From commentor ImOnlyLurking:
This is Bob. He was just outside rolling his chest fur in the dirt, because that’s how he rolls.
Bob is weird.
After precipitating for eight straight days to start the month (not even proper groundwater-rechanging rain, mostly nasty raw mizzle), the weather is now just about perfect here, sunny and in the high 60s with a mild breeze. So I’m finally getting a proper start on post-winter yard cleanup, and it’s actually kind of enjoyable. Although it would make me even happier if there were fewer godsdamned oak trees around — I knew this town was founded to take advantage of turning oaks & pigs into salt pork & tanned hides, but when we bought the house I hadn’t grokked how annoying it would be to deal with the oak pollen and drifts of acidic dead leaves every year. (They eventually got rid of the pigs, but we’re still dealing with the Superfund sites rooted in 375+ years of toxic chemical use.)
If you’ve got any good pet pictures, this would be a fine time to send me jpgs (click on my name in the right-hand column, or annelaurie at verizon dot net). It’s gonna be a long six months till the election and we’ll need all the mood-lifters we can get!
***********
Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the day?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
A tearful goodbye at the White House, yesterday.
The President had the national champion UCONN team over to honor their accomplishment, but the team turned the table on him.
The girls brought him a rocking chair for his retirement with the engraving “we’ll always have your back”. (photo)
Then coach Geno Auriemma bid an emotional farewell:
Prompting a sustained standing ovation from the Connecticut delegation which clearly moved the President (video)
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
President Obama had lunch last weekend with Lyndon Johnson (no really!) (photo)
Betty Cracker
“Bob” is an excellent name for a cat!
We also have a yearly oak pollen issue from the massive tree in our front yard. It coats everything in yellow powder and causes the mister and offspring to get sneezy and crabby. But the soaking rain we had last week washed the pollen away, thank FSM.
Zinsky
Another suspenseful day at work – they announced lay-offs a couple of weeks ago, without any details. So naturally, nothing is getting done as people wait around for the axe to fall. I doubt that I will be cut, but it’s possible. The timing is very unfortunate. I will be 59 and 1/2 on June 24th, which means I can then get at my IRAs and 401(k) without penalty. I have a pretty nice nest egg built up, but I wanted to work until 62 and then start drawing Social Security. So, I won’t starve, but I am a little early to fully retire. We’ll see – but company’s sure are stupid about how they downsize!
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
rikyrah
@Zinsky:
I hope that it works out for you
satby
Bob is a handsome boy! Thanks for sharing his picture ImOnlyLurking.
It’s late start at school this morning, so the girls get to sleep in an extra hour. The dogs decided that I should have an early start, so they woke me up at 4:30. On my third cup of coffee already.
Good morning everyone!
Zinsky
@rikyrah: Thank you. I’m sure it will. I’m better off than 95% of the people whose job is on the line. We get our medical insurance through my wife’s work and she is only 55 years old, so we will be fine. I will be just a little sad that I can’t retire on my own terms. Big companies suck.
raven
@Betty Cracker: The rain doesn’t help the porches. We finally got them done but it was a pain inn the ass.
satby
@Zinsky: Zinsky, that’s what happened to me, and if you get laid off the only advice I can give is to be very frugal with the nest egg in case nothing else comparable jobwise comes along. I decided to risk a sizable chunk of my retirement funds in a franchise that failed (didn’t seem like a risk at the time) and I have yet to land a job that pays even 1/3 of what I used to make. If I had just lived carefully off my money I would have had a much less stressful last 18 months.
satby
@raven: how about it! I need to repaint my deck stairs at least, and it’s been constantly raining forever, it seems. We get the occasional one day of sun, but it will take a few days for the wood to dry out enough to paint.
Betty Cracker
@Zinsky: Yikes, it must be hellish at the office with that hanging over your heads. Best of luck.
BillinGlendaleCA
And on Morning Joe, let’s talk about Bill Clinton…
JPL
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Thank you so much for the link. We definitely will miss him.
Zinsky
@satby: Good advice, thank you and I wish you well.
@Betty Cracker: Betty, thanks. It is a very corrosive environment to try to work in. That’s why it is so stupid to tell everyone that there is going to be lay-offs and then wait a month before they give anyone specifics. I’ve walked by more than one cubicle where people are just sitting, staring at their computer screens with tears in their eyes. Like I said, I will be fine – my wife has a good, secure job with benefits and we have very little debt. It’s the not knowing that is hard!
JPL
@Zinsky: I’m sorry that you have to go through that.
OzarkHillbilly
Awwww…. somebody got their wittle feewings hurt:
As to his being in solitary, seems extreme to me. That being said, I really don’t think Obama spends much time deciding prison assignments.
Mai.naem.mobile
I have known a couple of older friends(upper 50s/lower 60s)looking for work and it’s depressingly scary. Nobody wants you. Another reason to have single payor because I think health care expenses is one reason employers don’t like hiring older people. I just wonder don’t these HR people/interviewers realize they are going to be in the same boat as these people they’re discriminating against?
