Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

We still have time to mess this up!

This chaos was totally avoidable.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Morning Open Thread: President Biden’s Weekend Treat

Saturday Morning Open Thread: President Biden’s Weekend Treat

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Speaking of beguiling predictions… count on a Repub to imagine passing popular social programs as ‘the worst’!

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  2. 2.

    Nelle

    Once, when we were in Stockholm, my husband turned to me and said, “This is what happens when a government works for people.”  Things worked.   I get a little dizzy , getting a glimpse of what it could be like here.

  3. 3.

    prostratedragon

    Overbroad voting rights changes !!!  [screams, faints]

    Letting Martians vote maybe?

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    36,000km in three days: $8,000 car rental charge shocks Canadian woman

    All of her calls to the Avis counter at the Toronto airport went unanswered. Her call with a manager at the general office left her feeling the company “didn’t seem to really get what [the] issue was” and the fee remained in place.

    Her rental receipt, posted to Twitter, shows the company levied a charge of 25 cents per kilometre – for 36,000 additional kilometres.

    Even if she had travelled from Mexico City to Skagway, Alaska, over the three days, driving nonstop, she would still be nearly 30,000km short of what the company claimed she had travelled – enough to traverse the entire continent of North America three more times.

    Visa, her credit card company, said it couldn’t stop a pending transaction.

    Only nine days later, after her story was picked up by local media, did Boniface get a response from Avis, which acknowledged the mistake and advised the extra charges would be refunded.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    @Nelle:

    The biggest problem in the U.S. is that nearly half the people don’t want the government to work for the people because they don’t like all of the different types of people that make up the people.

  6. 6.

    WereBear

    @OzarkHillbilly: THIS is the state corporate customer service has sunk to. Pretty much across the board.

    My regional bank is the ONLY one I can think of that doesn’t make me want to rip off some corporate HEADS.

  8. 8.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Baud: ​

    White people cannot bear the thought of sharing this country’s infinite abundance with Negroes.

    ~ Thaddeus Stevens

  10. 10.

    Geminid

    @WereBear: I think that Universal Pre-K and free community college and two-year technical education would be popular programs to campaign on. They can be pitched as investments in the country’s human capital. Universal Pre-K in particular would be, as Magdi Semrau says, a “gamechanger” and would pay for itself many times over.

  17. 17.

    WereBear

    @Geminid: Agreed. Will Bunch is coming out with a new book which documents how conservatives planned to drive “the proletariat” away from education and advancement after making gains post-war

    AL had a tweet about it.

  18. 18.

    Layer8Problem

    Jeez.  Mickey Kaus.  If he’s back maybe there’s a chance Cream will reunite!!  There’s just one, maybe two problems with that though.

  20. 20.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Geminid: I think that’s a good idea. We already have free education from K-12 (at least for now), and you could pitch pre-k and community college/technical school as just extending that to meet current needs.

  21. 21.

    Suzanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: Impossible. I’m told that Private Businesses are hotbeds of innovation and excellence.

    Actually had something similar happen to me. I rented a small U-Haul truck to go from Tucson to Phoenix, which is just about 120 miles. When I returned it in Phoenix, they said that I had driven it almost 600 miles.

  23. 23.

    Suzanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Mr. Suzanne and I were discussing this last night. Like, I get that not everyone wants to go to college and that’s fine. But at some point, we have to have widespread recognition that, if this country ever wants to remain competitive and creative and not have our asses handed to us, more and more people will need to go to college…. if for no other reason than we already know all the easy stuff. The problems that remain are the ones that are harder to solve.

  24. 24.

    kalakal

    @Layer8Problem

    If he’s back maybe there’s a chance Cream will reunite!!  There’s just one, maybe two problems with that though.

    I’ll wait in this place where the sun never shines

    Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves

  25. 25.

    Scout211

    CNN posted the 12-page filing the F-POTUS team submitted to the judge requesting the  special master.

    They also have an analysis.

    In the new Friday night filing, Trump pointed to some additional legal discussion of case law that he said supported his request. One of those cases had to do with his former attorney Rudy Giuliani. Nowhere in the filing did Trump suggest that material dealing with attorney-client privilege was seized in the FBI’s search of his resort.

