The police are, and always have been, tools for those in power to stay in power. Most places they don't even try to combat financial fraud, wage theft, and all that, even though it does way more damage (like the 2008 collapse). The illusions of equality and justice are there to keep the masses from rioting in the streets, as is the self-serving promotion that 'anyone could become one of us, if you just work hard enough'. Truth is it doesn't take hard work. By and large, rich people were born rich, or have psychological deficits that allow them to exploit, harm, and even kill without remorse. Shkreli and his ilk have 'what it takes' to get rich in America. People with hang-ups like ethics and morals will always be left behind until the system fundamentally changes.

Every government in the world has always been run by the privileged. When you have power and privilege it's inevitable that most will use the one to protect the other.

1) Because they didn't succeed in a vacuum, they benefit from civilization, so are obligated to support it to at least the same extent if not more because they are able while others aren't.

2) swap dumb with rich and Trump is the bazillionaire he claims to be. You can't just swap dissimilar unrelated concepts and say "see, proved it" without looking like a braying moron.

3) Yes it should without question, our best and brightest don't come from the privileged class as a higher percentage. Actually the opposite because they don't have to do their best to survive, poorer people do, and drive matters immensely. If we want to compete internationally, we must educate the uneducated and undereducated, even those who can't afford $500000 to fake a crew history or SAT score. That education needs to be better than the countries we compete with, and it is all too often simply not.
That is a conservative stance, not a liberal one.

4) equating wealth to gpa, like this moronic video does, means Trump, like everyone else, should start at 0 and not get a bonus from daddy. If that happened, he would be zero. He is not self made, he did not only get a small $14 million unrepaid interest free loan. He did squander the money, failing at venture after venture until only Russian gangsters will loan him money, loans he needs because he squandered the money....then he repeatedly lied about it immorally squandering billions from hundreds of duped investors too...THAT is evil, yes.

5) We make $30000 for two people and don't take a dime, even overpaid my taxes...not everyone has my opportunities, privileges, and abilities. You are just spouting nonsense straw man arguments. In a perfect world, we could all be self sustaining with equal opportunity to succeed, we don't live in that communist/socialist utopia.....no one ever has.
I believe we are better off when the least privileged don't have to resort to violent or immoral crime to survive. I believe we are better off as a nation when our best people have the opportunities to succeed that our worst but most privileged are afforded. I believe we are better off being protected from the irresponsibility of purely profit driven commerce that, by design, must walk the razors edge of acceptability to maximize profit and minimize obligations by any means necessary, usually leaving them for socialist programs to clean up/repair. I believe we do more good ensuring the starving among us are fed food humans would willingly eat before ensuring some unrepentant apocalyptic bankers get their multi million dollar bonuses and a free pass on their crimes, and before those making multi millions a year get to hoard more and pay even less of their share.

6) What you are spouting is bat shit insane, not even AOC advocates pure socialism....not even Russia had pure socialism. Your ilk, however, calls any government program that doesn't directly benefit them or their Trumpian masters "socialist"....education, infrastructure, all regulatory agencies, social security, even the fbi have been labeled socialist by Trumpists in the zeal to discredit the report they assumed would expose criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States (ps, it found exactly that dozens of times over), while military welfare programs for equipment we don't want and won't use, bailouts for banks and agribusiness, public funds for private ventures like golf courses and troll roads, (edit:Freudian slip?) and don't forget the unmentioned elephant, the military itself...all that socialism is fine, you think it's not even socialism. *facepalm

I'll say it again.

Asinine.

You misread. I'm blaming radicals for drinking mountain dew, which hypes them up to the point of being ready for race war. It doesn't make radicals, it energizes them.

Sadly, no. The right has abused and ignored their constitutional duties as a party, handing supreme power to one man over and over while ignoring and actively hiding his multiple crimes and appearances of crimes and actively obstructing the investigations at every turn.....advancing their cause so no investigation should be undertaken, no charges levied, and certainly no punishments for what are real, treasonous felonies....dozens of convictions about subversion....collusion....but you still believe they are the patriots?! You still claim they care about the constitution, as they wipe their asses with it?! Explain.

Come on, Bob, it's ok to admit they aren't perfect and that you don't support at least some of their crimes. I wish you would consider how you would feel if Obama stayed a third term (which Trump hints might be his plan often) and/or bypassed congress to add trillions to the deficit while cutting the military by over half (note, Obama increased military funding consistently, contrary to the lies Fox and Trump tell you).

Democrats want to save the union, granted some of their ideas are poorly thought out, republicans from the top down are itching for a civil war because your side believes the other side isn't armed and will be easy to eradicate.....they're wrong, and totally unpatriotic.

Bob, it's not "one proud American", it's tens of thousands who aren't proud, anyone who MAGAs is saying America isn't great now, and right wingers want to completely reimagine the country as not a melting pot, not a place of refuge, not a place of fairness and opportunities, but a place where rich get richer and the poor pay for it, and where white privilege is codified law, nothing else really seems to matter any more than as a rallying cry, or Republicans would have funded the wall when they had total control.

Um....when republicans step out, it's quite often with a gun or swastika, when democrats do it, it's with an egg or a paper peace sign. Hardly the same thing.

Also, tell that to Senator Stewart Smallie (among others)....he was good enough, he was smart enough, and dog gone it, people liked him, but because of one non G rated joke as a comedian, he resigned....never in million years would republican resign for any such thing, one became president by bragging about actions similar but 100 times worse. Democrats actually hold themselves to their own standards, not Republicans, not anymore, not one tiny bit...

Good people on both sides. Yeah....except good people don't stand with Nazis and white supremacists....EVER.

Edit: again, since you persist in your insistence that the left is worse than the right, I ask you to list the left wing terrorists of late....because we can list quite a few right wing terrorists since Trump was elected, including multiple mass murderers and multiple mail bombers.

Invocations (isdupe) cannot be called by moonsammy because moonsammy is not privileged - sorry.

Invocations (dead) cannot be called by ForgedReality because ForgedReality is not privileged - sorry.

Invocations (blocked) cannot be called by wtfcaniuse because wtfcaniuse is not privileged - sorry.

I work with Indigenous tribes & Indigenous activist groups throughout the west and midwest, everyday. They can be confrontational, no doubt. But, I also don't actually fault these brats. They just remind me of all of the jock ass ignorant privileged scum I grew up with in PA being confronted with something they aren't prepared for.

Not to mention the fact that we are now fully in a digital age of Google algorithms that basically give a person exactly what they are looking for and nothing else (an internet search used to be research in the 90's, siphoning through a lot of info). People are growing up in very insular bubbles; and ignorance breeds from that. One should also fault the educational system; but in a place like Kentucky, I'd imagine the social media bubble is fueling these kids' education more than their public schools are; there's always college (hopefully).

Invocations (blocked) cannot be called by rich_magnet because rich_magnet is not privileged - sorry.

Invocations (dupeof=https://videosift.com/video/Two-California-Kids-Go-For-Snow-Run-in-Portland) cannot be called by mxxcon because mxxcon is not privileged - sorry.

Invocations (isdupe) cannot be called by mxxcon because mxxcon is not privileged - sorry.

Invocations (dead) cannot be called by phyman because phyman is not privileged - sorry.

Invocations (dead) cannot be called by L0cky because L0cky is not privileged - sorry.

Invocations (celtic) cannot be called by noims because noims is not privileged - sorry.

Invocations (blocked) cannot be called by w1ndex because w1ndex is not privileged - sorry.

Invocations (blocked) cannot be called by wtfcaniuse because wtfcaniuse is not privileged - sorry.