Off the top of my head, it appears that the fuck that's going on is America is seeing the results of a long slide into stupidity, cruelty and greed. It's anything for a price. I'll call it The Transactional Age. You want lower egg prices? Elect the felon. You want something done about immigration? Musk is part of the package.
Off the top of my head, it appears that the fuck that's going on is America is seeing the results of a long slide into stupidity, cruelty and greed. It's anything for a price. I'll call it The Transactional Age. You want lower egg prices? Elect the felon. You want something done about immigration? Musk is part of the package.
There's a New Yorker article about military enlistment. It's down, like underwater. Three-fourths of all applicants are rejected for being too dumb and too fat. The others want a deal, and the military is up for negotiations. If you join, you'll get XYZ, whatever benefits recruiters need to dangle but service to country is not part of the conversation. The way we treat veterans, no wonder.
Similarly, the only people donating blood these days are Boomers, cuz what's in it for me? I hear that in the olden days, there used to be something about helping your neighbor? Some blather about the importance of community? Now the richest little boy in the world wants to take money from people who are scraping by. Good times!
That's true about blood donations; my partner and I donate regularly. I have given blood since I was a freshman in college (over 50 years ago), but never before have we been as hounded for donations as we have for the past two years.
I will always blame Reagan as the beginning of the end. Others helped (like Newt fucking Gingrich and Mitch fucking McConnell and our previous worst president ever, Dubya Bush), but the "greed is good" ethos in the 80s, privatizing a shitload of US capacity for profit, the start of massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations coupled with cuts to the social safety net. Privatizing the gains while socializing the losses.
For the people who think "government should be run like a business," I hope it's clear as fucking day now how stupid that has always been.
Excellent pt re privatizing gains and socializing losses, it's like a game of shells or slight of hand. Dump your steaming pile here and then stand 10 ft away and complain it stinks. And the greed is good ethos just keeps coming around again. I recall Carter saying just hold the line and work toward energy independence and we can rebuild sustainability and Reagan said oh no shining city on a hill blah blah welfare queens and suddenly it was all Robin Leach lifestyles of the rich and famous and gold toilet seats on yachts and zero trickle down for the urban poor and gang wars. God. So fucking stupid people in this country never learn.
Re the military, the problem has been around for a long time. We need to remember that ending the draft was a quick fix to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, completely without forethought about negative future consequences. It enabled the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and disincentivises examination of other military interventions such as special operations and drone strikes in other countries.
It also results in disproportionate numbers of fascists and gang members using the military for training.
Restore the draft! If I, as a nerdy, underweight physicist was able to survive weeks of abuse by Gunny Sergeants, anybody can.
Yes, and there's understandable cynicism about military service after seeing so many come home mutilated or in a box after arguably useless engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. A year of national service for everyone!
I can't say I blame people for not wanting to join up. Even if they weren't pointless wars, veterans are treated like shit in America and that shows no signs of improving (quite the opposite).
Living conditions are shockingly bad. As a kid, we'd visit Treasure Island in SF & other places. As adults, my cousins ALL joined up for post-retirement "benefits. While telling horror stories of heaters not working, rats & mice a constant concern, noise, overcrowded 3 kids to one bedroom (in the 70's).
Wow, I've lived in SF since 2012 and I've never heard that before (though I do know Treasure Island is a former military base). That is absolutely terrible, but unfortunately, not surprising. If it was that bad in the 70s, I can't imagine what the conditions must be like now at the various bases around the world. Like most things in this country, I'm sure it's gotten worse since then.
There was money in the DOD budget for 2017 that was earmarked to do significant upgrade/upkeep on military housing. I know I heard the base near me was excited about it. Unfortunately, that money was taken by drumph to go toward building the wall. 🤬🤬
I’m sure the personnel at were really upset about that.
