*promote my hometown homie and the sate i grew up in,though without all the snobbery,elitist rich inbreeding.

So...criticize the agency for improving success rates, streamlining and reducing budgets, introducing private industry to reduce costs and meeting agressive timelines. Good thinking budget minded politician!

Earth sciences budget increased 41%? What percentage of the total budget is it now? Is it now larger than the money allocated for space exploration or is it still a small percentage of the total NASA pie? Not a misleading chart at all. Of course, charts is book learnin' and learnin' is what them elitist socialist do!

Go home to Canada senator, you're a tool.

@bobknight33
here is what i don't get about you or lantern:
1.you state that you are a conservative with a "tea party" flavor to your politics,
YET...
you consistently defend the power of the state to authorize our ever-increasing militarized police force to engage in violence and brutality which often leads to the death of a citizen,often with impunity (such as this case).

this is neither conservative nor tea party,it is fascist.

2.many of your arguments point to obeying a lawful order,be polite and respectful and much of the brutality and violence would end.on this point i totally agree,
BUT....
you totally ignore how "equal under law" has been perverted to only serve the elite and those who can "pay for justice" and how the system of "justice" has been corrupted to target minorities and the economically insolvent (poor) and feed them into the largest prison system on the planet.

they are commodifying the poor,blacks,latinos in the name of profit,all for the same elitist fucknozzles who perpetrated fraud,theft and outright lies,walking away with trillions of our money and not a single indictment.(check that,ONE indictment of a low level banker..whoopdy-shit).

yet i see you consistently BLAME the poor,black and latino.

this is not conservative nor tea party....it is racist.

3.many of your posts deal with a corrupt government.how it is bloated and inefficient.you decry the 'welfare/nanny state" and the horrible misappropriation of funds.

this is a typical,and necessary argument.that is the way of political dialogue and while i am not debating here the finer points nor the validity of your position,i am,however,saying the discussion is a necessary one to engage in.

however,

you,almost without fail,disregard and will actually DEFEND:police brutality and military action on foreign soil.yet BOTH of these institutions are exclusively government controlled,operated and executed.(which is why many of lanterns posts make me laugh).

this is not conservative nor tea party ......... it is the epitome of cognitive dissonance.

my point is:
your arguments and positions are not philosophically harmonious.
they are in direct opposition.your posted philosophies are a direct contradiction to what you espouse.

here is an example of late:
@newtboy tends to post cops behaving badly videos.
you will chime in,almost always,siding with the cop (in one fashion or another).
newtboy will make an argument about exercising your rights.the rights as a citizen in a situation with a representative of the state..
AND YOU WILL ARGUE WITH HIM.

in that instance..newtboy is more a tea party conservative than you are bob.

think about that for a moment bob....
newt is MORE of a patriot and constitutionalist than YOU are.
maybe you are just being a contrarian?
maybe just a bit of trolling?

but...in the end,your arguments make no sense due to their contradictory nature.
you can't be for a smaller,more accountable government and then look the other way when that very same government is over-stepping it's lawful directives.

@Trancecoach

I don't comment much at all for years, but I did just want to say that people complaining about politicians acting like elitists apparently don't recognize some very key facts about voters:

Most people want the government to spend more (take your pick whether it's favoring increased spending on social programs, or it's more spending on defense, etc.), yet want to be taxed less. Just that fact alone proves how stupid the general electorate is. An alarming portion of voters can't tell you accurately the difference between a Republican and a Democrat, don't understand how market forces are supposed to work, or even be able to recognize what is and isn't a socialist idea at its core.

I don't mean this as an attack on Democratic voting blocs specifically, nor Republican voting blocs. I mean this as an attack against the intellectual ability of most American voters. And when the voting public is that ignorant, ideologically blind, or just plain stupid, what do you think some people are going to do, regardless of their party's affiliation? They're gonna try to take advantage of it.

And doing things to hide key aspects of legislation in order to get support is hardly new, and hardly unique to either side. Explain to me how doing those things is any different than making ridiculous claims about Obamacare that have no bearing on reality different?

Remember those? They're gonna kill grandma! DEATH PANELS!

"Obamacare is a complete socialist takeover of the healthcare system!" That one just proves my point. The conservative right spent decades programming the American voting population to equate socialism as bad, when so many people don't even know what socialism actually is, and they did this despite numerous examples of when largely socialist policies have been resounding successes. Then they make a completely false claim that Obamacare is a complete socialist take over of the US health care system, when it isn't to fire up their voting blocs to oppose it, along with anyone else who is too stupid to know what "complete socialism" would actually look like in the health care system (hint: single payer), and who are stupid or ideologically blind enough to recognize successful largely socialist policies (like institutionalizing compulsory public education as a DUH example).

Where the hell was your outrage then? You think those (we'll call them) criticisms were coming out of voters spontaneously? No, they were thrown into the ring by GOP and conservative leaders as tools to manipulate public opinion into opposing Obamacare when they were flaming piles of bullcrap.

So either you're one of the idiots, or you're one of many partisans trying to spread your BS incredulity at the other side.

And to be clear, I'm not attacking you because you're a conservative. I'm attacking you because this is either hypocrisy or ideological blindness at its worst.

Oh no, I still think the US is the best, even though we are being led by a bunch of elitist know-nothings and corrupt fuckwits.

