15 thoughts on “The First Open Forum Of Autumn!

    • Since it has, “LIbs of Tik Tok” I guess they mean the insanity is the guy with the Police Matter on his laptop. For me the insanity is someone getting offended over something so petty. These people are completely brainwashed and indoctrinated.

      • Libs of Tik Tok is quite the opposite: a compilation described by its founder as “a way to fight the culture war” by showing liberals saying or doing things the poster believes are particularly stupid.

      • Shouldn’t she be warning all those Haitians down in Del Rio they’re trying to enter a place where they will be murdered by police? Wouldn’t Haiti or Chile or Brazil be a safer place than the U.S?

  1. Today on the radio I heard about a survey that said 40% of Americans would date a machine. I could find no data to back that up but even if that is half true what does that say about us? What are we sposta do with that information?

    • JP, the first thing that pops into my mind is Jack’s “I know … polls.”

      Or, as one of Mrs. OB’s bosses told her, “You only get what you test for.”

      Ask a stupid question, get a fair number of stupid answers?

  2. The 45 Communist goals as read into the Congressional Record, 1963–Appendix, pp. A34-A35

    15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

    17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current
    Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the
    party line in textbooks.

    19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under
    Communist attack.

    20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking
    positions.

    21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

    25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in
    books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

    26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”

    28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it
    violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

    29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with
    modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

    30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no
    concern for the “common man.”

    31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the
    ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history
    since the Communists took over.

    32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–
    education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

    36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
    37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

    38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral
    problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

    40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

    42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American
    tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [“]united force[“] to
    solve economic, political or social problems.

    The 45 Communist goals as read into the Congressional Record, 1963

  3. Do you find any of this arbitrary or ridiculous? Tough luck. Because nowadays all public and private officials apparently have to do is incant the magic word “Delta,” and people whose dictates about proper interpersonal behavior would otherwise be ignored are suddenly imbued with this awesome, unchallengeable power. Their decrees must be obeyed, preferably with effusions of gratitude. Forcing masks on crying two-year-olds? “Delta.” Forbidden to remove your mask for a few seconds in order to take a sip of water at USC, even as a lavish and unmasked Emmys extravaganza just took place right down the road? “Delta.” Shutting down a special needs school in East Harlem less than a week into the academic year? “Delta.” Concerned about the privacy implications of being made to walk around with your health information stored on mandatory smartphone apps, as is the current policy at the University of Michigan, and being made to display this information on command? “Delta.” Also, I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Delta.

    For all his foibles, at least Dean Arcelus nicely encapsulates the mindset which is now running rampant at major US educational institutions — the same institutions producing the graduates who will soon be governing the rest of the country. At the disciplinary Zoom meeting, the good Dean admitted: “I know all of us thought, going into getting vaccinated in April and May, we thought that we would be able to come back to campus and live campus differently [sic] having been vaccinated… But as I’ve said multiple times now, the Delta Variant just presents a whole new level of challenge to us. And that’s why we can’t do what we thought we were going to be able to do back when we got vaccinated in April and May.”

    Well, there you have it. Vaccination was never the gateway to normalcy it was presented to be, and the only option is apparently to instate “Permanent Emergency” protocols with no cognizable “off-ramp” in sight, as a Duke University “expert” helpfully conceded this week. Reneging on these prior assurances is portrayed as some inherently unavoidable fait accompli, rather than a conscious policy choice undertaken to the exclusion of other vastly more sensible options. Choosing another option would mean re-assessing the underlying logic of constantly surveilling a 99% vaccinated population of healthy young adults with these increasingly dubious “tests,” and gathering their private data so as to opine about the permissibility of their social activities. College administrators are totally committed — politically, professionally, metaphysically — to that logic. There’s also an entire financial infrastructure that’s been erected to sustain the endless provision of nonsensical testing services. Ultimately, these officials can’t or won’t extricate themselves from the scolding surveillance paradigm — and why would they? That would entail the relinquishment of power.

    – Michael Tracey

  4. I am going to get a little salty here. I have been keeping up with EA but haven’t commented much for the last year due to health issues after the VA shut down and along with my care, it has been a battle to get them back to work providing care, the Community Care program has some significant downsides, lack of specialized PTSD treatment, the unbelievable cost (500 percent since 9/11) with minimal increases in veterans using the care and the fucking stupid wasteful care inflicted by community care physical rehabilitation rules. So at the PM&R clinic at the VA I have been going to for years to treat for the dozons of reconstructed joints, spine fusions and other conditions I would go in every month or so for injections, RFA and other procedures. Weekly Physical therapy which included chiropractic, massage, acupuncture and other treatments. I was dropped from VA Care to Community care and now each body part is a separate consult, separate funding and requires separate appointments on separate days. Alarmed yet? So for my spine alone which is damaged tip to tail requires 4 monlthy appointments to treat the 4 separate segments and I have significant damage to every joint, each requires a separate consult, a separate appointment on a separate day. They have made it impossible to be productive while expending vast sums and not holding negligent and lazy ass VA doctors accountable. Just felt I needed to voice my experience as it intersects covid, budget battle, the Afghanistan disaster and government accountability.

    https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2021/05/17/499517/challenges-facing-department-veterans-affairs-2021/#:~:text=The%20FY%202021%20budget%20that,of%20any%20other%20federal%20agency.

  5. I wanted to see what Jack and some of the rest of the commenters here could recommend for a project I am going to embark on. I want to create a list of 10 biographies for middle school aged that captures US history, personal achievements, US advancement and exceptionalism. I think with 10 the span of US history can be covered but beyond the timeframes I would like to see what other overall aspects can be built in such as politician, engineer, or soldier. There is a gap of individuality and historical perspectives to what is being taught. Suggestions?

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