Belated reply: $ in budget 2017: Damn them! Just like Sen. GOP insisted on stripping $40 billion to build new or update 40 year old VA medical facilities. They said if that's cut, The Inflation Reduction Act was A-Ok. 🤬
Interestingly, the military no longer wants to reach out to people of any shade whatsoever. I don't know the actual mix of the services but I believe they are more brown than white. Why do they want lily white men? To train as their private army, of course.
That is an interesting argument for the draft. I was young at the time but my understanding is that the compulsory draft was eliminated because people of means - like the draft dodger in chief - could always skirt the requirement. Something about how the men of greater means always making the decision to engage our military full of second class citizens. We're in a full blown class war at home, the elite won't have their kids drafted whether it's active policy or not. It will eventually be a mercenary for hire svc. Funded by tax payers. If they wanted cuts they could institute the draft, enforce it, and cut the military budget for handing out incentives of $50 as a signing bonus. But realistically anyone signing up now is facing such brutal armaments it's a small price to pay for a life. Our whole military situation is horrendous top to bottom. And if they're so hard up why decommission decorated women in highly skilled service? Asshats.
Rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment in our military has been a disaster for decades. I've emailed, contacted approx 20 times in decades. It doesn't stop. Any woman or girl who enlists is insane with their "procedures" and "concerns" over this.
The “greed” part cannot be emphasized enuf. With 340M people out there - theres going to be millions of “what’s in it for me” over the top capitalist pigs.
Maybe we should start looking back where this started. I nominate television, calculators, cell phones, Facebook, social media, and you know it's all been downhill since we were able to land on the moon without the computers we have today. We don't use our minds and bodies like we did up until 1980. Get this stuff out of your homes. Read, even if it's informative subjects on the computer.
Literacy should be project 1. There are too many factors to list here, but without Chief Justice Roberts/Citizens United, Musk would not have been able to buy the government. (I get my news from print only.)
i put all blame on that SOB that invented the wheel that led to wagons that led to wagon trains that escalated the wars against indigenous peoples that that that
Off the top of my head, it appears that the fuck that's going on is America is seeing the results of a long slide into stupidity, cruelty and greed. It's anything for a price. I'll call it The Transactional Age. You want lower egg prices? Elect the felon. You want something done about immigration? Musk is part of the package.
There's a New Yorker article about military enlistment. It's down, like underwater. Three-fourths of all applicants are rejected for being too dumb and too fat. The others want a deal, and the military is up for negotiations. If you join, you'll get XYZ, whatever benefits recruiters need to dangle but service to country is not part of the conversation. The way we treat veterans, no wonder.
Similarly, the only people donating blood these days are Boomers, cuz what's in it for me? I hear that in the olden days, there used to be something about helping your neighbor? Some blather about the importance of community? Now the richest little boy in the world wants to take money from people who are scraping by. Good times!
That's true about blood donations; my partner and I donate regularly. I have given blood since I was a freshman in college (over 50 years ago), but never before have we been as hounded for donations as we have for the past two years.
I will always blame Reagan as the beginning of the end. Others helped (like Newt fucking Gingrich and Mitch fucking McConnell and our previous worst president ever, Dubya Bush), but the "greed is good" ethos in the 80s, privatizing a shitload of US capacity for profit, the start of massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations coupled with cuts to the social safety net. Privatizing the gains while socializing the losses.
For the people who think "government should be run like a business," I hope it's clear as fucking day now how stupid that has always been.
same
Excellent pt re privatizing gains and socializing losses, it's like a game of shells or slight of hand. Dump your steaming pile here and then stand 10 ft away and complain it stinks. And the greed is good ethos just keeps coming around again. I recall Carter saying just hold the line and work toward energy independence and we can rebuild sustainability and Reagan said oh no shining city on a hill blah blah welfare queens and suddenly it was all Robin Leach lifestyles of the rich and famous and gold toilet seats on yachts and zero trickle down for the urban poor and gang wars. God. So fucking stupid people in this country never learn.
