2020 Election Thoughts

[Balta1701]

1 hour ago, The Beast said:

As an education system and in society, kids and young adults need better assessments of their skills and interests throughout their young lives, taking inventory of all of the possible careers they could be interested in, taking inventory of their skills and weaknesses that could be developed to get them into careers. It needs to be done early and reinforced better throughout high school so that young adults know more about themselves when they are looking at colleges in majors, that way they don’t just pick something for the sake of picking something. Doing all of this would help young adults make better career choices. 

Adults in this country change jobs and careers what, 3 or 4 times on average? And you go into a career and then the business collapses because of a housing bust or because of a leveraged buyout? But we need to do a better job of convincing high school students to plan for and choose a path to a permanent job, so that they can stay there for 30 years?

Not in the world we’ve built. 

[Texsox]

4 hours ago, Two-Gun Pete said:

Yeah, I see that this had already been covered before i got back to you. But, centuries before petty nobility member Karl Marx wrote that bullshit, rich Dutch businessmen from Amsterdam and Rotterdam paid a fuckton to have paintings done of them. Centuries before that, the Catholic Church paid a fuckton of money to have paintings and sculptures done for them. Centuries before that, Roman emperors did the same, and so did the ancient Egyptian pharaohs as well.

So, aside from Marx having been a shit talker who never worked a day in his life, the rich have always supported the arts and music. 

 

To the bolded, what if youre self employed? Do you get screwed out of a free education, while sheeple who work in corporate America get theirs for free? What if you work for a non-profit that do not have the funding to pay for your education? 

 

While I agree with more equitable funding of education, I don't know that having "businesses pay for your education" will turn out at all as you envisioned.

Not to many self employed 18 year old,  probably not enough to worry about,  but sure,  we'll add them in too. I'm not certain why you thought I required people to be employed to go to college. 

We already pay for 13 years of public education,  increasing that to 15 or 17 seems doable. There are people around the world willing to work for a standard of living far below ours. The choice becomes a better educated work force or eventually accepting workers living in dirt floor dwellings accepting sustenance wages for manufacturing consumer goods. 

The most successful American companies are employing far few employees and for lower wages than previous generations. We're rapidly losing a middle class. 

 

 

 

[Texsox]

It's been just over 100 years since all states offered public education through 12th grade. The population then felt it was in the public interest to use public tax dollars to educate everyone. Much like police and fire services there was a general benefit to everyone as America was the best educated country. 

The world has changed a lot since the last state Mississippi, added high school in 1917. Back then a high school diploma would increase your value in a job search,  now it's a basic requirement. Eventually,  we'll make the same decision that was made 100 years ago,  add a couple years to a basic education. I see it happening through the community college system with many families still opting for private or bigger public universities at higher prices. 

[The Beast]

4 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

Adults in this country change jobs and careers what, 3 or 4 times on average? And you go into a career and then the business collapses because of a housing bust or because of a leveraged buyout? But we need to do a better job of convincing high school students to plan for and choose a path to a permanent job, so that they can stay there for 30 years?

Not in the world we’ve built. 

Adults can change jobs every 3-4 times on average but careers? How often would someone from business go to nursing and then go to another trained profession in a lifetime?

Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough. High school kids need to know what they are good at, what they have an aptitude for and what they are interested in so they know the careers that are available. Let’s say a kid is a journalism major, goes to school and finds out he doesn’t like journalism anymore or where the job market is. He switches to business and graduates. Then he goes and works at some job in business. He finds out that he has an interest in helping people and because he knew what weaknesses could be strengths in terms of coursework, he goes on to be a nurse. Wouldn’t it be better to know what you are capable of, have an interest in and an aptitude for before you go to college?  Smart inventories or aptitude tests could at least offer some better guidance instead of floundering and trying on different shoes to see what fits. It might help better decisions being made sooner. Otherwise someone in the working world could have responsibilities and be fucked or slow to make a career change because of responsibilities. I’m probably off base but I do think better career assessments are needed earlier on for high school kids.

Edited December 28, 2020 by The Beast

[Dick Allen]

Of the 7 million votes cast in PA, so far there have been 3 cases of voter fraud found. All 3 were Trump supporters.

