Farm aid 30th anniversary
 

Willie and Jon mellencamp on Colbert talking about the show. Tomorrow, Chicago.
Not a fan of country music.....but the old stuff was Good stuff, and I could listen to willie all day

Neil Young

love Willie opening and closing with Whiskey River still. Johnny Cougar is a hump
Neil young playing Unknown legend is a joy like few others

Willie Nelson wrote "Crazy." The man is a national treasure.

I confess to having sung karaoke of "Hurt So Good."

If you ever have the chance and have never done this, listen to the Red Headed Stranger LP start to finish...the man is a genius songwriter :tro:

I have never done karaoke...and never will. Cannot sing worth a damn.

I love that song, loved patsy cline...even tho she was long gone by the time I was born.
Willie was/is a fabulous songwriter.

I was singled out in 4th grade Music class by my teacher for being a terrible singer. Has not stopped me from my love of karaoke. ;)

My husband was unwillingly dragged to a Willie Nelson concert by his dad and said it was one of the top 5 concerts he's ever been to. Said Nelson is sensational live.

Does government paying folks not to grow crops constitute "Farm Aid"?

We have higher numbers than ever of hungry kids.....and we pay people not to grow food. How in the hell does that make sense????
We can't afford food stamps, but we can afford that?!

It's a little more complicated than farmers being paid not to farm:

http://harvestpublicmedia.org/articl...rm-not-exactly

The problem, of course, is people who figure out how to game the system, but the concept itself is to keep farmers in business so they keep growing the food we keep eating.

political genius
 

when we have them grow weed, the deficit will disappear. Duh. The people have already spoken on the issue. i can't believe one those republican mooks running against Trump hasn't figured it out.

But if they let out all those prisoners, how will California afford cheapie firefighters?

Rand Paul favors legalization, right? Or does he support legalization of it but not taxation? ;)

I read Colorado has to vote on whether to put the surplus pot tax money into education or give it back to the public. As the average payback will be between $6 and $16 per person, I hope they do the right thing and put it in education.

That would be the thing to do . Make college free and educate the next generation so we go back to being the smartest, not just the toughest nation around

At this point, it's Colorado's primary education that needs the money; it's been underfunded for years.

But I agree that state and city schools should go back to being free. There was an interesting piece on the Ivies and how the fact that donations to them are tax-free has enabled them to build up HUGE endowments, while state schools struggle for money.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/201...ls-in-america/

(Note: while I find this article hilarious in its implication that only liberal politicians went to Ivy Leagues, I do agree that reforming the endowment system is a good idea. Harvard has $38 BILLION in endowments.)

I don't agree with the suggestion of using endowments towards lowering tuition at Ivy schools, though. The majority of the students have no difficulty paying the tuition (or rather, their parents don't). Where the money needs to go is state schools, which serve far more of the middle and working class.

:tro:

we need more money in education, and we need to expand the school year.
poor kids lose more ground than the rest of the students each summer...they fall further and further behind every school year.
so just think if we had school with a week break now and then? and yes, we could afford it!!
it almost makes me wonder if portions of the govt or their funders just want to have a huge, poor class--they sure aren't competition if they have no chance to get in the race.

I think the best thing we could do to improve schools is to integrate them. We don't like to, because busing costs money and (understandably) parents don't love the idea of a kid having to travel an hour or more to and from school and (less understandably, but no less true), people are racist. But the areas that do make a commitment to diversifying schools really do see the benefits.

This is a long article about Louisville's school district, but well worth the time to read.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...gation/388532/

(Note: I live in NYC, which has some of the most segregated schools in the nation)

we are so lazy...
oh, we did that for a bit, but it's haaaard. sigh and yeah, it works when you do it.

To quote Judge Smails, "The world needs ditch diggers too"

we sure do.
do we pay them poverty wages tho, even tho we need them?