Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

This really is a full service blog.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Republicans don’t trust women.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

The words do not have to be perfect.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Snippets

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Snippets

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Me, trying to keep up with the news cycle:


This… seems like excellent news? Per CNN:

Former Police Chief Jane Castor became the first LGBTQ person elected mayor of Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday, easily winning a runoff…

Castor won more than 70% of the vote, according to the unofficial results posted on the supervisor of elections’ website.

The Florida Democratic Party posted on Twitter: “.@JaneforTampa’s historic victory is a clear win for Tampa and cements her status as a rising star in the Democratic Party. Her big victory is just the latest sign that Tampa has become a vibrant, welcoming city where everyone has a shot to succeed — no matter who you love.”

Castor served 31 years at the Tampa Police Department, first as a beat cop and then six years as police chief, according to her campaign website.

The former police chief was backed by the Human Rights Campaign and the Equality Florida Action PAC…

Meanwhile:

Reader Interactions

192Comments

  6. 6.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: I was going to drive into the ATL to finalize my retirement when I found out the fucking cheeto was going to be there. NO way I tackle that traffic.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: What? And pass up the chance to stand on the side of the road and give him the finger when they drive by at 80 mph?

    I would pass on it too.

  13. 13.

    Immanentize

    Happy Wednesday, All.
    It is my last class day of the semester! But finals are next week. As my friend in Texas used to say:
    “We teach because we love it; they pay us to grade.”

  16. 16.

    Immanentize

    @satby:
    I love catching opening acts like that.
    Jefferson Airplane or Starship? Weren’t they already space-bound by then?

  19. 19.

    Gin & Tonic

    Up early, before the grandkids, who are visiting while my daughter and husband finalize their move (closing is on Friday.) Since my wife is not due home until after bedtime tonight, it will be a long day. But long in a good way, I hope.

  21. 21.

    satby

    @Immanentize: could have been Starship by then, yeah. It was a weird pairing of acts for sure, and we were pretty stoned. Auditorium Theater in Chicago, great place for concerts!

  22. 22.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize: Tufts still has a week of classes, I think. But my son is due to hand in his thesis tomorrow. That’s been a real weight on his shoulders the last month or so, getting it just right.

  24. 24.

    satby

    @Immanentize: me too! I missed doing anything the really nice days because I had some bug or something. So today much catching up to do. My very last tree was delivered yesterday, a Saturn peach! It’s already 4-5 feet high.

  27. 27.

    Immanentize

    @Gin & Tonic:
    It will be an amazing weight off his shoulders when he hands it in!
    Congratulations to all.

    And enjoy the grandkids today. Sleep well tonight.

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: The wierdest pairing of acts I ever caught was Doc Watson and Doctor John at a small theater in Washington MO. 2 great musicians playing such disparate styles of music, but when they finally got on stage together? Pure magic.

  30. 30.

    eclare

    Hey all, I have a shameless but non-monetary plug. A good friend of mine just started a Youtube channel with Sentimental Analysis about tweets. He plans to update with further evidence and other conditions as warranted. Anyway, give a look, he is on our side.

    To all, after yesterday, with SCOTUS, let us kick some to the side. I have no use.

    Is Trump Winning on Twitter?

  36. 36.

    Patricia Kayden

    I’d vote for a goat against Trump as well. I assume awful candidates like Gabbard will drop out before the debates. We have some great candidates, any of whom will be better than the Bigot.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    Twitter has suspended over 5,000 accounts tied to a network amplifying a message denouncing the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as a “RussiaGate hoax.” According to a researcher, the accounts—most of which had only posted three or four times in the past—were connected to other accounts previously used to post pro-Saudi messages.

  52. 52.

    Baud

    Iowa’s longest-serving Republican legislator, state Rep. Andy McKean, ditched the GOP on Tuesday as he offered a searing renunciation of President Trump, saying he could no longer support Trump as the party’s standard-bearer due to his “unacceptable behavior” and “reckless spending.”

    McKean revealed he would join the Democratic Party, a decision he described as a “very difficult” after spending nearly a half-century as a registered Republican and 26 years in the Legislature. But ultimately, he said, “I feel as a Republican that I need to be able to support the standard bearer of our party.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/24/if-this-is-new-normal-i-want-no-part-it-citing-trump-iowas-longest-serving-republican-leaves-party/

  71. 71.

    randy khan

    I had not previously considered the goat as a potential nominee, but if it’s the goat in the end, I’m all in.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I always felt that one of the underappreciated reasons the right hates Bill Clinton so much is that it was during his term that cities really saw a resurgence after decades of decay.

  73. 73.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    This is interesting. And encouraging.

    Demographics that saw huge shifts away from GOP and toward Dems:•Young voters were D+11 in 2014 went D+35 in 2018—Dems won this vote by over 2:1 ratio•Women went from D+4 in 2014 to D+19 in 2018•Senior citizens shifted from R+16 in 2014 to R+2 in 2018 https://t.co/YjLny0af9f— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) April 23, 2019

  76. 76.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    One of the great successes of the Affordable Care Act has been the expansion of Medicaid. In large part due to this expansion, the number of individuals in the United States with health care coverage has increased by about 25 to 30 million since 2011; following midterm elections, it is likely that additional Medicaid expansion will occur.1

    Medicaid expansion alone cut the number of uninsured by half.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @satby:

    I find it interesting that Sanders and AOC are on opposite sides of the impeachment question. If she endorses, I assume it will be either Sanders or Warren, so I hope for her sake and ours, she chooses Warren (who obviously supports impeachment).

  78. 78.

    Chyron HR

    @Baud:

    I’m sure all the people who were demanding that we vow to support Bernie last week will now pledge fealty to Biden, right?

  79. 79.

    Baud

    @Chyron HR:

    I missed that. Who was demanding support for Bernie last week (except for the people who constantly demand that every week)?

  80. 80.

    raven

    @James E Powell:

    The bar was in a turmoil
    The fight had begun
    O’Reilly was the prince of good cheer
    And just to be kind some drunk came
    down
    And laid his hands on Reilly’s new
    beer
    You’ve stolen my beer, and that ain’t
    right
    You gettin’ yourself in a fight
    Whoever you are, you pushed me too
    far
    Now I’m gonna smash your face

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Those people aren’t ‘real’ Americans, pulling themselves up by their own pig feces encrusted boot laces.

  82. 82.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @JPL: Sternly worded letters. And then even more sternly worded letters.

    I gather it’s contempt of Congress charges, which are criminal charges, and then a court battle. Nancy and our Congressional committee chairs are crossing all the t’s and dotting the i’s. The same legal jeopardy that got those people scared enough to come in and face Mueller is going to bring a bunch of them in front of Congress. They know better than anyone that the Cheeto won’t stand behind them.

    I know it seems like forever, but our Congress has only been in session 3 months. We’ve just gotten used to a Republican do-nothing pace in Congress. And our folks can walk and chew gum at the same time.

  83. 83.

    Chyron HR

    @Baud:

    Mainly a flood of “You have to support our inevitable nominee, neoliberal scum!” memes on Twitter when Bernie was ahead in the polls.

  85. 85.

    satby

    @Baud: she’s smart enough to realize that Bernie is all hat, no cattle by now. Especially since she’s working with the real Democratic women that got elected without Wilmer’s endorsement last year. Bernie’s only attractive to people who don’t understand politics, or to people who do and use him as a disruption.

  86. 86.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Senior citizens shifted from R+16 in 2014 to R+2 in 2018

    Whoa. That’s the Fox News cult demographic. The remaining Republican base may be the unmedicated mentally ill.

