I second @JustSaying here -- what exactly does it tell you? (Snowden seeking refuge in countries with abysmal human rights records)

What it tells me is that it is pretty pathetic that Snowden's best chances for freedom and a life outside of a concrete cell in Gitmo come from someplace like Venezuela, Ecuador, or Russia as compared to his home, the "land of the free" USA. I think it says much more about the current government and political environment in the US than it does about Snowden.

Given my take on it, I think it is laughable to accuse Snowden of hypocrisy. Aim that word at an entity that deserves it -- the country and government that labels itself:

*the "land of the free" (except for those that we lock up in indefinite detention without trial, those guilty of thoughtcrime, anyone trying to travel freely outside of the country or even from state to state, etc.),

*"home of the brave" (except for any vague threat of 'terrorists', in which case we ask everyone to panic and allow a friendly TSA officer to treat you like a sock puppet, in spite of the fact that you're 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a terrorist),

*originator of the bill of rights (unless the government has some tenuous and self serving reason to revoke any/all of your rights: Free speech? Hah! Free press? Hah! Unreasonable search and seizure? No such thing! Due process? Hah! Speedy and public trial? Hah! By a jury? Hah! Cruel and unusual punishments? Waterboarding and other 'enhanced interrogation techniques' don't count! The government laughs at the bill of rights and pisses on their grave.),

*bastion of democracy (except I don't remember voting on ANY of the shit that Snowden brought to our attention, and it seems that neither do any/most of our elected 'representatives' -Hah!), and

*home of the American dream (as long as your dream doesn't involve freedom from any of the myriad transgressions listed above).

Oh how my once proud nation has fallen.

Sarcasm option doesn't work it seems...

But in all honesty I think there is less opportunity now in the US with high income inequalities and low social mobility. The american dream is pretty much a dream now for most people.

Yeah iirc I heard something once that the reason why home ownership was always promoted as part of the 'American Dream' was to get people into debt.
And really, for the first 30 years or so you are still basically a renter, only a renter with more responsibility; don't even get me started on zombie mortgages, those things are just diabolical.
http://videosift.com/video/Zombie-Titles-More-Horrifying-Than-Home-Foreclosure

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Park Avenue Money Power and the American Dream documentary wealth inequality' to 'Park Avenue, Money, Power and the American Dream, documentary wealth inequality' - edited by enoch

I've lived in California for so long.... is this that American dream people keep talking about?

Tired of that $2.6 Million Program that Teaches Chinese Prostitutes to Drink?

by John Ransom


Liberty is about a lot of things; it’s a deep topic. But at its core liberty can be summed up in one simple and reciprocal concept. That concept is respect.

You know the 2010 last election was about many things, but it was mostly about respect.

It was about starting to restore the respect that people have in government, by getting the government to restore the respect that they show to you…by taking liberty seriously.

If you are like me, you think that many of our elected officials from both the right and the left truly believe that what they think of you is much more important than what you think of them.

If you’re like me you’re tired of a trillion dollars in so-called stimulus spending that went to mob-connected asphalt contractors rather than the pockets of working families who own businesses and pay taxes and do all the working and dreaming in this country.

If you’re like me, you’re tired of a $2.6 million program that teaches Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly while unemployment soars across the country.

If you’re like me, you're tired of an arrogant federal government which pays out $47 billion in fraudulent claims in Medicare every year while they lecture the rest of us about healthcare economics.

If you are like me, you’re tired of the US Postal service wasting $30 million on a program that pays 1100 employees to do nothing. Yes, today, the US Post Office sat 1100 employees in empty rooms, as they do every day, and literally paid them to do nothing. They can’t play cards; they can’t watch TV, in fact they can’t do anything at all. To the tune of $30 million per year.


Yet this very same federal government comes to us now and proposes to manage our healthcare, our retirement, the education of our children, the auto industry, the oil industry, pharmaceuticals, the mortgage industry and lectures the American people that they are under-regulated.

If you’re a middle American like me, from the grassroots, I bet you know someone who owns their own business; if you’re like me you probably know someone who has paid employees of that business on time every week, but hasn’t been able to pay themselves a dime. Yet these very same people who provide half the new jobs in our economy, who have lost money over the last few years, still owe the government tens of thousands of dollars in taxes every year. People wonder where our jobs have gone? They’ve been crushed by a system that doesn’t honor job creation; by a system that doesn’t honor liberty; a system that gives no respect.

And if you are like most of the voters I speak to, you are tired of insiders from Washington and Wall Street on both sides of the aisle, and their wasteful spending schemes that don’t even propose to solve the very issues facing Main Street and working families.

Let’s suppose global warming is real; I don’t think it is, but let’s say it's so for the sake of argument. Show me please how the Renewable Electricity Standard-- which will cost American families $1800 per year-- please show me how it’s going to lower the earth’s temperature. They can’t because the Renewable Electricity Standard wasn’t created to combat global warming and it won’t lower the earth’s temperature.

