good evening (via @BillBramhall) pic.twitter.com/fzWVOK6eGv
— shauna (@goldengateblond) April 11, 2017
.
Stuff like this is why I make it a policy to leave home as seldom as possible. But, hey, I hear Orbitz is making it easy for users to filter all searches by “Never ever United”…
Apart from fighting back as best we can, what’s on the agenda for the day?
We are pleased to offer our complimentary Civil Rights® package to all our Elite and Advantage Level customers
— Eileen Curtright (@eileencurtright) April 10, 2017
All Skies Matter #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos pic.twitter.com/45M9HIG58p
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) April 11, 2017
"Welcome to Southwest, where we beat our competitors…not our customers." – the announcer on this #Southwest flight is SAVAGE. pic.twitter.com/LIG9LiVfvG
— Patrick Quinn (@PatrickQuinnTV) April 11, 2017
Maybe United should have offered those four passengers $200 million to volunteer a seat. pic.twitter.com/pHBrv33NjJ
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) April 11, 2017
Weird how the United CEO's "heartfelt apology" coincides almost exactly with the stock price taking a hit.
— shauna (@goldengateblond) April 11, 2017
"I'm a staunch libertarian when it comes to my personal possessions, but I'm a lot more open-minded re: state violence on other people."
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) April 11, 2017
CarolDuhart2
One thing comes to mind as a way to make these folks a bit more humble and customer friendly: support other modes of mass transit. High-speed rail anyone? Better bus service? People are treated so shabbily because they don’t have to worry about competitors taking service or folks saying, or being able to say “fuck it”.
Baud
Encouraged by Kansas results. Hope we have someone in every congressional district next year. Trump ain’t getting more popular.
Major Major Major Major
Meanwhile, out in evil PRC trade war fascist Chicom land, China Southern made me take a laptop out of a checked bag.
This seems like a category mismatch.
Baud
Libertarians ran away from hating cops as soon as Black Lives Matter hit the scene.
Baud
Booman doesn’t like Cuomo’s free college plan because it requires people to stay in state for a number of years.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
germy
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: doesn’t like as in let’s scrap the whole thing, or doesn’t like as in here is where I have some philosophical disagreements?
rikyrah
@Baud:
Me too. Every GOP Member from a district that Hillary won is winnable. We need candidates in every one of those districts.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
bjacques
I flew China Southern last year between Amsterdam and Melbourne (in Guangzhou we stayed in Europetown–i.e., Shamian Island). They’re really scared of lithium batteries going boom, so no electronics can be checked. Samsung Galaxy 7s aren’t allowed onboard at all.
Guangzhou airport sublevel has a great and cheap eatery with two entrances and 4 or 5 dining halls and a strong emphasis on booze, especially wine. Also you can catch the metro into town.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Compared it to indentured servitude. He didn’t propose an alternative in the post.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: that seems hyperbolic and libertarian.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Link
http://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/04/11/is-new-yorks-free-college-plan-indentured-servitude/
OzarkHillbilly
Alabama senate votes to allow church to form own police force
I wonder what the fine will be for hereticism?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: What could go wrong?
scottinnj
Pepsi: Wow we really created a public relations disaster by having the Jenner girl give a Pepsi to a cop at a Black Lives Matter, who can top that?
United Airlines: Hold my beer.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: seems hyperbolic and libertarian.
Major Major Major Major
@scottinnj: the one I saw was
Baud
I haven’t seen the media call out Trump for his lack of press conferences.
Central Planning
@Baud: I think the rule is if you leave NYS, you have to pay back the amount of ‘free’ tuition you got. To me, that’s more like a loan than indentured servitude.
If people don’t like the free tuition idea, they don’t have to take it. They wouldn’t be worse off than they are now.
Selfishly, I wish it applied to private universities since I have two in college now, and three more that I’m sure will do that too.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
@Central Planning:
It should draw down over time. If you leave one day before, you shouldn’t be liable for the whole amount.
There should also be a hardship exemption. What if you have to leave to take care of parents?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@bjacques: I think you mean the Galaxy Note 7, they’re the ones that catch on fire, the Galaxy S7’s are OK.
Baud
Today just now: Sean Spicer, the press secretary, doesn’t want to be a distraction for the president.
evodevo
@Baud: Uh, hospitals have been doing this for 70 years – you pay for a student to go to nursing school, they have to commit to working at that hospital for a certain # of years in return. Same with a small community paying for someone to go to med school, or providing a newly certified physician to come to the community while they provide free office space, etc. Payback. Seems fair to me….
