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Tag Archives: hypocrisy
Strzok's Star Turn
July 13, 2018 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: big newspapers, Clinton, e-mails, extramarital affair, FBI, Fox News, hypocrisy, meddling, Peter Strzok, Russia thing, talk radio, texts, Trump	Leave a comment
Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Peter Strzok has played a prominent and intriguing supporting role in the ongoing "Russia thing" reality show since its debut, but on Thursday he had a star turn in one of the series' most watchable episodes when he testified before a testy and televised congressional joint committee meeting. Depending on whether you've been following the story through Fox News and talk radio or the other broadcast news networks and the last of the big newspapers, Strzok fared very well or very badly.
According to the Fox News hosts in the opinion hours and a full day's worth of right wing talk radio, Strzok is the real villain of the show. He's the high-ranking FBI agent who was involved in the end of the agency's investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's e-mail practices while she was Secretary of State, which infuriated the right by its failure to lock her up, and he was also one of the agents who commenced a counter-intelligence investigation into Russia's meddling in the election on behalf of Republican nominee Donald Trump, which continues to infuriate Trump and his fans. Strzok was also carrying on an extra-marital affair at the time and "texting" profanely anti-Trump diatribes to his mistress, which included ambiguous statements about "secret societies" and "insurance policies" and a promise to his paramour that he would prevent Trump's election, and thus Strzok became the mastermind of the "deep state" "silent coup" plot by the "globalist" "elites" against Trump's agenda to make America great again.
The other broadcast news networks and the last of the big newspapers are hard-pressed to make Strzok a heroic character in their version of the story, but they've got ample evidence that he's not a villain, and certainly not such a diabolically ingenious one who might pull off the plot that's been alleged.
There is a strong argument to be made that Clinton should have been locked up for her careless handling of classified information, but if you want to get all letter-of-the-law about it presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and former White House staff secretary Robert Porter and all the other administrations who have handled classified materials without the necessary security clearance should also be in legal jeopardy. As a high-ranking agent with a long record of successfully discovering and prosecuting Russian operatives and thwarting Russian plots he was also assigned to look into credible tips from longstanding allies that Russia was meddling in various ways with the American presidential election, and by now all of President Donald Trump's FBI and intelligence community appointees and a bi-partisan group of Senators and pretty much everyone but the Russian dictator and the American agree that there was Russian meddling the needed to be investigated.
We'd also note that although Clinton didn't get locked up her campaign was hit hard by an FBI announcement that although her e-mail practices weren't criminal they were damned sloppy, and then again when they announced the re-opening of the investigation when some of the e-mails showed up on the computer of the perverted husband of a close aid, and that the FBI made no mention it was already winning warrants from Republican-appointed judges to investigate Trump campaign operatives' undisclosed contacts with Russians. If Strzok and the rest of the "deep state" cabal at the FBI were conspiring to deny Trump the presidency, they did a damned clumsy job of it.
It's true Strzok was carrying on a extramarital affair and using profane language about Trump in his "texts" to his illicit lover, which we do not approve of, but it strikes us a rather hypocritical argument to be made in defense of Trump. Strzok managed to cheat on his wife without making any six-figure payments to porn stars, which strikes us as better business sense than the president possesses, and his language is no more offensive than what Trump has used on the campaign trail and did not include any boasts about grabbing women by their expletives deleted.
Strzok's apparent disdain for Trump doesn't much bother us, either, as we've frequently voiced the same sort of opinions in more family-friendly language. A broader reading of Strzok's "texts" and e-mails reveals that he had similarly harsh things to say about Clinton and her Democratic primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, just as we did in our more polite fashion, and that the only politician he seemed to like was Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one of the last centrists standing and currently among our most favorite Republicans.
According to the Fox News opinion shows and all the conservative talk radio talkers Strzok was exposed as a villain at the hearing, while the rest of the broadcast news networks and big newspapers more prominently quoted the sources who thought Strzok got the best of the it. We urge that you watch the more than two hours of hearings the the "fake news" dutifully videotaped and make up your own mind. It's more compelling television than any other reality show on the air or web, with America's tribal divisions fully on trash-talking display in a joint committee meeting of the House of Representatives.
In the end Strzok will probably be remembered as a foul-mouth cheating husband rather than they guy who discovered all those Russian agents thwarted all those Russian plots, but as a supporting character rather than the villain of the "Russian thing." The "Russia thing" reality show will drag on at least through the summer, and there are a lot of plot twists yet to come. For now we can turn our attention to Trump's international tour, where he's upsetting relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and his current hosts in the United Kingdom, with a summit with the Russian dictator coming up, and for now Strzok seems an intriguing but minor player in this weird tale.
Last Friday's Awful Spending Bill
February 12, 2018 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: amphetamine, Bush, deficit spending, Eisenhower, Federal Reserve Board, government shutdown, hypocrisy, keynesianism, Nixon, Obama, spending bill, tax cuts	Leave a comment
Here at the Central Standard Times we write our Friday posts on Thursday and then take a couple days off from the news, but since then the Republican majorities in the House and Senate passed a $400 billion spending bill that suspended the national debt limit for two whole years and Republican President Donald Trump quickly signed it. Being the grumpy old-fashioned Republican sorts that we are, we spent much of the weekend grousing about it.
The deal includes a couple of hundred billion bucks to bolster America's military, and while we're generally in favor of that we have our worries about what the failed casino mogul who is currently Commander in Chief might do with it. The other couple of hundred billion bucks goes to various and usually counterproductive Democratic bleeding-heart programs, and although we're generally opposed to such nonsense we'll hold out hope it at least temporarily placates them. The deal at least keeps the government running for another couple of years, which our old-fashioned Republicans sensibilities suppose has some benefit, and it puts off that messy illegal immigration for another few days, which gives us a few days off from worry about that, but it does so with an enormous swelling of the federal deficit, which we cannot abide without becoming craven hypocrites.
The big Republican tax-cut bill that was all the big news a few news cycles ago might yet bolster economic growth enough to result in a net increase in tax revenues — and that corporate tax cut seems especially promising — but in the meantime it's going to add a few hundred billion of decreased revenues to the added $400 billion in spending and result in one of those trillion dollar deficits last seen in the darkest days of the early administration of President Barack Obama. Those eye-popping digits inspired the Tea Party revolt in the Republican party, which wound up wresting control of the House and then the Senate and ultimately resorting the fiscal sanity of the mere half-trillion dollar deficits of the President George W. Bush year, but since then the party has changed.
Trump ran on on extravagant promises that with his managerial genius he could wipe out America's $20 national debt within eight years, and offered his own several successful business bankruptcies as proof, but he also promised not to touch the entitlement programs that are mostly driving America's debt, and far more than all that cold-hearted military spending or bleeding-heart domestic programs. Somehow most of the Tea Party types who hated those establishment Republicans who'd tolerated Bush's half-trillion dollar deficits bought into Trump's anti-establishmentarian rhetoric, after that even such stalwart establishment types as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the once-redoubtable House Speaker Paul Ryan willingly went along with the next trillion dollar deficit, and at this point we figure were among the very last of those old-fashioned Republicans who are dismayed by it all.
Our own Republicanism goes back to good ol' President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his obsessively budget-balancing ways, and oh how we still like our fellow Kansan Ike, but we also remember when the wage-and-price-controlling President Richard Nixon proclaimed that "we're all Keynesians now," and even after such long experience none of the current Republican policies make any sense. It seems clearer than ever that America's finances should be on more solid ground than a Trump casino and strip club, and the latest budget deal doesn't make any sense even according to the convoluted but occasionally useful thinking of John Maynard Keynes. Trump continually boasts of the low unemployment rate and high growth of the overall economy he has wrought in a mere year, yet insists on a double amphetamine injection of tax cuts and a trillion dollars of stimulative tax spending, which has lately legitimate inflation concerns that have scared the Federal Reserve Board into threatening interest hikes that have lately spooked the stock markets that Trump was recently bragging about. When the next inevitable recession comes around, and we hope it's later rather than sooner, it will be a more indebted federal treasury that is called on to bail it out.
Kentucky's Republican Sen. Rand Paul called his party out on its hypocrisy, and even managed to shut the government partially down for a few inconvenient moments while doing so, and there's somewhere between 20 and 30 Republican House members in the "Freedom Caucus" that sprang from the "Tea Party" movement who also resisted, so God bless 'em for their stupid and futile gesture. The putative Republican yet anti-establishment president and the rest of the party, including such erstwhile establishment types as McConnell and Ryan, were all on board. The Republican party also seems wavering from long held positions on wife-beating and cheating with porn stars and and dissing the federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which also bodes ill to our old-fashioned Republican sensibilities.
Of course those darned Democrats and their profligate bleeding-heart ways aren't helping the fiscal and general economic things at all. Say what you want about that budget-busting deal to avert another so-what government shutdown, we'll wager you'll get more bang for your buck out of that couple hundred billion spent on defense than you will out of that couple hundred billion spent on social programs. The current Democratic indignation about Republican deficit spending is at least as hypocritical as the past Republican indignation about Democratic profligacy, and offers no solution to the problem.
Ah, well. We had a heartening church service on Sunday, and hold out hope that despite all those newfangled Republicans and forever darned Democrats the rest of us will somehow work this out.
No Thanks for the Memo-ries
February 2, 2018 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: Devin Nunes, FISA, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, four-page, House committee, hypocrisy, libertarian, memo, obstruction of justice, Russia thing, warrants, Watergate	Leave a comment
The potential public release of a four-page memo penned by California Rep. Devin Nunes about the possible abuse of American surveillance laws by the Federal Bureau of Investigation dominated the news on Thursday, and if it is released as expected this morning we're sure it will dominate at least another 24 hour news cycle. The memo will have to be pretty darned good to justify all the fuss, however, and we don't expect it will be.
It's complicated enough to fill all those column inches and broadcast hours with explanations, and it's merely a subplot in the "Russia thing" that still hasn't been explained after nearly two years of the best media efforts, but a lot of things that are hard to explain aren't worth the effort. This one's worth following, though, as it is a telling subplot of that "Russia thing," which does matter, and illustrates just how awful almost everyone involved can be.
In case you've lately been too happily busy to be following the subplot, Nunes is a proudly partisan Republican who wound up in charge of the House committee charged with investigating the "Russia thing." He quickly established a reputation as a staunch defender of President Donald Trump against all the various "Russia thing" suspicions, and was so zealous about that he wound up resigning his chairmanship after an embarrassing impromptu news conference where he announced he was taking some unreleased exculpatory evidence to the White House and it turned out he'd obtained the evidence from the White House and it wasn't very exculpatory. Despite his self-proclaimed recusal from the matter he penned a four-page memo which reportedly outlines the reasons he believed the whole "Russia thing" was cooked up by some FBI agents who used a phony-baloney Democrat-bought "dossier" to get a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act courts to spy on the Trump presidential campaign in the most scandalous case of political espionage since President Richard Nixon's reelection campaign had those inept burglars try to bug the Democratic National Party headquarters in the Watergate building.
Meanwhile all the Trump apologists on Fox News and talk radio and the comments sections of the far right internet sites and in Congress have been insisting the real "Russia thing" is actually a Russian-aided plot by the "deep state" and the "fake news" and assorted other "globalists" loathe to make America great again, so they've been clamoring for a while to have the memo publicly released. They've finally got an authentic government document to corroborate their conspiracy theories, and "release the memo" has become a popular "hashtag" with both Russian "'bots" and actual people, and after his overshadowed State of the Union address Trump was caught on a "hot mic" telling a congressman that there was a "100 percent" chance the memo was about to be released.
Neither Trump nor his apologists seem to realize how complicated it all is, though, and we don't expect the long-awaited four pages will be worth the risk they're taking. It's an authentic government document, to be sure, but so is the unreleased memo written by the Democrats on the House's investigative that reportedly outlines all the more plausible reasons they think Trump's campaign cooperated with Russian efforts to affect the American presidential election, and by now no one puts much stock in anything just because it's an authentic government document. Nunes is entitled to his opinions, but the public is entitled to regard it as nothing more than the opinions of a proudly partisan politician.
To whatever extent Nunes' opinions are informed by the classified information he's seen as the deposed chairman of a House investigative committee, it gives credence to the objections of the FBI and other intelligence-gathering agencies that the release will reveal sources and methods that are better left classified. That includes the Trump-appointed leaders of those bureaus and agencies, so that abandonment of longstanding Republican principles further complicates the matter, even if the Democrats opposed to release of the memo stand credibly accused of the same hypocrisy.
The accusation that FISA laws have been is also tricky for the Republicans, whose resolute anti-terrorist stand got the laws passed over the objections of those bleeding-heart Democrats and addle-brained libertarian types of Republicans who warned the law could be too easily abused by rogue government actors for all sorts of mischief. Nunes was one of the most outspoken Republicans who supported the laws, which now requires a lot of explaining.
