What is up with Biden’s handlers forgiving billions of dollars of student loans? Didn’t the Supreme Court strike that down? Is the administration in open defiance of the Supreme Court on this? Where do I apply to get all my long ago paid off student loans, and all the tuition my parents paid? Why is this okay? Are the Dems going to be handing out washing machines at the poles to people who vote for them and show them their ballot as they do in Mexico? Is this diversity?
Chris, you bring up a great point. What recourse does SCOTUS – well, any court for that matter – have if its rulings are simply ignored? It’s not as though the people controlling the Presidential Puppet can be arrested/fined/jailed for simply ignoring SCOTUS. Isn’t this what Andrew Jackson did so many years ago when the Court passed legislation with which he disagreed?…something like “let the Court enforce it, because I won’t!”
Continued lawsuits do little good when the Administration simply ignores the decisions.
My apologies…the Court in Jackson’s time didn’t “pass legislation”. I fell into the liberal-speak trap as I was typing. The Court interpreted law in a manner with which Jackson disagreed.
From CNBC: Daily marijuana use surpasses alcohol consumption, new study finds. Here’s what it means for the booze business
For the first time, more Americans are using marijuana on a daily or near-daily basis than alcohol.
From 1992 to 2022, the per capita rate of daily or near-daily cannabis use increased 15-fold.
Some analysts on Wall Street think increased cannabis adoption will have an impact on the alcohol industry, with the potential for mergers and fewer beer sales.
This is a financial news outlet but I think the impact on the alcohol industry is the least of our worries moving forward.
More significant than the impact upon alcohol sales, what do you suppose legalized pot has done to the illicit pot trade. I even wonder whether black lives started mattering once all the street dealers and their suppliers were put out of business by the “dispensaries” as they’re hilariously called.
An update on a post a few months ago regarding Harris Teeter’s new policy to charge customers for getting cash back.
I had checked out my local Food Lion store (this is a regional, I believe, chain that offers a lower cost selection of groceries) — Food Lion did not charge for getting cash back.
Recently I was finally able to get to the local Harris Teeter and lo and behold, they have also added a $0.75 fee for getting cash back (I think Jack had reported $1.00 up near D.C.).
I am sure Harris Teeter intends this as a modest revenue source, but here is one little hitch: My company offers a prepaid debit card as a favored method of receiving money. As part of that, I’ll advise clients that they can use this card to get cash without any fees typically at grocery stores.
So now I’ll tell them “You can get cash back at Food Lion, but Harris Teeter and the dollar store will charge you for that.”
My obligation is to my clients, not any store. One has to wonder how many $.75 fees it takes to make up for a missed shopping trip?
On a tour of NYC city our guide stopped in front of the famed Apollo Theater in Harlam. he proudly pointed our attention to the newly established state aproved cannabis store.
A year later the state approved store was shuttered. The street disoensers however, were still in operation. Because they didnt have the overhead or the beuracracy t deal with the street product was better priced. The free amrket at its best.
While the use of cannabis has increased there has also been reported an increase in addiction to its use and to other illicit drugs. There is reprted an increase in those sufering from a cannabis psychosis presentmg in the ER.
lest we forget the CDC issued a warining about the negative effects of cannabis on the helath of the unborn.
…the CDC issued a warning about the negative effects of cannabis on the health of the unborn.
The CDC should issue a warning about the negative (and very deadly) effects of liberal ideology on the health of the unborn, but the CDC doesn’t care a whit about the disease of liberal ideology.
Based on my own private research, contemporary pot is magnitudes more powerful than 1970s pot, to the point I’d almost consider it a completely different, and super dangerous drug. I think it can be awful along the lines of bad trip for the unsuspecting.
I was writing a different post on the Trump VP choice, when another thought bubbled to the top.
We all watched the junior circuit of the GOP presidential nominating campaign.
After what we saw there, is Ron DeSantis still a viable candidate for 2028? Did he knock himself permanently out of the running?
Similarly, what of others — Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Doug Burgum, Chris Sununu, Glenn Youngkin?
What do we think of their potential or their future in the party?