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: what you have just said is an example of a constructive criticism that works within the context of the law to make it better. Booman could have done that and did not. That’s why it sounds libertarian–the “debt is slavery!!”-esque absolutism.
Isn’t that sorta similar to what they do in Singapore, in a way?
Central Planning
@Baud: I agree with everything you said. I haven’t read the proposal/law so I can’t really comment. To me, pro-rating makes perfect sense and so does a hardship cancellation.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Jeez. You’ve been in the region for what, two days, and now you’re an expert?
debbie
@Baud:
Because the Dem lost by less? That doesn’t count for much.
Baud
@evodevo:
I think Booman in his mind is comparing this to his true free college ideal that is unconditional.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I work at an education policy think tank.
Baud
@debbie: Why not?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m picturing this.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Ah. Nevermind.
NorthLeft12
@evodevo: Ahhh yes, Northern Exposure. One of the more interesting sitcoms that I have ever seen. Poor Dr. Joel Fleischman.
debbie
@Baud:
To the GOP, a win is a win, regardless of the margin. They will learn nothing from that race.
Major Major Major Major
@debbie: turning ~-30 into -5 is a pretty big indicator that Something Is Happening. There are no moral victories in elections, but there can be encouraging losses.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: It’s Kansas.
Major Major Major Major
@debbie:
Good–their actions are what made it so close, so more of them will make even more voters come to our side.
Baud
@debbie: I don’t care about teaching them. I care about defeating them. This will encourage our side, I believe. And most people still haven’t felt the damage that Trump will cause.
NorthLeft12
BTW, the last tweet about Libertarians describes virtually everyone of those dumbasses I have ever met. It is always all about them and their stuff and their rights.
I believe they should call themselves Darwinists or white male supremacists just to be perfectly accurate.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Who gives a shit what he thinks?
rikyrah
@Baud:
Uh huh
Curious
The grading curve for unqualified White man
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly: @Major Major Major Major: @Baud:
I hope you’re right. I’m just not feeling the positivity and hope yet.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: IMHO, he used to be one of the better bloggers. He’s sadly gone in a different direction from me over the last year.
rikyrah
@evodevo:
We did that for doctors and dentists. Have a cousin who is a dentist. she spent 5 years at a poor border Town in Texas and got her student loans wiped out.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”
rikyrah
@Baud:
I see nothing wrong with expecting those you educated to stay and give back to the state that Educated you for free
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
All the problems with Alabama, and this is the focus?
rikyrah
@debbie:
Because he lost by single digits in a district that Dolt45 won by 27 points.
WereBear
@Baud: Oh yeah, it’s so hard to get a job in New York!
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I’m not saying this means much in the midterms. Those are a year and a half away yet. Just that it is an interesting result. From the Guardian:
If GOP policies are so bad even Kansans are waking up, how are they going to do in more moderate states?
amk
@debbie: Yup. Not great comfort in margin of loss.
Chet Murthy
@Baud: as with the NPV (National Popular Vote), one could imagine that states that institute free public college, could agree to interchangeability amongst them. So if NY&CA do it, a student in either state could move to the other without limit. And perhaps the states would arrange a cost-sharing provision so that if the net migration is in one direction, then (tax) money migrates in the other to pay for the education.
amk
Looks like melania got her ‘due’. With all the news to cover, beebs thought this was worth a 24 point screaming fp headline.
bjacques
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I didn’t know the difference then, but that sounds right. Anyway, impressive airport.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Again, hope you’re right.
Aleta
: )
I sure wish I had a ‘not Tr’ news filter I could activate at least half the time
Hal
I keep seeing on Twitter comments that if only the DNC had spent more money, Thompson would have win. Did the DNC fuck this up or is this Bernie bro butt hurt again?
WereBear
@Chet Murthy: I like that.
Blue state rebellion time! Final decree!
amk
fubar at every level and every day.
Kay
@Baud:
Well, it’s partly because it’s a state plan. There’s a free rider problem with state-funded plans. Why should another state benefit from NY’s investment in their workforce? NY should get the pay-off. They made the investment.
The “free college” draw is intended to cause a whole set of positive effects for an area – it’s an elaborate theory. On a local or state level it’s intended to make one place more attractive than another– a competitive edge.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: You might like this editorial:
Alabama gets the governor its voters deserve
Hal
@amk: The man made one critical comment about BB8 and people will not get over it. Geez.
aimai
@Baud: Booman can be a real jerk. I love some of his political stuff but he is routinely horrible on any issue involving a woman, or women. And sometimes he just goes off the rails.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: That David Anderson guy (the Dick Mayhew wannabe) has more to say.
