IAN'S JOTTINGS -- TONE DEAF -- JAN. 6 -- SCOTUS

UPDATE:   United States Select House Committee on January 6th .......

                           Hearing Tuesday June 28th  1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT)

There are a couple new-to-me blogs of interest I've discovered which you may appreciate, too.  Coincidentally, both of these gentlemen bloggers live across the pond from the U.S.  Take a dip, you may enjoy reading them as much as I have.

The first blog that came to my attention is written by a man with an interesting blogosphere history I learned about in a recent comment in case you missed reading it.  Ian Bertram has started a new blog, "Ian's Jottings", featuring an intriguing variety of topics.  You can visit Ian's blog HERE. 

Ian's no stranger to the blogosphere since Ronni Bennett at "Time Goes By" (TGB) first introduced his "Panchromatica" blog years ago.   Some of what she wrote included:

"He's a serious man with passion for world peace and human rights, but he also has a wicked sense of the absurd as demonstrated by ...  this link I took from his site."

You can read what Ronni wrote May 4, 2004 HERE.  (note: some links there may no longer be active.)  She had been visiting Ian's site before starting her blog.  Ian had discovered Ronni's early blogging efforts and they both regularly posted photos on "fotolog".  

When Ronni concluded she needed to give up her beloved longtime Greenwich Village brownstone apartment on Bleecker Street making her first move to Portland, Maine, Ian responded to her request to be a TGB guest blogger during her moving days.   

I've visited the new blog, "Ian's Jottings", and suggest you read his  June 16th "welcome" post  to gain information about his other blogs, art site, intended "jottings".  Based on his writing I've read,  I look forward to a variety of appealing subjects including his memoir, music featuring talented artists and much more.  The alternate history topic such as "Dunkirk" is entertainingly thought provoking as is considering his unusual idea that is revealed in "Green Earth", given our world today.

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The second blog, "Tone Deaf",  I discovered later which I sought after reading Roderick Robinson's comment on Sabine's blog "Interim Arrangements".  When I visited Roderick's blog I learned he had written several books.  I was fascinated when I read what he wrote about in one of his books, Opening Bars:  "Everyone has a voice so why not sing -- but at eighty?"  That's right, he became a singer at the ripe age of 80 years.

Exploring some of Roderick's blog writings I discovered he dabbles a bit in political commentary occasionally enhanced with a bit of poetry, has had a lifelong interest in aviation, is adapting to some significant medical issues and most recently has explored writing about everyday happiness.   He asks a pertinent question about the life he's lived that we all might ask about our own life you can read HERE.

Roderick's humor emerges with a light-hearted touch in his writings to also blend into one blog discussion about bellybuttons.   Subsequently, there's a description of perfection and then there is the account of his being insulted.

His novels are enticing especially since I note one is set in Arizona.  His appealing self-assessment:  "In my novels all women are heroines."  Hm-m-m!

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SUMMERTIME

Norah Jones with pianist Marian McPartland.  Tanglewood Jazz Festival 8/30/2003

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United States Select House Committee on January 6th -- more hearings in July

"Donald Trump and his supporters are a clear and present danger to democracy."  

      Preserve our constitutional capitalistic democratic republic when you vote.

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SCOTUS recent warped political interpretations of our constitution defy common sense with serious ramifications:

Separation of church and state is now compromised based on a recent case ruling.

Regulations in numerous states to restrict gun proliferation have been invalidated per a ruling.

Women's rights retracted including making decisions affecting the health of her own body.                             (Women no longer equal with men who are permitted to  make health decisions about their body.)  

Profound U.S. Changes

Profound changes have been occurring in the United States of America during my lifetime over the past three-quarters of a century.   Recapping the progressive nature of all these changes would require describing considerably more than what I want to write here now.

Most recently our Supreme Court has ruled in favor of individual freedoms for all Americans to wed their loved partner.  This act will result in significant benefits for many individuals who deservedly will now become full citizens. 

Another Supreme Court ruling has made it possible for this richest of nations to continue to provide health care for some of our citizens who might otherwise have been without such assistance.  More plan refinement must continue for the ultimate benefit of all.  

Other issues involving symbols associated by so many with racial oppression are finally being relegated to a long overdue status of significantly reduced prominence as evidenced beginning with South Carolina's Confederate flag relocation.  Tragically, the life of many innocents allegedly taken by a hate-filled mentally-warped-thinking youth with allegiance to that very flag has been the impetus to arouse Americans to examine our morality on this issue.

Perhaps now we'll -- once again -- following another killing disaster -- seriously consider action to curtail the role of guns in our society.   We might even want to re-examine the use of the death penalty in our criminal justice system for all, but especially for the sake of wrongly convicted innocents.

We still have many important domestic issues to resolve over which we have some control and must act on them.   Clearly there are other unpredictable external forces we're unable to control taking actions that we will simultaneously need to address.  We must demand those elected legislators mired in obsessive ideology to the degree they neglect realistic practical action recognize compromise is an art they must acquire and practice for us to have an effective government.

The Supreme Court still needs to reexamine their erroneous decree interpreting corporations to basically have person status.  We, the people, have reaped the lopsided results allowing our political system to be corrupted even more by big money -- this in a time when such inequity exists between most citizens and the small obscenely wealthy percentage of those absorbing the bulk of all profits.

History is fraught with lessons of what can occur in a nation where such financial disparity is present.  Those who seek to be our government leaders, plus our nation's financial and corporate leaders would be well-advised to re-establish parity with citizens.  We citizens would be wise to take more responsibility for our government and its actions so discontent does not build to a potentially destructive force imperiling our democracy and republic.  Forces exist that all too readily want to usurp our way of life, belief in individual freedom and free speech.