Just in case it was another blitz attach, we will remain at JuiceCon 1! Please report to the armory and then to your duty stations!
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by Adam L Silverman| 159 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Just in case it was another blitz attach, we will remain at JuiceCon 1! Please report to the armory and then to your duty stations!
Comments are closed.
Anya
For a bit there I thought I was banned from Balloon Juice.
TaMara (HFG)
I noticed nothing. What I miss?
scav
peas and rubber bands at the ready, but don’t hurt me, I can’t find the potato gun — and I think I ate the ammo after mashing it with whole-grain mustard.
Yutsano
Some sort of server error. No idea what caused it. Alain may be along to explain.
Amir Khalid
@TaMara (HFG):
The Balloon Juice server was inaccessible for a few minutes.
Schlemazel Khan
@scav: actual resonse to this comment in previous@scav:
I believe that SOP boilerplate is intended to calm the nervous neilies of the GOP. Drumpf needs them & their money but to get them he needs to convince them that he can douse the dumpster fire & act like a real human in the general. Whether they are stupid enough to believe it is a different latter, they are after all pretty stupid.
Miss Bianca
Greetings, Adam! You’re back! Hope you are well – I’d also say I hope you had a happy Passover, but that has never seemed quite kosher to me, somehow…
p.a.
Blame it on the UFOs
Anoniminous
@Schlemazel Khan:
These are the same people who think SnapChat is worth somewhere between $10 – $20 billion. “Pretty stupid” is baked in.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Seemed like hours here. I’m unfortunately baby-sitting a software install, which involves hours of tedium punctuated by the occasional keystroke.
scav
@Schlemazel Khan: Well, I wouldn’t be calmed by pseudo leaks as demonstrations of leadership, tight management and execution, but then I’m am soooo not the MBA type, let alone the target audience. Whereas mashed potatoes and entirely too much Shakespeare I’m rather up on.
Felonius Monk
I was afraid the hamsters all died and the squirrels went on strike.
Mnemosyne
I was supposed to go to a mini ciclovia that our city was having today, but it was only for an hour and it started too early for my weekend laziness. I did pre-register for it, so hopefully that will clue the city in that maybe they should offer an event that runs longer than 8:30 to 9:30 on a Saturday morning.
Randy P
I just got a spam I’ve never seen before. Canadianvisa.org promises me good chances of success if I hire them to prepare my Canadian immigration package.
Weren’t we all going to wait till the General Election got at least a little closer before seeking our refugee status up North?
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: “For one hour early on a Saturday morning, the streets are yours!”
What, you mean that’s not a winning campaign?
Amir Khalid
Meanwhile, Liverpool have made a gift of
two sorely-needed pointsone sorely-needed point to former manager Rafa Benitez’s relegation-threatened Newcastle United FC. But gee, did Liverpool have to throw away a two-goal lead to do it?amk
who is doing the attack?
Ruckus
Adam, TRX arrives today! Let’s see if I’m worthy.
scav
Guard: The Science of Shakespeare
BBC Radio Three: The Sounds of Shakespeare
And Actors doing bits for the man itself: Shakespeare Solos
why yes, I am a bit of an obsessive.
Shell
Right now on Cspan- 400 years of Shakespeare.
Mike in NC
Sitting at the airport in Salt Lake City, where there’s a spectacular view of snow-capped mountains in the distance.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@scav: do you know the Shakespeare’s Restless World podcast from the BBC? I found it really fun
Gin & Tonic
@Mike in NC: It’s always so beautiful there. My favorite place to ski.
Cheryl from Maryland
@scav: You aren’t the only one. Tomorrow I’m going to the birthday/deathday party at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
raven
I just finished digging out two 4×4 posts set 3 feet in concrete, now to reset and put the fence back uo!
Lamh36
good morning…working this weekend.
posted this last night but wanted to make sure I shared it again because I think it’s just a really good cover!
I promise u I’m done bombarding BJ with Prince comments ??
scav
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Had to think about it for a sec, but Yes! and there were a grand set of plays (at least 4) that rolled through about the same time that one could download. Branagh and, um, River Song, as Machbeth and his lady was exceptionally good.
PaulWartenberg2016
I BLAME THE NEW DOCTOR WHO COMPANION.
J R in WV
And here I thought Adam was talking about the Bundy Bunch, the Loon Preserve Takeover caper, the Nevada cattle herder rustling scandal, Federal courts, etc.
But no, just a pause in Balloon-Juice service. I was scrolling down Betty’s “Lipstick” thread and didn’t notice a thing. Glad to learn that Fabio is a nice guy, sometimes people famous for one thing of another get the big head. Kinda of like Trump, tho he’s extreme in that direction.
PaulWartenberg2016
I’m off to my writing group meeting, where I will coyly announce my latest self-published debacle of a bad sci-fi story. Taaa.
