Timothy Birdnow

Public schools are way too expensive, especially for the value.

The Average Cost of Public School Education Is 58% More Than Private School

To fill this decades-long gap, Just Factsconducted extensive research to develop a methodology that reliably measures private school spending. Beyond analyzing academic papers and government reports, Just Facts performed data checks and corresponded with the Department of Education and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to ensure accuracy.

Applying this method to the latest available data, the average inflation-adjusted cost of private K–12 schools in the 2019–20 school year was $9,709 per student. In contrast, the cost for public schools was $17,013 per student—or 75% more than private schools.

Public schools have a disproportionate number of students with disabilities, who cost more to educate than other students. Accounting for this difference, the average cost of educating children in public schools is now 58% greater than in private schools.

However, the cost premium of public schools is almost certainly larger than 58%. This is because government data on public school spending excludes some key items.

Coupled with data on student outcomes, these findings have major implications for the state of the public education system and how to improve it.

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Timothy Birdnow

Seventeen some odd bucks a "gallon" to fuel an EV.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/true-cost-of-ev-fueling-equivalent-to-17-33-per-gallon-of-gas-report-5518233?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport

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This from Sherry Goodman:

Thoughts from Propaganda (1965) by Jacques Ellul

1. Breaking news is brainwashing you. Ellul: "To the extent that propaganda is based on current news, it cannot permit time for thought or reflection." When everything is urgent, you are forced to "remain on the surface of the event."

2. Jacques Ellul predicted echo chambers: "Those who read the press of their group and listen to the radio of their group are constantly reinforced in their allegiance. We see before our eyes how a world of closed minds establishes itself."

3. Modern man can "never stop to reflect." He's not allowed to synthesize his information. Rather, Ellul writes: "One thought drives away another; old facts are chased by new ones."

4. Clear thought has been replaced by vague feeling: "Modern man does not think about current problems; he feels them. He reacts, but be does not understand them any more than he takes responsibility for them."

5. Ellul on how the modern man lacks a center of gravity: "Lacking landmarks, he follows all currents." His soul is "discontinuous and fragmented." Life reduced to unconnected moments...

6. Everyone can read but not everyone can think. This makes propaganda more, not less, common. Ellul: "The vast majority of people, perhaps 90 percent, know how to read, but do not exercise their intelligence beyond this. They attribute authority and eminent value to the printed word...they are precisely on the level at which the printed word can seize and convince them without opposition."

7. Once a person is compromised...o nce they've acted out a lie...they are yours forever. Ellul: "He who acts in obedience to propaganda can never go back. He is now obliged to believe in that propaganda because of his past action. He is obliged to receive from it his justification and authority, without which his action will seem to him absurd or unjust, which would be intolerable."

8. Propaganda works by channeling the energies of a society's "fundamentals myths." These are the central stories operating inside the collective mind: "The myth of happiness, the myth of progress, the myth of the nation." A skilled propagandist will always borrow from, and build on, the "current beliefs and symbols" of a society.

9. Propagandists set up "psychological levers." They ensure that "certain words, signs or symbols" start provoking certain reflex actions...and then they wait. The levers can now be turned when and how needed.

10. Indirect propaganda works best. Aggressive attempts at manipulation will fail as people's defenses will go up. But give a man plausible deniability, feed him convenient information, make him feel that he's "obeying reason" as he follows your command, and you have him where you want him.

11. Lonely, depressed people are the easiest victims of propaganda. Jacques Ellul: "An individual can be influenced by forces such as propaganda only when he is cut off from membership in local groups because such groups are organic and have a well-structured material, spiritual and emotional life; they are not easily penetrated by propaganda."

12. The conditions of modernity are actually the conditions of unprecedented propaganda: "The permanent uncertainty, the social mobility, the absence of sociological protection and of traditional frames of reference — all these inevitably provide propaganda with a malleable environment that can be conditioned at will. The individual left to himself is defenseless..."

Tim adds:

That is why I wrote this poem:

The Kaleidoscope  Man

Timothy Birdnow

July 7, 2023

Who is the man with the multiple mind
ever in fear that he'll be left behind
wired in, tired out, no rest will he find
running in place but he'll never unwind

His mind a kaleidescope, all endless connections
he thinks he can cope but he's broken in sections
he's all out of hope at the end of his rope and
his body in open insurrection

Where is rest? Where is peace
Over the crest or when he's deceased?

