GmanTerry

What a great idea. The idea that everyone needs a college education is insane. My brother hated school so he found a 'trade school' and studied his passion, repairing automobiles. He was a fine productive member of society. Trade schools fill a niche.

Semper Fi

tom25411 Loc: WV

I guess the LIBs balloon will never run out of communist hot air, shame.. Go Trump our hero.

solarkin

Take back the schools
No comon core bs
Keep it local
Know your teachers.
Follow the money.
Vote on curriculum
Always

debeda

YES

Nickolai

Donald Trump does not have the firmest grasp of history. A man who confesses that he has “never” had time to read a book cannot be wholly cognisant of his heritage. The US may be relatively young but its foundations are rooted in the ancient past. The Senate, Capitol Hill and the ubiquitous eagles would perhaps be less bewildering to the president-elect had he at least a passing knowledge of the interests of the founding fathers. It may be too much to ask that Trump takes Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire aboard Air Force One. A glance at the trajectory of Roman power would be sufficient to show him why people fear the decline and fall of the American republic under his leadership.

While the election of a demagogue such as Trump feels like a blow to the long-held ideal of the republic, it is also a reminder that a republic is rarely anything other than an ideal. The balance of power between senators and tribunes in the republic of ancient Rome proved impossible to sustain. There were republican senators who behaved like emperors and later there were emperors who maintained the pretence of living in a republic. Demagogues often arose not from the lower classes but from the wealthy, aristocratic elites they proposed to reject.

Like the greatest demagogues of the late Roman republic, Trump has accomplished the tricky feat of positioning himself against the elites while maintaining his huge wealth. The chutzpah with which he has done so perhaps best recalls the example of Publius Clodius Pulcher, one in a line of popular politicians who contributed to the collapse of the republic by rebelling against the established governing order. Though descended from a wealthy family that had dominated the Senate for centuries, Clodius managed to shrug off his social class in order to champion the interests of the plebeians. He had his most vocal critic, Cicero, thrown into exile. Trump threatened to throw his, Hillary Clinton, into jail.

Trump’s hot-headedness and unorthodoxy, his seemingly off-the-cuff threats, promises and tweets, only exacerbate popular fears that he is incapable of being checked. The year 59 BC went down in Roman history as the consulship of “Julius and Caesar”, after the great populist quelled his colleagues’ attempts to rein him in. Trump’s early appointments have done little to instil confidence in the neutralising abilities of his advisers. Eliot Cohen, a former counsellor of the Department of State, may not be entirely accurate in describing “unquestioning loyalty” as the sole criterion for a place in Trump’s administration, but developments so far have had a distinctly Roman flavour.

Like the Roman emperors, Trump has done a good job of presenting himself as the proponent of a new age. His America is not “great”, but it can be “great again”. Augustus, Claudius and Domitian peddled the same myth. With the celebratory Secular Games, they signalled that Rome was waving goodbye to one age and entering a new one reminiscent of the fabled days of old.
In contrast to the Julio-Claudians, however, Trump has yet to learn the significance of these “bread and circuses”. After Mike Pence was booed at a performance of Hamilton, a hip-hop musical about the founding father, Trump’s gut reaction (does he have any other kind?) was to criticise the cast for having “harassed” the vice-president-elect and call for the theatre to be “a safe and special place”. By comparison, Cleon, the Athenian demagogue of the fifth century BC and an enemy of Pericles, endured repeated jibes as Aristophanes skewered him and his associates at the city’s theatre festivals. Trump’s failure to exercise restraint over the events at Hamilton sets a worrying precedent that could only damage his reputation as a man of the people.