    I’m not joking.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @Chyron HR:

    Gotcha. Technically not wrong. If Bernie convinces Dem voters to select him as our nominee, I’ll be deeply disappointed, but I’ll respect the decision far more than his people did.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I don’t understand why Medicare For All-type people don’t say this: “we already have public health insurance for everyone over 65, lower income children and lower income adults, so this is just an expansion of what is already working well”. It’s a huge group who already have it! I would just add a Medicare or Medicaid buy-in option and see how many takers you had.

  91. 91.

    Chris

    @rikyrah:

    Yeah, the Medicaid expansion is pretty much THE reason I moved right back from Florida to Maryland after finishing grad school. I had no job, I had no source of income, and I had a mild but real medical condition and knew that you never know when a worse one will come along. I needed Medicaid, period.

    You can’t appreciate just how much more awesome life is in solid blue states than in red or even purple ones until you’ve had occasion to observe the safety nets from up close. It really is like moving from a third world country to a Western one.

  92. 92.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Those programs aren’t completely free to the consumer. They don’t want to hold those programs up as a model. The only reason they started labeling their plan Medicare is because it polls well.

  93. 93.

    tobie

    @rikyrah: I link to Beto’s 10-point immigration plan from Feb 2019 again only because it bothers me to see a false meme generated. Castro is not the first candidate to present an immigration plan, nor is his the most detailed. This is not to say that I’m not delighted that he’s making immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. He is, as is Beto, who links civil rights and immigration rights in just about every speech. From the 10-point plan:

    8. Make Latin America and specifically Central America a top foreign policy priority — stop relegating it to second-tier status — invest the time, talent and resources to assist in the development of the domestic institutions that will allow these countries to thrive and offer their citizens protection and economic opportunity. It is the only long-term solution to the number of asylum seekers and refugees coming to this country.
    9. End the global war on drugs. An imprisonment- and interdiction-first approach has not worked, has accelerated the erosion of civil society in much of Latin America and has militarized a public health issue to the detriment of all concerned.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    Warren knows this because she is a bankruptcy expert, but she doesn’t have to “forgive” student loans. She could just make them dischargeable in bankruptcy. We already have a really high quality specialized “debt court” to sort it out. That puts student debtors on the same playing field as all other debtors, instead of in a separate, unfair, “unforgiven for life for the mistake you made at 20” category. It would solve all kinds of problems and it’s fair to all the other debtors who have to discharge unsecured debt in bankruptcy. They should never have guaranteed the debt! Undo that.

    I’m going to write to her and tell her this :)

  97. 97.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    That’s probably better policy, but it wouldn’t be as popular because a lot of people still view bankruptcy as a moral failing.

  98. 98.

    Chris

    @Kay:

    I agree that this is possible too, but I vastly prefer straight up forgiveness. The plain fact is, this is debt that should never have been needed in the first place. Making it dischargeable in bankruptcy is the bare minimum that should come out of this kind of reform. You shouldn’t have to go bankrupt to get this weight off your back, or at least greatly eased, either.

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Oh, well than, I suppose they are in favor of no longer allowing corporations to hide behind this particular form of moral failure?

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    Very happy about Jane Castro’s huge win over the Trump supporting billionaire!

    @Chyron HR: If the nominee is Biden, of course we should support him. Duh.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Bankruptcy courts are great. They work really well. It’s this unsung jewel in the federal court system in my opinion. Send it to the experts! Take it away from the US Department of Education. They do a horrible job.

    DeVos has discharged about 330 public service loans out of 54,000 applicants. She sucks at her job.

  105. 105.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I hear you. I don’t think it’s logical, but I do think even people who are not necessarily in the right wing camp have this attitude about personal bankruptcy as unsavory.

  106. 106.

    tobie

    As we saw in 2016 there’s a weird feedback loop that occurs between social media and print news, so marginal stories — but her emails — become the rage and ultimately determine how a candidate is perceived. How many times did you have to hear someone say that there’s something that just doesn’t smell right about HRC? So, yeah, I’m a bit sensitive to memes that are getting cemented in the press. My top three candidates are still Beto, Klobuchar, and Booker because of their broad understanding of issues and basic decency with a nod toward Inslee because he’s right to focus on climate change and has been incredibly successful as a governor. Washington State now has a public option. That’s a BFD.

  107. 107.

    germy

    This part of the article confused me:

    Milch first noticed trouble was amiss five years ago. Family and friends began to notice his “imperfect recall and tardy recall and short temper”. A brain scan last year confirmed that Milch has Alzheimer’s disease.

    I didn’t know a brain scan could reveal Alzheimer’s.

  109. 109.

    Betty Cracker

    @Chris:

    The plain fact is, this is debt that should never have been needed in the first place.

    Agreed. And it’s not like we had a debate about it as a society and consciously decided to make non-rich people assume crushing debt to get a college education — federal and state programs that made college affordable were nibbled away over the years to line the pockets of crooks and plutocrats. A straight-up reversal of that travesty is my preference too.

  110. 110.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: We’re both over 60 as well, but most of the people we know our age are either Quakers or Quaker-adjacent. The people who get arrested on protests at the age of 80. So I don’t think we or they are susceptible.

    But stories of people’s formerly-liberal parents become Fox-ified by long-term exposure are scary. There has been some unfortunate first-hand experience in our family with destructive religious cults. When I lost family members and friends to what I thought was an obviously ridiculous message, I wondered for years what made them vulnerable. Fear seems to be a big part of it, and it seems to actually be effective at shutting down the critical thinking skills with a lot of otherwise-intelligent people.

    There’s an awakening process that has to happen internally and it happens at different times with different people. The admission that “I have given years of my life to a cult” and “these people are crooks, aren’t they”. If that’s happening with the Fox News demo, that can only be good for our country.

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    She sucks at her job.

    I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of just what her “job” is, Kay. ;-)

  114. 114.

    Amir Khalid

    @rikyrah:
    Daou’s betting his pile on Wilmer. I think it’s as simple as that. His argument is that Wilmer talks lefty and is popular, which I find unconvincing. The nice things he says about Wilmer’s policy positions, such as those are, could as easily be said about Warren’s or Harris’. He doesn’t address Wilmer’s most serious flaws: the not-really-a-Democrat thing, the age thing, not-a-details-person thing, the lack of executive and political skills thing.

  115. 115.

    tobie

    @Kay: Years ago there was a Frontline episode about student debt and one point that the show made clear was that you can declare bankruptcy and have all your debts cancelled with one exception: student loans. That obligation stays with you no matter what and the damage to your credit rating if you default or are delayed in payments also stays with you. Who cooked up these rules?

  116. 116.

    khead

    “I would vote for a goat if it would get rid of the President. With enthusiasm.”

    I thought Mickey Kaus was dead.

  118. 118.

    danielx

    Yet another entry under the heading of You Can’t Make This Shit Up:

    Setting the scene – RV in a Walmart parking lot with people selling Trump stuff. If you look closely at the banner beside the RV door, it reads ꟼRUMP – with the first ꟼ backwards, as in Cyrillic! Possibly the worst (or best) self-own I have ever seen in my life.

    Would not have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.

    Dey cant spel good……

  119. 119.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: As far as I know, of and by itself it can’t.

    ETA the last I have read is that it is still a mostly behavioral diagnosis, but my reading on it has slacked since my father died.

  120. 120.

    JPL

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: You are describing a friend’s parents who are in their eighties. They were liberals who spent time in India studying. They were the original hippies and now love trump and what he is doing to our nation. Watching Fox News is a sickness.

  121. 121.

    Amir Khalid

    @Kay:
    How is student debt forgiveness supposed to operate, exactly? As I understand it, only a creditor can forgive a debt, and the US Government is only one among many sources of student financing in America.

  122. 122.

    Gin & Tonic

    @danielx: That’s just a collapsing banner. A “backwards” version of a Latin capital P is not a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet.

  124. 124.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    DeVos has discharged about 330 public service loans out of 54,000 applicants. She sucks at her job.

    THIS should be criminal.
    CRIMINAL!!!

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Donald Trump WON’T be allowed to stay at Buckingham Palace during UK state visitNo room at the Palace for American president Trump – even though Barack Obama stayed in Belgian Suite https://t.co/PGF5aAnOp7— Karol (@karolcummins) April 24, 2019

    I knew Betty Windsor didn’t want that piece of garbage and his wife in HER house…LOL

  129. 129.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Baud: That’s an interesting poll. Uncle Joe has 63% approval, while in the same poll, Dump is at 44%.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @tobie:

    Who cooked up these rules?

    The private loans were dischargable prior to Joe Biden voting for Bush’s bankruptcy bill. They were dishargeable unsecured debt so lenders did real analysis of whether it was likely people could repay them, so issued fewer. Then they idiotically guaranteed the loans by making them non-dischargeble and they ballooned. Like they would.

    The public loans were never dischargeable because the federal government is the lender. The federal government would take the hit if they were made dischargable, (but also if they are “forgiven”) and IMO the public would accept bankruptcy easier, because then we’re just putting student loan debtors on the same level as all other debtors. It’s fair. Right now it’s unfair because you can run up a 20,000 credit card bill and discharge it, but you can’t with a student loan. You’re actually BETTER OFF paying for college with a credit card- if you can hold off the lender long enough to graduate, or calculate what 18 to 24% interest is for minimum payments over 48 months, etc :)

    Bankruptcy has a built-in analysis of the debtor’s assets, so it would exclude wealthier people discharging student loans. It’s a good system and it’s already in place. They just need to remove the barrier and the court and the debtor will take it from there

    The federal government knows people can’t pay this amount of debt. They spend tens or hundreds of millions collecting it. Just call it “uncollectable” clean it up and ship it all over to an expert court and take the hit now and start over. And stop guaranteeing bad loans. Do a real analysis. Only lend the amount they can reasonably pay.

  132. 132.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: For me, the most interesting takeaway from that poll is that 40% support not-Bernie and not-Joe candidates, and an additional 21% say they don’t know. That tells me this race is wide open.

  133. 133.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    In today’s Reuters’ poll, among Democrats only, Biden leads 30% to Wilmer’s 15%

    I mention that because a number of important states have closed primaries.

  134. 134.

    JPL

    Trump is going to the Supreme Court if the dems try to impeach him. Trump hasn’t read the Constitution, has he.

  135. 135.

    gvg

    @Amir Khalid: No, most student loan debt is borrowed from the Government. Stafford loans are from banks but guaranteed by the government and follow Federal rules. Direct loans are from the government itself. Schools choose which program they use, but the rules are essentially the same.
    If the school is really expensive, the student may also take out private loans. Those vary in terms, but credit ratings of the student borrower come into it, interest is higher…and they can be discharged in bankruptcy. Generally you should stay far away from them.

  136. 136.

    Immanentize

    @JPL:
    In one sense he would be going to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice is the judge at an impeachment hearing.

  137. 137.

    rikyrah

    I’m going to ask this…
    Were all the other candidates asked about sex workers?
    When did sex workers become a Presidential issue?
    And, if nobody else was asked this bullshyt question, why the Black woman was asked this garbage ???

    Preston Mitchum (@PrestonMitchum) Tweeted:
    Not a single thing was answered about how she will protect sex workers. And one thing is for sure, the ONLY thing that will protect sex workers’ health and rights is a FULL decriminalization approach. The irony of also vouching for SESTA/FOSTA and saying you have experience. https://t.co/kjS9ZOT7on https://twitter.com/PrestonMitchum/status/1121026521530028034?s=17

  138. 138.

    Kraux Pas

    @Betty Cracker:

    For me, the most interesting takeaway from that poll is that 40% support not-Bernie and not-Joe candidates, and an additional 21% say they don’t know. That tells me this race is wide open.

    As long as the remaining voters consolidate behind one person. Otherwise, we’re down to B&B as the only viable options after a few contests. God help us.

  139. 139.

    gvg

    @Kay: This will not work. Students, before they graduate, have little ability to repay, thus they don’t have normal credit. this is the reason Federal loans had to be invented in the first place. Until the degree is actually earned, they might not finish, and thus it is risky to lend, which means the interest rate has to be higher and the loans limited.
    No credit card for a non really rich parent kid can cover college costs. Federal loans are the only ones that really matter. Private loans exist as an add on and are very limited.
    Bankruptcy is a terrible solution. It shouldn’t come to that, that is telling all those students you want to punish them, that is what they will hear in your suggestion. Forgiveness of the debt is the first step. Then we need to go back to increased school funding, increased non loan aid and higher taxes paid to the schools for lower tuition charges.
    People don’t want to declare bankruptcy.

  140. 140.

    tobie

    @Kay: Thanks for this explanation of how public loans work. It was very clear.

    I still like the idea of debt-free college, which would mean that your student loans would be canceled at a target age–say 25 or 30–so you don’t go into adult life saddled with debt. What makes it attractive is that those who can afford college would likely pay all tuition costs upfront, so that they wouldn’t have to carry debt throughout their twenties; those who need loans would have the security of knowing that payments would stop as they settle into their working life.

  147. 147.

    Chyron HR

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Who the hell does the Queen of England think she is? Tea at some Tinpot castle of hers, what kind of invitation is that? Your Favorite President deserves Buckingham Palace! SAD! #MAGA

  149. 149.

    Kay

    @gvg:

    Oh, I’m a Warren supporter. The student debt plan put me over the top. I’m all for it. I just think you will run into problems with people who have to discharge unsecured debt in bankruptcy, because they will think it is unfair that student loan debtors don’t have to.

    I just think they could be more creative with these things and use existing tools and processes. They should have used more bankruptcy in the financial crash. Give back the house, discharge the difference between value and loan, and send the over-valued house back to the banks that caused the problem. Make them deal with it in a real way. Saddle them with tons of over-valued real estate. Make them pay for their recklessness. As it was, only the debtors paid.

  152. 152.

    Kay

    @tobie:

    I like debt free college too. Back in the day people thought it was crazy to extend free public education to grade 12, and we managed that. You have to evolve. Do you want a more educated middle? Then you have to pay for it, just like we had to pay to have many more high school graduates when that became a requirement for getting a job.

    We’re supposed to be progressing, not holding. First it was everyone needs to 6th grade, then 12th, and now it should be 14. High school plus 2 (training or college) as a minimum. It’s completely reasonable and consistent with history. Public education expands.

  153. 153.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Immanentize: Bit of Ricehistory for your son. In 57 1st girl’s college ever opened. The college–Jones–was completely across the campus from the 4 boy’s colleges–Rice, Hanson, Baker and ?

    When we beat A&M, knocking it off 1st place nationally, the students chained all street entrances to the campus and forced a 1 day suspension of classes.
    I remember a dazed grad student sitting in the corner of the student union–at that time before one was built the union was in the basement of the library–muttering to himself over and over ‘I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it!’

    The school had supposedly never before been closed like that!

  154. 154.

    Spanky

    @JPL:

    Trump hasn’t read the Constitution, has he.

    The Constitution doesn’t mean shit in the Trump dictatorship.

    (He’s already there, trying to get the rest of the country pacified.)

  155. 155.

    tobie

    @gvg: The biggest factor driving up college costs at public and private institutions is the loss of state and federal funds. That loss has been passed on to students in the form of higher tuition. Even in a state like California, which has generally been good about funding higher education, the percentage of the state budget devoted to the public university system has dropped substantially as the cost of keeping the schools open with proper equipment, real and digital libraries, lab facilities, health and counseling services, has risen exponentially.

