Hi everyone, I have returned to share a couple of thoughts over brunch. Come on over to my trough, sit down a spell and let’s chew the fat! I’m hungry enough to eat old McDonald’s pig, his cow and a chicken or two. Here we go…..

Abortion: It isn’t pretty, but it certainly is needed sometimes.

Did you know that 54% of abortions in the U.S. are done with women choosing to take oral medications? No office visits with screaming protesters lining the sidewalk. No scary surgical procedures. They are private, effective and involve less risk to the mother. I won’t get into all the reasons why someone would opt to get the procedure. They are as varied and complex as the human beings involved in all aspects of a woman terminating a pregnancy. Men too. But I doubt the Supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade will eliminate abortion in this country. Millions of women choosing to have virtual facetime appts with overseas doctors prescribing and mailing medications will be impossible to stop effectively.

What I find fascinating is the Republican members holding elective offices around our country are saying so little about the decision. They choose to distract the citizens by placing blame on the leak of the draft letter instead. The way the Republicans pander to the radical religious hypocritical right you would think they would be crowing. Everywhere, all the time and very loud. No. They would rather have us look elsewhere, anywhere but at those very lawmakers who made this happen. They don’t want to own it. Mitch “turtle” McConnell stole an open seat on the bench from Barack Obama which went to Neil Gorsuch. Neil used his vote on the bench to overturn 49 years of legal abortion. Bada Bing, the religious right is appeased. Freedom of religion is OUR RIGHT screams the pious. But after 49 years, FREEDOM OF CHOICE is no longer YOUR RIGHT because we don’t like it. That sure sounds like a group of folks imposing their views on others. OUR religious views are sacred while YOUR rights to control your body is regulated and up to us. Sounds like a hypocrite to me! Oh, and don’t make me get a vaccine with a mandate, either. That infringes on MY liberty. YOUR liberty just doesn’t matter unless I/we approve. Well like my momma used to say, if you don’t like abortion, don’t get one! Just don’t outlaw it. Momma was right.

Lockdowns in China VS. the rest of the world:

Have you been watching the lockdowns across China enforcing their “Zero Covid” policy? From the city of Shanghai, there have been disturbing videos taken and posted online showing the horror of a dictatorship flexing its muscle. Huge apartment complexes in this city of 25 million whose inhabitants scream from hunger into the night. Haunting, pitiful and varying versions of cries coming from balconies or open windows of “we are starving” or “let us go out” or “let us breathe” fill the dark night air! People running into the street to feel the sun on their skin tackled and arrested. The scenes looked more like a massive concentration camp instead of a huge metropolitan metropolis. I applaud the brave Chinese citizens who dare to speak out! Kim Il Jung could not have done better!

In Russia, Vlad Putin has required visitors to quarantined for 14 days, be fully vaccinated, have a negative covid test within an hour of seeing him. Then and only then, after running a gauntlet of being sprayed by dis-infectants you may finally see him! From several feet away. But at least no wholesale imprisonment of people in their homes in Russia. Only the brutal murder of thousands of Ukrainians (I had to add that) with Putin being cheered on by his best puppet, Tucker “lying sack” Carlson. For a trust fund baby, Tucker sure likes his dictators! Of course, in the rest of the world (North Korea is not a part of this planet), there are far fewer restrictions these days. Masking up occasionally in a few instances is about it for now as it should be in a responsive democracy. If we could only make the radical religious hypocritical far right and their elected toadies understand basic human rights within a democracy. They value their own rights while attacking other people’s rights. Kinda like Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Il Jung et al. God Bless democracies!!