midwestgak 2/6/2020 4:45:49 AM

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Thanks kosh.  The reset obviously works now.  

Morning all,  I am using an Acer Chromebook.  Nice to be able to use a keyboard rather than a keypad for a change.

So the President has been acquitted until the next impeachment.  What, oh what, will it be this time.  

A possibility?

Schiff:  Trump did not shake Pelosi's outstretched hand.  Trump did not flinch when Nancy Pelosi ripped up his speech (several times).  He is guilty of indifference to the Speaker and her gestures.  You all saw it live on the national stage.  No transcript needed.  His malicious, insensitive and boorish behavior must be stopped or the country is doomed. 

Not likely to happen?  We didn't think the first scenario was valid either, but . . . 

midwestgak 2/6/2020 4:56:32 AM

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Syrah 2/6/2020 6:11:12 AM

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Reply to midwestgak in 1:

The Democrats are like the kid digging in a a pile of horse shit.

“With all of this horse shit, there has to be a pony under here somewhere!”

PaladinPhil 2/6/2020 6:37:42 AM

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midwestgak 2/6/2020 6:48:06 AM

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Reply to Syrah in 3:

Or we can make some of our own.  Win win.

midwestgak 2/6/2020 6:50:33 AM

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In #4 PaladinPhil said: teachers are on strike

Does any other group strike as often as teachers? 

Occasional Reader 2/6/2020 6:53:21 AM

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In #1 midwestgak said: A possibility? Schiff:  Trump did not shake Pelosi's outstretched hand.  Trump did not flinch when Nancy Pelosi ripped up his speech (several times).  He is guilty of indifference to the Speaker and her gestures.  You all saw it live on the national stage.  No transcript needed.  His malicious, insensitive and boorish behavior must be stopped or the country is doomed. 

Hmm, nice first draft, but you have to work a former Soviet Bloc country in there somehow. 

Occasional Reader 2/6/2020 7:05:02 AM

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In #4 PaladinPhil said: The Squire is home because teachers are on strike

Oh, geez.  As Hamlet almost said, "Ophelia pain".  

Our teachers haven't gone on strike - yet - but I'm having to grit my teeth about a lot of "Progressive" monoculture stuff.  For instance, via the app they use for communicating school stuff to parents, the other day one of the teachers (presumably with school admin backing) proposed starting a monthly "talk topic" for us to chat with our kids about at dinner, to be backed by a reading list recommended by the school.  She suggested that for this month, we should talk about "activism", with specific reference to.... oh, guess who.  G' wan, guess.

Is your answer "a certainly mentally-ill Swedish teenager who demands the immediate de-industrialization of the world economy, apparently oblivious or indifferent to the result of billions of people thrown into poverty"? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdK6sR5Sfdc

And, naturally, the reading list was 100% pro-Greta hagiography. 

I registered my objection to the choice, as did exactly one other parent.  Three or four others then jumped in with "oh, what a great choice!", of course.

Now, if I wanted to do a little "intersectional" jujitsu, I could take the tack of: "As the parent of a mixed-race child, I am quite surprised that the 'activist' chosen for discussion at the beginning of Black History Month was... a Swedish teenager.  I'd have thought, say, Rosa Parks, MLK, or for that matter Harriet Tubman, might have been more appropriate.  But perhaps there are many who are more comfortable discussing the 'accomplishments' of white activists." 

And then, let the fur fly.. 

PaladinPhil 2/6/2020 7:18:25 AM

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Reply to midwestgak in 6:

Reply to Occasional Reader in 8:

Among their demands is smaller class sizes (22 versus the proposed 25 increase), more money of course, and complaining about the cuts to special education. Somehow my sympathy meter is dead since I remember class sizes of almost 30 when I was going to school. They want more money for doing less work. 

Occasional Reader 2/6/2020 7:26:06 AM

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In #9 PaladinPhil said: Among their demands is smaller class sizes (22 versus the proposed 25 increase),

Is it just one teacher for that size class, or with a teacher assistant? 

