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Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 6:40 am
by SR
A meritocracy would be nice :wave:

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 7:56 am
by mockbee
Yeah, then we could all vote republican :rockon:

:lol:

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:36 pm
by Hype
SR wrote:
Mon Apr 29, 2019 6:40 am
A meritocracy would be nice :wave:
We've been trying to figure that one out since Plato's Republic (and Zeno's Republic! And Thomas More's Utopia... and on and on...) -- Never going to happen. And it couldn't ever happen. There just isn't a way to set up a system that always only relies on merit alone. The difficulty of politics is maneuvering within on-the-ground power structures and figuring out ways to operate effectively at the wide social level for as long as possible, as stably as possible, doing or supporting or allowing as much good as possible. Managing the ways in which the stable and the good interact within societies at different levels (local, state, federal) and internationally is just insanely complicated. There's never been a way to be certain about any of this. Best we've got are vague rules of thumb and some ideas about what's right, and sometimes good smart people manage to get a little bit of power and do some good smart things.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 5:26 am
by SR
Hype wrote:
Mon Apr 29, 2019 4:36 pm
SR wrote:
Mon Apr 29, 2019 6:40 am
A meritocracy would be nice :wave:
We've been trying to figure that one out since Plato's Republic (and Zeno's Republic! And Thomas More's Utopia... and on and on...) -- Never going to happen. And it couldn't ever happen. There just isn't a way to set up a system that always only relies on merit alone. The difficulty of politics is maneuvering within on-the-ground power structures and figuring out ways to operate effectively at the wide social level for as long as possible, as stably as possible, doing or supporting or allowing as much good as possible. Managing the ways in which the stable and the good interact within societies at different levels (local, state, federal) and internationally is just insanely complicated. There's never been a way to be certain about any of this. Best we've got are vague rules of thumb and some ideas about what's right, and sometimes good smart people manage to get a little bit of power and do some good smart things.
Yes, I think it's impossible too. Not mentioned above are the will to power ideas of more than a few decent thinkers to which I subscribe. Too, I wasn't really addressing politics in general...simply the idea of free education where all these principles still apply, but I don't think it would limit opportunity as the discussion has implied. There will still be a small portion of the population that elite private schools draw from, but state schools could become a bit more diverse. My reference to a meritocracy was written in whimsy as a response to Bees previous post.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 6:54 am
by Hype
Yeah. No doubt. I guess I can add something on a slightly different note: Warren's idea is excellent. Higher education should be freely accessible for all those who can demonstrate aptitude. But, there is a complicating factor: higher education, especially in North America, has been on a corporatist bent for 30+ years. The upper-level administrators are treating universities as income-driven sources of tech/economic progress. The administrative class has been bloated, while tenure protections and new hires have dropped precipitously, while at the same time enrollments have massively increased. The latter is usually seen as a very, very good thing. And that's half true. But ask any professor: how many students in a class of a hundred in first year are actually prepared, at the most basic level, to do university-level studies. The answer is almost none of them. And that's largely because of changes/cuts to public education at the lower levels. A lot of these students are passed and kept enrolled solely for the tuition money. No one ever tells them to maybe think carefully about what they should really be doing. So one concern with free post-secondary education is that even if this removes part of the profit-motive for enrolling students who shouldn't be there, it doesn't necessarily remove these sorts of enrollment targets that could be tied directly to funding. For evidence of this, just look at Canada. Nearly all our universities are publicly funded. Yet they still have a "butts in seats" mentality as far as enrollment, because departmental funding is tied not to, say, need, or quality of research(ers), etc., but to how many students are enrolled. This makes it very difficult for the Humanities to compete with Engineering, Comp Sci., and the Life Sciences. For another case study: Stanford is cutting funding to its University Press, which is a fraction of what it pays its athletics department.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:51 am
by mockbee
Yup.
I have a degree from the Corporation of Oregon, '00.
They purged the "U" in 1999.
Here is $1.2 Trillion, now be on your merry way will make this much, much worse if there are not significant qualifiers to the plan.

That has to be a major concern of yours from an academic standpoint.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 12:34 pm
by mockbee
Image

"......however, not all of your precious angels have the aptitude for higher education."

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 2:02 pm
by Hype
mockbee wrote:
Tue Apr 30, 2019 12:34 pm
Image

"......however, not all of your precious angels have the aptitude for higher education."
That's not a real quotation of anyone, is it? If you're paraphrasing something I said above, well... it's true isn't it? And I think we shouldn't denigrate not going to university. There's nothing wrong with the trades, or with service professions (especially health services). In fact, both of those are far, far more in need right now than people barely graduating from a 4 year bachelors program with a 2.5 GPA and a degree in English or History (that they didn't really get much out of or enjoy; never mind aptitude).

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:57 pm
by mockbee
Warren would never say that, but she should and add:
"...many of you were duped and in big trouble, I am truly sorry about that, and here is some money to relieve your burden."


This is what I am trying to get at. Higher education is no panacea, and in fact is an unnecessary burden to a ton of kids who shouldn't be there, and does nothing constructive for their future prospects. That is the case now, even when kids are putting themselves into a ton of financial stress. It's what they've been sold.