The more reasonable sorts of Republicans assured the public that the FISA laws were carefully written enough to require a very high standard of proof to win a warrant to surveil an American citizen, and that a highly compelling case must be made that the national security was at stake, and so far as well can tell those assurances have proved true. Nunes' four-page memo reportedly asserts that the FISA courts handed out wiretaps on all sorts of sinless Trump campaign officials on the basis of a phony-baloney Democratic-funded dossier by some shady foreigner, but the next 24 hours of news will explain how it's more complicated than that.
By all accounts it takes more than a four-page memo of partisan opinions to obtain a FISA warrant, what's already been reported in the "fake news" and subsequently acknowledged by Trump would probably suffice, the rest of what the feds had to get their disputed surveillance warrants would surely reveal all sorts of sources and methods better left classified. To whatever extent the FISA courts used that phony-baloney dossier from some foreigner only demonstrates the carefully vetted and Republican-confirmed jurists gave credence to the findings of a respected former British intelligence agent.
Maybe those four pages will be so jam-packed with juicy details that it convincingly explains the whole "Russia thing" as a plot by the Democrats and the "deep state," and we'll be obliged to give it a fair reading. If it turns out to be just another piece of an obstruction of justice case, though, we won't be surprised.
The Ongoing Problem of Prominent Men
October 27, 2017 By The Central Standard Times in Culture, Politics Tags: Amazon Studios, Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood, hypocrisy, James Toback, music biz, sexual harassment, Vox Media	Leave a comment
The list of prominent men who have lately been plausibly accused of various degrees of sexual harassment continues to grow, to the point that we'd now advise our women friends to avoid any encounter with a prominent man. By now here's no keeping up with all the recent allegations, which have been hurled against such a remarkably diverse number of men that it's impossible to pin the blame on any segment of society except prominent men.
This latest spate of stories started with heavyweight Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, and all the A-list actresses who joined a legion of women alleging he had harassed or outright assaulted them, and after all the years of Hollywood's moralizing the right can hardly be blamed for relishing that. A screenwriter and film director of prominence named James Toback stands accused by some A-list actresses of similar behavior, the head of the newly fledged but already formidable Amazon Studios recently resigned after allegations of sexual harassment, not to mention all the Hollywood scandals going back to the silent days, and although they're not as prominent as Weinstein or his A-list accusers it further suggests that Hollywood's relentless critique of sexist America is ridiculous.
The rest of the left's cultural redoubts now stand accused of similar hypocrisy. The frankly liberal MSNBC news network's Mark Halperin is accused by five women of harassment and assault when he worked for the American Broadcasting Company, and he's told the Cable News Network that "I know understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain." The newfangled Vox Media's editorial director and a once iconic editor of the formerly venerable New Republic stand similarly accused, and the music biz has its usual scandals. These days academicians aren't very prominent, but if they were we're sure the academy would also provide a steady stream of scandals.
Which is not to deny the left it's glee about all the scandals on the right. There was no more self-righteous a moralizer on the right than Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, so let them have their fun with the recent revelation that he paid $32 million to settle the latest in a series of lawsuits alleging sexual harassment. O'Reilly doesn't dispute the settlement figure, but insists that he has "shocking proof" that the allegations were baseless. He claims that he chose to write a check for $32 million rather than present that shocking proof in a court of law only because he wanted to spare the embarrassment of a messy trial from his children, who would have surely endured it for the 32 mil and Pop's vindication. He has lately admitted on his own website that he's mad at God about it, and all his past moralizing looks ridiculous.
The Fox News network's longtime head honcho died amidst similar scandals and expensively-settled lawsuits, it renewed O'Reilly's contract knowing about the $32 million settlement and only fired him when the advertisers bailed, and it routinely fawns on a president who famously bragged about how could he could grab women by their wherevers, and still faces lawsuits by the some of the numerous women alleging he did just that. Creepy behavior by prominent men clearly is not limited to any particular ideology.
Even some of the prominent men who once enjoyed the respect of both the left and right now stand accused of creepy behavior. A respected journalist now claims that Elie Weisel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights activist, once put his uninvited hand on her buttocks. President George H.W. Bush, who was reviled for his policies by the left but never questioned for his gentlemanly behavior, just recently stands accused of the very same offense in past weeks, with each of the accusers telling the same story about how he made the same joke about his favorite magician being "David Cop-a-Feel," which his spokespeople do not deny.
Bush's recent alleged behavior is highly uncharacteristic of his long public life and probably best explained by the creeping dementia of the 93-year-old's Lewy disease that has also consigned him to a wheelchair, and even if true Weisel's offense should only slightly taint his otherwise distinguished life. Still, it's inappropriate behavior, and should not be condoned no matter how prominent the man.
We're by no means prominent men, and cannot fully appreciate the temptations that such status might entail, but we wish they would all stop with the boorish behavior. It's giving the rest of us men a bad reputation.
Hollywood's Hypocrisy, and Everyone Else's
October 12, 2017 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: abortion, feminism, Fox News, fundamentalist, Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood, hypocrisy, rape, sleazy, social justice, Trump	Leave a comment
By now you've surely heard of Harvey Weinstein, the only name that can lately nudge President Donald Trump out of the news.
Weinstein is the heavyweight Hollywood movie mogul who stands accused of decades of sexual predatory behavior, ranging from mere boorishness to outright rape, and although he's not yet been charged in a court of law he's already been convicted in the court of public opinion. The company Weinstein founded has kicked him out, A-List actresses have come forward to corroborate the accounts of countless lesser-known accusers, some very disturbing audio has been leaked from a suspiciously-dropped investigation by a New York City district attorney, he's issued a statement acknowledging he could have behaved better and is seeking therapy, and no one is denying that he's long been a very sleazy fellow.
Hollywood's constant scandals have been big news since the silent days of Fatty Arbuckle and Clara Bow, but this one comes at an especially opportune time for its culture war adversaries on the right. Over the past decades the entertainment industry has manufactured many movies and television shows that delight in the exposing the frequently scandalous behavior of self-appointed guardians of morality on the right, so it's only fair the right should delight in a scandal that exposes the frequent hypocrisy of Hollywood's self-appointed exemplars of sexual equality and social justice. Weinstein's sleaziness was apparently an open secret in Hollywood for years, with only a few brave comics willing to acknowledge it, and despite the recent deluge of A-Listers piling on the entire industry is indeed implicated.
We'll happily pile on Weinstein, as well, as we have our own instinctive and longstanding disgust for his alleged behavior as well as most of the past few decades of sleazy Hollywood fare in general, but we don't expect it will help the culture wars come to an end any time soon. There's yet another juicy scandal that exposes Hollywood's social justice pretentious are utterly predictable, but we can't deny that Hollywood's wags still have plenty of hypocrisy on the right to work with.