Little OR's pre-K class is 21 or 22, with a teacher and an assistant, by way of comparison.  But yes, seems to me I had bigger classes when i went to school, and rarely if ever was there an assistant. And we turned out perfectly okay!  (Taking break to sniff glue) 

PaladinPhil 2/6/2020 7:41:50 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 10:

The Squire's class has two teachers (junior and senior Kindergarten). As well there's a special aide that assists with him. Waiting for appointments now with the pediatrician. Had to fill out a bunch of questionnaires before they would schedule an appointment. Family doctor thinks that he's definitely on the autism spectrum, but she isn't qualified to make that type of diagnosis.

midwestgak 2/6/2020 7:47:26 AM

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In #10 Occasional Reader said: (Taking break to sniff glue) 

Here is list of items at the store that require 'age approval' before purchase:

Super glue, Flex Tape, Gorilla glue, White Out, spray paint, some varnishes, certain DVDs, alcohol of course, gas injector fluid and various other car fluids, most OTC allergy meds., Cepacol lozenges and a few more that are not coming to mind at the moment. 

lucius septimius 2/6/2020 7:53:02 AM

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Reading through the various responses to Nancy the Ripper's performance at the SOTU, it's been interesting to see that while the left and their media allies have been doing their best to claim that her's was an appropriate snub to Trump's refusing to shake her hand, more people are appalled.  The problem -- as football and child-rearing tell us -- is that it's not the person who makes the taunt who gets the flag, but the person who responds.  Adding Nance's "pre-tearing" of the document -- proving it was planned, not spontaneous -- just makes her appear petty and weak.  Trump's refusal to shake her hand, though, seems to many, I'd say, as perfectly reasonable.  I certainly wouldn't shake the hand of my opponent in a court case -- I'd be more likely to spit in their face, regardless of the outcome (and oh how I've fantasized about that).  The vast majority of people, I sense, don't fault him on that score.  And the video is, as they say in football, inconclusive over whether he committed the first foul.  On the other hand, her action is unmistakable -- even the most blind of NFL refs would have thrown the flag.

Combined with the fiasco of the Iowa Caucuses, Nancy the Ripper's act signals a Democratic party that is incompetent at best, utterly impotent at worst.   Buttplug's current ascendancy won't last -- the more people get to know him, the less they like him -- and the party apparatus is panicking about how to get Sanders out of the race.  Warren is sputtering.  Biden didn't expect to do well in either Iowa or New Hampshire, but he's lost whatever momentum he had.  If he doesn't get his campaign going by Super Tuesday he's toast.  In which case ... Mayor Money Bags?

The "Scream of Ultimate Sadness" award, though, goes to Hillary, who said yesterday in an interview that she'd be open to being VP.  Cue the tsunami of suicide memes.

buzzsawmonkey 2/6/2020 7:57:06 AM

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In #8 Occasional Reader said: Black History Month

It is my observation that the babbling about "Black History Month" is merely an attempt to cement the Leftist orthodoxy that before the Civil Rights Movement there was nothing in this country but evil white people cackling while the cracked their whips over groaning, oppressed blacks.  The achievements of blacks prior to the Civil Rights Movement era are minimized or disparaged if and when they are even mentioned---including the achievements of blacks in evading or surmounting Jim Crow restrictions.   This also extends to dismissing/minimizing the efforts of whites to combat racial prejudice during the period between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement.

Occasional Reader 2/6/2020 8:05:34 AM

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In #14 buzzsawmonkey said: babbling about "Black History Month" is merely an attempt to cement the Leftist orthodoxy

And I agree.  But like I said; this would be for purposes of "Intersectional" jujitsu.    

Occasional Reader 2/6/2020 8:06:11 AM

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Reply to PaladinPhil in 11:

Good luck and let us know how it goes (if you feel it appropriate). 

PaladinPhil 2/6/2020 8:26:40 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 16:

Thanks and I will. 

buzzsawmonkey 2/6/2020 8:28:18 AM

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In #15 Occasional Reader said: purposes of "Intersectional" jujitsu

Much as I despise "intersectionality," it would be interesting to see an in-depth study of the interconnections between the music/literary/nightclub scene of the "Harlem Renaissance" and the homosexual community, white and black, of that era.  

Harlem was a favored place for white homosexuals to look for "rough trade"; there's an allusion to this towards the end of Dos Passos' "The Big Money," where a character who has been possibly-bisexual throughout the preceding books of the "USA" trilogy takes home two black male prostitutes and is rolled by them.  It's set forth a little more openly in the late-'20s novel "Strange Brother," which deals with a white male homosexual in Harlem.  

Vanity Fair's 1931 "Guide to New York Nightlife" records Harlem's Renaissance Ballroom as being famous for its drag balls, and also lists the nightspot of Gladys Bentley, a lesbian notorious for dressing in male formal attire who was also the main musical performer at her club.  There are any number of songs which allude to this "intersection": Ma Rainey's "Prove It On Me Blues," George Hannah's "Freakish Man" and "The Boy in the Boat," Kokomo Arnold's "Sissy Man Blues," to name only the best-known.  Billy Strayhorn, longtime musical collaborator with Duke Ellington and author of "Lush Life," was notoriously homosexual.  There are even later allusions to this phenomenon, such as the veiled attempt by a white character in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" to pick up the unnamed narrator and invite him to a homosexual club.  Carl Van Vechten, a fairly-famous writer in the '20s, wrote a number of novels in the '20s that dealt with homosexual and Harlem themes; there's some song or other (I can't remember which one) which alludes to "...goin' inspectin' with Van Vechten."