What a collection of obnoxious, elitist asshats. They've already overcome, they're running the asylum.

I've seen a fair share of crap make it to top spot, here on the Sift, so don't get all elitist about the maturity level in here. Bewbs, cats, and Louis CK all have a dubious percentage of votes in here.

...but honestly, as with most "internet communities" I'm here for the people. Places like Reddit and Youtube itself are just too full of vitriol and verbal diarrhea for my liking. Far too many saying far too little.

My dislike of this person's video has more to do with it's judgmental nature. I really dislike people who put down others over something so esoteric and subjective as music taste. The "Pop" in pop music is short for "Popular". Hating on something for no other real reason than a lot of people like it is douchebaggery at it's most stereotypical extreme.

There's only one Nickelback song I like, so I'm not a fanboi. I have to say though, the fact they are still selling records and and concert tickets kinda proves this guy wrong. They have "struck a chord" with quite a few people. Otherwise, they would have been a one-hit-wonder like the chick down the street from them, Carly Rae Jepsen.

Music doesn't have to be well written, or well performed to be popular, people just have to like it.

Because right wing elitists led by a corporate-sponsored neoliberal capitalist in Venezuela against a democratically elected regime massively supported by the country's impoverished and nationalist neo natzis like Spovoda in Ukraine need Jared's support!

He's right in that Democrats think everyone (except themselves, the elitists) are helpless and can only make it with the help of the gov't.
Huckabee is just making the point that women don't need help from the gov't.
Actually, Democrats don't really believe women are helpless, they just want women to think they are helpless w/o the gov't to help them. It makes them more likely to vote Democrat, and this empowers that one political party, which is the ultimate prize for politicians.

@messenger
rational and reasonable as always my friend.

but here is the cold,hard and highly cynical interpretation on the situation,based solely on my own understandings and continuing dissection of the dying throes of a global empire.

and it is simply this:humans have become commodities.

this young rich elitist fuck has parents who can raise his value in the eyes of a more and more corporatized state.
they can purchase his ticket into the political class.
so he can walk the gilded halls in the ivory tower and participate solely on the virtue of his ability to pay.
he can pay to play.

conversely,
the young black mans future ability to participate is systematically blocked for a myriad of reasons:race,economic status,regional opportunities etc etc.
and therefore has more value as a commodity to participate as a prisoner in the private prison system.

so while your analysis is born from a humanistic and reasonable origin,it is mainly due to the fact that you are..well..human.you express empathy and compassion.

a corporation is not hindered by such non-productive emotions.
they seek profit by any and all means.
and if that means commodifying a human being,then that is what they shall do.
and they have done exactly that.

many humans find that reality repulsive and repugnant (because it is) and balk at even accepting the reality that stares at them in the face.

because if they actually ever DID accept that truth,they would have to do something about it.

so they spin some rather creative internal narratives to avoid seeing the slow degredation,dehumanizing and outright cruel practices and call the profit good.
and oftentimes blame the victims for their situation,conveniently ignoring the actual perpetrators.

because if they did,they would have to take responsibility.
cant have that can we?

you bastard!
i was going to post this!
how awesome was that?
he just insulted an entire room of vapid elitists...
i dont think brand is that funny but good fucking lord does he have balls!

Capitalism is nearing the end of its useful life. Indeed, it has improved the lot for billions world wide but the wealth gap trend is concentrating power and money into a tiny and untouchable group if power elitists. I don't think we're heading for a USSR/China model of communism, but based on this repeating cycle of boom and bust where the oligarchy always comes out well ahead and the vast majority are left to suffer.

I heard throughout the talk that "Capitalism is stagnant," and "the problem is productivity." These points really ignore that those at the top of the heap actually profited during the financial crisis. I don't think this is simply a complaint about "fairness." I think this is the central issue.

Those with real wealth can leverage it to not only stay wealthy, but grow that wealth continuously. Since money begets influence, no significant change will take place until some major upheaval forces the masses into action. If Capitalism can keep adding bandage "corrections" after every recession, the status quo will probably continue.

@Stormsinger
beat me to it.
freud was a cunt.
his nephew was a cunt.
mass marketing=propaganda systems anyone?


see? a family of elitist privileged cunts.
and for anybody working in mass marketing?
kill yourselves.
you are satans little helpers and you need to end yourself.

and the reason people do stupid things when put in a competitive situation is because competition caters to stupid.

If we were to evaluate two base instincts in the human psyche - competition and cooperation....

competition to it's furthest extreme produces division, war, and suffering.

cooperation at it's best produces peace, understanding, creation, and invention.

We have all assumed the most ridiculous of notions, -- that competition is "healthy" and good. We have even gone so far as to base our entire economic system on it, and the product is an ever increasing wealth divide, hardship for the majority, and an elitist class completely out of touch with reality. A complete lack of perspective.

The problem isn't on the surface, it's a BASIC, FUNDAMENTAL FALSE ASSUMPTION that is burned into the psyche. So basic, that no one realizes it.

If u are a competitive schmuck, you will never be happy. you will never be satisfied. that is the nature of competition. and that is the nature of stupidity.

Conan Busts Jordan Schlansky & His Elitist Espresso Machine has been added as a related post - related requested by Mobius on that post.