Chewing on his entrails the eternal beast
he tries and he fails to make it all cease
but the multiple mind can never know peace
no he won't ever find, nor will gain his release

The multiple mind and the multiple brain
is so ever unkind and so full of great pain
for it leads a man's lfe to circle the drain
Yes the multiple man in the end is insane

He rushes here he rushes there
and he frantically seeks what he really can't bear
His hopes are all splinters his dreams are all cares
but still he peeks out with his faraway stare

So who is this man so desperately slow?
He's you and he's me, he's the average old joe
We're caught in a trap, are our own wost true foe
and yet still we rush headlong, to nowhere we go

Peace is a prize that can always be found
if we ignore the lies and cacophanous sound
for the world sees as prize things that hold us all bound
till our cold body lies in the uncaring ground

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Timothy Birdnow

So we have Americans held hostage in Gaza, eight million aliens strolling into the country, wars in eastern Europe and in Israel, Iran about to get a nuclear weapon, we have the possibility of China invading Taiwan, we have extreme inflation, economic stagnation, deficit spending on levels never seen in human history, we have rioting and looting, total chaos, dogs and cats living together, etc.And what is the leader of the Free World doing?

Celebrating "intersex day"!

Yes, Joe Biden declared October 26 "Intersex Awareness Day, because we have nothing more pressing to worry about than dudes in dresses.

From the government announcement:

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Timothy Birdnow

On Facebook a guy named Craig Ball commented on my comparisons of Biden to Jimmy Carter:

Craig said:

if you were the President, what would you do? start bombing and have the hostages killed? Israel army will do that and there will be no blood on America's hands. all the blood for anyone killed is on Hamas. as far as Carter, he's the only real Christian that Washington has seen in a very long time.

I reply:

Craig Ball On May 18, 1904 in Tangier, Morocco an American businessman named Ion Perdicaris was kidnapped and held for ransom. President Teddy Roosevelt showed exactly how you deal with this. He sent one message " Perdicaris alive or Raisuli (the kidnapper) dead".

Guess what Craig? The hostages were released.

You may remember that the Iranians released the American hostages when Reagan was inaugurated. They knew he would do whatever was necessary, and even if it meant sacrificing the hostages.

" Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead"

The kind of weakness now being paraded around the whole world invites such attacks. Mr. Biden has repeatedly shown himself a pushover.

What would I do were I Biden? I would let Israel off their leash. More importanly, I would prepare for our own military operation against Hamas. " Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead"

More than likely Hamas would hand over the hostages and skulk away.

What else would I do? I would reimpose all of the sanctions of Iran and maybe add a few more. I would squeeze them. And I would most definitely NOT give a hundred million dollars in "humanitarian" aid which will only go into the pockets of Hamas (who after all run Palestine) nor would I allow the U.N. to bring in aid. It's harsh, but the Palestinians elected Hamas as their leaders with a solid majority, and while Hamas has not held elections since polls show they have a large majority of support among the Palestinians.

This is a war, and in war people suffer. It's why we don't want war, and why the Palestinians shouldn't have launched one Craig.

As for Mr. Carter, what can I say? It was Carter who was enamored of the Ayatollah Khomeini and helped Khomeini return to Iran. The hostage crisis was a direct result of Carter's willful and arrogant approach. When the Shah called for help Mr. Carter told his aids "F the Shah!" (Carter used quite foul language when not on camera.)

Carter was also a huge liar. He falsely claimed to be a nuclear engineer. He was no such thing; he worked as a technician on a nuclear sub and took a couple of courses in nuclear physics but had n o degree. But he lied about it to the public.

He lied all the time. Fellow Georgia Democrat Lester Maddox called him the biggest liar in America.

And Democrat House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neal heaved a huge sigh of relief when Carter finally left Washington "those guys came in like Pr%#ks and they left the same way". Carter was sanctimonious and smug and treated Congress like they were his servants.

Carter also was an embarrassment. He did an interview with Playboy to shore up his "hip" image "I have lusted in my heart". And he did a photo-op in a canoe and had a rabbit swim out to it. Carter beat the poor thing with a paddle. The "killer rabbit" incident was hilarious at the time; it was like the killer rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It also cheesed off animal rights people.

Carter also got hemorrhoid surgery while President (something that could have been put off) thus further tarnishing the dignity of the office.

And don't forget his brother Billy, who took a whiz on the tarmack with some ambassadors present.

Carter did a number of good things after leaving office, but he was both a terrible President (giving us stagflation, something Keynsian economists said was impossible) and had many Christian failings.

