You got what you wanted re. "Roe"

Well, you all wanted this, right? Not 100 percent of you, but certainly a preponderance, based on the obvious popularity of Trump in these parts. Red country Stevens County contributed to the rise of Trump, therefore we now see consequences. Fifty years of precedent with Roe vs. Wade wiped out. 

How often does the Supreme Court take away an established right? No, it is supposed to work the other way: U.S. courts have striven over history to expand rights. 

Trump was able to appoint three extreme new members to the Supreme Court. Prior to the first one, Chuck Schumer voiced the hope that the choice would be a "mainstream jurist." That might have been Trump's natural instinct. There was a time he was pro-choice. 

So what's the story here? Trump was aware that investigations were going to be on his heels, guaranteed. His best hope for getting support or "cover" would be from the most ideologically motivated folks. These folks would put rationality aside and just clear the field. Since left-wingers are far more rational people, Trump would break to the right, join hands with the likes of Jim Jordan and Ron Johnson. 

Senator Johnson from Wisconsin is my age, born in '55, and I'm ashamed of the parallel. He goes to church in the Wisconsin Lutheran Synod. The Synod believes the Pope to be the antichrist. But the Catholics now are collectively clicking their heels, I suppose, about the striking down of "Roe." 

For certain, this would never have happened if men could get pregnant. Imagine telling a man who had been raped that he would have to carry the rapist's child. He'd be flummoxed, disbelieving, but when the system has only women bearing children, well this is a sacrifice they just have to make. It is nakedly a diminution of women, like we're prepared to go back to a past age. Amy Coney Barrett is Catholic. Clicking her heels, I'm sure? 

And now we have to depend on Biden for some pushback? Biden the Catholic? 'Til now he was able to say he just went along with the law of the land. It was a crutch, so he could maybe stay in decent standing with his Catholic brethren. Still there have been no small number of Catholic clergy who have been reluctant to see communion served to Biden and Nancy Pelosi. 

Pelosi's spouse is of course in trouble with a DUI. Why on earth do people have to continue engaging in social drinking? Look at the awful price paid by those who get caught. Mr. Pelosi wanted his alcohol. His wife and Biden still want the thimble-full of grape juice from their priest at church. 

 

The money people

I recently told a friend that I seriously thought I was smarter than Janet Yellen, she of the Fed. Or she's actually the treasury secretary now, if you're maintaining a scorecard. It's all so incestuous, does it really matter? People like Yellen and Jerome Powell get caught being "wrong" on such important things with the economy. 

Remember the word "transitory?" But I doubt they were really wrong, I think they were posturing or scheming. They have to follow the script for seeking to ensure that the stock market numbers stay good or at least stable. At what cost? Inflation that might lead to hyperinflation? Hyperinflation set the stage for what happened in Germany in the mid-20th Century. 

Is it outlandish to suggest we're on a similar path, what with allowing people like Trump and his acolytes to seize power? 

So Trump got voted out in 2020 - this should have been reported routinely to all of us, then life would just go on peacefully. With a sense of order. Trump became crazier than ever. January 6 happened. We got the inebriated Rudy Giuliani in a position to have real influence. 

Trump's circle of people are not to be discounted for future influence. They are waiting in the wings. Justice has not delivered a real hammer yet. The process of judgment goes painstakingly on. In the pre-digital days, the old and responsible media would be guiding us to rational conclusions about it all. There was gatekeeper wisdom. It rose up for Watergate. 

Look at Tucker Carlson today: I doubt he's even serious about most (all?) of what he says on Fox News. He just developed a "gig" where he learned to speak to a certain audience "out there." And I believe "out there" to include our Stevens County. Look at the Trump stickers still on pickup trucks. Look at how we've gone "red" as a congressional district. 

Our previous congressman, Collin Peterson, saw the trend lines going so bad, he ran his last campaign like he wasn't even proud to be a Democrat. What a coward. He'd be surprised just how many people would cheer the standard Democratic agenda. Still, he might not win but he could live with himself. If he had "Republican genes" he would have been Republican to begin with. The Republicans applied a hammer against him: a nice photo that just showed Collin and Nancy Pelosi posing and smiling by each other. So that was anathema to our congressional district. 

We have a congressperson now who voted against certifying the election results. Even hardcore conservative Tom Emmer went ahead with certifying. Not only are we Flyoverland, we're clueless Flyoverland. And now the red state people can celebrate the Supreme Court's erasing of abortion rights, the casting off of Roe vs. Wade. And next might be contraception and then gay marriage. 

Do Catholics practice contraception? I know their priests have a hard time behaving themselves. You wonder why organized religion is in retreat. 

Janet Yellen

So maybe I'm smarter than Yellen, Jerome Powell and Pelosi's husband. Don't be deluded by "famous" people - don't assume they are necessarily special or smarter than you. They may well not be. When Powell first proclaimed inflation to be "transitory," immediately I thought "no, I don't think so." So what's up? 

If the justice department cannot come down properly on Trump and his cabal (or crime family, or shameless sycophants), it may be game over for our cherished nation. If Democracy dies, America will die with it. And then what? The scenario of mid-20th Century Germany? Do you think the German people are stupid? They obviously are not, but look what they allowed to happen to them. 

Sinclair Lewis from Sauk Centre MN once wrote a book "It Can't Happen Here," his point being that it could. 

Hillary Clinton should have been elected in 2016. Al Gore should have been elected in 2000. I wonder if both failures were due to Bill Clinton's disgusting trysts, particularly with Monica Lewinsky. You laugh at the mention of her name? In the end, she may have been the catalyst for this whole nation crumbling. Granted, Bill was the true offender, let me be clear. But Lewinsky chose to be compliant. 

We wouldn't tolerate misjudgments like this at a small town business. Rudy Giuliani would not be tolerated as a small town lawyer. So it's "Alice Through the Looking Glass" with our USA of 2022. Say a prayer? I'm past that. Is there hope? We must always embrace hope. So I truly do.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com