Lip service isn't putting food on anyone's table though, neither is it providing people with jobs, controlling the banks or checking the military industrial complex. I see what you are getting at, but putting dishonest people into office is basically choosing the lesser evil. I know what you are going to say, most politicians are dishonest, its the nature of the beast. As long as people keep accepting that however, things are never going to change not for the better anyway.

InBlack wrote on Jan 31, 2016, 10:46:
I would be very surprised if Sanders somehow took the Dem. nomination. Not because he is incapable or he doesn't have the support, I believe he is and does, but because the cards are so stacked against him. There is way too much corporate money in politics for 'them' to ever allow a self declared socialist to become the president of the most powerful nation on earth. Clinton will clinch it, and in some ways I find her and those of her ilk supremely more scary than any crazed conservative or right wing demagogue.

At least the Dems pay lip service to helping the common person. The Repubs don't even bother with that anymore.

I would be very surprised if Sanders somehow took the Dem. nomination. Not because he is incapable or he doesn't have the support, I believe he is and does, but because the cards are so stacked against him. There is way too much corporate money in politics for 'them' to ever allow a self declared socialist to become the president of the most powerful nation on earth. Clinton will clinch it, and in some ways I find her and those of her ilk supremely more scary than any crazed conservative or right wing demagogue.

Creston wrote on Jan 30, 2016, 19:33:
Meanwhile my wife's school has to fire 8 teachers next year because they have no money to pay them.

Education in this country is SUPREMELY fucked up.

There's a lot of f'd up things in our country right now, and 90% of it is related to the "trickle down" economics we've been championing for around 30 years now. Counties, towns and cities are strapped for tax revenue because wages have been flat for decades. People working full time jobs don't make enough to qualify to pay taxes and some of them are on public assistance to supplement their wages. However, due to corporate lobbying efforts, we've kept minimum wage artificially low for years, we are implementing trade agreements that will further depress wages, and our government is actively working with corporations to abolish unions, get more work visas for people willing to work for half wages, and get more and more jobs made exempt from overtime pay. The country now has a wealth gap equal to 3rd world countries like Africa, and it shows, in that our infrastructure is crumbling because 80% of America has only 20% of the wealth (so there is no tax revenue to maintain anything), and 65 people on the planet now have greater wealth than 50% of the planet combined.

However, if you took the trillons wasted on multiple useless wars, plus the ongoing wars on terror, drugs, etc., TSA, NSA, Homeland Security, privatized prisons, etc., I'm sure we'd probably have trillions of dollars available for education and maybe have a good healthcare system.

This comment was edited on Jan 31, 2016, 08:24.

Cutter wrote on Jan 30, 2016, 20:31:
"It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber."

- Robert Fulghum

It's a great quote.

If the Anti-Christ, Trump, gets elected it'll be Armageddon anyway so nothing else will matter. At least we'll be ready given our Fallout training. :)

Actually not too worried about Trump because he's not really an ideologue. His big problem that he has no ability to compromise because he's used to getting his way. I'd be much more worried about a Cruz presidency. That dude is scary.

All that being said, I'd love a Prez Sanders, and even Clinton wouldn't be bad.

If you're serious about getting people into CS, let their be CS jobs for them to get.

1. Stop allowing the offshoring of American software development.

2. Stop giving out H1Bs like they're Halloween candy.

4D-Boxing wrote on Jan 30, 2016, 21:39:

I thought that education fell under state jurisdiction like health or is that a Canadian thing?

Education is one of the most highly localized functions of government within the US. While there are state-level education departments and a federal department of education, most curricular, administrative, and budgetary decisions are made at level of local school districts. Some school districts, like the Los Angeles Unified School District, are gigantic, but most comprise only a handful of schools for a given town or city. Further, the majority of a school district's funding comes from local property taxes. In other words, rich neighborhoods get richly funded schools, and poor neighborhoods get poorly funded schools. As you can probably imagine by this point, the quality of public education runs the gamut from 3rd-world conditions to competitive with the likes of Finland, with most somewhere in the middle range of mediocrity.

The federal department of education doesn't directly control local school districts or state departments of education, but they do have money to distribute, and they can use the promise of that money to influence state and local education policies. In other words, it's something along the lines of "here's x dollars which you can use to hire y qualified computer science teachers who will teach courses based upon z curriculum we've developed."

Short and over-simplified version:
Federal grant money or budgeted funds for education can be something more like extortion or bribery.

If a State doesn't meet certain standards, spend the money a certain way, etc the Federal government can take away the money or not provide more of it the following year. Not only that, but this extends beyond education. For example, if a state makes something legal that illegal by Federal laws the government can threaten to take away money for education, roads, etc. For some states, particularly states with a highly rural population, this is a big deal. For other states it's still a big deal because they can't or don't balance their budget without the government funds.

The Half Elf wrote on Jan 30, 2016, 14:35:
4 billion eh? Wouldn't it be better spent on the schools first, like say in... Michigan?

I thought that education fell under state jurisdiction like health or is that a Canadian thing? In Canada the feds can't tell the provinces how to spend $ given for health or education. I assume that its the same in the US. The President can only do stuff like this, big overarching stuff to supplement what all states do.

In Canada, provinces take the $ feds give for health and education and spend it how they want and not necessarily on health or education (campaign promises,returning favors isn't cheap plus provincial gov might be of a diff party with diff priorities than health and education). Is it possible that the same dynamic exists in the US.

No offense but, I agree education is in trouble when compared to countries with similar demographics and way less $. I remember seeing Cleveland inner city school on TV back in the 90s, kids with umbrellas in class on rainy days and more rodents/vermin than students or books. Worst than some 3rd world countries. Anyways, all countries make the mistake of ignoring issues till they become disasters yet the sweep under the rug strategy persists.

Creston wrote on Jan 30, 2016, 19:33:
Meanwhile my wife's school has to fire 8 teachers next year because they have no money to pay them.

Education in this country is SUPREMELY fucked up.

"It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber."

- Robert Fulghum

If the Anti-Christ, Trump, gets elected it'll be Armageddon anyway so nothing else will matter. At least we'll be ready given our Fallout training.

Meanwhile my wife's school has to fire 8 teachers next year because they have no money to pay them.

Education in this country is SUPREMELY fucked up.

4 billion eh? Wouldn't it be better spent on the schools first, like say in... Michigan?