RUTHFULLY YOURS

Dear e-pals.

As a “seniora” of advancing years I have decided to take off some time  from  today, September 1 until September 10 to sort out  minor but vexing health issues from teeth to toes, knees and hands and assorted creaking joints which need repairs and maintenance, all to clear the deck for the fall and social and political and spirited blogging, and to buy and install a new computer.  Have a wonderful week ….rsk

The following excerpt of a song composed in 1917 by James Weldon Johnson with lyrics by Jerry Cantrell is amusing re old bones.

James Weldon Johnson was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where he started working in 1917.

The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone,
The ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

The leg bone’s connected to the knee bone,
The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone,
The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

The hip bone’s connected to the back bone
The back bone’s connected to the neck bone,
The neck bone’s connected to the head bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

The finger bone’s connected to the hand bone,
The hand bone’s connected to the arm bone,
The arm bone’s connected to the shoulder bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones!

In 1964, in a speech entitled “The Summer of our Discontent” Martin Luther King, Jr. ended with a resolution and a plea to others to “remain “maladjusted” and refuse to adjust to discrimination, religious bigotry, militarism, and violence.

What would he say to a summer of violence, antisemitism, crime, homelessness, surveillance of citizens, inflation, a rogue FBI, a militarized IRS, obstruction of free speech and censorship of dissidence, and government curtailment of parental rights. And what would he think of a populace that has adjusted to the foregoing?  rsk

To begin with that accusation is false. I live in an upscale liberal neighborhood that just helped Jerry Nadler trounce Carolyn Maloney. In their campaign outings both trashed rich Republicans for ignoring the working class. The unvarnished truth is that well off liberals discuss the working class more than anyone else.

Exhibit A: in the coastal and suburban playgrounds of the liberals the working class are mainstays in the conversation:

It is so hard to get good help now. They go on to blame Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

2.We have to build better housing for immigrants who work here. We must become a sanctuary city to avoid these shortages in domestic and commercial help. Donald Trump’ fault.

3.The electricians and the plumbers take weeks to get here and now charge even more. Trump’s fault.

The restaurants are so shorthanded now and the service is getting poor while the prices go way up for us. Trump’s fault.
My car took a week to service they are so shorthanded with mechanical help. Trump’s fault.

They really care.   rsk

J.Edgar Hoover was director of the FBI from 1935, where he remained for 37 years until his death in 1972. He built the FBI into a crime-fighting agency and instituted  modern  police technology such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories.

Although the FBI is housed in a stately building named for him, evidence of his secretive abuse of power surfaced and tarred his legacy. He routinely violated the very laws the FBI was charged with enforcing; used the FBI to harass political dissidents; amassed secret files for blackmailing high level politicians with illegally obtained evidence.

 More recent FBI directors are purveyors of lies and hoaxes:

 Robert S. Mueller, III, September 4, 2001- September 4, 2013

James B. Comey, September 4, 2013 – May 9, 2017

Andrew McCabe (Acting), May 9, 2017 – August 2, 2017

Christopher Wray, August 2, 2017 – Present

 Like the Hoover vacuum cleaner, they all suck! rsk

Hmmm. Just as we are nearing the November 8, 2022 Elections there are new polls, harbingers of GOP losses and possible Dem retaining majorities in the Senate and Congress.

Many questions are designed to elicit answers the pollsters want.

Here is an example from a political pollster who called me:

The first question had me identify myself as a conservative Republican.

Then the question: ” If it were proven beyond a doubt that Governor Ron de Santis is corrupt would you support him in 2024? ”

No doubt they would list “no” as a signal that conservative Republicans would not support Florida’s governor.

When I challenged the question and asked if its exact text would be revealed I got a dial tone.

So take those ominous results with a grain of salt.

rsk

What is Senator Manchin’s game plan? After giving reasonable dissent on most policies and appointments, he caves and gives in to Democrat progressive demands. Is he lining himself up for higher office in the White House by pretending to be the “moderate” choice?

At least Liz Cheney, however vile, sticks to her beliefs.

Just asking…..rsk

The lamentable unvarnished truth about our magnificent first president is that he owned slaves. That barbaric custom was prevalent then, enabled by Black African and Caribbean slave traders.

That was then and the custom was terminated by war, abolition, and laws set by Congress and courts.

Slavery, in its most brutal forms exists today in Africa and China, but that fact does not seem to ruffle the feathers of the cancel-culture groupies.

While Western nations had public, picnic like public executions and reigns of chaos and terror, our founding fathers crafted a democracy like no other. And our freedoms envisioned by George Washington still hold, however shaken by leftist intentions.

Happy Independence Day! God bless America! rsk

Today there are women in every corridor of significance- the Supreme Court; the academies; in finance; in Congress; in high level Cabinet as well as government appointments; in the professions; in science and medicine; in the military; in entertainment and journalism.
This is the real laudable success of feminism, not abortion a subject of serious debate, as the street theater and protests would leave one to think. rsk

Regardless of where you stand on abortion is this justifiable “pro-choice’ activity? rsk

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-attacks-on-crisis-pregnancy-centers-janes-revenge-abortion-roe-v-wade-violence-destroyed-11655653644

First Image, established in 1984, is one of dozens of pro-life pregnancy centers and churches vandalized or attacked since the May 2 leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a nonprofit advocacy group, issued a report last week detailing more than 40 “incidents of violence, vandalism and intimidation” since the leak.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/abc-touts-abortion-groups-report-warning-rise-violence-ignores-attacks-pro-life-clinics

ABC touts abortion group’s report warning about rise in violence, ignores attacks against pro-life clinics Another report found over 40 incidents of violence against pro-life supporters since the Supreme Court abortion case leak
https://nypost.com/2022/06/24/scotus-roe-v-wade-abortion-reversal-could-le

Pro-choice groups call for ‘Summer of Rage’ after Roe v. Wade abortion reversal

Quotes:

The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy. The problem comes when healthy criticism is replaced with more destructive intimidation and sanctions.”

– Sandra Day O’ Connor.

“The power I exert on the court depends on the power of my arguments, not on my gender.”

– Sandra Day O’ Connor.

On Roe v. Wadehttps://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/sandra-day-oconnor-and-reconsideration-roe-v-wade/

Her first public [Supreme Court] opinion on abortion came in the Akron case in 1983 [Akron v. Akron Center For Reproductive Health]. She had been on the court for two years. The Akron case served up to the court a series of abortion restrictions that really challenged Roe v. Wade [including requirements for: all abortions performed after the first trimester to be done in hospitals, parental consent before the procedure could be performed on an unmarried minor, doctors to counsel prospective patients, a 24 hour waiting period and that fetal remains be disposed of in a “humane and sanitary manner.”]. The court reaffirmed Roe, and O’Connor dissented, [saying, “I believe that the State’s interest in protecting potential human life exists throughout the pregnancy.”]

 There were four justices opposed to that, and there were four justices fully for that. And everybody assumed that O’Connor was going to be also fully for undercutting Roe. But she wouldn’t go along. She wrote a separate opinion, deciding the case very narrowly. She said there may be time in the future to deal with the bigger, deeper issue, but that time has not arrived.