[southsider2k5]

 

[NWINFan]

22 hours ago, Dick Allen said:

Of the 7 million votes cast in PA, so far there have been 3 cases of voter fraud found. All 3 were Trump supporters.

I'm not surprised at this one bit. But this doesn't matter to the Trumpies. They still carry on this persecution complex and still live in some strange world. Regardless, this has become so tiresome. It will be nice when two days pass: January 6 and January 20. They can protest all they want, but their man is done, has been done for a while.

[CentralChamps21]

19 minutes ago, NWINFan said:

I'm not surprised at this one bit. But this doesn't matter to the Trumpies. They still carry on this persecution complex and still live in some strange world. Regardless, this has become so tiresome. It will be nice when two days pass: January 6 and January 20. They can protest all they want, but their man is done, has been done for a while.

People buy so hard into political rhetoric that they don't think for themselves at all anymore. My mom has several friends she knows from back in high school that are public school teachers in Indiana, and post complaints on Facebook about low teacher pay sandwiched in between QAnon-fueled right-wing conspiracy theory memes, not even bothering to notice that it's the Republican-controlled state legislature that won't give them more money.

[The Beast]

I think many have already addressed this but as we get closer, what are the predictions for the Georgia runoff? Who you got?

[CentralChamps21]

43 minutes ago, The Beast said:

I think many have already addressed this but as we get closer, what are the predictions for the Georgia runoff? Who you got?

Polling shows Perdue up by about ½ percent and Loeffler losing by about ½ percent, so I couldn't begin to predict, but I have a question for the one percent who are splitting their vote: WHAT THE F**K???

[Balta1701]

1 hour ago, The Beast said:

I think many have already addressed this but as we get closer, what are the predictions for the Georgia runoff? Who you got?

[pcq]

18 minutes ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

Polling shows Perdue up by about ½ percent and Loeffler losing by about ½ percent, so I couldn't begin to predict, but I have a question for the one percent who are splitting their vote: WHAT THE F**K???

Looks like more voters, more suppression and bad polling. Toss-up. Commies v capitalists. 

[NWINFan]

15 hours ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

People buy so hard into political rhetoric that they don't think for themselves at all anymore. My mom has several friends she knows from back in high school that are public school teachers in Indiana, and post complaints on Facebook about low teacher pay sandwiched in between QAnon-fueled right-wing conspiracy theory memes, not even bothering to notice that it's the Republican-controlled state legislature that won't give them more money.

Living in Indiana also, I wonder about many things. And QAnon gives conspiracies a bad name. If you're going to believe in a conspiracy, believe in something that has facts behind it, not superstitions.

[southsider2k5]

1 hour ago, NWINFan said:

Living in Indiana also, I wonder about many things. And QAnon gives conspiracies a bad name. If you're going to believe in a conspiracy, believe in something that has facts behind it, not superstitions.

I have as much interest in conspiracy theory as the next guy, but the stuff coming out of this group is such obvious garbage.  The fact is it exists only to hide the President's own similar activities, that is the most amazing part of all.  They get all excited about Hunter and the Urkaine, which has no basis in fact, and it only serves to distract from the President and Ukraine.  Its the same thing with China.  Like do people know how much money the President owes the Bank of China?  DId they see him kissing the dictators ass as the pandemic started?  It is obvious who is in bed there.

[Texsox]

16 hours ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

Polling shows Perdue up by about ½ percent and Loeffler losing by about ½ percent, so I couldn't begin to predict, but I have a question for the one percent who are splitting their vote: WHAT THE F**K???

Voting for individuals not the party. While I'm not a fan of either senator from Texas I'd vote for any D over Cruz. It would take a little more, probably not much,  in the race versus Cornyn.  

It could be far more than one percent.  That's the net result. 

[StrangeSox]

 

[Quin]

On 12/27/2020 at 10:47 AM, Two-Gun Pete said:

LOL, I have the exact opposite example of a client whose daughter wanted to go to Mizzou Journalism School. However, her parents were divorced, and the savings weren't in place for her to pay for it.

She wanted to stoopidly squander tens of thousands of dollars, taking 100-level classes, while living in a dorm for a couple of years. According to This, she was looking at $23k/yr, at least until she got Missouri residency.

