Tuco

Yep. When dental insurance become more common, the cost of dental visits increased. When college loans become more subsidized, the cost of college increased. Parents who support these measures are frequently looking at the current rate structures, not understanding that they will increase almost dollar for dollar with the subsidy. Granted, the extra subsidies for the schools will create motivation for more seats, and more access. But, if it is at the expense of public school quality, it will also increase demand for those seats. If you can’t afford private school now, you still won’t with the vouchers. In the end, it’s still a question of competing with other people for seats and your relative position against your competition doesn’t change, neither does your access, assuming the same overall spend on education.

I love it when idiots crying for diplomacy don't recognize it.

Sounds to me it's increasing the IQ of the average recruit.

I loved the early seasons. The episode where Coach gets worked by a cardshark and they bring in Harry the Hat to get the money back is my favorite. Later, it seemed like they played the characters for quick laughs. Sam particularly. Early seasons he is uneducated and uncultured, but still smart and charismatic. Later seasons he was just a clown to be laughed at. Still funny, but lazy writing and not that much better than other TV. Almost didn’t watch the finale, but they brought back the original writers, and it was well done.

I moved from Omaha to Seattle a year ago this month. Politics were a big part of it, particularly since my wife worked on a failed Congressional race. She was all sorts of fuck-this-town, and I like her quite a bit, so whatcha goin to do. My parents are old, and dying, in the general cantankerous way old, smart, insane people do. I left my sisters to deal with that. I feel bad about that. I’ve got the Catholic upbringing to reinforce the guilt. Other than that, no regrets. I mean, you pay those prices for a reason. And frankly, anytime I think about sitting on my ass for a weekend, I remember that I am paying roughly $100 a day in rent to be here, and I get my ass to a mountain. Or a sound. $150 to go watch some whales, with a glacier capped volcano backdrop seems perfectly reasonable. And it is. Because orcas are badass apex predators, who, for some idiotic reason, don’t attack humans. My lust-for-life is primarily driven by the fact that I am a frugal bastard. And my daughter moved to Dallas. Fuck.

This is the painful thing as a native Nebraskan who was in high school in the 80s. I recognize that there was no greater champion of the rural Midwest in the 80s than J©M. I also recognize that there is no greater doggish allegiance to the “conservative” dogma than the rural Midwest. I wonder if John (and Willy) had just wished they let the small towns get fucked by free market forces they so adore.

I don't know. It sounds like a decent percentage of them have had unprotected sex with Walker. So it could go either way.

I wonder how much the lotteries have added to the problem. They created this fantasy world where ordinary people see themselves as wildly rich. And what's the first thing people say, "Sure, it's 400 millions dollars, but after taxes it's only like 250 million. Fucking government stealing my hard earned money." Never mind that lotteries are actually government conning people out of their hard earned money, one stupid dollar at a time.

Which is (or should be) the point of Congressional hearings - determining why a shitty thing happened so you craft laws that reduce the possibility of a repeat in the future. Criminal charges are not the goal. (Not directed at Twice.)

Great post. Part of the math that I keep coming back to: Russia has around 130M people. Ukraine had* around 43M. So, about 3 to 1. Every three Russians need to produce the extra resources to control one Ukrainian. Or they need to divert those resources from other uses. Initially, that gets obscured by cash and military reserves. Later, heavy borrowing can delay the impacts. But, sooner or later, they have to pay the bill. It's just not sustainable. Compare that to Iraq, where the US:Iraq ratio was around 12:1. And Americans are richer than Russians. And we had help. And the only help Iraq had was Iran. And it still wasn't sustainable. *"Had". Certainly Ukraine's population has decreased since the invasion, mostly through people fleeing the country. Russia focusing on the land bridge territory also can change the ratio. Forced relocation may be part of the plan, but that may just be moving the problem; they still need to spend resources on controlling hostile people.

