Claims And Issues

WHAT THE COUNTRY NEEDS NOW ....

What the nation needs at this time is the answer of Faith:  Stay calm and believe.

          What the country is likely to get this week is anything but.  Anticipate four nights of angry cries for "Bloody Murder."

          Violence is much more likely to be on display just as it was during the American Apocalypse between January 20, 2017 and January 19, 2021.

          We can count on that. 

          Even as we count on ourselves and, far more than that, count on God (whether or not we call God Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or Whatever).  "Nobody's gonna break my Faith."

GO FORWARD!

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"IT'S HARD FOR ME TO IMAGINE HOW THAT WAS ACCIDENTAL ...."

John Lewis had it right when he said that Their Furor was an illegitimate president.  That was John Lewis's reason for not going to the 2017 Inauguration.  He was so right.

          They should not have let Their Furor anywhere near the Oval Office, but they did, and here we are.  Now we are hearing that he was so busy being president that he did not have time to commit crimes, no matter what the evidence shows.

          "He was President of the United States."  "He was running the country."  These are supposed to be reasons that he should not be convicted of his crimes.

          His lawyers argue to a jury that he should not be convicted of a crime, but they do not emphasize his innocence.  Instead, they emphasize that he was the "leader of the free world" at the time and so should not go to prison.

          What the Judge said when he heard the lawyer's improper argument to the jury (so improper that the lawyer did not try to defend it), applies to the entire situation we are in:  "It's hard for me to imagine how that was accidental in any way."

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT JUSTICE ALITO'S BEHAVIOR? PLENTY, ACTUALLY.

Justice Alito has unmistakably told us that he is partial to Their Furor.  Take a leaf from the famous Maya Angelou quote, and when somebody tells you who they are, believe them.  Going a step further, we can respond to his behavior in many ways, and all of the responses suggested here are not only legal but pro-American.

Televise, advertise, and recognize.  This first suggestion involves one thing with may permutations:  Demand that Justice Alito recuse himself from the Furor-related cases such as the immunity case pending in the Supreme Court.

          Officials already have the means to summon newspapers and cable media to their press conferences.  They should hold at least one press conference every day and demand recusal until Justice Alito recuses or refuses.

          Groups can and should hold recusal events and advertise them.  One location might be the steps of the Supreme Court or if armed guards make standing on the steps impossible, stand on the sidewalk.

          Press releases for press conferences and coverage of all these events are open to all.

          Follow Their Furor's lead in getting coverage for your events.  Getting coverage is perhaps the one thing they do well.  Follow their lead.  There is something to learn from them in this way.

Freedom of Information Act.  Send FOIA requests for information to the Supreme Court as to Justice Alito's refusal to recuse specifically, and why and when recusal is indicated generally.

Letters to the Editor, Texts, Email  campaigns.  The Sierra Club and Indivisible and Third Act encourage their members to participate in LTE, Texting, and EMail campaigns for purposes like protecting the environment.  I know because I receive their Email invitations.  Add this cause to your campaigns.

Occupy the Internet.  Let Substack newsletters, websites and blogs carry the message of recusal.  Let them add to the overwhelming sound of recusal.

          In the end, you will feel better about yourself.  So will I.  Where do we sign up?

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

HEARSAY.

Katie Britt is infamously a U.S. Senator, among other things.  In her own words, she describes herself as a housewife.  She has been the subject of much reporting for her performance in trying to rebut President Joe Biden's State of the Union message last week. 

          I want to look at just one part of her performance, when she told a story of a person who, as she told the story, she herself had spoken with.  Ms. Britt said that the victim told her that she, the victim, had been put into sex trafficking by cartels when she was 12 years old.  Ms. Britt at least implied that the victim was an undocumented immigrant.

          Contacted by CNN, the victim herself corrected the story in an appearance of her own on television:  While it was true that she was involved in sex trafficking, it was not at the border and immigration policies had nothing to do with it;  she was repeatedly raped in the brothel where she worked.  The attacks upon her did not happen in the United States; they happened in Mexico.  They did not happen during President Biden's administration; they happened during George W. Bush's administration.

          I have not seen my question addressed in all the reporting since:  Did Katie Britt contact the victim of her story before she told her story?  Ms. Britt says that the victim herself told her this story.  If she did, I wonder why the victim herself would say, as she does,  that using her story for politics was "unfair" if she had been contacted in advance about using her story for politics.  So the likelihood seems to me to be that, at the least,  Katie Britt did not confirm any of this with the victim but that CNN contacted the victim to confirm any of this.

          There seems to be a moral here, and it is this:  It is always a best practice to engage your brain before you engage your mouth.  Here, that would have meant verifying the story before telling it – such as by contacting the purported victim, unless you intend to lie,  and asking her if all the details they told you to say are accurate.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"WHATEVER YOU DID FOR THE LEAST OF MY BROTHERS ..."

Catholic and other religious and nongovernmental organizations are under fire for giving water and food to people who cross the U.S. southern border into the United States.

