j_b

I assure you, I'm not confused at all about what the DOJ has/hasn't done about gay weed under Obama. I never mentioned what Obama thought on either issue, and, as long as his DOJ is towing the line, I don't much care. You are confused about what was said here. I don't believe anybody here said these issues didn't matter. What I said, and I believe prole also meant, is that progressives should also work on economic and foreign policy issues even if it means taking on the Democratic party (or at least its official narrative)

more passive aggressive behavior from you, but of course no specifics per usual.

He is constrained now that he didn't appeal to the people who gave him a mandate to reign in Laissez Faire zealots all the while he appointed (and keeps appointing) the very same architects of these disastrous policies at critical posts of his administration or supported conservadems against progressive challenges. Furthermore, as has been pointed out by Dean Baker, PKrugman and others, there are things that he could do without going through congress. You are confused w.r.t. to what was said about gay/weed. These are important issues but not to the detriment of working on the rest like the economy and foreign policy.

things can change direction but they won't because Obama is doing the same things he was doing in 2008-10. There will be reactions alright to 2.4 trillion in spending cuts including to medicare, fed employee pensions, etc ...

the people have already shown what they are likely to do when they didn't show up in 2010. My guess is that with the economy and unemployment going nowhere better, plus all the "compromises" (think almost complete cave in) that Obama is about to make on cuts, that the odds of his reelection aren't very good irrespective of his opponent. We already know how effective the corporate media is at presenting a sub par candidate (think Reagan, Bush,..) as if he were the next savior.

we'll talk about it in 2012 when you shake in your boots because most people (who are progressive on issues) aren't energized to vote for another round of capitulation.

what a clueless moron. The corporate media doesn't report on anything that progressives do irrespective of marketing or how many people participate.

I never discuss my personal life on cc.com because of the thugs that troll these parts. Anyway, what I do otherwise may be interesting but it has no bearing on this discussion. First, I don't believe we are going through a rough patch and that things will be coming back to what they were. Second, I am very much at a loss to offer more than banalities to incoming freshmen on ways to deal with this period, except perhaps to make themselves heard.

well, most indicators tell us a story similar to that of the great depression, but added on top of it we have undergone neoliberal reorganization while America doesn't have the markets that Asia provides, a democracy captured by corporocrats, severe environmental crises, perpetual war, and a complacent public in NA.

lying comes to Attila as easily as breathing. I have offered plenty of solutions, in particular the People's Budget put forward by the progressive caucus but entirely ignored by the corporate media, which is no accident.

that's the kind of statement I'd expect from Attila but it is true you seem to have more in common than one would think possible.

most working students I ever had couldn't handle working any significant amount and really go to school

what else is wrong with my person or my posting habits, Jim?

there isn't a week passing without some scientific body warning us of impending doom but Jim doesn't think the world is on fire. I mean we could understand how from his comfortable position he doesn't perceive the economic hardship suffered by most but is anything wrong with that picture?

Maybe, just maybe, you could once offer some practical solution to the one of these many crises..The chicken little act gets old. get used to it because these crises aren't going away despite your and your friends pretending they don't exist.

Yes it is definitely a matter of harshing your mellow because YOUR reality isn't that of most people.

sorry to harsh your mellow dood but the world is on fire. Between the severe environmental crises occurring as we speak, the systematic marching back of 70 years of social progress (what's left of it after 30 years of neoliberal rule), neoliberal globalization driving earnings into the sewer and destroying the middle class, the systematic looting of treasury, etc it is a perfect storm of crises. In fact it is difficult not to think they are related. so they are going to save for college on non-living wages? nice fairy tale. People went into debt because that was the only to pay for an education that would give them a chance to improve their lot. Unless your behavior reflects the world being on fire, the good jobs aren't coming back, unemployment will stay high because it insures the peons fight for the scraps and profits are optimized, etc

State funding for higher ed has been cut in half since 2008 the debt bubble burst and plunging real estate values signal the end of borrowing for the middle class student debt is greater than credit card debt, etc but, "a crisis, where? .... whining ... I am a liberal but no one is putting a gun to people's heads to take out loans" I couldn't make this shit up if I tried! Unreal!

"In the postindustrial economy, educational attainment, especially postsecondary educational attainment, has replaced the industrial concept of class as the primary marker for social stratification. In particular, in the post–World War II era, access to postsecondary education has become the salient mechanism driving access to middle-class earnings and status." http://tcf.org/publications/2010/9/how-increasing-college-access-is-increasing-inequality-and-what-to-do-about-it/pdf I can't believe I am doing this but it appears that neolib propaganda has a greater impact than I assumed.

source: Gorgetown University center on education and the workforce

are you pulling our leg? education leading to better outcomes is pretty much a given in educational research.

No, I usually tend to debate with people whose statements are based in reality and not the propaganda put out by neolib think tanks, which JayB only needs to spew without supporting evidence for you to be content apparently. I never thought I would see the day when I needed to justify the statement that higher ed leads to better outcomes whereas the opposite would go unchallenged by "liberals".

That's a standard regressive talking point: denying that higher ed leads to better outcomes allows them to say that decreased access to higher edu isn't a crisis.