This entire messy situation is so bad that it actually hurts, and I mean physically, not just emotionally, though it just about kills in that category. How, or even whether, we will be able to get through this as an intact country is up for discussion, or even grabs and that hurts. More, it terrifies if one follows that thought to the end of the road. It is a road which vies with any dark and frightening road of a movie wherein the hero or a family is obviously entering a place of evil.
It was bad enough when Clinton was cheated of her victory due to the outmoded electoral process. The majority vote was hers, by millions, no matter all the lies that Trump tries to use on this matter. The thought that we had a mean, crude, sexual assaulting, incompetent bankruptee as President just blew my mind and that of many others.
So we worried, as we absorbed the blow, concerned as to how we would get through the next four years - if we would get through. After all, this was America, we were strong in our history, in our foundation, right? Wrong. Emphatically so. This man allowed, no, brought out, the worst in the worst of society. The ones who were fooled, the ones who went along for their own gain, the ones who were pressured, threatened to go along, well, they were and indeed, still are, pretty bad and disillusioning to others, but that he brought out the garbage of society......
The scum rose to the top. The violent haters rose to shine in their own lights, marching, threatening shouting, and even killing, for most of the shootings were by right wing, not the standard accused Moslems, the go to bad guys, or the new ones, the immigrants wishing to be Americans. No, these were neighbors, former friends, whose true inner beings were unleashed thanks to the hater in the WH.
Over the past four years we have seen our country disintegrate. The chasm of society has grown so deep and so wide that I actually doubt it can be bridged, let alone healed. I think many do not even want that to be, so are you scared yet? Is your heart beating a tad faster? Have you followed the skeins of behavior to the inevitable ugliness it knits for us? If not, think again, review the past four years, the constant lies, the contempt this man has for all others, the violence he has provoked and the damage, the irreversible damage to our country's fabric that he has done and encouraged.
He never knew Parnas he said, and yet there he was at a dinner, at a private donors meeting with Trump at Mar a Lago, and all the other miserable lies, all the nastiness, and oh, do not forget that the farmers are getting more land and big tractors! Huh!!!! More land? From where? Do they even want it as they cannot manage the land they already have, much unproductive in the times. Can there be such a change even as the signs point to an oncoming whopper of a recession and how the hell will this man lead a country out of that, for all this last while he has coasted on the gains and economy of the Obama era, all the while claiming it was his achievement. No, for the success he had was in the further fattening of the wallets of the corporations, of the fatcats, and of the wallets of the Trump family. Disgusting. Just like all the corrupt individuals who robbed their own countries before they were finally thrown out.
Now the Senate Republicans are on the verge of handing him the keys to the world, unlimited power, power to even cancel the Constitution if he wishes, if he claims it is all for his reelection, for that is what the Senators and their lawyers have openly stated and allowed - in all their ignorance, in all their dangerous thinking, in all their what, bribery, threats, stupidity, greed, desire to change the country so as to profit from it, to gain power from it? Where are you in this? Have you thought it all the way through? And those of you who very carefully have avoided conversations re Trump with friends and family, what will you do when forced to choose? What? What?
I am monumentally worried, emotionally attacked and under siege, and physically frightened, my stomach drops out making room for my heart to drop in, worry in despair, in fear for the future, for we have created a real existential threat to our own country, to our own Constitution, to our own government, to our own survival as America. Goddamn!!!!!!
Friday, January 31, 2020
Thursday, January 30, 2020
RIP REST IN PEACE
We are that close to burying the greatest experiment in the history of mankind, of society and societal living. We are endorsing and allowing, nay, encouraging the abuse of power. All one had to do was listen to Dershowitz, who stated that basically, whatever a president in office wished to do in order to ensure reelection was just fine.
Three other Senators agree with this, the morons, as they became traitors to their country, traitors to the Constitution and traitors to themselves and to Congress as a whole as they just removed any limitations, any checks and balances to a President. They threw Washington and his fears of an absolute monarchy right out the window!
This, my friends, is what will probably not rest in peace. Thus we inter democracy with Friday's all but a joke decision - which was crassly stated way before it began, which comes asfter an abortion of a trial, even as we allow a demented and cruel man only out for his own good, to continue in office, with now, to our great danger and sorrow, absolute power. There will be no stopping him or in need of any future one and that is if this dictator wannabe will allow the crown of America, its wealth, to move out of the sphere of his family.
We have ceded, abrogated, the laws of society. We do not obey any more the rules of international law, of domestic law, and have allowed our society to retreat into a backwards philosophy of practice, one that demeans individuals. All his ruthless henchmen and balless followers, what will you say when the press is closed down, when the media only has praise Trump talk shows, when books are censored and libraries closed, when government removes all medical care for pre existing conditions, when Social Security and Medicare are cut to the bone, when all rights are deemed inimical to the reelection of the man in the WH and thus there are no holds barred, all is allowed to gain reelection in what will become as farcial as the elections in Russia andChina.
What have we done? What have we allowed! What have we done to the future of the children. What happens when there are mass roundups of brown skinned people and woe upon the darker or olive skinned Italian or Jew, of Greek or whomever. They will just be rounded up as well. What will happen when all who protest forced prayer in schools are confined to prison and reeducation, when college and professional education is limited to those who are 'right', no more for all, all the better for reelection of that man and his perverted immoral assistants in the demise of democracy, in the rending of our government, in the destruction of all that we have achieved.
I hate to be a Cassandra but I will remind you of some words that I heard from several wise people. Rabbi Lau, a survivor at age 8 of the Holocaust, made it clear that prejudice, anti Semitism, any prejudice is not the problem of the persecuted group, but it is rather the problen of society at large which allows this hatred and make no mistake about it. It leaves no room for anyone for it knows no bounds. Warnings have been given to the Senate as to what they are actually doing, allowing, and the need to understand the ramifications of it all, for they too will find themelves in a bad place should they disobey the master or fall into his circle of those he dislikes. It is not only for us that law is important or for the individual at risk. No, it is for ALL people, for all are caught within the rebounds, echoes and consequences.
As far as I am cocerned, I will not accept that RIP for our democracy, for as old as I am I know what it is and have seen through the years and throughout history what happens when we forgo the dignity of man and throw people away as trash, when we throw out principles of decency and humanity and instead revert to the society of cavemen, where women are for naught, where children are not valued where life is a risk of such proportions as we have never known - other than for those who have lived under brutal regimes, penal colonies and all. Is that what we want here? I hope not. I surely do.
Three other Senators agree with this, the morons, as they became traitors to their country, traitors to the Constitution and traitors to themselves and to Congress as a whole as they just removed any limitations, any checks and balances to a President. They threw Washington and his fears of an absolute monarchy right out the window!
This, my friends, is what will probably not rest in peace. Thus we inter democracy with Friday's all but a joke decision - which was crassly stated way before it began, which comes asfter an abortion of a trial, even as we allow a demented and cruel man only out for his own good, to continue in office, with now, to our great danger and sorrow, absolute power. There will be no stopping him or in need of any future one and that is if this dictator wannabe will allow the crown of America, its wealth, to move out of the sphere of his family.
We have ceded, abrogated, the laws of society. We do not obey any more the rules of international law, of domestic law, and have allowed our society to retreat into a backwards philosophy of practice, one that demeans individuals. All his ruthless henchmen and balless followers, what will you say when the press is closed down, when the media only has praise Trump talk shows, when books are censored and libraries closed, when government removes all medical care for pre existing conditions, when Social Security and Medicare are cut to the bone, when all rights are deemed inimical to the reelection of the man in the WH and thus there are no holds barred, all is allowed to gain reelection in what will become as farcial as the elections in Russia andChina.
What have we done? What have we allowed! What have we done to the future of the children. What happens when there are mass roundups of brown skinned people and woe upon the darker or olive skinned Italian or Jew, of Greek or whomever. They will just be rounded up as well. What will happen when all who protest forced prayer in schools are confined to prison and reeducation, when college and professional education is limited to those who are 'right', no more for all, all the better for reelection of that man and his perverted immoral assistants in the demise of democracy, in the rending of our government, in the destruction of all that we have achieved.
I hate to be a Cassandra but I will remind you of some words that I heard from several wise people. Rabbi Lau, a survivor at age 8 of the Holocaust, made it clear that prejudice, anti Semitism, any prejudice is not the problem of the persecuted group, but it is rather the problen of society at large which allows this hatred and make no mistake about it. It leaves no room for anyone for it knows no bounds. Warnings have been given to the Senate as to what they are actually doing, allowing, and the need to understand the ramifications of it all, for they too will find themelves in a bad place should they disobey the master or fall into his circle of those he dislikes. It is not only for us that law is important or for the individual at risk. No, it is for ALL people, for all are caught within the rebounds, echoes and consequences.
As far as I am cocerned, I will not accept that RIP for our democracy, for as old as I am I know what it is and have seen through the years and throughout history what happens when we forgo the dignity of man and throw people away as trash, when we throw out principles of decency and humanity and instead revert to the society of cavemen, where women are for naught, where children are not valued where life is a risk of such proportions as we have never known - other than for those who have lived under brutal regimes, penal colonies and all. Is that what we want here? I hope not. I surely do.
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
" IS A PUZZLEMENT!"
Ever since I saw and heard Yul Brynner, the quintesssential King of Siam, exclaim that line, it has stayed in my head and believe me, that is for many a year. It is my go to line when something appears to be inexplicable and yet, there it is. The line and sentiment is perfect for today as it is National Puzzle Day. I kid you not. I now think there is a National Day of.... for anything under the sun; however, today's title is perfect for the times.
"These are the times that try men's souls." Another great line of history and certainly befitting the times we are presently living in. In fact, today is a time of great puzzlement and the trying of souls as a numbers game continues to roll out. Look at some of the numbers that are being batted around.
For an attack that wounded none, and was of no serious consequences, wow, but things have changed as there are now 50, yup, 50, soldiers suffering from TBI, traumatic brain injuries, harm that is not always understood or healed properly, a puzzling wound. So from zero to 50 - and who knows how many more, just one little not so inconsequential number for and from the Trump administration as the truth keeps coming out to prove their lies.
Here's another and this one could cause something to go pfft! What these numbers will signify in the long run, at the end of it all, is anyone's guess and in these 'trying' times, double puzzlement! It has now been implied that there are no longer the numbers necessary to block witnesses from the impeachment trial. Whoopee! But seriously, is there any true meaning and consequence for and from this number fact?
The GOP Senators went into this trial with a fake attitude, swore an oath to be impartial even as they boldly annnounced their foregone conclusions and vote for acquittal. No surprise there. The House managers struggled long and hard, spoke well, with passion and facts, even as we played a tautology game wherein the Republicans stated there were no first hand witnesses, thus declaring all those honorable people as wrong or confused or addled or part of some huge dark state conspiracy - out of the mouths who should know about that!! But witnesses who had first hand knowledge? Oh no!! Never would they be allowed to testify, hence the GOP had it any which way, a true tautology.
Then lightning struck, even the public stirred and something finally hit these people: Americans truly wanted to hear from witnesses, in particular, from Bolton, re his statements in his book, a first hand witness account. The pressure has mounted, continues to mount and there is the puzzling quandry so appropriate for today, National Puzzle Day. What are they to do? Can the fear and threats pressing down upon them from the WH stop them, stop the nefarious plans of that villain? The nation awaits....
What one needs to realize is that the numbers in the Senate almost make no difference. The rigged conclusion is well known, as the spineless GOP will vote to acquit. The people know the truth. There are those who are accepting the truths revealed and if, a great big if, if, we can hold the shenanigans of the GOP to rig the election, to purge Democrats from the rolls, use all the help they can get or invite in even from foreign powers, then we have a chance at getting out from under the numbers of this man and his cohort.
So flood Iowa as they will with the criminal, the incompetent, the challenged Cabinet personnel, from Rick Perry, to Ross, to Carson - what a roll call! It will not matter. Eventually, as so many have said and as I have long maintained, the truth will out and all those crazy books replete with lies and conspiracies that are now out there, well, they will disappear onto the remaindered Barnes & Noble shelves, historical curiousities.
So what is this really all about? Alfie cannot answer that question, only we can. We must dig deep, find the core, find our honor and do the right thing. It is about this: "It’s really about the character and ability and physical and mental fitness of the individual to serve the people, not themselves.”
The words and the numbers make it very clear.
It is not about the inane rules of the Senate, whether one can drink chocolate milk in a glass or a bottle, or chew gum or whisper. It is about opening minds to the truth. It is about 100 men and women having the knowledge, the guts, the historical understanding of where they need to be , where they need to gather their numbers for truth, for the American people, They must heed the warning. Bolton's book is out there. The facts are out there. People will read and shout and vote!! And this vote will bite the GOP in their collective ass. The only way out for them is to be truthsayers, not truth naysayers. To have the courage of their honor, of the truth and its demands, of the historical necessity , the crux at which they stand.
Numbers. Puzzles. It all comes down to the truth, how deeply people will go, how much self contortion they will subject themselves to, in avoiding that truth. Time for all to man up, become the people of history they need to be in the proper light of that history. If not, well, you fill in the rest. It ain't pretty.
"These are the times that try men's souls." Another great line of history and certainly befitting the times we are presently living in. In fact, today is a time of great puzzlement and the trying of souls as a numbers game continues to roll out. Look at some of the numbers that are being batted around.
