Republican hopeful pledges to ensure the FBI and Department of Justice are full of loyalists if he wins the White House in 2024

    • Otome-chan@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      when people speak of three letter agencies usually what’s meant is fbi, cia, nsa, etc. though I’d be happy to ditch the cdc and reform the fda. doj can probably go I think. irs as well. fcc is fine but needs reforms. epa is chill.

      • mars296@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        This comment is giving me major Rick Perry vibes from when he wanted to abolish the DOE until he was appointed head of it and realized what they do.

        • Otome-chan@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          fair enough. my view is that there’s a lot of government bloat and a lot of this stuff largely isn’t needed. stuff like the fda ends up blocking needed healthcare. the cdc has peddled misinformation. the fcc has threatened internet neutrality many times now. these are serious issues.

          a lot of people want government to be a nanny state but I think it’s improper. rather, governments should be focused on services to the people, not being a tyrant or “big brother”.

          I wouldn’t at all mind massive defunding to most government agencies; though notably military spending is out of control. there’s no reason we should be sending billions to ukraine, or sending troops to the middle east. simply absurd.

          • ArtZuron@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            It could be said that those agencies did do those things, but those things wouldn’t even have been a thing if it hadn’t been for them.

            Without the FDA, rats would still probably be shitting all over our meat and dairy products, and thalidomide would still be everwhere. If it weren’t for the CDC, we probably wouldn’t have gotten rid of Small Pox or Pollio (edit: until anti-vaxers), and many millions more would have died of Covid than already did. The FCC… I’ll get back to you on that.

            As for military bloat, for sure. I’m confident most of it is just to pad defense contractors pockets, and to grease political palms. I think we should protect Ukraine, since they were invaded by a power long hostile to the US, and to the world’s stability as a whole. As for the Middle East, I agree with you there. The US has caused so much destruction, murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians, upturning entire countries, and for what? Oil and racism. Even the excuse of 9/11 is a sham since we didn’t even attack the people that actually did it, and instead allied with them. Because, once again, oil.

            • Otome-chan@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              yup, I’m not opposed to the idea of an agency or group that helps with this stuff. but so many of these large governmental groups really don’t help in a lot of cases.

              • ArtZuron@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                They were designed to make things better than they were, but they also make things harder to make things better than they are currently. And sometimes actively try to make it worse because, once they exist, they become subject to the interests and whims of capitalists.

          • riskable@kbin.socialOP
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            1 year ago

            Actually this is an area I have loads of experience with! If you want to reduce the cost of higher education stop subsidizing student loans! I work for a huge bank that deals with zillions of student loans… They’re like free money for the banks.

            The best way to summarize the student loan problem is thus: When you give everyone a subsidy no one gets a subsidy.

            The US government started handing out what amounts to free money for students and colleges and universities just raised their tuition costs to collect more of it. Lather, rinse, repeat! Every year they take more and every year the US government hands out more to pick up the difference. It’s a system that’s inherently flawed.

            The correct way to make college cheaper is to pay for colleges directly rather than funneling money through 3rd party banks (we’re literally just handing the finance industry free money… They don’t deserve it! I know because I work for them!).

            Make colleges free by paying for them with taxes just like so many other countries.

            • RyanHakurei@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Make colleges free by paying for them with taxes just like so many other countries.

              Nah, as someone who works in a college environment this will be a disaster. I know I am going to get burned at the stake for this, but most of the cheating I get from students comes from students who are attending off non-loan financial aid. So if you just hand college to everyone you’re just going to see this behavior expand unless you mitigate it somehow. Either we need to establish national entrance exams, like most of Asia, or there needs to be a rule that if you’re caught cheating 3 times (let’s be fair and have a 3 strike rule) you have to pay back all aid doled out to you so far and you are blacklisted from college.

              • riskable@kbin.socialOP
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                1 year ago

                WTF‽ So… What you’re saying is that even though it’s vastly more efficient to have free college (funded via taxes) we still should not have that because some (poor) people will… cheat?

                …because clearly nobody–especially rich kids–don’t cheat today. LOL!

                That’s like saying we shouldn’t allow comments here because some people will say stupid shit. I know! Let’s have a test! If you can spot the unbelievably classiest/racist example comments (we’ll copy & paste from your comment) you will be allowed in. Otherwise take out a comment loan and join the other serfs!

                • RyanHakurei@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  Ahhh yes this is exactly the reaction I expected because talking about hard issues makes people very uncomfy and to them it’s better to ignore the elephant in the room than to address it.

                  Also, no, people who pay their way through college typically don’t cheat as it’s extremely counterproductive. It’s literally just wasting your own money. Meanwhile those with free college it’s not their money so they don’t care as much. This is why, and again this is going to be very uncomfy for you to talk about, many nations with free college have entrance exams.

                  • riskable@kbin.socialOP
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                    1 year ago

                    people who pay their way through college typically don’t cheat as it’s extremely counterproductive.

                    [Citation Needed]

                    I’d also like to point out that everyone who’s paying taxes in a fully funded collegiate system is paying for it.

                    What’s counterproductive is bringing up cheating like it has anything at all to do with funding college. It’s an entirely orthogonal concept.