AND HERE'S ...........

     Here's.....exactly who? Last night's debate and tonight's have been and will be dissected beyond the most intensive surgery one can imagine. Gestures, energy, body language, and sound bites. Splits - real or imagined - between wings of the Democratic party. So where is here for those who need to have a candidate for us, for Americans of all ilks and classes, not just the fatcats? Who can safely set out on an election campaign and bring back the flag for us? After last night I cannot say with any sure confidence.
     As far as I am concerned, the entire group was progressive, but do not blow up here, please. They are progressive in the fact that whatever their policy, they were in it for the people. Unlike someone else we all know and certainly do not love!! Our medical policies must change; we know that. We must gain some control over the drug companies and their horrendous jumps in prices for drugs for which there is no excuse. We must police our donors, and had done better on it, until the backwards Republican party took away so many safeguards, especially with regards to where is that money originating? Who is giving it - and what are they getting in return. The blatant mixing of policy and private business amongst the Trump administration and especially the Trump family, is particularly concerning.
     What I did see last night was a definite winnowing out of some candidates and a hope and wish that even as some go, that some of their passion and ideas are held onto with strong hands and determined minds. The "yadda, yadda, yadda" of Williamson surprised all, just as did the rest of her presentation. She was back from the kumbaya affect of the first debate, speaking firmly and with some good comments, but again, she will fall out, though again, we need not lose ideas from people for this is ONE party and must remain so, watch their comments so as not to give Republicans, and especially that awful dude, any openings for tropes and memes or anything else they can find to be nasty about and with.
     We have so many problems that need fixing. Regulations that have been shredded, much to our detriment. The growing lack of morality in the administration The growing nastiness of White House communications and the implicit permission this language gives to the hatemongers, the extremists, to behave wildly and violently. Violent words lead to those violent deeds and I cannot stress that enough. We need only turn to history, and not distant history, to see the truth of that and the frightening consequences of it as well. The Democrats must stand up to and root out the hatred that is found in some of their own for they, too, must answer for it and for what it provokes.
     Now we are sending more soldiers off to Saudi Arabia. We are trying to gin up cooperation from former allies, those same countries we have denigrated, to join in a military mission in the Straits of Hormuz. All the better to start a war, my dear!!And at home we are picking on the wrong things. A patriot need not place a hand over heart for the national anthem. We never used to. We stood silently or sang, but only did hand over heart for the Pledge. So leave Ryan alone. Go for the important items,and figure out how all this will have to mesh into one agenda and platform for the Democrats as time grows short. I hope there is someone taking notes!!!
     Domestically we have so much to fix. Medical care. Environment. Abortion or right to choose for women, a right that is under vicious attack and contains so many dangerous tendrils The rights of ALL within this great country. A decent and humane border policy. Even after the ban on family separation, we have taken over 1,000 children away from their parents. We are still at it and I say we because we are aiding and abettig this by not demanding that this policy stop right in its tracks. Put the biggest brainiacs on this problem and solve it!! But not on the backs and the necks of little kiddies and anguished parents who have undertaken an impossibly long trek in the name of hope, in the fleeing of despair and danger.
     We have not given even one, ONE, person a granting of asylum since we made all those who apply for it wait in Mexio. What a rotten policy. What an oppositional stance this Trump and his rotten crew have taken. The nastiness of it all should make all want to cringe and regurgitate on all its proponents!
     The pastors of the National Cathedral ask, echoing another bad time in our history, a time we appear to be greatly replicating, the McCarthy Era, ask strongly, "Have we no decency?" That is a question we must ask of ourselves and with great intensity and honesty. This hiding of the truth from the public and thinking that the hiding, the opaqueness, makes it all okay, well, that is a policy that must go. What is the Trump administration so afraid of once the curtains are drawn back and all open to the bright light of day? I believe they are afraid that the stench of all that is behind that curtain will overwhelm us all and lead to their drowning in that sludge. So be it.
     We are in desperate need of decency, of hope, of respect for others, a need to stop our selective deafness, our apparent mutism on problematic areas and topics. We need to be able to talk with each other once again. We need to be a united United States of America and that begins with a united Democratic Party and an intensive effort - a successful one - to defeat the hatred and the racism and the nastiness that Trump signifies and represents and promotes. 
     As an op ed in a Baltimore paper wrote: Better to have some vermin around, than to be one. Oh yes!Now we need to be able to say - lesson taken. Can we not all join in and get an A on the next rating? We so desperately need it, must do and achieve. The right way. That is where here needs to be.

SAFE? THINK AGAIN

     And so life goes on: get up, prepare for the day, get to work, work for the day, go home, do some errands, watch a bit of TV, go to sleep and repeat. Until....BOOM!!! Suddenly life is not what is was, or life is not at all. Suddenly our safe boring days of rut and routine become times of peril and uncertainty, of pain and anguish.
     Why is this? Because the level of violence in this country has risen astronomically. People, for whatever warped reason, have been kiling each other literally since the beginning of time. However, we thought, I believe, that we were living in more 'civilized' times and random killings were no more, certainly not mass killings by ordinary people! Yet, that is what we have. 
     We think that wars are to be fought in a structured and humane manner, with rules of engagement to insure non combatant harm, but truly, does anyone think that works? It is an oxymoron to think that war can be civilized. The very concept of war is not! If you believe that the 'big' wars fought by powerful nations or their proxy wars are more controlled and 'safer', well, look and think again, and then go to the smaller wars around the world and look in, just a peek, at the savagery that goes on.
     Even more egregious, look at the violence we have here, right in the good old USA. We are not alone in this, but all I, we, can do, is clean up our nation before we can point fingers at others. And so every day we open the paper, turn on the TV or radio or internet and are horrified again. Yet another club mass murder. Another concert. Another festival aimed at families. Another car driver gone loony, murderously. Another crazed worker shooting up his former colleagues. A disgruntled student, perhaps bullied in life, goes after all those he feels are complicit in this, never mind reality.
     The blood! The body parts strewn over the area. The anguished and heartbroken cries of anxious parents and the heartrending cry of the parent or family of the perpetrator out of disbelief and horror. So many lives torn apart.
     Mothers fathers sons daughters friends colleagues strangers the guy down the street classmates the little old lady down the block the delivery guy that kid who keeps running into your backyard the pets of the slain - and you. Violence spares no one. It has no mercy. It has no love. It only has hate behind it. And, no, contrary to the opinion of a violence inciter living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., these are committed not by the "murderers" from across the border, but are homegrown, spouters of the same language of hate that he spouts, misogynists asnd racists all. Joined in by others from Capitol Hill and we have a truly poisonous atmosphere
     Why have we not stopped this? Simple. We refuse to enact gun laws. We refuse to recognize that our right to hold and own guns is not in danger with laws. It only restricts those who should not have one in their possession due to mental disease, especially untreated, domestic abusers, troubled students, crazed online haters who post threats, and why the hell should anyone not in law enforcement or the military possess an assault rifle anyway!!???
     But we cave to the NRA. We cave to the haters. We cave for Trump who threatens all who oppose him. We allow a crazed man who needs immediate and strong and intensive help to determine our fates, and then perhaps he bothers, after the horror, to send a ridiculous tweet, with barely a word of comfort, so overwhelmed is that tweet with words of violence and hatred, with name calling, with pursuit of his own interests. Others fail to call out the haters to be found within our government. Thus, we have the vile haters and murderers crawling out of the woodwork, enabled by the politically accepted words of hate and even the praise for it. Chanting these words of hate, thinking they are okay because hello, the President says them, because the President uses bully words - so hey, why not? Why punish the students for learning from a warped teacher?
     But we must learn and soon. Yesterday would be even better. Gun control. Help for the disturbed. Programs to punsish and then reform abusers. Shaming of those who are in the public eye when they use bully tactics to make some awful and inciteful point. Or inject their hatred into society.
     You think you are safe? No, you are not, for violence seems to be finding all the weak spots of our lives. A man sitting on the steps of a Young Israel synagogue in Miami is shot by a driveby gunner. Guess not enough Jews were killed this past year. Festivals are terrorized as people now know to shout "active shooter" and grab their kids and duck and run and howl with fear and anger, with trying to understand how this is happening here, in America, in the year 2019.
     Words.....> violent words....> threats of deeds....>deeds of hate and violence......>physical violence against individuals and groups......>random attacks.....>planned attacks.....>individuals and then groups......>and then.....repetitions of what has gone before? Dear Lord, may we please try to avoid that. If only we would police our mouths. If only we would self police our online statements. If only we would police our faulty and flawed public personalities. If only we would get rid of this awful hate for others. If only we get rid of the attitude that allows over 400,000 enslaved people here, right in the USA, all 'other' so no problem, hey! If only, so many onlies. Start with the guns. Do something. Demand someting. Your life and the lives of others, strangers and loved ones are at stake. Safe? Think again.