  156. 156.

    The Moar You Know

    Former Vice President Joe Biden leads all other candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and draws his strongest levels of support from minorities and older adults, according to a Reuters/Ipsos public poll released on Wednesday.

    @Baud: Hope this answers your question of yesterday as to “why” I’m supporting the guy. We need not 50% + 1, we need enough of a margin to beat the inevitable fuckery. Of which there will be plenty.

  157. 157.

    Kay

    @gvg:

    It doesn’t matter because it’s not going to happen, but I disagree that they would see it as “punishing”. The student loan debtors who are in real trouble feel hopeless, and they’re right- it is hopeless. They would grab bankruptcy as a lifeline in a minute and be hugely grateful. They’re not deadbeats. There’s a lot shame attached to debt. Most people feel they’re supposed to pay it. This gives them a dignified escape hatch and puts them on the same level as everyone else with too much debt and no way to pay it. Warren knows all this. She wrote a book! It enrages me that they trapped them like this. They need to fix it, and fast. Millions of people would immediately benefit and the smug “I PAID my loans” assholes could maintain their moral superiority.

  158. 158.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I had to laugh at this bit of market analysis:

    Moreover, central banks, particularly the Fed, have become super-dovish again, and this appears to have reversed the tightening of financial conditions that produced the risk-off in late 2018. And on the political front, the chances of impeachment proceedings in the US have fallen sharply with the release of the Mueller report, which clears Donald Trump of criminal conspiracy charges (though it is not dispositive on the question of obstruction of justice). Now that the Russia investigation is over, Trump may avoid issuing destabilising statements (or tweets) that could rattle the stock market, given that it is a key benchmark by which he judges his own success.

    Finally, in a positive feedback loop, stronger markets boost economic growth, which in turn can lead to even higher market values.

    Sorry Nouriel, I’m pretty sure the coming constitutional crisis will have a negative effect on the market. And for the record, a PHD in Economics does not make you an expert on politics.

  159. 159.

    Amir Khalid

    @JPL:
    Why would Ttump read the Constitution? He is President! The most bigliest and powerfullest ever! He is more importanter than any piece of paper!!1!

  160. 160.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @The Moar You Know:

    We need not 50% + 1, we need enough of a margin to beat the inevitable fuckery.

    I’m not sure any of our candidates have the coattails to insure that. That could change should any of them catch fire as Obama did in ’08, but I honestly don’t think Joe has it in him.

  162. 162.

    Kay

    @tobie:

    say 25 or 30

    I think you have to be careful with this because “college” so easily becomes a class issue. It needs to be bigger than “graduate high school, go off to college” because that’s a higher class group. A lot of the people we see with student debt used it to RETRAIN. They were told they needed to retrain so they did that- they went nights and weekends- and now they aren’t making enough to pay for the training. That’s why I like a purely debt/asset analysis. It doesn’t get into “well, why did you go, didn’t you KNOW LPN’s only make 17 an hour?” all that shaming and shit. Just numbers.

  165. 165.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Warren knows all this. She wrote a book! It enrages me that they trapped them like this. They need to fix it, and fast. Millions of people would immediately benefit and the smug “I PAID my loans” assholes could maintain their moral superiority.

    Which is why I hope that she nails Biden to the wall about this issue.

  166. 166.

    tobie

    @Kay: What you say is true. Not everyone goes to college straight from high school and using a target age for debt forgiveness is not fair. Out of curiosity, I looked up HRC’s college proposal from 2016. It was and still is really good.

  167. 167.

    scuffletuffle

    @Betty Cracker: We should also remember that most of these polls are conducted by phone to landlines. Many people, including myself, no longer have landlines and are therefore not being polled.

