The Goat Pen

Watching Banshee. The show jumped the shark long ago, but one Kung Fu fight scene between an Indian girl assassin and the bodyguard of the Amish mafia boss, plus a fat guy being dropped through the trap door of a moving 18-wheeler and being rolled over and torn apart made it worthwhile.

had to give up on Banshee

The way that fake sheriff got the shit beat out of him every show, he'd be brain damaged by the 4th episode

Agreed. It's way too silly.

Does anyone know why the White House wanted to end the 529 savings plan?

I've been chunking money away for my kids in that plan for quite a while and while the return has kinda sucked to be honest, it was a way to save money for college that earned interest.

This Iowa Republican Freedom bullshit rally has got me thinking

what are Republicans saying to the American people that is different from the last 2 elections?

According to Boehner and McConnel, the Republicans have taken up the fight this time around for income inequality - something they labeled wealth distribution for the last 2 elections ; is their solution to income inequality going to be tax cuts for the wealthy in a time where the fewest people control the greatest amount of wealth in the United States in our history?

I think they've touched on the key issue for the elections - I just don't see how Republicans are going to get any traction rolling out the same approach and platform planks to fixing what is wrong with America in the eyes of the voters.

And while I am concretely against any kind of immigration reform that encourages millions of more illegals to come here, from a numbers standpoint the Republicans are on the wrong side this of this issue - and I don't have enough faith, given their reluctance to do anything about it in the past - to put forth a real agenda on immigration reform that doesn't give away the farm to Latino's who are going to become a voting demographic that will sway elections in the future.

And they are also on the wrong side of gay rights - even though I'm dragging my feet on the topic, you don't have to be an expert in public opinion to see where this is heading. But that's relatively minor in the scheme of things.

Finally, with just as many babies born out of wedlock, if not more than in traditional two family homes, the GOP has an uphill battle in winning women voters, especially if Hillary takes up the cause. Palin and Bachmann appeal to GOP voters because they don't push a women's equality agenda, they push the traditional GOP values (as far as anyone can define them now). Can you imagine Palin getting up there and talking about women's inequality to a room full of stuff shirted old white guys?

The biggest challenge to the GOP is not finding someone to represent their values, its finding enough voters who want their values represented in the White House.

Even within the GOP, the factions can't decide on what values they want represented. The only real common ground is saying no to Obama, but at some point the voters want real solutions, not just obstacles to moving forward.

IMO, whoever gets the GOP nomination is going to have to be solution focused , and doesn't just roll out played out GOP platform planks like tax cuts for the job creators and less regulation for small business.

They need to reach out directly to the voters with something bold their going to enact that the voters can believe in.

Herman Cain's 999 plan was an example of this - a badly, would never work, poorly communicated example - but an example none the less - an idea that was relatively simple to grasp for the voter and could be a soundbite talking point.

The more I hear Rand Paul and Ted Cruz talk, the more I believe that the approach of standing up and talking about how you've dedicated the past x amount of years to stopping Obama isn't the answer - it plays great with the GOP base, but its not solution focused - its just highlighting the gridlock that has given congress such a low approval rating.

The solution doesn't have to be giving stuff to people - but the republicans are going to have to figure out a way to directly reach the voter - and this trickle down, opportunity for everyone approach just doesn't sell.

The GOP mouth breathers - the voting class that the GOP has adopted as their core in the past 30 years are getting excited about Scott Walker and to lesser extent, have been excited about Ted Cruz. At this point I can't see any GOP candidate that could energize the moderates and the Reagan democrats to pull the lever for them because all they are doing is just using the same GOP playbook. But those people believe that out there in America, there is this mass of voters that for whatever reason, didn't vote for Romney that would line up to vote for the next flavor of the month because they instinctively believe most Americans are conservative.

Most Americans just want to get ahead and be left alone, they want the path of least resistance - whether its to the weekend, to raising a family or retirement.

If you can't talk to them about that, why will they vote for you?

They don't want to end it do they? I thought he just wants to tax it so that the people who saved for college pay for everyone else's free community college. Although I guess that would make the 529 as useless as it was before and nobody would use them, so maybe it's just an idiotic idea.

Kinda baffling...

aTm wrote:They don't want to end it do they? I thought he just wants to tax it so that the people who saved for college pay for everyone else's free community college. Although I guess that would make the 529 as useless as it was before and nobody would use them, so maybe it's just an idiotic idea.

wow....yea, he needs a bat upside the head if he think taxing a 529 plan was going to go over well

The reasoning that was stated on NPR was that 70% of 529 plans are held by the rich.

The real head scratcher, yesterday, was closing down offshore drilling in the Arctic yet approving offshore drilling off the coast of the Mid-Atlantic.

sardis wrote:The reasoning that was stated on NPR was that 70% of 529 plans are held by the rich.

The real head scratcher, yesterday, was closing down offshore drilling in the Arctic yet approving offshore drilling off the coast of the Mid-Atlantic.

aww fuck him- I am so tired of him looking to the people that are doing right by their own as the financing for those that are not. Especially when he says I'm one of the wealthy. I'm not wealthy, I don't belong to a country club, I don't drive a Lexus, I don't live in a gated community. But instead of taking lavish vacations, I opted to put a little aside for my kids to go to college and now this fucker says I have to finance others to do it as well.

Come up with a plan that lowers the cost of education for everyone - not finances it.

Yeah, I don't get the 529 talk. Non-sensical. I didn't know about the drilling thing and still don't. I will get myself up to speed over the next week, or so.

JEB Bush is the only solution for the GOP...his last name is the biggest headwind going. Having his brother stay out of the spotlight for the last 6 years has been a big help to him. It may be the smartest thing 43 has done in 20 years.

It's all so baffling...

Bklyn wrote:Yeah, I don't get the 529 talk. Non-sensical. I didn't know about the drilling thing and still don't. I will get myself up to speed over the next week, or so.

JEB Bush is the only solution for the GOP...his last name is the biggest headwind going. Having his brother stay out of the spotlight for the last 6 years has been a big help to him. It may be the smartest thing 43 has done in 20 years.

Actually I don't see any candidate that can beat Hillary - not of the bunch out there now. Walker is the flavor of the moment but we know how that goes with the GOP.

If Jeb Bush has a shot its only because Americans dislike of Obama has clouded how badly his brother fucked up this country while his time in office.

I don't get this college unaffordability. Maybe North Carolina is different than other states, but community college and state universities are already extremely affordable here. My son attends the engineering program at the local state institution and I pay only $4K a semester including books. Community college is even cheaper than that. My son makes that much with his 20 hour near minimum wage job. Now, I still pay his tuition and gladly so since he decided not to pursue out of state, but, to me, it's doable for anyone who really wants to pursue a college education. I think the problem is a lot of these low income kids decide to go to private or out of state institutions with a bogus degree which causes them to rack up debt without much job prospects. Who's advising them to do this?

Rat...

North Carolina has some of the best state schools in the nation and some of the lowest tuition to boot, but your party is trying to fuck that up in Raleigh. If Art Pope has his way, liberal arts will be decimated at all UNC schools.

sardis wrote:I don't get this college unaffordability. Maybe North Carolina is different than other states, but community college and state universities are already extremely affordable here. My son attends the engineering program at the local state institution and I pay only $4K a semester including books. Community college is even cheaper than that. My son makes that much with his 20 hour near minimum wage job. Now, I still pay his tuition and gladly so since he decided not to pursue out of state, but, to me, it's doable for anyone who really wants to pursue a college education. I think the problem is a lot of these low income kids decide to go to private or out of state institutions with a bogus degree which causes them to rack up debt without much job prospects. Who's advising them to do this?

DooKSucks wrote:North Carolina has some of the best state schools in the nation and some of the lowest tuition to boot, but your party is trying to fuck that up in Raleigh.

The die was cast the instant you were accepted to one of these schools.

sardis wrote:I don't get this college unaffordability. Maybe North Carolina is different than other states, but community college and state universities are already extremely affordable here. My son attends the engineering program at the local state institution and I pay only $4K a semester including books. Community college is even cheaper than that. My son makes that much with his 20 hour near minimum wage job. Now, I still pay his tuition and gladly so since he decided not to pursue out of state, but, to me, it's doable for anyone who really wants to pursue a college education. I think the problem is a lot of these low income kids decide to go to private or out of state institutions with a bogus degree which causes them to rack up debt without much job prospects. Who's advising them to do this?

I've been talking to my son lately about this and he's going local - most likely UC.

I've also been hammering it into my kids that they should stick around Cincinnati when they graduate college and find jobs.

its selfish of me but IDGAF, I had a few choices of where I wanted to live and I chose Cinci because I wanted my kids to have an opportunity to work and live within an hour of where I am now with affordable housing.

DooKSucks wrote:North Carolina has some of the best state schools in the nation and some of the lowest tuition to boot, but your party is trying to fuck that up in Raleigh. If Art Pope has his way, liberal arts will be decimated at all UNC schools.

sardis wrote:I don't get this college unaffordability. Maybe North Carolina is different than other states, but community college and state universities are already extremely affordable here. My son attends the engineering program at the local state institution and I pay only $4K a semester including books. Community college is even cheaper than that. My son makes that much with his 20 hour near minimum wage job. Now, I still pay his tuition and gladly so since he decided not to pursue out of state, but, to me, it's doable for anyone who really wants to pursue a college education. I think the problem is a lot of these low income kids decide to go to private or out of state institutions with a bogus degree which causes them to rack up debt without much job prospects. Who's advising them to do this?

They are wanting to make sure that the majors that can actually get people employed stay affordable. If you want to major in something like gender studies, well, the state shouldn't have to subsidize that and you need to pay a little more.

I would think once online training becomes more of the accepted norm and not the outlier, then costs would come down, if nothing else because of increased competition.