Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[froot loops]

He is all to eager to get a student loan.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Froot, the cost of a college degree has become obscene. A liberal Arts degree is a waste of money in the current economy. IMO, degrees in math and the sciences are so costly that the typical grad, while she/he might start at 4-5X what I might have started with in 1970, thy're carrying so much debt when they graduate that the first 10 years of their lives are tied up repaying it and that may be too optimistic.

Outside of spending anything you might have saved for your retirement, Froot, and I know as a Father you want the best for your son, consider every other option you can uncover. Don't spend your savings and don't borrow against them.

There are multiple ways to get GI benefits that don't involve throwing yourself into a combat role. Go talk to recruiters and start with the USAF, Navy next. Consider the Army National Guard and enter as a E1. Choose your occupational specialty carefully. Don't go armor or artillery because that sounds cool. Try something like logistics, military police or maintenance.

If your son has interest in medicine, The National Health Service Corps will give you a free ride in several medical practice pursuits for service repayment in under-served regions. They'll even pay a monthly stipend to live on.

NC has full ride scholarships for in-state students who enter BA or BS degrees programs in education. Wherever you live (MI??) check this option out. My son did that, got a Masters in Counseling, did his service pay-back in the Charlotte NC school system, then went to M School of Dentistry and is now a Dentist.

My middle daughter got a partial ride to NC State her Freshman and Sophomore years, took a lot of math courses, studied hard and got good grades. Next, she entered an engineering program her Junior year on a full ride because she is a very smart woman and engineering programs love women. Then she rode various fellowships the rest of the way to her PhD and Post Doctoral work. She's living in Switzerland and making a lot of money with a Biotech company. Moreover, she has no student loan debt. NONE.

Typically kids hate Mom or Dad even suggesting stuff like this and will blow it off. They just don't think long term. My ex and I could handle the costs in the 80s and 90s. In-state NC tuition were in the 7-8k range per year but we still got plenty of help from every available resource we could dig up.

Sorry if I told you stuff you already know or have looked at. Good luck.

[CGVT]

My wife went to a financial aid meeting for college, my son is graduating this year. Man this is going to be stressful.

It's a battle, for sure.

I've got one at Auburn and one at NYU right now. My son is a junior at Auburn got a high enough ATC score to get his tuition paid for as long as he maintains a B. He is a good student, but it has been a struggle. He switched from Aeronautical Engineering to Mechanical. It is going to cost him (and us) an extra semester. We are still paying about 10K a year for housing and additional costs.

My daughter is a freshman at NYU. She got some scholarship money and I was able to transfer my GI bill benefits to her. It looks as if it is going to cost us about 10K or so a year for her too. All in all, not too bad. She is in the Liberal Studies program and is thinking about majoring in Global Liberal Studies. She wants to write. She will be OK

I don't think it is a waste of money. Of course if we weren't able transfer my GI bill to her, she would have been at Auburn with my son...

That leaves us with our 15 year old to worry about. We should have enough money to send him to a state school, but we'll see how it goes in 4 years.

And for fuck sake, don't let your son join the Navy. ;)

In all seriousness, the Air Force has the best quality of life and education opportunities of all of the branches. Of course, I am partial to the Coast Guard. Same DOD benefits, fewer people, less bullshit.

[hack]

Well, FFS, don't let them be writers either...

[Dr. Strangelove]

The conservative website/newspaper The Washington Free Beacon was the original funder of the GPS/Fusion research that became the Trump Dossier. The House Intel Committee was told this just today. The Clinton campaign and DNC picked up where the conservatives left off in May 2016.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-free-beacon-funded-original-fusion-gps-anti-trump-opposition-effort/article/2638850

[Dr. Strangelove]

Mueller investigation has issued its first indictment. Someone (or persons) could be arrested as early as Monday. My bet's Manafort.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/27/politics/first-charges-mueller-investigation/index.html

[The Oracle]

No connection to trump. Never even met him.

[SeattleLionsFan]

Manafort, huh? I was thinking Page. Someone much lower.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trumpworld has been triggered

[ame]https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/924158124998713345[/ame]

[froot loops]

When Roger Stone speaks it is a stand in for Donald Trump, they speak and think the same way.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Does it not seem somewhat likely that Trump/Republican circles got wind that indictments were imminent and so, to get out in front of it, they revived the Uranium story but this time, threw Mueller's name into it to present him as a Clinton stooge and discredit him as much as possible? I've been saying since it's revival that the true target is Mueller and anyone within the DOJ and FBI who isn't a Trump appointee.

[froot loops]

That's exactly what they are doing.

WSJ also has a report confirming CNN about the indictment.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Survey by the Military Times of military members shows Trump isn't as popular there as you might expect. Also shows a sharp divide between officers and enlisted men

Overall Trump has 44% approval
48% among enlisted men
30% among the officers

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2017/10/23/military-times-poll-what-you-really-think-about-trump/

[Da Geezer]

OK, again, Trump made a big deal out of those two areas. First on his list. Both have proven to have had no impact, and in both cases there was no reason to expect they would.

The impact is the higher GDP growth rate, without tax cuts. When you say "both have been proven to have had no impact...", you are simply wrong.

Please note that folks like Kapture, crash and me are pushing for tax cuts, which we believe will contribute toward economic growth. You progs never offer any policy prescriptions to increase growth. That is because your highest good is equality of outcome. If the economy doesn't grow at 3-4% after tax cuts, I promise to do a mea culpa

What you fear most is the success of fiscal policy as happened in 1962, 1983 and 1986. That turned a generation of liberals like myself toward supply-side economics. And that is what Trump is proposing. For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would object to people keeping more of their own money.

Hack, on a personal note, your occupation as a journalist is specifically protected by the first amendment. Mine, as a real estate developer, is not. I only gave examples of the easing of regulations on my business, because I know them to be true. Just because you don't feel the heavy hand of government doesn't mean others don't.

[Kapture1]

He's got to make his move before the investagation turns to the FBI's role in using taxpayer money to partially fund oppo research obtained from the Kremlin on a presidential candidate and used that to get FISA warrents to tap Manaford. Only reason the FBI's involvement is important is because Mueller was the former directior, friends with the Director at the time, and interviewed to be that friend's replacement. He can not objectively investigate the FBI, or Jim Comey's roll in the funding of oppo and using it to tap phones, and will have to recuse.