are not usually at all effective in attempting to influence people and advocate for political action or change. I do have to confess though, that I have been guilty on occasions of being strident and even militant in my attacks on certain extreme so-called conservatives and Republicans. I have not had kind words for the libertarians and others on the right who are doing their level best to privatize schooling or government services and agencies.
Nevertheless, placing blame indiscriminately without considering all relevant factors is not wise or responsible. It is bad policy to privatize schooling for the general public. But it must be recognized that the opportunities for exploiting the situation have been created by the massive failures in the arena of public schooling, as I have reiterated a million times. The American people are well aware of the failures, even if they do not talk about it.
Koch revealed his ignorance when he said that “…we condemn compulsory education laws.” “Compulsory education” is an oxymoron if ever there were one. ONCE AGAIN, I REPEAT, EDUCATION CANNOT BE FORCED. This must be the starting point for that part of this discussion. Ignorance about the middle class is not merely the result of ending civics classes by Bill Bennett. That is an inaccurate, meaningless, and tired old excuse. Civics classes were ended because most students (well over 50%) left those classes with a highly truncated and inadequate understanding of anything in that curriculum. Why is that so hard to admit?
A personal example illustrates my point and my extreme dissatisfaction. Livid does not begin to describe my rage right now, in fact. My great grandson did not say a single word until well after his third birthday, which was terribly worrisome because kids usually start talking much earlier. But with the help and advice of a speech therapist paid for through a government program (probably within Medicaid) he has become very talkative and appears to be developing normally. He is clearly very bright, spirited, dynamic, and loving. I have filled in several times as a babysitter for him and his little sister when both parents were working or otherwise occupied and I see them almost daily, since I live within walking distance from them. He is now six and in first grade in a school, also within easy walking distance from where they live in a small apartment.
The reason I am enraged is because a full century after Dewey first proposed significant changes in school practices and policies, followed by thousands of others with progressive and workable ideas for making schools much more safe and hospitable, my beautiful great grandson is being abused and punished for being a vivacious, energetic, and highly social normal child. I will call him Justin here for the sake of anonymity. He has a tendency to talk when the teacher expects silence. He is being treated as a bad kid in class and his parents are being pressured to force him to submit to misanthropic expectations and conditions through threats, browbeating, and punishments. I cannot protect him and neither can they because laws give people who are obsessed with their own importance and with false notions about learning, education, discipline, human behavior, and truth nearly unlimited power over healthy, happy children and their parents.
The teacher MUST have complete control. The other students MUST NOT be distracted. The lesson and the plan for the hour or day MUST be presented on schedule. FOR SIX YEAR-OLD FIRST GRADERS! BULL$HIT!!! What does that teacher need to say to a class of twenty or more kids that is more important than what my grandson has to say in that classroom? She is a teacher, not a prison guard.
I’m going to give you your lesson for today. Kids need to express themselves; they need to feel respected and cared for; they need to move, breathe deeply, exercise, communicate, and learn in an organic manner in a hospitable environment. The teacher will have plenty of opportunity to convey her message in several hours each day in 180 days in the year. Who the hell is kidding whom?????
Yes, I know, pastor. Kids also must learn self-control, social etiquette, respect for adults and their peers. They need to listen to instructions at times and to focus on tasks which allow them to develop skills. A busy boss someday will not have any patience for backtalk. But despite the never-ending stream of platitudes such as those,
“…about half of all American adults cannot read a book written at an eighth-grade level, according to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy. Only 39 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government, leaving our nation vulnerable to racist white nationalists and fascists wanting to transform the democratic experiment our Founders began with our American republic.”
That is from yesterday’s Daily Take. It has been ever thus. I repeat again, who is kidding whom?
Formal schooling, instruction, or “education” are not the only things which contribute to and determine the future of a child or their adulthood. There are innumerable moments, events, and occasions which have meaning and consequences in the life of a child. A child remembers and is affected by hurts, humiliations, and punishments, and those things most often do not result in a more positive attitude or a more productive life.
Furthermore, in a class of six year-old kids, if more than a very few are able to concentrate, comprehend, process, appreciate fully and recall anything which the teacher says at any given moment, that is indeed a rare occasion. That is an argument for training and repetition if you are naïve enough to believe that a teacher frequently offers truly educational and significant data, information, or advice. But teachers should not overestimate their abilities or the power of their admonitions and insights.
If the issue were that Justin is significantly different from his classmates, or at least from the other boys, we might ask for special treatment or some kind of special arrangement. Every kid is an individual and is therefore different, and Justin may in fact benefit from an approach based on his particular characteristics, disabilities, or problems. However, the issue is that he is a six year-old boy who has enough good sense to know that much of what passes for instruction or learning material is not suited to his mode of learning or of little meaning or interest, or is too slow-moving and abstract to hold his attention. If he is easily distracted or inclined to distract others, one should ask why that should be a problem or why in all fairness it should not be the school’s problem, rather than his problem. He did not ask to go there.
Wednesday, Thom spoke about having been trained as a hypnotist and having trained others. He spoke about how groups can be hypnotized by using techniques and patterns and methods for focusing thinking and directing attention. What do you think a teacher is doing when he repeats a message about “paying attention”, following instructions, following orders, proper behavior and discipline, doing exercises and assignments on time, etc., etc., ad infinitum? I prefer the terms indoctrination or brainwashing, but all that inane garbage is most certainly a form of mass hypnosis, and does not contribute in the least to authentic education or to learning “critical thinking, autonomy, or living free in a democracy.
A rating of “AAA+” for our schools? My foot (or a different part of my anatomy which I am getting tired of sitting on right now). Anyone who is in such denial should check in for rehabilitation and deprogramming. Anyone who is unwilling to speak up loudly and often in defense of innocent children who are being prodded and pushed and silenced in the name of education, in a school where education and intellectual pursuits are as rare as hen’s teeth, should hang their head in shame. There are more books, papers, and articles decrying the destruction of the spirit and the dignity of school children than there are on how to get rich quickly, and there is certainly no shortage of those.
You cannot complain about the economic royalists, rampant deregulation, and privatization if you adamantly defend dysfunctional schools which mass produce indifference and ignorance and forced attendance. A new generation is being undermined today and every day because no one will demand democracy in schools. The billionaires love the school boosters who support that capitalistic indoctrination.
Vivek and the rest of the presidential grifter class need to answer a simple question, “what would be your Constitutional purpose if elected?” Presidents must take the following oath, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." That’s nice and all, but almost impossible to agree on what that means. As a citizen, I submit that their oath to the Constitution must also include that their purpose (their Constitutional purpose) while in office is to satisfy the six (or seven) objectives in the Preamble, and my expectations are that they will use best practice-based principles to meet that purpose. In addition, I want the candidates that I vote for to acknowledge that as long as corporations are persons and money is speech, our democracy will continue its backslide into autocracy.
As far as outsourcing and public/private partnerships to manage our commons, Daphne Greenwood (Professor of Economics at UCCS) wrote in her 2014 book (found at The Decision to Contract Out: Understanding the Full Economic and Social Impacts - In the Public Interest-check out the Key Findings of the full report) “unless there is real innovation that leads to greater efficiency or higher quality, communities will see a net negative effect on the wider social and economic level.”
What amazes me is those who denounce our government are the first to scream for help from the government when tragedy arises. Florida ( hurricanes ), Texas ( hurricanes, extremely cold and heat ) and now Arizona ( extreme heat ). Its amazing when my wife and I go to these free financial seminars and the first thing that's asked or stated is how do you get out from under paying taxes or get the most out of Social Security!!! You should see the looks on the faces around us when we say that we don't mind being taxed as it supports our lives ( ability to receive Social Security, health care, first responder support when its needed, roads, clean air and water, the ability to help those in need and less fortunate than we are ), and in doing so we are honored and privileged. 😊
Ahhh---the magical world of libertarians and the "free market".
Just what America needs---another needy, ego-driven, contrarian billionaire trying to suck up all the oxygen in every room he enters. They are completely disconnected from humanity, ours and theirs.
Seeing Ramaswamey and Trump together in any capacity will be disgusting. Is he different? NOPE!
Tom, don’t waste your words on Vivek…nothing to see there.
No doubt the guy is a self-serving sociopath as have been most presidents in recent history to varying degrees. But he is high on the scale. It is interesting to note that the failed states you cite have all become that either directly due to the actions of Democrats, Obama and Hillary Clinton in Libya and the Clintons in Haiti, or the combined efforts of both parties as we see in Afghanstan (if you want to blame only Geroge W I urge you to read the Afghanistan Papers). As for your Putinphobia, you join Nikki Haley in freaking out at the prospect of "abandoning" Afghanistan, as you join the warhawks in spreading the Domino Theory and equating Putin to Hitler. You seem to embrace the neo-Nazis/fascists in Ukraine while being petrified of those in our country. And it's not something to minimize, along with major questions as to where all the weapons we are sending are actually going and at what point Putin will resort to nuclear weapons. I apologize in advance for condemning the Biden administration for failing to pursue any vestige of diplomacy even in the many months leading up to the invasion. But I understand that anyone who wants peace instead of the utter and complete destruction of Ukraine and does not believe its people should be cannon fodder for our desire for global economic domination is working for Putin. Funny how McCarthyism and propaganda and the guilt and shame for supporting imperialism and hegemony to favor your own political party makes for strange bedfellows.