For all its troubles, the US has reached a height from which many fear it can only fall. Like Rome after the rapid expansion of the republic, America’s influence has plateaued. At the end of his reign, as if mindful of overreach, Emperor Augustus urged his successors to keep the empire within the limits that he had established for it. By Hadrian’s time, as in Trump’s America, there was little call for interventionism and globalization. Even the victory-hungry Trajan was remarkably relaxed when he was alerted to a conflict brewing in the east. The report said that Christianity was spreading through Rome’s provinces.

the rise of Christianity and invasions by “a deluge of barbarians” were two significant contributing factors to the fall of the Roman empire. The German soldier Odoacar’s overthrow of Rome’s last emperor in 476 AD was long taken to mark the fall of the city. The reality was more complicated. Some modern scholars speak not of the fall of Rome but of the steady transformation of its empire, which was still flourishing in the east nearly a thousand years after the Germanic invasion. Others argue otherwise. Regardless of their view, no modern historian can simply place the blame for Rome’s internal failings on Christianity and “barbarians”, any more than Trump’s administration can place the blame for America’s on Islamism and immigrants.

Analogies between Trump and the demagogues and emperors of ancient Rome come only too easily. It is, however, fruitless to despair at the death of the republic or the birth of Caligula II. America’s fall, if it comes, will be protracted and complex. If the pattern of Roman history can show Trump one thing, it is that he would be wise to look not only at the troubles brewing without but also at those brewing within.

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

Thanks for your research and input; I totally agree with: If the pattern of Roman history can show Trump one thing, it is that he would be wise to look not only at the troubles brewing without but also at those brewing within.

Randy131 Loc: Florida

First off, in the beginning of your propaganda socialistic and communistic rant, those who were violently trying to use violence to overthrow what you assume are the rich, were actually the Marxist, socilaists, and communists, who were trying to start another communistic revolution in order to destroy are type of government and replace it with socialistic communism, as was done in Russia and Red China, simply for enslaving the American people like what was done in those two countries.

You bash the rich for becoming too rich in a capitalistic free market society, where some of those ultra rich that you complain about had nothing and were broke only a few decades ago, but through their own hard working initiatives became very successful and very rich, which in the future this will happen to many other poor and broke people who are allowed to have that same hard working initiative that made the ultra rich what they are today, if we can just hold on to our capitalistic free market place that Marxists, socialists, and communists like you want to do away with, so you can rule over a government that has the power to enslave all the people, through requirements of government handouts that will be needed by most all Americans whose heritage will be stolen from them by people like you.

If today we no longer possess the highest standard of living around the world, we do still have the greatest opportunity for individuals to better themselves and not be held back, through our capitalistic free market society, that most people around the world envies, and tries everything they can to get here, and why we have so many foreigners living in the USA today, record setting numbers and record setting percentages of foreigners in our population living in the US today, and these foreigners are leaving their countries that are technically advanced, but still want the opportunities that our capitalistic free market society allows for everyone, which many of these foreigners are also becoming extremely rich living here today, many of them arriving here very poor and some even broke.

It seems to me that your problem is more envy and jealousy than anything else, since even these foreighers are becoming the ultra rich in the US, because they are much more capable than you, and are getting the chance to live under a governmental system, with the financial freedom, that you want to bring down and destroy.

Randy131 Loc: Florida

AMEN!!!

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

Well said, his research was interesting, but the emphasis was misplaced. Thanks for keeping your remarks civil.

badbobby Loc: texas

well civil is nice
but I'm kinda missing some a them remarks that weren't so civil

Nickolai

The biggest problem with the romans was they went broke trying to run the world The lands they conquered they looted and the loot paid for conquering more lands and peoples until they expanded to far to control the empire and the cost had to be provided from within the empire. In their early conquest Roman soldiers were Roman citizens but as they became wealthier fat and lazy they hired mercenaries to do their fighting. They stopped expanding and pulled back their boarders but this just marked the beginning of the decline of the Empire. to pay for it all they began debasing their currency by reducing the content of gold and silver even drilling a hole in the center of the coin eventually eliminating gold and silver all together and just coining copper. Eventually it took a ton and a half of copper coin to pay for a bushel of Wheat.

Iamdjchrys Loc: Decatur, Texas

And the solution to this is???

Iamdjchrys Loc: Decatur, Texas

I agree completely.

Randy131 Loc: Florida

("Analogies between the demagogues and emperors of ancient Rome are much more similar to Obama and the Democrats during the eight years of his Presidency, than anything that President Trump has done so far during his nine months as President, which actually has been the exact opposite. With President Trump, there is no despair by intelligent people about the future of the USA and it's people under President Trump's policies and agendas, as long as he fulfills all his promises, and reverses all the insane things that Obama had done to our nation, it's economy, and it's people, which will easily "Make America Great Again", and it's people very prosperous, with the respect, honor and fear of the entire world, looking for us to do what will benefit everyone through making us again the economic giant that we once were.)

Randy131 Loc: Florida

quote=Nickolai
Donald Trump does not have the firmest grasp of history. A man who confesses that he has “never” had time to read a book cannot be wholly cognisant of his heritage. The US may be relatively young but its foundations are rooted in the ancient past. The Senate, Capitol Hill and the ubiquitous eagles would perhaps be less bewildering to the president-elect had he at least a passing knowledge of the interests of the founding fathers. It may be too much to ask that Trump takes Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire aboard Air For

Answer=Randy131
(Obama was completely incognizant of US history and our heritage, as his main goal, as he stated, was to change it, even though Obama had read many books, but not the books that would honor our heritage, our country, and it's people, as all his actions have proven. Read the '5,000 Year Leap', by S. Leon Skousen to learn what the US roots of it's government was formed to copy and imitate. President Trump, in just 9 months, has shown a better knowledge, understanding, and interest of the 'Founding Fathers', than Obama had shown in eight years. President Trump doesn't need to read the 'Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire', and thanks GOD that Obama never read it or we'd be in worse shape than Obama had left us in as a country, but President Trump just needs to know what the 'Founding Fathers' had in mind to serve the American people, by protecting them against a tyranic government, which Obama was in the procedure to institute, by forcing on the American people what they didn't need, didn't want, and detested, shown by the over 1,300 Democratic political seats all across the US that her voted over to the Republicans under Obama's attempted tyranny, and religious persecution.)

Nickolai
While the election of a demagogue such as Trump feels like a blow to the long-held ideal of the republic, it is also a reminder that a republic is rarely anything other than an ideal. The balance of power between senators and tribunes in the republic of ancient Rome proved impossible to sustain. There were republican senators who behaved like emperors and later there were emperors who maintained the pretence of living in a republic. Demagogues often arose not from the lower classes but from the wealthy, aristocratic elites they proposed to reject.

Randy131
(The election of a demagogue occurred when Obama was elected, not President Trump, which every lawless thing Obama did, and his refusal to enforce our laws because he didn't like them, and usurped the power of the SCOTUS by declaring the laws that he didn't like to be unconstitutional, despite being enforced for generations, was aiding in the destruction of our Republic, while President Trump, through obeying our laws and our 'US Constitution' is actually restoring our Republic from the damage done by Obama to our Republic, by once again making the Presidency and the rest of the federal government to obey our laws and the 'US Constitution'. Obama was the one who behaved like an emporer, as the Democrats treated him as such, allowing him to usurp their powers and responsibilities through allowing Obama to write legislation through simple 'Executive Orders & Decrees', and having his federal agencies and departments to also write rules that were enforced like laws against the American people, without the approval of the people's elected representatives in the 'US Congress'.)

Nickolai
Like the greatest demagogues of the late Roman republic, Trump has accomplished the tricky feat of positioning himself against the elites while maintaining his huge wealth. The chutzpah with which he has done so perhaps best recalls the example of Publius Clodius Pulcher, one in a line of popular politicians who contributed to the collapse of the republic by rebelling against the established governing order. Though descended from a wealthy family that had dominated the Senate for centuries, Clodius managed to shrug off his social class in order to champion the interests of the plebeians. He had his most vocal critic, Cicero, thrown into exile. Trump threatened to throw his, Hillary Clinton, into jail.

