The New and Improved Sam Spade Good Post Gallery.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Leftists have bought into right-wing rhetoric on the 'liberal media' and believe the press is now a wing of the Democratic Party. If that were even remotely true, they wouldn't run front page headlines like this:



Foreigners should not be able to comment on or influence American politics like this. That ranges from Australian college students to Russian nationals. It's disgraceful.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I love how capital is free to cross borders at will, but labor (or people in general) are not. Sure, you can go invest or open a new plant, mine, or whatever in India, China, etc... but god forbid a student, worker, or entrepreneur from those countries wants to come to America to study, start a business, or work. There's no excuse for targeting international students; that's particularly cruel. Then to add the burden of reapplying yearly? That's such a hassle, could cause enormous instability in their lives, and discourage foreign students from studying here and contributing to our society.

Don't pretend like you want foreign students here to "contribute to our society".

You want foreign students here because it benefits the foreign students.

And the problem with that is...? I want it for both reasons. Our society benefits and so do the foreign students. Oh, I forgot, I'm supposed to automatically distrust and hate anyone who wasn't born within the boundaries of particular socially constructed lines on a map. My bad!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I'm proud of folks like myself that go to work every day, regardless of whether or not their employers kept faith with them.  Who took 2nd jobs to ensure their families had what they need, because their work was not valued as much as the investment of stockholders or the complaining of rich taxpayers.  I'm proud of folks who went to work and delayed gratification; who didn't view themselves as automatically entitled, and who didn't quit, even when it was clear that everything wasn't going to turn out according to their hopes and dreams.

There are poor folks who have given it all they have.  I respect them.  There are poor folks who never attempted to work steadily, and who never viewed it as their responsibility to make their own way in life.  I have little respect for them.  And I don't respect yuppies and rich types who are ungrateful for what they have, never mindful of how much less others that have worked as hard as them do not have.

I respect work.  I respect perseverance.  I don't respect sloth and I don't respect quitters and those that won't try at life.

So you think it's okay that middle aged people complain about their jobs no longer existing because of technology?

I hate how middle aged people think that the government should enforce socialism and repress technological progress to ensure that their job still exists.

It's your own fault if the free market leaves you behind.

FWIW, I'm not a "middle aged" person.  I'm 61 years old.  Old enough to be your Grandpa, sonny.  I work, my wife works, we are raising our 12 year old son (a grandson we adopted out of necessity) and caring for a disabled adult family member while her husband (one of my grown sons) attends college following a serious on-the-job industry, after which the "fee market" screwed him out of his rightful healthcare.  You're young enough to be my grandson, and, in all likelihood, your biggest loss was probably when some hot looking girl dumped you without warning.  I could be wrong, but in my experience, folks who experience real tragedy (My Father died on my 10th birthday, for example.) have a wee bit more empathy than to view those less fortunate than them as losers in the game of "Free Markets".  (Old as I am, I can turn on the "condescending jets" when I need to rebut some of the same.)

One thing that middle aged folks face when they "retrain" for new careers, or upgrade their skill bases, is Age Discrimination.  The job search process (mostly all online today) preempts much pavement pounding, and is designed to increase the distance between job applicants and employers.  If I were to submit my resume, folks would immediately calculate my age and make decisions.  I'm viewed as someone who'll be sick a lot, who'll be tired, who'll be out-worked by younger hotshots, who'll be inflexible, etc.  Most older workers are far more open-minded and flexible than they're given credit for, but most hiring managers are young enough to be my son/daughter, and I'm sure they project any number of issues they have with their parents onto an older applicant like myself. 

I'm not feeling sorry for myself, but I'm also old enough to remember a Social Contract which included long-term security for workers who were loyal and faithful; it was a Social Contract that built Middle Class America.  I'm now told by snot-nosed Hedge Fund Manager Wannabes that this is somehow "socialism".  It's kind of like my car dealer singing one song the day I singed the contract for Gap Insurance when I bought my car, and another song when my car was totalled in a 5 car chain-reaction accident caused by a Smartphone Addict.  Folks tell my generation that we didn't play the Capitalist Game skillfully enough only AFTER they sucked the best working years out of our lives, making promises along the way that were often not kept.

The snot-nosed yuppies of MY generation trashed the middle class for the folks of my adult sons' generation.  And I look at my 12 year old son.  What is the motto for America going to be for him?  "Move It Or Lose It !"?  "Only The Strong Survive"?  My son has ADHD; will his willingness to work and his loving character mean nothing in the Social Darwinist World of 2030s Yuppie Hedge Fund Managers?  Is the America you have planned for him one where he is consigned to an underclass if he's a Capitalist Non-Hacker?  I see this as the World folks are creating for my Grandchildren's generation, and I weep at the thought of it.