@gwangung: You mean that NYT story about He Who Will Not Be Named trying to get a toady in place as AG to push GeorgiaWasFraudStolen? Or is there some other story as well?
Sigh. Even after he’s left office, HWWNBN still astounds with the depths of depravity.
Madame asked me to convey her thanks for y’all helping with Mabel’s dental care this morning. She was really surprised with your generosity. (I’ve told her the jackals are good folk.)
The OTHER coup attempt, the details on how terrorists were directed into the Capitol.
On the flip side, the loosened terms for unemployment (you get it if you reasonably fear getting sick), the new DC statehood bill has 208 sponsors, 1.6 million vaccines given today, and more
All SORTS of stuff happening, and ya can’t keep track of it…
You can’t always get what you want. But if you need sometimes you just may find. You get what you need.
8.
dmsilev
First few paragraphs:
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President HWWNBN to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.
The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. HWWNBN’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. HWWNBN was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.
The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed?
The answer was unanimous. They would resign.
Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Mr. HWWNBN to keep Mr. Rosen in place, calculating that a furor over mass resignations at the top of the Justice Department would eclipse any attention on his baseless accusations of voter fraud. Mr. HWWNBN’s decision came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. HWWNBN’s reality show “The Apprentice,” albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis.
On the third hand, the new meme of Jedi Master Michelle was just what I needed to see….
(On the other hand, Barack already knew this…..)
12.
West of the Cascades
@gwangung: how does the new DC statehood bill handle the District’s electors (via the 23rd amendment)? I tried (half-heartedly) to google for the bill text and came up empty.
In charging papers, the FBI said that during the Capitol riot, Caldwell received Facebook messages from unspecified senders updating him of the location of lawmakers. When he posted a one-word message, “Inside,” he received exhortations and directions describing tunnels, doors and hallways, the FBI said.
Some messages, according to the FBI, included, “Tom all legislators are down in the Tunnels 3floors down,” and “Go through back house chamber doors facing N left down hallway down steps.” Another message read: “All members are in the tunnels under capital seal them in. Turn on gas,” the FBI added.
20.
Mandarama
@gwangung: I noticed in that article that they did NOT say “other members of the group” or “other rally attendees” or anything to identify who those messages came from. It seems like they would have specified if communications had been something predictable like that. At this point, there’s no telling what we’ll find out.
I am hoping that during the extra two weeks the Republicans (and Trump) wanted… we find out a lot more information about the insurrection and hopefully start to learn names of lawmakers or staffers who were involved and sharing locations.
@Raoul Paste: And they were being given detailed step-by-step guidance by remote operators. That’s a fucking conspiracy.
30.
Elizabelle
These people need to go to prison for a long, long time.
I blame social media, to some extent. I have seen previously decent people get radicalized on Facebook. Yes, they fell for the shit, but the memes and material are so obviously one-sided and meant to inflame. They could not see that. Complete lack of critical thinking ability, or understanding or knowledge of history.
We have a real problem with some of our military members. You see that on FB too. Also police.
If people cannot understand that Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter can actually be symbiotic, they do not belong in law enforcement. Period.
There is a sickness in our society. I have faith that Biden and our new administration see it too. No sweeping this filth back under the rug.
@WaterGirl: That’s what I think is going to happen, too. Time is not on Trump’s side, or the insurrectionists.
35.
Elizabelle
Have you all noticed that the WaPost has really cut off reader commenting in the past eight or so days? I wondered if they worried their threads could be used the spread messaging, especially since the rightwingers/insurrectionists were cut off so many other avenues of social media.
This message accompanies the great majority of “juicy” stories lately:
Comments are not available on this story.
At The Washington Post, we value upholding civil dialogue around the news of the day. We are currently experiencing a high volume of comments and have temporarily reduced the number of stories with comments available in order to maintain our standard of discourse.
36.
The Thin Black Duke
@Chetan Murthy: POC have known who the enemy is and what they do for a long time. If this news gives naive white people the gift of clarity, then it has value.
Does anyone have a link to the West Wing thing from Larry O’Donnell’s show recently? The one that was like the intro to West Wing, only it showed the real people that Biden has in those positions in the West Wing. I tried googling with no luck, but I don’t have great google fu.
40.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: Noticed that. It’s a shame; the only real reason to read Hewitt and Thiessen and so forth was to watch the commentariat rip them to shreds.
41.
Elizabelle
@dmsilev: Yup. Those weasels, and David Brooks. The reader comments are way more informative and honest. LOL.
U.S. authorities charged an apparent leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group, Thomas Edward Caldwell, 66, of Berryville, Va., in the attack, alleging that the Navy veteran helped organize a ring of dozens who coordinated their movements as they “stormed the castle” to disrupt the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory.
I don’t care how old he is. The Navy needs to haul his ass back to active duty and court martial him right to Leavenworth.
46.
FlyingToaster
Other than Wednesday’s joy, I’ve mostly been head-down in the trench, just trying to catch up now. WarriorTeen got her braces installed on Tuesday (right after the Parent/Teacher/Student Zoom conference) and is in serious fucking pain. She’s living on Gogurt and GoGoSqueez applesauce and overcooked pasta and soft rice. An attempt to eat two bites of soft bread yesterday caused howls of agony. Which my husband, her violin teacher, and the orthodontist all assured me is entirely normal. Ugh.
I still think that there’s a real likelihood that some congressfolk will have to be expelled. It’s not good when you’re crazier and more corrupt than Jim Traficant (i.e., Boebert or MTG). I suspect that it would be hard for Moscow Mitch to demand anything if young Mr. Hawley of MO were sent packing. If any member of Congress is shown to have actively cooperated with the insurrectionists, expulsion and prosecution is the bare minimum that needs to happen.
I left you a link on Biden’s Rolex downstairs, but here it is again.
48.
Ohio Mom
Suzanne: I know the feeling.
Ohio Son’s caseworker from the county disabilities board called in the middle of Biden’s speech to tell me he was eligible for a vaccine appointment next week.
We are walking on air — while arguably Ohio Dad needs a jab more than Son, it’s the idea that it’s finally happening!
Damn, Brian Williams just roasted the what-aboutism of the NYT on the Rolex and Peloton stories. I’ve frankly been waiting for someone at MSNBC to speak up, didn’t think it would be BriWi, I thought it would be Nicolle Wallace.
51.
Kent
Since this is an open thread. If anyone was following my daughter’s college search saga earlier this fall, she has now been accepted into 6 of the nine schools in which she applied and gotten financial aid offers from most. Still waiting to hear from UW, Occidental, and Reed, which don’t do early action. I put together an apples-to-apples college cost comparison spreadsheet. Read it and weep if you are unfamiliar with current college costs. My wife is a physician so we are not expecting any need-based aid, only merit aid. These are just tuition, fees, and room and board, not ancillary stuff like books or travel.
She is planning to major in biology with the intent of pursuing graduate studies in something related to genetics or molecular biology. But that is all utterly subject to change obviously. Any comments welcome from anyone familiar with these schools. Personally I think her best public school option is UW and her best private school option is Whitman. Hopeful Whitman will up the merit aid if that ends up being her first choice. That was just a preliminary aid estimate, not their final offer.
52.
Just Some Fuckhead
@mrmoshpotato: My favorite hot sauces are cayenne-based. I don’t mind hot food. I make a pasta dish with chicken and thai chili peppers that makes me question all my life choices but even thai chili peppers are just a hotter cayenne pepper.
53.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I loathe Brian Williams who seems to be more concerned about the sound of his own voice than anything substantive. I will check that out.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s like some of the “news” people on these shows and some of the questioners who are assigned to the White House are the Junior Varsity crew – they need to be replaced by some professionals.
55.
Mike in NC
I’m going to be forever unhappy that the Trump Crime Family didn’t go out like Mussolini and his henchmen. Americans lack the resolve of other people.
Over on Twitter, everyone’s talking about FB suddenly logging everyone out.
Either they’re hunkering down, or they were ordered to shut down by the FBI to preserve evidence.
ETA: Or it could be a technical glitch. But after the story about how the Oathkeepers used FB to plan/stage/communicate, it would be lovely if the FBI shut FB down.
58.
Ken
@West of the Cascades: I’m not a lawyer, but putting on my rules lawyer hat: The Amendment says “The District constituting the seat of government….” No such District will exist once it’s a state.
@Ken: I have heard talk about DC (the district) being made up of just the set of government buildings. So DC could still exist, but humans wouldn’t reside in DC. They would live in the new state.
60.
Jay
NEW: former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign disclosed paying people & firms behind the January 6 rally before rioters stored the US Capitol *OVER $2.7 MILLION*—but secretive shell companies & "dark money" hide details of Trump ties to those protests https://t.co/ABgwnBvo0Spic.twitter.com/NZ3LVSzsVg— Anna Massoglia (@annalecta) January 22, 2021
61.
Gravenstone
@dmsilev: We unfortunately should get used to it. Because the revelations of their depravity and lawlessness are going to keep coming, and they’re going to get worse. But – they no longer have the reins of power and an accounting is coming.
For a news company that prints articles that tout money as the most American thing in the world as not only normal but absolutely, positively have to exist to be part of their status, that was an extremely snotty, piece of shit story. That reenforces why the FTELFFTFNYT is called names like that.
63.
Ohio Mom
Kent: who has $600,000 to send their kid to Reed for four years? I’m trying to imagine a campus full of kids from families like that.
64.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Kent: I haven’t been following but I want to congratulate you for whatever magic resulted in your daughter’s commitment to college. We told our kids we’d buy their first vehicle and pay for their entire college. After multiple dropouts costing us tens of thousands of dollars, they moved out with their cars.
65.
Elizabelle
We are all so sick of these “legends in their own minds” fuckers. Even convenience store clerks are turning them in.
… But as the low-hanging fruit of readily identifiable rioters began to dry up, family members and friends, co-workers and bosses, old acquaintances and others became increasingly helpful in developing leads, court records show.
One woman called authorities to report that a man she’d seen in videos inside the Capitol was her ex-husband. A State Department employee reported his girlfriend’s brother to investigators. The wife and children of a Texas man confirmed he’d traveled to D.C. And in Newport News, Va., a convenience store employee recognized a customer from video of the mob and helped federal agents pull the man’s license plate number from store surveillance.
Acting Atty. Gen. Jeffrey Rosen praised the deluge of nearly 200,000 digital tips that have poured in as proof that the American people “will not allow mob violence to go unanswered.”
Experts on extremism said such tipsters also are an important firewall against future extremist attacks.
Extremists “don’t live in a vacuum…. They all have family, friends, colleagues, co-workers, and it’s no surprise that they will share their beliefs or actions with those people,” said Erroll Southers, director of homegrown violent extremism studies at USC. “The best opportunity we have to either help them disengage from that kind of thinking or action, or worse yet, thwart a plot, is enabling community members [to intervene].”
…. Seth Jones, a terrorism expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said American acts of domestic terrorism are often carried out by individuals instead of organized groups, making it difficult for law enforcement to uncover and thwart plots. In such instances, information from a person’s family members and friends becomes critical, he said — and that will remain true as the nation looks to confront the increasing domestic radicalization moving forward.
Jones cautioned against neighbors spying on one another, but said people need to give authorities information about a loved one or friend who has become radicalized toward violence and talks about hurting people or encourages violence against others.
You don’t have to “spy on one another.” But now, people can do more than wince at their relatives’/associates’ behavior and social media.
66.
NotMax
Occurred to me that any claim to having his body lie in state in the Capitol rotunda has been annulled.
Fun fact: Steve Jobs went to Reed College… for about one or two semesters. He dropped out because he decided it was a waste of time and he didn’t want his parents to keep paying the tuition/room & board.
@Steeplejack (phone): Thanks, but that NYT article doesn’t say anything about the watch belonging to Biden’s grandfather, which is what I was questioning.
@WaterGirl: I get that it was a stupid pointless article, I was just curious if the grandfather claim was true.
72.
Doc Sardonic
@FlyingToaster: A suggestion from deep within my ancient(40+ years ago) memory of the torture of newly installed braces. The teething gel for babies helped considerably with the pain.
73.
NotMax
Small and petty to the last minute.
Trumps dismissed ushers before Bidens’ arrival
One of Donald and Melania Trump’s final small acts in a presidential transition charitably described as grudging was to send White House ushers home for the day on Wednesday morning, leaving the new first family to fend for themselves upon entering, according to several informed sources.
“The Trumps sent the butlers home when they left so there would be no one to help the Bidens when they arrived,” a well-placed official not associated with the incoming Biden team told National Journal. “So petty.”
The no-shows apparently included chief usher Timothy Harleth. Sources familiar with what happened confirm that Harleth, a former executive of Trump Hotels hired by Melania Trump, was summarily fired by the Trumps before they left—not by the Bidens, as has been widely reported. Source
Even if Joe bought that watch last week, what is the point of the story? That he’s cheap? That he spends too much on a watch? That he’s a hypocrite because he doesn’t shit in a gold toilet? There was no point to the story, it was a hit job for no other reason than they are assholes.
@Geoduck: Yeah, I figured I was preaching to the choir. I just don’t seem to have any patience for giving oxygen to the bullshit stories.
I wish we could figure out how to shut those down. Seems like it would be easy enough to say “it’s day 2 of the new administration, we have 3-4,000 people dying every day, and you want to talk about the brand of watch I am wearing?”
I just don’t know who can say that. But it needs to be said.
@NotMax: Wow. That’s the story that should be next to the word petty in the dictionary. Also next to the word trash.
78.
Jay
This has now been confirmed by a Capitol official: Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) tried to bring a gun onto the House floor today. (I also witnessed the whole thing and saw him try to give his gun to another member.)https://t.co/54ds56Of23— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 22, 2021
79.
NotMax
FYI.
Nearly 200 members of the National Guard deployed to Washington in the days leading up to Wednesday’s presidential inauguration have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and some officials fear cramped rest and working quarters contributed to the spread, defense officials said.
[snip]
Reports that Guardsmen were working and moving in tight quarters raised concerns Covid-19 protocols can’t be maintained, a defense official said.
Every Guardsman deployed to Washington was screened for Covid-19 before arriving, but not all were tested, unless required under the screening process, defense officials said. Source
I saw a couple articles today that talked about several new watches he has purchased but I haven’t been able to find that old article.
82.
dmsilev
@NotMax: Don’t shed any tears for Harleth though. From the end of that article,
Harleth was considered an unabashed Trump loyalist in White House circles but had told associates he was hoping to stay on with the new regime. That was never going to happen beyond a decent interval, insiders told National Journal, mainly because of his close ties to the Trumps and ongoing friction between him and the scrupulously nonpartisan household staff. In November, he fired some long-serving residence staff, depriving Jill Biden and her East Wing team of more institutional experience and complicating the transition.
Just another toady giving loyalty, but receiving none in return.
40 years after my experience with braces, when I do a big smile to get my inner lips off my teeth, there is still a rush of immense joy.
84.
Kent
@Ohio Mom:Kent: who has $600,000 to send their kid to Reed for four years? I’m trying to imagine a campus full of kids from families like that.
Honestly. They don’t do any merit aid and only 48% of their students receive financial aid. So over half the student body has parents who sign the entire check every year. Not $600,000 but $75,000 per year so $300,000, or are you counting for two kids? but yeah, a whole lot of wealthy New York and Bay Area kiddos with trust funds and big 529 plans from which the tuition checks are cut.
I told her to forget about Reed. I went there in the early 1980s and my tuition my senior year was $8,900. I still have the invoice. My parents paid half and I covered the other half with a combination of loans and work study. I graduated with $8000 of loans and paid it all off after 4 months of fishing in Alaska. Those days are long gone.
I didn’t actually read the Times article, but I saw another one that said Biden’s Rolex is a new Datejust, with a picture of it. I think it’s a model that would not have been available to his grandfather.
@Just Some Fuckhead: Freaky. This is what my father promised me at 15 in 1970. I took the deal. It worked out well. I’m glad my Nixon loving father believed in education.
Fun fact: Steve Jobs went to Reed College… for about one or two semesters. He dropped out because he decided it was a waste of time and he didn’t want his parents to keep paying the tuition/room & board.
Yep, but their most legendary alum (amongst the Reed students) was the Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci, who attended Reed before WW2 at the height of Italian fascism from an aristocratic family. He did things like design the uniforms for the Reed ski team and got the national media to show up to see the unveiling. Utterly amazing story: https://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/march2014/articles/features/pucci/pucci1.html
Here is a taste:
All semester long, the freshmen had put up with his exotic accent. His fancy footwork on the dance floor. His Florentine flamboyance and the way the women swooned over him.
Now Emilio Pucci MA ’37 had pushed their patience to the limit. To show off the new uniforms he had designed for the Reed ski team, he built a wooden ramp in the canyon, coated it with soap to make it slick—and invited a news crew to film the Reed skiers in their sleek outfits.
So the freshmen reckoned it was time to grab a little glory of their own. When the news crews arrived, Gregg Wood ’39 and three other classmates stripped off their clothes and jumped naked into the outdoor swimming pool that sat below the lake. “We went down to the canyon swimming pool and broke the ice that was about an inch thick,” said Gregg, a member of Reed’s dance committee that Emilio’s showmanship always overshadowed. “It just ended up being as cold as heck, so we ran back to the gym for hot showers.”
Unfortunately, the stunt came to naught. The newsmen shrugged and trained their cameras on the skiers. Emilio was, as usual, the man of the hour, and the envy he aroused only seemed to deepen his mystique. It was as if he were destined to hog the spotlight—a fitting talent for a man who would eventually become a world-class fashion designer. But Emilio was more than that. His story also slaloms through some imposing philosophical moguls. Throughout his long and productive life, he struggled to reconcile diametrically opposed ideas: his youthful infatuation with fascism with his belief in freedom and opportunity; his loyalty to his homeland and his love of his adopted country; his distrust of materialism while embracing an inherently materialistic medium. What he managed in his lifelong quest was nothing short of astonishing: He predicted—and designed for—a future in which everyone would have to negotiate their own such opposing forces.
92.
Yutsano
@Kent: I’ll be honest (much as it pains me to say as a proud Cougar) if your daughter visited Pullman and didn’t at least really like it there she really shouldn’t look at Washington State. And if she hasn’t visited Pullman yet she needs to before making that decision. The culture at Wazzu is amazing and if I could I would live in Pullman in a heartbeat. But it’s definitely not for everyone. The science departments are fantastic there don’t get me wrong. But I don’t want her to be miserable all the way on the other side of the state in a small town with not a huge amount to do.
@CaseyL: I had that FB suddenly logging me out. Could be a way for FB to suddenly neutralise a heap of bot accounts
95.
Kent
@Just Some Fuckhead:@Kent: I haven’t been following but I want to congratulate you for whatever magic resulted in your daughter’s commitment to college. We told our kids we’d buy their first vehicle and pay for their entire college. After multiple dropouts costing us tens of thousands of dollars, they moved out with their cars.
The toughest one was the first daughter who just graduated from University of Arkansas last May with a degree in public relations and marketing with a focus on travel and leisure industries. Into the teeth of the pandemic. She managed to land a job in the business office of Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort this winter so is super happy because she snow boards every day and gets paid. When she went off to college I told my wife we just had to get her through 4 years without getting pregnant, on drugs, or dropping out. And she exceeded our expectations.
This middle daughter is a little brainiac. She can’t wait for college so she can study what she wants without so many annoying HS students around. The problem with her is to avoid having her become a “tenured student” and convincing her to go find a real job someplace instead of the 3rd post-doc or whatever.
Parler, the beleaguered social network advertised as a “free speech” alternative to Facebook and Twitter, has had a tough month. Apple and Google removed the Parler app from their stores, and Amazon blocked the platform from using its hosting services. Parler has since found a home in DDoS-Guard, a Russian digital infrastructure company. But now it appears DDoS-Guard is about to be relieved of more than two-thirds of the Internet address space the company leases to clients — including the Internet addresses currently occupied by Parler.
The pending disruption for DDoS-Guard and Parler comes compliments of Ron Guilmette, a researcher who has made it something of a personal mission to de-platform conspiracy theorist and far-right groups.
