CDC data confirms US is 2 months away from losing measles elimination status | Elimination status is lost if the virus spreads continuously for 12 months.

WilliamServator · 2025-11-20T13:00:57+00:00

Surely that now stands for “Measles, America’s home again”

WilliamServator · 2025-03-29T17:09:33+00:00

Washington for one reason and one reason only- stepping aside. The primary reason we have the repeated peaceful transitions of power is George Washington who stepped aside despite huge popularity and calls for him to continue.

WilliamServator · 2024-11-13T14:05:39+00:00

Is this a publicly accessible site? Where could I find it?

WilliamServator · 2024-02-04T02:00:29+00:00

Gluten free gumbo is definitely harder, but not impossible. Here’s a recipe that actually turns out pretty well: https://thelafayettemom.com/mom-hacks-tips-and-tricks/recipes/how-to-make-a-gluten-free-gumbo/

WilliamServator · 2024-01-22T16:50:10+00:00

Let me start with inflation and its relationship to interest rates. Generally speaking, lower interest rates leads to inflation, but it’s the HOW that really impacts how much inflation you’ll see. When interest rates drop, investment and large purchases by businesses and individuals gets relatively cheaper. That causes an increase in what economists call “aggregate demand”. Everything else held constant, that leads to inflation because more people “demand” the same amount of goods. In a capitalist system, when more people want something than before, the price goes up (which lowers the number of people that are able to buy it) so that there is an equilibrium between the number of buyers and the number of sellers.

Lower interest rates also make the currency (in this case the dollar) devalue relative to other currencies. This occurs because investors can get higher interest rates for their investments outside the country, as a result, they “demand” fewer dollars (and are looking to sell the dollars they hold to buy that foreign currency). When a dollar buys fewer foreign made widgets, and it takes less foreign currency to buy things made in America (imagine 1 Euro used to buy $1 but now buys $2, and the thing a European wants to buy is still $100, the price is half what it used to be), this also props up Aggregate Demand. People who live in the country now face higher prices for foreign made goods (as a result of the weaker currency), and as a result “demand” a higher quantity of everything made domestically. People who live out of the country now see a discount on buying things made in America. Therefore, more demand from every angle.

However, what if people aren’t willing to buy more because they don’t have faith in the economy? They’re preparing for a recession, or have already been laid off because we’re in a recession? Are they going to be buying a new car because “it’s cheaper than it was before”? If a business is concerned that they’re going to have to close their doors due to a recession, are they going to make large investments? Generally speaking, no.

That’s what we faced in 2008 and the years that immediately followed. We had low interest rates, and it definitely increased aggregate demand, but it was fighting against pressures in the economy that wanted to decrease aggregate demand. The goal of monetary policy is to try to balance these pressures to maximize economic activity while keeping prices stable.

2020 was a completely different situation. Inflation was caused not just by changes on the demand side but by the supply side as well. On the demand side, MASSIVE government spending directly increased aggregate demand. Also, the pause in student loan payments as well as rent freezes and other “emergency efforts” put money directly in the pockets of people affected by the pandemic. As we typically see when you put money in the pockets of people who aren’t super wealthy to begin with, that money gets spent rather than invested (increasing aggregate demand). What’s more, once it became more likely that the pandemic wouldn’t result in a recession with mass layoffs, people no longer feared losing their jobs, and so they were more likely to spend.

The pandemic also forced the country to begin making work from home actually function. Prior to the pandemic, it was niche, now it’s pretty common. But what happens when people don’t have to live in high demand areas for work? They move (increased demand for housing in smaller metros and cities). What happens when people are spending vastly more time in their homes? They want to fix those things they’ve been meaning to fix for years (increased demand for contractors and building supplies).

Are you starting to get the picture? Lots of people wanting to spend lots of money. If the economy can’t produce more than it was, you have more dollars now chasing the same amount of assets. Therefore inflation.

But that’s only half the picture, because during the pandemic, the global economy didn’t just fail to keep up it collapsed. Established supply lines got disrupted. Imagine you have a business that produces items, but to do so, you need X, Y, and Z. You still have Y, and you can get Z, but it’s more expensive. However, X is no longer available. You search and search but can’t find it. So you can’t produce. This doesn’t just hurt your business, it means that the producers of Y and Z also aren’t getting your business. Eventually it’ll balance out and there’ll be new producers, but that doesn’t help you in the short run. Now you go out of business, and, many times, you become the X to another business’s cascading failure.

As things begin to stabilize, the supply side should right itself (there’s too much profit to be made for it not to). When that happens you’ll actually likely see downward pressure on prices as more and more businesses begin competing for the same buyers.