Major Major Major Major
@Aleta: I have one that turns pictures of him into kittens sometimes.
aimai
@Hal: The DNC doesn’t spend money on local races.The DCCC does–perhaps they aren’t nimble enough to realize that trump was going to blow it in 100 days or less.
Baud
@Hal: Hard to know for sure. More money from us would have led to more money pouring in on the other side.
amk
Now, putin has got buyer’s remorse. Well bud, if you ‘bought’ it …
Major Major Major Major
@Hal: @Baud: I thought we were anti giving money to the DNC because they just waste it on lobbyists, managerial liberalism, and charts.
OzarkHillbilly
@Hal: You have to ask?
Kay
@Hal:
I don’t know if they should have spent more money but IMO the focus on “money” is misguided. It isn’t the amount of money. That’s the measure in political media but it’s a dumb measure and we should get away from it. We should ask what was done to win and what else could have been done. What that costs is another question. If they had spent 2 million dollars on tv advertising that didn’t sway anyone then they didn’t help, although they spent a lot of money.
I read the candidate’s campaign spent 400k. What did he spend it on?
Baud
@Hal: Speaking of Wilmer, he’s been quiet since his Boston disaster, except for announcing this tour with Tom Perez. I wonder if Schumer or someone else talked some sense into him.
Aleta
@bjacques: I used to fly the Taiwanese China Airlines. They served the best hot tea (British style) I’ve ever had. Their food was so good. I remember comparing their tea to the US airline teabag service, and concluding that the US had foolishly sacrificed joy in travel and life. (I was a teen.) I had no idea what was coming along.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: I hate charts.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: hey, I make those for a living sometimes! Like this.
Chet Murthy
@amk: ehhh, I ain’t buyin’ it. Tex Drillerson (sic) also said “Ukraine? wut? nah ma prob, brah”. I’m still banking on Pootie-Poot getting his sanctions lifted. And that’s … what? $1.xT ? Or $2.xT. I forget.
All the rest is just kabuki. Until Dampnut starts expressly staking out a position that the sanctions are staying, I’m not convinced Pootie is gonna get buyer’s remorse.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: yeah, but your charts aren’t corporate establishment neoliberal charts.
ETA: Cool chart BTW.
germy
@Baud:
What happened in Boston? I’ve been out of the loop.
Baud
@germy: Gave a speech. It sucked.
ETA: CNN story
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/31/politics/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-boston-rally/
Chet Murthy
@germy: I believe it was:
Shorter Wilmer: “na brah, they ain’t racist, I bin thar. An they don’t hate wimmin none neither!”
Kay
@Hal:
The Bernie people are the worst to advise on this. They spent money in such conventional ways! They billed themselves as these innovative change agents with a specific “too much money in politics” then they spent a TON on consultants and tv ads. Part of the reason there’s too much money in politics is a few people are making a lot of money off it. We can do this better. We should ask what doing it better costs, not how much money they can ship in.
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: yeah, it’s rich hearing these critiques from the folks who hired Tad Devine.
@Baud: danke.
germy
@Major Major Major Major: Why is it that every time people like Tad fuck up, they get promoted? I’m sure in 2020 he’ll be involved in somebody’s campaign, quietly screwing it up behind the scenes.
Maybe that’s his real role. Fucking up campaigns.
Baud
@Kay: I think that cohort is more concerned with where the money is raised from than how the money is spent.
Aleta
@Major Major Major Major: “one that turns pictures of him into kittens” Did you make it?
eta Why sometimes and not others?
Chet Murthy
oops, sorry wrong thread
Kay
It drives me crazy because it’s turned into this measure of devotion or “commitment” and that isn’t what money is. We saw the same thing with the Wisconsin recall election. Wisconsin isn’t that big! They had PLENTY of money! They had more than enough money to contact every single Wisconsin voter personally.
Money wasn’t the missing ingredient there but it’s an easy measure and it means “love” or something in Democratic politics – it’s just the wrong way to think about it. Especially for liberals, who supposedly have a more nuanced view of value!
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I clicked on that link and on top is a CNN “News Alert”: Gov. Christie weighs in on United fiasco. I bet somebody at CNN had fun hitting “post” with that one.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Heh.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yes because my money is purer than his money.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Hey, it got him a real nice house on Block Island (median home price $1.2M) so it’s all good.
Major Major Major Major
@germy: politics seems to have some weird version of the Peter Principle on steroids.
