Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday May 02 2017, @09:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-exactly-like-Ted-Williams dept.

The Center for American Progress reports

On [April 29], Donald Trump marks the 100th day of his presidency, and finds his approval ratings much lower than any of his modern predecessors.

One reason for this could be perceptions about his accountability. To become president, Trump made a lot of promises to a lot of people--663, in fact. In just 100 days of what would be 1,461 days of a first term, Donald Trump has broken 80 promises he made before he was sworn in.

[...] A close analysis of the 663 promises Trump made on the campaign trail shows how few he has kept, and how many more he has broken.

Trump's promises about what he would accomplish in his first 100 days are not the first vows pegged to a key milestone that were summarily ignored or broken. As a candidate, Trump made several pledges about the first paper he would sign, as well as what would he would do during his first minute and first hour as president. He kept none of them. On his first day in office, Trump failed to keep 34 different promises of what he said he would do on Day One in the White House--and fulfilled just two.

In total, during his first month in office, Trump broke 64 promises. He kept just seven of his promises in that first month.

Including those from the first month, Trump has broken 80 promises and kept seven in the first hundred days. Three promises have been addressed with some caveats in a separate category below.

[...] When the AP's Julie Pace asked Trump about the 100-day plan, Trump replied, "I'm mostly there on most items."

The reality shows the opposite.

[...] Trump promised he won't let countries steal our jobs anymore.

"We'll put our people back to work, we will not let other countries steal our jobs. It it is not going to happen anymore." Worcester, MA, 11/18/15 [Video]

According to a ThinkProgress analysis of Labor Department data, at least 11,934 American jobs have been lost or are in the process of leaving the United States since Inauguration Day.

In going to a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to celebrate his amazing string of accomplishments over the last 100 days, Trump avoided the White House Correspondents Association dinner where he was sure to have been the butt of about a billion squarely-on-target jokes.

As for Trump's claim that "No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days", Politifact notes

The 15 major bills [which Franklin Roosevelt signed in his first 100 days] included those that created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Tennessee Valley Authority (both of which still exist) and the Home Owners Loan Corp. He signed the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which established farm subsidies, and the National Industrial Recovery Act, which started public-works efforts to reverse the Great Depression. He signed legislation to legalize the manufacture and sale of beer and wine, and he issued executive orders to establish the Civilian Conservation Corps and to effectively take the United States off the gold standard.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @09:26PM (73 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @09:26PM (#503176)

    People with brains and consciences still don't like Trump.

    There. FTFY.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +5  
       Informative=5, Total=5
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:11PM (38 children)

    Or anyone else who ran for a major party ticket.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:12PM (37 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:12PM (#503206)

      Laaaame

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:29PM (36 children)

        Yeah, it really is. We should boot both major parties entirely and start over.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:47PM (35 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:47PM (#503236)

          Replace the Democrats with the Greens and replace the Republicans with the Nazis.

          • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:49PM (2 children)

            by LoRdTAW (3755) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:49PM (#503239) Journal

            What about Green Nazis?

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:15AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:15AM (#503325)

              Green Nazis? Soylent Green Nazis?

              • (Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:25AM

                by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:25AM (#503387) Journal

                "Heil!"

                Errr, i mean "Here!"

                --
                --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:54PM (26 children)

            by hemocyanin (186) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:54PM (#503246) Journal

            Democrats are just pro-abortion Republicans. Democrats are nothing like greens.

            • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:59PM (25 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:59PM (#503251)

              Merge the Democratic Republicans into one conservative party and give us a liberal party choice.

              • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:07PM

                by hemocyanin (186) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:07PM (#503266) Journal

                Agreed.

              • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:16PM (20 children)

                Be careful what you wish for. Progressives are not remotely liberal. That would be the libertarians.

                --
                My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:33PM (3 children)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:33PM (#503295)

                  You're like the dude in The Princess Bride. You've had so much of the kool aid that the poison no longer has any affect on you. Now if you could only be as smart and cool as the Dread Pirate Roberts instead of a trollish libertarian that is *most smart*.

                  PS: your fedora is in the mail

                • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:02AM (13 children)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:02AM (#503313)

                  > Progressives are not remotely liberal. That would be the libertarians.

