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. 

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Response" button to add your entry to the forum.

Steve Keene

Sandra and Tommy,

The Democrats are the kings of actions with unintended consequences.  Only they could put even convicts out of work.  The Montana Department of Corrections reported today that they had to suspend license plate stamping by inmates because of supply chain issues obtaining aluminum.

Now, if they were short of paint, I could understand if they said it was because they had too much on their plate.

In other news, Pope Francis declares that he approves Joe Biden continuing taking communion despite the fact that he is the poster boy for abortion.  I bet all those Catholics that were excommunicated for divorce and other infractions of Church policy are checking their hold cards today.

I wonder if the Pope or Slow Joe checked with God to ask if He approves.  Nah, that would make too much religious sense.

Wayne Gary

I just read where Republicans in the House have sent a letter to 3 Biden cabinet members explaing their proposal to give $450K to illeagal immagrants whose families were seperated at the border during Trump adminstration.

From New York Post

Republican lawmakers are blasting reports that the Biden administration is discussing paying almost half a million dollars per person to illegal immigrants who were separated from their families at the southern border during the Trump administration — calling it “insanity,” “unacceptable” and a “slap in the face.”

First reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering the payments in order to settle lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of families who crossed into the US from Mexico illegally to seek asylum. The families were separated under former President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy in 2018. 

Wayne Gary

Tommy,

Should we pay thousands of $ to the family that is separated when a person convicted of a crime and sent to jail.  Those who violated our immigration laws and entered this country illegally are also criminals.

 Biden is not working to pay people that came here before or after Trump adminstration.

Do we make it a policy where a person comes to the US illegally and you will get thousands of dollars?  We would then have an even larger flood of people.

Lowell Tuttle

It seems to me the ACLU is suing or is going to sue the US government on behalf of injured persons in the family separation immigrant suit.  Was what they did against the law?  Seems a civil issue.

Discussions on what to do included a proposal of a 450,000 settlement.   That seemed out of proportion to someone who either witnessed or got wind of the offer.   It was released to media and like everything else, it has been blown out of wack.

Now, I would guess 450k is out of the question,,..,  But, the ACLU suit will go forward, costing money and time and eventually ending up in the hands of a jury...then appealed, then reduced, then overturned, then finally settled...

Which brings up a point on or of or about the ACLU....Like anything else, good and bad...and in between.

Steve Keene

Tommy

If Biden and the government have a desire to keep all families together, why does their new infrastructure bill contain a law to get all women to register for the draft.  We have a scenario where our daughters can be drafted and receive low pay to risk their lives defending this country that has shown weakness in the face of our enemies which invites our enemies to attack us.  They will retire with minimal benefits in they survive so that illegal aliens can receive free health care, government food stamps and assistance and payments for tax credits for their children.  None of these payments is available for our white veterans.  The world is upside down and benefits are meted out to people of color at the exclusion of poor white people.

Steve Keene

Tommy,

On the other site you commented on the state of Texas making it illegal to chain up dogs outside.  You said you hate people that would abuse animals like that.

Hollis and I find that the new law discriminates against cats.

Rick Wilber

Jim Bedwell

Tommy,

The video wasn't "cleared up", as you so disingenuously put it. It exists, you will see it some day (even tho intellectual honesty seems to have vanished, at least intellectual curiosity may still remain?), and nothing you can say will change that. It clearly shows several similarly dressed, un-uniformed men with faces mostly covered breaking the doors in. Then after this team had done its Dem "work", they let all the people in. Keep spinning if you want; that's one of the many reprehensible things the left does.

Just as Joe Biden is so ready & willing to turn the page on having ABANDONED (we now know - they were lying - duh) HUNDREDS of American citizens (not any more than 100 they said) and their families plus THOUSANDS of green card holders & other helpers for a poorly conceived idea of a photo op on a particular date (truly evil), you are similarly willing to turn the page on defeat in this ridiculously trivial kerfuffle YOU created, declare victory, and turn your page of failure.

Keep posting, and we'll keep putting you in your place. IT'S SO EASY!!!! To go along with the Trump Derangement Syndrome, I'm beginning to think you're really got some masochistic tendencies you must have developed over the last several years since you seem to like to continue being humiliated so much.

Wayne Gary

Tommy, Steve,

Currently we do not have a draft and have not had draft since Vietnam war ended.  We do have a required enrollment.  Should we have a war where enough people will volunteer than we will have a draft. Women are now allowed into combat and we now have a Trans 4 star Gen in the surgeons Gen office.

