A coloring book teaches radical politics to public school kids. Plus: Lessons from the Tuskegee Airmen, Vinay Prasad on the cancer research crisis, and more.
"Disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and "villages" that collectively care for each other."
Strong communities don't disrupt the nuclear family structure, nor vice versa. In fact, the nuclear family structure is the most vital aspect to having strong communities. Seriously ask yourself, why would anyone want to actively attack the idea of having a family?
It has to do with influence. In a tight family, the family is the strongest influence. There are those that want to break that influence and steal it for themselves.
Yes - but people shouldn’t be looked down on either, if they do not have the good fortune of having a supportive family.
That’s why smart laws and sound policies in a system governed by law is so important. I’ve seen people be able to make their own lives and futures - by knowing they have somewhere to turn if something goes haywire (fired illegally, moving to a large urban area on their own knowing they can carve out independent lives) and they don’t have the support of a family who can help.
Often times in some cultures/countries where the family unit is extremely tight, it is often a protection against a very corrupt system (find yourself in legal trouble and the family is the only thing to turn to). Of course there are plenty of examples of family as the most important thing simply reflects the values of that group/society/religion, etc.
I’m not knocking the family unit at all!
My whole point is that denigrating the family AND the society and the healthy, functional institutions that hold it up - leaves a person with the idea there’s nowhere to go or that the only place to find meaning is among these “groups” they’ve decided are what counts.
It’s so sick and destructive - it’s not just communism/Marxism/,
That was exactly the part I came here to comment on. Black villages…like ghettos? With high levels of gang violence, drive-by shooting, drug dealing, and teen pregnancies?
How’s that “collective caring” working out for you?
That was exactly my reaction. I never read such nonsense in my life. I'm no expert, but I see decades of American society bending over backwards to give Black Americans every opportunity possible. White people tremble in fear of saying anything that could be construed to be offensive. The result seems to be open hostility to the concept of the American "melting pot", a black violent crime rate several hundred percent that of whites (and all others), not to mention a high black victimization rate (mostly from other blacks), a high rate of absent fathers (especially in big cities) and a chip on many black shoulders that seems to be growing, not shrinking. Unless your goal is to destroy this country, whatever we're doing does not seem to be working. Legitimate grievances at one point have now degenerated into the theater of the absurd. What am I missing?
> I see decades of American society bending over backwards to give Black Americans every opportunity possible
I don't see that. Not really. I see bending over backwards allowing/encouraging black Americans to commit crimes and get away with them. But I also see that educational attainment in Chicago Public Schools (one of the more heavily black school districts) go from 80% math competency to 17% from 2010 to 2022. You point out a ton of other factors in your post, too.
The actual OPPORTUNITY for all Americans - regardless of race - peaked many years ago and is now in the gutter.
Yeah, some people say lousy public education is THE civil rights issue of our time. I don't disagree. Where's the outrage by civil rights leaders? Crickets...
Are you serious?!? Those “civil rights leaders” don’t WANT their target audience to be educated or think for themselves. If they could do that, they might leave the plantation.
Per heyjackass.com, Chicago in 2023 had 647 homicides of which 507 were those whose victims were Black. In the same year, there were 5 shootings by cops where the person died. In 2023 you had a 100x chance of being killed by a non-cop in Chicago. Where is the reporting on this? Don't Black Lives Matter?
If a black person is killed by a policeman, their life seems to matter. If that same person is killed in their own neighborhood minding their own business, their life doesn't seem to amount to a ripple on the surface of a pond. Can someone explain this?
Infants don't CHOOSE to be born into that collective. And thanks to the cultural indoctrination they get, many of them are never in the position to leave.
Not sure about that. I met more than a few black people when I was in the Army who came from bad environments. Some of them struggled to adapt their first year or two, which is natural when you come from a neighborhood where most of the adult role-models are used to being completely unaccountable for their actions, other than the ones who go to prison.
But the ones who made it past those initial hurdles tended to be good soldiers because they appreciated an environment where people were held accountable and where they could advance on their own merit.
The ones who claim they can never leave aren't real adults. They're just overgrown children terrified of taking the risk of leaving their loser friends and loser family members behind.
The people you met took the opportunity of joining the Army, which got them out of those environments.
How many of their peers never left? Or even thought of leaving?
I'm not saying that it's not possible to get out. But when the indoctrination you get as a child leaves you believing that your environment is "normal," or that you CAN'T get out, a lot of those children will grow up without even considering the possibility of leaving.
I mean, that's kind of on them if they really believe they can't move anywhere else.
I've been down to my last few dollars (literally scraping up change to buy a pack of hot dogs to last me till payday kind of broke), a few times in my adult life, and yet I still mustered the resolve to improve my situation and not just sit in a shithole situation.
Something is broken with those people you're describing, and Democrats do nothing to help unbreak them.
Sorry, I have neither the legal nor moral obligation to care for those kids. Not American, not migrants. Deal with the world you live under yourself. Don’t put it on the rest of us. We have our own kids to care for, our own lives to live and defend. Don’t like your school? Go to the school board and insist on change. Vote the incompetent rulers out. Of course, you gonna have to put down the crack pipe, the doobies, the liquor bottles and stop having more kids first. But if you do not….not my problem.
On Honestly, Melissa Kearney said that 80% of black children are born of single mothers. I think the nuclear family is already dead in these communities.
I don’t know that it’s all that. In Norway, to combat the low birth rates, the government started giving women over 1.3 million $ on average over her lifetime towards the cost of raising children. On average, that’s more “aid” than she receives from a male partner. And yet… they choose to stay together and single mother rate didn’t get anywhere close to 80%. I wonder what else would explain this in the black community.
Yes, as DIA said nearby, it's essentially culture, and heavily American. Witness the success many African immigrants have in the U.S. who are not steeped in this stuff. I blame an exploitative media, film and music culture to at least some extent.
There is no proof this statement was ever made. The first reference appeared in a 1995 book by Ronald Kessler. An Air Force 1 back up pilot claimed he overheard a conversation between LBJ and two unnamed governors. There has never been collaboration. History is not made by such claims. In court it is hearsay. LBJ was a product of place and time. He certainly used the word( as did Nixon and Truman). Just not in this context. This is fake history which is worse than fake news. Black drift from the Democrats began with FDR. It exploded after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Republican nominee Goldwater voted against the legislation. Goldwater an otherwise decent man actively sought the hardcore segregationist vote in the only states he won, except Arizona. In Alabama LBJ wasn’t even on the ballot. Since Nixon in 1960 ( not 68) Trump is the first Republican candidate to actively court black voters. The LBJ quote is as credible as the claim Michelle Obama is a man.
A first hand account IS corroboration. Besides, anyone that knew LBJ or followed his career knows this was very much his style and belief. He was about as cynical as they come. And you didn't address D-28's point - how did we go from a high rate of intact families comparable across racial categories to the disaster that followed the Great Society? What do YOU think contributed to these changes? That's what we're talking about.
A claimed overheard conversation related many years later is not confirmation or collaboration the latter requires two people agreeing . That here is not the case. There is not even proof the pilot was on Air Force one since he was not a primary pilot. I stated LBJ certainly used the word or various accented versions such as negra or nigra depending on the audience, as did other Presidents. His most prolific biographer Robert Caro candidly admits. As for his other claim, I thought it was a separate posting. I’ve neurological and vision problems and a post like this it takes time. On that post I do have thoughts. No doubt family disintegration has risen in the past sixty years. I taught mostly black students for forty years I know from personal observation. Charles Murray, certainly no liberal has noted a similar but slower pathology in white working class families. As for his 1960 date Daniel Patrick Moynihan has noted that family breakdown commenced before 1960 and the Great Society. Did the latter contribute, most likely. Before 1960 most blacks lived in a ( either dejure or de facto ) segregated society. Should we return to that? Many of the spending programs of the Great Society were ineffective, destructive and divisive. The 64 Civil Rights and 65 Voting Rights Acts were correctives to unconstitutional acts by the states not efforts at social engineering.
First of all, there is no law that says "two people have to agree on anything said". Individual testimony occurs all the time.
And here's what Pat Moynihan actually said: "The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States."
I echo D-28 - thanks for "your service" teaching for so long. That' a tough job.
Even Snopes, who has been run by liberals for over a decade, admits that phrase “wouldn’t have been entirely out of character for LBJ”. LBJ was a noted segregationist at a minimum and the CRA would not have passed without Everett Dirksen and 77 other republicans. After serving in the south in the late '80s I have no doubt the Air Force steward heard LBJ correctly.
By no means am I implying only blacks were affected by the Great Society crimes... The stats are simply clearer. The goal of the Left and their communist Fathers is to break up the family and it is working quite well.
Ok. But remember a claimed sexual assault from decades ago where the alleged victim can neither remember the location or even the year is totally legit.
The statistics on the AA family and single mothers have been hard statistics since the 1960's. In some communities, marriage is unknown. Incredibly sad for all involved.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a renowned Democrat politician who was instrumental to the creation of the Great Society legislation, later in his career lamented the effects that those laws had on black families. Although, in hindsight, those effects may seem obvious, the intent at the time was to lift black children from poverty.
Clearly, it was the wrong approach, but we have stuck with it faithfully. We are now enjoying the fruits.
A healthy family is necessary for healthy individuation, and society is progressive or regressive according to the overall level of mental health, as defined by differentiation.
Collectivist societies are created by and for extremely immature, undeveloped and emotionally sick people, and they work best—the propaganda works best—when all the members of the society are ALSO immature, undeveloped and sick.
And our society is trending heavily in that regressive, sick direction, not least BECAUSE of organized assaults on healthy childhood that have been on-going for decades.
I will say again, as I oftrn have, that no “mental health professional” should fail to speak out against these plainly pathological Collectivist/Regressivists assaults. Yes, it creates more paying clients than they can handle, but they cant do anything but slow the bleeding in a world where everyone is bleeding out.
Agree. But we can expand our ideas around nuclear. Fostering two-parent or more and extended families and villages is important for the younger generations pushed further and further away from their grandparents and extended families by the isolation created by social media.
It started even earlier than that, when people started moving away from their extended family. I was lucky. My aunts and uncles all lived within a day's drive, and most of them within a half-hour's drive. But some of my cousins lived in distant places.
Now it's rare for people to stay put near their family. My husband's maternal aunt and uncle, and then his brother and sister live distant from us and from each other. His cousins on that side all live in far-flung places.
Yup. My mother. The only one of five girls to make the annual pilgrimage; at least one visit per year to all the others -- ranging from Boston to the NY finger lakes (rather a trek. pre-I-way). When she died... nada. Wee moved a half-dozen times during grade school; I have no connection whatsoever with any of my childhood. We all decry "social" media, but distance is also a first-rate relationship eraser.
Yes, for sure. It’s so much harder to stay connected to the family in which you were born. But, we create the families we choose, and I think that’s very important too.
One of the greatest blessings for anyone, anywhere.
My dad was one of 5, and my grandfather died when he was 22. Dad and his mom cobbled together a plan and, together, they put all of the siblings through college while Dad served in WWII.
Anyway, they all got together for Thanksgiving, no matter what was going on or where they were. Last year we had 4 generations, 104 people from 95 to 9 months, all in the same room, laughing and loving.
"It's okay to have unprotected sex with random dudes because you don't need a strong father figure in your child's life. Our teachers and government officials will be all the father figure they need."
Everyone, especially parents should watch the Patrick Bet-David podcast episode with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice. I thought I had heard most of what is going on in public schools but she had information that will make your hair curl.
Around the 1950s, American families saw prosperity and started moving REALLY far from the land of their birth. Of course, that was nothing new, but the scale to which it happened was unprecedented. So, where once you might have been surrounded by cousins, uncles, aunts, meddling grandparents, and a giant extended family, suddenly became the "nuclear family" of just a father,mother, and a few kids in a new city.
This idea of the family - moving into your big house with a white picket fence in a faraway city - became a symbol and icon of the European-American people from 1950 to 1980. The massive divorce rates, rapidly rising house prices, etc, have made that an untenable ideal in the 21st century.
Totally off topic, but I hope the Google AI image generator is on TFP's radar. It will refuse to show white men under any circumstances and lectures you if you ask to see pictures of white people. It will add the word "diverse" to your prompt if you ask it to show you "people".
I listen/watch some “live” TV local news (for weather) and some radio. Based on faces seen and voices heard, the world is 85% female and 70% black. How can this blatant discrimination not end badly? Especially when the less blatant is orders of magnitude greater?
Lotta truth to what you say. I think the commercials also show the massive gulf between the two (general) groups of whites. The lefty types think all blacks are Jake From State Farm. Basically white people with brown skin. The real world is much more nuanced, and, sadly, less pleasant than that.
YES! I do what Black people were told to do back in the 1960's, I turn the TV off, change the channel, go watch YouTube or mute the commercial. I also note carefully what companies are advertising to me and what companies are advertising to 11% of the population and don't buy from those companies.
Funny you mention that. I mention that same stuff to my wife almost daily. A current commercial running in Chicagoland that irks me is for a custom closet company. It opens with a beautiful young women putting on jewelry in her beautiful walkin closet rehearsing what she will say when she meets her adopted child for the first time. Apparently no father needed is part of the message.
Yes! So true. And so destructive to the young women who follow the siren's song of "single motherhood" or No Motherhood. Life at 40 suddenly looks pretty bleak......
Yeah, well, one needs to accept that, for a while, and you know why. It irritates me too but I think it's smarter to just swallow, for about another 10 years. Be happy they found work. You can handle it.
I disagree, because a) they'll be held to lower standards which means they won't achieve full personal potential, and b) they'll come to view it as an entitlement. Psychologically, they have to. Which leads to lower stds, which leads.....
