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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"but these kids...exist under a government whose only accountability is to billionaires."
from truthdig:
Thats All, Folks
Posted on Mar 1, 2015
By Peter Z. Scheer
.......(snip).......
When I started this job nine or so years ago, George W. Bush was in his second term and the U.S. was plainly stuck in two costly, deadly, seemingly endless wars. America was torturing people. Our government routinely lied about pretty much everything. Bushs attorney general, who tried to eliminate all traces of marijuana and boobies from the national landscape, was replaced by a guy who was somehow worse. The people of New Orleans were drowning and waiting to be saved by the horse enthusiast who was in charge of FEMA. In those times, running Truthdig was a lot easier. The targets were clearly marked.
In a period when the press at large had mostly failed in its duty, Truthdig would avoid quibbling about the obvious and dig for lesser-known truths about the days events. We would mine these truths from experts, on-the-ground reports and the small crevices of the Internet and broadcast them as far as our readers, friends and online allies would carry them.
Now, as I write this, an original print of Shepard Faireys Hope poster sits behind me, Barack Obamas eyes overseeing everything I type. How appropriate given what we now know about the NSA. I cannot think of a greater disappointment than President Obamalike so many millions of other Americans, I completely fell for it. I remember sitting in a Nevada home surrounded by volunteers from California, Chicago and elsewhere. Among those migrants were disaffected Republicans who may have more clearly recognized a fellow traveler in the candidate. I thought then that they were the dupes. I was wrong. Regardless, we were united by a common desire for profound change, and we seemed to have found a vehicle for it in Obama. Of course he would go on to squander it all. Truthdig covered the hell out of Obamas fall from grace. It wasnt easy, or popular.
.......(snip).......
Dont get me started on the national security state. It is baffling to me to think that Richard Nixons presidency was brought down by a burglary, while the NSA and other intelligence agencies continue to stampede the Constitution without repercussion. They want to know who you are, what you do, what you say and what you think, and will put you in prison if you dare let anyone know the full extent of what theyre up to. Thats America now, and the collective reaction is Meh.
.......(snip).......
I have two friends who would like to be artists. Instead, one is now a graphic designer, the other makes Internet ads. I have a friend who loves to act; hes a lawyer. Journalism is now a training camp for PR. The best mathematicians go to work for Wall Street investment firms. Many of these people are shackled to what is estimated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to be $1.2 trillion in student loan debt. By law, they are not allowed to default. In 1972, the year Jobs dropped out of college, the average annual cost for a four-year education, including fees, room and board, was $2,031, according to the Digest of Education Statistics. In 2013 it was $23,872. Thats an increase of more than 1,100 percent. Reed College, which Jobs attended for six months, now costs $59,960 a year for tuition, room and board, a figure greater than the net worth of the typical American household. Not including books, transportation and other expenses, thats $239,840 for a bachelors degree, which is significantly less valuable in the marketplace now than it was in 1972.
.......(snip).......
When the best and brightest are chained to a monthly loan payment that leaves them just enough for food, housing and some minor consumer distraction to get them back on the hamster wheel, theyre never really going to do anything about global warming, or Ebola, or Syria, or poverty, or hunger, or the war in the Congo that killed 5.4 million people while no one was paying attention. Those things will exist on Twitter, where great ideas, thought up in stolen moments at work, go to shrink and die. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/thats_all_folks_20150301
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"but these kids...exist under a government whose only accountability is to billionaires." (Original Post)
marmar
Mar 2015
OP
marmar
(77,078 posts)1. Sometimes you kick. Sometimes you get kicked.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)2. fake! I read on du that anyone who is disappointed with the president now is lying about
ever having voted for him! And everyone knows that truthdig is a cesspool of racism and sexism, and they work for Rove!
Rec for the agonizing, depressing truth
xchrom
(108,903 posts)3. du rec.