Month: January 2022

Closing Thought–20Jan22

The stupidity has started already around the upcoming 2024 elections….right wing moronic ideas have lit a match for the 2024 elections….

Some of the more sillier ideas these slugs are promoting…..

A Biden-Trump rematch seems like a plausible bet for the 2024 race. And while a Trump candidacy isn’t a sure thing, headlines have surfaced recently suggesting that just as much uncertainty dogs the Democratic side. Examples:

  • Clinton again? An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal lays out a scenario in which Hillary Clinton would once again run for president. “Several circumstances—President Biden’s low approval rating, doubts over his capacity to run for re-election at 82, Vice President Kamala Harris’ unpopularity, and the absence of another strong Democrat to lead the ticket in 2024—have created a leadership vacuum in the party, which Mrs. Clinton viably could fill,” write Douglas E. Schoen and Andrew Stein.
  • No Harris? In the New York Times, Thomas Friedman makes the case for what would be another startling Democratic ticket: Biden-Cheney. As in, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney. Friedman argues that we’re in dire political times and in need of unprecedented action, and he draws a parallel to what recently happened in Israel. He quotes political scientist Steven Levitsky: “We should be ready to talk about Liz Cheney as part of a blow-your-mind Israeli-style fusion coalition with Democrats. It is a coalition that says: ‘There is only one overriding goal right now—that is saving our democratic system.'”
  • Um, no: At CNN, Chris Cillizza runs through the idea of Clinton running in 2024 and offers a point-by-point rebuttal. For example, the op-ed authors argue that Clinton has the perfect experience for the job, but “isn’t that what voters chose the current president for?” he asks. “Yes, yes it is. And while Clinton and Biden are not carbon copies of one another, their relevant experience is remarkably similar—long careers in the public policy space in Washington.” He points out that Clinton already has lost twice even with her long resume, and he doesn’t buy the idea that she’s sending signals that she’d be willing to run.
  • Um, no, II: At the Intelligencer blog, Ed Kiglore throws similar cold water on the Cheney idea. “Democrats are very likely to say thanks, but no thanks, to Friedman for the idea of submitting their party to some sort of unwieldy and unnatural coalition of national salvation, so long as there is the slightest hope of beating Trump the old-fashioned way,” he writes. Cheney does indeed deserve “great respect” for how she has defied Trump, and maybe something like an ambassadorship is a fitting reward should Biden win again. “But she has no business being at the top of the line of succession to a Democratic president.”
  • Or maybe … As long as people are tossing out wild ideas, the Fix blog of the Washington Post pitches some “far-fetched sleeper tickets” of its own. Some examples: Biden and Mary Trump, Michelle and Barack Obama, Biden and Dick Cheney, or Biden with Republican Govs. Larry Hogan of Maryland, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, or Phil Scott of Vermont.

I am sure this is not the total extent of the stupidity that will be spread….but it had to start somewhere…..and here it is.

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Biden’s Presser

Last night Biden went on TV for a long over due press conference….and as usual it was mostly….blah….blah….blah…..

But if that does not help your understanding then here are a few of the topics he covered…..

  • Build Back Better: The president said he’ll probably have to divide his social spending measure into smaller pieces to get anything through Congress, per the Hill. “I think we can break the package up, get as much as we can now, come back and fight for the rest later,” Biden said.
  • Inflation: The administration is going after rising prices by trying to solve the problems in the supply chain, Biden said, per the Washington Post. “We’ve been able to make progress on speeding up the access to materials,” he said.
  • The pandemic: Biden conceded testing capacity should’ve been increased sooner but expressed satisfaction with adult vaccination rates, now close to 75%. Overall on the pandemic, he said, “I think we’ve done remarkably well.”
  • GOP congressional opposition: “What are Republicans for?” Biden asked in saying they only want to prevent him from accomplishing his goals. “Name me one thing that they are for.” The president said he won’t abandon his legislative agenda. “We just have to make the case what we’re for and what the other team’s not.”
  • Getting out more: Biden said he intends to leave Washington more often to hear from Americans, as well as outside experts, per ABC News. His travels will include becoming “deeply involved” in the midterm campaigns, Biden said.

Bitching about the GOP gets nothing accomplished……there is an answer to rising prices….but NO one in DC will even offer the solution…..voting rights is dead…..infrastructure is a drop in the bucket and well do little to solve the problem…..

None of his solutions will do anything to help end the slide of the Dems into obscurity….and getting out more and ‘listening’ to Americans gives me such a chuckle….when was the last tine a elected official really listened to the American people……those slugs only hear money and not the problems.

