The Republican party is dead in the specific area where I live. They didn't even bother to run a candidate for Congress or either house of the state legislature. But statewide, a strong Republican candidate can have a reasonable chance against a weak Democrat. So the Republican primary matters.
Closed labs, cancelled classes: inside the largest strike to hit US higher education [Click] UC graduate students/postdocs strike. I am not at all sure what to make of it; when I was a grad student having kids (or even one) was financially out of the question unless one had a working spouse (which some did). If one was really stingy with money (think largely doing without meat and store-bought bread, and packing a lunch each day) one could just afford ONE luxury—either a girlfriend OR a car. Taking inflation into account, the Berkeley Student Cooperative [Click] is still reasonably priced, but some people are too snooty for that, and few college campuses have an equivalent. ---Alan
P.S.: Postdocs were paid twice as much as grad students, so could generally afford a car and frequently had spouses--often postdocs themselves. ---Alan
Well, in the U.S. legal system, children are categorized as the property (mobile rather than fixed) of parents and, as is true of all property, owners are responsible for providing maintenance. If the property (chattel) is not properly cared for and allowed to roam (truancy), then social services (CPS) can collect them, file a complaint in court and if the judge (in a secret hearing) is convinced the parents are incompetent or non-compliant, then the property can be given to someone else (usually foster care until an adoption is arranged). This is the system which accounts for over 400 migrant children still not found even though, because they are foreign born and have rights, their wishes to remain with relatives or family friends should have been honored. Presumably, California being close to Mexico, some residents have become sensitive to injustices that exist and, especially for young families, need to be corrected. "Having kids" is an accurate description when children are in the same category as a car or TV. Personally, at age 80, I resent getting a monthly check from the Treasury, when I think back to the stress of counting every penny because we had three children in four years. The national birth rate has fallen below replacement levels. Outlawing birth control and premature terminations is not going to fix that. "What does not kill me makes me stronger" is bunk. Imagine, a few checks during the pandemic lifted 40% of children out of poverty. More money is important. States suing to prevent debt relief because their tax receipts will shrink is immoral to the nth degree.
When PhD*Son’s first child was born (Eldest*Grand), they thought they had another year or two to go. DIL was working full time and when she was 7 mos old they had to put her into daycare. Turns out they had 5 more years to go. (It took 9 years to get that PhD.) A year before graduation, and expecting their second child, they moved away from the camous town (from NC to ME!) as what remained to accomplish was mostly writing and analysing research. They moved in with Daughter (who owned a huge house), and will be there until their younger daughter graduates high school…in 2227. They are still paying off college debt.
In fact, that became layered debt when DIL got her nursing degree (summa cum laude). We are sincerely hoping that President Biden’s student debt relief will yet happen. Imagine…two such brilliant students, who have worked hard and done so much in their communities and the world, have never even owned a house.
PhD*Son is currently down at the top of Argentina and Chile for a bird biologists conference. And he serves on his town’s selectboard. DIL is a RN on an NICU. Students deserve a break.
I agree that student loans should be forgiven. Everything I've read about them and the stories of the people who have them suggest that they are rigged like the PayDay Loans. In other words, there IS NO WAY TO PAY THEM OFF. I've read so many horror stories of people who have actually paid back the full amount of the loans they took originally, but because of the killer interest they owe far more now than they ever borrowed. They make large payments, but little of it goes to the actual debt. Most of the payment is swallowed up in interest.
The government guaranteed student loan program began during my early years in grad school, as memory serves. It turned (in my opinion) into a way to shove debt onto students, not a way to help them. The schools jacked up their tuitions so that very few students could afford it and had to take out the maximum loans, then "gave them scholarships" to cover the difference-- a real racket. During my time in grad school the old system was still in place--the grad students could (if stingy) cover their expenses with teaching and then research assistantships, which meant the professors' research could get done, which meant they could get tenure. By the time I would normally have been in line for a research assistantship, those dried up. I think I had the campus record for teaching assistantships when I finally graduated--- I figure it added at least a year to my time. Nine years is a horror story--only a step down from having one's thesis scooped just before submitting it. Biochemistry was a new field when I was working on my PhD in physical organic chemistry [AKA organic reaction mechanisms], and there were stories of people earning a PhD in biochemistry in two to 2.5 years; average was supposed to be 5 years, and I took 6.5 years. (My major professor wanted me to add one more project that after careful consideration I figured would require at least another year's hard work for no useful result. I told him that I was going to submit my thesis, and if he didn't approve it I would file a formal complaint with the academic senate; he approved it. Some years later he told me that he had it done by another student, and it produced no additional information--exactly as I had foreseen. The relationship between graduate students and their major professors is so intense that often they do not part on good terms. The worst case I know of was a project that required a group (5 or 6 I think) of grad students to design and build a unique particle physics instrument; when they got it built they spent a day or two testing it; the next week they ran their experiments, then they all sat down and wrote their theses. After they had collected their degrees they reported their major professor to the feds for defrauding the government by diverting funds for their project to his personal use. The fellow in that group whom I knew got a job with a little startup called "Intel," and ultimately became a vice president thereof.