He was DESTROYED by Reagan in 1980. I remember the media actually crying over the election results.

Joe Biden has the terrible track record of Mr. Carter without the redeeming features Mr. Carter possessed.

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Diane Kimura

A troubling trend we’re seeing, not just among individual investors, but the U.S. government as a whole: taking on debt to kick their financial problems further down the road (with rising interest tacked on).

People Can't Afford Household Expenses, Including Electricity yet, the government keeps spending pushing up prices with inflationary policies.

- 54% of Americans use savings to pay for everyday expenses like groceries and rent.

- Consumer credit card debt surpassed $1 trillion for the first time this year.

- The US debt now stands at over $33 trillion.

On a year-over-year basis, government spending accelerated from 0.9% to 2.7% (in Q1) then from 2.7% to 3.8% in Q2.

If you sign off on Big Government (Big G) spending, then you know going into the presidential election you’re going to slow against those Big G base effects.
You don’t just get that for free.

For all of 2023, you can say, ‘Look, there’s no recession, the job market’s great,’ because you bought the numbers.

The bill will come due on all of this, and when it does, the signs of a slowdown that became apparent in late October will just be the beginning.

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Timothy Birdnow

Joe Biden's approval rating is down to 75% among DEkMOCRATS according to Gallup. Independents are at 35% and Republicans at 5%. Biden has to stand on tiptoes to reach the curb.

He campaigned out of his basement. Now he's living there full time.

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Timothy Birdnow

The Democrat governor of New Mexico  is using the Maine shooting spree to push gun control.

I find this whole thing a bit too convenient.

It was recognized that Hamas got away with the multiple kidnappings precisely because Israel has strick gun laws and nobody had any weapons to stop the terrorists. That was much remarked upon.

So the left needed to get us all back on message. And voila!  We have another mass shooting.

I grow increasingly suspicious of these things.

Did this fellow actually do it or was he set up? If he did it what led up to it? Was the CIA working him up to it?

I don't know but Israel proves gun control is a terrible idea, and yet this mass shooting will be used to promote gun control regardless.

One more thing; I was watching Scripps News and they said America led the world in mass shootings. Not even close. We are well down the list when adjusted for population.

They desperately need our guns so they can build their monstrous New World Order.

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Timothy Birdnow

America held hostage, day 20.

So when Is President Biden going to take any real action to bring them home? As many as 600 Americans are trapped in Gaza and Biden is fiddling.

We need Ted Koppel back and a reboot of America's then favorite news show!

Biden is the new Jimmy Carter.

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Roger Bell

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Timothy Birdnow

My television bit the dust Wednesday night.

I knew it was going but had been milking the poor thing along. The remote stopped working, at least to turn it on and off, and I started having to use the button on the bottom - which soon stopped working too. I ended up getting the t.v. on and turning it on and off with a surge protector.

Well, it went out on Tuesday and I couldn't get it back on.

As it was night time I wound up going to Target, the closest store. I don't drive at night unless I have to because of my bad eyesight.

At any rate it was Target or Walmart (which was farther) so I went to Target.

They had the t.v.s attached to the shelf with a cord, and an anti-theft device attached to them. Now I get the anti-theft device, but attaching it to the wall? What, was I going to slip it in my pocket and steal it?

I know; people do just walk out the front door. But a pocket knife could have cut the cord and the anti-theft device off of it easily. It was just an irritation.

A long one. I found a worker and asked her about getting the t.v. dismounted. She said "you have to talk to someone in electronics. I'll call them" and subsequently nobody showed up. A second man said the same thing and again I waited and waited and nobody showed up. And again with a third worker.

FINALLY I walk over to the register and see a man sitting in a chair. HE was in electronics. I guess nobody followed through with letting them know a customer was waiting.

I waited at least thirty minutes.

At any rate I now have a new television, which is nice. But I preferred the old one; fewer bells and whistles and you could just punch in the channel number, as opposed to this thing which makes you scroll up and down. I'll wear the remote out in no time at all as I often surf.

The point is service is disappearing from America. And at the same time we are treated to an increasingly Byzantine way of doing business.

In the old Soviet Union it worked that way. If you went to the grocer you had to wait in line to get in, then wait in line at each and every department. Nothing was handled by the public (no doubt to avoid theft) and so you waited in line for everything - canned goods, meat, fish, produce, etc. You got to the front of the line, told the clerk what you wanted, and he gave you a purchase order to take to the cashier. She gave you a receipt and then you took it back to the clerk who then gave you your goods. Each time you had to wait in line. It took eight hours to go to the store - and that assumes they HAD anything to purchase.