    The new response appeared to fall short of the elaboration Cannon was seeking. Trump did not elaborate on what exactly he hoped a special master — a third-party attorney — would filter out, besides general allusions to “privileged and potentially privileged materials.”

    He also did not include with the filing a motion for immediate action from the judge — like a request for a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction — despite the judge’s request that he put before her “the precise relief sought, including any request for injunctive relief pending resolution of the Motion.”

  27. 27.

    NorthLeft

    At what point in your history will “socialism is the worst” stop working as an effective criticism of government action?

    Up here in Canada any political discussion I have with cons hinges on getting them to admit that we are basically a socialist country and that those government policies are wildly popular. Especially our health care system (even though it is struggling right now).
    Note: Cons are using the current issues with health care to try and push for more privatization. I would love to see them try and run an election campaign on that.

  28. 28.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Clearly a partial malfunction of the UFO’s holographic camouflage device. Well, at least we have confirmation that the meteorologists are part of the coverup, not that it wasn’t already obvious.

  33. 33.

    JWR

    On last night’s PBS Snooze Hour, Aunt Ruthie Marcus and Uncle Bobo Brooks really rolled out the fainting couches for the debt forgiveness program. They seemed primarily concerned with how terribly uncouth it was to use the WH Twitter feed to troll the Republicans about how they got all that free PPP moolah and how this whole business could’ve been handled so much better if only it had been more targeted, and then Lil’ Sen. Johnnie Thune made a big deal about how unfair the program is to Hard Working Americans™, and besides, PPP was different because it was approved by Congress and this was an Executive action and blah blah blah. Blah! It was pathetic. Oh, and no Dem response.

  36. 36.

    artem1s

    Think about it, the GOP and Robber Baron class has spent almost the last 100 years trying to undo The New Deal. Mostly because they couldn’t bear the thought that if people of color and women had access to those services at the same level as white men. But also because as long as the government worked, and worked on their behalf, the voters had no reason to be their serfs. Can Biden now declare that the era of Gohmert’s Small-Government is over?

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    @NorthLeft: I used to think the socialist label might lose its sting in FL when the resident Cuban Revolution exiles began dying off, but then people fleeing other Latin American socialist hellholes started arriving, and many proved just as susceptible to Republican lies about bog-standard center-left Dems being socialists. So, maybe the answer is never. At least in Florida.

  43. 43.

    cbear

    Mickey Kaus? The goat blowing guy?

    Didn’t he go to prison for violating the animal husbandry laws of 3-4 states? Well I guess he’s out now and trying to re-enter polite society. Shame really is dead in America.

    Jeez.

  44. 44.

    different-church-lady

    @cbear:

    trying to re-enter polite society.

    Not at all, he’s just trying to do takes in Twitter society.

  50. 50.

    lowtechcyclist

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     

    Let’s see: 36,000 km in three days, that’s 12,000 km per day, or 500 km per hour (that’s about 310 mph for us Americans), or more than 8 kilometers every minute, day and night.

    Uhhuh.

  51. 51.

    Layer8Problem

    @different-church-lady:

    The Cream reunion will happen eventually. It just won’t be here.

    Dag-nabbit!!

    Mickey Kaus was in Jefferson Airplane, ya silly.

    Really? I thought he was in The Great Society! I mean they wrote a song about him, as a warning for the youths today:

    “Mickey Kaus is up and walking
    Look out, he’s gonna start talking
    Oh, oh, Mickey, we’re so glad you’re getting well, well, well”

  52. 52.

    JWR

    The Tweet in the last thread from World Famous Art Thief had me poking through Stephen Miller’s feed, and he RTd this new grift org, AFLegal (America First Legal.) One of TFG’s many legal defense funds with a new name, I’ll bet. (Groovy graphic, though! /s )

    🚨ICYMI: AFL has taken critical action to uncover the weaponization & politicization of the DOJ following the unconscionable, politically-motivated, and nakedly authoritarian FBI raid of President Trump’s private residence, Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/kvOWNRYK32
    — America First Legal (@America1stLegal) August 26, 2022

  54. 54.

