United States Biden administration policies and actions - megathread

[Rocinante]

Sorry, but this is absurd. Removing the general education requirements would not allow for an engineering degree is two years. You need nearly two years just for the various math courses, to say nothing of the actual engineering classes. Engineering degrees have very little padding as it is.

Oh, and a degree does not make one competent. It just means your know enough to be dangerous, not what you're doing. There's a reason real-life experience is a requirement for being a PE.

There's at least a full time semester or two of fluff and indoctrination, that can be removed from most college majors.

Even if you can't reduce the time, because there's a lot of math courses that are lined up semester to semester, you can still save students thousands of dollars by cutting the BS.

 

[Carrot of Truth]

-snip-

That was just the first thing that popped up in my head when trying to think of an example of how many college courses are full of bullshit classes that shouldn't exist. I'd need a syllabus to see who the worse offenders are, But I do know there are a lot of general education classes and just bullshit classes that are required for most degree plans.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

Frankly, the Education majors are a joke. Education shouldn't be a major. It should be a career choice in your chosen specialty.

 

[S'task]

Which is all exactly why history will not be kind to the Boomers, once they are no longer writing history.

We know who sold our futures to the CCP, we know who lied or misled us on so many things because they could not accept a changing world, and we know who are going to be insulated from the worst of the fallout they created.

The Boomers may have tried to give us good advice, but they could not or would not keep pace with the changes in society and tech that rendered much of their advice rather worthless in the long run, and we are the ones who will suffer for it/for listening to them.

Boomers will probably not live to see the worst fruits of their bad advice and child raising decisions, but the Centennials and Millennials will, and we will know who set us on this track, before we could even make our own decisions or even drew our first breath.

See, this is the EXACT attitude I'm warning against.

Boomers DID NOT DO THESE THINGS.

You're blaming an entire Generation, 76.4 MILLION people, for the actions of a handful of elites, many of whom were not even Baby Boomers when the course was set we were on.

Want to know when our being sold out to China really began? In 1979 when we "normalized" relations with China under Carter. Carter and most of the government in 1979 were not Boomers. In 2000 when China was granted permanent "most favored nation status" for trade? The primary sponsor was Rep. Bill Archer, born in 1928. The cosponsors? Phil Crane, born 1930; Bob Matsui, born 1941; and John S. Tanner, born 1944. None of them Boomers, two GI Generation and two Silent Generation. Boomers were not in power in the US Congress in 2000, it was still dominated by prior generations.

The entire issue with China was a multigenerational failure brought on by idealism, not malice of the politicians. Everyone at the time... and even many today, really honestly thought that economic liberalization in China would lead to political liberalization, they seriously bought into the idea of the "end of history" and that the international order would benefit all Americans.

The only, ONLY person in the 90s who really disagreed who got any serious amount of airtime was Ross Perot, and for all he proved to be right in the long run, he was seen as a bit of an eccentric billionaire by most of the population, and he refused to make the necessary political alliances to actually lead him to political success.

 

[Bacle]

See, this is the EXACT attitude I'm warning against.

Boomers DID NOT DO THESE THINGS.

You're blaming an entire Generation, 76.4 MILLION people, for the actions of a handful of elites, many of whom were not even Baby Boomers when the course was set we were on.

Want to know when our being sold out to China really began? In 1979 when we "normalized" relations with China under Carter. Carter and most of the government in 1979 were not Boomers. In 2000 when China was granted permanent "most favored nation status" for trade? The primary sponsor was Rep. Bill Archer, born in 1928. The cosponsors? Phil Crane, born 1930; Bob Matsui, born 1941; and John S. Tanner, born 1944. None of them Boomers, two GI Generation and two Silent Generation. Boomers were not in power in the US Congress in 2000, it was still dominated by prior generations.

The entire issue with China was a multigenerational failure brought on by idealism, not malice of the politicians. Everyone at the time... and even many today, really honestly thought that economic liberalization in China would lead to political liberalization, they seriously bought into the idea of the "end of history" and that the international order would benefit all Americans.

The only, ONLY person in the 90s who really disagreed who got any serious amount of airtime was Ross Perot, and for all he proved to be right in the long run, he was seen as a bit of an eccentric billionaire by most of the population, and he refused to make the necessary political alliances to actually lead him to political success.

Ok, so we can blame more than just the Boomers; just means more generations get the black mark of having sold out our future to the CCP. Also, it wasn't just the elites, it was the corpos, the mil-industrial complex, and the academics who wanted to get the CCP to be our friend, and get that sweet market share/weapons sales.