                  Not in America.

                  "Libertarian accommodation of conservative illiberalism is how libertarianism became philosophically arbitrary anti-leftism and withered."

                  Wil Wilkinson [twitter.com] VP for Policy, Niskanen Center [niskanencenter.org]

                  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:53AM (12 children)

                    Fraid so. Think tanks do not get to represent individualists.

                    --
                    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:13AM (11 children)

                      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:13AM (#503379)

                      Lolwut?
                      Do you even logic, bro?
                      Its an observation of the current state of the movment, not a 'representation' of anybody.
                      But, if there is one person on soylent who most embodies what he's describing, its you.

                      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:28AM (10 children)

                        RTFwebsite. Claims to be a libertarian think-tank. That's an oxymoron on account of we're very much individualists.

                        And if you think I'm in any way illiberal, do please explain how. You might even be correct on a niche issue but overall you'll be horribly, astoundingly wrong.

                        --
                        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:40AM (1 child)

                          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:40AM (#503394)

                          Claims to be a libertarian think-tank. That's an oxymoron on account of we're very much individualists.

                          I get it now. You are like one of those religious fundies who knows only a tiny little bit about their own religion but are snarlingly dogmatic about the part they do know.

                          And if you think I'm in any way illiberal, do please explain how.

                          Your the guy who thinks it legit to discriminate against people based on their names.

                        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:58AM (1 child)

                          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:58AM (#503402)

                          By that logic Ron Paul wasn't a libertarian either because individualists don't join political parties much less represent a group of people.
                          Seriously, do even read what you type? Because you should, its great comedy.

                          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 03 2017, @11:16AM

                            Ron Paul is an idiot. Libertarians don't join political parties and they damned sure don't think they're any more capable of running your life than you are. The only way they ever run for office is because they think they can do less damage than the other fucker running. Anyone who wants to be in office is not a libertarian.

                            --
                            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:07AM (1 child)

                          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:07AM (#503405)

                          It gets hard to separate the troll from the libertarian. That is your own damn fault. Since it is not always obvious when you are trolling you're gonna have to deal with the fact that most people assume you're quite a jerk, with questionable beliefs in policy that make people question your capacity to be a decent human. Basically you come off as a selfish prick, and since you cop to that fact all the time don't whine about it.

                        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:41PM (3 children)

                          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:41PM (#503588)

                          Claims to be a libertarian think-tank. That's an oxymoron on account of we're very much individualists.

                          Are you suggesting that, if two people come together to discuss the state of individual liberty in society, they can not be libertarians? Is any kind of mutually beneficial cooperation anathema to your idea of libertarianism?

                          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:55PM (2 children)

                            I'm saying that anyone that proposes to speak with authority over me, or on my behalf without my leave, utterly fails to grasp what it means to be a libertarian by my understanding of the word.

                            --
                            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @07:40PM (1 child)

                              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @07:40PM (#503884)

                              > what it means to be a libertarian by my understanding of the word.

                              Well, at least you can admit you are profoundly ignorant of what it means to be a libertarian.
                              You are just a libertarian of convenience. You've adopted the label as way to excuse your profoundly anti-social behavior.
                              It lets you be an asshole and pretend that your shittiness makes you morally superior to the people you shit on.
                              But the only person you are fooling is yourself.

                              Individualists are not libertarians. They are just social outcasts.
                              Actual libertarians care about all that collective stuff you disavow - community, institutions, egalitarianism.
                              They just believe government isn't the way to accomplish those goals. But they still care about the goals.

                • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday May 03 2017, @06:09PM (1 child)

                  by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03 2017, @06:09PM (#503811) Journal

                  While I partially agree with you, as you didn't capitalize libertarian, libertarians aren't Liberals. They've got very different ways of evaluating proposals.

                  OTOH, all of the major US parties, and that appears to include the Greens and the Libertarians as well as the Democrats and Republicans, are believers on centralized governmental control of power. I abbreviate this as statist. Unfortunately, people have proven over and over again that centralized power *will* be abused. And the first thing anyone does on attaining power is work to ensure that they won't need to pay for any misdeeds. This isn't always successful, but it seems to always be the first goal...and please note that this isn't restricted to governmental organizations.

