Until today, until just now, I’d never heard of Senator Mike Rounds, a brave man, in a time when few are to be found.
He told the truth. A free and fair election was lost by the lead candidate from his party, his clan. One man, his candidate lost, he admitted the loss, said they lost, fair and square. Simple truth.
Until today, until just now, I’d never heard of Senator Mike Rounds, a brave man, in a time when few are to be found.
He told the truth. A free and fair election was lost by the lead candidate from his party, his clan. One man, his candidate lost, he admitted the loss, said they lost, fair and square. Simple truth.
And that is where hope begins. Simple truth. Good faith. Country before clan. The whole is more important than - the one, any one.
Thank you Sir, for standing up for truth, standing up for your country, standing up for democracy.
We don’t have to agree on everything. We can agree to disagree. We can compromise and work together. That is the way - Forward, the way to - Better.
It is interesting, is it not, when "he told the truth" is such an amazing event that we all feel awe inspired when it occurs in the US. Almost like that person did something special.
Really, we are so far from the America of John Adams, who only ever uttered his perception of reality, that is mind boggling. Really
Yet, Scott is right to commend him, I believe, because obviously the pressure and enticement to promote the Big Lie is powerful, and telling the truth if you’re a Republican can be the end of your political career and may bring death threats as well. It’s easy to think we would all tell the truth in their shoes. I hope I would.
Thank you, Senator Rounds, for risking your career and safety by telling the truth.
Rounds (R) IS NOT BRAVE! He's my senator. It took him a year to speak out. He won reelection and is in the senate for another 5 years and probably won't run again. He was a horrible govenor that had a factually corrupt administration that was swept under the rug. I'm happy he finally spoke out but don't be taken in by his statements. He's a corrupt politician with no scruples.
Furthermore, if Rounds were a decent human being, he would get on board with the voting rights act, including changes in the filibuster to make it possible for the Senate to pass it. Same goes for Romney, Murkowski, and all the other Republican scumbags (pardon the redundancy) in the Senate.
I’m reading this after responding to the criticism of earlier responders to Scott. I didn’t realize that Rounds had just won reelection so he doesn’t have that much to lose. Still, I welcome any Republican willing to buck Trump at this point.
Thank you, Scott. Reading your comment hours ago, pushed me to spend the early morning reflecting on the pain of lies, which darkened our days and hearts for the past six years. You said the word 'truth', so missing and longed for as a foundation of our land. We have learned a good deal more about the lies encompassing the USA and in hiding long before Trump and his crew took center stage. Maya Angelou, knew it well.
A BRAVE AND STARTLING
TRUTH
by Maya Angelou
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms
When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil
When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze
When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse
When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world
When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
Maya Angelou delivered it in June 1995, at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the United Nations.
Thank you Fern, for sharing this powerful poem and message. “We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.”
I think some readers object because telling the truth in political speak often is a way to excuse or deflect. Or gaslight. It’s hard for us to believe when history tells us to look back or ask more. Still we can hope. Change must come and time will tell Truth from lies.
And Senator Cruz told the truth and was publicly drawn and quartered on Fox. Telling the truth can exact a heavy price. That’s why few are willing to do so.
Senator Rounds isn’t up for re-election until 2026. It’s easier to be brave when nothing is at risk.
Which means that Senator Rounds was last elected in 2020, on the same ballot that had the former guy losing. I’m just amazed at the many Republicans who are questioning the integrity of the ballots in an election where they themselves won. Do they not see the irony in this?
You have my sympathy with the Gnome. One of our relatives disses her on a regular basis and keeps us informed of her latest dog and pony show doings and lies while showing the count of South Dakotans who have died of COVID.
Perhaps not irony instead total hypocrisy. And sort of an IQ test. If you can't see the logic flaw then you are too stupid to be in a position of power. And if you do understand but persevere with The Big Lie, then you don't care about truth or ethics, just winning.
Cruz made a half-hearted attempt to tell the truth, and then scurried under a rock when Tucker Carlson attacked him. What would have been admirable (a word that is hard to apply to Cruz) would have been Cruz telling Carlson to shut up and stop spreading lies. The price Cruz was unwilling to pay was being honest and risking the loss of support of Carlson's viewers. Cruz showed himself to be a spineless coward, who test-marketed the truth and found it had few buyers on Fox News, so withdrew the product.
Look what happened to Bill O’Reilly. Roger Ailes. Every top male Fox Noise host, and some execs and producers, likely has legal exposure due to some kind of misconduct. White supremacy and its primary propaganda outlet is not where integrity flourishes.
You may joke, but his advertising is all over the Willamette Weekly this morning. Not sure if it will come up for you, but I found it quite odd. There were 3 on the same web page.
Then I come on LFAA and read the comments as I do and I see yours, SLWeston, and it makes me wonder.. with all the talking up of the dictators and despots. Will he make a play for his chance to join the ranks?
I think you are on to something here, I have to think that Mitch is behind this. He has decided that TFG will cost more votes than he can bring in, especially with his legal problems
The turtle will put his head up and then dash our hopes as he signals with his tail the different view which is actually his. Testing the waters or seeing whether he gets some excitement from our team?
Let's not get misty-eyed about this. Mike Rounds also said he'd vote for the Republican nominee for President, which right now could be Trump. You can't have it both ways.
Arthur, Did you consider Mike Rounds, practically alone, in the toxic ferment of the USA coming forward to tell the truth? Did he do the country some good? Might he have opened a crack for a few more to walk through? Perhaps, he spurred some minds to question the lie. Did you make a negative remark as many did when learning that Dan Quayle advised Mike Pence to conduct himself according to the Constitution? As you were a lawyer, I hoped that you wouldn't find this series of questions annoying. Lastly, would you have appreciated Mike Rounds more if he was your client? He is a person with faults, perhaps, not an admirable politician, and, yet, Mike Rounds did a very good deed.
I did, but as Michael Steele noted two nights ago, Mike Rounds hemmed, hawed, shucked and jived over whether Rounds would vote for Trump in the next Republican primary. Rounds wants to have it both ways, suddenly being seen as a courageous truth teller with people who don't necessarily follow this stuff closely, and trying to remain on Trump's good side by suggesting strongly that if Trump's the Republican nominee, Rounds would still vote for him. Rounds is a hypocrite, like all of his brethren in Congress and in Statehouses elsewhere. He's like the drunk, claiming he's reformed, but with a bottle of hooch in his side pocket. These people are completely untrustworthy, and liars to boot.
I see, Michael Steele, expressed your judgment to a T. He is a likeable pol. Steele doesn't usually proclaim opinions in a high and mighty way and may have refrained from that in this case, too; maybe a bit of contempt for Rounds was mixed in.
A well-earned contempt, I would say. Michael Steele is a plain spoken guy who calls it as he sees it. And I generally agree with him, because he speaks to my concerns, and we share common values.
Christi, It took some time before I thought that whatever the faults of Mike Rounds (R-SD), he told the truth about the presidential election at this toxic time. He served the cause of honesty and provided a small opening through which others may come. Rounds not only told the truth, so urgent for us, he raised doubt about the lie. Mike served the country. Thanking him serves the truth. What benefit is it now cast aspersions on him?
I grasp for straws, looking for hope, a turning point, a slight change of course, anything. I look forward to reading what you write. Please take a look at what I wrote today, if you have a chance. Walls / Bridges...
Until today, until just now, I’d never heard of Senator Mike Rounds, a brave man, in a time when few are to be found.
He told the truth. A free and fair election was lost by the lead candidate from his party, his clan. One man, his candidate lost, he admitted the loss, said they lost, fair and square. Simple truth.
And that is where hope begins. Simple truth. Good faith. Country before clan. The whole is more important than - the one, any one.
Thank you Sir, for standing up for truth, standing up for your country, standing up for democracy.
We don’t have to agree on everything. We can agree to disagree. We can compromise and work together. That is the way - Forward, the way to - Better.
But we must begin by standing up for truth.
"He told the truth". (!!!!)
It is interesting, is it not, when "he told the truth" is such an amazing event that we all feel awe inspired when it occurs in the US. Almost like that person did something special.
Really, we are so far from the America of John Adams, who only ever uttered his perception of reality, that is mind boggling. Really
Exactly.
Slow news day.
Yet, Scott is right to commend him, I believe, because obviously the pressure and enticement to promote the Big Lie is powerful, and telling the truth if you’re a Republican can be the end of your political career and may bring death threats as well. It’s easy to think we would all tell the truth in their shoes. I hope I would.
Thank you, Senator Rounds, for risking your career and safety by telling the truth.
Rounds (R) IS NOT BRAVE! He's my senator. It took him a year to speak out. He won reelection and is in the senate for another 5 years and probably won't run again. He was a horrible govenor that had a factually corrupt administration that was swept under the rug. I'm happy he finally spoke out but don't be taken in by his statements. He's a corrupt politician with no scruples.
Furthermore, if Rounds were a decent human being, he would get on board with the voting rights act, including changes in the filibuster to make it possible for the Senate to pass it. Same goes for Romney, Murkowski, and all the other Republican scumbags (pardon the redundancy) in the Senate.
Peri,
Are you sure? A politician corrupt? Naw.....can't be....
:-)
I’m reading this after responding to the criticism of earlier responders to Scott. I didn’t realize that Rounds had just won reelection so he doesn’t have that much to lose. Still, I welcome any Republican willing to buck Trump at this point.
Thank you, Scott. Reading your comment hours ago, pushed me to spend the early morning reflecting on the pain of lies, which darkened our days and hearts for the past six years. You said the word 'truth', so missing and longed for as a foundation of our land. We have learned a good deal more about the lies encompassing the USA and in hiding long before Trump and his crew took center stage. Maya Angelou, knew it well.
A BRAVE AND STARTLING
TRUTH
by Maya Angelou
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms
When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil
When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze
When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse
When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world
When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
Maya Angelou delivered it in June 1995, at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the United Nations.
Absolutely stunning. A prayer to be recited each morning as the sun rises.
Thank you, Fern.
Nancy, That is how I feel when reading it.
As usual, Fern, your choice to quote the magnificent Maya Angelou, helps our mornings out.
Thank you Fern, for sharing this powerful poem and message. “We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.”
I think some readers object because telling the truth in political speak often is a way to excuse or deflect. Or gaslight. It’s hard for us to believe when history tells us to look back or ask more. Still we can hope. Change must come and time will tell Truth from lies.
Beautiful Fern. And, Beautiful, Fern. I love her on the new quarter also.
United!
❤️
Thank you, Fern. I think we all need that lovely poem.
Maya just got minted on a coin! First ever...
Fern this is gorgeous, thank you
This is profound. I love this. Thanks so much for sharing it.
Thank you, Fern. This is powerful truth.
Thanks for posting this
Tears of appreciation! Thank you.
Gratitude, Fern, for this gift.
And Senator Cruz told the truth and was publicly drawn and quartered on Fox. Telling the truth can exact a heavy price. That’s why few are willing to do so.
Senator Rounds isn’t up for re-election until 2026. It’s easier to be brave when nothing is at risk.
Which means that Senator Rounds was last elected in 2020, on the same ballot that had the former guy losing. I’m just amazed at the many Republicans who are questioning the integrity of the ballots in an election where they themselves won. Do they not see the irony in this?
To be blunt, no they don't. At. All.
Our whole state is republican. Look at our govenor, Kristi (Gnome) Noem.
But not you, Peri! There must be other POIs (Person of Integrity) in SD.
There are. Thousands. Believe it.
I know some.
Kristi is not a pretty site, especially when she opens her mouth.
She has a real problem keeping it closed.
You have my sympathy with the Gnome. One of our relatives disses her on a regular basis and keeps us informed of her latest dog and pony show doings and lies while showing the count of South Dakotans who have died of COVID.
I'd rather not!
Perhaps not irony instead total hypocrisy. And sort of an IQ test. If you can't see the logic flaw then you are too stupid to be in a position of power. And if you do understand but persevere with The Big Lie, then you don't care about truth or ethics, just winning.
Cruz made a half-hearted attempt to tell the truth, and then scurried under a rock when Tucker Carlson attacked him. What would have been admirable (a word that is hard to apply to Cruz) would have been Cruz telling Carlson to shut up and stop spreading lies. The price Cruz was unwilling to pay was being honest and risking the loss of support of Carlson's viewers. Cruz showed himself to be a spineless coward, who test-marketed the truth and found it had few buyers on Fox News, so withdrew the product.
Cruz stayed in character
Is it time to dig up that goofy, wacky, joke-of-a-notion from not that long ago?
“President Tuckerton T. Carlson”
Look what happened to Bill O’Reilly. Roger Ailes. Every top male Fox Noise host, and some execs and producers, likely has legal exposure due to some kind of misconduct. White supremacy and its primary propaganda outlet is not where integrity flourishes.
You may joke, but his advertising is all over the Willamette Weekly this morning. Not sure if it will come up for you, but I found it quite odd. There were 3 on the same web page.
Then I come on LFAA and read the comments as I do and I see yours, SLWeston, and it makes me wonder.. with all the talking up of the dictators and despots. Will he make a play for his chance to join the ranks?
Yuck, that thought makes me sick.
https://www.wweek.com/news/2022/01/10/the-flying-lark-a-grants-pass-gambling-outpost-warns-of-layoffs-absent-racing-commission-approval/?mc_cid=c3a90327d4&mc_eid=3d016508e2
Don’t even suggest that as a joke. Can you imagine?
Only in a tweet did Mitt agree, but he mentioned other rethuglicans who are quietly stepping on board. Maybe....
Interesting that this is happening only now, at the beginning of an election year.
Whatever it takes.
I’d have liked to have been in the room when he was tapped to go on TV and carry this message
I think you are on to something here, I have to think that Mitch is behind this. He has decided that TFG will cost more votes than he can bring in, especially with his legal problems
Always conniving; that is McConnell.
The turtle will put his head up and then dash our hopes as he signals with his tail the different view which is actually his. Testing the waters or seeing whether he gets some excitement from our team?
Being "brave" these days sure has a low bar, doesnt it?
Let's not get misty-eyed about this. Mike Rounds also said he'd vote for the Republican nominee for President, which right now could be Trump. You can't have it both ways.
Arthur, Did you consider Mike Rounds, practically alone, in the toxic ferment of the USA coming forward to tell the truth? Did he do the country some good? Might he have opened a crack for a few more to walk through? Perhaps, he spurred some minds to question the lie. Did you make a negative remark as many did when learning that Dan Quayle advised Mike Pence to conduct himself according to the Constitution? As you were a lawyer, I hoped that you wouldn't find this series of questions annoying. Lastly, would you have appreciated Mike Rounds more if he was your client? He is a person with faults, perhaps, not an admirable politician, and, yet, Mike Rounds did a very good deed.
I did, but as Michael Steele noted two nights ago, Mike Rounds hemmed, hawed, shucked and jived over whether Rounds would vote for Trump in the next Republican primary. Rounds wants to have it both ways, suddenly being seen as a courageous truth teller with people who don't necessarily follow this stuff closely, and trying to remain on Trump's good side by suggesting strongly that if Trump's the Republican nominee, Rounds would still vote for him. Rounds is a hypocrite, like all of his brethren in Congress and in Statehouses elsewhere. He's like the drunk, claiming he's reformed, but with a bottle of hooch in his side pocket. These people are completely untrustworthy, and liars to boot.
I see, Michael Steele, expressed your judgment to a T. He is a likeable pol. Steele doesn't usually proclaim opinions in a high and mighty way and may have refrained from that in this case, too; maybe a bit of contempt for Rounds was mixed in.
A well-earned contempt, I would say. Michael Steele is a plain spoken guy who calls it as he sees it. And I generally agree with him, because he speaks to my concerns, and we share common values.
Don't think you are praising the right person, Scott.
Christi, It took some time before I thought that whatever the faults of Mike Rounds (R-SD), he told the truth about the presidential election at this toxic time. He served the cause of honesty and provided a small opening through which others may come. Rounds not only told the truth, so urgent for us, he raised doubt about the lie. Mike served the country. Thanking him serves the truth. What benefit is it now cast aspersions on him?
I grasp for straws, looking for hope, a turning point, a slight change of course, anything. I look forward to reading what you write. Please take a look at what I wrote today, if you have a chance. Walls / Bridges...