In October, a phone call from Guilmette to an Internet provider in Oregon was all it took to briefly sideline a vast network of sites tied to 8chan/8kun — a controversial online image board linked to several mass shootings — and QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory which holds that a cabal of Satanic pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against President Donald Trump. As a result, those QAnon and 8chan sites also ultimately ended up in the arms of DDoS-Guard.
Much like Internet infrastructure firm CloudFlare, DDoS-Guard typically doesn’t host sites directly but instead acts as a go-between to simultaneously keep the real Internet addresses of its clients confidential and to protect them from crippling Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.
The majority of DDoS-Guard’s employees are based in Russia, but the company is actually incorporated in two other places: As “Cognitive Cloud LLP” in Scotland, and as DDoS-Guard Corp. based in Belize. However, none of the company’s employees are listed as based in Belize, and DDoS-Guard makes no mention of the Latin American region in its map of global operations.
In studying the more than 11,000 Internet addresses assigned to those two companies, Guilmette found that approximately 66 percent of them were doled out to the Belize entity by LACNIC, the regional Internet registry for the Latin American and Caribbean regions.
Suspecting that DDoS-Guard incorporated in Belize on paper just to get huge swaths of IP addresses that are supposed to be given only to entities with a physical presence in the region, Guilmette filed a complaint with the Internet registry about his suspicions back in November.
Guilmette said LACNIC told him it would investigate, and that any adjudication on the matter could take up to three months. But earlier this week, LACNIC published a notice on its website that it intends to revoke 8,192 IPv4 addresses from DDoS-Guard — including the Internet address currently assigned to Parler[.]com.
[…]
[ womp, womp ]
Good, good. More, please.
Cheers,
Scott.
98.
Kent
@Yutsano:@Kent: I’ll be honest (much as it pains me to say as a proud Cougar) if your daughter visited Pullman and didn’t at least really like it there she really shouldn’t look at Washington State. And if she hasn’t visited Pullman yet she needs to before making that decision. The culture at Wazzu is amazing and if I could I would live in Pullman in a heartbeat. But it’s definitely not for everyone. The science departments are fantastic there don’t get me wrong. But I don’t want her to be miserable all the way on the other side of the state in a small town with not a huge amount to do.
We did a summer 2019 pre-pandemic road trip to UW, WWU, and WSU in that order. She wasn’t thrilled with Pullman and the long isolated drive out there from Seattle. But thought the campus itself was nice. They actually had by far the nicest student amenities and nicest looking computerized lecture halls and such of any of those schools. But after you visit Seattle and Bellingham, Pullman is kind of a let-down.
She wants to do marching band in college too, which means one of the Pac-12 schools. And if she doesn’t get into UW then WWU will jump high on the list for that reason. WWU doesn’t have a marching band. And she was honestly not that impressed with all the obsessive Nike branding and athletics emphasis at UO. Plus UO will cost way more.
We did a recent trip out to visit Whitman this past November and she really loved it and is now reconsidering schools east of the Cascades. But I think if she gets into UW then it will be the top choice. She has a ton of HS friends who are aiming to go there too, and about 10 former HS band mates on the Husky marching band.
99.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Kent: I’m amazed and jealous of your success launching them. We had both of the kids enrolled in the local high school academies; the girl in World Languages, taking Chinese, the boy in STEM. Then when they started college, it just all fell apart. We’re still grieving.
100.
Yutsano
@Kent: I know the band director at UW. You guys definitely should plan a post pandemic visit. J. Bradley McDavid is quite the character and does amazing work. But music educators from Ohio State are some pretty amazing people.
101.
Kent
@Yutsano:@Kent: I know the band director at UW. You guys definitely should plan a post pandemic visit. J. Bradley McDavid is quite the character and does amazing work. But music educators from Ohio State are some pretty amazing people.
My daughter has met him. She attends Camas HS here in the Vancouver area which has probably the biggest and best HS marching band in WA. Her band director and McDavid are best buddies and he basically provides a pipeline of musicians to UW. Every fall (until this year) they go up to Husky Band Day when the various HS marching bands in the state play during half time. It’s an all day event and they practice all afternoon with the Husky Band Director before going on in the evening. We always go up and watch the game. Really sad it was all canceled this year because it was the one and only time our two girls would have been playing on the same band at the same time. Her younger sister is a freshman and does percussion. She is the saxophone section leader. The pandemic took away their chance to do marching band together. They might still have some of it plus an abbreviated football season this spring, we don’t know yet for sure.
@Just Some Fuckhead:@Kent: I’m amazed and jealous of your success launching them. We had both of the kids enrolled in the local high school academies; the girl in World Languages, taking Chinese, the boy in STEM. Then when they started college, it just all fell apart. We’re still grieving.
Well, only one has launched. Two more to go. I’m not worried about the middle child. The youngest may give us grey hairs still. She is super bright but a bit more difficult. She is the kind who has to touch the stove to find out that it is hot.
104.
Kent
@West of the Cascades:@gwangung: how does the new DC statehood bill handle the District’s electors (via the 23rd amendment)? I tried (half-heartedly) to google for the bill text and came up empty.
What is the issue?
It seems statehood would be consistent with the 23rd amendment as long as they don’t get more electors than Wyoming, which I don’t think they ever would based on population. The District is nowhere near getting two congressional seats and the criteria for that will keep going up and up as the US population increases and the District’s doesn’t.
@Just Some Fuckhead: I feel your pain. My older son dropped out after 7 weeks. There went seven grand! Followed up with a stint at Community College, a surprising enlistment in the National Guard, then a couple of years later he called the school on his own, registered, went back and graduated.
The younger son has been slowly working his way through Community College while working and has a plan to get a BA and possibly MA in Social Work. 2 1/2 more years. It took him awhile to figure out that college was what he wanted to do.
I grumped that I made it through in one school in four years. Then realized I was the only one out of my spouse, her siblings, and my siblings to have done that.
107.
frosty
@Kent: When she went off to college I told my wife we just had to get her through 4 years without getting pregnant, on drugs, or dropping out. And she exceeded our expectations.
When my brother was a reporter he interviewed a high school principal who said “My job is to get them out of here with no permanent damage.” So that was my bottom line for my kids:
Alive, no crippling injuries, no criminal record, no pregnancies, no addictions, no tattoos, and graduate from high school. We made it!
The oldest is tattooed all over now, but we cried at his first one: “A family is not made by blood, but by love”. (He’s adopted).
108.
Kent
@frosty: My 23 year old daughter has tattoos. Nothing terribly noticeable or offensive, but she is always planning the next one. I don’t get it. But I guess there are worse things. I’m sure the little one will get them. She is already stomping around in Doc Martins and black lipstick. In 9th grade. She knows better than to ask at age 14. The middle one is terrified of needles so that will keep her skin clean. She can barely get a shot without passing out from terror.
109.
frosty
@Kent: My younger son is terrified of needles too. No worries there!
