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    GregoireHamilton Nolan
    4/15/14 10:49am

    I mean, thank you for the scholarly confirmation, Princeton and Northwestern, but really, this deserves a big ole ...

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    How do we even go about changing this though? Doesn't something kind of catastrophic have to happen before we move the needle in the other direction?

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      DolemiteGregoire
      4/15/14 10:53am

      How can we move it though? Both parties are simply different sides of the same coin. Each has their respective "sponsors", like NASCAR. The economic meltdown was about as eye-opening as possible, and things seemed to get worse, especially with SCOTUS deciding money is speech.

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      burlivesleftnutGregoire
      4/15/14 10:55am

      We need an amendment separating commerce from state. Until then, nothing will ever change. Well I guess there will be change in that things will continue to get worse for the "median American".

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    Left HandshakeHamilton Nolan
    4/15/14 10:54am

    And yet it's only made possible by the last lip of a decaying Romney-Ryan 2012 bumper sticker barely clinging to the sunbaked back bumper of a 1988 Toyota Corolla. Convincing the masses to habitually vote against their own best interests will never cease to cause in me a certain, wondrous suicide of sorts.

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      Hamilton NolanLeft Handshake
      4/15/14 10:59am

      Our collective failure to rationally take advantage of the political means given to us is pretty amazing, given the fact that even pure greed and self interest should lead the majority to change the situation.

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      FredDorfmanHamilton Nolan
      4/15/14 11:07am

      It's because morons are still arguing Republican vs. Democrat while both parties distribute our tax dollars to the 1 percenters who financed their campaigns.

      Morons, please stop blaming Republicans or Democrats and start holding your government accountable.

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    StenchofaburnerHamilton Nolan
    4/15/14 10:54am

    The poors are convinced that they are one lucky turn away from all the wealth so, of course they feel their future interests are well represented. They are about to be rich any moment now, you just wait. Those bootstraps are made for success!

    On another note, there has been a brand re-design and this is the new Uncle Sam.

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      ARP2Stenchofaburner
      4/15/14 11:00am

      Even more to the point, they've been convinced they'd be millionaires by now if it weren't for all the takers, regulations and high taxes.

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      StenchofaburnerARP2
      4/15/14 11:01am

      If it wasn't for those welfare queens and thugs, every poor would be swimming in abundance!

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    Flm3454Hamilton Nolan
    4/15/14 11:01am

    Coming from a social science major whos dabbled in some poli sci research, this is a great study. I know some people are saying "duh" but we have to remember in Western culture, at least to most people, science is a great way to "prove" or at least suggest, in an organized and arguable fashion, the realities of our current situations. So when someone says "I haven't hear of that" or "I don't believe that," that's when science and math come into play with the "O RLY?"

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      rmric0.wedding.photographerFlm3454
      4/15/14 11:05am

      Thankfully the people that would be most challenged by this study have been waging a careful war on science and the media for 30 years, so it won't have any impact.

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      Flm3454rmric0.wedding.photographer
      4/15/14 11:10am

      Yes, obviously we have this religious factor to consider, where people put so much trust into non-scientific literature written thousands of years ago without any quanitative data as to why it should be trusted. Like people I work with who disagree with global warming, because "God will fix it" or that the rapture, or the end of civilization, is a welcomed event. Because a book said so.

      It's incredibly frustrating and I'm not sure how humanity will make a clean, evolutionary split from the Age of Enlightment to the Age of Science. And it may very well be too late. Seems we didn't adapt to our enviroment as well as other species have...

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    jlpubarchHamilton Nolan
    4/15/14 11:03am

    I'll let you in on a little secret: 1/2, i.e. one of the two political parties, has convinced its poor constituents that the interests of the rich are their interests. Throw in a little gun-deregulation and Jeebus speak and you can effectively kill off any legislation that seeks to raise taxes on the wealthy.

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      rocksinmymouthjlpubarch
      4/15/14 11:26am

      And then there's the Republican Party.

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      jlpubarchrocksinmymouth
      4/15/14 12:02pm
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    Dude In ColoradoHamilton Nolan
    4/15/14 10:58am

    The best example is how illegal immigration was allowed to get so out of control over the last two decades.

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      ARP2Dude In Colorado
      4/15/14 11:05am

      1) What are the immigration rates pre-1994 to today (legal an illegal)?
      2) When was that Amnesty bill signed in the 80's good or bad (before you answer that, remember that Reagan signed it)?
      3) We had quite a bit of immigration from the 1800's to the early 1900's. Was that good or bad? Also, are the Irish still to be scorned?

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      TheRealThangDude In Colorado
      4/15/14 11:06am

      it almost sounds like you're calling for government regulation, but can't bring yourself to do it. Ah, the cognitive dissonance of the conservative mind.

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    gilbertkittensHamilton Nolan
    4/15/14 11:16am

    I, for one, do not welcome our new Oligarchic overloads . . . . oh hey what's that new shiny device/thing/tvshow/product over there? (Well played, Oligarchs, well played).

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      pnangledgilbertkittens
      4/15/14 2:11pm

      This is why we wont tire of it any time soon.

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    PoopiesAFHamilton Nolan
    4/15/14 10:54am

    Thank you. It's so funny when we discuss the Asian oligarchs, the Russian oligarchs and those pesky Arab oligarchs, who just run the show in the respective countries/regions. But we never think for one second that perhaps . . . these super wealthy over here, might also be oligarchs.

    Could you imagine if we referred to Roman Abramovich, or Thaksin Shinawatra as job creators instead? hahaha.

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      rmric0.wedding.photographerPoopiesAF
      4/15/14 11:10am

      Branding!

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    MizJenkinsHamilton Nolan
    4/15/14 2:05pm
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    Wow. What an epiphany. Congrats.

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      sui_generisHamilton Nolan
      4/16/14 3:19am

      I think the exact term you're looking for HamNo, is plutocracy. Oligarchy can be any privileged group. Our country is flat-out run by the wealthy and corporate interests.

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