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US Politics: Ted Cruz - A Tale of two Snowflakes


A Horse Named Stranger

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1 hour ago, Ormond said:

So when someone talks about a "graduate degree" they are often not thinking of physicians, dentists, or lawyers. 

Yeah the graduate "studies" or "school" is usually separate from the law or medical schools.  The former is where I signed all my contracts and/or fellowships as a (phud) graduate student.

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CPAC Organizer Denounces Critics Spotting What Looks Like Nazi SS Symbol On Stage
CPAC head Matt Schlapp angrily denied any resemblance and touted the organization’s excellent relationship with the Jewish community.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cpac-waffen-ss-twitter-stage-matt-schlapp_n_603aee30c5b601179ebdf902

Quote

 

Critics on Twitter have been chilled by a major design element of the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference that eerily resembles the insignia of a volunteer unit of Adolf Hitler’s notorious Waffen SS. 

A square whose corner juts out from the CPAC stage from connected back-to-back “check marks” bears a striking resemblance to the ancient Norse Odal Rune adopted by the SS unit, which would be particularly apparent from the stage side.

The Anti-Defamation League has noted that after World War II the Odal (or Othala) Rune became commonly used by white supremacists in Europe and North America.

In response to some 100,000 tweets about the issue and climbing, CPAC organizer Matt Schlapp angrily blasted the “stage design conspiracies” as “outrageous and slanderous.” He touted CPAC’s “long standing commitment to the Jewish community.”

CPAC was forced earlier this week to cancel scheduled speaker Young Pharaoh after his anti-Semitic rants calling Judaism a “complete lie” (and worse) were revealed in the media. 

 

 

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15 hours ago, HoodedCrow said:

I’m sorry that the college system in the States is can be so corrupt, and harms many people.

I feel sick about the predatory practices. I reckon the best that I can do is validate.

Seriously (not a rhetorical question), is there any system in the U.S. that isn't corrupt, harming many people and full of predatory practises?  I get the impression there is not.

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On 2/26/2021 at 7:47 PM, S John said:

Reading about the minimum wage upthread and Manchin’s role in killing the increase to $15 is so ironic. Back in the day WV was the center of the labor movement and even the scene of an armed insurrection in favor of workers rights. It’s a sad state of affairs but the outside moneyed interests have finally won. Most of the state is so afraid of what will happen if the jobs leave that they’ll eat any shit sandwich, beg for another bite, and then be proud of the fact.

Personal anecdote, my grandfather’s grandfather was killed in a mine explosion in West Virginia about the turn of the century. He actually survived the explosion and died a couple days later after what I assume was an agonizing few days. The owners of the mine then blamed the explosion on him since he was too dead to defend himself. 

There were too many kids in the family to support after the patriarch was blown to smithereens which led to about half of the 10 kids being given up to an orphanage. Included in that number was my great-grandfather who was very young at the time. He grew up to run a tavern in WV. No member of my family ever went down into the mines after my great-great grandfather was killed. The local paper noted that my relative was the only ‘white man’ killed in the explosion - the other 4 dead being Italian.

I was listening to Sam Seder this weekend, and he made a point I hadn't considered about Manchin and Sinema: if the bill is put in front of them, will they have the guts to vote no? I think it's a big enough risk as people need stimulus, but Biden's "checks out the door on day 1" campaigning for Georgia has become such a caricature of establishment Dems, I would be surprised if we see relief before May at this point.

West Virginia seems a classic case of people being manipulated so much by the ideological Right, they have no clue what will help them anymore (not Manchin). 

 

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On 2/27/2021 at 12:11 AM, DireWolfSpirit said:

According to polling, support for student loan forgiveness, has fallen in the U.S.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/less-than-half-of-americans-support-student-loan-forgiveness-poll-183840781.html

At this point, I'd beg Biden to just go back to his original campaign promise: I'll make it so you can declare bankruptcy on student loans. Sad that even that seems like a campaign trail "promise" at this point.

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15 hours ago, HoodedCrow said:

In my day, tuition was heavily subsidized. I had a small scholarship. Tuition cost 850$ a year! I went to a wonderful undergrad school and then a transition school and then a “ Canadian Ivy League “ all by merit and some public help. I could couch youngsters on how to strategize your effort. At some point, sweat equity was required. I was an avant-guarde GenX. I took interest classes, but most of it was focusing on getting the piece of paper that would qualify me for a high demand job. I’ve done a lot of different things. I’m sorry that the college system in the States is can be so corrupt, and harms many people.

