More on the Idiot State

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More on the Idiot State

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Clarissa

February 19, 2015

More cuts suggested by Mr. Rauner and described by him as “compassionate”:

Significant cuts to the Department of Children and Family Services. Eliminating services for youth ages 18 to 21.

Community care for senior citizens.

Mental health services.

Addiction treatment.

Dental Care for adults on Medicaid.

Support for children on ventilators.

Yes, who cares about those stupid kids on ventilators. We should have thrown them off a cliff a long time ago, like they did in Sparta.

The funding for the following programs is cut completely (to 0%):

Arts and foreign language

The Children’s Mental Health Partnership program

Advanced placement courses

Regional Safe Schools, which offer education to students who are expelled or suspended.

And this is just a small portion of vital services that will be destroyed.

The Governor is convinced that all this will massively improve our state’s economy and “empower out workforce”. He’s not offering any details on how taking kids off ventilators will do that but it makes total sense to take them off ventilators first and think later. Or, ideally, not think at all.

Does IL stand for “idiot losers”?

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14 responses to “More on the Idiot State”

Vic Crain

February 19, 2015

Welcome to extreme right politics, the world of the Koch brothers. The point is reduction of taxes on the rich at any cost. Each of these programs serves a small segment of the population, thus in theory will result in minimal uproar if they disappear. That’s illogical, of course: add enough irate minorities together and eventually they are the majority.

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1. Clarissa
  
  February 19, 2015
  
  People who need affordable higher education are hardly a minority. But the people of Illinois have voted for this. May they get exactly what they wanted. I’m sorry for the poor suckers who are too young to vote but whose extremely egotistical parents inflicted this choice on them.
  
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Evelina Anville

February 19, 2015

This actually brought tears to my eyes. Who can possibly support these measures? This is apocaliptic! Is this a done deal? Or is there still some budget negotionations happening?

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1. Clarissa
  
  February 19, 2015
  
  Thank you for the support! Rauner will be bringing the budget in front of the state legislature which, thank god, is Democratic. But this tells us what his term in office will be about.
  
  I’m having quite a day here. Images of Ukrainian POWs brutalized by Russians in the morning and then news of the higher ed in Illinois brutalized by Rauner.
  
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2. Shakti
  
  February 19, 2015
  
  This actually brought tears to my eyes. Who can possibly support these measures?
  Practitioners of “Fuck You, I’ve Got Mine”.
  
  This is a proposed budget. I don’t know what the balance of power is in the state legislature isthough. With pushback, Rauner might get half of what he proposed and call it a victory.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    February 19, 2015
    
    Or, rather, “Fuck You, I’ve Got Mine and now I need to squeeze you, rubes, for some more”.
    
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Tim

February 20, 2015

The nice thing of claiming to empower people is that you can always blame the very same people if it does not work. See, if people actually gain nothing from this, it is not going to be because his empowerment scheme did not work, but because people were too stupid to properly take advantage of what he offered them.

This whole thing about (unsolicited) empowerment, when taken in earnest, reeks of the same kind of idiocy that people display that adventure to africa to show people there how it’s done.

What is a Regional Safe School? Like a safe place but larger? 😀

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1. Shakti
  
  February 20, 2015
  
  See Clarissa’s first post. Also this is the first link for Regional Safe Schools in a google search.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    February 20, 2015
    
    These safe schools are a really great idea. I know for a fact that they work and they really save kids.
    
    Gosh, one’s got to be a real animal to try to hurt kids like this.
    
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Jones

February 24, 2015

No, apparently “IL” stands for “It’s Liquidating” …

Once upon a time, there was a vastly powerful computer and infotech company that practically ran the world — their computers were everywhere, and businesses clamoured to acquire their hardware, software, services, and knowledge.

They fell upon more difficult times because their products no longer matched a world that was diversifying into a range of needs, and so they did what any large company would do after considering the options of panic, studied desperation, and assessing the size of the company’s bank account in the face of having no clue whatsoever about meeting the challenge of the future.

They started a multi-decade programme of “leveraged liquidation”.

First they sold off what is now a well-known printer division, which allowed them to “refocus” on personal computing devices, mid-range servers, and enterprise business systems.

Sometime later they split off the personal computing devices division and sold the newly compartmented company to a moderately well known PC maker who then became well known for making much-liked laptops.

Today, you know the printer division as Lexmark, the personal computing devices division as Lenovo … and the company that’s still engaging in “leveraged liquidation” as IBM.

Illinois now appears to be following IBM’s lead.

One point of clarification: is the region you’re living in actually referred to as “So Ill”?

After all, everything’s in a name. 🙂

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1. Clarissa
  
  February 24, 2015
  
  This is a great – and scary – analogy. 😦
  
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  1. Vic Crain
    
    February 24, 2015
    
    I’ve been through liquidations, and IBM is not an example of that. Simply, there’s no profits in hardware, in part due to lack of differentiation between products and in part due to competition from Chinese companies such as Lenovo. (No, Lenovo is not IBM’s PC division. It’s a very large manufacturer around for years, that bought IBM’s division.) No, IBM is focusing on profitable business — something that governments aren’t supposed to do.
    
    Rauner simply appears to be practicing class warfare. Kill services and reduce taxes on the rich.
    
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Vic Crain

February 24, 2015

(Please disregard if this is a duplicate message.)

IBM isn’t an example of “leveraged liquidation”, and Lenovo isn’t just the IBM PC division. The analogy isn’t there.

IBM likes profits. Rauner likes profits for the rich. That’s probably as far as the analogy goes.

IBM recognized that hardware has minimal profit margins, due to lack of product differentiation and competition from companies like Lenovo. The wound down the unprofitable stuff, and focused on more profitable business, most of which is outside the US (over 60% of their labor and revenue is offshore).

Lenovo is the largest PC manufacturer in China and saw the purchase of IBM’s PC business as a way to jump-start a presence in the US. That makes sense to a point. Unfortunately, Chinese business culture focuses on price, and not on the quality of their products.

Rauer is simply practicing class warfare. Cut services for people who don’t vote and reduce taxes for the rich.

I’ve said before, if the poor and minorities voted, our government would be very different than it is today. That’s because there are enough people in poverty to alter the result of almost any local or national election.

Now, due to lack of participation, state and local election results often are determined by less than 1/4 of eligible voters.

Proof of this argument was produced by a grass-roots revolt over salary increases for legislators and judges in Pennsylvania a few years ago.

You can prove the argument by selecting the next mayor for your town. You can either capture an existing party or elect a third party candidate. It doesn’t require a lot of money at the local level, just effort.

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Vic Crain

February 24, 2015

None of my posts are showing up today. Is there a problem?

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