IS IT TIME?

     Today's posting is like yesterday's - two parts. The first will be a posting from Ed Grossman with his reasons for voting for him and then on to the regular posting contents.

WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR ME, by ED GROSSMAN
I have been a practicing CPA for over fifty years. Currently licensed and certified to practice in New York State and Florida. You can read my resume in the UCO reporter so I won't bore you with the details. Suf­fice to say that I have been a leader in multi-national corporations and would like nothing better than the chance to bring my years of experience and expertise to play for the benefit of the village I call home.
I am also the publisher of The CV Messenger, a very popular publication, bringing all the news fit to print to Century Village.
I threw my hat in the ring because I believe if I am elected to the position of Vice President of UCO I can make a lot of improvements in the way the village operates.

I am dismayed at the following issues and the way they are managed. If given your vote of confidence I fully intend to do something about them. 

1) The waste of our hard earned money in deals that are engaged without delegate approval, without competitive bids being sought and the lack of consultation with the delegates.
2) The consistent contravention of the bylaws by the current administration and the lack of enforcement of the bylaws by the executive branch of UCO.
3) The abandonment of dedicated accounts for budgetary items and the co-mingling of funds as practiced by our current Treasurer. In my opinion this method of accounting is a temptation for administrators to abuse their fidu­ciary duty in making expenditures.
4) The new Millennium agreement and the amended long term lease that gives Beneson Capital and WPRF ( The owners and managers of Century Village) an unfair advantage by giving them the ability to spend large sums of our money to improve their property without UCO administrators objecting or initiating the procedures which could require the owners to pay out the millions of dollars it takes to improve their property.
5) The censorship practiced by the administration where any question that the administration deems objection­able is denied access to the village media (Channel 63 and The UCO reporter) whether they are objectionable or simply are contrary to the direction the administration is following.
6) The divisive policies and behavior that has created warring factions within our village . When we stop listen­ing to each other and we disenfranchise valued contributors to the management of the village for petty egotistical reasons , we can see that the village is broken into factions that are slowly but surely pulling us apart . If we are not pulling together, then surely we are pulling apart.

It is imperative that the residents of the village have an administration that works in the best interests of the village with the proper checks and balances in place that regretfully no longer exist.
I can only hope, and I do believe that my friends and neighbors in the village will see beyond the hyper­bole and the smoke and mirrors, and will come together to support me in my quest for fair play, truth and justice in this most critical election.

     When reading of the Holocaust or even going further back in history to the expulsion from Spain and Portugal or even before that to the expulsion from England under Edward II, one often wonders as to why the clues were not read, why they were not acted upon - why did they stay?
    Well, first and foremost is the problem of where to go when leaving one's homeland or place of residence. Where to find the welcoming country who will accept the refugees, make them welcome? We, as did many others for the most part, found that refuge here in the colonies and then the  USA though unhappily it was not until much later in time so could not provide refuge till then. But at least it was there and Jews came over from the old countries to a new country where the first President, the heroic General Washington, had given them a letter stressing their welcome, their contributions, and they felt safe, even though there was always a sense of awareness, alertness, to the ever remaining taint of anti Semitism.
      The countries of Europe, particularly those of eastern Europe, remained with blatant and physical anti Smeitism and so the Jews, thousands, left, but some remained, so the question is why? Well, there are the standard reasons, ranging from lack of funds, to family problems, to stubborness. But when the violence even tok place, when the signs and actions of a most vicious hatred of Jews broke out in Germany and Austria, why did they not move? Why did they not leave for the safety of other countries?
    Well, first of all, other countries were not so easily found, including the USA, with its anti immigration laws rising from the 1924 anti immigration bills. Second, after one's family had lived in a country for hundreds of years, had made a home, established a business, had educated their children - why leave? The reasoning said to hunker down, play it safe, and though more violent and harsh than standard (!) anti Semitism, perhaps this too would pass. So, many stayed until it was too late and there were no welcoming shores, not even our country as they turned away the St. Louis, sending the passengers back to certain death, refused to take in refugees from openly disastrous countries, refused transports of children, and only the few and the rare helped rescue Jews, especiallly children.
     And now? What to do? For as long as I can remember, there have always been discussions as to whether we would recognize when it was time, time to go? And luckily for us, there was that one welcoming place, the state of Israel, where despite the efforts of so many nations, we remained a viable, prospering country which even in the extremely dangerous days of the War of Independence, broke and fighting, literally for its life, welcomed in the refugees from Europe, from the continent that had murdered their families, welcomed the refugees from Arab countries who had struck and killed so many at the establishment of Israel and then threw them out minus their accumulated wealth and posessions.
     But now, now what is going on? And we have all, unfortunately, gained more of an understanding of the question - is it time to go? Is it time to pack up and get the hell out of here before the gates are slammed shut andother gates, the gates of ghettoes and death camps, slave labor camps, the doors to hell, open up to swallow us up?
     You scoff at the thoughts? Well, scoff not. The level of oral threats and words of anti Semitism, the rising violence contained within, the rising tide of violations of Jewish property, the beatings, at least 12 in Crown Heights in recent weeks, and the killing, the deliberate murders of worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh - and do not forget the other shootings, such as the boys years ago who were shot in their car as they were on the ramp to the Brookly Bridge. One mother, Deborah Halberstam makes sure we remember. The dramatic rise in incidents has risen dramatically this past year.
     Thoughts of  - time to go, time to leave, maybe we had better get out of here or maybe we will stay, too old to grow new roots, but the kids, the grandkids? And yesterday's shocker was what, the last straw? In LA, a community center, supposed to be a place of welcome for all, in California, where Jewish people have raised so much funding and materials and places of refuge for immigrants, a frightening mural was painted and the ones who commissioned it defended it as freedom of speech. It depicted a most horrifying skeletal and  witchlike figure with long bony claws Wrapped in the American flag embellished with Jewish stars, it held a dead baby, dangling from one claw and stacks of dollars, of snakes, were there as well.
     Folks, this is not freedom of speech. It is the fire in the crowded theater. It is the equivalent of open urging of hateful people to take action. Words of hate, incitement to violence are never to be allowed and if we punish people for blackface when they were teens or college students, then we can punish people for this, or disallow it from the getgo.
     Yesterday was a day when I truly looked around and asked mysefl if it was worth our lives to remain here. It would be hard to start over, a strain on financial resources, a rending of the souls as we left what until now felt like home, but is it time? Should we recognize it as such? And once again, there appears no other country to welcome us as the horrific rise in anti Semtism in the countries of Europe is frightful. France has allowed its innate and constant anti Semitism to rise to the surface. Britain has again allowed it to surface from where it has been hiding just beneath.
     I do not know why this happens. Labelled the 'chosen people', meant to spread and share the light of G-d, of morals, of a moral society, of a caring society, it appears that we have been more chosen for death than for anyting else. And yet, Jews have made contributions from time immemorial and it continues today - just open your phone! There is no rhyme or reason, no sanity behind, it just nasty hate.
     And when the nastiness rises in the USA, when the leader of the band is sitting in the White House with his recognition of "fine people" in white supremacists, with his seeking the favor and support of them,with the KKK daring to march again, with threats, physical and oral, rising, with his former partner in crime telling all of us that he is a racist, well, time to go?
     I agonize over the thoughts that race through my mind? I wonder if the fully assimilated Jew will remember the ancestry? I wonder if just as some other countries have begun to do will be done here - test the DNA and track us down? Where will it end? When and how will it escalate? Should we take the chance that it will not, that if we get rid of that man and show disaproval of all that, will it subside, hide below the surface, but not be acted upon? Will it then be safe for us? And what about the growing fears that should he still be in office for another campaign and he lose - will there be a possible violent reaction and where then will we be - blamed by all sides for this mess as has been done throughout history?
     Time to go? Time to abandon our homes? Time to go to our other home where we are welcomed? But what then, for Israel, without the personal intervention of a divine miracle, cannot stand alone. No country can. And what then? Time to go? Time to go? Time to go? Round and round it echoes in my head. Time to go?