For an attack that wounded none, and was of no serious consequences, wow, but things have changed as there are now 50, yup, 50, soldiers suffering from TBI, traumatic brain injuries, harm that is not always understood or healed properly, a puzzling wound. So from zero to 50 - and who knows how many more, just one little not so inconsequential number for and from the Trump administration as the truth keeps coming out to prove their lies.
Here's another and this one could cause something to go pfft! What these numbers will signify in the long run, at the end of it all, is anyone's guess and in these 'trying' times, double puzzlement! It has now been implied that there are no longer the numbers necessary to block witnesses from the impeachment trial. Whoopee! But seriously, is there any true meaning and consequence for and from this number fact?
The GOP Senators went into this trial with a fake attitude, swore an oath to be impartial even as they boldly annnounced their foregone conclusions and vote for acquittal. No surprise there. The House managers struggled long and hard, spoke well, with passion and facts, even as we played a tautology game wherein the Republicans stated there were no first hand witnesses, thus declaring all those honorable people as wrong or confused or addled or part of some huge dark state conspiracy - out of the mouths who should know about that!! But witnesses who had first hand knowledge? Oh no!! Never would they be allowed to testify, hence the GOP had it any which way, a true tautology.
Then lightning struck, even the public stirred and something finally hit these people: Americans truly wanted to hear from witnesses, in particular, from Bolton, re his statements in his book, a first hand witness account. The pressure has mounted, continues to mount and there is the puzzling quandry so appropriate for today, National Puzzle Day. What are they to do? Can the fear and threats pressing down upon them from the WH stop them, stop the nefarious plans of that villain? The nation awaits....
What one needs to realize is that the numbers in the Senate almost make no difference. The rigged conclusion is well known, as the spineless GOP will vote to acquit. The people know the truth. There are those who are accepting the truths revealed and if, a great big if, if, we can hold the shenanigans of the GOP to rig the election, to purge Democrats from the rolls, use all the help they can get or invite in even from foreign powers, then we have a chance at getting out from under the numbers of this man and his cohort.
So flood Iowa as they will with the criminal, the incompetent, the challenged Cabinet personnel, from Rick Perry, to Ross, to Carson - what a roll call! It will not matter. Eventually, as so many have said and as I have long maintained, the truth will out and all those crazy books replete with lies and conspiracies that are now out there, well, they will disappear onto the remaindered Barnes & Noble shelves, historical curiousities.
So what is this really all about? Alfie cannot answer that question, only we can. We must dig deep, find the core, find our honor and do the right thing. It is about this: "It’s really about the character and ability and physical and mental fitness of the individual to serve the people, not themselves.”
The words and the numbers make it very clear.
It is not about the inane rules of the Senate, whether one can drink chocolate milk in a glass or a bottle, or chew gum or whisper. It is about opening minds to the truth. It is about 100 men and women having the knowledge, the guts, the historical understanding of where they need to be , where they need to gather their numbers for truth, for the American people, They must heed the warning. Bolton's book is out there. The facts are out there. People will read and shout and vote!! And this vote will bite the GOP in their collective ass. The only way out for them is to be truthsayers, not truth naysayers. To have the courage of their honor, of the truth and its demands, of the historical necessity , the crux at which they stand.
Numbers. Puzzles. It all comes down to the truth, how deeply people will go, how much self contortion they will subject themselves to, in avoiding that truth. Time for all to man up, become the people of history they need to be in the proper light of that history. If not, well, you fill in the rest. It ain't pretty.
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS........
Facts are facts. Despite the most strenuous efforts of people to avoid and/ or change facts into some otherworldly statement, a fact is a fact. One can argue the importance of it. One can argue the need for it if it was a 'gray' situation, but that does not change the fact that it was and always will be a fact. History tends to uncover lies and allows the truth to come out and we all should remember that. Particularly in times of trouble and woe.
Well, folks, this is such a time.Facts are distorted, ignored, changed wholesale, and then explained away as unimportant. The fact of the matter is that Trump went way above or below, take your pick, of where he should have been. One by one the facts of the truth are coming out as one after another, people clearly and closely involved, are coming forth with the truth. Their motives? They do not matter, for a fact is a fact and these emerging facts, the dirt that is being revealed about Trump and his coterie of nasty and colluding individuals who have stepped all over the American people, these facts are what matters.
Note the facts of the so called Trump defense. Each day, each newly revealed fact, is pushing them closer and closer to the corner where there will be no longer any room to maneuver. Full disclosure, I live to see the day he is gone, removed, like a cancer on our society, so much has he damaged it. If the facts supported him, I would have to live with it, but they do not.
First there was the aggrieved defense of cries of anger and hurt that anyone should accuse this man of high crimes, of wrongdoing, despite the fact that there are clear indications of this behavior pattern throughout his life. Then as the facts emerged, they were explained away as oh, yes, something similar might have happened but it really is not what it looks like.
Next step came along right on time as there was an admittance and denial at the same time that it never happened but if it did it was not a crime. As usual, trying to have both sides of the coin in their camp. Right along the same lines of defense and offense they are using when they deny materials, people, testimony and then cry out that there is no proof! They lie, exaggerate that they were shut out yet they were not. The members of the committee were allowed in the room , as is usual, and most testimony was released under rules of security. Yet the Republicans mobbed the room like children. Wah, wah, baby wants its baba, but then pushes it away, as did Trump when he turned down the offer to represent himself in the hearings. Two sides again and that argument is still being heard.
Now we have new facts, first hand witnessing of the corruption rotting away at the heart of the White House and the country. Trump thinks everyone and everything is for sale. He has proven the truth of that within his circle of so called advisers, such as the demented Pompeo, supposed to be the voice of moderation!!! Or Giuliani, or Dershowitz or so many others. All these people, the GOP on the Hill, those around the country who parrot his every defense and lie in the face of the river flood of facts that prove otherwise, in many and every which way, they have sold their souls for a pot of beans! Those beans will disappear and what will be left will be facts.
Now we are hearing voices that deny their own words. Oh once it was a crime, an impeachable offense, but not now. Clinton could be impeached for lieing under oath, so what is with this dude and all his creepy buddies who have lied thousands upon thousands of times - these lies having been counted and the count is ongoing.
Now Bolton has emerged, his witnessing First Hand the quid pro quo, the attempt to extort and threaten, to dump an ally for the good of Russia, for the good of Trump himself as he tries all day and every day to defeat his opposition and to remain in office, G-d forbid, as he will turn the country into a cruel parody of what we are supposed to be.
Now the latest attempt - okay, the witness is there, Sondland and Yovanovich and Taylor were seemingly not enough, but here is the witness of the moment, so what is left? What is left is the next step of his crooked defense . Okay, it happened, but so what. He actually did not mean it to be for personal benefit and even if he did, it is not an impeachable offense. So then I wonder what the hell is? Walking naked down Pennsylvania Avenue? The boasted about ability to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in plain sight and get away with it? Enough!!! Enough!!!