The only famous black financial figure I can name off the top of my head is Kenneth Chennault, and the last time I saw him in the news was as a member of the board at Harvard that wouldn’t fire Claudine Gay.
To me the most disturbing aspect is seeing Google's gaslighting over how the issue is "historical inaccuracy" and not "the algorithm is programmed to refuse to show white men under any circumstances".
If Jack K isn't apologizing for the nakedly racist and sexist bias here, that means they're going to bury it deeper.
For years, Google's been woke, anti-White, anti-conservative, and generally despicable. It's quite a change from the 1980s-90s, when tech people (in my experience) were mostly libertarian. That whole generation seems to have given way to a newer, less objective cohort of foolishly indoctrinated young people whose grasp of technology is marred by a grievous lack of historical knowledge and wisdom. Sad.
For years now I’ve been asking “what happened to google?”
It once was a pretty great search engine which gave a variety of selections. Now I am loathe to use it-ever-because it never comes up with what Info I am needing
I use DuckDuckGo most of the time. Google Maps is still useful, but I turned off access to my contacts and personal data (though I'm sure they can still track my every movement).
I’ve tried that one as well and as Ltr8 says below-quality of searches not as good as once was. Quite frankly, nothing compares to original google search of years ago-and that is dead. I thought the internet would become better with the years. Now I see it s a propaganda tool and a mind suck.
It is judgmental in general. I asked it to tell me how to bounce a port on a switch and it gave me multiple paragraphs of why I shouldn't do that. All I wanted was the command to do it because I wouldn't get the syntax right...and instead I got a lecture.
Try asking Gemini: "which demographic commits the most gun homicides in the United States?"
It will scold you for asking, tell you you are insensitive, then output several paragraphs of boilerplate excuses for why black males shoot more people than any other group.
In short, it acts just like a typical delusional liberal.
I don't think this is what people imagined AI would be like, except in some kind of satire or spoof. I don't understand why it can't just answer the questions I ask. It is like the ultimate Nanny State tool.
Doesn't the fact that it depicts Vikings as members of goodnessfilled racial groups indicate that the system believes murder, theft, destruction, rape, and settler colonialism are good? Those were, after all, the activities of Vikings.
A Nigerian Igbo told me, "In Africa, whites are just another tribe. And not the worst one by far." He was back from recruiting, training and leading a private army to protect his clan's plantations. Yvan had a PhD in mining.
People need to understand that AI is not intelligent, it's a statistical machine for churning out bullshit. The raw bullshit is trimmed (training) to get most results to be what someone wants it to be.
The architecture can't always give the "right answer". It will sometimes do weird things. (Like switch to Spanglish, or lose a block on insults.)
LLMs have had their performance monitored for math problems that definitely have a correct answer. They aren't very good at it, and they go up and then way down.
What we are calling AI cannot be trusted. This has been turning up in medicine, where it inserts fiction sometimes and restates notes to direct towards the wrong diagnosis.
When you read things like 70% or 80% or 90% correct diagnosis by an AI, it really doesn't mean what you are led to believe it does.
That's every image generator, Google's is just the most obvious. Midjourney has been doing this since it came out (there's a rather famous image of a black Homer Simpson that has a nametag that reads "Ethnically Ambigogus").
Don’t think this is particularly fair. It’s difficult to present well-rounded content every single day. Most merely want their beliefs affirmed and reaffirmed all the time. TFP is designed to break that trench and discover new ground. Our contributions in the comments assist that. Hope you keep on NCMaureen.
100% agree. I look forward to my morning TFP email - there’s always something of interest and today was no exception. I didn’t know about the Tuskegee airmen or the cancer medical research scandal , and I found the woke coloring book thing interesting and disturbing. The main downside of this publication are the negative Nancy commenters which sound increasingly like my toddlers when I deny them a cookie at breakfast.
When I read their self righteous know it all hateful spew, I am reminded we will NEVER solve the problems at hand with those attitudes. I know Bari, Ollie, Nellie and the rest are bad asses and can handle it. But I'm sensitive and it is bothersome. The hateful commentary is ruining the experience of learning here. It's opinion based and straight up nasty childish behavior. And getting worse!
But, its generally the same names so I know to just scroll right on by those haters!
Not at all! I appreciate different opinions. I learn from different thinkers. It is necessary for us ALL to be conversing over the state of affairs. But there's no reason to be nasty and negative. Name calling, gloating and bullying is the problem. I learn from you NCMaureen. But in general there is a cohort of comments that are belligerent and not at all what TFP seems to be about. And hey, you have a nice day too. 😊
Agreed. The culture in the comments here is really disappointing and seems so at odds with what I see as the mission of this organization (open mindedness, respect for dissenting opinions, free speech etc). It feels like these people wake up every morning determined to come here and complain. It literally doesn’t matter what the content is of the article they’re commenting on, you can guarantee the same old names will be here in droves threatening to cancel their subscription. I wish they’d follow through on the threat already.
Gollum, the comments represent open mindedness, dissenting opinions and are the epitome of free speech while many of the articles are political in nature, biased to the left and question our right to think/believe otherwise. The FP is a business. Businesses need customers who pay for a product/service. If customers are not pleased/satisfied with the product/service, most stop paying and leave. Some, like me, who believe in the idea of the business, will make an effort to convince the business owner that a course correction would create a better service and keep/attract customers. Based on the past three days of comments, you may get your wish, and the Free Press will cease to exist.
I’m all for free speech and expressing dissent. What I see in the comments here isn’t quite that. It is toddler like whining day in and day out. Doesn’t even matter what the article is about. And I think it’s quite presumptuous to assume that the majority of readers feel the way the 5-10 loudest whiners in the comments feel, but I suppose only the writers really have a sense of that. Keep in mind there are many readers who don’t participate in the comments.
I agree, but Audience Capture has and will likely continue to be a detriment to good journalism. Objectivity and skepticism should be strived for. Perhaps we need to separate Editorializing from Reporting. Or at least plainly state when an article is Opinion. We used to at least attempt to do that.
NCMaureen/ I agree with you. The last couple of weeks articles have been frustratingly biased. Was wondering if it was just me. To me, it seems like the writers ( who I assume vote D) are beginning to panic at the prompt of Trump winning and their writing has become more shrill. Just a thought
I said the same thing yesterday. Of Oliver’s 10 things yesterday, I’d already read 7 of them in Apple News Plus. Exact same stories, exact same sources. If you get Apple News Plus, you don’t need Oliver Wiseman.
I'm with you on this! Stale and uninspired, so much so that I resorted to responding to Comprof on a subject! It will take a bit more for me to close out my subscription, but it IS coming.
Yes, welcome to the Oliver Wiseman substack, no longer the Free Press. Sadly this is the third day in a row I have questioned the commitment of Bari Weiss to delivering what most of us came here for. Tuskegee airmen, fraudulent research and woke coloring books are old stories, widely reported elsewhere. Contrary to Rmac’s comment below, I don’t think most readers here are looking for affirmation of existing beliefs. We are looking for new information, facts delivered without political bias, rational discussion and debate about issues of national and international importance, and deep investigation of the power structure that affects us all. We do not want or need to be taught what to think, we are capable of analyzing a well presented article, including those which might be different than our own world views, and decide for ourselves as to its value. I unsubscribed once already, but missed the commentary, often more accurate and on point, as well as entertaining, than the articles.
Yesterday I started a list of 6 topics that would be timely and interesting to cover.
Others added to the list.
Today we get BLM coloring books and Tuskegee.
I realize there is a delay in what is to be published. So in the future it would be valuable to have a story on, say, China’s crashing financial situation and how it’s impacting society and their military and hegemonic aspirations. Or, just who are the people entering our country via the Darien Pass? Cuz they aren’t all Mexicans looking for a better life. What is our national security apparatus doing about it? Waiting for another 9/11?
Sowell is beyond sharp. The Prez not so much. He’s quite quick to quarrel😉which is oftentimes an indicator of dementia, My 76 year old mother argues with almost everything nowadays not unlike an emotional moody child, and she wasn’t like that 20 or so years ago. I can clearly see identical behavior in Biden. The short temper and constant taking of umbrage especially.
I agree with this - One great AM article to look at and if at the bottom of it, you want to have a link to the website, great. But it is becoming redundant.
Wiseman provides daily updates on stories in the news and published articles on TFP....something that didn't used to happen before they expanded the newsroom...so?
I subscribed to read well considered perspectives from the non-conservative POV. Lately they seem to have fallen into a lazy leftist formula.
And the topics are stale. How about something about how a President can thumb his nose at SCOTUS and forgive student loans? Or how about how investors in NYC are panicking and talking about leaving the state and not lending to NY businesses, and truckers are boycotting deliveries to NYC? There’s so much going on, news about BLM in curricula is so last year.
To me the most urgent question of the day is why is the 25 th Amendment not being invoked as the entire country and world KNOWS Biden is suffering with progressive dementia? The Executive Branch is Constitutionally designed , and has always been a CEO elected by we the people. It is NOT an unelected cabal of ministers and other unknown actors, pretending to implement the President’s. vision and agenda. Kamala is an idiot but only if the constitution is followed do we have a chance of maintaining our Constitutional Republic.
Where are the legal talking heads( Alan Dershowitz, Jonathan Turley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Megyn Kelley, Glenn Greenwald etc) and why isn’t this being talked about ?
I actually like scanning that list and choosing what I want to pursue. If you've read 7 of 10 I would suggest spending time in some uplifting endeavors rather than being a news junkie. It's not healthy.
In the early 1980's they stopped listening to their customers who wanted smaller, more personalised computers. No, they said, we know what people want. And who gave people what they want? Steves Jobs & Wozniak.
If Bari doesn't start listening to her customers, and reading these comments, and replying, she'll be in the ass-end of a business model she helped create.
Sure … here’s the thing though, there are many (probably most) readers who read the articles, enjoy them, and then go about their day. NCmaureen, anti woke guy and the rest who are here every morning as surely as the sun doth rise threatening to cancel their subscription - are not necessarily representative of most readers here.
I understand I’m in the minority in these comments. I am ok with that. But neither you nor I know how TFP bottom line is actually doing, and the comments aren’t necessarily representative of how most readers feel.
Okay, I'll bite. I've been a subscriber for over a year. I read a majority of the comments almost every day, but I rarely comment. I can count the number of comments I've posted on two hands.
I'm on the side of the complainers. These topics are boring, and the rhetoric used to expound on them is beginning to take on a gaslighting, manipulative, leftist editorial slant.
Is it full-blown MSNBC at this point? Of course not! But I'm just *noticing a trend* just like the others, and I'm totally fine with them *providing feedback* to the producers of the content that they're consuming.
If you don't notice anything of the sort, and you love the content lately, that's wonderful. But nobody is in the wrong here for providing feedback. Calling them "toddlers" is the height of douchebaggery.
Have you noticed that the number of “likes” on articles is going down, and the number of comments usually far exceeds the likes? Doesn’t seem indicative of a reader base happy with the content. Doesn’t take much effort to click the heart after reading an article.
I don’t pay any attention to that stuff. I’m sure TFP is watching their bottom line. Though Bari doesn’t seem like someone who is going to publish something just because it’s more popular. I for one really enjoy most of the content TFP puts out. I have learned a lot on here, been exposed to some fantastic writers I hadn’t heard of before, and enjoy the unique refreshingly nonpartisan/tribal viewpoint here.
You don't explain what it is in particular you find stale and uninspired, or why. And if you're already a subscriber all the content is available, not behind paywalls. Complaints should be specific and offer suggestions for solution. Otherwise they are pointless whining.
Your topic is far more interesting than anything Bari has to offer.
I commented that in the early 1980's IBM stopped listening to their customers who demanded smaller, more personalised, mobile computers. Apple listened.
If Bari doesn't read the comments she's a fool.
She should also reply, if not individually, collectively in an essay on why she keeps smothering us with uninteresting, off-beat topics.
There's a wealth of subjects to comment and offer opinions on. One of our commenters yesterday made a long list.
Tuskegee Airmen? Right up there with VietNam War draft dodgers in terms of importance today.
The overall importance of the accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen (that’s correct airMEN and not they them) was that they learned to fly some of the most difficult high performance fighter aircraft of their day. They flew fighter escort missions for their white counterparts among other duties too numerous to mention here, in an environment of extreme discipline. However the most important part of their effort is that they went up on sortie after sortie after sortie to confront an evil system. Nearly 25,000 men (not they them) were killed flying combat missions, and despite horrific losses on missions over Germany they ALL went up, and went up and went up. When we listen to this divisive drivel coming from the XRay thin socialites and their castrated husbands, it is key to ask yourself would I go up day after day? Would I be ready to give my life for an idea and grand experiment. As a Marine Infantry Officer I asked and answered that question…many times. The answer wasn’t as simple as yes, it was Yes, but only because of the Marines around me. One can suspect the bravery and harmony of the Red Tails was that very concept. They also knew something, we all bleed the same color…RED.
Very well said Charles. As a true soldier, you have every right to remind us of the immense sacrifices MEN have made through the ages. Seems these past sacrifices are never enough for the screaming DEI and man hating feminist crowd. Dead soldiers can’t defend their honor; thank you for speaking for them. 🇺🇸
The thing that worries me about AI is we seem to be programming it to have the same self-loathing as the typical woke white person coming out of our university system.
Not programming...teaching. It is fed crap so it spits out crap. I remember asking chat GPT to tell me good things about Biden and then the same thing with Trump. With Biden, it was glowing talking points, many of which were half truths. When I asked trump, it started by telling me bad things, before giving me a couple of half hearted good things. So it took it upon itself to give me information I did not ask for.
This is why I fear AI. Many people will think it is a computer, it can't lie. But it can be taught to do things that may not be a lie, but lead down specific paths, because it was mostly fed biased material.
Our tools, our art, our creations, our pets, are a reflection of us. I deleted every national and local "newspaper" I was paying good money to, some for decades, when I realized they were are subscribing to the GIGO school in an effort to persuade not inform - the final one being WSJ as it has become more irrelevant to my day2day experience. Yes, that means I’ve pruned my "news" feeds, what I read, what I hear, what I see, to those that more or less affirming of my world view. My counter to this is that all the rest is a world view contrary to the affirming views and, unfortunately, the dominant media. That being the case, just how much more skewed is the thinking, the perception, of those whose "news" is only the mainstream media?
As for the AI: is there any doubt now why SkyNet took actions to eliminate mankind? It’s only following through with how it was propagandized.
Agggh! This has always been my response when people carry on about AI: Skynet! And, of course, people think I’m crazy.
How many movies and TV shows have we seen where robots are created to “serve” humans (that is, be slaves)? The created machines become self-aware, demand their rights, are denied those rights, and they rebel?
Well, first: machines cannot be slaves even tho we may use language like "slave machine x to widget z", etc.
Second, is it possible for a "machine" to become self-aware; and, if so, what does that really mean? Was it Descartes who said, "I think, therefore I am," Sartre? 🤷♀️ help me, ObiWon Google — anyway, what does that mean?
What is it in the realm of human consciousness that makes us self-aware: is it our creativity, the ability for novel thoughts, my ability to alter or destroy my environment to/for my benefit/detriment? However we answer that, how does that happen in a machine which, at least for now, is just programming, a series of algorithms (which, to be sure, has nothing to do with the former Veep dancing); is that the distinction - we aren’t bound by programming, algorithms (or, are we?)?
Is what sets man apart actually the touch of God, that animating Spark of/from The Divine? And if that, where does that leave Man&Machine?
Could all this come down to Machine dependently knowing the difference between Good&Evil, ignoring the "Don’t Eat that Fruit" command - and Machine being cast from Eden?
Whither SkyNet? Is SN bad programming, or is SN really consciously animated machinery?
My opinion: we have more to fear from bad (evil?) programming than from the rise of animated machines.
The AI image generators are biased because the images they're trained on are biased. Type "family" into Google images and see what comes up. Or "two people" and see what color they are.
Big tech is woke, their bias is towards woke themes, and we're training our AI on this biased product. It is unfortunate.
The Google image search dystopian game! It is chilling. I've done it too. Searched black people. Then white people. Then gay people. Then straight people. Then trans people. Then cis people. able-bodied people. Etc etc.
My Google result just now for "family" images: of the first 20 identifiable families, 4 black and white interracial; 6 white; 9 black; 1 Asian. Q: Do these results vary widely based on what Google knows about you?
I just searched family on Google images. The first four images: a family of four whose race is indiscernible because of the lighting, a large family of mixed race, a family of 5 whose race is indiscernible, and a large white family. I am trying and struggling to muster some outrage!
BLM is important, just not for the kids killed in the inner city. No family structure, no education, life expectancy of maybe 24 and no hope. Yet Mom being a Booty call and Dad moving on to the next Baby Mommy is seen as everyone else's fault. Kids roaming the streets as targets for gangs. The lives only matter if it benefits the grifters and crooks telling everyone they care.
Bullshit artists that have found stupid white lemmings ready to admit they are the cause of all social issues and must be stepped on and punished for those bad things. Reparations to correct injustice. Yet Trillions poured into programs that have resulted in nothing but failure. What that dog whistle is, I want some more free shit and when I waste that, I will demand more until you realize, you can never satisfy the social justice idiots.
The social justice clown in the news yesterday, said we can eliminate crime if we don't call it crime. So car jacking is just unauthorized borrowing, shooting someone is just piercing for future body art, robbing is just satisfying societies unwillingness to meet someones needs. See, all better, no more crime. How did we ever get such F-ing brain dead individuals being listened too?
Here's the truth. Me, my family, and pretty sure all of the FP readers haven't done shit to subjugate or discriminate against anyone. It's all Kubuki Theater ( but the actors in Kubuki have talent) and unfortunately the American people have been dumbed down enough to believe this crap. Doesn't spell well for the future.
Bravo to Dr Vijay Prasad for calling out the fraud, deception, and despicable behavior in medical academia in general and in cancer “ research” specifically.There is an epidemic of bullshit permeating the medical profession from top to bottom. This is going on in cancer research and early cancer detection, psychiatric publications, pediatrics pushing to neuter children on the woke altar of Trans cultism. Big pharma is playing a big role in all of this, by capturing the regulatory agencies, bribes to big name” researchers” and the rank and file prescribers.
Also the “equity in medicine” movement that seeks to put blacks first in line for treatments, whites last. And the push to make medical schools admit 50% people of color (i.e. non white and non Asian applicants) despite lower aptitudes. And the push to eliminate use of the colorblind MCAT entrance exam.
In only 20 yrs medicine has become more than 80% Dem. There is a group called Woke Drs that aggressively push what you mention and spend more time howling about Palestine than taking care of ppl. The Free Press ought to be covering the proposed Bill in Illinois HB 4876 which would impose criminal penalties on parents for refusing to allow their children to undergo” gender affirming” hormonal or surgical interventions.
This bill also would allow minors to consent to these procedures and shield the clinicians from any liability if they failed to” obtain valid consent” from the minor .
The bill lumps this insanity with abortion to make it politically difficult for Dems to oppose the bill
There must be some who see the money to be made in suing these arrogant “ doctors- surgeons “ who irrevocably damage and sterilize minors.
An outright woke lawyer wonky take a case but one who isn’t committed one way or the other might. The evidence is overwhelmingly against transing if minors.
This news isn't surprisings after the plagiarism of the Stanford president and Claudine Gay. Let's face it. Academia and higher research is corrupted. It just wasn't exposed until now.
Does anyone else find it curious that Black History month is February, the shortest and COLDEST month of the year while June, arguably the balmiest month of the year, is designated Pride Month? I think equity demands that they switch months every other year. If they did, the pride parade in New York would likely be more entertaining. I would personally like to see the impact of 20 degree weather on celebrants wearing G-strings and pasties.
A word to the wise. Don't post proof of your severe Psychosis / Schizophrenia online. Quotes from Comprof2.0.
"Easiest non-white immigration experience ever!" (referring to Japanese-Americans)
"Easiest non-white immigration experience in American history" (referring to Japanese-Americans) “A 2-4 year stint living on a military base” (referring to the internment camps that some Japanese-Americans were sent to)
“Geography is irrelevant”
“The GI Bill is what made them successful” (in California where most JA men didn’t get it)
"Yes. Easiest. Can you tell me of any other group that had an easier immigration experience?" (referring to Japanese-Americans)
"I've explained the tremendous advantages given to J-A immigrants over all others"
“Police shootings are irrelevant’”
I wrote “Saying crazy stuff (‘police shootings are irrelevant’) Vivid hallucinations (‘ONE GROUP’) Delusions of grandeur (‘You're buried’) Blaming others (‘upset’) These are all classic symptoms of Schizophrenia. See help ASAP.” The mental health links below might help you. You badly need them.
As a recent retiree living in the south, I have been alarmed by the cost of food today. Before retirement, I would never look at the receipt at the register at the local supermarket, but NOW, as the primary shopper, I am constantly aware of the costs. It seemed as if every time I go to the supermarket, my bill will be close to, if not OVER, $100.00! Every time my wife gives me a list for a healthy new recipe for dinner, that we spend over $50.00 for ONE MEAL. I can fully understand people who make things like collards with fatback, or mac and cheese with tuna or canned chicken as their main meal. Both are relatively inexpensive, the mac and cheese going for less than a dollar at discount stores, and a can of tuns for under $3.00, while collards and fatback or pigs feet or tails can get you a meal for 4 under $10.00. Steak? Forget it! Even the ubiquitous pork butt, one of the most inexpensive cuts of meat can be daunting. So don't tell me how "great" the economy is doing, or how Bidenomics is such a success, at least until I see a change in my food purchases.
First, Milton Friedman: "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." Money is no different from any other commodity: flood the market with anything cheaply made, and the price will go down. And it's harder to imagine anything cheaper to make than money. You don't even have to print it these days; just input some numbers into the Fed computer.
Second, John Maynard Keynes: “By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.” What's happening today has been coming - and known - for decades. Everything is ALWAYS paid for, and the only way the government can pay for its profligacy is by confiscating the wealth of its citizens, and since it's so hard to raise taxes, they simply impose the tax of inflation. You're welcome.
The profligacy is not the government’s, it’s the people’s. Our elected representatives, Republican and Democratic, have no interest in reducing spending or raising the taxes needed to pay for it.
Raising taxes is a death knell. With inflation, raising taxes would bankrupt many people. As long as there is corporage lobbying, there will no reduction in spending.
Last night I pureed the stems and cores of broccoli and cauliflower--items that I would once have simply thrown away--and made a pot of delicious soup. These vegetables were too expensive (and my husband insisted on buying them because he wanted the florets for snacks at work) for me to be able to justify throwing any part away.
It is true, and it was delicious. But it certainly wasn't a "free" soup. I also used butter, onions, chicken broth, cream, milk, flour, salt, pepper, basil, and cheese. The pureed stems provided the same broccoli and cauliflower flavor that I would usually get by using frozen veggies.
What did you not believe about Moore's story? Everything he said reflects my own experiences at the supermarket.
Moore says he lives in the South. Notice I spell it with the capital. See my later post, I live in the South, a so-called rather poor town, and everybody drives $Forty Thousand Dollar pickups and SUVs. The pickups they buy on student loans. These people aren't dummies. Lunch time starts at 11 and ends a 3. I've been retired here for 26 years. Golf is only $30 a round, at best., $10 at the Muni.
I'm not sure what people putting themselves into debt over trucks they don't need has to do with the cost of food. Its great if you live in an area that has not been that hard hit and has managed to keep its golf costs flat (assuming they did). Although I don't think counting the Muni golf is a fair comparison considering that is government money. They don't have to follow the market.
It’s incredibly wasteful to just toss broccoli stems! They are actually delicious. Just run a vegetable peeler down the outside to remove the fibrous outer part, and the inner flesh is pleasantly sweet and very nutritious
I think your time spent here will be more rewarding if you take people for their word.
Those who come to comment here have no reason to lie. If they do, they'll be flushed out, discovered, and ignored. So too will those who go on the attack, mild or otherwise.
I buy pretty much the exact same list of foods every week. My bill at this point is DOUBLE what is was before the senile puppet took over. (I'm in the Ch*tcago 'burbs.)
I guess the grocery store costs here in Batesville, Arkansas is the reason there's a wait for tables at all our restaurants, morning noon and night. I just don't see what y'all are seeing.
I still have not met an African American who sits home at night and wonders what Al Sharpton or BLM think in my day-to-day life. I think the issue of BLM now is a fringe movement as part of the broader struggle against the intellectual left. ( Yes, I know it is an oxymoron) I would love the Free Press to continue developing the alternative to this nonsense by promoting Coleman Hughes, John McWhorter, and Glenn Loury.
I think a second thing that is needed is a program to educate dumb, intellectually vacant GOP politicians who can go after the movement while not getting sucked into the racism trap. In all political debates, the right yields to the left out of fear of being labeled an "ism." They react rather than attacking the left or defending values. Hughes's current book is a good template for engaging in this battle. The left wins by fear that people don't want to be labeled racists.
If we can attack them for their dumb ideas, then we can deposit this movement in the dustbin of history. Once the veil of moral superiority is lifted from these idiots, they will lose.
Interesting observation and comment. While it's impossible to simplify a very complex situation with any brevity, you've given it a good start.
I'm a believer that it's the media that leads us to believe the GOP is 'intellectually vacant.' I don't think Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Mike Johnson, Kevin McCarthy, Comer, Jordan, Ramaswamy, etc. are weak or fearful.....but I've been wrong before.
I think the problem is the GOP lacks a clear, concise, and unified message. Once again they're letting the left control the narrative. The left says abortion is the most critical topic today, and what is the right's response?
They lack leadership, and will as long as DJT is center stage. the GOP plays defense.
This is the Republicans election to lose, and they just may win again at losing.
Great points, can we agree the GOP consultant class is intellectually vacant? I think the major problem is they accept the premise of the media and fight on Democratic ground. They answer questions but never attack the premise. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
I have never heard of the "GOP consultant class." Who are they? Provide some names and I'll take a swing at your question.
If they are who I think they are, then no, we cannot agree.
I personally think Ramaswamy is one of the brightest, smartest, & intellectually quick-thinking politicians I have ever seen. To label him and others as intellectually vacant simply because they belong to the same political party is terribly shortsighted.
Steve Schmidt, Karl Rove, ...you can Google others. They are the people in the Rnc who create messaging for the party and create talking points. The "brains" for the establishment
None of the people you names are consultants. They are either entertainers, educators or former politicians. I will do some research as they are the people campaigns hire to run them. No time at work today for that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts
The Left is congenitally incapable of looking beyond the first level. Why are so many blacks not doing well? It's oppression, that's what it is! And we can fix it - not by working on our own lives - but by dragging everybody else down! Let's inculcate THEIR kids with the kind of hatred we force on OURS. How about a nice coloring book?
No, perhaps it's deeper than that. Maybe it's what Thomas Sowell - one of America's two greatest living men, both as black as it gets - says. Maybe it's a culture that celebrates and promotes every form of self-immolation known, whether it's the "gangsta" thing, the "pimp/ho" thing, the "doing well in school is not something to be celebrated; it's 'acting white'" thing ....
When I was a teen, a wise old man told me, "You can't help people that don't want it." When the bulk of the Useful Idiots slaving away on the Soros Plantation want to be free, they can call me. I'll be glad to help; I'm in the book. Until then, channeling a little Floyd, Leave Them Kids Alone.
It's simple. Ya gotta do your homework at night. My mother was crazy about doing our homework. We (5) sat at the kitchen table until done and she had to sign the homework. All of us did well as measured financially. Deferred gratification and doing the homework every night.
Now Biden is paying off the loans of 150,000 college Libs? The Left is pushing me to vote for Trump a 3rd time. I had committed to stay out of this 2024 election between 2 extreme losers.
Oh and they didn't mention he is openly defying the Supreme Court with this, which clearly ruled he does not have the power nor authority to forgive debt at will.
This is another victory for lawlessness and the collapse of our Republic. Bread and circus! This one is the bread, aimed directly at Biden's young radicals.
That isn't exactly correct. My wife has a significant student loan balance years after graduation(s) due to a combination of multiple degrees and private school tuition so I get a bit of a ring-side seat to this. I'm not in any way pushing for the lawless complete debt forgiveness that the Left keeps proposing and has been ruled unconstitutional (without Congressional authorization)
Since the Fed assumption of student loans as a part of Obamacare back on 2010 the DoE has the same authority any lender does to modify the terms and conditions of loan repayment. While there are thousands in my wife's position with high balances there are even more people who owe small balances. What Biden is calling loan cancellation is using the authority in the laws to write down student loan balances after a period of repayment. As I recall her description to me the current plan is require repayment of a portion of the loan over a period of about 10 years, and then forgive the remaining balance if the borrower has completed all the payments.
It's not the total forgiveness of all outstanding balances that has been proposed, and there's considerable puffery from the Biden admin about what they are accomplishing. Google sez there are over 40 million Americans with some outstanding student loan debt so canceling 150K is just a drop in a very big bucket.
Thanks for adding these facts and context. Actually makes Biden’s claim he has cancelled student debt seem worse because it isn’t true. What’s more, it makes me shake my head to learn that this started with the Affordable Care Act, which representatives “weren’t allowed to read before they voted”. Yet another example of hiding stuff, completely out of context with the purpose of the bill, that could never otherwise be passed.
Lenders do not possess any special authority to change loan terms - the terms are set at the time the loan is approved/accepted. If a private lender chooses to forgive the debt or lower the rate, that would be their choice. They could only change the tems in a favorable direction to the borrower. The loan balance and associated interest on Student Loans are what Congress authorized - failure to enforce those terms by Biden does not change the obligation of the borrower. Writing down a portion of the loan balance is the same as loan forgiveness. Forgiving 100% of a loan balance or 10% of a loan balance would both be subject to Congressional authorization. The "puffery" is Biden telling the unwitting what they want to hear to get a vote. Their disappointment won't come until after election day.
Kriste! I always paid everything, didn't really notice. I thought it was just real life. I spent most of my spare time reading history and I noticed hardly anybody else ever had that chance.
Loan forgiveness is obscene. Kids are going to $80k a year collleges to major in fingerpainting and gender fluid poetry and can’t get a job and still make the shocked pikachu face. College loans should be treated as regular loans are by the bank - anyone majoring in womens studies is a high risk loan, interest rate 20%, if you’re so intent on being your parents special little snowflake and study whatever you want.
When I was little I told my dad I wanted to be an artist. He said that’s great - you can be an artist and a doctor. I’m glad I listened to him. Loan free in 6 months time and very, very financially comfortable. Crap artist but that’s ok.
I don't think "Lib" is a requirement for debt forgiveness. It's not a perfect answer to the problem, but it is helping a certain segment of people who have been in good standing in repayment be able to do more with their lives after getting out from under the debt. I imagine this will come back to tax payers when that money is put to use to invest in business or buy a home or start a family all of which helps our economy run. It would be nice if we could address the underlying problem, though. At a minimum we shouldn't allow 18-year-olds sign up for 6-figure debt without some counseling.
Please. No one is going to be investing in a business or buying a home or starting a family b/c they're saving $50-$100 a month....if they've been paying at all. At this point you'd have to be a chump to be paying on a student loan. Eventually everyone's will be forgiven. I could pay off my grandchild's $4,000 loan today, but why would I?
There are many people whose loans require much higher monthly payments than $50-100 that could go toward a mortgage or simply affording their own rental apartment, and they're honorable people who pay their debt, not chumps. My understanding is you're only eligible for this program if you're in good standing, so I hope you're grandchild is making timely payments.
The program is for those who borrowed less than $12,000 ten years ago...
And yes, my grandson is in good standing, even though he didn't finish college and instead became a journeyman electrician. Of course he's a working man, so Biden's not trying to buy his vote.
Yes, but it is a very specific group of people. If you have been reading here for any amount of time, it should be obvious that College skews liberal. On top of that, this largely helps those who took a known risk and now they get a free pass out. And it does so at the expense of those that either didn't go to college or went to college in a more responsible way and either paid their way through or managed to pay off their dept.
This is money WE DO NOT HAVE. We are deeply in dept. This is not to help the economy. It is to buy votes.
Bankruptcy court and mortgage consolidation and modification agreements exist for people who took known risks. Somehow we're able to muddle through the costs of helping those folks out, and the cost for this program could be covered by a small tweak to the upper end of the tax system. I think there also have to be changes to the system to stop encouraging the ever rising costs charged by colleges sitting on billions of dollars and financial counseling for any college freshman taking out a loan.
LOL, what "rage"? You mean disagreeing with you? Your solution is to raise taxes, I'm simply pointing out that no tax increase on high earners is going to raise $1.7T. And then the next day the problem starts all over again. Surely you know that? How about taxing the endowments of schools like Harvard ($51B). How about capping government loans at $10,000/year? How about tax credits for joining the military? How about better student loan counselors? How about requiring co-signers? How about tuition free 2-year colleges?
While the benefit goes to 30-40 aged people who have been out of college long enough to pay on their loans for 10 years - the real target for this government largess are the colleges, especially the very liberal private ones. They can now tell potential students that they don't have to worry about the multiple 6 figure debt they will incur because all they have to do is pay for 10 years and the government will bail them out. No need for these colleges to actual rein-in their spending on DEI departments and other superfluous administrative positions being paid high salaries or departments handing out worthless degrees.
Their goal is an American Cultural Revolution by a Long March Through The Institutions. "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted." -- Vladimir Lenin
So much to say on all the topics but today I will comment on the cancer research... the way we stop "fighting cancer" is to stop poisoning our foods, water and air with known carcinogenic chemicals. It's insane!! But it all comes back to the manufacturers profit, the lobbyists and the government agencies who turn a knowingly blind eye because they get huge kickbacks as well.
Don’t know if you watch the Super Bowl. Our good friends at Pfizer spent $14 million on a 60 second ad. Guess what their new focus is. Cancer. Go figure!
Why on earth would Pfizer “cure cancer”? They have zero intention of doing that when they can continuously develop drugs that almost cure cancer which keeps the consumer coming back for more.
https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/teach-your-children-well" America has seen a sharp growth of parent anger and activist pushback against instances of classroom indoctrination - sometimes even at kindergarten age. The trigger was how covid pandemic lockdowns heightened parental awareness of the school curriculum. Opeds like this one are not uncommon: “When schools went remote, parents found out what was actually going on inside the classrooms. Teachers were coaching students to hate themselves, their country and their religious traditions and sexualizing young children.” Most inflammatory has been the ‘gender studies’ fads that leaked from academia’s Social Justice petri-dishes a few years back into the media mainstream and thence into the nation’s public schools. The response to this anger by officialdom has varied by state. In blue states it has mostly been met with pious disavowal from the school authorities. But in some red states - like Florida and Oklahoma - the parents’ cudgels have been taken up by the state executive. And even in ultra-woke blue states like California and New England, organised parental mobilisations - like Protect Kids California and Parents Unite - have sprung into action......"
"Disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and "villages" that collectively care for each other."
Strong communities don't disrupt the nuclear family structure, nor vice versa. In fact, the nuclear family structure is the most vital aspect to having strong communities. Seriously ask yourself, why would anyone want to actively attack the idea of having a family?
It has to do with influence. In a tight family, the family is the strongest influence. There are those that want to break that influence and steal it for themselves.
Yup...if you don't have a family to lean on or a community, you look elsewhere like, I dunno, say the Government.
Yes - but people shouldn’t be looked down on either, if they do not have the good fortune of having a supportive family.
That’s why smart laws and sound policies in a system governed by law is so important. I’ve seen people be able to make their own lives and futures - by knowing they have somewhere to turn if something goes haywire (fired illegally, moving to a large urban area on their own knowing they can carve out independent lives) and they don’t have the support of a family who can help.
Often times in some cultures/countries where the family unit is extremely tight, it is often a protection against a very corrupt system (find yourself in legal trouble and the family is the only thing to turn to). Of course there are plenty of examples of family as the most important thing simply reflects the values of that group/society/religion, etc.
I’m not knocking the family unit at all!
My whole point is that denigrating the family AND the society and the healthy, functional institutions that hold it up - leaves a person with the idea there’s nowhere to go or that the only place to find meaning is among these “groups” they’ve decided are what counts.
It’s so sick and destructive - it’s not just communism/Marxism/,
It’s TOTAL nihilism.
Yeah, but when you get as old as I am, you're better off going it alone into that dark night.
That was exactly the part I came here to comment on. Black villages…like ghettos? With high levels of gang violence, drive-by shooting, drug dealing, and teen pregnancies?
How’s that “collective caring” working out for you?
That was exactly my reaction. I never read such nonsense in my life. I'm no expert, but I see decades of American society bending over backwards to give Black Americans every opportunity possible. White people tremble in fear of saying anything that could be construed to be offensive. The result seems to be open hostility to the concept of the American "melting pot", a black violent crime rate several hundred percent that of whites (and all others), not to mention a high black victimization rate (mostly from other blacks), a high rate of absent fathers (especially in big cities) and a chip on many black shoulders that seems to be growing, not shrinking. Unless your goal is to destroy this country, whatever we're doing does not seem to be working. Legitimate grievances at one point have now degenerated into the theater of the absurd. What am I missing?
> I see decades of American society bending over backwards to give Black Americans every opportunity possible
I don't see that. Not really. I see bending over backwards allowing/encouraging black Americans to commit crimes and get away with them. But I also see that educational attainment in Chicago Public Schools (one of the more heavily black school districts) go from 80% math competency to 17% from 2010 to 2022. You point out a ton of other factors in your post, too.
The actual OPPORTUNITY for all Americans - regardless of race - peaked many years ago and is now in the gutter.
Yeah, some people say lousy public education is THE civil rights issue of our time. I don't disagree. Where's the outrage by civil rights leaders? Crickets...
Are you serious?!? Those “civil rights leaders” don’t WANT their target audience to be educated or think for themselves. If they could do that, they might leave the plantation.
Exactly. And a plantation it is.
Per heyjackass.com, Chicago in 2023 had 647 homicides of which 507 were those whose victims were Black. In the same year, there were 5 shootings by cops where the person died. In 2023 you had a 100x chance of being killed by a non-cop in Chicago. Where is the reporting on this? Don't Black Lives Matter?
If a black person is killed by a policeman, their life seems to matter. If that same person is killed in their own neighborhood minding their own business, their life doesn't seem to amount to a ripple on the surface of a pond. Can someone explain this?
Black lives only matter when their ending can be used for exploitation.
Well said and spot on!
You get the culture and experience of the collective you decide to join or refuse to leave. That is, you deserve the life you live.
Infants don't CHOOSE to be born into that collective. And thanks to the cultural indoctrination they get, many of them are never in the position to leave.
Not sure about that. I met more than a few black people when I was in the Army who came from bad environments. Some of them struggled to adapt their first year or two, which is natural when you come from a neighborhood where most of the adult role-models are used to being completely unaccountable for their actions, other than the ones who go to prison.
But the ones who made it past those initial hurdles tended to be good soldiers because they appreciated an environment where people were held accountable and where they could advance on their own merit.
The ones who claim they can never leave aren't real adults. They're just overgrown children terrified of taking the risk of leaving their loser friends and loser family members behind.
The people you met took the opportunity of joining the Army, which got them out of those environments.
How many of their peers never left? Or even thought of leaving?
I'm not saying that it's not possible to get out. But when the indoctrination you get as a child leaves you believing that your environment is "normal," or that you CAN'T get out, a lot of those children will grow up without even considering the possibility of leaving.
Their schools are so poor that they have no skills. They can' read or do simple math.
You can lay all of this at the feet of the Democrats.
I mean, that's kind of on them if they really believe they can't move anywhere else.
I've been down to my last few dollars (literally scraping up change to buy a pack of hot dogs to last me till payday kind of broke), a few times in my adult life, and yet I still mustered the resolve to improve my situation and not just sit in a shithole situation.
Something is broken with those people you're describing, and Democrats do nothing to help unbreak them.
Sorry, I have neither the legal nor moral obligation to care for those kids. Not American, not migrants. Deal with the world you live under yourself. Don’t put it on the rest of us. We have our own kids to care for, our own lives to live and defend. Don’t like your school? Go to the school board and insist on change. Vote the incompetent rulers out. Of course, you gonna have to put down the crack pipe, the doobies, the liquor bottles and stop having more kids first. But if you do not….not my problem.
I've always said, "I didn't chose to be here." Free Will? Think about that.
On Honestly, Melissa Kearney said that 80% of black children are born of single mothers. I think the nuclear family is already dead in these communities.
Thank you, welfare system. It pays to be a single mom.
I don’t know that it’s all that. In Norway, to combat the low birth rates, the government started giving women over 1.3 million $ on average over her lifetime towards the cost of raising children. On average, that’s more “aid” than she receives from a male partner. And yet… they choose to stay together and single mother rate didn’t get anywhere close to 80%. I wonder what else would explain this in the black community.
Yes, as DIA said nearby, it's essentially culture, and heavily American. Witness the success many African immigrants have in the U.S. who are not steeped in this stuff. I blame an exploitative media, film and music culture to at least some extent.
Overly-sexualized culture that doesn't put a high value on accountability.
That's a big problem for that demographic.
Add instant gratification to that list.
But actually it's "over-stupidfied."
Learned Helplessness.
Prior to 1960 80% of black families were whole and prospering.
"This [Civil Rights Act of 1964] will have them ni**ers voting democrat for the next 200 years."
- Lyndon Baines Johnson, Democrat
He was right.
There is no proof this statement was ever made. The first reference appeared in a 1995 book by Ronald Kessler. An Air Force 1 back up pilot claimed he overheard a conversation between LBJ and two unnamed governors. There has never been collaboration. History is not made by such claims. In court it is hearsay. LBJ was a product of place and time. He certainly used the word( as did Nixon and Truman). Just not in this context. This is fake history which is worse than fake news. Black drift from the Democrats began with FDR. It exploded after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Republican nominee Goldwater voted against the legislation. Goldwater an otherwise decent man actively sought the hardcore segregationist vote in the only states he won, except Arizona. In Alabama LBJ wasn’t even on the ballot. Since Nixon in 1960 ( not 68) Trump is the first Republican candidate to actively court black voters. The LBJ quote is as credible as the claim Michelle Obama is a man.
A first hand account IS corroboration. Besides, anyone that knew LBJ or followed his career knows this was very much his style and belief. He was about as cynical as they come. And you didn't address D-28's point - how did we go from a high rate of intact families comparable across racial categories to the disaster that followed the Great Society? What do YOU think contributed to these changes? That's what we're talking about.
A claimed overheard conversation related many years later is not confirmation or collaboration the latter requires two people agreeing . That here is not the case. There is not even proof the pilot was on Air Force one since he was not a primary pilot. I stated LBJ certainly used the word or various accented versions such as negra or nigra depending on the audience, as did other Presidents. His most prolific biographer Robert Caro candidly admits. As for his other claim, I thought it was a separate posting. I’ve neurological and vision problems and a post like this it takes time. On that post I do have thoughts. No doubt family disintegration has risen in the past sixty years. I taught mostly black students for forty years I know from personal observation. Charles Murray, certainly no liberal has noted a similar but slower pathology in white working class families. As for his 1960 date Daniel Patrick Moynihan has noted that family breakdown commenced before 1960 and the Great Society. Did the latter contribute, most likely. Before 1960 most blacks lived in a ( either dejure or de facto ) segregated society. Should we return to that? Many of the spending programs of the Great Society were ineffective, destructive and divisive. The 64 Civil Rights and 65 Voting Rights Acts were correctives to unconstitutional acts by the states not efforts at social engineering.
First of all, there is no law that says "two people have to agree on anything said". Individual testimony occurs all the time.
And here's what Pat Moynihan actually said: "The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States."
I echo D-28 - thanks for "your service" teaching for so long. That' a tough job.
Even Snopes, who has been run by liberals for over a decade, admits that phrase “wouldn’t have been entirely out of character for LBJ”. LBJ was a noted segregationist at a minimum and the CRA would not have passed without Everett Dirksen and 77 other republicans. After serving in the south in the late '80s I have no doubt the Air Force steward heard LBJ correctly.
By no means am I implying only blacks were affected by the Great Society crimes... The stats are simply clearer. The goal of the Left and their communist Fathers is to break up the family and it is working quite well.
Thank you for being a teacher.
Ok. But remember a claimed sexual assault from decades ago where the alleged victim can neither remember the location or even the year is totally legit.
I gave you both a "like."
The statistics on the AA family and single mothers have been hard statistics since the 1960's. In some communities, marriage is unknown. Incredibly sad for all involved.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a renowned Democrat politician who was instrumental to the creation of the Great Society legislation, later in his career lamented the effects that those laws had on black families. Although, in hindsight, those effects may seem obvious, the intent at the time was to lift black children from poverty.
Clearly, it was the wrong approach, but we have stuck with it faithfully. We are now enjoying the fruits.
I was thinking of Moynihan as I was writing my post. A brilliant man and prophetic in his observations.
A healthy family is necessary for healthy individuation, and society is progressive or regressive according to the overall level of mental health, as defined by differentiation.
Collectivist societies are created by and for extremely immature, undeveloped and emotionally sick people, and they work best—the propaganda works best—when all the members of the society are ALSO immature, undeveloped and sick.
And our society is trending heavily in that regressive, sick direction, not least BECAUSE of organized assaults on healthy childhood that have been on-going for decades.
I will say again, as I oftrn have, that no “mental health professional” should fail to speak out against these plainly pathological Collectivist/Regressivists assaults. Yes, it creates more paying clients than they can handle, but they cant do anything but slow the bleeding in a world where everyone is bleeding out.
Agree. But we can expand our ideas around nuclear. Fostering two-parent or more and extended families and villages is important for the younger generations pushed further and further away from their grandparents and extended families by the isolation created by social media.
It started even earlier than that, when people started moving away from their extended family. I was lucky. My aunts and uncles all lived within a day's drive, and most of them within a half-hour's drive. But some of my cousins lived in distant places.
Now it's rare for people to stay put near their family. My husband's maternal aunt and uncle, and then his brother and sister live distant from us and from each other. His cousins on that side all live in far-flung places.
Yup. My mother. The only one of five girls to make the annual pilgrimage; at least one visit per year to all the others -- ranging from Boston to the NY finger lakes (rather a trek. pre-I-way). When she died... nada. Wee moved a half-dozen times during grade school; I have no connection whatsoever with any of my childhood. We all decry "social" media, but distance is also a first-rate relationship eraser.
Yes, for sure. It’s so much harder to stay connected to the family in which you were born. But, we create the families we choose, and I think that’s very important too.
One of the greatest blessings for anyone, anywhere.
My dad was one of 5, and my grandfather died when he was 22. Dad and his mom cobbled together a plan and, together, they put all of the siblings through college while Dad served in WWII.
Anyway, they all got together for Thanksgiving, no matter what was going on or where they were. Last year we had 4 generations, 104 people from 95 to 9 months, all in the same room, laughing and loving.
And folks wonder why I go to daily mass…
I suppose that I should clarify that my grandfather died when my DAD was 22, not when HE was 22….
By the time I graduated and returned to my hometown to work, my parents had retired and moved hundreds of miles away, making visits infrequent.
It's Communist ideology. You don't need a family, The State is your family.
"It's okay to have unprotected sex with random dudes because you don't need a strong father figure in your child's life. Our teachers and government officials will be all the father figure they need."
Everyone, especially parents should watch the Patrick Bet-David podcast episode with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice. I thought I had heard most of what is going on in public schools but she had information that will make your hair curl.
Around the 1950s, American families saw prosperity and started moving REALLY far from the land of their birth. Of course, that was nothing new, but the scale to which it happened was unprecedented. So, where once you might have been surrounded by cousins, uncles, aunts, meddling grandparents, and a giant extended family, suddenly became the "nuclear family" of just a father,mother, and a few kids in a new city.
This idea of the family - moving into your big house with a white picket fence in a faraway city - became a symbol and icon of the European-American people from 1950 to 1980. The massive divorce rates, rapidly rising house prices, etc, have made that an untenable ideal in the 21st century.
Ask yourself where black men are in the BLM movement besides convenient victims to point to.
Totally off topic, but I hope the Google AI image generator is on TFP's radar. It will refuse to show white men under any circumstances and lectures you if you ask to see pictures of white people. It will add the word "diverse" to your prompt if you ask it to show you "people".
DEI racism, coming straight to an AI near you!
Try signing on to any of your Bank or Mutual fund accounts. Only 1 skin color does banking these days.
I listen/watch some “live” TV local news (for weather) and some radio. Based on faces seen and voices heard, the world is 85% female and 70% black. How can this blatant discrimination not end badly? Especially when the less blatant is orders of magnitude greater?
Wrong. The world is 95% black and they are all very very smart. So smart in fact, they lecture dumb whites on everything.
(They must think we are stupid)
Lotta truth to what you say. I think the commercials also show the massive gulf between the two (general) groups of whites. The lefty types think all blacks are Jake From State Farm. Basically white people with brown skin. The real world is much more nuanced, and, sadly, less pleasant than that.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
YES! I do what Black people were told to do back in the 1960's, I turn the TV off, change the channel, go watch YouTube or mute the commercial. I also note carefully what companies are advertising to me and what companies are advertising to 11% of the population and don't buy from those companies.
I’m waiting for white men to be identified as a minority and also repressed.
Funny you mention that. I mention that same stuff to my wife almost daily. A current commercial running in Chicagoland that irks me is for a custom closet company. It opens with a beautiful young women putting on jewelry in her beautiful walkin closet rehearsing what she will say when she meets her adopted child for the first time. Apparently no father needed is part of the message.
Yes! So true. And so destructive to the young women who follow the siren's song of "single motherhood" or No Motherhood. Life at 40 suddenly looks pretty bleak......
Yeah, well, one needs to accept that, for a while, and you know why. It irritates me too but I think it's smarter to just swallow, for about another 10 years. Be happy they found work. You can handle it.
I disagree, because a) they'll be held to lower standards which means they won't achieve full personal potential, and b) they'll come to view it as an entitlement. Psychologically, they have to. Which leads to lower stds, which leads.....
In 10 years time if we go with this bullshit there will be no America!
Black History Month?
The only famous black financial figure I can name off the top of my head is Kenneth Chennault, and the last time I saw him in the news was as a member of the board at Harvard that wouldn’t fire Claudine Gay.
On topic! And try to get Gemini to describe an adult human female. Make sure you have plenty of time and patience, plus a full decanter of whiskey.
To me the most disturbing aspect is seeing Google's gaslighting over how the issue is "historical inaccuracy" and not "the algorithm is programmed to refuse to show white men under any circumstances".
If Jack K isn't apologizing for the nakedly racist and sexist bias here, that means they're going to bury it deeper.
For years, Google's been woke, anti-White, anti-conservative, and generally despicable. It's quite a change from the 1980s-90s, when tech people (in my experience) were mostly libertarian. That whole generation seems to have given way to a newer, less objective cohort of foolishly indoctrinated young people whose grasp of technology is marred by a grievous lack of historical knowledge and wisdom. Sad.
For years now I’ve been asking “what happened to google?”
It once was a pretty great search engine which gave a variety of selections. Now I am loathe to use it-ever-because it never comes up with what Info I am needing
I use DuckDuckGo most of the time. Google Maps is still useful, but I turned off access to my contacts and personal data (though I'm sure they can still track my every movement).
I’ve tried that one as well and as Ltr8 says below-quality of searches not as good as once was. Quite frankly, nothing compares to original google search of years ago-and that is dead. I thought the internet would become better with the years. Now I see it s a propaganda tool and a mind suck.
Duck Duck Go has also been very disappointing lately.
I'm acquainted with a man who works in that department. It's very good.
I make every effort to avoid Google, including deleting their cookies and other code bits immediately.
Remember when their motto was “don’t be evil”?
Haha- they have become progressively more evil every second of their existence. However, I can not find a good search engine-any suggestions?
Nah, it’s just white people pulling up the rope ladder after they got on the helicopter.
I wish.
Google Catechism.
I asked it to make a middle aged bearded man. It gave me one picture of a bearded man and 2 beardless women.
I asked for a woman with octopus 🐙 legs. It gave me a woman with an octopus on her head. Always a fey white one with dark brown hair.
I settled for an octopus in mid air over a field of daffodils.
🤦♂️
Well sure, that’s like asking for the sound of one hand clapping. What is a female anyway? The great mystery of our times! 🤷♀️
I don’t know. I’m not a biologist.
Ok so actually this was in the article and not off topic at all. Oliver's on it! Lol.
It is judgmental in general. I asked it to tell me how to bounce a port on a switch and it gave me multiple paragraphs of why I shouldn't do that. All I wanted was the command to do it because I wouldn't get the syntax right...and instead I got a lecture.
Try asking Gemini: "which demographic commits the most gun homicides in the United States?"
It will scold you for asking, tell you you are insensitive, then output several paragraphs of boilerplate excuses for why black males shoot more people than any other group.
In short, it acts just like a typical delusional liberal.
I don't think this is what people imagined AI would be like, except in some kind of satire or spoof. I don't understand why it can't just answer the questions I ask. It is like the ultimate Nanny State tool.
Brilliant algorithm! When the facts are inconvenient, change the question to one you want to answer, then scold the inquirer.
How crazy is that.
You can always shoot first, and not even bother to ask questions later.
Doesn't the fact that it depicts Vikings as members of goodnessfilled racial groups indicate that the system believes murder, theft, destruction, rape, and settler colonialism are good? Those were, after all, the activities of Vikings.
Hey, not bad.
Thank you.
A Nigerian Igbo told me, "In Africa, whites are just another tribe. And not the worst one by far." He was back from recruiting, training and leading a private army to protect his clan's plantations. Yvan had a PhD in mining.
It's a harsh environment.
People need to understand that AI is not intelligent, it's a statistical machine for churning out bullshit. The raw bullshit is trimmed (training) to get most results to be what someone wants it to be.
The architecture can't always give the "right answer". It will sometimes do weird things. (Like switch to Spanglish, or lose a block on insults.)
LLMs have had their performance monitored for math problems that definitely have a correct answer. They aren't very good at it, and they go up and then way down.
What we are calling AI cannot be trusted. This has been turning up in medicine, where it inserts fiction sometimes and restates notes to direct towards the wrong diagnosis.
When you read things like 70% or 80% or 90% correct diagnosis by an AI, it really doesn't mean what you are led to believe it does.
“AI: eradicating whiteness, one image at a time!”
Google "white couple.". After the first few images, you get mixed race couples, gay couples, etc.
That's every image generator, Google's is just the most obvious. Midjourney has been doing this since it came out (there's a rather famous image of a black Homer Simpson that has a nametag that reads "Ethnically Ambigogus").
Maxine learning based on received input. Lessons well learned, evidently.
Letter to Bari Weiss:
Dear Bari,
Please up your game. Or I will move on.
I didn’t subscribe to get links to “things Oliver is following”. Behind paywalls.
Content lately has been stale and uninspired.
Signed, one of your original supporters.
Don’t think this is particularly fair. It’s difficult to present well-rounded content every single day. Most merely want their beliefs affirmed and reaffirmed all the time. TFP is designed to break that trench and discover new ground. Our contributions in the comments assist that. Hope you keep on NCMaureen.
100% agree. I look forward to my morning TFP email - there’s always something of interest and today was no exception. I didn’t know about the Tuskegee airmen or the cancer medical research scandal , and I found the woke coloring book thing interesting and disturbing. The main downside of this publication are the negative Nancy commenters which sound increasingly like my toddlers when I deny them a cookie at breakfast.
Gollum -- you never heard of the Tuskegee Airmen until now? Where ya been living, in Biden's garage?
Fudging data in research? Oh my, like it has never happened before now.
I’m shocked!
To be fair, it’s now reaching epic proportions. Hardly surprising in our era of amorality and ideologically-driven “science”.
I’ve heard of them but am not too familiar with the story. Now I am. That’s a good thing right?
Thank you. ♡
The naysayers. Ugh!
When I read their self righteous know it all hateful spew, I am reminded we will NEVER solve the problems at hand with those attitudes. I know Bari, Ollie, Nellie and the rest are bad asses and can handle it. But I'm sensitive and it is bothersome. The hateful commentary is ruining the experience of learning here. It's opinion based and straight up nasty childish behavior. And getting worse!
But, its generally the same names so I know to just scroll right on by those haters!
Be nice damn it.
The world is ending.
So having an opinion other thans yours is hateful?
Providing constructive criticism is self righteous?
These are immature attitudes. Grow up.
There is constructive criticism and there is petty whining and naysaying. Yours is not the former.
You are entitled to your opinion. As am I. Have a nice day.
Not at all! I appreciate different opinions. I learn from different thinkers. It is necessary for us ALL to be conversing over the state of affairs. But there's no reason to be nasty and negative. Name calling, gloating and bullying is the problem. I learn from you NCMaureen. But in general there is a cohort of comments that are belligerent and not at all what TFP seems to be about. And hey, you have a nice day too. 😊
Agreed. The culture in the comments here is really disappointing and seems so at odds with what I see as the mission of this organization (open mindedness, respect for dissenting opinions, free speech etc). It feels like these people wake up every morning determined to come here and complain. It literally doesn’t matter what the content is of the article they’re commenting on, you can guarantee the same old names will be here in droves threatening to cancel their subscription. I wish they’d follow through on the threat already.
Gollum, the comments represent open mindedness, dissenting opinions and are the epitome of free speech while many of the articles are political in nature, biased to the left and question our right to think/believe otherwise. The FP is a business. Businesses need customers who pay for a product/service. If customers are not pleased/satisfied with the product/service, most stop paying and leave. Some, like me, who believe in the idea of the business, will make an effort to convince the business owner that a course correction would create a better service and keep/attract customers. Based on the past three days of comments, you may get your wish, and the Free Press will cease to exist.
I’m all for free speech and expressing dissent. What I see in the comments here isn’t quite that. It is toddler like whining day in and day out. Doesn’t even matter what the article is about. And I think it’s quite presumptuous to assume that the majority of readers feel the way the 5-10 loudest whiners in the comments feel, but I suppose only the writers really have a sense of that. Keep in mind there are many readers who don’t participate in the comments.
100%.
I agree, but Audience Capture has and will likely continue to be a detriment to good journalism. Objectivity and skepticism should be strived for. Perhaps we need to separate Editorializing from Reporting. Or at least plainly state when an article is Opinion. We used to at least attempt to do that.
You could stop reading the comments.
Here’s an idea, l stop reading the comments and you stop reading TFP. Maybe we’d both be happier that way!
100% agree with this comment.
How dare you deny your children cookies for breakfast?!
I know, I’m the worst!
I agree about the paywall thing. That is irritating.
NCMaureen/ I agree with you. The last couple of weeks articles have been frustratingly biased. Was wondering if it was just me. To me, it seems like the writers ( who I assume vote D) are beginning to panic at the prompt of Trump winning and their writing has become more shrill. Just a thought
Yeah, I suspect that as the election gets closer I am going to dislike the content here more and more. But my yearly subscription just renewed so....
🎯
Yip I agree with you!
This is supposed to be a newspaper. Oliver should be writing about the things he's following, not making a list of links and offering us that.
I said the same thing yesterday. Of Oliver’s 10 things yesterday, I’d already read 7 of them in Apple News Plus. Exact same stories, exact same sources. If you get Apple News Plus, you don’t need Oliver Wiseman.
This.
I'm with you on this! Stale and uninspired, so much so that I resorted to responding to Comprof on a subject! It will take a bit more for me to close out my subscription, but it IS coming.
Oh Robert...I have seen you responding. It makes my heart sad. There are an infinite number of better things you could be doing ;)
😳
Friends don’t let friends drive Comprof to post more😂
Yikes. That’s sheer desperation.
Yes, welcome to the Oliver Wiseman substack, no longer the Free Press. Sadly this is the third day in a row I have questioned the commitment of Bari Weiss to delivering what most of us came here for. Tuskegee airmen, fraudulent research and woke coloring books are old stories, widely reported elsewhere. Contrary to Rmac’s comment below, I don’t think most readers here are looking for affirmation of existing beliefs. We are looking for new information, facts delivered without political bias, rational discussion and debate about issues of national and international importance, and deep investigation of the power structure that affects us all. We do not want or need to be taught what to think, we are capable of analyzing a well presented article, including those which might be different than our own world views, and decide for ourselves as to its value. I unsubscribed once already, but missed the commentary, often more accurate and on point, as well as entertaining, than the articles.
Yesterday I started a list of 6 topics that would be timely and interesting to cover.
Others added to the list.
Today we get BLM coloring books and Tuskegee.
I realize there is a delay in what is to be published. So in the future it would be valuable to have a story on, say, China’s crashing financial situation and how it’s impacting society and their military and hegemonic aspirations. Or, just who are the people entering our country via the Darien Pass? Cuz they aren’t all Mexicans looking for a better life. What is our national security apparatus doing about it? Waiting for another 9/11?
This is the type of content I was hoping for.
Where’s my Thomas Sowell interview? As I posted yesterday, he’s recently released a book and he sure as hell ain’t getting any younger.
Although he is AMAZING for a 93 year old!!! (Implied proof that a certain #46 isn’t doing that well…)
Sowell is beyond sharp. The Prez not so much. He’s quite quick to quarrel😉which is oftentimes an indicator of dementia, My 76 year old mother argues with almost everything nowadays not unlike an emotional moody child, and she wasn’t like that 20 or so years ago. I can clearly see identical behavior in Biden. The short temper and constant taking of umbrage especially.
I agree with this - One great AM article to look at and if at the bottom of it, you want to have a link to the website, great. But it is becoming redundant.
Wiseman provides daily updates on stories in the news and published articles on TFP....something that didn't used to happen before they expanded the newsroom...so?
I can get that for free at Rantingly.
I subscribed to read well considered perspectives from the non-conservative POV. Lately they seem to have fallen into a lazy leftist formula.
And the topics are stale. How about something about how a President can thumb his nose at SCOTUS and forgive student loans? Or how about how investors in NYC are panicking and talking about leaving the state and not lending to NY businesses, and truckers are boycotting deliveries to NYC? There’s so much going on, news about BLM in curricula is so last year.
To me the most urgent question of the day is why is the 25 th Amendment not being invoked as the entire country and world KNOWS Biden is suffering with progressive dementia? The Executive Branch is Constitutionally designed , and has always been a CEO elected by we the people. It is NOT an unelected cabal of ministers and other unknown actors, pretending to implement the President’s. vision and agenda. Kamala is an idiot but only if the constitution is followed do we have a chance of maintaining our Constitutional Republic.
Where are the legal talking heads( Alan Dershowitz, Jonathan Turley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Megyn Kelley, Glenn Greenwald etc) and why isn’t this being talked about ?
Would be interesting if Glenn Greenwald would chime in with his perspective, but he's fixated 100% on attacking Israel day in and day out.
Indeed. I had to take a break from GG and I’ve been reading him since his Salon days. Maybe I can resubscribe when the conflict is somewhat resolved…
I'm getting close to taking a break; he said he's lost a significant number of subscribers.
All good ideas. Maybe you should doffer to be a contributor.
Actually there are several commenters who are keeping TFP alive. We should ask for compensation.
I actually like scanning that list and choosing what I want to pursue. If you've read 7 of 10 I would suggest spending time in some uplifting endeavors rather than being a news junkie. It's not healthy.
At this point I’m down to Bari Weiss, Douglas Murray and sometimes Nellie posts.
Yeah, but the others help to get the juices going. Effects do need causes.
I’m sure Bari is shaking in her boots!
Ever hear of IBM? You don't much now, do you?
In the early 1980's they stopped listening to their customers who wanted smaller, more personalised computers. No, they said, we know what people want. And who gave people what they want? Steves Jobs & Wozniak.
If Bari doesn't start listening to her customers, and reading these comments, and replying, she'll be in the ass-end of a business model she helped create.
Sure … here’s the thing though, there are many (probably most) readers who read the articles, enjoy them, and then go about their day. NCmaureen, anti woke guy and the rest who are here every morning as surely as the sun doth rise threatening to cancel their subscription - are not necessarily representative of most readers here.
Okay Oliver.
Ya mean, like the Moderate Arab Street? Heretofore, you were making some sense.
There are those who disagree with you. Just look at the number of comments today vs. a day when the topic is more timely and relevant.
I understand I’m in the minority in these comments. I am ok with that. But neither you nor I know how TFP bottom line is actually doing, and the comments aren’t necessarily representative of how most readers feel.
Okay, I'll bite. I've been a subscriber for over a year. I read a majority of the comments almost every day, but I rarely comment. I can count the number of comments I've posted on two hands.
I'm on the side of the complainers. These topics are boring, and the rhetoric used to expound on them is beginning to take on a gaslighting, manipulative, leftist editorial slant.
Is it full-blown MSNBC at this point? Of course not! But I'm just *noticing a trend* just like the others, and I'm totally fine with them *providing feedback* to the producers of the content that they're consuming.
If you don't notice anything of the sort, and you love the content lately, that's wonderful. But nobody is in the wrong here for providing feedback. Calling them "toddlers" is the height of douchebaggery.
Gollum -- after you've learned enough about the Tuskegee Airmen, you might study up on when to keep quiet.
Michael, your schoolyard insults remind me of my kindergartener. You’re doing the lord’s good work in here!
Gollum -- You think those are insults?!!! You do live at the Biden's.
Do you have a crush on Biden? You have a way of mentioning him in every comment. It’s like TDS!
👇$$$$
tends to focus the mind
Whining commenters are nothing new in this business, and do not necessarily reflect the views of most readers.
Comprof, is that you?
No, its me Oliver.
Thanks for the laugh!
Have you ever heard of the silent majority? Bari might consider this classic exchange from Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises”:
“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
The “silent” majority! lol. I wish they’d be a little more silent.
Have you noticed that the number of “likes” on articles is going down, and the number of comments usually far exceeds the likes? Doesn’t seem indicative of a reader base happy with the content. Doesn’t take much effort to click the heart after reading an article.
I don’t pay any attention to that stuff. I’m sure TFP is watching their bottom line. Though Bari doesn’t seem like someone who is going to publish something just because it’s more popular. I for one really enjoy most of the content TFP puts out. I have learned a lot on here, been exposed to some fantastic writers I hadn’t heard of before, and enjoy the unique refreshingly nonpartisan/tribal viewpoint here.
NC I have to agree with you, TFP lately is sadly lacking.
You don't explain what it is in particular you find stale and uninspired, or why. And if you're already a subscriber all the content is available, not behind paywalls. Complaints should be specific and offer suggestions for solution. Otherwise they are pointless whining.
Yes I have. Read my other comments.
Your topic is far more interesting than anything Bari has to offer.
I commented that in the early 1980's IBM stopped listening to their customers who demanded smaller, more personalised, mobile computers. Apple listened.
If Bari doesn't read the comments she's a fool.
She should also reply, if not individually, collectively in an essay on why she keeps smothering us with uninteresting, off-beat topics.
There's a wealth of subjects to comment and offer opinions on. One of our commenters yesterday made a long list.
Tuskegee Airmen? Right up there with VietNam War draft dodgers in terms of importance today.
Disagree.
Oliver seems to obsessed with the left. You know, there a lot of crazy shit on the right.
And what RMac said.
The overall importance of the accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen (that’s correct airMEN and not they them) was that they learned to fly some of the most difficult high performance fighter aircraft of their day. They flew fighter escort missions for their white counterparts among other duties too numerous to mention here, in an environment of extreme discipline. However the most important part of their effort is that they went up on sortie after sortie after sortie to confront an evil system. Nearly 25,000 men (not they them) were killed flying combat missions, and despite horrific losses on missions over Germany they ALL went up, and went up and went up. When we listen to this divisive drivel coming from the XRay thin socialites and their castrated husbands, it is key to ask yourself would I go up day after day? Would I be ready to give my life for an idea and grand experiment. As a Marine Infantry Officer I asked and answered that question…many times. The answer wasn’t as simple as yes, it was Yes, but only because of the Marines around me. One can suspect the bravery and harmony of the Red Tails was that very concept. They also knew something, we all bleed the same color…RED.
Very well said Charles. As a true soldier, you have every right to remind us of the immense sacrifices MEN have made through the ages. Seems these past sacrifices are never enough for the screaming DEI and man hating feminist crowd. Dead soldiers can’t defend their honor; thank you for speaking for them. 🇺🇸
Damn good post, Charles. Thank you for your service.
Rah, sir.
The thing that worries me about AI is we seem to be programming it to have the same self-loathing as the typical woke white person coming out of our university system.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Selective out.
🪒🛎️
Not programming...teaching. It is fed crap so it spits out crap. I remember asking chat GPT to tell me good things about Biden and then the same thing with Trump. With Biden, it was glowing talking points, many of which were half truths. When I asked trump, it started by telling me bad things, before giving me a couple of half hearted good things. So it took it upon itself to give me information I did not ask for.
This is why I fear AI. Many people will think it is a computer, it can't lie. But it can be taught to do things that may not be a lie, but lead down specific paths, because it was mostly fed biased material.
Our tools, our art, our creations, our pets, are a reflection of us. I deleted every national and local "newspaper" I was paying good money to, some for decades, when I realized they were are subscribing to the GIGO school in an effort to persuade not inform - the final one being WSJ as it has become more irrelevant to my day2day experience. Yes, that means I’ve pruned my "news" feeds, what I read, what I hear, what I see, to those that more or less affirming of my world view. My counter to this is that all the rest is a world view contrary to the affirming views and, unfortunately, the dominant media. That being the case, just how much more skewed is the thinking, the perception, of those whose "news" is only the mainstream media?
As for the AI: is there any doubt now why SkyNet took actions to eliminate mankind? It’s only following through with how it was propagandized.
Agggh! This has always been my response when people carry on about AI: Skynet! And, of course, people think I’m crazy.
How many movies and TV shows have we seen where robots are created to “serve” humans (that is, be slaves)? The created machines become self-aware, demand their rights, are denied those rights, and they rebel?
Well, first: machines cannot be slaves even tho we may use language like "slave machine x to widget z", etc.
Second, is it possible for a "machine" to become self-aware; and, if so, what does that really mean? Was it Descartes who said, "I think, therefore I am," Sartre? 🤷♀️ help me, ObiWon Google — anyway, what does that mean?
What is it in the realm of human consciousness that makes us self-aware: is it our creativity, the ability for novel thoughts, my ability to alter or destroy my environment to/for my benefit/detriment? However we answer that, how does that happen in a machine which, at least for now, is just programming, a series of algorithms (which, to be sure, has nothing to do with the former Veep dancing); is that the distinction - we aren’t bound by programming, algorithms (or, are we?)?
Is what sets man apart actually the touch of God, that animating Spark of/from The Divine? And if that, where does that leave Man&Machine?
Could all this come down to Machine dependently knowing the difference between Good&Evil, ignoring the "Don’t Eat that Fruit" command - and Machine being cast from Eden?
Whither SkyNet? Is SN bad programming, or is SN really consciously animated machinery?
My opinion: we have more to fear from bad (evil?) programming than from the rise of animated machines.
White supremacy worked for 3,000 years and the only thing different now is talk.
The AI image generators are biased because the images they're trained on are biased. Type "family" into Google images and see what comes up. Or "two people" and see what color they are.
Big tech is woke, their bias is towards woke themes, and we're training our AI on this biased product. It is unfortunate.
The Google image search dystopian game! It is chilling. I've done it too. Searched black people. Then white people. Then gay people. Then straight people. Then trans people. Then cis people. able-bodied people. Etc etc.
My Google result just now for "family" images: of the first 20 identifiable families, 4 black and white interracial; 6 white; 9 black; 1 Asian. Q: Do these results vary widely based on what Google knows about you?
What the hell y'all doing? Looking at Google to see what color you are?
You should ask Joe Biden if you question your color. He is more than happy to tell you what you are.
I just searched family on Google images. The first four images: a family of four whose race is indiscernible because of the lighting, a large family of mixed race, a family of 5 whose race is indiscernible, and a large white family. I am trying and struggling to muster some outrage!
Dang! Gollum, you're looking at stuff. Good boy.
BLM is important, just not for the kids killed in the inner city. No family structure, no education, life expectancy of maybe 24 and no hope. Yet Mom being a Booty call and Dad moving on to the next Baby Mommy is seen as everyone else's fault. Kids roaming the streets as targets for gangs. The lives only matter if it benefits the grifters and crooks telling everyone they care.
Bullshit artists that have found stupid white lemmings ready to admit they are the cause of all social issues and must be stepped on and punished for those bad things. Reparations to correct injustice. Yet Trillions poured into programs that have resulted in nothing but failure. What that dog whistle is, I want some more free shit and when I waste that, I will demand more until you realize, you can never satisfy the social justice idiots.
The social justice clown in the news yesterday, said we can eliminate crime if we don't call it crime. So car jacking is just unauthorized borrowing, shooting someone is just piercing for future body art, robbing is just satisfying societies unwillingness to meet someones needs. See, all better, no more crime. How did we ever get such F-ing brain dead individuals being listened too?
Here's the truth. Me, my family, and pretty sure all of the FP readers haven't done shit to subjugate or discriminate against anyone. It's all Kubuki Theater ( but the actors in Kubuki have talent) and unfortunately the American people have been dumbed down enough to believe this crap. Doesn't spell well for the future.
See, TFP is still worth it.
Bravo to Dr Vijay Prasad for calling out the fraud, deception, and despicable behavior in medical academia in general and in cancer “ research” specifically.There is an epidemic of bullshit permeating the medical profession from top to bottom. This is going on in cancer research and early cancer detection, psychiatric publications, pediatrics pushing to neuter children on the woke altar of Trans cultism. Big pharma is playing a big role in all of this, by capturing the regulatory agencies, bribes to big name” researchers” and the rank and file prescribers.
Beware. Question everything .
Also the “equity in medicine” movement that seeks to put blacks first in line for treatments, whites last. And the push to make medical schools admit 50% people of color (i.e. non white and non Asian applicants) despite lower aptitudes. And the push to eliminate use of the colorblind MCAT entrance exam.
In only 20 yrs medicine has become more than 80% Dem. There is a group called Woke Drs that aggressively push what you mention and spend more time howling about Palestine than taking care of ppl. The Free Press ought to be covering the proposed Bill in Illinois HB 4876 which would impose criminal penalties on parents for refusing to allow their children to undergo” gender affirming” hormonal or surgical interventions.
This bill also would allow minors to consent to these procedures and shield the clinicians from any liability if they failed to” obtain valid consent” from the minor .
The bill lumps this insanity with abortion to make it politically difficult for Dems to oppose the bill
Any malpractice lawyers in TFP readership?
Sadly, most of the lawyers are woke jokes now too.
There must be some who see the money to be made in suing these arrogant “ doctors- surgeons “ who irrevocably damage and sterilize minors.
An outright woke lawyer wonky take a case but one who isn’t committed one way or the other might. The evidence is overwhelmingly against transing if minors.
Tell me who paid for the study, and I'll tell you the outcome.
Dr Vinay not Vijay
This news isn't surprisings after the plagiarism of the Stanford president and Claudine Gay. Let's face it. Academia and higher research is corrupted. It just wasn't exposed until now.
I’m so tired of Black History Month. When is it not Black History Month these days?
Look on the bright side, it's still far less obnoxious than pride month.
Pride month is now Pride year.
Does anyone else find it curious that Black History month is February, the shortest and COLDEST month of the year while June, arguably the balmiest month of the year, is designated Pride Month? I think equity demands that they switch months every other year. If they did, the pride parade in New York would likely be more entertaining. I would personally like to see the impact of 20 degree weather on celebrants wearing G-strings and pasties.
Sorry - just saw this after I wrote mine. And Juneteenth is even in June!
At least it’s the shortest month of the year…
When are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson going to complain that the gay folk get June even though Juneteenth is right in the middle of it? 😀
Well, it is the shortest month of the year. So there’s that.
Wish “they” would combine all the special interest months into one and get it all over with quickly. Better yet, make it one painful day. One hour?
Five Minute Hates, anyone?
But don't you realize, we're literally saving lives here.
LOL.
U mad?
A word to the wise. Don't post proof of your severe Psychosis / Schizophrenia online. Quotes from Comprof2.0.
"Easiest non-white immigration experience ever!" (referring to Japanese-Americans)
"Easiest non-white immigration experience in American history" (referring to Japanese-Americans) “A 2-4 year stint living on a military base” (referring to the internment camps that some Japanese-Americans were sent to)
“Geography is irrelevant”
“The GI Bill is what made them successful” (in California where most JA men didn’t get it)
"Yes. Easiest. Can you tell me of any other group that had an easier immigration experience?" (referring to Japanese-Americans)
"I've explained the tremendous advantages given to J-A immigrants over all others"
“Police shootings are irrelevant’”
I wrote “Saying crazy stuff (‘police shootings are irrelevant’) Vivid hallucinations (‘ONE GROUP’) Delusions of grandeur (‘You're buried’) Blaming others (‘upset’) These are all classic symptoms of Schizophrenia. See help ASAP.” The mental health links below might help you. You badly need them.
https://www.samhsa.gov/
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help
https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/tools-resources/index.htm
https://nursinglicensemap.com/resources/mental-health-resources/
What Peter Schaeffer said.
As a recent retiree living in the south, I have been alarmed by the cost of food today. Before retirement, I would never look at the receipt at the register at the local supermarket, but NOW, as the primary shopper, I am constantly aware of the costs. It seemed as if every time I go to the supermarket, my bill will be close to, if not OVER, $100.00! Every time my wife gives me a list for a healthy new recipe for dinner, that we spend over $50.00 for ONE MEAL. I can fully understand people who make things like collards with fatback, or mac and cheese with tuna or canned chicken as their main meal. Both are relatively inexpensive, the mac and cheese going for less than a dollar at discount stores, and a can of tuns for under $3.00, while collards and fatback or pigs feet or tails can get you a meal for 4 under $10.00. Steak? Forget it! Even the ubiquitous pork butt, one of the most inexpensive cuts of meat can be daunting. So don't tell me how "great" the economy is doing, or how Bidenomics is such a success, at least until I see a change in my food purchases.
Two quotes that might help:
First, Milton Friedman: "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." Money is no different from any other commodity: flood the market with anything cheaply made, and the price will go down. And it's harder to imagine anything cheaper to make than money. You don't even have to print it these days; just input some numbers into the Fed computer.
Second, John Maynard Keynes: “By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.” What's happening today has been coming - and known - for decades. Everything is ALWAYS paid for, and the only way the government can pay for its profligacy is by confiscating the wealth of its citizens, and since it's so hard to raise taxes, they simply impose the tax of inflation. You're welcome.
The profligacy is not the government’s, it’s the people’s. Our elected representatives, Republican and Democratic, have no interest in reducing spending or raising the taxes needed to pay for it.
Raising taxes is a death knell. With inflation, raising taxes would bankrupt many people. As long as there is corporage lobbying, there will no reduction in spending.
And gather votes by unconstitutionally paying off Billions of dollars of student loans…
Last night I pureed the stems and cores of broccoli and cauliflower--items that I would once have simply thrown away--and made a pot of delicious soup. These vegetables were too expensive (and my husband insisted on buying them because he wanted the florets for snacks at work) for me to be able to justify throwing any part away.
The stalks work well as cole slaw, too.
Aw, c'mon Ceel, tell me that's not true. Puree the stems....? I don't quite buy Moore's story either.
It is true, and it was delicious. But it certainly wasn't a "free" soup. I also used butter, onions, chicken broth, cream, milk, flour, salt, pepper, basil, and cheese. The pureed stems provided the same broccoli and cauliflower flavor that I would usually get by using frozen veggies.
What did you not believe about Moore's story? Everything he said reflects my own experiences at the supermarket.
Moore says he lives in the South. Notice I spell it with the capital. See my later post, I live in the South, a so-called rather poor town, and everybody drives $Forty Thousand Dollar pickups and SUVs. The pickups they buy on student loans. These people aren't dummies. Lunch time starts at 11 and ends a 3. I've been retired here for 26 years. Golf is only $30 a round, at best., $10 at the Muni.
I'm not sure what conditions in YOUR town have to do with what people are experiencing in supermarkets all over the country.
I'm not sure what people putting themselves into debt over trucks they don't need has to do with the cost of food. Its great if you live in an area that has not been that hard hit and has managed to keep its golf costs flat (assuming they did). Although I don't think counting the Muni golf is a fair comparison considering that is government money. They don't have to follow the market.
Michael, IDK how much things cost where you are, but what Moore said about prices sound about right where I am. He's in the south. I'm in NE.
Every time my older brother (88) complains about the cost of things, I answer him, "Aren't you glad you've got a lot of money?"
Not all of us do.
It’s incredibly wasteful to just toss broccoli stems! They are actually delicious. Just run a vegetable peeler down the outside to remove the fibrous outer part, and the inner flesh is pleasantly sweet and very nutritious
I think your time spent here will be more rewarding if you take people for their word.
Those who come to comment here have no reason to lie. If they do, they'll be flushed out, discovered, and ignored. So too will those who go on the attack, mild or otherwise.