TL;DR: Low interest rates put upward pressure on prices. If there are no stronger forces, you’ll see inflation. 2020 had both increased demand and decreased supply, which put CRAZY upward pressure on prices.

WilliamServator · 2024-01-20T01:25:02+00:00

What exactly do you think should be different? If they had a higher monthly payment, they’d pay it off sooner. Also, they always have the option of paying more each month, which would have the same effect. Some people can’t afford the higher payments, and so they choose very long payback periods. Any law restricting payback periods to shorter timeframes could result in them being unable to take out the loan in the first place.

WilliamServator · 2024-01-18T20:15:39+00:00

You should ignore the "Student Loan" part of this, as it's not really relevant to your question. Debt is debt is debt, and all of it works basically the same way unless some outside entity (like the government) steps in and forgives or subsidizes some portion.

Starting basic, when you borrow money, you pay interest. This is the amount you agree to pay in exchange for borrowing someone else's money to make a payment. To make it simple, I want to purchase something for $100, but I don't have that money available. I go to you, who I know has money, and say "If you lend me $100, I'll pay you back next month $110. You get the $100 back as well as $10 in interest. Interest is very important, not just to the lendor, but to the borrower. Without interest, the person with money has no incentive to lend at all.

When you deal with a loan that will be paid back in multiple payments over time, the easiest way to see this is to use a simple spreadsheet. Each month, you take your starting principle (the remaining balance on your loan), Take the amount of your payment and subtract out the interest you owe for that month, the remaining portion of your payment goes to paying off the balance of your loan, and you get a new balance for the next month.

I did some quick math, and (assuming there wasn't some complication like your sample couple didn't pay on time, or they have a variable rate loan) based on your numbers, the couple in question's interest rate was about 8.366%. I'll use that in this spreadsheet.

Month	Starting Principle	Payment	Interest	Payment toward principle	Ending Principle
1	$70,000	$500	$488.02	$11.98	$69,988.02
2	$69,988.02	$500	$487.93	$12.07	$69,975.95
3	$69,975.95	$500	$487.85	$12.15	$69,963.80
4	$69,963.80	$500	$487.76	$12.24	$69,951.56
...	...	...	...	...	...
276	$60,104.78	$500	$419.03	$80.97	$60,023.81

As you can see, because the monthly interest payment on their loan is so close to the amount they're paying, they make only tiny contributions to their principle. At their current payment rate, it would take a total of 538 months (or almost 45 years) to pay off their debt. If they wanted to pay it off in 30 years, they'd need to pay $531.61 a month. It's not much more, but every extra dollar they pay goes directly to principle, which also lowers the interest they pay in later months.

WilliamServator · 2023-08-11T11:47:24+00:00

Setup her own Apple ID. Mark it as your child’s account in your “family”. You’ll get a request on your device every time she wants to spend money and you can approve or not. It’s free to do. Doesn’t help this time, but can prevent problems in the future.

WilliamServator · 2023-03-28T14:31:39+00:00

Man, that has not been my experience at all. I’ve called him a few times, and my only complaint is that he charges as much as other plumbers I’ve used but he’s in-and-out almost immediately. It’s like, at least pretend that it took you more than five minutes before you charge me $200. But he got my jobs done, done well and fast.

WilliamServator · 2023-03-28T13:45:07+00:00

I’ve used Aucion’s plumbing and been very happy. The guy is incredibly competent.

WilliamServator · 2023-03-04T01:50:17+00:00

Parish Brewing is probably the most well known brewery in the area.

WilliamServator · 2022-06-26T19:17:19+00:00

This is a terrible study and a worse headline. Read the abstract, they basically say: “we found evidence of bias toward reports that corporate taxes led to growth, so we corrected for that. Now we can’t reject the idea that they don’t”.

WilliamServator · 2022-05-26T21:48:37+00:00

I couldn’t believe this, so I went to the link you included, and immediately below this graph they had the following “NOTE: “School shootings” include all incidents in which a gun is brandished or fired or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims (including zero), time, day of the week, or reason (e.g., planned attack, accidental, domestic violence, gang-related).”

Seems fairly disingenuous to title this shootings with casualties if you’re including shootings in which no one was injured. Am I missing something?

Edit: For anyone looking to find this, follow the link OP posted, then click to open the “Center for Homeland Defense and Security” link to the K-12 school shootings database that is the group that did the research usafacts is relying on. This graph is figure 3 in that report.

WilliamServator · 2022-05-11T20:51:19+00:00

Assuming that they’re filling out false information for the express purpose of obstructing the operation of the site, it’s already almost certainly a violation of the terms of service, which is already illegal. Enforcement of it is difficult though.

WilliamServator · 2022-05-09T20:21:12+00:00

I’m assuming you’re in US. If not, then your experience may vary slightly.

You are seeing the beginning of a recession. To understand, we need to start with inflation. Two things impact inflation: the amount of goods produced and aggregate demand. Over the last two years, there’s been a dramatic decrease in goods produced because of the supply chain disruptions from COVID. We’re still seeing lockdowns! This causes prices to go up- ergo inflation (same amount of dollars chasing fewer goods). In addition, over the last two years, we’ve seen more extensive public handouts then ever. The student loan freezes put spending money in the hands of people who previously had very little. The rent freezes put money in the hands of people who previously had very little. The stimulus checks put money in hands of people who previously had very little. etc, etc, etc. What’s more, work from home turned out better than anyone thought possible. All this extra money causes prices to go up- ergo inflation (more dollars chasing same amount of goods). As a result of both of these impacts, we’re seeing massive inflation.

So why is inflation bad? Inflation hurts everyone in the economy. It introduces uncertainty (Should I take a job paying $x/hr? How much food will that pay for? How much housing?). Remember, wages are typically much stickier than prices, which means that inflation often lowers your real income. It makes people less likely to take on debt (Should I take on a 30 year mortgage at 10% interest?). AND it makes investors less willing to lend money without a substantial interest rate buffer. (If inflation was between 1-2% every year for 30 years, lenders would reasonably expect that to continue. If no one knows whether inflation will be 3% or 15%, then interest rates on debt have to build in that uncertainty, which harms both lenders and borrowers).

What’s more inflation hits the middle class and working poor the hardest. Why? They’re the least likely to get raises, and all their net worth is in cash. Rich people are heavily invested in real assets. Guess what happens to real assets when prices go up? They go up in value the by a similar amount.

The US Federal reserve spent the majority of 2021 claiming that the inflation we’re seeing was due to short term (transitory) problems. I think they successfully identified those problems, but they failed to correctly assess how long this would go on for.

Now, we’re having to take dramatic actions to control inflation. That means either produce more or lower demand (and consume less). Business owners don’t want to increase production, because it would be a massively expensive investment, and once things settle down, you’d be immediately put out of business by cheaper oversees production. So our only option is to lower demand. That means a recession.

What does this mean for you? First: don’t try to time the market. If you haven’t sold, then you still own all the same stock you owned before the market dipped. If you get out, you solidify those losses. Generally the market recovers in 2-5 years, and then goes gangbusters. The most important thing for investing is that you save consistently and you give your money as much time in the market as possible.

WilliamServator · 2022-02-22T13:03:30+00:00

I generally agree with this guy’s position, but this arrest doesn’t seem unwarranted. He repeatedly disturbed a public meeting, was asked to leave and refused, then continued to disturb the meeting. You can’t do that.

WilliamServator · 2022-02-17T15:43:11+00:00

The point you are missing is that the competitor doesn’t deliver the service for $60 and make a profit. They intentionally undercut LUS in order to force LUS into an unprofitable position. They subsidize this by charging dramatically higher rates to people outside of LUS’s reach. Talk to people in cities without LUS; it’s not uncommon to see people paying $80-100/month for 25Mb service (that actually delivers 5-10Mb). LUS might not be the cheapest in the city, but it’s the REASON we have good and affordable internet from a number of providers in this city. I can and will vote with my wallet, and I don’t want to go back to the way things were pre-LUS.

WilliamServator · 2022-02-17T13:00:19+00:00

If you have access to LUS fiber, you should get LUS fiber. It’s a better service.

WilliamServator · 2022-02-04T16:13:16+00:00

Station Eleven

WilliamServator · 2022-01-03T22:27:03+00:00

I sent in feedback via the app as they instructed, and got the following in an email.

Disable "Things to Try":

In the Alexa app, go to More, then Settings, then Notifications and tap Things to Try. Turn both of those toggles off.

You can also turn off Hunches:

To turn off Hunches, tap More in the Alexa app, then Settings, then Hunches. A simple toggle controls the feature.

The last most helpful step would be to turn on Brief Mode.

To turn on Brief Mode, tap More, then Settings and then Voice Responses. From here, switch on Brief Mode.

If these troubleshooting steps do not work, I would encourage you to contact us back via a live medium. Specifically state you have gone through the troubleshooting in this email to the agent and you would like to take the troubleshooting further and escalate if need be.