? Martin
@Randy P: Y’all can come out here to California. Our governor has a plan to build a wall. It’s pretty nice here.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Newcastle deserved the point. They really clawed their way back. I don’t want to see them relegated, so I had to root against Liverpool. Sorry. Will be with you next Sunday against Swansea City.
Shell
Just had a very tasty BLT. I like to use pancetta instead of the usual B, and its lovely. But have to disappoint my dog; sorry, Im not gonna share this.
Mnemosyne
@scav:
Are those done in the traditional accent or in original pronouciation (OP)?
Steeplejack
@scav:
Question for you (or other Shakespeare obsesses): What is a good print edition to buy? I’m not averse to an all-in-one volume, but the type tends to be pretty small, and I think I’d prefer individual paperbacks for ease of handling.
(Although, hmm, all-in-one Kindle or Nook edition might not be bad.)
Keith G
Listening to the New Yorker Radio Hour’s interview of Julian Castro. The man sounds like he would be a fine nominee for the office of Vice President.
Link
scav
@Cheryl from Maryland: You are lucky in your geographic location, although I at least got to catch one of their First Folios on tour when it arrived February in IL.
Also, because this is the inter webs, links to Shakespeare’s Restless World for those not haunting the beeb.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
We have a very successful regional ciclovia (actually called CicLAvia) so I suspect the small city I live in is considering having their own, but they’re trying to gauge local interest by starting small. Really small. That’s why I preregistered even though I knew it was likely that I’d be too lazy to go.
Miss Bianca
@Lamh36: Don’t be done with Prince luv…we’re not! (why yes, The Current streaming as we speak).
Tracy Ratcliff
@scav: Alex Kingston is the actress (River Song fanboy here)
Miss Bianca
@PaulWartenberg2016: have fun! Where your story published?
Emma
@scav: Woke up to that particular programme (I always check BBC Radio every morning) but hadn’t heard of the solos. Thank you!
scav
@Steeplejack: So many options, and also rather depends on your familiarity with the vocabulary. I’m rather fond of the individual volume side-by-side approach of the Folgers I read as a kid (so no flipping back and forth to foot / end notes) but a digital version might juggle that definition need adroitly. Folger also has some digital texts to play with. Personally, I usually have to handle a book to know if I’m going to fall in love with it.
ETA: Link to Folgers
danielx
Note: Prince is getting the pixels and ink, but another rocker passed the same day….RIP Lonnie Mack.
Miss Bianca
@danielx: Aww…Mr. “Chicken Pickin”!
scav
@Tracy Ratcliff: and AWK! the BBC download wasn’t their Macbeth, it was their Anthony and Cleopatra, and Alex K makes a fantastic Cleopatra.
Mnemosyne
@Lamh36:
I wonder if Dave Grohl is going to organize some kind of tribute concert. He and Prince seemed to have a mutual admiration thing going on since Prince played a Foo Fighters song at the Super Bowl.
(Dave Grohl is my age, so OF COURSE he loved Prince. He covered “Darling Nikki” on one of their albums and does it in concert a lot.)
Steeplejack
@scav:
Thanks. The few plays I have are Folger paperbacks. Was wondering if something better/newer had come along.
. . . Just checked on Amazon, and the Kindle editions of the Folger editions are only 99 cents each. I’ll check those out to see how they handle the notes/footnotes.
ETA: Shnikeys! Just went to your Folger link and see that all the texts are available for free download in multiple formats. Score! Thanks again.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike in NC: How can you see the snow-capped mountains with all that pr0n in the way?
Davebo
It’s pretty low of Bernie Sanders to launch a DDOS attack on Balloon Juice in an effort to thwart the will of the people!
realbtl
@danielx: Well, shit. RIP for one of the originals.
trollhattan
@danielx:
Yeah, he won’t get his propers because of the unfortunate timing. RIP Mr. Mack.
redshirt
I’ll take point on the scouting par–
*AAACCCK
Villago Delenda Est
@? Martin: Wow, a whole lot of stupid in the responses to that.
Chip Daniels
Just like Hugh Hewitt at the Empire State Building, you could say that we here are at Ground Zero for a terrorist attack on Balloon Juice. Which makes us practically Navy Seals or something.
satby
@? Martin: well, I’m deciding on where to live and I have a kid who encourages me to move to California, but the lack of water and high prices scare me.
Gin & Tonic
Since I’ll be killing time for a while longer, here’s a bleg for the hive mind. You know those short cooking videos on YouTube? Shot from above, POV-style, they dump ingredients into a bowl, spelling out what they are, and after 30 seconds you have your salmon en croute or, more likely, meatloaf? A few months ago I saw a great parody of that, where somebody stirs various-sized wood blocks in a bowl and a minute later, voila! A beautiful inlaid jewelry box or something like that. My Google-fu is too weak today to come up with that. Does anybody recall this, and maybe have a link?
trollhattan
@J R in WV:
Speaking of Klan Bundy, turns out the local sheriff, not a fan.
Steeplejack
@satby:
Now that you don’t have to move to Florida, is there some reason you can’t stay where you are? (If you want to, of course.)