A couple of weeks ago a happily little-known Republican congressman who'd run on a staunchly anti-abortion and pro-family-values platform announced he wouldn't run for re-election after his mistress told reporters he'd urged her to get an abortion during a pregnancy scare, with the text messages to back it up, and there's no denying this sort of hypocrisy happens all too often on the right. The fair and balanced Fox News Network has kicked out its co-founder and top-rated commentator kicked for Weinstein-like behavior, and the Republican president has been caught on audiotape bragging about how he can grab women by their wherevers because he's a television star, with numerous women alleging he did just that and countless others testifying to his at least boorish behavior, and Republican party loyalty cannot compel us to deny it.
The real shame of it is that both the left and the right should be able to agree that all such sleazy behavior and outright hypocrisy is unacceptable, no matter which side of the political divide it lands on. The firm hand of our fundamentalist Christian mother taught us to always treat women with a careful respect, which served us well in our relationships with the fundamentalist feminists we always found ourselves drawn to, and it doesn't seem so much a matter of left and right as one of right and wrong. These days, however, we expect that both sides and all their sleazier members will continue scoring points.
The few brave comics who dared expose Weinstein's sleaziness included Tina Fey, the insufferably liberal but undeniably funny woman who made his sleaze a running gag on her well worth watching "30 Rock" television show, and we count ourselves among the many commenters on the right who have always acknowledged when our side has been caught in similar scandals, so we'll hold out hope there's still a principled middle ground most of us occupy that acknowledges you just don't treat women with a sexually predatory disrespect.
Spinning Out of the No-Spin Zone
April 20, 2017 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: Bill O'Reilly, conservatism, Faux News, Fox News, hypocrisy, Roger Ailes, settlement, sexual harassment, suits	Leave a comment
Fox News has fired Bill O'Reilly, and that's fine by us, as we never did like the guy. The firing is yet another undeniable embarrassment to conservatism, but probably the best way to handle it.
O'Reilly didn't get cancelled for the usual reason of low ratings, as he remained the most-viewed commentator on cable news, but because 20 of his most well-heeled advertisers had cancelled their buys in the wake of a sex scandal. The New York Times reported that Fox News has spent some $13 million settling numerous sexual harassment suits filed over the years, companies ranging from Mercedes-Benz to the Society for Human Resource Management decided they didn't want to be associated with such salacious settlements, and with Fox News already reeling from the recent firing of its longtime head honcho Roger Ailes over similar high-dollar shenanigans they reached the same reluctant conclusion.
All the late night comics and mainstream news reporters and the rest of the left are having great fun with it, and there's really no denying them their unabashed schadenfreude. Fox News is the bogeyman of the left, O'Reilly was its most demonized figure, and both do look pretty damned ridiculous at the moment. Just before the firing President Donald Trump had defended O'Reilly during a New York Times interview as a good guy who never did anything wrong, and of course he's got his own scandals about grabbing women by the wherever to deal with, so naturally the left is also having fun with that.
All of it supports a leftist narrative that conservatism is nostalgia for the good old days when business moguls used to chase secretaries around the desk with impunity, and we have admit we find ourselves hard pressed to make the case that conservatism still stands for Judeo-Christian tradition and family values isn't really waging that "war on women" that the left used to run on. There's a case to be made that settling suits isn't an admission of guilt, but no one on the right was having any of that back when President Bill Clinton was settling his lawsuits with Paula Jones and the numerous other women who quite plausibly accused him of sexual harassment, and by now anyone on either side who isn't disgusted by all of it is a rank hypocrite.
Kudos to Fox for not being such rank hypocrites, and we hope that its many fine journalists continue to expose shenanigans on both the left and right with a renewed credibility. The network retains some hypocritical partisan hacks, such as its now most-viewed host Sean Hannity, as well as those apple-polishing sycophants on Trump's favorite "Fox and Friends" morning show, but it also does a lot of reporting that liberals can't righty dismiss as "Faux News" the way conservatives tend to dismiss anything unsettling to their worldview as "fake news" from "The New York Slimes" or "the Washington Compost." On the both the left and the right, and among those news outlets that still claim to be fair and balanced, it's important than everyone maintain a certain respect for what pretty much everyone regards as proper.
O'Reilly always struck us as a bombastic, loose with facts, self-righteous prig was so easily caricatured that the late night comic Stephen Colbert became a number-one-in-his-time-slot talk-show star by caricaturing him. He's having great fun with the denouement of O'Reilly's career, and it's hard to deny him the pleasure, and by all accounts he's a happily married and devoutly Catholic and thus-far scandal-free man, so we'll not deny him his dance on the grave of O'Reilly's career. We still believe in a conservatism based on Judeo-Christian tradition and family values and not chasing the secretaries around the desk, though, and hope that Fox will help us to keep from anybody dancing on its grave.
The Point of No Tax Return
April 17, 2017 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: " "twitter, birth certificate, Clinton, e-mails, educational records, hypocrisy, Obama, protests, tax returns, transparency, Trump	Leave a comment
President Donald Trump spent an early part of Sunday "tweeting," as he does most mornings. He wished everyone a Happy Easter, which suited the occasion, and he boasted of a military build-up that is apparently somehow already underway, but mostly he seemed annoyed the previous day's protests around the country demanding the release of his tax returns.
The first "tweet" once again recounted his "almost impossible" electoral college victory, then asked "Now Tax Returns are brought up again?" His second outburst suggested "Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday, adding that "Election is over!" Both were composed before Trump got around to wishing the country a Happy Easter, so together they suggest the protestors at least succeeded in rankling the president.
Many of the protests were indeed small, and the election is indeed over, but Trump should nonetheless get used to it being brought up again and again. Although he did win electoral college victory Trump lost the popular, many of those who voted against him don't have to be paid to show up somewhere and wave a sign and chant slogans about it, and Trump's capitalized Tax Return is too tempting an issue for them to drop it. The protestors allies in Congress and many of the media don't intend to, and Trump will need better "tweets" to counter their arguments.
Campaign issues don't end with the campaigns, as Trump should know after the decades he continued to make the same criticisms and conspiracy theories about every president since Ronald Reagan throughout their terms, and there's no apparent reason this one should. Although Trump is not required by law to disclose his tax returns, with or with capitalization, there are valid reasons that for the past forty years every presidential nominee has done so and solid majorities of the public have come to expect it. Those reasons are all the more valid when a president retains a global empire business that is bound to be affected by what the federal government does over the next four years, as this one does, another break from a longstanding informal agreement that there are also valid reasons for, and which is also something that Trump's critics can be expected to keep bringing up.