My working assumption is that Trump, win or lose, is out of the picture for 2028 and that, if Trump wins, he and not his VP finishes out his term. Obviously if Trump’s VP succeeds him, that will make for a totally different dynamic.
I am sure a lot of folks will think that Haley has poisoned the well for her GOP future, but what of the others?
A debate between Rubio and VP Harris would be super-entertaining. Of course, Kamala will have a hard time in an intellectual game of wits with a single-celled amoeba, so there’s that.
Is it ethical for Democratic Party activists to portray Republicans kowtow to Trump when the facts tell the real truth?
“The political left has shown its pattern of propaganda lies within their narratives so many times that it’s beyond me why anyone would blindly accept any narrative that the political left, their lapdog Pravda-USA media, their woke consumed bureaucracy, or their activist supporters actively push?”
Here is a blog post by a self proclaimed moderate classic liberal and the subsequent comment I submitted.
Also; am I wrong or unethical to reply the way I did? I’m trying to be truthful and improve what I write so please be honest, constructive criticism is welcome.
If you copy the entire link that starts with blob: above and paste it in a new tab/window it will display the comment jpeg. WordPress put that blob: on there and I don’t know why.
After some testing, it’s clear to me that there is something wrong with WordPress creating proper links to any newly uploaded jpg’s. I’ll provide Jack a good link to the jpg as soon as WordPress get’s this fixed.
Haley – out to possibly Uranus. Ramaswamy – possible, but more likely a cabinet position. Youngkin – probably not interested (based on other discussions in this forum and not personal knowledge). DeSantis – possible, but some of that state’s recent legislation has me scratching my head. Burgum – probably not as a relative unknown from a small state that votes as Republican as Utah. Sununu – hmmm…interesting.
Others: Noem – out, relegated to the barking lot.
I’m not going to say it’s the right choice, but my VP dark horse is still Gabbard.
Instead of a new outrage, I’d like to relate a pleasant experience, with a bit of Memorial Day tie-in.
A few weeks ago, we attended the commencement ceremony of a young relative from the University of North Georgia. The school is a bit unusual in that it is one of six federally designated senior military colleges, which include The Citadel, Norwich University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, and Virginia Military Institute. It’s not a military academy, as such, but it does have a Corps of cadets that graduate as Army 2nd. Lts.
We observed no demonstrations on campus or during the ceremony. The proceedings opened with presentation of the colors, a live quartet singing the National Anthem, and the attendees standing with hands over their hearts.
The presentations went without incident; graduates each handed a pre-printed card with their name and degree(s) to an announcer, who didn’t seem to badly bobble any pronunciations. About the only oddities were 2 or 3 (all female) who had their names noted in the form of “Jane Brown Doe the First” (???), one barefoot guy (our girl said he never wears shoes), and some odd footwear on some of the girls…one with cowboy boots.
At the end of the general presentations, cheers and applause, etc., the graduating cadets removed the gowns covering their uniforms and there was a commissioning ceremony for them. At the end of that, the audience spontaneously stood and applauded.
So, to Columbia University, et al. …”Bite Me!”
P.S.: Our grad worked part-time, kept her scholarships, and graduated (cum laude) in three years (going to grad school elsewhere) without any student debt. To be fair, we did cover her excess required expenses, mostly housing, as long as she kept her grades up, which she did. Her parents could have done it, or let her take responsibility for any loans, but my wife offered first, dammit; she does things like that.
One of my favorite D-Day stories. I travelled extensively to Framce and visited the American Cemetery many times. (Wonderful museum there). I was in Cherbourg not too long after the 50th D-Day anniversary and there was a story in a paper or magazine (I forget which, but forgetting is not new to me) about the US soldiers who were returning there for the 50th anniversary memorial. There was a French (although, as he was from Normandy he probably did not consider himself “French”) farmer greeting each veteran as they deplaned. He asked each the same question: “Do you have a place to stay?” Finally, one of these Greatest Generation veterans admitted that he did not. “I was not going to come, but changed my mind at the last minute and don’t yet have reservations anywhere.” “Then,” replied the farmer in broken English, “you will come home with me. I have been waiting 50 years to thank you.” Chokes me up every time I remember it.