Randy131
(President Trump has never positioned himself against the elites, but just the opposite, by declaring that he himself has always been one of the elites, especially concerning economics, financing, and wealth, and he constantly brags about the elites that he has appointed to his cabinet to help him run our nation, from the military, wall street, education, and other government jobs, and is the reason why the American people elected him. The American people have had enough of the malfeasance, incompetence, and ineptitude of the Obama administration and all the people that he appointed to run our nation, who proved themselves to be complete failures, and with President Trump they were looking for the opposite than they've suffered under for the last eight years, and are very happy because that is what they are now getting, especially in our economy statistics and the stock market, which Obama and Hillary Clinton used scare tactics against President Trump that the stock market would crash if President Trump were elected, and what has happened since the day after he was elected has proven why Obama and Hillary Clinton are considered to be malfeasant, incompetent, and inept. President Trump didn't threaten to throw Hillary Clinton in jail as your false propagandea insinuates, but instead to prosecute her for any of her crimes and criminal actions, which she would have to be tried in a court of law, and found guilty by a jury of her peers, before she would be thrown in any jail. This is the Trump Presidency and administration, not the Obama Presidency and administration, and therefore all our laws will be obeyed and adhered to, as will also the 'US Constitution'.)

Nickolai
Trump’s hot-headedness and unorthodoxy, his seemingly off-the-cuff threats, promises and tweets, only exacerbate popular fears that he is incapable of being checked. The year 59 BC went down in Roman history as the consulship of “Julius and Caesar”, after the great populist quelled his colleagues’ attempts to rein him in. Trump’s early appointments have done little to instil confidence in the neutralising abilities of his advisers. Eliot Cohen, a former counsellor of the Department of State, may not be entirely accurate in describing “unquestioning loyalty” as the sole criterion for a place in Trump’s administration, but developments so far have had a distinctly Roman flavour.

Randy131
(Because President Trump reacts to attacks on him by attacking those who initiates attacks on him, has nothing to do with hot-headedness, but simply defending himself, which he has the right to do, as all Americans do, and the American people love to see someone fight back not only for themselves, but for the American people and their needs, which is what President has been doing by puting the usa and the American people first in everything that he does, the exact oppiste than what Obama had done for eight years. Most of the American people have loved President Trump's appointments, and they are not appointed, nor should they ever be, for their "neutralising abilities", but instead as advisors to help President Trump make decisions, and then when President Trump does make a decision, to then institute that decision to a successful end for President Trump and the American people.)

Nickolai
Like the Roman emperors, Trump has done a good job of presenting himself as the proponent of a new age. His America is not “great”, but it can be “great again”. Augustus, Claudius and Domitian peddled the same myth. With the celebratory Secular Games, they signalled that Rome was waving goodbye to one age and entering a new one reminiscent of the fabled days of old.

Randy131
(President Trump has never implied that he was "the proponent of a new age", that is what Obama declared with his promised "Change of America" before and after his election, while President Trump only promised to return the USA and the American people to what they once were in our past, by "Making America Great Again", which was no myth, while Obama's declaration certainly was proven to be by "waving goodbye to one age and entering a new one" which never occurred.)

Nickolai
In contrast to the Julio-Claudians, however, Trump has yet to learn the significance of these “bread and circuses”. After Mike Pence was booed at a performance of Hamilton, a hip-hop musical about the founding father, Trump’s gut reaction (does he have any other kind?) was to criticise the cast for having “harassed” the vice-president-elect and call for the theatre to be “a safe and special place”. By comparison, Cleon, the Athenian demagogue of the fifth century BC and an enemy of Pericles, endured repeated jibes as Aristophanes skewered him and his associates at the city’s theatre festivals. Trump’s failure to exercise restraint over the events at Hamilton sets a worrying precedent that could only damage his reputation as a man of the people.