@Just Some Fuckhead: Maybe just wait. I dropped out of college after a couple of years. Just felt lost and uninspired. Worked to support myself for 10 years and matured I think. At 29 I went back. Money was tight and going 1 class a semester while working looked like it would take forever so I asked my parents if they would still help. They visibly had trouble acting casual and not jumping up and down cheering. Started at community college then State University and did well. Graduated at 31. Have worked 29 years for that University too. All I can say is I think I just matured slower than others. I originally was all emotions and bored and lonely and insecure. Then I just quit feeling like that. I think my body had a longer adolescence than average and when it was over, I felt fine. I didn’t control it, it just happened.
Community College here is a useful transition.
114.
Uncle Cosmo
@Jay: Andy Harris’s main claim to (in)fame came even before he was seated as a Congressman: A day or two after his first successful election to the House he wondered loudly why his gold-plated Congressional health care hadn’t started. Someone had to point out to him that he might’ve won the election, but his health care wouldn’t commence until he was sworn in the following January.
Harris is an anesthesiologist high on his own supply. Best thing his colleagues could do for Maryland and the USA is arrange for a Marine heli to drop his wuthless ass off the continental shelf & see if he can him swim back to shore.
(ETA: Or one of his Democratic colleagues could’ve stripped him of his “piece” and pistol-whipped him with it on the floor of the House as payback for Sumner’s caning.)
@Kent: Far from knowledgeable about any of those universities, but I got a couple of thoughts.
1. U Dub’s biology folks are well regarded. Given that it’s one of the cheapest and may well be the best in that field on your list, worth thinking about. Also, given that your sprout may not end up a biologist, the fact that it’s a good university across the board means that she’ll have fine options to pursue, if that’s how it plays out.
That was the dynamic for my son, as it happens. This is pure anecdata, but he started out at a really good small liberal arts college in our area, and it just didn’t fit, for a whole number of reasons that are not a knock on that institution. He transferred to our flagship state uni campus, and is doing so much better/is so much happier. That’s largely a function of who he is, and not really useful to anyone else. But one factor in this shift is that at the larger place, there are enough faculty in all of its departments so that a wider range of interests—and possible mentors—are covered.
The other thought is that she should pick the place that has the best undergraduate research program. Lab work will help her with graduate applications and, at least as important, will give her an early sense of whether she actually likes bench science.
Last: my sister recently retired from some decades as a professor at Occidental (not in the sciences) and I’ll ask her if she has any particular insight into their bio sciences program.
Comments are closed.
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!
gwangung
Still stunned at all the news that was dropped on a Friday afternoon.
No dread; we dodged a missile, but still stunned.
WaterGirl
@gwangung: What news?
RandomMonster
@gwangung: Really. Wuh?
dmsilev
@gwangung: You mean that NYT story about He Who Will Not Be Named trying to get a toady in place as AG to push GeorgiaWasFraudStolen? Or is there some other story as well?
Sigh. Even after he’s left office, HWWNBN still astounds with the depths of depravity.
Edit: Story link
?BillinGlendaleCA
Madame asked me to convey her thanks for y’all helping with Mabel’s dental care this morning. She was really surprised with your generosity. (I’ve told her the jackals are good folk.)
gwangung
The OTHER coup attempt, the details on how terrorists were directed into the Capitol.
On the flip side, the loosened terms for unemployment (you get it if you reasonably fear getting sick), the new DC statehood bill has 208 sponsors, 1.6 million vaccines given today, and more
All SORTS of stuff happening, and ya can’t keep track of it…
Maeve
You can’t always get what you want. But if you need sometimes you just may find. You get what you need.
dmsilev
First few paragraphs:
WaterGirl
@gwangung:
I completely missed that. Do you have a link?
mrmoshpotato
The Halal Guys’ hot sauce is very spicy and very foul. Their white sauce is alright.
gwangung
On the third hand, the new meme of Jedi Master Michelle was just what I needed to see….
(On the other hand, Barack already knew this…..)
West of the Cascades
@gwangung: how does the new DC statehood bill handle the District’s electors (via the 23rd amendment)? I tried (half-heartedly) to google for the bill text and came up empty.
gwangung
@WaterGirl: I think dmsilev got it. But, damn….
WaterGirl
@gwangung: Okay, I had no idea about this either. I googled without much luck.
Clearly I need to get out more.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@West of the Cascades: I would assume if DC was a state, it’d make the 23rd Amendment redundant.
Chetan Murthy
@WaterGirl: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/conspiracy-oath-keeper-arrest-capitol-riot/2021/01/19/fb84877a-5a4f-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html
WaterGirl
@gwangung: What about this part?
edit: I think I got my answer at #16 above.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Spicey good, foul, not so good.
Chetan Murthy
@Chetan Murthy: Some quotes. Holey moley.
In charging papers, the FBI said that during the Capitol riot, Caldwell received Facebook messages from unspecified senders updating him of the location of lawmakers. When he posted a one-word message, “Inside,” he received exhortations and directions describing tunnels, doors and hallways, the FBI said.
Some messages, according to the FBI, included, “Tom all legislators are down in the Tunnels 3floors down,” and “Go through back house chamber doors facing N left down hallway down steps.” Another message read: “All members are in the tunnels under capital seal them in. Turn on gas,” the FBI added.
Mandarama
@gwangung: I noticed in that article that they did NOT say “other members of the group” or “other rally attendees” or anything to identify who those messages came from. It seems like they would have specified if communications had been something predictable like that. At this point, there’s no telling what we’ll find out.
gwangung
@West of the Cascades: Think Rep Norton is proposing two Senators and one Representative initially)
@Mandarama: Yes, exactly. Could be just Congressional staff (which is bad enough), but the alternatives….
Like I said, BIG NEWS DUMP AFTERNOON.
dmsilev
@Chetan Murthy: One presumes that the FBI has gone to Facebook, warrants in hand, to learn who those ‘unspecified senders’ are.
WaterGirl
@Chetan Murthy: I’ll see your Holey moley and raise you a Holy Fuck.
Princess
“Seal them in. Turn on the gas.” @Chetan Murthy:
Princess
@dmsilev: I think the FBI already knows. They didn’t specify them to the WaPo. But they know who it was. They have seen the messages.
Chetan Murthy
@Princess: It gets worse and worse, with every drip-drip. Worse and worse. These are our legislators, our *representatives*.
WaterGirl
I am hoping that during the extra two weeks the Republicans (and Trump) wanted… we find out a lot more information about the insurrection and hopefully start to learn names of lawmakers or staffers who were involved and sharing locations.
Raoul Paste
Chetan Murthy
@Raoul Paste: And they were being given detailed step-by-step guidance by remote operators. That’s a fucking conspiracy.
Elizabelle
These people need to go to prison for a long, long time.
I blame social media, to some extent. I have seen previously decent people get radicalized on Facebook. Yes, they fell for the shit, but the memes and material are so obviously one-sided and meant to inflame. They could not see that. Complete lack of critical thinking ability, or understanding or knowledge of history.
We have a real problem with some of our military members. You see that on FB too. Also police.
If people cannot understand that Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter can actually be symbiotic, they do not belong in law enforcement. Period.
There is a sickness in our society. I have faith that Biden and our new administration see it too. No sweeping this filth back under the rug.
gwangung
The delay means things cool off.
That’s good for a dish best served cold.
Suzanne
I was able to book an appointment to get SuzMom a vaccine next week. YAAAAAAAY!!!
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
Today I learned that President Biden has a moon rock in the Oval Office:
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-lends-moon-rock-to-new-administration/
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: That’s what I think is going to happen, too. Time is not on Trump’s side, or the insurrectionists.
Elizabelle
Have you all noticed that the WaPost has really cut off reader commenting in the past eight or so days? I wondered if they worried their threads could be used the spread messaging, especially since the rightwingers/insurrectionists were cut off so many other avenues of social media.
This message accompanies the great majority of “juicy” stories lately:
The Thin Black Duke
@Chetan Murthy: POC have known who the enemy is and what they do for a long time. If this news gives naive white people the gift of clarity, then it has value.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
Yes, I noticed that.
Chetan Murthy
@The Thin Black Duke: Amen. A-fuckin-men.
WaterGirl
Does anyone have a link to the West Wing thing from Larry O’Donnell’s show recently? The one that was like the intro to West Wing, only it showed the real people that Biden has in those positions in the West Wing. I tried googling with no luck, but I don’t have great google fu.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: Noticed that. It’s a shame; the only real reason to read Hewitt and Thiessen and so forth was to watch the commentariat rip them to shreds.
Elizabelle
@dmsilev: Yup. Those weasels, and David Brooks. The reader comments are way more informative and honest. LOL.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WaterGirl:
voilà.
Geoduck
@WaterGirl: JFL beat me to it, but here it is on YouTube.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks for that!
Yutsano
From the WaPo article:
I don’t care how old he is. The Navy needs to haul his ass back to active duty and court martial him right to Leavenworth.
FlyingToaster
Other than Wednesday’s joy, I’ve mostly been head-down in the trench, just trying to catch up now. WarriorTeen got her braces installed on Tuesday (right after the Parent/Teacher/Student Zoom conference) and is in serious fucking pain. She’s living on Gogurt and GoGoSqueez applesauce and overcooked pasta and soft rice. An attempt to eat two bites of soft bread yesterday caused howls of agony. Which my husband, her violin teacher, and the orthodontist all assured me is entirely normal. Ugh.
I still think that there’s a real likelihood that some congressfolk will have to be expelled. It’s not good when you’re crazier and more corrupt than Jim Traficant (i.e., Boebert or MTG). I suspect that it would be hard for Moscow Mitch to demand anything if young Mr. Hawley of MO were sent packing. If any member of Congress is shown to have actively cooperated with the insurrectionists, expulsion and prosecution is the bare minimum that needs to happen.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Geoduck:
I left you a link on Biden’s Rolex downstairs, but here it is again.
Ohio Mom
Suzanne: I know the feeling.
Ohio Son’s caseworker from the county disabilities board called in the middle of Biden’s speech to tell me he was eligible for a vaccine appointment next week.
We are walking on air — while arguably Ohio Dad needs a jab more than Son, it’s the idea that it’s finally happening!
FlyingToaster
@WaterGirl:
YouTubeLink
ETA Sorry, I see a buncha people beat me to it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Damn, Brian Williams just roasted the what-aboutism of the NYT on the Rolex and Peloton stories. I’ve frankly been waiting for someone at MSNBC to speak up, didn’t think it would be BriWi, I thought it would be Nicolle Wallace.
Kent
Since this is an open thread. If anyone was following my daughter’s college search saga earlier this fall, she has now been accepted into 6 of the nine schools in which she applied and gotten financial aid offers from most. Still waiting to hear from UW, Occidental, and Reed, which don’t do early action. I put together an apples-to-apples college cost comparison spreadsheet. Read it and weep if you are unfamiliar with current college costs. My wife is a physician so we are not expecting any need-based aid, only merit aid. These are just tuition, fees, and room and board, not ancillary stuff like books or travel.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50768401956_ce32abffc1_b.jpg
She is planning to major in biology with the intent of pursuing graduate studies in something related to genetics or molecular biology. But that is all utterly subject to change obviously. Any comments welcome from anyone familiar with these schools. Personally I think her best public school option is UW and her best private school option is Whitman. Hopeful Whitman will up the merit aid if that ends up being her first choice. That was just a preliminary aid estimate, not their final offer.
Just Some Fuckhead
@mrmoshpotato: My favorite hot sauces are cayenne-based. I don’t mind hot food. I make a pasta dish with chicken and thai chili peppers that makes me question all my life choices but even thai chili peppers are just a hotter cayenne pepper.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I loathe Brian Williams who seems to be more concerned about the sound of his own voice than anything substantive. I will check that out.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s like some of the “news” people on these shows and some of the questioners who are assigned to the White House are the Junior Varsity crew – they need to be replaced by some professionals.
Mike in NC
I’m going to be forever unhappy that the Trump Crime Family didn’t go out like Mussolini and his henchmen. Americans lack the resolve of other people.
WaterGirl
@FlyingToaster: @Geoduck:
Thank you for the West Wing links!
CaseyL
Over on Twitter, everyone’s talking about FB suddenly logging everyone out.
Either they’re hunkering down, or they were ordered to shut down by the FBI to preserve evidence.
ETA: Or it could be a technical glitch. But after the story about how the Oathkeepers used FB to plan/stage/communicate, it would be lovely if the FBI shut FB down.
Ken
@West of the Cascades: I’m not a lawyer, but putting on my rules lawyer hat: The Amendment says “The District constituting the seat of government….” No such District will exist once it’s a state.
WaterGirl
@Ken: I have heard talk about DC (the district) being made up of just the set of government buildings. So DC could still exist, but humans wouldn’t reside in DC. They would live in the new state.
Jay
Gravenstone
@dmsilev: We unfortunately should get used to it. Because the revelations of their depravity and lawlessness are going to keep coming, and they’re going to get worse. But – they no longer have the reins of power and an accounting is coming.
Ruckus
@Steeplejack (phone):
For a news company that prints articles that tout money as the most American thing in the world as not only normal but absolutely, positively have to exist to be part of their status, that was an extremely snotty, piece of shit story. That reenforces why the FTELFFTFNYT is called names like that.
Ohio Mom
Kent: who has $600,000 to send their kid to Reed for four years? I’m trying to imagine a campus full of kids from families like that.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Kent: I haven’t been following but I want to congratulate you for whatever magic resulted in your daughter’s commitment to college. We told our kids we’d buy their first vehicle and pay for their entire college. After multiple dropouts costing us tens of thousands of dollars, they moved out with their cars.