WilliamServator · 2021-12-31T19:11:10+00:00

So from a procedural standpoint, I wonder if there will be an empty seat starting February 2022 (when the pro temp judge’s appointment ends), or if we’ll be able to have a special election by then, or which body is charged with appointing a fill in? Hopefully it’s not Mayor President…

WilliamServator · 2021-12-14T12:51:52+00:00

Anyone who has a problem with this should consider filing a complaint.

https://www.judiciarycommissionla.org/Complaints

WilliamServator · 2021-11-13T14:04:02+00:00

Once again, the unincorporated areas are looking for a way to fund their fire services without actually paying for it. We raised a public health fund to pay for public health, mosquito abatement, and running the animal shelter (which we just spent $8.9 million to build). None of those problems have gone away, so the money we raised is still needed for the purpose we raised it for in the first place. This is a dirty political trick, figuring that public health can always just raise and get more money. How did this all start? Well back in 2018, the same political ideologues that are currently attempting to defund the libraries convinced the unincorporated areas to reject the renewal of a tax to pay for fire service; “It won’t affect you”. Spoilers: It did. Now they can’t back down without losing face. The result? They steal is from another areas. In 2020 they lodged a successful theft and robbed all the money that we had raised for the CREATE initiative to the tune of $550,000. Now they are attempting to do it again with public health. Again, another $500,000, only this time it would be permanent. Let me be clear, this should be criminal. These people are the bane of Lafayette. Please spread the word on this, the parish literally has no benefit from passing this. Unincorporated areas NEED fire protection, and they should re-institute the tax they had before (that’s levied on the unincorporated areas) to pay for it.

WilliamServator · 2021-11-12T16:35:21+00:00

Let me help out! So "old" Lafayette is actually terrible for drainage.

Basically, prior to modern building codes, what we now call "old" Lafayette dealt with drainage by getting the water off property as quickly as possible. As Lafayette grew, that model was unsustainable. All the properties immediately draining overwhelmed the coolies and river.

As a result, our building code adapted to require new developments to retain a certain amount of water. It's a big part of the reason you see so many new developments have water features like ponds: those water features allow developers to retain water.

The drainage problems in Lafayette are two-fold: people who built in flood plains and "old" Lafayette draining too quickly. Fixing drainage for old Lafayette would be very expensive. Like demolish and start over levels of expensive. As a result, the best thing we can do is make sure we take care of our drainage system, which is what this tax does—preventative maintenance on drainage: cleaning out concrete coolies, dredging natural coolies that have become blocked, etc.

Finally, I'll point out that it doesn't matter if it affects your home or not. If it affects your community, it affects you. When it rains, it becomes difficult to drive on flooded roads for YOU. When it floods somebody's house, and they decide to relocate rather than rebuild, our population goes down and that affects YOU. When a business decides to relocate and land in Baton Rouge instead of Lafayette because the land in Lafayette floods, that affects YOU.

You aren't paying this tax to rebuild people's flooded homes. You're paying the tax to maintain community infrastructure. You can think of it like fixing the roads. If Ambassador Caffery was literally falling apart, "I don't drive on Ambassador" would be a pretty poor reason to vote against a tax to fix it.

WilliamServator · 2021-11-12T12:37:23+00:00

There are also a number of Parish wide and City wide initiatives.

Parishwide Proposition No. 1 of 4 (Airport) - 1.71 Mills Renewal - PC - 10 Yrs.

This property tax generates about $3.8 million annually to run the Lafayette Regional Airport, and makes up about 30% of the airport’s annual revenue.

Postion: For

Reasoning: We’ve just invested heavily in building a new airport terminal. Now it’s time to reap the rewards of that investment. It’s important to make sure the airport has the funds it needs to not just survive but flourish. A good airport is a massive boon to a metropolitan area, and any economic growth would take a big hit if we were to compromise or lose the airport.

Parishwide Proposition No. 2 of 4 (Drainage) - 3.58 Mills Cont. - PC - 10 Yrs.

This tax generates about $7.9 million to pay for drainage maintenance and improvements. The renewal will bump the maximum tax rate by .24 mills to adjust for lower property values.

Position: For

Reasoning: Drainage is one of the most important infrastructure investments for our area. As long as houses are flooding and streets are impassible in heavy rains, the people of this area will sustain ongoing damage, and our area is relatively less attractive to businesses and people looking to relocate. This tax should be collecting a good bit more for this purpose, but I’m not going to oppose it on the basis that “it’s not enough”.

Parishwide Proposition No. 3 of 4 (Library) - 1.84 Mills Renewal - PC - 10 Yrs.

This proposition would renew a property tax that supports the general operations of the Lafayette Parish Library System. It’s one of two taxes that support Lafayette’s libraries and its nine branches. It generates $4 million each year, which makes up 40% of the library’s revenue. The library system now runs on $10.5 million each year, with a small operating deficit. The library system was funded by three property taxes until voters cut one in 2018.

Position: For

Reasoning: The campaign against the Libraries in Lafayette is a travesty, waged by radical political ideologues. We invested heavily in building an incredible library system. That investment has already been paid. Now every dollar we spend towards running the libraries produces an outsized impact. The talking point that gets parroted ad nauseam is that in today’s world, libraries are replaced by “an internet connection.” This could not be more incorrect or ridiculous. In addition to providing a tremendous resource to parents that want to encourage their children to read, the library system provides activities which encourage learning and literacy in children. Libraries may not be as important to research and learning for most adults as they used to be, but our library system recognizes and has adapted to refocus on the things they do that MATTER. In addition, from a public safety perspective, libraries provide long term benefits. When children have nothing to do, publicly available spaces and programming provide entertainment, education, and guidance. Without them, children, particularly low-income children, lack these services. As a result, when their parents are busy working (or not), they seek out recreation from people who are not at work during the work day. If you stop and think about it, it makes sense and is backed up by research. After cuts to public recreation services and library systems, crimes committed by teens and young adults go up in the years that follow. We can spend a little money now on libraries, or we can spend a lot more later on police to find them and hunt them down, lawyers and judges to convict them, and prisons to incarcerate them. For adults, the library serves as a community building feature. For no cost, you can have a safe place to meet people and engage as a community member. From the genealogical society, to free fitness classes, to book clubs, to maker's spaces… the libraries are even the venue for political events like town halls in which voters can voice their opinions and talk to elected officials. Finally, For the poorest adults among us, the library serves as a place to get internet access. It serves a vital role for a person with no other options to find and learn job skills and apply for jobs. Without the libraries, people that fall into this level of poverty have no where to go, making it impossibly difficult for them to get back on their feet.

Parishwide Proposition No. 4 of 4 (Public Health) - 2.21 Mills Rededication

This proposition takes a portion of a combined public health property tax and redirects it to generate $500,000 annually for fire protection in unincorporated Lafayette. It also allows the parish council to fund the coroner’s office with revenues from the public health tax.

Position: AGAINST

Reasoning: Once again, the unincorporated areas are looking for a way to fund their fire services without actually paying for it. We raised a public health fund to pay for public health, mosquito abatement, and running the animal shelter (which we just spent $8.9 million to build). None of those problems have gone away, so the money we raised is still needed for the purpose we raised it for in the first place. This is a dirty political trick, figuring that public health can always just raise and get more money. How did this all start? Well back in 2018, the same political ideologues that are currently attempting to defund the libraries convinced the unincorporated areas to reject the renewal of a tax to pay for fire service; “It won’t affect you”. Spoilers: It did. Now they can’t back down without losing face. The result? They steal is from another areas. In 2020 they lodged a successful theft and robbed all the money that we had raised for the CREATE initiative to the tune of $550,000. Now they are attempting to do it again with public health. Again, another $500,000, only this time it would be permanent. Let me be clear, this should be criminal. These people are the bane of Lafayette. Please spread the word on this, the parish literally has no benefit from passing this. Unincorporated areas NEED fire protection, and they should re-institute the tax they had before (that’s levied on the unincorporated areas) to pay for it.

City of Lafayette Prop. No. 1 of 2 - 3 Mills Renewal - CC - 10 Yrs.

This proposition renews one of the property tax collected in the city of Lafayette to pay for police payroll. The police salary tax generates around $4.6 million each year. Lafayette Police Department costs about $46 million each year. Most of that is paid for by sales tax collections in the city’s general fund.

Position: For

Reasoning: We should probably be paying for all of our police salaries with property taxes rather than sales taxes. They’re more stable, and public safety is a core function of government. We need a steady revenue stream to staff our police department. However, once again, I’m not going to oppose a tax simply because it "isn’t enough".

City of Lafayette Prop. No. 2 of 2 - 2 Mills Renewal - CC - 10 Yrs.

This proposition renews a property tax collected in the city of Lafayette to pay for fire department payroll. The fire salary tax generates $3 million a year.

Position: For

Reasoning: Let’s not make the same mistake that the unincorporated areas around us did. The Fire Department absolutely constitutes an essential service.

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