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Our governor also once challenged Chris Christie to a footrace. Jerry may be in his mid70s, but he still runs every day.
I don’t agree with him on everything (for one, his bicycle policies suck), but he’s done pretty good by us.
trollhattan
@satby:
It’s a biiiiig state. Water and home price (and earthquake ) concerns are primarily along the coast. Municipal water is generally reliable, ag water not so much but that’s a different thing. Oh yeah, fire and flood, depending on season.
Other than that, paradise!
Miss Bianca
@redshirt: Oh no, REDSHIRT DOWN!
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
Is he still challenging reporters to pull up contests? That always cracks me up.
satby
@Steeplejack: not a lot of job prospects, pretty much a service economy since the 80s. It was fine when I was in IT and could work from home, and if I could land another job like that it still would be. But, after the last two years I’ve depleted all my savings and the mortgage on this place is too high even though it’s pretty modest. House is underwater, value dropped even though I bought after months of price drops. Then they fell off a cliff. It’s pretty isolated too. So though I would like to stay, it’s better that I find something else.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
Here you go: wooden box recipe.
Steeplejack
@satby:
Sorry to hear it. Hope you find a good situation.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: Hey, thanks.
Miss Bianca
@satby: I forget – are you in Michigan?
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
They’re going to do a big one to celebrate the Gold Line extension, on June 26, naturally. It’s going to go all the way from South Pasadena to Azusa, hitting a series of Gold Line stations along the way.
debbie
@satby:
Do you intend to stay in IT?
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Nice! I wonder what our best parking option would be that day.
The official CicLAvia in Pasadena was way too small, so I’m glad there’s a bigger San Gabriel event coming up.
J R in WV
@danielx:
This! A real shock…
We saw Lonnie many years ago when he opened for Stevie Ray Vaughn in the smaller Municipal Auditorium. He was really good. Then we saw him in an independent tour in a local bar, a big bar but still. Creative, good taste, could rip it up when he wanted to.
Very surprised to hear he had died, although he was a big guy.
We saw Jimmy Vaughn in NYC some time ago at BB King’s – that night he seemed to be channeling Stevie Ray, an excellent set. Hope he takes care of himself, touring rock star is a hard way to make a living.
Ruckus
@satby:
You never know what can happen.
I got a job 3 yrs ago that is pretty good, boss is great, etc. That was at 63 after looking for quite a long time. I live in a nice apt in a very nice part of Pasadena. 4 yrs ago I was living in a friends spare room on the back of his property, then rented a pool house for 2 yrs in a rather less than desirable neighborhood. Life isn’t grand, I’m not turning down offers to attend lavish parties, living on the beach in a $5 mil house, driving a Ferrari but then I’ve never wanted that either.
different-church-lady
@Amir Khalid:
THE MOST TERRIFYING MINUTES OF MY LIFE!
Gin & Tonic
I don’t want in any way to make light of those killings yesterday in Ohio, but just point out this from a story on CNN.com:
That county Sheriff, Reader, seems to be doing as well a job as can be expected under the circumstances, but maybe one of the problems in the US these days is that a half-mile isn’t considered “walking distance.”
SiubhanDuinne
@scav:
The Met is broadcasting Verdi’s Otello.
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
Rather like both C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley dying on November 22, 1963.
Mike J
@SiubhanDuinne: Which explains Andy Richter’s tweet:
Followed by
Gin & Tonic
@Gin & Tonic: Did I say “as well a job”? Jeez, the sleep deprivation is messing with my grammar. “As good a job as can be expected.”
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: Get with me offline if you need any info.
tybee
@trollhattan:
“Bunditos”!
i larfed.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike J:
LOL
debbie
For those who love Hamilton, Leslie Odum (Burr) had a segment on an NPR game show, Ask Me Another, that you might enjoy. He talks about the show, his career, and does an acoustic version of a song from the show. Warning: the audience is filled with shrieking fans.
karen marie
@Lamh36: I never cared for Prince but now I am starting to actively hate him. If that fucking dove doesn’t stop crying, I am going to beat it to death.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: We’ve got a hundred more back on the Enterprise. No worries at all.
Shell
Everytime I see an ad for Audible audio books I always think, “Do you HAVE to use those butt-ugly orange headphones?”
Mnemosyne
@karen marie:
Should we all get off you lawn while you tie a fresh onion to your belt?
;-)
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Ha! Yeah, but this is the first Redshirt I’ve known who’s actually had more than two lines before taking one for the team – I can’t help feeling a little sad.
You know, I wondered why I was having a hard time staying awake during a re-watch of the first Star Trek movie last night, and you’ve finally illuminated something for me: no redshirts! In fact, no color to the uniforms at all! What were they *thinking*?
Major Major Major Major
The important thing is, you said JuiceCon 1, and not JuiceCon 5.
Miss Bianca
@karen marie: And one more “Good Night Sweet Prince” allusion and you’re gonna kill him ALL OVER AGAIN, eh?
