The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in state at the U.S. Capitol. She became the first woman and the first Jewish-American to be honored in that manner.
Category Archives: News
Video of the Week – September 19, 2020
After fighting an Oregon wildfire for some 14 hours straight, a group of firefighters – exhausted and ash-covered – suddenly broke out into song. True heroes trying to make the best of a catastrophic situation!
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Worst Quotes of the Week – September 19, 2020
“It will start getting cooler. Just you watch. . . . I don’t think science knows.”
– President Donald Trump, in response to a reporter’s question about climate change causing wildfires in the Western U.S.
“You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history.”
– U.S. Attorney General William Barr, addressing a Constitution Day celebration hosted by Hillsdale College.
The event’s host asked Barr to explain the “constitutional hurdles for forbidding a church from meeting during Covid-19.” Barr had recently suggested that Sedition Act charges should be carried out against some protestors – even peaceful ones – to maintain the traditional “law and order” status quo conservatives demand every time civil unrest breaks out over civil injustice. It’s ironic he made his comments during Constitution Day, since the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution covers free speech.
“The blue states had tremendous death rates. If you take the blue states deaths out, we are at a level I don’t think anybody in the world would be at.”
– Donald Trump, noting the slow decline of positivity case rates and hospitalizations while touting the overall federal response to the outbreak at a White House press briefing.
The pandemic has taken nearly 200,000 American lives so far. Aside from claiming that “blue states” (those with Democratic governors) are insignificant, I’m equally appalled he ended his sentence with a preposition – more proof he’s an idiot.
“I think he made a mistake when he said that. It’s just incorrect information and I called him and he didn’t tell me that and I think he got the message maybe confused, maybe it was stated incorrectly. We’re ready to go immediately as the vaccine is announced and it could be announced in October, it could be announced a little bit after October but once we go we’re ready.”
– Donald Trump, referring to Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the importance of wearing masks and the timing for a vaccine.
Best Quote of the Week – September 19, 2020
“Please stop and let me finish my question, sir.”
– Ellesia Blaque, during a town hall debate in Philadelphia for undecided 2020 voters hosted by ABC News.
Blaque, a professor of African-American history and literature at Kutztown University with sarcoidosis, had started asking President Donald Trump, “Should preexisting conditions – which Obamacare brought into – brought to fruition – be removed…”, when he interrupted her with “No.”
Talk about a Grade A smack down! This is a true case of putting a politician in their place!
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In Memoriam: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1933 – 2020
“When I’m sometimes asked, ‘When will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]?’ and I say ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”
“Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.”
“I tell law students… if you are going to be a lawyer and just practice your profession, you have a skill – very much like a plumber. But if you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself… something that makes life a little better for people less fortunate than you.”
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
“Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.”
“So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.”
“Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.”
“You can’t have it all, all at once.”
“I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.”
“Don’t be distracted by emotions like anger, envy, resentment. These just zap energy and waste time.”
“You can disagree without being disagreeable.”
“When contemplated in its extreme, almost any power looks dangerous.”
“In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a little deaf.”
“If you want to be a true professional, do something outside yourself.”
Video of the Week – September 12, 2020
Several years ago a friend told me people should be charged a “stupid tax” for…well, stupid crap they do! If that ever happened, national budgets would be balanced until the end of time. I’m sure officials in California wish such a tax existed, especially during this time of year, when wildfires are likely. Earlier this week, a “smoke-generating pyrotechnical device” at a gender reveal party sparked the El Dorado fire, which has now spread to some 7,000 acres. Authorities plan to charge the geniuses behind this bright idea with a crime.
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Photos of the Week – September 12, 2020
“The debate is over, around climate change. This is a climate damn emergency. This is real and it’s happening.”
– California Governor Gavin Newsom
Annual wildfires in California and much of the western United States have become even more fierce in recent years. Whether or not you believe in climate change, it’s obvious something dramatic is happening to the region’s normal weather patterns. The recent spate of fires have produced dramatically colorful skies of red and orange; something that would be the envy of any artist or photographer. Then, when you realize what caused those array of colors, the horror of it all becomes more real.
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Tweet of the Week – September 12, 2020
“New York Times” reporter Kathy Gray was in Freeland, Michigan, on September 10, when President Trump arrived to a cheering crowd – most without masks and none social-distancing. This is actually the first of many tweets Gray transmitted before the Trump campaign forced her to leave. As usual, Trump and his gang just don’t understand the concept of a free press.
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Most Ironic Quote of the Week – September 12, 2020
“This is deadly stuff.”
– President Donald Trump to Bob Woodward on February 7, 2020
In a series of taped interviews with Woodward earlier this year, Trump admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed U.S. coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and “more deadly than even your strenuous flus,” and that he repeatedly played it down publicly. Woodward, a veteran and legendary journalist who first gained fame with an expose of the Watergate scenario, recounts his conversations with Trump in his new book “Rage.” Not surprisingly, Trump is now trying to downplay the interviews.
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Worst Quote of the Week – September 12, 2020
“Please brothers and sisters, let’s try to not gossip. Gossip is a plague worse than COVID. Worse. Let’s make a big effort: No gossiping!”
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Chief Writing Wolf 