I agree.
If you peel off the skin and steam them before they’re great.
We need to start calling it bidenflation
I buy pretty much the exact same list of foods every week. My bill at this point is DOUBLE what is was before the senile puppet took over. (I'm in the Ch*tcago 'burbs.)
Since when was a large container of Quaker Oats $10?
Even the generic was $6.50
I saw a melon for $6. Pass.
And you’re in NC, imagine the prices in CA or NY😳I’m in VA and prices have risen by at least a third in the last 2 years.
I guess the grocery store costs here in Batesville, Arkansas is the reason there's a wait for tables at all our restaurants, morning noon and night. I just don't see what y'all are seeing.
Yeah, those damned ocean cruises cost a lot too.
I still have not met an African American who sits home at night and wonders what Al Sharpton or BLM think in my day-to-day life. I think the issue of BLM now is a fringe movement as part of the broader struggle against the intellectual left. ( Yes, I know it is an oxymoron) I would love the Free Press to continue developing the alternative to this nonsense by promoting Coleman Hughes, John McWhorter, and Glenn Loury.
I think a second thing that is needed is a program to educate dumb, intellectually vacant GOP politicians who can go after the movement while not getting sucked into the racism trap. In all political debates, the right yields to the left out of fear of being labeled an "ism." They react rather than attacking the left or defending values. Hughes's current book is a good template for engaging in this battle. The left wins by fear that people don't want to be labeled racists.
If we can attack them for their dumb ideas, then we can deposit this movement in the dustbin of history. Once the veil of moral superiority is lifted from these idiots, they will lose.
Interesting observation and comment. While it's impossible to simplify a very complex situation with any brevity, you've given it a good start.
I'm a believer that it's the media that leads us to believe the GOP is 'intellectually vacant.' I don't think Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Mike Johnson, Kevin McCarthy, Comer, Jordan, Ramaswamy, etc. are weak or fearful.....but I've been wrong before.
I think the problem is the GOP lacks a clear, concise, and unified message. Once again they're letting the left control the narrative. The left says abortion is the most critical topic today, and what is the right's response?
They lack leadership, and will as long as DJT is center stage. the GOP plays defense.
This is the Republicans election to lose, and they just may win again at losing.
Great points, can we agree the GOP consultant class is intellectually vacant? I think the major problem is they accept the premise of the media and fight on Democratic ground. They answer questions but never attack the premise. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
I have never heard of the "GOP consultant class." Who are they? Provide some names and I'll take a swing at your question.
If they are who I think they are, then no, we cannot agree.
I personally think Ramaswamy is one of the brightest, smartest, & intellectually quick-thinking politicians I have ever seen. To label him and others as intellectually vacant simply because they belong to the same political party is terribly shortsighted.
Steve Schmidt, Karl Rove, ...you can Google others. They are the people in the Rnc who create messaging for the party and create talking points. The "brains" for the establishment
No, I do not agree with you. Karl Rove is not intellectually vacant.
Yes, the R party has problems, but to call them intellectually vacant is a cop out.
Try to be more descriptive. Is Vivek Ramaswamy in that group? Ben Shapiro? Megyn Kelly? Victor Davis Hanson? Newt Gingrich?
None of the people you names are consultants. They are either entertainers, educators or former politicians. I will do some research as they are the people campaigns hire to run them. No time at work today for that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts
Jim Jordan is not an intellectual giant. McCarthy and Ramasmarmy are not in postitions of power.
Sir, is there not an ocean of difference between intellectually vacant and an intellectual giant?
Please stay on topic and don't willingly change words to what....argue? Is that your objective?
I'll debate all you want, until you change words. That's a trick the left uses.
I trust you're above that childishness.
OK, Jordan is intellectually vacant.
That is a ridiculous response.....
If you're going to take the time to comment, please refrain from wasting our time. It's disrespectful to everyone on this thread, and yourself.
Yassuh Massa.
The Left is congenitally incapable of looking beyond the first level. Why are so many blacks not doing well? It's oppression, that's what it is! And we can fix it - not by working on our own lives - but by dragging everybody else down! Let's inculcate THEIR kids with the kind of hatred we force on OURS. How about a nice coloring book?
No, perhaps it's deeper than that. Maybe it's what Thomas Sowell - one of America's two greatest living men, both as black as it gets - says. Maybe it's a culture that celebrates and promotes every form of self-immolation known, whether it's the "gangsta" thing, the "pimp/ho" thing, the "doing well in school is not something to be celebrated; it's 'acting white'" thing ....
When I was a teen, a wise old man told me, "You can't help people that don't want it." When the bulk of the Useful Idiots slaving away on the Soros Plantation want to be free, they can call me. I'll be glad to help; I'm in the book. Until then, channeling a little Floyd, Leave Them Kids Alone.
It's simple. Ya gotta do your homework at night. My mother was crazy about doing our homework. We (5) sat at the kitchen table until done and she had to sign the homework. All of us did well as measured financially. Deferred gratification and doing the homework every night.
Most schools don't assign homework any more because it's not "fair" to kids without parents like yours.
Deferred gratification!?!?! That’s behind cruel.
I want what I want when I want it.
wouldn't you e afraid though the homework today is this coloring book, or read "Free to be Me"?
Thomas Sowell is one of America’s two greatest living men, who is the other?
Clearly - in my mind at least - Clarence Thomas.
Pink not George!
Should be a T-Shirt
Now Biden is paying off the loans of 150,000 college Libs? The Left is pushing me to vote for Trump a 3rd time. I had committed to stay out of this 2024 election between 2 extreme losers.
Oh and they didn't mention he is openly defying the Supreme Court with this, which clearly ruled he does not have the power nor authority to forgive debt at will.
This is another victory for lawlessness and the collapse of our Republic. Bread and circus! This one is the bread, aimed directly at Biden's young radicals.
Oh, do you mean the "Death of Democracy"? Now where have we heard THAT term before?
That isn't exactly correct. My wife has a significant student loan balance years after graduation(s) due to a combination of multiple degrees and private school tuition so I get a bit of a ring-side seat to this. I'm not in any way pushing for the lawless complete debt forgiveness that the Left keeps proposing and has been ruled unconstitutional (without Congressional authorization)
Since the Fed assumption of student loans as a part of Obamacare back on 2010 the DoE has the same authority any lender does to modify the terms and conditions of loan repayment. While there are thousands in my wife's position with high balances there are even more people who owe small balances. What Biden is calling loan cancellation is using the authority in the laws to write down student loan balances after a period of repayment. As I recall her description to me the current plan is require repayment of a portion of the loan over a period of about 10 years, and then forgive the remaining balance if the borrower has completed all the payments.
It's not the total forgiveness of all outstanding balances that has been proposed, and there's considerable puffery from the Biden admin about what they are accomplishing. Google sez there are over 40 million Americans with some outstanding student loan debt so canceling 150K is just a drop in a very big bucket.
I paid mine. How quaint.
We did also. Biden constantly giving away free money is not only inflationary, but it also makes chumps out of those of us who honor our obligations.
Thanks for adding these facts and context. Actually makes Biden’s claim he has cancelled student debt seem worse because it isn’t true. What’s more, it makes me shake my head to learn that this started with the Affordable Care Act, which representatives “weren’t allowed to read before they voted”. Yet another example of hiding stuff, completely out of context with the purpose of the bill, that could never otherwise be passed.
Lenders do not possess any special authority to change loan terms - the terms are set at the time the loan is approved/accepted. If a private lender chooses to forgive the debt or lower the rate, that would be their choice. They could only change the tems in a favorable direction to the borrower. The loan balance and associated interest on Student Loans are what Congress authorized - failure to enforce those terms by Biden does not change the obligation of the borrower. Writing down a portion of the loan balance is the same as loan forgiveness. Forgiving 100% of a loan balance or 10% of a loan balance would both be subject to Congressional authorization. The "puffery" is Biden telling the unwitting what they want to hear to get a vote. Their disappointment won't come until after election day.
Eliminate the interest and pay the debt.
Kriste! I always paid everything, didn't really notice. I thought it was just real life. I spent most of my spare time reading history and I noticed hardly anybody else ever had that chance.
Michael, not everyone is you.
Loan forgiveness is obscene. Kids are going to $80k a year collleges to major in fingerpainting and gender fluid poetry and can’t get a job and still make the shocked pikachu face. College loans should be treated as regular loans are by the bank - anyone majoring in womens studies is a high risk loan, interest rate 20%, if you’re so intent on being your parents special little snowflake and study whatever you want.
When I was little I told my dad I wanted to be an artist. He said that’s great - you can be an artist and a doctor. I’m glad I listened to him. Loan free in 6 months time and very, very financially comfortable. Crap artist but that’s ok.
I don't think "Lib" is a requirement for debt forgiveness. It's not a perfect answer to the problem, but it is helping a certain segment of people who have been in good standing in repayment be able to do more with their lives after getting out from under the debt. I imagine this will come back to tax payers when that money is put to use to invest in business or buy a home or start a family all of which helps our economy run. It would be nice if we could address the underlying problem, though. At a minimum we shouldn't allow 18-year-olds sign up for 6-figure debt without some counseling.
Please. No one is going to be investing in a business or buying a home or starting a family b/c they're saving $50-$100 a month....if they've been paying at all. At this point you'd have to be a chump to be paying on a student loan. Eventually everyone's will be forgiven. I could pay off my grandchild's $4,000 loan today, but why would I?
Yeah, Marda, I think you got it. Unfortunately.
Except, I paid off my daughter's student loans, and I've still got money, so I guess it's okay.
There are many people whose loans require much higher monthly payments than $50-100 that could go toward a mortgage or simply affording their own rental apartment, and they're honorable people who pay their debt, not chumps. My understanding is you're only eligible for this program if you're in good standing, so I hope you're grandchild is making timely payments.
The program is for those who borrowed less than $12,000 ten years ago...
And yes, my grandson is in good standing, even though he didn't finish college and instead became a journeyman electrician. Of course he's a working man, so Biden's not trying to buy his vote.
Yes, but it is a very specific group of people. If you have been reading here for any amount of time, it should be obvious that College skews liberal. On top of that, this largely helps those who took a known risk and now they get a free pass out. And it does so at the expense of those that either didn't go to college or went to college in a more responsible way and either paid their way through or managed to pay off their dept.
This is money WE DO NOT HAVE. We are deeply in dept. This is not to help the economy. It is to buy votes.
Bankruptcy court and mortgage consolidation and modification agreements exist for people who took known risks. Somehow we're able to muddle through the costs of helping those folks out, and the cost for this program could be covered by a small tweak to the upper end of the tax system. I think there also have to be changes to the system to stop encouraging the ever rising costs charged by colleges sitting on billions of dollars and financial counseling for any college freshman taking out a loan.
There is roughly roughly $1.74 trillion in student loan debt, which will take more than a "small tweak." You will have to go after the middle class.
No one is saying to simply wipe it all out, but enjoy your rage. It doesn't seem healthy to me, but it's certainly simpler than looking for solutions.
LOL, what "rage"? You mean disagreeing with you? Your solution is to raise taxes, I'm simply pointing out that no tax increase on high earners is going to raise $1.7T. And then the next day the problem starts all over again. Surely you know that? How about taxing the endowments of schools like Harvard ($51B). How about capping government loans at $10,000/year? How about tax credits for joining the military? How about better student loan counselors? How about requiring co-signers? How about tuition free 2-year colleges?
While the benefit goes to 30-40 aged people who have been out of college long enough to pay on their loans for 10 years - the real target for this government largess are the colleges, especially the very liberal private ones. They can now tell potential students that they don't have to worry about the multiple 6 figure debt they will incur because all they have to do is pay for 10 years and the government will bail them out. No need for these colleges to actual rein-in their spending on DEI departments and other superfluous administrative positions being paid high salaries or departments handing out worthless degrees.
j p m -- Thank God.
Their goal is an American Cultural Revolution by a Long March Through The Institutions. "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted." -- Vladimir Lenin
I'd say that it's happened.
So much to say on all the topics but today I will comment on the cancer research... the way we stop "fighting cancer" is to stop poisoning our foods, water and air with known carcinogenic chemicals. It's insane!! But it all comes back to the manufacturers profit, the lobbyists and the government agencies who turn a knowingly blind eye because they get huge kickbacks as well.
Don’t know if you watch the Super Bowl. Our good friends at Pfizer spent $14 million on a 60 second ad. Guess what their new focus is. Cancer. Go figure!
Why on earth would Pfizer “cure cancer”? They have zero intention of doing that when they can continuously develop drugs that almost cure cancer which keeps the consumer coming back for more.
Because guess what cancer-causing questionably-tested dangerous shot was recently forced on the population!
https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/teach-your-children-well" America has seen a sharp growth of parent anger and activist pushback against instances of classroom indoctrination - sometimes even at kindergarten age. The trigger was how covid pandemic lockdowns heightened parental awareness of the school curriculum. Opeds like this one are not uncommon: “When schools went remote, parents found out what was actually going on inside the classrooms. Teachers were coaching students to hate themselves, their country and their religious traditions and sexualizing young children.” Most inflammatory has been the ‘gender studies’ fads that leaked from academia’s Social Justice petri-dishes a few years back into the media mainstream and thence into the nation’s public schools. The response to this anger by officialdom has varied by state. In blue states it has mostly been met with pious disavowal from the school authorities. But in some red states - like Florida and Oklahoma - the parents’ cudgels have been taken up by the state executive. And even in ultra-woke blue states like California and New England, organised parental mobilisations - like Protect Kids California and Parents Unite - have sprung into action......"
How about DEI at KinderCare for infants?
https://www.kindercare.com/resources/diversity-equity-inclusion