                  --
                  Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
              • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:36AM (1 child)

                by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:36AM (#503391) Journal

                You can have our Canadian parties: our Conservatives will try to screw you by making corporations all-powerful. The liberals have cozied up with big business in order to raise funds and so are just little 'C' conservatives.
                Kind of like Dems and Reps, huh?!

                The only way to really improve things is to cut out large donations to parties. There should be a cap at something like $100 for a personal OR a corporate donation, and no more $10,000 fund-raising dinners.

                This would make the parties have to really make the people happy so that they could get more donations from the 'people'.

                Sometin' like dat, anywho.

                --
                --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
                • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:05PM

                  by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:05PM (#503598)

                  Or, people could learn to think critically for themselves and stop being swayed by advertising/marketing campaigns that run on money instead of facts.

                  Yeah, not gonna happen, but it would work if it did.

                  --
                  🌻🌻 [google.com]
              • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:55PM

                by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:55PM (#503713) Journal

                Merge the Democratic Republicans into one conservative party and give us a liberal party choice.

                Nooooo!

                No liberal party. Just merge Democrats and Republicans into one party that has the best of both. The fiscal responsibility of the Democrats and the social progressiveness of the Republicans.

                --
                People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:10AM (4 children)

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:10AM (#503408) Journal

            Just when the conversation is getting to be almost rational, another libturd decides to call everyone who is NOT liberal a nazi. Are you one of the Soros shills?

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:16AM (3 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:16AM (#503410)

              > libturd
              > Soros shills

              Triggered

              • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:50AM (2 children)

                by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:50AM (#503438) Journal

                OK, so, you're triggered. You might want to email your congress critter. He may give a fuck.

                • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:58AM (1 child)

                  by LoRdTAW (3755) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:58AM (#503468) Journal

                  Still triggered.

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @10:04AM

                    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @10:04AM (#503542)

                    You effing Nazi, Runaway! Here, let me push this button: "urban at-risk youth"! Triggered. Racist Nazi.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:53PM (12 children)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Tuesday May 02 2017, @10:53PM (#503244) Journal

    People with brains and conscience see Trump as an opportunity for Democrats to FINALLY reform. Unfortunately, the DNC still doesn't get it and denies any progressive politician funds, Montana's Quist being the latest.

    The Democrats need to keep on losing till the entire Clinton wing is dust. Yes, that means living through Trump and the damage he causes. The real threat to progressives is Democrats -- it took Democrats to enact Republicans' wet dreams, such as Nixon's healthcare plan, offshoring our jobs through asymmetric free trade deals, enacting extra-judicial execution based on secret legal memos and star chambers, unshackle Wall St and Banksters from any real regulation, make torture excusable, make bombing countries at which we aren't at war the modern acceptable standard without even consulting Congress, engage in mass surveillance, exponentially expand the prison state -- it just goes on and on. For every single thing Republicans fail to accomplish, modern Clintonian Democrats go out and get it done.

    Trump is the chemotherapy we need right now. Yes it will make us sick in the short term, but if it kills of the cancer of Clintonian-Republicans, it is good long term. If it kills us, well, we'd be dead anyway under the Clinton cabal.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:48PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @11:48PM (#503303)

      The DNC only does POTUS elections. They never donate to local elections.

      You want to bitch about the DCCC, they do House elections.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:11AM (2 children)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:11AM (#503321) Homepage

      It's nice to see that the bitter medicine is working.

      Please, God, Stop Chelsea Clinton from Whatever She Is Doing [vanityfair.com]

      Why the Clintons won't go Away [the-american-interest.com]

      Why can't the Clintons just go away? [nypost.com]

      Even hardcore leftist outlets like Salon are finally admitting that, Hillary lost because she chose to pander to poor minorities [salon.com] rather than the folks who really made America great, people like Midwestern unionists who would rather switch parties than vote for somebody who made no secret about not giving a shit about them to instead focus on the welfare votes.