Re the military, the problem has been around for a long time. We need to remember that ending the draft was a quick fix to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, completely without forethought about negative future consequences. It enabled the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and disincentivises examination of other military interventions such as special operations and drone strikes in other countries.
It also results in disproportionate numbers of fascists and gang members using the military for training.
Restore the draft! If I, as a nerdy, underweight physicist was able to survive weeks of abuse by Gunny Sergeants, anybody can.
Yes, and there's understandable cynicism about military service after seeing so many come home mutilated or in a box after arguably useless engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. A year of national service for everyone!
I can't say I blame people for not wanting to join up. Even if they weren't pointless wars, veterans are treated like shit in America and that shows no signs of improving (quite the opposite).
Living conditions are shockingly bad. As a kid, we'd visit Treasure Island in SF & other places. As adults, my cousins ALL joined up for post-retirement "benefits. While telling horror stories of heaters not working, rats & mice a constant concern, noise, overcrowded 3 kids to one bedroom (in the 70's).
Wow, I've lived in SF since 2012 and I've never heard that before (though I do know Treasure Island is a former military base). That is absolutely terrible, but unfortunately, not surprising. If it was that bad in the 70s, I can't imagine what the conditions must be like now at the various bases around the world. Like most things in this country, I'm sure it's gotten worse since then.
There was money in the DOD budget for 2017 that was earmarked to do significant upgrade/upkeep on military housing. I know I heard the base near me was excited about it. Unfortunately, that money was taken by drumph to go toward building the wall. 🤬🤬
I’m sure the personnel at were really upset about that.
Belated reply: $ in budget 2017: Damn them! Just like Sen. GOP insisted on stripping $40 billion to build new or update 40 year old VA medical facilities. They said if that's cut, The Inflation Reduction Act was A-Ok. 🤬
Interestingly, the military no longer wants to reach out to people of any shade whatsoever. I don't know the actual mix of the services but I believe they are more brown than white. Why do they want lily white men? To train as their private army, of course.
That is an interesting argument for the draft. I was young at the time but my understanding is that the compulsory draft was eliminated because people of means - like the draft dodger in chief - could always skirt the requirement. Something about how the men of greater means always making the decision to engage our military full of second class citizens. We're in a full blown class war at home, the elite won't have their kids drafted whether it's active policy or not. It will eventually be a mercenary for hire svc. Funded by tax payers. If they wanted cuts they could institute the draft, enforce it, and cut the military budget for handing out incentives of $50 as a signing bonus. But realistically anyone signing up now is facing such brutal armaments it's a small price to pay for a life. Our whole military situation is horrendous top to bottom. And if they're so hard up why decommission decorated women in highly skilled service? Asshats.
Rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment in our military has been a disaster for decades. I've emailed, contacted approx 20 times in decades. It doesn't stop. Any woman or girl who enlists is insane with their "procedures" and "concerns" over this.
Fat and dumb alright by really good at video games.
Totally agree with this being “The Transactional Age” and it’s making society weak and miserable.
The “greed” part cannot be emphasized enuf. With 340M people out there - theres going to be millions of “what’s in it for me” over the top capitalist pigs.
Maybe we should start looking back where this started. I nominate television, calculators, cell phones, Facebook, social media, and you know it's all been downhill since we were able to land on the moon without the computers we have today. We don't use our minds and bodies like we did up until 1980. Get this stuff out of your homes. Read, even if it's informative subjects on the computer.
Literacy should be project 1. There are too many factors to list here, but without Chief Justice Roberts/Citizens United, Musk would not have been able to buy the government. (I get my news from print only.)
I like AlJazeera myself.
isn't this social media?
i put all blame on that SOB that invented the wheel that led to wagons that led to wagon trains that escalated the wars against indigenous peoples that that that
NO WHEEL =s we stayed in our own cave!
Good times to get out of this mess of filching and fuckery Ann!!
That has been obvious for decades, given the number of shitty right-wingers the NYT pays to write propaganda.