I feel sick about the predatory practices. I reckon the best that I can do is validate.

I don't know what your full tuition was without the scholarship and subsidy, but at the state school where I work and am working on my PhD, tution rates for undergrads are about 13,000 a year (and that's not counting fees, housing, food, etc which can nearly double that rate). All college have become predatory because they have been forced to become a profit machine like the post office. 

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3 minutes ago, Centrist Simon Steele said:

All college have become predatory because they have been forced to become a profit machine like the post office. 

Also the rest of the machine must support the ever-expanding sports teams franchises, as well as the ever-expanding real estate machine, which is ultimately now what universities and even the small boutique liberal arts colleges had become -- though many of these that remained have gone under in the pandemic, like Concordia:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/29/concordia-college-new-york-will-close-summer-iona-college-purchase-campus

This includes this particular branch's nursing school:

https://www.concordiacollege.edu/academics/programs-of-study/nursing/

When, the nation's nursing shortages have never been so dire, and will grow due to pandemic burn-out and treatment.

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The employment picture is even weaker than the reported numbers that fail to capture the totality of workers affected by the pandemic.

From WaPo-

"The unemployment numbers leave out so much,” said Heidi Shierholz, former chief economist at the Labor Department. “Right now, for a host of reasons, the unemployment number is just not capturing all the people that are feeling the coronavirus shock.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/19/how-many-americans-unemployed/?_gl=1*ni7774*_ga*OERVR3NERFBXUFJ6Uk9SaTdJb1dGNjI3MWJvZlBFZFBhR2d4UnNPNXh3Y1pQTjZwQVc2NEZZRUYxMERMbGlqcA..

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15 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Also the rest of the machine must support the ever-expanding sports teams franchises, as well as the ever-expanding real estate machine, which is ultimately now what universities and even the small boutique liberal arts colleges had become -- though many of these that remained have gone under in the pandemic, like Concordia:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/29/concordia-college-new-york-will-close-summer-iona-college-purchase-campus

This includes this particular branch's nursing school:

https://www.concordiacollege.edu/academics/programs-of-study/nursing/

When, the nation's nursing shortages have never been so dire, and will grow due to pandemic burn-out and treatment.

You do what every rich country does. You poach nurses from poorer countries and let them deal with nursing shortages. And now you don't even to find a way how to get them passed a wall.

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9 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

You do what every rich country does. You poach nurses from poorer countries and let them deal with nursing shortages. And now you don't even to find a way how to get them passed a wall.

Canada is not a poorer country, but trust me, the US poaches nurses, doctors, researchers, technicians and all other kinds of workers in the medical field from Canada, and has done so for decades and decades.

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5 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Canada is not a poorer country, but trust me, the US poaches nurses, doctors, researchers, technicians and all other kinds of workers in the medical field from Canada, and has done so for decades and decades.

Not just the US tho.

Reading Zorral's post I had to think of a news segment I watched about a year ago. Germany is also facing nurse shortages. A demanding job, which is not too well paid, with shitty work hours (basically an essential worker) is somehow not that appealing for many.

Germany's solution, find nurses elsewhere, and create shortages there. And no, not just Eastern Europe, as you might suspect. Also from the Americas. The segment portrayed a nurse from Mexico. Quick google search shows,  there are actual agencies, that specialize on nursing personal from the Americas (Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia). So the idea, that the US health system hires trained nurses and let Mexico pay (for realz this time) for the training, did not strike me as particularly outlandish.

On that note. Jace, if you ever grow tired of your racist, primarily white country and you want to get to know another, racist, even whtier country.... :leaving:

 

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29 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

You do what every rich country does. You poach nurses from poorer countries and let them deal with nursing shortages. And now you don't even to find a way how to get them passed a wall.

We've been doing this all along, including the dental technicians and dentists.  I know that, though evidently most people don't.

I'm just waiting for the day when the hospitals beg the federal government for doctors and nurses from Cuba because we've run all the others as from the Philippines into break down and there are no more.

 

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36 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

You do what every rich country does. You poach nurses from poorer countries and let them deal with nursing shortages. And now you don't even to find a way how to get them passed a wall.

