How Did We Get Here?

There was an interesting thread between one of our beloved and intelligent readers, who’s blog I most certainly recommend to all of you. He goes by Mustang, and writes “Fix Bayonets”. Highly recommend it. The man knows what he talks about! Anyway, he posted on Saturday about how in the world did we get here, and it got me to thinking… how DID we get here?

Think of this for a minute. I don’t care what party you are from or where on the left/right pendulum you are situated, do you think that Dwight D. Eisenhower, or Harry S. Truman would take a look at the stuff going on in our country right now and think all is OK? Would Truman actually say that the buck is stopping with Biden? Or would he say, as Bill Clinton liked to say, “The buck never got here!”

I look at the way our government treats itself, treats the citizens, and treats our non-citizens, and wonder where we took that decided whacked turn off of the golden path of democracy? Would past presidents have gone along with an open border on the south? Would they have welcomed millions of illegals into the country without so much as batting an eyelash? And when they are called on it, they answer that the southern border is “secure”? Who does that?

And I look at the crime. How did we get to a place where five black police officers beat up a guy that ends up dying (he’s also black), and it’s blamed on racism (Thanks, CNN!)? Can someone please tell me what is racist about this incident? Everyone involved was of the same race…I mean, EVERYONE! And how do we get to the point where it’s also blamed on “white supremacy” when no one that was a part of it was white. In fact, the only white people that were involved were the people that actually charged the cops with second degree murder?

How do we get to a point where more emphasis and dollars are given to some crock about climate change, and let the people living on the streets of our cities go hungry, unhoused, uncared for? When did Greta Thunberg become so important that she trumps those millions of people living on our streets? Back in the day, those folks weren’t allowed to live on the streets. They were basically kept in asylums. At least they were until the leftists deemed it “cruel and unusual punishment” that they be kept there against their will. So, they were released, with no where to go, and no one to look out after them. The result is what you see today.

And how do we get to the point where presidents, former presidents, and vice presidents are allowed to take classified and top secret documents with them after they leave office? And the folks in Congress are shaking their heads wondering how it is that the current president was able, as a Senator, to go into a skiff, which is supposed to be secured, and heist a top secret document. Not just one mind you, but several…over a long period of time. What ever happened to that place being secure?

I have often looked around at our mess of a country and realized that we are indeed living in the decline of what can be called the greatest country in the world. No longer are we the best educated. No longer are we the richest. No longer are we the breadbasket of the world. Instead, we’re becoming (if we haven’t already become) second rate. Our students get out of high school with no idea how many states there are. They can’t read at a 12th grade level, and math? Forget about it. If they didn’t have a calculator with them, they couldn’t do simple addition and subtraction. How did they ever get passed from one grade to another? And when did critical race theory replace the three R’s when it comes to education? Who in the world is to blame for that one?

In case you missed it, the answer to that last question is the same for each of the instances above. The left is responsible. And actually, the right is responsible for allowing it to happen because they were afraid of being cancelled, or not being in the “in crowd” or some stupid thing like that. And both sides are guilty as sin. Both needs to be charged with ruining what was the greatest country in the history of the world.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Jill Biden On Education Is Like Me Running A Car Company…

I don’t care if Jill Biden has experience in the classroom or not. She doesn’t have a lot of great ideas when it comes to education. She sounds more like Randi Weingarten than she does someone that basically is supposed to have a PhD (she doesn’t…it’s an Ed.D…the same degree Bill Cosby holds). She still insists on being called “Doctor Jill Biden”, even though technically, it’s not a PhD. She got it, by the way from the University of Delaware. The reason it’s not a PhD is simply because the University rejected her dissertation as “as sloppy, poorly written, non-academic, and barely fit for a middle-school Social Studies classroom.” Yikes!

But Jill Biden and I do agree on a couple of things regarding education. Our system is a mess. We will differ radically on the reasons, and the fixes. You’ve heard hers, here’s mine.

I agree with Jill Biden that we need to pay teachers more. We need to respect teachers more. That’s where we agree. I think starting salary for teachers should be $100,000. They are molding our kids’ brains, after all. Where Jill Biden and I disagree is how to get at that starting salary.

