The Democrat Utopia

[TGHusker]

2 hours ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

I have no desire to undercut what Elon Musk has done as a businessman. He's been shrewd and daring while operating at an extremely high bar of automobile manufacturing, space travel, and the monetary system itself. I don't mind that he's eccentric (autistic, actually) and brings the name and temperament of a Bond villain. He generally makes life more interesting, and we could use that. He'd have a lot less bad press if he could stay off Twitter, but he understands that choice.

 

But I will agree that the "I built that!" cry of entrepreneurs rarely takes into account the taxpayer funded infrastructure they built on top of, including huge investments by the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, NASA and others that continue to provide both R&D and intellectual property that no private company could afford by itself. 

Pay the 11 billion, pat yourself on the back. Move on.

 

America has always been a marriage of convenience between Big Government and Private Capital and the people who want us to choose one side have no idea what that would really look like. 

Well stated.  Let the private sector do what it does well - innovation, motivation, inspiration, and perspiration.  Let the govt do what it does well - monetization,  structuration, incubation, and  construction.  Seems like a good partnership to me. 

[Guy Chamberlin]

57 minutes ago, nic said:

Low police moral led to even more departures than expected. Exit interviews stated lack of appreciation  and support. If I was a cop in Burlington, I would ask for double the salary and a signing bonus to come back.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/burlington-vermont-defunded-police-force-s-happened-rcna8409?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

 

 

One of the reasons cited for some questionable police decisions is that recruiting has been a problem for several years now. Police departments with strict training and experience standards were forced to lower those standards, accepting guys who may have been rejected by the military and come to the job from private security. 

[RedDenver]

2 hours ago, nic said:

Low police moral led to even more departures than expected. Exit interviews stated lack of appreciation  and support. If I was a cop in Burlington, I would ask for double the salary and a signing bonus to come back.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/burlington-vermont-defunded-police-force-s-happened-rcna8409?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

 

The article says the council intended to cut 30% of the police force. The police had 95 officers before and 64 now - that's 33%. 66-67 officers would be a 30% cut, so that's 2-3 officers short.
 

Quote

 

Police officers began to leave in droves. Before defunding, Burlington averaged about 95 effective, or active-duty, police officers. Today, the department hovers around 64.

 

Quote

 

It’s hard to tell whether crime has risen in Burlington as officers have left the force, in part because there are no solid numbers yet. The best year-to-year comparisons would come from FBI data — which won’t be available until next year.

 

For now, the Burlington Police Department has incident data for 2021, which show that the total number of incidents fell by 11 percent in the first 11 months of the year compared to the same period last year.

 

So it sounds like the reduction in officers happened more quickly than intended - 18 months instead of 36 months - but other than that there's nothing to suggest it was anything other than what was intended. If data comes back showing massive crime increases or officer numbers continue to fall, then I think we can say it was a mistake, but until there's more data I don't know that much can be drawn from it yet.

[admo]

On 12/20/2021 at 6:47 AM, teachercd said:

I think there are like 4-5 true communist countries left.  It would be hard to pick which one would be a great place to live.

Great question @teachercd!  

 

I would say China or N.Koriea

 

1. Street Food

2. Karaoke bars

3. Hot chicks.......( IT'S TO BIG!!!!! )

4. Blasian babes

5. Profit 

[nic]

This congresswomen was just carjacked at gunpoint in Philly. If they catch the guys she should offer up bail….if bail is even required. 

 

 

 

[funhusker]

28 minutes ago, nic said:

This congresswomen was just carjacked at gunpoint in Philly. If they catch the guys she should offer up bail….if bail is even required. 

 

 

 

Why?

[nic]

11 hours ago, funhusker said:

Why?

Perhaps too subtle. She was the second politician in favor of defunding the police to get carjacked in recent weeks. I thought it was ironic. She probably favors bail reform and the new approach many liberal ADs are taking to not prosecute certain crimes. I wonder if she has changed her mind, since the refund the police movement is gaining steam.

[funhusker]

5 minutes ago, nic said:

Perhaps too subtle. She was the second politician in favor of defunding the police to get carjacked in recent weeks. I thought it was ironic. She probably favors bail reform and the new approach many liberal ADs are taking to not prosecute certain crimes. I wonder if she has changed her mind, since the refund the police movement is gaining steam.