    Anyway

    Gack! Can’t stand Mickey Kaus and his band of contrarians — they are just Dem-h8rs who didn’t want to admit they are going to vote R. Glad he’s kinda disappeared off the ‘nets.

  56. 56.

    Ken

    @Amir Khalid: Sometimes, I think that has already begun to happen.

    Not quite. A private-equity takeover would be like, oh, a shark swallowing a lamprey. What’s happening is the reverse, with dozens or hundreds of grifter lampreys each chomping bits out of the GOP shark.

    EDIT: For an example of a new lamprey swimming up for its bite, see JWR on Stephen Miller’s fund. The money it receives might otherwise have become small-dollar donations to the RNC. (The money also won’t be spent on TFG’s legal expenses, of course; so he’ll have to not pay his lawyers out of his own grift funds.)

  58. 58.

    Ohio Mom

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: We already have public education for kids with disabilities from age three through 22.

    The federal special ed laws requires a free, appropriate public education starting when the child turns three; in Ohio Son’s preschool classroom, special needs kids filtered in throughout the year as they reached their third birthday.

    The extra years between twelfth grade graduation and the student’s 21st year (eligibility ends on the 22nd birthday), are optional; these years are devoted to vocational and living skills. Ohio Son tried our district’s transition program but left after a year and a half, it wasn’t for him for a variety of reasons. Still, I think he learned some valuable things.

    Universal pre-k in particular would be a boon for special ed kids. They’d have a robust preschool program in their neighborhood (right now, districts without preschools pay other districts to take their little ones), and the opportunity to interact with their typically-developing peers.

    Studies show that special ed kids do better overall and in the long run when they are included in the general ed (“regular”) classroom but obviously that often becomes less practical in the upper grades.

    TL/dr: Yes, expand the public school years for all students to match the span for special ed. It would be good for everyone.

  60. 60.

    mali muso

    It’s mah birthday!  Snuggles with the kiddo on the couch, waffles for breakfast and then we’ll see what the rest of the day holds.

  62. 62.

    randy khan

    I’ve never been a big Leno fan, but he is a genuine car guy, so having him and Biden together is a match made in heaven.

  68. 68.

    Skepticat

    @Baud: The biggest problem in the U.S. is that nearly half the people don’t want the government to work for the people because they don’t like all of the different types of people that make up the people.

    Bingo.

  71. 71.

    Suzanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: This was in 2002, so I had a phone that didn’t take pictures! THE DARK AGES. Actually it turned out the odometer in the rental truck was not working correctly. U-Haul guy said it happened not infrequently. They also had cases where the trip odometer and the regular odometer didn’t align.

  74. 74.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    @Suzanne:

    They’re simply innovating new sources of revenue. If they’d have innovated a little less, though, the poor woman might not have noticed and just paid it.

    Really, she should be happy they didn’t conveniently misplace the documentation for her return of the car and have her arrested for car theft. Although I think Hertz has been leading the innovation on that front.

  75. 75.

    germy shoemangler

    @Obvious Russian Troll:

    There’s a grocery store chain in my area (Market 32, formerly “Price Chopper”) that makes price mistakes every single time we visit.  And the mistakes are always in the store’s favor.

    One price labeled on the shelf and then a higher price at checkout is one of their tricks.

    They paid a million dollar fine (sofa cushion money for them) but they’re still making those “mistakes”

  76. 76.

    Suzanne

    I think people are really underestimating how much sexism and homophobia are just under the surface of the hatred of people who went to college and student loan forgiveness. Women are kicking men’s asses at college and that allows us to make more money and not need to enter into relationships with low-potential men. And lots of LGBTQ+ folks use the college transition to leave their repressive families and towns and find friendlier environs.

  82. 82.

    Ken

    @Suzanne: This was in 2002, so I had a phone that didn’t take pictures!

    Didn’t we used to have a separate device for that? Cam-something.

    And there was some weirdness where you didn’t immediately get the picture, but had to involve your druggist. I think Robin Williams was in a movie about it.

  83. 83.