It eclipses my other favorite American Cemetery memory: there was a memorial event happening at the Cemetery, with bagpipers from Paris (!!). Why? Because the Americans were honoring “Crazy Billy” (or, more politely, Piper Bill) Millen. He was personal piper to Lord Lovat. Who are they? If you have ever seen The Longest Day, Lord Lovat had Bill Mullen pipe him across Pegasus Bridge, under fire from Germans holding the far bank. When they had landed at Sword Beach, Lord Lovat had instructed him to pipe the men ashore. When Mille. Responded that the War Office restricted the bagpipes to the rear guard, Lovat replied “Aye, but that’s the English War Office and we are Scots. Pipe is ashore, lad”. Millen did, and became legendary. We had the deep honor of meeting him very briefly. That was August, 2009. A year later, Bill Millen died at the age of 88. His pipes are in the Pegasus Bridge museum, one of the places Maureen and I took our guests when they visited us while we were living in Paris (2008-2013).
We have so many wonderful stories of France, from WWI when both our grandfathers fought there (Maureen’s grandfather being awarded the Croix de Guerre for rescuing wounded soldiers under heavy fire in the battle of Belleau Wood), my grandfather serving a strafing at the battle of Chateau Thierry (only about 5 km from Belleau), to a French family saving her uncle when he was shot down during WWII (less than 10 km from Belleau). We visited the sites with an aged French farmer who was part of the family that saved Maureen’s uncle. I could go on and on, with stories of WWI and WWII in France, and the many cemeteries and memorials we visited (including the German WWII cemetery, but my thumbs are tired. 🇺🇸
Wonderful. Of course, my favorite D-Day story is that my father missed it because an idiot in his platoon blew himself and my dad’s foot up trying to dig mud out of his boot using a live hand grenade pin. Dad had drawn the assignment of being an observer during the beach assault, meaning he didn’t even get to carry a gun. The accident put my father in hospital for six months, then they stuffed his ruined foot into a special boot and sent him to the Battle of the Bulge.
“Son, never forget that the only reason you exist is because of an idiot,” Dad reminded more than once.
Ethics Alarms 
What is up with Biden’s handlers forgiving billions of dollars of student loans? Didn’t the Supreme Court strike that down? Is the administration in open defiance of the Supreme Court on this? Where do I apply to get all my long ago paid off student loans, and all the tuition my parents paid? Why is this okay? Are the Dems going to be handing out washing machines at the poles to people who vote for them and show them their ballot as they do in Mexico? Is this diversity?
I suppose they believe if you don’t control them just ignore them.
Ah, Democracy and the rule of law at its best and on full display.
Chris, you bring up a great point. What recourse does SCOTUS – well, any court for that matter – have if its rulings are simply ignored? It’s not as though the people controlling the Presidential Puppet can be arrested/fined/jailed for simply ignoring SCOTUS. Isn’t this what Andrew Jackson did so many years ago when the Court passed legislation with which he disagreed?…something like “let the Court enforce it, because I won’t!”
Continued lawsuits do little good when the Administration simply ignores the decisions.
My apologies…the Court in Jackson’s time didn’t “pass legislation”. I fell into the liberal-speak trap as I was typing. The Court interpreted law in a manner with which Jackson disagreed.
Here is a topic Jack has covered extensively.
From CNBC: Daily marijuana use surpasses alcohol consumption, new study finds. Here’s what it means for the booze business
This is a financial news outlet but I think the impact on the alcohol industry is the least of our worries moving forward.
More significant than the impact upon alcohol sales, what do you suppose legalized pot has done to the illicit pot trade. I even wonder whether black lives started mattering once all the street dealers and their suppliers were put out of business by the “dispensaries” as they’re hilariously called.
An update on a post a few months ago regarding Harris Teeter’s new policy to charge customers for getting cash back.
I had checked out my local Food Lion store (this is a regional, I believe, chain that offers a lower cost selection of groceries) — Food Lion did not charge for getting cash back.
Recently I was finally able to get to the local Harris Teeter and lo and behold, they have also added a $0.75 fee for getting cash back (I think Jack had reported $1.00 up near D.C.).