          It is not clear exactly what the critics are saying, or why they are singling out charitable organizations in their anger, but they seem to be saying that migrants feel encouraged to come to the United States by a little water and bread on this side of the border, miles and months away from their native lands.

          A Member of Congress from Texas has singled out Catholic charitable organizations as the real reason for the influx of migrants.  The Texas attorney general has even sued Annunciation House, one of these organizations, calling it a part of human trafficking because it has given shelter and food to people who have already crossed the border, most of whom have been delivered to it by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol after they were finished applying for asylum.

          "Do you really think that people are uprooting themselves, putting themselves in danger as they undertake a difficult journey just so that they can come to our respite center to take a bath and have a meal or sleep on a mat?,"  Sr. Norma Pimentel asks.

          To answer Sr. Norma's question, of course the people who say these things do not really think that.  They do not really think at all.  They are filled with cruelty, not with thought.

          They are the people who nailed Jesus Christ to the Cross.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"IN THIS TIME OF REPENTANCE, WE CALL OUT FOR MERCY."

This is the First Sunday of Lent.  The Opening Prayer for today's Catholic Mass has this:  "In this time of repentance, we call out for Your mercy." 

        True to form, the men currently in charge of the catholic church condemned having a funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York because the deceased was trans, an atheist, and an activist, take your pick.  (Her family requested the Catholic funeral.)  Reportedly, the archdiocese was okay with the funeral until it was held and the congregants cheered loudly at the service.  They were apparently cheering both for the deceased parishioner and the service.  See Liam Stack, N.Y. Archdiocese Condemns Funeral of Transgender Activist at Cathedral, NEW YORK TIMES online, Feb. 17, 2024. 

        Like clockwork, the powers that be gathered to demonstrate why many, many non-catholics are suspicious, even disdainful of catholic worship.  They frequently accuse the catholic leadership of not being Christian.

        The leaders that judged sexuality rather than pray would have done well in this instance to heed the Irish saying, "Don't give it to them to say about you."

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2024 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved. 

NEGOTIATION 101: KEEP YOUR OPTIONS ON THE TABLE.

Even if you yourself know that you are probably not going to use them, keep your options alive.  If you take them away yourself, you have lost them just as surely as if your adversary took them away.

          The Biden Administration had an option to have a coin available to pay off the debt, a massive, magic coin.  Bitcoin I believe it is called.  The Biden negotiators took this option off the table.  Treasury Secretary Yellen, for example, called it "a gimmick."

          The Biden negotiators still have the option of following the Fourteenth Amendment but, thanks to the Biden people themselves, this option is on life support.  Barely alive as an option now, following the Fourteenth Amendment would be relatively simple stuff.  The Fourteenth Amendment expressly provides that the full faith and credit of the United States shall not be questioned.  That's the Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution.

          Last I looked at Constitutions and statutes, the U.S. Constitution takes precedence over any conflicting statute.  That includes the debt limit statute which is currently being used to take the Biden Administration – and the United States itself – hostage if the demands of the maggots are not met.  So the Constitution should win over the statute, right?

          Well, Biden aides have let it be known that they do not think much of this option.  It would inevitably mean going to Court.  That could take a long time.  And it would ultimately end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, and who has any faith in them or at least in about 6 of them, anyway?  (Sounds like Merrick Garland, doesn't it?)

          Lawyers look at arguments.  Lawyers ask if the argument is good or bad.  I know.  I am one of them.

          I think the Fourteenth Amendment is a pretty good argument.  Actually, it's a very good argument.  This is one argument that I would have been happy to make in Court myself, except that I am not the Attorney General or the Solicitor General or even one of Joe Biden's aides.  Still, surely one or more among them can make a good argument, especially one that is as good as this one.  One that is handed to you.

          Well, it could take a long time.  So what?  People will receive Social Security checks and paychecks in the meantime, and all the other debts of the nation will be paid in the meantime as well.  The Civil War took 4 years.  Some people thought that was a long time.

          But the toil, the strife, the sacrifices, were all worth it in the end.  Certainly that was true for the vast, vast majority of the nation.

          So don't be afraid or very afraid.  Have faith and be hopeful, be very hopeful.  And keep all your remaining options alive, for gosh sake.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

SAY THEIR NAMES. TELL THEIR AGES.

This continues an article posted here earlier on Tuesday, May 9, 2023.

    The last names of the latest mass murderer's murdered victims are Cho, Mendoza, Thatikonda, and Cumana-Rivas.  The murdered victims' reported ages are 32, 26, and 3 years old.  The gunman gunned down women among the men.

    Another victim, one who was wounded but not killed, is 6 years old.

    Still not enough evidence for you to conclude that this man's motive for mass murder was White supremacy?  To conclude that he chose his targets from racism, anti-Semitism, women-hating, and fear of young people?  Reports have it that he intentionally staked out this shopping mall for days.  It is well-known for the diversity of the people who went there.

    Until a White supremacist mass murderer met them there.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

WHAT'S THE MOTIVE?

Why don't the "authorities" tell us the motive?  We just had another mass murder and they won't tell us why?

          Investigative reporting including from outside the United States has disclosed social media posts of the latest killer.  He posted on at least two networks, one of which is in Russia.

          The murderer also wore Nazi regalia and tattoos.  His rants are typical of White supremacists.

          Regardless of the motivation for the "authorities" trying so very hard not to tell us anything about his motive, the killer's motive is clear to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear:  Racism, anti-Semitism, women-hating, and rage against young people.  The fact that the murderer himself was Hispanic simply shows that killing knows no bounds and that White supremacy is not out of bounds for killers like the dead murderer in Texas.  Even some Jews became concentration camp guards to appease the Nazi SS (not very successfully, it should be noted; see the writings of Viktor Frankel and Eli Wiesel and others).

          Need more evidence for this man's motives to murder?  Look at his victims.  To be continued ….

Please read the disclaimer.  ©Dennis J. Wall 2023.  All rights reserved.

JIM JORDAN WRESTLES OHIO CRIME, FLEES TO SAFETY IN NYC.

Jim Jordan (R-OH) fled the high crime rate of Ohio for the safety of New York City's much lower crime rate.

Remember that every time you see or hear this man.

Especially whenever you see or hear him delivering speeches about crime.

Or about anything else, for that matter.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

CONTINUE TO BE CONFIDENT. THEY'RE PROVING THE CASE FOR US.

This follows the article posted here about the Wisconsin Supreme Court election on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, TODAY WISCONSIN ELECTS A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE.

I hesitate to say "I told you so," but I told you so.

Now there are reports circulating that a Wisconsin State Senate race has resulted in a "supermajority" of maggots in the Wisconsin State Senate.  They couldn't have done it without gerrymandering.  The way things were going in Wisconsin, I kind of thought that the maggots already had a supermajority in the entire Wisconsin Legislature.

Now the "afraid, be very afraid" crowd is speculating that this new supermajority in the Wisconsin Senate may impeach one or four of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices.  Let them try.

Let's see how that plays out.  One thing is already certain:  If they try stuff like that, they will be continuing to prove the case for us -- including for the good people of Wisconsin -- exactly why maggots are not good.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF SUNSHINE WEEK IN FLORIDA!

This is the opening day of Sunshine Week in Florida!  (No, not the Opening Day of Baseball.  Alas, that is a little while off yet.)

This is a celebration of what should be Government in the Sunshine!  So let's begin with a story from Orlando's Channel 6, just click this link or copy it and paste it into your browser:

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/politics/2023/03/12/as-sunshine-week-begins-floridas-attorney-general-silent-about-desantis-public-record-delays/?breaking_news=5517&utm_content=30812683&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Breaking%20News%20Alert&utm_term=wkmg_breaking

If you have any trouble reading the Channel 6 story, the headline from Channel 6 is As ‘Sunshine Week’ begins, Florida’s attorney general silent about DeSantis public record delays.  Florida's current attorney general is named Ashley Moody.  She said something that she did not have to say.  The Channel 6 story is all about what Ms. Moody did not have to say, but she did say, and she has not done what she said.

According to the Channel 6 news report, Ms. Moody has said that she will safeguard Florida's pioneering Open Record Laws.  However, she hasn't done that, if you read the report.

Ms. Moody, why not?  Unburden yourself and follow the law.  A good place to do that is with the Open Records Act statutes a/k/a the Sunshine Laws.  A good time to start is now.

Thank you.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"THE TRUTH IS …" PART TWO. THE SHORTER PART.

Besides the copier I wrote about in Part One, The Longer Part, I also took a very heavy bookcase apart and took the frame to the street.  When I write "frame," I mean the enclosed top and bottom, left side and right side, of a rectangle that stood as tall as a person, made of oak or oak particle wood, and with the middle shelf unremovable and holding what I call the frame together.

It weighed a couple of hundred pounds.

With the use of a dolly, I got it out to the end of my driveway, which was my goal and the bookshelf's destination for special pickup by Seminole County's garbage and waste collection service.

That is where the bookcase fell off the dolly and onto the grass.

I thought that it might move easily across the grass when I tried to push it the few feet that were left to get it into its position, but I was wrong.  The bookcase was reluctant to budge even a few inches across the grass.  I am almost embarrassed to write this, but the truth is that at that exact moment, a pickup trucked pulled up into the driveway of a house across the street.

I had never seen the driver before.  I have not seen him since.  He must have seen me, though, in my struggle with the bookcase on the grass that resisted my best attempts to move it.  He got out of the cab of his pickup truck and advanced towards me.  This stranger's first words to me were "Do you need help?"

I did not learn his name, but he helped me lift that bookcase to the concrete of my driveway where it rested until it was eventually taken away by them that take away bookcases that you put out on your driveway.

This is not a long story.  We are almost at the end already.  But it is a good story, by which I mean a story of good.  The truth is, stories of good do not have to be long.   They just have to be.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"THE TRUTH IS …" PART ONE, THE LONGER PART.

"THE TRUTH IS …"  PART ONE, THE FIRST PART.

by

Dennis J. Wall

The truth is that I was at a dead end.  I had reached the end of my rope.  I had run out of ways that I could take care of this alone.  All those things.

You have to understand that I have spent a lifetime taking care of things, most of the time alone.  "If I don't do it, it doesn't get done."  I bought a coffee cup with that saying on it.  It fit me to a "t".

This doesn't mean that I have not tried to work with other people. On the contrary, I have.  My greatest success rate in accomplishing anything in life, however, has almost always been to get it done myself, and with no excuses, thank you very much.

Oh, this is not the reflection of a narcissist for gosh sake.  I have failed.  Many times.  But I have succeeded many more times.  And either way, failure or success, I have generally had myself to see as the cause whenever human actions were the likely cause.

Which brings me to the last week of December, 2022.  Seventeen years ago I got cancer.  At the same time, my office lease was up at a building where I had my office for sixteen years, as it turned out.  I moved to a home office.  It is a converted shed that was on my property already; my wife oversaw the renovation.  I was too sick to contribute much time or effort, or I would have helped her.  As it was, she oversaw the renovation of a building that did not even leak for the better part of the next seventeen years.

Until Hurricane Ian came on September 28, 2022, that is.  Then The Shop (as I called it, and call it still) leaked.  Water ran across the floor.  Long story short, I cleaned up the mess.  It was then I realized that I had to get rid of some things as I began plans to reorganize The Shop.

The truth is that long before Ian arrived, I had often thought about reorganizing things.  The truth is that I was very comfortable turning over and going back to sleep, so to speak.  No sooner did I have those thoughts about reorganizing The Shop and moving things around and getting rid of things, then I turned my thoughts to other things that I found much more pleasant to ponder.

One of the bigger obstacles, if not the biggest obstacle, was a very large photocopier.  It had a large paper feeder and what I recently found out is called a "finisher" by manufacturers but which we in my office called a collator.  The feeder and the finisher were on wheels, one 70 pounds and the other 50 pounds according to the manufacturer's specs.  I could get them out to the curb for a special pickup by Seminole County garbage and waste collection.

The truth is, the  copier itself was a different story.  Although it sat on a cabinet that has wheels, the copier weighs 220 pounds.  At one point, I could have picked it up by myself (or at least I think so), but not now.  The stipulation by the Seminole County garbage and waste collection is that two people have to be able to pick the object up.

My neighbor must have heard the clatter as I first wheeled out the feeder, and then the finisher for pickup.  She came across our respective yards and asked if I needed help.  I said "no" as to lifting the copier, and asked for her ideas, because I would feel really bad if she hurt herself, and told her so.  She asked if she could see the copier.

In The Shop, I showed her the four handles that I had discovered were built in to the copier. I had spent hours trying to figure out why there were four little black rubber tips, two each on opposing sides of the machine.  The rubber tips were attached to levers that pulled straight out.  Once I eliminated the possibility that these levers had anything to do with screwing the machine into the cabinet it sat on, I recognized them as handles.  The copier  was obviously designed from the beginning for two people to lift.  But I had my doubts that I was any longer in a position to lift something that weighs 220 pounds, while I did not have any doubt that I did not want my neighbor to hurt herself trying.  (Even though she is stronger than I am, I did not want anyone to hurt themselves trying to lift the thing.)

She suggested we try to lift it, just to see if we could, using the handles.  We could.  We proved my theory that these were handles we were using, and that the copier lifted straight up and off the cabinet (which I wanted to keep if I could).

We put the copier straight back down on the cabinet.  That done, my neighbor said that she has a dolly on four wheels that, if we lifted the copier onto it, I could keep the cabinet and we could wheel the whole assembly down to the curb for pickup, so long as the garbage people did not take the dolly.

That gave me an idea.  With her help, we could wheel the copier down to the curb sitting on the cabinet which it sat on already.  The cabinet has wheels, after all.  Once at the curb, we would leave it to the two garbage people to lift the copier.  We would ask them to leave the cabinet.  She agreed.

And that is what we did.  The truth is, we did it together.

Now that may seem like a natural place to end this story, but the truth is that I have another end in mind.  Long before the copier reached the curb, I was at a loss as to how to get it there, and even whether it would be worthwhile to get it there if, once it was there, two people could not lift it after all such as if it was still attached to the cabinet somehow.

To return to the beginning of this story here at the end, I was at the end of my rope.  I had hit a wall (no pun intended) as far as my own abilities would take me solo.  It was then that, through no fault of my own and with me not even suspecting that it was about to happen, my neighbor appeared.  She was the previously unknown answer to my prayer that somehow, I could get this copier down to the street where it could be hauled away.

The truth is, the end of this story is not complicated.  To many people, including some people who share our social circles, the end will even seem trite.  But the truth is that we are simply not in control of everything.  We will, all of us, reach the end of our rope, run into a wall, run out of ways to do things strictly by ourselves alone.  All those things.

So we perhaps we had better realize that.  For people like me, that involves shedding years of thinking otherwise.  My experience in the last week of December, 2022 that I have described in this true story is not the only opportunity I have had for this kind of enlightenment.  But it is the most recent and it is one of the more unexpected opportunities I have ever had to realize that Sinn Fein, "Ourselves Alone," is best left as the name of a political party in Ireland.  A good,  secular way to express the thought  as a behavioral idea or way of life, was given to us by The Beatles back in the day:  "I get by with a little help from my friends."

Another way of expressing the lesson I took away from my experience with a copier and a neighbor in the last week of the year, is the same sort of story that Linus told Charlie Brown.  "And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

I RESPECT PEOPLE WHO …

• go the extra mile.
• give to anyone who begs from you.
• do not turn their back on anyone who wishes to borrow from you.

(See MT 5:41-42)

I try to do these things.  I want to do them more often.  I respect people who do, not just talk.

Please read the disclaimer. This blog article  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"The Court denied their request to be friends of court."

(Peter Ringenberg / University of Notre Dame)

On August 30, 2022, seven "former federal prosecutors and state and federal governmental officials who served in Republican administrations," including former Massachusetts and New Jersey Governors William F. Weld and Christine Todd Whitman, filed their motion to appear as friends of the court and brief the unique issues in that case:  Download Trump v. United States Doc. No. 41 Motion to File Amicus Brief filed August 30 2022 (S.D. Fla. No. 9.22-cv-81294-AMC).

As required, they contacted both parties before they filed their motion:  "Defendant consents to the Motion and Plaintiff opposes the Motion."

On September 6, 2022 in an unwritten order the Court denied their request to appear as friends of the court.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

STAND BY OUR FBI AGENTS (AND OUR JUDGES) TODAY.

Here's a blowback to the noise attacking the FBI and Federal Judges after the search warrant was executed at Mar-A-Lago:   Senators and Representatives go and have your picture taken with FBI Agents to show your support.  To show that you have their backs.

You probably will have a tougher time doing this with judges, so as for judges, say supportive things.  Things like it is madness and evil to threaten federal judges, any judges.  Any time, for anything, anywhere.

You say there are no Members of Congress in Washington, D.C., they are all on August Recess right now?  They can still get the media attention they so clearly crave.  Then have them go to their local FBI Office and stand in the doorway and have their picture taken with FBI Agents to show that they have the back of FBI Agents.

You say that very few Republicans who hold office in Washington, D.C. will stand with FBI Agents right now?  Liz Cheney might; Adam Kinzinger might, others might as well.  Then tell Democrats to stand with FBI Agents and have their pictures taken showing that they support our FBI Agents right now.

Do something positive.  Make a contribution to our country.  Do good.  Now that's what I call pushback against the madness and the evil.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE; NOTRE DAME, VATICAN II, UNIVERSAL APPEAL.

This is a personal footnote to FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY WERE IN KANSAS THIS WEEK, an article I published here last Saturday.

I was born and raised a Catholic when Vatican II came of age.  The Church grew then.  It added more than numbers, although it certainly did that.  The Church also added inclusivity, the quality of reaching out to include one's neighbors.  Faith, Hope, and Charity.  The last virtue is often called "Love."  That is what Vatican II is responsible for, what it inspired people seeking God to do as well as to say.

I went to Notre Dame when the Reverend Theodore Hesburgh was the President of the University.  We called him "Ted the Head."  Father Hesburgh was also the Chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, until he resigned to protest the activities of President Richard Nixon.

During my time as a student at Notre Dame, there were was a lot of discussion about Faith as you might expect.  Notre Dame students, faculty, and administration not only talked about their Faith, they tried to live it.  That gave everyone Hope.

There were many campaigns for Charity, running from raising funds for Biafra (a breakaway republic in Africa that no longer exists) to raising funds for the Tom Dooley Foundation (which delivered medicine and provided doctors in Southeast Asia, until the foundation was eliminated by those who took power later).

In my first article with FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY in the title, I mentioned the activities of the so-called Catholic Church in Kansas City.  They campaigned this Summer to make everyone believe what they believe, which is not at all the kind of campaign that real Catholics ever waged.  To begin with, the Kansas City campaign was not a campaign for Charity.   What's more, it was not "universal" and so by definition it was not "Catholic," which means "universal."

But let's focus just on the money.  Following the money means following at least $2,450,000.00 or $2.45 Million Dollars.  That is the amount that the Archdiocese of Kansas City spent on a political campaign to pass an amendment to the Kansas State Constitution so as to permit the Kansas State Legislature to ban abortion for anyone and everyone in Kansas.

That $2,450,000.00 did not come from God.  It was donated by thousands of parishioners in the pews.  It was not the Archdiocese's money to spend on a political campaign.  Especially a campaign that turned God into Big Brother.

The contribution of $2.45 Million would have gone a long way to support adoption services.  That alone would be a huge encouragement to mothers to decide to bring babies to term  instead of having an abortion.  But of course, then there would have been no guarantee that women would be absolutely prohibited from making their own decisions.

The millions of dollars spent by the Archdiocese of Kansas City on a political campaign could have been spent to support healthcare of mothers and babies and small children in Kansas City and anywhere in Kansas for that matter.  The millions should have been spent for those purposes, or perhaps even to buy diapers and formula, and in a different age, Catholics' money would have been spent on Charity.

Where your money is, there will your heart be also, the Bible says.  And speaking once more of all that money taken from the faithful Catholics of the Kansas City Archdiocese, it should be paid back.  That would be the Christian thing to do.

Let us Hope for Charity as our Faith would have us do.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY WERE IN KANSAS THIS WEEK.

Earlier this week, the people of Kansas rejected an attempted coup of their State Constitution.  In the process, they were gracious hosts to Faith, Hope, and Charity.

The people rejected a convoluted, devious scheme to overturn the Kansas Constitution that would take the right out of their own hands to decide whether to have children or not, and award that decision to the politicians in the Kansas Legislature.  For example, the election was scheduled by the Legislature for primary elections which are not usually well-attended.  (The election turnout  this year broke records.)  The amendment was written in language that was so convoluted very few people could understand it.  (An overwhelming majority voted "NO" anyway).  The people of Kansas voted overwhelmingly to keep the right to abortion a private right of each person to decide, and to reject the forced-birth crowd in the Capitol.

In contrast to the Kansas citizens' open display of Faith, Hope, and Charity, the Kansas City Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church contributed more than 200 times the amount contributed by anyone else to promoting this amendment.  According to a report stamped filed on July 18, 2022 with the Kansas  Governmental Ethics Commission, the Kansas City Archdiocese contributed $2,450,,000.00 in cash and another $16,000+ in what it called "in-kind contributions" to the failed campaign to change the Kansas Constitution.  The other nearest contributors gave $5,000.00 in cash, more than 200 times less.

Some reports put the Archdiocese's contribution at $2.45 Million, without counting the "in-kind contributions."  See, e.g., Jack Jenkins, Catholic Bishops Spent Big On Kansas Abortion Vote – And Maybe Lost Bigger, Washington Post online, August 5, 2022.

Parenthetically, the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission report also lists the expenditures of that campaign as well as the contributions.  The campaign spent $350,000.00 of the contributors' donations to a business in Florida for "canvassers."  The Florida business lists Carter Page as one of its Advisors.

Returning to Kansas, the head of the Kansas City Archdiocese is a man named Joseph Naumann.  Archbishop Naumann is famous for denying Communion to Catholic office-holders who, while perhaps personally opposed to abortion, still support everyone else's right to choose, which is what the Kansas Constitution does.

Do you think that Naumann will deny Communion now to everyone who voted "NO" against the amendment scheme?

Will he try to deny Communion to the two nuns who published a letter on July 27 in The Kansas City Star opposing the amendment scheme?  To Many Catholics, Social Justice Demands a No Vote  on Kansas  Constitution Amendment / It's About Control.  I understand that one of the nuns is a co-founder of Network, the Catholic Lobby for Justice.

More to the point, why did Archbishop Naumann spend Millions of Dollars raised from the Catholic faithful of the Kansas City Archdiocese to take away a constitutional right?  The money he spent was not his money, you know.  It was given by the people in the pews.  Given the size of the vote, I doubt that many of them intended their money to support the scheme.

If Archbishop Naumann was going to spend their  money, wouldn't it have been much better to spend that kind of money to assist mothers who bring children to term by supporting adoption services?

Or by supporting healthcare of mothers and babies and small children in Kansas City and anywhere in Kansas for that matter?

 Or in support of parental leave?

Or maybe even to buy diapers and formula?

Where your money is, there will your heart be also, the Bible says.  The people of Kansas put their money where their mouth is, this week:  Their vote invited Faith, Hope, and Charity to pull up a chair in Kansas and sit awhile.

Archbishop Naumann's choices, on the other hand, are failures.  Speaking of all that money taken from the faithful Catholics of the Kansas City Archdiocese, it should be paid back.  That would be the Christian thing to do.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

VENUS IN MY BACKYARD AUGUST 4, 2022

Venus in my backyard, August 4, 2022.

Venus in my backyard August 4, 2022 (Dennis Wall)

 

What a lot of wonder there is in creation, if we let it.

JOE MANCHIN IS TSOURIS.

Joe Manchin is bad news.  Tell Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer.

Actually, Joe Biden may already know.  Joe Manchin reneged on his earlier promise to support the Build Back Better Act, then didn't.  At the last minute after months of discussions with Biden, Manchin didn't support the Build Back Better Act, he voted against it.

That may be why Joe Biden left it to Chuck Schumer to negotiate with Joe Manchin this time. This time, Manchin promised to support legislation that would protect the environment but then opposed the legislation at the last minute.  Again.

I am not going to call Joe Manchin names or call him a bad person, but it's clear that he moves and breathes and works in bad faith.

Mom told you to be careful of people who will not keep their word, and when she tried to educate you with the saying, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me," she had someone like Joe Manchin in mind.

I think Nancy Pelosi already knows that, 'cause she is the only Democrat in Washington, D.C. who has not tried to compromise with Manchin.  Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer could learn a lot, if they haven't already.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

P.S. TO LEAVING A BUSINESS REVIEW ON GOOGLE MAPS.

Here's something I just discovered myself, and I am passing it on to you now:  Not every business entertains reviews on Google Maps.   I found that the more I searched businesses on Google Maps to leave reviews, the more businesses I often found that just will not allow anyone to leave a review.

So don't be distressed if you want to leave a review for a certain business, and that business won't let you.  There are plenty of businesses to make the point with reviews on Google Maps.

Keep on reviewing!  Leaving a review on a business on Google Maps is a good nonviolent way to resist, so:  Resist with a review!

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

Godspeed, Anita

Anita P. passed away.  Tonight I attended her wake via Zoom.  My wife and I.  We are both in risk to COVID, so we attended by Zoom.  We are both very grateful that we could attend.

There were slide shows of pictures like you have at lots of wakes these days.  There were stories from people who knew Anita, who loved Anita, and these were special, like her.

Anita made everyone she came in contact with feel special, too.  You did not escape her attention even in a crowded room.  Her concern was that you were enjoying yourself, and it seemed like that was necessary for her to enjoy herself, namely, that you were comfortable and happy.  She made your enjoyment a part of her own ability to enjoy a room, a place, a situation.  She made being sensitive to other people's needs a part of her own needs as well.

She will be missed, but I can honestly say that I do not miss her like you miss someone that you know has left.  To me, Anita is alive.  I hope that to me, Anita will always be alive for as long as I myself am alive.

Godspeed, Anita.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

 

 

MOTHERS' DAY MESSAGE To: House leadership @SpeakerPelosi @LeaderHoyer @WhipClyburn

If Democrats intend to lead the fight for reproductive freedom and privacy rights, you can’t continue to support conservative, anti-choice Democrats like Henry Cuellar. Rescind your endorsement today!

Thank you.

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OH, BUT YES, WE CAN. OH, THE SACRIFICES WE MAKE.

I just read an obituary about a person who taught high school biology at Bellport High School, a high school on Long Island not far from the high school I attended.  If I had lived closer to that school district, he might have even taught me high school biology.  We played Bellport in football; I do not recall whether they were good or not, but I think that they were fair to middling.

The person's name is Art Cooley.  The obituary says that he lived in East Patchogue in the fall of 1965, when my high school freshman year began.  I have been to Patchogue.  It was not the likeliest place for a miracle.

But in the fall of 1965, Mr. Cooley and others began to organize what eventually became the Environmental Defense Fund.  Their small group of friends shared concerns about the use of DDT on Long Island at first.  As time went on, they expanded to reach the entire nation.  Mr. Cooley's obituary says that the EDF "reported $221 million in support and revenue in its 2020 fiscal year."  DDT, on the other hand, is now banned across the entire nation. 

The obituary reports, without amplification, that Mr. Cooley's marriage ended in divorce.  We have no way of knowing, at least from this obituary of course, but you have to wonder if the end of Art Cooley's marriage was one of the costs of the miracle that started with friends gathering together and, years later, ended up with the Environmental Defense Fund.

Rest in peace, Mr. Cooley.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

NO McGAHN TESTIMONY IN PUBLIC. ANOTHER BAD DEAL.

 

William Barr.  (Alexander Drago/Reuters)

They caved.  So long as the House Judiciary Committee remains under the current management, we will get deals like this.  The people currently in charge of the Judiciary Committee have proven over and over again that they either incapable of negotiating or that they are unwilling to negotiate, one thing or the other.  This deal is one more example of what they cannot accomplish.

          This deal was about Don McGahn's subpoenaed testimony.  McGahn isn't even a party to the deal between the Judiciary Committee and "the Executive Branch."  Use your imagination to figure out who "the Executive Branch" is, I guess.

          They agreed, without McGahn, that McGahn would obey the subpoena, that he would show up to testify, but that the public cannot hear his testimony.

          Forgive me, but wasn't the whole point that McGahn would testify in public?

          Such a deal.  Next, a person will play the role that Bill Barr played in the stage play about the Mueller Report:   Someone will say that they have read McGahn's nonpublic testimony and that it exonerates everyone, that for example there was no "collusion" (whatever that was).

          That was so good, they thought, that they had to do it again.

          As I said, so long as the House Judiciary Committee is chaired by the same chair that chaired the Judiciary Committee back in the day, expect more of the same and nothing different.  Clearly, we can expect nothing at all from this crew.

          Read the deal for yourself here:  Download Mcgahn-agreement-2021-05-12 IN HOUSE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY v. McGAHN D.C. CIR. APPEAL.  It is an attachment to the pleading filed by the Department of Justice.  Only lawyers from the Department of Justice filed it.  DOJ was apparently so happy with the deal that they alone could file it.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE MORAL COMPASS SHE BROUGHT WITH HER.

What's this I'm hearing about Amy C. Barrett lately?

Notre Dame.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

          As an alumnus of Notre Dame, I have been reading for months how proud many people are of her at Notre Dame, our shared alma mater.  Alumni and student publications are filled with stories of how principled she is, how much integrity she has, and how her Catholic faith has inspired righteousness in her.

          I have seen the photos of her and her family enjoying the celebration of her nomination at the White House.  I put it down to obvious satisfaction at a life's goal accomplished, being nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, and this after only a couple of years as a judge on any court anywhere else.  This distracted me from whose hands she accepted her nomination, a person as far from righteousness and principle as you can get.

         Still, there is an argument that even saints sometimes make deals with the devil for heavenly goals.  (I have never bought that argument, but it is there.  I always thought of it more as "If you lie down with dogs, you  get up with fleas.")

         Now, after six months on the Supreme Court bench, I hear that she has refused to say whether or not she will recuse herself from cases involving a group of Kochs that gave $1 Million to a "national campaign" to win the votes she already had at the time in the U.S. Senate and so be confirmed.

         Six months.  Making the decision to avoid even the appearance of impropriety is one of the first duties of a judge.  More than that, it is a decision that principled people of integrity and faith find easy to make.

         Six months.  Not enough time to learn cynicism on the job or anything like that.  After six months, you make your decisions using the moral compass that you came in with.  The Acts of the Apostles contains many reports displaying the effects that early Christians had on others by the  examples which Christians openly gave of their principled integrity and acts driven by their faith.  "See how they love one another," people said.  Their goodness was seen by other people.

         No-one was impressed by hearing them talk about how good they are, if they ever did just talk instead of act.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

LET THEM KNOW THEY ARE PLAYING HARDBALL. THIS ISN'T SLOW-PITCH.

(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Let the objectors know that they have chosen to play hardball.  This is not slow-pitch softball.

Since they choose to make objections and challenges, fine.  Challenge them back.

The best defense is an offense whether in war, in football, or in politics.

Challenge Tommy Tuberville of Alabama who also stood for election in 2020.  Oh, you say, that was an election to the U.S. Senate and January 6th is only about the presidential electors?  Okay, then Democrats challenge the certification of presidential electors from Alabama.

Then after starting with the letter "A," challenge the certification of electors from every other State which voted for anyone other than Biden-Harris.  Object to certifying electors from each and every one of those States.

If the objectors in the Senate and House are going to make their challenges, let them know that they have opened up everything to objections and challenges including the elections that elected or re-elected them.

There is no reason to let them have the inevitable microphones to themselves.  There is no good reason to let them hog the TV coverage that is coming, either.  Share the air time.  Give the corporate media their sound bites and videos.

And for good measure, remind the people of this country every chance you get that these federal challengers, these federal objectors in the Senate and the House, are attacking democracy itself.  They are trying to have the federal government tell the States what to do.  They want the federal government to overturn the will of the voters in America.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.  Make them pay a price for what they themselves have chosen.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

HAPPIEST HOLIDAY NEWS: NOT ONE, TWO VACCINES & NEW ADMINISTRATION!

(Louis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

The good news is in the title of this article.  Happy Holidays to All, and to All a Happy New Year every day throughout the year to come in 2021!

A SAD DRAMA, IN TWO ACTS.

A SAD DRAMA, IN TWO ACTS.

by

Dennis Wall.

A tale to be told now.  In honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Rhett Cavendish was once a man who looked good in black.  Black clothes mostly hid his dark side.

           Rhett had talents even as a teenager.  He already knew that he had more to say than anyone else in the nation.

           He was frustrated that his hidden talents were hidden.  He had so much to offer and audiences missed out on his talent.  One day he had enough.  He decided to audition for the Supremes.

           With the memory of his friends Squiggy, and the Turtle, and the butterball Nino, he went to his audition.  Not Squiggy, or the Turtle, or chubby Nino were there, none of them were, but Rhett told the talent scouts what they would say if they were there.  For some reason, Rhett auditioned without wearing black.

           And without getting into the rumors about Rhett here, there was talk.  A lot of talk.  It was all past.  There was always a past.

           The head of Rhett's audition was a person named Linseed Keebler.  Linseed controlled the proceedings.  Linseed confronted the past that Rhett brought into the room by throwing a hissy fit.  That distracted everyone from Rhett's past, real or denied.

           The next day, still not wearing black and as if on cue, Rhett too threw a seemingly sudden unplanned hissy fit.  Just as he had planned, he made it the centerpiece of his performance at his audition for the Supremes. 

           The other contestants were intimidated.  They had never seen old people throw a hissy fit before.  Plus it was all so sudden and to them seemingly unscripted.  It overwhelmed their senses, and not in a good way.

           Rhett's performance did not get him any votes.  Linseed Keebler had already lined up all the votes that Rhett needed anyway.  Rhett was declared the winner of the talent competition.

           He was on his way to the Supremes.   He would be heard from again soon.

           Rhett Cavendish was once a man who looked good in black.  Black clothes used to hide his dark side.

Next:  The Second Act, the untrue story of Ruth and Boaz, starring Mitch from Moscow, and the Occupant.  Followed by The End.  That's what they want you to think.

©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.