Schlemazel Khan
@Zinsky:
I worked for a company that went for several months of layoffs every payday, it was hell and I know what the environment there must be like. Its hard but try to separate yourself from the negativity, you are in pretty good shape either way. Good luck.
@satby:
I have followed your story here and just don’t know what to say, it sucks. You have mentioned recently that you have prospects & I keep hoping something opens up for you. Good luck to you to.
germy
@Mai.naem.mobile: Yes. Every time I hear a RW talking point “people live until 95 nowadays, why should they retire at 65?” I wonder who will hire an unemployed 60-year-old? And what are young people trying to enter the workforce supposed to do?
Baud
@germy: I’ll cut anyone who says I should work one day longer than I have to.
Schlemazel Khan
. . . You can search USPS openings HERE
On the job front I believe the Postal Service will have some IT help desk jobs opening soon. If you live in or near St. Paul / Minneapolis this is an interesting gig. The work can be miserable mostly because of the toxic environment your fellow employees have built but it is not hard work and after 3 months of probation you will be making about $50k a year with good benefits, annual raises and first crack at postal positions when they are available.
There are also large accounting groups in that building & many people with accounting backgrounds take the jobs because USPS posts opening internally exclusively and only goes outside if nobody qualified inside applies. I think there are also many IT positions in that place but don’t know if folks move on to them but assume they could.
The trick to getting the interview at USPS is your resume MUST be in the ‘STAR’ format in order to get full credit. situation, tasks, actions, results (with specific details) is the trick.
germy
@Baud: I expect you’ll be clearing lots of brush after you win this election!
satby
@Mai.naem.mobile: It really seems to be true; I never had problems landing a job before. Technically, I haven’t had much problem landing a job now, because I have had a series of $1.00 over minimum wage jobs; but those don’t pay a mortgage and food even at full time hours.
@Schlemazel Khan: Thanks.
I haven’t heard back from that recruiter, but with my mom’s passing I will get a bit of an inheritance that will tide me over for the next year if nothing else but low wage jobs come along, and then I join the moochers and looters collecting SS. So the saga is close to over for me, but so many others were in the same boat.
amk
@OzarkHillbilly:
with these nutters, everything that’s wrong with murka starts with the kenyan muslin.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Schlemazel Khan:
Didn’t BiP say he worked for the USPS?
OzarkHillbilly
This is St Louis:
BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: Baud! only “cleans” bush, not brush.
BillinGlendaleCA
@amk: I blame Obama.
Baud
@germy: I was going to start the Baud! Foundation, but I’ve learned that liberal blogs see that as a negative thing. So clearing brush it is.
satby
@Schlemazel Khan: interesting, thanks. I will check that out, because I’m still considering moving. Don’t absolutely have to now, but thinking I want somewhere a touch more urban.
satby
@Baud: I was right there with you from age 55 on. Especially now.
amk
@BillinGlendaleCA: Get in line.
Schlemazel Khan
@germy:
No sher shitlock! I am 64 but that company I mentioned in response to Zinsky was eaten by vulture capitalists & one of their money making schemes was to steal our pensions so, after 20 years of working for them I will get about $32,000 next year instead of the couple of thousand a month I had been promised. That and some major medical expenses blew my retirement plans out of the water. I am still working and probably will be until I am 70 if my health holds. But the last couple of years I am aware I am not the employee I was just a few years ago. I also know that the continued work stress is taking a toll it didn’t used to.
These assholes who think we should all work until we are 80 either are not really working, have staffs that do a lot of the tasks and/or have the money to take exceptional care of themselves.
To say nothing of the fact that us boomer assholes clinging to good jobs is just making life worse for the youngsters coming into the market.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: You’ve been living in America’s porn capital for too long.
Not that you’re wrong…
Elmo
Well, this may not be the best thread to bring it up, but I am headed to Unnamed City today to fire my associate. It’s been more than a year of missed deadlines, forgotten appointments, lame excuses, and frankly abandoned responsibilities. I’ve tried everything with the guy, but it’s as though he retired last year and is waiting for somebody to notice.
It’s not nearly as stressful as a company reorg and waiting for the layoffs – I’ve been through that too – but I haven’t had a decent nights sleep since we made the decision, and I am dreading this. He is not a young guy and doesn’t present well. I don’t see how he gets another gig after this.
Baud
@Elmo: That sucks. I’m such a softy, I hate it when I can’t hire every qualified applicant.
Schlemazel Khan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I didn’t see that but it is possible. I have worked for two very large companies with a lot of departments across the country and one thing I that is constant is different places or groups can have very distinct personalities. Part of it comes from the top & part from the workers. If one or the other decide to be a problem (and there is a laundry list of things you can do wrong) then that place can be toxic while a few feet away are happy workers doing good things.
Blob acts very much like several toxic people I have dealt with over the years.
satby
@Schlemazel Khan:
None of those assholes think they’ll HAVE to work a minute later than they will ever want to, they’ll have investments and golden parachutes to rely on when they’re done. It’s the rest of us that need to be forced to work until we drop.