The stories I heard about hard times of previous generations of my family and others made it clear to me that a man had no business making ANY move toward starting a family until he had a job that would enable him to support it. "First the nest and then the bird." "Gay Nineties"? "Roaring Twenties?" Patent rubbish.
Another sort of guaranteed student loan horror story is the parents who take one out to help their kids, and broken by it in their old ages. One of the peculiarities of the loans is that they cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. A rotten, rotten, rotten deal. ---Alan (who also wrote the rant immediately above)
No wonder literally *nobody* likes Ted Cruz! Hunter Biden is a private citizen. Questions: 1. How did Ted come to be in possession of nude photos of Hunter. 2. Did he get Hunter's permission to publish them? 3. Does he have a *thing* for Hunter? 4. Is he jealous that Hunter is handsome and Ted looks like Grandpa Munster? I hope Hunter sues him for so much money even Ted's grandchildren will be broke.
A couple of notes on previous thead about primary schedules and our local weather.
ReplyDelete---Alan
The Republican party is dead in the specific area where I live. They didn't even bother to run a candidate for Congress or either house of the state legislature. But statewide, a strong Republican candidate can have a reasonable chance against a weak Democrat. So the Republican primary matters.
DeleteNYT: Big GOP Names Stay Away from Georgia [Click] Good for a chuckle.
ReplyDelete---Alan
Closed labs, cancelled classes: inside the largest strike to hit US higher education [Click] UC graduate students/postdocs strike. I am not at all sure what to make of it; when I was a grad student having kids (or even one) was financially out of the question unless one had a working spouse (which some did). If one was really stingy with money (think largely doing without meat and store-bought bread, and packing a lunch each day) one could just afford ONE luxury—either a girlfriend OR a car. Taking inflation into account, the Berkeley Student Cooperative [Click] is still reasonably priced, but some people are too snooty for that, and few college campuses have an equivalent.
ReplyDelete---Alan
P.S.: Postdocs were paid twice as much as grad students, so could generally afford a car and frequently had spouses--often postdocs themselves.
Delete---Alan
Some of the postdocs had kids, but those were a minority.
Delete---Alan
Well, in the U.S. legal system, children are categorized as the property (mobile rather than fixed) of parents and, as is true of all property, owners are responsible for providing maintenance. If the property (chattel) is not properly cared for and allowed to roam (truancy), then social services (CPS) can collect them, file a complaint in court and if the judge (in a secret hearing) is convinced the parents are incompetent or non-compliant, then the property can be given to someone else (usually foster care until an adoption is arranged).
DeleteThis is the system which accounts for over 400 migrant children still not found even though, because they are foreign born and have rights, their wishes to remain with relatives or family friends should have been honored.
Presumably, California being close to Mexico, some residents have become sensitive to injustices that exist and, especially for young families, need to be corrected.
"Having kids" is an accurate description when children are in the same category as a car or TV. Personally, at age 80, I resent getting a monthly check from the Treasury, when I think back to the stress of counting every penny because we had three children in four years.
The national birth rate has fallen below replacement levels. Outlawing birth control and premature terminations is not going to fix that.
"What does not kill me makes me stronger" is bunk.
Imagine, a few checks during the pandemic lifted 40% of children out of poverty. More money is important. States suing to prevent debt relief because their tax receipts will shrink is immoral to the nth degree.
I couldn't sleep for thinking about things related to the UC graduate student strike. It brought back so many bad memories.
Delete---Alan
{{{{ Alan }}} !!
