I love when the date above is the same forwards and backwards. It’s my fave.
We’ve entered the finding out portion of the fucking around.
Car explosion kills daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugin, Russia says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/21/daria-dugina-car-explosion-moscow-putin/
Yikes.
Student shot dead in Alabama forest by woman posing as stranded motorist, police say
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/alabama-adam-simjee-talladega-national-forest-police
Interesting!
Appeals court pauses order for Graham to testify before Atlanta grand jury
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/21/lindsey-graham-atlanta-grand-jury-2020-election
Neat! Though I don’t think the carpenters are actually medieval.
‘They said it was impossible’: how medieval carpenters are rebuilding Notre Dame
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/20/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-rebuild-medieval-carpenters-guledon
Sprots!
Quiet quitting isn’t a thing! It’s just called doing your job, no more!
‘Quiet quitting’ isn’t really about quitting. Here are the signs.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/21/quiet-quitting-what-to-know/
The people in my facebook who think that “I pAiD mY LoANs whY shoUlD tHeY GeT thEIRs PaId” is too many!
Student loan announcement to come in ‘next week or so,’ Education secretary says ahead of deadline
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/21/politics/student-loans-biden-administration-deadline/index.html
I legit Lol’d
Me, trying to get through this week…
Have a great day!
You know what we need is this:
Also, let me introduce you to Matthew Robinson, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Conservatives. I didn’t know who he was either, but he just endorsed Liz Truss in the “Who Wants to Be a British Prime Minister?” sweepstakes. This is an old article and the website is junked up but scroll past the video and get to the headshot. I have never seen a more alluring hairflip!
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/ni-tory-chairman-boris-johnson-fully-behind-us-3700145
He should give styling tips to his fellow Party member Michael Fabricant, MP-Lichfield, Staffs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Fabricant
Fabrican’t looks he’s wearing a blond Beatles wig/toupee/hair system that is too young for his haggard face.
He’s a not-young-looking 72.
What is it with aging British politicians and fake blond hair?
Eh, never mind. We’ve got Trump. I can’t even begin to take the fashion high ground.
When I cat sat for a friend, I watched her rather chunky cat try to jump from the window sill to the TV. Chunky pretty much did as this pup did and I laughed. Chunky got her revenge later when she batted me in the face to wake me up at 430am. She wasn’t hungry, she just paid me back for laughing at her.
If anyone still thinks humans are that much better than animals, I present the 100,000,000 videos of the “I meant to do that (after whiffing)” genre.
I’ve said it before. I paid back every penny of my student loans, and my wife’s too. And if people get theirs forgiven, that’s absolutely fucking fine with me.
I can’t understand the objections. It would be one thing if forgiving the loans put banks out of business or something, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t impact them much at all. And the predatory lenders should have been put out of business to begin with.
The whole objection thing seems to be “you got something that I didn’t,” which is A. how life works and B. completely fucking petty.
That objection is one of the foundational pieces of the conservative brain.
Time for a new list:
Things other people got that I didn’t.
1. Brad Pitts’ looks. Brad got ’em.
2. Kennedy money.
3. Sofia Vergara. Joe Manganiello got her.
4. Joe Manganiello’s looks.
5. DuPont money.
6. Walton money.
7. Mars money.
8. I COULD DO THIS FOREVER.
Holy shit, look at all those people who got things I didn’t get through no real effort on their part. Okay, Brad and Joe work out a lot, I’m sure, but they still started WAY ahead of me. I think I’ll sit and brood all day about how unfair things are because that’s incredibly useful.
Ah. but they can explain that away: God’s will for stuff you can’t buy (talent, looks, Sofia Vergara’s phone number) and lots of hard work for money. Don’t think of it logically — mostly because it isn’t — but it truly is a bedrock belief of the closed mind, that anything that helps other people but doesn’t specifically also help them is some sort of trap.
I was just reading about this yesterday. Outstanding student debt in this country is about $1.9 trillion. That’s about the same figure as the country’s outstanding automobile debt. I thought that was an interesting coincidence. The writer took it a step further. To paraphrase:
“It would be far, far better to forgive auto debt, which a lot more Americans have, than debt for a small subset of the population paying off bogus degrees from woke Marxist colleges. You can use your car to get to a job where you can be self-reliant and pay taxes. If you have one of these gender non-conforming basket weaving degrees you won’t have a job and you’ll be living on handouts all your life.”
I didn’t see that coming. PS: We paid off our college debts too but if I’m remembering correctly full-freight at just one year at my college in 2022 would have paid for six or seven years when I went there (not adjusting for inflation, and I’m not that young, but we haven’t had 700% inflation in everything else in the those intervening years. According to an online calculator it’s been less than 200% overall.)
It’s always funny because the righties are like “No, we should do this loan forgiveness” but as soon as that’s suggested they’re like “Sorry, no can do, communism.”
But I’m guessing that writer had zero problem with the PPP loan forgiveness because it was going to the “right” people.
Same. We toured my university with my daughter — a single year’s tuition was more than all four years of mine back when. She’s going to a state school for free.
And that has to be the worst comparison ever. Yes, a car that has at best a 10-year lifespan is equivalent to a college degree. What the actual fuck? And I’ve got a newsflash: Cars don’t get people jobs.
I will agree to the extent that colleges and universities should do a MUCH better job counselling students about career plans and options. Frankly, so should parents. But that’s a much different argument than making some kid pay back $200,000 that he was promised would net him a high-paying job by a college admissions “counsellor” working on quotas and commissions.
Colleges and universities have zero incentive to counsel their students on proper career and educational planning. This is how they make all that fucking money. If I had been given a truly clear picture of what my career prospects would look like after graduation, I would have gone in a completely different direction–maybe even dropped out of college altogether and gone to a trade school. No university in the world will be doing this.
I read somewhere that the next big bubble to collapse will be colleges and universities. They’ve become used-car salesmen more than a career gateway. But I’m still waiting to see it happen.
They’re other big scam is out of state tuition. I was a fucking resident of the state of the school where I got my degree, but because I hadn’t lived there for a calendar year they refused to give me in-state tuition. I told those fuckers that they’d better enjoy that money because they would never see a solitary fucking dime of it from me in their alumni drives. Every time I would get something from them in the mail it went straight to the trash without opening.
Your ability to hold a grudge earns my respect. Well done.
Handwringng articles about college cancel culture, college affirmative action, and now student loan forgiveness have a blatant subtext —
It’s gatekeepers freaking about the possibility that other people might get in and the old system that favored legacies, donors and high school squash players might go away.
AG Sulzberger got into Brown despite being a dim bulb because his family runs the NY Times, and he’s biting his nails to the quick every day that his kids might end up at a SUNY.
Douthat will bend over backwards to ignore JD Vance’s hopeless amoral hackery because he is banking on the continued growth of the pipeline of conservative affirmative action cases that got Vance into Yale.
The dumb thing is if the right-wing affirmative action network continues to grow, Sulzberger and Douthat will find their kids are locked out. They won’t be happy if Tom Cotton and Sarah Huckabee Sanders end up holding the keys.
My conservative friend and I had this argument recently. He said that he doesn’t want to pay for some kid to stay in school studying basket weaving for 10 years. I couldn’t quite convince him that was not how it works. I know most colleges in our area you are on a time limit to finish your degree.
It’s a poor argument on the face of it. There’s not a basket-weaving major. Frankly, though I am not satisfied that colleges and universities do an adequate job of career counseling, I’m not aware of any degree that doesn’t have a basic career application. Now whether or not the career is viable or the field is growing can be argued (theater, anyone?). But nobody’s majoring in something that has zero actual career application. And nobody takes 10 years to learn basket weaving or anything else that’s not highly specialized like medicine. My kid mastered basket weaving in second grade art class. We still have the baskets.
Around here, DeSantis is eliminating the careers that apply to teaching to destroy the educational system. And while I wouldn’t encourage anyone to study education, it’s a career path. Just one that Republicans find objectionable.
Whispers {I majored in religious studies and Spanish}
My wife and I majored in English. When we graduated, we couldn’t get arrested. We both got menial jobs. Mine was at the university which entitled me to free tuition, so we both got master’s degrees. Also useless but free. It wasn’t until 8 years later that I got a crap job as a writer, which eventually led to me being able to make a decent living.
Honestly, I made the wrong turn at every decision point. My parents were disengaged and offered no advice at all. They were first-generation college graduates and were still of the mindset that “any old degree will do.” My wife’s father was the same.
What we really needed was someone to sit us down and go over all this with us and force us to acknowledge reality and make. a. plan. That person didn’t exist — career services at my university (I eventually went there) were understaffed and also out of touch with reality. And I saw a bunch of other students there in the exact same boat, and have talked to many of my peers since who did the same thing.
Like Butcher points out, it was a plain old cash grab. Nobody wanted to help you reach a goal, and if your personal network of family/friends didn’t step up, there was nobody telling you this was all a bad idea.
We’ve kind of made it work, but my life would have been so much easier and my income so much better if I’d said, y’know, I’m okay with numbers. I’m gonna study accounting.
But to tie this to other commentary, that’s all MY FAULT. I did it to ME. I wish there had been other options to guide me, but I can’t point at my college for my entire life and say, I got screwed. I know people who are doing that too. I screwed myself. I own that.
Best I can do now is make sure my kid understands reality and can intelligently choose options.
Regarding this part, “and if your personal network of family/friends didn’t step up, there was nobody telling you this was all a bad idea.”?
That’s why I’m still a bit shocked, when I think back on the advice I was given, when we had a lunchtime conversation about college, internships, & apprenticeships, back when I did summer-stock theater out in Utah, almost 25 years ago.
Rosemary Ingham was one of the costume designers out there those years, and she literally co-wrote the books EVERYONE in costuming used/uses.
I was struggling to make it through** college, and asked Rosemary after that lunch conversation–as we were gathering our things to go back down to the shop–if there were any apprenticeship-type programs, where a person could learn “the good stuff” in costuming.
She said no, but gave me the advice that completely changed the track of my life–and eventually led me to where I am now, working with my kiddos.
“If you want to be in costume design, take a year off, go do it, and see if you like that type of lifestyle. You don’t need a degree in it–MY degrees aren’t in costuming. Just take a year, see if you like it, and then do it–don’t *bother* getting a degree in it, you’ll never make enough to pay back the loans for it!”
She was a college professor, who was *THE AUTHOR & DESIGNER* we allllllllllookedup to, and who.wrote.our.textbooks!!!!!
So, obviously I followed her advice, quit the theater program i had been working toward, and took that year to decide…
During that year, I worked a day job at the daycare in my hometown, and I started first volunteering, then *working* as a costumer in local theaters. I moved to Minneapolis with a bunch of theater friends the following year, and ended up in the sewn-goods industry (The dancewear/skatewear/cheerleading costumes place for years, then the place I worked at with Eddie Beale, then another sewn-goods place)– for 15 years in that field all together, before losing that last job & going back to school to work with kids.
Because I made diddly-squat most of those years, I was in default on my loans for a looong time…
But I’d gotten them out of default, and been paying them down for a while, when I lost that last job in the old career-field. That was why I was able to go back to school, via the Dislocated Worker program, and got my AS & AAS–the tuition, books, & fees were covered by the program–although I *did* tap student loans to cover my rent & living expenses (car repairs-so I could get to campus, food, etc).
And *technically* i was a “failure” for the Dislocated Worker program–you’re supposed to get a full-time job in your field, once you finish the degree that the program pays for (2-3 years)…. buuuut I discovered that I wanted to keep going, to get my teaching license in ECSE–which means *at minimum* grad certification, here in MN–sometimes a full Masters….
So yes, I’m a technical “failure” in the program–but only because I’m getting far more schooling & certification than the program expects of it’s participants–*and* I’ll be going into an even more “High-Need” career specialty than my original “Child Development” associates program was for!😉💖
(**I’d flunked out once, and was struggling to *not* get put on academic suspension again–part of it was depression, but 20+ years later, I also got my ADHD disgnosis!).
Plus, speaking as someone who took 25 fucking years to pay his off, by forgiving all those student loans for everyone else, it will generate a fucking gigantic wave of economic growth, which will benefit everyone–including people like me who already paid theirs off. As a country, we have so completely bought into the lie that I only have to look out for myself and screw everyone else, that we ignore every single opportunity to improve our own lots in life by making sure that others are taken care of as well.
How’s that climate change thing working out for you, Texas?
Dallas area hit by severe flash floods; cars float in water-filled roads
Just fine because as far as they’re concerned it doesn’t exist. Better to blame the Democrats for…something.
I think right now in Texas the thing to do is blame Biden’s “Open Borders” policy.
If we’d built a wall those floodwaters wouldn’t be able to sneak in!
My idea has been to build a wall around the entire state of Texas, as a way to keep their crazy contained.
That quiet quitting article is another one of those weird business articles supposedly pitched at front line professionals but are really just about making executives feel good.
They’re weird because the readership numbers aren’t driven by execs, they’re driven by workers.
This weird perspective overwhelmingly dominates business articles though, because newsroom execs set the agenda, and they don’t really want readers, they want validation.
I’m seeing the whole “quiet quitting” thing all over the place. It’s a self-replicating media meme for writers starved for content. As Meg points out, it’s not a new phenomenon. Nor is it rare. It’s designed to try to convince people that if they’re not working 70 hours a week they’re not doing it “right.” Mostly as a reaction to the huge surge in workers demanding a decent quality of life.
