It's only important if you're a true believer in democracy. There're a lot of areas in life where peoples opinions aren't all held to be equally valid, so why is it that for the one domain that requires the highest level of intellectual sophistication that everyone's opinion should count equally? And the cost of entertaining that farce of a process is easily in the billions every election cycle, only to get an outcome that about half of the country considers to be completely unacceptable.

There're ways of guaranteeing that peoples interests are represented without deferring to the judgment of the lowest common denominator.

There're very few people who can't get a student loan for a program that leads directly to job skills. This isn't really about equality of opportunity - it's about a value judgment being placed on education as having greater returns than prospective buyers would anticipate, and wanting to incentivize it.

The extent to which this is true though varies as much from program to program as it does from person to person. It's a much easier sell if you limit it to programs that lead directly to job skills.

But of course there are non-vocational courses that add substantial value to peoples lives. It's just that when you're giving them away for free you need to be pretty sure of the value proposition of each of the components, and academic programs are notorious for including all sorts of fluff that would be more appropriately labelled entertainment than education.

If we plucked out the 5 'highest value' courses from undergrad programs... hypothetically let's say - financial planning, psych 101, statistical methods, life sciences, internet literacy and research methods etc, and then got some bulk pricing deal with the khan academy extending access to all americans, that's something republicans might vote for. Offering a 4 year program of which at least half is useless to the people taking it, with all sorts of costly bells and whistles - who wants to sign off on that? You're just giving more credence to the crap value package that most people who've actually gone through the academic world are in agreement is poorly structured.

Sanders et al would be far more likely to find success in campaigning for free education if they were more specific about what they want, the cost, and the value it's adding.

The Supreme Court seat has been stolen. The Attorney General position is illegitimate. Multiple Cabinet members lied under oath either in written or verbal testimony during their confirmation hearings, and are therefore de facto illegitimate. But they haven't motioned towards resigning or being fired. 45* himself may be illegitimate, as he may have committed treason to steal the election. We know Jeff Sessions is illegitimate, as he perjured himself during his confirmation hearings.

What's the effect of all this? The United States is rapidly losing its place in the world. What little moral high ground we had left after W and Iraq has been gone and we are on a deep dive to being one of the more hated fascist "democracies" in the Western world. This will have an effect on our international relations over the next four years and beyond, make no mistake about it. And there's no way to turn back the clock. The damage to our reputation can never be undone, and the damage to the Senate that McConnell has done can never be undone. We have passed a series of inflection points and we seem to now be falling straight off a cliff.

Government shutdown over not reimbursing Planned Parenthood seems to be the next inflection point in the ongoing crisis where fascist Republicans are using any and all means to destroy and erode the integrity of our democracy and government.

At Least 5 Trump Cabinet Secretaries Have Lied To Congress
http://reverbpress.com/politics/leas...lied-congress/

The other thing is we live in an age where a huge portion of the media (Fox News et al) is perfectly willing to lie and make things up out of whole-cloth in order to defend their Dear Leader, and they aren't punished ratings-wise or sponsor-wise for doing so. That's the real dangerous thing going forward.

The big problem I see is that the biggest talking point against the strike - that it was pointless - is also the most likely to encourage Trump to do something really stupid - i.e. escalate in Syria further.

Every time Assad does something else bad, you could hit Trump for not doing anything to stop him - basically make him own the Syria situation so he can't just claim a clean victory with the lone strike. Politically, I think this would be the most effective as there is no real answer at this point in Syria, so tying Trump to it should hurt him. Of course, it could also lead to another Iraq (or worse if we really piss off the Russians/Iran), so not sure it's the best strategy.

Yeah the thing is now he owns the Syria situation. If Democrats have any balls or sense at all they will nail him to the wall on it.

Usually we can trust the POTUS with military decisions because he has superior intel, good experience and/or judgment, isn't compromised, etc. Not the case with Trump. I feel vulnerable.

lol

Why not? Syria praise all weekend, Gorsuck today...he's obviously on a rush.

I agree, but there are multiple causes of this. I think improvements in critical thinking (to cut through the BS) and historical knowledge (to compare him against other fascists) obviously played a role, but also keep in mind that the job market is more dire for those without advanced education.

It also improves students ability to research and think critically, which helps them adapt to changes in the world.

You could even give four years of education, but allow them to be banked - so a year or two of trade school/community college would leave 2-3 years in the bank in case your field was hit hard by automation, outsourcing, etc.

Does that count?

100%. I used to enjoy visiting the states and now I can't imagine having a good enough reason to cross the border.

can you stop trolling, even for one second?

"Gee, guys, that healthcare thing went so well... I think we're ready to take on Social Security, now. Where's that rail we're supposed to grab?"

Pardon the Fox News cite: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...ax-reform.html

Fixed.

https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/851428973078876161

That video almost makes me want to move to Lake County and sling heroin, these guys look so incompetent.

First, they ask residents to help them figure out where the dealers are dealing... Then they claim they've bought from them (how, if you don't know where they are?) and are about to have warrants... Then they tell the dealers to run, but why? Aren't you about to arrest them? In other words, they're utterly full of it while imitating ISIS videos.

I think this one may belong in the Trump's America thread, though.

New Yorker calling its shot here

*that article is from 2 weeks ago why are they posting it on twitter now?

Today's WH press briefing should be interesting.

That's a great way to get us locked into another unwinnable war in the Middle East!

You know that there's like tons of evidence out there that having a more educated populace benefits the nation as a whole, right? Even money spent on the stuff you call useless or fluff or bells and whistles gets returned many times over. And it's not like the instant college is free, everyone's going to be able to go, there are plenty of other limitations. People still have to get in to those schools.

It is pretty basic human thinking, most people do think they are way better then the guy/gal next to them. So if you manage to successfully get a degree it is because of you just being good. That it could have anything to do with being born in the right family, is a thought that just doesn't occur.

What i do not understand is why Americans in general doesn't riot about those excessive unnecessary student loans.

Reporter: Is there a Trump Doctrine?
Spicey: The Trump Doctrine is America's First.

spicer dropping the WMD talk lul

That's what it's supposed to do. Whether it actually does that is the point of contention. I disagree that the evidence is conclusive in favor of it, and I've read a lot of academic papers on the subject.

I'm sold on the value proposition enough to send my child (though i have reservations about how students choose their course-load and whether B&M universities are cost effective when weighed against online alternatives).

But on a political level if you're trying to convince congress to force tax payers to bankroll the project the burden of proof is very high. And that's before you factor in all elitests (or policy wonk ******s) who think the poor deserve to be where they are and/or that progressive taxation is immoral.

It´s a absurd comparison. Coal mining died a long time ago, i doubt we could find many unemployed coal miners. The factory worker is the one we are looking at for multiple reasons.

The average 50y old factory worker is quite skilled at what he does and if you can assemble cars you can also assemble server racks with some training.