AMERICA. AMERICA

     Today's posting is in two parts. The first part is simply a continuation of yesterday, with a reminder that we need to vote to change the same old status quo that we now have in the Village. Time to truly reintroduce a democratic UCO, wherein there is discussion, opinions that differ, a civil atmosphere wherein no one is insulted, degraded, cursed or whatever negative form is used to intimidate people. So, in addition to any other choices, and there are some that are okay, I recommend that you fill in the bubble for these people and help get our UCO on better footing.
   VP - Ed Grossman
Executive Board - In no special order -
     Myron Solomon      Carole Szepesi
     Gerry Sutofsky        David Torres
     Olga Wolkenstein    Marcia Ziccardy

     The times - they are a'changin' - or so we hope, both here in the Village and in the country. They certainly need to do so. I, for one, certainly hope that we get at least an infusion of better working brains, open to new ideas, discussion, moderation and compromise. It certainly is disconcerting when the supposed leader of the country needs to be man'splained about terms of economic policy - and in front of representatives from other countries. Shame on him and shame on us that he is in our office.
     But more than that, is the hope, the so urgent need, that we get more civility and morality into this government and no, I do not mean an infusion of religion, of the further intrusion of religion into our governmental levels and branches, but simply moral values such as oh, say, no cheating, no stealing from the people, stopping the disgusting and incestuous revolving door between industries and their executives in public office, proper behavior, acceptance of all as equal before the law, remembering that we are a haven for "the tired, the poor, tempest tossed" and that principle allowed us to establish and grow the country.
     Think it is hard? It sure is, especially as we are coming from behind now, have allowed the wrong ideas and actions to establish roots within the country and have allowed hatred and prejudice to flourish. We have allowed the supposed leader to state really weird things such as that Kim is "my friend", and that North Korea can have a TREMENDOUS future (capitals all his). Wonder if he will replace the other lovelies on his BFF list like Duterte or Putin or Erdogan or whomever.
     Perhaps we can actually return to the time when the media was not demeaned and even deemed an "enemy of the people"- a truly dangerous term to use like that. Perhaps it is actually the illegitimate President who is actually the "enemy" of the people! Just ask Junior about the media for he feels that he is oppressed - uh huh, just as much as likely as it was to expect him to truly understand the facts of life today here in these states.
     There is hope. The House passed the bill about the so called emergency and 13 Republicans actually found their spine and voted against this false and dangerous declaration of national emergency. It now remains to be seen whether all those blustery mouths of the GOP who jumped on Obama for violating the same boundaries - was actually different, but never mind - well, money and mouths and spines. Let's see. McConnell has already taken the deep dive into hypocrisy and who will follow?
     A new gun law. Hopefully, a return to sanity re choice for women and stopping the lies about what it means and a return of funding to Planned Parenthood and allow them to carry on with the good work, the so necessary work, for women's health in ALL areas.
     Perhaps we will have no more of people like Gaetz of Florida who has opened his ugly mouth and spewed hatred before and continued on this path with his threat to Cohen, scheduled to testify openly today in the House. Guess he did not like it when Cohen, no angel when in thrall to Trump, spoke of Trump as a racist, a conman and a cheat and who knew quite the large amount about the nasty shenanigans going on in his campaign and in the Trump Organization and how the offspring are tainted by their actions as well. Dearie me!
     Filth. Evil. Danger. And worse than that when acted upon, words put into action in the most negative ways. Can we all not be Americans once more? Can we not have at least a step towards unity rather than division? Can we not find and back those who would do this, would back it in words and deeds? Let us return to America, to a true United States of America, and incidentally, to a better Village as well. Neither here in the Village nor here in our country, must it remain a pipedream. We are not yet too far gone down the path to perdition. We can return. We can fix it. All it needs is the effort, the desire and the spine.

HONESTY, HONESTLY!

     Honest Abe. Washington and the cherry tree. Folk tales, apocryphal stories perhaps, but they do emphasize the fact that honesty is among the American values we cherish. So honestly, where the hell is that honesty today? Sitting in the Oval Office we have the prime violator of honesty, a man who lies with every breath, who woul not recognize truth if it hit him in the face, and sitting here in our UCO building we have another man who often tells a lie or is it avoiding the truth?
    The prime rule of their behavior appears to be - remember to keep the others in the dark, deny, deny, deny, and hope for the best. Well, it does not work. How many times will both of these men deny what is right there, manipulate and threaten in order to get their way, push and push against the will of the people until their desires become the law of of the land or the law of the Village?
     Call those who oppose one's views or desires names, call them violators of peace, disrupters, if you will, repeat that every day and watch those who fall for this mimic their every 'mistruth'. Obviously, the Village comes nowhere in ranking of importance to the fate of the nation and the world, but to most of us, it is the world that we know, that we live in on a permanent basis or for much of the year, and hence, troubles here affect us greatly - honestly!
     So Trump et al refuses to hand over papers, demands that he and his control investigations into his nasty shenanigans, or those of his favorite buddies, such as Labor Secretary Acosta who worked out such a good deal for a pervert molester of children who just happens to be a rich dude oh so friendy with Trump. Hmmmm. And how about our own CV where numerous requests for release of documents resound in an echo chmaber - no, no, they are not yours, we won't, we will not, too bad or after many moons and possibly tampered documents are released and second hand at that. I know personally, for when I requested original voting ballots it was as if I asked for the keys to the kingdom!
     But that was yesterday right? But yesterday has segued into today. Time and time again we voted against the AB proposal and yet here we are, three months away from Comcast cutoff, the largest company in this business, poised to grow even more, as we invited in and laid out the red carpet for a small company that has damaged much of the Village infrastructure in its vaunted 'horizontal drilling' which drilled so successsfully into pipes of all types and shredded the vegetation. Yes, they say it will all be fixed - just hope that the punch list is resolved a whole lot better than the disaster of the road paving - the disaster that we are living with right now as the roads crumble, the stripings of the lanes are nonexistent off the perimeter road, but hey, breathe easy, for we have replanted the area around the UCO buiding more times than I can count!! And repaint it oh so nicely. So what will happen on D-Day here when only one third have signed up for appointments? Now how will our glorious local leader be able to pin the blame for this on his favorite target, Ed Grossman, the unique 'disruptor' who demands answers, spends his own funds liberally to publish a truth telling paper, to dig for the truth.
     Now Ed is running for VP office and Dave, in his ultimate lie, the fake Village blog which is actually his own bully pulpit, deems all those who will not follow him blindly, without question, as disruptors. No, they are not. They are often truth seekers, demanders and chasers of the truth and it makes David very uncomfortable. Too bad! So.... I would tell you to do just the opposite of what he says on that blog and vote for the names he does not support. Or choose very carefully among them. The ones he leaves out are good people. I know, for many are my friends and one,in particular, I know very well. He is my husband, an independent person, who stands up there at the mic when he has a question, asks politely for an answer or makes  a comment, uses please and thank you, and never gets into a shouting match or fight. So, David, how are Gerry and the others you malign 'disruptors'? Shame on you. People, vote for those who have fought for you, who tenaciously chase after the truth, face and reject the abuse they face from David's mouth and typing fingers and the related 'support' of Lanny as he brownnoses oh so nicely. Vote for Ed. Vote for Olga.Vote for Carol.  Vote for Marcia. Vote for Gerry. Vote for Dave Torres, vote for those who would defend you, yes, ask the harsh questions when they must, but who would be there to serve you - not themselves. Do not vote for those who have proven time and again that they are the automatons of David, with no minds of their own.
     As for the national liar in chief well, he has gotten us into one fine mess after another, raised the acceptance of prejudice and violence, reached new heights of intolerance, cannot seem to keep his hands or mouth off of women, seemingly seems to have an emptimess between his ears, loves Fox News and his gurus Hannity et al, and for the piece de resistance, he has now pushed his buddy, Putin, into delaring the list of American targets that Russia has and that they could hit in less than five minutes with their new missile. Oh, please, Donny, keep on irritating all the world, even your best friend. Please keep putting us in danger. Please keep intimidating your Republicans and those fake Democrats like Manchin and Jones. Please keep on the path of destruction so that perhaps even as the world is consumed with poverty and war, destroyed by naure's catastrophes that we have caused and denied. I guess sometimes it is good to erase the slate and start over and you certainly are pushing whatever Power there be to do just that!
     The lies, the dishonesty, the devaluation of honesty, the crises that arise from this dishonesty - when and how do we stop it? We make our own clean slate, erase the office holders who have caused so much trouble, and vote in fresh and honest voices, people out to seve the people, not themselves. People who will put the benefits of others before their own. People who realize that actually, the needs of the people are their own needs for they are OF the people and do not hold themselves aloof from them.    
      Honestly, people, the choice is ours even as the time has come. Choose wisely and well. Choose boldly and for the benefit of your worlds, both national, global and local. Think and choose unselfishly for as hard as the road might be as necessary corrections and repairs are done, the results will be infinitely better, open and transparent, with a government run by honest, courageous people. Honestly.
     
