Important politicocultural dynamic for the next decade and a half will be Gen X and the older Millennials positioning themselves as dutiful heirs to the Boomers such that they can be trusted to inherit things and defend them from the Zoomers and younger Millennials
At a new place and there’s a bartender I recognize from several years and like 30lb ago, but I can’t remember from where or what terms we last met on, whether he actually proved to be a backstabbing little bitch somehow, or I merely vibed his bonhomie as clearly fake
A California pool hall is making waves in the pool world after unveiling an innovative new pool stick that is more than twice as long as a regular cue.
The massive “Big Stick” is 6 feet, 6 inches long and features a special bridge that allows players to make shots from a much greater distance. While the extra length can make shots easier, it also requires a different technique and strategy when playing.
The owner of the pool hall, Thomas Johnson, came up with the idea for the stick after seeing people struggle to make shots from further away. He believes that the new stick will help people of all skill levels improve their game and make it more enjoyable.
“I wanted to give players of all levels an opportunity to experience something new and to help them shoot better,” Johnson said. “The Big Stick gives them the chance to stretch their skills and see the game in a new light.”
The Big Stick has already attracted attention from pool players around the world and is expected to become a popular addition to any pool hall. It’s sure to make a big splash in the pool world and create some outrageous shots.
This is likely referring to the May 1946 Emergency Housing Program, and attempts to continue it through 1947. For one, rent control was not imposed ‘post-ww2’ - they were imposed in 1940, alongside…price controls for everything else. The large majority of the US economy was subject to price controls during the war to create stability and allocate materials to the war effort. After the war these controls began to be relaxed - what is being referred to here is an attempt to *continue* the rent controls that existed while other price controls slipped away.
Which in 1946 the US did do - alongside of course millions in federal funding directly building housing construction, blocks on the export of housing materials, and assurance contracts to providers of profit and financing. This did build a ton of homes, but huge gaps started emerging - in particular rent control was pushing tons of housing into the sales/ownership market, as there were more loopholes there, which veterans couldn’t afford. In December of 1946 Truman tried to redouble his efforts for the next year in a speech, which is where those numbers come from:
Permission To Build Homes
During 1946, a large volume of dwelling units has been put under construction and the completion rate of these homes has been increasing from month to month. Nevertheless, the veterans’ need remains extremely urgent and we recognize this by continuing to give veterans preference for every dwelling unit constructed for sale or rent.
However, from now on any person who wishes to build a home for his personal occupancy will be permitted to do so, subject to certain restrictions. This will increase the over-all housing supply and, in many instances, make additional homes available for veterans. The construction of housing will be authorized by Federal permits.
The major restrictions which will be imposed are:
1. The proposed dwelling must be designed for year-round occupancy. 2. The total floor area will be restricted. 3. In the case of rental housing projects, maximum rents, excluding charges for services, will be set at a project average not exceeding $80 per unit. Rentals will also be established for individual houses built for rental purposes.
The permit system will be simple. It will not be necessary to have sales prices set, or to meet the standards and inspection requirements of the present priority system.
You will note the housing sale cap of $10k was already abandoned by this point, being present in earlier versions.
This program failed to be implemented at scale - some of it was of course, but the majority of its tenents were rejected as the housing situation worsened and the desire of Congress to continue centralized price controls waned. In June of 1947 Congress passed the Housing & Rent Act, which Truman considered a bitter disapointment:
To the Congress of the United States
I have today signed H.R. 3203, the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, despite the fact that its rent control provisions are plainly inadequate and its housing provisions actually repeal parts of the Veterans’ Emergency Housing Act which have been most helpful in meeting the housing needs of veterans.
Had I withheld my signature, national rent control would die tonight. It is clear that, insofar as the Congress is concerned, it is this bill or no rent control at all. I have chosen the lesser of two evils.
It kept some controls of course, but nothing like what was outlined in that tweet - at this point even veterans had turned against such controls, as reported in a large American Legion report in 1947. Much housing was built, but it was far short of the goals and large affordability and access issues remainded.
Finally it seems worth noting that these controls were not especially onerous: the median housing price for new builds in the US in 1946 was $7500, and the median rent was $60. The controls were less a “this will lower rents” and more a “this will work as a short-hand to prevent new construction from trying to exploit gaps in our system of throwing financing at build projects.” (Source from same analysis above)
Now this whole thing, generally referred to as the Wyatt Program, is very interesting - it would be unfair to say that just because it lasted a year and didnt fulfill all its goals it was a failure; the problem of housing veterans in the US was gigantic after all, failure in some form was assured. Im sure many lessons could be learned from the Wyatt Program.