Roberts must use his authority and force witnesses and documents be entered and heard from. He needs to force the cowardly and spineless GOP Senators to come out in the open. Either they are true to their oath and will hear it all, judge on the facts, or they are all perjuring themselves and let that face of theirs be exposed to the voters. No two sides of the coin here either.
Will we hear the echo down the years as we did yesterday, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day yet, that "Hitler was a great leader". So maybe he had some bad intentions, but wow, what a leader. He got that crowd in his hands. Is that what we wish for - to have Trump and his followers go down in history as that, close relatives of open fascists, murderers, thugs who went way above where they should have been - because we allowed it. We did. And time for us to step in, step up, demand justice and truth, the use of facts, the open presentation of facts, the truth that Trump needs to be convicted if we are to remain America in all its meanings and interpretations, and this nonsense, this dangerous nonsense must stop.
The fact of the matter is - we are now at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest the Doomsday Clock has ever been. No joke, foks. No joke. Do we want to go down in some ET history book of what once was, the Camelot of the 21st century, the country that lost its way, that allowed a Mordred to rule, followed an evil man, or will we stand up and be once again and forever - true Americans. You know what I think. And you?
Will it even be possible to write such a blog, express discontent with the presumed leader? I doubt it and just look at the actions already taken: the press secretary is useless, over a year since a briefing. The others were useless, just lie spouting robots of Trump, the media was cursed, denigrated and now the NPR reporter has been removed from the Pompeo trip. Suppression of one of our oldest rights, proven in court by Peter Zenger when he criticized the British governor, before we were independent. Why are we throwing this away? Why? And if we allow this, if we allow the facts to be dead before life, if we let our rights be taken without protest, then what is left? Book burning? People burning? Hatred knows no limit in targets and actions. None.
Well, folks, this is such a time.Facts are distorted, ignored, changed wholesale, and then explained away as unimportant. The fact of the matter is that Trump went way above or below, take your pick, of where he should have been. One by one the facts of the truth are coming out as one after another, people clearly and closely involved, are coming forth with the truth. Their motives? They do not matter, for a fact is a fact and these emerging facts, the dirt that is being revealed about Trump and his coterie of nasty and colluding individuals who have stepped all over the American people, these facts are what matters.
Note the facts of the so called Trump defense. Each day, each newly revealed fact, is pushing them closer and closer to the corner where there will be no longer any room to maneuver. Full disclosure, I live to see the day he is gone, removed, like a cancer on our society, so much has he damaged it. If the facts supported him, I would have to live with it, but they do not.
First there was the aggrieved defense of cries of anger and hurt that anyone should accuse this man of high crimes, of wrongdoing, despite the fact that there are clear indications of this behavior pattern throughout his life. Then as the facts emerged, they were explained away as oh, yes, something similar might have happened but it really is not what it looks like.
Next step came along right on time as there was an admittance and denial at the same time that it never happened but if it did it was not a crime. As usual, trying to have both sides of the coin in their camp. Right along the same lines of defense and offense they are using when they deny materials, people, testimony and then cry out that there is no proof! They lie, exaggerate that they were shut out yet they were not. The members of the committee were allowed in the room , as is usual, and most testimony was released under rules of security. Yet the Republicans mobbed the room like children. Wah, wah, baby wants its baba, but then pushes it away, as did Trump when he turned down the offer to represent himself in the hearings. Two sides again and that argument is still being heard.
Now we have new facts, first hand witnessing of the corruption rotting away at the heart of the White House and the country. Trump thinks everyone and everything is for sale. He has proven the truth of that within his circle of so called advisers, such as the demented Pompeo, supposed to be the voice of moderation!!! Or Giuliani, or Dershowitz or so many others. All these people, the GOP on the Hill, those around the country who parrot his every defense and lie in the face of the river flood of facts that prove otherwise, in many and every which way, they have sold their souls for a pot of beans! Those beans will disappear and what will be left will be facts.
Now we are hearing voices that deny their own words. Oh once it was a crime, an impeachable offense, but not now. Clinton could be impeached for lieing under oath, so what is with this dude and all his creepy buddies who have lied thousands upon thousands of times - these lies having been counted and the count is ongoing.
Now Bolton has emerged, his witnessing First Hand the quid pro quo, the attempt to extort and threaten, to dump an ally for the good of Russia, for the good of Trump himself as he tries all day and every day to defeat his opposition and to remain in office, G-d forbid, as he will turn the country into a cruel parody of what we are supposed to be.
Now the latest attempt - okay, the witness is there, Sondland and Yovanovich and Taylor were seemingly not enough, but here is the witness of the moment, so what is left? What is left is the next step of his crooked defense . Okay, it happened, but so what. He actually did not mean it to be for personal benefit and even if he did, it is not an impeachable offense. So then I wonder what the hell is? Walking naked down Pennsylvania Avenue? The boasted about ability to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in plain sight and get away with it? Enough!!! Enough!!!
Roberts must use his authority and force witnesses and documents be entered and heard from. He needs to force the cowardly and spineless GOP Senators to come out in the open. Either they are true to their oath and will hear it all, judge on the facts, or they are all perjuring themselves and let that face of theirs be exposed to the voters. No two sides of the coin here either.
Will we hear the echo down the years as we did yesterday, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day yet, that "Hitler was a great leader". So maybe he had some bad intentions, but wow, what a leader. He got that crowd in his hands. Is that what we wish for - to have Trump and his followers go down in history as that, close relatives of open fascists, murderers, thugs who went way above where they should have been - because we allowed it. We did. And time for us to step in, step up, demand justice and truth, the use of facts, the open presentation of facts, the truth that Trump needs to be convicted if we are to remain America in all its meanings and interpretations, and this nonsense, this dangerous nonsense must stop.
The fact of the matter is - we are now at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest the Doomsday Clock has ever been. No joke, foks. No joke. Do we want to go down in some ET history book of what once was, the Camelot of the 21st century, the country that lost its way, that allowed a Mordred to rule, followed an evil man, or will we stand up and be once again and forever - true Americans. You know what I think. And you?
Will it even be possible to write such a blog, express discontent with the presumed leader? I doubt it and just look at the actions already taken: the press secretary is useless, over a year since a briefing. The others were useless, just lie spouting robots of Trump, the media was cursed, denigrated and now the NPR reporter has been removed from the Pompeo trip. Suppression of one of our oldest rights, proven in court by Peter Zenger when he criticized the British governor, before we were independent. Why are we throwing this away? Why? And if we allow this, if we allow the facts to be dead before life, if we let our rights be taken without protest, then what is left? Book burning? People burning? Hatred knows no limit in targets and actions. None.
Monday, January 27, 2020
33,771 33,771 33,771
"I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
(Shakespeare, Macbeth)
These were the emotions of one who killed only one person. Guilt wracked this being. The play became and remains a springboard to discussions about guilt, innocence, evil, the sanctity of a state and the vile stain of murder.
33,771. September 28-29, 1941. Wind blowing over a desolate topography, whilst the screams of humanity, of Mama, Papa, Kinder, ripped the air and atmosphere apart, the blood soaking the ground, the cold faces of the murderers unmoving, as men, women, children, babes in arm, the elderly, all were mowed down in a brutal two day attack, even as the human vultures then rummaged through their shed clothing , searching for usage, for hidden treasures, for profit, even as the ground heaved under its inadequate covering of earth, the dirt of G-d mixing with the blood of His People.
This was Babi Yar, a place of gruesome murder which took decades - decades - to acknowledge, guilty murderers, most of whom escaped punishment of any meaningful consequence, and a poem, a poem that moved the world, caused its poet much aggravation and punishment, Yevtushenko, a hero of the world.
In the totality of it all, 33,771 does not seem so large a number, does it? 1.1 million Jews in Auschwitz, millions in Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, Dachau, the ghettoes of the conquered countries, the slaughter and torture of the camps, and the echoes of this horror down the ages, never, we hope, to fade out of mind, out of ear, out of hearts and souls. If it were to happen that way, then the evil begins again, picking up on the evil that is around us, Jersey City, Poway, Pittsburgh, anywhere where people are looked at as animals for sacrifice, as vermin, denied of all rights to life, a good life, a productive life, a family life.
This evil happened because man let it happen. Period. That is all it takes for poison to spew out of control and for millions to die. Genocide did not and will not stop at the Jews, and genocide has happened and is happening today, in this very same world. And that word same is used on purpose, for how much have we changed? Think it would be difficult to find people willing to stand there and shoot others, mow them down like bowling pins? Well, think again and quickly too, for the evil reek is once again permeating the very air we breathe, steeped in the coppery odor of blood as we let, as we allow, as we even encourage, yes, encourage, this evil to flourish again and make no mistakeabout it. Hatred, murder go hand in hand and there is no stopping it as that hatred spreads, consumes group after group until finally, your group is reached. There is no immunity. There is no humanity.
Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we mourn the slaughtered, the lives never to be lived,the generatons unborn. We cringe and cower and close our eyes at the graphic pictures. We speak as if we mean this to truly be Never Again, as we remember the victims, the tortured, the brutalized, and yet, listen to some comments as this day is marked. It is 75 years to the day of liberation of Auschwitz, even as only the dead and dying were left behind, the rest on a Death March toHell, dying along the way. What have we learned? Nothing. A great big nothing.
We tolerate the same nastiness, the same crudity, the same hatred, the same pamphlets and now streams of putrid murderous garbage over our computers and phones, into our very homes and into our minds, turning our souls dark and shutting down the mind and the heart, all the better to kill, to denigrate,to celebrate evil.
And make no mistake about it. That is what we are doing right now, all over the world, Europe, Asia, South America, and right here in the good old USA. We have an administration that actively engages in spreading this evil as its leader threatens his opponents, threatens to shut down media, to close NPR, to warn others of punishment awaiting them should they cross him, who uses cruel tactics to get his way and never mind the harm to our country, the country he is worn to serve and defend above all else.
So why again? Why has this grown so deeply rooted once more, with its dark, mottled and ugly blossoms overcrowding and shutting down the beautifully colored flowers of love and peace, of humanity, of brother and sister hood? Why,becasuse we LET. IT. HAPPEN. Plain and simple, three words which lead again to 33,771.
It leads to my family and others, cousins and aunts and uncles, grandparents, being shot down into mass graves in Lithuania, of being cruelly shipped off to death in Belzec or marched through the Ponary Forest to be dumped into gasoline holding pits, or buried in mass graves in the Ninth Fort. And my family was not alone. There were so many other families, families which are never remembered for their names are gone, wiped out to the last member.
Is this what we are allowing to happen once again? Are we to allow another Hitler to arise, this one in our own backyard, one who threatens, who torments others in his madness, in his cruelty, in his total unfitness for his job and worse. The worst, the fact that the whole ugliness is right out there for all to see, yet turncoat adherents to the law, to justice, Senators and lawyers meant to uphold this honor and decncy of this country, to punish those who would and indeed have harmed it and plan more, who would turn our president into a monarch above the law, an absolute monarch such as we rebelled against in 1776, and all have gone sour, have sold their souls to the living devil, and sold our country down the road.
Do not think that these perpetrators and enablists of evil are immune to this evil they encourage and live every day. No, for they, too, will receive their dues. It will not be pretty. I fear for this country. I fear for its people. I fear for the world and I fear for the planet. All I can see ahead is danger, flashing in big, bold, glaring letters of warning, and all we do is make excuses as we play deaf, dumb and blind to it all, even as we are in it up to our miserable necks.
Jumped the shark? Over the top? Just read the papers, listen to unbiased news. Listen to truthtellers. Read the facts for yourself. Ask the question as to what is being hidden other than the proof of guilt. Ask yourself why the Senators of the GOP, the moral worms, feel they must do this turncoat action on their country? And finally, ask yourself, why we let this, why we allow this, why we suborn this, why we sanction and provide implicit and explicit support for this?
It is often asked where G-d was during all this time, how He allowed this to hapen.Well, He did not, for He has given His Creations, humans, free will and the consequences that ensue. He hopes for the best and when the Creations go insane, when they murder, rape and pillage, when they turn the world into a growing mass of evil, then He cries, and He sits there surrounded by the new angels, those who became such as others slaughtered them. He cried. He wept. And we killed and were killed.
Do we want this to happen again? Evidently many do and others are too busy, eschewing politics and the news, think they are immune and their lives will continue on. Well, it will not.
The Jews of Germany did not believe it would or could happen. The Jews of the Netherlands believed the same. The Jews of France believed the same. The Jews of Poland knew it could for they were always in the midst of this.And the Jews of America? The decent people of America?
Today, after all this, still, we do not believe it. We did not then and we do not believe it now. Even after all the proof of history.
We are fools. Oh, there are those that know, that do believe, but we are overwhelmed by those who do not, or worse, those who wish it once again. So who are the fools?
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
(Shakespeare, Macbeth)
These were the emotions of one who killed only one person. Guilt wracked this being. The play became and remains a springboard to discussions about guilt, innocence, evil, the sanctity of a state and the vile stain of murder.
33,771. September 28-29, 1941. Wind blowing over a desolate topography, whilst the screams of humanity, of Mama, Papa, Kinder, ripped the air and atmosphere apart, the blood soaking the ground, the cold faces of the murderers unmoving, as men, women, children, babes in arm, the elderly, all were mowed down in a brutal two day attack, even as the human vultures then rummaged through their shed clothing , searching for usage, for hidden treasures, for profit, even as the ground heaved under its inadequate covering of earth, the dirt of G-d mixing with the blood of His People.
This was Babi Yar, a place of gruesome murder which took decades - decades - to acknowledge, guilty murderers, most of whom escaped punishment of any meaningful consequence, and a poem, a poem that moved the world, caused its poet much aggravation and punishment, Yevtushenko, a hero of the world.
In the totality of it all, 33,771 does not seem so large a number, does it? 1.1 million Jews in Auschwitz, millions in Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, Dachau, the ghettoes of the conquered countries, the slaughter and torture of the camps, and the echoes of this horror down the ages, never, we hope, to fade out of mind, out of ear, out of hearts and souls. If it were to happen that way, then the evil begins again, picking up on the evil that is around us, Jersey City, Poway, Pittsburgh, anywhere where people are looked at as animals for sacrifice, as vermin, denied of all rights to life, a good life, a productive life, a family life.
This evil happened because man let it happen. Period. That is all it takes for poison to spew out of control and for millions to die. Genocide did not and will not stop at the Jews, and genocide has happened and is happening today, in this very same world. And that word same is used on purpose, for how much have we changed? Think it would be difficult to find people willing to stand there and shoot others, mow them down like bowling pins? Well, think again and quickly too, for the evil reek is once again permeating the very air we breathe, steeped in the coppery odor of blood as we let, as we allow, as we even encourage, yes, encourage, this evil to flourish again and make no mistakeabout it. Hatred, murder go hand in hand and there is no stopping it as that hatred spreads, consumes group after group until finally, your group is reached. There is no immunity. There is no humanity.
Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we mourn the slaughtered, the lives never to be lived,the generatons unborn. We cringe and cower and close our eyes at the graphic pictures. We speak as if we mean this to truly be Never Again, as we remember the victims, the tortured, the brutalized, and yet, listen to some comments as this day is marked. It is 75 years to the day of liberation of Auschwitz, even as only the dead and dying were left behind, the rest on a Death March toHell, dying along the way. What have we learned? Nothing. A great big nothing.
We tolerate the same nastiness, the same crudity, the same hatred, the same pamphlets and now streams of putrid murderous garbage over our computers and phones, into our very homes and into our minds, turning our souls dark and shutting down the mind and the heart, all the better to kill, to denigrate,to celebrate evil.
And make no mistake about it. That is what we are doing right now, all over the world, Europe, Asia, South America, and right here in the good old USA. We have an administration that actively engages in spreading this evil as its leader threatens his opponents, threatens to shut down media, to close NPR, to warn others of punishment awaiting them should they cross him, who uses cruel tactics to get his way and never mind the harm to our country, the country he is worn to serve and defend above all else.
So why again? Why has this grown so deeply rooted once more, with its dark, mottled and ugly blossoms overcrowding and shutting down the beautifully colored flowers of love and peace, of humanity, of brother and sister hood? Why,becasuse we LET. IT. HAPPEN. Plain and simple, three words which lead again to 33,771.
It leads to my family and others, cousins and aunts and uncles, grandparents, being shot down into mass graves in Lithuania, of being cruelly shipped off to death in Belzec or marched through the Ponary Forest to be dumped into gasoline holding pits, or buried in mass graves in the Ninth Fort. And my family was not alone. There were so many other families, families which are never remembered for their names are gone, wiped out to the last member.
Is this what we are allowing to happen once again? Are we to allow another Hitler to arise, this one in our own backyard, one who threatens, who torments others in his madness, in his cruelty, in his total unfitness for his job and worse. The worst, the fact that the whole ugliness is right out there for all to see, yet turncoat adherents to the law, to justice, Senators and lawyers meant to uphold this honor and decncy of this country, to punish those who would and indeed have harmed it and plan more, who would turn our president into a monarch above the law, an absolute monarch such as we rebelled against in 1776, and all have gone sour, have sold their souls to the living devil, and sold our country down the road.
Do not think that these perpetrators and enablists of evil are immune to this evil they encourage and live every day. No, for they, too, will receive their dues. It will not be pretty. I fear for this country. I fear for its people. I fear for the world and I fear for the planet. All I can see ahead is danger, flashing in big, bold, glaring letters of warning, and all we do is make excuses as we play deaf, dumb and blind to it all, even as we are in it up to our miserable necks.
Jumped the shark? Over the top? Just read the papers, listen to unbiased news. Listen to truthtellers. Read the facts for yourself. Ask the question as to what is being hidden other than the proof of guilt. Ask yourself why the Senators of the GOP, the moral worms, feel they must do this turncoat action on their country? And finally, ask yourself, why we let this, why we allow this, why we suborn this, why we sanction and provide implicit and explicit support for this?
It is often asked where G-d was during all this time, how He allowed this to hapen.Well, He did not, for He has given His Creations, humans, free will and the consequences that ensue. He hopes for the best and when the Creations go insane, when they murder, rape and pillage, when they turn the world into a growing mass of evil, then He cries, and He sits there surrounded by the new angels, those who became such as others slaughtered them. He cried. He wept. And we killed and were killed.
Do we want this to happen again? Evidently many do and others are too busy, eschewing politics and the news, think they are immune and their lives will continue on. Well, it will not.
The Jews of Germany did not believe it would or could happen. The Jews of the Netherlands believed the same. The Jews of France believed the same. The Jews of Poland knew it could for they were always in the midst of this.And the Jews of America? The decent people of America?
Today, after all this, still, we do not believe it. We did not then and we do not believe it now. Even after all the proof of history.
We are fools. Oh, there are those that know, that do believe, but we are overwhelmed by those who do not, or worse, those who wish it once again. So who are the fools?
Sunday, January 26, 2020
A PLAIN OLD THUG!!
So, at the bottom of it all, dementia notwithstanding, the explanation is simple. The man is, always has been, and always will be, a thug. A plain old fashioned thug of filthy mouth, no morals, and a box full of threats, with seemingly enough power to intimidate all those who cluster around a chief thug. Even simpler? Move over, Mafia. Move over, the Russian mob, the Albanian mob, MS-13, and all other gangs, for the grand behemoth of all is upon us. Its leader has the power of a nation and its weaponry behind it, and said leader is functioning with a damaged brain. Woe upon us. Woe upon the world. And shame upon us that we have allowed, after all these years, a reincarnation in a bigger sphere of the ghost of Boss Tweed, now not a NYC gangster, but a national and international one.
We have allowed intimidation not by a brilliant man, but by a loser, a loser in finance, a loser in personal relationships, a loser in any contest of morals and morality, a loser in every sense of every kind of decency and humanity. He is the thug who has risen to the top by 'killing' off his rivals, by frightening them somehow, and now he controls them all, to the point that they abandon all their morality and kowtow to his every wish and demand. It is so open a fact, so open a behavioral pattern, yet it seems to have been missed by all. Worse, accepted by all who would follow him blindly, a la every Capo di Tutti capi, every mad, murderous dictator, from the depths of history through the ages, through the times of Stalin, Berra, Hitler, every Third World banana republic leader, right down to that man in the White House.