And how boomers have been screwed out of the pensions that many of us earned is criminal, but no one will serve a minute of time for that because MOTU rigged the game there too.
Elmo
@Baud: You should have seen some of the resumes I’ve been reviewing for his replacement. We’re restructuring the position, so we advertised for a paralegal. I must have reviewed fifteen resumes of actual lawyers. One graduated from law school in 1972! The whole process has been soul-crushing.
satby
@Elmo: You know, that’s tough and I feel for you. I’ve been on both sides of that equation and it’s frustrating when you’ve given someone every possible chance to improve and they don’t when you both know what the ultimate end might be. Layoffs are indiscriminate and hit both good and poor performers, but when someone basically abandons their job but expects to collect a paycheck anyway they’ve actually fired themselves.
Central Planning
@Baud: Maybe you should start a foundation for brush clearing.
Schlemazel Khan
@Elmo:
Guy sounds like my current manager. Let me tell you if he is like my current manager, you and everyone around him will be happier and better off when he goes. I used to be a softy on firing and always in favor of one more chance but the last few years I have changed my mind. If you gave the guy his chances & told him where he was failing then this is all on him & not on you. It is a tough attitude to develop but you should try so as to not beat yourself up for his failures.
Good luck to you too
Baud
@Elmo: And then there’s the guilt for not appreciating your own job more, which only plays into the hands of your employer.
debbie
@Zinsky:
God, that sounds like a couple places where I’ve worked. My only hope is that the bastards’ karma catches up with them very soon.
Good luck.
Princess
@OzarkHillbilly: Bundy’s a gang leader. I think they usually/often put leaders of gangs in solitary.
debbie
@Elmo:
I once sat across the hall from an office where some jerk flew in and spent the day letting 100 employees know, one by one, that they were out. It was horrible.
Central Planning
I got laid off in the summer of 2001, like many tech workers. It really bothered me for a few days but once I accepted it and got over it, I had a great summer. I was in the mindset of having to go to work every day and see my kids for a few minutes in the morning and then again at night for a little bit before bed. I was able to be with them and do things with them – something I never thought would have been possible. It was a glorious time.
satby
I sometimes wonder how many of us worked for the same big tech companies.
Gin & Tonic
@Schlemazel Khan: He’s mentioned several times that yes, he is retired from the USPS.
Gin & Tonic
@Schlemazel Khan: Nevertheless, it is hard. When I had management responsibilities the hardest part was letting people go. So even if Elmo did everything right to lead up to this, I’m sure it will still be a difficult task for her.
Central Planning
I work for a large tech company now. It’s interesting to watch them try to appeal t to the early-in-career crowd and also keep the older, more knowledgeable people that typically have families and kids that are around the age of the ones we’re trying to hire.
debbie
@Central Planning:
I work at a company that is the Maw of Satan. I’m far older than most other employees there. What I can’t get over is how little they care about the job they do. The one criticism I’ve gotten from my many managers over the five years I’ve been there is that I should stop expecting my teammates to have the kind of work ethic I have. Seriously? Talk about low expectations.
Phylllis
@Baud: You betcha. I intend to take every check I got coming to me the first day it’s available to me.
OzarkHillbilly
It is a little strange for me, ‘listening’ to the conversation about layoffs. I never started a job but that I didn’t know I was getting laid off in anywhere from a week to a year later. My job was always to work myself out of a job. Some guys get lucky and hook up with a company for the long term but a lot of us are just ‘gypsy carpenters’, filling in the blanks on a project (we need 12 more carpenters for the next phase but not the one after that). The union is even set up so that it is easy to hire and layoff guys, and our healthcare was thru the union so it was not job dependent but based on hours worked per year. I learned to work every day like my job depended on it but also to realize that most times it just doesn’t matter how hard you worked but rather who you sucked up to. So I just stopped worrying about it: Show up every day, work hard, piss off all the wrong people, save as much money as I could, and when the inevitable came, put my name on the ‘out of work’ list and file for unemployment.
I finally managed to hook up with a general contractor long term and spent my last 6 working years with them, tho even then I had layoffs between projects. When I got laid off for the last time, I knew it was the last time. I had begun to have a problem with tearing cartilage in my back (the connective cartilage in the short ribs) when lifting heavy weight to shoulder ht. or above. I had been having other physical difficulties too but those I could more or less compensate for. The back, not so much. After the third tear, my asst super was helping me and my laborer with something and he very casually asked, “How old are you, Tom?” With out even thinking I said, “54.” and didn’t think any more of it. 2 weeks later I got my final check and the job wasn’t even close to done. 2+2=4 is easy enough to figure and I had been having so much pain it was already creeping around the edges of my brain that I was nearing the end anyway, so I didn’t even squawk about it.
Schlemazel Khan
@Gin & Tonic:
Agreed and I didn’t mean to make light of it, only to offer encouragement so that she didn’t feel like an awful person for doing what had to be done.
liberal
@Mai.naem.mobile: is there s “threshold” age? A couple years ago I transitioned from doing tech/computing work in a government research institute environment to plain old tech. I’m 51 now, and things seem ok, but it’s not at all clear to me that that’s going to last forever.
raven
@Schlemazel Khan: I got fired from that fucking hell hole 43 years ago and never looked back!
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: The carpenter who did the lions share of our finished work did one more job and he was finished. He was already in nursing school part time so he had the shoulder surgery and went back full time.
raven
@liberal: I know you know nothing lasts. . .
Schlemazel Khan
@OzarkHillbilly:
Physical jobs require earlier retirement than office jobs. I currently work with a guy who used to be a construction carpenter and he talks about going back to it as a retirement job. He has picked up a couple of odd jobs building a garage for one guy and finishing a basement for another. He does this on weekends and always limps into work for 2-3 days complaining of back, wrist and knee pain and looking in rough shape. Yet he still thinks he can do this in 5 years when he is 62. Thats nuts and it would be so much worse if it was actually required
OzarkHillbilly
@Princess: I am sure they have their reasons, but solitary seems overused to me, kind of like if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail..
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Now you are helping a friend with his barn. I don’t think you ever really quit. You just don’t have the paycheck.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Many times, solitary is used to protect the prisoner from other prisoners.
Schlemazel Khan
@raven:
CRAP! I didn’t know they ever fired anyone! :)
@liberal:
I admit that my case may be different but I was rolling along pretty well until a couple years ago. It is not the physical parts I can deal just fine with the soreness and stiffness that seem to be tied with being 64 but I feel like my mental abilities have weakened. Part of that may be untreated depression but I just am not excited to dig into problems like I used to be and the recent round of training has shown me that I am not able to intuit answers as well as I used to. Its not terrible but it surprises me how quickly it hit. (from my POV)
germy
Between 120 and 150 IT workers will be fired from the McClatchy newspaper syndicate (Scramento Bee, Miami Herald, etc), after they have trained IT contractors from India’s Wipro to do their jobs.
WereBear
I am glad of that for your sake, but on the other hand, there was all this unnecessary suffering, the ripoff of the franchise (which I hear are hugely over-priced in general) and the glide path to retirement which is supposed to be one’s high earning years.
At least for my MIL, it turns around — once a person is on Medicare, they get “hot” again, but by that time there are other ways it sucks.
raven
@Schlemazel Khan: Well, when you don’t check a certain box on the application and the FBI does a check. . .
germy
@WereBear: I should really read up on Medicare. I honestly don’t understand how it works. For some reason over the years I came to believe it paid all medical expenses, but that’s not true. It pays a small percentage, and then private insurance is supposed to cover the rest?
I need to do some research…
J.
Hi Bob. (Does a shot.)
WereBear
@Schlemazel Khan: Stories like yours at least lessen the sting of my regret about bailing on Corporate World. Chances are incredibly high I would not have reaped the benefits anyway!
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel Khan: When I told my wife I thought I was done, she was like “Good.” About a year later the union sent out a letter to all the guys who had dropped out recently begging us to come back because they had more work than journeymen carpenters. I thought about it, hard, it would have been really nice to have a steady paycheck at union wages again. My wife argued strenuously against it. I know I can’t really do it anymore. Just working on this barn 4-6 hrs a day, 3-4 days a week has me in agony.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Heh.
WereBear
@raven: I’m on my like tenth or so career but what they don’t mention is that each time, one tends to start at the bottom.
Paul in KY
@Zinsky: Sorry to hear that, Zinsky. Hope things turn out well for you & your family.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Morning!
Schlemazel Khan
@J.:
Man! That is a reference not many will get I bet.
Gorgeous cat but it is too early to start drinking!
Paul in KY
@Elmo: You gotta do what you gotta do. I’m sure you gave him every chance.
imonlylurking
Yay, Bob! We have a saying in our house, that a dirty cat is a happy cat. He was pretty happy that day.
It’s been raining pretty much nonstop since this picture was taken, so no more chest fur in the dirt. I guess it doesn’t keep as well when it’s wet.
OzarkHillbilly
So the “Honorable” Senator John Thune has his panties in a bunch:
I sent him a quick email quoting the above and then:
Think he’ll read it? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. gasp, wheeze…
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
My son says the journeymen electricians are staying longer because they’re trying to make up for long lay-offs during the recession- they tell him they lost 5 years where they were just treading water. It creates some resentment because the journeymen believe companies are asking for more apprentices because obviously apprentices are cheaper to employ. OTOH, the apprentices need the hours both to live on and complete the required hours for the apprenticeship so they’re all battling for hours.
My son’s really easy-going and quiet. He doesn’t like all this intergenerational conflict :)
raven
@WereBear: I’ve left many jobs and a few “careers”. I know part of it is luck but I’ve managed to land on me feet each time. At 66 I’m hoping for a few more years in the position I have, one of the few with an actual pension.
liberal
@raven: yeah, I’m just wondering if there’s an age where employability goes from not too bad to very very difficult, very quickly.
I see people in their 50s in tech, but not a lot of 60+. Of course, it’s not clear to me how many people in older age cohorts trained in the field.
liberal
@Schlemazel Khan: I already started have occasional morning soreness in my mid/late 40s, and sometimes my short-term memory seems like it’s not as good. As a case study, though, my situation is highly confounded by having had kids late in life. Even when they’re older (mine are 7 now), the demands are such that you just don’t get as much sleep, and that’s hell on mental performance and memory in particular.
My impression is that moderate exercise makes all these things better in most if not all cases. But, in the end, entropy gonna get us all. I’m old enough and jaded enough that I don’t give a shit about my own personal demise (at least not as much as I used to). I’m worried rather about future generations—I think there’s going to be a resource and environmental crunch in the next 100 or 200 years, and given our species proclivities towards solving things with war I doubt we’ll get through it.
The New York Review of Books had a great article on “the afterlife”—not for individuals, but rather the built-in expectation in all of us that humanity will continue for the indefinite future.
Kay Eye
I still miss my old tuxedo cat, Bob. Every night when we went to bed Bob insisted on standing on my chest and doing a little dance. Sometimes he would also drool. Fortunately the dance didn’t last long.
I may never have been loved so intensely.
liberal
@WereBear: I remember reading an article 10+ years ago about how “in the future, people will have on average eight careers.” That sounds exciting and all, but I have serious doubts that employers are on board with that, at least not in a rosy way.
liberal
@Kay: Supposedly there’s a national shortage of electricians.
rikyrah
Fear the Walking Ted
05/10/16 03:56 PM—UPDATED 05/10/16 04:26 PM
By Steve Benen
Ted Cruz was counting on a win in Indiana’s primary last week, and when he lost by nearly 17 points, the Texas senator wisely dropped out of the race. He’d already been mathematically eliminated from clearing the 1,237 delegate threshold, and if Cruz couldn’t win over Hoosier Republicans, he couldn’t prevent Donald Trump’s inevitable claim to the nomination.
And yet, NBC News reported earlier that Cruz hasn’t ruled out the possibility of reviving his campaign from the dead.
Former presidential candidate Ted Cruz declined Tuesday to say that he will support Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, leaving open the possibility of restarting his own White House bid if he sees “a viable path to victory.”
Pressed by supporter Glenn Beck in an interview if he could consider jumping back into the 2016 race if he wins Tuesday’s nomination contest in Nebraska, Cruz said, “My assumption is that that will not happen.”
But, he added, “The reason we suspended the race last week was that with Indiana’s loss I didn’t see a viable path to victory. If that changes we will certainly respond accordingly.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: The recession hit everybody hard and the repercussions are still apparent. I was one of the lucky ones who managed to (mostly) work thru it. Our pension got hit really hard by the collapse of the stock market. The union added a $1/hr deduction in addition to the usual pension contribution to make up the short fall. Doesn’t sound like much but it cost me $1-2,000 per year, for 3 years. Never once heard anyone complain about it.
There is always a certain amount of grumbling between apprentices and journeymen, tho I never saw it boil over onto a jobsite. I did witness more than a few arguments between stewards and superintendents about the journeymen/apprentice ratio on the job.
rikyrah
Bob is a cute cat. Not scary.
raven
@liberal: I think there is. I was really lucky to land where I did in just as I turned 50. My brother is an attorney in LA. He left a big, life crushing firm when he was in his early 40’s. The area he was in has dried up and he knows he can’t get back where he was and he’s worried as hell.
OzarkHillbilly
@liberal: Naaaahhhh. There’s a national shortage of competent electricians.
Gin & Tonic
@liberal:
/raises hand
The key is you have to keep training and re-training yourself. The environment changes rapidly.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: There certainly is in construction.
EconWatcher
So I see Anne Coulter is coming out with a book called “In Trump We Trust,” which is kind of a grift within a grift. It’s all very meta.
Hillary Rettig
Bob’s got “the gaze” and could easily be featured on a romance novel cover.
Hi Bob!
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
This is the kind of shyt that just pisses you off.
This is the kind of stuff that White Parents just don’t have to deal with.
Every parent of a Black child knows that the day will come, when their child is disrespected because of their mere existence. The thing is, they don’t know WHEN it is coming. They just know that it WILL come.
THESE ARE FIVE YEAR OLDS…..YOU RACIST BIGOTS.
liberal
@Gin & Tonic: Yeah. I like retraining—learning new stuff is fun. Wife’s decision to get a dog isn’t helping with the general lack of time to do anything, but I shouldn’t complain—in an absolute sense my life is pretty good right now.
liberal
@raven: These discussions get me thinking that we should start a firm that does work for other firms. It would hire no one under 40. (I’m pretty sure that’s the age below which you can’t file age discrimination suits.)
That said, the people who are really fscked are the younguns.
raven
@liberal: Being and adult educator I follow the “lifelong learning” path. That’s why I have so many questions for Ozark!
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Free enterprise should be respected…
until it blows up and it doesn’t pay fealty to conservative dogma.
liberal
@OzarkHillbilly: Fair enough.
Elmo
@Kay Eye: I have a cat that drools! I never knew it was a thing, but he does. A lot. I’m pretty sure he’s a Maine Coon mix – he’s huge and luxuriously furry and unbelievably affectionate, and has these enormous clown feet. But he drools like crazy!
liberal
@Schlemazel Khan:
If I thought it would do any good, I’d encourage people in that situation to draw straws and off the bastards that did that. But (in the long run at least) the Masters of the Universe would just hire body guards.
liberal
@rikyrah: IANAL, but I don’t see how it’s actionable, even if it were true.
Would be great if someone was called before the committee and lambasted those sacks of s4it on their hatred of capitalism.
D58826
The Bernie (and Trump) movement in a nut shell:
And I doubt that Hillary or any one of the ardent HILBOTs on BJ would disagree. It gets back to the argument we all have been having – can you fix it with Bernie’s whole loaf now or Hillary’s (and Obama’s) one slice at a time approach. I also suspect that as automation/technology/globalization advance more and more people will be left behind. There have been several comments about how the Tesla will further reduce the number of auto workers. Seems to me we best try and start fixing this now before the next wave of economic ‘losers’ are created. Rather than Bernie’s vision of a revolution these folks might come with real torches and pitchforks. We already see some ofthat with the militia and Bundy movements out in Oregon.
liberal
@D58826: It’s not clear to me it’s true. It might be true. But people have been talking about the end of work for over a hundred years, I think.
I think it’s better to start off from a more general position: that of concern for labor, period. If you look at the political environment as a whole, there is very little. E.g. Congressional discussions of H1-B in tech…they brought in all these CEOs. As if those guys give a shit about anything other than driving the cost of labor down. And I could be wrong, but I highly doubt the Democratic side was any different. (Not that I think there’s not a dime worth’s of difference in general.)
raven
@liberal: It’s a different world. I never though anything about stuff like retirement until I got into my late 40’s. The system I am in allowed me to purchase my three years in the Army and that vested me at the time. It was REALLY expensive but it turns out it was worth it. I’m now seriously considering a reverse mortgage to slam money into my retirement for the last couple of years. Not having kids helps, we are leaving what we have to nieces and nephews but, unlike being a parent, we’re comfortable with them getting what we leave as opposed to being all freaked out to leave them a lot.
Chris
@rikyrah:
This is kind of the elephant in the room when it comes to conservatives and economics; actually, they hate capitalism. As we’re reminded every time The Market or one of the actors in it does something that doesn’t suit them and they flip a shit.
MattF
@Gin & Tonic: Me too. The catch is that developing a new specialty is time-consuming and requires allies in your workplace i.e., people who will put you on a team and pay you while you’re learning the new stuff. One reason it worked for me is that there’s a cohort at my workplace who learned how to deal with a specific, common situation from something I published long ago. So, it’s doable, but you also have to be lucky.
Paul in KY
@debbie: Holy crap. Think I would have taken leave that day.
OzarkHillbilly
@liberal: That was snarky. There are way too many ‘fly by night electricians’ out there, but none of them are union. I have run into more than a few of them and walked off jobsites because of unsafe conditions. Felt like I was in Texas.
Aleta
Bob
Bob a ran
raven
@MattF: Yep, I got hired in course development because of my background working with insane parents in youth sports! My boss said. “if you can do that you can do ANYTHING. You can learn the technology but handling crazy people”!
J R in WV
@germy:
Medicare pays 80% of a lot of medical stuff, 100% of in-hospital costs. Medicare Supplemental, which for me as a retiree is partly paid for through my former employer via a deduction from my pension, pays the other 20%, and for prescriptions.
With Both in place it’s pretty good, two shoulder replacement surgeries, no real out-of-pocket costs to amount to anything. Supplemental paid for my Dad’s chemo prescriptions, one of which was $4000/month IIRC. That was years ago.
Don’t mess it up, you can’t make a change to fix something until the next year, usually.
D58826
@liberal: The economy has always been changing. One ofthe last big shifts was in the late 19th century and early 20th. The difference, it seems to me, is as machines replaced animals and people on the farm, the building of those machines opened up new jobs and the blacksmith could be retrained to be an auto mechanic. So rather than tilling a field in Iowa like their Dad, the young folks headed off to Detroit to build Model T’s, which they were being paid well enough that they could also buy. Somewhat simplistic I realize.
Today its totally different. The new jobs might be in India. The new machines are being built by robots and the robots are being built by other robots. Even being a doctor in what is perceived as a hands on type job, a radiologist in India can read your x-ray or MRI as well as a more expensive doctor down the hall. It might take a while for a robot surgeon but….
Even the old standby entry level job of stock boy/order picker is replaced with robots.
Emma
@D58826: The moment President Bernie tried to implement any of his (a bit nebulous so far but I’m projecting) tax plans those “disaffected” people in “left behind” areas will rise up en masse against him.
(added) Not a slam against Sanders. But economics-only answers don’t make up for 30 years of racist messages by so-called “conservatives.”
D58826
@Chris: I suspect they would hate true capitalism wqith now barriers to entry by any palayer. They don’t want a free and open market (even if that was a really good thing from a liberal point of view) they want KOCHism where the gifted few get t o define the rules for their benefit and at the expense of everyone else. They want a free enterprise system were all of the golden geese roost in Koch/Adelson/Coors/etc hen house. and they will decide how to divide up the one golden egg for the rest of us. And sorry at the moment I don’t see even Bernie changing that anytime soon
bystander
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Then, I’m going to surprise everyone and vote Bundy be moved into the general prison population. Seems a shame he can’t share his enlightened stance on African-Americans freely.
Bob’s goatee clearly the indicates he moves to the beat of a different bongo.
liberal
@D58826: IMHO you’re getting at one of the key economic issues: “it’s the rent, stupid”. (Rent in the sense of economics.)
OzarkHillbilly
@D58826: There is no such thing as a “free market”. Never has been. There are regulated markets, and there are captured markets. The Koch’s and such know this full well and the latter is exactly what they are after.
Kay
My son’s school had a performance by an opera company yesterday. I volunteered to herd them there and back (they have to walk to a community center with a stage). One of the 7th graders asked one of the singers “when did you come out as gay?” in an assholish, snarky manner. I know him slightly because I know his mother- she’s a jerk too. I was just so pissed. These opera people took a bus 60 miles to do this- we were really grateful they came- and one jerk who thinks he’s funny makes the whole group of kids look bad. Who raises these children? How is that an acceptable question to ask a stranger who is giving you something no matter your fucked up views on being gay?
WaterGirl
@Zinsky: At the university, we went through that pretty much every single year for 9 years. We knew positions were going to be cut in our unit but you didn’t know who would get the axe. Every year thinking “is this the year my position will be cut?” So hard. I feel your pain!
For me, it was year 9 of position cuts when my position was cut. I had been at the university since forever and they have a rule that if you’ve been there 10 years or more, you HAVE to get an interview for any job you are qualified for. But I looked at those 9 years of wondering, every spring, and wondered if that was really my best bet. Luckily, our contracts required one year’s notice, so when it happened, you had time to figure out your next move.
I had just turned 55, I had a pension that was half of my former salary, and I had health care in retirement, so I thought “if you can’t be on yourself, who can you bet on?”. Yeah, having less money isn’t always fun, but that kind of stress every year isn’t good for your health, so I took the money and ran. I started a small consulting business – life is much less stressful and I’m much happier.
I hope whatever you do, you come out on top with whatever you decide!
P.S. There was something called the “rule of 55” that said if you retired they year you turned 55, you could take your retirement money out whenever you want with no penalty. Maybe that was a 403b thing not a 401k thing, or maybe it really does have to be the exact year you turn 55, but you might want to check into that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: You should have asked him when he plans on coming out of the closet.
rikyrah
@Kay:
No Home Training, Kay.
No Home Training.
bemused
@Kay:
This makes me wonder what it was like for the resentfuls when they were young apprentices just starting out, easier or were they also resented by the older journeymen?
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ha! This is one of those “snarky things one would love to say but can’t” situations which I experience often. Sigh.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
He got “in trouble” (Saturday morning school is usually the punishment) and I talked to my son about it last night but this is the flip side of people whining about political correctness- they just feel they have a “right” to express their every prejudice and it puts the burden on the person they’re targeting to be “bigger”. I would get tired of that if I were in their shoes. What if they don’t feel like being generous to morons?
ET
Bob may be weird – in only the best way of course – but I bet he makes you laugh and that is awesome.
Kay
@bemused:
It’s a good question. He didn’t like his first journeyman (they call them “tool partners”) and the other journeyman agreed that the guy is a jerk but told him he had to suck it up. They completed that project and now he’s on another so he has a new one. Right now he’s paired with a woman journeyman which is unusual in the building trades. He likes her.
WaterGirl
@raven: It’s funny what can make a difference when interviewing for a job. I got several positions because the interviewers remembered me from when I worked at the Eisner’s store at Lincoln Square while I put myself through college. I would hear it all the time “I always went through your lane because no matter how many people were in line your’s was always the fastest” and “you were always so nice and friendly”.
Who knew that working in a grocery store to put yourself through school could impact professional opportunities years down the road? But people got to see you work under pressure, they got a sense of your disposition, of your people skills, etc. Thank goodness I wasn’t slow and sullen as a grocery checker, I”m not sure I would have ever gotten a job at the university because the store was right in the middle of what they called the faculty ghetto.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: In some ways things are much easier for apprentices these days (and rightly so) but not in this one. There is competition, and neither side has a lock on ‘fairness’. It is just plain messy.
@Kay: Too bad his parents don’t have to do Saturday penance. I think a lot of these problems would go away a lot quicker if the parents had to pay a price.
D58826
@liberal: yep
@Emma: The GOP will slime Bernie as a tax and spend liberal/socialist if he is the nominee which will sink his favorable s real quick. And will filibuster to death everything he proposes if elected. The same will happen to Hillary of course
@OzarkHillbilly: The law of gravity exists w/o human intervention. two hydrogen atoms and one of oxygen makes water everywhere in the universe from a few thousand years after the big bang.
‘Free enterprise’, even as Adam Smith envisioned it, is a human construct, period. And as from time immemorial, whether it is the political divine right or kings or the ‘free enterprise’ system, the folks with the biggest stick get to make the rules. Hopefully in a democracy the little folks can bend the rules a bit to share the wreath a bit more equitably. But they need a few sticks to do it. Unions once served that purpose, hence the drive by the 1`% to destroy the remnants of the private sector unions and the public sector unions. Even in the heyday of the union movement, the 1% was still wealthy beyond description, now they just want it all.
bemused
@Kay:
I suspect it’s the same old story of some older people believing they had it so much harder than the youngs these days even when the opposite is true in many cases.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl:
Well, that leaves me out.
satby
@WaterGirl: Funny, my first job in high school was in a grocery store too. I sometimes say that everyone’s first job should be in a grocery store or something like that because it’s a good training ground for learning to deal with all kinds of people. Not coincidentally, it also teaches you how not to be rude to service workers when you’ve experienced being on the receiving end of how rude people can be.
WaterGirl
Bob is so handsome! And I love the look on his face in the photo. A good friend had a cat named Bob. He was a character and so good looking, a real charmer. Must come with the name!
Paul in KY
@Elmo: Seems to be a thing that happens more with older cats (anecdata there).
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Sounds like a real smart-ass jerk. I would watch that one.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Well some days, probably me, too! :-)
D58826
Greg Sargent has an interesting take on the unfavorable numbers of Hillary and Trump. The short version is that most of Hillary’s numbers are already baked in. They go back to 1992. Benghazi is ‘new’ but still 4 years old. The only new thing is the e-mails and most people outside of those suffering from CDS don’t care. That could change with some type of negative outcome from the FBI but Sargent views that as increasingly unlikely.
At the moment most of Trumps negative ads go back to Bill and Zippergate. Heck a chunk of the electorate wasn’t even born yet and with gay marriage and transgender issues becoming more acceptable, Bill’s cheating on Hillary doesn’t seem like a big deal. The sexual harassment might play well today but the GOP so politicized the whole thing it is difficult to sort out the true from the false.
On the other hand Trumps negatives have no place to go but up. Most of his negatives now are based on the fact that he is viewed as a sexist clown. Once the democratic slime machine (such as it is) gets going on policy issues, his taxes, Trump University, etc then those number might spike
liberal
@D58826: With Trump, the problem is that there’s too much to choose from. It’s the “like I’m in a candy store” sitch for a negative campaigner.
With bankruptcy, for example, a legit counter is that that’s part of trying to grow a business, which is something that is worshipped in the US. The problem for Trump, though, is that AFAICT he always lost other people’s money in these blowups, not his own. Maybe even to the point of deliberately screwing other investors.
Steeplejack
@D58826:
Would have been nice if you had included a link (or even just a citation) so we would know who is opining in that piece. That way every interested reader wouldn’t have to get on the Google to find that it’s James Hohmann in the Washington Post or to read the entire piece.
blackcatsrule
Is there an update on Loki, the poor kitty that was in bad condition after eating a plant? Thanks in advance, not sure if I missed it in another thread.
D58826
@Steeplejack: I read on my iphone otherwise I would have. Probably on the WAPO website if you have the access. It’s part of his morning plum feature.
And another off the iphone from VOX. The Iranian hard lineers like Trump because of the ‘moral clarity of insanity’ is easier to deal with than a more subtle POTUS.
The moderates like him because the more he pisses off the rest of the worlds leader, the easier it will be for the Iranians to say ‘see we aren’t so bad after all’.
Tom
@Elmo: Our tuxedo kitty Emma drools like a leaky faucet. Good thing she’s cute.
Steeplejack
@D58826:
There’s a link in my comment. Even if you’re on your phone, you could at least add “from today’s Washington Post” or something. Especially useful for opinion pieces.
Just this week we had a case on this blog where someone posted a provocative news item that was subsequently debunked by people pointing out that the source was a humor site. That’s not a factor in your post, but sourcing is always helpful.
D58826
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mother-goose-baby-rescue-cincinnati_us_5732a7a4e4b096e9f0932ee0
D58826
@Steeplejack: I should have added ‘from the WaPO. Since I happen to like Sargent’s column I just mentally filled in the ‘WAPO’ part
maeve
@WaterGirl
I grew up in Urbana so seeing this online is sort of surreal
… and I grew up in the “faculty ghetto” — my Dad was a professor. However he was also the 1st generation son of Irish immigrants and the 1st person in his family to graduate from high school (let alone get a PhD). My Mom grew up on a farm. So they I (and we) also recognized the snobbishness (sometimes) of the “gownies” vs the “townies”. (This was in the 60s and early 70s – so although we shopped at Eisners you may not have been there then.)
I didn’t go to the U of I – went to UW – Madison because I wanted to leave home to go to college.