    Kristine

    I found this article interesting (still can’t believe I retweeted Bloomberg). If I’m reading it right, the GOP is taking on Wall Street in their efforts to block any mention of climate change and inequality as well as movement away from fossil fuels while in the mid/long run, investment capital is seeking to address those issues more and more because fiduciary responsibility etc.

    ESG is short for environmental, social and governance investing.

    The development represents a rapid escalation of aggression toward an investing form that few people even knew existed five years ago. But the finance industry, which has embraced ever more ESG products promising to address issues like climate change and inequality, is starting to strike back, arguing that Republican policies put the financial security of US savers in serious jeopardy.

    “DeSantis’s decision is clearly tied to politics because it’s certainly not in the best interest of pension fund beneficiaries,” according to Bryan McGannon, director of policy and programs at US SIF, a Washington-based group that supports sustainable investment businesses. “Reading between the lines, DeSantis is ultimately saying that climate change is a non-pecuniary issue putting the long-term savings of Florida pensioners at risk. That just doesn’t make sense.”

    I always expect Wall Street to side with the GOP and maybe that’s still a given. But seeing the GOP push back against the money strikes me as biting the hand that feeds them and hard. And yes, I read Judd Legum’s newsletter and know about corporate donations to legislators linked to Jan 6 etc. It just seems that in the longer term, the GOP is setting itself up to be left behind. Which is, I know, one reason why they’re trying to break everything now.

    I just found the article interesting.

  84. 84.

    Miss Bianca

    @WereBear: I read Bunch’s Twitter thread about Kent State and now I am on the library’s wait list for his book.

    I swear, so much of my life has been blighted by Republican policies – my earning potential impacted, my health jeopardized, my very life imperiled by endless gun-humping and hostility to Women Who Think Too Much from the Men Who Hate Them.

    Damn, I want to live long enough to see Democrats turn that around for young people.

  85. 85.

    MagdaInBlack

    Open thread, so: My professional pet-sitter friend out east ( Lowell, Ma area) just informed me that, having forgotten her toothpaste, she grabbed some from the clients bathroom cabinet. Turns out peanut butter flavored canine toothpaste is pretty gross.

    (prob shoulda read the label)

  88. 88.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ken:

    I think Robin Williams was in a movie about it.

    I loved that movie, One Hour Photo. Williams could be so good in dark roles.

    Friends tell me to watch Death To Smoochy but I never seem to get around to it.

    Just looked up IMDB to remind me of the title of OHP, and Williams made that, DTS and Insomnia all in a row.

  89. 89.

    Suzanne

    @Ken:

    Didn’t we used to have a separate device for that? Cam-something.

    And there was some weirdness where you didn’t immediately get the picture, but had to involve your druggist. I think Robin Williams was in a movie about it.

     

    Yeah, but, like, you didn’t bring your camera with you everywhere! Certainly not to something as mundane as picking up a rental truck to move your stuff from a college apartment to a storage unit.

  91. 91.

    kalakal

    I’d bet a lot of money that all the wibbling about a ‘special master’  is because one of his idiot legal advisers mentioned the term and TFG thought it sounded bigly good and bestest. The sort of title only the best people like himself get. In what euphemistically passes for his mind he’s special and he’s a master

  95. 95.

    Barbara

    @kalakal: ​Reduced to its essence, you can call this Trump’s Mulligan Motion, replicating his reputed golf strategy in a litigation context. The FBI/DOJ has a privilege process in place, but Trump wants a different or new person to be in charge, under a different judge. I understand now that Trump did formally object to elements of the original subpoena, but didn’t prevail.

  96. 96.

    Mike in NC

    Glad not to have seen the name ‘Mickey Kaus’ in the last several years. What an asshole.

  97. 97.

    Bunter

    @Kristine: As someone who works in Investor Relations I can say that institutional investors are requiring ESG initiatives and backup so no longer can you say “oh yeah we do that” they want proof. Each year the ESG/DNI templates become longer and get more specific. As a human who lives in the world, this is great. As the person who has to answer the questions and reach out to other departments to get info I didn’t know I’d need in a really short timeline, I curse a lot.

  98. 98.

