Our St. Paul Central’s Gathering for a 67th Year Class Reunion!

Student leaders of my graduation class from high school organized a reunion celebration which I shall, God willing, be attending this coming Tuesday.   We survivors  had all graduated from St. Paul Central High School, June, 1952.   So many of us have been dying recently those leaders must have decided to speed up our showings before we all disappear.

High schools “taught”  ninth grade then.  No one normal would have been stupid enough to detach puberty developing human animals from seniors in high school “to kin”  with  seventh  graders in junior high….except for typical College of Education majors of any day.  Unlike our today, teachers actually taught knowledge in public school.  They themselves, as it turned out,  were well educated, civil and JudeoChristian….especially the Christian part.

The more  knowledge I could amass, “the closer to God I would become”  was the mantra I had heard again and again the ideal why I was in school.   I was also expected to seek and discover a career for my future.

The only thing then I knew about the University of Minnesota is that it beat Nebraska 61-7 in the fall of 1945, the same autumn we began to get GIs; as teachers in 7th and 8th grades to replace the retiring demanding, encyclopedic, well educated  old maids.

I had a reading problem.  School mate, Brian Humphrey did too.  We couldn’t read novels.  My best friend, Jim Meeker could.  He was a well disciplined, A-plus, super study, rather quiet guy and good student and reader.  He could read nearly a novel per day!

I was reduced to Classic Comics….and loved the entanglements of their stories!!

A Mrs. Dagmar McClement was our basic 8th grade teacher at St. Paul’s Horace Mann Elementary School, K through 8th grade.   A  buxom bossy gal, intelligent, but NOT of the old maid well educated “religious and well learned”  old  guard type.  It was, after all, only eighth grade and consuming knowledge hadn’t arrived yet!

I had seen the  movie, “The Yearling” which was based on very popular novel of that day.  Some time well after Christmas Mrs. McClement announced  we would be having our annual  “Weekly Reader” test from the folks who publish the “Weekly Reader” an up-to-day learning weekly news piece about general knowledge the publishers and educators of the day thought necessary to read and follow beyond the school curriculum….pictures of stuff, articles of animals, maps, paragraphs of historic events, 100 items for the eye to conquer for the mind.

I had no trouble reading paragraphs, even pages, books  of history, especially where maps might be involved or newspaper articles.   But, I could, can, never read or follow a novel.

Jim Meeker and I were the best of friends from first grade on.   We played all sorts of games scholastically  oriented at his house, just the two of us…..for years!  He had a college-educated brother twelve  years older than we were, who had lots of stuff available we could work with.    I was certain he was my only real competitor.

Day of the annual Weekly Reader class test…..100 items, all short answer or multiple choice.   I had left only one question blank, and was certain I had finished the rest of the items correctly.   Jim told me he  had  left two blanks.   It turned out no one was close to us.

One of the question items was a picture of a dromedary we had to identify in writing.   Jim couldn’t name the creature so left the item blank.

I wrote in “DROMEDOR”. The answer should have been “DROMEDARY”.

Mrs. McClement didn’t like me.  I knew that.   She told the class I had misspelled the name of the animal, and therefore the answer was just as incorrect as Jim’s no answer at all.   She reminded me and the class that Jim was a better all around student and therefore had earned the book!

I was “mature” enough NOT in any way to blame Jim.   But, Dagmar was evil in my mind for the rest of the school year both in her classes and others.   I had ‘hired’ an anger about school I had NEVER before experienced, which carried me to my first class in high school,  English with Mabel Wicker the very next year.

There she was, that September….68 years old, her last year of teaching English.   Four feet ten,  90 pounds, a confident but  shadow of a woman, one wearing a red wig.

First hour, first day in her class we were to buy a pamphlet of Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”.  We had to buy all of our school books in those public school days.   I looked at its first pages.  I smelled trouble.    I knew immediately Shakespeare English might as well be Chinese.  I had, have, never been able to read a novel, even to this day…end of story!

The very next school day Miss Wicker began her Shakespeare menus….She began reading with “Enter Antonio”, who says,  “In sooth.  I know not why I am so sad:  It wearies me; you say it wearies you;  But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, What stuff  ’tis made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn;  …….and such a want-wit sadness makes of me, That I have much ado to know myself.”

