The message forum is an ongoing dialogue between classmates. There are no items, topics, subtopics, etc.

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

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Jay, as a painter myself, I particularly enjoyed really those quotes from Renaissance artists....thank you for posting those. Love, Joanie

Helen Lambie (Goldstein)

Stephen, I totally agree with you re Trump. I have been avoiding answering Jay's survey for that very reason. Or, if he refuses to have a stroke or heart attack how about cut to the chase--IMPRISON!

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Clifford Elgin

I wrote something to this effect before the 2020 electioin:  At the end of this piece I will write the two things that Trump is the very best at but, first, other thoughts:  Trump always claims he is the best business man ever; however, he has started 20 or more businesses that have failed (I've lost count).  A California court ruled that his Trump business school was a fraud and ordered six figures worth of tuition to be returned.  In Florida a court found he had not paid or underpaid dozens of contractors and ordered $300,000 be paid to the plaintiffs.  He is by all accounts a womanizer of the worst kind.  He is a bully and will "sick" lawyers on those who go against him (I'm puzzled why lawyers work for him since he has a history of not paying lawyers).  His typical business procedure is to announce a new hotel, resort, business; put a small amount of his own money into it and convice, coujoul, pressure others to invest (often small investors have invested their life savings); then charge the new company hundreds of thousands of dollars for "managing" it.  Thus, when it goes bankrupt, the investors lose their money while Trump loses little investment and pockets the much greater managment fees.  This is a much shorter version  of what I wrote back in September, 2020.  Now, as promised, here is what I believe Trump is the best at:  One, he is the most prolific liar of all times -- over 30,000 during his four years in office according to more than one fact checking site -- and he continues to lie every day.  Second, I am convinced he is the greatest con artist in the history of the world as millions of people continue to believe what he says.

Kip

Jack Mallory

​I never go anywhere without my film crew.

The first day of filming One More Mission here lasted 11 hours of interviewing and filming at my house and along the river. I am whupped. Tomorrow they continue with shooting Deb and I kayaking. How they will boil all this down into a 90 minute documentary, with what they've taken of the other half dozen vets, I can't imagine. 
 

Ed Gray, the director.  Nowhere nearly as grumpy as he looks!

https://www.onemoremissionfilm.com/
 

Jack Mallory

And today in Hollywood, or at least on Willard Pond. Cameras in front of us, behind us, on the shore, in a canoe, mounted on my 'yak, in the air overhead. Mikes on our shirts (under our sweats—temps in the 30s at put-in). “Paddle out and paddle back. Stay close together. Look like you’re taking pictures. Look like you're talking to each other. Ok, now do it again in the other direction . . . “ 

But, actually, fascinating and fun. A great crew to work with, very pleasant and proficient. Guesstimates of a finished product in a year or so. I'll let you know, of course.

Stephen Hatchett

Jack -- I think we are all looking forward to the film.  Sure is beautiful back there on that pond this time of year.  Nothing even close out here, but the water and air are warmer.

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Jack Mallory

And the film crew repaid us for our participation with great stills, even before our faces appear in the Hollywood promos!

Jack Mallory

Late October, Penacook. 
 

John Smeby

Joan Young - You have not cashed the check (#865) for the web site dues that I mailed dated July 27, 2022 for $89.75. Can you provide status please?

Jay - The January 6th committee is a one sided political biased process that is a waste of Congressional resources and no "information" gathered/collected should be considered in any legal proceedings. Therefore I No Vote as the question is irrelavent.

Everyone - I am updating my current thoughts on Conservative/Republican nominees for 2024: Ron DeSantis for President, and anyone of the following for the VP slot: Candace Owens, Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard and I now add Kari Lake to that list. Or maybe Kari should be moved up to go along with Ron DeSantis for President??? That Arizonan is right up my alley so to speak---.

John Smeby

This picture was taken yesterday at the WWII War Memorial at the mall in Washington, D.C.I was honored and humbled to have been selected as a participant in Villages Honor Flight No. 56. There were 68 veterans on this "flight", covering many facets of military service from Korea to Post Vietnam. The group is broken into "squads" of five and has a squad leader. Each veteran is accompanied by a Guardian on the flight and we flew from Sanford, FL to BWI, MD and bussed to the mall monument area, first stopping at Arlington National Cemetery to see the changing of the guard, including a wreath laying ceremony. It warmed my heart that there was several groups of young school age "kids" on field trips to the D.C. area. So many of them thanked us veterans for our military service, shaking our hands and asking us questions. At the Vietnam War Memorial a group of them were given a ramdom name (by their teacher/escort) of a deceased veteran and they were required to go into the electronic database for that veteran, get the granite plate number and go and find the name on the wall and make a stencil impression of the name from the wall. Their patriotism and respect/understanding of military veterans truly warmed my heart. 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Joan Ruggles (Young)

John, as I wrote to you privately several months ago, I was in France and could not cash your check in July. I got home 3 days ago and in fact, only 10 minutes ago my husband handed me the envelope with your check. I'll see if it's still cashable. 

Kari Lake for VP or even president? Excellent choice based on her many years of experience as a TV news reader!  Isn't that just the kind of individual we'd all like to see in the White House? I'm guessing from your choice we can conclude that you believe Trump won the election? I'd love to hear your take on that.  

You say that the January 6 committee is "a one sided political biased process" which is interesting since it has relied almost exclusively on testimony from Republicans, conservatives and members of then-President Donald Trump’s inner circle. Can you explain why this is biased testimony? Were all these Republicans lying? Maybe you missed the hearings? That's understandable. I'm sure you're busy. If so, here's a partial list of some of the Republicans and Trump White House officials and appointees who have testified before the January 6th Committee:

Rusty Bowers, GOP Speaker of Arizona's House of Representative

Pat Cipollone, former Trump White House counsel

Richard Donoghue, former Department of Justice official

Caroline Edwards, US Capitol Police officer

Steve Engel, former Department of Justice attorney

Benjamin Ginsberg, GOP election lawyer

Cassidy Hutchinson, former Trump White House aide

Greg Jacob, former Mike Pence general counsel

Michael Luttig, conservative attorney and former judge

Sarah Matthews, former Trump White House deputy press secretary

Byung J. Pak, former US attorney for the northern district of Georgia

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state

Jeff Rosen, former acting attorney general

Al Schmidt, former Philadelphia city commissioner

Marc Short, former Mike Pence chief of staff

Bill Stepien, former Trump campaign manager

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia state election official

Chris Stirewalt, former Fox News executive

Jason Van Tatenhove, former Oath Keepers spokesman

Ginni Thomas, conservative activist and wife of Justice Clarence Thomas

William Barr, the former attorney general

Alex Cannon, a former Trump campaign lawyer

Elaine Chao, the former secretary of Transportation

Justin Clark, a former Trump campaign lawyer

Judd Deere, a former White House deputy press secretary

Richard Donoghue, the former acting deputy attorney general

Steven Engel, a former assistant attorney general

Rudy Giuliani, a former Trump attorney

Eric Herschmann, a former White House attorney

Chris Hodgson, the former director of legislative affairs for Mike Pence

Keith Kellogg, the former national security advisor to Mike Pence

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and a former senior advisor to Donald Trump

Nick Luna, a former White House aide

Derek Lyons, the former White House staff secretary

Ivanka Trump, daughter and former senior advisor to Donald Trump

Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chair

Kayleigh McEnany, the former White House press secretary

John McEntee, the former director of the White House presidential personnel office

Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign spokesman and advisor

Max Miller, a former White House aide

Stephen Miller, speechwriter and senior policy advisor

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer and former Trump advisor

Matthew Morgan, a former Trump campaign lawyer

Robert O'Brien, the former national security advisor

Patrick Philbin, a former White House deputy counsel

Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of State

Matthew Pottinger, a former deputy national security advisor

Sidney Powell, a Trump campaign lawyer

Julie Radford, the former chief of staff to Ivanka Trump

Ben Williamson, a former aide to Mark Meadows

I guess they were all lying. 

