Magic 8 Ball

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller has had his testimony in front of two House committees put off one week until July 24th ... see: The Hill Story. This is just two days before Congress leaves for its six week summer vacation. Now Mueller has previously indicated he will not answer any questions outside the bounds of his report ... which of course Republicans on these committees will not be bound by. They are sure to ask dozens of questions that will be embarrassing to Mueller ... and which he will either not answer or try to dodge.

Therefore these hearings for Mueller will be like to trip to the root-canal dentist without Novocain. Two days before Congress’ summer recess means that any further delays might be permanent. Which is therefore my prediction — Mueller will never sit down to be so questioned in public by Congress ... and most certainly embarrass himself as his swan song from public life.

Magic 8 Ball says: ‘The fix is in’

The Three Rs

New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg has a lot on his mind these days … transfats, too much dietary salt, 16 ounce + soft drinks, open access to homeless shelters (see: Weekly Standard Story), etc.  But what he doesn’t seem to be too concerned about is that 80% of this City’s high-school children are graduated as being functionally illiterate … see: CBS Local Story … and this is just for the ones who graduate.  35% of high-school students there don’t even graduate (see: Gotham Schools Story).  This means that only 13% (20% of 65%) of students who enter high school in NYC (how many even even get this far?) can really read a fast-food menu. How can this be?  New York spends almost $19,000 per student (see: CBC NY Story ) to “educate” their students but with clearly catastrophic results (and they say we need to spend more money on education) … yet Gotham’s mayor seems distracted with all these other "vital" matters.

Supposedly the “rubber rooms” that were once used to warehouse incompetent teachers have been closed down … but this seems another teacher-union fiction (see: Huffington Post Story).  What has clearly happened is that past generations of uneducated students have been promoted to union-dues-paying teachers and the vicious cycle is ever continuing and worsening.  In my opinion, pretty nearly all the teachers in Gotham should be fired as a result of the above damaging statistics (or at least sent back to real schools to be truly educated).  I would also sh..tcan that billionaire Mayor who doesn’t understand where his priorities should be.

So, unfortunately, in New York City, the three Rs apparently stand for “Recess and Rubber Rooms.”