DeleteWhen PhD*Son’s first child was born (Eldest*Grand), they thought they had another year or two to go. DIL was working full time and when she was 7 mos old they had to put her into daycare. Turns out they had 5 more years to go. (It took 9 years to get that PhD.) A year before graduation, and expecting their second child, they moved away from the camous town (from NC to ME!) as what remained to accomplish was mostly writing and analysing research. They moved in with Daughter (who owned a huge house), and will be there until their younger daughter graduates high school…in 2227. They are still paying off college debt.
DeleteIn fact, that became layered debt when DIL got her nursing degree (summa cum laude). We are sincerely hoping that President Biden’s student debt relief will yet happen. Imagine…two such brilliant students, who have worked hard and done so much in their communities and the world, have never even owned a house.
PhD*Son is currently down at the top of Argentina and Chile for a bird biologists conference. And he serves on his town’s selectboard. DIL is a RN on an NICU. Students deserve a break.
^^ Thise last two Anony Mouses were listener.
DeleteI agree that student loans should be forgiven. Everything I've read about them and the stories of the people who have them suggest that they are rigged like the PayDay Loans. In other words, there IS NO WAY TO PAY THEM OFF. I've read so many horror stories of people who have actually paid back the full amount of the loans they took originally, but because of the killer interest they owe far more now than they ever borrowed. They make large payments, but little of it goes to the actual debt. Most of the payment is swallowed up in interest.
DeleteThe government guaranteed student loan program began during my early years in grad school, as memory serves. It turned (in my opinion) into a way to shove debt onto students, not a way to help them. The schools jacked up their tuitions so that very few students could afford it and had to take out the maximum loans, then "gave them scholarships" to cover the difference-- a real racket. During my time in grad school the old system was still in place--the grad students could (if stingy) cover their expenses with teaching and then research assistantships, which meant the professors' research could get done, which meant they could get tenure. By the time I would normally have been in line for a research assistantship, those dried up. I think I had the campus record for teaching assistantships when I finally graduated--- I figure it added at least a year to my time. Nine years is a horror story--only a step down from having one's thesis scooped just before submitting it. Biochemistry was a new field when I was working on my PhD in physical organic chemistry [AKA organic reaction mechanisms], and there were stories of people earning a PhD in biochemistry in two to 2.5 years; average was supposed to be 5 years, and I took 6.5 years. (My major professor wanted me to add one more project that after careful consideration I figured would require at least another year's hard work for no useful result. I told him that I was going to submit my thesis, and if he didn't approve it I would file a formal complaint with the academic senate; he approved it. Some years later he told me that he had it done by another student, and it produced no additional information--exactly as I had foreseen. The relationship between graduate students and their major professors is so intense that often they do not part on good terms. The worst case I know of was a project that required a group (5 or 6 I think) of grad students to design and build a unique particle physics instrument; when they got it built they spent a day or two testing it; the next week they ran their experiments, then they all sat down and wrote their theses. After they had collected their degrees they reported their major professor to the feds for defrauding the government by diverting funds for their project to his personal use. The fellow in that group whom I knew got a job with a little startup called "Intel," and ultimately became a vice president thereof.
DeleteThe stories I heard about hard times of previous generations of my family and others made it clear to me that a man had no business making ANY move toward starting a family until he had a job that would enable him to support it. "First the nest and then the bird." "Gay Nineties"? "Roaring Twenties?" Patent rubbish.
Another sort of guaranteed student loan horror story is the parents who take one out to help their kids, and broken by it in their old ages. One of the peculiarities of the loans is that they cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. A rotten, rotten, rotten deal.
Delete---Alan (who also wrote the rant immediately above)
I keep checking to see when our last mortgage payment (due by autopay 12/1) has cleared, but so far no luck. Maybe Monday.
ReplyDelete---Alan
That will definitely be a moment to celebrate!
Deletehttps://www.politicalflare.com/2022/12/trump-explodes-on-truth-social-and-demands-to-be-reinstated-as-president/
ReplyDeleteIs he *really* that insane, or is he just building an insanity plea?
Quite possibly!
Delete---Alan
https://washingtonpress.com/2022/12/03/new-low-ted-cruz-stoops-to-posting-nude-photo-of-hunter-biden/
ReplyDeleteNo wonder literally *nobody* likes Ted Cruz! Hunter Biden is a private citizen. Questions: 1. How did Ted come to be in possession of nude photos of Hunter. 2. Did he get Hunter's permission to publish them? 3. Does he have a *thing* for Hunter? 4. Is he jealous that Hunter is handsome and Ted looks like Grandpa Munster?
I hope Hunter sues him for so much money even Ted's grandchildren will be broke.