Salarino responds;  “Your mind is tossing on the ocean;   There, where your argosies with  portly sail.  Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood, Or as it were, the pageants of the sea, Do overpeer the petty traffickers,   That curtsy to them, do them reverence,  As they fly by them with their woven wings……..”

I was warned studying in high school would be a challenge.   Unbeknownst  to me,  the fact she had already read the play  to me as a member of the class made it possible for me  to understand the core of the drama itself.     I felt I was reading almost like anyone else.  I so wanted to read properly!

There were forty kids in the class….mostly boys….which I didn’t recognize until two years later when my college prep teacher at Central, Grace Cochran, cornered me regarding my bad reading ability.    “Who was your Freshman English teacher”, she asked.   She told me Miss Wicker  was the English teacher responsible for weeding  poor readers out of  the college prep line sending them to machine shop.    I admitted I hated Wm. Thackeray stuff, and by Nature couldn’t read “Vanity Fair” anyway.

She soothed me by mentioning a lot of boys were poor novel readers…..She told me to stay with my Classic Comics habit….at least I would know the Classics’  basic plots.

Miss Wicker failed me the first marking period.   She called each of  her  forty students as they were seated,  by alphabetical order to come quickly to her desk…..I, being Ray, was toward the end of the list, meaning I had to sweat  longer.   She called each of us  by her  same tone and volume.   When needed she spoke loudly so  every student in the room knew who isn’t working up to ‘snuff’.

I was quite nervous waiting for my turn.   I wasn’t used to doing homework.   “Mr. Ray!”

On her desk there sat a black ink well and a red ink well.    Each grading card was a small stiff card with the titles of  classes on the left,  with six or eight grading periods awaiting marks toward the right.   One’s grades were open for the world to see.

Our meeting was brief.   She  admired my improvements on her test scores concerning Shakespeare….However, she showed me the total absence of any and all homework I was supposed to do….

Her pen reached to the RED ink well.  Miss Wicker made as big a red “F” as she could in the space fit for the grade…..THE VERY FIRST CLASS MARKING ON MY REPORT CARD FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR for all to see!!!   My first grade at Central!

 

 

Dem Fascists Plotting to Circumvent Electoral College

The National Popular Vote Bandwagon

by Anthony C. Patton  at  American Thinker:

The national popular vote bandwagon continues to attract anxious passengers before the 2020 election.  Fifteen states plus D.C. with 196 electoral votes have joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which would obligate the participating states to cast their electoral votes for the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote, not the candidate who wins the state’s popular vote, but only after states with 270 or more electoral votes join the compact.  Most recently, Nevada’s governor had the good sense to veto the measure.

The sudden and palpable distaste for the Electoral College appears to be motivated by the festering anger of two stinging electoral defeats for the Democrats in 2000 and 2016, not by a sincere desire to improve our great Republic in a bipartisan way.  The counterfactual proof of this claim is the insight that if George W. Bush and Donald Trump had won the national popular vote but had lost the Electoral College, the Democrats today undoubtedly would be singing the praises of the Electoral College as a necessary check on mob rule.

The movement conveniently glosses over the fact that the Electoral College merely reflects how states send representatives and senators to Washington.  Even small states with only one representative have two senators, but the movement is not proposing to abolish the Senate.  Our Republic was founded on semi-autonomous states that do most of the heavy lifting for day-to-day governance (police, schools, courts, roads, etc.) and therefore need a voice at the federal table to avoid having a few large states control all the small states.  As such, presidential elections should take into consideration the interests of individual citizens (438 electoral votes) and individual states (100 electoral votes).

The movement misses another critical point: the way the election game has been played as a matter of fact.  When Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 set out to win the presidency, their campaign strategies were designed to win the Electoral College — the road to 270 — not the national popular vote.  It is disingenuous to hail the virtues of the national popular vote after the fact.  When the news networks show election maps or conduct polls, their analysis and predictions are based on winning the Electoral College, not the national popular vote.

No one was surprised when Gore and Clinton did not waste precious time and resources campaigning in California or New York, where victory was certain.  Winning 50.01% or 99.99% of the popular vote for a state has the same result: 100% of the state’s electoral votes.  Consider a World Series in which one team wins four games and the other team wins three games but has more overall runs during the seven games.  The additional runs might seem like a moral victory, but no one would argue that the team with the most overall runs during the seven games should be crowned champion.  If scoring the most runs were the objective, the strategy for playing individual games would change dramatically.

The movement would be wise to consider how election dynamics might change if they had their way, to include the near impossibility of conducting a national recount in the case of a close election.  Democrats would probably still win the popular vote in states like California and New York, and Republicans would probably still win the popular vote in states like Texas and Wyoming, but voters across the country would probably adjust their voting behavior, perhaps dramatically.  Voters who otherwise might not cast a ballot, such as Republicans in California and Democrats in Texas, might turn out in droves if the national popular vote redefined the rules of the game.  In this case, past behavior should not be considered an indicator of future behavior.

The movement would also be wise to focus on winning presidential elections under the current rules of the Constitution or risk stomaching an even more painful scenario in which Republicans win the White House based on national popular vote after the change but would have lost had the Electoral College rules been in effect.  We have no way of knowing precisely how such a rule change would alter voter dynamics, and the Democrats might find themselves in the awkward position of scrambling to return to the good old days of the Electoral College.  The Founding Fathers wisely made amending the Constitution difficult, by design, to promote a national consensus based on sound reasoning.

The national popular vote bandwagon will not succeed in amending the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College — the courts would be wise to strike down the NPVIC laws — but the movement will undoubtedly use this issue to trumpet the “one person, one vote” mantra to “start a dialogue” for other political ends.  The Texas secretary of state found evidence that 95,000 registered voters were not U.S. citizens, and Los Angeles County is in the process of purging over one million ineligible voters.  Prediction: As more states audit their voter rolls and purge more ineligible voters, you can count on the movement to decry “voter suppression” and demand that we “count every vote,” eligible or not.

Anthony C. Patton studied mathematics and philosophy at Augsburg University and earned an MBA from Thunderbird — School of Global Management.

 

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/08/the_national_popular_vote_bandwagon.html

The TRUTH OF THE DNC MATTER, by Cjack!

America’s Shameful Democrats…..by Cjack of the South!

….The DNC racist assault on America….

The level of obscenities and false accusations launched against our duly elected 45th President, Donald J. Trump cannot go unchallenged. If our nation is to survive it most overcome the moral and spiritual decline brought about under Barack Obama; a man whose ascent to our highest office was celebrated by the ghosts of Sodom & Gomorrah.

Though Obama made clear his rejection of our nation’s founding values and ideals, only a few courageous religious leaders dared to publicly denounce his perverted agenda and treachery. Lamentably most of Conservative America remained in fear of being branded ‘racist’ even as the nation’s pride and dignity was trampled by black racists, rappers, gays and other fringe elements assaulting our duly elected government and our academic and religious institutions. To date this network of Obama radicals continues with impunity to attack our Judeo-Christian foundation and Constitutional order.

….An example of fiscal turpitude by the Democrats…

The 94th United States Congress Sessions, First: January 14, 1975—December 19, 1975…Second: January 19, 1976—October 1, 1976.
Senate Majority…Democratic.
House Majority…Democratic.

“In 1975 the Democrat-controlled Congress retrofitted the elevators in the Capitol building to make them automatic; yet the same dimwitted Congress continued to spend the taxpayer money to pay salaries of elevator operators to operate the automatic elevators.”
Historically the Democrats have been known to stupidly spend the taxpayer’s money.

Since 1996 the loudmouth, empty-suit Baltimore bully Elijah Cummings (D) has represented Maryland’s socially disrepaired 7th district with nothing notable to show. Yet President Trump has been called a racist by the corrupt and incompetent race hustlers Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D) and the NAACP for citing the deplorable social conditions in Elijah Cummings’ district.

Why has the corrupt Elijah Cummings allowed to be a member the US House of Representatives for twenty-six years?

We have had enough of blacks and white Democrats using the race card to stir up hate and racial division. The United States of America is not a racist nation, its white citizenry is not responsible for the social disrepair in the black community. Only a return of black America to its civic pride, self-discipline, adequate education and hard work will solve its social and economic problems.

I ask, in fact, why have not the exceedingly wealthy blacks invested in the business development of the black community? Furthermore, why aren’t more powerful black religious conservatives willing to condemn the Democrat party and its devilish agenda responsible for the systematic devastation of the black community? It sure looks like the black vote will continue to support Obama’s 21st century Democrats who prefer to rule by partisan politics than by bipartisan edict.