@Aleta: it’s called Make America Kittens Again, and I didn’t. The reason it’s sometimes is because it’s hard to tell a computer how to tell what is and is not a picture of Donald Trump, at least in a computationally realistic way as a browser extension.
Marcopolo
Good morning everyone.
I seem to be the first person (non official type) to arrive at my senator’s townhall. Doors open in 40 minutes. I will go out on a limb and predict there will not be an overflow crowd chanting and hollering outside. Really thought there would be more (some??) people here already :).
Baud
@Marcopolo: You sure you got the right time/place?
Kay
@Baud:
Because it means “devotion” but that isn’t what it means! It doesn’t work like that. It’s not 2k = 100 votes. If it were it would be easy. You know what’s pretty easy? Raising money on the internet. The transfer of money into votes is the hard part. Find out what that costs and then ask if enough was spent.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
If that were true, I’d be president right now.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: close enough though.
Baud
@Kay: Too much work. Much better to operate on the principle that we can win elections with this One Neat Trick.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: True.
ETA: I guess I wasn’t hateful enough. Or too hateful, in that I hated everybody instead of select majority.
Gin & Tonic
The AP is confirming at least some of the alleged off-the-books payments from Yanukovych to Manafort actually were received by Manafort. If the AP can find that out using public records, imagine what could be found out by someone with a court order?
amk
@Kay:
I am afraid that too will run its course due to continued disappointments. It will be lot cheaper and easier if the dems did just turn up for all elections.
Aleta
Is there any kind of donation fund to pay for rides to get people to the polls in GA? Would it be legal if it was used only for some neighborhoods, where polling places are harder to get to?
Major Major Major Major
@Gin & Tonic: but Matt Taibbi told me all this Russia stuff was a media-driven distraction from the real story–the white sons of white GM pensioners having to compete with negros for pizza delivery jobs outside of Akron.
Baud
@amk: Agree. I wish we could instill a sense of civic-mindedness among Democrats when it comes to voting. It seems, ironically, that there is too much “consumerism” on our side with respect to politics.
efgoldman
@debbie:
in KANSAS, which elected Brownback twice, where the liberals are Republiklowns who tolerate public schools and think the courts should exist; by six points in a district that has gone 60+ for RWNJs for the last umpty elections; against a Democrat with no money, not helped by the state party (such as it is, and it isn’t much); against the state treasurer, who won statewide by some ridiculous margin; in a special election, which always has low turnout and usually favors Republiklowns.
Yes, it is a very big deal, and depending how GA-6 and Montana go next week. may mean a wave is coming.
Marcopolo
@Baud: yes, security is here.
Kay
@Baud:
I feel like there’s a conspiracy led by consultants and ad people to make people not look at how the money is spent. If your thing is money in politics (as you know, mine sort of is) why not look at the other end? It’s insane to only look at where it comes from or how much.
I’m not very creative- much more of a dull, (if relentless!) plodder- but liberals supposedly ARE creative! OMFG live up to your billing :)
germy
@Major Major Major Major:
Chet Murthy
@germy: @Major Major Major Major: Oh noes! Little Matty’s poor fee-fees! He needs his binkie!
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: I have yet to care about what Taibbi thinks. I’m not going to start now.
efgoldman
@Kay:
We moved from Massachusetts to Rhode Island while daughter was an undergraduate at UMass. I contacted the UMass administration, and they charged the in-state tution and fees because of reciprocity.
Major Major Major Major
@germy: I didn’t call him a sympathizer. He’s just a boring retrograde Marxist with delusions of being Hunter S. Thompson.
Marcopolo
I’ll echo Kay and some other folks re money in campaigns. Money really doesn’t seem to be the limiting factor anymore for success. Voter enthusiasm and contact is where it’s at. The important takeaway from KS is Dem voters are really motivated right now while Rep voters seem to be demoralized. If that is a national phenomenon and persists into the 2018 election it would be a huge wind at our backs to reclaim the House. I tend to agree that if the national party apparatus had thrown money and attention at KS the likely outcome would have been more energy on the other side. The good news is there are a lot of house districts that are a lot less red than the one last night–including a couple dozen where Clinton won the vote but the rep is R.
Jeffro
@Major Major Major Major: that sounds like an awfully specific “real story” … and once that story is covered I guess that’s it ?
lollipopguild
@evodevo: When I was growing up(60’s) kentucky had a program to get teachers for schools in kentucky. The state paid for your college education at a Kentucky college and you agreed to work somewhere in Kentucky as a school teacher for 7 years, It was prorated, you had to pay back a certain amount to the state if you left early. The state got teachers, many from out of state and people got a free college education. I knew a lot of teachers who did this and they all liked it.
manyakitty
@Major Major Major Major: Didn’t Devine work with Paul Manafort in Ukraine? I figured he was Putin’s mole, too.
edited for clarity
Major Major Major Major
@Jeffro: just seems like the kind of Trump voter you read a lot of profiles about.
ETA: @manyakitty: his Russian connections are overblown, in my reading he’s just a sleazeball.
Chet Murthy
@lollipopguild: 20yr ago the French Grands Ecoles (“Great Schools” — the best unis in france — ecole normal, ecole polytechnique, ponts et chaussees, mines, etc) did this. You had to work some # of years in a state job, or a job for a sttae-owned (state-related?) company. There were certain exceptions, and you could buy out your obligation if you wanted to work for a foreign company or overseas, as I remember.
In exchange, they paid you a stipend while you were in school, and the school itself was free. Of course, the entrance exams were brutal.
I’m guessing that hasn’t changed.
manyakitty
@Major Major Major Major: And here I thought I made a brilliant connection about controlling the crazy left – Devine feeding Wilmer’s ego and Stein at Putin’s table for the RT festivities and all.
rikyrah
Charles M. Blow
✔
@CharlesMBlow
So, if concentration camps were just “Holocaust centers,” I guess slave ships were just transatlantic ferries… #SpicerFacts
rikyrah
@efgoldman:
thank you for the breakdown…and ICAM
lollipopguild
@Chet Murthy: My daughter has a friend who is going to med school on the Army’s dime. Once she graduates she has to spend so many years in the Army, but gee, a free Doctors education.
rikyrah
@lollipopguild:
that’s 200k, plus getting paid…maybe shipped overseas too?
yeah…that’s a good deal.
Major Major Major Major
@manyakitty: you aren’t the only person making that connection, I just don’t think Devine was part of it, personally.
Chet Murthy
@rikyrah: @lollipopguild: Oof. uh,I guess if she were in the Navy or Air Force, I might think “good deal”, but … Army? As they say, these days, there’s no “rear area”. I’m not one to glorify our military, and I certainly think a lot of what our pols do with it is counterproductive to our national interest, but still, she’s got a good chance of being in harm’s way, eh? “Dr. Joel Fleischman” had it better.
In any case, yeah, there’s lots of examples of people getting their education up-front and paying it off on the back-end with time/service. All that said, it’s problematic, but for reasons different from Booman’s. I remember when I was in college, it was still possible for somebody to get an excellent education and go into (e.g.) labor activism. These days? Not so much. Maybe in NY that’ll change. But one of the things I -most- hate about loans, is that they force young people to think about -earning- so early, and that shapes their minds for the rest of their lives.
I really do think that that was the greatest trick RoNnIe RaYgUn pulled — starting college down the track of becoming so expensive. Bootstrapped that Great Conservative Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone.
laura
@NorthLeft12: Greedy, self-centered fucks works too.
So many white men.
rikyrah
AP: It turns out that “black ledger” found in Ukraine earmarking millions for Paul Manafort, which he has said isn’t real, is actually real. pic.twitter.com/bwRPRwAzKD
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 12, 2017
NorthLeft12
@WereBear: WOW! That was some takedown. Of the Governor, and even more so of the people that elected him and enabled him.
Funny [well, not really funny] thing is, you could take this same column, change the names and change the crimes [not all of them] and it probably applies to at least a dozen more GOP Governors [Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Indiana, Texas, etc,] and the idiot base that elects them.
rikyrah
Trump, Not Ryan, Deserves Most of the Blame
by Martin Longman April 11, 2017 1:15 PM
I think it’s fair to say that the fundamental problem the congressional Republicans had when they were in the majority during the Obama presidency is that too many of their members could not be convinced that they lacked the power to impose their will on a Democratic president. Time and again, they took decisions predicated on the fallacy that they could get Obama to back down and give them everything they wanted. Try as he might, Speaker John Boehner could not keep the government’s doors open or pay our debts on time without running to the Democrats for support. Eventually, the need to do this repeatedly cost him his job.
Speaker Paul Ryan now has a Republican president to work with, but he’s already discovered that he can no more rely on his caucus to pass legislation than Boehner could, and he can rely on Republican senators even less. The problem is roughly the same, basically a strong streak of ideological lunacy precludes the Republicans from acting with enough unity to form a de facto majority.
