The absolute saddest element of the "moderate" candidates was the way they tried to defend union's and their interests by saying universal healthcare would go against those group's interests as "their healthcare is all they have." Solidarity forever, but not so much for these voices of the unionized.

Seems a smarter strategy to support healthcare for all people and thus giving those unions something else to fight for in negotiations.

Fixed. But I do like financial intuitions as a phrase.

For those of us who came of age in the 90s in a small country town far from NY, Seinfeld is basically synonymous with what I thought NY was. So anyone from Larry David's generation sounds like him to me now.

Awesome?

This. Well said.

I was probably one of those that thought there was something interesting about the altright and worth talking about. I even cheered along with them as Trump decimated other Republicans in the primary. It was something to see the entire cover of the RNC (small government, family values, etc) crushed beneath a monstrous man.

I thought Trump would be the death of the Republican Party, and oh boy, was I wrong as hell. It makes my previous enjoyment in watching him beat the Republican establishment even more sad and misguided.

Well said.

This is a pretty terrifying development.

This is exactly it. I follow a number of the rebel/militia groups in Syria/Iraq on Twitter, and they don't hide the fact that they want retribution and these women are surely in serious danger now that the Caliphate has crumbled.

Yep. This is basically my opinion was well.

This is a great idea. Although I wasn't on board with OT for some time after its inception, I was on one of Erik's earlier websites before his change of heart politically. I think I was first pulled into OT in a spat with Freddie about intervention.

I look forward to seeing some of its founders and big names return for this celebration!

In addition, if anyone is interested in doing a live event in the Bay Area, I would be more than happy to set something up. Getting to meet other OT contributors at one of the past summer events was an awesome experience, and while I can't put on quite the same performance, I would definitely make sure we could have a meal and drink in the greater SF region.

I was fine and my kids were too young to care about any of that stuff. They just wanted to see Spidermen/women do things. I have a pretty close relationship with my father, so it didn't hit home all that much.

Here was my daughter after the movie; she still talks about it. Interestngly enough, she wants to be Spiderman even though there were female versions of the character on screen. When we play, I have to be Spider Gwen.

We loved #SpiderVerse so much, we went and saw it again. pic.twitter.com/F6wuR26dcB— Roland Von Doom (@RolandDodds) December 27, 2018

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I loved this movie, but more importantly, my daughters did. I have serious superhero movie fatigue, but diving so deep into the silly and fun aspects of Spider-Man, while also bringing in some of the newer versions of the character, was a real pleasure.

On a side note, we need to get the OT Bay Area crew together sometime once that Larkspur-SMART connection is operational. There are a lot of nice brew-pubs right there in downtown San Rafael.

Before I got my road bike (the one pictured above) I considered an electric bike. It just seemed like I would need to drop at least 2 grand for a decent one and I wasn't ready to put that kind of money down. I am glad I didn't as I realized I could do without the extra assistance.

Having said that, I might get one some day if I can no longer physically handle the hills.

On a working day, its about 24 miles total by bike and about 70 by train.

I wear cycling clothes, but change into a dress shirt and tie when I get to work. I find I don't need to shower on my morning leg of the ride as I don't perspire at 6 AM that much.

There is no way I would wear my work clothes for these rides.

True about the weather in certain spots. I imagine my general point still stands about the need for better public transport even in the icy north, but using a bike year round probably wouldn't work (hell, I didn't ride at all in December because of a little rain).

I think that is it. I feel more conservative in temperament now that I have kids but I would never vote for a Republican for any reason.

Well done Patrick. I can't say I have digested everything here yet, but as a teacher and parent in California, this is a valuable breakdown (I also happen to be a union negotiator). Please keep these types of in-depth reports coming!

This wins the internet.

Here here.

Gutted. Very sad news. Bourdain made a big impact on how I see the world.

Have you considered Pyongyang? It doesn't meet any of your criteria, but you could surely come out with a book deal if you lived there a year.

@mike-dwyer "I have long-advocated for a national curriculum, with lots of flexibility built in for local educators to tailor subjects for a local audience. The problem, of course, is that we would also need to complete revamp the way education funding is done"

Agreed. I think that most schools do this very thing in history. We don't teach every single thing mentioned on the larger Common Core framework in depth, but the big things (like the Constitution in 8th grade and how our government works) really needs to be a requirement in every classroom. The rest should be up to local districts.