ORANGE AND BLACK AND RED, WHITE AND BLUE

     This past Friday I was eager to set about my plans for the day. Close the blinds, shut the phone, get comfortable and binge on the last season of one of my favorite shows, Orange is the New Black. I was happy and sad, for I believe it brought forth many important ideas and statements, comments on us as we watched the attitude of America towards its felons. 
    One accepted the fact, though hating it, about  life in a prison of the Russian gulag or a Chinese reeducation camp, or a Korean labor camp. Horrific! But to expect these same conditions, or roads and paths leading to the same end, here, in our own country, was, to put it mildly, offputting to the extreme.
     From the beginning of the series we saw how the economics of privately run prisons was not good for the prisoners, to say the least. Nor was it good for the guards either, as wallowing in muck makes one filthy as well. Prisoners were subhuman in the eyes of all, management and guards, even as guards were not treated or paid very well. Corruption  was rife. All these are facts that we know exist today, right in our prisons.
     No one is saying that we need to provide Hilton Honors standards in prisons, but what we need to do is be decent, not make money off the backs of prisoners, not mistreat them, reduce them to untermenschen, and take away all that is meant to reform prisoners, and help make them productive members of society when they get out.
    No, I am not an idiot and know there are dangerous people among these felons but that still does not make them animals, to be referred to as such. And yet, look at our 'camps' for immigrants. Watching the first six episodes, three at a time, for the presentations were that powerful and the heart has a limit, especially when it so closely reflects the truth, I was ashamed to be an American, ashamed that the demented and immoral man and his minions represented me to the rest of the world. The prisons or holding camps for the immigrants here were portrayed a bit better, but the same overcrowding, the same could care less attitudes towards them, the lack of compassion, the lack of accepting people as Americans, who lived here for so many years and the documents? What the hell do they mean in real life? There is a concept that life experience equals job experience so what about here? Does it not make one a citizen when raised here from a child, having worked for years, started a business, paid taxes - and yes, they pay that and social security as well - sent children to college, served in the armed forces? But no, we keep denying facts.
     Is it American to speak about American cities and Americans in the way that Trump does? What is next? The roundup of all those he deems  non Americans, never mind their birth or naturalization? Or perhaps he is looking for people to sell their estate holdings to Jared who already has slum holdings in Baltimore!! You know, guess he is doing his patriotic duty by having 'infested' apartments!
     We have lost our way. Deep into the forest are we and I wonder if there is a rescue team that will find us or is even looking. Starve children, take away food help for them and their families but keep increasing the tax cuts for the bloated rich. Never mind the growing homelesness as housing for lower and middle classes are going, going, almost gone and one has to step over and around encampments, bodies sleeping on the street, or even giving people the food one has for their own  lunch!!
    We think it okay to say that a woman sexually harassed is believable, but really, the guy who is accused is such a good guy, a general, so why think he would do that? Why? For power! And there is no difference between that guy and the Taliban or ISIS or yes, American, soldier who rapes a woman of the other nation!! Chew on that for a while!
     As for the 'go back' refrain, well, that is what the people on the St. Louis heard in 1939 as their ship of refuge was turned away by Western Hemisphere countries, including America, turned away by European countries until guilt finally allowed some to debark and note, that of 937 passengers only the ones who got  off in England lived through it all. The rest? Dead of starvation, of torture, of labor, of bullets, of gassing, of beatings, of drownings, of medical experiments and the ugly list goes on and on. That is what GO BACK means and all those Jews who forget that, all the Irish who forget how their families came here escaping the famine, the Italians who came here for a better life after the poverty of Italy and Sicily, all the refugees who took  up the Lady of Liberty on her words of welcome - we are all the same. We were just lucky as our people came here sooner so what the hell is the difference?!
     Contrary to the nasty one, we have plenty of land and jobs open for new immigrants, and there is always a need for new blood, new outlooks, new thinking. What we have done is internalize the nastiness portrayed from real life onto TV and we live that. We actually have people who think "it is my job and I am following orders" is an excuse for mistreatment of others. No, it is not, and did we not execute people for that after war crime trials in Nuremberg? Why have we forgotten? What have we forgotten?
     Orange and black and whatever damned colors we shroud our prisoners in, be they citizens or undocumented people, these colors negate the meaning of the other colors of our lives - red, white and blue.We should hang our heads in shame. Democrats - time to fish or cut bait. Push the demands for records and testimony through court. Throw deniers and obstructors into jail where we can, share these colors with them. Republicans, where the hell are your values, your spines, whatever makes a person righteous -- you have lost yours.
     Time to get that man out of office and if the Republicans in the Senate continue to support this proven acceptor of aid from enemy countries, who profits knowingly from his private business while President, who speaks disparagingly about his own people and country while he praises his BFFS, well, then screw you and time for you to leave office as well.
     RED    WHITE    BLUE

I want those colors and their promise, their meaning, back again.

ALL ABOUT THE WOLVES

    I just read that expression and realized how many sayings are about wolves. Throw someone to the wolves. A wolf in sheep's clothing. Running with the wolf pack. There must be something to it.
     I thought about it for a while and realized that for us, perhaps due to the frightening presentations  of wolves, what with their big teeth, and savage nature, we are frightened of what they are, what they might do, and we forget that they are simply being wolves, doing what comes naturally, and we also disremember that they mate for life, something we humans seem to have not been so good at lately.
     But where I think nature and man meet is at the point where people become wolves. They become wolves in their sexual behavior, and to be deemed a wolf, for a man, is not good! But there are even worse wolves, wolves who devour the weak, who prey on the helpless, who run with a wolf pack of their making, composed of vicious and selfish creatures who have forgotten their humanity.
     Such a wolf can be found at the head of many governmental dictatorships. Putin is a wolf. Trump is a wolf. Duterte is a wolf. Xi is a wolf. Kim is a wolf. The extremists on both sides of the spectrums are also wolves, and if not sure about that, well, look at the pictures where they bare their teeth at their opponents, or how they charge as a pack. Wolves, the lot of them!!
     Take our chief wolf (oh, please, take him NOW) and his behavior and consequences That nasty pose of his, with chin out and up, eyes squinting into what I cannot figure out, and arms crossed over his chest as the heavy bulk of him sits there in his chair. Or he stands there with a mean face, growling and threatening, yet slinks away when challenged, so he can growl again later, safely, on his couch, via Twitter or Hannity.
     Human wolves are to be found inthe presence of alpha human wolves. At present the above and other BFFs of theirs are alphas, that is, until another comes along and challenges them. In the meanwhile, the pack forms around them and to identify who they are, just take a look at pictures and see who is always gathered around, toadying, grinning like a Cheshire cat, smug in the self assurance that it is a good thing to be in the nasty wolf pack.
     It is not. Why follow a person who has nothing good to say about anyone and worse, throws out nastiness like a dog sheds water and fleas. These human wolves love to attack, though they go off whimpering when challenged, and generally try to sneak atttack, like Trump with his executive orders and vile tweets. Thus, they are most likely to double down on attacking opponents, especially Trump, who seemingly never sat in a classroom where he absorbed any understanding of the rules of grammar, of writing, and indeed, any ethics of a moral social being. The nastiness re Cummings and the denigrated citizens of Baltimore were the targets yesterday. Ugly indeed.
     The frightening thing to consider is whether, or actually when, this nastiness turns physical. When will our enforcement officers come out swinging, batons, tear gas, mace and all. Will there be any restraint, any restrainer, any elder with wisdom of the ages, for it seems that our elders in government have lost their way and the young ones, the challenging ones, are also lost.
     Wolves take on any challengers, determined to keep their position, and work on the rule of the jungle. Civilization, the things we have learned through the ages mean nothing, and in fact, are deemed harmful to us. So we ignore science as our earth burns, going right past the tipping point. We do nothing as people starve, die from lack of clean water, any water. We ignore the piteous cries of children and treat them worse than we treat our domestic pets! We have allowed our growth as humans to be subsumed in our greed, in allowing the savage part of us to prevail - to become wolves.
     Read what Comey said yesterday."Millions of 2016 Trump voters are not racists. Now those Americans need the strength of character to resolve they will not again vote for someone who clearly is. It’s not about judges or taxes. It’s about who we are as a nation."  Read of the compliments that Michelle Obama gave to a step dance group from Baltimore, you know, the rats from the infested city!!!. Read the following Welsh inscription, - The sun on the hill forgot to die, and the lilies revived, and the dragonfly came back to dream on the river." and then ask yourself why we cannot remember that beautiful sentiment, take hope, roll up our sleeves and remember that we are humans, advanced beyond the savage lupine nature found within mankind, rejected it for the progress we have made, for the caring we have displayed and learned.
     On Saturday, Kristin Chenoweth opened the WNBA All Star game with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Incredible!! Listen to it on You Tube or MSNBC or wherever. That was the best one I have ever heard. She hit every note, sang with passion, with appropriate feeling and respect. As I listened, watched, I wondered when I will be able to sing our anthem with that same feeling of hope for our future, indeed, for our present. When can I salute the country as it returns to its roots, to its improved roots, seeking to keep on improving even as it turns away all the wolves who come out to bare fangs at us, threaten us, endanger us. When?

THE UGLINESS OF IT ALL

    It is all just so ugly. People who should have a sense of dignity, understand the importance of responsibility incurred through their positions in government, are the very same people who shame us, the people of America, in the world's eyes.
     It was ugly, watching the faces that looked almost demented as they waved arms around and shouted and made faces during the Committee hearings. There was no attempt on the part of Republicans to get to the truth, to listen to the proof, only the same, yes, frenzied, attempts to back up Trump no matter how egregious his misconduct was and still is. There is no real denial that he never did anything wrong anymore, for now it is the attempt to cover it all up, to deny  perusal of documents that would prove the malfeasance of him and his administration.
     This ugliness, like it or not, has seeped into the American consciousness and behavior. It is now apparently okay, even fun, to openly show and declare hatred, to join with mobs, to meld with the chanters of hate, to devote endless hours of verbal abuse to and about people who are simply just a tad different. How? Not because they do not need the same things as do all humans, but because somehow their religion or their skin color or their ethnicity and racial mix or gender orientation or place of origin, somehow these have become the important things in life to the chanters of hate. Put on a red hat, blog away with nasty and snarky comments about others,and feel safe in the cocoon of the mob. The ugliness their faces pose before the public, before the world, before all that has come before in American attempts to fix our errors in these areas, is frightening to the extreme.
     And the ugliness grows. Active duty troops have been sent to our border to erect barbed wire barricades - against the purview of these troops. Now they are actually being used to watch, guard, the migrants a scant few feet away, standing on a platform overhead, just as guards do in prisons. Next what? Will we have troops of the American armed forces running through the streets of the cities and towns, the factories and farms, the colleges and the elementary schools, invading homes, and the prize of success - frightened men, women, and children who are doing the same thing all of us or our previous generation or two ago did!! So where does it stop? Do we "send them back' - a statement of hate and prejudice through the ages? Do we step back in time to when Americans brutalized Chinese immigrants, demeaning them as non people, or when slavery was legal, or when Jews and dogs were equated here - yes, here, in America - and both were noted on signs stating that No Jews or dogs allowed. Just as in Nazi Germany. Irish and Italian were looked upon with contempt as well. No one is immune.
     The ugliness, to reinstate death penalties, the ugliness of public speech by the President and that fatuous smirk on his face and don't you just want to reach out and wipe it off his face! The ugliness of it all.
    And the shocking is not far behind. Russia tampered with all, yes, ALL, fifty states in the 2016 elections. The Trump administration openly welcomed the aid of the government of Russia and citizens. There has been nothing done since then to insure a clean and free electon in  2020. My mind begins to raise what ifs. What if and G-d willing that will happen, what if Trump loses the election and he then trumpets his ridiculous accusations and stands by his statements of not leaving office? What if he refuses to vacate the White  House? What do we have then? Civil War? Is this his planning - to win and if not, take over. He has made clear his idea and liking of the idea to Rule for Life as do all his BFFs around the world.
    Was that what the military maneuvering in DC the other day was all about? Shudder, folks, shudder deep and long, for ugliness has a way of becoming reality in these here United States of America these days. The ugliness of the government and its supporters or the base of Trumpian thought has sent its poison deep into the American soul, into the psyche of the nation.
     As we nourish this poison, this weed that is killing all else in its environs, we abuse children in detention camps, arrest citizens who actually carry around all their documents and then accuse them of lying about them, so incorrectly and unjustly, lock them up and plan to throw away the key!! That is until public attention was drawn to the situation. But what about all the rest of the offenses against innocent citizens due to their crime of looking Hispanic and living near the borders!! Are they to be limited in their travel freedom? Are we all to have to start carrying our "papers" around with us, able to be stopped and braced and if not to the satisfaction of the bully stopping us, then get thrown into a camp? Is this the future, the ugly future? You say no, but then how to explain the constant movement in mood and action towards this end?
     So let us just ignore all the consequences. Never mind the red line and last chances being crossed and ignored as the climate and environment worsen dramatically. Never mind the fact that we are sealing off the social safety nets of a civilized and advanced society, taking care of the most needy in so many ways. Never mind the growing food and water insecurity of so many Americans and all around the world as well as we focus on the wrong things and forget about, ignore, what should be done, the moral values that should guide us being ignored, violated.
     Ugliness of the heart and the soul come out in the ugliness of the words and then the ugliness of the deeds and then, and then, and then.......
     
    And by the way, the ugly person who keeps sending me nasty notes, what a waste of time. Please look in the mirror and address the one there as to hate and stupidity and nastiness and ugliness. Perhaps you can still redeem your own soul.

HARK! IS THAT JEREMIAH WE HEAR?

     Poor Jeremiah. The prophet's warnings, dire statements and predictions, caused him much grief. He was jeered, thrown into nasty places, deemed insane, and his stern jeremiads were ignored. Now I am wondering if we are also hearing the voices of modern day Jeremiahs and ignoring it just as willfully and blindly as did the Israelites of long ago. As for the ensuing consequences of ignoring warnngs, truths? Well, you just sit down and imagine what could be, what is already, and what the hell we should do in the immediate, not future, for there is no time for that, but in the immediate present. Time is that demanding.
      Mueller appeared at times to be overcome by the length and duration of the questioning. He appeared to have some difficulties in hearing and even understanding questions. Actually, there were very few questions on the part of the subsumed Republicans, subsumed by their blind allegiance to Trump and their determination to ignore all warnings. Mostly they ranted and raved, displayed nasty faces a la Graham and Grassley from the massive joke of the Kavanaugh hearing, and any question was asked rhetorically, barely allowing any time at all for Mueller to answer, to respond the way he needed to.
     Mueller, disappointing us all, kept to the parameters of his former statement, that his report spoke for him. It did in the fact that he openly stated in the very beginning that the report did NOT exonerate Trump. He stated that the President could well be indicted after his term of office was over. Why he should be immune to the law now was not addressed nor explained and that is indeed troubling. Jeremiah, the original, and other prophets, made it very clear that the King was indeed responsible and to be held accountable for his misdeeds and transgressions and who are we to argue with the Bible!!??
     Basically, the day was a spewing forth of garbage, the load of which I wrote yesterday. The Republicans are blind to the truth and the Democrats actually were conciliatory, allowing the Republicans to speak out of turn as the Democrats ceded time and turns so as to allow for a timely completion of session. Ha!! See if the Republicans would do that. No way!
     In any case, he who shall not be named, who swore up and down that he would never ever waste any of his precious time in watching the sessions, began his Mad Hatter imitation and sent manic tweets down the line pre session, during sessions, and after sessions, bleating insanely how he was exonerated. Mueller's statement that he was not, the damning statements about Wiki Leaks, about the 'generally correct' statements, were ignored. Imagine if Mueller had not accepted the artificial handcuffs of Trump's personal lawyer - that would be Barr, the supposed AG for the country. Think of the truth that would have rung throughout the land. Think of the vindication of our modern day Jeremiahs whose warnings are discounted and degraded, even as the madmen of the country, the sinners of the country, continue to dismantle all that we hold sacred.
     And how should we account for and value the presentation of the presidential seal behind Trump as he spouted more words of hate and incitement at the youth convention. On that seal were two mistakes: a double headed eagle and a bunch of golf clubs. The single headed eagle and the arrows in its claw were revamped and Russia got its bow in the double headed bird akin to one on their official seals and the golf clubs, well, that is easily understood, is it not?
     So where do we go from here? How do we account for a President being above the law? No one is above the law. How do we understand the last sentence of the report which states that in so many words? How do we deal with the modern day Jeremiahs whose words are cutting too close for comfort? What was that military maneuvering around DC the other day? There was no emergency seen. Was it to practice a takeover of the government by Trump and his loyal and hateful troops or was it practice as to how to avoid a takeover in a civil war as the country rends itself into at least two, and perhaps many more parts?
     Anything is possible in this Trumpian distempered, upside down world. The longer he is tolerated, the longer his hatred seeps into the public, the longer he gets free reign, the longer and the deeper into a morass of immorality, of cowardice the Republicans sink - and the less likely that we ever get our country back again.
     Am I a Jeremiah? I hope not, but each and every time I question myself, perhaps I have jumped the shark, so deep and abiding is my dislike and contempt for Trump and my concern about the damage he is doing to us, I look aroud and there are mainstream pundits, commentators, saying the same thing. It is not a good thing to be a Jeremiah, for the mood induced is quite powerfully sad. Yet, truths must be spoken. The consequences of ignoring the truth are not good, to say the least and perhaps non correctable, especially the longer this goes on.
     At this point, we need to concentrate on holding the fort, such as is left anyway, and at the same time, do all we can to insure a fair election, cancel the inequities of the Electoral College by insuring that we get out the vote, that we turn aside all Republican and extremist attempts to negate the popular vote.
    Is there any other way? Yes, there is, but we truly do not want to go down that path. Certainly not yet, anyway. We can still pull it off if we put in a ton of hard work, gin up our courage and determination, do the right things, what must be done. Beginning NOW. Ignoring Jeremiah is not the way to go. I refer you back to the Bible, to human history, past, present and possibly the future. Sad story. Sad facts. Stern and clearly defined choices. Let us make our choices the right ones and make them count.

WHAT A LOAD..

     So here we are, awaiting the day's testimony with bated breath. Or are we? Are we just waiting to hear the useless bombast of the hot air balloons masquerading as representatives of the people of these here United States of America? The more I read, the more I realize the hopelessness of it all as the committees are all coming to the fray with preconcieved notions and ideas and the Trump administration, as usual, has tried to block the whole damn thing by writing a love note to Mueller telling him basically to shut his mouth. They have given 'presumptive presidential privilege" to the whole mess, just as they have done for all else in the disgusting mess that is Trump, both pre and during his presidential years - if I can even ascribe that term to these years - as presidential, - so far is he from that idea and personhood.
     This administration is so busy trying to deconstruct all the good that has gone before that they cannot see what is happening in this country. More debt for the country? Sure! More tax cuts for the already filthy rich? Sure, why not? Making a fake effort to cut the debt of the nation? Not a problem. Let's go after those security threats, that dishwasher raising two American born children, or that three month old brought in on his father's back over 1,000 miles so he can  have a future. Or what about those greedy people, yes, American citizens, even white - (gasp) - who are eating on our dime? Yeah, getting food help, supplemental aid. So let's just take that away. The kids will cry at night from empty bellies? Well, let the parents do something. Oh, no jobs or awfully low wages for them? Well, we have decided that no one needs help if they are a family of four and make about $32,000 a year!  Unbelievable!!! Wonder if they ever tried to do that!!
     This whole Trump administration treats their time in office as the perfect time to legally raid the country and make more money for themselves and their families and friends. You know, the family and friends discount, and cronyism and nepotism! Qualified? Nah, but what difference does that make? Just pull the curtain of presidential privilege over the whole criminal mess asnd home free!! Olly, olly, ox in free!! (Hope that is how it is spelled.)
     And the Democrats are not much better here, even if for the most part they are on the right side of this mess. But they, too, allow racism from some mouths on their side of the aisle and do not slam down on it properly. They muddle around, like a herd of buffalo, wondering what to do next? Should they continue to run in circles or perhaps run right over the edge of the cliff? Does it really make a difference?
     We need a leader, a fearless leader, one who will rip away the curtain of nastiness and greed that shields the Republicans right now, especially their chief alleged criminal in charge. We need a hero who will remake the Democrats into the people of courage they should be and renew (can it be done?) the Republican Party, returning it to its roots as the party of Lincoln, and not tyrant wanna be's and cowardly followers of a master of their fate!!
     Bad news all around and stupidity reigns. Parents are chided because they cannot afford to pay for school lunch so a generous CEO steps in and offers to pay the debt of $22,000. The school board? Nay, it says! Those parents will pay or their children will go hungry!! What a load of crap, folks, and what a load of supposed leaders we have chosen or allowed to run the place. Many times I think how we are reaping what we have sown, that we are getting our just desserts!!
    But can we not try to get out of these messes? Russia and China are at it again, bosom buddies and I wonder, I really do, when this will turn into an open triumvirate when Trump comes all the way out of his political closet. I wonder when the world will blow up and trust me, the desk will not protect you! I wonder when people will fully, if ever, come to their senses.
     So am I hopeful about today's hearings? Perhaps, if Mueller pulls that stick out of the portion of his anatomy where it has gotten stuck, ignores the self serving letter and threats of the Justice Department and tells the truth, the whole truth!! If he does that, if the  Democrats do what they are supposed to do and do not waste the day with hot air and bombast, and if the Republicans finally and openly accept what they acknowledge to themselves in private, that their leader is a crook, a collusionist, an obstructor of justice, well, then, maybe. But, sorry, folks, I just do not see that happening. Not today. I wonder if ever.

STANDING THE WATCH

      Over a million and a half soldiers have lost their lives since the founding of our nation. They were standing their watch, guarding and defending the nation, preserving the rights and principles of that nation. Millions of others were wounded doing the same thing. Their sacrifices while standing the watch need to be remembered and honored, whilst the civilians of the country also stand watch, doing their best to honor those rights, to insure that they continue to exist, in word and deed. That is our watch responsibility.
     Of late, we have shunted aside those duties of standing the watch. We have unilaterally decided to violate these rights, tried to change their function and application in extreme ways, akin to the government of 1984 or Brave New World. We have created an Animal Farm in real life, wherein the mouthing of the statement that all are equal before the law, is mocked by a corollary - that some are more equal than others.
     We have decided that these rights are limited, allowing some to spout words of hate, to encourage deeds of hate, even as we refuse others the same 'privilege'. This cannot be. We need to aspire to a time when these words of hate are not needed, are wiped clean out of the vocabulary, but until we are in that situation, all are allowed to speak, as disgusting as this might be. As dangerous as it is. As detestable as it is.
     It is easy to violate the principles of a country, make mockery of the rules of standing the watch, to rile people up, particularly when tensions are high, when uncertainty reigns, but much more difficult to watch the mouth and instead, work on the more difficult tasks of fixing the societal messes we have.
     For whom are we standing the watch? For others? Yes, but also for ourselves, for even as we protect the immigrant from being dragged from his home along with his 12 year old, we are protecting our rights, for rights are always being challenged and that damned bell can toll for us just as easily as it does for others. When we protect an immigrant, we are also protecting our own history, both as a nation and as a gathering of descendants of immigrants, for so we all are, and stop fooling ourselves, yourselves, when we say that all our ancestors came here legally. No, they did not. Some yes, and others no. Accept that fact and move on. Society has other needs and demands, and those standing the watch need help.
     Standing the watch means that yes, the old saw of "he ain't heavy; he's my brother" has got to be kept in the column of truth and reliability. We must, as civilian and soldier alike, remember that we are all Americans, native, naturalized and aspiring; we are all brothers of the same family - Americans. Stand the watch with all Americans.
     Deserting others in the face of need is nothing to be proud of. It does not speak well for the deserter, and that is what the advocates of hate, those who refuse to accept their assigned watch on the walls of civilization, are all about. All of them, right, left and in between. The words and pain of anti Semitism hurt just as much be they come from the left or right. The words and exhortations to hate, hate, hate, all those who are different from you, the brushes that tar all 'others' as dangerous, somehow lesser than 'us', that do not deserve to partake of our world, our rights, well, they are ugly, from right or left - but also protected by law up to a certain point. And no, it is not permissible for one side and not another, not allowed for one group but denied to another, condemned on one side but not the other.
     We have lost the rules, the pride, the righteousness that allowed us to stand the watch for so long. But now, those who are supposed to stand that watch for the nation are doing the very opposite. They speak of wiping out nations, of killing millions, as if one was talking of the best fly swatter to use on the pesky insects. They encourage the chants and the behavior of hate filled individuals who turn into that most dangerous thing - the mob. Those who refuse to accept the rules of standing the watch are dangerous to us all. No exceptions.
     Time for those of us who desire to keep our watch going, to keep it on the straight and narrow, to stand watch for not only our country but also for the world, well, we have a hard and onerous task ahead, but one which must be tackled head on and NOW! The walls of society, of civilization at its high points are beginning to crumble as fewer and fewer stand the watch.
     Let us honor those who have sacrificed much for the privilege and responsibility of standing the watch, soldier and civilian alike. The how, the why, is easy - stand by your fellow soldier on the watch, have his back. Share her alertness. Be kind. Be demanding. Be human!!!Not such a difficult thing to get, but awfully hard to put into action it seems. Too bad for us all.