    Barbara

    @Kevin: ​We actually had a good experience with Avis recently. We rented for what was supposed to be 24 hours but got caught up in snowmageddon, which resulted in late penalties. They basically waived the penalties and charged us a second day rate equivalent to the first day.

    I knew it would be a problem so I made sure I talked to a live person at the counter and didn’t leave until resolution. It’s when you don’t know about the problem until after the fact and have to deal with people by phone that it becomes basically impossible.

  99. 99.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @kalakal: ​

    I’d bet a lot of money that all the wibbling about a ‘special master’ is because one of his idiot legal advisers mentioned the term and TFG thought it sounded bigly good and bestest.

    I think it’s a side effect of the narcissism. He BELIEVES he’s being unjustly persecuted and the files belong to him. He’s entitled to a neutral arbitrator who will give him everything he wants because that’s only fair. Denying him anything is proof of bias against him, after all. That he likes the term ‘special master’ and it sounds like it could override the judge is just icing on the cake of what he deserves, what it’s his right to have.

    EDIT – After all, he’s the 45th president of the United States!

  100. 100.

    JWR

    @Kristine:

    I found this article interesting (still can’t believe I retweeted Bloomberg)

    ESG seems to be the latest Repug bogeyman. I was reading about it someplace, but this, in The Hill, is about Texas’ war on “Woke bankers”, if you can believe it. (Yes, you can believe it. ;) )

    AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’s leading oil and gas regulator on Thursday cheered the state government’s push against environmental, social and governance investing (ESG) “extremists” like BlackRock and UBS.

    “I’m thrilled to see my conservative colleagues join the defense against ‘woke’ Wall Street bankers,” Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Wayne Christian said in the statement.

    “Rally the troops: Here in Texas is where we will draw the line against ESG’s detrimental impact on oil and gas,” he added.

  102. 102.

    Kristine

    @Bunter: I’m glad to hear that. And I really do wonder how hard this will push back against rightwing objectives. Can the GOP insert enough of their own into the financial world fabric to change things like fiduciary rules? Because it just seems to me that the financial world tides are going to swamp them

    ETA: not glad about the cursing. I can imagine the “oh shit what now” can be heartburn-inducing.

  104. 104.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    @Geminid: Free community college would be a terrific idea, since even that has gotten quite costly. The tuition at the JC in my city, which is a terrific school, has gone up a LOT. When I started there in fall of 1998, it was $13 a unit, so for a typical full-load 12-unit semester, $156 for your classes, plus some small fees and cost of books, so anywhere from $200 to $350 depending on if you could find cheap used books. It actually even went DOWN to $12 a unit for a year or so. Now it’s $46 a unit! So $552 just for your tuition per semester. Add in the fees and books, and how is a low-income person supposed to afford forking that out? There is a scholarship fund but I think it’s one of those with a low cut-off as far as who is eligible.

  107. 107.

    kalakal

    @Barbara:

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I really do think the title Special Master has an awful lot to do with it. If the post was called something like Advisory evidence assistant adjudicator he would have no interest whatsover

  110. 110.

    ian

    @JWR: They just use woke for everything they don’t like.  The more they use it, the less impact it will have.  The word woke is completely lost from any original meaning at this point.  Woke bankers?

  111. 111.

    Bunter

    @Kristine: The questionnaires come from Institutional investors worldwide. Our investor base isn’t just US so the GOP might be able to roll back some things but the international community won’t be affected. Also, Wall Street and everything it entails is already GOP leaning. Those of us who aren’t are the outliers. This is where money talks is important because it’s we won’t give you money if you don’t follow ESG/DNI.

  112. 112.

    Citizen Alan

    @NorthLeft:

    We would have scandinavian style socialism in America to a degree that would make Canadians jealous if only there was a way to limit the benefits to white people.  Sadly, a majority of white Americans would rather toil and suffer in misery then accept help through programs that would treat them the same as blacks.

  113. 113.

    MagdaInBlack

    @JWR: It strikes me that “republicans” going after huge private equity firms is probably not the smartest move.

    Carry on, idiots.

  114. 114.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @ian:

    They just use woke for everything they don’t like.