Teachers should have at the very least, a masters degree. When I was in school back in the stone age, I actually had teachers in high school who were only five years older than me. They had just gotten out of college. They weren’t ready for the classroom (and they weren’t ready for me!) Yes, teachers who have advanced degrees get paid more at pretty much any school district, so the incentive is there. But it’s not a requirement. And you’ve got people as teachers who are not that smart, and are lazy. They are everywhere. Those folks needed to be weeded out. One way to do that is through a system of tests or ratings that the teachers would go through on a regular basis. Another thing teachers should be required to do is to take on-going training. I don’t care if you’ve been in the classroom for 50 years, you are behind the times unless you get trained on the latest techniques that are working elsewhere. Those are things that can be done to make sure teachers are respected. As we’ve seen with Jill’s husband, you don’t respects someone who’s terrible at their job. That holds teachers as well as presidents. And trust me, the kids know who the good teachers are and who the bad apples are. They aren’t being fooled.

One thing I would do immediately is to dissolve the teachers’ unions. Unions were put together for one reason and that was to protect the worker and make sure they were paid for their efforts. What’s happened since the days of Joseph Riis was that rather than train their members and keep them informed of the latest developments (like the trade unions do with their apprenticeships), teachers’ unions set the bar to protect the lowest member’s abilities and they protect that person. That’s a terrible way to improve anything because 99% are going to be better than the low bar naturally.

The next thing I would do, and parents are going to hate this, is make school a year round thing. Yes, there would be ample time for vacations in the summer, but school is best mastered when you do it. If you take three months off every year, you lose some of what you’ve learned. As for curriculum, I think what needs to be done is a totally non-biased curriculum that doesn’t pander to race, gender, sex, or nationality. There would be no Critical Race Theory because while we haven’t always been a nation that’s shined at handling race issues, it’s not about tearing anyone or anything down. School is about building up your mind. Period. It’s not there to indoctrinate you to some liberal idiot’s way of thinking. It’s to teach you a) how to think and b) open your eyes to the facts of the world. What they need to do is go back to the “3R’s” of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Need proof? Go watch any YouTube video on people trying to answer questions like, “How many stars are on an American flag”, or “Where is the United States Capital?” Be prepared to be shocked at how dumb some people are!

Teachers should be better compensated. Teachers should be better respected. But they’ll never get there with School Boards that tell parents that they are terrorists because they disagree with the curriculum that is being doled out on a daily basis. Teachers’ unions may have had a reason for being in the past, but nowadays it’s all about making more money. I say let each individual teacher be judged on his or her merit and compensated accordingly. You don’t need a union setting that standard. The good teachers are ALWAYS underpaid, and the bad ones are always overpaid.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

You Think Illegal Aliens Deserve Humane Treatment?

I don’t usually post other people’s stuff…I’ve just never been into doing that. However, this bears repeating…Read on!

Nine hundred teachers just got laid off from the Los Angeles Unified School District.  They are $650,000 over their annual budget. The following comments by an English teacher help to explain one area that looms large over California’s educational crisis. I hope each person receiving this mail will read it carefully, all the way to the end.

This English teacher has phrased it the best I’ve seen yet and it should make everyone think, be you Democrat, Republican or Independent.
  
From a California school teacher….
As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some things that you should be aware of: I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a large southern California high school which is designated a Title-1 school, meaning that its students average in the lower socio-economic and income levels.

Most of the schools you are hearing about are Compton, South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc., where their students are protesting – these are also Title-1 schools.
Title-1 schools are on the free-breakfast and free-lunch program.  When I say free breakfast, I’m not talking about a glass of milk and a roll.  But a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make the Marriott proud.  The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten. (Our tax dollars at work!)

I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight.  About 75% or more have cell phones.  The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids (More of our tax dollars at work!)

I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department, or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything.  My budget was already substantial, but I ended up buying new computers for the Computer Learning Center, half of which, one month later, were carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America. (More and more of our tax dollars at work!)

I have had to intervene several times for young substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less than 3 months, who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them putas (whores) and throwing things,
that the teachers were in tears.

Free medical care, free education, free food, free day care, etc., etc., etc.  Is it any wonder they feel entitled not only to be in this country, but also to demand rights, privileges and entitlements?
To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants contribute to our society, because they happen to like their gardener and/or housekeeper, and they like to pay less for tomatoes, I say: Spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the true costs.
Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, overcrowding, new diseases, etc.., etc., etc.  For me, I’ll pay more for tomatoes.

Americans, we need to wake up.  The guest worker program will be a disaster because we won’t have the guts to enforce it.  Does anyone in their right mind really think they will voluntarily leave and return?
It does, however, have everything to do with culture: A third-world culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by age 15, and that refuses to assimilate, plus an American culture that has become
so weak and worried about “political correctness”, that we don’t have the will to do what is needed.
If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to everyone you know including your Congressman and Senators.

Cheap labor? Isn’t that what the whole immigration issue is about? Business doesn’t want to pay a decent wage.
Consumers don’t want expensive produce.  Government will tell you “Americans don’t want the jobs”.
But the bottom line is cheap labor.  The phrase “cheap labor” is a myth, a farce, and a lie.  There is no such thing as “cheap labor”.

Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children.  He takes a job for $5.00 or $6.00/hour.  At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an income tax return, he gets an “earned income credit”
of up to $3,200 free.

                
Also….
1- He qualifies for Section-8 housing and subsidized rent;

2- He qualifies for food stamps;

3- He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care;

4- His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school;

5- He requires bilingual teachers and books;

6- He qualifies for relief from high energy bills;

7- If they are, or become aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI;

8- Once qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare (All of this at taxpayer’s  {our} expense);

9- He doesn’t worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowner’s insurance;

10- Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material;

11- He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits;

12- Working Americans are lucky to have $5.00 or $6.00/hour left after paying their bills and his;

13- The American taxpayers also pays for increased crime, graffiti and trash clean-up.

14-  Free Child Care  (i.e., free babysitting from 6 AM – 6 PM
  
15-  Free  ‘mommy makeovers’ after having their children  ( includes:  tummy tuck and breast lift)
  
Cheap labor? Yeah right! Wake up people! These are the questions we should be addressing to the Presidential candidates for either party. We must take action or we will all go down the drain because a few don’t care. And if you think this is bad, just wait until a Democrat becomes President and the redistribution of wealth becomes the norm in this ex-Democracy.
This will be passed on only by those Americans who truly care!

Ocasio-Cortez’ Proposals From Another World

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an economics major from Boston University. Now, if you were to spend any time listening to her extol her virtues on how our world should be shaped economically, you’d probably end up thinking she came from the University of Moscow. It’s that disjointed.

Let’s just look at what she’s talking about, shall we?

She is proposing a top tiered tax rate of 70%. That takes us back to the Carter era. When you tax the wealthiest Americans that much, what happens? The answer is, they figure a work around. They always have, and they always will. They either sit on what they’ve earned and stop making money until the high tax bracket goes away, or they decide that there are other loopholes that Congress left in that they can take advantage of. These people employ the best and brightest CPA’s and money managers. They understand that stuff better than Ocasio-Cortez ever will. And therefore, they won’t really be hurt by such a tax increase. It also means that they won’t be paying it. That leads to an increase in the federal debt.

Ocasio-Cortez wants free college for all…and to forgive all college debt. Over the next 10 years, Ocasio-Cortez’ proposal for free college would run over $2.1 Trillion. That includes all of the students currently enrolled in college, and the actual influx of students that would attend college if it were free. Add that to the $22 Trillion federal debt we’ve got today. Now, add another $1.2 Trillion. That’s the amount of outstanding student loans that are out there. So this proposal is going to cost about $3.3 Trillion…and that’s a conservative estimate. I tried to run the numbers on what that would be from a per family number and frankly, I got boggled. I think it’s something like costing each person in the country $10,000 or so. That’s each person, not each household. And that’s each year not over 10 years. At least that’s my figures. If you come up with something different let me know.

Now let’s look at free healthcare, another of Ocasio-Cortez’ wish list. Free universal healthcare would be a huge hit. We’re talking about $8,700 between private and public funds for each person according to the latest Bernie Sanders model. That comes out to a staggering $4.8 TRILLION per year! Again, if my math is fuzzy, let me know.

Overall in this country we cannot afford her proposals for one simple reason…there just isn’t enough money in the country to accomodate her wishes. That’s what I don’t understand about liberals. They have no problem coming up with expensive ideas. They just have a problem with figuring how they are going to pay for them. And we are talking about a person that graduated from an elite school in economics! Did she even go to class?

The dumbing down of America has been complete if people are going to buy into this ludicrous notion that the government is going to give anything free. It’s wealth redistribution, it’s not free. Someone is going to end up paying for it. Government may be able to print money, but they certainly don’t make any of it. They take it from the people that they govern. And there is the problem with government-subsidized anything.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!