     The same 

SISYPHEAN TASKS

     In school, at one time or another, we all read the tale of the Sisyphean task, of being doomed to a hopeless task for all eternity, be it the rolling of a huge rock uphill only to see it roll back down again, or, it seems, having humankind finally come to terms with what is right and proper and what is not.
     Why, in the year 2019, are we still fighting battles that appeared to have been won before. Why was a society that appeared to be over the brink already of accepting 'others', of accepting LGBTQ, of accepting the idea of transgender, of accepting , finally, the fact that women are imperative to the functioning and improvement of the world, that ability, capability, honesty, knowledge - all were required in order to serve the people, be it in government, the judiciary, or wherever they chose to contribute, why has this society gone backwards, esposed the hatred once more, rushed headlong into the faults of yesterday and trampled on the progress we had made?
     Yesterday I saw two productons that brought this point home. First we attended a most wonderful production of Fiddler on the Roof at the Broward Center. The stagecraft and presentation were wonderful, if somewhat different at times from the traditional Fiddler presentation, but one  truly fixed the message of the play. It opened with 'Tevya', not yet presented, reading an introductory paragraph while dressed in modern clothing. Soon enough, the outer layer was discarded and we were back in Anatevka of old, totally immersed in "Tradition" and all that followed.
     The second was a CD of the movie "Boy Erased", a shocking presentation of the farce, of the hypocrisy among so callled people of G-d, of faith, who are willing to be violent, to throw away their children, to do harm all in the name of 'healing' them from the sin of homosexuality. It was not blood and gore that made one tremble but rather the understated but overly brutal methodology and the wonder why the hell we had to be making a movie like this today!
     In fact, why is it that the hate, the animosity, the baseless shredding of humanity is still so much a part of us. At the end of Fiddler, the modern dressed narrator, Tevya of old, came back on stage as the Jews of Anatevka were walking once more away from a home from where they had been expelled, and touched the shoulder of the fiddler, the one on the roof. Past and present touching, the circle still unbroken, and this is not a good unbroken circle at all.
     So why does it appear to me that the task of being human and humane, of being openly accepting of people who are not clones of oneself, is the modern day Sisyphean task. Will we forever have to deal with this? Why are Jews being killed once more - in the streets of our own nation and as they fight against the rising tide of anti Semitism again in the countries of Europe where there has been an ingrained vein of anti Semitism since time began. Why do haters, proponents of violence, have the nerve to apear in public, be it in Charlottesville or at a KKK rally planned in Dayton for May 25. Why is this hatred still here?!
     These biases, these murderous hatreds, for they are murderous, are our modern day Sisyphean tasks, and we must break that old, that unbroken circle. That effort starts in two places - within oneslf, or as Michael Jackson sang, with the man in the mirror, and with the heads of government. But when one has a head who apparently supports this type of behavior, this hateful thinking, by excusing it, by calling them "fine people", by speaking and  ranting with and about hatred of brown people, of accusing people seeking haven, just as our ancestors or even ourselves did, of being "rapists, murderers, drug cartel and gang members", well, what do the young in our society learn and in fact, what do weak and hateful people , adults in society learn?
     Can we complete our task? Can we roll these awful hatreds not up a hill, but down the hill and bury it deep within the earth or under the fathomless depths of the oceans, never to rise again? If we do not, if we continue to allow these words of hate to be spoken, to be then acted upon, then woe upon us, for again, it can never be emphasized enough, hateful words lead to hateful deeds lead to hate filled murders and genocide. Why do we even have to worry about genocide in 2019 and yet we do. Shame on us. Shame on our leaders. Shame on humanity. Time to do the right thing. For once and forever.

I WONDER IF

          I wonder about many things, some good, some bad, but what I wonder quite a bit about now is the future. Ever since that Demented One decided to run, in an attempt to boost the bottom line of his Trump Organization, I have wondered what our bottom line will look like by 2020 - should we make it to then. How much of our integrity and unity as a nation will remain and what can we do with it to bolster the propects for the future.
      Over these three years and into the fourth I have become more and more concerned. He was a joke, a doofus, one who thought he could take his fake TV personna to the masses and lo and behold we found that the disunity of the country was far more than we had thought and protest votes made it possible for him to win the Electoral College votes. But remember - he did NOT win the popular vote, which is how we all thought the elections are decided. Wrong, so wrong, so wrong in so many ways.
     Never theless, we are stuck with the results - but are we? It is now evident that the election was tampered with and I have maintained all along that he is not our legitimately elected President. I certainly feel he is not mine, for sure! But be that as it may, what do we do and more urgently, what do we do to insure that we get the full results of the Mueller investigation in all its aspects, that it is publicized, transparent and let the truth come out, whatever it is.
     Do I think that I and so many others are wrong about what we expect to read? No, but I am willing to accept that he is just a mean,nasty, pervert with greed uppermost in his mind, with no care for anything or anyone other than his own business and his three older children who are just as greedy and culpable in all his misdeeds. Still, it would mean that he has committed crimes and no person should be above the law. No false claim of executive privilege should allow one to escape consequences of misdeeds.
     Will that be accepted? The weak Republicans who are willing to shred the Constitution, ruin the checks and balances system, weaken their own right, will never go along with what is right. They appear to have lost all moral values and strength. But there is one more issue that must be addressed.
     Did Trump knowingly collude with the Russians both pre and post election and moreover, is he continuing to do so? That, my friends, is the crux of the matter. That a sitting President should collude with the enemy just boggles the mind. Worse, at least for me, is the fact that every comment I have made re the Demented One, re his tainted offspring and the underwhelming Jared, the fears for the future - all that are of timeliness have come true and even if I was an outlier at times - I am not now. Mainstream media, analysts, etc. are saying the same things and so what is left?
    What is left is the most frightening of all. I have long wondered, in silence and out loud at the future plans of this man and those who support him, benefit from his misguided - at the very least - behavior and statements. I have worried about the possibility of civil war, armed struggles between the two sides of what America will be in the future. I have long wondered aloud about his plans to take over the ountry, to become our first dictator or king - take your choice. I was told I was over the line, but was I? I wish I was, but yesterday I read an opinion piece by a very bright person, who asked the question - what if Trump loses the 2020 election? What then? Will he leave the Oval Office? Will he go peacefully? And remember, this is the man who already stated in 2016 that he did not know if he would accept the results of the election if he were to lose.
     So what now? What now when we have an NRA magazine with large printed words - TARGET PRACTICE - alongside the pictures of Nancy Pelosi and Gabby Gifford, already a victim of a shooting attack. What now? Have we not learned a damn thing about gun violence? Have we not learned a damn thing about the motivational power behind words and pictures, that there are people out there who will act on them? Have already done so? Is this where we are at and if so, then the answer to the question above, will there be a peaceful turnover - hangs in the balance, a scary balance.
     So I wonder. The Mueller Report. The publication of it. The consequences. The disunity of the nation. The dangerousness of the Demented One and his followers, his evil planners - and yes, they are evil. Today there is talk of natural and man made catastrophes such as we have never experienced, world changing, but is this possibility not also world changing and are we ready for it? Are we willing to accept it, should it happen? Are we going to see armed troops in the  streets of the nation? Have we totally lost our way? I wonder - and so should you.

