The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

Although politics and religion are not completely off-limits, classmates are asked to be positive in their posts and not to be too repetitive or allow a dialog to degenerate into an argument. 

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Steve Keene

Gary,

Is it true you are living in the Yakima Valley in the town of Union Gap,WA?

Steve Keene

Hollis and Lowell,

I just read that a train derailment on the Pennsylvania Ohio border has forced the evacuation of a wide area including several towns due to burning of toxic chemicals released from the rail tank cars.  Billowing smoke containing vinyl chloride and diesel is releasing chlorine gas and volatile components including hydrocarbons into the air.  The two governors of these states have declared a disaster that must be cleaned up by our tax dollars in the  amount of nearly one billion dollars. These are the same two governors that adamantly oppose crude or natural gas pipelines for fear of the environmental impact.  What they have decided to do is a slow release of the chemicals and hydrocarbons into a trough that is set on fire to release the resulting chlorine gas and hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.  Several counties had been told for residents to stay inside for the next week until the burn is completed.  Schools are closed and all businesses are closed for the immediate future.  A value for that has not been calculated or added to the estimated costs.  No evaluation of the affects on the atmosphere and climate change ramifications can be estimated, but they are monitoring the air quality.  No money is expected to be collected from the rail line or tank car owners.

I am so glad they have this under control, but things could have been much worse.  They could have had a pipeline spill of the 2500 bbls near a dry creek like what happenned on one of the Keystone Pipelines last month.  That disaster resulted in about 40 yards of chemical or hydrocarbon soaked dirt that was soaked up with absorbent material and then the soiled dirt removed by backhoe and hauled to a disposal site.  I think the total bill was less than $25,000.00,  I am so glad as a taxpayer that I dodged that bullet.  By the way the cleanup was paid for by the pipeline company.  

David Cordell

To all my Texas Tech friends:

I'm sure you will be happy (cough, cough) to read this piece from today's Wall Street Journal. Time to increase your donations to your alma mater??

Gary Puckett

Steve:

No I'm not there, but have taken up residence in a place that "fits" me-The GAP.  You ever heard of it?

David Cordell

Especially for Mad Magazine fans.

Jim Bedwell

Chief Agonized,

You really need to lighten up. After all........

The border is secure.

Inflation is transitory.

The economy is vibrant and growing.

Joe Biden inherited a declining economy with growing inflation and job losses.

The Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.

Hillary Clinton had the 2016 election stolen from her.

The Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act - that's really working great.

The police need to be reformed since they're currently just instruments of white supremacy.

Our schools need to be reformed also to affirm liberating gender identification and choice.

Incarcerated citizens have been discriminated against unfairly and most should be released.

The most existential threat we face is global warming caused by man-made carbon emissions - the national government is on that. Every citizen should get behind renewable, carbon-free energy, electric cars, etc.

The second most existential threat we face is MAGA Republicans.

January 6 was an insurrection and the national government is on that as well.

The 2020 peaceful demonstrations were justifiable reactions to Saint George Floyd's death.

Red China is a friend and competitor.

That recent Chinese balloon was of no consequence; it was a weather balloon blown off course.

Iran deserves to get nuclear weapons and the national government will do everything to achieve that also.

The government at all levels, but especially the national level, really cares about all of us, our current situations, our families, and our futures.

In conclusion, the Democrat Party should be the instrument of needed change since the Republican Party is the agent of white supremacy, insurrection, and unfettered climate change. Our wonderful President will be explaining all this tonight before Congress with his perspicacity on full display.

Chief Uplifter

Steve Keene

Gary,

Makes sense to me and I have heard of it.  The Gap sells clothes made in China by willing 12 year old and younger workers who are grateful for the double shifts so they can earn a Chinese coke with a days wages.

I just have one question.  Are Gaps below the Mason Dixon line called Confederate or white supremacist Gaps?

Steve Keene

Chief Uncas Remus,

And I just saw a bunch of bird dogs fly over.

Chief Briar Patch.

My prayers have been answered as usual.  Tommy and Lance have chosen to quit posting on this forum or any forum.

Wayne Gary

I just read where a US District Judge has argued That a woman's right to an abortion is protected  by the 13th Amendment which bans slavery and forced servitude.  A woman is forced into servitude. So I guess fathers are slavemasters.

David Cordell

Curious about electricity rates.

My previous electricty contract (with the same provider -- Cirro) charged $0.0533 /KWH which grossed up to $0.096/KWH with other fees added in. My current Cirro contract charges $0.097882/KWH which grosses up to $0.154/KWH. The grossed up amount represents a 60.4% increase in my electricity bill.

What are you experiencing?

Lowell Tuttle

The Gap.   That's funny.    My mom used to take care of the checking account...but one or two times my Dad got in on the action...usually when it got a little too low.   So one day he was checking on the accounts and came across a few checks made out to the same payee...so he went to mom and asked, "Hey, who the hell is this TJ Max guy?"

Steve Keene

David,

Lucky you.  You are experiencing the same thing other convicts in the gaol are experiencing under a totalitarian regime.   Grit your teeth, bend over and take it or throw the bums out in the next election cycle.

I am on propane and the costs have become really reasonable, but that makes the regime mad and they are threatening to put environmentai controls on my gas stove and heating system.  I am a part owner in my water system and am having to boil water for five? days after a supervised cleaning and chlorine check by the environmental regulators.  The cleaning was done and tested in one day.  I have to boil water for a week while we wait on government test results from the state water environmental quality group a division of the railroad commission.  Waiting on the RRC to do their job has become a defining portion of my business and home life.  They have been corrupted by the feds at the highest levels.

Lowell Tuttle

David.  Mine is .1525 and a year ago was .08650  I use Ambit Energy

That's the negotiable part...the base part is with TDU and is fixed, I believe...though may not be same in all areas....