What parent/student would be so stupid to leave a free 4 year higher education degree on the table?
And what corporate university would be so stupid as to be more selective with easy money coming in?

Truly we have a misinformation crisis that created a huge financial crisis.

Trade, vocational and community colleges should be free. Maybe state schools are free as well, but have rigid enrollment caps and limitations on budget allocations. :noclue:

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Wed May 01, 2019 3:48 pm
by Hype
What parent/student would be so stupid to leave a free 4 year higher education degree on the table?
The kind who doesn't blindly believe that the piece of paper (regardless of the value of the content required for attaining it) was required to live a good, comfortable, life.

The problem, especially after WW2, is not that the possibility of attaining post-secondary institutions was opened up to classes of people who previously would never have had the option. That was unquestionably a good thing (and it also resulted in a huge boom in hiring in Universities in the 60s). But concomitant with that was a persistent superstitious inversion of the causal connection between higher education and economic prospects. The data shows that higher education correlates with higher lifetime earnings, and on that basis, parents push their kids into it. But this gets things backwards.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 3:56 pm
by chaos
It looks like Bill De Blasio is throwing his hat into the ring next week.



Image
Who are the 2020 US Democratic presidential candidates?
The pool of candidates vying for their party's nomination in 2020 is among the largest and most diverse in US history.
2 May 2019


https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/ ... 57543.html


Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 6:39 am
by chaos

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 10:38 pm
by mockbee
Bill Maher nailed it for 2020. :wave:


Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 11:25 am
by mockbee
God I hope Warren can pull this off for the nomination................please, please, please.......... :box:

It's going to be her or Biden........i'm going to shoot somebody if it's Biden.......... he has a strong chance. :banghead:


If economy/interventions stays status quo, Warren will lose to Trump in the general, she won't get the minority vote, but we need her to finally kill off this stale absurd version of the Democratic party.

Warren/Abrams would be interesting...........if Warren can come up with something 'He-uuuuge' when faced with the Pocahontas crap, she has failed miserably so far on that front......

If economy tanks I think it will be a nail biter between Warren and Trump......if Warren can get minority vote out.

This Biden/Clinton party is disgusting and pathetic.........and would lose just as badly or worse as Warren to Trump.

Obama would walk away handily with victory if he could run for third term.
Oprah would win 45-48 states and absolutely kill in the popular......

:wave:

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:06 pm
by Hype
You don't think Booker will pull it off in the end?

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:21 pm
by mockbee
Unfortunately, no.

He doesn't have the chops and cross-cultural elegance that Obama had that put white working class at just enough ease. Unfortunately I think America would see him as just a little to much 'from the hood' We're not there yet......

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 7:37 pm
by Hype
I'm very curious to see how it shakes out. Biden appears to be playing something like the Howard Dean role this year -- early front-runner, everyone lets him talk until he says one thing too many. Not sure if Warren and Sanders will actually stick it out. Booker is interesting because he's more Bill Clinton than Obama. He's a centrist establishment Democrat, but with slight youthfulness and a ton of political cred. Not someone that I'd agree with about much, but I can see him being far more electable than Warren or Sanders, despite the energy they both have.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 7:01 am
by SR
Well, these summaries completely ignore the General Election polling. I'll save you the effort....I am aware of the polling issues in 16.

Booker has no chance. Biden will be an issue if he gets the nomination. I viewed the debate a bit differently than what I have heard described. I saw a couple of functional nominations; I saw a couple of excellent tickets, and I saw a snapshot of a few very capable and serviceable cabinets.

With the exception of Jay Inslee, who I think would be an excellent Energy or EPA chief, there were qualified people for Chief of Steff, State, Education, HUD, and Defense.

I am most impressed with Buttigieg. By far, the best thinker on the stage with neither too much nor too little idealism. I remain in the Sanders camp.

I think a real issue for trump is his declining popularity with his more silent base. Farmers and steel states are bewildered with what has transpired in the last few years. I still don't understand the postion that trump is not vulnerable in 20

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 7:42 am
by mockbee
SR



Most people are enraged, they are fucking furious out there. Not at Trump. They are reeling from what America has become. The lie of the american dream has been fully exposed. The jig is up. Politics as normal is no longer, it is dead. The relatively small satiated class is having a hard time understanding this. It confuses me that people here still act like things are normal??? Like gettin back to the 90s?!

2020 will be decided in one of two ways. The terrified, hurting and destroyed people with either choose HATE or LOVE. We know who HATE is. And I dont see LOVE in Biden. I see a confused Uncle who means well. I dont see LOVE in Warren, I ser a great aunt, who may understand the problem and can provide some practical/reasoned advise, but that is not LOVE. Those are the only two I see getting the nomination in the field to date. I do not see LOVE in any other candidate.
Oprah is the essence of love to many, many, many people. She would not be a good president, but she would win.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 9:17 am
by SR
Yeah, I don't really understand what you are saying. If I do, it is overly reductive. Reducing this election and the disparate interests of a disparate electorate to love and hate is a bit to simple for me to wrap my head around. I agree people are pissed though, but not to the point of anarchy or revolution. Or is trump a lock because he is the new normal and by extention a conduit for the fury?

Are satiated people capable of fury, or is just a diluted version from a different type of suffering?

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 10:21 am
by mockbee
SR wrote:
Sat Sep 14, 2019 7:01 am
Well, these summaries completely ignore the General Election polling. I'll save you the effort....I am aware of the polling issues in 16.

Booker has no chance. Biden will be an issue if he gets the nomination. I viewed the debate a bit differently than what I have heard described. I saw a couple of functional nominations; I saw a couple of excellent tickets, and I saw a snapshot of a few very capable and serviceable cabinets.

With the exception of Jay Inslee, who I think would be an excellent Energy or EPA chief, there were qualified people for Chief of Steff, State, Education, HUD, and Defense.

I am most impressed with Buttigieg. By far, the best thinker on the stage with neither too much nor too little idealism. I remain in the Sanders camp.

I think a real issue for trump is his declining popularity with his more silent base. Farmers and steel states are bewildered with what has transpired in the last few years. I still don't understand the postion that trump is not vulnerable in 20
BTW SR, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say here, outside being in Sanders camp and especially your last paragraph.
I was impressed with the candidates in the debate as well. I am just comung in hard on the electability front from the workung class perspective.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 3:39 pm
by Hype
SR wrote:
Sat Sep 14, 2019 7:01 am
Well, these summaries completely ignore the General Election polling. I'll save you the effort....I am aware of the polling issues in 16.

Booker has no chance. Biden will be an issue if he gets the nomination. I viewed the debate a bit differently than what I have heard described. I saw a couple of functional nominations; I saw a couple of excellent tickets, and I saw a snapshot of a few very capable and serviceable cabinets.

With the exception of Jay Inslee, who I think would be an excellent Energy or EPA chief, there were qualified people for Chief of Steff, State, Education, HUD, and Defense.

I am most impressed with Buttigieg. By far, the best thinker on the stage with neither too much nor too little idealism. I remain in the Sanders camp.

I think a real issue for trump is his declining popularity with his more silent base. Farmers and steel states are bewildered with what has transpired in the last few years. I still don't understand the postion that trump is not vulnerable in 20
Buttigieg is worryingly pro-military, and a bit authoritarian-feeling, but I can't quite say exactly why I get that vibe. I also don't think he's got a chance.

I'm probably closest to Bernie economically and socially, but I don't know if I see him winning, or if he wins, being able to deliver on anything. I'm not sure how to think about this as an international observer: I'm used to voting based on local representation and usually trying to either reflect my local interests or vote someone out if possible. We don't get to vote directly for our national leader in Canada. I mean, in a way Americans don't either, since they're effectively voting for their state's electoral college votes to go to someone in the hopes that that counts enough to make a difference (which is only really true in a handful of states in any given election).

I wonder how many will treat this as an "anyone but Trump" vote, versus the clear 18-34 block's focus on climate change.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 9:14 pm
by Pandemonium
Pretty much anyone I have talked to who aren’t Trump supporters really don’t care who the Democrat nominee will be, they’ll vote for him or her just to vote against Trump. Which is kind of a dangerous thing as that is exactly the same mindset a lot of voters had regarding Hillary Clinton and look what that got us.

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2019 11:34 pm
by mockbee
SR wrote:
Sat Sep 14, 2019 9:17 am
Yeah, I don't really understand what you are saying. If I do, it is overly reductive. Reducing this election and the disparate interests of a disparate electorate to love and hate is a bit to simple for me to wrap my head around. I agree people are pissed though, but not to the point of anarchy or revolution. Or is trump a lock because he is the new normal and by extention a conduit for the fury?
Yeah, I'm being a little flippant, but I stand by the thought that the privileged class is really not seeing the forest for the trees here. I am being reductive. I see being otherwise would be a waste of time. Its like obsessing over the wheel alignments of a gutted car in a junkyard, on the way to the compactor...politics as we knew it is over.

Maureen Dowd actually did a really good job in her piece addressing this:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytime ... p.amp.html

Yes, the working/borderline poverty people in this country are pissed to the point of faux anarchy. Trump is the perfect protagonist. Unfortunetly he is the conduit for fury. Everytime he makes chaos, there is an adrenaline hit........the thought...."..maybe they're getting the message!.......?" Because certainly, nobody else,....maaaybe Clinton, in the last 40+ years has delivered "the message"..... Black voters gave up a long time ago, actually they never had a chance to begin with, you couldnt cook up a better candidate in a lab than Obama, strangely enough.......what Im trying to get at is tgat it hasnt been "normal" for a really long time. Its just laid out all bear now. We're never going back. Trump will win on 2020, unless there is someone well known out of left field. You know who I am thinking of.


SR wrote:
Sat Sep 14, 2019 9:17 am
Are satiated people capable of fury, or is just a diluted version from a different type of suffering?
The satiated/privileged are afflicted. They are not furious. Fury would be the result of direct and immediate harm. That is not the case for the satiated.

:wave:

Re: Democratic Presidential Campaign 2020

Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2019 7:23 am
by SR
:wave:

OPRAH and the Cauliflower Crust Cabinet :rockon: