The #Banksy exhibit in Cambridge, MA is absolutely terrific. Plus, mood… pic.twitter.com/7z5LTiHTzU
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) April 10, 2022
Not my jam, especially at $35 a pop, but here’s the website.
Speaking of big money…
I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again — a single-issue “I’m worried about the president’s children doing shady business deals” voter should pick Joe & Hunter Biden every time.
On this topic there is simply no competition. https://t.co/ul2Gf4oUK1
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 10, 2022
Amazing how Kushner’s friendship with the murderous leader of a foreign country paid off to the tune of $2b when he wanted to fund a new venture even though “due diligence on the fledgling firm’s operations..found them “unsatisfactory in all aspects” https://t.co/bolWngp72L
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) April 10, 2022
You'd think Khashoggi should at least get a plaque on the wall at Jared's new fund since he probably did more to secure this $2B investment than anyone.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 10, 2022
*It also speaks to Trump’s strategy of Vanky & Jared testifying to Jan 6th cmte as that fund will be a major asset for Trump’s liquidity if it hits the fan for Trump Org. It’s their new Deutsche Bank and no way is Donald not getting a piece of that action.
— NoelCaslerComedy (@caslernoel) April 11, 2022
LOL they're so corrupt they violated the Saudis' baseline standards of business ethics https://t.co/zcoZaZb0b2 pic.twitter.com/nOCCj5DXpd
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) April 10, 2022
Same with you, Richard. Don't be all high and mighty just because 43 wasn't occupying staffers' time by fomenting a violent insurrection. https://t.co/Rz9ASwb1mc
— George Conway???? (@gtconway3d) April 10, 2022
Kushner got $2 billion from Saudi Adabia
His security clearance app was rejected TWICE bc of suspected foreign influence
Trump overrode the career officials & gave him access to top secret info
Now our state secrets are being sold to our foreign enemies by our domestic enemies
— Lindy Li (@lindyli) April 11, 2022
Trump once called for Russia to illegally release Hillary’s emails. I call for America to legally release Kushner’s WhatsApp texts, Ivanka’s emails, Donald’s tax returns, his unsecure phone calls, the translator’s notes from Helsinki, and the fully unredacted Mueller report.
— Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker) April 8, 2022
Baud
Excellent material for page A35 of the New York Times.
Quantumman
IOKIYAAR.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
BTF
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
I don’t understand the slang you younguns use these days. BTF?
Anyway
@Baud:
Heh. steeling myself for for a barrage of Hunter stories to make up for a genuine Jared blockbuster
2 BILLION. Jeebus
Scamp Dog
@Baud: I think it’s “below the fold,” the bottom half of the page.
Phylllis
@Baud: Below the fold.
Raoul Paste
@Baud: I’m guessing “below the fold”
Baud
I too have never gotten into Banksy.
Baud
@Scamp Dog:
@Phylllis:
@Raoul Paste:
Ah, thanks.
Raven
@Baud: It’s on page 1 of the website.
Anyway
Evil KSA being evil. Not only are they evil in their countries but they promote nepotism and ratfucking in countries with “rule-of-law”.
Rusty
Jared getting to skim from 2 billion dollars. There is absolutely no justice in this world.
Baud
@Raven:
Isn’t every article on page 1 of the website?
germy
lowtechcyclist
Amazingly enough, according to the link, the FTFNYT front-paged it:
ETA: I gather from SiubhanDuinne and Scamp Dog that it appeared below the fold, so still rather less significant to them than Hillary Clinton’s emails.
ETA2: One big reason to build the infrastructure to support electric vehicles is to make the Saudis (and the Iranians, and the Qataris, and the Emirates, etc. ETA3: oh yeah, and the Russians!) much less important in world affairs.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Well good for them.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m reading CC Edge’s BLOOD TERMINAL, which folks probably saw in the most recent Authors in Our Midst post. It’s absorbing historical fiction with porters from the Pullman cars as central characters. I’m enjoying it.
JAFD
For those interested in food and/or history, I recommend
https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2022/04/04/book-review-a-square-meal-part-i-foods-of-the-20s-and-30s/
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Below the foldWhat everybody else said.
Bex
Jared only got 2 billion from a 620 billion fund? C’mon man, seriously?
Ken
Careful, if it gets too close the crossword puzzle people may stumble across it.
NotMax
Hear tell this venture has its own in-house department of headhunters.
//
Betty Cracker
Speaking of Saudi Arabia, didn’t they basically brush off the Biden admin’s pleas to increase production in response to the Ukraine invasion oil shock? I mean, what’s the use of propping up that pack of psychopathic parasites if they won’t come through for you during an oil crisis?
Baud
For anyone who actually read the story, what is the actual venture that the Saudis are investing in?
Ken
@Baud: It’s capitalism. Don’t question it or it doesn’t work.
OzarkHillbilly
@Anyway: I only got one thing to say about Hunter Biden: $250 million? Piker.
Jeffery
The need for the exhibitor to say the art is worth $35 million means they don’t get Banksy either.
NotMax
@Baud
“Just one word: Plastics.”
(not meant to be a true statement)
//
Baud
@Ken:
That’s the same thing I say when I use the work printer for personal stuff.
Ohio Mom
I’m charmed by Banksy. I’m sure he/she enjoys the idea that wealthy people unironcally collect his/her work and then jump at the opportunity to show off their purchases in an exhibit that limits viewers to those who have $35 of disposable, not to be missed, funds.
Especially considering Banksy’s subject master and the fact that his/her best work is site-specific, temporary and free to see for all passerbys. He/she is using those collectors and has to be laughing all the way to the proverbial bank.
There are certainly art masterpieces in this world but most of the contemporary art market is plain old money laundering. As demonstrated here.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Reference? Google turned up nothing.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: His new private equity firm, Affinity Partners. (as per Tom Scocca)
lowtechcyclist
That’s what I always think of when I see a photo of Jared or Ivanka.
Baud
@Ohio Mom:
I knew those WaterGirl fund raisers were a scam.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ok, thanks. So it’s an investment in the firm as opposed to any particular business venture.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: That’s the number being bandied about on the internet as the Ukraine payout to him. I have no idea where they pulled the number from but suspect it came from somebody’s nether region. Not meant to be taken serious.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thanks.
Kev In France
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m reading it, too. It’s a fascinating story with great character development. Highly recommended.
BTW, Dorothy, now that I’ve caught you from my crazy time zone, I’ve really enjoyed your Wind Reader and Wysman. Great fun and wonderful world-building.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
As am I. It’s really well done.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kev In France: Thanks, Kev.
We’re heading to your time zone on Friday and expect to be in it until May 7. So I may see you in one of the overnight threads I never get to.
Rahul
You are raising funds to help Ukraine, this is a very good idea and you are doing a great job.
Soprano2
@Baud: Sounds like some kind of hedge or investment fund. From the Yahoo article I Googled:
This really does look like a payoff to Kushner to me. There’s hardly any money in Kushner’s new fund except that from Saudi. I’m sure the press is still more worried about the bogus Hunter Biden laptop, though.
NotMax
Music suitable to 4/11?
;)
Ohio Mom
@JAFD: That was fabulous! Lots of (sorry) food for thought.
Kay
The income based student loan forgiveness programs are broken:
So sounds good- works sort of like a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Except it doesn’t work at all– only 34 debtors forgiven out of potentially 4 million. They would be the first eligible group under these plans- the first group of borrowers.
I think you better understand why people are so upset about student loans when you realize the two big affordable repayment/forgiveness plans (income based and public service) were broken, are insanely complex for the borrower to navigate to the point where I question whether they were deliberately drafted not to work, and didn’t work at all for the past 20 years.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
@JAFD: Thank you for this! Fascinating and I passed the link on to history writer friends.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Our government has been trying to encourage fossil production to make up for Russian supplies. On reason Secretary of State Blinken visited Algeria ten days ago was the the nation nation supplies 10% of the EU’s natural gas and Blinken wanted them to consider raising production.
Some find this drive to increase fossil fuel production concerning. But some recent comments by Deputy Secretary of State Nuland give some perspective on the administration’s energy program. Ms. Nuland was in Cyprus throwing cold water on a projected pipeline that Cyprus, Greece and Israel want to build from their eastern Mediteranean gas fields to the European mainland. Nuland pointed out that the project would take 10 years to complete, and:
In the absence of a pipeline, gas from these new fields that won’t be used by immediate neighbors will be piped to plants on Egypt’s coast to be cooled and liqified for transport on tankers.
ps: I repied to yur last comment in the Saturday late night thread.
Kev In France
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’s a big time zone… I’m on the Mediterranean coast, considerably south of where you’ll be. But at least I can say, “Welcome to Europe!”
Quiltingfool
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Dorothy A. Winsor:
I ordered Blood Terminal by CC Edge. Great recommendation from Balloon Juice!
I read John Scalzi’s blog. He recommends lots of books – mostly sci-fi and fantasy. I ordered one of the books – Lovecraft Country: A Novel by Matt Ruff. A good read, I really liked it.
Kay
Like a Chapter 13. Sort of. A Chapter 13 would still be better for the debtor since the payment plans last only five years and then they actually discharge the debt.
Like a really bad, endless Chapter 13 that also doesn’t discharge the debt.
Geminid
@Geminid: That should be replied, not “repied.”
Soprano2
@Kay: I have read that the Biden people are working to try to fix these programs, and have made some progress on the service based on. The problem is that it’s hard to unfuck something that’s been fucked up for this long. I hope they can succeed, it will help a lot of people. And I agree, it’s possible that these programs were originally drafted to sound like they were going to be great but to not actually work at all.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: They could have just made these loans dischargeable thru Bankruptcy. They didn’t. Why? You already answered the question:
I don’t question it at all. There is no lobby group for students needing help with paying for college. There are probably hundreds, maybe thousands for banks.
Soprano2
So the normal shitty reporting on “Morning Edition” about the French election, where they talk all about how Marie LePen “sounds” more moderate and has “stopped talking about immigration issues”. No information at all about whether she’s actually more moderate (my guess would be no), and what the party has said they would actually do if they gained power. It’s like the way they covered Glenn Youngkin, the “dad in a sweater vest” who also had a radical Right agenda that was mostly unremarked upon until he became governor and started trying to implement it. Does anyone here think LaPen was actually working with the even more batshit crazy candidate I heard about in order to set up a contrast and make her seem more reasonable? It’s occured to me….
Kay
@Soprano2:
I don’t know why they overdraft everything. It’s like each person is just given a pen and told “load this up with whatever nonsense hoops you want”. It’s this weird, compulsive impulse to punish people. That doesn’t even exist in bankruptcy courts – it’s just a straight debt/assets/income calculation. Why does it exist in the US Department of Education and Congress? The thinking is bad.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Soprano2: That twist has always seemed extra cruel to me.
Steve in the ATL
@Kev In France: jackals on the Riviera—who knew?
Renie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: i read it also. Loved it!
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
They would just do so much better in a bankrutpcy court. And they get punished! They have a period where they can’t borrow at low rates. So everyone can relax- the punishment is built right in. The difference is it actually works :)
They could draft a separate Chapter for student loan debt, if they want. Oh, God, maybe not, considering their stellar work on these forgiveness plans.
Starfish
@Baud: She really should be fundraising much more aggressively to recoup the amount of money she deserves for tolerating our nonsense.
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid: I repied Omnes after switching to a new browser
Betty Cracker
There’s an interesting piece on Fiona Hill in today’s NYT. Robert Draper interviewed Hill and other former NSC officials who witnessed Trump’s crime spree, including patriotic people of integrity like Col. Vindman and Amb. Yovanovitch and repulsive cowards like John Bolton.
They connect the events then to what’s happening in Ukraine now and also to January 6, which Hill characterized as “Trump pulling a Putin” — his clumsy attempt to join the club of autocrats he so openly admired during his ridiculous presidency.
SFAW
@Baud:
“Bwhat The Fuck?,” maybe?
SFAW
@lowtechcyclist:
You need to understand that Dean Baquet has MUCH MORE IMPORTANT stuff to worry about, such as whether FTFTFNYT reporters are on Twitter.
Soprano2
@Kay: They’re terrified that someone who doesn’t deserve help will get it. All of our programs that help people are loaded down with crappy reporting requirements because of that. You know the reason they made these loans nondischargeable in bankruptcy is because of stories of students borrowing huge amounts of money and then filing bankruptcy when they graduated without ever paying any of it back. There are ways to safeguard against that, though, that are less onerous than making the debt nondischargeable.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: you’re all street now that you’re living out at Stone Mountain!
related: what else are mountains made of?
Geminid
@Soprano2: There was an article this morning in Politico about Missouri’s Republican Senate primary, titled “Greiten’s fade reorders Missouri Senate race.” The lead:
As you told me the other day, this primary will be held Auust 2nd. Other August primaries include Lyn Cheney’s Wyoming primary and Lisa Murkowski’s Alaska primary.
Murkowski will compete in an all-party “jungle primary” in August. The top four finishers will go on to a ranked-choice runoff in November.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It’s one the things that is most alarming to me- the international nature of it. How they’re so clearly allied with other Right wing autocrats. I looked at the 2013 Russian equivalent of the “don’t say gay” law and boy it looks familiar!
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: The banks wrote the laws. They will probably write the new ones.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: It’s not like that makes you special. Everyone does that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steve in the ATL: Rock.
Soprano2
@Geminid: Hartzler has branded herself the anti-trans girls in sports candidate who is “protecting” girl’s sports from the evil men who are trying to ruin them. That’s probably why she’s surging. We have so many crappy candidates running that the lead may change several times between now and August. Who Trump decides to endorse will probably make a difference, too.
Kev In France
@Soprano2: I think you have a pretty accurate take on the situation. LePen softening her positions? Not likely. We all remember our favorite “Compassionate conservative”. It’s the same kind of theater. The LePen/Zemmour strategy is possible, but who know what goes on in her mind?
Steve in the ATL: Eh oui. Nous sommes partout. Watch out!
scribbler
@JAFD: Thanks for this! Looks really interesting and I’ve bookmarked it to read in full when I have more time.
The Moar You Know
@Soprano2: Kill the Jews and minorities. Le Pen and papa Le Pen have been extremely clear about what the goals of any government they head are going to be.
I mean, she’s got a track record that is decades long. The family history of fascism dates back to the end of WW2. She hasn’t been changing her mind over the last few months.
Soprano2
@Kev In France: My understanding is that a big issue for Macron is his proposal to raise the retirement age. How big is that issue really?
satby
This is a great campaign ad. I hope he has a chance in the election.
Soprano2
@The Moar You Know: I agree; my quarrel is with this reporting about how she has “softened” her positions without any analysis of what the party is actually planning to do if they win. You know, actual analysis of their party platform and stuff like that. They’re just talking about her rhetoric and how it’s different. Don’t they realize that anyone can say any words at all? They never learn at all.
NotMax
@Geminid
Yes, Virginia, there’s really one candidate on the ballot for the Alaska special election primary in June to fill the late Rep. Young’s seat whose name is Santa Claus.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: Remember, one of the spins on Trump in 2016 was that he actually represented a moderate constituency within the Republican Party, less keen on culture-war issues and open to co-opting Democratic positions. The evidence was basically that over his life Trump had not espoused any very consistent political ideology. (Ignore that the few views he DID consistently espouse–racism, hatred of international organizations and treaties, a conviction that other countries were somehow shafting us–were all scary and dumb.)
Kay
@Soprano2:
I don’t know that at all. In order for that to happen under the bankruptcy code the student would have to income low enough to qualify for a Chapter 7 plus exempt assets, or they would be put into a 13. If they had high income and assets they wouldn’t qualify for either a 7 or a 13.
I don’t have any problem with them adding requirements to avoid the hypothetical of a huge loan discharged by a person with a capacity for high income later on- the hypothetical is always a physician who went to Harvard- but just don’t make it stupid and infuriating and onerous. Make it fair and make it work. They already know how to to do this- they wrote the bankrutpcy code and they have an expert debtors court up and running and ready to go.
lowtechcyclist
Exactly. And since most Congresspersons are somewhere between comfortably well-off and rich, they can hire full- or part-time secretaries to deal with the paperwork of life, so it’s frictionless for them, even though it’s a big hill to climb for everyone else that winds up weeding out a lot of the people that are supposed to benefit from a given program.
And with respect to student loans in particular, most Congrespersons are older, and have no idea what a burden student loans are now. Kids worked their way through college when I was that age, they think, they can just do it now. Only that’s freakin’ impossible now, since states have dumped more and more of the cost of college on the students.
schrodingers_cat
India is hurtling towards state sanctioned genocide and unrest. No one seems to care or even know about it.
Geminid
@Soprano2: It’s an interesting article. The reporter attributes Greiten’s slide to his ex-wife’s account of him physically abusing her and their children. Some of Hartzler’s rise is credited to Josh Hawley’s endorsement.
Trump is dipping his toe in the water, saying Missourans will like Representative Buddy Long’s “big, loud and proud personality,” but emphasizing that this was not an endorsement. Trump is afraid to endorse a candidate who might go on to lose. He fears that people would then conclude that he is a loser. Which he is.
Kev In France
@Soprano2: The media, as usual, is making a big deal out of it. My personal interactions with people suggest that it is seen as inevitable. I think the now traditional “front républicain” (opposition to the non-democratic extreme right} will be as sufficiently effective as it had been againt LePen and LePen père.
Soprano2
@Kay: That’s what I remember the excuse being when the law was debated. Perhaps I’m wrong.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: CPAC’s next grotesque event will be in Budapest in May, and Orbán will be the keynote speaker. Republicans aren’t hiding it at all, but I don’t think most people are aware of how thoroughly that party has thrown its lot in with Putinist “conservatism.” We know it, and the autocracy aspirants know it, but I don’t believe the shift has penetrated “normie” voter consciousness.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: And voting for anyone other than Santa Claus means one hates Xmas.
Soprano2
@Geminid: Did he really say “Buddy Long”? Because it’s Billy Long, so if he really said that he got the name wrong! I know, because he’s my awful rep. He was an auctioneer. He ran on the slogan “Fed Up with Washington”. My husband says it should actually be “Well-Fed” for reasons you can discern if you look at pictures of him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Soprano2: It was the excuse. The stories don’t have to be true to serve their purpose.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Most normie voters would say, “CPAC? My friend uses one of those machines at night.”
satby
@schrodingers_cat: I do know and care, but what do you expect anyone not a citizen of India to do? The citizens there elected that government. It’s horrific and we’re stuck witnessing it, just as the world had to witness the stupidly suicidal election and “governance” of TFG and his crime family.
lowtechcyclist
Yeah, I figured if you’d pied me once, that would suffice. ;-)
Anyhow, thanks! It may be a few hours before I have a chance to add anything, because this looks like a busy day at work. But I will get back to you there.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, banks didn’t write all the laws because millions of people discharge unsecured debt under the current bankruptcy code and it hasn’t caused a mass implosion of unsecured lending – that industry still seems to be humming along nicely and I suspect student loans will too.
The idea behind bankruptcy is we want people to take some risks. So they take the risk or make a bad decision and they get dinged if they fail but they don’t get knocked out for life. We want them to come back from it. That should apply to people just like it applies to businesses.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
“I’ll represent the interests of Alaskans 24 hours a day, 364 days a year.”
//
Geminid
@Soprano2: Naw, I said “Buddy” Long, typing from memory. Trump should get the name right. I expect Long has been down to Mar-a-Loco more than once to kiss ass.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: The only things I’ve seen about India (this week) from my usual news sources has been about the upcoming meeting between Biden and Modi and also snippets here and there about how India, China and other countries are navigating the sanctions on Russia.
Can you share a good English language source of news?
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I recall THE DAY I saw it. Probably later than everyone else! It was when Russia passed a law gutting domestic violence protections because they “harm the Traditional Family” and I saw it Christian Science Monitor article about it and read it. I though “holy shit, these people have cultural commonality, hence the alliance”. Up until then I thought it was all stealing money and controlling peoples lives, which of course it also is.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Article-14 does great on the ground reporting.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
By now, one would think the Dems could compile a pretty long list of connections between the GOP (including groups like CPAC who are clearly on their side) and autocrats like Putin and Orban. This isn’t the first time important U.S. right-wingers have gone over to Budapest to genuflect. There were the eight GOP Senators who spent July 4th in Moscow a few years back, disappointed that they couldn’t admire Putin in person. There’s Tuckyo Rose, of course. And that’s just off the top of my head.
You’d think the Dems could do something with this. But all too often, the Dem political brain trust has an instinct for the capillary.
Ken
“Except for the naughty ones.”
Kay
@Soprano2:
Sorry. I don’t mean to be so short. The bankrutpcy code has requirements for discharge of debt. They’re enforced. So while you can be a low earner with low assets and discharge debt, you can’t be a high earner with high assets and discharge debt. So while your hypothetical student loan borrower might have tens of thousands in debt that is discharged, they’re not making any money off what they “bought” which was the college years or degree. It’s the same for all of it- medical debt, credit card debt, a bad car loan they got into where the car is always rep’oed anyway and they’re just stuck with the unsecured portion of the loan. They have to qualify. Can you run up a credit card and buy 30,000 worth of stupid shit and then discharge it in bankruptcy? Yes, if you’re in bad enough financial shape to qualify. But no one seeks to be in that position. It’s not good.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: Bookmarked — thanks!
Soprano2
@Geminid: Oh yeah, he talks about how he was one of the first Republicans to support Trump. He’s back in the pack right now.
Geminid
@Geminid:
@Betty Cracker: Your larger point is well taken. A few days ago Magdi Semrau said similarly with respect to women’s rights:
Kay
@Soprano2:
I think it would be fair to the people who paid loans (and I think it’s important it be fair) to address the situation of getting a higher income graduate degree and then blowing off the debt before you start making a lot of money. But they can do that. I just don’t think they WILL do it as long as they have this weird punishment impulse that just gets in the way of adding and subtracting. Let them get up off the mat. We’ll all be better off. We really don’t want a huge group of permanently debt-laden 20s and 30s who are really angry and bitter.
Jeffro
@Soprano2: Mnuchin is a much, much smarter crook than Kushner.
which is not exactly WOW-level insight, I know ;)
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: College loans were a scam from the gitgo. Sometimes I wonder exactly who all was in on the grift. From universities to banks to low tax GOP, to who knows who.
My parents graduated debt free. So did my sisters. It used to be possible for a middle class family to manage that feat without mortgaging their future. Not any more.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Create awareness. Keep talking about it. Discuss it. Cover it. Bring light to the situation publicize what is happening. Highlight Indian voices raising their voice against the RSS and the BJP.
This is not directed specifically at you but at anyone who has any media platform however small.
Geminid
@Geminid: Ms. Semrau followed the tweet above with:
Soprano2
@Kay: Interesting – good to know. I think they take advantage of people’s ignorance of these things. Saying “We have to make this debt nondischargeable in bankruptcy because too many students are borrowing tens of thousands of dollars and then filing bankruptcy to get out of paying it off” sounds reasonable to most people who have never filed bankruptcy and don’t know much at all about it.
Just try talking to people about how unreasonable our DUI laws are (I expect to get pushback even on this thread!). I believe there should be punishment for driving while drunk, but it should be measured and proportional. They just load on the penalties – you’re guilty the minute you blow over the limit, the actual court appearance is really just a formality where the prosecutor tries to load on even more penalties. You actually serve most of your punishment before you ever appear in court! My husband got caught with 0.10 when he was 62. He’d never had anything other than a speeding ticket before that, and the prosecutor tried to require one of those Breathalyzer locking things on his vehicle for a year (which you pay for, of course). He paid over $300 for a 20-minute test (administered by a contractor, of course) that said he needed to go to the mandated driver’s class, which he also had to pay for. You pay for some kind of high-risk insurance that doesn’t actually seem to pay for anything – it’s just another punishment fee that you have to pay that benefits the insurance industry. I could never get anyone to tell me when that insurance actually pays off – people just kept saying “It’s high risk insurance”. Just call it what it is – another penalty. I think they’ve passed a law since his experience where they mandate that Breathalyzer lock on the vehicle of anyone who is convicted of DUI, which is everyone who blows over the limit. I heard a story about how those things are supposed to be calibrated regularly, but many police departments never do that. I don’t think most people realize that our “justice system” isn’t actually paid for by your tax money anymore – it’s funded by the people who are arrested by the many, many fines and fees you have to pay. I have seen that MADD is already on a crusade to start getting states to lower the legal limit to 0.05, which would criminalize most people who drink one or two beers and then drive. Something that started out as an effort to deter drunk driving has turned into a money-raising thing for a lot of companies. It’s pretty infuriating to me.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I just think there’s this assumption that first generation college students are on the same footing as understanding how colleges work and how loans work as 2nd or 3rd generation and they’re not.
How would they know this? I spent months on it for each kid and I went to college. I’m their advocate. They’re 18. They need one.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I agree it’s an indictment of the press. The question is how to proceed because the Beltway press has been shitty for decades and has every incentive to keep getting worse.
IMO, our pols have to take that bull by the horns as best they can. Some already do, some don’t, and the results are uncertain even for those who do frame the issues in a clear and compelling way because of the media gatekeepers. But we have to try.
Kay
@Soprano2:
There are conservative judges here who think the OVI penalties have become too onerous but you’re right- they don’t say it outside of chambers because they need to get elected.
It has gotten scammy. Ohio has private contractors running the “alternative” sites for the mandatory 3 days in jail and it just reeks of scam. I tell people to just do the 3 days in jail.
Soprano2
@Kay: And it’s easy to load on more and more penalties because just try talking to anyone about it who hasn’t experienced it. They’ll tell you how drunk driving is super dangerous and we need to make sure no one does it. Just wait until they drop the limit to 0.05 and all the nice white middle-class men and women start getting arrested because they had two beers and drove! I wish MADD would just admit that what they really want is a limit of 0.00, so that anyone testing for any trace of alcohol in their system while driving would be subject to all of these penalties.
