Letter to Readers

I have been on summer break from blogging during these past few weeks.  It has been a working vacation, with much to do.

Then, too, it is taking some time to sort out all that is happening here in the United States at the federal level.  However, it remains abundantly clear that what is going on now with the chief executive is a product of a calculated effort based largely on voter-suppression.  This effort was paid for by others.  Names can be named and have.

So to blame one person alone is inappropriate, if understandable.  Let us all be about the business of opposing attacks on truth wherever they may come from.

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During this vacation period I have read numerous interesting articles and book passages.   Most recently I have read the article on the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America in the periodical, In These Times.  I commend it to you enthusiastically.   

Uniting Our Country

 

I am grateful for the counter-protestors who showed up in Washington, D.C. yesterday to stand up for justice to all Americans.  Their courage was ever so important at this "messed-up time" in our country, as one person described it. 

The one thing a tolerant country cannot condone is intolerance.  The brave counter-protestors of Sunday made a major contribution in helping make this clear.

Bravo, and thank you!


-- The Musical Patriot  



Photo courtesy MPR.org 

Via Kansas City Star --

Unions achieved a gigantic victory in Missouri, defeating an anti-union effort in Missouri by a 4-1 margin according to reports.  Missouri now steps to the fore-front in the movement to preserve and extend workers' rights in America.   Congratulations, Show Me State!

Video not playing?  See link below.

Unions Win Big-Time in Missouri

Hearables: Hi-Tech or Technopoly?

 

Quick Link --

How about an earpiece which would instantly translate someone's speech in another language from across the room?  How about a smartphone in the ear for a doctor to use while examining you?

All this would be possible with a new device now under developing.  The device, called a hearable, would have many of the same functions as current smartphone apps.

Whether this is a good idea for society and culture, like so many other whiz-bang inventions, is another story.  Read more at the linked article.    


Hearables: Hi-Tech or Technopoly?


Image courtesy Fast Company

Where Have the Voters Gone?

According to the esteemed journalist, Greg Palast, two million voters have vanished from the voting rolls in America.  Where have these people gone?

RUSH POST --



What we have is a silent kidnapping of Voting Rights in America by the hundreds of thousands. As a journalist, it’s not my job to end these games — that’s your job. My job as a journalist is to expose it.  I’m going to get these lists… I have a couple of million names already, and I can tell you these are not people who have moved, these are not people who are voting twice, these are not alien voters, they’re just people with common names whose crime is voting while Black, voting while hispanic, voting while Asian-American, or voting as a student — which has become nearly criminalized in America.
For a list of the upcoming National Commission for Voter Justice Regional Hearings visit: nationalcvj.org/timetable/

Read the full story here:
https://www.gregpalast.com/palast-testifies-in-front-of-national-commission-for-voter-justice/

Sunday Inspiration

R evered by three major religions, as well as others, the Hebrew Testament of the Bible is rich with imagery.  And it contains many lessons for our times, no matter one's religion or lack thereof.

I believe the Psalm quoted below has a bearing on our times, especially in the U.S., but in many other places as well.  If I may be permitted one comment of interpretation.   Where are we, perhaps, guilty of boasting?

Psalm 75

We give thanks to you, God,

we give thanks as we invoke your name,

as we recount your marvels.

'At the moment I decide

I will dispense strict justice;

the earth shall quake and all its inhabitants,

it is I who poised its columns.

'I said to the boastful:  Enough of boasting!

and to the wicked:  How dare you raise your horn,

how dare you raise your horn like that,

how dare you speak so boldly!'

Not from the east, nor from the west,

not from the desert, nor from the mountains,

but from God the judgment comes,

lowering one, raising another.

Yahweh is holding a cup 

of frothing wine, heavily drugged;

he pours it out, they drain it to the dregs,

all drink of it, the wicked of the earth.

But I will never stop proclaiming the God of Jacob

or playing in his honor;

I will cut off the horns of all the wicked

and raise the horns of the virtuous.  

-- Jerusalem Bible