Monday Open Comments

‘We’re Paying People to Hate America’: Musk And Ramaswamy Blast Department of Education

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Twitter owner Elon Musk ripped the current education system in the United States Friday, saying that taxpayers were “paying people to hate America.”

Ramaswamy and Musk took part in a Twitter Spaces forum where Ramaswamy blasted the Department of Education for using funding as an incentive for schools to use certain theories in curricula. Ramaswamy outlined plans to shut down that department during a July 20 forum in New Hampshire.

/snip

Earlier in the forum, Ramaswamy and Musk discussed how the United States was dealing with an “entitlement” mentality and how “victimhood” made laziness acceptable.

The contents of school curricula became a hot-button political issue in 2021 as parents protested the use of Critical Race Theory (CRT), which holds that America is fundamentally racist, and teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Parents across the country also raised objections to books with sexually explicit content in recent years, prompting some states to act to remove them from schools.

The Department of Justice came under fire after Attorney General Merrick Garland issued an Oct. 4, 2021 memo that formed a task force to investigate parents protesting mask mandates and the use of CRT in school curricula at school board meetings.

 

 


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65 responses to “Monday Open Comments”

  1. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    When a millennial pretends to be a senior…      😉

    It’s Monday time to get this week going.

    Mornin’ Gang

  2. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Lockheed C-121 Constellation

    Leaving Oshkosh 2023. Stunning aircraft. Spotted over yonder.

  3. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Well this is insane;

    Chick-fil-A plans to test 2 new restaurant concepts.

    ATLANTA (WANF/Gray News) – Chick-fil-A is set to open two new restaurant concepts aimed at cutting down wait times.

    The fast-food chain will test a two-story drive-thru restaurant in Atlanta and a walk-up restaurant in New York City for digital orders only.

    “Digital orders make up more than half of total sales in some markets – and growing – so we know our customers have an appetite for convenience,” said Khalilah Cooper, Chick-fil-A’s executive director.

    According to Cooper, the Atlanta restaurant will feature four drive-thru lanes that allow guests to choose to place their order with a team member or use the mobile app.

    “The kitchen will also be twice as large as at typical Chick-fil-A locations and it will be above the drive-thru,” a company spokesperson said. “Orders will travel through an overhead conveyor belt connected with chutes that run down the sides.”

    Meanwhile, the walk-up concept in New York is said to be designed to fit in urban areas with heavy foot traffic.

    The company said its digital-focused restaurants are designed to make getting orders more convenient than before.

    The restaurants are scheduled to open in 2024 with more details expected to be released regarding the locations.

     

  4. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Super Dave says:
    July 31, 2023 at 7:48 am
    Your comment is awaiting moderation. This is a preview; your comment will be visible after it has been approved.

     

  5. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    7:50 AM Graveyard Dead! My work here is done.  😉

  6. Tedtam Avatar

    I’m finally up.  Today is exciting, as I believe Hubby promised me that construction on the new wall for Elsa’s room will be started today.  I have a little bitty headache wandering around inside my cranium, so I have coffee in hand…let’s see what else I can find that’ll make me feel better…

  7. Tedtam Avatar

     MYSTERIOUS ☙ Monday, July 31, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS

    Even though Mr. C. is still on vacation, he continues to crank his bits of snarky information.

    Good morning, C&C, it’s Monday! Your roundup today includes: CMS starts mysterious drug price-setting process; Obama paddle boarding mysteries baffle officials; beauty queen turbo cancer; hacker SADS turbo cancer; science gets another black eye at Stanford; Biden makes Ukraine jealous by flirting with Taiwan; and a ducky clip to get you started right.

    News:

    First up: Medicare – which medications are being negotiated?  This will impact most of the folks on the Couch. CMS is the entity that sets medication prices for Medicare.  I’m sure it wields a very, very big stick, and is rushing to swing that stick despite legal obstacles.

    Fueled by a new provision in the democrats’ recently-passed, Orwellian Inflation Reduction Act, the federal government is now engaged in a highly-contentious effort to, for the first time in history, set prices on a short schedule of ten drugs (to start with) that are currently approved under Medicare/Medicaid. The pharmaceutical companies that sell the drugs don’t want their prices set by the government and have filed lawsuits trying to legally scalpel the new law apart.

