I could probably find one in Sumerian, but I'm sure you readers of the Classics know a better example. In a fair world, BAR authors would be highly paid journalists at national news desks:
by Kesi FosterHigher education is an American Dream, but may become a "Dream deferred" for community college students. The banks are the villains. "The following lenders have started turning away from community college students: Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, SunTrust, and PNC. In the case of Citibank, it has stopped offering loans to all community college students in the state of California," writes the author, a community college student. When the bankers turn their backs on struggling community college students, "does that not mean we should have no problem turning our backs on the banks when they want the government to bail them out? "
And so it begins. I expect this to happen over and over again in the coming Obama administration, at both the federal level as well as the corporate. (is there a difference?) The "excuse" that "there just isn't enough money/credit/liquidity" will be employed to slash social program after program, and the poor will bear the greatest brunt. But interest on the debt, paid to foreign governments and the superwealthy? Oh, that will be paid. And the MIC budget? Count on that to continue to grow. Social Security? Feh, there's still plenty of fat there that can be cut, and I don't expect Dems to stand up for it, as they are shown the real books that the Bush regime has kept from their incurious eyes these last eight years. Perhaps it will be a 'nasty surprise' to him, or perhaps his Crack SuperSmart UChicago Economic team will be all ready, handing over a "plan" on Day 1, in which they relate that for the Good of the Nation, the poor shall be required to turn over their first born for slavery "national service" in which they are all shipped to Dubai to work on the New Pyramids.
- chicago dyke's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Front page
Comments
That's appalling
Fuck
not just the poor, but the poor who are trying the hardest. That sucks. They suck.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
stinks
When the bankers turn their backs on struggling community college students, “does that not mean we should have no problem turning our backs on the banks when they want the government to bail them out? “
there ought to be ways that they states can pressure them to do the right thing
Mixed mind
Now we're outraged that banks are no longer facilitating debt peonage for young people starting out in life? Our outrage should be that the government thinks that a skilled, educated populace is an individual rather than a social issue.
The states ought to do the right thing, and I'm just not sure that that's pressuring banks. My cynicism suggests that the banks will be glad to form a public-private partnership where the state guarantees the loan and allows harsher terms. Politicians take credit for making loans available. The banks make out even more like bandits. And of course, everybody else pays.
City Colleges were free here in NYC til mid-70s--
those days are gone forever.
community colleges
well, states could get radical and fund the CC sufficiently so that tuition would be lower.
states don't have money
and can't print it.
---------------
We can't afford not to have single-payer!
Liberal Shock Doctrine
I still say that liberals need a shock doctrine agenda for when all this hits the fan and it's goign to eventually. And I'm happy to say this idea is now being bandied about by people with a bigger audience than me.
This kind of stuff pisses people off. A lot of people. And we should be ready to capitalize on that. Because otherwise we're going to do the natural thing which is to say - give us back what we had, when what we have isn't all that great, having been diminished over the last 30 years by the GOP. Instead, we should be saying the old programs don't work, here are new and better programs that will. The New Deal and Great Society programs got through largely based on the shock doctrine.
"let them work 3 jobs and eat ramen"
and our candidates are only offering them unpaid work to pay off federal funding as a solution, which is not an option for most of us, given that you have to have paid work to live.
those days are most certainly not gone, amber!
dammit, the romantic in me refuses to believe so.
2 trillion dollars. what could you do with that, if your mission were to spend the entirety of that budget upon ahem, "deserving" other people? i know what i could do, changing the world is within my grasp with a budget like that.
but hey! that's just what the pentagram lost recently; it's hardly even close to what we actually give them to play with. i guess you can kill a lot of brown/poor people with that figure, although i bet it's less than the original budgets assert.
no, those days aren't gone. the money is there. it's a matter of, gosh, what did they call it in the old days? "political will." we're 'already paying for it.' it is a straightforward matter of replacing their accountants with our accountants. yo?
you're right--
i've become defeatist about most of it, sadly. (i try not to, but we've all lived thru us going way way way backwards since the 70s, and my life is 1/2 over already.)
I don't see anyone anywhere who is willing to do it--even Hillary 2008 was way behind Hillary 1992, healthwise. (and i'd prioritize things like healthcare and housing and food and jobs as more pressing needs first, too)
+100 CD
What you said:
Of course, the devil is in the details, but yes, and that is a very interesting perception.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi