SHATTERED AND TORN

     Was reading a book I had come across, The Seven Year Dress by Paulette Mahurin, and read a line which struck me hard in its accurate description of what happened during Hitler's rise to power. It was impossible to protect from the hatred, the growing animus and his "message became a stench in the air that everyone was forced to breathe."
     I thought how apt a description and how accurate it was to the times of today, the messages of hate that we are receiving, the messages that some people do not truly matter, the hatred that now permeates the very air we breathe. And we get the dangerously dumb statements and excuses from people like Kellyann Conway who tell us not to pay attention to the tweets of that hulking man, that bigot and predator. But that man is President of the United States, a formerly prestigious position in the world, and what he says does matter, certainly so.
     Last nite I finally had the chance to watch a concert from PBS about the music of the 60's, not the 50's music that began the decade, but the rest of the music, the music that charred the country, that shook up the world and all complacency. It was a music that began with sweet dreams and hopes, that love would find a way to break through all barriers, and hopeful and hopeless dreamers swayed to the sounds of groups such as The Association, moving into the Turtles, into The Lovin' Spoonful, and the acid rock that truly was acidic in its effects and meaning. It was the music that was angry, the music and the words, the rasping sound of Barry McGuire singing Eve of Destruction.
     The words of that song truly struck me hard for how apt it was for these times as  well, with the same worries and fears so evident. '...if the button is pushed there's no running away, there'll be no one to save with the world in a grave....handful of Senators don't pass legislation....when human respect is disintegratin'..." Get the point, the picture painted? Retro is in style, but is it this retro that we are wanting, the retro that will destroy us.
     Once again the Eastern world is exploding with the same characters under somewhat different names, but the hatred and the blood remains the same. What is truly sad is that we have learned nothing from all the tense times the world has experienced, all the times when final destruction was not so far away. And today we have a man whose finger, attached to a bizarre mind, is that close to the button and the shredding of the world and the human race.
     But at this point I am hoping that even he and his advisors will realize that they too will be caught in this and the apocalyptic world that remains will not be pleasant or even survivable, not even for them. What concerns me more is that we will survive in a world where there is no 'human respect", and this supposed health plan, a misnomer if I ever heard one, will continue to shatter the rules of civilization, or at least what and where we thought we had finally reached, and the Budget of Death, the harsh bill which will see so many die for lack of care, for lack of access, for lack of medicines, will continue to implement the apparent goals of this administration. The world is evidently meant for the fabulously wealthy and the rest can go hang unless they are needed for the physical well being of the wealthy. Sounds extreme but take a look at the proposed bills, the Executive Orders which target the environment, the people of the world who are not white and Christian and wealthy. Take a look at the plan in its final goals. No worry about withdrawing from the Paris Accorde for with fewer people on earth, the pollution will of necessity fall and thus the world will be saved!!! Sounds crazy, but follow it all to the end and see where it leads.
     We have a massive meeting of the Koch brothers and their ilk and see who will also be at that meeting.
"Several key players in the ongoing Senate negotiations are at The Broadmoor resort for the network’s twice-annual gathering, including two of the five GOP holdouts: Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Mike Lee (Utah). The No. 2 in GOP leadership, John Cornyn (Tex.), is also here, along with Cory Gardner (Colo.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Ben Sasse (Neb.).
Some conservatives who could determine whether anything that passes the Senate would subsequently clear the House are coming to the Koch conference, including Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (N.C.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Dave Brat (Va.) and Justin Amash (Mich.). Reads like a Who's Who from the Congress and the goal of this conference is to get a harsher bill, for to these people it does not go far enough in stripping healthcare from the middle and lower classes. Nope, these people will not be happy till people are dropping in the streets all the while they have the triple gold plated health plan of the Congress and federal workers. So much for equality. So much for concern for others. So much for hatred in the air, for contempt for others. To use the language of Trump - it is a bigly horribliness!
     So why are people still surprised when the lack of ethics highlighted in the behavior of governmental officials causes more trouble or raises more questions. The great savior, Kushner, seems to have hit a roadblock in the Middle East even though according to his father in law it would be an easy solve. Perhaps he was holding out for the Palestinians to see reality, that the land between the river and the sea would not be handed over to them. Perhaps there was disagreement on some issue on the Israeli's side, but whatever it was, these things take time and yes, more time and perhaps even one today we will have peace with Russia!! Patience is the key word, but we have a president who does not know that word, who never reads a book, who never thinks beyond the next 140 characters, who thinks he can run the government like his own business, all the better to enrich that very same business and all the while the flouting of ethics.....
     And then of course we have the little juicy tidbits that just go to prove that lack of ethics appears to be contagious. Ivanka Trump, whose idea of writing a book seems to be at great odds with the rest of the world, whose ideas of struggles of the working woman are not exactly attuned to the middle class or lower class and sorry, not feeling it for those who have access to multiple nannies or who can tell an underling at work to watch the kids brought to work! - this same Ivanka has now been called to testify about the alleged theft of a shoe design. Now I do not know much, if anything at all, re shoe design, but when a person tries to deny knowledge that a shoe design was stolen and excuses herself from that whole chain of intellectual property theft by saying that "My involvement was strictly limited to the final sign-off of each season's line after it was first reviewed and approved by the company's design team,". Oooff, wimpy excuse. If you sign off on something you had better ask the proper questions. Any executive at any level knows that if one signs off on something one had better be well versed in what they signed off on!! The buck stops there. Hope she is not so careless with our lives as she advises her father in a blatant display of nepotism.
     And one more question - Mnuchin, the Secretary of the  Treasury just got married - to an alien! oh my! Does she have a green card? Has she been vetted and then vetted again to make sure she is not a terrorist? She originates from Scotland, part of the UK, a 'former" ally of the USA, so we had better be sure!! Goose and gander.
     And while we are on the topic of contempt and hatred, that same atmosphere, that same stench permeates the air right here in the Village. One man and his buds Hate those who oppose them and try any and all pathways to keep them away from UCO. They make up stories, make up rules, turn away the very thing they supposedly push - use of advanced and more modern techniques- or so they say - but Esignatures, used in major contracts, - uh uh. Nope, for this will make it a tad easier to start a process wherein they will have to watch their steps. Even now the fear of eyes watching them are causing them  to pay more attention to flooding, to broken infrastructure and on that topic, I thought we were going to fix only our portion of the drainage pipe so why all of sudden did we make nice nice to Waldman and thus make it easier for him to use our drainage system thus making it easier for him to say that he has a drainage plan thru the Village - right into our lakes, so look for more flooding that way!! What the hell are you doing, David? And how are you going to keep any shenanigans out of the clicker system like handing it over to someone else to use as one leaves or any number of other ways to cheat. Just using a clicker does not remove possibilities of cheating - and we all know who does the cheating!! Do we not??? Let's just count those papers waving in the air! Just who is on the committee who will be supervising the learning process? Gee, should I name the names without even getting  a hint?
     The world has that stench of the evil message, the reflection of evil deeds and thoughts. Hard to escape, but there are enough people who will close their eyes, shut their ears, and think we will just muddle through. Nope, not anymore. Not here in CV and  not here in the country and not here in the world. No more. Too much intertwining of countries, no matter what the nativists and populists and nationalists say. Isolation does not work. Nor does hatred. Nor does evil in the long run. Dictators do fall. Check your history. Check the daily newspapers. No, not the Rag. Real papers. Shattered and torn - there must be a better way - and soon.