Since people want equality then women should be required to register.

Jim Bedwell

Tommy,

GOOD MOVE. Maybe you're FINALLY wising up? TRULY THANK YOU!!!!

I don't know how to get the video. You think I wouldn't post it if I could?

Jim Bedwell

Tommy,

No, I'm too lazy and also averse to assignments like this forum's sponsor might be also. But it certainly confirms in my mind what I had heard suspected. Like I said, you'll see it eventually if you desire to.

Jim Bedwell

Tommy,

Your GOOD MOVE was your posting like a reasonable, intelligent person would, you know, like the Tommy Thomas that everybody I know really liked if not loved & enjoyed back in the day. But you just want me to spend time explaining the obvious, correct? Pardon me for being a cynic, but I'll say the following.

I don't care if you think the squad's agenda is WAY too conservative. But just remember if you let it out what you think, what the GREAT Samuel Clemens said,

"It's better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you're a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt". (Twain 101:1, JRB)

Especially in these days of HUGE spiritual warfare going on, the pattern of letting people say foolish things may be over since so much is now obviously at risk, not just spiritually, but that's over everything else non-spiritual.

And yes, that revelation of stupidity to others can happen even with people like reported-1600-SAT scoundrel Chuck Schumer so he matches your GRE math score.

OK, enough time on you today.............WAY more than enough......

Jim Bedwell

Tommy,

Fair enough. Amen.

HOWEVER I just saw at 5:37 CST, now your changing that GOOD MOVE #24372. CAREFUL!!! I may withdraw my approval just like I did when I fell for your Lexington, VA march foolishness accusing Trump of doing something he didn't do, before I thoroughly checked out what had happened years earlier that I hadn't paid much attention to at the time. I will respond to that if you do something in my eyes, and it will hurt only you. Please don't waste any more of my, your, or our time.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Tommy,

Fox News is having a special this coming week about what happened on January 6th, and the special will undoubtedly have recorded video that is from the Capitol's cameras.  It is being narrated, I believe, partly by Tucker Carlson, but possibly be others as well.  I'm not sure what will be in the special, but I AM sure that everyone should watch it, as it will have disputed information explained, most likely.  Fox News has had other specials well worth watching, but many folks believe that Fox only gives out conspiracy info and "DISinformation."  

I hope you will watch it and report on it here on this forum.  We can all chime in on it and discuss it with reasonable civility, yes?

There HAVE been videos shown on Fox and other conservative outlets, which show Capitol police opening outside doors of the Capitol and waving people in on January 6th, but just exactly which video Sandra's clip was is hard to tell.  She may have gotten it from YouTube, or some other website.  A clip I saw was a policeman waving people inside, from two double doors, and after the folks entered, he walked around with them showing them various rooms and explaining to them the purpose of those rooms, as if he were a tour guide.  All of them were discussing things, in a civilized manner, and then he motioned them to some exit doors which is where they went to leave the building.  I also saw a policeman having his picture taken by some folks in the Capitol as they all stood in front of someone's cell phone for a shot of them smiling together.  It looked as if it could have been an ordinary day of visitors visiting the Capitol building, but it was evidently taken hours after the initial mayhem had happened.  As for FBI agents being involved during that day's fiasco, there HAVE been reports of certain undercover "G-men," being interspersed in the crowd.  That is one definite aspect that Tucker Carlson is including in his special, so it will be interesting to learn more about that.  Maybe it was just a rumor, but maybe there are facts therein.  There is one man I have seen questioned by reporters on video that I saw one night, (not sure when I saw it) and that man is a man who is under investigation, evidently, because he was shouting at Republican rebel-rousers that day, encouraging them to enter the Capitol---egging them on, if you will.  Why was he doing that (?) is the question of the hour, it seems.  I hope that on the special broadcast, that man will be found and will be required to answer relevant questions.  Also there are photos circulating of men that some folks say could easily have been plain-clothed FBI, but of course, the public has not been informed of that possibility.  The public NOW wants to know the whole truth of what happened that day, in it's entirety.  I'm hoping we get it!

Jim Bedwell

Bob D,

I echo your EXTREME sadness at how ignorant our political enemies are because they listen only to those ridiculous info sources. So that alternates with anger of course, now that everything's so blatantly falling apart and so quickly. But concerning EVERYTHING now emanating from their side, including I guess the most preposterous thing I've ever heard, reparations for illegal aliens, it really reminds me of that Groucho song whose title "Show Me a Rose" is the 1st half of the refrain (in bold) I extracted here:

Show me a rose,
And I'll show you a girl named Sam.
Show me a rose,
Or leave me alone.