I am sure Harris Teeter intends this as a modest revenue source, but here is one little hitch: My company offers a prepaid debit card as a favored method of receiving money. As part of that, I’ll advise clients that they can use this card to get cash without any fees typically at grocery stores.
So now I’ll tell them “You can get cash back at Food Lion, but Harris Teeter and the dollar store will charge you for that.”
My obligation is to my clients, not any store. One has to wonder how many $.75 fees it takes to make up for a missed shopping trip?
On a tour of NYC city our guide stopped in front of the famed Apollo Theater in Harlam. he proudly pointed our attention to the newly established state aproved cannabis store.
A year later the state approved store was shuttered. The street disoensers however, were still in operation. Because they didnt have the overhead or the beuracracy t deal with the street product was better priced. The free amrket at its best.
While the use of cannabis has increased there has also been reported an increase in addiction to its use and to other illicit drugs. There is reprted an increase in those sufering from a cannabis psychosis presentmg in the ER.
lest we forget the CDC issued a warining about the negative effects of cannabis on the helath of the unborn.
The CDC should issue a warning about the negative (and very deadly) effects of liberal ideology on the health of the unborn, but the CDC doesn’t care a whit about the disease of liberal ideology.
Based on my own private research, contemporary pot is magnitudes more powerful than 1970s pot, to the point I’d almost consider it a completely different, and super dangerous drug. I think it can be awful along the lines of bad trip for the unsuspecting.
I was writing a different post on the Trump VP choice, when another thought bubbled to the top.
We all watched the junior circuit of the GOP presidential nominating campaign.
After what we saw there, is Ron DeSantis still a viable candidate for 2028? Did he knock himself permanently out of the running?
Similarly, what of others — Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Doug Burgum, Chris Sununu, Glenn Youngkin?
What do we think of their potential or their future in the party?
My working assumption is that Trump, win or lose, is out of the picture for 2028 and that, if Trump wins, he and not his VP finishes out his term. Obviously if Trump’s VP succeeds him, that will make for a totally different dynamic.
I am sure a lot of folks will think that Haley has poisoned the well for her GOP future, but what of the others?
Maybe Marco Rubio, the Great Cuban Hope of South Miami, has, so far, navigated the rapids. He’ll also be about the right age for quite a while.
A debate between Rubio and VP Harris would be super-entertaining. Of course, Kamala will have a hard time in an intellectual game of wits with a single-celled amoeba, so there’s that.
Is it ethical for Democratic Party activists to portray Republicans kowtow to Trump when the facts tell the real truth?
Here is a blog post by a self proclaimed moderate classic liberal and the subsequent comment I submitted.
GOP Votes Against What It Wants
blob:https://wordpress.com/5d44fde9-3fde-4621-8044-bd7977d325d8
Also; am I wrong or unethical to reply the way I did? I’m trying to be truthful and improve what I write so please be honest, constructive criticism is welcome.
If you copy the entire link that starts with blob: above and paste it in a new tab/window it will display the comment jpeg. WordPress put that blob: on there and I don’t know why.
After some testing, it’s clear to me that there is something wrong with WordPress creating proper links to any newly uploaded jpg’s. I’ll provide Jack a good link to the jpg as soon as WordPress get’s this fixed.
Here is a link that should work properly…
https://stevewitherspoon.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ysda-immigrationbillcomment.jpg
Haley – out to possibly Uranus. Ramaswamy – possible, but more likely a cabinet position. Youngkin – probably not interested (based on other discussions in this forum and not personal knowledge). DeSantis – possible, but some of that state’s recent legislation has me scratching my head. Burgum – probably not as a relative unknown from a small state that votes as Republican as Utah. Sununu – hmmm…interesting.
Others: Noem – out, relegated to the barking lot.
I’m not going to say it’s the right choice, but my VP dark horse is still Gabbard.
Instead of a new outrage, I’d like to relate a pleasant experience, with a bit of Memorial Day tie-in.
A few weeks ago, we attended the commencement ceremony of a young relative from the University of North Georgia. The school is a bit unusual in that it is one of six federally designated senior military colleges, which include The Citadel, Norwich University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, and Virginia Military Institute. It’s not a military academy, as such, but it does have a Corps of cadets that graduate as Army 2nd. Lts.