  168. 168.

    Immanentize

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    muttering to himself over and over ‘I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it!’

    Are you sure he wasn’t referring to the fact that the Owls beat the Aggies?

  174. 174.

    rikyrah

    Right-wing border militias are the shock troops of Donald Trump’s authoritarian movement. Racism, nativism, violence and lawlessness. Like Trump, right-wing militias are a poison to inject in a democracy. My new .@Salon https://t.co/vSXEWm5UxX

    — chauncey devega (@chaunceydevega) April 24, 2019

  175. 175.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @satby: + raven + all the others who saw odd pairings: Jason Isbell said last year on twittter something to the effect that sharing a bill with Alabama and opening for the National the same week proves nobody knows what the hell kind of music you play. The second show I’d love to have seen. Like Doc Watson and Dr. John.

  179. 179.

    Miss Bianca

    Speaking of snippets…Watson just went in for the Big Snip, this morning. He is sacked out on one of his beds, recovering. 1/2 hour surgery, no cone of shame needed, all stitches internal. I really like this vet – she is the only one doing the low cost spay/neuter program in our Valley. To my shame, I didn’t go with her originally because she had one of those Xtian fish on her sign outside. More fool me – she’s a one-woman clinic and now she’s so busy she is not taking new clients. So I only saw her for Watson’s operation and Roxy’s vaccinations, because she also does the low-cost vax clinics.

    ETA: She’s also the one who called my vet when Luna’s body was dumped on her doorstep. She told me how sorry she was about Luna when I took Roxy in, and I, of course, lost it. I had been meaning to ask her if she could tell from the body what had been her cause of death, but damn…I still can’t even talk about that.

  180. 180.

    Shana

    @Raven: I once saw a double bill of The Young Fresh Fellows and The Soft Boys. Great show but I especially loved that it was the Fellows and the Boys.

  182. 182.

    J R in WV

    I graduated from High School in 1968, and got my BS CS degree in 1984. Fortunately, thanks to the GI Bill and my hard working wife, I had no student debt when I graduated.

    Wife had some small loan from a local bank when she graduated in ’71, which she worked hard to pay off soonest, while “we” were still in the Navy.

  183. 183.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Shana: that’s awesome! Never saw the Boys (but have seen Robyn), but the Fellows put on a hell of a live show.

  184. 184.

    J R in WV

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    @Amir Khalid: I don’t answer numbers I do not recognize.

    I do. I love the Asian computer talkers who want to help me find that virus that’s been calling Microsoft from my LInux computer. The longer I can keep them on the line, the less money they can steal from less educated folks.

    I once got “elevated” to his supervisor, who also fell for my patter for a little while, and then cursed me out in HIndi or something like that. Retirement gives you opportunities you never had before al that time opened up for you!

    Plus ability to tell R push polls exactly what you think of them!

  185. 185.

    LivinginExile

    @Amir Khalid: As I understand it the rules are a little different if polling cell phones. If polling cell phone numbers the calls have to be in person, versus automated calls. For that reason most polling is still on land lines. I googled that question last week and I think that is accurate.

  186. 186.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy: Oh, MAN…Alzheimer’s. What a fate for that brilliant mind. Glad he’s going to keep writing, tho’. Long may he thrive, even with that diagnosis.

    So, so looking forward to the “Deadwood” movie, you can’t know!!

  190. 190.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:
    Why a lot of the people don’t say it is that Medicare isn’t very good insurance as it was at one time. Granted it’s better than nothing by a long way but it still has been taken to less than what it should be.

  191. 191.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:
    Also because bankruptcy costs money, money that a lot of people declaring don’t have. DT and corps doing a bankruptcy to get themselves out of a position they should most likely never have been in, in the first place.

  192. 192.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    18 years ago when dad died you couldn’t. Today the scanners are better and the docs have a better understanding of the what to look for. If they had behavioral issues along with the scan it could be confirming.

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