All the while he sits there in his residence, in his PJ's, cursing at the world which would oppose him, cut him down, limit his power, in fact, remove him from it altogether. He is the chief Capo who is fighting against those who would cause his downfall, those who respect the law rather than fear the thug!
"Take her out!" "Get rid of her!" His own words. The words of a power crazed thug, a criminal in every sense of the word, a low down creep who knows no other way than to frighten and intimidate, to lie, cheat and steal. Do not pay contractors, or workers, or at least pay even a dubious honor of truth. Poke fun of servicemen suffering from PTSD. Oh, for sure, bone spurs of a foggy origin, for sure outweigh those whose brains have been scrambled by wounds of TBI category. For sure, make fun, make less of those who serve and are wounded, even as you stand behind a bulletproof sheet of glass - and that is at your own pathetic rallies, with the befuddled, the fooled, the brainwashed. The intimidated.
What is the most shocking, perhaps, is how the entire Republican Party, other than a few outliers, have fallen into place, rigidly in line, ignoring every caution, discarding their own futures, their own honor and rights, as they hear the evidence, even acknowledge its power and truth, refuse to hear any more, turn up their noses at recordings which so powerfully reveal the thug in the man, and their own, what, thuggery?! They perjure themselves, fall before him as the toads they are.
They refuse to see that the man is a fascist of the first order, and like any other power hungry and power mad criminal, is pushing his way for all to acknowledge that he is indeed above the law and can rule unimpeded. Goodbye democracy. Goodbye USA. Hello the latest of all mammoth dictators, of glorified thugs. Hello a future which will be worse than ever thought possible, the limited future as all regulatory rules are tossed out, and the chemicals, the poisons can flow again, the fatcats keep getting more and more money and power. As for the rest of us, well, go read about the lives of peasants and people caught up in a repressive system. It ain't pretty!
The shame of the GOP, the shame of the lawyers who support his perversions, his lies, his criminality, his treasonous behavior, his high crimes and misdemeanors, who ignore their own words of the past, who have sold their souls and their honor for what? For what!!
Why is Sanders gaining in percentage? Simple. He is the complete opposite of Trump the thug. Simple. Of course, what we need is a moderate, a person who can work with others. Who already has shown that ability. Klobuchar is the one by far and finally, her percentage is edging up, closer to a double digit number. I just hope that we have not left this all too late, ceded the turf of the citizens of America, the legacy of the Founders and Framers to a thug and his gang.
That is what they are. Underneath all their pomp, their lies, their haughtiness, their disgusting behavior, their cowardice, their lack of morality, that is what they are. All thugs. Plain and simple. Worried that their leader is going to put their heads on a pike!!! For G-d's sake! Have we retreated to the Middle Ages when this was done? I put nothing too out there for this thug in chief.
Over the past four to five years I have railed against this man, seeing his nakedness rather than invisible clothing. All that I have warned about has come true. Analysts, statesmen and women, reporters have come around to the same conclusions, used and using the same terms and words that I do. I am a nobody in terms of the world at large, yet I am apparently not alone in the recognition of the truth of it all and its omnipresent danger.
We have allowed our country to be taken over by a thug, by a supergang, by a perverted and demented leader who has suborned others to follow his lead, to be so frightened of him that they have forgotten their humanity, all that is right and followed, instead, all that is wrong. They ignore warnings from the Washington Post, from prominent thinkers and papers, all media, about their errors and misdeeds coming back to haunt them, to bite them inthe ass, and how I wish to see that, to be there, to see the figurative blood of the offenders as they fall in elections, as they are prosecuted for their misdeeds and crimes and are imprisoned, right next to their thug in chief, Capo Trump!! So low have we fallen.
We have allowed intimidation not by a brilliant man, but by a loser, a loser in finance, a loser in personal relationships, a loser in any contest of morals and morality, a loser in every sense of every kind of decency and humanity. He is the thug who has risen to the top by 'killing' off his rivals, by frightening them somehow, and now he controls them all, to the point that they abandon all their morality and kowtow to his every wish and demand. It is so open a fact, so open a behavioral pattern, yet it seems to have been missed by all. Worse, accepted by all who would follow him blindly, a la every Capo di Tutti capi, every mad, murderous dictator, from the depths of history through the ages, through the times of Stalin, Berra, Hitler, every Third World banana republic leader, right down to that man in the White House.
All the while he sits there in his residence, in his PJ's, cursing at the world which would oppose him, cut him down, limit his power, in fact, remove him from it altogether. He is the chief Capo who is fighting against those who would cause his downfall, those who respect the law rather than fear the thug!
"Take her out!" "Get rid of her!" His own words. The words of a power crazed thug, a criminal in every sense of the word, a low down creep who knows no other way than to frighten and intimidate, to lie, cheat and steal. Do not pay contractors, or workers, or at least pay even a dubious honor of truth. Poke fun of servicemen suffering from PTSD. Oh, for sure, bone spurs of a foggy origin, for sure outweigh those whose brains have been scrambled by wounds of TBI category. For sure, make fun, make less of those who serve and are wounded, even as you stand behind a bulletproof sheet of glass - and that is at your own pathetic rallies, with the befuddled, the fooled, the brainwashed. The intimidated.
What is the most shocking, perhaps, is how the entire Republican Party, other than a few outliers, have fallen into place, rigidly in line, ignoring every caution, discarding their own futures, their own honor and rights, as they hear the evidence, even acknowledge its power and truth, refuse to hear any more, turn up their noses at recordings which so powerfully reveal the thug in the man, and their own, what, thuggery?! They perjure themselves, fall before him as the toads they are.
They refuse to see that the man is a fascist of the first order, and like any other power hungry and power mad criminal, is pushing his way for all to acknowledge that he is indeed above the law and can rule unimpeded. Goodbye democracy. Goodbye USA. Hello the latest of all mammoth dictators, of glorified thugs. Hello a future which will be worse than ever thought possible, the limited future as all regulatory rules are tossed out, and the chemicals, the poisons can flow again, the fatcats keep getting more and more money and power. As for the rest of us, well, go read about the lives of peasants and people caught up in a repressive system. It ain't pretty!
The shame of the GOP, the shame of the lawyers who support his perversions, his lies, his criminality, his treasonous behavior, his high crimes and misdemeanors, who ignore their own words of the past, who have sold their souls and their honor for what? For what!!
Why is Sanders gaining in percentage? Simple. He is the complete opposite of Trump the thug. Simple. Of course, what we need is a moderate, a person who can work with others. Who already has shown that ability. Klobuchar is the one by far and finally, her percentage is edging up, closer to a double digit number. I just hope that we have not left this all too late, ceded the turf of the citizens of America, the legacy of the Founders and Framers to a thug and his gang.
