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Comment Re:Snowden is a hero (Score 1) 109

Just before the whole snowden thing went greenwald, the gop was getting destroyed in the polls because everybody under thirty was voting for the dems

The spring of generated scandals was effective, not in turning these people into republicans, but getting them to become disgusted enough with their government to not show up at the polls on election day

The gopers do not have to publicly support snowden to benefit from his revelations because everybody who votes for the gop lived through the cold war and pretty much expects that stuff is going on, or supports it openly

The 2014 elections, with a spectacularly low turnout in voters under thirty and clear gop wins, demonstrates just how effective the snowden gambit has been

fwi, it is not the firs time that the gop has sold national security down the river for wins at the polls

Comment Re:Reality does not have a rest button son. (Score 0) 86

Well there was widespread deregulation of financial markets that made for the great recession
Going from no deficits and a path to paying of the national debt under Clinton to tax cuts and war debt bringing the national debt to new highs
Rolling back all of the Clinton controls on CO2 emissions and encouraging the building of more coal power plants
Destabilizing the middle east and getting thousands of service men and women killed on some unjustified search for wmds

you know the little things that hurt us as a nation for generations

Comment Re:More like a diversion for more H-1B (Score 2) 165

Yes, 'American Exceptionalism' is the sort of hubris that let our auto industry fall back on their heels and let their lunch get eaten by Japanese manufacturers
And, I will even go on to agree that protectionism has had a pretty horrible track record for building aggression between nations and probably helped to lead to the first two world wars

However, the IT industry in America forms (and will continue to grow as) a significant portion of the middle class. This middle class is expected to educate their young and continue to provide economic leadership in years to come. The way that I see it, the US can choose to 1. protect domestic IT jobs by avoiding policies that allow US workers to be undermined by foreign workers, or 2. provide a level of social and educational support to Americans that most of the European nations provide (education being number one on the list)

I would go on to argue that protectionism of jobs it not similar to protectionism of trade such as we saw in the early 20th century. Providing some level of support to US jobs by either supporting education or supporting workers provides money to engage in trade and prevents economic sluggishness that would lead politicians to attempt to enact trade protectionism

Right now America has an edge in risk tolerance that gives us an advantage in innovation and business creation. We need to leverage this edge while it exists, and I do not see selling out our middle class for short term quarterly profits as the right was to accomplish that. China continues to demonstrate itself as a very capable competitor and reducing our competitiveness for short term profits at this time seems foolish

Comment Re: More like a diversion for more H-1B (Score 3, Insightful) 165

So, are you suggesting that either Sony or Phillips 'left' America, when they are both brands that were originally from foreign lands?

In fact, Phillips runs Phillips Electronics out of Andover Mass, presumably for American talent, and Sony runs Sony Entertainment out of Los Angeles, again for that 'American cool'

Thank you for buying products created by Americans

Comment Re:More like a diversion for more H-1B (Score 4, Insightful) 165

Welcome to business school circa 1998, where 'we'll send it all overseas and $profit$' was taught as a viable business practice.

You manage to ignore many of the failures of outsourcing, such as language and cultural divides between customers (business and consumer) and the offshore workers, and the tendency for outsourcers to provide their A team at the beginning of the contract, then shifting their B and C teams into place as they attempt o land more contracts

And, even if you decide that you are going to take the whole kit and kaboodle offshore, that may work for canned existing services that are fully commoditized, but it completely ignores that American tendency to innovate and create new services and companies

As much as you seem to hate Americans, we are still fucking cool and continue to create what the rest of the world wants to buy

Comment Re: More like a diversion for more H-1B (Score 4, Informative) 165

No, it is the difference between nationalistic and global free markets

If America is constrained by their national boundaries (and citizens) for IT workers, the supply will be less than demand and wages will rise

Id America is free to engage a global market, then there is a glut of IT workers and wages will fall

FYI, no other country, including India, allows foreign IT workers to create a glut and reduce the value of their own workers

Comment Re:why the hell does billg want to teach these kid (Score 3, Insightful) 165

He has to pay lip service to the 'lack of skilled US workers', even though the H1B workers will undercut the demand that is supposed to drive people into those careers

If you believe in free markets. then you have to let there be a vacuum in workers to create a demand for people to want to work those jobs because they will be worth more money

Supplementing the supply with H1B workers reduces the demand, which would drive US workers to seek those jobs

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