    … The article says that the decision as to which drugs to fiscally shrink is loosely but not necessarily based on the drugs’ overall expense. Although it did not identify which drugs are in the government’s crosshairs, CMS did outline what it’s looking for, and you may notice something the targeted drugs have in common:

    “A lot of the likely drugs include blood thinners, diabetes medication, cancer drugs. So many of these drugs are for chronic conditions and cost Medicare’s several thousands of dollars per beneficiary that’s taking it” Bailey Reavis, federal relations associate at Families USA, told The Hill.

    Blood thinners, diabetes medication, and cancer drugs. Hmm. What could the common connection be? Maybe … jab injuries? These types of drugs are already expensive for Medicare.

    I’m not saying CMS’s rush to fix low prices for blood thinners and cancer drugs is a cynical effort to sweep jab injuries under the Medicare rug or anything. I’m just saying.

    Better dead and quiet than alive and hemorrhaging Medicare funds and also giving TPTB a black eye.

  8. Tedtam Avatar

    Next up is the mystery of how/why/with whom the Obama’s personal chef drowned while paddle boarding in 3 to 8 feet of water.  Who was with him?  Of course, with Obama still publicly pretending he ain’t gay, all of those inquiries if TBO was the one who made the call to the cops are being quietly swept under the rug.  There are some reports that the second paddle boarder was female, so there is also speculation that one of the Obama daughters was involved.

    You won’t find any of this in U.S. corporate media of course, but the Daily Mail UK ran a story late last week headlined, “EXCLUSIVE: Tafari Campbell paddle boarding death riddle: Cops left call log reporting Obama private chef’s drowning BLANK and said it came from 2 miles away – as they refuse to reveal who he was with on the water.”

    /snip

    Anyway, the first mystery was that the Duke’s County Sheriff’s office 911 call log has been scrubbed. The call about Obama’s chef is now mysteriously blank, both in the description of the call as well as to the name of the caller: [insert image of redacted call log]

    /snip

    Massachusetts State Police have already determined that the athletic chef’s death, which happened while he engaged in a non-taxing, relaxing recreational sport, was not suspicious, and needs no further investigation. So.

  9. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    I’ve had to log-in about 6 or 7 times before it finally stuck.

    The incident took place just off Stenton Avenue just a minute before midnight, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said early Wednesday.

    Two masked men with guns approached the 21-year-old deliveryman as he was dropping off food, Small said.

    “He was being carjacked and robbed,” Small said.

    “One of them forced the 21-year-old deliveryman into the back seat and one of the perpetrators got into the backseat with him,” Small said. “The other perpetrator got into the front seat. And they started asking him for money.”

    The robbers then wanted to know where the man worked and if he had any apps on his phone that he could use to get money to them, Small said.

    The deliveryman was able to get out of the vehicle and confront one of the robbers, firing two shots, Small said. The would-be robber was struck once in the backside.

    Police found one of the would-be robbers about 300 feet away and got him to the hospital where he was in stable condition while in surgery, police said. The man was being held as a prisoner and charges were expected.

    The other guy ran off across Stenton Avenue into neighboring Springfield Township, Small said.

    It appeared that there was possibly a shootout as police found evidence that the bleeding would-be robber had evidence on him that he had fired at least one shot, Small said.

     

  10. Tedtam Avatar

    From the Suddenly & Unexpectedly department, a beauty queen is recovering from turbo pancreatic cancer.  Fortunately for her, her surgery was successful and she will continue her beauty queen aspirations, despite being limited as regards alcohol due to a permanent blood clot in her spleen.

    Not so fotunately, a well known white hat hacker has succumbed to the Science.

    Prayers for him and all of those unnamed who also succumbed to the Science.

    ****

    Speaking of “Science”: a Stanford president resigns over manipulation of research.

    SHOCKER! /not

    The hyphenated PRESIDENT of one of the most respected research giants in the country, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, announced his resignation effective August 1st, after a panel reviewing several of his peer-reviewed scientific papers found the top scientist had manipulated or falsified data to get the results he was looking for.

    Even worse, the review panel found that questions about Marc’s made-up research cropped up as early as 2001, and then again in the early 2010s, in 2015 and 2016, and in March 2021, but nobody ever took any action, and the fake scientist wound up running one of the top scientific research institutions in the world.

    /snip

    Not so much, apparently. Instead, “Doctor” Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s story turns our current understanding of Science on its head. I’m sure there are lots of good, honest, hardworking scientists out there. But — and this is the critical bit — these days The Science™ seems to always reward the lying, scheming, lazy, good-for-nothing posers who are better at politics than precision.