      " B-but they're welfare votes too! "

      The difference is that they don't want to be welfare votes in the sense they want to work while sustaining a decent living (unlike the "other kind" of welfare voters who are useful idiots for driving the quality of living down), and lawful residents should be given priority. What difference Trump will make there, who knows. What I do like is that his administration and he are at least addressing the immigration issue.

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:16AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:16AM (#503383)

        Like Donnie Tiny Hands, you just can't help demonstrating how completely ignorant you are.
        Salon doesn't even approach the center line.

        Wanna see something that's actually Leftist?
        Try reading the World Socialist Web Site.
        Find something containing the word "Reactionary" (i.e. you).
        I doubt you'd make it 2 minutes before your tiny little pinhead would explode.

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:17PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:17PM (#503602)

        Vanity Fair wouldn't let me in without becoming one of the "hive."

        Are there pod people involved here in addition to the usual lizard people?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:58AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:58AM (#503364)

      it took Democrats to enact Republicans' wet dreams, such as Nixon's healthcare plan,

      No, that was not the republicans's wet dream. Not then, and certainly not now.
      Nixon did a lot of liberal things. Remember the EPA? Even his war on drugs allocated 2/3rds of the budget to treatment, more than any other president since.
      None other than Noam Chomsky himself has declared Nixon to be "in many respects the last liberal president." [chomsky.info]

      • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:14AM (5 children)

        by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:14AM (#503381) Journal

        I've heard that quote in the context that he was actually afraid of the people, holed up in the White House behind a wall of busses while protests raged wondering if he'd get out alive if they broke through.

        Of course, there's Vietnam to cast a shadow on the "liberal" part, so perhaps it is more correct to say that he was the most liberal president in the last fifty years.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:19AM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:19AM (#503413)

          I've heard that quote in the context that he was actually afraid of the people, holed up in the White House behind a wall of busses while protests raged wondering if he'd get out alive if they broke through.

          lolwut?
          Did you read the link to the full article written by Chomsky?
          That's the context in which Chomsky wrote it.

          • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:03AM (3 children)

            by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:03AM (#503445) Journal

            Read? What is this you speak of?

            • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:04AM (2 children)

              by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:04AM (#503447) Journal

              Actually, thank you for the citation. I've actually tried to track this down in the past but was unsuccessful because it was something someone told me -- so I'm glad to have it.

              • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:07AM (1 child)

                by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:07AM (#503449) Journal

                Well, now that I look at the article, that isn't what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a citation supporting the notion that Nixon was the last liberal president because he feared the people.

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @05:39AM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @05:39AM (#503493)

                  Er, yeah. The Chomsky quote had nothing to do with that.
                  If someone told you Chomsky said that about fearing the people, they were probably lying to you.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:01AM (20 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:01AM (#503311)

    Brains: I've an IQ that is somewhere in the 145 to 180 range, depending on conversion factor, (3 to 4 standard deviations above the mean) and I qualify for all the 1-in-a-1000 societies.

    Conscience: I can't support choices that would make my children live in a 3rd-world country. Hurting them in this way would be evil. I wouldn't want them to live in a place like Venezuela or Syria or Iraq or Nigeria or Somalia or Mexico. Protecting my children requires stopping the invasion of 3rd-world people.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:11AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:11AM (#503322)

      > I wouldn't want them to live in a place like Venezuela or Syria or Iraq ....

      You don't seem so bright to me, you left off Chicago, Detroit, some tough parts of NJ, DC proper, and Baltimore, to just name a few.

      On the other hand, if isolating your kids from some of the gritty parts of reality is so important, then I guess you better move to a far suburb--of nearly any US city. And don't let them out of the house, no walking or biking to school either. Sheesh, you sound so scared that I could probably make you jump by saying "Boo" to your face.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:18AM (5 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:18AM (#503412) Journal

        In the worst shithole city that you name, the poor are still very very rich, in comparison to the poor in many other countries. You really haven't a clue, if you are comparing today's US cities to third world countries. May I suggest that you travel to some third world countries, and see first hand what life is like there?

        It would take decades to bring the US down to the level of some third world countries, but it can be done. Decades. Your grand children's lifetimes.

        And, yes, bringing the dregs of the world into the US will only hasten that decline.

