Category: Quotes

Mom Said

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MOM SAID

Sometimes You Just Gotta Smile

“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today-or tomorrow.“

                             Will Rogers and Margaret Williams

 

My Mom, Margaret Helen Brown (Ruffe, Williams 9/22/1909-9/22/1988), said a lot of really wise and often funny things. So, this morning as I’m scanning the internet for a special quote I saw this from Will Rogers, “Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” Wow, I think what my Mom said was an improvement on Will Rogers. She would often say, “Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today- or tomorrow.” I like it; I hope you do to.

 

You are the Revolution

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You are the Revolution

You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”                                Ursula K. LeGuin

                                         

The Quirk in the Kirk Memorial

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The Quirk in the Kirk Memorial

The Quirk in the Kirk Memorial

By Vajra Ma  (Author of From a Hidden Stream)

Charlie Kirk was lauded in his memorial as an exemplary Christian. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles summed the three pillars of his work: Love God, your family, and your country. Just like Jesus said, love God. Just like Jesus said–oh, wait…

Jesus never said love your family. He never said love your country. Jesus said “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”  This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  (Matthew 22:40) Make no mistake, it was Ericka Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, who evoked the actual spirit and teachings of Jesus when she called for forgiveness of the assassin, and with sincerity did herself forgive him.

Since when does following Jesus mean less than that? When did our neighbor get replaced with family and country? Who does that serve? Today’s Christian National politics most likely, certainly not a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-skin toned country.

Who was the centerpiece of Charlie Kirk’s memorial? Who had the long, grand, sparkler dazzling, culminating musical entrance? Who had talk time four times longer than any other speaker? It was Donald Trump.

“Love your neighbor as yourself”. It seems that does not include Trump’s immigrants, or the Democrats he attacks as the “enemy within,” whose “rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out”?  Does it include “The rhetoric, lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris [which have…] taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust”?​ Should it include Democrats who are “…Marxists and communists and fascists, and they’re sick. We have China, we have Russia, we have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are, you know, the Pelosis’ these people, they’re so sick and they’re so evil.”

Donald Trump, the man who spouts this heated rhetoric got top billing and speech time at Charlie Kirk’s memorial. Trump literally said in his euology that unlike Kirk, “I hate my opponents!” His open, unvarnished hatred was well received by the crowd. Trump is adored by Kirk’s followers. Those who praise Kirk praise Trump.

So much for love your neighbor.

 

Worker’s Over Billionaires Protest

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Worker’s Over Billionaires Protest

Worker’s Over Billionaires Protest

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”                                                                                                                                                  

By David L. Shadrick

This was our fourth protest in a season of protests. As usual Darlene, Vajra, John, and myself parked ourselves on our favorite bench under our favorite shade tree on 6th Street, Grants Pass, Oregon, kitty corner from the county courthouse. The turnout for the Worker’s over Billionaires rally was good, but not great.

I can also report that the opposition turnout, in deep red southern Oregon, was close to microscopic. I counted two rabid Trumpers in the crowd; one flipped me off and the other one, a jogger, stopped in front of my wheelchair and called me a “horrible person” and then accelerated his pace and headed to the safety of 7th street. Other than than those two events things were cool. We got lots of positive comments on our signs, in fact several folks stopped to take a selfie with me.

INDIVISIBLE came through with a new stereo system for our rally. It was cool being able to actually hear the speakers and some great music.  John and Vajra wandered through the crowd checking things out; they told us about a group way up on the other side of the street out of our field of vision that were causing a ruckus. It seems they wanted to protest FOR pedophilia. Holy smokes, I can see why that might cause a fight or two. I suspect they were just a bunch of Trump supporters being A-holes, trying to stir up some shit.

Despite the smaller size of the Labor Day protest in our little town, I will admit that in Grants Pass it was very hot and there were a lot of folks out of town for the last week-end get-away before school started.  With that said, we need to increase the pressure on Trump and his allies. We need to tell ‘ol Donnie Boy we are not going to stand for his masked thugs disappearing people from American streets, putting billionaires on the government dole when poor Americans are having health care and even food benefits snatched away. This isn’t ‘effin Russia, yet.

If these protests are going to have the intended impact they need to be getting bigger and bigger not smaller.  In my mind, turnout is imperative to keeping Trump’s attention. We can’t weaken or tire now; we have another 3 and a 1/2 years of  the Trump despot show. We can’t give in, give up or surrender to this lawless president and his corrupt allies; our freedom is literally at stake.

**Quote by Edmund Burke

Why We Were Better Ridin’ With Biden

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Why We Were Better Ridin’ With Biden

Why We Were Better Ridin’ With Biden

Editor: Well, if we wanted chaos, stupidity, and cruelty we’ve got it, in spades. All those folks who didn’t get enough of Trump the first time around and couldn’t wait to get his sick, narcissistic ass back in the White House are paying the price now, right along with the rest of us. And the folks who didn’t vote because they were taking some effin’ high road, shame on you. In a democracy there isn’t a lot to do, other than look at candidates and choose those candidates whose philosophy and policies come closest to match your individual hopes and desires; and that magic happens at the ballot box.   Cate and I agree about a lot of things and her thoughts on Joe Biden coincide with mine.  No one is perfect, but some are a lot more perfect than others; and yes I am comparing Joe Biden at his worst to Donald Trump at his best.  DSM

 

By Cate Rees-Hessel and D.S. Mitchell

  1. Joe Biden is a man of integrity, whose life long career of public service is still in effect – he’s still an advocate for the American people, despite dealing with cancer. Donald Trump has never advocated for anyone but himself.
  2. President Biden is a dedicated husband and father, not a cheating adulterer that once claimed he’d like to date his own daughter.
  3. Joe had, despite COVID-19 chauffeured the economy, to a place that perhaps still needed a bit of tweeking but was showing tremendous growth and high employment.  There were no insane, unnecessary, ill-advised tariffs that are in fact a direct tax on the American consumer.
  4. Joe Biden nor any other Democrat would never have even suggested such devastation, trauma, and cruelty as Trump’s Big Bad Bill. That bill is going to deliver big cuts to the social safety net, add trillions to the deficit and just incidentally give the richest 1% a huge tax cut.
  5. Joe capped insulin at $35 monthly, a real blessing for seniors; which Trump is talking about rescinding Joe’s policy so Donald can “help” the drug companies.
  6. Joe supported health insurance for all, while Trump policies are cutting Obama Care, Medicaid and Medicare. A healthy populace is a good thing for a country, and pays back in so many unimagined ways.
  7. Joe gave us a beautiful, progressive black woman of dignity and intelligence as our VP; Trump’s VP pick spends time courting White Supremacists & Neo-Nazi’s in Germany and other European capitals.
  8. Joe and the Democrats gave this country its first significant infrastructure bill in 70 years. Fixing roads, and bridges, bringing Wi-Wi to rural America while Trump tries to claw back promised federal money for many promised projects and offering nothing more than putrid pork in return.
  9. Joe Biden and his team gave us all time low unemployment, while Donnie Doodle’s employment reports are so bad he has to fire the civil servant giving the information; because of course like everything else he doesn’t like, “it’s a hoax or fake news.”
  10. Joe Biden was the savvy and supportive VP to our first black President, Barack Obama – they worked together beautifully. Donald Trump on the other hand is trying to intimidate and fight with duly elected black mayors and governors across the country. Racism is alive and well under Daddy Don.
  11. Joe gave us a classy First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden – not Donald’s immigrant wife with questionable legal status and a staple in her navel and a naked centerfold archived somewhere.
  12. Joe Biden treasures the privacy of the American people while Donnie Felon thought having Elon Musk chainsaw through the government was a good idea. What is the plan for all that information? Whatever it is, Joe Biden would never have been part of it.
  13. Joe Biden doesn’t intentionally go looking for a fight, while Trump is fighting with someone all the time. Sometimes just because he’s an ass and stupid as a trout and other times because he needs some nonsense vibrating the airways so he can hide, distract and deceive.
  14. Joe Biden used his time to get work done, not ride around in a golf cart demanding we change the  Gulf of Mexico, to the “Gulf of America,” “annex Canada as our 51st state,” or demand the “takeover of Greenland.”
  15. Joe Biden was not touring the world on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane or visiting Epstein Island. However, Donald Trump was flying around acting the big shot with old buddy  Jeff, but now he ‘barely knew him.’
  16. President Biden was an attorney who has a head for public administration and business, not a seven-time bankrupt reality show idiot who threatened his former school with big lawsuits if his grades were ever released.
  17. Joe Biden is a Democrat. Trump is head of some coalition faction that used to  proclaim to be Republicans but are now full MAGA and are likely to fall apart as a movement when Trump’s leaves center stage.
  18. Ketanji Brown Jackson was appointed by Joe Biden, Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh
  19. Joe Biden is pro-labor, he was the first president to ever stand on a picket line, while Trump surrounds himself with extremist minority political fringe advocates and greedy 2 percenters running the country.
  20.  With Joe and Jill Biden, class and dignity returned to the White House – for a brief four year period, we had a break from the insanity of “The Donald” and his thug routine.
  21. Joe Biden followed the law when it came to immigrants and immigration. With Trump we now have the world’s best financed national police force (who wear masks, no name badges, and snatch people off the streets) arresting cooks, seamstresses and gardeners. The outlaws and criminals that Trump promised to arrest and deport have vanished right along with his promises of lower food prices.
  22. Joe Biden believes in science and he believes in funding research, Donald Trump hates science and wants us to be as dumb as an illiterate peasant in Medieval England.
  23. No one ever accused Joe of using the office of the presidency to fill his bank account, but that’s what we have going on now more than during Trump’s first term. Emoluments? Who cares about a word that most people have never heard of.
  24. Joe Biden would never have rolled out a red carpet welcome for War Criminal, Vlad Putin, but Trump did. Since when do we celebrate killers? Now, I guess.

Instead of changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for purely racist reasons, wanting to change names of sports teams back to racist ones, wasting money on a military parade for his birthday, or wanting to be a king, President Biden was concerned with healthcare, infrastructure, and real world problems. Joe always had America’s best interest at heart, always thinking about the little guy in our society, a true patriot that took care of actual issues that we as Americans face. God bless President Joe Biden for his service.

Trump’s Mental Illness Has Not Improved

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Trump’s Mental Illness Has Not Improved

Trump’s Mental Illness Has Not Improved

 

By D.S. Mitchell

 

Way Back Then

Way back, in 2016, twenty-six thousand (26,000) psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers signed a petition stating that Donald Trump has a “dangerous mental illness, and is not fit to lead the United States.” Dr. John Gartner, formerly of  Johns Hopkins University, now in private practice, stated that he felt he “had an ethical responsibility to warn the public of Donald Trump’s mental illness.” Well, not only have the American people ignored the information from the experts, but they have elected this crazy idiot twice. So, who are the crazies? While that is a serious matter, I’m not prepared to address that here today. What I want to talk about the danger of a man like Donald Trump holding any elected office, much less president of the United States.

Letter To The Editor

In a Letter to the Editor, NY Times, 2/09/2017, Charles M. Blow stated that Trump through his speech and actions demonstrates an inability to tolerate any views, or opinions that differ from his own. “His words and his behavior suggest a profound inability to empathize. Individuals with these traits distort reality to suit their psychological state, attacking facts and those who convey them.”

Prone To Gross Exaggeration

The Editorial Staff of Psychology Today threw their sizable weight at the argument, citing “the dangers of his obvious narcissistic personality type and the offensive behaviors that accompany it.”  Behaviors include, but are not limited to, “condescension, gross exaggeration (lying), bullying, jealousy, fragile self-esteem, lack of compassion, and a view of the world that is an “us vs them” view. And the constant boasting, with the overtone that he is the smartest guy in the room, “I’m smarter than the generals.” Or, his classic, “he’s a total loser.”

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NO KINGS PROTEST

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NO KINGS PROTEST

NO KINGS Protest

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

                                                                                                                              Steve Jobs

Our New Pope, Pontiff of Peace

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Our New Pope, Pontiff of Peace

“You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings. A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself, and preys on the innocent is not sent by God. He is sent to test you. And many are failing.”

Our New Pope, Pontiff of Peace

By Cate Rees-Hessel

 

“Da” Pope

Just like our dearly departed Pope Francis, our brand new first ever Pope from the U.S. speaks the truth regarding the Trump administration and “The Donald” himself. Pope Leo XIV, or “Da” Pope as Chicago area residents are referring to him, I am very proud to say is from right here in the Windy City. As a quote attributed to His Holiness says, “You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings. A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself, and preys on the innocent is not sent by God. He is sent to test you. And many are failing.”

Only One King

We all know that  Donald Trump wants to be the first American king, but unlike the first American Pope, that is not going to happen – there is no king of the United States. There is, however, finally a Pontiff from our country. I am hopeful this new leader of the Catholic Church can an will continue the work of Pope Francis  to bring about peace in our troubled homeland and world from his position of power at the Vatican. Whether you are a Catholic, Christian or not, this man offers hope. Here are some interesting facts about Pope Leo: XIV:

  1. Our Pope Leo began his pastoral career in the southern Chicago suburb of Dolton, IL, where he grew up. Dolton, which is in Cook County.
  2. His name is Robert Prevost and he was born in the city of Chicago.
  3. His first words after the conclave elected him were, “Peace be with you all”.
  4. The former archbishop is also quoted as saying “I offer you the little that I have and am” – a servants heart that is a breath of fresh air in our troubled world.
  5. He spent extensive time in Peru.
  6. The new Pope is 69 years young.
  7. By choosing to be called Leo, he is likely going to build upon previous popes named Leo, especially Leo Xlll, whose teachings centered around social justice.
  8. He is considered a diplomat in the church.
  9. The Pope is a Chicago White Sox fan, much to the chagrin of my Cubs fan husband. The White Sox organization sent him a team jersey and cap to the Vatican. His Sox fandom is confirmed by his brother, John Prevost.
  10. He attended St. Augustine Seminary High School in Laketown Township, MI. He has a BS in Mathematics from Villanova University, and went to seminary at the Catholic Theological Union in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park.

Supporting the Immigrant

It appears that our new Pope is no fan of the Trump administration or JD Vance, especially in regards to immigration. Just like his predecessor, Pope Francis. An article in Newsweek quotes, “In some matters, Leo XIV has aligned ideologically with his predecessor, Pope Francis, especially on the treatment of immigrants and the environment. Earlier this year, Francis criticized Trump over his immigration agenda, which embraces mass deportations.”

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