RUTHFULLY YOURS

There is a new flurry of efforts to discredit Donald Trump….finances, accounting, visitor logs, more January 6 “revelations” etc.

The most risible  “pottie- mouth” rumor that he stuffed critical documents into the toilet seems to have been flushed by the media.

Could the reason be that the Durham revelations vindicate his often stated suspicions about chicanery in elections and the waste in time and money and public attention in the  “Russiagate” misinformation episode?

Or, could it be that an increasing number of pivotal states are re-examining and revealing real election interference?

Hmmmmmm…..rsk

A contranym is a word that has opposite meanings depending on context.
For example, the word sanction:
Definition 1: to permit or grant approval. Definition 2: to condemn or penalize.
The word cleave:
Definition 1: to join or adhere closely Definition 2: to split or divide
The word “liberal” has become another contranym.
Definition 1. A Democrat progressive socialist Definition 2: A Conservative Republican
As conservatives define it, liberals sanction (Def. 1) small government, state’s rights, capitalism, merit as the only consideration instead of numerical goals and quotas, freedom of speech and debate and tolerance of dissidence, legal immigration, English as the national language, respect for truth in reporting and facts in history, limits to fatuous regulations and mandates that inhibit economy and business, opposition to mindless “cancel culture” and indoctrination in education, equal justice in law and order.
As the leftist and progressives define it, liberals abhor and sanction (Def. 2) all the forgoing and prefer big government with endless legislation and mandates, socialism, quotas and diversity above merit, censorship of speech, subjective “truth” versus facts in education and national history, altering the language, open borders and unfettered immigration, moral equivalence between protests and terrorism, and cancel culture.
Conservatives cleave (Def. 1) to the founding principles of democracy.
Progressives cleave (Def.2) the nation in a tyrannical effort to grab and consolidate power, censor dissent, and impose obedience and indoctrination on all citizens. rsk

First: I think that Donald Trump was the best President since Ronald Reagan and I also believe that serious election irregularities occasioned his “defeat” in 2020.
However, despite his perseveration on his many accomplishments, events will come to haunt him. His legal problems will continue and January 6 libels will pummel him. Furthermore, his initial clumsy handling of the pandemic-instead of appointing a panel of distinguished virologists and epidemiologists, he brought Fauci and Birx out of mothballs and conducted boring and disjointed press conferences- will be fodder for his opponents.
The future for the conservative agenda rests with younger and principled possible candidates who defy the disastrous policies of the Biden administration.
They are in the mold of Senator Tom Cotton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Ric Grenell-former US ambassador to Germany, Governors de Santis of Florida, Youngkin of Virginia, and Abbott of Texas, Winsome Sears Lt. Governor of Virginia, Alexander Acosta, Former Secretary of Labor, Young Kim- Korean-American Representative California District 39, Geraldo Cadava, Hispanic historian and professor at Northwestern University, John James, West Point graduate and candidate for Senate in Michigan.
These are just a handful of possibilities if Donald Trump has the probity to step aside…..rsk

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE,

NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING NOT EVEN A MOUSE.

AT THE WHITE HOUSE A GENT FOUND REFUGE IN SLUMBER,

FROM FAILURES AND CRITICS GROWING IN NUMBER.

I TRIED TO SLEEP WITH NO SUCCESS,

WITH WORRY ABOUT OUR NATIONAL MESS.

INFLATION, CRIME, AND A MILITARY GONE WOKE,

A VICE PRESIDENT WHO’S BECOME A NATIONAL JOKE.

NON-CITIZENS WILL VOTE WITH NO BORDER CONTROL,

A DEMOGRAPHIC CALAMITY THAT WILL TAKE ITS TOLL.

PRE-K SCHOOLS TEACHERS SHUN EDUCATIONAL TOYS,

PUSHING GENDER CONFUSION ABOUT GIRLS AND BOYS.

 IGNORANT FACULTY PROMOTE THE FALSE GLAMOR

AND INFINITE LIES OF THE SICKLE AND HAMMER.

CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS ARE MANDATED AWAY,

WITH FOREIGN POLICY IN COMPLETE DISARRAY.

I MUSED AND WORRIED WHEN I HEARD A JOYFUL CLATTER.

I RUSHED TO THE WINDOW TO SEE WHAT WAS THE MATTER.

MAINSTREAM REPORTERS FELL ON THEIR HEAD,

SLIPPING AND SLIDING ON THE B.S. THEY SPREAD.

DURHAM GALLOPED IN ON A BUCKING STEER

WITH THE STEELE DOSSIER IMPALED ON A SPEAR.

SUPERIOR COURTS GAVE BIDEN A SLAP ON THE WRIST

HE REMAINED IMPERVIOUS, IF YOU GET MY GIST.

PARENTS AND TEACHERS WERE ON A SPREE

TO STOP INDOCRINATION AND C.R.T.

ECO-ELECTRIC CARS WERE STALLED IN THE MIRE

WITH KERRY, CLIMATEERS, AND FAUCI THE LIAR.

BIPARTISAN DEMOCRATS DESERVE HONORABLE MENTION

GOV. POLIS AND SENATORS TESTER, SINEMA AND MANCHIN.

THE OTHERS SLUMPED WITH FEAR OF ELECTION LOSS,

AWARE THAT VOX POPULI IS THEIR ULTIMATE BOSS.

SANTA FAILED TO APPEAR AT THE MERRY CELEBRATION

NEITHER HE NOR THE REINDEER HAD PROOF OF VACCINATION

SO, IN A STAB AT PENTAMETER WITH RHYMES AND CHEER.

I WISH YOU ALL JOYFUL HOLIDAYS, GOOD HEALTH, AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

R.S.K.

https://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/san.diego/transcripts/0815/dole.fdch.shtml

When the late Senator Bob Dole accepted the nomination at the Republican National Convention on August 15, 1996, he delivered a most eloquent speech touching on every issue that engages us today. Take the time to read it all at the site. Rest in peace Senator Dole. rsk

When the late Senator Bob Dole accepted the nomination at the Republican National Convention on August 15, 1996, he delivered a most eloquent speech which rings true today. Take the time to read it all at the site. Rest in peace Senator Dole.    rsk

EXCERPTS

And who am I that stands before you tonight?

I was born in Russell, Kansas, a small town in the middle of the prairie surrounded by wheat and oil wells.

And the first thing you learn on the prairie is the relative size of a man compared to the lay of the land. And under the immense sky where I was born and raised, a man is very small, and if he thinks otherwise, he is wrong.

Let me be the bridge to an America than only the unknowing call myth. Let me be the bridge to a time of tranquility, faith and confidence in action.

And to those who say it was never so, that America’s not been better, I say you’re wrong. And I know because I was there. And I have seen it. And I remember.

And our nation, though wounded and scathed, has outlasted revolutions, civil war, world war, racial oppression and economic catastrophe. We have fought and prevailed on almost every continent. And in almost every sea.

We have even lost. But we have lasted, and we have always come through.

And what enabled us to accomplish this has little to do with the values of the present. After decades of assault upon what made America great, upon supposedly obsolete values, what have we reaped? What have we created? What do we have?

I am here to say to America, do not abandon the great traditions that stretch to the dawn of our history. Do not topple the pillars of those beliefs — God, family, honor, duty, country — that have brought us through time, and time, and time, and time again.

The war(WW) was fought just a generation after America’s greatest and most intense period of immigration. And yet when the blood of the sons of immigrants and the grandsons of slaves fell on foreign fields, it was American blood. In it you could not read the ethnic particulars of the soldier who died next to you. He was an American.

And when I think how we learned this lesson I wonder how we could have unlearned it. Is the principle of unity, so hard-fought and at the cost of so many lives, having been contested again and again in our history, and at such a terrible price, to be casually abandoned to the urge to divide?

And so tonight I call on every American to rise above all that may divide us, and to defend the unity of the nation for the honor of generations past, and the sake of those to come.

And when I look back on my life, I see less and less of myself and more and more a history of this civilization that we have made that is called America.

There is on the eve of Thanksgiving Day so much to be grateful for in my personal life but this is a national holiday where our gratitude is directed to our magnificent nation. The song “America the Beautiful” expresses it eloquently. The lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates (August 12, 1859-March 28, 1929) and the music composed by a church organist Samuel Augustus Ward (December 28, 1848 – September 28, 1903).

“America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!”

I wish you all a joyous holiday!….rsk

Be careful what you wish for…..

After 11 months of campaigning for the Democratic nomination Kamala Harris dropped out of the race on Dec. 3, 2019 after Elizabeth Warren but  before New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio. Now the long knives are out for our hapless Vice-President and rumors are circulating that she will be asked/forced to resign.

Who will take her place? Let’s face it….has to be a woman, and Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar are women of the color white. Hmmmmm……a dilemma…..and that woman could be president.

Stacey Abrams anyone?

Could Stacey Abrams Beat Joe Biden in 2024? What Polls Show About Potential Rivals

https://www.newsweek.com/could-stacey-abrams-beat-joe-biden-2024-what-polls-show-about-potential-rivals-1650796

Just asking…..rsk

I recently saw “The Lehman Trilogy” a splendid play with dazzling narrative, dialogue, acting and set.

In the opening scene a man steps forward and announces himself as “Chaim Lehman” whose name morphed into Henry Lehman.

In my enthusiasm for the play I browsed some reviews:

Laura Collins Hughes, in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/14/theater/the-lehman-trilogy-review.html)wrote:

“The year is 1844, he is Heyum Lehmann, and in a moment we will see him reborn as Henry Lehman — his moniker bestowed by a port official too obtuse to comprehend the newcomer’s real name.”

Ms. Hughes is really “too obtuse to comprehend the newcomer’s real name” but don’t blame her.

Wikipedia calls Henry Lehman Hayum….as in ” Lehman was born under the name of Hayum Lehmann.”

Google spells it “Haym” when writing about Chaim Salomon the financier of rebels against British rule in the Revolutionary War.

Would  the foregoing phonetic spellers  write She Jinping instead of Xi Jinping.  rsk

Today is Veterans Day  honoring men and women who have served in the U.S. armed forces. In an era where too many military leaders in every branch of armed services are more consumed with politics and p.c. culture than national security, I turn to General Douglas Mac Arthur’s magnificent farewell speech to West Point on May 12, 1962.

As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, “Where are you bound for, General?” and when I replied, “West Point,” he remarked, “Beautiful place: have you ever been there before?” 

No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this, coming from a profession I have served so long and a people I have loved so well. It fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this award is not intended primarily to honorº a personality, but to symbolize a great moral code — the code of conduct and chivalry of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent. That is the animation of this medallion. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics of the American soldier. That I should be integrated in this way with so noble an ideal, arouses a sense of pride and yet of humility which will be with me always.

“Duty, Honor, Country” — those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.

The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.

Now there is a question that has occasioned a furious debate.
First, there are too many invidious Holocaust metaphors. Dr. Fauci, for all his undebatable flaws is not a Nazi, lock-downs are not concentration camps, masks are not yellow badges, and the jabs are not poisonous gas as some overwrought opponents have posted.
Other opponents, respected friends among them, cite statistics that are fatuous at best. The average daily death rates in America range between 7500 to 8500 per day. To attribute thousands of deaths to vaccinations in seniors with complications from adult-onset illness is needless scare mongering.
During the HIV epidemic many epidemiologists dismissed vaccines and focused the research on therapeutics which proved very effective. We should have done the same, but the media and too many politicized health professionals detoured all the legitimate research and statistical evidence of the efficacy of many drugs.
I respect skepticism about a new modality in vaccinations that were developed at Mach speed. Weighing the risks, I took the recommended doses of vaccine. The cases and mortality subsided. Whether it was herd immunity, natural immunity, or the vaccines, is something we will never know.
Histrionics and conspiracy caterwauling only muddy the waters and, alas, there is no real science to follow. rsk