Alain the site fixer
@Amir Khalid: I did nothing.
trollhattan
@Miss Bianca:
Once and for all, karen marie didn’t push him, he fell!
trollhattan
@Alain the site fixer:
I hope you’re saying that in a sergeant Schultz voice.
lol chikinburd
Didn’t much get into Prince’s music when it was released either — in fact was quite the snobby adolescent punk about it — but this morning when the last section of “Purple Rain” came on the car radio I had to pull over. (in fairness there were other things going on compounding the reaction but the point is…you know.)
satby
@Miss Bianca: yes, SW MI
Randy P
@Gin & Tonic: Memory from a trip to Barcelona: We were asking the people at the hotel desk for directions to the old city. They told us and said it’s about 2 km. We asked if there was a train stop near our destination and they looked puzzled. After a short silence they said “Well, yes. But it’s only 2 km”.
2 km is about a mile and a quarter.
Alain the site fixer
@trollhattan: indeed!
I have been doing some stuff on the backend and test server yesterday but nothing today. On the other hand it was acting flaky for me so I walked away and perhaps that flakiness grew and it got rebooted. When I’m back near a PC I’ll take a quick peek for my own curiosity.
satby
@debbie: I was intending to go back to IT, been out for 2 years. But I was a service delivery manager /lead, so not a programmer. Started as a desktop tech, but way out of date on that.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
You might try parking at Sierra Madre Villa station (which is not on the route) and taking the train to one of the stations that is on the route.
satby
@Steeplejack: Thanks.
Randy P
@Gin & Tonic: Sounds similar to this. Check out the other videos by that animator, looks like this is a common game he/she plays with common objects.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: Take down one redshirt, two more take its place.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Does it matter if he is? That’s how we are hearing it.
satby
@Ruckus: Thanks Ruckus! I’m feeling pretty positive about things if I can just get through the next 6 weeks or so. When the girls leave I’ll have less going on to make some decisions.
A Ghost To Most
@Alain the site fixer:
Man, if I had a nickel …
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
Good point. An entire generation, maybe two, depending on reruns.
My kid is genuinely puzzled when I call the dog, Ho-gunnnn!
Lamh36
@danielx: never actually listened to that artist but I’m not knocking who anyone like and wants to tribute him in any way they want…RIP to him, and my regards to his fans who are mourning him as well..
? Martin
Another entry on the public university situation. Nothing terribly new here.
I think the analysis is correct that there isn’t much that can be done at the federal level. These need to be state-level solutions. I do also disagree with part of the assumption, however.
Now, $17K in debt for a 4 year education – and if you go to a UC, with 6 campuses in the top 11 public universities, is giving you a pretty good education – is not a crisis and should not be a source of stress. The average car loan in the US is $27K and that’s for something that will go down in value immediately. NACE shows that the average starting salary for someone with a BS is a bit over $45K, so carrying a $17K debt load should be pretty straightforward with that added earning potential (it’s only $32K for high school graduates).
Now the article does note an out-of-state student walking out of Berkeley with over $100K in debt, and that should be a source of stress, and that’s really where the tuition crisis is coming from – private universities, or those who treat public as private universities by going out of state. But the remedies to that problem are completely removed from all of the education policies we’ve been discussing. Not even Sanders plan will address that. That lands on the students and parents to make good decisions in terms of where to go. I don’t care what state you are in – the University of Wyoming will unquestionably give you a better education for the dollar than Berkeley will if you are a Wyoming resident.
The $29K number gets a bit more worrying, though, but again, these are obviously solvable within the states. And the CSU average debt load is about $2K lower than even the UC load. And the debt load is all over the map depending on state, and not necessarily in ways that you would expect. Yes, notably hostile recent governements to higher ed Wisconsin and Indiana chalk up average debt loads of nearly $30K, but so does Sanders’ home state of Vermont as well as Oregon, New York, and Massachusetts. PA is nearly $35K. The lowest in the country is Utah, a few grand below CA.
There’s no particular trend here for the feds to address. States have the capacity to fund their higher education systems, and can choose to do so or not. But there’s another angle here – establishing as a nation what is and is not appropriate to borrow money for. It would be in everyones best interest to establish that borrowing money only for appreciating assets is a sound fiscal policy. That would limit borrowing to two things:
1) A house (in most, but obviously not all cases)
2) Education
That’s about it. Car loans and credit cards (assuming you aren’t paying them off each month) are terrible. The focus on education loans strikes me as highly misguided. Sure, the situations where the loans are overwhelming the value of the degree should be addressed, but we’d be WAY better off focusing on the countless cases of usury where the borrower is putting themselves in vastly worse shape. How about alternatives to buying a car and ending car loans? That would do vastly more for the economic welfare of young people than focusing on college loans would.
Lamh36
@karen marie: if this is snark, I apologize in advanced…
if not, I’m not in the mood to be pleasant…
so just so you know, I don’t give A HOLY FLYING FUCK what you hate and if it wouldn’t get on the other BJ folks nerves, I’d post a link to every damn Prince song or tribute I could…
so my apologies again, if you were snarling, otherwise please, GO FUCK YOURSELF!
Lamh36
@Lamh36: Hmmm to harsh?
whatever in heading back to work…have a good one BJ
WaterGirl
@Lamh36: I suppose there are times when it would be okay to tell your friend that her brother is a dick, but when they have just died is not a good time to do that.
I’m not sure I have a strict rule along the lines of “don’t speak ill of the dead”, but I do think it’s really bad form to speak ill of the dead to someone who is grieving the dead person.
? Martin
And I know a lot of people are down on where we are as a country but there are SO many things going in the right direction (despite local efforts fighting against progress). Here’s a student coming out as transgender to Obama.
This past week a close friend of my son (and who is close to our family) came out as transgender as well. She’s received a lot of support from us, from her friends, from her school. He’s got another transgender friend, and my daughter has at least two. They are well accepted at their school, among their classmates, in our community. None of this would have been possible when I was in high school, and even 5-10 years ago was much harder than it is now. Now, the confederacy can continue to fight progress as they have for the last few centuries, but the rest of the country is moving forward. CA is an increasingly friendly LGBT state and will continue to improve, and there are a number of states even farther ahead.
It’s pretty easy to find the local cases of shit going backward, and the Trump voters are pretty much marinating in that news, but overall things are going the right way. There’s a lot of legislation to write, and it won’t all be written before Obama leaves office, but the question of whether it would be written was answered while he was in office. He set us on the right trajectory, and we’ll get there a lot sooner than we otherwise would have, even if it’s not as fast as people deserve. And that’s okay, that’s just how it works.
Ruckus
@satby:
Decisions? Yeah we all have some tough ones to make every so often. Good luck with yours. Over the last 20+ yrs I seem to be having problems making decent ones, probably because they have become more difficult with few clear possibilities, one way or the other. It’s either jump off a cliff or be pushed but you are going one way or the other. I can’t tell if this is me or just getting older, where you have fewer opportunities and the probabilities are riskier. Know someone who once asked out loud why older folks didn’t take more risks, you are closer to the end, the downside is closer either way…. Then he got a bit older and said he understood, it’s not how much time you’ve spent, it’s how much you realize that life really is short and that day is getting closer and you can see and feel it. His problem is he didn’t also realize that one has to take risks all the time, it’s just that the risks change over time.
BTW there is a handmade soap store 3 blocks from my house and I think of you every time I walk by. Hope business is OK and that you can keep going when you move if you want.
Gin & Tonic
@Randy P: Thanks. I’ve seen those too, and enjoy them, but Steeplejack posted the specific one I had been looking for.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Steeplejack: King of Google Fu
Gelfling545
@Steeplejack: in August Amazon & presumably other places) will have newly issued Macmillan Library Hardcover editions at about $10 each. I have preordered some favorites. They’re in a handy small format.
Ruckus
@? Martin:
Car loans are terrible but how do most people avoid them? In many places in this country there is little to no alternative to a vehicle, to get to work, to find work, etc. I am now fortunate in that I can walk to three major stores, many, many restaurants, the library….. The gold line (a commuter light rail for those of you not in socal) is two blocks away, goes to the town I work in. But. And you knew there would be a but, it takes an hour to get to work (and back home) when you include the bus on the other end, when I can drive in 20-25 minutes. Cost is great because senior discounts (50%!!!) but take that out and the cost isn’t that much different.
And an issue is that my rent is about 25% higher than it would be in many other areas. A nice place to live for sure with great access but still that’s money out. I just don’t see a way for most to get past a car loan. Sure you can pay yourself monthly and drive a car till it dies, then take that money and purchase another, it is what I am doing now, live with the old POS till the cash register is full and start over. How many have that discipline?
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
He really is. A few years ago he managed to find a very old, obscure song that my grandmother used to sing to me. I provided a few half-remembered, not totally accurate fragments of text, and in a very short time he found the sheet music and words to all three verses, from some children’s magazine of the mid-nineteenth century. Just amazing.
I still owe him a drink for that.
Felonius Monk
Lonnie Mack, Albert Collins, and Roy Buchanan
May they all rest in peace.
Matt Rogers
Back to the election…Trump should have this locked up by the convention, but the only question about the general is how much he loses by.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Keith G:
Isn’t he a new enemy of the revolution? I stopped keeping close track after Obama was deemed too Establishment, man.
Gimlet
Anybody know the issues in this primary?
http://www.buzzfeed.com/darrensands/donna-edwards-has-sharp-words-for-the-media-and-some-democra#.vbBEwPJkB
Days before the Maryland Democratic primary, in which the congresswoman hopes to defeat her colleague in the de facto race to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Edwards told BuzzFeed News that it’s misleading to poll this close to election day, sharply critiqued recent Politico and Washington Post pieces about her candidacy — and said that the suggestion within her own party that she is unqualified is racially coded.
Edwards’ race against Rep. Chris Van Hollen was always considered a challenge, but she has proved far more competitive than expected, keeping even with him in many polls. On Thursday, however, a Monmouth poll in the state put Edwards down double digits to Van Hollen.
She’s not worried about the poll, she said, casting it as misleading.
“A poll at this stage with a pretty volatile electorate is very unpredictable,” Edwards said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “That poll came in the middle of early voting, and it seems odd to [conduct] a poll while people are actually casting their votes.”
The poll landed the same day as Politico reported that Edwards has pressed Congressional Black Caucus members about why more haven’t endorsed her candidacy over Van Hollen’s. Only several members have endorsed Edwards, who would be only the second black Democrat in the Senate currently, and the only black woman.
? Martin
@Ruckus:
That’s actually my point. I don’t fault most people for taking out the loans, many have no alternative. It’s a social debt. Effectively government has told the citizenry that in order to succeed in this society as it demands, they must go in debt for this thing that people should never go into debt for. It should be seen as a massive social failure, but the auto marketing and the importance of the auto industry to national manufacturing sectors (there are simple reasons why developing countries aspire to have auto industries – they employ a TON of people) has driven government to invest in this thing which really isn’t in the interest of the citizenry at least as it is implemented.
My concern here is that the free college movement gives the citizenry the exact opposite attitude toward debt. We should be investing heavily in citizen mobility, helping people get to jobs rather than driving them toward more debt which serves as friction for people to relocate, to commute, etc. That can be all forms of mass transit, but it should also be incentives for some people to rent vs own. A big reason why China’s economy is able to work the way it does is the high worker mobility there. US has been encouraging homeownership which is good for many people, but a lot of people who are facing having to relocate for work get screwed pretty hard by it – but that’s what our tax policy encourages people to do.
So, no, I don’t fault people for borrowing for a car – I fault government (and a lot of this falls on Dems as well) for failing to put the right infrastructure and the right incentives in place which force people into that decision.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
New car loans can be had at a couple percent (make sure to not allow it to affect price negotiations) but used rates are higher. But a car also means tags, insurance, parking for some. ..etc. Can gobble a lot of income.
Major Major Major Major
I just found this cross stitch kit that somebody should get me http://www.joann.com/disney-dreams-collection-by-thomas-kinkade-little-mermaid-16inx12in-18-count/12473914.html#close=undefined&start=1
? Martin
@trollhattan: Right. Median price for a new car is $30K. If you assume 100,000 miles out of it at 30 MPH, you’ll drive that car for a bit over 3,000 hours, or about $10/hr. Add in gas, insurance, maintenance, etc. you double that number – and that’s without interest on the loan. So you’re spending about $20 an hour driving a new, median priced car.
Used cars are cheaper, but probably still in the $10+/hr range unless you are a mechanic and can zero out your labor costs. If you are earning $7.25 and need to drive an hour to work (round trip, which is average commute) then you’ve burned 2 hours (after taxes) just paying for the car to get you there.
A Ghost To Most
@Major Major Major Major: That looks like a lot of work.
Major Major Major Major
@A Ghost To Most: But the payoff!
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
The Del Mar station has a lot of parking, too, and it’s free with your Tap card. I’m actually hoping we can be weasels and get permission to park in the Hill library lot since G works there now. (They’re closed on Sundays.) I’ve ridden straight down Allen from Walnut to get to the Huntington and it’s a lovely ride once you cross Colorado. It wouldn’t be much further to Huntington Dr., and we could use Del Mar to get to Allen from the library. We’ll have to see.
Jeffro
@karen marie: I just saw a clip of Adam Levine singing purple rain …so depressing ( that anyone but Prince, but especially Adam Levine, is allowed to cover that song )
A Ghost To Most
@Major Major Major Major:
I carve, so I understand the payoff after a lot of work.
Brachiator
@? Martin: I don’t think your calculations or your logic is reasonable here. And are you trying to make a case for renting over vehicle ownership?
And even taking your calc at face value, it only says that trying to do anything on a sub minimum wage income is a struggle, especially for a single person.
Doug R
@Gin & Tonic: My gateway with windows 8.1 has been not loading icons then refusing to log in then just loading the backround-not even placeholders. I checked gateway’s site and tried alt-f10. Didn’t get me to the blue boot screen, but it did seem to boot properly at least. Ran malabytes and now running spybot, we’ll see if that fixes it.
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
He’s too late anyway — Jennifer Hudson, Cynthia Erivo, and the rest of the cast of The Color Purple fucking OWN that cover now.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
New car loans at 2%?