The article came so close to the actual issue, which is the outsized impact that direct supervisors have on a worker’s level of engagement. I liked that they actually mentioned engagement, but then they talked about a bunch of shit that has nothing to do with it. When I was a manager, I read the biannual Gallup State of the American Workforce report and it was a revelation.
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx
Basically, we’ve been stuck at a ratio of 30% engaged workers, 50% disengaged workers and 20% activity disengaged workers for pretty much forever. The actively disengaged workers are the people who are going out of their way to sabotage the company because they are so fucking over being treated like shit. My employer (which is actually pretty good, generally speaking) had an all staff meeting not too long ago about engagement and I posed the question of when will executive leadership start recruiting managers based on an actual skill set, rather than as a reward for tenure (which is pretty much the model most employers use). They “ummed” and “ahhed” their way through a non-answer which told me everything I needed to know. I currently have an excellent boss, so I’m in good shape as long as he doesn’t go anywhere, but there are a ton of sociopaths managing people at my company who are responsible for an astronomical rate of turnover that need to be given the boot.
You’re a horrible person. Managers with skills? Next thing you’ll be asking for is a manager with a back bone! Then maybe a manager you respect? What kind of nonsense is that! NOT A TEAM PLAYER!
Allow me to rephrase, Manchu.
Dear Mr. Butcher:
We have received your input on the hiring process at our company, and we will certainly take it under advisement. At the present time, we are committed to providing a career path for employees who have proven their commitment to the company by their career longevity. It is our policy that such individuals can be promoted to improve the effectiveness of personnel at the operations level. We make our decision based on the productivity of individual employees, and we prefer to promote those whose absence will not prove detrimental to the performance of assigned daily tasks. We have not found it cost-effective to reach beyond our own existing staff as part of the hiring process. We appreciate your concerns.
Best regards, management
In other words, we find the most useless fucker and promote that asshole because promoting good employees means less work gets done. We call it the Peter Principle.
I keep seeing these articles and all I ever think is “quiet quitting” should actually be called “doing the job you’re getting paid for.”
Every time I hear it or see it I get irrationally mad.
If this is another chorizo, I am no longer hungry…
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2022/08/20/in-photos-see-the-spectacular-new-images-of-jupiter-and-its-swirling-storms-taken-last-week-by-nasas-juno-spacecraft/?sh=63d036a16d27
Seems like a familiar solution?
https://truthout.org/articles/europe-is-trying-to-solve-its-energy-crisis-with-fossil-fuel-projects-in-africa/
Ok Seahawks, I found you a new punt returner…
Eric Adams made the front page of the NY Times, and not in a good way.
The problem? — the Times was beaten on most of the details by Politico six months ago and more, but they never credited their competitor.
It’s awful — the Times slept on a big story in their own backyard, got beaten badly, and when they finally get around to dealing with it failed to admit what happened.
Basically, a repeat of how the blew Cuomo coverage. It’s an institutional problem that clearly isn’t getting better.
I could go on about the Times, and Mayor Adams, but you will have read novels that are shorter than what I could write off the top of my head. And that includes the 19th-century Russian ones. Maggie Haberman’s book about Donald Trump is dropping October 4th. If I can get someone to give me a free copy I will hate-read it and report back.
Everything about this story screams “We want it to win awards” and you can’t do that if you admit that the idea came from a competitor and you wanted to see how true it was (even if that’s the truth and honestly, is perfectly fine journalism. Once upon a time, outlets did not just take each other’s word on stuff!)
It does make sense that this is the story they’d send their political team out to do, though, rather than “Does Eric Adams have a policy?” or “Does Eric Adams know what the word ‘policy’ means?”
Edit to add: The Times has become the poster child for this sort of court intrigue as politics coverage shit but the reality is that it’s everywhere now and clearly nobody has learned anything from the past 6 years.
Ahem. Turtle content.
Endangered sea turtles found on Louisiana islands for first time in 75 years
Neature!
If you’re interested in NYC politics at all the Times is useless. Along with Politico, I get daily newsletters from https://www.thecity.nyc and https://www.cityandstateny.com
It’s a sign of the institutional failures at the Times that reporters who end up covering local issues are basically on a dead end for their careers, unless they’re covering the arts for some reason.
It’s hard to think of a better proving ground for a young reporter than NYC issues, but it seems as though execs are afraid of a model where reporters can get good stories if they knock on a thousand doors and sift through a million records to come up with a tough but fair article. They’d rather just publish confusing, watered down source-schmoozing DC stuff.
Stay the fuck out of the Talledega region entirely. If you drive by the raceway, you’re gonna see confederate flags, trump flags, white supremacist group flags, etc.
A few years ago when a tornado struck during a race weekend I kinda was like huh maybe there is a god?