Jack Mallory

DAMN! Joan beat me to it, and much more in detail! But, WTF, here's my response to John's complaint about the hearings:

John is absolutely correct about the one-sidedness of the January 6th hearings. Very few Democrats are testifying. The witnesses and others cited as providing evidence are almost all Republicans. John doesn't call into question the honesty or accuracy of their testimony, but seems perturbed that most or all are honest Republicans.

They include Georgia's Secretary of State, Brian Raffensberg, the Republican manager of the state's voting system implementation, and the state's Republican Speaker of the House. And not to forget Republican lawyers and States Attorneys like Greg Jacobs, Benjamin Ginzberg, and B. Jay Pak.  And while we're talking about Attorneys General, let's not forget Trump's own Bill Barr!

Also among those one-sided testifiers were Ivanka and Jared, not Democrats to the best of my knowledge. And Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Bill Stepien, another witness, was also a Republican. Ex-Trump attorney Eric Hirschmann also contributed his knowledge. And 8 hours of testimony from White House council Pat Cipillone!

General Milley is not, I believe, a Democrat. The party affiliations of witness Shaye Moss and her mother, threatened with death and jail by big lie advocates for counting votes in Georgia, is unknown but they scarcely seem like deep state agents.

Oh, and then there was Cassidy Hutchinson, close aide to the White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, who told the committee of Trump's endorsing the hanging of Mike Pence. Again, as John suggests, part of the one-sided Republican plot to condemn the Trumpster. 
 

And many, many others . Yes, John, it was one sided. Republican after Republican, Trump appointee after Trump appointee, aide after aide, staffer after staffer. They all added up, and the sum total of their testimony provided the information spot-on relevant to an indictment of the EX-President. 
 

Were Trump to provide sworn testimony, he could, of course, attempt to refute the reams of information sworn to by these witnesses.  But, he won't, will he? 

Joan Ruggles (Young)

Fun fact about our birth year. Bush, Clinton and Trump were all born in 1946.

Birth year of the winning candidate of the last eight presidential elections:

1946

1946 

1946

1946

1961

1961

1946

1942

Jack Mallory

Joan--if the Forum bill has already been paid and you don't need that $ John sent, think about donating it to the making of One More Mission, that documentary on Vietnam Veterans Against the War I posted about. I think Ed's still planning on filming interviews with Susan Schnall, a Navy nurse who treated Vietnam wounded, later dropped anti-war leaflets from a small plane onto San Francisco, and then led an anti-war march in uniform! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court-martial_of_Susan_Schnall

Any other ideas for donations?
 

Since it's John's money, you should probably donate it in his name. 
 

From FB this evening:

Jack Mallory

29 degrees first thing this morning, but warmed up enough for a paddle by mid-morning.

Pretty good for a one-handed shot!

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Beautiful pictures Jack....glad you are out in nature so much...it did sound very cold though! Thanks again for those amazing shots. Love, Joanie

Jack Mallory

Still an eagle by the Merrimack, a heron on the Suncook. 
 

Eagles are majestic, herons graceful . . . Then, there are squirrels . . . 

John Smeby

In reference to my post of 10/27/2022, I would like to add another name to the list of VP candidates: Winsome Sears.

Joanie - I do not care about your rebuttal rhetoric to my post, please keep in mind I have a right to my opinion and beliefs.

Joan -  Your assumption about my view of the 2020 presidential election is wrong. However, unequivocally, I can state that our country is far worse off across the board than it was two years ago. Or haven't you bought gas, gone to a grocery store, or taken a trip to Big Bend National Park lately etc. Or tried walking a street in downtown LA after dark? Or even in the middle of the day? Until Nancy Pelosi, Mayor Bowser, and the former chief of capitol Police testify, I stand with my opinion that the committee hearings are irrelevant and meaningless.

Jack/Joan - Please do not donate the money I sent you (that is now your property) to the One More Mission film making, or any organization associated with, or is the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization. That would truly wrinkle my feathers so to speak. Please donate it to the American Cancer Society. Seeing that I had a life threatening bout three years ago with Testicular Cancer (and a follow-up surgery of Orchiectomy) and my wife now is being treated for incurable colon cancer.

Jack Mallory

John--I appreciate your understanding that the money you sent is Joan's, not yours, and therefore hers to dispose of in any way that doesn't wrinkle her feathers. 

I also appreciate your acceptance of the obvious fact that the testimony presented during the January 6th hearings has been overwhelmingly from Republicans: Trump appointed advisors, aides and other White House staff, including his own family members. Along with various Capitol police officers and generals. Certainly a convincing roster of knowledgeable and unbiased witnesses. While you may disagree, you can see why many of us call for Trump's indictment, so a court of law can judge his guilt or innocence. 

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Joan Ruggles (Young)

So Mr Smeby, in response to your comment:  Am I better off than two years ago? Feels about the same. Gas prices aren’t relevant to me because a few cents change in gas prices doesn’t affect me - besides I drive an electric car. However, in France gas was around $6 a gallon. But hey, blame Mr. Putin and his war for that. As far as the grocery store goes, I do a fair amount of shopping at farmer’s markets and the prices have gone up some but I’m happy to pay the farmers for the work they do. I’ve never heard of or tried to go to Big Bend National Park so I’ll have to take your word for that.

As far as inflation goes, it’s currently 8.2% in the US. In Germany it’s 10.4%, in Russia it’s 13.7% and in poor Turkey, it’s 85%. So I think most of us understand that inflation at this moment is a worldwide problem. https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/inflation-rate

Does Mr DeSantis or for that matter, Kari Lake (election denier) have a plan that will change that fact? How will they lower gas prices, lower the cost of a banana, lower the price of Big Bend Park? What are their plans? Maybe you know what they're going to do. Please tell us.

Maybe you saw the news today? Job numbers are up and so are wages, while unemployment is at historical lows. Maybe you saw it in the Wall Street Journal? https://www.wsj.com/articles/october-jobs-report-unemployment-rate-economy-growth-2022-11667516355

You say you want Nancy Pelosi, Mayor Bowser and some police chief to testify. Where would you like them to testify? At the Jan 6 hearings? What do you want to hear from them? I’d really like to know. As far as I’ve heard, on Jan 6th Nancy Pelosi was in hiding from a hoard of rioters.

Crime? It’s actually gone down in Los Angeles since its high point in 2017. Since that year, it’s dropped by 4571 crimes. So no I’m not afraid to walk around in downtown LA (where I never go). But I guess you don’t hear about that sort of thing on Fox. 

https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend

I’m thinking I might give an amount equal to your check to Common Cause which works actively to ensure everyone gets to vote and that our threatened democracy survives. https://www.commoncause.org/about-us/.  The League of Women Voters sounds equally worthy. https://www.lwv.org/

Sorry to hear about your cancer. I had a brush with cancer too some 15 years ago and my mother had colon cancer and my uncle died from it. So I have regular colonoscopies. I’m sure others on the forum have similar cancer stories. It seems to come with age.  

Jay Shackford

NOVEMBER 5, 2022

The Marjorie Taylor Greene-ing of America

Many flew over the Capitol cuckoo’s nest.

By MAUREEN DOWD/THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — Are we ready for our new Republican overlords?

Are we ready for an empowered Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Are we ready for a pumped-up, pistol-packing Lauren Boebert?

“How many AR-15s do you think Jesus would have had?” Boebert asked a crowd at a Christian campaign event in June. I’m going with none, honestly, but her answer was, “Well, he didn’t have enough to keep his government from killing him.”