        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:02AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:02AM (#503444)

          I think a couple weeks under a country-wide electricity outage would do it. Modern life is VERY fragile. How many families can feed themselves? Those poor people are able to get enough food to stay alive. Any major US city wouldn't be able to. They wouldn't even have enough water.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @04:00AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @04:00AM (#503470)

          The superiority complex of you older people is insane. Try traveling, aka run away from your home country for a bit. Maybe get some modern world exposure that isn't tainted by being in the military. There are plenty of countries that are actually more advanced than the US in many ways even though they are often considered "third world". Thanks for sending the younger generations into debt and generally letting your peers totally fucking screw up the country. You can try and blame immigrants, but it just shows your total lack of awareness and personal responsibility. You rail about millenials, but you older generations are the ones that fucked things up. Not brown people.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:19PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:19PM (#503606)

            They like to blame the kid in the back seat when the car runs out of gas on the side of the road. The kid in the back seat should have had the foresight to bring a spare can of gas.

            The walk to the gas station will do them a lot of good.

            Sometimes having to walk to the gas station is the only way to learn.

          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:47PM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:47PM (#503619) Journal

            It's sorta entertaining to listen to little whiny assed babies carrying on. You don't know shit, but you want to pretend that you do. The entertainment value only lasts for a little while though. Go get yourself a real world education, then come back to tell me how things really are.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @05:52PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @05:52PM (#503793)

          I never pegged you as an optimist. 30 days would be all it would take, if that, for the finest jewels of the United States to become third world hellholes. (If you're comparing poor to poor.) It would take:

          A) Destruction of missions / food banks / homeless feeding programs in an area, or otherwise shutting down their operations. Destruction/removal of places where homeless shelter as well - not just licensed shelters but all the places they try to stay warm and dry at.
          B) Restricting the poorest segments from moving (as in keep them from being able to leave / flee the area for zones that may better treat them.)
          C) A combination of enforced segregation and upped vagrancy/homelessness laws further criminalizing being poor.
          D) Significant interference with the welfare distribution system for transients.
          E) Continuing the current healthcare process of denying the poor ongoing medical care. Obamacare wasn't nearly enough.

          That's about it. You'd get the worst of Somalia or Liberia in whatever zones those conditions would obtain in. And it wouldn't take decades - it takes people supporting jerkwads like Trump and their ilk. "Me first and fuck you," mentality. And turning your back on seeing the poor among you.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:47AM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:47AM (#503398)

      Protecting my children requires stopping the invasion of 3rd-world people

      People with zero power and zero wealth aren't the source of the problems.
      If your children are competing against unskilled farm workers[1], you have failed as a parent.

      The problems are the result of people with enormous amounts of wealth (AKA The Oligarchy AKA Capitalists) who have purchased USA.gov to do their bidding; the "job creators" who have eradicated tariffs, cut wages, offshored jobs, and made the workplaces that remain in the USA more unsafe.

      ...and where brown-skinned people are being hired in the USA, it's those same "job creators" who are hiring them.
      Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III has said that he will be going after those who harbor undocumented people.
      Will that mean the above mentioned employers?
      Don't hold your breath on that one.

      The way to solve the problem is to get money out of politics, making all election campaigns publicly-funded and undercutting the power of the Capitalist Class.
      If you aren't working toward that, you don't care about your children; you've just swallowing Trump's Fascist drivel.

      [1] ...and just watch what happens to the price of food after Trump and Sessions have their way with poverty-wage immigrants.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:24AM (4 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:24AM (#503419) Journal

        "If your children are competing against unskilled farm workers[1], you have failed as a parent."

        For a socialist, you certainly are elitest. Thanks for that bit of hypocrisy. What about semi-skilled labor? Are they also beneath the dignity of American citizens? Skilled labor? How about craftsmen? Where do you draw the line? At what point on the economic gradient do you determine that a person is a failure, and that his parents were utter failures? Will a bachelor's degree make the grade? If so, what pay level is "good enough"? $80,000? $120,000? $2,000,000?

