The New Coffee Room

HP removing 90% of their production from China. Investigating options to increase US manufacturing.
https://www.techspot.com/news/106979-hp-move-90-percent-north-american-production-out.html

Apple investing $500B into US Manufacturing and Development.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/02/apple-will-spend-more-than-500-billion-usd-in-the-us-over-the-next-four-years/

Bought a dozen last evening. Plenty in stock, but the price was 60¢ higher than 2 weeks ago.

Civic Hybrid manufacturing moving from Mexico to Indiana because of tariffs.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/honda-produce-next-civic-indiana-not-mexico-due-us-tariffs-sources-say-2025-03-03/

Let me be clear, I still don’t like it. Reeks of protectionism and US manufacturing has always gone downhill in that environment.

Last year, over $27 Billion was given out in Pell Grants. 45% of those recipients won’t graduate. https://feed.georgetown.edu/access-affordability/where-pell-grant-recipients-are-most-likely-to-succeed/

@Jolly said in Vo-tech is cool.:

@LuFins-Dad said in Vo-tech is cool.:

@Jolly said in Vo-tech is cool.:
in his head.

He went to college and graduated with a 4.0 in chemical engineering. The Pell Grant certainly helped him.

I guess I'm saying there are some really bright kids out there who need to go to university on a Pell Grant, not to Vo-Tech.

Great, notice I also mentioned Community College for the first 2 years? That Chemical Engineering Degree contained at least 32 credits that could be acquired at a community college for 1/10th the cost of a university. And if you’re maintaining your GPA and studies through the first 2 years, you’re more likely to finish the second 2 years for the degree. I would love to know how much unpaid student loan debt has been racked up by poor kids that get 1-2 years in and drop out… They typically don’t go on to trade schools because they are poor as hell.

And let’s not forget the difference in tuition rates and Pell Grant rates from when your guy went to school vs today. In 1980, Pell Grants covered 75% of the average 4 year college tuition. Today it’s less than 25%, and not including room and board.

@Jolly said in Vo-tech is cool.:

Because of desegregation, a magnet school was established at one high school in town. That necessitated closing my high school's industrial arts program.

The magnet school worked a bit for students in town, but the country schools got screwed. What 16 year-old is driving a 60 miles a day to take a shop class? We finally were given a Vo-Ag program and it was very successful. Our teacher was young, energetic, resourceful and a former county agent. My grandmother let him use four acres on her place for a truck farm. He used the leftover shop and welding equipment for farm-level instruction in basic welding, carpentry and some wiring. He established a robust FFA program, and we had a large livestock program (show competition and judging). We were so successful as a club, we bought a GMC van with fund-raising and truck farm profits.

Yet, as wonderful as that was at giving students a smattering of skills, it was never a job-worthy program. The rural students who would have benefited the most from a high school program in carpentry/woodworking, auto mechanics, welding, etc., didn't have the opportunity.

I will say it again, I would love for Pell Grants to be restricted to trade schools and community colleges for the first two years out of HS. You want to help families escape poverty? Don’t convince the brightest kids that they need to to have a college degree to escape and send them to a state school where they graduate 4 years later with a communications degree and $120K in student loans that are capitalizing interest…

A Pell Grant will cover a trade school education in full and the kids can find a decent paying job. If they want to, they can likely find a job that will also provide a tuition reimbursement if they decide to pursue a college degree.

Woodworking, metal working, and 1 basic electronics class.

@jon-nyc said in From the front lines of America’s war with chronic disease:

Re intractability:

Some of these patients get by on food stamps of a few hundred per month. Even if they try to eat well they can’t afford to. Many don’t have reliable transportation, and have to walk or beg for rides to get groceries. She describes a local convenience store where avocados are $2.99 each but ramen noodles are $2.50 for a pack of 12. Lots of ramen noodles and Mac and cheese gets purchased at the dollar stores.

This has been a common theme for quite a while. We like to point out the SNAP benefits being used for Oreo cookies as one of the causes for the poor being overweight, but it’s Wonderbread and Hamburger Helper far more than it’s snacks that’s causing the problems.

@Friday Lucas is trying to get me to go to a Con with him, and I just found out that your husband’s friend will be there… Almost makes me want to go…

@Horace No question, the hysterical anti-Trump screeds are overwhelming. And I’m not implying that you are posting anything hyper partisan. Most of the reactions and analysis that you are posting has been very helpful and even handed. The interviews of Gabbard and Rubio are by necessity partisan, but that doesn’t discount their arguments.