I have to agree with Matt Yglesias that Paul Ryan has created a shambles because his grand strategic legislative plan for this year was built on the faulty premise that he could get his caucus to move as a bloc and that he could depend on the Republican-led Senate to approve what his chamber produced. These assumptions failed their first contact with reality when his Obamacare repeal/replace bill failed to even come to a vote.
On the other hand, I think Yglesias is probably too forgiving of Donald Trump. Anyone who observed the congressional Republicans during the Obama years should have been able to anticipate that it was a bad bet to build a presidential strategy around forcing everything through Congress with nothing but Republican votes.
…………………………..
It is now assuredly too late to pivot or make corrections. Whether he continues to listen to Steve Bannon or he comes more to rely on the so-called New York Democrats in his West Wing, there is no strategy that will get him back to the place that should have served as his starting line.
In other words, Paul Ryan could never be a useful Speaker for Donald Trump. The House Republicans were never going to allow him to be a different kind of swamp-draining Republican. The Democrats, while admittedly angry and hostile from the beginning, were an essential ingredient in any success he might have hoped to have. He needed to spend most of his early energy courting them, but he hired a neo-Nazi to advise him, stole a Supreme Court seat, and tried to implement a Muslim ban and Obamacare repeal instead.
As bad as this is, hopeless really, it’s going to get worse because Trump still needs to find a way to keep the government operating and our debts paid on time. He’ll still need to go through the motions of trying to enact his legislative agenda despite there being no possible way to succeed with it.
NorthLeft12
@laura: Yeah, I like how simple and direct your wording is.
rikyrah
Poor Whites Just Realized They Need Education Equity as Much as Black Folk
But they must be able to say the word “equity” to get it.
by Andre Perry April 11, 2017 4:31 PM
Poor and working-class whites have been getting more attention than resources lately — just as black folk have for generations.
The time couldn’t be better to push an equity agenda.
“My fellow chiefs and I are making equity a priority of our work,” said South Dakota Secretary of Education Melody Schopp in her address last month to a national convening of the CCSSO. The Council of Chief State School Officers is a membership organization comprised of the top education leaders of each state.
The think tank Aspen Institute and CCSSO published “Leading for Equity: Opportunities for State Education Chiefs,” a paper that outlines 10 commitments by state education officials to improve equity. And states have the ability to act. As school superintendents implement the complex new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, they have the freedom that ESSA provides to promote equity in their state.
But not saying the word “equity” is a pretty good sign that you’re not for it. Consequently, state leaders can’t rely on U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos — who seemingly has a hard time uttering the word — to support their equity agenda.
On the same day as the CCSSO meeting, DeVos gave two speeches (one of them to CCSSO) and the word “equity” did not feature in her prepared remarks for either of them.
rikyrah
Sessions Ramps Up the Racist Rhetoric on Immigration
by Nancy LeTourneau April 12, 2017 8:24 AM
Steve Bannon might be losing some of his grip on power in the White House to Jared Kushner and “the generals,” but his white nationalist cause is gaining steam from his good buddy Attorney General Jeff Sessions. I pointed out yesterday how the AG’s plan to ramp up the war on drugs has no justification apart from a racist attempt to target people of color.
While visiting Nogales, Arizona on Tuesday, Sessions ramped up the racist rhetoric about immigrants in a speech he delivered during a tour of the Southern border.
The first thing I noticed is that for someone like Sessions, we have moved on from the disagreement over using “illegal immigrant/alien” instead of “undocumented immigrant.” He has now ramped things up by using the term “criminal aliens.” That is not simply a term reserved for the “cartels” he talked about. Sessions uses that nomenclature throughout the speech when referring to undocumented immigrants.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: so, there will be no Baud/Booman!2020 ticket, then?
rikyrah
GOP strategist: ‘The way things are headed, we would lose the House’
04/12/17 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Congressional elections are zero-sum affairs: candidates vie for a seat, the winner earns the opportunity to serve, and the loser gets nothing. To this extent, the fact that Republicans managed to hold onto Kansas’ 4th district in yesterday’s special election is precisely the outcome the GOP wanted to see.
And yet, it’s Democrats who appear to be smiling. The Kansas City Star reported overnight:
……………………….
The Republican Party had to scramble furiously, in ways no one expected, to win by about 8 percentage points. The GOP push included intervention from Donald Trump and Mike Pence, both of whom recorded robo-calls for local voters; in-person campaigning from Ted Cruz; a fundraising push from Paul Ryan; and 11th-hour investments from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Republicans prevailed, but the GOP candidate didn’t win so much as he survived. If Democrats can seriously compete in this Kansas district, they can seriously compete almost anywhere.