Elizabelle
We are all so sick of these “legends in their own minds” fuckers. Even convenience store clerks are turning them in.
LA Times: Family, co-workers, old FB friends helped catch Capitol intruders, records show
You don’t have to “spy on one another.” But now, people can do more than wince at their relatives’/associates’ behavior and social media.
NotMax
Occurred to me that any claim to having his body lie in state in the Capitol rotunda has been annulled.
CaseyL
@Ohio Mom:
Fun fact: Steve Jobs went to Reed College… for about one or two semesters. He dropped out because he decided it was a waste of time and he didn’t want his parents to keep paying the tuition/room & board.
Geoduck
@Steeplejack (phone): Thanks, but that NYT article doesn’t say anything about the watch belonging to Biden’s grandfather, which is what I was questioning.
WaterGirl
@Geoduck: I think it’s like Obama’s tan suit or the stupid arugula bullshit.
As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter whether the Rolex watch belonged to Biden’s grandfather or whether he bought it himself as a special gift.
These people need to re-learn what serious journalism is.
Elizabelle
@Mike in NC:
Yet. Patience, grasshopper. At least the patriarch has tanked the brand beyond redemption.
Vox did an article on that.
No paywall. What I take issue with: all these business types yapping about the Trump brand being synonymous with “luxury” and “wealth” and “success.”
No. It’s synonymous with ostentatiousness. A lot of us noticed the six bankruptcies and the utter crassness, too.
Vox:
Donald Trump’s presidency was the worst thing that happened to the Trump brand
The Trump name used to be synonymous with success and wealth. His presidency changed that.
Geoduck
@WaterGirl: I get that it was a stupid pointless article, I was just curious if the grandfather claim was true.
Doc Sardonic
@FlyingToaster: A suggestion from deep within my ancient(40+ years ago) memory of the torture of newly installed braces. The teething gel for babies helped considerably with the pain.
NotMax
Small and petty to the last minute.
Ruckus
@Geoduck:
Even if Joe bought that watch last week, what is the point of the story? That he’s cheap? That he spends too much on a watch? That he’s a hypocrite because he doesn’t shit in a gold toilet? There was no point to the story, it was a hit job for no other reason than they are assholes.
WaterGirl
@Geoduck: Yeah, I figured I was preaching to the choir. I just don’t seem to have any patience for giving oxygen to the bullshit stories.
I wish we could figure out how to shut those down. Seems like it would be easy enough to say “it’s day 2 of the new administration, we have 3-4,000 people dying every day, and you want to talk about the brand of watch I am wearing?”
I just don’t know who can say that. But it needs to be said.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I’ve seen high school papers with better journalism than the crap that comes out of the FTFNYT.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Wow. That’s the story that should be next to the word petty in the dictionary. Also next to the word trash.
Jay
NotMax
FYI.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Small and petty from their first to their last minute.
FIXIT for you
MomSense
@Geoduck:
I saw a couple articles today that talked about several new watches he has purchased but I haven’t been able to find that old article.
dmsilev
@NotMax: Don’t shed any tears for Harleth though. From the end of that article,
Just another toady giving loyalty, but receiving none in return.
Mallard Filmore
@Doc Sardonic:
40 years after my experience with braces, when I do a big smile to get my inner lips off my teeth, there is still a rush of immense joy.
Kent
Honestly. They don’t do any merit aid and only 48% of their students receive financial aid. So over half the student body has parents who sign the entire check every year. Not $600,000 but $75,000 per year so $300,000, or are you counting for two kids? but yeah, a whole lot of wealthy New York and Bay Area kiddos with trust funds and big 529 plans from which the tuition checks are cut.
I told her to forget about Reed. I went there in the early 1980s and my tuition my senior year was $8,900. I still have the invoice. My parents paid half and I covered the other half with a combination of loans and work study. I graduated with $8000 of loans and paid it all off after 4 months of fishing in Alaska. Those days are long gone.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Just Some Fuckhead: @WaterGirl: BriWI on the NYT and Biden. The Les Miz joke is a swing and a miss, but you can feel his contempt for the Rolex story.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: Nothing wrong with Oxy, a skinny black guy with big ears went there and turned out pretty well.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Geoduck:
I didn’t actually read the Times article, but I saw another one that said Biden’s Rolex is a new Datejust, with a picture of it. I think it’s a model that would not have been available to his grandfather.
NotMax
@dmsilev
Rest assured there’s another bodily fluid (in abundance) to shed. No sympathy for the devil’s advocate.
;)
Another Scott
@Geoduck: Biden seems to like watches. He’s got quite a variety. (It doesn’t say anything about gifts or grandfathers, either.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Sure Lurkalot
@Just Some Fuckhead: Freaky. This is what my father promised me at 15 in 1970. I took the deal. It worked out well. I’m glad my Nixon loving father believed in education.
Kent
Yep, but their most legendary alum (amongst the Reed students) was the Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci, who attended Reed before WW2 at the height of Italian fascism from an aristocratic family. He did things like design the uniforms for the Reed ski team and got the national media to show up to see the unveiling. Utterly amazing story: https://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/march2014/articles/features/pucci/pucci1.html
Here is a taste:
Yutsano
@Kent: I’ll be honest (much as it pains me to say as a proud Cougar) if your daughter visited Pullman and didn’t at least really like it there she really shouldn’t look at Washington State. And if she hasn’t visited Pullman yet she needs to before making that decision. The culture at Wazzu is amazing and if I could I would live in Pullman in a heartbeat. But it’s definitely not for everyone. The science departments are fantastic there don’t get me wrong. But I don’t want her to be miserable all the way on the other side of the state in a small town with not a huge amount to do.
sanjeevs
@Elizabelle: I’ve noticed a sudden talk of ‘secession’ in news comments. Vlad must be busy
sanjeevs
@CaseyL: I had that FB suddenly logging me out. Could be a way for FB to suddenly neutralise a heap of bot accounts
Kent
The toughest one was the first daughter who just graduated from University of Arkansas last May with a degree in public relations and marketing with a focus on travel and leisure industries. Into the teeth of the pandemic. She managed to land a job in the business office of Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort this winter so is super happy because she snow boards every day and gets paid. When she went off to college I told my wife we just had to get her through 4 years without getting pregnant, on drugs, or dropping out. And she exceeded our expectations.
This middle daughter is a little brainiac. She can’t wait for college so she can study what she wants without so many annoying HS students around. The problem with her is to avoid having her become a “tenured student” and convincing her to go find a real job someplace instead of the 3rd post-doc or whatever.
NotMax
@Yutsano
If there’s not a microbrewery there crafting a Pullman porter someone missed a bet.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … KrebsOnSecurity:
[ womp, womp ]
Good, good. More, please.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
We did a summer 2019 pre-pandemic road trip to UW, WWU, and WSU in that order. She wasn’t thrilled with Pullman and the long isolated drive out there from Seattle. But thought the campus itself was nice. They actually had by far the nicest student amenities and nicest looking computerized lecture halls and such of any of those schools. But after you visit Seattle and Bellingham, Pullman is kind of a let-down.
She wants to do marching band in college too, which means one of the Pac-12 schools. And if she doesn’t get into UW then WWU will jump high on the list for that reason. WWU doesn’t have a marching band. And she was honestly not that impressed with all the obsessive Nike branding and athletics emphasis at UO. Plus UO will cost way more.
We did a recent trip out to visit Whitman this past November and she really loved it and is now reconsidering schools east of the Cascades. But I think if she gets into UW then it will be the top choice. She has a ton of HS friends who are aiming to go there too, and about 10 former HS band mates on the Husky marching band.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Kent: I’m amazed and jealous of your success launching them. We had both of the kids enrolled in the local high school academies; the girl in World Languages, taking Chinese, the boy in STEM. Then when they started college, it just all fell apart. We’re still grieving.
Yutsano
@Kent: I know the band director at UW. You guys definitely should plan a post pandemic visit. J. Bradley McDavid is quite the character and does amazing work. But music educators from Ohio State are some pretty amazing people.
Kent
My daughter has met him. She attends Camas HS here in the Vancouver area which has probably the biggest and best HS marching band in WA. Her band director and McDavid are best buddies and he basically provides a pipeline of musicians to UW. Every fall (until this year) they go up to Husky Band Day when the various HS marching bands in the state play during half time. It’s an all day event and they practice all afternoon with the Husky Band Director before going on in the evening. We always go up and watch the game. Really sad it was all canceled this year because it was the one and only time our two girls would have been playing on the same band at the same time. Her younger sister is a freshman and does percussion. She is the saxophone section leader. The pandemic took away their chance to do marching band together. They might still have some of it plus an abbreviated football season this spring, we don’t know yet for sure.
Fucking Trump.
Ivan X
@mrmoshpotato: Concur.
Kent
Well, only one has launched. Two more to go. I’m not worried about the middle child. The youngest may give us grey hairs still. She is super bright but a bit more difficult. She is the kind who has to touch the stove to find out that it is hot.
Kent
What is the issue?
It seems statehood would be consistent with the 23rd amendment as long as they don’t get more electors than Wyoming, which I don’t think they ever would based on population. The District is nowhere near getting two congressional seats and the criteria for that will keep going up and up as the US population increases and the District’s doesn’t.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: The New York Times is garbage.
frosty
@Just Some Fuckhead: I feel your pain. My older son dropped out after 7 weeks. There went seven grand! Followed up with a stint at Community College, a surprising enlistment in the National Guard, then a couple of years later he called the school on his own, registered, went back and graduated.
The younger son has been slowly working his way through Community College while working and has a plan to get a BA and possibly MA in Social Work. 2 1/2 more years. It took him awhile to figure out that college was what he wanted to do.
I grumped that I made it through in one school in four years. Then realized I was the only one out of my spouse, her siblings, and my siblings to have done that.
frosty
When my brother was a reporter he interviewed a high school principal who said “My job is to get them out of here with no permanent damage.” So that was my bottom line for my kids:
Alive, no crippling injuries, no criminal record, no pregnancies, no addictions, no tattoos, and graduate from high school. We made it!
The oldest is tattooed all over now, but we cried at his first one: “A family is not made by blood, but by love”. (He’s adopted).
Kent
@frosty: My 23 year old daughter has tattoos. Nothing terribly noticeable or offensive, but she is always planning the next one. I don’t get it. But I guess there are worse things. I’m sure the little one will get them. She is already stomping around in Doc Martins and black lipstick. In 9th grade. She knows better than to ask at age 14. The middle one is terrified of needles so that will keep her skin clean. She can barely get a shot without passing out from terror.
frosty
@Kent: My younger son is terrified of needles too. No worries there!
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Thank you??????
rikyrah
@Ohio Mom:
Years??
rikyrah
@Kent:
Wow???
Gvg
@Just Some Fuckhead: Maybe just wait. I dropped out of college after a couple of years. Just felt lost and uninspired. Worked to support myself for 10 years and matured I think. At 29 I went back. Money was tight and going 1 class a semester while working looked like it would take forever so I asked my parents if they would still help. They visibly had trouble acting casual and not jumping up and down cheering. Started at community college then State University and did well. Graduated at 31. Have worked 29 years for that University too. All I can say is I think I just matured slower than others. I originally was all emotions and bored and lonely and insecure. Then I just quit feeling like that. I think my body had a longer adolescence than average and when it was over, I felt fine. I didn’t control it, it just happened.
Community College here is a useful transition.
Uncle Cosmo
@Jay: Andy Harris’s main claim to (in)fame came even before he was seated as a Congressman: A day or two after his first successful election to the House he wondered loudly why his gold-plated Congressional health care hadn’t started. Someone had to point out to him that he might’ve won the election, but his health care wouldn’t commence until he was sworn in the following January.
Harris is an anesthesiologist high on his own supply. Best thing his colleagues could do for Maryland and the USA is arrange for a Marine heli to drop his wuthless ass off the continental shelf & see if he can him swim back to shore.
(ETA: Or one of his Democratic colleagues could’ve stripped him of his “piece” and pistol-whipped him with it on the floor of the House as payback for Sumner’s caning.)
Uncle Cosmo
@NotMax: Slightly o/t, but my favorite brew concept is the Wasatch (UT) Brewery’s Polygamy Porter:
(actually I prefer the old slogan: When one just isn’t enough!)
Tom Levenson
@Kent: Far from knowledgeable about any of those universities, but I got a couple of thoughts.
1. U Dub’s biology folks are well regarded. Given that it’s one of the cheapest and may well be the best in that field on your list, worth thinking about. Also, given that your sprout may not end up a biologist, the fact that it’s a good university across the board means that she’ll have fine options to pursue, if that’s how it plays out.
That was the dynamic for my son, as it happens. This is pure anecdata, but he started out at a really good small liberal arts college in our area, and it just didn’t fit, for a whole number of reasons that are not a knock on that institution. He transferred to our flagship state uni campus, and is doing so much better/is so much happier. That’s largely a function of who he is, and not really useful to anyone else. But one factor in this shift is that at the larger place, there are enough faculty in all of its departments so that a wider range of interests—and possible mentors—are covered.
The other thought is that she should pick the place that has the best undergraduate research program. Lab work will help her with graduate applications and, at least as important, will give her an early sense of whether she actually likes bench science.
Last: my sister recently retired from some decades as a professor at Occidental (not in the sciences) and I’ll ask her if she has any particular insight into their bio sciences program.