America is becoming much like that. People are complaining about how long it takes to get products in stores because everything is locked up now thanks to Defund the Police and the fact nobody wants to work anymore so companies have no staffing (and the companies don't want to pay what most people are willing to accept.) So increasingly the customer waits and waits. And often items are out of stock in the stores. I still see empty shelves, well after the end of the Covid pandemic. Now why is that?

Many on the Left have wanted to see Americans "get their just deserts" and live the way people in other countries had to live. It tickles them to watch us suffer with Third World problems, problems we didn't make in those countries but which the Left still likes to blame us for as we didn't have them thanks to free markets. (Liberalism is all about sticking it to the other guy.)

So now we are starting to have Third World problems here and that seems to suit many just fine.

Their solution? Let in millions of illegal aliens to "do the work Americans just won't do" and thus cut the pie ever finer.

Then when everything falls apart so many will wonder why. It shouldn't surprise us.

At any rate, the next time you get poor service or have a long wait just remember it's all for the glorious revolution comrad and it is your patriotic duty to wait and pay more so it's all fair!

Oh, and my old t.v. was not even ten years old. Like Soviet made junk, it had a short shelf life. I remember my parents' television lasting thirty years or more. So bad service, poor selection, and poor quality are now the hallmarks of American "capitalism" just ass they were under Soviet Communism.

We are all Rooskies now!

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Timothy Birdnow

Every time I start losing my liking of Elon Musk...

Musk just offered Wikipedia a BILLION DOLLARS to change their name for one year to "Dickopedia".

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Timothy Birdnow

Here are the stats on anomalies in the Pennsylvania election in 2020:

2,036,041
Ballots Touched By Anomalies

923
Fact Witnesses

50+
Courts Blocked An Evidentiary Hearing
More Stats

See more here.

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Beverly McCaul Goff

This is a pretty damning letter from Senator Grassley to Garland. I guess the fact that democrats have demolished the norm’s & tradition of not going after a former president means that Joe & corrupt family can be prosecuted after he leaves office. He should be impeached because his actions are likely influenced by the graft he’s received from adversarial countries. His corruption also might explain his obsession with sending hundreds of billions of our tax dollars to Ukraine with conceivable benefit to America! European countries sitting on the border aren’t paying nearly as much as us & they have the a national interest in that war! So maybe the "big guy” hit the jackpot with Ukraine or he’s being blackmailed because of his past corruption! But there’s no denying that there is a two tier system of justice in America! Garland needs to go, Wray needs to go along with the entire leadership in both agencies! Joe needs to go, yesterday!

Grassley’s letter to Garland lays out a very compelling case is you’re not a partisan hack!

inFBI had 40 sources providing intel about possible criminal activity involving Bidens, Grassley says
justthenews.com

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Timothy Birdnow

Auto execs are coming clean: EVs aren't working
businessinsider.com

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Timothy Birdnow

We have a House Speaker!

He is Mike Johnson, Rep. from Shreveport, Louisiana.

He's fairly conservative from what I know of him, and supported President Trump. Much better than the last Speaker of even the last nominee.

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Timmothy Birdnow

The leftist ACLU has sided with Donald Trump and condemned the judge's gag order in his trial.

From the article:

Siding with Trump, the ACLU says a judge's gag order in Jan. 6 case is too sweeping. Former President Donald Trump during a trial in New York on Tuesday. A judge in a different case — happening in Washington, D.C. — issued a limited gag order that the ACLU said sweeps too broadly in restraining Trump's speech.

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Nikki Grace

Many good arguments for dismissal, first round of judge may not work but appeal can.

Trump lawyers argue Senate impeachment acquittal means 2020 election interference case should be dismissed
news.yahoo.com

Tim adds:

I don't think this argument will fly, primarily because impeachment is a political act and not a legal one. I don't think SCOTUS, or any lower court, will go with this, although I hope they do.

If you can't try a sitting President you shouldn't be able to try one who has been found not guilty by Congress for the very charges of which he is now criminally accused.

But in our era of bare-knuckle politics and politicized prosecutions I doubt any judge will shut this bandwagon down. Whoever does that will face a huge amount of pressure and  may even face impeachment from office if the Donkeys take power.

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Nikki Grace

Goldman Sach predicts increase in home values in 24 and 25 up to 7%. There will high prices, high interest rates and fewer home for sale. Scarcity keeps prices up.

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Nikki Grace

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