And none of that changes how many things the Silent and Boomers taught their kids turned out to be either willing lies to serve certain narratives, ignorant advice that didn't keep up with the times, or how many are perfectly willing to gobble up the lies of the MSM because they cannot and will not admit they were deceived themselves or didn't care to check if their advice still held with the times. We just lost 2 fucking years to 'save grandma' from a bug with a 99% survival rate, so the good will towards the old gens is rather thin these days, regardless of their past works or glories.

No, history will not be kind to the Silent and Boomer generations, and the Greatest Gen will probably been seen as far less great in hindsight.

If they want history to remember them better, they better stop caring more about their retirement than the youths future, and that is unlikely to happen.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

@Bacle why do you insist on issuing generational blame?

 

[Bacle]

@Bacle why do you insist on issuing generational blame?

Because they killed millions of people, fucked over multiple future gens, and utterly destroyed the American nations ability to function as a cohesive entity with their shortsightedness, naivety, and desire for CCP market share.

My own father is a Boomer and helped his company set up a new factory in China not more than 10 years ago, even when people knew the CCP were not good faith actors, and still wanted CCP market share. And that is hardly an isolated story; a lot of Boomers went along with the 'open China' thing out of a desire for market share right up till Trump became POTUS, and forced them to stop.

The older gens want to keep blaming the younger gens (Centinnials/Millenials/Gen X'ers) for ruining shit/society, when it was them who sold out our futures to the CCP, and keep gobbling up the MSM shit that has continued the farcical mask/vax mandates and lockdowns around the Wu Flu.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

The problem with your sentiment of generational blame is that it's as worthless as racism. I can't help when I was born just like I can't help what color I am (unless your Michael Jackson). Aim at individuals and even groups, but don't go there man. It completely weakens your argument and makes you appear a bit unhinged.

 

[Bacle]

The problem with your sentiment of generational blame is that it's as worthless as racism. I can't help when I was born just like I can't help what color I am (unless your Michael Jackson). Aim at individuals and even groups, but don't go there man. It completely weakens your argument and makes you appear a bit unhinged.

No, comparing it to racism makes you seem like you are trying to stretch the argument and use another tactic (comparisons to racism to poison the well) to defend the way the younger gens future has been sold to the CCP.

People cannot help when they are born, but that doesn't seem to stop perennial complaining about the youth 'ruining' things, or stop the older gens from acting like we have to suffer the same conflicts and problems they did, out of a since of 'fairness' more than anything.

They do not want a brighter future for the youth, they are fine being the Golden Age of American civ that things degrade from, as long as they can enjoy their retirement.

There are obviously exceptions, but overall my expereince has been the older gens care more about their golden years and golden parachutes than they do about helping build a better future for the youth.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

There are obviously exceptions, but overall my experience has been the older gens care more about their golden years and golden parachutes than they do about helping build a better future for the youth.

1. Understand that your experience is anecdotal and not necessarily representative of the whole.
2. My first real exposure to...

they are fine being the Golden Age of American civ that things degrade from, as long as they can enjoy their retirement.

was Obama and the Dems saying it's time to manage the decline. It hasn't been something I've really seen from leadership till that point. To me THAT was the point from which the Left decided to just give up on the USA and REALLLLY get behind the world order of things. Though the UN was definitely a tipping point towards it.

 

[Bacle]

1. Understand that your experience is anecdotal and not necessarily representative of the whole.

That's fair.

However, which view do you think has been borne out more by the events going on the last few years? I would not have felt this way before the elites started the 'lockdown and vax forever or you'll kill grandma' shit.

Admittedly a recent article I saw about Gov Polis here in CO seem to give maybe some Gen'Xer's in US politics, even on the Dems side, can unfuck things if they get the help needed to do it. He wasn't a huge fan of Trump, but he also wasn't like Newsom, Whitmer, or some of the other more insane Dem govs.

He's not pushing the masks or vax on people using gov power, he knows it's a fools errand even if local county gov tries it, and has said he looked forward to the day we could burn all our masks when it all began.

He's for the vax, but understands anyone who wants it can get it, so anyone who hasn't probably won't, and that's their choice.

2. My first real exposure to...

was Obama and the Dems saying it's time to manage the decline. It hasn't been something I've really seen from leadership till that point. To me THAT was the point from which the Left decided to just give up on the USA and REALLLLY get behind the world order of things. Though the UN was definitely a tipping point towards it.

I used to not see, or want to see it, either.

But like a lot of things the Dems actions in the lead up to 2016 helped solidify doubts I'd secretly had for a bit, and their actions under Trump just provided further proof.