Kay
The “success” of this approach is IMO still not proven. Maybe it will work! It’s just that it’s portrayed as this giant slam dunk winner and that isn’t what’s actually happening.
The WSJ published this crowing editorial lauding the results of one WI school board race and ignoring the three they lost. I think it’s because the anti-woke and anti-cancel culture people are overepresented in opinion political media.
It works….sometimes. But it also fails a lot.
prostratedragon
@JAFD: Thanks! Very interesting.
prostratedragon
@Baud: “A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.”
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: When it comes to the threat of fascism in general, and oppression of women through radical anti-abortion laws in particular, I am reminded of the song phrase:
But this doesn’t have to be, and it’s on Democrats and Democratic politicians to see that it doesn’t. The main stream media damn sure won’t.
Semrau’s description of “politically well-informed people” missing the Rephlblican assault on freedom is interesting. One could scoff at this. After all, how could a politically well-informed person not know these things? But Ms. Semrau seems like a careful observer and she is probably right. Many politically engaged people concentrate on particular policy issues or on various “horse race-” type stories. These habits can persist in the face of newer and more consequential challenges.
Geminid
@Geminid:Well, I managed to leave “know” out of “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” My proofreader has not been earning his pay this morning. Hopefully, their familiarity with Ms. Mitchell’s song allows readers to interpolate the missing “know.”
Joey Maloney
@Kay: But they Never. Give. Up. It failed this year? They’ll be back next year with something equally heinous. And they’ll keep coming back.
I’m undecided whether to close with the IRA explaining the odds to Thatcher, or a Terminator reference. Pick your own adventure, I guess.
Ruckus
@Baud:
You mean excellent material for page A135 of the FTFNYT.
They don’t want to know, they sure as hell don’t want us to know……
taumaturgo
@Kay: Some folks may say that is working as designed by the corrupt political class doing the bidding of their patrons. This means that under the current party duopoly no meaningful change that is desperately needed to begin to alleviate the day-to-day living conditions of working folks will have a near-zero chance to be implemented if the chance results could cut the owner’s earnings, benefits, and entitlement.
Brachiator
@Geminid:
When it comes to the threat of fascism in general and the supposed responsibility of the mainstream media, I am reminded of the song phrase:
I don’t know why people depend on the media for anything. Reporters and pundits are often professional cynics. This sometimes creates a blindspot where they assume that politicians who flirt with fascism are just blowing smoke to appeal to voters. And many journalists and their bosses see themselves as part of the Establishment. They assume that the media will still be around no matter what happens.
People just have to accept the hard, sad fact that the media is not their friend or protector.
You make a very good point here. But Trump and rising authoritarian populists like DeSantis understand the winning formula. They promise white voters that someone else will be hurt.They absolutely guarantee it. Middle class and upper class whites take for granted that their lives will more or less continue as before. If they need abortions, they will do it privately or travel out of state. If poor women or women of color get hurt, well …
Carlo Graziani
Late to this party. Junker’s tweet caught my eye though:
That’s right, the report’s redactions have not been removed. The original reason for those redactions was to protect ongoing investigations. If the Justice Department had really given up Russiagate and Russiagate-coverup prosecutions (as so many legal experts have assured us is the case), there would be no reason to leave that material redacted.
And there’s no doubt that there are still several unexploded bombs under those redactions, and plenty of JD motivation to at least set the record of the Barr era straight by a full release of the report, if no further investigations were in prospect.
Interesting.
Kent
@Soprano2: The correct thing for Biden to do would be to announce a suspension of student loan payments UNTIL the income-based and service-based loan forgiveness programs are completely and verifiably un-fucked. Put the onus back on the banks and loan service agencies. No more loan payments for you until you get your shit together and can PROVE it.
If it takes 6 months then it takes 6 months. If it takes 10 years then so be it.
Ruckus
@Bex:
Now $2B seems like a lot to us common folk who live in 20,000 sq ft apartments, and wear suits custom tailored by kindergartners in their off hours, but really, to a Saudi prince, $2B is pocket change, a tip to a common street grifter as it were…..
Mart
Kay
@Joey Maloney:
I’m afraid Democrats will get spooked by it and over react by avoiding it. I feel like they already are.
I’m a practical person and I would accept that if it ever worked but it never does. I don’t know a thing about France but when I read Macron was trying to attract the fascist vote by moving Right I thought “the worst political strategy in the world, again”. It’s like it can’t be discredited. It’s always the same, if always fails probably because it’s a mark of desperation which attracts no one, ever, and yet they try it over and over and over.
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
I worked in the plastics industry for a long time. Those two are so far below plastics that the distance in unmeasurable in human terms. Which is OK because I’m not sure either of them are.
Kent
@Soprano2: On the other hand, I’m a cyclist and I keep reading about people around here who kill cyclists while driving drunk and it usually turns out that they have 10 previous arrests and convictions for drunk driving and are still out there due to our “catch and release” system for repeat DUIs.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Wanna bet that the Dept of Ed didn’t actually write the legal wording? That it was done by someone/some group that wanted the legislation not to work, like the people who stood to collect the debt……
satby
@taumaturgo: this is what you sound like.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: You’re right about the Beltway press. Many local dailies are doing a heroic job as the industry collapses around them, IMO. But the thing is, a democracy depends on a reasonably informed public, and most people don’t have the time and skills to figure everything out for themselves. I’m not sure what gives, but something has to. Increasingly, it’s looking like democracy.
