Open Thread for Monday, June 24, 2019

Trump Haley

A few things going on out there…

  1. Trump imposes new sanctions on Iran — Just because it’s the latest and it’s also, you know, important…
  2. Oped: Trump-Haley in 2020 — OK, when you stop screaming after reading that headline,  consider that the piece begins with these words: “I’m proud to have founded the Democrats for Trump movement in 2016.” Yikes, who knew there was such a thing? Kind of starts this guy, Andrew Stein, in a bit of a credibility hole, doesn’t it? Also, Bill Kristol asserts that the guy “pled guilty to lying in a financial fraud.” Oh, and he looks the part.
  3. ‘We don’t trust you!’: After fatal police shooting, black residents confront Buttigieg — And apparently, some of them are ticked that he took off in the middle of this crisis to come to Columbia on Saturday. It will be interesting to see how the young man handles this situation.
  4. What Happens After Amazon’s Domination Is Complete? Its Bookstore Offers Clues — I learned a few things from this piece about how Amazon does very little to prevent the sale of shoddy, counterfeit books via its platform. Here’s a sidebar story…
  5. OK, I’m envious of Jeff Bezos — No, not because he’s a gazillionaire, although that’s a nice bonus, but because of the way he is able to order his working day. His goal “Make three good decisions a day and no meetings before 10 a.m.” Sounds like the perfect job description to me. I’d be glad to do it for 1 percent of what he makes.
  6. Stonewall and the Myth of Self-Deliverance — Probably the most interesting opinion piece I read over the weekend. I liked it, but what I liked best wasn’t the main point. (His main point was that oppressed groups seldom end the oppression on their own.) I liked a secondary, perhaps you would even say implied, point: That demonstrations are not the best way to effect social and political change. Bit of a hobby-horse of mine, as y’all know. I need to make a point to check out more by this guy, Kwame Anthony Appiah. He’s sufficiently iconoclastic that there’s no telling where he might go, so I might end up hating his stuff. But I doubt he’d be boring.

66 thoughts on “Open Thread for Monday, June 24, 2019

  1. Doug Ross

    37 years old is a “young man” (Buttigieg)? I guess the number goes up as you age. He’s a man. What’s the definition of “old man”? Ten years older than Biden I suppose. And distinguished apparently is twenty years older.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Yes, Doug, 37 years is young, particularly within the context of being a presidential candidate — two years younger, and he’d be barred from the office by the Constitution.

      And no, the number doesn’t go up as you age. Maybe for you, but not for me: I’m pretty sure I saw 37 as young when I was 37.

      And yes, unlike you, I respect people who are older than I am…

      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        Oh, and since you ask, I only recently started thinking of my Dad as elderly. That’s because, among many other indicators, he was still playing golf a couple of years back, and playing it better than I. It wasn’t all that long before he had to quit that he was shooting his age.

        He first did that — shot his age — when he was 68. It’s kind of hard to see a guy as elderly when he can do that.

        Consequently, when he did get “old” and started slowing down, it took me awhile to adjust to thinking of him that way.

        When I was growing up, my parents were always younger than my friends’ parents. My friends’ Dads had fought in WWII. For instance, Burl’s Dad was a fighter pilot in the war. My parents were several years younger than those folks. So I always thought of myself as someone with “young parents.” That’s another reason why it took me awhile to think of them as old…

      2. Harry Harris

        Sounds almost like you’re ticked at Doug. Give him a break. If you want to be shocked by the “too young” syndrome, try visiting a medical office in the Charlotte area. The doctors and nurses look like they’re just out of diapers. I’d swear the whole world is getting younger. Been in a school lately? When did they start letting 14-year-olds teach. Aging does change your perspective on some things.

        1. Brad Warthen Post author

          Well, I suppose I AM a little irritated, and I’m sorry that it shows. That’s because this is a continuation of a conversation from Saturday on Twitter, and I was like, “Here we go again…”

          1. Doug Ross

            It’s a long running issue i have with your perspective on politics..you value tenure seemingly more than anything else.

            37 isn’t young. It’s an age of an adult who probably has a better perspective of where the world is going instead of where it’s been. An old guy like Joe Biden lacks that perspective and will keep going back to the “good old days” to structure his world view. That world doesn’t exist any more and it’s not coming back. We will see the difference this week in the debates. Joe will be botoxed, tanning lamped, and caked in makeup. But you can’t cover old ideas and his past failures running for the same office. His lead is a figment of name recognition only…and it will be exposed this week.