Randy131
(President Trump doesn't need to learn the significance of "bread and circuses" of Roman times, for he and Mike Pence are shutting down these circusses (NFL arenas and TV) of today by shaming their disrespect and dishonor for our nation and it's people who serve it, as well as their devisiveness of our people, which is what Obama and the Democrats have promoted for eight years before President Trump was elected. President Trump didn't call for theatres to be "safe and special places", he said they should be, not for the cast to verbally attack viewers and and customers, for which if any of the audience would have done the same to the cast while their play was occuring, they would have been thrown out, which makes your comments a perfect example of liberal, progressive, and Democratic "HYPOCRISY". What restraint is he required to show, for Obama never once showed restraint, claiming many times what later proved to be lies in all his defense of minority indiscreations and who were at fault, and I could give you a list it you can't remember any of them starting with the racist black college professor who denigrated a white policeman for doing his job when sent to a "break-in-report" at the black college professor's home. President Trump doesn't worry about his reputaion, he just cares about doing what is best for the USA and the American people by putting them first, exactly what you and all liberals, progressives, and Democrats denigrate and condemn him for.)

Nickolai
For all its troubles, the US has reached a height from which many fear it can only fall. Like Rome after the rapid expansion of the republic, America’s influence has plateaued. At the end of his reign, as if mindful of overreach, Emperor Augustus urged his successors to keep the empire within the limits that he had established for it. By Hadrian’s time, as in Trump’s America, there was little call for interventionism and globalization. Even the victory-hungry Trajan was remarkably relaxed when he was alerted to a conflict brewing in the east. The report said that Christianity was spreading through Rome’s provinces.

Randy131
(Everything that you've said in this paragraph describes Obama's Presidency right down to it's finale, but it's the spread of Islam that the American people fear, because of what the Islamic religious book requires and mandates for all good Muslims to do to all unbelievers and people of other religions. While President Trump is on a crusade to return the American people to the one and only GOD, the Judeo/Christian GOD. But President Trump is in the process to taking the USA back to it's international heights, that the entire world thought of us before Obama became President and tore down that respect, honor, and fear that all other nations had for us.)

Nickolai
The rise of Christianity and invasions by “a deluge of barbarians” were two significant contributing factors to the fall of the Roman empire. The German soldier Odoacar’s overthrow of Rome’s last emperor in 476 AD was long taken to mark the fall of the city. The reality was more complicated. Some modern scholars speak not of the fall of Rome but of the steady transformation of its empire, which was still flourishing in the east nearly a thousand years after the Germanic invasion. Others argue otherwise. Regardless of their view, no modern historian can simply place the blame for Rome’s internal failings on Christianity and “barbarians”, any more than Trump’s administration can place the blame for America’s on Islamism and immigrants.

Randy131
(Anyone who understands the real reasons for the fall of the 'Roman Empire' know for sure it had nothing to do with Christianity and the barbarians flooding across it's borders, which were only symptoms of the reasons for the collapse. Rome had 9 foreigners living in the city for every 1 Roman citizen, and the nationalism of Rome had declined so much and to the point that they could no longer raise their great 'Citizen Armies', and had to use foreigners and slaves in their armies instead, who would not fight with the same determination that their citizens used to do. These are the same situations that Obama and the Democrats have promoted in the USA for the last eight years, as all the liberals, progressives, and Democrats have supported and promoted these events occurring in the USA during Obama's Presidency. President Trump is in the process of reversing what Obama and the Democrats have done to cause the USA to go down the same path, with the same fate, of the 'Roman Empire'.)

Nickolai
Analogies between Trump and the demagogues and emperors of ancient Rome come only too easily. It is, however, fruitless to despair at the death of the republic or the birth of Caligula II. America’s fall, if it comes, will be protracted and complex. If the pattern of Roman history can show Trump one thing, it is that he would be wise to look not only at the troubles brewing without but also at those brewing within.[/quote]

Randy131
("Analogies between the demagogues and emperors of ancient Rome are much more similar to Obama and the Democrats during the eight years of his Presidency, than anything that President Trump has done so far during his nine months as President, which actually has been the exact opposite. With President Trump, there is no despair by intelligent people about the future of the USA and it's people under President Trump's policies and agendas, as long as he fulfills all his promises, and reverses all the insane things that Obama had done to our nation, it's economy, and it's people, which will easily "Make America Great Again", and it's people very prosperous, with the respect, honor and fear of the entire world, looking for us to do what will benefit everyone through making us again the economic giant that we once were.)