Lobbying as a concept is fine. Government officials can’t be expected to be experts in every field in order to create legislation to oversee it. Therefore industry experts can provide insight and guidance for them to establish proper laws and oversight. How it works in practice is obviously drastically different. But without lobbying you’ve got Mitch McConnell creating regulations regarding deep sea drilling with his years of oceanic and geotechnical expertise.
Lobbying may be fine, but paid lobbying is all that is wrong. There needs to be decision making groups that can make the specialized decisions on behalf of everyone. It can't just be a few well-funded companies paying off politicians for decisions that make them more money.
I always thought it was an outgrowth of the 1st amendments petitioning the government for redress of grievances? Utterly fucked as it's become. I get needing to have professional advisers for writing legislation. Lobbyist more often than not are in it for quid pro quo reasons. The ability of congressmen to retire and then turn around and use their accumulated influence to help said companies is messed up too. I turned sour to the idea when my brother told me how his real estate development company paid Dick Army or Dick Gephardt, one of the congressional Dicks, hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby for them in Miami to win a contract. It just felt fucking gross.
Back in the days when religion was magic and needed someone to decipher it, fine... I'm OK with that, because that was back in the days when new technology was the wheel. Today, I'm referring to science, mostly. Internet and Net Neutrality... climate change... infrastructure... health care... all that shit that morons who get elected know nothing about. Or innovation and progress... like car sales being mandated to go through dealers rather than straight to consumer... like restrictions on solar energy adoption... like oil and gas regulations being released so that Big Oil can have fewer restrictions on making money. All that shit... bought and paid for by politicians. We need SMART people to be included in that decision making process... not friends of big donors being elected to influential positions. We need to be able to step up and call morons morons. As soon as that fucker said that, the lights should have come up, and guys dressed in white with big butterfly nets should go and grab him and he should never be seen again. Obviously bought, and trying to regurgitate talking points he was handed by big business and didn't understand shit. It's fucking laughable.
Which political party do you think has more morons? I'm reading your list and it doesn't seem like you have a problem with morons so much as you have a problem with republicans. Either way it doesn't matter because calling people morons doesn't solve the problem. 2016 basically proves that in some ways. It needs to be done but it doesnt fix anything. The trick is having fewer morons/more smart people. Good luck trying to get education policy right though.
Let me be clear... I have no problems with Republicans or Democrats... if they make sense, I like them. I identify as neither of them, so I really don't care. If they are fucking morons, then they can all go fuck a goat. And yes, calling them a moron is the first step, otherwise you're in an "Emperor has no clothes" situation. You need to call out the bullshit... period. Doesn't matter what party you identify with, that's not a pass on them being a fucking idiot. The next step is to get them removed from public office... out of a position where they can do harm.
I firmly believe that the biggest negative impact on education is the budgeting process. I think that kids are being taught how to pass tests, not get an education. It seems that most of the schools and districts I was involved with in my past life as an Education Software company guy, the number one issue was the state level budgeting. Part of what I had to do was deal with low-level, common protocols that were made to share data between education systems on a national and international level. It was incredibly fucked up, because of so many data points that only existed to get funding. "If you have X special needs kids, you get Y funding". "If you have X percentage of Hispanic females, then you qualify for Y grant program." The special reporting that we had to incorporate was fucking insane. I really think that any system that is based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), will be gamed. Education is heavily gamed right now, and until the motivation is removed, it will continue to be fucked up.
Yep... but thank God you've got the founder of Blackwater's sister appointed as your Secretary of Education... I'm sure that will work out just GREAT.
We’re not much better off in Ontario right now. Ford’s education Minister ran a goat co-op for a living, never an educator, and thinks sexting isn't a concern for parents of young teens. I want to lock her in a car and roll it into a fucking pond.
Expected plot twist! Cohen's attorney said this morning that Cohen has evidence of a conspiracy between trump and russia to rig the election.
Not really a plot twist if its expected. More like "Hey, if you dont talk, how would you like to spend 10 years in a federal, pound-me-in-the-ass penitentiary?"
Wouldn't it have been a lot longer than that? Every armchair article I read had him facing life in prison or at least basically life since he'd get out when he would be in like his late 80's.
Sounds like his attorney is trying to get the deal down to 3 years, but prosecutors want 4 and a half.
This can't get any more surreal. Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis publicly launched a GoFundMe for Cohen on TV Wednesday morning. "The campaign page, called the "Michael Cohen Truth Fund," states that it wants to help Cohen with his "commitment to tell the truth." Cohen's lawyer and Former White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis is behind the campaign."
Cohen is twerking so hard for Mueller. In fact, I bet he already has. I think what his lawyer is saying now is just after the fact bluster. They should also burn Hannity just for the fuck of it.
Yup. Cohen will leave a “suicide note” stating that he “Couldn’t live with the thought of disgracing a President as great as Mr. Trump with his lies.” ...however to be fair, killing your employees is more of a Clinton thing.