    No, I think it has a specific meaning they use consistently.  It means ‘objects to bigotry in any way’.  It’s the latest dog whistle, that they are very happy with because it has a knee-jerk sound like being ‘woke’ is childish, while not making them admit that they’re just bigots.  If their examples seem ridiculous, it is because they have gone all-in on bigotry and if you are not 100% with them you are against them.

    @ian:

    The more they use it, the less impact it will have.

    I think you’re right.  I hope so.

  117. 117.

    opiejeanne

    @mali muso: It’s from a Sandra Boynton birthday card. My husband gave one to me many years ago and I’ve probably still got it somewhere. https://www.zazzle.com/hippo_birdie_two_ewe_jumbocard_by_sandra_boynton_card-256829172886766096?rf=238974999011995336&tc=EAIaIQobChMI-a7LrK7n-QIVNz6tBh2mpwuNEAQYASABEgL5ifD_BwE&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=us_shopping&utm_term=z256829172886766096&ca_chid=2001810&ca_source=gaw&ca_ace=&ca_nw=g&ca_dev=c&ca_pl=&ca_pos=&ca_cid=576024632378&ca_agid=132546188616&ca_caid=15861899403&ca_adid=576024632378&ca_kwt=&ca_mt=&ca_fid=&ca_tid=pla-1622769175884&ca_lp=9033296&ca_li=&ca_devm=&ca_plt=&gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-a7LrK7n-QIVNz6tBh2mpwuNEAQYASABEgL5ifD_BwE

  118. 118.

    Citizen Alan

    @germy shoemangler:  That arguably happened in 2012 when Mitt “Bain Capital” Romney was the nominee.  It’s very telling that the hedge fund manager nominee was succeeded as head of the party by the blatant grifter nominee.

  119. 119.

    Marc

    @Suzanne: I think people are really underestimating how much sexism and homophobia are just under the surface of the hatred of people who went to college and student loan forgiveness.

    You might want to add “racism” to that list, that one is almost impossible to overestimate.

  121. 121.

    Citizen Alan

    @germy shoemangler:  Lke, seriously, who do they think kept those Klan robes so nice and clean?   Do you think the typical male  from that era has any idea how to get blood stains out of white cotton?

  122. 122.

    Citizen Alan

    @Betty Cracker:  For most Americans Americans and nearly all Americans who never went to college, the word socialism simply means something that pisses off white people. Actual socialists were pulling Is their hair out over accusations that Obamacare was socialist even though it mostly required people to go through private corporations to get health insurance.

  124. 124.

    James E Powell

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    In every campaign cycle since Reagan, the Republicans have developed a euphemism or code term for their bigotry. In every cycle, the political media eagerly embraced & promoted them: Heartland Voters, Values Voters, Economic Anxiety, etc.

  125. 125.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    then people fleeing other Latin American socialist hellholes started arriving, and many proved just as susceptible to Republican lies about bog-standard center-left Dems being socialists

     
    I think we do a poor job of appreciating that a lot of socialist countries have been anti-democratic hellholes and speaking of “socialism” (or what passes for it) as if everyone understands thay means Western Europe.

  126. 126.

    trollhattan

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: Community colleges in California were once free–Republicans fucked that up of course–today, the first two years are free for high school graduates at campuses participating in the California College Promise Program (IDK the fine details). Successful students automatically qualify for the CSU system to complete  a four-year degree.

    Statewide, roughly 70% of all students are members of minority groups, 54% female.

  127. 127.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud:I think we do a poor job of appreciating that a lot of socialist countries have been anti-democratic hellholes and speaking of “socialism” (or what passes for it) as if everyone understands thay means Western Europe.

    This is a very tactfully understated description of certain trends on the left of that last five years or so….

  129. 129.

    VOR

    @artem1s: Think about it, the GOP and Robber Baron class has spent almost the last 100 years trying to undo The New Deal.

    I read a piece recently on Putin’s friend, the one whose daughter was killed in the recent car-bombing in Moscow. He liked an Italian philosopher who advocated for the repeal of the Enlightenment. Steve Bannon is apparently also a big fan of the same Italian philosopher. So it’s not just the New Deal, they want to go back to traditional government like feudalism. How many TFG supporters would be willing to declare TFG as King Donald with either Prince Don Jr. or Princess Ivanka as the next rulers?