Ok, so let’s suppose the issue is carbon emission; that carbon is really bad and we have to get it out of our atmosphere. Show me please how the Renewable Electricity Standard is going to reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. They can’t. It wasn’t designed to do that and it won’t do that.

The government doesn't write legislation with solutions in mind, but rather with power and control of your very lives. And it is inside of your lives where you will wrestle back that control.

I’m often reminded that it’s with readers just like you where many of the seminal events of our country happened. It’s in rooms just like you’re in right now that a small group of patriots in Massachusetts planned the Boston Tea Party; it’s in groups just like you are a part of today that was born the Mayflower Compact; it’s in the free association of our citizens, for the common good and with common respect, that the greatness and goodness of our country will always be found.

And as long as people like you, freely associate for the common good and meet in respect, our country will always remain both great and good.

But ordinary people are paying attention, actually reading the Constitution; people are actually asking questions about the 10th Amendment, asking: What kind of power does Washington really have over us?

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough people who have been awakened to that yet, that’s why readers like you are so important. Each individual reading this is so incredibly important because the job you have this year as a citizen has never, ever, ever been more important. The 2012 election is going to determine what it’s like to live in this country for a long time. It’s going to be people just like you, having conversation just like this, in rooms across America that are going to make a difference.

This is the chance to turn the tide. The chance we have today is to bury that last vestiges of big government in our country; to reclaim our liberty from a new deal and replace it with a true deal.

I’ve been very fortunate because over the last half dozen years I’ve been able to travel all around the country working with grassroots activists just like you. I understand, I think, better than elected officials, what makes the grassroots so special. It's you and your ability to communicate.

We have all these new tools available for citizens to communicate that just a few years ago we didn’t have. A few years ago readers wouldn’t have been as energized and as informed because we didn’t have the ability to communicate as we do now. We have been so fractured and fragmented all around the country and around the nation that we feel like we can’t do anything, that Washington is so big and out of touch that we can’t do anything.

In fact, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Now is the time we really do have the opportunity. For the first time in our history ordinary citizens have the ability to communicate with one another over the heads of the media in publications like Townhall. We are networked on social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter that expose us to thousands of people for free.

But when I was growing up there were three TV stations and two newspapers in every town that decided what the news was. There were probably a dozen people in any town that picked our news for us.

Those days are over.

This election isn’t about voting for the next person standing in a long line of elites who will rule over us; it’s about what kind of country we want to be in the future.

It’s about preserving the American dream right here right now. Because when they mess with our liberty, they really mess with our ability to dream.

I believe that the ability to dream is worth handing down to our kids.

I believe that it’s our dreams that makes us the most dynamic country in the world.

It’s the dream that brings jobs and prosperity to the US.

It’s a dream that treats promises like they really matter.

And it’s the dreams that are the promise of America.

Because when politicians treat the promises they campaign on like they matter, when they are held accountable to those pledges-- by us-- we will restore the respect they owe us.

Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

This world is temporal; it is passing away. These monuments of human achievement we have constructed to declare our own glory are all sandcastles awaiting high tide. They are grains of sand being washed into the cosmic sea. We will leave this world the same way we entered it; at the complete mercy of forces beyond our control or understanding. This American dream is a shadow play; there is nothing from this world that can completely satisfy us:

Ecclesiastes 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

We know there is much more to this life than the gratification we can squeeze out of this moment. There is a perpetual, lingering dissatisfaction, when your hope is resting on shifting sands. Uncertainty is lurking at the doorstep, trying to sell us a lifetime subscription. A guest pass on a prison ship made of mind and sinew. We hunger for we don't see; a sense of permanence. A place called home. Something to fill the gap between heart and mind. We thirst for an eternal wellspring, welling up into life everlasting. A joy inexpressible and full of glory. We know there is more because He set it in our hearts to seek after Him. We know all of the ways of this world lead to death, but when put away uncertainty and seek after Him with all of our hearts, we will the find the bridge to eternity; we will find our Savior.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I know you're good for it.
And I could never get upset with a pretty cuntface like you.
Now, enjoy some music: http://videosift.com/video/Sufjan-Stevens-Jacksonville

In reply to this comment by enoch:
In reply to this comment by MrFisk:
*promote


did i ever thank you for the help on this video?
dont believe i did which makes me a cuntface.
there i go bein ol' cuntface...

thanks man.always appreciated and sorry for the lateness.

class warfare

debt (which MOST Americans have to get into, to get by) is a slave's collar

the American Dream and Freedom are political propaganda that don't actually exist

if you get riled up about someone "attacking" Freedom or the American Dream... but don't get riled up about the living conditions/opportunities available to your fellow citizens... you've drank the Kool-Aid and have sold your own freedom for fanaticism

for all you religious Republicans... instead of worrying about handouts, instead of not even bothering to consider them handups.... read some scripture : Matthew 25:31-46

when considering that passage, and the religious nature of the party... where do you think the real priority lays? Christianity or Capitalism? which God do they pray to? The one up in heaven or the one on the dollar bill?