        Socialism my ass. You DO realize you've just shot yourself in the foot?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:05AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:05AM (#503448)

          elitest

          Here's the last part for those who stopped short:

          watch what happens to the price of food after Trump and Sessions have their way with poverty-wage immigrants

          Multi-generational USAians -may- take those jobs, but NOT for the poverty wages currently being offered.

          ...and there was actually a site that challenged pale-skinned, soft-handed folks to give it a try.
          TakeOurJobs.org [google.com] (That URL now redirects to the United Farm Workers site.)
          I heard some of the UFW folks on Pacifica Radio talking about that.
          They said that they had a few takers for the challenge but it was rare when anyone lasted a week.

          .
          semi-skilled [...] Skilled

          Why would someone with skills leave his homeland?
          Wouldn't he already be making a comfortable living where he has family and friends?
          Why would he leave everything behind to come here?

          The answer is in a comment up-thread made by me.
          It's due to VIOLENCE.
          ...and the violence is due to USA's insane drug war.
          Ironically, if it wasn't for USA's Imperialism, those folks wouldn't have any reason to leave their countries.

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:54PM (2 children)

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:54PM (#503623) Journal

            The problem with that offer was, those same candy asses still had welfare to fall back on. Would YOU work for something like $180/week, if your welfare benefits were already more than $180/week? Hell no, you wouldn't.

            We have discussed the welfare trap in various threads, in the past. And, it is a trap. Once you're in that hole, the harder you work to get out of the hole, the more you are punished. Of course, they punish you before you get the first welfare check. Got a car less than x years old? (I think it's ten years, not certain though.) You have to sell that car, and spend the money on household expenses, before you will be approved for welfare. Okay, so now, you've sold your car, and you have no way to go job hunting anymore. TRAPPED!!

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @07:25PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @07:25PM (#503876)

              > Would YOU work for something like $180/week, if your welfare benefits were already more than $180/week? Hell no, you wouldn't.

              Well, I mean, N of one but hi. I'm an AC who has enough time to read Soylent because I don't get enough paid hours per week. (I work 30-60h but can only charge for 20-30h.) I would get about a third more income if I arranged for a mutual departure (not being fired or quitting) and went on my country's employment insurance, which I have paid into and happily continue to pay into. But I wouldn't be employed and it'd be hard to re-enter the workplace. I wouldn't be contributing to society - the work I do is meaningful and brings us towards a better world. But there's not a lot of money, so I make a pittance in order to help keep the business afloat.

              I don't have kids. The impact from my work is not the pay I get, it is the difference made to the world, and I savour it.

              So the numbers don't exactly line up: I'm making a tiny bit more than (in USD) $180/wk, and would be getting a tiny bit under $1k/mo from the gubbmint. And our currency isn't pegged to the USD, but local prices pretty much match inflation, outside of fruit+veg which vary more by weather patterns than by currency exchange rates.

              Offhand I know of several others in a similar boat. I know one guy who runs a store in the boonies, he gets about 5 customers a day and then 5-10 in the early evening. Some days he loses money on power. But he is serving his community (the next foodstuff store requires a vehicle to reach) and making enough to live hand to mouth, and he gets to surf or code or read or play games all day. He eats the stuff that expires. He'd easily make more by taking employment insurance, but his community would suffer and so would his social standing. I can't speak to his exact financial situation - maybe he's got investments at > $180/mo, who knows - but I know at least five others in similar enough situations.

              Check this out https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=19273&cid=501996 [soylentnews.org] and note that while "pursuit of happiness" as "making money" is a USA thing it totally applies here (thanks Aristarchus!)

              Anyways, my 30 minute break is up, time to do some more fun, worthwhile, future-oriented work for minimum wage! Hell yes I will!

              • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 04 2017, @12:11AM

                by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 04 2017, @12:11AM (#504069) Journal

                Salutes to you. You aren't the kind of person to leach off of the government. Unfortunately, we have a fair number of people who are content to sit around and be worthless.

                It is said that it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round, but I resent those who don't want to work, don't want to make any kind of contribution to the world, or to their fellow man.

      • (Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:33PM (1 child)

        by Kromagv0 (1825) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @12:33PM (#503585) Homepage

        If your children are competing against unskilled farm workers[1], you have failed as a parent.