    You could say that the system worked; Marc was forced to resign from his institutional position. But if it weren’t for the dogged work of the Stanford Daily, which relentlessly pounded away at the story for years, Marc would be happily running one of the most influential research institutions in the world.

    Marc got away with his fake studies for over 20 years. How many other bad studies have promoted fakers into management of leading institutions?

  11. Tedtam Avatar

    On to Biden and his defense authorizations for Taiwan:

    The Economist pointed out that the U.S.’s gift to Taiwan is a historic first: There was no declaration of war. There was no Congressional authorization. There wasn’t even a declaration of emergency. Even more specifically, there was no declaration of any change in the U.S.’s stated policy of neutrality between China and Taiwan.

    It was just an old man with a pen.

    The weapons are being supplied through something called the “presidential drawdown authority” (PDA), and Biden’s authorizing order generically said that it would provide “defense articles and services,” whatever that is, as well as “military education and training.”  …

    So we keep sending stuff to Ukraine, and now to Taiwan.  Will there be any to protect us?

    Oh, wait…I think I just answered my own question.

     

  12. Tedtam Avatar

    Salcedo is wissed at a lib caller.  So far, he’s called him idiot, dumbass, and dummy.  He’s actually muting the caller, which he never does, to keep the lib from monopolizing the call and not answering his question.

    Riled up, he is.

  13. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    TT @ 8:35

    Cute.

    But there is a stupid woman around here who likes to save turtles crossing a 60mph Farm Road.

    On blind curves.

    On a hill.

    The turtle will probably survive the accident. The stupid lady probably won’t.

  14. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Guess they really meant it, Teamsters.

  15. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    I noticed Billy Cat spent a lot of time stretched out in the freshly mowed grass in my back yard yesterday. Not the first time I’ve seen that, but I like anything that keeps him in my yard longer. Morning, gang — another hot week, but I have finished my outdoor work.

  16. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    The Texas Tribune has begun a three part series on the history of the Texas Attorney General’s office since the turn of the century.

    You may not like the players involved, or some of the editorial slant, but it is a comprehensive review of how the office became a national player over the last 25 years.

  17. Dooood Avatar

    Guess they really meant it, Teamsters.

    Yeah, you would think more people had learned the lesson about being careful what you wish for. Well… unless that’s what really was wished for.

  18. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    Has the illusion of free and fair elections decision desk hq called Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia for the totalitariancrats already.

    the basic minutiae doesn’t take into account the 2024 steal.

    the fix is already in.

    https://www.npr.org/2023/07/26/1190314813/mississippi-voting-rights-law-mail-in-voting-ballot-harvesting

  19. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Yellow Freight & Teamsters Union

    “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

    “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

    “What brought it on?”

    “Friends,” said Mike. “I had a lot of friends. False friends. Then I had creditors, too. Probably had more creditors than anybody in England.”

    The Sun Also Rises, 1926, E. Hemingway

    Todd Maiden at Freightwaves.com:

    A series of large LTL and other acquisitions in efforts to transform Yellow into a global transportation and logistics leader, the ambition of former Chairman and CEO William “Bill” Zollars, were the catalysts for an eventual downfall.

    In 2003, Yellow acquired Roadway in a $1.1 billion deal and then leveraged up in 2005 to acquire USF for $1.47 billion. The goal was to emerge with a command position in the LTL space, allowing the company to leverage larger scale into greater operating and cost synergies.

    A much bigger organization with a debt-laden balance sheet, the company took on the YRC Worldwide moniker in 2006 as it had become a holding company for numerous transportation and logistics brands operating in more than 70 countries around the world. In that year, it would see its revenue increase more than threefold since the buying spree began to nearly $10 billion, with earnings per share of roughly $5, or $277 million in net income. That would be the financial pinnacle for the company as a freight recession would take hold that year, followed by a near collapse in financial markets two years later.

    The Teamsters, of which I am no fan, invested capital, forgave company debt and agreed to substantial pay cuts to keep Yellow Freight alive over the years.  Now they have lost everything and it remains to be seen if the American taxpayer is going to have to cover the pension plan losses.  The corporate leadership deserves the majority of the blame in this case.

  20. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    15  Texpat

    That’s one of the uglier stories of corporate failure that I have read.

    But if the principals made out with several million per year for a few years, they probably don’t see it that way.

  21. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    We are at the SEA-TAC Airport waiting to board.  I do not like the flying sardine can.

    Lows for the trip were high 50s highs were high 70s.  Crisp clean dry air, spectacular Cascades mountains, towering forest, Puget Sound, basically everything Houston is not.