I'm mildly surprised that with all the "intersectional" flapdoodle flying around, nobody has yet bothered to put all this together---but to do so would, again, undercut the Prime Narrative that everything was a cultural wasteland until the Light of the Civil Rights Movement broke upon America.

lucius septimius 2/6/2020 8:44:14 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 14:

My kids asked "why do we have Black History Month?" and then answered their own question much in the way you laid it out.  If they have been receiving the message "hate your whiteness," it has turned them off completely.  Their general view is "yes, slavery was bad, but that was a long time ago and in any event isn't our fault.  Get over it."

Their response, btw, corresponds with the findings of a recent study that shows that rather than "dismantling white privilege" the latest "blame whitey" crap is only increasing racial divisions.  White's don't feel guilty and are sick and tired of hearing about their supposed "privilege."

Occasional Reader 2/6/2020 8:58:04 AM

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In #18 buzzsawmonkey said: it would be interesting to see an in-depth study

Well: You could write it, I imagine.  (Maybe even profitably.)  

midwestgak 2/6/2020 9:02:58 AM

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lucius septimius 2/6/2020 9:03:45 AM

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In #20 Occasional Reader said: Well: You could write it, I imagine.  (Maybe even profitably.)  

I've been nagging him to do that for years.

midwestgak 2/6/2020 9:25:29 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 2/6/2020 9:27:32 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 20:

Reply to lucius septimius in 22:

Frankly, aside from the difficulty of getting hold of some source material (Strange Brother, for instance, not to mention Van Vechten's novels, are not readily-available tomes, and it's been years since I read them), I'm torn between the desire to de-bunk the idea that life was naught but groaning oppression prior to the Civil Rights Movement, and not wanting to feed the "intersectionality" demon in any way, shape or form.   

Not to mention wondering who the hell would be interested in this stuff that was not on the "intersectionality" bandwagon.  It's one thing to discuss this stuff amongst ourselves, and another to try and shop it around to people who've little reason to want to bolster the LGBT machine.

Occasional Reader 2/6/2020 11:10:58 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 24:

I can see that finding the right audience would be tough.  Still, it just seems a shame that your encyclopedia knowledge on this stuff is not more widely-broadcast in some way. 

Occasional Reader 2/6/2020 11:36:14 AM

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Stolen from poster "MFP" at Instapundit:

Every Norm down in Normville loved Trump a whole lot
But the Nan, who lived west of Normville, did NOT.
The Nan hated Trump and the whole U.S. nation
Now please don’t ask why, there’s too much explanation.

It could be that her head wasn’t screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, that her pumps were too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that her heart was two sizes too small.

Whatever the reason, her heart or her pumps,
She sat on her podium, hating the Trumps.
Staring down from her perch with a sour, Nanny frown,
At the poor brainwashed sheep in their lily white gowns

For she knew every Norm in the gallery seats
Was eagerly waiting the opening beats
Of the State of the Union, she thought with a sneer
It has almost begun, it is practically here!

Then she growled, her thin fingers nervously jumping,
“I must find some way to keep Trump from Trumping!”
For soon she knew all the Norm girls and boys
Would cheer for the speech and ignore all her ploys.

And the noise, oh the noise,
Oh, the noise, noise, noise, noise!

buzzsawmonkey 2/6/2020 11:40:53 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 26:

++++++++++ HA!!!

buzzsawmonkey 2/6/2020 11:41:55 AM

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Probably should have saved this for the Pub, but wotthehell:

Was I Drunk? Was He Handsome? And Did My Ma Give Me Hell?!

JCM 2/6/2020 12:38:23 PM

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Article I Section 3

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, ...

The official delivery of the Constitution Requirement for the State of the Union was in the form of the copy of the speech.

Pelosi is in violation of the Constitution by ripping it up and not accepting it. The (R)s should bring House charges against her based on that.

JCM 2/6/2020 12:42:56 PM

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Reply to PaladinPhil in 9:

If you can dig out the district budget and the spending on personal.

In my district average class size is around 30. And the union is perpetually whining about it.

However when you look at the budget the number of students in the district to number of teachers works out to 12.5 student per teacher.

Which means the district is employing 1.5 teacher per classroom full are not in classrooms. Or there are more in admin positions than teaching. 

doppelganglander 2/6/2020 1:07:46 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 26:

Magnificent! Can we invite this person to post here?