Worse yet, it's hard to concoct a convincing argument for why Trump doesn't release his tax returns. The sorts of Trump supporters who don't need convincing will accept the stated reason that he's under audit, even though that doesn't prevent him from making his returns public, and shouldn't put him in any sort of legal jeopardy, but eventually Trump will need to persuade some more skeptical sorts. His more stubborn apologists point out the educational records and other documents that Obama declined to release, and note that Democrats didn't seem to mind that lack of transparency, but of course those supporters very much minded, and kept bringing it up throughout and now even after his term, and so did Trump himself, who "tweeted" repeatedly about it, so they also have to explain why things are now so different. For those of us who wanted to see Obama's grades and Hillary Clinton's e-mails and anything else we could get our hands on about any any office-holding Democrats, but also want to see Trump's tax filings and anything else we can learn his or any other Republican politician's potential conflicts of power, that argument is utterly unconvincing.
Although it will drift on and off the front pages, we expect the stories and and the protests will continue. All the stories about investigations underway into Russia's role in the past campaign will make mention of it, and so will all the stories about Trump-owned businesses benefiting from some deregulation or tax shift or federal contracts that are bound to come up. There will be plenty of speculation, too, and Trump's "tweets" and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer don't seem likely to allay the resulting suspicions. The only way to end it is to just go ahead and release the damned things, the way Obama did with the birth certificate he was pestered about by certain people even long after his victorious election was over.
That would not only put the issue to rest and allow Trump to "tweet" about more important issues, but also quell some of that speculation about what those unseen returns might reveal about Russia or any possible conflicts of interest from that global business empire. Surely there's nothing the least bit compromising in those documents, after all.
J'Accuse, Recuse, Repeat
March 3, 2017 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: Attorney General, Cold War, hypocrisy, Jeff Sessions, leaks, media bias, moral relativism, Putin, recusal, Russia, Trump	Leave a comment
Any old spy novel or ongoing news story that involves Russia inevitably becomes complicated, but the latest sequel in that long-running series became altogether labyrinthine after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself on Thursday from the rest of the inevitable unfolding plot.
As per usual in these sordid tales, pretty much even everyone is somewhat compromised. Session's critics are making a flimsy case for perjury charges and calling for his resignation after he denied during his confirmation hearings that he'd had any contact with any Russian officials on behalf of the campaign of now-President Donald Trump and calling for his resignation, even though his only proved contacts with Russian officials during the time in question were arguably in his capacity at the time of a ranking member of Senate foreign relations committee and not on behalf of the Trump campaign. His defenders had a good old time laughing at Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill for "tweeting" that her fellow Senators on the committee never met with Russian fellows after making some dug-up "tweets" boasting of her own personal contacts with Russian officials, and of course recounting the countless episodes of equally questionable behavior during the past administration of President Barack Obama that some never raised any Democrat or many media eyebrows.
Despite all the gloating there was no denying by any of Session's defenders that his answer to that under-oath question about his contacts with Russian officials, which had been poorly framed by a former Saturday Night Live comedian, did seem to imply he'd had no contacts at all with any Russian officials at all, and although the government's top lawyer found plenty of wiggle room between himself and a perjury charge it looked bad enough even to some congressional Republicans that Sessions was forced to bow out of any ongoing investigations to the other alleged contacts between Trump's campaign and various officials of the Russian government or its broader oligarchy. For an administration that prides itself on denying everything and apologizing for nothing that's a rather loudly tacit admission that things do indeed look back, and after Trump's firing of a campaign manager and campaign foreign policy adviser because of their financial ties to Russia, and his accepting the resignation of duly confirmed National Security Advisor because of similar contacts with Russian officials, and the ongoing leaks about Russian attempts to influence the past election, that looks even worse.
Trump's and Sessions' defenders have plenty to say, and much of it is well worth hearing. All those leaks are obviously coming from disgruntled Democrats left over from the gone but not forgotten Obama administration, there are legal and national security implications to that, and it's quite fair to say to say there wasn't such a fuss about it when Obama's people were offering the Russians plastic reset buttons and promises of greater flexibility after the next election and having countless questionable foreign relationships, and by now no one bothers to deny that the Democrats are out to get Trump any way they can. The spectacle of Democrats regaining a Cold Warrior attitude they'd hadn't used since the late and lamented Sen. "Scoop" Jackson and had ridiculed as recently as Republican nominee Mitt Romney's campaign in '12 is pretty ridiculous, too, as is their suddenly re-found enthusiasm for that old "question authority" bumper sticker slogan.
Starting with the Bolshevik Revolution the Republican Party stood steadfast against Russian expansionism, and except for a brief lull after Pearl Harbor that ended at the Yalta Conference they kept it up right through the '12 presidential campaign when nominee Mitt Romney was ridiculed by all the Democrats for his old fogey Cold War foreign policy, so it's also odd to hear a Republican president talking about the Russkies with all the flattery and morally relativistic friendliness of some university-addled lefty. There's something ridiculous, too, about the spectacle of Republicans pretending their heads wouldn't have exploded if Obama had ever sloughed off a question about the ex-KGB dictator of Russia's political crimes by saying "Do you think we're so innocent?"
Trump's defenders still have plenty to say, but at the moment they also have plenty to defend, and as of now his Attorney General has recused himself from the thankless role. It's been leaked and not denied that the intelligence agencies are generally agreed that the Russkies meddled in the past election, there have already been two high-ranking campaign officials and a high-ranking administration official defenestrated over this Russia stuff, the tax returns and other financial disclosures that would surely prove Trump himself has no financial entanglements with any Russian oligarchs remain undisclosed, and just because the accusers are politically motivated doesn't mean they're wrong. We could go at length about the dubious dealings of the Obama administration, but we did so for eight long years, so we won't be hypocrites and pretend that there's nothing at all dubious going on here. Even the most crazed conspiracy theories people are concocting about it on the internet are at least as plausible as Trump's claims about President George W. Bush lying the country into the Iraq War or Obama being born in Kenya or Sen. Ted Cruz's dad being in on the Kennedy assassination, or the stories in The National Inquirer that Trump has nominated for a Pulitzer Prize or the InfoWars outfit whose respected reputation Trump has praised, and there's enough that the more reasonable liberals can make a reasonable case for further investigation. It's damned dubious enough to us a few other remaining old school and consistent-on-the-Russkies Republicans to warrant an independent investigation by the duly authorized authorities, but not an independent prosecutor, and the continued scrutiny of the press, but not the partisan and prosecutorial sort so many of them are inclined to in the case of Republicans.
Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the whole mess was principled, which should help him retain his widely respected reputation in conservative circles, even if doesn't change the liberals' opinion that he's a unrepentant old racist reactionary with a souther accent, and we expect he'll at keep his job and generally do well at it. Not having to answer all the questions that are about to be asked about the Russians should free up a lot of his valuable time.
From the Sideline View
December 16, 2016 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: central planning, Clinton, Cold War, family values, hypocrisy, Putin, Russkies, switching sides, Trump	Leave a comment
The state of America and the rest of the world remains a preoccupying fascination for us, but these days we watch the news unfold with from a somewhat disinterred perspective. The team of old-fashioned Republican cold warriors and red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalists and stodgy traditionalists on the social issues we've always rooted for didn't even the make the political playoffs in this crazy election year, so there's the desultory feel of a World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers about all of it, and our newfound objectivity makes the worst of both remaining teams so much more glaring.
All through the long years of President Barack Obama we groused about his groveling appeasement of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and all through a crazy election year we indignantly noted that his would-be successor and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State started it off with that stupid "reset" button, and like all good Republicans we excoriated them durned Democrats for their Russkie-friendly ways. Now the putatively Republican president-elect has a mutual admiration society going with Putin and is appointing all sorts of Russophile wheelers and dealers who have also already wheeled and dealt some some officially friendly arrangements with the Russkies, suddenly those formerly apologetic Democrats who once laughed at Obama's line about how "the '80s are calling and they want their foreign policy" back are now demanding a more Reaganesque response towards that bear in the woods, and we note that pretty much everyone is accusing pretty much everyone else of being a partisan hypocrite who suddenly switched sides. Pretty much of all of them are right about all of that, of course, even if we do stand unsullied on stands, but from this viewpoint they all seem wrong about the rest of it.
There does look to be a whole lot of de-regulatin' coming, perhaps even on a bigger-than-Reagan scale, and our old-fashioned Republican souls will begrudgingly enjoy that, along with the inevitable squealing from those durned Democrats, but we also anticipate a lot more of the kooky economic interventions that president-elect Donald Trump has already imposed on free markets. Trump's admittedly different version of command controlled and outright protectionist economic policies have already aroused the indignation of the very same Democrats who spent the Obama years praising the same industrial policies we were continually grousing about, and we suppose we should welcome their company, but we don't quite trust them. Much of the putatively Republican press we used to have some trust in are now suddenly enthused about about the government picking winners and losers and marketplace of ideas and products, such stalwart holdouts of of Burkean skepticism as The National Review and The Weekly Standard and The Central Standard Times are awaiting vindication before getting back in the game, and for now everyone looks faintly ridiculous.
We'll continue to place our faith in God, but for now even His role in all this might be seem marginalized. The Republican party of family values finally vanquished that awful wife of that libertine ex-president, but it did so with a thrice-married-to-a-nudie-model casino-and-strip-club mogul who has bragged in print about all the married babes he's bagged, and many of the Democrats who once defended Clinton's behavior are now aghast Trump's, and many of the Republicans who were once aghast by Clinton's behavior are reaching into the Old Testament to exalt Trump. We count it a loss for the religious right, even though many of its putative leaders enthusiastically backed Trump, and despite their sudden prudishness we can't see the secular left restoring any righteousness to the world.
All that bother about sex and abortion and the guy wanting to get into the women's locker room and safe spaces from offending opinions and all the rest of those modern world things that keep popping up will surely continue for the next four years, no matter what the Illuminati have cooked up, and we expect that all sorts of people will wind up on all different sides of it, but for now we'll try to keep warm and maintain a fair perspective from the sidelines.
The Election Year of Anything Goes
August 16, 2016 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: Clinton, corruption, family foundation, feminism, Hefner, hypocrisy, John F. Kennedy, Melania Trump, New York tabloid, nude photos, sapphic poses, sexual revolution, Trump	2 Comments
"In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking," the great Cole Porter once tunefully observed, memorably adding "But now, God knows, anything goes." That was way back in 1933, so we shudder to think what the oh-so-sophisticated songwriter of that scandalous era would be thinking if he had stuck around for 2016. The latest rap and rock and pop cacophony would have surely appalled him, the rest of the popular culture would no doubt also dismay the sensibilities of the fellow who lamented that "Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose," and even such a classy and contentedly closeted homosexual of that bygone era as Porter would probably be confounded by all this current public enthusiasm for creepy guys hanging around women's restrooms.
What he'd make of this crazy election year, well, God only knows.
This crazy election year has gone far beyond a glimpse of stocking to include stark naked pictures of a major party nominee's third wife exposed on the cover of a New York tabloid, and more widely disseminated across that newfangled internet thingamajig without those minuscule but pesky stars over the naughtiest bits that even New York tabloids still feel obliged to use, along with some suggestively sapphic poses with an anonymous naked woman or two that easily meet the late Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell's definition of pornography as "I know it when I see it." That same major party nominee used to run a strip joint before it went bankrupt, has boasted in print about the many married women he's bedded, once offered assurances about his sufficient penis size during a presidential debate, often cusses in front of the kids, seems to share the unaccountable current popular enthusiasm for creepy guys hanging around women's restrooms, and for crying out loud he's the Republican nominee.
Meanwhile, the Democratic nominee is the wife of former President Bill Clinton, the predatory serial philanderer best remembered after two terms and nearly 16 years of historical reflection as the punchline to countless late night comedy show fellatio jokes, and for crying out loud she's running as the long awaited culmination of the feminist revolution. The long-presumed and still potential First Woman President is as always committed to the pro-abortion stand that her Republican opponent took right up until he decided to run as Republican and rather clumsily tried to be anti-abortion, and a lot of the older feminists are still grateful that she protected her pro-abortion woman against the women who spoke frankly about his predatory serial philandering, and a lot of the younger feminists find the Republican just as icky, so she might well get away with it. She's not about to be outflanked for the creepy guy in the women's restroom vote even if the Republican nominee is offering them concealed carry, she'll always enjoy the advantage of that double standard that regards scorned women as admirable victims and betrayed men as laughable cuckolds, and even the current Republican nominee with the naked model third wife and newfound anti-abortion zealotry is unlikely to overcome the party's cornball reputation for old-fashioned family values.
What's most striking to us, and would surely get the attention of a resurrected Cole Porter or any other previous American, is that none of this seems to matter. The only interest that the more respectable press took in those naked pictures had to do with the fact that they were apparently taken in in America in 1995, and that the potential first lady's first work permit was issued in 1996, raising doubts about her future husband's stand against illegal immigrants taking jobs from natives. Some of the feminist sisterhood even came to her defense, the right to pose naked and especially to do the sapphic sorts of shots being the most up-to-date version of the cause that even the aging Democratic nominee didn't want to argue with, and no one except such fuddy-duddies as ourselves would wants to be on record saying that there's something somehow unsettling about naked pictures of one major party's nominee's third wife and his opponent being in no position to say anything about it. We grew up long after Cole Porter's heyday but still in a time when the happily married Rob and Laura Petrie were sleeping in separate beds on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," and when Lyndon Baines Johnson was holding bathroom press conferences and Richard Milhouse Nixon was creating the familiar phrase of "expletive deleted" but never doing it in front of the kids, and both the cutting-edge feminists and the retrograde family values types had an unease with the sort of objectification of women that recently appeared on the front page of that Republican-nominee-endorsing New York tabloid. Call us old-fashioned, but in this crazy election year we feel a certain nostalgia for the hopeful hypocrisy of those long-lost days.
We rarely find ourselves in sympathy with The New York Times' Ross Douthat, but we rather liked his recent essay about how this crazy election will in one way or another be the culmination of the sexual revolution that coincided with the feminist revolution during those lamentable '60s. He astutely likens Republican nominee Donald J. Trump's braggadocios sexism with the Brat Pack and Hugh Hefner and of course Democratic icon John F. Kennedy and the rest of the alpha males of the "Mad Men" era of early '60s sexual liberation, and Clinton with the adversarial if equally libidinous feminism that reacted in the latter part of the decade. Regardless of the outcome of the next election one of the two will be ratified, Douthat suggests, and while we doubt we're in complete agreement about which would be best he seems to share our concern that neither is at all satisfactory. For that matter, we can't imagine that any self-respecting feminist or intellectually honest family-value types sees any hope in this crazy election year.
There are more important issues than such long-lost causes, we suppose, such as the ever-harder-to-dispute fact that the Democratic nominee was running an utterly corrupt influence-peddling "family foundation" while in public and that the Republican nominee who openly brags about buying influence was one of the donors during his exclusively private sector career, and that a certain level of personal and financial and political sleaziness is now assumed by both sides and it's all a matter of deciding which is more objectionable. We can't help thinking that the lowered cultural standards have something to do with the lowered political standards, and that the range of acceptable debate has shrunk even as the rules about how views can be expressed have expanded, and that Cole Porter and his better generation of contemporaries would be startled what happens when anything truly goes.


I am going to try something for fun. On a whim. I received an email yesterday from Goodreads about writing prompts for Horror Week. Wait? What was that? If you couldn't tell from the title of this post, it is indeed Horror Week. It gave me an idea: try to finish that damn short story I had started over 8 years ago and never got anywhere with. But as a challenge to myself. To see if I can do it.
(from Goodreads)… click the image to be taken to the Goodreads page for the event.
It is a horror story of course. In that wheelhouse. When I first started writing, that was a genre I thought I'd write more often in. Didn't happen. Even though my first (and currently unpublished novel) edged quite close to that, I just never pushed much into it. I am going to try, however, to finish this one to put it up on Friday as this week's free short story… if I can finish it by then. Either way, I am going to try. Something will go up. If it's titled "An Award Winning Display," then I succeeded.
I am going to use this little exercise to get the writing juices flowing. It'll be fun.


Thank you for your interest in Lake Murray Montessori School. We are a non-denominational, independent Montessori school with two campuses located in Northeast Columbia & Lexington, South Carolina. We strive to provide beautiful environments, a challenging program, and a supportive school community to serve children from 2 to 6 years of age.
Our teachers are all certified in Montessori Early Childhood Education and have long-term experience. Our classrooms are specifically designed for Montessori education. All class materials are carefully selected from some of the best Montessori material manufacturers.
We highly recommend that you visit our school with your child.
The result of exposure to certain exterior order, both physically and mentally, is a certain inner ordering, a certain inner justification and balancing of one's behavior. This we can refer to as the child's "inner-discipline" that is the result of the order within the prepared environment and the core of Dr. Montessori's educational philosophy. Patterns of concentration, cycles of activity, sequential learning, etc., established in early childhood, produce an independent, confident, and directed learner in later years.
State regulations require that all children have a completed health form, immunization record, and a medical consent form on file before they enter school. It is imperative that emergency contact information is kept up to date.
If a child needs to be given medication, a parent MUST complete an authorization form, which will be filed with the child's records. Medication MUST be kept in the original container and bear the child's name. It should be taken to the office by the parent daily so an adult can administer it. NEVER send medication in a child's lunchbox.
Medication measured cup or spoon must be included in order to dispense.
If an error occurs when administering medication; including an over/under dose of the right medication, giving the wrong medication or omission of a scheduled dose, the director/staff will notify the parents.
Please call the school office between 7:30 and 8:30 AM if your child will be absent or late. If your child has a communicable disease, notify the school immediately so that we may notify other parents and take steps to protect the children.
Please keep your child at home if they present symptoms like a cough, cold, rash, fever, diarrhea or sore throat 24 hours prior to the next school day.
If your child becomes ill while at school, you will be notified immediately. Children will be sent home if their temperature is 100.0 or greater, or the child shows signs of illness. Your child should be picked up WITHIN THIRTY MINUTES, since the school does not have staff or facilities to care for a sick child. A child who leaves sick should not return to school until they are symptom-free for 24 hours without medication.
Effective communication between parents, teacher, and child is essential. The teachers at Lake Murray Montessori School invite you to communicate with us whenever you feel your child's best interests would be served. We, in turn, will inform you of our observations and concerns. Please do not discuss your child with us in his/her presence or during class time. If you would like to talk to a teacher, please leave a note or leave a message in the office asking the teacher to call. We also request that you direct your questions to the classroom teachers rather than the assistants or other staff members.
Parent-teacher conferences are held around April and October. These conferences are vital for both parents and teachers. We recommend that parents meet twice yearly with their child's teacher. At that time your child's teacher will show you a student evaluation sheet and you will receive a school conference report.
The classes hold a special ceremony for birthdays, and parents are invited to share the celebration. The birthday child brings a photograph from each year of his or her life. Instead of sending a sweet birthday treat, please help your child select a nonfiction book as a gift to school.
To avoid hurt feelings, Lake Murray Montessori School does not allow distribution of birthday invitations at school unless the entire class is invited.