        Depends. When I was 12-14 I competed against them for work but that was as actual unskilled farm labor at $4.25/hr. Corn de-tasseling sucks but is a good starter job as it teaches you how to bust your ass and earn some money, and realize that you should go and get some skill set so you don't have to de-tassel fucking corn the rest of your life. Then later on in high school I swung a hammer building houses, again competing against unskilled brown people, for a couple of summers but that job paid pretty well. That said if I was still competing for jobs with unskilled migrant workers there would be a problem.

        The problem is that now those jobs instead of going to young people are going to low skill migrants, or people looking to make a career out of corn de-tasseling, burger flipping, wal*mart greeter, etc. because they never learned any skills that were useful. The other problem is that bringing in all of these people drives down wages so you hear companies complaining that they can't get Americans to pick tomatoes for minimum wage ($7.25/hr) well maybe the companies need to raise what they are offering then.

        --
        T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @07:59PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @07:59PM (#503901)

          Fuck yes to your experience.

          All teens should be forced to farm, fish, or do otherwise hard menial labour - cleaning can count, easily.

          Not for life; not for 40h/week for a year. But damn shooting they should spend one summer working their fingers to the bone, or if not, then a part time job during school one year doing something similar.

          It is disgusting to meet 19-25yos who don't understand hard work, never even had a paper route, who think that the assembly line should stop for them when their feet get a little sore.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:52AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @01:52AM (#503401)

      I've got an incredibly large brain: i mean, like God's brain. You know: "Oooo, you are SOOO big!"

      I sit and jerk off in front of my kids, while in Switzerland, because i am so great.

      Derp

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:59AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:59AM (#503442)

      Haha, you almost had me there. Another 3-4 standard deviations above mean, etc here. It could have gone either way until the final sentence.

      I would have finished it like this: "Protecting my children requires preventing the conditions that lead to a 3rd-world country." Your phrasing is too specific and doesn't include the other, more basic warning signs going on right now.

      We need a healthy infusion of both libertarian and socialist ideas before the patient lapses into a 3rd world country.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:20AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @03:20AM (#503456)

      Trump is smarter. Just ask him, he'll tell you how much smarter he is.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @04:54AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @04:54AM (#503480)

      Brains: I've an IQ that is somewhere in the 145 to 180 range

      I think you're confusing the pseudoscience that is IQ (or rather, the notion that IQ is a direct measure of one's intellect) with real science. We don't even understand intelligence, let alone have an accurate way to measure it; all we have are correlations that people have arbitrarily decided are significantly related to how intelligent someone is. Please do not spread myths.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @07:36PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 03 2017, @07:36PM (#503881)

        I think you are confusing being unable to precisely define something with being unable to measure something.

        We could measure gravity's acceleration before we had a theory defining it.

        IQ tests might be pseudoscience in a way, but the Central Limit Theorem is incredibly scientific, and unequivocally states that if one measures a sum of noisy signals, each of which has a contribution towards a common metric, that sampling a population will give a normal distribution. So do IQ tests give an approximate answer to "where in the set of humans does the cognitive ability of this one lie"? Yes, absolutely. Might dimensions be missing? Sure; for example, very very few IQ-like tests check how well we can read social cues, which is absolutely a functional cognitive ability.

        > ll we have are correlations that people have arbitrarily decided are significantly related to how intelligent someone is

        Right. We have decided that spatial reasoning, vocabulary, discrete logic, accurate reading ability, some forms of pattern-matching, etc. qualify as indicators of cognitive ability. But these aren't arbitrary. Some aspects might be missing, but that doesn't invalidate the aspects which are evaluated. But "are these two 2D projections possibly of the same 3D object" is a real world ability with real world applications and being able/unable has real world impact. Surely you know persons whose visual-spatial ability is so weak that they literally cannot parse a map; thse folks can navigate using waypoints in my experience, but they absolutely exist and this limitation causes occasional problems. Similarly, surely you know persons with reading disabilities, face-recognizing disability, empathic disability, logic-chain disability. Saying they are just as able as everyone else does them the same disservice as telling a black person they have every opportunity a white person has. "Oh yeah? Really? Ha."