My former company, Vickers, was fucked by a Welch disciple, John Weber, back in the 90s. Weber ended up hiring a bunch stooges from Texas Instruments, probably because Vickers couldn't afford more GE pricks. The place was such a fucking shit show. There is something so galling about undeserved arrogance coupled with utter incompetence. I remember the plant manager hired an engineering manager, based on sitting next to him on a plane. The engineering manager turned out to be a complete conman, who lied about his education and experience. He ended up getting escorted out by police and left he company with several sexual harrassment suits. Fuck or fired type harassment. The perfect conclusion to this shit show was Weber getting a feature piece in the Wall Street Journal. The final line: "We've broken all the china," Mr. Weber says. "Now we've got to get it glued back together." Within two weeks Weber took a CEO position with a smaller company, leaving a wake of broken china. Vickers was sold to Eaton shortly after. My plant, which typically ran around 1100 employees, was closed. I didn't know him, but there was one guy who ate a shotgun over it. I was one of the last 5 employees in the joint. Definitely left a mark. I don't blame Welch for any of that. I don't blame corporate greed. I don't have much respect for Welch. He figured out how to make a languishing electronic-heavy equipment company profitable during a technological revolution. Sure, that's not easy, but is it really that hard? He didn't invent shit. He didn't start shit. But I will give him credit for being competent. And, as an employee who has been negatively impacted by gross incompetence, competence is important. When talking about corporate leadership, I will take a competent asshole over nice moron. Unfortunately, it is frequently just an incompetent asshole, and that's the real problem. I will throw blame towards the corporate/media circle-jerk that deifies folks like Welch, and pushes the idea that leaders are just better for being around him. I think the more likely dynamic is that people who leave very successful companies do so because their advancement is not in line with their ambition. The belief about a disciple is generally "he must have learned a lot from Welch." Maybe instead it should be "Welch must not think that much of him." Right now, Tesla is the new GE.

If nothing else, there are enough defense industry lobbyists up the GOP’s ass to keep the support rolling after 2022. Every billion committed, is a billion in sales. Disclaimer 1: the defense lobbyists are also up the Dems’ ass. Disclaimer 2: I still agree with the spending. But we shouldn’t lose sight of who benefits and how it affects our rent-seeking political system.

I've heard that much of the ammunition is ending up criminals' heads and torsos.

It's the ones who respond you should worry about. For this cycle, I have done practically nothing. I moved from Nebraska to Seattle last year. Republicans aren't built for this climate. I've given some green to a couple of Nebraskan Democrats in a Quixotic effort to loosen the grip of stupidity on my homeland. It's more about penance than hope.

I’m afraid you are wrong. There will be blowback against the Dems for not protecting abortion rights. I went to a protest last night, not realizing it was a Democratic Socialist rally. So, sure, take it with a grain of salt, but it was a constant barrage against Dems for failing to prevent this. They cited the empty campaign promises about “codifying” Roe v Wade. They claimed the Dems had the power to prevent this by expanding the Court. The worst accusation was that they still did not have a plan to stop it. The scary thing is, if you really didn’t have any idea what the fuck is going on, it sounds convincing. And there are a lot of stupid people out there. So I hope you are right, but I am afraid you are wrong.

Don’t be silly; his toes couldn’t hold that weight.

East of Ravenna. North of Laurelhurst. Don’t know Seattle well enough to really know what I am.

East of Ravenna. North of Laurelhurst. Don’t know Seattle well enough to really know what I am.

I just signed a lease on a house within walking distance of Husky stadium. Figure I should start following this thread.

I just signed a lease on a house within walking distance of Husky stadium. Figure I should start following this thread.

I think Trump just conflates morality with success. If Russia took Kiev in a week, then Putin would be a genius and any war crimes are forgotten. But, with Russia struggling, Putin loses that grace.

I enjoyed it immensely. His shit has always been more charmingly weird than LOL funny. But the long lead up to the fresco joke was genuinely fucking funny. I got a kick out the activist shit. To each their own, I guess.

Wishing death for the soldiers of an enemy army is not a controversial opinion. Seriously, wtf?

What a bunch of horseshit. The bill didn’t get GOP votes because the GOP doesn’t want its members to vote for it. It’s got fuckall to do with the contents of the bill. The GOP doesn’t want a “bipartisan” legalization bill to hit the Senate, so they make absolutely fucking sure it’s a party-line vote. The rest is pure spin nonsense.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Putin’s support over the next couple of months. I have to think that for the average piece of shit Putin supporter, they saw this conflict as a war of convenience. Rah Rah, go kick some ass and demonstrate our superiority to the world. I wonder how many really saw it as such a threat they’re cool with Putin conscripting their sons and husbands?