More promises and more disappointment….are all we have to look forward to in the near future.

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“lego ergo scribo”

Biden Prepares The Nation

Since Vietnam the president finds the time to make a case for a war that the Pentagon wants…..Iraq comes to mind first…….

Last night Biden went on TV and made a speech that makes the case and prepares the nation for the next war……

In a press conference Wednesday to mark his one-year anniversary in office, President Biden touted his accomplishments, defended his record, and predicted Russia will invade Ukraine. Biden said he expects Russian President Vladimir Putin, who’s moved 100,000 troops to the border with Ukraine, to end the current standoff with some sort of action, the New York Times reports. “Do I think he’ll test the West, test the United States and NATO, as significantly as he can? Yes, I think he will,” Biden said. But the president said Putin would regret an invasion: “I think he will pay a serious and dear price for it.”

Biden has done the course now……Pentagon has told us this…..State has told us this….and the media has been working hard to promote this…..so it is only a matter of time before this thing blows up and we can have that war that the M-IC dearly desires.

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“lego ergo scribo”

Mainstream Media Dropped The Ball

The corporate media cannot be trusted to report the true meaning of the reports they present/publish. Why?

They are solely owned by corporate America and report just what these companies want us to know….usually it is a bastardization of what is truly happening in this country.

Take for instance what is happening in this country as I type.built approval from the public.

I give you the mash-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003….and the lies that the MSM help to spread that won public approval for the invasion.

George W Bush told Tony Blair he did not know who would replace Saddam Hussein in Iraq when they toppled him and that he “did not much care”, according to an explosive top secret account of the meeting seen by Middle East Eye.

The former US president was blithe about the consequences of launching an invasion at a crucial meeting with the British prime minister at his Texas ranch in 2002, almost a year before the war was launched.

“He didn’t know who would take Saddam’s place if and when we toppled him. But he didn’t much care. He was working on the assumption that anyone would be an improvement,” the British memo, written by Blair’s top foreign policy adviser at the time, reads.

Bush believed – but the memo says he would not say publicly – that a “moderate secular regime” in post-Saddam Iraq would have a favourable impact both on Saudi Arabia – a close US ally – and Iran.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iraq-war-bush-blair-secret-memo-reveal-plans-topple-saddam

This is the full text of the memo between Bush and Blair….

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iraq-war-full-secret-memo-how-bush-blair-plotted

I offer that up because of the announcement from the State Department on the Russian presence on the Ukrainian border…..

The US says Russia is so bent on invading Ukraine that it’s cooking up a phony reason to justify it. In other words, Moscow is allegedly working on a “false-flag” mission. “We have information that indicates Russia has already prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine,” an anonymous US official tells the Washington Post. “The operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy-forces.” All of which could lead to a Russian invasion later this month or in February. Other big outlets, including the AP, are quoting the same official. The development comes amid high tensions: Russian troops are massed on the Ukraine border, and talks between Russia and the West to defuse the situation have gone nowhere. More:

  • ‘Dead end’ talks: “The drumbeat of war is sounding loud and the rhetoric has gotten rather shrill,” says Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The organization held talks in Vienna on Thursday, but Russian diplomats later declared them to be at a “dead end,” per Axios. “It seems the risk of war in the OSCE area is now greater than ever before in the last 30 years,” agreed Zbigniew Rau, the Polish chairman of the group.
  • US role: If Russia does invade, the New York Times reports that the US might fund an insurgency, essentially a “guerrilla war against Russian military occupation.” After such an invasion, “US and NATO military assistance—intelligence, cyber, anti-armor and anti-air weapons, offensive naval missiles—would ratchet up significantly,” James Stavridis, a retired Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander at NATO, tells the newspaper. “And if it turned into a Ukrainian insurgency, Putin should realize that after fighting insurgencies ourselves for two decades, we know how to arm, train, and energize them.”
  • Familiar: White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that Russia similarly conducted a false-flag operation before its annexation of Crimea, reports the AP. “We saw this playbook in 2014,” says Sullivan. “They are preparing this playbook again.” The US also says Moscow is infiltrating Ukrainian social media to “fabricate Ukrainian provocations,” another tactic used in 2014.

Keep in mind the some of the most successful war profiteers are the corporations that own our news outlets.

Do Not Buy Everything The MSM Feeds You!

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“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–18Jan22

Will SCOTUS help legalize bribery?

Sen. Ted Cruz is doing his best to see that the court does just that.