Elizabelle
Ran into a Southwest Airlines flight attendant who had little sympathy for Dr. Kicked off United. People not behaving very well up there. Or on the tarmac.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: May it be so.
We should let Canadians vote. Cold has not warped their brains. Smart and empathetic.
WaterGirl
@scottinnj: Oh my gosh, is that what the pepsi commercial actually was???? I kept seeing comments about the pepsi commercial but I hadn’t seen or heard what the commercial was.
My ability to discern snark from possible realities has grown quite dim since, oh, let’s say Nov 8.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Two things come to mind when I read that:
Never let perfect be the enemy of good.
If we had applied Booman’s principle for free college to health care, there would be no health care for the Rs to try to take away from everyone.
geg6
@Baud:
Late to the thread, but PA has had grant programs that work this way (become a loan if you don’t fulfill the requirements of the program, usually requiring working in particular industries in PA for a set amount of time after graduation). People love them and I have only heard of one case where there was any kind of problem. And when the student contacted the state higher ed department to explain, they worked it out to everyone’s satisfaction. It’s not a concept that isn’t proven over a long time. These special state grant programs have existed here in PA for a couple of decades.
geg6
@rikyrah:
Yes, the Feds have had numerous loan forgiveness programs that work the same way. These programs can change, depending on the career paths they want to encourage. But education and public service are big areas that loan forgiveness programs target.
manyakitty
@Major Major Major Major: Fair enough. It just seems too perfect, though.
geg6
@Kay:
That program is modeled on the Pittsburgh Promise. They are good programs, especially as incentives to stay in the city and send your kids to city schools. And for kids who don’t have that choice, incentives to go to college. The Promise only goes to Pittsburgh city school kids and they have to attend a college or university in PA.
hovercraft
@Baud:
You’re so funny Baud, that’s why we love you.
Someone talking sense into Wilmer! HA!
He probably saw the negative reaction on social media and decided to lie low for a few days. Leadership!
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s one hell of a chart, dizzying, but cool.
Mickee
All the people who appear all to eager to dismiss United’s behavior because it was against an Asian guy are gonna have some trouble with this one: http://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-united-low-priority-passenger-20170412-story.html
satby
@Baud: that’s not Booman (Martin Longerman), it was written by Alexander Holt. Booman edits WM, but no idea how much he agrees with the entire article.
hovercraft
@NorthLeft12:
Ahem, I take exception to the inclusion of New Jersey on that list. Much like my Masshole friends, we have a huge democratic majority in the legislature, and we know that even when we elect slick assholes like Twitlers errand boy, there is a backstop to prevent him or her from going too far. The big exception to this of course was the tunnel he scraped, that federal money is gone and it will take years to get that type of commitment from the Feds again. For all that we do elect republican governors, NJ is not like those other states, we are ranked second in education, and we do have a real safety net. Christie failed to turn us into North Alabama, though he did give it the all college try.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
You speak the truth.
hovercraft
@WaterGirl:
From the Vichy Times
As the author of the piece says:
without any specific knowledge about how “Jump In” came to be — I can imagine that it was born from some combination of good intentions, corporate hedging and a huge failure to grasp the limitations of advertising on the part of the people working for Pepsi’s in-house content agency. But the failings that made “Jump In” a disaster on nearly every level are hardly one-dimensional or confined to this brand or this particular campaign.
rikyrah
Trump campaign advisor investigated as possible Russian agent
04/12/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
As Donald Trump’s Russia scandal grew more serious late last year, the Republican’s team faced all kinds of questions, including whether anyone from the campaign was in communications with Russia ahead of Election Day. The answer was always the same: No.
In the face of reports that Carter Page, a Trump foreign policy adviser, may have spoken with Russian officials during the campaign, Sean Spicer told reporters during the transition period, “Carter Page is an individual whom the president-elect does not know.”
…………………….
Jeffro
@rikyrah: they’ll get Page connected to Manafort, and possibly Sessions too.
Love. It!
Ruviana
@Baud: Old dead thread but not Booman. It was a WaMo education reporter.
Jeffro
PS very excited to see how the alt-right will turn on Trump if/when Bannon is pushed out, what Bannon does (keep collecting big fat checks from the Mercers, most likely), and then what Trump does to try and keep up his racist cred. Should be some epic Tweeting going on later this week!
Iowa Old Lady
Oh, Irony, how I love you.
Big Picture Pathologist
@WereBear:
That was sweeeet.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: You will get zero sympathy from flight attendants. What they have to deal with in one hour of work would send most people on a murder rampage.
My father just retired as chief pilot from a well-known, no longer existing US airline. He has no problem with anything that happened right up until the rent-a-cop decided to start throwing punches. Drag the guy off? No problem. But do not hit him.
hovercraft
@Iowa Old Lady:
Ha! Karma, she is a bitch!!
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
Because that worked out so well for:
Jim Jones, whose police handed out free koolaide for all, DRINK IT NOW!!!!
David Koresh, whose police used gasoline in open containers for “fire protection”
The Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ, whose enforcement arm threw all the young men out of town to keep ALL the young girls for the Elders.
What Could possibly go wrong???
ETA: and I left out the people who left for the alien ship behind the comet, traveling as pure mind, having abandoned their husks here on earth, the France/Swiss based folks that worshiped different aliens, there are just so many interesting and novel sects, it’s hard to keep them all straight!
The Roman Catholics, they need their own police, we could call them the Inquistors, that worked out so well the last time!!!
I gotta stop now, you cant’ spend all day on one post!
PJ
This is my favorite response to the people tearing down the victim of United’s attack, by Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post, reminding us that Jesus got what was coming to him, too: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2017/04/12/crucified-man-had-prior-run-in-with-authorities/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.4d12f7b2a66c
john b
I’d be the slightest bit more sympathetic to the airlines, if in these situations, the passengers were allowed full refunds plus cash for their trouble as opposed to travel vouchers. United failed those passengers and they should be falling over themselves to make up for it. Instead they give them the equivalent of store credit to a store most of them probably want nothing to do with.
There’s a reason that most stores are quick to give a refund when they fuck up. It shows good will and gives some chance of that customer coming back one day.
mapaghimagsik
@OzarkHillbilly:
Great. Who is going to put Dragonfire under the High Sparrow this time?
Fester Addams
@rikyrah:
Trail of Bones cruise ships.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
Amongst our foci, one item in Alabama that’s off kilter is Religious bigotry of a curious anti-Christ kind of way, that may cause much of what else is wrong in Alabama, maybe.
Miss Bianca
@PJ: Alexandra Petri has been on fire lately, I’m going to have to make a point of checking out her stuff!
Ian
@Hal:
It’s fucking Kansas, man.
artem1s
@Hal:
A helpful response I saw to the DNC kvetching was this this thread about the realities of spreading the money across every district.
https://twitter.com/therichwilkins/status/852177955296092160
reality check. no amount of money was going to overcome that last 7 points. Anyone bitching about Perez and the DNC, yea, that idiot Bernie Bros who don’t understand that the DCCC handles house races. It’s people not understanding what each part of the party does. Also, if they so fervently believe that small donations and not taking corporate money is the ‘revolution’, why didn’t Thompson win by a landslide? Why did he need the Dems help at all? Now the DCCC has a candidate with some name recognition and Brownback vetoing ACA expansion to hang around Estes neck for the next 18 months. And they don’t have to vet the 8 other Dem candidates who were never going anywhere. Everything I am reading is that the special election was to set Thompson up for a more realistic run in 2018. Also, those volunteers and voters are still there. they can now concentrate on town halls and state and local elections. That is money well spent. Not a million in ad buys that will net almost no votes.
Mnemosyne
@amk:
You know, I actually do believe that Trump was horrified by the images from the chemical attack, like everyone was. He’s not a serial killer who enjoys watching people die, he’s just a garden-variety narcissist.
But his “solution” did jack shit to help, and probably made matters in the region worse.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
Christ, what an asshole.
Bitter Scribe
Jimmy Kimmel had a good line last night: Considering how much United’s market cap dropped, they would have been better off buying each of the four bumped passengers their own jet.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
I understand that — flight attendants are on the short end of the stick when it comes to customer service. But from everything I’ve read, Southwest’s corporate policies would not have led to this result in the first place since they allow their gate agents and flight attendants more flexibility in what they can offer passengers for giving up their seats.
The other United policy that seems to have led to this problem is that they no longer do reciprocal crew flights with other airlines, so they boxed themselves into a corner by deciding that they would always fly their own crews themselves. That’s what I’ve been reading, anyway.
Smitty
Just read in the NYT that $1350 is the max airlines can offer passengers to give up their seats due to overbooking. No one should ever settle for less!
agorabum
United’s stock is exactly where it was 5 days ago. Until there are reports of empty seats and falling profitability, it’s just a bit of noise in the signal.
Mike G
@john b:
If bumped involuntarily the airline will offer you a voucher (and obviously will not tell you otherwise) but you can insist on a check instead. If you volunteer they can offer you whatever they want.