SHADOWS

     We have all played with the shadows on the wall, making our fingers play puppets and animals, but we also have known the other side of shadows. Walking in a  deserted area and seeing another shadow, shadows being mistaken for people in a dimly lit room, or even the figurative shadows hanging over someone or something.
      Today, and for quite a long time already, we have had a shadow hanging over our country. It is the shadow of disbelief, of despair, of shock. It revolves quite a bit around the shadow of deep mistrust and shock that we have suffered these past few years. Nothing is as nothing was. Promises made are promises either not kept or turn out to be less than expected and even harmful - pay attention to the bottom line on your tax filing.
     But the worst of it all is the nasty stuff going around, revolving around the question of collusion, trafficking with the enemy to the detriment of the country, to the violation of its most sacred values, and all for the purpose of getting elected. And why get elected? It seemed and still seems as if one of the main reasons was to enrich the coffers of the Trump organization and the Trump family, what with deals and higher registration in various hotels and golf clubs, and lots of goodies and perks for the incompetent, corrupt appointees.
     We have had traitors in our history, from Benedict Arnold all the way through to the latest armed forces officers arrested for spying for Iran or planning mass attacks on pillars of our society. But for the President to be under this shadow?! This is the mind boggling and most depressing shadow that has been growing and growing, casting much of the country into darkness.
      So if the Mueller probe is ending what will happen now. I have read one mind numbing, nit picking article after another, explaining the legal points about conviction of this collusion and it seems that much might happen under racketeering. But even should there be not enough of the "legal" points to convict, just the shadow,the implication of it all, is, in my mind, enough. Enough to force the man to resign. Enough to have a huge upheaval of the administration. Enough to force a reevaluation of the whole system of elections, Electoral College, political gerrymandering, and the need to make these elections impervious to hacking and interference.
     There should be no shadows over a government. It needs to be transparent and exposed to the light. Shadows seem to generate other shadows, seeping down over the lower levels of government, giving almost tacit condoning of corrupt and/or incompetent administrations.
     There is hope as we see the enthusiasm of the 2018 midterms burgeon into the numerous candidates for President. Others might worry over the numbers but I do not, for they will be slowly cut down in number and the thing we must hope for is that there be no spoilers to steal the election from where it should be and that the best person become the candidate. I hope, at this point, that Klobuchar comes out on top and with an appropriate VP partner. We need a good and solid administration headed by one with goood common sense, experience in the world of foreign and domestic affairs, one who has proven oneself capable of handling difficult situations, of standing up to handle tough situations, not backing down nor losing one's values. I believe that is Klobuchar, although there are several other excellent candidates should she not be chosen, but that would be a loss as far as I am concerned.
     Shadows, like much of life, can be used for good or bad. They can be fun and they can be creative. They can be reassuring and they can be threatening and ominous, hiding reality or presenting reality in a dark manner. We need to weed out the misuse of shadows in the country. It is as simple as that. And as complicated as that.

PUSH COMES TO SHOVE

     There are always times in life when a difficult decision must be made. It would be a time of  momentous importance, life changing even, but decide one must.
     Today, we, the people of the United States of America, are getting closer and closer to such a moment. A decision must be made and the consequences understood. Are we going to allow one man and his minions, along with his partners in alleged crimes and in political machinations inimical to our democracy, to create the first coup in America and take over the government and we become another Hungary or Poland or any banana or Third World republic where rights and laws are ignored, trampled upon and made a mockery of?
     Trump allies and Republican cowards and those of anti democratic bent are whining about a 'coup' to unseat Trump. No, it was not a coup but rather a group of sentient and sensible people trying to salvage the country they loved from the trash heap of broken Camelots of history. It is within the law to remove a President from office due to inability or desire to properly perform the required duties. It is called the 25th Amendment and has been applied before. Trump is very clearly a man troubled by mental disorder, emotional instability and a lack of business acumen as proven by his many bankruptcies. He has been shown to be without morals or compunction, violates laws and the rights of contractors and knowingly hired undocumented workers even as he ranted and raved about them - and then fired them en- masse when uncovered.
     He has lied more times than can be counted though the Times and the Washington Post do a damn good job at keeping track of them. He has belittled dignified people doing their jobs and purposely appointed incompetents and greedy people to positions where they have done much harm to the country already. He has been definably shown to be uneven, revengeful, uncontrolled, unbalanced, and almost mad at times with his tweets and rambling talks. He has, to a massive degree, endangered this country, the exact opposite of his job definition and responsibilities.
     Today we have a Coast Guard officer arrested for plans to commit mass murder in terroristic actions, declaring himself a white supremacist and has amassed quite a large amount of materiel. We have Ilhan Omar supposedly apologizing for her nasty and disgusting openly anti Semitic remarks but note the words and their implications. "Let me reiterate my sincere apology for any actual hurt my words have caused," Omar reportedly said. "I know there are a lot of people who in the last weeks have expressed support in trying to say this isn't anti-Semitic or this shouldn't be looked at in that way."This is as fake an apology as I have seen in a lifetime of seeing forced apologies made by bullies and attackers in schools. It is meaningless and avoidant of the truth of the situation.
     The rage that is present in this country has risen to unequaled degrees, I believe, not seen since the Civil War. Are we awaiting or on the cusp of a second Civil War? Many believe so and so do I - unless, when push comes to shove, people in positions of authority reach deep down to their very souls and make the right decisions for this country - and not for themselves and their various powers and greedy needs.
     Shooting people, running over a family of eight for road rage, the deliberate intermixing of a news media staff and personalities quite openly with the office of the President with openly taken quoted from the Fox news personality in the tweets of Trump. We have attacks on the media which insists on calling the truth, deemed "enemies of the people" with retribution called for!!! We have the highest number of hate groups in 20 years! We have proven chicanery with the election in North Carolina and accusations of the same thing with the presidential campaign of 2016, the election and the horrifying and unthinkable - yet eminently possible - situation where the very leader of the country is deemed a possible enemy agent. My G-d! What have we done? What have we allowed?
     And now, push has come to shove. People will have to step to one side of the line in the sand or the other, but decide they must. Stories of babies thrown over fences collide with truthful incidents of mistreatment of migrant children. Lies about business ethics are proven wrong by the facts. Hidden details of  a supposedly transparent administration belie the truth of the matter.
     Push has come to shove. Decision time is coming. Probes will be finished - but what will be revealed to the public and even to Congress? Will we, indeed, in fact and action, go after the truth and prosecute where prosecution is needed or will we allow certain people to be above the law? Will we back our democratic traditions or will we give them up? Push and shove, people. Push and shove.