In reply to this comment by MrFisk:
*promote


did i ever thank you for the help on this video?
dont believe i did which makes me a cuntface.
there i go bein ol' cuntface...

thanks man.always appreciated and sorry for the lateness.

@Boise_Lib

What exactly do you think credit cards provide? Free IOUs?

Credit cards offer unsecured short term loans. When a customer pays them back on time the customer pays how much? Nothing.


However when someone goes bankrupt who often does not get paid? The credit card companies. This means some people run up tens of thousands of dollars in debt and then pay either a small percentage or none of it back.

I don't feel bad for the credit card companies but I also don't blame them for our consumer society.

A lot of what Warren says here should resonate with everyone. We are all people and we do live, die, dance, and cry. That said maybe we need to put more focus on the people and relationships we have with them instead of having the newest car, the nicest house, the most expensive clothes etc. Then we can pay our more modest credit card bills on time.

Still my favorite part is the whole deal about loans. Anyone who researches the issue knows that it was systemic - politicians from both the democratic and republican party, wall street & main street. Irrational exuberance for the American Dream of everyone owning a home.

>> ^Hive13:

>> ^alien_concept:
What about all those people who work every day of their lives and can't build a decent future and don't have enough to pay the bills or have anything extra? I don't really understand how anyone can still believe in the American Dream...

I honestly still believe that the American Dream is still alive and well. There is a difference between working everyday to sustain versus working everyday to be better the next. You can't be comfortable in your life, no matter how successful or financially stable you are. You need to work hard to better yourself every day. The American Dream, to me, means a lot of hard work, dogged determination and a little luck. I honestly believe that ANYONE can be better today than they were yesterday.
I was kicked out of my house at age 17. I worked three jobs to have a shitty apartment and a car that barely ran, but I did it and life was pretty good. Then life reared its ugly head and it all came crashing down. I picked up the pieces and headed off to the Army. I had a great 6 years serving this country with lots of unique opportunities. It ended on a high note with me getting married and having my first child.
I started a new career, yet again, at the bottom eventually working my way up to project lead in charge of over 80 people through hard work, sacrifice and determination. It came crashing down again when my wife and I divorced and that company was closed and relocated.
I moved back home to Texas and literally started over from nothing at age 30. I took whatever jobs I could, eventually landing a six month contract deploying a software package and providing training to a worldwide engineering firm. At the end of the six months, I was given a three month extension to help overhaul the existing IT department and provide support to the existing IT staff and IT director. Again, through hard work and dedication, within 2 years I had saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in IT expenditures and was hired on as the new IT director. I am now remarried to my amazing wife, I have 4 amazing children, a house in the suburbs, a shiny new car and we have enough money to enjoy life and still put some away for our later years. Life is good.
I am not any better than anyone else. Anyone could have done the things I have done if they put their minds and hearts into it. That's the American Dream as I have lived it personally.


What about people with moderate learning difficulties, or disabilities? They're able to work, but not a chance in hell they could go into the army and take advantage of what they have to offer, or work in an IT department. I think the only people who believe in this dream are the ones who are lucky enough to have had it happen for them. Not everyone is in the same position as you were or are now. Some people will never be able to have a good job, because they just aren't able.

>> ^alien_concept:

What about all those people who work every day of their lives and can't build a decent future and don't have enough to pay the bills or have anything extra? I don't really understand how anyone can still believe in the American Dream...


I honestly still believe that the American Dream is still alive and well. There is a difference between working everyday to sustain versus working everyday to be better the next. You can't be comfortable in your life, no matter how successful or financially stable you are. You need to work hard to better yourself every day. The American Dream, to me, means a lot of hard work, dogged determination and a little luck. I honestly believe that ANYONE can be better today than they were yesterday.

I was kicked out of my house at age 17. I worked three jobs to have a shitty apartment and a car that barely ran, but I did it and life was pretty good. Then life reared its ugly head and it all came crashing down. I picked up the pieces and headed off to the Army. I had a great 6 years serving this country with lots of unique opportunities. It ended on a high note with me getting married and having my first child.

I started a new career, yet again, at the bottom eventually working my way up to project lead in charge of over 80 people through hard work, sacrifice and determination. It came crashing down again when my wife and I divorced and that company was closed and relocated.

I moved back home to Texas and literally started over from nothing at age 30. I took whatever jobs I could, eventually landing a six month contract deploying a software package and providing training to a worldwide engineering firm. At the end of the six months, I was given a three month extension to help overhaul the existing IT department and provide support to the existing IT staff and IT director. Again, through hard work and dedication, within 2 years I had saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in IT expenditures and was hired on as the new IT director. I am now remarried to my amazing wife, I have 4 amazing children, a house in the suburbs, a shiny new car and we have enough money to enjoy life and still put some away for our later years. Life is good.

I am not any better than anyone else. Anyone could have done the things I have done if they put their minds and hearts into it. That's the American Dream as I have lived it personally.

What about all those people who work every day of their lives and can't build a decent future and don't have enough to pay the bills or have anything extra? I don't really understand how anyone can still believe in the American Dream...

In reply to this comment by marinara:
*quality


i love you