You obviously didn’t suffer much from the not so great recession we are still coming out of. I lost everything but the clothes on my back and stuff that I couldn’t sell for food. That includes a good credit score. If I have to borrow money, I’m in the 15-20% (or even higher) interest bracket. And having lots of new friends still in the same bracket is small consolation.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
I think you (and to a certain extent Ruckus) are misunderstanding his point. I think he’s saying that the US government has basically outsourced their transportation responsibilities by making it necessary for people to buy cars in order to get around. It’s tangential to the original point, though.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
I would double-check that with your bank or credit union. I have crappy credit, was offered 8 percent by my credit union, and took the dealership’s Chase offer of 5 percent instead. But I was able to put down a 50 percent down payment.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
It is a struggle working minimum wage. Or even close to it. Absolutely it is. You have to share living quarters, I’m doing way better and I have to. My rent is still less than a crappy single in the LA area, what I’m reduced to is renting a room or having a room mate. You make a lot less than I do and you are going to be living at home or sharing with several room mates. A car? You have to be kidding. You have to drive something someone gives you if you are at minimum wage or live at home and put most of your money in a car.
Technocrat
Since this is an OT:
Data Scientist hacks his way to becoming the top match for 30,000 women on OKCupid:
What’s funny is that I’m not sure his algorithm actually worked. 88 dates is a lot of dates, and the idea that you know the “secret” would impart a lot of self-confidence. Was it a placebo effect? how many would it have taken without the computer?
Mnemosyne
@Technocrat:
Placebo effect. In fact, I’m guessing that his confidence in his own algorithm led him to be overly picky. I also went on a bunch of “efficient and depersonalized” dates (ie coffee dates), went out on a 2nd date with one of those, and ended up marrying the 16th guy I met. Our 10th wedding anniversary will be in July.
? Martin
@Mnemosyne: Yes, that’s what I’m saying. The last thing the government should be doing is encouraging people to take out loans to get to work. If we are willing to have the government give loans to students to go to college, at the very minimum, give people 0% loans to get a car and take the interest back in form of income taxes on their new job. Better yet, build some trains, or be super-forward looking and back services like Uber in a manner that would help with mobility.
Why not partner up with municipalities for the feds to pay out of the unemployment insurance pool for 3 months (or whatever) of mass transit for new hires. Get a job, get free transportation. Yes, it will suffer from all of the problems that Ruckus mentions – slow, inconvenient – but it’s still a big help, and it would be a steady cash infusion into municipal mass transit so they could more easily expand service. It’d be a virtuous cycle (if a small one) and it would help those workers stay in those jobs by eliminating a big expense for them. There are a lot of things that could be done like that. Cities that give out tax breaks to employers should be mandated to match that in transportation expansion or subsidies.
CAs energy policy works along these kinds of approaches – energy companies can only raise rates when their per-capita consumption goes down, so energy companies are financially incentivized to help residents reduce usage – that’s what pays for the rebates on appliances and light bulbs. Do the same for cities – incentivize them to get (particularly low-income) people into mass transit. It will strengthen peoples ability to move into better jobs, make the labor pool stronger, and save low income people from one of the expenses that is such a big anchor on upward mobility.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
No I wasn’t misunderstanding I was actually agreeing with Martin, in a very round about way. I can use mass transit to get to my job, but it is very time costly and somewhat inconvenient. A car is costly, while at the same time it is easier to use than mass transit.
On you second point I am going to check this out more as I am either purchasing for cash or with a substantial down, so there may be some thing there. But I’m also not in the mood for much time with payments as I really don’t want to have to keep working for many more years.
Technocrat
@Mnemosyne:
LOL, that’s awesome! Number 16, huh?
Yeah, “coffee dates” sounds much better. =)
Mnemosyne
@? Martin:
Part of the problem here in So Cal is that the old “hub and spoke” model of mass transit, where it’s assumed that everyone lives in the suburbs and commutes into the city, doesn’t work for us. I live in Burbank and work in Glendale, which border each other, but there is NO way for me to use mass transit to get to work unless I take three buses to cover a distance of four (4) miles. It’s more than a little insane.
The Giant Evil Corporation has started talking about extending the current hours of their intercampus shuttles past 6:00 pm (I work 9-6). If they did that, I could walk or bike the one mile to the main campus and then take a shuttle to where my office is. It would take more time, but it wouldn’t be an insane time-waster like taking public transit would be, and I would be able to get a little extra exercise in at the start and end of each day. I think they’re getting incentives to do it from some combination of city/county/state, because they would pay me an extra $1 every day I did it.
My ideal work commute was when I lived near Santa Monica Airport and worked at UCLA. I was able to take the Big Blue Bus every day for $1/day (sometimes free!), which picked me up a block from my apartment and dropped me off a block from work. I felt very European in those days. ;-) Santa Monica has a really amazing bus system that takes you all over the Westside and makes it easy to transfer back and forth between the other local systems (like Culver City). Glendale/Burbank/Pasadena, not so much, because their local systems only run Monday through Friday, unlike Santa Monica’s, which was 7 days a week.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
I chose to spread the payments out over 60 months (in part to build my credit back up again) and my payments are under $200/month.