Being decieved like that, by a multi-generational lie, and only having it really exposed by Trump winning in 2016 and the elite's response, particularly around the Wu Flu and CCP stuff (Fang Fang and Swalwell)...yeah, I'm kinda fucking bitter about it.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

@Bacle
I completely get your level of frustration and likely sense of betrayal. I had that as well, when I first started to confront what's been happening in our country. Heck...remember the Tea Party? I was part of that, and got to watch how "I" was described by the mass media.

In my case, I can't say that I feel any less betrayed, but I've come to understand that I'm not alone. In fact, there are a lot more of me out there than anyone really knows. And I've seen a LOT of good things come out of the sharp turn to EXTREMISM that the Left has taken.

MANY people are really waking up for the first time because they didn't want to believe that their government was this bad. SO many things have been brought out into the open and so many masks have been removed.

What's interesting to me is that the Left can TASTE how close they are, but they've NEVER seen this much organized resistance to their goals. And that resistance is hitting them on every front they are pushing on. We've scared them, and we've scared them badly. That's why the Left is pulling out all the stops in order to try and brush the resistance aside.

People of all ages and generations are moving against the Left, and quite a bit of that resistance is coming from the same groups the Left has thought they'd cemented as a base of support. Latino population voting in higher percentages AGAINST them, blacks engaging in a 'leave the plantation' effort, suburban housewives are now motivated against them b/c of CRT and others.

 

[Robovski]

 

[Tiamat]

Psaki needs to take her "bovine scatology" and MOOOOOOve over.



(Okay, that might've been lame.)



Cows come and cows go, but it seems in DC the BULL around here stays forever.



(Probably not much better...)

 

[prinCZess]

There is an element of truth here--the meatpacking industry as far as I can tell by what is definitely NOT an experts understanding of the topic, has benefited enormously from being dominated by a small number of very large producers who have a lot of influence over the pricing coming and going (and, like agricorps, have exploited slave illegal immigrant labor), the example I see a lot being the way beef prices have exploded but beef ranchers have seen very little benefit from it in the price of cattle because the packers & processors suck much of those returns from the consumer before it reaches them as the producer, and building your own meat-packing and processing centers is a capital-intensive process that ranchers don't really have*

*Though there's potential progress on that front.

Of course, a VERY CENTRAL ELEMENT to the existence of such a hyper-centralized meatpacking industry is government regulation and control of such industry and the dominance of Californian regulators or those of similar mind in the market (similar to auto manufacturers), who do things like bar slaughterhouses from selling directly to consumers--so local ranchers have a massive barrier to selling to local consumers or business through the ease of a storefront or delivery method, resulting in the word-game workaround of people buying a cow/pig/whatever themselves and then having it be slaughtered for their own consumption at one of the same slaughterhouses that would be banned from selling those people hamburger they already processed. It's a silly system.

That said, also undoubtedly inflation and supply-chain shittery afoot in the rising prices (the meat-packing industry itself is not immune, even dominated as it is by few players, to supply snags and government-mandated shutdowns because of Wuhan flu...In fact, that would be one contributor making it worse because there are so few big, government-approved processors).

And of course, that inflation and supply-chain shittery brings us back around to the VERY CENTRAL ELEMENT of rulemaking and legislation by governments that have been shitting the bed on both fronts.

 

[VicSage]

A classical education is actually a great thing. Unfortunately, the education system, pre-college and college/university haven't really been teaching a true classical education for decades. It's turned into an indoctrination system by the will of the Fed's Education Bureau.

Like I said, holding onto the remnants, but missing the point. Like a Cargo Cult that makes a plane out of plywood and expects it to fly, or making telephones to request airdrops after witnessing the Americans doing that during WWII.

 

[Cherico]

Like I said, holding onto the remnants, but missing the point. Like a Cargo Cult that makes a plane out of plywood and expects it to fly, or making telephones to request airdrops after witnessing the Americans doing that during WWII.

I think people in cargo cults have more fun then we do in academia.

 

[Bacle]

Ok, so who'll be our River and what will be our Miranda?

 

[The Whispering Monk]

Ok, so who'll be our River and what will be our Miranda?

Boy howdy, if the Vax doesn't scream, "Miranda!!!" then I don't know what will.

 

[Tiamat]

"You Republican rednecks are all in BIG trouble in 2022! My pal ol' Cornpop is comin' to town!"

Biden Warns Republicans Are ‘In For A Problem’ Ahead Of 2022 Midterms

President Biden said Republicans are "in for a problem" come the 2022 midterm elections while speaking Tuesday at the Democratic National Committee holiday party.

dailycaller.com

"Of course we only win if we stay united! United over...something....or other....something. Well off I go then, sleepy time!"