The Denver Post pleaded: “We beg voters in western and southern Colorado not to give Rep. Lauren Boebert their vote.”

The freshman representative has recently been predicting happily that we’re in the end times, “the last of the last days.” If Lauren Boebert is in charge, we may want to be in the end times. I’m feeling not so Rapturous about the prospect.

And then there’s the future first female president, Kari Lake, who lulls you into believing, with her mellifluous voice, statements that seem to emanate from Lucifer. She’s dangerous because, like Donald Trump, she has real skills from her years in TV. And she really believes this stuff, unlike Trump and Kevin McCarthy, who are faking it.

As Cecily Strong said on “Saturday Night Live” last weekend, embodying Lake, “If the people of Arizona elect me, I’ll make sure they never have to vote ever again.”

Speaking of “Paradise Lost,” how about Ron DeSantis? The governor of Florida, who’s running for a second term, is airing an ad that suggests that he was literally anointed by God to fight Democrats. God almighty, that’s some high-level endorsement.

Much to our national shame, it looks like these over-the-top and way, way, way out-of-the mainstream Republicans — and the formerly normie and now creepy Republicans who have bent the knee to the wackos out of political expediency — are going to be running the House, maybe the Senate and certainly some states, perhaps even some that Joe Biden won two years ago.

And it looks as if Kevin McCarthy will finally realize his goal of becoming speaker, but when he speaks, it will be Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan and Lauren Boebert doing the spewing. It will be like the devil growling through Linda Blair in “The Exorcist” — except it will be our heads spinning.

Welcome to a rogue’s gallery of crazy: Clay Higgins, who’s spouting conspiracy theories about Paul Pelosi, wants to run the House Homeland Security Committee; Paul Gosar, whose own family has begged Arizonans to eject him from Congress, will be persona grata in the new majority.

In North Carolina, Bo Hines, a Republican candidate for the House, wants community panels to decide whether rape victims are able to get abortions or not. He’s building on Dr. Oz’s dictum that local politicians should help make that call. Even Oprah turned on her creation, Dr. Odd.

J.D. Vance, the Yale-educated, former Silicon Valley venture capitalist and author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” who called Trump “America’s Hitler” in 2016, before saluting him to gain public office, could join the Senate in January. Talk about American Elegy.

Even though he wrote in his best seller that Yale Law School was his “dream school,” he now trashes the very system that birthed him. Last year, he gave a speech titled “The Universities Are the Enemy”: His mother-in-law is a provost at the University of California San Diego.

It’s disturbing to think of Vance side by side with Herschel Walker. Walker was backed by Mitch McConnell, who countenanced an obviously troubled and flawed individual even if it meant degrading the once illustrious Senate chamber.

Overall, there are nearly 300 election deniers on the ballot, but they will be all too happy to accept the results if they win.

People voting for these crazies think they’re punishing Biden, Barack Obama and the Democrats. They’re really punishing themselves.

These extreme Republicans don’t have a plan. Their only idea is to get in, make trouble for President Biden, drag Hunter into the dock, start a bunch of stupid investigations, shut down the government, abandon Ukraine and hold the debt limit hostage.

Democrats are partly to blame. They haven’t explained how they plan to get a grip on the things people are worried about: crime and inflation. Voters weren’t hearing what they needed to hear from Biden, who felt morally obligated to talk about the threat to democracy, even though that’s not what people are voting on.

As it turns out, a woman’s right to control her body has been overshadowed by uneasiness over safety and economic security.

To top it off, Trump is promising a return. We’ll see if DeSantis really is the chosen one. In Iowa on Thursday night, Trump urged the crowd to “crush the communists” at the ballot box and said that he was “very, very, very” close to deciding to “do it again.”

Trump, the modern Pandora, released the evil spirits swirling around us — racism, antisemitism, violence, hatred, conspiracy theories, and Trump mini-mes who should be nowhere near the levers of power.

Heaven help us.