They really just have nothing to offer of value that would help all the fiascos Biden NOT ONLY CREATED BUT ALSO IS ACTIVELY TRYING TO INCREASE IN QUANTITY AND "QUALITY" - AND LIKELY UNWITTINGLY!?!?!?!?!?! Yeah, thank God we got rid of that mean tweeter............that really was intolerable............

Off to see Derek Doggett the 38th time - I NEED THAT!

Lowell Tuttle

There is some 14000 minutes of video available.  

Like I posted earlier, a very freaky video with interviews of taxed, injured guards is now airing on HBO called Four Hours at the Capitol.  

From viewing most of that doc, it appears to me the tunnel was stacked with guards and people for the entire siege.   So, if anyone freely walked into the Capitol thru that tunnel, this show I watched partly did not show it.  It was total war in that part of the Capitol.

I realize whoever put the interviews and the narration over the "arranged" videos could be perceived to have a jaded or purposeful slant.

So might anything on Fox.   (Edit)  So WILL Fox.

Steve Keene

Lowell,

So will the Henhouse stations CNN, ABC. MSNBC, NPR, and CBS.  Henhouse implies that they are fed their news and do not find it for themselves as a Fox does.

Lowell Tuttle

Steve, sorry, but I specifically remember CNN correspondents in Iraq 1 during the bombings and missle attacks and Fox just re broadcasting the show using CNN and BBC footage as the war broke out.  They just showed the other channels' footage 15 minutes later.    I don't love CNN, but saying Fox has some kind of journalistic superiority is simply ignorant, (in a kind sort of way

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

If a person or persons should tell you one day, that "You should acknowledge your privilege right now!".....you should tell those persons that you acknowledge your privileges every day as you give thanks on bended knees before The Almighty.  People who speak to you in terms of 'the religion' to which they adhere, the religion of obeying the "White Privilege" nonsensical, recent construct, are speaking the rhetoric of an evil and deranged 'religion, of sorts'.  Dismiss those people immediately, telling them to find a Bible to read as soon as possible, before they speak about privilege again to any Christian in the USA.

Speak ye the truth, or don't speak at all, if you contend that you are an educated person in this country speaking to Christians, PLEASE!

David Cordell

Lowell,

Fox News is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary. It started from scratch in 1996, and it naturally took a while to get up to snuff. In any case, Fox News attracted reporters from other mainstream outlets. Examples: Brit Hume was chief White House correspondent for ABC. Chris Wallace was at CBS and NBC. Tucker Carlson was with CNN for 5 years.

Regarding viewership, here is bit from Forbes on September 28:

Fox News Channel is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a win—easily defeating its cable news competition in third quarter ratings compiled by Nielsen, with an average prime time audience of 2.372 million viewers, well ahead of MSNBC (1.267 million viewers) and CNN (822,000 viewers).

That is, FoxNews had a bigger audience than MSNBC and CNN combined.

In my opinion FoxNews is no more conservative than MSNBC is liberal. Indeed, I would say less so. The constant harrangues from MSNBC about the total lie Russian hoax were despicable, but I don't hear any mea culpas or criticisms from the left. They were clearly an integral part of the Democrat machine. And what about that a-hole Jim Acosta. Does he pester Biden like he pestered Trump? Of course not, because Biden is inaccessibe to the press. His puppet masters don't want us to see him stumble and fumble, as would surely be the case.

Fox News offers an alternative  to the networks and MSNBC and CNN. Viewers are voting with their remotes.

Fox News has also covered other issues differently. For example, the Hunter Biden laptop issue was virtually ignored by mainstream media, except for Fox News' sister newspaper, the New York Post. How much are CNN and MSNBC covering Hunter Biden's shameless effort to cash in on his father's name through his artwork.  Also Fox News began questioning the "natural" origin of COVID-19 early in the pandemic.

Oh, and I considered ridiculous that Trump was impeached for urging a foreign leader to investigate corruption, but Biden skates when it is obvious that his son was trading on Biden's name with a plumb board position for which he was notably unqualified. Also, Biden actually bragged about telling a foreign leader to fire a prosecuting attorney or else US money would be withdrawn. What is that??

