Here's a bright young guy approaching his challenges with a good attitude, but you really don't want to get the 'Rona.

Additionally, Miss Barrett is still alive.

• Charming animation of the planets.

• There's a creature called the sarcastic fringehead.

McArdle tweet on student debt.

Specifically:

The burden of student loans doesn’t even begin to erase the economic benefits of the degree they paid for. Over a lifetime, college graduates will earn hundreds of thousands of dollars more than their less-educated peers. Meanwhile, the median student loan balance is around $17,000; more like “new economy car” than “perpetual debt slavery.”

Americans have about $1.1 trillion of outstanding auto debt, not that far from that $1.6 trillion in student loans, but without already-generous government repayment subsidies. If you wouldn’t claim that Toyota Corollas are imposing a grievous, unsupportable burden on the nation’s youth, then you probably shouldn’t make similar claims about student loans.

Funny video!

One can't help but think of certain fictional characters from decades ago - but THEY never fought like that, or at all.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sZQxgGcrGbI

Check them out at Wiki, too! (I never knew there were so many episodes with them.)

It's about infant picky eaters and how the parents who think their kids are born geniuses somehow can't imagine that the same infants are smart enough to manipulate their parents, so to speak.

http://www.indexjournal.com/lifestyles/columnists/john-rosemond/john-rosemond-whats-eating-you/article_e0da9a43-d210-5189-ab26-932277d74224.html

(In the same vein, pretty much any child old enough to speak in sentences is smart enough to lie as well - I've seen that happen - but the column doesn't mention that. Of course, parents tend to deny, angrily, that THEIR precious three-year-old could lie - until they see it happen for themselves, since three-year-olds are not very clever liars.)

Americans have about $1.1 trillion of outstanding auto debt, not that far from that $1.6 trillion in student loans, but without already-generous government repayment subsidies. ~ from a link by Crid at November 17, 2020 12:59 AM

Without government repayment subsidies and without government subsidized low interest rates. Not to mention that the loan on that Toyota Corolla is secured by that Toyota Corolla, so the risk to the lender is lower.

The difference, of course, is that one can look out in one's driveway and see the Toyota Corolla on which one is making payments. If one does not make the payments, that Toyota Corolla will be repossessed.

The sheepskin is already possessed and cannot be repossessed. One is making payments on a loan for something one already owns. Somehow, one feels that payment on an already-received education is an undue burden where the payment on the not-yet-owned Toyota Corolla is less undue. One wants to spend the money being used for student loan payments on things one can hold today, not things one worked for yesterday.

A car loan repayment also has an achievable end date. One's income was a factor in determining the qualification for the loan and helped limit the indebtedness.

A student loan repayment, on the other hand, seems endless. One's income factors into repayment, but did not factor into the initial qualification, so one can find one's self heavily in debt far out of proportion to one's income.

Perhaps, like the military's college program, some upfront work or advance payments can be incorporated into the system - e.g., serve two-to-four years in the Peace Corps, Americorps, or the military and the government will pay $50,000 toward your education. No forgiveness; you work for it.

Under such a program, if private entities want to make private, unsecured student loans, that's their risk. The government will not guarantee, subsidize, or repay any of those. Nor will it protect them from bankruptcy claims.

Bill Maher: Democrats Need To Get Over "Hypersensitive Social Justice Warrior Woke BS," Voters Think They're "Nuts"

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/11/16/bill_maher_democrats_need_to_get_over_hypersensitive_social_justice_warrior_woke_bs_voters_think_theyre_nuts.html

(It's short.)

Excerpt:

"Democrats kept saying in the campaign, 'You can't possibly think Trump is preferable to what we're selling,' and many voters keep saying, 'Yes. We. Can. In fact our primary purpose for voting for him is to create a bulwark against you. Because your side thinks silence is violence and looting is not,'" Maher said.

"White men swung to Biden. Trump made gains with black and Latino voters. Why?"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/14/joe-biden-trump-black-latino-republicans

Excerpt:

"What changed in the racial and gender dynamics this cycle to produce these apparently extraordinary results? The truth is, absolutely nothing. These trends have been underway for the entirety of Trump’s public life.

"In fact, Democrat losses with minority voters precede Trump’s candidacy..."

And:

"LGBT Support for Trump Doubled Since 2016, Early Exit Polls Show"

https://www.advocate.com/election/2020/11/04/lgbt-support-trump-doubled-2016-early-exit-polls-show

"LGBT Support for Trump Doubled Since 2016, Early Exit Polls Show"

From the article:

"they are relatively surprising since Trump's presidency has been a disaster for the LGBTQ+ community and most Americans in general, thanks to his mishandling of COVID-19"

Thank god the editors are stringent about biased reporting, eh?

• Footage from last night's sky.

• Chilean aircraft.

> Conan the Grammarian at
> November 17, 2020 7:02 AM

Power, power blog commentary.

Okay, also, how about public listings of continuing school loan indebtedness, and indexed by year, college and program of study?