HATE

     We all use the word. We hate spinach or we hate romance novels. We hate garbage on the streets or people who push past you to get the last seat in the subway car. We all use the word to portray emotions, some even humorous, but the actuality of hate, well, we need to understand what it is and what it is doing to us as members of the human race and as individuals.
     When was the last time you had a calm conversation about politics with friends or family? In fact, when was it first stated that from now on there would be no more politics in the conversations in order to avoid dissension and shouting and getting to places where no one should be, let alone friends and/or family.
     What frightens me the most, what seems to me to be the visceral face of hatred is exactly that. The faces. Take a look at people who preach hate and hatred, the anger they express, the passions they so desperately try to convey, even as these passions are deadly - yes, deadly, for they kill the souls within us.
     Take a look at the face of Trump when he is spouting his hatefilled statements or discusssing one of his damned tweets. It is ugly, beyond words. The face is twisted, the mouth as well, and the eyes just bug out with the volume of hate, so big, so large, that it almost cannot be contained within one's own body and soul. And that is exactly it.
     Look back through history and find pictorial representations of some of the biggest haters of all time and trust me, it was not limited to Hitler and Mussolini nor Stalin. It was seen on the faces of Inquisition torturers, priests and pastors who railed against the Jews at Easter time, Jewish rabbis who ranted about differing sects, Moslems who warred against members of differing Islamic sects, killing, enslaving, raping. And for what? For what?
     For power. The same reason that men rape women, use rape as a weapon of war. It is the power, the rush it gives a hater. The sex, as awful as it is, is not the end goal, and that is why it is so heinous to see so many men downplaying it and its consequences. 
     It was frightening to see the faces of hatred, twisted and ugly, when members of the Republican party spoke in defense of the sexual deviancy of Kavanaugh. They demeaned Ford, demanding details that thankfully had lost some of their sharp edges. They had the ugliest bug eyed faces - go check the face of Lindsey Graham or of Grassley. Frightening - and telling! No matter what they had spouted off before, the truth came out, the ugly truth.
     Even today, the same man who said that Trump was xenophobic, a racist, now says that if one will hug a Somali woman and tell another to go back home, then that person is not a racist, for he is not condemning all the people of that group. Give me a break!! That is the same line that a Nazi collaborator or adherent would spout off, that his best friend is Jewish, or  his brother is a Communist and on and on, even as they threw the "prey" into the cattle cars, shot them down, stuffed them in the gas chambers and smacked babies against brick walls. Or chased Tutsi through the rivers and jungles, enslaved Yazidis, burned out Rohingya, killed the Hindus, killed the Moslems, the Buddhists, the Armenians, the Serbs and unfortunately we cannot ever seem to reach the end of that line!
     Hate is all encmpassing and forces all else out of the picture, out of the mind. It takes over and if one could do a side by side comparision of a person as hate grew within, one could see the actual physical difference in behavior, in affect, in speech, in deed. Ugly.
     It raises its ugly snout into places where it should never be, so powerful is hate. So a Goodwill executive decides that it is too costly to pay their disabled workers in the job training program. Yup, hurt the very people it is supposed to serve, a G-d given effort, or so we are told. Spout hatred from the pulpit, for G-d has seemingly spoken to the speaker. Throw on the clothes of hatred, be it a white sheet and ridiculous pointed hat, or the red hats of chanters of hatred.
     And the hated grow their own sense and feelings of hate and this blistering, acidic trail of hatred scorches all before it and behind it. There is no escaping it. None. No one is impervious. No one is free. Lest we all think that only the USA is infected with and by this growing trend of hate, think again. Watch the films of the attacks on the marchers in a Pride parade in Poland. Watch and hear the nasty and cruel speeches of dictators as they denigrate their  opponents and the audience chants words of hatred, of physical violence. See the books burn. See the buildings burn. See the people burn. Inevitable.
     The excuse for hate is often given as an improved economy. So Mussolini made the trains run on time. Hitler gave people jobs as he built up industry and the armed forces. Stalin and Lenin and all else gave all jobs and built a teetering economy, a false one. And today, here in America, the economy, which is built on and began in the Obama years, has now devolved into an economy that benefits the 1% rather than the rest of society, those with low paying jobs whose wages are incompatible with a secure life, who do not hold huge shares of industry, the very base that Trunp now appeals to even as he takes away medical care, safety nets, anything that is good for those in need of a helping hand. Their needs and anger are deflected elsewhere and reappear as hate.
     So the wife of a Reverend comes home from Trump's latest rally at Charlottesville and remarks how shaken she was by the anger, by the hate chants. And the target of hate memes is herself a purveyor of racism as she rants against Jews and Zionists - read that as Jews. She, too, needs to be called out as racist and condemned by her party members. There are no exceptions. None.
     Remember the oldie but goodie - We've Got to Live Together - as it sang about the line of unending hatred of the other who then hated another who then hated another ad infinitum? Well, listen to it again and hear its message. We must hear that message. We must fight against the ugly face of hate and the haters. We must, for if not, we are doomed to repeat the deadly errors of mankind, apparently never having learned anything at all. Sad. Dangerous. Terrifying. Full of despair and hopelessness. We must all work together to fix this. The alternative? Well, let's not go there, please.

TWO HIPPOS, ONE TUB

     There is a proverb from the Cote d'Ivoire that goes like this: "Two hippopotamuses cannot share the same hole". For ease, I have changed hole to tub. Please excuse my literary license.
     Think about it, particularly in the context of modern times, in the roiled atmosphere, the boiling water, in that one tub. So you say that you have never had even one hippo in your tub let alone two, so what gives? Not a real problem.
     Yet it is. We, our country, is the tub, and the two hippos are the growing groups of people on either side of this tub. One hippo represents those who remember an America of true pride, an America which acknowledged its errors, its past, and tried to make its present and future just that much better. It struggled, for it is not easy to change things, not easy to insure that the privileges of being an American are open to all, not restricted by gender or ethnicity or religion or place of origin or any outer difference that in actuality makes no difference at all!
     Michelle Obama, a very bright woman, said the following:"What truly makes our country (tub) great is its diversity. Whether we are born here or seek refuge here, there's a place for us all....it's not my America or your America. It's our America."  It captures the meaning and representation of the one hippo.
      Now we come to the other hippo, the one that has a rank odor, the odor of hatred, of greed, of an unfair society, a hippo that thinks that to make or rather, keep, our country great, it must be kept white and that is not enough. Who is white and what is the religion of the white hippo, the beliefs, the rights that go along with it - all that is defined categorically, no arguing with it, lest this hippo lose its way upon the path it has chosen to find its way into that tub.
     Lincoln said a long time ago during a crisis of national angst that "a House divided against itself cannot stand.....I do not expect the house to fall. It will become all one thing or the other." Think about that. If so, then which way will we go? Which hippo will receive all our bets, allowed into that tub? Shall we go the right way, with the proper hippo, the one that demands hard work and morality, or shall we go with the other, the ugly and scarred one, the one that approves hate. This is the same hippo that wishes to place migrant children separated from parents in that same Fort Sill that held, in turn, Apaches, driven from their lands, cheated in their treaties, Japanese interned illegally and immorally during WWII, the same hippo that allowed, even encouraged and led the mob, that massacred Mexican Americans on the border 100 years ago, calling them "border bandits". Citizens all.
     There is hope for the proper hippo. Hundreds protest at one place or another. Thousands protest at various places, together, with the same goals - to keep their hippo out of our tub, for there is no room for them. It is time that all recognize that Trump represents the worst of us, the very lowest common denominator one can find amongst mankind. He lies and lies and finally is out in the open as he praises that hurtful and always racist meme to send people back from whence they came!! He actually, and openly, calls those chanters, that mob, patriotic!! I am sick!! I am sick to the stomach as I watch all the spineless Republicans refuse to condemn his hatred, and as I watch to see that the Democrats do the same and condemn the hateful remarks and plans of Omar, Tlaib and Lewis. Or have we all lost a piece of us that cannot be replaced, a loss that sends our hippo off into the wilderness, limping and mortally wounded?
     Perhaps we can pull it all together with the testimony of Mueller this week, if he gathers his courage to the sticking point and people truly open their eyes to the not pending but already in action war of the two hippos over the same tub. Time is running out. It can happen here. It has come close to it before, before the true spirit of America came  through, and it can happen again, especially in such a hatefilled and turbulent era. The water in the tub is roiling and boiling, dangerous to all who enter it the wrong way. 
     Keep the words and the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt in mind as we struggle together. 
     "With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts." May we use that new day and new thoughts and strength the right way, the proper and moral way, and finally, turn away from hate. The alternative is not a good one. Not at all.