The details of Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate, a case that the Supreme Court will hear next Wednesday, read more like a paranoid fantasy dreamed up by leftists than like an actual lawsuit.

The case concerns federal campaign finance laws, and, specifically, candidates’ ability to loan money to their campaigns. Candidates can do so — but in 2001, Congress enacted a provision that helps prevent such loans from becoming a vehicle to bribe candidates who go on to be elected officials. Under this provision, a campaign that receives such a loan may not repay more than $250,000 worth of the loan using funds raised after the election.

When a campaign receives a pre-election donation, that donation is typically subject to strict rules preventing it from being spent to enrich the candidate. After the election has occurred, however, donors who give money to help pay off a loan from the candidate effectively funnel that money straight to the candidate — who by that point could be a powerful elected official.

A lawmaker with sufficiently clever accountants, moreover, could effectively structure such a loan to allow lobbyists and other donors to help the lawmaker directly profit from it. According to the Los Angeles Times, for example, in 1998, Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) made a $150,000 loan to her campaign at 18 percent interest (though she later reduced that interest rate to 10 percent). As of 2009, Napolitano reportedly raised $221,780 to repay that loan — $158,000 of which was classified as “interest.”

So in 11 years, the loan reportedly earned Napolitano nearly $72,000 in profits.

https://www.vox.com/2022/1/12/22877010/supreme-court-ted-cruz-fec-campaign-finance-bribery-loan

Still a mystery on how this case will go….but knowing the track record of the Robert’s Court I am not optimistic.

Maybe now would be a good time to take on the corruption and bribery committed by lobbyists and their corporate puppet masters.

Just a passing thought on my part.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Insurrection Update #23

This is my series watching and reporting on the aftermath of the 06 January failed coup by Trumpites…..

Finally!  Someone is being charged with sedition!

A big development in the investigation of the Capitol riot: Prosecutors filed their first charge of sedition on Thursday, reports the New York Times. Authorities indicted and arrested Stewart Rhodes, the 56-year-old founder of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers. The charge of seditious conspiracy alleges that Rhodes conspired with others to overturn the results of the 2020 election and take control of the Capitol. The AP calls Rhodes the highest-ranking member of any extremist group to be arrested so far. Rhodes was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but he says he never entered the building, and no evidence has surfaced to contradict that.

Rhodes previously told the Washington Post that he was communicating with members of his group that day, but only to try to “keep them out of trouble.” He added that any members of his group who entered the building “went totally off mission.” He made similar comments to the Times over the summer, saying, “There were zero instructions from me or leadership to do so.” Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper who went on to earn a law degree from Yale, was charged Thursday with about a dozen associates.

Among the allegations against Rhodes:

  • On Election Day, he allegedly urged Oath Keeper members to “stock up on ammo” and be ready for a “full-on war in the streets,” according to a letter by House investigators.
  • During an online meeting shortly after the election, he allegedly said, “You can call it an insurrection or you can call it a war or fight,” per the Times.
  • He told Alex Jones days after the election that he had men near Washington poised to act on then-President Trump’s command.
  • He said at a Trump rally in December that failure to invoke the Insurrection Act would lead to a “much more bloody war.”
  • Two days before the riot, he allegedly posted an online article urging “all patriots” to “stand tall in support of President Trump’s fight to defeat the enemies foreign and domestic who are attempting a coup.”

About damn time!

Now roast his ass!

But wait!  He has an eye patch….does anyone know how he got his wound?

He was a gun instructor and he dropped his handgun and shot his eye out.  I cannot make this up!

The insurrection of 06 January caught the Capitol police flat footed….and ever since the same question keeps popping up…..how did this happen?

There is some news on this front….

Intelligence reports compiled by the US Capitol Police in the days before last year’s insurrection envisioned only an improbable or remote risk of violence, even as other assessments warned that tens of thousands of pro-Trump demonstrators could converge in Washington to create a dangerous situation. The documents, obtained by the AP, underscore the muddled intelligence that circulated to Capitol Police officers ahead of the Jan. 6 riot, when thousands of Donald Trump loyalists swarmed the Capitol complex and clashed violently with law enforcement officers in their effort to disrupt the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The intelligence reports in particular show how the police agency for days grievously underestimated the prospect of chaotic violence and disruptions, the AP reports. The daily intelligence reports have been discussed in congressional testimony and summarized in a Senate report. But the AP on Friday evening obtained full versions of the documents for Jan. 4, 5, and 6. On each of the three days, the Capitol Police ranked as “highly improbable” the possibility of acts of civil disobedience and arrests arising from the “Stop the Steal” protest planned for the Capitol. The event and nearly two dozen others were ranked on a scale of “remote” to “nearly certain” on the likelihood of major disruptions. All were rated as either “remote,” “highly improbable,” or “improbable,” the documents show.

Those optimistic forecasts are tough to square with other intelligence assessments compiled by Capitol Police in late December and early January. Those documents, also obtained by AP, warned that crowds could number in the tens of thousands and include extremist groups like the Proud Boys. A Jan. 3, 2021, memo, for instance, warned of a “significantly dangerous situation for law enforcement and the general public alike.” A Dec. 21, 2020, assessment showed that people were researching the tunnels under the Capitol—typically used by members of Congress and staff—on public websites. Adding to the mixed intelligence portrait is a Jan. 5 bulletin from the FBI’s Norfolk field office that warned of the potential for “war” at the Capitol. Top Capitol Police leaders have said they were unaware of that document.

It still amazing that after over a year since the attack and the GOP still cannot support any actions to prevent or understand why the failed coup occurred…..

Historically, Americans haven’t disagreed on the seriousness of national tragedies — think Sept. 11, 2001. But that’s not the case with the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Yes, one year later, more than 70 percent of Americans still regard Jan. 6 as a bad or tragic day for America, including 60 percent of Republicans, but there is still a stark partisan divide on more specific aspects of the Jan. 6 attack that shows many Republicans still minimize its importance. 

For instance, even though an average of 63 percent of Americans across four recent polls1 supported the congressional investigation into the day’s events, an average of 59 percent of Republicans opposed it. In the same vein, 56 percent of respondents to a YouGov/University of Massachusetts poll from Dec. 14-20 thought it was important that we learn more about what happened on Jan. 6, but 75 percent of Republicans said that it was time to move on.

Republicans also tend to use kinder language to describe the events of Jan. 6 and its participants. For example, YouGov/the University of Massachusetts found that 62 percent of Republicans used the word “protesters” to describe the people who broke into the Capitol, while only 31 percent called them “rioters” and 10 percent called them “insurrectionists.” An above-average 26 percent even called them “patriots.” 

Why Republicans Take Jan. 6 Less Seriously Than Other Americans

 Social media is doing their part to help identify and capture those treasonous bastards that participated in the coup….

A few days after the Capitol insurrection last January, the FBI got two tips identifying an Ohio man named Walter Messer as a participant, and both cited his social media posts about being there. To verify those tips, the FBI turned to three companies that held a large amount of damning evidence against Messer, simply as a result of his normal use of their services: AT&T, Facebook, and Google.

AT&T gave the FBI Messer’s telephone number and a list of cell sites he used, including one that covered the US Capitol building at the time of the insurrection, per the criminal complaint against Messer. Facebook told the FBI that the phone number provided by AT&T was linked to Messer’s Facebook account, where he posted several selfies from inside the Capitol during the riot.

Google gave the FBI precise location data showing Messer’s journey from Ohio to DC and back again between January 5 and 7, as well as his location on the afternoon of January 6 as he wandered around and ultimately inside the Capitol building. The complaint also lists videos of the riot posted on Messer’s YouTube channel, Messer’s YouTube searches, internet searches, and emails from his Gmail account — all used to help build a case against him.

Finally one of the defendants that lashed out at police has his day in court….

https://www.vox.com/recode/22867000/january-6-fbi-search-facebook-google-insurrection

I am pleased to see at least someone is acting responsibly……

And Facebook post is what one insurrectionist used to brag about his actions…..and now he is pissed off…..

Tim Boughner, 41, who is accused of pepper spraying and assaulting police on Jan. 6, 2021, during the riot at the U.S. Capitol, lashed out and left a detention proceeding on Wednesday after the judge ruled that he would stay behind bars, Law&Crime reports.

Prosecutors say Boughner used chemical spray on police multiple times as he stood at the front lines of the riot. He later bragged on Facebook that he “f***ed those cops up.”

During the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui stated that he believed Boughner was a flight risk and a danger to the community, and cited his actions on Jan. 6 and his subsequent social media activity.

“You got these dumb*ss comments that you’re saying I said but I did not say these things,” Boughner shouted. “Do we really have to go through all this?”

https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-rioter-tim-boughner/

Yet another whiny ass slug that is pouty that he was dumb enough to brag and then got busted…..

I will continue to watch the proceedings against the insurrectionists….

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“lego ergo scribo”

Those Voting Acts

It is MLK, Jr Day and what better time to look at the voting bills that are being considered in DC…..(by the time this is published I look fore the bills to be squashed)…..

The battle is on for voting rights…..but how many know what the two bills are all about or just what is included in the text?

This is just a little help….before you dismiss these attempts read the info and tell me where the problem is….if there is a problem.

How the For the People Act and Freedom to Vote Act differ

Provisions in the For the People Act and what the Freedom to Vote Act does with them
Keeps a provision
✏️ Amends a provision
➕ Adds a provision
Cuts a provision

For the People Act   Freedom to Vote Act
Prohibit states from requiring an excuse to vote absentee.   Keep
Require states to allow voters to apply for an absentee ballot online.   Keep
Prohibit states from requiring absentee ballots to be notarized or have witness signatures.   Keep
Require states to allow people to register to vote on Election Day.   Keep
Require states to allow people to register to vote online.   Keep
How the For the People Act and Freedom to Vote Act differ

Provisions in the For the People Act and what the Freedom to Vote Act does with them
Keeps a provision
✏️ Amends a provision
➕ Adds a provision
Cuts a provision

For the People Act   Freedom to Vote Act
Prohibit states from requiring an excuse to vote absentee.   Keep
Require states to allow voters to apply for an absentee ballot online.   Keep
Prohibit states from requiring absentee ballots to be notarized or have witness signatures.   Keep
Require states to allow people to register to vote on Election Day.   Keep
Require states to allow people to register to vote online.   Keep
Require states to offer 15 consecutive days of early voting … ✏️ … with some exceptions for smaller or mail-voting jurisdictions.
Require polling places to keep waits under 30 minutes … ✏️ … and prohibit banning giving food and water to voters waiting in line.
Require states that mandate voter IDs to also accept sworn statements signed by the voter. ✏️ Require states that mandate voter IDs to accept a broad and uniform range of both photo and non-photo IDs.
Require states to offer automatic voter registration at the department of motor vehicles and other government agencies. ✏️ Require states to offer automatic voter registration at the department of motor vehicles.
Tightly restrict states’ ability to purge voters from the rolls. ✏️ Modestly restrict states’ ability to purge voters from the rolls.
Implement public funding for congressional campaigns by matching every dollar a candidate raises from small donors with $6 from the government. ✏️ Allow states to choose whether to implement public funding for House campaigns by matching every dollar a candidate raises from small donors with $6 from the government.
Establish specific redistricting criteria for fair maps and require nonpartisan redistricting commissions in every state. ✏️ Establish specific redistricting criteria for fair maps.
New provisions: ➕ Allow election officials to sue if they are undeservedly removed from office.
  ➕ Increase protections against intimidating election workers.
  ➕ Increase the penalties for tampering with voting records.
  ➕ Require more records to be preserved after the election.
  ➕ Allow voters to sue if their vote is not counted.
Count prisoners at their last address instead of where they’re incarcerated for the purposes of redistricting.   Cut
Require presidential candidates to release their tax returns.   Cut
Bar members of Congress from sitting on corporate boards.   Cut
Bar members of Congress from using public money to settle sexual harassment or discrimination lawsuits.   Cut
Establish a code of ethics for Supreme Court justices.
Shrink the Federal Election Commission from six members to five in order to avoid tie votes.   Cut
Require states to mail absentee-ballot applications to all voters.   Cut

Sources: Brennan Center for Justice, Congress.gov, Sludge, Washington Post

There is so much more on these two bills….read the article it will help explain what this is all about.

What Might Democrats’ Voting Rights Bill Entail?

Nothing is more important that a citizen’s right to voice their opinion through their vote.

Any assault on these rights is an assault on the very foundation of our republic.

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MLK, Jr Day

Today we celebrate the life and times of Martin Luther King, Jr a great civil rights activist….as important as that is I remember him more for his opposition to war especially the Vietnam War….a war that I know all too well.

So my post will be about the man and his anti-war thoughts and speeches…..

On July 2, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. stood behind President Lyndon Baines Johnson as the Texan signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although not the first civil rights bill passed by Congress, it was the most comprehensive.

King called the law’s passage “a great moment … something like the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln.” Johnson recognized King’s contributions to the law by gifting him a pen used to sign the historic legislation.

A year later, as Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law, King again joined the president for the occasion.

But by the start of 1967, the two most famous men in America were no longer on speaking terms. In fact, they would not meet again before King fell to an assassin’s bullet on April 4, 1968.

King was foremost a minister who pastored to a local church throughout his career, even while he was doing national civil rights work. And he became concerned that his political ally Johnson was making a grave moral mistake in Vietnam. Johnson quickly escalated American troop presence in Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000 in 1965. And by 1968, more than a half a million troops were stationed in the Southeast Asian nation.

https://theconversation.com/how-the-vietnam-war-pushed-mlk-to-embrace-global-justice-not-only-civil-rights-at-home-169916

I remember his words and after experiencing war first hand I too became an anti-war activist…..

America is not in the habit of remembering King as an anti-war resister. We prefer to hold him up as a peace lover in a vacuum, a pacifist taken out of context from the time and place in which he lived, in the midst of what he deems to be an unjust war in Vietnam. But in his radical 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam,” given before a crowd of 3,000 people crammed into New York City’s Riverside Church, the reverend shored up two years of protests into his most comprehensive statement against the war. He called for a worldwide fellowship that moved beyond tribe, race, class and nation, and he condemned a war that sent young black men 8,000 miles to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not yet found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.

Even as King spoke of the need for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind, he knew that his words would be dismissed as cowardice and weakness. `I am not speaking of some sentimental response,’ he insisted. `I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as a supreme unifying principle of life.’

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php

MLK was a great man and a great civil rights leader but he should also be celebrated for his work as an anti-war activist as well.

Have a great day…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Pope Makes My List

It is no secret that I have little use for organized religion….all of them….and now I can add the Pope to my list that I keep on a roll of toilet paper…..

These so-called pastors need to worry about people’s souls and stay out of their personal lives and decisions.

What got me fired up was something the Pope had to say about people with pets.

Pope Francis isn’t happy with people who forego having children and opt for pets instead. While discussing parenthood at the Vatican, Francis called the idea of being childless “a form of selfishness,” per AFP. “We see that some people do not want to have a child,” said the pontiff. “Sometimes they have one and that’s it, but they have dogs and cats that take the place of children. This may make people laugh but it is a reality.” And in his view, it’s a damaging reality because it amounts to “a denial of fatherhood and motherhood and diminishes us, takes away our humanity.”

It’s not the first time Francis has spoken out on the issue, declaring in 2014 that the idea of couples having a dog or cat instead of a child is “another phenomenon of cultural degradation.” For those who cannot have biological children, Francis encouraged adoption and used the example of Joseph, presented in the Bible as the “foster-father” of Jesus, per Vatican News. “Having a child is always a risk, whether naturally or by adoption,” he said. “But it is more risky not to have them, to negate fatherhood or motherhood, be it real or spiritual.”

Seriously?

He tries to blame pets for the problems the Church is having.

Apparently he worries that fewer children would mean less money flowing into the church coffers.

I do not trust a dude in a funny hat and dress…..I trust my friend MoMo a thousand times more than some priest.

Turn The Page!

Enjoy your Sunday….Be Well and Be Safe….

“lego ergo scribo”

Can You Say Cheese?

I think there is nothing better than a good cheese…..my better half says with enough cheese I could eat a bowling ball…..

My friend Pete, https://beetleypete.com/, and I are always talking about wine and cheese….but how many people know anything at all about cheese other than it is either yellow or white?

Since it is the weekend and I so enjoy giving my readers a little FYI….and what better subject than cheese…..

‘I hate to dictate to people. I don’t like too many rules,” says Iain Mellis, a cheesemonger of 40 years, with cheese shops bearing his name scattered across Scotland. Mellis has spent his life trying to make artisan cheese more accessible; the last thing he wants is to be so prescriptive that people are put off.

Yet the world of good cheese is already mired in misunderstandings that, at best, detract from its enjoyment and, at worst, result in its ruination. Cheese stored incorrectly is easily marred, while the mistaken beliefs that you need red wine, specialist knives or even a cheeseboard to enjoy it only reinforce cheese’s recherché reputation.

As we enter the season of cheese – and the month during which we will buy (and eat) more cheese than in any other – it is worth debunking some of the more commonly held fictions regarding fromage.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/dec/06/fromage-fictions-the-14-biggest-cheese-myths-debunked

My preference is Camembert for soft cheese, sharp cheddar for semi-hard and Manchego for a hard cheese…..a good red wine Malbec or a Granache…..

I also enjoy a good grilled cheese made with Havarti, Cheddar and Provolone…..

What is your favorite cheese?

Have a good weekend….be well and be safe…..

“lego ergo scribo”