We observed no demonstrations on campus or during the ceremony. The proceedings opened with presentation of the colors, a live quartet singing the National Anthem, and the attendees standing with hands over their hearts.
The presentations went without incident; graduates each handed a pre-printed card with their name and degree(s) to an announcer, who didn’t seem to badly bobble any pronunciations. About the only oddities were 2 or 3 (all female) who had their names noted in the form of “Jane Brown Doe the First” (???), one barefoot guy (our girl said he never wears shoes), and some odd footwear on some of the girls…one with cowboy boots.
At the end of the general presentations, cheers and applause, etc., the graduating cadets removed the gowns covering their uniforms and there was a commissioning ceremony for them. At the end of that, the audience spontaneously stood and applauded.
So, to Columbia University, et al. …”Bite Me!”
P.S.: Our grad worked part-time, kept her scholarships, and graduated (cum laude) in three years (going to grad school elsewhere) without any student debt. To be fair, we did cover her excess required expenses, mostly housing, as long as she kept her grades up, which she did. Her parents could have done it, or let her take responsibility for any loans, but my wife offered first, dammit; she does things like that.
One of my favorite D-Day stories.
I travelled extensively to Framce and visited the American Cemetery many times. (Wonderful museum there). I was in Cherbourg not too long after the 50th D-Day anniversary and there was a story in a paper or magazine (I forget which, but forgetting is not new to me) about the US soldiers who were returning there for the 50th anniversary memorial. There was a French (although, as he was from Normandy he probably did not consider himself “French”) farmer greeting each veteran as they deplaned. He asked each the same question: “Do you have a place to stay?” Finally, one of these Greatest Generation veterans admitted that he did not. “I was not going to come, but changed my mind at the last minute and don’t yet have reservations anywhere.”
“Then,” replied the farmer in broken English, “you will come home with me. I have been waiting 50 years to thank you.” Chokes me up every time I remember it.
It eclipses my other favorite American Cemetery memory: there was a memorial event happening at the Cemetery, with bagpipers from Paris (!!). Why? Because the Americans were honoring “Crazy Billy” (or, more politely, Piper Bill) Millen. He was personal piper to Lord Lovat. Who are they? If you have ever seen The Longest Day, Lord Lovat had Bill Mullen pipe him across Pegasus Bridge, under fire from Germans holding the far bank. When they had landed at Sword Beach, Lord Lovat had instructed him to pipe the men ashore. When Mille. Responded that the War Office restricted the bagpipes to the rear guard, Lovat replied “Aye, but that’s the English War Office and we are Scots. Pipe is ashore, lad”. Millen did, and became legendary. We had the deep honor of meeting him very briefly. That was August, 2009. A year later, Bill Millen died at the age of 88. His pipes are in the Pegasus Bridge museum, one of the places Maureen and I took our guests when they visited us while we were living in Paris (2008-2013).
We have so many wonderful stories of France, from WWI when both our grandfathers fought there (Maureen’s grandfather being awarded the Croix de Guerre for rescuing wounded soldiers under heavy fire in the battle of Belleau Wood), my grandfather serving a strafing at the battle of Chateau Thierry (only about 5 km from Belleau), to a French family saving her uncle when he was shot down during WWII (less than 10 km from Belleau). We visited the sites with an aged French farmer who was part of the family that saved Maureen’s uncle. I could go on and on, with stories of WWI and WWII in France, and the many cemeteries and memorials we visited (including the German WWII cemetery, but my thumbs are tired. 🇺🇸
Wonderful. Of course, my favorite D-Day story is that my father missed it because an idiot in his platoon blew himself and my dad’s foot up trying to dig mud out of his boot using a live hand grenade pin. Dad had drawn the assignment of being an observer during the beach assault, meaning he didn’t even get to carry a gun. The accident put my father in hospital for six months, then they stuffed his ruined foot into a special boot and sent him to the Battle of the Bulge.
“Son, never forget that the only reason you exist is because of an idiot,” Dad reminded more than once.