GOOD GUY, BAD GUY

     Who is a good guy and who is the bad guy? How does one distinguish between them? There are those who say that it is the maxim if you are not with us, you are agin' us. But truly, what if the "with us" is the bad side, the black hat group of life? I like this one better and came across it in a book. "You can't be a good guy if you act like a bad guy." 
     So who are the bad guys again? They are those who wish harm to others, who think of themselves way over and ahead of others and damn the consequences. They are those who hate, in large arenas or small and it makes no never mind in the long run, because hate grows and spreads; it is a scourge of mankind and the smaller arenas only encourages the larger ones until it poisons a nation and then the world.
     Here within  CV we have that encouragement. We have a hater at the head, one who hates with the same black look, the only qualification to being hated is the one wherein one opposes the policies of David Israel. Black, white, green, purple, Jew, Catholic, agnostic - all are the same if you oppose him. This same bitterness of him is on the outflow to others and encourages those other losers to side with him and spread it around, joining haters of other and larger areas and thus we have a hater and an evil and bad dude in the larger arena - Trump. All the small minded people of the nation, the deluded, the big fish in small ponds, the heads of insane militias, those who did not follow the Trump chain till the end - these are those who have enabled the bad guy to triumph at this point in time. And it is indeed a bad time for all.
     We have a man who is crude and who thinks nothing of throwing a nation under the bus if it suits his purpose. On Friday, even as the nation waited and watched with horrified looks at the CAT 4 Hurricane Harvey amble in to hit Texas, even as people waited for the President to declare a federal emergency, thus freeing up funds and aid, even as that did NOT happen at that point, Trump used the obfuscation of the  storm to hide his next three steps.
     First he hides the resignation of Gorka, that true Nazi and good buddy of his. What does it mean? Why did he go now? Will he stand with Bannon and Breitbart? Any answers from Sanders? Nope, get back to you on that is the standard response
     Worse, is that he further indulged in his hateful attitude towards others who are different than him, those who have served our nation in time of need, those who have given much to our nation, but Trump tosses them out the window by saying no more transgender recruits into the armed forces. And for those who are in them already, well, hang on by your toenails or sit on a nail, for Mattis was told he has six months to figure out how to deal with you. So much for gratitude. So much for recognizing dedication and service.
     We all need to watch out for this is merely the tip, the edging of the hatred, the winning of the bad guys. What is next? Cancellation of the right of all to marry? Cancellation of equal rights under the law, at jobs, at play, in the Boy Scouts or wherever? Will we have another Stonewall? Will we be back to entrapping people in bathrooms, taking advantage of raids and spreading that hate? Will two people walking hand in hand now become once again a target of bad guys. And make no mistake about it, the hatred and the discrimination spread.
     And then we have the third piece, the piece de resistance - the pardoning of that creep Arpaio, the sheriff who stood for the bad guys even as he wore a badge. He stood for the bad guys disguised as the good guy, among those who do harm to those under their control, those who hate because of color of skin, those who believe in the power of power, in the power of hatred, in the power of fear. This is the bad guy trying to disguise himself as a good guy. It does not work and Trump, by pardoning this is showing us his version of the "good guys, the good people" on the side and in the parties and believers of the neo Nazis, the KKK and extreme right. G-d save us from these 'nice' people.
     Worse than even hiding this under cover of hurricane, is the fact that Trump planned this for a hell of a long time, even consulting with Sessions, that other bigot, about what to do and was advised to wait till trial and conviction and then pardon but not interfere before that. The casualness of hatred. The casualness of evil. This tells a great deal about this Trump, this scourge of America and his character or lack thereof. Even as the probe on the Russian connection continues, Trump is planning to pardon all and sundry, including himself. Great way to commit crimes, to commit treason, especially when one knows one is guilty. Others follow procedure in awarding pardons after a long Justice Department investigation but not Trump, this bad guy, not even disguising himself as a good guy.
     So the Democrats warn that there is a limit, not that one would get that idea from looking at the actions or lack of action on the part of the Republican National Committee. And the ground continues to shake under our feet as even Paul Ryan that wimp manages to squeak out a weak tsk, tsk to Trump for the pardon and his other misdeeds but to censure him, oh no, too much like a "food fight". As one who has seen many food fights, trust me, not the same thing.
     And what about all the people who are not sue what side to support, the good guys or the bad guys or those who make excuses for the bad guys? In a fantastic and thoughtful novel, The Mechanic, read for  yourself what the role and importance of cogs are in the machinery of evil, how they and their work make it go further and farther into their misdeeds, encourage and enable the killing and do so by ignoring the truth and by "following orders". There is a point wherein one must stand up and say NO! No more!!
     A writer I greatly admire, Rob Eshman, who writes for the Jewish Journal, says that " We need to sleep with one eye open, sometimes the right one, sometimes the left one." Why, because hatred is the same coming from whatever viewpoint though the hatred from the right is perhaps even more evil as they do not even begin to disguise their hatred, ashamed of nothing.
     Those who hate, hate all, black, Jewish, gay, whatever. But the hate of Jews, the hatred and the anger directed at them is virulent beyond all else. That does not lessen the prejudice towards others but it is different. It is not "just a philosophical evil but its reality was the killing of millions and millions of human beings." To totally eradicate a people who have survived all who tried from ancient times till now. So for those who saw the evil and the bad guys of Charlottesville and in other places, remember: "...winds shift. That means next time someone tries to convince you that all the danger blows from one direction, remind them that it doesn’t. The Jewish left needs to mind the left, and the Jewish right the right. Let’s work together to fight the fanatics and their enablers wherever, and whoever, they are.....It is the defining genocide for all time."
     Nicholas Kristof has a marvelous op - ed piece and discusses the craziness of Caligula and what it did to Rome but in the last paragraph states the lesson and the hope we must cling to as far as we are concerned here in America. "....the lesson is that Rome was able to inoculate itself against unstable rulers so that it could recover and rise to new glories. Even the greatest of nations may suffer a catastrophic leader, but the nation can survive the test and protect its resilience — if the public stays true to its values, institutions and traditions. That was true two millennia ago, and remains true today."
     We all need to hold on to that thought. Tightly. And discern clearly between the good guys and the bad, between the truth and those who try to disguise themselves.