The American Collapse (of Civil Society (non-governmental institutions))

The system is broken and it is both only one of the means we have to affect change and also the least effective.

I thought this over a cigarette and wanted to share. I’ve posted enough in the Random Comments thread today, so I’ll post it here.

What the fuck is America? Is it the mansions in the Hamptons? Is it the slums in Baltimore? Or is it the fact that both of these groups have existed since the country began. Inequality runs in our blood. It surges through the stock broker on Wall St. It runs in the streets when an unarmed man is killed by the police. It’s on the soil in Afghanistan, dripping from a poor boy who just wanted to go to college. “Her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom” Phil Ochs patriotically wrote of America in 1964. But who has the power to strengthen her freedom? And who suffers when that freedom is weakened? If these are not the same group, can her freedom survive?

Our forefathers had a vision for this country. From James Madison to Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, they had not means to execute it in their lifetimes, but they had the ability to forge a system that they believed could be used to make that vision come true. What we have in common with the times that forged these great men is that we are at a point where that belief that the system could make that vision come true is being tested, and as I’m sure all felt at the times of those men, I am uncertain whether our system will pass this test, and if it fails, what will replace it.

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From this article:

This quote:

I mean, at this point if someone is even a little conservative I won’t give them the time of day. I certainly wouldn’t trust them with a gun or a soft foam ball.

There are three political coalitions in America. The profoundly ignorant, the hateful, and the reasonable progressives. :wink:

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North Carolina doesn’t have enough teachers to start the school year.

The reason? They don’t pay enough for anyone to do the job, due entirely to Republicans gutting the state budget.

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Oh wow, NC doesn’t pay teachers at all basically.

To quote someone from Fark:

Bachelors degree with no experience starts at $35,000 for a certified teacher (Monthly salary of $3500, when extended to 12 monthly payments it’s $2916 a month).

That is pretty damn low and it caps out at $50,000* unless you get your masters or additional certification. A highly certified masters degree holding teacher caps at $61,000.*

*The cap does go up slightly once you hit 25+ years, but not much.

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/f​b​s/finance/salary/schedules/2018-19sche​dules.pdf

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A thing I’ve seen a few times is for teachers near state borders is to “retire” from one system and then take a new teaching job across state lines so they can afford to live on the combined retirement + new salary.

We also have a shitty charter school program and massive funding differences between schools because freedom or something.

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And the only reason they got the chance to gut the budget is massive gerrymandering. As you can tell from our governor’s seat flipping back and forth, we’re quite purple statewide. It’s immensely frustrating.

It’s strange that I have a higher opinion of South Carolina than I do of North Carolina in the last half-decade.

One day, this will be some sort of reality hopefully.

https://youtu.be/dkHqPFbxmOU

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My opinion of the Carolinas even within the last 50 years is skewed against NC almost exclusively due to Strom Thurmond’s tenure.

But then I’m also still holding a grudge about Calhoun’s long time in the Senate.

NC is the birthplace of aviation.

And some good paintball at Command Decisions.

Other than that, let it burn for all I care. I won’t miss Gastonia.

Genuinely curious if you’ve heard Mudge’s story about that guy and the… Unwrapped hard candies he kept in his pocket.

Whatever your opinion of him I guarantee this does not improve it:

I’m not familiar with Mudge. The only candy I’m familiar with in the Senate is George Murphy’s Candy Desk, which afaik continues to this day.

You can either hear it from the horses mouth or I can summarize here.

OK what the actual fuck? Also, again, who is Mudge?

Mudge is hacker famous, that is to say not famous except among people interested in hackers. He’s also moderately controversial insofar as he took his hacker chops and put them to use at DARPA where many contend he sold out. I believe he’s since left to be a rock star at Google doing the same thing.

Tycho’s on it.

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