U.S. Politics 2017: You Flynn Some, You Lose Some

[ThinkerX]

The conservative view of higher education.  Much of it not palatable to leftist people, yet there are some valid points.

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/elitists-crybabies-and-junk-degrees/ar-BBFCBQy?ocid=ob-fb-enus-580

 

A single year at many private universities costs more than the median U.S. household income of $59,000. Although most students receive financial aid, a four-year degree can cost more than a quarter-million dollars. Tuition at public universities has soared, too, and a degree can easily cost more than $100,000.

It is not just the money: Dozens of the most prestigious schools reject more than 80 percent of applicants, and the admissions system often favors the wealthy and the well-connected....

...."I'm not paying for C's," Antenori recalled his father saying. "You want to go? You pay for it."

So at 17, he joined the Army, which promised him $20,000 toward college if he enlisted for three years. He stayed on, joined the Green Berets and became a medic. He did not get around to college until he was 32.

Still on active duty, he enrolled in a pre-med program at Campbell University in North Carolina, a Baptist school a few miles from Fort Bragg. He earned a bachelor's degree taking classes four nights a week and on weekends.

After he retired from the Army in 2004, he moved to Tucson, where he works as a program manager for a major defense contractor. This year he completed an online MBA through Grand Canyon University, a for-profit Christian school in Phoenix.

"I got functional degrees that helped me move up in the corporate world," he said, crunching through the parched grass on his 40-acre ranch in the southeastern Arizona desert. Compact and muscular, wearing a red T-shirt and dusty work boots, he speaks with jackhammer bluntness....

 

....

The federal government spends $30 billion a year on Pell grants, which help lower-income students, including a large number of minorities, attend college. But studies show that half of Pell grant recipients drop out before earning a degree.

The overall college dropout rate is also high. Only 59 percent of students who start at four-year institutions graduate within six years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That leaves millions with debt but no degree.

More than 44 million Americans are paying off student loans, including a growing number of people older than 60, according to the Federal Reserve. The average student loan debt of a 2016 college graduate was $37,000. At $1.4 trillion, U.S. student loan debt is now larger than credit card debt.

 

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

President Trump Now Says That Wasn’t Him on Access Hollywood Tape

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/trump-now-not-sure-that-was-him-on-access-hollywood-tape.html

I -- I -- I just can't!  How can these people, how can this person be POTUS???????????

 

Periodically it just takes over.  And we're supposed to make common ground with THIS????????

Let us remind the nazi, racist, white supremacist, bigoted apologists for all kinds of evil who whine that we won't be fair minded to what they are telling us is truth -- THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ALTERNATIVE FACTS!

[Dr. Pepper]

4 hours ago, Sword of Doom said:

Looking at this fucking normalization puff piece trying to paint a nazi with manners as a person that isn't terrible.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/us/ohio-hovater-white-nationalist.html

Who was it who was just writing how nothing has changed since Trump took office?  I mean, I guess if you're white, the rise of white supremacist/nationalist/nazis isn't a big deal.  

 

2 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

President Trump Now Says That Wasn’t Him on Access Hollywood Tape

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/trump-now-not-sure-that-was-him-on-access-hollywood-tape.html

Satire?

[DMC]

8 hours ago, Mexal said:

To this point earlier...

 

Yeah this is incredibly weird.  Haven't read up on it much, but seems to me if he wants Mulvaney at CFPB, he can nominate him and he'll definitely get confirmed.  Of course, he obviously wants to also keep him at OMB as well.  I'm unaware of any precedent of one person heading two agencies (at least in the modern era) - and I assume it's explicitly forbidden in most authorizing statutes.  

[LongRider]

1 hour ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Who was it who was just writing how nothing has changed since Trump took office?  I mean, I guess if you're white, the rise of white supremacist/nationalist/nazis isn't a big deal.  

 

Please don't paint all white folk with the Alt-Right is just A-OK brush.  I'm white and I think they are fucking awful.

 

 

[LongRider]

1 hour ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Satire?

Demented, fucking demented.

[DMC]

I've gotten a lot of emails from my school on how harmful the GOP's tax bills are, thought I'd share this bit because it's succinct:

Quote

While several provisions of the proposed bills would affect graduate students, the most immediate concern is a provision in the House bill that would impose a new tax on graduate tuition scholarships or tuition waivers. This provision would increase annual federal taxes on students receiving these waivers (which includes most PhD students and many other graduate students) from less than $1,000 to more than $5,000. 

