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. 

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Steve Keene

Jim and Bob (not to be confused with Jimbob),

I think it is because what the GenX and Millenials have found:

Bob Fleming

Jimmy 

If only my personal sexual history validated that I was the slut you think I am and that I wish I were.

It's the timing, stupid.  OF COURSE WalMart is insulating itself from lawsuits and acting in regards for public safety.

THE LARGER POINT IS THIS.  Until the day before yesterday, WalMart was content to follow the lead of every state and local political authority on the issue of wearing masks.  If NYC mandated masks, so did WalMart.  if Phoenix didn't, then WalMart didn't.

Two days ago, WalMart in effect told Greg Abbott, Brian Kemp in Georgia, Ron DeSantis in Florida, the Governor of Oklahoma, etc. - not to mention Trump - to in effect go to hell. 

WalMart acted on its own initiative to  protect its interests - without reference to politicians.  This is a clear signal that they do not fear these politicians and have in effect DISCOUNTED their input or wishes in their calculations.   They have also calulated that thier customers are in agreement and won't punish them.

That tells you all you need to know about the bet they are making in the political FUTURES MARKET.

Bob Fleming

They're piling on now.  The Pentagon just brushed Trump off and announced that Conferederate flags, etc. are inappropriate at all bases and facilities.  The Pentagon!

Still . . .  I hope Waffle House piles on too.  That would cinch the deal.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

I saw today that the Rasmussen poll said 42% of Democrats believe the news outlets are politically biased, 63% of Independents say the same, and 87% of Republicans feel that way.  No surpise there.

I also see that Susan Rice is highly favored to be Biden's choice for VP, while Kamala Harris is a close second choice.

It also appears that Obama will be calling many of the shots behind the curtain for Biden, along with many of his former assisting administration members, plus, as usual, the top Democrat big-wigs we always hear from in far-leftist DC maneuvers being nearby with sage advice to give.  Bernie Sanders has already insisted on having his top causes figure heavily in the Biden administration, should Biden win.  AOC has begun gearing up to attack and significantly destroy the oil and gas industry, putting thousands of men and women out of work, but not to worry folks, they will be retrained by Uncle Sam to do his bidding like dutiful worker ants, but they will have to accept a huge pay cut.... what a shame....They may have to sell their houses, find apartments, scuttle family vacation time, tell their kids that if they want to attend college, they will have to work their way through, etc.

So, as we can clearly see, the future for America will be TOTALLY different if Biden wins in Nov., highly socialistically reformed, our former freedoms of choice dictated by the government instead, our borders flung wide open for anyone & everyone from around the world being able to enter unchecked, allowing the Dems to soak them up as voters(of course!) and all in all, ignoring the wonderous vision our Founders had at the birth of our nation.  Republicans will undoubtedly be quashed as a meaningful party, and Christianity will be tossed aside as an irrelevant offering to our citizens, a dying pastime activity for WEAK people needing a crutch to give them hope in their lives.  Citizens will be told the only hope they will ever need will be provided by the almighty government!  Utopia will be ours!!!

Wayne Gary

Bob Davidson

I have been following the NYU School of Law "Civil Jury Project" for several years since I served on a Civil Jury and then was a jurer panilist at one of their lawyer lunchers in Dallas.  I did meet  Steve Susmanwho was one of the originators of the project. They send out a monthly e-mail report. If you are not getting the newsletter you might be interested in it.

From their last newsletter

David Cordell

Bob F.,

In 2016 Hillary raised almost twice as much as Trump.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-presidential-campaign-fundraising/

It looks like the RNC is more than holding its own against the DNC in fundraising.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/rnc-outraises-dnc-by-two-to-one-democratic-hill-committees-outraise-republican-counterparts/article_335cb3d6-ba44-11ea-bd22-a7e2a3b2a431.html

About the builders of wealth versus the inheritors: I'm with Bob D. It always struck me as odd that the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation tilt so far to the left when the source of their funding was so capitalistic.

Bob Fleming

Fundraising events in 2016 are irrelevant to 2020.  A logical error.

Biden has ourtraised Trump (the incumbent) the last two months . . . from a flat-footed start.  If it happens again this month . . . add Major Donors to the list of institutional actors who "hear the sound of approaching things."

I predict that the ROI on Trump's current expenditures of donor money will prove discouraging.

Lance . . . some people require more dots to make a connection than others.  What can I say?  If both Waffle House AND Hooters signal somehow - will that matter?  Holy Land Experience Christian Theme Park in Orlando is closed?  Does that matter? 

What would move the antiquated levers in that organ in your skull that passes for a brain?  Do tell.  

Bob Davidson

In my opinion, one of the reasons that poor Sam Walton's unworthy heirs are siding with the Dems is that a big part of liberalism seems to be based on virtue signaling by the privileged.  Like Rothchild's daughter, they don't see money the same way as someone who earns it.  I developed my intense dislike of those those particular elitist pigs when Walmart stopped selling pistol ammunition, signaling to me that their owners were siding with the rest of the elitist class against their customers, including me.  As Ted Cruz likes to point out, at this point, Democrats are the party of the wealthy. Virtue signaling to one another is what non-productive people do.

Personally, I was a litigation attorney for the FDIC during the bank crisis that started in the late 1980s.  In that capacity I dealt with a number of very wealthy people, mainly through forcing them to pay their debts to dead banks.  The difference between the ones who created the wealth and the ones who inherited it or received it in the divorce settlement was slap-you-across-the-face-with-a-dead-fish striking.  I found that I liked and admired the guys who made their own money and couldn't stand the ones who didn't.

Kurt Fischer

Lance:

I was thinking the same thing.  It appears every store and business I enter is now requiring customers to wear masks.  The large grocery chains have recently followed suit.  This appears more of a public health issue than a judgment on Trump's policies and likelihood of retaining his office.  

Bob Fleming

you're right, Lance.

Lowell Tuttle

Cordell, regarding the heir's being more left than the Capitalists.

It's liberals are nicer than conservatives.  I thought you knew that.

Wayne Gary

Lowell

Consertatives give more to charity than liberals. Church goers are more likley to be consertative than liberal. Church goers give more to charity than non-church goers.

Steve Keene

Bobs, Jims, Davids, Waynes and Kurts,

If you will excuse the profanity, George Carlin had some wise words that apply to the Covid-19 crisis.  His voice needs to be heard today.  May he rest in peace.

David Cordell

Lance,

I find myself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with you on the vast majority of your ten items.

Hmmmm. AHA!! Except for the part about Obama, who is my eighth cousin, once removed! No, he should not pay from one pocket and receive in the other. His father was African, not African American. I don't know why he would deserve reparations, not having descended from slaves (at least slaves in this country), even if I believed that reparations were due to anyone.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

I don't believe in collective guilt.  None of my relatives had slaves because they were all barely scraping by with their small subsistence farms.  But even if they HAD owned slaves, I would not think that I was responsible for their sins.  If my relatives had not taken care of their debts in their lifetimes, and their immediate relatives had not gotten things "squared away," then it's all water under the bridge, as far as I am concerned.  Let bygones be bygones, I have decided.  There are many transgressions that have happened in the past, but they are just "history" now, and those transgressions will be dealt with by the Almighty, the way I see it.  "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord!"

Did anyone see Judge Jeanine tonight, when she interviewed John Solomon, who has written a very worthy book, entitled, FALLOUT?

It sounds like a fantastic book, as it outlines what happened with the infamous 'Uranium One' deal, that involved Hillary Clinton and Obama in a dastardly deal, whereby the Russians got substantial kickbacks.  Nuclear bribes, Russian spies, and Washington lies: those were the main subtitles of the book, evidently.  The Clinton and Biden dynasties were greatly enriched!  Who would have imagined such a thing!!

The excerpts I speak of come from Chapter 6; Putin and the Pastor: A Nuclear Bribery Plot Exposed   (The Pastor was Doug Campbell, a US operative code name---He worked for both the CIA and the FBI)

Campbell, interestingly enough, was a devout Christian man from Florida, and was married to his corporate climbing life as a corporate worker for the government as an operative.  He collected information about foreign leaders and businesses who were trying to spread cash in the form of bribes to win more business inside the US.  The info he reported back would be used to enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with prosecutions against violators both foreign and American.  But in 2005, Putin was gobbling up uranium, and eventually, the Russians got their hands on Kazakhstan yellow cake uranium, then next, a large share of US uranium, by way of the 'Uranium One' scandal.  After accomplishing that, they laughed and boasted about how easy it was to rope Obama into the set-up.  They said he was a "pushover!"  (And by the way, the uranium DID NOT stay in the US as Hillary told us it would.  It actually went to Canada, by way of a trucking firm(RSB Logistics) that was quietly used to escape the detection of Congress, then Europe, and then the Middle East, where it ended up in various hands---not good!!)

