HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, DARTMOUTH IS EVIL EDITION: Dartmouth refused to let an accused professor defend himself publicly. He committed suicide. “Three of his accusers showed up to his memorial reception, according to several people there. They aren’t named, but six of the seven women who filed the initial suit identified themselves: Kristina Rapuano, Vassiki Chauhan, Sasha Brietzke, Annemarie Brown, Andrea Courtney and Marissa Evans. Dartmouth’s notice of Bucci’s passing does not mention his suicide or the college’s role in it.”
Archive for 2020
January 8, 2020
INSANE: A Borrower Will Be 114 When Bonds Backed by Her Student Loans Mature.
Julie Chinnock is 50 years old and owes about $250,000 in student loans. She was happy to get a new payment plan that lowered her monthly bill, but the holders of two bonds backed by her loans were probably less cheerful.
The two bonds were due in 2043 and 2054, but Ms. Chinnock and other borrowers were paying less each month under a new government plan that tied debt payments to income. Because borrowers were taking longer to pay off their loans, there was a risk the bonds backed by the loans wouldn’t be paid off in time. Bond-rating firms were watching and getting ready to downgrade the highly rated bonds, potentially causing losses for investors.
The issuer of the bonds and the investors who owned them hatched a plan to avoid the downgrades. Their solution: make sure bonds were paid off in time by extending their maturity dates by decades. The bonds that include a big chunk of Ms. Chinnock’s loans now mature in 2083, when she will turn 114.
Nothing ends up being more expensive than government efforts to make things more affordable.
YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ASK QUESTIONS LIKE THIS: Wait. Didn’t Obama’s ‘Amazing’ Shrink-Wrapped ‘Iran Deal’ Outlaw the Missiles the Ayatollah Used?
SOLEIMANI’S FATAL ARROGANCE REVEALS A FOOL’S CONTEMPT FOR HIS ENEMIES:
Understand these facts first and foremost: Qassem Soleimani was a career state-sponsored terrorist whose financial, ideological and strategic sponsor was the Iranian theocratic dictatorship the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini founded in 1979.
Another fact: In 1984, the U.S. State Department placed Iran on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Check it out.
LEAVING SAN DIEGO: The USS America departs its homeport of Naval Base San Diego.Photo taken November 13, 2019.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG, I SUSPECT: Documents Show Senior Kerry Aide Used Private Email to Send Steele Reports to State Department Colleagues.
JAZZ SHAW: The Odd Timing Of That Ukrainian Airline Crash And Earthquake. “The President is scheduled to make an announcement later this morning, but I wouldn’t expect any specific details as to what if any ‘retaliation for the retaliation’ might be on the way. But does Trump even feel a need to hit them again? At least as of now, there are no reported casualties from Iran’s missile strike. In fact, none of the missiles hit the areas where American troops would be found. They mostly hit areas occupied by Iraqi forces and several of them missed their targets entirely.”
The smart move might be to sit back — guard up, of course — and let Tehran demonstrate even more of their impotence, should they choose.
WELL, YES, IF YOU BELIEVE THE SYSTEM WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO ELECT DEMOCRATS: BU prof: Trump ‘represents a clear and present threat to our electoral system’. And many in academia seem to seriously believe that these days.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Not Quite World War III Edition. “Trump Derangement Syndrome has now morphed into Iranian Apology and Appeasement Syndrome and, like every part of this Trump tantrum, is beyond wearisome.”
I WONDER HOW MUCH LITTLE PROMPTING SHE’D NEED TO SAY THE SAME THING ABOUT TRUMP: Meghan McCain Has To Ask Warren Three Times To Admit Soleimani Was A Terrorist.
YES: I Faced Soleimani’s Forces; Dems Are Mourning a War Criminal. “As someone who went toe-to-toe with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Afghanistan, I can assure you that Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani got exactly what he deserved when he perished in a U.S. drone strike. What he certainly doesn’t deserve is praise from Democrat lawmakers who would rather mourn a war criminal than credit President Trump for making the world safer.”
This is a good piece. Read the whole thing.
WELL, THAT’S NOT SUSPICIOUS AT ALL: Iran refuses to hand over airliner’s black box: report. “Iran is refusing to hand over the black box of the doomed Ukrainian airliner to Boeing amid an investigation into what caused the crash that killed all 176 people aboard the flight out of Tehran early Wednesday, according to a report.”
UPDATE: A friend on Facebook comments:
Following the story of Ukrainian International Airlines 752 is exceptionally interesting. The Kyiv-bound aircraft crashed approximately three minutes after departure from Tehran yesterday, nearly concurrent with the conclusion of the Iranian ballistic-missile attacks on American forces in Iraq. There is no readily available reason why it would have crashed. The aircraft was a late-model Boeing 737-800, well known and understood; and UIA is a safe airline cleared to fly throughout Europe and North America. Nevertheless all aboard UIA 752 are dead: nearly 190 souls.
Why? Well, Iranian authorities, and apparently Ukrainian as well, are blaming mechanical issues. It’s a catch-all term in this case describing a series of events that are exceptionally unlikely, including most notably the aircraft transponder’s abrupt cessation of activity at about 8,000 feet following an entirely normal departure and ascent; and the aircraft’s recorded descent consumed in a fireball.
Neither of these outcomes are at all within range of ordinary possibility.
One more datum: UIA quickly terminated all service to and from Tehran, which is not done over mechanical issues.
What does it look like? Well. Juxtaposing events, it looks like an accidental shootdown by nervous Iranian anti-aircraft missileers watching for an American attack. But that’s just my synopsis.
Entirely plausible but, well, stay tuned.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Iran Refuses To Hand Over Crash Data, Stoking Speculation Plane Was Accidentally Shot Down. There’s a complete passenger list at the link.
ARTHUR CHRENKOFF: Australia’s arson crisis (updated). Weird that these reports don’t seem to include the names of offenders.
Related: Iran Says It Has Concluded Its Response To U.S. Strike, Does Not Seek Escalation. If this token effort is it, then the exchange is a big win for Trump, and for the United States.
DON’T GET COCKY: Trump is holding all the cards this November.
He has the ability to thoroughly dominate media coverage with one 280-character tweet.
No matter what reporters want to report on, from impeachment to the Emoluments Clause, Trump can change the subject to what he wants to talk about.
He ups the ante with each tweet, making grandiose and often ridiculous statements.
The whole controversy over the supposed targeting of Iranian cultural sites is a case in point.
Nobody seriously thinks that the American people (or the military) would allow the president to target historically or religiously significant sites to punish the Iranians.
And yet the president mentions it, and the media goes nuts.
Trump baited the press all the way to the White House, yet they still fall for it every single time.
Not very bright, are they?
AT AMAZON, Deal of the Day, Technivorm Moccamaster 59616 KBG Coffee Brewer, 40 oz, Polished Silver.
ST. AUGUSTINE, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Democrats Start to Look Like the Gadarene Swine.