The energy use contract we get used to be lower or higher in the Spring and Autumn if you started contracts at those times of the year.

With Bitcoin operations and the like going on here in Texas...the rates are about the same in any time of year we negotiate...

Funny, last year my 33 days of KWH was 2,082  and this year's was only 942 KWH...

Weather?  Wait...I fixed my gas furnace...that's it...Last year I was using electric space heaters.   

You can actually almost live without a furnace in Houston...

David Cordell

Lowell, the $0.154 per KWH that I listed (and that is specified on my bill) includes my supplier's charge per KWH, its monthly fee, and ONCOR's charge per KWH. It doesn't include gross receipts tax, and sales tax. When those two are added, it goes up to $175.94  or $0.1586/KWH. We use balanced billing so our payment is $212.00.

Jerry May

While on the subject of growing costs (like weeds) I found a way to maintain my resolve to "drop a few"

I usually go to the store for Ellen, to pick up a few items. Just this week......I went, only this time to get about (2) weeks worth of groceries. Holy Cow! When I observed the prices.... really observed how much;  I was shocked! Not just what I was there to buy; but looked at other items I wasn't going to buy anyway! 

So my (2) week hunt became about 10 days' worth, and pulled items.....as well! (don't need this, that etc) In doing so, the "bottom line" became a matter of bare necessities; save a few indulgences!

Now it is not just a matter of calories, but how much I take in! Believe it or not, the "sticker shock" is helping me!

So as the saying goes, "there's a silver lining in every black cloud"!~j

Steve Keene

Jerry or Chief Silver Cloud,

Treat your wife to Shake Shack this week.  They are serving burgers, with white truffles and truffle sauce at no extra charge for the next week.  White truffles are even more expensive than black truffles.  You don't have to include the Shake if you are watching the pennies.  Free ice water is an acceptable culinary delight wiith white truffles.  They are also frying the potatoes with white truffles, true French inspired fries.

Chief Truffle Sniffing Dog Soldier

Kurt Fischer

David:

I usually read the WSJ a day later, so I just read the opinion piece on Texas Tech this morning.

Horrifying.

How Texas Tech has changed since I attended.  My sister was two years ahead of me.  During that time a Students for Democratic Society (SDS) group came onto the campus to organize a local chapter.  The meeting was attended by a bunch of cowboys who explained they didn't want the SDS people there.  The SDS people left shortly.  "We don't want your kind here" might have been the sentiment expressed, but in much stronger terms.

I wish this weren't happening at Tech.  It serves as a barometer for how our society is slipping from traditional values.  Very sad.

Steve Keene

Kurt,

I sent two conservative daughters out there and they sent me back two woke liberals.  I have one of them turned around about 75%.  She could be the star of Where The Crawdads Sing.  The other is ruined and swallows the liberal lies hook, line and sinker.  

The turned around one will be the Executor of my Will with strict guidelines of the amount of my Estate that may be sent to Woke Tech Tockers or other liberal children.  If they do not straighten up before I die, their inheritance will go into grandchildren trusts with withdrawals allowed according to the grandkids' repudiation of wokeness.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Steve,

I like the way you have set up your will and trust fund for grandkids.

How about Sarah H. Sanders rebuttal last night?  Bless her little pea-picking heart!!  Black-eyed peas!

The SOTU speech?   Ha, ha, ha, ha......  Waste of time...........Get busy getting our military in better shape immediately, to give us a fighting chance against the Chinese, who are WAY ahead of us!!    And talking about defending our sovereignty?  You've got to shore up and defend our borders first, you slow-to-learn fool!  Otherwise, we have no sovereignty!!!!

David Cordell

Well, Martha's niece gave birth today via a scheduled C-section. Baby, as yet unnamed, weighed 5 pounds 6 ounces. (Our three were all in the 8 and 9 range.)

Not sure if I mentioned it, but the fertilization was in vitro. I assume the the eggs came from someone else because the niece turned 57 last week.. Yes. 57. The husband is 24 years younger. Mother and baby are doing well. (than the mother, not the baby).

Ladies, can you imagine having your first (only?) child at age 57? Men, I won't bother to ask.

What a world!

David Cordell

David Cordell

I think this is pretty interesting. Not surprisingly, LGBT kids are way up there. Note that black kids are less persistently sad or hopeless than white kids.

Wayne Gary

Biden wants more gun control. There are less than 40K gun dearhs each year. Biden does not talk about trying to stop the fentonol comming in and ther were 100K deaths last year.  Guns bad and ignore fentonol.  I Carrolton last Friday 2 people were arrested fo selling drugs to 6-12 grades usinf kids as young as 14 o sell the drugs.  They lived 2 blocks from R  L Turner HS nd less than 1 mile from 2 middle schools.

Wayne Gary

David, Steve

Just in from The Dallas Morning News e-mail

AUSTIN – Gov. Greg Abbott says it is illegal for state agencies and universities to consider “diversity, equity and inclusion” in employment.

In a recent memo signed by a top aide, Abbott’s office warned that any deference to what he described as “forbidden DEI initiatives” would violate anti-discrimination laws by favoring “some demographic groups to the detriment of others.”

“Rather than increasing diversity in the workplace, these DEI initiatives are having the opposite effect and are being advanced in ways that proactively discriminate in the workplace,” wrote Abbott’s chief of staff, Gardner Pate, in a letter provided to The Dallas Morning News by the office.

Steve Keene

Kurt and Janalu,

I hope you understand that me saying my daughter is like the girl in the movie,  I am speaking of her strength, brilliiance, determination and talents, not the drunken father that beat and abandoned her.  I have only struck my daughters for one offence.   That is hitting each other.  I won't tolerate it.