The US totally does that. More than half the doctors I have seen (especially GPs but specialists too) have been women from India. I’m totally fine with that. 
 

Part of the shortage though, is that we don’t graduate as many doctors a year as we need. Colleges are incentivized to have very exclusive medical schools, which means that we just aren’t training enough doctors, especially since most of those end up in specialties instead of general practice.

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6 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

The US totally does that. More than half the doctors I have seen (especially GPs but specialists too) have been women from India. I’m totally fine with that. 
 

Part of the shortage though, is that we don’t graduate as many doctors a year as we need. Colleges are incentivized to have very exclusive medical schools, which means that we just aren’t training enough doctors, especially since most of those end up in specialties instead of general practice.

With Doctors, that is pretty much a given (same with researchers). Point was really about the nursing staff.

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2 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Not just the US tho.

Reading Zorral's post I had to think of a news segment I watched about a year ago. Germany is also facing nurse shortages. A demanding job, which is not too well paid, with shitty work hours (basically an essential worker) is somehow not that appealing for many.

Germany's solution, find nurses elsewhere, and create shortages there. And no, not just Eastern Europe, as you might suspect. Also from the Americas. The segment portrayed a nurse from Mexico. Quick google search shows,  there are actual agencies, that specialize on nursing personal from the Americas (Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia). So the idea, that the US health system hires trained nurses and let Mexico pay (for realz this time) for the training, did not strike me as particularly outlandish.

On that note. Jace, if you ever grow tired of your racist, primarily white country and you want to get to know another, racist, even whtier country.... :leaving:

 

I'll say this for Germany. Their Nazis don't really play the victim. Sure, they use victomhood as an excuse to become Nazis, but once they're committed they're pretty dogmatic. And not easily dissuaded. American Nazis are a bunch of slack jawed pre-ejaculators who worship at the altar of dumb.

Because in the American school system you basically just learn the same shit every year over and over again (especially in history) I recall no less than a half-dozen occasions when I or another kid said "How did they all fall for this guy?" Everyone agreed that it seemed like the Germans were stupid.

Fast-forward about twenty years and I would trade all the gold in the world for Americans to be as stupid as 1930's Germans. At least those fuckers had a rough couple of decades to temper them for extremism. And well less than a majority embraced Nazism.  Not to mention their venerated leader could speak in complete sentences. Sure, Mein Compf doesn't have the best prose (haven't read it, but have heard/read extended excerpts, I got the measure for how it goes) but there's no doubt that Hitler could actually write a book. Or read one for that matter.

 

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Meanwhile, at QPAC, the former guy is running late as usual, so they have to show propaganda videos.

Fake news media, bloody elitist east coast swamp (not the NY dude with the golden loo, no, those arrogant bastards who know where other countries are!) Also socialism, communism, and somehow, the QOP seems to be branching out to South Korea, or something.

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So I thought I’d bring a quick update from the Branch Trumpidian compound:

1) Trump is back, baby! His CPAC speech will mark a turning point in human history. He may even use the (Nazi symbol shaped) platform to reveal that he is, in fact, still the president.

2) Beijing Joe (do Trumpers not understand alliteration? Any of you seen Club Dread, where they tell a story about a machete wielding killer named Phil Colletti, and instead of calling him Machete Colletti, they call him Machete Phil?) has had objectively the worst first month in presidential history. Libs won’t admit it, but they’re all shitting their gender neutral diapers at how badly they fucked up by voting for him.

3) They’ve moved on from misunderstanding the works of Orwell to misunderstanding the works of Vonnegut. Guys, Kurt Vonnegut was definitely not on your side. 

4) Kristi Noem is hot! She probably said some cool stuff at CPAC too, but mostly she’s hot. Also, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are, you guessed it, hot! All of them should run for president and also kiss each other.

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Welcome back, @Myshkin! I was geting worried...

Ewwww, he's fondled the flag again! I'm not one for national symbols and such, but this is really gross. He's doing nothing much on stage besides clapping, while "Proud to be an American" plays. The whole song, possibly an extended version. Did they misplace the teleprompter or something?!

USA! USA!

He's begun rambling, I think I need to tune out and take a shower. Oh f***, no new party! That was fake news! So much winning! Unity! More than ever before!

I turned off when he got to "windmills".

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