I'll have to get the book to find out more......

This info is for those people who have asked me, "What proof do you have that Hillary is an unindicted criminal?  This is just ONE example...........

David Cordell

The press is giving Trump a hard time about his response to the death of Representative John Lewis. Too slow. Too short. Too inauthentic (since Lewis was a vocal critic, voted for impeachment, and boycotted the inauguration).

The press missed the obvious and more important criticism.

Part of the President's statement said, "Melania and I send our prayers to he and his family."

NO! NO! NO!

The statement included a prepositional phrase: "...to he and his family." Would you say, "..send our prayers to he"? No! Why? Because it is the object of a preposition. HIM!! Not He!

I hear newscasters make this mistake way too often. I guess they think it sounds more formal, so it must be correct. It drives me crazy. 

Anyway, I'm not sure you would send a prayer "to" a deceased person.

I was reminded (passive voice) of this song. Ignore the misspellings in the lyrics!

(Note to self: consider therapy.)

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

David,

What drives me crazy is the way people use the word "myself," for instance, as in the way they might say, "Please come with my wife and myself in our car."  (The pronoun "me" should be used.)  So many folks have started saying "myself" instead of "me."

"When you're ready to drive to the wedding, please come with my wife and me in our car."

Wayne Gary

David / Janalu

Several years ago when Tony Pederson became the chair of journalism at SMU (after being the editor of Houston Post). he realized how many of the reporters in both print and television had poor grammar.  He went to the english department and asked about courses in english grammar and was told they had none and were not interested in starting one.  Their students would pick up good grammar by reading and there was no need.  Tony introduced a required grammar course for journalism majors.  Now about half of the students are english majors.

I think part of the problem lays in the hands of liberal teachers who feel it would hurt poor Jonnie's self esteem if they corrected poor grammar so they allow poor grammar propagate.

Lowell,

Is this better.  I am an engineer and do not profess to have perfect grammar.  I do not use the text-jargon and abreviations.

Lowell Tuttle

I am sorry Wayne, but when commenting on grammar, you should write in a fashion so reflected.

Edit.

Wayne Gary

Lowell,

Check my previous post with corrections.

Lowell Tuttle

Wayne, I think I made a D in English or grammar one six weeks, maybe 5th grade.  My mother made me get tutored. 

It was a church member, Mrs. Leach (who later taught my history class in 10th grade,) who gave me lessons on diagramming sentences.   I rode my paper route bike to her house across Arapaho near Floyd Road.

I don't know if it has helped me since, but later in the 7th grade we had to diagram sentences.  I had Ms. Nestroy.  I received a lot of extra credit for some very complicated diagram problems. 

I wish I could remember diagramming now.  I wonder if sentence structure is taught.

I am sure we have both just made some structure errors here today...but you made a very good attempt and it made sense to me.

Now....some blues...

Jim Baker (Baker)

Bobby -

Good for the humans of Walmart who make up management and the board!!

Doesn't seem to me that the "early opener" or "no masker" poitical leadership has much credibility as their first gambit didn't work.

Wear a mask everybody. Be as safe as you can without endangering others.

- Jimmy 

(And Bob, regarding your (non-) promiscuity problem, me too if the truth be known.)

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Lowell,

Grammar aside, you have an amazing memory!!!  Mrs. Nestroy!!  Wow.  I think I had her too!  I also remember diagramming sentences, the adjectives, adverbs, and on and on.  I don't remember my grade in that class, but I do remember diagramming on the chalk board. 

Jimmy,

Thank you for your post.  But have you heard the latest??  The "anti-maskers" have come up with a new strategy, lace masks.  Yep, you read that correctly.  It satifies the criteria for face covering and serves as a protest for those with the idea that masks somehow are inhibiting their freedom or free speech or something.  We have gun safety laws, seat belts, rabies vaccines and tags, mandated car insurance, and the list goes on, but masks are somehow a plot to destroy our "way of life".  You can't fix stupid. 

Steve Keene

Sandra

Can you get those at Victoria's Secret?

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Steve,

You gotta laugh to keep from going crazy!