LOST IN THE WOODS

     Ever find yourself turning around in a wooded area and losing your sense of location? How to find your way out to civilization? Or even just trying to maneuver around the eternal detours of road construction that never seems to end? Well, here we are in the midst of a forest of our own making, allowing it to grow up around us, perhaps even enjoying some of it until we realized what the truth of it was. Now the question is how do we get out of here?
     From the Code of Hammurabi to the rules of the Bible to the codified laws of society, man has moved positively along the road through the forests. Yes, we have gotten lost at times, terribly lost, and still are, but there was a forward movement. Now? Now is problematic and the question is - how did we get here in the first place? Where did we go wrong?
     I believe we forgot. We forgot that life is not just the accumulation of 'stuff'. It is not just the fancy cars or the bigger house or the costliest clothing. There are social obligations and that is what we have left alongside the road these days, thinking perhaps that we were lightening the load, but instead have found that without it, we appear to be weighed down and are sinking deeply down into a darker, more complex forest.   
     We have wasted funds on egos. Ben Carson's supposed great initiative has bombed. Quelle surprise! The DOJ has become a revolving door at the top and a poor excuse for the defender of the nation, becoming instead, the tool of Trump. Justice has gone out the door and taken another path, leaving other levels of government to challenge what has become a nasty status quo.
     People charged and convicted of crimes see nothing wrong in sending threatening tweets with target and harsh words. Why? Perhaps they feel that the leader of this now perverted society, the one lost in the deep backwoods, will save them when he achieves his final goal of total domination of America and the end of our democracy. When the President of the country is described as "it's possible that Trump is a Russian asset", then know for sure that we are indeed lost. We have thrown away the signposts to safety, defying our allies and making it easier for our enemies to flex their muscles, annex lands not theirs, dominate the world's economy.
     We are imprisoning children, tormenting their parents, allowing people in our custody to die, turning our back on our very being as we deny sanctuary to those seeking asylum, think that we can wall ourselves off from the world with sky high steel bollards, usurping private land to do so, ruining the natural migration paths of animals, and  now - now we are force-feeding those in detention! Admitted to by ICE! What the hell!!!! Are we so deeply in this dark woods that we will never ever get out?
     What is most frightening to me as a Jew is the fact, backed by statistics and gruesome videos, is the immense growth of anti Semitic deeds, words and behavior of the world. Marches, filthy epithets, beatings, killings, threats, and the same old same old of blaming the Jews for the misfortunes of the world, for its uneasiness, for all its ills. Have we not learned anything from history or are we perennially doomed to repeat it? Yesterday, reading the reports and statistics from all over the world made me wonder what the end of it all would be.
     Perhaps we are getting some warning. One of the largest glaciers in Antarctica has a huge hole beneath it where melting has occurred. Should this glacier collapse, well, you figure it out. There is a Biblical promise that the world would never again be destroyed by flood, but we are doing a great job of forcing that promise to be broken - and through our own doing! But not to worry, for if not by water, there are many other natural disasters that we are courting, so patience!
     I hope that many of us are now seeking a way out, finding the true path, challenging the status of lost in the woods. We do not have to be perfect, only to strive to be better than we are. Plenty of room there so why not get started? The increasing forest fires, those catastrophic ones, are ever growing. Times a wasting.

COPYCAT!

          For the most part my blog has been consumed with the greater danger - Trump and his minions. However, there comes a time when we must turn to the local situation and get a grasp on it as well. Our local situation is the entity called UCO, right here in Century West Palm.
     For too long there has been a dictatorial situation here in the Village and that drives the situation into worse levels year after year. Once there was a firm term limit on officers, but this man, so enamored of himself, could not give up this presumed link to power, such as it is, and manipulated the system - a skill he has and uses for dastardly purposes - and has been in there multiple terms and the Village has suffered greatly for it.
     There is barely any interest at all in being part of UCO for delegates or volunteer positions. There is very little room to maneuver unless one pays homage to the man, bends the knee, so to speak, and agrees with all he has to say. If not, one will be shown the door and saluted with nastiness, in front of and behind the back of. The insults can be sung, yelled, snarkly stated and even made from the dais at Assembly. Anyone who raises an objection, a question, who seems to challenge an idea or has ideas as to how to improve a situation is deemed a troublemaker and been called worse. On the purported blog of the Village, which is actually his own private blog, the man prints insults and then when called on it, removes it and plays dumb. He puts down his recommendations and calls all those who do not make his list troublemakers, dissenters, rioters and worse.
     Revenge is a favorite theme of his. Lack of forethought and lack of hindsight, questionable, very questionable, contracts are made and we, the Villagers, have to pay the consequences. We, like the citizens of America, are denied the papers we are entitled to, and told so with a smirk that one truly itches to wipe off his face.
     Meetings to explain, to be transparent, are few and far between, with agreements often made privately and then foisted upon us. Delegates are given not enough time to read and absorb terms of contracts yet asked to vote on these huge outlays on a minute's notice. Committee members are chosen on the basis of obedience and if not - off with the head! No assignment, no job. And thus we have revolving clones, members of committee after committee and the officers vote multiple times on the same issue. There is never any chance of getting anything through as he controls it all and his little puppets vote as they are told.
     So what has happened? There is a constant lack of quorums at the assemblies and even Executive Board meetings and others. Why? Because what is the use? There is a great sense of apathy for nothing happens anyway, so rigged is the joint against the residents. Information is withheld and just about the only one I see doing a good job, working hard at it, is Don Foster. Any questions and we get harangued, lectured, insulted and worse. So now the Village is being run by a smaller Assembly and soon it will be smaller and smaller, less use to the Village, a joke, actually. The press is suppressed here as wished by someone else and perhaps the new editor will allow opposition pieces, op -eds, but somehow I doubt it. Other newspapers are allowed, as long as it is not The Messenger, a paper put out by residents of the Village, but as with all dictatorial situations, not allowed in the Clubhouse and has to be distribute elsewhere. Why? Because the man is paranoid and can not tolerate any opposition, any chance of truth hitting the light. 
     The apathy is catching on with more and more. There are groups that will shout for their own interests, selfishly demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars be spent on their issues - tennis courts, pickle ball courts, disrupting the village by construction, and yet there is no interest in helping to run the Village and it is understandable for it is of no avail. Why bother to volunteer? Why bother to open oneself up to insults and personal attacks?
     And thus we have the lack of follow through, of the land of excuses as for example, why the roads are being repaved piecemeal - so many roots of trees, ya' know. We have no lane markings in the roads off the main perimeter road and people just zoom through and it is often a game of chicken - who is moving over, just as there seems to be little or no discipline on the main roads. Kill the pedestrian. Five points? or bike in the street, wheelchair in the street rather than the sidewalk - what you get five points for getting yourself hurt?
     We have lost our way here and the main cause sits there in the back office of UCO, contemplating more mischief and wrongdoings, false ideas and projects and leaving us more and more in a bad situation as there is very little new blood, and the new names are mainly followers, rather than out of the box thinkers with the courage to stand up with their ideas, and the various associations cannot even find people to be active board members! But watch what happens next Friday when suddenly close to 300 delegates will come to vote. The stench of it all! The reeking of the questionable means by which these people are found and the impossibility of getting a true list of who and where they are from and when their position was taken and where the hell are they all year!
    Why are there no volunteers? Why no candidates for office, as in the Executive Board when suddenly AFTER it was closed there was suddenly about eight more candidates. Stinky, folks, stinky.
     Dear Lord, but we need a clean sweep of officers. Next year is the time to replace this old president. Time to change. Time to rearrange. Time for one vote per resident owner and this man's unpopularity will get him gone - so now do you understand the delay in getting this done? It is our Village. Ours! Not the personal property of someone.



     

THERE ARE NO WORDS....

          …..and yet there must be, for how else are we to fix the situation - if indeed it can be fixed. We are in a dangerous situation, one more fraught with existential threat to our country than has ever been before. Yes, we have been eye to eye or missile to missile with Russia over Cuba, at odds with North Korea, at war with Vietnam and almost tore the country apart there, but at no time before this have we ever had a man sitting in the Oval Office, purportedly the leader of the nation, charged with its defense, and who categorically does exactly the opposite and puts our very existence in peril.
     Just trying to get the words out that would define the great danger for us brings frustration to my most inner being. How to transfer that feeling to others? How to get them to understand the situation? How to break the dangerous hold that Trump still holds over his "base", the very people for whom he is most dangerous? Instead of me filling the blank areas of the screen, here are a few bits from other people.
     "No other President in decades publicly threatened retribution against a television network..."
     "constitute a threat to the safety of my family" (Alec Baldwin asking upon being threatened with retribution by Trump)
     "...if the President cannot defend this country then he cannot fulfill his constitutional oath of office"   Exactly, for if he cannot, and indeed is threatening its safety, then what is the corollary conclusion?
     "And the idea is, if the president committed obstruction of justice, fired the director of the of the FBI to negatively impact or to shut down our investigation of Russia's malign activity and possibly in support of his campaign, as a counterintelligence investigator you have to ask yourself, "Why would a president of the United States do that?" McCabe said.
     "In the great state of Texas, we care about a little thing called private property, and there's going to be over 1,000 ranchers and farmers potentially impacted if the government comes in and takes their land," Hurd said on "Face the Nation" Sunday.
        A forced nomination by Japan for Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize. My vomit runneth over.
     Massive collusion of various parts and departments of the government, our government, to set up traps for kids looking for a university education so they can build their lives, be a part of the American dream. What they should have been doing instead is going after the developer and cheat and criminal who orchestrated his own false university. Never a university, just a money drain on desperate and trusting people and guess who benefitted?
     The same horrific multiple shootings but gun control? Never, it seems. Building of better health care, especially for mental illness? Never. Humane treatment for those seeking asylum in our country, just as all our ancestors did? Never, it seems, not anymore.
 Truth? An endangered idea and value in this administration.
     A voice of a bereaved mother -

"Eleven years have gone by and it keeps happening, and it's so disheartening and so sad,"

     And the hope and prayer, the expression of a deep need for this country and its people? 

     "To see what is happening to our great nation is disturbing to all of us as Americans. We cry out to you, Lord and we beseech your grace and mercy upon us all. Wipe away the fear that grips our hearts. Heal the tension and division that has emerged among us, Lord, and bring us together in love."

     Or at least some form of sanity. And we all know where that must begin.
     

ICHY PICHY

     When my oldest granddaughter was little, anything that displeased her was deemed "ichy pichy" and so it has remained. We all use the expression when we come across items we do not like or behavior that is displeasing, or improper or simply just to tease her.
      But in today's world there are many situations which truly deserve to be called 'ichy pichy'. The lies, for one. When did it become acceptable to lie, to incessantly lie, to lie about lies, to call truth lies, to use the word fake about truth and reality? And when did people become so what? Stupid? Ignorant? Self denying? Lying to oneself? I cannot figure it out but I know that for sure it aggravates and troubles me to the nth degree.
     When did it become so bad and sad a situation in DC that an end to it seems ever more distant and impossible. I had hoped that by this point we might have at least reached the end of the beginning, but it seems that nastiness and lies, putrid behavior and hate, not only are not ending, but are instead growing by leaps and bounds, condoned by the powers that be and the powers that want to be.
     Junior has proven himself to be a true chip off the old poisonous tree and his statement about teachers was just about beyond the pale but actually fit quite well with the rhetoric of the Trump family.His father has talked trash for almost his entire life, so why not continue the family tradition. Only this time he has taken off after one of the last bastions of our American society and a very dangerous signal as to the truth of the desires and plans of the Trump family and  for sure, it is ichy pichy. “you don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth.” I am proud to have spent my life as one of those "losers".
     When a dictator takes over a country, the first thing that is done is to mass arrest all intellectuals and voices of society. Journalists, scientists, doctors, lawyers, and of courses, teachers are arrested. Why, because they value knowledge, truth, justice and why especially teachers? Because they are the last hope for a society. They will do anything, including risking their lives, to educate the next generation, to pass on values, to pass on the need for democracy, for respect for others, for human rights. They give of their own time, their own souls, so sacred is their responsibility. 
      So here we have a family that wishes to install aAmerican monarchy, the Trump dynasty. The father rails against the media, yet runs his government according to the needs of Limbaugh and Hannity. He praises them excessively and even Coulter, who I for sure despise has come around to realize that the national emergency we have is the fact that "the President is an idiot." Well, welcome to the club!!
      But not so much of an idiot is he when he continuously challenges the Constitution, the division of powers that make our democracy function, adds to his own powers to the point that we are almost being run totally by dictat and fiat from his ugly mouth and mind. I have warned about this trend for quite some time already and there are many that have joined in the outcry and the warnings. I have pointed out his takeover of the judiciary, a signpost of encroaching dictatorships and loss of liberty, of justice, of hope, of future - just look at Hungary and Poland - and impose upon our judiciary system and the growth of incompetent judges all with the Republican stamp of approval and many with the ABA stamp of disapproval.
     Several years ago Trump said the "American Dream is over" and he was so right - as long as he is in office, as long as we have Senators with no backbone, no moral codes of their own, who wish to share in the loot and dismemberment of our country. We are despised by the nations of the world even as the ass boasts of how much respect we are getting. Yet what do we call it when Pence send Trump's greeting to the nations of the world and waited for applause and instead got dead silence. Why do we here in the country seem to be the last people to recognize the truth and  the danger.
     Yes, the dream is over as we refuse to remain a haven of safety and hope for the world. The dream is over unless we fight back, throw him and his minions out of office, return to the progress we had made in insuring better and better government. The emergency - oh, yeah - I feel for him standing there at the omelet bar , the tension mounting, which should he choose and as for the other 'emergency' well, that could wait, omelets and golf come first. The exaggerations and the lies - a very dangerous ichy pichy.
     Demand that your reps do the right thing. Demand that they stand up for America and not kneel down for Trump. Demand your rights. Demand human decency. Bring about the downfall of the most powerful effort since we became a country, to turn it into what it is not meant to be. The danger is clear and present.
     One way to turn the situation around is to choose well and I must say that Klobuchar seems to be an excellent alternative to the crap we now have in office. She is knowledgeable. She is tough. She can be kind and she can apply the truth. She knows how to work with people and is not an extremist of any side. the more I read of her, the more I like her. “We’re going to look at each other and look at the challenges we face in this country,”  climate change, lowering health care premiums and the cost of prescription drugs, immigration as the bedrock of American values, passing privacy laws to rein in technology companies, and the importance of protecting voting rights.

