Politics

[Leon]

Douglas Adams quote is seeming more and more real by the day

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
"But that's terrible," said Arthur.
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”

[FaultyMario]

He did.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...erhaul-federal

Are those districts/counties republican?

[Crazed_Insanity]

He did.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...erhaul-federal

Yeah, it was a rare popular and bipartisan effort, but in the end it wasn't that effective. So I guess I can't fault Obama for not doing something, but still, can the voters trust Hillary will be able to do better?

[Freude am Fahren]

Douglas Adams quote is seeming more and more real by the day

If only they all actually looked like Lizards...

[thesameguy]

I remember Hillary doing exactly that during one of the debates, talking about having federal programs to train people in industries like coal mining for jobs in solar and wind. Didn't work.

Not a thing in that article said anything about coal, renewable energy, or relocation... It's about the Workforce Innovation Act, which is a broad program designed to ease people getting education in certain career fields through primarily community colleges. I do understand that one aspect of this could apply to coal minors getting work in renewables, but it's not specific enough, not complete enough, and nobody went around saying "Free education money" when Trump said "Coal minors are unemployed."

I think this was a good program, I'm glad it happened, but it's a far cry from the level of assistance I am talking about.

[thesameguy]

To complete that thought, although we like and expect the free market to pick up the slack when the government effectively shuts down an industry, I think the flaw in that plan is that the legacy assholes then cry out "Look, they are making you unemployed, we are going to ensure your industry is protected and continues!" So, I think, let's quietly go full socialism here... and say "We're shutting down your old industry, and we are going to ensure that you have three years or whatever that number is to get resituated. Stay at home, get an education, get another job, IDK, but you've got X time to work it out."

[Crazed_Insanity]

Anyway, conservatives might find free education money offensive because of 'socialism'. Just as poor whites might need Obamacare, but they still might reject it even if it's completely free... Because they just don't want to believe it's right...

So I don't think Obama or DNC can be blamed for lack of effort. However, it was clear that the imagery of hope has faded over the 8 years... And Hillary wasn't equipped to inject more hope during the campaign... And trump capitalized on people's fears.

The only glimmer of hope was lit by Sanders, but it was quickly extinguished. I would've held on to that hope had Warren been picked as vp, but nope. Hillary sent a strong signal for status quo and she's just plain better than Trump. Rationally she's correct, but fear is a much stronger emotion than they expected.

[MR2 Fan]

Well there's a lot of Corporate Democrats who are running the party. Bernie was more of a Progressive, and that's the part the Corporate Democrats want to keep down.

Progressives are where its at, but either that means taking over the party, like the tea party tried with the GOP, or starting their own party. Bull Moose people!!

[Tom Servo]

Not a thing in that article said anything about coal, renewable energy, or relocation... It's about the Workforce Innovation Act, which is a broad program designed to ease people getting education in certain career fields through primarily community colleges. I do understand that one aspect of this could apply to coal minors getting work in renewables, but it's not specific enough, not complete enough, and nobody went around saying "Free education money" when Trump said "Coal minors are unemployed."

I think this was a good program, I'm glad it happened, but it's a far cry from the level of assistance I am talking about.

Are you talking about the article that I posted? Because that was to point out that Obama had actually done something rather than talk about it.

This was on Clinton's campaign site and talked about doing what you're talking about: https://www.hillaryclinton.com/brief...l-communities/

[thesameguy]

Are you talking about the article that I posted? Because that was to point out that Obama had actually done something rather than talk about it.

He did a thing, which is not really the same thing.

This was on Clinton's campaign site and talked about doing what you're talking about: https://www.hillaryclinton.com/brief...l-communities/

Yep, pretty much right on target. Never heard a peep about this in the election, though. Not a word. Every time Trump said "Save coal" she should have responded with "Give coal workers money to not mine coal anymore."