I honestly think this might be a recruitment tool. Dd met several people in her training who had used their parents GI Bill for a couple of years of college and then enlisted to get their own benefits to finish. I thought this was kind of weird because why would you use the GI Bill for the first couple of years instead of saving it to finish a degree after CC, but your explanation makes a lot of sense. They probably didn't realize how little financial aid they would be eligible for after the GI Bill ran out.

So was the plotter planning to wear the swastika t-shirt while he planted the car bomb? Really?

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who basically blows off Mother's Day. I tend to forget about it until dh says something because it pings on his calendar. Then, I hurry up and send my mom an email with a nice picture of yellow roses and Happy Mother's Day in a pretty font. One year I got ambitious and sent actual flowers. They were pretty lame and my mom told me they were not worth the money. (This was not a passive-aggressive thing, we're both thrifty and I appreciated the honest assessment.) So I switched to the email. I think she prints them out and puts them on her fridge. She always mentions how much she liked the email in our phone call. Dh, kids and I avoid going out on Mother's Day. We've goofed and forgotten pre-smartphone and the crowded restaurants are not a good fit for us. So we grill and chill. Dh has occasionally gotten me flowers, but they aren't as nice as flowers during a non-publicly mandated giving occasion so he's hasn't done that for a few years. Then we do the exact same thing for Father's Day.

Oh, Soror, how traumatic! My condolences to all of you.

I think this is state (or possibly college) specific. I had to sign my dd's forms each semester as her "High School Official" not as her parent. If she had been a student at our local early college high school, it would have been her guidance counselor signing the form. I had to certify that her high school (aka me) would give her high school credit for the classes she was taking in order for them to be tuition free. High school students were also required to sign the FERPA permission to give parents access to their grades (this applied to homeschoolers and public schoolers). OP: Community colleges vary so much in the classes they offer and their academic rigor that it's hard to generalize. It is worth checking out what's available in your area a year or so before your kids would consider dual enrolling. Our local CC has an Honors College that was an excellent experience for dd. She got to take some really cool classes, do several independent projects and participate in Model UN. If you live near Houston, I'd highly recommend dual enrollment. But that doesn't help you decide if you're in Kansas or Wyoming. Kids change so much over the course of high school. It's good to have a plan, but you need to be flexible. Dd surprised us all by deciding to enlist in the Navy with a job in IT systems admin instead of finishing up a business degree. The CC credits she had meant that she entered the Navy as an E-3 instead of an E-1 which translates into $400 more a month and quicker promotion to petty officer. It also means we no longer have to worry about college costs. She'll be able to finish her BS and get a master's degree courtesy of the GI Bill. It's hard not to worry, but there are lots of paths out there to get to college. I wish I could have told myself that when dd was in 5th grade.

The thing my dd most missed having was a George Foreman grill or a toaster oven (or both if you have room). She's a vegetarian and would like to make her own food sometimes. She did have a mini fridge and microwave but she missed being able to make something with a crunch. Many dorms may ban these so check the list. If you have an en suite bathroom in your room, it's nice to have good cleaning products. Mrs. Meyer's lemon verbena all purpose cleaner makes your barracks bathroom feel less institutional.

I'd put down the deposit on UNT and wait a week to request the refund from OU. I wouldn't say a word more about either until after May 1 and hope your ds sticks with his decision.

Welcome to my world. Dh is a partner in a mid-size management consulting firm. He turned in the keys to their downtown office on March 31 because no one has set foot in it except to check to make sure it's okay since March 2020. His travel is finally picking up a bit but he's home much more than he has ever been before Covid. We've adjusted but he does get on my sons' nerves sometimes. They want to come home from their day programs and chill out and he wants to talk to them which requires some serious mental effort on their part. They've been known to be way too loud while dh is on a work zoom with a client. I've been stretched thin trying to keep the peace. We're all still alive and, for the most part, getting along fine but it was an adjustment. We were lucky that Covid made adjusting to our new household normal part of the broader adjustments. Now that dh works from home, I doubt he'll retire early so we'll keep on with this arrangement for another 10 years or so.

No, it probably won't. Many, many middle income countries function at this level. Kids who want to learn find a way, kids (and parents) who don't care drop out at the first opportunity and work for low wages. Or turn to crime.

If you want a UF diploma and can't get in to the physical campus, consider going online. Their online program is not separate from the university, you get the same degree (unlike Penn State, U of MD, Purdue, etc.) The online classes are insanely inexpensive for in-state students, too. The big negative is the limited number of majors. If your student is okay with going to school online or starting at a CC and finishing online, this is not a bad option. If your student is looking at the military, I think UF is the best online option available if they have a major you want. ETA: If you live in the Gainesville area and pay additional fees, you can access on campus services including tickets to their football games. If you don't live in Gainesville you don't have to pay those fees, making UF online an even better bargain.

Every university sets their own policy. I can only answer for UF, which states that you can have up to 11 credits and apply as a freshman.

From UF's application page: If you spend a couple of hours noodling around UF, FSU, UCF, USF, FIU etc's websites you'll have a good grasp of what they offer and what they require. They're very detailed. My dd is planning to finish her BS online at UF so I've spent some quality time with their website and they are very clear about what transfers, how to earn credit by exam and what you need to apply as a freshman/lower division/upper division student. UF has been very successfully climbing the US News and World Report rankings and they're currently #28, tied with NYU, Tufts, Wake Forest, UNC-Chapel Hill and UC Santa Barbara. They're not just football anymore. (I know rankings are pretty arbitrary, but I use them as a proxy for how respected a school is and UF has been doing an excellent job of marketing itself.) UF is also highly affordable compared with the other schools that are tied in rank. This won't necessarily apply to you, but FL is now offering some excellent deals to FL residents that are active duty or reserve military. They've got a "take a free seat for free" deal if course has a free seat close to the start of classes. They've also got a BOGO on classes toward a STEM degree. If you qualify, it's a bargain!

Anyone who hasn't heard the Former President's quote about China invading Taiwan on the Maria Bartiromo show should google that asap. It's disturbing but truly essential information about where we stand. It's posted on the Politics Social Group Ukraine thread if you have access to that.

Nobody has the ability to stop this without starting a nuclear war which will kill more Ukrainians than a Russian invasion and occupation. That's what nukes do to military strategy.

Ukraine has already sent the initial paperwork to start the war crimes investigation. Canada just stepped up to help with that. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ottawa-to-help-ukraine-expedite-petition-to-probe-alleged-war-crimes/ The Ukrainians still have their Turkish drones as far as I know. I don't know why they haven't attacked that convoy, but I trust they have their reasons. So far the convoy hasn't attacked Kyiv either. Something's up with that but I don't know what. It may "feel" like we're doing nothing, but that's just not true. It might be soothing to read up on what's happening. I personally like keeping open DKos' Ukraine threads. They're compilations of tweets and opinions. The opinions aren't all useful, but it's a great place to get the latest updates before the newspapers pick them up. BUT, since they're a bunch of on-the-ground tweets, take them with a big grain of salt unless they're posted by a reliable source (some foreign press is quicker to post than US sources). There may be something like this from a conservative source, so look around. The DKos threads are not over the top political because of the factual nature of many of the updates. The Meerkats on the WTM Politics Ukraine thread are also posting lots of real time updates and excellent analytic pieces. Some get posted here as well, but not all because of the politics rule.

We do not have the power to stop the invasion of Ukraine unless we are willing to start a nuclear war. I'm not sure even Ukrainians would go for that, because more of them will survive a brutal occupation/insurgency than will survive Nuclear Holocaust.

Remember what happened to Caligula? His own guards killed him. That's what we're trying to foment with sanctions. We're hoping that the Oligarchs and the Generals decide that humoring the madman is too costly and take care of the problem. (There are already Russian subs targeting the US with nukes. They can utterly destroy us, just as we can utterly destroy them.)

Why do people keep saying that the West isn't doing anything? Is it that people don't understand what it means to sanction a central bank and collapse a country's currency? I know it isn't telegenic and all we see are lines at ATMs and the Moscow stock market not opening, but we've just imposed a Great Depression/Hyperinflation on them.

We're not going back to normal. Germany's Olaf Scholz just gave a speech asking for $100 billion in new defense spending, blowing past the 2% NATO target. They already decided not to proceed with Nord Stream 2. The Swedes and Finns (who are still technically neutrals) are sending arms to Ukraine. Switzerland is going to sanction Russians (this is incredibly important, Swiss banks are the refuge of scoundrels). BP and Exxon pulled out of their Russian investments which is going to cost them billions. The world shifted this weekend in ways that we're just starting to understand.

The news channels get former generals and admirals on to talk about strategy. They're literally the experts. They might be wrong sometimes, but they've spent many years planning for a war like this as their day job. That's not the same as some random vet spouting off on YouTube or Facebook. I think it's better to read the news rather than watch it. It's much less triggering and you can step back and google things that you want to know more about. As long as you check poster's background, Twitter can be a gold mine of information and analysis from non-telegenic experts who will dive deeper into topics they know well.

Sometimes optics matter. They can shape public opinion in surprising ways.

That would be some industrial grade hypocrisy given that they give their own hackers free rein to attack the West.

That's gonna sting!

Hungarian elections are on April 3 and Orban is finally facing a united opposition. Tick, tock.

I think you're missing that when the UN was established the USSR was an ally and the first army into Berlin. Russia was recognized as the successor state when the USSR dissolved in 1991. The UN isn't a highly functional organization, most of the time it's highly scripted and has very little capacity to act. But, it does provide a forum for nations to air their grievances and it does provide an opportunity for small nations to have some voice about global issues. For example, Barbados' PM Mia Mottley's speech about the effects of climate change on island nations got a lot of coverage.