Messages

1

The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Re: political hobbyist thread

« on: Today at 08:59:29 AM »

@sys

I think this article does a pretty good job in summing up why I think it is important for the Democrats to pass the CTC, not means test it to death and also if possible make it permanent as well as expanding Medicare coverage. These are direct, relatively uncomplicated benefits that come directly from the government (the CTC is very unnecessarily complicated and a worse policy because it is routed through the IRS but still).

I know you just don't like the CTC, but I wonder if you disagree with the article.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/democrats-worry-a-lot-about-policies-that-win-elections-thats-short-sighted/

2

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: Cryptocurrency Master Thread

« on: Today at 07:56:14 AM »

FINRA Registered financial advisor Steve Dave, should I YOLO my entire Roth in to XBTF?

3

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: tacos, por favor

« on: October 23, 2021, 11:02:29 AM »

Sat down the street from Tacos Aguila and they claim to be “the only authentic Mexican truck in MHK”. I’m not sure I like the attitude, but I’m going to go there.

4

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: tacos, por favor

« on: October 23, 2021, 07:35:18 AM »

El Patron street tacos

5

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: jobs

« on: October 22, 2021, 12:11:05 PM »

Teachers have a pretty good system in the sense that we only work like 190 days a year but bad in the sense that you can’t really miss any of those days with any ease at all and also most districts use accumulated PTO days as a retirement benefit to either pay out or as a way to stay on healthcare plan as a bridge to Medicare. Both are pretty unfair if you leave before retirement (as many districts don’t pay out unused days for just quitting) and sick days etc are all over the map.  Obviously for women that took FMLA they had to burn their sick days for each pregnancy and are even more adversely affected.

Unfortunately the current plan in Congress, even if it passes, is a terrible fix because it just takes all the worst parts about our for profit health insurance industry and uses those to construct a cumbersome and inefficient system for adding paid leave.

I hate this crap.

6

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: tacos, por favor

« on: October 22, 2021, 11:55:55 AM »

I’m getting tacos tonight. That’s settled.

7

The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Re: political hobbyist thread

« on: October 22, 2021, 08:59:47 AM »

I wouldn’t go so far as to say the public “doesn’t have policy preferences” but I think it is pretty difficult to measure it, Shor may do it better than others but as presented it looks shoddy as far as drawing the conclusions from it he does, and I think the underlying tendency of the polity is to pick a side and reverse engineer the policy positions. Didn’t we just see this pretty clearly with Trump? Not to over learn the lesson, but I think it is a high bar to claim that the American public has strong beliefs on the intricacies of the CTC and he doesn’t come close to clearing it.

8

The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Re: MAGA

« on: October 21, 2021, 01:32:24 PM »

That Trump Twitter stock is pretty cool.

if it was so cool you'd own twice as much as you currently do!

Mistakes were made

9

The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Re: MAGA

« on: October 21, 2021, 10:29:34 AM »

That Trump Twitter stock is pretty cool.

10

The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Re: political hobbyist thread

« on: October 21, 2021, 09:04:56 AM »

I think the fact that the CTC is not just done through Social Security is the biggest problem as it has kept some of the poorest kids from receiving it for no real reason is way worse than the rest of the crap.

11

The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Re: political hobbyist thread

« on: October 21, 2021, 09:03:32 AM »

I read the Shor piece. I can't read the twitter stuff because it keeps re-directing me to login and I'm not going to, but I don't think I'm really missing much. Bruenig isn't claiming that it is his policy preference or even Shor's to not do the CTC, even though that is what the "polling says" and his point about Shor's case was that Shor acknowledges that he is talking strategy at the beginning and I agree with his strategic thinking for the most part at the top, but then he goes on to do that absurd bit about the polling data and that is where I part ways.
 
I think the more absurd part is Shor understands issue/policy polling to be almost universally b.s., subject to bias in the writing of polls etc. but then goes on to do it anyway while claiming he doesn't. The reason isn't simply the polling, is largely because the vast majority of the electorate simply does not think about policy questions in any logical/reasonable way that is recognizable or discernable to some egg head like shor. 

The fact that he knows all that and still attempts to make a living on claiming that he has the key to overcome it is a pretty good living if you can keep it up, but my premise (and I'm pretty sure Bruenig's reading) is that the whole exercise of carefully sifting through the data on the minutiae on the CTC benefit level means testing is absurd on its face and the fact that he then makes some charts and acts like there is some clear policy preference by the electorate to be discerned is just fool's gold.  That Shor then adds in the part about of the issues polled: "this version polls at 50% and another polls at 53% and we should re-design based on this" would be better if he just started out by acknowledging there just isn't much difference and so instead there is a strategic advantage or policy preference. I think there is a case to be made there, but the "data" just obscures this.

12

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: Come play poker on zoom w/ nicname and KK.

« on: October 20, 2021, 08:02:29 PM »

I don't want to hear any excuses, you all are rich off crypto gains.  Come play!  (pm me for link)

13

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: You Have FU Money, What is Your Job Now?

« on: October 20, 2021, 05:32:08 PM »

Play and/or deal cards part time.

14

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: Cryptocurrency Master Thread

« on: October 20, 2021, 05:29:51 PM »

And big ups to stevedave for making me this farm to gamble with. Having said that, very happy to no longer be gambling real money on that POS. Close call!

Will buy more ETH and BTC with real money once the temp cools a skosh. Any other hot tips?

Live, laugh, love

15

The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Re: CoronaBro Meltdown/SARS-Covid-19 Spitballing Thread

« on: October 20, 2021, 05:25:05 PM »

As an original Moderna Man, do I accept an inferior vaccine like Pfizer just to diversify my portholio, or do I triple down on my good decision?

Stick with the best

16

The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Re: political hobbyist thread

« on: October 20, 2021, 09:33:12 AM »

Not sure if I can get sys to respond to this, but Bruenig has a pretty good take down of Shor on the Child Tax Credit. I think most people have kind of come to realize that 538 and specifically Nate Silver has become a bit of a parody of himself, and I think Shor is mostly interesting to read, but this is pretty shoddy stuff and makes me hope he isn't headed to Nate Silver land.

https://mattbruenig.com/2021/10/10/popularism-and-the-child-tax-credit/

17

Kansas State Football / Re: BSFS Expansion Thread

« on: October 19, 2021, 08:39:15 PM »

The old buildings are for actual international  graduate student families, the new ones were for “married” and “family” housing but were always priced for students with roommates.

18

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: At this moment, which is your favorite tree? (Appreciate Autumn, you crap bags)

« on: October 19, 2021, 08:01:13 PM »

Pandas tree is my favorite tree

19

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: Cryptocurrency Master Thread

« on: October 14, 2021, 10:53:21 PM »

I’m so ready

20

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: Cars.... How far have you went before getting a new one?

« on: October 14, 2021, 08:46:10 PM »

My 2007 Honda’s ceiling upholstery has started to turn in to drapes for the rear window.  I utilized some duct tape today.

21

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: goEMAW.com Combo Fan Board Under Six Foot League Thread

« on: October 14, 2021, 08:45:00 PM »

Question: Is there anything better than leaning your chair back on a long flight and just relaxing?  So nice.

I don’t even need to recline, perfectly comfortable. Aisle fine, window fine, middle seat not ideal but just fine too.

22

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: goEMAW.com Combo Fan Board Under Six Foot League Thread

« on: October 14, 2021, 08:43:55 PM »

I prefer “small king”

23

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: travel thread

« on: October 13, 2021, 09:14:52 PM »

Just had a family visit in Detroit and was reminded that airport is great.

It is! It was such a surprise when I, a farm boy raised in Kansas on nothing but wheat, wheat meal, wheat bread, and sunflowers travelled to Detroit for the first time, expecting gang fights and urban blight in the terminal, only to find a utopian bliss of trams and efficient movement of people.

I just visited Detroit during the 4-5 month stretch that it is nice to be there and almost got fooled again in to wanting to move there.  It is pretty great in season but no shot I would do winter there.

24

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: travel thread

« on: October 13, 2021, 03:59:17 PM »

Just had a family visit in Detroit and was reminded that airport is great.

25

Essentially Flyertalk / Re: Recent motion picture viewing - Add your own!

« on: October 12, 2021, 09:06:50 AM »

i had really low expectations for saints of newark because the trailer looked like crap, and 13 year old tony doesn't really interest me. luckily the movie isn't really about tony at all and i thought it was really good.







*SPOILER ALERT*

is the prison ray liotta a figment of dickie's imagination?   

Many saints was terrible. A good chunk of it was so bad I was laughing at it.  The parts that were supposed to be “for the fans” were so bad that I now buy in to theory that David chase did this movie just as a middle finger to fan-boys of the show. 

I think anyone that likes the sopranos should watch it just to see how bad it is, but anyone that is not in to sopranos should only watch it if they like mob movies and would enjoy a bunch of tropes in a bad mob movie.