WHO? ME? NOT ME!!!

     Hand in the cookie jar syndrome. That is what we have. When caught mid act, deny, deny, deny, so often and so firmly, that the denial becomes the new truth and the cookie crumbs around the mouth and the chcolate remnants on your fingers? Well, life is full of mysteries, right?
     This appears to be the new method of government in our country. Get out there and rile the people up, encourage them to find the lowest common denominator of behavior, appeal to the ugliness that lies within us all, and then, 'Who, me? Not I." Nope. No way. But, actually, yes, way!! So very yes, way.
     We are well on the way to mob rule. The formula and the behaviorisms are there and it is up to us to choose: mob rule with lack of morality or true law and order under a moral code. It appears that at this point we have chosen to come down on the side of mob rule. The President himself, the figure who is supposed to stand as a figure of unity, of nationhood, of e pluribus unum, is instead the very one who encourages the mob, who loves to play his very significant role in it and then stand there and deny, deny, deny "I was not happy with it. I disagree with it," the president said in the White House on Thursday, referring to the chants. "I didn't say that; they did.",  even as the cookie crumbs keep falling from his mouth.
      This is a very dangerous pathway we seem to be choosing. In mob rule, the minority can take over the country, leading to truly bad happenings. Lynchings, attacks, the spewing of verbal filth, the dehumanization of all mankind. Why is it, that if one person begins a chant, a nasty one, that others will follow? It is, I believe, the fact that we believe that in a mob we are anonymous, so we just let it rip, delve down into the ugly soup of prejudice, of nastiness, of anger, of whatever negative emotion there is, and draw upon it. Shame on us, shame on the leaders who appeal to this, who thrive on it and shame on us who give in to this ugliness.
     But there is hope. No, not Hope Hicks, who has been uncovered, laid bare as a teller of lies under oath, just like the rest of the Trump administration. It is no wonder that this group of evildoers has fought so hard to keep their dirty dealings hidden under the false claim of executive privilege. The papers that are opened tothe public, prove their criminality, their veniality, their lying, their true and total nastiness and yes, immense contempt for the American public and the whole concept of America.
     Just shut it down, and cut the immigration numbers to zero. Cut out all refugee and asylum requests. Suck the life blood out of the country and deny it new infusions. That appears to be the go to plan for the future, only, if it is, then there is no future.
     It is not as if we have nothing else to occupy our minds. Solve homelessness so the street sleepers, the families with no place to go, the people who now rent vans for their living quarters, the hungry, the lost, the ones caught in the awful world of drug addiction, will all have a place to go, the need to improve education, to work on the environment, to be fair in the economic sphere, to yes, dare I say it, redistribute the wealth to a certain degree, allowing for financial rewards, but also allowing for a decent life for the rest of us. Solve the problems of the world and there will be no need to worry about illegal immigrants, of frightened people looking to find a place where they can live safely, not worried about being murdered, having hope for their children. This is just a list off the top of my head but there is so much more. Pharmacy and drug prices. Food insecurity. Desertification of the world. Growing uselessness of drugs to combat diseases. The ugliness of prejudice. And on and on and on.
      So who can solve it? Who, me? Not I, is the general response, but it is wrong. One person plus one person plus three people plus ten people and we have a good group that eschews mob mentality even as they understand the need and power of a group dedicated to improvement.
    Where do we start? We start with people looking inside themselves, looking at themselves in the mirror. Do they like what they see and do they want their children to follow in these footsteps of theirs? We start with demanding that our representatives do their jobs and now!!! We demand that they regrow their moral spines. We look around for true conservatives, not the ones who claim conservatism now, along with huge tumors of cancerous hate and nastiness. We start with an appreciation of and a demand for truth, for transparency in government, for honor and honesty. 
     We start with and remember the words of Cory Booker who was asked about the meaning of this election of 2020. His response - and mine - and of so many others:
       "The referendum in this election is not on one guy in one office," he said. "The referendum in this election is a referendum on who we are, and who we are going to be to each other, and if we can get back to seeing each other with a more courageous empathy, we can have a revival of civic grace and create a new American majority."
       The America of old, with all its faults, and its virtues and its constant quest to improve, to truly be the home of safety, of justice, of hope, of humanity, of recognition of errors and constant efforts to improve. That is my America. I want it back! Who me? Yes, me - and you, and you and you. All of us.

AND SO IT GOES

     There is no end. At least it seems that way. We seem to have lost all our humanity, allowed hatred to overcome all other thoughts, and worse, the viciousness emanates from the top down, with the Demented Todddler being the worst of the lot.
     Campaigns should be run on issues. Yes, there can be sharp jabs at the opponent. There can even be some nasty stuff going on, for such is the level to which people fall when running a campaign or supporting a candidate. However, when the nastiness turns truly vicious, when it is combined with lie after lie, when it is actually encouraged, to the point where there are no issues other than hatred, then we are in deep trouble. This is the way it goes is not acceptable, not if we ever desire to return to our former state, attempt to heal the bitter divide of the country, and heal the souls that have been blackened by hatred.
     The warning by Nietzche to beware of looking too deeply into the abyss else the monster there look back, and an additional warning that when we truly understand hatred, we understand that the monster, the enemy is us, echoes deeply and long today. Yes, us, and no one else.
     We have fallen backwards into that abyss, allowed its filth to penetrate us. The man stands there with his fist or open palm held out straight in front of him, eerie enough, and then he leads his crowds in tropes and memes of hate, and mostly - against women, of all types and ages. Chants of lock her up or send her back, talking disrespectfully of women, boasting of conquests, sexual harasment, hush money payments - and yet the man gets away with it all where others guilty of lesser accusations are dropping out of public, resigning, being imprisoned, charged, whatever. But not that man - and so it goes.
     Do not think that this hatred of others is found only on one side. The same women, at least two of them, who complain, rightly so, about the statements of Trump and his encouraging of these ugly sentiments, are guilty too of the same crime. Omar and Tlaib have made nasty and vicious hateful statements about Jews, repeating old ugliness, going after the State of Israel with vicious anti Semitism rather than with statements backed by facts, only, instead, based on hatred and the fact that it is a Jewish state. And so it goes.
     We have lost all feeling of disgust when we see pictures of children in cages, children staring back with blank and terrified eyes, hungry, filthy, scared to pieces. We think nothing of the guards tormenting the adults with lack of cleanliness, poor and meager food, withholding water, threats, and we truly have lost it all when one miserable human being, Republican Rand Paul, who allowed the tax cut which aided the fat cats' bottom line even as it destroyed the bottom line of the country, now will balance it all on the backs of the victims of 9/11. Guess those victims were guilty of poor planning, being in the wrong place at the wrong time!! And so it goes.
    The EEOC said the statements such as telling one to "go back where they came from' and others of the same nasty ilk, are violations of anti discrimination laws. So will Trump be punished? Ha!!! Instead he will reap the admiration and noise of the hateful chants. And so it goes - as our country devolves, faster and faster, until what will be left? I shudder to think.
     Both parties are guilty of hateful and destructive statements and behavior and so is the so called Progressive movement, a movement based on hate just as much as the extremists to whom Trump returned to in North Carolina. All the better to find "fine people" on both sides, the wrong sides!!! The leaders of both parties need to step to the plate and call it as it is - on both sides. Kick out the haters, deny them power and attention. But, a great big but - they do not admit fact, particularly on the Republican side, for the chief leaders of the chorus are the wimpy soulless leaders themselves. McConnell thinks being married to Chao protects him from accusations of discrimination and hatred. Well, it does not and just ask all the spouses who were Tutsi in Rwanda as their Hutu spouses chased them down. Just ask those Jews married to non Jews under Hitler and see how many had spouses who turned on them and their children. No, the hatred is an ugly germ that burrows deep and comes out when the time is ripe for the rotting and stinking elements of humanity to surface. It buries the true meaning and behavior of humanity.
     And so it goes. No more can we say that. No more can we shrug off the nastiness, for the tectonic plates of the human soul, of the country's values, of the country itself, are trembling, our basis rocking, under pressure, being overcome by the wrong pressures. And so it goes? No more, please. From all sides involved. No one is innocent here, though that Demented Toddler is certainly the prime guilty force of this whole mess. So now what?
     

