Sorry, but you can't equate a nations survival against a different nation with an argument with your wife. Not even close to the same thing, and much more is at stake. Take his biggest example, what should Earth's surface temperature target? Any fixed rate will impact someone's growing seasons and food production. Somebody has to lose something, or perhaps it's best to term it "sacrifice" something. Does Asia lose rice production, or does Europe/North America lose grain production?

The article does not even tough the bigger issues. The particles that have been patented for use in GeoEngineering are hazardous. Perhaps there are other patents we don't know about, but the ones we do know about are primarily barium and aluminum. Neither humans or animals process large amounts of metals very well, and metals have a toxic effect over time because we can't process them out of our systems. Somebody has to take the blame when people start dropping, and war is probably going seen as the only option to fight off "those evil poisoner people".

What an idiot. Sorry, how responsive is the federal government to the needs of the People? There have been studies done that show that citizens have little say in how policy is formed. We vote for Kodos or Kang every two to four years and not much changes for the better.

So what am I supposed to do? Sure, I can get involved politically and I do that to some extent. But I have a 40+ hour a week job to maintain, kids at home once I get there at night, and life maintenance/kid stuff to do on the weekends. So I don't have a massive amount of time to spend on making sure government agencies are following the law and acting appropriately. And, frankly, I shouldn't have to! That's why I elect people in a representative government. My elected representatives are supposed to look out for their constituents. I am painfully aware that they do not often do that. But that's not my fault, it is theirs. They were elected to do a job just like I was hired to do my job. My boss does not constantly check up on me to make sure I'm doing my job. If he had to do that, I would be fired. I am expected to know what my job is and do it correctly with minimal supervision.

As you can probably tell, I am sick of people blaming the citizenry for government corruption and/or incompetence. Yes, people need to pay attention, stay engaged and vote responsibly. But big business, intelligence agencies and wealthy special interests have been working for years to rig the game and get what they want. They do it behind closed doors to purposely keep the People out of the process (just look at the TPP for an example). And then there's that fact that the public is lied to and propagandized such that a lot of people don't understand the issues and rely on bad information. So fuck off with this blaming the public crap. Yes, the public has to stay on point. But it is not nearly that simple, and it's not their fault when people entrusted with responsible government let them down.

You get 50%?! I'm on a supposedly 105 Mb connection and speed tests routinely report 10 - 12 Mb. I would be thrilled with 50% of advertised bandwidth.

I would agree that our so-called "News" blows some things out of proportion. At the same time I lived most of my life near Detroit and more recently in CA (SF Area). I have friends and family in most Southern states. There are absolutely pockets where the economy is bad enough that I'd agree with GP about the powder keg waiting for a spark. Even in the SF Bay area, I wonder how much it would take to see riots. Here there are the people with money, and those those without.

Measurements on just about everything prove that the Middle Class is becoming an endangered species. The lack of a middle class will lead to revolts at some point, history is pretty clear on that. The Lords with money are generally given plenty of room to be Lords as long as the subjects have a trajectory upward. When all avenues are closed and your option is to be a peasant, Lords tend to lose their heads.

You are claiming that media plays up incidents of protest, which I agree with. We also know that they downplay incidents of protest, distort protests, and in some cases just ignore the best informed protests. It happens to work both ways, depending on who benefits. Racial tensions keep the peasants bickering with each other. Political corruption does not. Guess which gets air time?

More likely that nothing changes in my opinion. Society in the US is on brittle ice in many areas. More abuse by oligarchy may push things enough to break the ice, and people in power don't want that to happen. Contrary to the popular opinion, the people in power are not stupid and did not get into power by accident. They are actually very intelligent and well informed for the most part.

No change means that the people currently afforded protection, like IBM/Microsoft/Oracle/etc..., still have their idea patents being enforced. The public bickering however makes the little people think something is working in their favor.

I have learned over a half a century never to measure by what a politician says, but measure their actions. Yup, I'm cynical and pessimistic with the US Government. Decades of watching unchecked abuses tends to do that to a person.

It's also that Elizabeth warren is one of the few who actually thinks Wall Street fraud should be prosecuted.

Not even close. I'll vote twice for Bernie Sanders if given the chance.

All the contract bullshit pisses me off too. I am looking for a new job (my boss sucks and I don't get projects to keep my skills current) and I see so many job descriptions that read like a full-time position but are actually 6 month contracts. Seriously? They want a Systems Admin with 3 years of VMWare and SAN experience, Active Directory, backup, Exchange, firewall and LAN/WAN but they only need it for 6 months? That's a permanent, full-time position. But they say it's contract.

Well, guess what? I'm not applying for that position. Why would I give up a full-time job with benefits for a 6 month or 1 year contract? I see many jobs I think I'm qualified for, but so many of them are posted as contract when the description is clearly for a full-time permanent position.

I agree in principle. But practically speaking, we both know how far that would have gone.

The CEO is probably one of the highest paid people in the company. Surely, they could find someone to do that job for less. And yet, that calculation never seems to come up. Funny, eh?

If he had entered the public domain, like he should have years ago, we wouldn't have to.

I can tell you have thought long and hard on this topic.

Tell that to Countrywide. You don't seem to understand that the housing crisis was brought on by fraud on the part of the mortgage originators, loan packagers and ratings agencies.

Seriously, there is enough written on the topic by people like Barry Ritholtz and Matt Taibbi. I don't understand why people keep pushing the legislation angle, except for servicing an agenda or willful ignorance.

Oh, have we given up the pretense that H1B workers are paid the same as domestic workers? Because that's the law, you know. But thanks for your refreshing candor in admitting that hiring H1B's is wage arbitrage.

If it's between the Democrats and Republicans to fix it, I'll go with my Aunt Rita.