  22. Tedtam Avatar

    I spent most of this morning moving jars of food.  Hubby wants the stash moved out of the master bedroom so he can use the space for the cabinet work upcoming for the master bath.  It gave me a chance to organize the jars, bags, and boxes better.  And find that one jar that didn’t seal. That was one stinky jar, and the contents were dumped out in our front ditch and the jar is currently being bleached almost to the point of melting the glass.

    I didn’t get it all moved, but there are some shelves which Handyman will have to move for me first.  I wasn’t feeling well, so I decided that a lay-down was necessary.

    So now I’m going to try to get some desk work done.

  23. Tedtam Avatar

    Bones –

    Hubby and I took a trip to the Sea-Tac area years ago to visit his grandfather, Big Daddy-O.  What a character!  You are right, the area is beautiful, but I don’t think I could live there.  Too much liberal, too much crazy.

  24. Dooood Avatar

    That’s good background, TP. Thanks. Points to the likelihood of a lot of embedded leverage in the system coming back out with a vengeance, and in ways we have yet to witness. This Yellow crash may be the early stages of that.

  25. Tedtam Avatar

    Our trip to Angel Fire, NM, spoiled me.  Like Bones’ trip, the highs were struggling to reach mid-70’s, lows in the 40’s – 50’s.  Low humidity.

    Coming back to the Texas blast furnace was an obligation, not a choice.

  26. Tedtam Avatar

    Well, Devon Archer didn’t commit Arkancide and made it to his testimony today.

    From the reports I’ve seen so far, it was devastating for Biden Co.

  27. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    40 minute delay so far.  Waiting on the plane cleaning crew.

  28. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Selling and manufacture of incandescent light bulbs become illegal tomorrow.

    Except for appliance bulbs, heat lamps, and some other specialty bulbs.

  29. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    Delay up to Wan howah.

  30. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    Plane now scheduled to land at IAH at 1945 CDT.  At least we miss pm rush hour.

  31. bsue54 Avatar

    #22 Bones, at least the Astros game will already be in progress – should you be required to go anywhere close to the Juice Box

  32. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    I have Bluetooth headphones and this flight has screens.   I may get to watch a moobie on the way home.  It could suck more worserer.

  33. bsue54 Avatar

    Tedtam – I’ve got a “crockpot full” of pork loin roast in Nat freeze drying… Took it out of the crockpot last night after church, and broke it up into “bite-sized” pieces – was tired and cranky and by time I got it back into a bowl, I just stuck it in the fridge because I didn’t feel like messing with putting it onto Nat’s trays to freeze.  Got up this morning, and did so, and stuck in the freezer for a little while but went ahead and put it in the FD mostly unfrozen.  It’s still in “freezing” mode nearly 5 hours later – but I guess it’s all relative (put in the freezer for 5 hours or so, or into Nat for 5 extra hours)… I think I mainly wanted to see how well it would work doing it this way – or maybe I should say how long it’ll take…

  34. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    Selling and manufacture of incandescent light bulbs become illegal tomorrow.

    you will own nothing, eat zee bugs and be happy.

    sincerely the wef

    https://www.planet-today.com/2023/05/john-kerry-declares-war-on-us-farmers.html

  35. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Tedtam @ 1:53 PM

    The analogy of Russia nesting dolls to the cascading layers of evil in this story are tragically perfect.  No person of empathy and compassion could avoid feeling sorry for the subject of this story.  This young man made terrible decisions about his life and no one stepped forward to intervene and try to save him from himself.  I would have no problems rendering judgment and convicting the bastards who abandoned this young man and encouraged him to destroy his body.

    Suicide is a sin.  The taking of your own life is still murder.  I can understand people making ultimate choices when it comes to saving the life of a child or saving the life of another when there is no other option.  There are  times when women have killed themselves to avoid being raped in war ravaged places.  I let God deal with those judgments.  It’s above my pay grade.  I only hope there is a solution for this Canadian soul.