So far, the guy that I tend to listen to a little more than most, Ben Shapiro, hasn’t directly addressed it. I think he’s waiting for Monday. But his XPosts have been filled with a bunch of reposts of some of the more hard core pro-Trump guys attacking Zelenskyy and practically fellating Trump and JD.

Again, personally I believe that both parties are at some fault, here, and I also believe there is some element of true misunderstanding as well as animosity from the past at play. That being said, what really concerns me about this was the sheer amateurish nature of the event. Absolutely everything should have been ironed out and nailed down before they were in front of any cameras and answering questions. The fact that it wasn’t makes it look minor league, or scripted.

@Horace said in Gifts for Putin, Demands for Zelensky:

@LuFins-Dad is there someone whose opinions I can listen to who champions the blind partisanship on the right? Obviously the naked rage and hysteria about Trump destroying civilization is anywhere, so I don’t need help finding that.

I posted some words from Rubio yesterday, is he on the insane partisanship side? Jeffrey Sachs? Mearsheimer? Glenn Greenwald? I’m trying to think of people who are contrarian as compared to, say, The Bullwark, or David Brooks.

I would suggest Lindsay Graham’s reaction was a little over the top partisanship..

Maybe not a state.., How about a territory like Puerto Rico?

@Renauda TY, that does make me feel a little less horrible… It also paints the earlier Rubio speech from 2014 as hawkish hyperbole mostly delivered as political fodder going into midterm elections…

@jon-nyc said in The Ukraine war thread:

A way forward?

So. Let’s discuss the US’ and UK’s failure to live up to the security agreements made to Ukraine in the 90’s. The failure runs through 4 US administrations and several UK governments. What were the obligations and how can live up to them now? Or should we?

Also up for discussion, is the US and West looking at the Ukraine/Russia war as two separate events, while Ukraine and Russia treat it as one, with a cease fire in the middle? And does that different viewpoint cause confusion to both sides?

See? More unhelpful partisanship.

Ayup. The 2014 invasion was a complete abdication of our moral authority and the security of our guarantees by leadership. That was under that Obama guy. But Trump shower no inclination to fix it or to defend Ukraine during his term. In fact, the invasion of Crimea became sort of an afterthought. Which was equally no good. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember us even talking about Ukraine/Crimea much on the old forum, except for the occasional post by that Alberta Crude guy (whatever happened to him, btw?) and all of the ancillary stuff dealing with Hunter Biden, and Trump’s “Quid Pro Quo” deal with Zelenskyy. I do recall a general response to the US and UK’s abrogation of their security responsibility being along the lines of Ukraine being a hopelessly corrupt country and government, and we just let it slide.

So this has been a failure by both parties, and I am finding the whole moral outrage on both sides in the US to be disingenuous or willful ignorance and not accepting the faults of their chosen leaders. All the talk of Trump being Putin’s stooge from people ignoring Obama’s hot mic flip with Medved back in 2022, pointing to levels of collaboration that were expected and unknown. People screaming that Trump is on the take while ignoring the blatant corruption in the Biden family in Ukraine.

On the other side you have equal levels of willful ignorance, and an uncontrolled desire for change that’s overriding your sensibilities and common sense. What obligation does a current government have to treaties and agreements from 30 years ago? 50? 100? At the same time, if you disregard these treaties now, what assurances are you giving to your current and or future partners? This is a very complex and frustrating situation. I don’t know the answers, but I know they aren’t blind partisanship.

@jon-nyc said in Trump Campaigns:

I'm sure the youth that prefer NBA, etc would see the light and tune in to 100+ 4 hour games if they only put a guy they've barely heard of in the HOF.

Meh, NBA is suffering, too. ESPN basketball ratings are down 28%. Most analysts blame the same issues that afflict Baseball. Too many games, too many players hopping from team to team, serious salary cap problems, too much social justice not enough action, etc…

Yeah, but those are Jewish eggs. Probably full of nanobots that can be used for targeting assists for the space lasers.

That’s even more exciting than the slow down at the southern border!

Thank you, @Axtremus . I was feeling a little down about our administration this afternoon. I feel much better, now!