  131. 131.

    Kevin

    @Barbara: that was my problem. We drove somewhere with poor cell reception and I didn’t have a chance to follow up until afterward. When they had my money and weren’t gonna give it back. Oh well, still an epic vacation. And a new grudge to hold!

  132. 132.

    Another Scott

    @Nelle: Our visit to Japan in 1998 was like that for us – the train system is astounding.  And it’s not like it’s some super-secret new physics or something.  It’s spending the money and doing the work.

    China, also too.:

    China’s Rail System

    China has built a comprehensive high-speed rail network connecting most provincial capital cities. The national 4+4 grid of 12,000 miles of tracks has been completed. China is now working on the 8+8 rail grid with a total mileage that will connect all Tier 2 Cities by 2030.

    China’s high-speed rail system

    [ The 4+4 National Grid of High Speed Rail (Left) The 2030 8+8 Grid (Right) ]

    The implication of urban spatial organization is obvious. On an average speed of 190 miles per hour, a passenger who boards a high-speed train in Central China can reach any part of China proper (85 percent of the nation’s population) in less than four hours.

    The high-speed rail stations are also impressive. In November 2018, I visited the Shenzhen North station, the largest hub in southern China.

    Shenzen rail station

    [The 300,000 sq. ft. Shenzhen North High Speed Rail Station Concourse]

    With 11 platforms, the Shenzhen North Station allows 20 trains to enter and leave simultaneously. Currently, 300 trains depart each day from this station.

    “But, but…!” the American nay-sayers say. Nope. No buts. It can and should and must be done here. 200 years from now, we’re not going to have zillions of single-occupancy 6000 pound cars moving people in and around cities every single day. We need to get started.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  139. 139.

    trollhattan

    @Another Scott: When I factor in getting to the airport, the two-hours in advance of flight time arrival, the glorious TSA encounters, and flight delays, taking a bullet train to LA or SD sounds fantastic versus flying. Very likely faster in hours consumed and that’s before comparing being on a train versus skytube.

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    @trollhattan: Drum loves being “truth-telling contrarian” on new trains out there.  Yeah, the first routes aren’t ideal, yeah, people will have to change trains and take other machines to get from the stations to where they want to go.  Yeah, it will be more expensive than they estimated – big projects always run over budget.

    It still needs to be done, and still needs to continue long after the first phases.

    My pre-plague rule of thumb was that if it was less than 500-600 miles, driving wins over flying.  A Shinkansen changes that calculus a lot…

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    Barbara

    @JWR: ​As they experience extreme weather events like excessive heat, drought and flooding, all in the space of a single summer.

  142. 142.

    Ruckus

    @Kevin:

    I used to rent cars a lot because I traveled 8-9 months a year for my job. And I agree Avis always just made everything more difficult than necessary. Budget was even more fun. Hertz worked far better. A side note, once when handing the clerk my Hertz card she told me I was in the top 5% of renters. She was surprised because I had the standard Hertz card, not the frequent flyer card. I drove more miles in Hertz cars than in my own vehicle. Good times…….

  143. 143.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    Here in LA we have a decent if not great commuter rail system. Of course you have to be going at least near where they are, as it is a rather incomplete system for the entire county. But 2 1/2 miles from me is the start of what I can take for 45 miles and end up 2 1/2 miles from where I need to go. And there are buses that does run those 2 1/2 miles on each end. It’s called the Metro system and while it is a bit less than grand, it is pretty good. Yes every once in a while there will be someone of less than average cleanliness (not sure they would have any idea what a shower is) sleeping on the train, still it isn’t bad. My 45 mile trip costs me 75 cents for the train and 50 cents for the bus on the other end. That’s old fart rates.

  144. 144.

    VOR

    @Another Scott: Part of the problem w/California high speed rail is that nobody involved has any experience with it. Everyone involved is learning on the job. In China and Japan, they have a pool of companies and individuals who have done it before. Add in difficult terrain (mountains and seismic zones) and no surprise it’s over budget.

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