     Music to my ears, my heart, my soul. No ichy pichy here.

      

MONEY MONEY MONEY

     Nope, not talking about the Mamma Mia hit song, but rather the new and ugly face of money within this present administration. In addition to the wastage and highway robbery of the various Secretaries, the ego spending of theirs, their avaricious behavior with their old fields of work, there is a cruel and crude attitude towards money within this administration. It drives it to the point of indecency and brings shame upon us all.
       First and foremost, most telling about the fall from grace that has overtaken our country is the shameful immigrant issue. In fact, it is so shameful that if one looks at it properly, we have descended into the very depths of moral disintegration as we sell humans once again in order to raise funds. There are still thousands of children being held in a huge tent city, under federal controls so no welfare inspections, no educational strides, no proper supervision, no proper psychiatric care. What is even worse, boding more evil for the future, is the fact that more beds are being brought in, more huge tents being placed upon the land, more guards brought in to watch over these 'dangerous' future criminals, you know, those crying five years old, the three years old who still need diaper changes, and the teenagers who tried to escape violence only to find themselves being used as coins for profit.
     Yes, these kids are being bought from the federal government as they are placed in a for profit corporation's custody. They are being sold. Period. Everyone takes a bite of the apple - the government, the company, the workers doing shameful work and we should all hang our heads in shame. No slave market auction as such, but what else is this other than slavery, the marketing of human beings for profit and worst of all - these are children!!!!!
     And the money theme continues to carve its way through the rest of the administration. The rich got their tax cuts, the companies received windfalls of filthy money, the middle class got screwed as they now realize that their taxes have gone up, the poor are told that they might as well starve and quickly, please, as they are wasting our money, the American Dream has been killed for money purposes, trade purposes, that are screwed up anyway, our national debt goes up another trillion dollars with no end in sight, so at least there are happy fatcats! and now Trump, denied his awful funds for that stupid wall, is planning on raiding the piggy banks of the nation to build it!
      And the nation? For the sake of stealing funds that are eminently not necessary, for the sake of proving the power of the wallet, the power of imposed fear, we are headed into a constitutional crisis such as we have never seen before and worse, we now have the pervert Kavanaugh on the bench and 83 twisted and incompetent Trump judge appointees on the bench. Woe for us. Woe for the future of our country. Woe upon the future of the world. All for the sake of money and its conferred power.
     Jews are being cursed again, blamed for globalism, for money misuse, and by a Congresswoman no less and her supporters. The President is deemed "off the rails" on these issues, seven year old little girls on lockdown are writing last minute messages to parents, how they love them in case they are killed during this bomb threat lockdown. But gun control? Nope. Money, money, money. Filthy money. Money that should have no place here, for there can be a sane gun policy wherein rights are not breached and lives are not lost, especially our kids sitting at their desks.
     Money, money, money. The Trump Organization has to cancel its last remaining hotel agreement due to the fact that there is increasing watching over his business and the improper use of it, its growth potential, using the position of President to grow more money. At least this has had some positive impact here. And the excuse of showing 'deference' to the President, entrusting him with the right to run rampant over the Constitution, to sell children, to build walls - no, got to go. Money can not be, most emphatically can not be, the ruling principle, the driving motor of this government, of these United States of America.
     Yesterday I took a look at the bookmark I am using, from Yad Vashem, and the theme is remembrance, "let no Holocaust victim be forgotten". It follows that with a quote from a child, a teen, lost to this murderous era, to criminal people, all so that money, money, money, flowed through the German economy. It is from the last letter he wrote in the ghetto of Vilna in 1941, as the Germans undertook the 'work' of killing 90% of the Jew of Lithuania, amongst them my family of over 200 people, on my father's side. He wrote - "I should like someone to remember that there once lived a person named David Berger." Well, we will remember him and other victims, and we will not sell our souls for money and more important, we will not let others do that, to reinstate slavery in whatever form. All for money.
     This cannot be. This will not be It must not be.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

Wish it were really only one that flew and wish that the nest were not so large in diameter and depth  and sure as tootin' wish there were a whole bunch of fewer cuckoos!
     So we have the wife of a WH official who sends out blasts that a measles epidemic is false news and that  anyway, these diseases are good for fighting cancer!! You cannot make these things up. Wonder   what she would say to the parents of kids who died or were severely damaged by these 'harmless' diseases? And of course the question of vaccines, well, you should hear the rant on that!!
     But she does not stand out among these cuckoos. Trump meets the President of Columbia and goes off on a tangent about the economy - which by the way is beginning to show very recognizable signs of a recession - about how great he is doing, how the wall is being built and they have achieved much in that area, which is interesting since not one inch of new wall has been built under his administration! He throws great and fabulous words all over the place, particularly where they do not belong and then abruptly shuts the conference down. Cuckoo indeed!The nest is going into multiple condos already, so large and necessary are the housing demands.
     Meanwhile the nest of vipers, of consummate liars, although evidently they are not as talented at it as they think they are, grows apace and the circle is tightening round the master viper, the major cuckoo. Wish we could have an end - and then a proper beginning once more. I bet so many others do also.
     A serious issue though is the growing anti Semitism and the wrong arguments about it. See, the issue is not whether Omar apologized and meant it, or did not, or spoke again, now speaking at the conference along with an avowed anti Semite who prefers the death of Jews to anything else.  She obviously means her poison statements and not her apologies and the point is that Pelosi should be kicking her down the alley and not pointing fingers at the Republicans who were VERY slow to punish King and other such critters - including the chief Republican, Trump, who finds fine people on that side of the issue.  That is just one aspect, but the onus of punishing Democrats is on the Democrats and to do the right thing and not see the wrong thing done by the Republicans as an excuse for them to make short shrift of it. Do the right thing - period.
     Someone must take a stand. Someone must be brave and honest enough to admit and present the facts, to teach the world that no, it is not singing the Coke song but rather the Horst Wessel song about Jewish blood! Again. Again. Hungary. Germany. Poland. The USA. Russia. Indonesia. and I must say that to hear a German voice speaking about Jude just about sends the wrong kind of chills and fear running through me.
     The problem with the cuckoo's nest is that it is really not that of the cuckoo alone, for it belongs to a growing clan of them, too many to count. Their voices run together and stronger and outshout those with good intent. It is not one who flew over, but more and more. I can confess that as a woman, as a humanist, as a Jew, as a proponent of social rights, I am scared. Very much so.
     People, these are not harmless cuckoos. People said that Hitler was insane and they would just use him for his strength and then get rid of him. Uh huh. Not exactly what happened, was it? He used them alright and then threw them under the Zyklon B gas! We must be wary and watchful and ever so careful as to where we place our political and social hopes and never underestimate the power of the supposed kooks. Behind them is a strong group of determined evildoers who have other plans than you or I. Think I am jumping the shark? Well, go take a tour of Europe. Take a trip through recent videos here in the USA or should I say Jew - S -A as the bigots ranted at their rallies. Burn words, burn books, burn people. Simple progression. We know that. We must admit that and do something about it.

TIRED AND ACH AND SO HAPPY

          Doing the worst part of travel - packing - and had to take a break or my back will start to picket me. We were supposed to come home with less than we came with, so why is it that my two original suitcases are jammed to the hilt and we have another suitcase bought to carry the rest of the purchases! There is just so much here that is beautiful and meaningful and it is hard to put it down, or to say oh, so and so would love this and then not get it. Soooooo - one buys it and hence, well, you know the rest.
     In any case, this was a great visit to see friends and family and we will certainly, G-d willing, be back again. But I am not so happy about what we are returning to! I guess throwing rolls of paper towels was not enough of an insult and a ----you to Puerto Rico. Nope, that Demented One has to threaten to take away funds meant for their recovery and put it towards his stupid wall. Now, by the by, it is not to build the wall, but to finish the wall, making believe that he actually did some construction - did not - and hence hopes he can fool the same people again. Now he also tells California the same thing about the funds needed to recover after the catastrophic fires but neither will take it sitting down. What is the matter with this man? Does he not understand reality? Or is it that his perception of reality is so  skewed that it will never mesh with ours?
     Now the other idiot, Cruz, had a 'great idea'. Let the drug lords pay for the wall. Uh huh. First of all, they could care less as their drugs do not come in over the wall but rather through legal ports of entry so why care. Second of all try to picture the lineup and process. Okay, Drug Lord 1 - here is your bill, pay at that window and next! Truly! anybody in the Republican Party ever think ahead for two seconds before inserting feet in mouth?
     And in the meanwhile, the hypocrisy grows and grows. McCarthy, who loves nativists and white nationalism and who proudly said so, now has appointed himself the spokesman for the  Jews against anti Semitism. Oh, right. Yup. Like the two things have nothing to do with each other. As far as Omar, she can go to hell and she should be stripped from her assignments, but as of yet, the Democratic leadership does not seem to realize that. Perhaps one day....., one day.... In the meanwhile, we have dead from the neck up Devil's Spawn, Pence, who must have received permission from "Mother" to speak, suddenly pipes in and who the hell cares what he was programmed to say. Personally, I think he is working on one damaged spark plug out of say, eight.
     It is so hard to believe that we have a government filled with nonentities and harmful creatures. We need to look past them into the future and find and elect someone good and the first thing to do is make sure we indict the criminal Trumps and get them out of the way along with their minions. 
     The second step is find a good woman, yes, a woman, find a running mate, and go get em! But the Democratic  Party must choose carefully. There are forces working hard to split the Party, weaken its power and its draw. These people are found on the left, mainly and I am all for progress, but it must be secure and backed up. Yes, Green by all means, but sensibly and in a manner that will insure its success. And we also need to stop the nastiness assigned to women when they speak up, are powerful, have strong ideas, have strong personalities. Whereas all that is oh so great in men, women with these powers intimidate the weaker gender, the men, and hence their nasty campaigns. Personally, I think there are some good choices out there, but Globuchar seems to draw me the most and I need to check out some opinions and votes, but she is a strong and  determined woman, just what the doctor called for.
     We need to stop this racial hatred once more. What the hell difference does it make about skin color. All black is not uniform and neither is brown and neither is white nor yellow nor red or whatever color is ginned up. And why is natural tan bad while those insane deep and dark tans are okay? Blood is red. A heart is a heart. The kidneys work the same. We need to get real here. It will be hard to leave behind these primitive reactions, but we need to, must, if we are to progress anywhere positive.
     Sometimes I feel so out of step with this world. Where did I miss the turn, or is it the world which messed up, began a uey which led into swamps of yesteryear? I wish I knew and I wish I knew the answers to the problems, the proper Waze directions! In the meanwhile, I believe we all need to start with the man in the mirror and go from there.
 Tomorrow is travel day and I hope to post a tad later on in the day, so watch for it. In the meanwhile, there are the posts from the trip which came on at odd hours for you, so please, read and enjoy and catch up.

A DAY OF TEARS, A DAY OF SOUL WRENCHING

      No matter how many times I have been to the Yad Vashem or the National Holocaust Museum or the Jewish Heritage in NY, or anywhere else, I still feel the wrenching of the soul. I always look at other visitors and think about what would have happened to them, just as I know what would have happened to me at various stages of life. There is always a new exhibit or fact or picture or even an old one that strikes me in a new way. but yesterday was something different.
     Recently we have begun research into my family's roots, going back as far as we can, pushing the envelope and making a breakthrough at times which is exciting to the nth degree. It makes me wonder in awe at how so many couples, all through the thousands of years, no matter the situation, managed to find each other, marry and continue the line and here I am. It confers upon me the duty and responsibility to continue this chain, this line of links, between past, present and future. So imagine the emotions felt when I was able to find family members in the testimony pages of Yad Vashem, knowing their names now, and the blow to the heart when I saw a face that 
was, and was not, my Bubby's. It was the face of her sister, a sister I had never known had existed, her older sister, one of five older siblings lost to the murderers of Hitler, along with spouses and complete families, down to the youngest babe in arms.
     Now imagine the emotions roiling and boiling when we found a relative from an uncle who had managed to get out before the war, went to Israel, and established a family, which has grown nicely. I so wish my Bubby had known this, but my emotions were surely felt by her up there and the emotions of my cousin, Sholom, were intense as well.
     There is a feeling of joy, of sadness, of f*&^+ you when I think of the plans Hitler and his murderous minions had and the fact that despite it all, despite the thousands of years  of persecution, WE ARE HERE. And will always be here.
     And yet, what do I think when I see the clouds of poison rise again over Europe, when I see the same poison here in my own country. What do I think and what am I supposed to feel when the President of the country welcomes right wing extremists who threaten me and mine, when bigots and haters on left and right, dare to speak out, to openly refer to hateful memes? And what do I think, do, when representatives in government repeat this murderous garbage?
    So yes, Steven King was stripped of his assignments but what about the rest of those in government who speak out with hateful canards, timeless in their false accusations against Jews, calling for action against Jews and these are people who are in MY government. And what about when they are in the party I support, do it again and again, and yet get away with false and forced apologies. These apologies mean nothing, less than nothing, and are actually mockeries of true apologies. Are people afraid to criticize them openly to the true degree necessary because they are Moslem and want to be PC? Have certain members of the Democratic Party begun to lose their moral spines? They leave it to McCarthy, a true bigot from the Republicans to speak out against this? I recognize the irony here, the falseness of it, but still, the Democrats must put their firm stamp down on this, casting it out, if they are to maintain what they have gained.
     And how am I to integrate all this modern day hatred and prejudice and anti Semitism, even unto the point of shooting and killing right near my son in Pittsburgh, right here in my country, with the hatred and its growth portrayed in Yad Vashem?
     Actually, there is no way of integrating this for it should not be. I do not want a descendant of my family to one day be researching their lost past generations and see my face or the face of a younger generation and remark on the shocking resemblance, staring out of a page of Testimony as to when and where and how this person was murdered.
     Perhaps this statement will make it more real to you. It is not that 6 million were killed, but that 6 million people were murdered and each victim murdered was a Jew. These were real people, people who cried, laughed, loved, worked, lost, won, raised families, had hopes and dreams for the future, who persevered through the hatred to live lives in a positive manner and who one day found themselves in a nightmare world such as could never be imagined. The bigger shock here, is that there are people right here in this country who would gladly take the jobs of chasing down, arresting, incarcerating, torturing and murdering and how do I know this? Because the same people who ripped babes from their mother's arms, who pulled screaming child and parent apart, who threw children into cages with cold concrete floors, who outlawed touching, even of siblings - these same people are the moral descendants of the guards of the camps, of the ghettoes, of the Einsatzgruppen. It is a small step from this to outright killing.
     So yes, emotional stress yesterday about the past and what I discovered and uncovered. Emotional stress when I confirm that my great grandmother, for whom I am named, was indeed thrown onto a boxcar going to Belzec, an extermination camp, at the fragile age of mid 80's and most probably died right there in that damned and accursed railroad cattle car. I can only hope that it was quick, not after days of starving, of thirst, of cold, of fear. I can hope but is that not a pathetic hope. What does that say about mankind? About us, all of us?