AND NOW?

     A fine mess we have gotten ourselves into. Now what? Do we ask ourselves "who's on first and what's on second" and never clarify it at all? What now?
      If you are like me, then you wish both houses here a pox, a la Shakespeare's Duke of Verona. That was fiction based on reality of the time, but what hapens when the reality is even worse, when both sides of the administration cannot, will not, attempt to reconcile, to admit fault and apologize and move on, censoring or condemning both or all violators of decency, of hatred, of big and stupid mouths! Both sides are behaving like the two siblings who are being carried away under the arms of their parents, even as they persist in the name calling and accusations.
     However, these are not children, though their behavior would state otherwise. These are supposed adults whose responsibility is to govern for ALL Americans, native born and naturalized. They are to accept the freedom of speech we are allowed by the Constitution, but also be able to rise up and state the truth - both sides here are equally guilty of racism, of ethnic hatred and bias.
       It seems they cannot. It seems that Trump has caused the Democratic party to fuse once more as they defend these four women under attack from and by the racist president whose filthy and disgusting mouth merely reflects what must be the filthiest soul ever. Condemn both sides and move on. But they cannot. 
     Rep. Cleaver, a man known for urging civility, from the Speaker's chair, said, "I abandon the chair", put down the gavel and walked away. The end result? Nothing, after the initial shock. These infants playing with the matches that can set our country afire, have no brakes, no moral strength, both sides guilty of that, and we, the citizens, we just sit there and gape.
     Omar, Tlaib, both made nasty statements re Jews and in their comments about Israel. Suddenly Trump, who finds fine people on the right, who invites the most racist and extreme right wing media people to the White House, takes them to task, as if his soul was clean of the same sin and offense. Both parties need to condemn both sides of the issue here, condem themselves, apologize for their lack of moral correctness. And that, my friends, will never ever happen.
     Conway, the Hatch violator, asks a Jewish reporter  "what is your ethnicity?' and then denies any nefarious purpose. Ha!!!! As if. The Demented Toddler who cannot spell nor construct a complete complex sentence, stammers away, bulls his way with his bloated body, but the truth remains. Now we have Articles of Impeachment filed and they must be voted on. What now? What now??
     The honorable and correct thing to do would be for Trump to resign. An administration which represents inhumanity, telling a sick toddler to choose which parent should stay and which go, whose Border guards and ICE people admit they have gotten blase about the whole maltreatment of the refugees, of the cruelty, and how that cruelty goes, how they have gotten numb and or actuallly enjoy it - well, this administration needs to be ruthlessly cleansed, along with others who feel the same way and act the same way.
    Worse than everything is the very poor example we are setting for the world. Those in oppressed countries despair at aid for their struggle; refugees seeking safe haven are "tempest tost" to nowhere other than to the deaths awaiting them back at the homes they just fled. The hatred grows apace here so why not emulate that overseas, for the chief defender of human rights has capitulated to the hatemongers, to the racists, to the extremists, to those who would condemn all they deem different, inferior, to horrific lives, or even death.
     The image of a family sitting there in darkness, not making a sound, well, that brings to mind the image of a Jewish family sitting in darkness, not making a sound, covering the mouth of the baby, hoping and praying that the Nazi soldiers go away and leave them alone. Perhaps they do and perhaps they do not, but we all know how the tale ends. There is no safety anywhere for anyone from the violence and destruction of hate, of prejudice of the most vicious kind.
     Condemn the representatives who were anti Semitic by name, and condemn the demented man by name for his tweets, his insanity exposed by these tweets and then all need to man up - woman up too - and get down to the real and necessary work of healing our country. If this does not happen, and soon, I despair deeply and broken hearted at the future of our country and all of us within it - and indeed for the world, who will have lost its guardian. 
    What now? I think I will close my eyes now and picture a day with the family. I cannot take any more at this point, but on Sunday will be right there as I and friends and others, learn what we can do to help immigrants. See, we have not lost our humanity. What now? Perhaps there is yet some room for optimism, as long as there is one person left to shout the truth.

A STEP AND ANOTHER

     "Step, step" went the oldie. Armstrong took one small step for a man but a huge one for mankind. Many of us can recall times when we almost had to force our feet into motion, to take the step, then another one, towards where we were not sure we wanted to go. Steps can move us forward or bring us right back to that which must be changed.
     Steps have momentous effects on our lives, both as individuals and as members of larger societies. From the beginning of mankind, steps have been the pathway for advancement. The first step to explore beyond the cave. The first step towards making colors to paint on a wall. The first step to sail away from the shoreline. The first step towards liberating mankind from the onus of  terrible burdens.
     People need courage to take those seemingly small, inconsequential steps. And yet, not so small nor inconsequential. Each step that brought individuals to form crowds is what brought down the USSR and it will be the same small steps echoed in others that will bring down Putin. Small steps brought the heroes of Tiananmen Square to defy the government of China and those same steps have encouraged the heroes of Hong Kong today to rally and protest for weeks already. The same steps have encouraged others throughout the world to protest the conditions that oppress them, that even kill them, to speak up and out.
     Small steps are often the precursor towards drama in the theater of mankind. The women who marched for voting rights and the women of soccer and sports today who demand pay equality. The masses of Europe marching, demanding, freedom, better living conditons, rights, in 1848, along with enlightened members of the higher economic classes, and the brutal repression of the spirit of 1848, the resulting mass emigration to America. One of many such mass waves, waves that brought new people,fresh ideas, workers for society, and hope for a better life.
     Today we seemed to have taken steps that cause us to move backwards. Once again it seems that we are to support those who crush others under their boot heel. We seem to have lost empathy, forgetting that others are entitled to try to achieve the same lives that we are so lucky to have achieved here, so lucky that our ancestors had the courage, the ability to go against great odds, to leave families behind, all in the quest of a better life, all journeys that begin with small steps, one step after another.
     Yesterday, after reading report after report about the 'raids', after reading of the terrible tweets of our hateful and demented President, after looking into the future and seeing a darkness that never had I ever thought to be possible, to actually happen, in this country, then I, too, made a decision to take a small step. I thought these particular steps had long ago left their heyday behind, civil disobedience not having played a huge role in life after the turbulent sixties, as I was busy making a life, raising a family. But, a huge but, the time has come again.
     I can write all day about the awfulness of Trump and his pack of dirty individuals. I can rail all night about the inhumane conditions that refugees are kept in, such that there is a 'stench' when near them. And I think of the old canard that Jews are filthy people, and that is why there was an odor hanging around in the air over the concentration and death camps. No, it was because they were brutalized, denied the basic rights of humanity. Blame the victim then and now and as Stephen King and others so aptly put it - the words lead to deeds lead to roundups lead to armbands lead to ...... History has shown us that, so why, why, do we determine never to learn from history and our errors and yes, our triumphs?
     Any thinking person must realize, understand, get it, that hatred flows like a dirty and polluted river. It is the river of souls who have left their humanity behind and it grows and overwhelms others, gathering them to its moving heart and that hatred and its consequences are so terribly difficult to stem and overcome. Step by step is the only way to do so.
     So this coming Sunday, I, too, along with some friends, will take our renewed steps, step by step. We will attend a meeting wherein we will hear what and how to help immigrants. So I will continue writing, for that is the voice of my soul, my outlet for feelings that would otherwise eat me up, but I will also step. If that step means riding around a neigborhood looking for ICE, or standing in front of a door to remind those inside NOT to open, no abra la puerta, then so be it. If I am deemed a danger to the government, then this is a government not worthy of the name and certainly not worthy of respect. But it is a government which is built on the basis of free speech. Hold that close!
     The right to criticize the government has been codified within the courts of America since the Peter Zenger case and his criticism of the British Governor, written in stone in the First Amendment, and so brutalized throughout the centuries. Those who criticized our country were told to leave it. They were imprisoned, beaten up, despised and yet, that is how the workers achieved a living wage - though that is in dire trouble today - were able to send their children off to school, the more the better, were able to breathe in air of hope, of the freshness of a belief in the possibilities of mankind and of one man at a time.
     Now think of the despair today when Republicans who were quick to shout at the nasty remarks of Omar and Tlaib, and that was deserved, now are ominously quiet at the racial over tones and undertones of Trump, still cannot find their moral balls, their moral backbones, as they still follow that caricature of a president down a very dangerous road. They ignore his mouthings, how he will absolutely consider the wishes of his base and remain in office maybe even for 14 years and signs a tweet as 4eva. Or worse, think it is the way to go and screw democracy!
     Many steps are needed here, people, many. And many more. Find the courage within, the anger within, and take your step. Find your cause. Help the immigrant sitting there in terrified silence, hiding from the enforcers of a nation wo are willing to brutalize to do their 'job'. Who think nothing of ripping parent from child, from infant, from teen. Who deny they are the moral detritus and descendants of those who did this before them, here and in other countrues. Who forget that once they too or their family before them were also immigrants. In fact, since the time of the Mayflower, we have all been immigrants and among us, too, were crooks, and murderers and rapists, but also inventors and pioneers and soldiers, and statesmen, and entrepreneurs, and businessmen and women, and scientists, and teachers and judges - people all, just as they are today.
     The immigrants, the refugees of today all took that first step because the situation in their homeland was beyond all possibility of life, for them and their children. They were hungry, seeking water, seeking safety from gangs and violent governments. It is not an easy decision to decide to take those steps that begin a 1,000 mile journey towards an unknown, but they did it and so, too, must we. We must find the courage to take a step and another and another.
     

GO BACK - ECHOES DOWN THROUGH THE AGES

     Okay. Full disclosure. The ladies who were told to "go back where they came from" are not my cup of tea. I dislike their attitudes, their lack of respect for others who differ in their beliefs, and the racist memes and canards they repeat about Jews and Israel. That being said, I stand 100% with them right now and as I stand with them, the chills of hatred, of displacement, of non acceptance, the constant chants to Jews to go back where they came from or at least the statement that they do not belong here, wherever here was - well, here I stand with these ladies. And not only them, for just amongst the women of Congress here are countries where some came from - India, Guatemala, Ecuador, Vietnam and that is only from the Democratic women. If we were to include men, the total would be more.
     It has long been our pride and joy that anyone could come here and do well, become a success, raise a family, become a philanthropist, be a member of the administration, all, other than become President. Time after time, papers and magazines have posted lists of immigrants and children of immigrants who have done well, contributed much to us and the world, won Nobels and other awards for achievement and yet, this Demented Toddler has the nerve to spew forth his words of hatred!! Would that his own grandfather had gone back and stayed back in his own country of origin - Germany.
     To tell people to 'go back' makes my skin crawl. I heard those comments as a kid growing up in Brooklyn. Members of my family in Israel, survivors and their children are told to 'go back' from whence they came, back to the Europe which did not accept them, back to the Europe or Arab countries which tried their damndest to kill them all. When does this stop? When do we finally accept that people immigrate, that people differ in opinions. Again, I despise much of what they stand for, and bemoan the wasting of AOC's innate intelligence, as she wallows in the 'oh, yeah' mode of doing business, slugging it out with the idiotic and hateful men, particularly Trump. They are in many ways the exact image and presentaton of things I do not like nor espouse, but to tell them to 'go back' - especially when the idiot does not even realize that three are native born Americans!!! Nope, my red line is crossed.
     This is all part and parcel of the filth and the dirt and the hatred that this man has encouraged and allowed. It is part of the deep and growing abyss that he has encouraged. It is what makes me so very much afraid for the future or lack of it for our country.
     The hatred that has come through clearly, about people with different shades of skin, even as the underneath is exactly the same, as are their desires for families; the hatred and growing acceptance of it, to demean women, to encourage the acceptance of seeing women as chattel, with no rights, mere breeders, the hateful meme of kitchen, church and pregnant; the gall of the extremists on all sides of the political spectrum who now shout so loud that nobody hears anymore. This, I cannot tolerate. This I cannot abide. This, even as we echo the awful past as we chase after 'dangerous' criminals who have raised families here, contributed to the economy on all levels, whose children are Americans - and by the way, we plan to separate them once more -and thank heavens that we have people willing to stand in front of doors, protecting those within, helping those caught in this hateful net, being treated as prey!!!!
     Today, as an American, I hang my head in shame even as I take pride that we do have resistance to much of this crap. Trump has serviced the Democratic Party with his hate, reminding them that they are one  and have one goal - to rid the country of this man and his minions, to stand against him from now through the day of the ballot box, to return our country back to its origins and work to correct errors of the past, even as we forge new and wonderful paths for the future, as we spend time on alleviating climate change, helping those with no water, with food insecurity, whose children have no chance to beat the illnesses which befall them, fighting the ignorance of too many, as we finally become a family of Americans, and finally, dare I hope, a family of humankind.

NO ABRA LA PUERTA

     And there you have it. We have finally gone and done it, wide open, in public, before the eyes of every decent person in  the world and for the disgusting enjoyment of the prejudiced and the truly unamerican. Hordes of ICE accomplices, and yes, that is what they are, as they agree to copy the French police roundup of Jews during WWII, the hunting down of Rohingya and Tutsi, the chasing down of runaway slaves, the roundup and imprisonment of Japanese during WWII, many American born and/or American citizens.
     So the word of the day is a phrase: no abra la puerta. Do not open the door. Without a warrant, ICE has no right to enter the home and the targets of these raids have received instructions as to how to see through tricks to get them to open the door. Religious institutions all over the country, but particularly now in the target cities, have opened their doors and have people seeking asylum there. Seeking asylum here!! Does that not sound abrasive to your ears, to your hearts, to your American values.
     The Republicans have long ago forgotten their morality and left the values by the side of the road, and the Democrats, instead of raising the roof on this, instead of having their followers stand up to ICE,  opening their doors to refugees - for that is what they are and what we are certainly making them - well, they are having a fight, a bitter cat fight between the so called Four and the rest of the party. It is ugly. It is unnecessary. And it is harmful to the future of the Democratic Party and the future of the country at large.
     Right now we need a united front against the bullying and immoral policies of Trump, the biggest bully in the world. We need a united front to flip seats, to get our country back on track. We need to return to sanity, wherein we stand against the violations of China, of Russia, of Iran, together with the rest of the world, rather than fighting our main and traditional ally, England, as the truth of the matter, the truths about Trump are leaked. Why and how are not important. What is important is the fact that other diplomats from other countries are backing up the statements of the British for such is the low opinion and assessment of Trump by the rest of the sane world. His fellow dictators, why they love him. Read the clues, folks, for they cannot be any clearer than they are.
     Right now we need to focus on the emergencies facing our country and the world. Our military bases are now having major issues with drinking water due to ground contamination, even as that Demented One pushes for less regulation and more poisoned water. We need hands and feet and backs and brains to overcome these environmental issues, just at the time when we are throwing them out of the country. We need more people to help our aging, even as we are throwing them out, running them down. We need more educated people, even as they are being denied college education due to their status and so the country loses their brainpower, just as we lose the economic benefits of their enterprises, their participation in the everyday economy of the country, our country. What the hell have we done? What have we, in fact, opened the door to and allowed in?
     We have opened the door to hatred, to violence, to hardening souls and hearts. We have opened the country to accepting businesses without moral boundaries, the leaders of the country being found out to be enmeshed in all sorts of crimes in their own lives and yet Trump appoints them as leaders of the country, appoints judges who are ignorant, tainted, immoral or amoral, and could care less about the law, the letter and the spirit of it.
     So instead of going after each other, the Democrats need to target McConnell, and forget their own dangerous infighting. They need to target Trump as he endangers this country by the second, as long as he is in office. We need to hear the truth about Trump and his cooperation with the Russians, his obstruction of justice attempts, his dirty business ethics or lack of them, his improper application of nepotism and cronyism in his administration, his illegal  use of funds for his own "fun" - parades, trips to his golfing estates, money from diplomats who stay at his hotel in order to gain political credit, and the constant shlepping around of his most annoying children, all over the country and the world, at our expense. Our dimes pay for these creeps and their disgusting mouths and huge incompetence.
    No abra la puerte. Do not open the door. But we have already done that. The question is can we clean out the vermin, cleanse our souls, and no, not with the religious beliefs of others being forced upon us, reboot our system so it is running correctly - and then shut that damned door once and for all?! 
     Mozart once said, "I fear I am writing a requiem for myself."
     ARE WE DOING THE SAME? Have we opened the door too much already and allowed the hatemongers, the jingoists to write their ugly requiem for us all, for the United States of America? Think about it. Decide on your next steps.