Please be aware that your child will be engaging in a wide variety of indoor and outdoor activities at school. We ask that your child wear sneakers or sandals (with back strap) that are safe for climbing, no flip-flops or large boots.
Assume that your child will be playing outdoors every day and send along outerwear that is appropriate for the weather.
We request that your child dress in a uniform t-shirt with your choice of shorts, pants or skirt. Uniform shirts are $12.00 for short sleeved and $18.00 for long sleeved. Sweatshirts can also be purchased for $25.00. Please be sure to choose pants that he or she can manage independently.
Uniforms are required everyday except for Fridays, which are a free dress day.
Each child should keep a complete change of clothing at school at all times. Please include socks, shirts, pants, and underwear and replace items as needed. No Pull-Ups please.
Children often want to bring favorite possessions to school, but we ask parents to discourage this practice. We welcome books, items made by the child, or objects related to culture, science, or nature. If your child asks to bring a toy or other personal property, simply explain that such items are not allowed at school. Please do not send valuables, including money and label all items that are sent to school.
If your child stays at school all day, please send a well-balanced, nutritious meal, excluding candy, soda, and other highly sugared foods or those with excessive quantities of additives and preservatives. Include a napkin, as well as a spoon or fork if needed. Please do not pack Go-Gurt or squeezable fruit pouches. They are spilled more than eaten.
Please pack lunches that can be re-heated within a minute or two; many frozen, pre-packaged meals take several minutes to heat and make it difficult for the teachers to heat all the lunches in a timely manner.
We offer pizza for lunch on Fridays. If you would like your child to participate, please fill out the optional programs sheet. The cost is $3.00 per Friday, payable by the month only, in cash. Payment is due on the 1st of each month. Lunch includes pizza, milk, and dessert (applesauce, fruit cocktail or muffin etc.). All profits go toward the purchasing of new Montessori materials.
We offer a lunchtime milk program. If you would like your child to drink milk please check the optional programs sheet and return to school. You will be asked to bring a gallon of milk about six times a year. A reminder will come home with your child's lunchbox when it is your turn to send milk. You need not include juice in their lunchbox.
Please let us know if you would be willing to share skills or information with the children. Our curriculum is open-ended and we welcome your participation. We encourage parent involvement and no skill or talent is too small. We would like to have each parent participate at least once during the year, as every child is filled with pride to have a parent come to school.
Primary class begins each morning at 8:30 am, please be sure that your child is here on time so as not to interrupt lessons. Your child has been taught to say goodbye to you at the door and enter the classroom quietly. Please call ahead of time if possible to let the school know if your child will be late due to an appointment.
Please remain outside and your child will be brought out to you. This allows for the most orderly dismissal. Please make every effort to be on time. Your tardiness causes anxiety for your child and inconvenience for the staff. Parents who arrive after their child's dismissal time will be assessed a fee of $2.00 per minute, per child.
Each teacher will maintain daily attendance records for every child in their classroom. Each child will also be marked on a playground roster for recess, once upon going out and once upon going back in. As each child is picked up by a parent or other authorized person, a staff person will indicate the time and person leaving with the child on the pick-up sheet kept in the front lobby.
If your child is leaving with someone other than the parent, it must be written and dated on the lobby clipboard by the parent when the child is dropped off in the morning. The person picking up the child should be prepared to show an appropriate I.D. or family code word.
Lake Murray Montessori School will be closed whenever Richland District Two (for Northeast Campus) or Lexington District One (for Lexington Campus) is closed. Please listen to local radio or watch WIS television channel for school closing.
If we should have to close during the school day because of weather reports of incoming storms, please pick up your child within 30 minutes of notification. This also includes closures for any state or local emergencies.
Throughout the summer the children may arrive at any time. However, please be sure to drop them off in the front foyer so that they can be marked for attendance.
We schedule several special camps and activities for the children during the summer months such as: Science Camp, Art Camp, Music Camp, The Puppet Playhouse, Ambulance, Police Car, Fire Truck etc.
Please clearly label everything with your child's name.
Memory School Scrapbook: We have a wonderful Memory School Scrapbook. It can be personalized on the cover with your child's picture showing through the schoolhouse cut out. The book is a keepsake. It can hold pictures, story pages, and any work your child brings home from school that you would like to save. It is also a wonderful way to track your child's progress over time. The cost of each book is $16.00, cash or check made payable to LMMS.
PublixPartners: We are members of Publix Partners. These cards are good at any participating Publix stores in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. You can have as many cards as you want. Share them with family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Our Publix Partners card can be used in addition to other schools that you may already be supporting. Simply tell the cashier that you would like to support both schools.
Box Tops for Education: Clip box tops from participating products and help earn cash for our school. Clip box tops coupons from hundreds of your favorite products found at your local grocery stores. Each coupon is worth 10 cent when our school redeems them. Clip box tops with some care. The labels must not be ripped or "defaced", so try to be neat when cutting. A collection box is available in our front foyer to drop off your box tops. To see a complete listing of products, visit www.boxtops4education.com. Happy Clipping!!
Office Depot: When you visit your nearest Office Depot be sure to mention our school. We are registered there and all you need to do is give them our telephone number, which is 996-1004 and our school will get credit for your purchase.
All proceeds from these fundraisers will be used to purchase art supplies, playground toys, classroom materials, or anything else the children need. The funds are also used to help with the expense of teacher training and conferences.
Thank you for your participation in these programs. Solicit support from extended family members and friends share the school spirit with everyone.


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Q: Change event not triggering while updating select option programmatic using selectedIndex in angular 9 I am importing XML content and based on data inside want to update the selected option in the dropdown. Drop Down selection is getting updated but ng-value I have bound is not getting updated automatically. The same thing works when I use UI and update drop-down selection using a mouse click. below is code I am using:
<select [(ngModel)]="mypage.DataList[i].PO" [id]="'objml-'+i" [ngModelOptions]="{standalone: true}"   (change)="updateLcso(i, $event)">
 <option *ngFor="let x of poList; trackBy:trackByIndex;" [ngValue]="x" >{{x.po_tag}}</option>

So using the above code works fine when using mouse click and change option in the dropdown. and when I read mypage.DataList[i].PO content, data accurately updated.
I want to update the drop-down option programmatically and using the below code.
(document.getElementById("objml-" + index.toString()) as HTMLSelectElement).selectedIndex = 1;

using the above logic, on UI page drop-down option is getting updated but when I read mypage.DataList[i].PO content, data is still not updated
Help is appreciated, Thanks in advance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange