Is the American Philosophical Society protected from losing it's importance. It is history itself.

There are no plans to display the Declaration anytime soon. Dare I say it should never be on display so much as a copy.

American Philosophical Society (click here)

June 23, 2021
By Stephen Salisbury

American Philosophical Society's head of conservation Anne Downey (left) and Patrick Spero, director of the library, open their copy of the original Declaration of Independence ordered up by President John Quincy Adams in 1820, but not completed until 1823.

The archive of the American Philosophical Society, (click here) consisting of an ever-expanding universe of 13 million manuscripts and 350,000 bound volumes and periodicals, with images and audiotapes proliferating on a daily basis, has reached the point where it is its own universe.

So it should be no surprise that APS, founded in 1743, has discovered that it possesses an exceedingly rare engraved copy of the Declaration of Independence ordered up by John Quincy Adams two centuries ago, and given to the society in 1842 by Daniel Webster. The society has just announced the discovery.

The unearthed document now ascends to APS’s pantheon of Declarations consisting of rare drafts and early printed copies from newspapers, broadsides, and pamphlets held....

West Humbolt Park is getting new jobs.

West Humbolt Park, Chicago (click here)  It looks as though Amazon has made a wise decision in building a facility in West Humblodt Park, Chicago. The area has many young people and a comparible low income to Chicago. Perhaps these jobs will be good paying jobs with good benefits that will enhance the community. I congratulate Amazon for taking impoverishment in it's decisions. The company still needs to organize to protect the people that work very hard to make the company a success.

The West Humboldt Park neighborhood, (click here) canopied between Garfield and Humboldt Parks, is a place for new beginnings amidst authentic architecture located just minutes west of downtown. The neighborhood is home to a diverse population of long-time neighbors including African American and Latino residents, particularly a vibrant Puerto Rican community.

June 22, 2021

By Lauren Zumbach and Ryan Ori

Amazon (click here) is planning to build a facility in Chicago’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood that could employ hundreds of people.

Construction has not yet started on the 140,000-square-foot delivery station, which is expected to open in late 2022, Amazon said Tuesday. A delivery station is a package’s last stop before it is delivered to a customer....

Proof. The Republicans are NOT the government of the people.

Greg Abbot, the current governor of Texas, is calling a special session of the state legislature to pass oppressive voting laws. He did that the minute it was known the US Senate was going to defeat the voting rights bill.

The Republicans are playing a dangerous game with voting rights as if the people voting are the problem and not them. To the Republicans, including Moscow Mitch, this is politics. There is no such thing as governing with the Republicans.

June 22, 2021
By Mike DeBonis

Senate Republicans (click here) banded together Tuesday to block a sweeping Democratic bill that would revamp the architecture of American democracy, dealing a grave blow to efforts to federally override dozens of GOP-passed state voting laws.

The test vote, which would have cleared the way to start debate on voting legislation, failed 50-50 on straight party lines — 10 votes short of the supermajority needed to advance legislation in the Senate.

It came after Democrat after Democrat delivered warnings about the dire state of American democracy, blaming former president Donald Trump for undermining its foundations by challenging the 2020 election results, which, in turn, prompted his supporters in numerous state legislatures to pass new laws rolling back ballot access.

“Are we going to let reactionary state legislatures drag us back into the muck of voter suppression? Are we going to let the most dishonest president in history continue to poison our democracy from the inside?” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said before the vote. “Or will we stand up to defend what generations of Americans have organized, marched, fought and died for — the sacred, sacred right to vote?”...

Abbot signed into law a bill that changes the history of racism in the state of Texas. The Republicans are introducing confusion to USA history. That is exactly what they want. What kind of power is this? What gives anyone the idea that history is supposed to reflect a political ideology? I tell you who does these things. An incompetent dictator does things like this. There is no benevolence left to the Republicans, only a desire to rewrite history and destroy the USA Constitution.

There is every reason to impeach Greg Abbot, but, that won't happen because the majority of the Texas legislature passed the bill in the first place. There would not be enough votes to impeach.

June 22, 2021

By Isabella Zou

Gov. Greg Abbott (click here) signed into law a bill last week that restricts how current events and America’s history of racism can be taught in Texas schools. It’s been commonly referred to as the “critical race theory” bill, though the term “critical race theory” never appears in it.

But in signing the bill, Abbott said “more must be done” to “abolish critical race theory in Texas,” and announced that he would ask the Legislature to address the issue during a special session this summer....

Don't believe that this ruling means the perpetrators cited as defendants are correct in their actions.

These decisions by the judiciary are about the office and the USA Constitution. The actions by officers were not incorrect. They acted according to the orders they received from the highest members of the chain of command. The idea this was an illegal act is incorrect on it's face.

The issue that CONTINUES TO GO UNADDRESSED is the corruption and abuse of power by Trump and his minions in the Republican Party, legislature, and the administration. The people elected a crook to the Oval Office. What transpired after receiving the oath of office was an enormous amount of corruption that even sought to undermine the USA's national security by providing highly classified material to Russia.

The only reason Trump maintained his office is that the Republican Party, especially in the US Senate is corrupt to the core, with perhaps the exception of Senators Mitt Romney and Cornyn. Senator Cornyn is still conducting investigations by his committee assignments and acting in the best interest of the people of Texas. I disagree with most of his world views, but, I believe him to be honest and loyal to the USA Constitution.

While I understand the need for democratic organizations and governments to take action to bring about justice, the fact of the matter is this is not a Rule of Law issue so much as it is an issue of deep-seated corruption and abuse of power.

Rep. Liz Cheney prefers to see it as a lack of real competency/education. That is primarily true of the Republican House members and voters that treat politics as popular and are FANS of WWF and all that mess that propels Republicans to vote for figures such as Trump and his "You're Fired" POWER.

However, this particular issue is not about the Rule of Law. Should a legitimate reason be needed to 'send in the police,' that must be kept intact. It isn't the Rule of Law on trial in Lafayette Square. The police acted as they were ordered and it was a much-practiced drill. The problem is the UNDERLYING corruption of the government that ordered the attack on demonstrators while clearing the streets for Trump's photo-op.

These attempts at bringing about justice through the backdoor continue because Trump was not impeached and the right-wing extremism seen in characters such as Josh Hawley continues to be touted as correct and best. I find the insight of Rep. Liz Cheney regarding the personal safety of Congress members and their families paramount to overcoming the continued attempts to overthrow the USA Constitution.

The threats of members of Congress are somewhat expected as realized by attacks on the homes of Speaker Pelosi and then-Majority Leader Moscow Mitch. But, if there are constituents and/or other Congressional members that are actively threatening members of Congress in either house, there need to be investigations by the FBI and arrests to those seeking to harm their representatives and their families. This is a major problem and the investigative agencies, even at the local level, need to investigate and act to prosecute. This return of the strength of the USA Constitution is not over.

June 21, 2021

By Spencer H. Hsu

A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed most claims (click here) filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C., Black Lives Matter and others in lawsuits that accused the Trump administration of authorizing an unprovoked attack on demonstrators in Lafayette Square last year.

The plaintiffs asserted the government used unnecessary force to enable a photo op of President Donald Trump holding a Bible outside of the historical St. John’s Church. But U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of Washington called allegations that federal officials conspired to make way for the photo too speculative.

The judge’s decision came in a 51-page opinion after the Justice Department requested she toss four overlapping lawsuits naming dozens of federal individual and agency defendants, as well as D.C. and Arlington police, in the June 2020 incident....

Anyone that has watched ignorance take over our elections know she is right.

The USA Constitution is not about consumerism, but, today's GOP seeks to support populism and Wall Street pandering. We don't have a country if this ignorance by the electorate continues.

Rep. Liz Cheney is a hero among the few to be found in the GOP. I am sure her father has plenty of ideas to nurture the GOP back to health.

Rep. Liz Cheney deserves the respect the people of the USA can afford her because she does see the USA Constitution as under attack. She needs to correct the path of the two party system.

June 21, 2021
By Jennifer Rubin

Representative Liz Cheney, R-Wyo awaits...in the Roosevelt Room for bill signing.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) (click here) has refused to allow her party the luxury of uncontested lying. A party that still wallows in the “big lie” of a stolen election, offers outlandish and Putin-like conspiracy theories (e.g., blaming the police and not the mob for the results of the Jan. 6 insurrection) and conducts a campaign of slander against the nation’s most esteemed immunologist should not be able to rely on the right-wing echo chamber to blot out inconvenient facts.

But while intentional misrepresentation is now rampant and widely accepted in the GOP, there is also a problem of abject ignorance, as Cheney told the New York Times’s Mark Leibovich in an interview:

“We’ve got people we’ve entrusted with the perpetuation of the Republic who don’t know what the rule of law is,” she said. “We probably need to do Constitution boot camps for newly sworn-in members of Congress. Clearly.”

She said her main pursuit now involved teaching basic civics to voters who had been misinformed by Mr. Trump and other Republicans who should know better. “I’m not naïve about the education that has to go on here,” Ms. Cheney said. “This is dangerous. It’s not complicated. I think Trump has a plan.”

Representatives such as Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) serve as a reminder that a working knowledge of the Constitution (let alone emotional stability) is not a requirement for members of Congress. It is tempting to say that members of Congress in the MAGA cult must be lying because no one could possibly be so uninformed, but both are likely at play. If Cheney is right about the ignorance of her colleagues (they seem daily to prove her point) and the Republican base, we should think seriously about the remedy....

She is absolutely correct in that January 6, 2021, is an existential threat to the USA Consitution. The astounding truth of the current Republican Party is that they are serving under duress. They are serving with a threat to their lives and families. That has to be addressed.

June 7, 2021

By Carolina Kelly

Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (click here) accused former President Donald Trump of having committed the worst violation of a president's oath of office by inciting the January 6 Capitol insurrection -- and taking a jab at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy over his subsequent visit to Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

"I was stunned. I could not imagine any justification for doing that," Cheney said of McCarthy's visit to Trump during an episode of David Axelrod's "The Axe Files" podcast, which was taped Saturday afternoon as part of a University of Chicago alumni weekend event. "And I asked him why he had done it, and he said, well, he had just been in the neighborhood, essentially."

House Republicans ousted Cheney from her leadership position last month over her public rejection of Trump's lie that he won the election -- an ouster that McCarthy supported. Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has repeatedly clashed with McCarthy, who has tried to align himself with Trump, and subsequently the Republican base, going into the 2022 midterms....

DeJoy is a threat to democracy and the USA Constitution.

June 21, 2021

By Charles Davis

Twenty-one state attorneys general (click here) argued in a joint statement on Monday that delaying first-class mail delivery by as many as two days would harm rural communities and could disenfranchise those who cast absentee ballots.

In March, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, unveiled a plan to raise prices and slash services at the US Postal Service, citing a need to address a revenue shortfall, The Washington Post reported.

In particular, DeJoy outlined a proposal to slow down the delivery of first-class mail. Instead of two to three days, nonlocal mail could take as many as five days to reach its destination.

The attorneys general say that reflects a "flawed philosophy that would prioritize the services it offers in competitive markets," such as package delivery, "over those that it alone provides and on which countless Americans depend." The comments come in a letter addressing the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent agency responsible for ensuring that USPS abides by the law....

DeJoy is wasting taxpayer's money by refusing to purchase electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles are going to look different because they are not burdened with room for an internal combustion engine. There will be more room for any cargo because the electric motor does not require all the appliances attached to an internal combustion engine such as the carburetor and/or fuel injectors, huge radiators, fuel pumps, air filters, etc.

June 19, 2021

Spurned bidder (click here) for the right to make the new postal trucks claims it wasn't given due consideration—and also accuses the feds of being lukewarm on electric trucks.

In February, the U.S. Postal Service awarded a deal for up to 165,000 new mail trucks worth up to $6 billion to defense contractor Oshkosh. The search for new delivery vehicles took the USPS around seven years, and once the Internet learned what the quirky new van would look like, much merriment ensued. Not everyone was happy, though.

Workhorse, formerly known as Amp Electric Vehicles, was one of two other contractors bidding for the USPS contract (the other was Karsan). This week, Workhorse sued the postal service over the terms of the deal, especially whether or not the mail carrier ever seriously considered Workhorse's electric vehicles as suitable replacements for the Grumman "Long Life Vehicles" that are commonly seen delivering mail today.

Workhorse's lawsuit—the version that the public can see, anyway—is vague, as the company said the revealing all of the contract information would release details about its bid for the contract and the company's EVs that would be helpful to competitors. Alongside the court filing, Workhorse issued a media statement that said Workhorse representatives met with the USPS in early March to "discuss the award and further specifics of the USPS selection process," but that the details of the meeting "cannot be disclosed at this time."...
 

People are dying due to a hot climate. End the use of fossil fuels including slash and burn and peat burning in Africa.

This image is from the same article as below. It is OBVIOUS that methane is anthropogenic. The densest concentration is the northern hemisphere where the majority of the population of people live.

KNOCK IT OFF.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES ARE THE ONLY WAY FORWARD!

Methane leaks must be controlled and drilling ended.

The line (click here) of the graph on the left all the way to the right is going straight up. That is anthropogenic methane. The Earth is not leaking methane, humans are.

17 June 2021
By Victoria Bekiempis

The Earth is trapping nearly twice as much heat as it did in 2005, (click here) according to new research, described as an “unprecedented” increase amid the climate crisis.

Scientists from Nasa, the US space agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), reported in a new study that Earth’s “energy imbalance approximately doubled” from 2005 to 2019. The increase was described as “alarming”.

“Energy imbalance” refers to the difference between how much of the Sun’s “radiative energy” is absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere and surface, compared to how much “thermal infrared radiation” bounces back into space.

“A positive energy imbalance means the Earth system is gaining energy, causing the planet to heat up,” Nasa said in a statement about this study.

Scientists determined there was an energy imbalance by comparing data from satellite sensors – which track how much energy enters and exits Earth’s system – and data from ocean floats....

From the same article as above, this graph clearly shows civilization was on the road to minimizing methane use and leaks. Then after the Cheney Energy Report came out in 2005, fracking became fashionable and the amount of leaks and use returned to pre-precaution levels.

Tropical Storms do not have an eye. This was in Maryland. Those are clouds of an eye. Now the shape may not be circular, but, it is certainly an indication that the conditions of the 2021 Tropical Storm are not the same as those of the past. This is a tipping point.

I have three pictures below of the tropical storm off the Gulf Coast. 

This is a roll cloud with rather interesting clouds behind it. Then there is that enormous "stratus" cloud bank that dominates the right side of the upper picture. That is a high accumulation of water vapor in very STRUCTURED clouds. That is heat movement with three different cloud formations depending on the area where they are located over the water. The roll cloud seems to be a boundary between higher energy clouds.

This is a little better picture of what is above. I don't think I have ever, in 21 years of observation witnessed these cloud formations together.

East Passed over Okaloosa Island (click here)

The clouds below are no ordinary tropical storm clouds.

My experience with Earth and the idea of CHANGE in atmospheric heat is that there is no "one-time" occurrence. This is a prelude to what is expected in the future. It doesn't get better from here, it continues to a maximum and then there is a tipping point.

continued...

We have a different kind of storm out there!

 Twitter Account of James Spann (click here) This is being reported as a water spout off the Lousiana Coast. That is not a minor water spout. The water is brown. The winds are Tropical Storm velocity with this degree of water churning to a depth that brings the sea floor to the surface and the fact water spouts are this dynamic, dictates a different type of storm EFFECT than a simple Tropical Storm. There is that type of churning that reaches the ocean floor with Category 5 hurricanes, ie: Maria.

There has to be a way to measure the calories of heat and CONCENTRATION of that heat to spin up these tornadoes. The tornadoes are killing people, not even the flooding. 

June 20, 2021
By Tim Stelloh

...The storm (click here) caused flooding with as much as 15 inches of rain in some areas and also spawned destructive tornadoes.

Officials have linked 14 deaths to the storm in Alabama, including a crash that killed 10 people, nine of whom were children....

Aside from any significant rain, the storms are not carrying the wind they have been.

It's never good (click here) to have to do these analyses this late at night, but the tornado that hit Woodridge, IL and nearby suburbs of Chicago was likely a strong EF3 based on an impressive 18,000+ ft TDS and a 66 kt Vrot, both remarkable for a QLCS tornado!

The troposphere has reached a tipping point. The picture above (click here) shows the tornado that hit Chicago. If that picture is accurate, that is a supercell and not a tornado.

The heat is too high and the storm winds reached a geophysics maximum. The increased heat is now expressed in tornadoes. The season started earlier and now the storms are carrying tornadoes. This was not a hurricane off the Gulf or the Atlantic. 

Lightning in Chicago (click here)

The Vote in France was effected by the viruses and there was low turnout.

Democrats in 2022 are facing many problems to their best outcomes, in that Anti-American legislation and regulation in Republican lead states are stacking the odds against Democrats. But, the reality of France's low turnout is also a lesson. The Democrats need to turn out the vote more than ever in 2022.

When state legislatures and their Secretary of State make a concerted effort to prevent voting by regulatory measures it is definitely Anti-American. Why is it that Republicans will act to allow poison in water without regulation, but, when it comes to a robust voter turnout the regulations are heavy and oppressive?

20 June 2021

A voter casts her ballot at a polling station in Angers, western France, June 20, 2021.

The conservative Les Républicains party (click here) surged to a first-round lead ahead of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) and parties of the centre and left.

President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling LREM party suffered setbacks in most regions, failing to reach the 10 percent threshold required to qualify for the runoff vote in the flashpoint Hauts-de-France region.

Le Pen’s National Rally fell short of expectations, though it still harbours hopes of winning the southern Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, which includes Marseille, in next week's runoff.

In the Paris region, conservative incumbent Valérie Pécresse is well ahead, one of six candidates poised to qualify for the second round.

The elections, which followed a gruelling year and a half of lockdowns and curfews, were marred by record-low turnout of under 34%.

The second round of voting will take place on June 27.

Happy Juneteenth and Happy Father’s Day

Until tomorrow.

Ukraine media is reporting a hault in USA military assistance, including lethal weapons.

Ukraine Media Report (click here)

It would appear as though the White House press secretary isn't up on all the details of the Biden-Putin summit. I am certain there was a great deal of focus on the new National Holiday, Juneteeth in the White House and with the Vice President's office, but, there are most likely conclusions about military aid to Ukraine that took place at the Summit in Geneva, the city of peace.

I believe the military aid package to Ukraine in question was passed into law earlier this year.

Updated 3/2/2021 at 10:55 am EST: During the announcement (click here) of the Ukraine package, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the equipment was being paid for by Foreign Military Financing dollars. The department later clarified that FMF funding was not used; instead this package is funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). This story has been updated to reflect that....

Ukraine has been a focus of Russian aggression for some time now starting with the Obama administration. Some important arms were obstructed by Trump as a favor to Russia. The American people would not have known about this tampering with the national security of Ukraine and the USA if a whistleblower hadn't come forward to report the new peril to Ukraine.

I am fairly sure that the Biden-Putin Summit carried concern by both presidents regarding the Russian occupation of Ukraine, including Crimea. As a peace gesture Russia, in recent months, has pulled the Russian occupation in the Donbas Province back to the Russian border.

continued...

June 18, 2021

By Morgan Chalfant

The White House on Friday denied (click here) holding back security assistance from Ukraine hours after a Politico article said that officials had paused a package including lethal assistance worth up to $100 million.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a statement Friday afternoon calling the idea that the White House has held back security assistance to Ukraine “nonsense.”

Psaki cited a $150 million aid package announced by the Defense Department last week and pointed to President Biden’s public support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday....

The US Postal Union needs to support it's members and their supervisors.

DeJoy's highly incompetent policies are costing long-time employees their jobs. The Union needs to begin it's litigation of the incompetency.

June 16, 2021
By Alice Yin

Chicago’s embattled postmaster (click here for audio and article) has been replaced after months of outcry about mail delays, according to an internal announcement.

Wanda Prater, the leader of the U.S. Postal Service’s Chicago district, left that role Saturday following complaints from congressmen, aldermen and the local mail workers union about delivery delays. Taking the helm is Eddie Morgan Jr., who most recently served as postmaster of Kansas City, Mo....

The people have a right to hear the proceedings.

Gov. Snyder pre-trial in Flint water crisis begins discovery phase (click here for good dialogue regarding the trial of Snyder )

This reporting of the fact the hearing was on June 15, 2021, only adds confusion to the issue at hand. The media is discussing the pre-trial hearing of Snyder's appearance on JUNE 15, 2021. I have to question whether the people of the city of Flint were provided notice of the appearance of Snyder in court and if not why not. There should be an understanding that all the citizens of Flint should be given notice of any hearings regarding the prosecution of defendants.

The people have a right to know the hearings are taking place and hear the proceedings either televised or on the radio. There isn't enough room in the courtroom for every citizen interested in hearing any proceedings, even minor ones. But, they should be provided a venue to hear the proceedings and quite possibly representatives in the courtroom so there is a presence of those that have survived the mass poisoning.

This is a big deal. It should be treated as such. Every American has an interest in this case. It is the first time a mass poisoning of an American city took place. 

June 15, 2021
By Cassidy Johncox

Flint – Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (click here) is due in court in Genesee County for a pretrial hearing on Tuesday morning.

The ex-governor is currently facing two counts of willful neglect of duty in connection with the Flint water crisis. He is scheduled to appear at the 67th District Court in Flint at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Snyder was arraigned on those charges in January of this year, following a lengthy investigation into the Flint water scandal. The former gov. pleaded not guilty to both counts....

On the eve of the USA's first celebration of Juneteenth there are only three companies in observation.

June 17, 2021
By Tim Nelson

Best Buy is joining Target and U.S. Bank (click here) with plans to observe Juneteenth, the June 19 celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, as a company holiday.

The Richfield-based electronics and appliance retailer says it is taking a two-step approach to the holiday. It starts this year with a paid volunteer day that can be taken Friday or any other day this year. Starting in 2021, Juneteenth will be a paid company holiday.

Best Buy says it is phasing in the holiday since the change comes just a few days before the holiday....

Oh my, they had short notice. When the Republicans passed that ridiculous tax bill there was nothing but short notice to file for refunds from the year 2016 and alter the amount businesses had to pay in 2017 taxes. That was short notice, too, but, they managed to pull it off. But, somehow, the CEOs across the USA can't seem to take this holiday seriously for its meaning and statement about human rights. ONLY THREE major corporations have CEOs that can be this organized. Amazing.

Juneteenth did not crop up overnight. The request for this national holiday has been around for a long time.

June 15, 2021

By Sudiksha Kochi and N'dea Yancey-Bragg

On June 19, (click here) Americans will celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the day news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas, with block parties, cookouts and educational events. 

While Juneteenth celebrates the Emancipation Proclamation, which only freed slaves in the South, the 13th Amendment is what officially ended slavery in the U.S.

The holiday is looking a little different from most years.

Millions of Americans took to the streets to protest racial injustice last summer in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans. The protest movement sparked an ongoing dialogue around systemic racism and police brutality.

The protests also raised attention for the importance of Juneteenth as companies including Nike, Twitter and Uber are giving employees paid days off.

With 144 million Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19, many will gather in person after celebrating virtually in 2020.

Here's what you need to know about the history of Juneteenth and what celebrations are taking place this year....

Any major corporations in the USA headed up by White Supremacists/Nationalists? Other than the well-known racist NRA? (click here)

Tomorrow is a national holiday and EVERYONE should be on board.

The USA is not a theocracy. This is not a vote about President Biden.

June 17, 2021
By Christopher White

Pope Francis' closest U.S. allies (click here) made a last-minute and at times desperate appeal to their fellow U.S. Catholic bishops not to charge ahead with plans to draft a divisive document regarding Communion and pro-choice Catholic politicians ahead of the bishops' much anticipated June 17 vote.

"The proposal before us presents us with a stark and historic choice," said Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey. "Voting in the affirmative will produce a document, not unity. Voting against it will allow us to work together in dialogue to forge a broad agreement on the serious questions embedded in the issue of eucharistic worthiness."

"Our very identity as an episcopal conference calls us to vote no, and I will vote no," said Tobin, who is one of only two Americans on the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, which is tasked with advising the pope on which Catholic priests to appoint as bishops across the world.

Tobin said that any effort to support the "categorical exclusion of Catholic political leaders from the Eucharist based on their public policy positions" would force the bishops' conference "into the very heart of the toxic partisan strife, which has distorted our own political culture."

The bishops voted on whether to greenlight the document during the second day of virtual meetings; the results are scheduled to be announced on Friday, June18...

There was a vote to move forward with a committee to discuss a policy for the good standing of people in regard to the Holy Eucharist.

Pope Francis has been a servant to the people from the beginning of his priesthood. From the beginning of his papacy, he has viewed his role with the church as being one that brings reason to power. The Holy Roman Catholic Church is a wealthy and powerful organization as well as a religious order. Pope Francis is not interested in alienating Americans from Catholics. Pope Francis is a unifier. He seeks to understand the people in relation to their governments and the control that government has in providing a valuable space for worship.

"Voting Your Conscience" has always been a rallying cry for Republicans. In other words, Republicans have no problem with the idea of a theocracy so long as it is a Christian theocracy, with plenty of freedom for other faiths, of course. The "other faiths" is where the problem arises for most political figures. There are plenty of faithful under orthodoxy that believes many parts of life are personal issues and not religious doctrine. There are some faiths such as the Jewish faith that have an ongoing dialogue about life and have many complex standards that in no way will become standard Jewish policies in an ever-changing world.

...It is commonly believed in the non-Jewish world (click here) that the Talmud is the Jewish book of laws, but that’s not quite right. The Pentateuch, or Five Books of Moses–that is, the first five books of the Old Testament–contain the 613 mitzvahs, or commandments, by which Jews live. The Talmud is an anthology of abstruse and (to Culturebox, anyway) weirdly fascinating conversations about those commandments, as well as a slew of other biblical and extrabiblical passages that appear to the uninitiated to have nothing to do with the principles of conduct extracted from them. You cannot compare the Talmud to, say, the United States civil code, a series of prescriptions issuing from Congress, or to Catholic doctrine, which comes directly from the pope. The Talmud is more like the minutes of religious study sessions, except that the hundreds of scholars involved in these sessions were enrolled in a seminar that went on for more than a millennium and touched on every conceivable aspect of life and ritual. It would be hard to overstate the Talmud’s amorphousness. The more closely you look at it, the harder it is to pin down....

These widely diverse views held by faiths throughout the USA is the reason any elected official regardless of his or her faith has to remain neutral in their approach to issues such as abortion which is a completely personal one where the law is not appropriate.

I think the Pope is sensitive to the role of elected officials with constituents that are not exclusively Roman Catholic. Where religion has a place in our society and given the freedom to practice, it is not a dictate of the government. I think Pope Francis is among those that realize people are directed by their faith and in that understanding the presiding government needs to allow a legal space to practice faith. But, to think any government needs to abide by a certain Catholic doctrine because there are Catholics elected to an office is an entirely hideous idea. Quite frankly, any aspect of American life legislated by the government or precedent created by the courts that limit freedom and diminishes the quality of life is an affront to the USA Constitution.

An American has legal rights under the law as a baby, but, they have to be born first and achieve a birth certificate of live birth before those rights are conferred on them.

Secretary Kerry was harassed about this when he was running for office and it is ridiculous. When an elected official goes to work he is carrying out the will of the people including agnostics and atheists. No one group of people should have control over the quality of life of any other. The Rule of Law is about controlling the "public areas" where citizens mingle with each other, not the privacy Americans have within their homes or lives. There are also conduct issues addressed by the Rule of Law to all citizens in that a crime committed against them, even in their own homes and private spaces, such as home invasion is illegal and punishable in the court systems.

Pope Francis does not have authority over the Rule of Law and it's many aspects. He has complete control over the way Catholics address their lives, including being part of a congregation. Pope Francis also realizes (he lives this when he travels and has inter-religious convocation (click here)) Catholics must accept the differences of other faiths. Pope Francis is a peacemaker to bring freedom of worship to Catholics. In that is the religious doctrine the Catholic faith has when elected officials in the USA have personal standards and then standards for work in the public realm.

The Bishops in the USA feel the need to bring a definition about receiving the Holy Eucharist. It should not include belittling the role of Catholics elected to office. The reason the Republicans take on the mantle of the extreme views of Evangelical Christians is because of money for elections, voters, and the "idea" there is about 22 percent of the USA population are Catholics. If Republicans kiss the ring of the Pope and stand up for the idea of backing religious doctrine rather than public policy that will win votes and at the very least keep Catholics from ridiculing a candidate for their more liberal beliefs if not Catholic.

The idea of abortion should be left up to the individual and their individual conscience and not a point of extremist hate or any government policy.

 

What was he consuming while making the criticism of Joe Biden?

Ronny Jackson should be sued for making off-the-cuff remarks about President Biden. It is malpractice in the highest form.

It is FOX News and Trump drumming up trouble. FOX News is mentoring a North Korean dissident to become the next Michelle Rhee. Supposedly the North Korean dissident is an expert on Ivy League schools. She is complaining now that she is in the USA that Ivy League schools teach you what to think and not how to think. 

Well, it says a lot about public universities, but, basically if one wants to know how to think then take courses in liberal arts, because, all other DISCIPLINES tell you what to think.

March 3, 2021
By Manu Raju, Barbara Starr, Zachary Cohen and Oren Liebermann

The Department of Defense inspector general (click here) has issued a scathing review of Rep. Ronny Jackson during his time serving as the top White House physician, concluding that he made "sexual and denigrating" comments about a female subordinate, violated the policy for drinking alcohol while on a presidential trip and took prescription-strength sleeping medication that prompted concerns from his colleagues about his ability to provide proper care.

The findings outlined in the report, which was obtained by CNN prior to its release on Wednesday, stem from a years-long IG investigation into Jackson -- who currently represents Texas in the House of Representatives and sits on the House Armed Services subcommittee overseeing military personnel -- that was launched in 2018 and examines allegations that date back to his time serving during the Obama and Trump administrations. Members of Congress were briefed on the IG report findings on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Jackson claimed the report was politically motivated in a statement to CNN on Tuesday, saying the inspector general "resurrected" old allegations against him because he refused to "turn my back on President (Donald) Trump," who was a vocal supporter of his 2020 congressional bid. He also told CNN he rejects "any allegation that I consumed alcohol while on duty."...