            1. Brad Warthen Post author

              Well, we’ll just always disagree on this point: “That world doesn’t exist any more and it’s not coming back.”

              There’s only one world. There has always only been one world. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.

              Everyone who would lead needs to have a clear sense of the present moment and where we need to go. But I don’t give two cents for the perspective of anyone who doesn’t have a thorough, deep understanding of where we’ve been, and how things got this way.

              I think for his very young age (another thing we’ll continue to disagree on; “37 isn’t young” is an absurd statement), Buttigieg probably has a pretty good grasp of how the world got to be the way it is (something we can’t say for some other younger pols out there). But it’s book smarts, which isn’t the same as having been there. I value and honor his military service, but he hasn’t shown us enough in the public policy sector. That’s why I say it will be interesting to watch how he handles this crisis as mayor, and what he learns from it and how he grows. This could be a great thing for his candidacy, but it could also destroy it. We’ll see.

              I think we live in an almost hopeless time, when every indicator of political health is declining in this country and elsewhere in the West. Everything points to more polarization, more division, and helplessness in terms of harnessing the power in Washington to make things better than they are.

              That’s all younger candidates have known, which is why in the younger, more “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party you see a lot of tendency toward wanting to crush opponents and force an agenda on them. Again to the credit of Buttigieg, he wants to move beyond that, although his notion of how to do that seems to be for people who disagree with him to accept the inevitability of the “progressive” view.

              We need someone who knows things can be better, that people of different parties or different demographic groups don’t have to be at each other’s throats in a zero-sum competition for power and influence, because he’s lived it. And I’m not just talking about the “good ol’ days” of when Joe was young, but the heady days of 2008 and 2012 and “yes we can.” Sí, se puede.

              We need a representative not only of a better past, but someone who can speak with confidence of a better political future, and embody that. That’s what Joe has been doing, and while sure, a lot of his advantage in the polls is name-recognition, a good bit of it is the appeal of this approach, and the hope it offers.

              It’s not an approach to appeal to cynics. But it appeals to a lot of the rest of us out here…

            2. Brad Warthen Post author

              Oh, as for “you value tenure seemingly more than anything else.”

              Not really. Experience is, in most cases, a prerequisite for consideration, which is not the same as being the thing I most value. The competition after that, once the competitors show experience, depends on a lot of other factors, factors that can set them apart from each other like night and day.

              And the experience prerequisite can be waived, depending on the circumstances. Like with my favoring Adair Boroughs over Joe Wilson, and (as I will be writing more about) Jaime Harrison over Lindsey Graham.

              Experience can be something that gets you in the door with me, but it can also sink you with me — which is the case with Joe Wilson’s 19 years of accomplishing nothing.

              That brings us again to an important aspect to experience that I frequently point out, but that I don’t think you focus on as much.

              It’s not just that an experienced person knows the job better. It’s that WE have had the opportunity to observe the person in office, and make informed judgments about whether we think he or she is any good at it. If anything that’s MORE important than whether the experience makes them qualified. People who haven’t been under that microscope are wild cards.

              Of course, sometimes things are bad enough that we have to take a chance on a wild card…

  2. Phillip

    Re #2, no way Trump dumps Pence for Haley, because Pence helps bring in the very substantial evangelical-hypocritical-fake-Christian vote that makes up a lot of Trump’s base. Also, even though very ambitious, Haley from this point forward will not tie herself too closely to Trump. She got what she needed from him to boost her national profile, and probably thinks there’s enough chance he’ll lose in 2020 that she would be seen as a “fresh start” for the GOP in 2024, and not tarnished too deeply by association with Trump. Of course, all bets are off if Trump declares another “national emergency” in 2024 and tries to remain in office.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      I think you’re right, Phillip, particularly about this: “Haley from this point forward will not tie herself too closely to Trump…”

  3. Harry Harris

    Haley will make whatever move will enhance her bottom line. She left the SC job and the UN job in hopes of lucrative speaking gigs and book deals. Money speaks her language, and she speaks whatever language will get it. If right-wing religious talk brings it in, she can spin that top as well – she’s a fast learner.

  4. bud

    Not sure this is in any way very new worthy but it is somewhat important to me so I’ll mention it. The Columbia side of the Riverwalk park used to have a spur that ran past Edventure and under the Gervais Street Bridge where you could walk across the rivers via the bridge. The big flood of 2015 took out that spur and has remained closed since. Today on my walk I asked a couple of the Park Rangers if that section of the walkway would ever be open. Their answer will probably give Doug a smile. Apparently the City and FEMA are at odds about what should be done. FEMA wants to spend upwards of $150 million to substantially upgrade the entire Riverwalk. The ranger was unclear what such a massive project would entail but that is a lot of money. The city just wants to repair the damaged section for a cost of $7-10 million. I want to stress this is NOT in any way a verified account of the costs involved but at the very least FEMA and the city are at odds over what to do.

    I walk this urban trail 2-3 times a week and find it very clean and pleasant. Kudos to the Riverwalk rangers. Their salary is money well spent. I walked the comparable urban greenway in Charlotte a few weeks back and found it generally nice but was disappointed in the large amount of liter. To me it seems unnecessary to spend a very large sum of money to make major changes to the Riverwalk. I’m content with it the way it is. But I would like to see the Edventure spur repaired.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      I think that’s a VERY worthy topic.

      I’d also like to discuss a related one: When, oh when, will the Columbia canal get fixed? It’s an eyesore now, and it’s been that way too long…

      I went with my wife and two of our daughters one recent evening to learn about the structures built at the start of the canal to allow migrating fish to climb the structure and spawn upstream. I asked the ranger there about the canal downstream, and he wasn’t sure about its status at all…

      Next time I see a member of city council, I’m going to have questions. (I thought about it when I saw Steve Benjamin and Tameika Devine at the convention Saturday, but there was so much going on right then that I decided to hit them with my questions another time…)

    2. Bob Amundson

      A Free-Times Cover Story addressed this two weeks ago. “In early April, Benjamin testified to the U.S. House Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee, noting the vast disparity between what the city says it needs to repair the canal, and what the federal government has, to this point, said it would be willing to provide.”

      According to the article, Mayor Benjamin testified, “The city estimates that repairing storm damage to the canal, including bringing it up to current standards and ensuring its resilience, will cost $169 million, FEMA counters that most of the damage to the canal is not storm-related, arguing that it is due to regular wear and tear, and further counters that FEMA can only fund repairs for visible damage and estimates repairs for storm damage to the canal at $11 million.”

      It will be tough to change the FEMA decision. Houston adds more money to GDP than Columbia and will continue to be first in line.

      1. bud

        I need to start reading the Free Times again. Columbia’s best paper for reporting tough issues.

        1. David T

          Actually it’s the ONLY paper for reporting tough issues. The State reminds me of my hometown newspaper, local news on the front and back page, everything inbetween is syndicated filler that is in every other hometown newspaper around the state.

      2. David T

        So are you telling me that Columbia is neglecting it’s sewer system? That money for a skating rink and New Years Party has to come from somewhere.

    3. Scout

      I love the Riverwalk too, but I’m more familiar with the Cayce/West Columbia side. On a related question, what ever happened to the laser light art thing that was supposed to happen down at the river. Is that happening and I somehow missed it? Or did it fizzle? I’m thinking they said it’d be there by now.

  5. Doug Ross

    Bernie Sanders wants to eliminate ALL student loan debt. It’s so easy to run for President when you can spend other people’s money to buy votes. $1.6 trillion dollars. All with increasing taxes…

    1. Harry Harris

      I’m interested in increasing the taxes he proposes for several reasons, although they would hit me some. I don’t want to use the money so much to reduce student debt, but the national debt. They could help put a good dent in the deficit. I would favor a write-down of student debt to the tune of state-school level tuition, but a lot of student loans paid for living expenses, some expensive stuff, and in cases I know of rather posh living quarters for a 20 year old. People who take-on debt for whatever reason shouldn’t expect a magic parachute.

      1. bud

        One of the Dem candidates, maybe Corey Booker, suggested a large reduction in interest rates for student loan debt. Seems like a good compromise. What Doug and others miss is that the student loan debt affects the larger economy by reducing young people’s ability to purchase big ticket items like cars thereby slowing overall growth. I understand the equity issue. If you go in debt you should be responsible for paying it back. And for those who decided not to go to expensive colleges they would appear the fool. This seems like a good place for compromise for the good of the country.

        1. Doug Ross

          I agree, bud. There has to be some responsibility for the loans that were taken. I’m fine with eliminating all interest owed as a start and offering very low interest loans in the future. But free college and just eliminating debts without any expectations is terrible policy. And then pay for it not with new taxes but by cutting spending in other areas, specifically military and foreign aid.

          1. David T

            I don’t quite understand the hysterical issue with student loans, the average graduates has $30,000 in student loans. I graduated in 1988 with $15,000 in student loans. I didn’t have any issue paying them off, I think the payment was like $115/month. If the average student loan debt is $30,000… so graduates can’t pay a $250/month student loan? Those who have $100,000 in student loans for a degree in Transgender Studies are the ones who have bigger issues with common sense. Just because you made a bad choice doesn’t mean you get a Get Out of Jail Free card, it’s called responsibility. Something that these adults have never had up until graduation. Get a STEM degree, not a liberal arts degree if you need to take out student loans. A good rule of thumb is if someone asks you, “What do you do with a degree in ____________?” Pick a different major. Accountants, Teachers, Nurses, Engineers, etc…. don’t get asked that question.

            1. Brad Warthen Post author

              David, if people follow your advice and try to get degrees where they can make a good living, the debt is higher than the $37,000 average.

              For instance — my lawyer daughter was such a good student that she had a free ride as an undergraduate. But law school put her into debt.

              Fortunately, her situation wasn’t as bad as most. The average debt load among law school grads is $140,616…

              1. David T

                I know similar people, but those who took on law/graduate school debt obtained jobs that paid extremely well. Now I’m not talking about graduate degrees in Social Work or History, but a Masters degree in Accounting, Nursing, Engineering, Business typically will put you in a starting salary bracket where it offsets the cost of that education.

                Law school is expensive, but you have to make it work for you. Where you go and where you graduate in your class determine your future. Tier I law school graduates have their ticket punched regardless where they graduate in their class, established firms are going to take a Yale or Harvard Law School graduate just to say they have one on staff. Tier II or III law schools are all where you graduated in your class. You graduate in the top 10% of your class you’re going to get on with decent paying firms, you graduate at the bottom and you’ll be working for yourself sharing a desk with someone else in a strip mall.

                1. Brad Warthen Post author

                  “you’ll be working for yourself sharing a desk with someone else in a strip mall”

                  What, you don’t think highly of Jimmy McGill’s practice, before he became Saul Goodman. You know, that nice space he had behind the nail salon?

                  download (2)

                  1. Brad Warthen Post author

                    By the way, have any of y’all kept up with “Better Call Saul?”

                    I quit watching after the first season. There are turns that characters sometimes take in their arcs that I just have trouble swallowing, and that moment came for me when Jimmy turned his back on the job with the nice firm, deliberately deciding to Break Bad instead.

                    Yeah, I know he had to go that way to become Saul Goodman. But I would have found it more believable if he just hadn’t been given that shot, and had few alternatives to the course he ended up on…

                    Jimmy felt condescended to — when not downright dumped on — by the respectable lawyers, and I think that was a big reason why he went the way he did. But while they tried to portray good reasons why he would CHOOSE that course instead of falling into it, it didn’t quite work for me.

                    Anyway, that’s what I remember as to why I quit watching. It’s been awhile, and I may have some of the details wrong…

                    1. Brad Warthen Post author

                      Another way to put it: I found it more believable when Walter White broke bad than when Jimmy did.

                      I loved Saul Goodman as a character; he really brightened up a dark story. I just didn’t like watching how he became Saul Goodman…

                2. Bryan Caskey

                  “Law school is expensive, but you have to make it work for you. Where you go and where you graduate in your class determine your future. Tier I law school graduates have their ticket punched regardless where they graduate in their class, established firms are going to take a Yale or Harvard Law School graduate just to say they have one on staff. Tier II or III law schools are all where you graduated in your class. You graduate in the top 10% of your class you’re going to get on with decent paying firms, you graduate at the bottom and you’ll be working for yourself sharing a desk with someone else in a strip mall.”

                  Like most stereotypes, this has some basis in truth, but is a gross oversimplification.

                3. David T

                  “Like most stereotypes, this has some basis in truth, but is a gross oversimplification.”

                  How many USC Law School and College of Charleston Law School graduates are employed by the Top 10 law firms in the country? How many work for firms such as Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, O’Melveny & Meyers? That’s just taking a few names from the Los Angeles area. My guess is “zero”. I am just taking what a Hiring Partner for one of those firms told me years ago. They won’t even bother recruiting from a SC law school. They visit the top law schools in the country and turn people from those schools away if they graduated outside of the top 10% of their class. They would review an application if submitted to them, but if the person didn’t graduate #1 or #2 in his graduating class his career with that firm ends right there.

                  1. Brad Warthen Post author

                    You’re supposing that people who went to law school in SC wanted to work in LA or someplace.

                    Generally, people who want to practice in South Carolina go to law school in South Carolina. Not all, but most.

                    I know this because we have a lot of law firms as clients at ADCO, and I’m always reading, writing or editing their bios…

                    1. Brad Warthen Post author

                      By the way, I don’t subscribe to the “strive for the big time in the big city” philosophy. I have great appreciation for smart people who want to play a useful role in their home communities.

                      I never felt the “go to New York or Washington” urge, probably because I traveled enough as a kid, moving every year or at most every two years as a Navy brat.

                      When I was an editor in newsrooms I supervised people who DID have that urge, and if they were any good, I’d do my best to talk them out of it. Whether it was in Tennessee or Kansas or here in SC, I’d say, “New York doesn’t need you. New York has thousands like you. THIS place needs you.” And I meant it; I wasn’t just trying to keep a good reporter.

                      What I was doing was resisting a real problem that is particularly bad in our society today — the country stratifying itself with the best and the brightest congregating in the biggest urban centers along the coast, and the less talented people stuck in flyover land.

                      It’s one of the sources of our political polarization today. As well as a cause of economic inequality. And the increasing alienation between those two classes of people is one of the things that made Donald Trump president of the United States.

                      So, you know… I still don’t hold with it…

                4. David T

                  “You’re supposing that people who went to law school in SC wanted to work in LA or someplace.”

                  I’m supposing many people who went to law school in SC couldn’t get into better schools and have no choice but to stay in SC. How many current students would take a $40,000 associates position in Columbia over a $300,000 associates position in Los Angeles?

                5. David T

                  So you used the big fish in a little pond vs. little fish in a big pond approach. That works for some, but how difficult is it to convince a 23 year old to stay in Podunk, SC for $23,000 and away from Bigcity, NY for $123,000? To keep it local, would you tell someone from WLTX to stay here vs. going to CNN in Atlanta? What would you tell Craig Melvin who jumped ship from WIS to NBC and now is hosting The Today Show? Would you put your arm around him and tell him he made a big mistake?

                6. Doug Ross

                  Paraphrasing an old joke – as long as there are two lawyers in any small town, both will get rich.

                  1. Brad Warthen Post author

                    That reminds me… back in my reporting days in the late ’70s, I was responsible for covering anything that happened in about five counties in West Tennessee, including Carroll County.

                    It was an interesting place for a number of reasons. One was that it was THE bellwether county in statewide elections, back when the two parties were close to balanced. If a gubernatorial or U.S. Senatorial candidate won Carroll County, the election was in the bag.

                    This even division manifested itself in a number of ways. For instance, the county commission was almost 50/50 Democrats and Republicans, which meant I sat through some long meetings, well into the night.

                    There was another way… because of a huge kidnapping case (it got quite a bit of national coverage) that I covered very closely in the county, I got to know the partners of two of the most prominent law firms in the county seat. (One defended the kidnappers, the other was hired to act as special prosecutors because the ACTUAL prosecutor was an idiot.) These guys were wonderful sources — they were connected to everything that happened, so whenever anything big broke in the county, I’d call them and have the whole story in minutes.

                    Anyway, I learned from them a quirk of Carroll County law firms — each had one senior partner who was a Republican, and one who was a Democrat.

                    That way, they could get EVERYBODY’S business. And be involved in everything, which is why they were such great sources…

                7. Barry

                  “I’m supposing many people who went to law school in SC couldn’t get into better schools and have no choice but to stay in SC. ”

                  Disagree. I use to work at a law firm. Every attorney in the firm outside of a couple from other areas of the country wanted to go to law school either at USC or somewhere close to SC.

                  Most of them wanted to practice in South Carolina and going to school in state made the most sense.

                8. David T

                  ” Every attorney in the firm outside of a couple from other areas of the country wanted to go to law school either at USC or somewhere close to SC. ”

                  There’s your problem right there, you believed what a lawyer told you. I guess I too could go around and tell people, “Sure I could have gone to MIT but I went to a midwest state university instead.” When in all actuality, the admission council at MIT would have laughed had they seen my application packet. Given the choice I bet 90% of those same lawyers would have chosen Harvard or Yale Law School over USC had they had the choice. I doubt many future lawyers dream of doing old ladies estate planning and real estate transactions for a career while studying for the bar exam.

                9. Barry

                  No, I believed what people told me because I worked with them and knew them. One of them was my cousin from small town South Carolina. He graduated at the top of his class at Furman. He had Zero Interest in working in New York. He wanted to practice law and live near his family in South Carolina. The vast majority of attorneys do.

                  Most people don’t grow up wanting to go to Yale or Harvard regardless of their grades. What gave you this silly idea?

        2. Brad Warthen Post author

          Oh, and I hope this doesn’t scare everybody, but Bud and Doug and I all agree that if you taken on debt, you have a responsibility.

          If we can lighten that load with a sensible plan, I’m listening. I just don’t know if we should, or CAN, make it all disappear….

          1. David T

            So now this will get confusing. If you all agree that people need to accept responsibility for themselves, how can you think about voting for one of the Democratic candidates? They’re all talking debt forgiveness.

            1. Doug Ross

              Because Brad knows they are all either lying or else just out of touch from the reality of trying to make something like debt forgiveness work.

              If Democrats want to lose in 2020, they should keep talking about things like canceling debts, reparations, and breaking up tech companies.

              1. David T

                So how much of a bloodbath do you think tonights debate will be for the Democrats? Those who have no chance will be tossing out stupidity and pointing fingers all night long.

            2. Brad Warthen Post author

              I believe people should accept responsibility, period. That includes having a responsibility to other people, to society at large.

              I’ll never accept the “me first” libertarianism embraced by a lot of people who call themselves “conservatives” these days.

              When libertarians of various flavors talk about responsibility, they mean “I’ll be responsible for me and you’ll be responsible for you, and if you have a problem it’s definitely not MY problem.”

              I believe we’re responsible for ourselves AND each other. We’re all in this together — that’s not the expression of a goal or ideal, but a statement of the interconnectedness of reality.

              People who think they can and should wall themselves off from other people and their problems are not just morally wrong; they’re deluded…

              1. Doug Ross

                “We’re all in this together”

                I ascribe to this same motto. Except I don’t expect the government (which is inefficient and lacks any human traits) to serve as the vehicle for working together. The government should be a tool, not a patron saint.

                And “All: means ALL. Everyone pulls their own weight and should be honest, ethical, charitable, responsible. If you’re not any of those, you don’t get a free ride on everyone else’s back. If you need help, ask for it – don’t expect it.

                1. Doug Ross

                  And instead of hating the rich, be grateful the 1% contribute the vast majority of taxes that run the government (outside of Social Security and Medicare).

                  In 2016, the top 1 percent of taxpayers accounted for more income taxes paid than the bottom 90 percent combined. I’d call that very generous in terms of “all in this together”. Some gave a lot, a lot gave nothing.

                2. Brad Warthen Post author

                  Who said anything about the rich, hating them or loving them?

                  I scrolled up to see if there was a comment from Bud on this thread, but all I saw was the one where you and he were agreeing… 🙂

                3. Doug Ross

                  I was speaking generally. Those who believe the government and taxes are the way to make things equitable should recognize and appreciate that it is the rich who are funding that government, not “all of us together”,

                  1. Brad Warthen Post author

                    Well, I pay taxes. Not as much as when I made more money, but I definitely feel the burden of it. But I’m glad to pay it, just as I was back when I paid quite a bit more…

                    I feel like a full participant. And if you think only those who can pay a fortune in taxes and not feel it are fully a part of “us,” well… I’m not going to join Bernie and the other class warriors, but I will have to say I strongly disagree with you…

                4. Doug Ross

                  Your taxes likely don’t even pay the salary of one secretary in Lindsey Graham’s office. The military you favor is paid for by America’s billionaires and millionaires. It’s a simple fact. You should be grateful for their success.

                5. Barry

                  “Your taxes likely don’t even pay the salary of one secretary in Lindsey Graham’s office”

                  I won’t share my income level with you, but you are wrong.

                  I wrote a quite sizable check earlier this year and was glad to do it. Unless Lindsey is paying his secretary a lot more cash than most, I took care of him/her nicely.

              2. David T

                Where were you when I was paying off my student loans? We didn’t even have GoFundMe back then.

    2. Harry Harris

      I strongly believe we need to address 2 major issues with higher ed. Student debt is one, and I agree that compromise that relieves, but doesn’t erase the burden is the best path. Second, but barely addressed is the exorbitant tuition and costs of most schools. They spend a portion of their budgets educating students, and some of that is wasteful. Administrative and “development” costs are bloated. Students shouldn’t be burdened with costs associated with freeing-up professors time for research that mainly enhances their own careers and the school’s reputation, but has nothing to do with teaching or learning. How can a private college spend 20-30K per year (tuition only) educating one student? And that’s on top of donations they extract from alumni. It’s kind of a racket in my view (and experience).

      1. David T

        Costs are no different than any other government provided service. How does it cost $20,000 – $30,000/yr. caring for a prison inmate? Housing is a shared 6×14 foot cell with bunk beds that’s in a structure that has been standing for 20-100 years, food is less than $1.00 per meal, guards make barely over minimum wage and are responsible for 20-30 inmates while on a shift.

        1. Barry

          Average cost in SC is $19,054per inmate. That includes budget items such as staff salaries, housing, care, security, work programs and employee benefits.

          That seems quite reasonable given the cost of health Insurance alone.

          Regarding colleges, private colleges are more expensive than public colleges, in some cases, by a lot.

          In 2017, Texas (of all places) closed 3 private prisons because the costs were higher than what the state could do itself.

  6. Bill

    “Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. ”
    ― William S. Burroughs

    Stonewall would not have happened without “The Boys in the Band”.That play,and then movie,changed everything,especially the way gay people thought about themselves…

  7. Brad Warthen Post author

    Y’all, sorry for no posts today. It’s been a crazy day.

    I had a dentist appointment at 8 to get a crown. They did some preliminary X-rays and said, “Whoa, you don’t need a crown — you need a root canal!” The dentist was looking at some infection around one of the roots.

    That would explain the pain I’ve been having, sometimes severe, on that side of my face lately.

    Apparently this was getting worse really fast, because by the time I got to the pharmacy to fill the antibiotic prescription, my jaw was visibly swollen.

    Fortunately, the endodontist worked me in this afternoon.

    It took no fewer than six shots of anesthetic to numb me, after which I posted this:

    That was then. It’s wearing off now. The endodontist said it was gonna hurt when that happened. She knows her stuff…

  8. Harry Harris

    The Supreme Court unholy five ruled today that partisan gerrymandering was up to the states to fix. Fox, welcome to the henhouse. Entrenched cheaters and power-grabbers will never give up their hold. They will only enhance it. Almost all states that use a non-political commission to redistrict seats are Democratic majority states. Those five are either blind or partisan. I think it’s the latter.

  9. Bryan Caskey

    “I’m supposing many people who went to law school in SC couldn’t get into better schools and have no choice but to stay in SC. How many current students would take a $40,000 associates position in Columbia over a $300,000 associates position in Los Angeles?” -David T.

    Implicit in your assumption here is that no one would put a value on staying in South Carolina over Los Angeles. I can think of many reasons why someone might want to remain in South Carolina at a small to mid-size law firm over going to work at a mega-firm in Los Angeles. The fact that you can’t is what is leading you to an incorrect conclusion.

    “Given the choice I bet 90% of those same lawyers would have chosen Harvard or Yale Law School over USC had they had the choice. I doubt many future lawyers dream of doing old ladies estate planning and real estate transactions for a career while studying for the bar exam.” -David T.

    LOL. You clearly haven’t studied for the bar exam. If you had, you would know that everyone dreams of the same thing…passing the bar exam. Also, what value judgment are you making about doing estate planning or real estate transaction? What do you think lawyers at big firms in Los Angeles do?

    Finally, I hope you live somewhere other than South Carolina (for your own sake), since you seem to give it such short shrift. I mean, according to you, if you live here in South Carolina, it’s only because you’re a failure and don’t have any other options, right?

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