But we all know what the tweet is saying: “Hey, if we just imposed rent control today, housing prices would go down and people would still build, just like they did in 1946”. And that is summary of what was happening in 1946-1947 that is completely divorced from the reality of the housing market, the reality of the policy’s strategy, the reality of how it was implemented, and the reality of how successful it was.
With all that considered, I rank this tweet A Lie - but I suppose if you were charitable you could give it a “passes on a technicality” as those controls did exist in some form at some point in time.
for those of you who happened to miss it, Ryan Drummond, the first English voice for sonic the hedgehog (specifically for Sonic Adventures 1, 2, and Sonic Heroes) was recently found to have had an extramarital affair with Emi Jones, a cover artist and VA in the sonic fandom whose prior engagements included recording a fanmade audio drama together with Drummond.
one of the encounters of this affair apparently involved Drummond (who has a wife and children) using the voice he did for sonic during sex with Jones. it should also be noted that in the above-mentioned audio drama that Jones just so happened to have also voiced tails the fox
Can’t imagine what my life would be like without this fandom
Basically as far as I can tell all the problems in Portland are related to government apathy about staffing.
Pretty much every government agency I get any insight into here is deeply understaffed for the workload, and also deeply committed to not doing anything to attract staff.
Culture war stuff or ideology seems largely unrelated.
“Pretty much every government agency I get any insight into here is deeply understaffed for the workload, and also deeply committed to not doing anything to attract staff.“
Sounds like ideology to me.
Well, sure, but how would you call that ideology? Republican small government ideology? I mean, I guess our city government is pretty right wing.
We’re hoping that once the structural changes go through the bureaucracy will unclog itself a little.
Well, I do think that until the 2020 unpleasantness, the downtown establishment was like “engaged community-oriented young people with leftward-trending opinions? all to the good, they’ll be great allies in developing this liberal city, perhaps as pertains to service provision and incorporating marginalized eastside communities into our (fundamentally neoliberal westside property owner-run) civic order!” and they’re a bit more hesitant to bring new employees or allies on board without proper vetting now.
What we’re vetting for is “will tolerate police corruption as the price of doing business instead of getting all riot-y about it” yeah?
Well, with Hardesty gone they’ve purged the council but they were too halfassed to keep the rabble-rousers off the charter reform commission or get their proposal rejected, they might shave it down some in the courts but the insurgent left def. planned it to undermine establishmentarian locks by expanding the council and dividing it into multi-member districts. I’m in the same one as Lents and I’ll do my part to keep Sarah Iannarone out, but in case she gets in you sure don’t want her to have sympathizers inside administrative agencies she can articulate with.
Ah. So it is kind of what I said. I have an old-fashioned, not to mention autistic, belief that the purpose of the political system is to create certain beneficial results, and focusing on which team has the most power in city government is at best tangential to that goal.
Or, put another way: shit or get off the pot. That there is a certain level of radical incompetence in the radical left side of Portland government doesn’t make the moderate business focused side competent.
Wheeler, for example, seems uninterested in really amping up police hiring OR creating any kind of accountability; he seems happy to let the police stagnate and then throw blame at the left-wingers.
Oh yeah, Wheeler is incompetent at either wielding government power or evoking public sentiment, all the establishmentarian councilmembers are uninspired fronts for the downtown poobahs (who shouldn’t’ve stuffed Jefferson Smith to get Charlie Hales in, I don’t know what made that so critical, my blind guess was lining things up for the buildout of “South”) whose “People For Portland” astroturfing is terrible (the kind of communications firm an insulated and comfortable technocratic establishment in a liberal city has ties to would be shit at tapping into authentic voter anger around crime and homelessness).
Meanwhile, the left had two tactics: infiltrate and escalate, but they pulled the trigger on 2 without enough 1.
New tumblr feature: Robot that takes your throat, and rips out your spine and skull, and attaches them to a beehive, and forces you to live like this for 24 hours
Last night I ended up falling asleep with the TV on as I often do, and in the morning I saw a small bit of discussion about Dr. Oz on it, and it was all about how he still believes in woo but has given up his medical license so he can show off how many supplements he takes to the other celebrities on The View or whatever.
“He has given up his medical license,” I thought. “What a strange thing to do. Why would anyone do that?”
A nice thing about further developing control of my lower extremities in the new style is I am no longer constantly scraping the knuckles of my toes on things when I walk around barefoot
babygirl your tits are bangin and all, but i know that you are actually just a hallucinatory projection of your true parasitic self hijacking my brain in an attempt to lull me into a state of vulnerability and get eaten so that you may continue your life cycle, and while i recognize that your own drive to survive is not inherently evil or wrong, i also wish to survive, so one of us must perish in a battle for control
