According to various reports, Harry Reid is finally so fed up over the constant use/abuse of the filibuster, he is reconsidering “the nuclear option.” According to other reports, the massive overhaul of immigration that the Senate miraculously managed to pass is DOA in the House, where the Tea Party zealots who control the GOP adamantly oppose anything favored by the Administration, no matter how reasonable or humane or good for the country.
Wonder why our government doesn’t work?
Barack Obama ran for office using the slogan “Yes We Can” and the Republicans in Congress responded with a slogan of their own: “No You Can’t–we won’t let you.”
I had a couple of two-year-olds like that.
The problem is, when the equivalent of two-year-olds are preventing the grown-ups from running the country, we are all in BIG trouble.
For the past 30+ years, the Republican party has preached that OUR government is our enemy. Government IS the problem they rant. They did not really believe that but used it to get votes from dummies. NOW the dummies are running the Rep party.
“Well this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into Ollie”.
I am not convince the Republican adults can take their party back from the dummies any time soon. Until they do, God help us all.
I recall that when Steve Jobs went to the White House shortly before his death he made a comment to the effect that, after telling the President the problems America faced (in Jobs opinion) all the President could do was explain how it was hopeless and unsolvable. This annoyed Jobs no end – perhaps Jobs and Apple were the intellectual backbone of the Tea Party?
Below is a portion of the Huff Post article first reported 10/20/11. J. England; can you be sure President Obama made those statements to Steve Jobs or could they be Steve Jobs’ statements TO President Obama or Steve Jobs’ later version of the meeting and their conversation? It seems to me Mr. Jobs was not only opinionated but believed he was all-knowing and all-seeing; a legend in his own mind.
“Among other details unearthed in the book on the notoriously-secretive Apple co-founder:
Jobs’ Meeting With Obama
Jobs, who was known for his prickly, stubborn personality, almost missed meeting President Obama in the fall of 2010 because he insisted that the president personally ask him for a meeting. Though his wife told him that Obama “was really psyched to meet with you,” Jobs insisted on the personal invitation, and the standoff lasted for five days. When he finally relented and they met at the Westin San Francisco Airport, Jobs was characteristically blunt. He seemed to have transformed from a liberal into a conservative.
“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where “regulations and unnecessary costs” make it difficult for them.
Jobs also criticized America’s education system, saying it was “crippled by union work rules,” noted Isaacson. “Until the teachers’ unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform.” Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year.”
If Steve was indeed a legend in his own mind, he shares that with Bill Gates. Neither one seems/seemed to grasp the idea that children aren’t identical widgets and schools aren’t factories.
Regarding Mr. Jobs and Apple, if it weren’t for the public schools, starting with Minnesota which officially adopted Apple (vs. Radio Shack or any of the others), Apple would have been an also ran company. Granted, Apple was a good bet back then, but Minnesota, followed by the other midwestern states gave Apple the critical and significant boost it needed to quickly go to number one. Once people began to believe that schools were not doing their jobs unless they had all kinds of computer equipment, the computer companies were able to drain the billions from the schools. The value of high level computers in the schools is still somewhat questionable for a number of reasons, but their worth to kids nowhere matches the obscene investment. In years to come, the value of powerful and high level computers will be shown to have been a more valuable driver of the economy than they were for the school learning.
It’s also interesting what Jobs apparently said to the president about not being able to find engineers in the U.S., so he had to go to China. The knowledgeable engineers that I know tell me that being an engineer is a great job for the first five years or so, until folks realize that they can get younger ones for a lot less. There are LOTS of engineers in this country, just as there is a glut of scientists (not a shortage), so Jobs could find lots of engineers in the U.S., but not for what the Chinese were willing to work for.
The computer geeks have even bigger egos than politicians.
Back to Sheila’s point, I don’t see them so much as two-year-olds, but rather as bullies who are saying “If I can’t win, I’m taking the ball and going home”.