Kent
How would you suggest those of us in the west respond? Either individually, or diplomatically through our governments?
Kay
@Ruckus:
Oh, I know they just do the rule-writing. But. Do they not get that it’s a huge and enraging betrayal to assure people that if they jump thru all these hoops they’ll get a discharge and then not give it to them?
When you fill out the FAFSA now there’s an option to have them access and autofill your tax filings. So they’re happy to help and make it seamless and friction-free when people are borrowing but not when they’re repaying the debt? That has to be “I’ll need 20 years of archived records from the loan servicer”
Kay
@Ruckus:
They used to do this horrible thing that I made it my mission to tell people about. People would have multiple loans with different interest rates. So they would submit a payment and the loan servicers would apply it to the lowest interest loan. Just fucking stealing from people. To get past them you had to specify in writing which loan you wanted it applied to and you, of course, would apply it to the highest interest loan but the DEFAULT was they would just rip you off. I can’t even imagine what they made on that.
James E Powell
@Soprano2:
The reason we heard stories like that is because the lenders wanted to make the loans non-dischargeable. Cf. Stories of huge personal injury verdicts for supposedly trivial injuries to promote “tort reform.”
James E Powell
@Steve in the ATL:
Molehills.
Kay
Just a lovely and brilliant person. This is why they whined incessantly about being “cancelled” for 2 years- because they want to say horrible things they pull out of their ass with no social sanction or pushback of any kind.
They’ll tell you what the “culture” is. They’re in charge of that. Forever.
geg6
@OzarkHillbilly:
It would have made no sense for banks to write this law on the payment plans because there are no banks involved. Federal student loans are direct, from the USDE to the student, directly. No more middlemen.
James E Powell
@Kent:
This is an excellent idea. It would be a nice short speech.
Kay
So how long has the entire Right believed that all teachers are pedophiles? Probably years, right?
They’re right. They should definitely not be “cancelled”. It’s vitally important that normal people find out how horrible, mean spirited and malicious they are. Let that flag fly!
Kay
@James E Powell:
Well, they could have though. They just couldn’t do it with no restrictions. Honestly? You won’t even notice. How many people discharged credit card or medical debt last year? Lots. Does anyone pay any attention to it? No. There’s no public outrage at all. I think MOST people are “I’m so glad I don’t have to file bankrutpcy!”
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Yep. And as the news industry collapses, the vacuum is filled by well-funded right wing propaganda outlets. What makes this worse is that people want the news to be free, and too many people prefer to be entertained than informed.
Yep. Funny thing is, if the economy is doing well, a lot of people assume that the country can run on automatic pilot and they don’t need to be politically engaged. But the hard truth is that democracy presumes that the demos are involved and participate.
This really strikes a chord with me. I realize that I rejected this notion as a teen, and all my life have believed that the vast majority of people can figure out what they need. It’s one of the reasons I bristle at the idea that there are low income voters and others who are their political knowledge betters. We all have weak spots, but we can all learn.
But I guess if you try to figure things out for yourself, you still may lose. But if you leave your fate entirely to someone else to figure it out for you, you make it much easier for those who are against you to get the upper hand.
Democracy is hard work and you need others to help and to govern well. But I also have an instinctive distrust of bosses. That includes the work boss, the union boss, and the political party boss.
Miss Bianca
@Soprano2: I endorse everything you’ve said here.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
I wrote 2 long paragraphs about cars and alcohol and I’m sparing you (and everyone else) but the bottom line is that we are a society and we either have to have limits on behavior that endangers others or we will exist as a society that kills each other off pretty damn regularly. There are so many of us that the distance between us has gotten to the point that there is less and less room for malcontents to act out. But that reduced distance also means that discrepancies from the norms can result in more damage and death. Say in driving. Life looks the same but it really isn’t. Alcohol makes that smaller distance between us even more dangerous because it takes away that concept of real danger which is one of the draws of alcohol in the first place.
JAFD
@Kay: If you were to look at
https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2022/04/06/book-review-a-square-meal-part-ii-politics/
you’d see that was a perennial compulsion
rikyrah
@Kay:
If the Biden Administration fixes both, that would be a great push.
And, lower the income based one down to 15 years.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Democracy is hard work and you need others to help and to govern well. But I also have an instinctive distrust of bosses. That includes the work boss, the union boss, and the political party boss.
That is likely because all those bosses are human first and have a built in survival instinct, like most all of us. And not all of us survive if we let others (and sometimes ourselves) do all the work. Living is a collaborative effort. Often we seem to forget that.
Soprano2
@Kay: Over and over and over it’s about who white people vote for. I don’t know what it is but for some reason way too many politicians seem to believe the votes of white people count twice or something, because they do so many ruinous things trying to attract those votes.
Brachiator
@Soprano2:
I hear what you say and don’t have any alternative solution.
But I also know this. Where I used to work, almost everyone in their 20s and 30s looked at getting a DUI infraction as just part of life.
Some of them have had their licenses suspended. Others had that device that you have to blow into before you can start the car.
But cut back on drinking? Not even.
Maybe not as bad, but in a similar category are the people who know that they can talk, email, eat, change clothes while driving.
Someone plowed into one of my favorite eateries while texting. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt.
And I have even had to step out of the way of people who text while walking and don’t pay attention.