Anne Laurie
@Major Major Major Major: Disney in conjunction with Thomas Kinkaide! Now *that* is for… extremely specialized tastes. NTTAWWT…
Just in case you were semi-serious, counted cross-stitch is one of the easiest needle arts to teach yourself… supplies are cheap, instruction sheets are straightforward, and mistakes are easy (if tedious) to correct. And it’s a great way for those of us with ADD to stay on focus for meetings, because 80% of the work on any project involves stitching rows of identical Xs that keep our hands busy & require just enough brain activity we don’t zone out on the speaker(s)…
Doug R
@? Martin: The fact that grads make more money and therefore pay higher taxes should make free or extremely low cost college a no-brainer. We could start with two year state colleges and see how things work out in the midterms.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I remember that!
Doug R
@? Martin: I don’t think anywhere that has to install anti – suicide nets in their company housing really has that much worker mobility.
? Martin
@Doug R:
Sort of. I agree with the 2-year free tuition without reservation. That’s a no-brainer because the system exists to serve the entire population, just as K-12 does, and is built out for that scale.
But the ‘give this out for free because it will lead to higher tax revenue’ can cut a lot of ways, many of which only make income inequality worse. The trap I think most people on the left fall into is that services which are available to all are a lot easier to broadly subsidize because they don’t have other social structures denying access for people of color, poor, etc. But a lot of the world doesn’t work that way.
Unlike 2 year schools, we don’t have enough room at 4 year schools for everyone and so we have this application and selection process that doesn’t exist at the 2-year level. That process discriminates. I know it discriminates because I’m part of the process and the whole point of choosing these students to attend your institution but not those students is to discriminate against one group in favor of another. We try to do it ‘right’ and ‘fair’ but it’s impossible. There are entire demographic groups that we know are at a disadvantage. When you subsidize these institutions, you are now magnifying that discrimination by making it easier for those people who are on the winning side of the discrimination to take those opportunities. And the catch-22 then with making 4-year schools cheaper is that it likely won’t result in more seats being made available. And that’s the bigger problem – as bad off as the students with $25K in loans is, the student with no loans because they couldn’t go to college because there were no seats is infinitely worse off.
Before we talk about free public universities, the feds should work out a plan with the states to expand the public universities. Adding seats will have a similar effect on costs, but will spread the benefit of the education across a larger population. Once the 4 year schools are truly open to everyone, then you knock the costs down.
Alternatively, you tie tuition and taxation directly back to the institution. If the institutions got 5% of your income every year for 20 years rather than tuition up-front, they would be directly motivated to expand and improve your prospects (or better yet, for 25 years after you start, to motivate them to graduate you quickly). You’d have a system which would be virtuous, where the decision to add capacity could be easily calculated and decided upon, and where nobody would have to put money up-front. If we truly believe that more college lifts all boats, then put your money where your mouth is and fund it in that manner.
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: You live four miles away from your work in Southern California and you drive? Get a bicycle. Hell, four miles is walking distance, too.
? Martin
@Doug R:
You do realize that the suicide rate at Foxconn, even at its worst, was far lower than almost any demographic in the US? Funny things happen when you shine a very bright media spotlight on something.
There were 14 suicides at Foxconn that year, out of a bit over 1 million workers. The US rate is 125 per million. For the US military its 187 per million.
I know you were trying to take a dig at China by relating two completely unrelated things (worker mobility and suicides) but if we adopt your argument, useless as it is, the US is nearly 10x worse off.
I should add – the overall suicide rate in China is 22 per million, so even if we want to treat Foxconn as an outlier and assume that mobility and suicide is realted, then China is 5x better than the US.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic:
Spoken by (I think) a man. Work late, walk 4 miles home after dark? Not necessarily a great idea for a female. Or perhaps I should say, I wouldn’t do it. I’m 5’3″ and dated a guy who was 6’5″. He was annoyed that I automatically locked the door when I came in the house. We didn’t date long.
Secondly, gender aside, I live in a much smaller city than M, but there are roads that I just won’t bicycle on, regardless of time of day. That may be the case for M., as well.
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
I have a bicycle. I also have two freeway entrances/exits to pedal past at rush hour, several hills, aggressive drivers, no way to shower at work, and only three gears. So, yeah, having a shuttle take me on the most dangerous parts of that route would be far preferable.
ETA: And, as WaterGirl said, the after-dark issue, too. I’m fine in the daytime, but riding or walking after dark is a little nerve-wracking, even in a safe city like the one I live in.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: Sadly, women are raped every day in “safe” cities.
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
I would feel totally comfortable walking or biking the 1 mile from the main campus to our apartment, even after dark, since it’s very residential (single-family homes) with a lot of pedestrians out and about walking their friendly dogs.
Walking or riding past the freeway entrances/exits and parks where homeless people hang out? Hell, no.
PaulWartenberg2016
@Miss Bianca:
In all the wrong places!
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: That was pretty rude of me. I was having a bad day. Sorry.
Miss Bianca
@PaulWartenberg2016:
I didn’t realize the Penthouse Forum was still a thing!