I guess I’m not watching the right news outlets.  I’ve never seen nor heard a politician promote policies to not arrest and prosecute violent criminals.

 

Now if she were to cheer as the police recklessly kill him while he is in custody, you might be able to make a point.

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

I never have understood or agreed with the whole "forgive all the student loans" idea.

 

 

[NebraskaHarry]

40 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

I never have understood or agreed with the whole "forgive all the student loans" idea.

 

 

Yeah! I mean, granted college has become more expensive and most things are costing more in general, and student debt is much more than it used to be... 

 

Look I agree, that entire student loan forgiveness is probably unattainable, but when even $10,000 forgiveness for each student was being thrown out. I was on board with it. The fact that that hasn't been pushed harder for $10,000 student loan forgiveness has soured me a bit. I dont thing that's unreasonable forgiveness given the price of things for many these days.

[RedDenver]

1 hour ago, BigRedBuster said:

I never have understood or agreed with the whole "forgive all the student loans" idea.

 

 

I guess we should instead ask for the Americans who in years past went to college cheaply to pay us all back for the subsidies that allowed college to be far less expensive than today.

 

Or we could understand that educating out citizens is a benefit to all of us and that it's in our collective best interest to have more education and not bankrupt people for trying to achieve it.

[NM11046]

I have to think there's a way to determine a government's contribution to college, based on GPA, financial situation and I think that state schools vs. private is a no brainer.  If a 2.0 student from a prosperous family chooses to go to Yale it's on them.  If a 3.9 student that has no family money to contribute to their education and they choose a in-state school or trade school I think that's where the sweet spot is.  

 

I also think we should support the trade schools in similar fashion, maybe giving financial incentive similar to a signing bonus for those if there is a need for particular roles (i.e. right ow I think Nursing is lacking students).  Or regionally - for example Id' assume there may be a need for certain roles in more rural areas.  Would be nice to see something like the financial support given if someone comitts to stay in a needy area for a certain amount of time.

 

I'd also like to see an opportunity for non traditional students to go back and have that supplemented.  For example pregnant twenty something or her boyfriend that had to ditch going on with their education because they had to raise a family, or someone who wants to change careers and learn a new trade (as long as it's a needed one).

[RedDenver]

23 minutes ago, NM11046 said:

I have to think there's a way to determine a government's contribution to college, based on GPA, financial situation and I think that state schools vs. private is a no brainer.  If a 2.0 student from a prosperous family chooses to go to Yale it's on them.  If a 3.9 student that has no family money to contribute to their education and they choose a in-state school or trade school I think that's where the sweet spot is.  

 

I also think we should support the trade schools in similar fashion, maybe giving financial incentive similar to a signing bonus for those if there is a need for particular roles (i.e. right ow I think Nursing is lacking students).  Or regionally - for example Id' assume there may be a need for certain roles in more rural areas.  Would be nice to see something like the financial support given if someone comitts to stay in a needy area for a certain amount of time.

 

I'd also like to see an opportunity for non traditional students to go back and have that supplemented.  For example pregnant twenty something or her boyfriend that had to ditch going on with their education because they had to raise a family, or someone who wants to change careers and learn a new trade (as long as it's a needed one).

I'd strongly oppose a GPA-based scheme. I could maybe get behind a pass/fail scheme, but grades are a terrible metric for anything other than whatever each prof values in a given class.

[BigRedBuster]

1 hour ago, RedDenver said:

I guess we should instead ask for the Americans who in years past went to college cheaply to pay us all back for the subsidies that allowed college to be far less expensive than today.

 

Or we could understand that educating out citizens is a benefit to all of us and that it's in our collective best interest to have more education and not bankrupt people for trying to achieve it.

What are you going to do fir the kid that worked his a$$ off to pay for college with out loans?

[B.B. Hemingway]

Nobody forced any of these people to go to college, or take out student loans. Most of us can agree that a college education is ridiculously expensive (if not a waste of time with a lot of degrees), but they still agreed to take out and repay the loan amount. This isn't hard. Pay it back. It's political pandering, and nothing more.