  36. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    Well it’s not exactly bill gates of Hades 66,000 sq ft place but you vill be happy eating your bowl of zee bug soup in it.
    sincerely, zee wef

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/home-depot-capitalizes-tiny-home-craze-44000-gateway-pad

  37. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    I’d just like to go on record and say that cleaning out the Carp pond wasn’t nearly as much fun as GJT had indicated it would be. But we Got R Done, sister showed up about 8 AM and she is a worker. MY wife does a good job and works hard but at 6′ 6″ 100 Lbs she not very strong. Sister at 5 foot nothing 125 Lbs can work like a lot of men but then she is a farm girl. I started cleaning the flagstones with my pressure washer and when I hit the front porch steps I noticed  just how nasty they were so I cleaned them, then the porch then the brick below the porch and covering the crawl space. I finished up on the north side of the house where moss tend to grow but it wasn’t too bad since I cleaned real good in the spring of 2020. it was a mess then. I cleaned the wall as far as I could reach so now I need to take some time finish up my my trusty extension ladder.

  38. Dooood Avatar

    Dr phil,

    Uncle Klaus doesn’t appreciate your discussion of zee bugs in zis forum. You vil be dealt vith appropriately.

  39. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Oh and I mentioned that a lot of he-ing and she-ing had been going on and so we now have 12 adult fish, one 3 finger guy that is greenish, hasn’t turned yet and 2 tiny fingerlings. We did have 3 of those but one got sucked up in sister’s Gumby Dammit Wet-Vac. She found him when we emptied the bucket but he was DOA.

    Wait! I’m hearing a thumping noise inside the fridge. I bet this guy is calling me. Better check it out…… Later….   😀

  40. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    31
    aye vunderstand.
    aye alveady hav zee mud pie mixed vith zee ants cooking in zee oven for dinner.

  41. Dooood Avatar

    Uncle Klaus is pleased to learn of your reeducation! WEF uber alles!

  42. Tedtam Avatar

    I had to get a booster for whooping cough so I can be around Gummy Bear. I asked 3 different times to be sure there wasn’t any COVID juice mixed in …

  43. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Tedtam

    Her Highness and I have to get a DPT booster since the last we had was 10 years ago this past winter.  We have the new granddaughter coming in January.

  44. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    But it was a dryer heat.

  45. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    #2 Super Dave,

    There is nothing quite like the Oshkosh, Wisconsin air show if you are looking for anything that can fly, no matter how old or how odd.  The museum building there is huge, as many of the planes are old enough to need to stay inside, and the ones parked outside fill quite a space around it. We’ve been there twice while visiting spouse’s brother and wife who live near Madison and also have a cottage in Door County near Sturgeon Bay and not that far away from Oshkosh (at least by Texas distances).  People from all over the world come to see the planes, and lodging in and around Oshkosh has to be arranged several years in advance.  Many visitors drive up to 100 miles from their lodging to get to the show each day, as everything in between is booked.

  46. Texpat Avatar
    Texpat

    Houston Recognizes They Have a Problem, the UHI.

    Anthony Watts at Watts Up With That ?the excellent anti-environut website recognized Channel 13 and their coverage of the Urban Heat Island effect on the Houston metro area.

    On Wednesday, July 25, ABC13 in Houston reported on the city’s temperatures from new data that accounted for the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) within the city and its surrounding suburbs. The results from the data show that Houston experiences a UHI impact of six degrees Fahrenheit or greater on any given day.

    In the article, ABC13 News acknowledges what The Heartland Institute has long pointed out, the urban heat island effect impacts measured temperatures and people’s lives. They cite an example, saying…

     

  47. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    #30 Dave

    Say, tell me again how tall your wife is???

     

     

  48. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    #40 mharper, Ooops! That would be 5’6″ don’t know where that “6” came from. 😉

  49. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I have been reading this same story for at least thirty years.

    Another problem that our betters just can’t seem to solve.

  50. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Say, tell me again how tall your wife is???

    Lol. I was wondering why he was the one standing on the Mule to trim tree limbs. ;D

  51. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I wish I had a couple red Blue Bell Bullet popsicles right now.

  52. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    I read Bill jelly roll II Barr promised to jump off a bridge if Trump wins gopeecon nomination in 2024.

    yo Jelly roll II.

  53. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    https://www.planet-today.com/2023/07/bill-barr-promises-to-jump-off-bridge.html

    since I can’t insert two links into one post without it ending up in bucket purgatory.

  54. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Maybe he and Chris Christie could do it together off of the George Washington Bridge.

    Secure all boats! Secure all boats!

  55. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    Ewe vill eat zee bugs dressed in a Winston, or is that Vinston Smith uniform.
    sincerely, zee wef.

    https://www.planet-today.com/2023/07/wef-says-fashion-will-be-abolished-by.html

  56. Dr phil Good-E=1984 Avatar
    Dr phil Good-E=1984

    51

    unck

    Ha!

     

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