Life is crazy.
Soprano2
@Kent: One of the problems with the system we have is that it doesn’t have a good way to address the repeat offenders like that other than putting them in prison. Nothing else seems to deter them. Most regular people are definitely deterred by one experience with the extremely expensive DUI. Most of my regular customers don’t drive to the bar, or don’t drive home, just because of that. However, I’ve known hardcore offenders who aren’t phased by the thought of getting caught again. It’s a problem.
Soprano2
@Kay: Like the banks debiting all of your transactions before doing your deposit, in an attempt to make you overdrawn so they could charge a fee. I swear, these days banks are fee collection entities that just happen to do banking.
Soprano2
@Ruckus: As I said, I don’t have a problem with punishment, but after my experience with it I think the punishment for a first DUI, especially when the person is close to the legal limit and it’s a first offense, is too onerous. We were lucky that we could afford to pay all of that. And I know it’s easy to say “just don’t drink and drive”, but it’s really not that easy. Make the punishment fit the crime. My husband said one of the people in his defensive driving class was a well-known local news anchor. That man almost lost his job over the DUI, which happened on his own time. Especially in places where there is almost non-existent public transportation it’s a problem.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Replying to 137 and 138. I see them as both in the same box.
They don’t see that they are providing an education that will help the person and the country. They see everything as a money making opportunity. They don’t care that they are
screwingfucking you over because they are making money off you. They don’t care how they make money, as long as they make it. They are boss Hogg – with far fewer scruples. The point of business used to be to make a product or provide a service but now so much of business is the business of profit at any cost. I am a capitalist, I understand being one requires a reasonable product or service for a reasonable cost. The people that only view money as their business do not create anything nor do they provide an adequate service. Their goal is profit at any cost. They have to find ways to obfuscate their service with bullshit to convince people that they are helping you, when the most they do is not tear your pocket when they steal your wallet. This is capitalism run amuck.Don’t think so, how many legislators are considered wealthy? Or actually are?
taumaturgo
@Ruckus:
Doubt is the origin of wisdom. Descartes
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
RE: Democracy is hard work and you need others to help and to govern well. But I also have an instinctive distrust of bosses. That includes the work boss, the union boss, and the political party boss.
I think that all bosses are assholes first. Even good ones…
mrmoshpotato
George Conway needs to divorce his lying, mobster bitch of a wife, or he just needs to shut the fuck up forever.
He has no place acting all high and mighty when he’s married to a lying sack of shit, and he knows she’s a lying sack of shit.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
I recognize that the system isn’t perfect. It never will be it has humans in it. Some will recognize a problem and fix it. Some will recognize a problem and say fuck it. Some will recognize a problem and say it’s not me. And some will not recognize a problem if it hits them in the head with a baseball bat.
But drunk driving isn’t just a ticket, a fine and a promise not to do it again. It is massively dangerous to all of us, because most of us do not live far apart from others. Like it or not we interact with other humans all the time. I try to walk 2 miles every day and you may or may not believe the number of times cars pull in or out of driveways or side streets without looking for pedestrians or often even other cars. Now I don’t walk at 2 am so not as many drunks but they are still out there, still drinking, still driving, still running into and over things. People are self involved, many far more than others and don’t make time to be concerned about others either. Let’s face it drinking can take off the sharp corners of life. It can also take entire lives in an attempt to take off those corners. And yes many drugs can do the same. Life can suck donkey balls but it helps if we don’t actually go too far and make it worse, even if it is unintentional. We live in a free country but that is not freedom to do whatever the hell one wants. We have all kinds of restrictions on our freedoms and one of those is not to take untenable risks on the lives of others. Drinking and driving can and does do that, maybe not every time or every person, but it does. Walking around with a loaded gun doesn’t either but like drinking and driving it changes the possibilities and the risks for others and it isn’t necessary. Take a cab, uber, lyft etc. Designate a driver for the evening. Drink less. To be honest it isn’t the drinker I’m all that concerned about, it’s every one else that suffers when shit hits the fan. And it does more often when drinking and driving are mixed.
I’ve known drunks, hell I was in the navy. And I worked for one for a while. It’s never a problem – till it is. Because it doesn’t always go sideways or falling off the Empire State Building wrong we think we can handle it. And then, sometimes, it all goes straight to shit, doesn’t pass go, doesn’t collect $200, it just goes to shit. It doesn’t happen to everyone but when it does, it’s deep shit. You take other lives into your hands every time you drive. And every time you drink and drive you make the odds a bit less to a hell of a lot less in your favor.
Should the rest of us have to take that risk with you?
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I’d take offense at that if it wasn’t true…..
BTW, a former boss. At least I tried…… but alas twas not to be.
barbequebob
@Kay:
Helping my child recently on their loans and it is “improved”, so that default is to split payments among all the loans. To pay off the one with highest interest rate, you still have to be specific.
wenchacha
@SiubhanDuinne:
@Kent: I like your idea.
Soprano2
@Ruckus: I never said there should be no consequences. I guess I can put you down for the MADD idea of onerous punishment if a person has one drop of alcohol in their system and drives. Now you just need to eliminate all the other distractions – phones, radios, IPods, roadside advertising, and all the rest.
Having safe places for people to walk and ride bikes is unfortunately not a priority in most of this country. I like how it’s don’t in Europe, where it’s separate from vehicles.