The appointment of the ‘sleazy’ Robert Mueller as ‘special counsel’ to investigate our duly elected president on the false charge of colluding with Vladimir Putin to win the 2016 presidential elections—based on a bogus “dossier’ of preposterous lascivious activities funded by Hillary Clinton and the DNC—has to be the most scandalous incident of dirty politics perpetrated against our nation.

Moreover, it should be embarrassing for the black community not to condemn this conspiracy by our first black president Barack Obama and his ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to overturn the legal election of Donald Trump to the White House.

In fact, Mueller’s investigation has brought to light troubling evidence that this whole charade was orchestrated to cover up the many crimes and misdemeanors of the Obama administration. Shame on black America for looking the other way.

Let not the corruption and hypocrisy of the Democrats go unchallenged. We must forever reject at the ballot box.

I
….America’s Privileged Class…

We have allowed our elected congressional officials to become an incompetent and privileged class, self-entitled to excessive benefits and privileges of rank that prevail over their collective responsibility; these kleptocrats have been permitted to function so above the law they have become an insidious nest of truants that will continue to increase the nation’s financial burden on the backs of its taxpayers. Their incompetence and malfeasance erodes our nation’s founding values and ideals.

Freedom requires infinite vigilance for it is neither free nor cheap.

II

… Mueller, a Man Lost in Space…

The DNC’s ‘special counsel” Mueller failed to produce evidence of Trump’s misconduct or treason against the nation; yet, the garbage-can networks CNN and MSNBC continue to promote the infamous “Steele Dossier” and the preposterous “collusion” charge against our legitimate president.

Hillary Clinton lost the election because she had a long history of lies, incompetence, corruption, and deception. Still the ensuing torrent of irresponsible and malicious accusations against Trump will continue in form or another because Barack Obama is hell bent on remaking our land in his image. The man is a communist propagandist who cares less about the US Constitution, its laws and legal processes.

Note: The buffoonish Jerrold Nadler’s “Capitol Hill” Mueller inquisition was “much ado about nothing.”

III

…The DNC and its Black Racism…

I see the slate of the DNC presidential jackasses as nothing more than an ongoing caravan of ‘useful fools’ coached by the anti-American anarchist Barack Obama whose rhetoric constantly disrespects President Trump and his cabinet. Obama has been licensed and empowered to accuse Trump of every sin under the sun; but Conservative America for fear of being branded racist remains silent.
And the morally bankrupt Democrats just go on dragging the nation deeper into their swamp.

No, America cannot be racist after electing Barack Obama to two terms in the White House. Yet, it’s the only card the black racists have always shown at the poker table.

Over at the “House” the senile House speaker, Granny Pelosi can’t impose any semblance of order to curb the antics of Obama’s disreputable anti-semites who have silenced the most prominent Jews in the House and Senate:Schiff, Nadler, Blumenthal, Feinstein; for these treacherous cowards, I have no room in my heart.

IV

…Sad Sack Mueller Couldn’t Hop Off the Fat Man’s Carousel…

It’s befuddling to see that the celebrated federal “lawman” Robert Mueller never looked into the Russian Atomic Agency’s donation of $145,000,000 to the Clinton Foundation following the Obama administration’s “Uranium One Deal” (signed, sealed and delivered by Hillary Clinton to Vladimir Putin). Instead, Obama’s ‘deep state’ operatives propagated the lie of a Trump-Putin collaboration to steal the election from the unprincipled Hillary Clinton.

And please don’t forget the $500,000 speaker’s fee paid to Bill Clinton in Moscow by a Russian business group connected with the Uranium One Deal.

…Nadler’s Clown Show…

The Nadler ‘clown show’ on Capitol Hill unveiled a gaunt and confused ‘special counsel’ slipping into a mental abyss typical of those suffering the initial symptoms of progressive memory disconnects. The mumbling Mueller, a lost soul meandering in his private purgatory.

Now we must demand a rugged investigation by the US Senate to expose the unethical activities of Mueller and his team of investigators.
High on the Senate’s list should be Mueller’s lead investigator Andrew Weissmann and his pro-Hillary investigators; Mueller’s erratic performance before the House Committee justifies the investigation.

Who was really leading and conducting this symphony of lies against the President and who wrote the final report, since Mueller couldn’t hop off the fatman’s Capitol carousel, we must find out.

Note:   Thank you Cjack.   We miss your weekly commentary!!  Hope all is will!