Various online calculators can be used to determine the potential impact on individual students, but the biggest factor that would be changed is that the income considered taxable would increase by the amount of a student’s tuition waiver or scholarship.  In most cases, this new “income” would be taxed at a rate of 12%. For example, a student receiving a tuition waiver of $30,000 would see $3,600 in new tax.

It's heartening to know poor-us-fuck grad students will be doing their part to make sure corporations have more money.

[LongRider]

3 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

I've gotten a lot of emails from my school on how harmful the GOP's tax bills are, thought I'd share this bit because it's succinct:

It's heartening to know poor-us-fuck grad students will be doing their part to make sure corporations have more money.

This is so sickening.

[A True Kaniggit]

1 minute ago, dmc515 said:

I've gotten a lot of emails from my school on how harmful the GOP's tax bills are, thought I'd share this bit because it's succinct:

It's heartening to know poor-us-fuck grad students will be doing their part to make sure corporations have more money.

Wait, you're saying if I start a corporation grad students will give me money? Hellz yeah!

[LongRider]

4 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Wait, you're saying if I start a corporation grad students will give me money? Hellz yeah!

Good chance you would be in a lower tax bracket than the grad student would.

[A True Kaniggit]

5 hours ago, Nasty LongRider said:

Good chance you would be in a lower tax bracket than the grad student would.

Shit. Too bad I'm starting classes next year then. 

Edit: Who am I kidding? GI Bill rocks! I'll be getting paid $1800 a month for taking classes.

[DMC]

10 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Wait, you're saying if I start a corporation grad students will give me money? Hellz yeah!

This sounds like a hilarious gofundme idea.

[DMC]

BTW, I've never even thought to declare my tuition waivers over the years as taxable "income."  I'm now a bit worried if the tax man is going to come after me.  Hopefully it's Will Ferrell that audits and then seduces me with his acoustic guitar.

[Yukle]

5 hours ago, dmc515 said:

BTW, I've never even thought to declare my tuition waivers over the years as taxable "income."  I'm now a bit worried if the tax man is going to come after me.

That's a possible thing you must do? Crazy! It's bad enough that tuition fees are among those funds that are not waived if you are declared bankrupt.

[LongRider]

7 hours ago, Triskele said:

I saw that one before you posted it.  Antenori sounds like a real asshole.  

He sure does.

[maarsen]

4 hours ago, Yukle said:

That's a possible thing you must do? Crazy! It's bad enough that tuition fees are among those funds that are not waived if you are declared bankrupt.

The first step towards tyranny is blocking education. For all his faults Thomas Jefferson was a strong proponent of education as a defense against tyranny. 

[Morpheus]

How Jeff Sessions is reshaping the Justice Dept.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/national-security/while-eyes-are-on-russia-sessions-dramatically-reshapes-the-justice-department/2017/11/24/dd52d66a-b8dd-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html

But nothing has changed in a year! Pay no attention to the racist amnesiac elf behind the curtain

[Martell Spy]

I guess Joe the Plumber wasn't available. I mean it'd be far better to have a regular working class Joe like him selling this, literally a Joe, even if he makes 300 K a year.

Republicans fret over White House sales job on taxes
Awkward moments with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and economic adviser Gary Cohn have Democrats cheering ahead of what may be a tough Senate vote.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/26/white-house-taxes-push-democrats-259708

[Dr. Pepper]

11 hours ago, Nasty LongRider said:

Please don't paint all white folk with the Alt-Right is just A-OK brush.  I'm white and I think they are fucking awful.

 

 

My apologies, madam.  I was speaking towards the white folks who occupy a space so privileged that changes large and small will almost never touch them, but I do see that I was being unfairly too broad.  

[Ormond]

10 hours ago, dmc515 said:

BTW, I've never even thought to declare my tuition waivers over the years as taxable "income."  I'm now a bit worried if the tax man is going to come after me.  Hopefully it's Will Ferrell that audits and then seduces me with his acoustic guitar.

I really don't think you have to worry about that. Taxing you on past tuition waivers would be the same thing as an "ex post facto" law, wouldn't it? Such a change would only affect tuition waivers granted after the new law goes into effect.