Instead, she took additional AP level classes her senior year of high school, which cut into the entry level courses she needed. Then, she took more of the useless 100-level courses at a local juco. Between the AP classes and juco, she was able to finish all her prerequisites in one year, having spent some~$5k, all in; had she gone to Mizzou straight away, it could have been as much as $46k in debt, plus interest for the same outcome.

She then transferred to Mizzou Journalism, graduated, and is now working up in Milwaukee. What sets her apart from her peers is that she has ~$40k less in debt, and can support herself, AND pay off her debt. She can go to grad school without worrying about being perma-poor. She can choose to start a business in the future, and provide value, opportunity, and innovation, if she wants. She can settle down, get married, start a family, and buy real estate, if she wants.

 

Consigning our young to a lifetime of debt servitude aint worth a couple years in a dorm. The numbers simply don't lie. We as a society need to choose better, IMO.

So I took a holiday break from this thread.

You're looking at one year at that rate to establish residency, for context. That's still no small amount, but the difference ends up being $18k (23k - $5k) instead of $41k. I also took AP courses to cut down on my pre-reqs and would have been able to graduate early. Instead, I worked a majority of my senior year as a part-time student with reduced tuition and prepped for grad school — had I graduated early, I wouldn't have done grad school, as my program didn't exist until my final semester). I know I speak from a place of privilege where I had a lot of money knocked off from scholarships and then had the rest covered by my parents.

[Harry Chappas]

19 hours ago, WhiteSoxFan1993 said:

People buy so hard into political rhetoric that they don't think for themselves at all anymore. My mom has several friends she knows from back in high school that are public school teachers in Indiana, and post complaints on Facebook about low teacher pay sandwiched in between QAnon-fueled right-wing conspiracy theory memes, not even bothering to notice that it's the Republican-controlled state legislature that won't give them more money.

They should move to Illinois then retire to Indiana. 

 

[Texsox]

My general recommendation to my seniors is don't borrow for your first two years. Community college or one of the local four year public schools. But then go away for at least two years. It makes the most sense for the most students. I do have those that are prepping for med school or a top law school and it's not as clear cut for the.  

[southsider2k5]

 

[Texsox]

2 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

 

I'm slightly surprised that everyone did everything perfectly. 

[Soxbadger]

1 hour ago, Texsox said:

I'm slightly surprised that everyone did everything perfectly. 

Voter fraud is a stupid crime. The likelihood that your 1 vote is going to make a difference is so low that you are basically taking the risk of going to jail for nothing. That is why all of the allegations require some sort of conspiracy at a much higher level.  It is hard to imagine thousands of people getting together to each vote 1 time fraudulently or 1 person being able to do it thousands of times.

[Texsox]

1 hour ago, Soxbadger said:

Voter fraud is a stupid crime. The likelihood that your 1 vote is going to make a difference is so low that you are basically taking the risk of going to jail for nothing. That is why all of the allegations require some sort of conspiracy at a much higher level.  It is hard to imagine thousands of people getting together to each vote 1 time fraudulently or 1 person being able to do it thousands of times.

Agreed. 

What surprised me was every vote was 100% in compliance. Dates, signatures, every line on every ballot was correct. No one moved out of state but kept voting in Georgia. It's pretty remarkable that 15,000 forms could all be filled out without any errors. Now I wonder if they made a determination of mistakes versus fraud. 

 

[Soxbadger]

2 minutes ago, Texsox said:

Agreed. 

What surprised me was every vote was 100% in compliance. Dates, signatures, every line on every ballot was correct. No one moved out of state but kept voting in Georgia. It's pretty remarkable that 15,000 forms could all be filled out without any errors. Now I wonder if they made a determination of mistakes versus fraud. 

 

Based on the wording it seems "fraud" which likely means they weren't including mistakes. My guess is those ballots were already tossed for noncompliance so they were only looking at complaint votes for proof of fraud this time around.

[Texsox]

Just now, Soxbadger said:

Based on the wording it seems "fraud" which likely means they weren't including mistakes. My guess is those ballots were already tossed for noncompliance so they were only looking at complaint votes for proof of fraud this time around.

Which is an interesting slippery slope. I made a "mistake" and voted by mail and in person. I made a "mistake" and sent in my dead grandmother's ballot instead of mine. I'm not shocked that it's zero, but I would have expected one or two. 

But, yeah, in the end they found what most everyone understood, he lost because people didn't like him and his policies.