It makes me ill to hear Dems talk about Trump's wanting to be a dictator. Just look at Biden's actions, including flauting the law by ignoring the border crisis. And why is there no talk of Biden's being divisive?? Trump was supposedly divisive because Dems didn't like him or his policies. I think Biden is far more divisive by trying to take this country rapidly to left in one fell swoop, in spite of the fact that Dems have no majority in the Senate and a very slim majority in the House. Do conservatives get to call him divisive? Sure, but in a vaccuum from the Democrat news media.

Obviously, none of this makes any difference in a population in which everyone's heels are dug in.

Steve Keene

Lowell,

Catching up on the news this morning..   Or as I like to refer to it, out of touch with reality TV.

Janalu,

I have "funny" privilege.  It used to mean something totally different, but now it means I am more funny looking than most.

Tommy,

For Halloween I am dressed up as a Lego.  The first thing I Lego was my diet.  Tomorrow is my favorite holiday.  50% off Halloween Candy day  My second favorite is the day after Valentine's.

David Cordell

Lance,

Good effort. Still working on the concept. Will get back to you.

David Cordell

One thing about Fox News -- Its on-air personalities have authored or co-authored lots of best sellers. The current number 10 on the New York Times nonfiction list is American Marxism by Mark Levin. Number 1 is Bret Baier's biography of U.S. Grant's presidency -- To Rescue the Republic.

Janalu, or anyone else with Fox Nation -- 

I just watched a video on Fox Nation in which Bret Baier presents the basics of the book, replete with lots of photos. A lot about reconstruction and the maltreatment and killing of black people in the south. Grant finished writing his autobiography one week before his death. He wrote it primarily to provide for his wife since was dead broke after being swindled. 

By coincidence, my sister-in-law recently sent me a boxed set of two books, one of which is Personal Memoirs, by Ulysses S. Grant. Along with selected letters and an appendix, it approaches 1200 pages, but it is considered to be a particularly well-written chronical of his days as a soldier.

I fully expect Bob D or Kurt to respond, "Yeah, I read it." 

Kurt Fischer

No, David, I have not read Grant's memoirs.  I've been aware of the tragic race he ran in writing them.  I believe he had cancer of the jaw and was in terrific pain during the last months while writing.

By coincidence, I have returned to reading the Civil War trilogy by the father and son authors Michael and Jeff Shaara.  I'm currently half way through "The Killer Angels".  Great historical novels about key aspects of the Civil War.

I did just complete my seventh reading of Patrick O'Brian's seafaring novels.  There are twenty books in the Aubrey/Maturin series.  I used to read the books while on business trips.  Now I find they are just as good during vacation times.  Or, as I call it now, my extended weekend (ie., retirement).

Jim Bedwell

Bob D,

And what is EVEN MORE SAD TO ME, as Hannity or Tucker say almost every day, all this today was SO PREDICTABLE AND PREVENTABLE.

AND SO FIXABLE RIGHT NOW (a currently unemployed mean tweeter, actually has ALL the solutions for ALL of it) - but no, the Emperor still has those clothes on, or apparently tens of millions of awake/woke Americans seem to still think so.............

Kurt,

Grant's memoirs are universally acclaimed as the very best of any American military person ever written, ranking with the best of the world at anytime (perhaps not just military people?), to my understanding. Truly an underappreciated, BRILLIANT man, apart from the military prowess. And for those who always bring up the corruption of his administration, he wasn't part of it, he just picked bad people and/or didn't monitor them like he should have (Trump also picked some bad people, but he would get rid of them eventually in most cases), similar to Harding and his otherwise EXCELLENT administration as well - he helped pull us out of the economic mess southern Dem Wilson caused - he was the first Dem for that (since I don't know much about Grover Cleveland's beyond just a couple lowlights to my current shame but I AM lazy and it is football Sunday). Coolidge with his laissez faire approach, was also one of the best Presidents, despite the left-wing historical view of just a dumb guy who never said or did much of anything (thank God! Joe could learn from that!). All Republicans - DUH!

Lance,

THANK YOU for your most recent post. You and we ALL needed that!!! AMEN!

Steve,

YOU NEVER CEASE TO AMAZE WITH YOUR PUN HUMOR! I hope you never die!! On second thought...................hahahaha!!! Also my favorite holiday is EVERY DAY ON THE CANDY AISLE AT THE WINCO HERE - Winco is our bargain basement grocery here. YEE HAW!!!!