That is what they are. Underneath all their pomp, their lies, their haughtiness, their disgusting behavior, their cowardice, their lack of morality, that is what they are. All thugs. Plain and simple. Worried that their leader is going to put their heads on a pike!!! For G-d's sake! Have we retreated to the Middle Ages when this was done? I put nothing too out there for this thug in chief.
Over the past four to five years I have railed against this man, seeing his nakedness rather than invisible clothing. All that I have warned about has come true. Analysts, statesmen and women, reporters have come around to the same conclusions, used and using the same terms and words that I do. I am a nobody in terms of the world at large, yet I am apparently not alone in the recognition of the truth of it all and its omnipresent danger.
We have allowed our country to be taken over by a thug, by a supergang, by a perverted and demented leader who has suborned others to follow his lead, to be so frightened of him that they have forgotten their humanity, all that is right and followed, instead, all that is wrong. They ignore warnings from the Washington Post, from prominent thinkers and papers, all media, about their errors and misdeeds coming back to haunt them, to bite them inthe ass, and how I wish to see that, to be there, to see the figurative blood of the offenders as they fall in elections, as they are prosecuted for their misdeeds and crimes and are imprisoned, right next to their thug in chief, Capo Trump!! So low have we fallen.
Friday, January 24, 2020
HERE WE GO LOOP DE LOO, HERE WE GO ........
Get the feeling lately that you are enmeshed in a nightmare from which you cannot escape? It is one that has you stuck, caught in an endless loop, in a dirty, untamed preschool, with rambunctious toddlers and tykes who cannot control their biting tendencies, their penchant for hitting and for foul language, and whose tantrums are monumental. Worst of all, these toddlers all have the faces of old white dudes with a few women mixed in, like McSally, along with the unfamiliar faces of the Ukraine and Russia, with many of the latter drooling at the thought of the spoils as they work the big bully of the class to their benefit. The cherry on top? Why that is the loony toon dudes escaped from the institution, most with the shifting faces of the bully's supposed legal advisers. Whew! And all this gets through the day even as no one notices the growing cracks in the foundation of the school or in the ever growing violence of the favorite dance - Loop de Loo, the most useless dance ever.
A parent watching this pre school over a nanny cam will be hard pressed to accept the fact that these terrors are their children. The faces are those characters whom we have allowed to gain traction in our world and that, my fellow dancers and parents, is manifestly OUR fault, for we allowed this farce to continue on way beyond its sell by date. We have ceded control to an openly defiant group of nasty toddlers who cannot see the trees for the forest nor the forest for the trees. There appears to be no way to negotiate with them, not candy, not praise, not shaming them, not truth, nothing and that has us up that proverbial creek without the paddle.
So ever onward in its repetitious loops, the toddler dancers go on, wasting time and breath. Even getting them corralled does not do the trick for they are busy ginning up excuses for the bully who has delivered them into a vise of his and their own making. They have followed lockstep behind him, allowing his perversions of a pre school, of a dance, to overwhelm all concerned.
There is a courtroom scene of a type in this nightmare. There are earnest people up at a podium who are pouring their hearts out, spewing forth data, fact after fact, truth after truth, re the bully but the bully's sycophants are enmeshed too deeply in his traps and there are earmuffs around their ears blotting out the truth, the words which should set fire to their souls. Yet - nothing!! All they seemingly seem to feel is the need, the deep and intense yearning, to bring this activity to a halt, so no permission to engage witnesses, to bring in more exhibits, to produce more evidence for time is afleetin' and they must return to their nefarious toddler activities lest they go through a painful withdrawal.
So, folks, what do we do? So far we have done nothing of a permanent nature. Trump is there at Davos as the world's leaders discount him, Ivanka is running around looking for breaks for the "working man" as long as that working man is in the top tax brackets, and looking to "reskilling" them. Huh! Retraining, reeducationg, enabling more educational benefits, and we can go on but I surely wonder who and what will do the 'reskilling' and who will pay for it while the you know who's benefit once again.
Oh, but not to worry, for the man who swore up and down he would not cut entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security just announced he would. Why? His induced mammoth growth of the national debt is now biting his ass and he needs to fix it, so, as usual, let's fix it by smashing those who need that safety net. Full confession - I make no bones about it, for I need both those entitlements to make my way through an ever declining physical state of health and a growing need for medications that grow ever more expensive overnight. As for those who go hungry in our nation, well, just look at him for vicarious gratification as he chows down on yet another fast food meal or a steak dinner at one of his golf clubs for which WE pay!!
And ever onward we dance, looping and kicking, in and out. The man swears he does not lie, so please disregard his over 15,000 lies and certainly the 14 lies he threw at us after he said he never lies. Such a clever dude. Not. Watch as the Republicans sweat to restrict the damage, ignore the words of Schiff, “This is why if you find him guilty, you must find that he should be removed. Because right matters. Right matters and the truth matters. Otherwise we are lost.”
We are at a crossroads in the history and future of this world and planet of ours. We ourselves are to blame if we allow our own country to go down this route to dictatorhsip, to a President who is a king, even possibly in name too as he will be allowed to do as he wishes, use the call of executive privilege to cover up all his wrongs, defame and abuse the Constitution, and stick to the policy of being above the law.
No one is above the law. No one. Period. End of discussion. No one is allowed to be a dictator here in the USA. No one, no matter how bloated the ego and useless the spineless and balless legislators are. They need to develop some moral cojones - ooohhh, a Spanish word. Mea Culpa!
We need better people at the helm, not an idiot who compares the issue of being pro choice to slavery and the pro or anti choices there. There is only one choice there, De Vos, you moron. Huh!! Or a President who natters away in a demented manner and just look at his answer about Musk. It ends up with a mishmash of nonsensical sentences that we must protect Thomas Edison and all those who produced the electric bulb. I kid you not! What about all the other dead genius people? Do we protect them too? Do we neglect a live genius and only protect him/her after death? The choices here are sooooo interesting.
No, our only choice, our last remaining choice before we consign ourselves to perdition, is to find this guy guilty, remove him from office, stomp on Pence so that he either shape up or he gets removed on the same grounds as his boss, and we prove to the rest of the world and to us that indeed, truth matters, right matters, and we have not forgotten that, no matter how dim its memory has become. We can and will come back - if, and only if, we cut the dance, discipline the children and reshape that pre school into a prize winning example to and for the world, and mostly, for ourselves.
A parent watching this pre school over a nanny cam will be hard pressed to accept the fact that these terrors are their children. The faces are those characters whom we have allowed to gain traction in our world and that, my fellow dancers and parents, is manifestly OUR fault, for we allowed this farce to continue on way beyond its sell by date. We have ceded control to an openly defiant group of nasty toddlers who cannot see the trees for the forest nor the forest for the trees. There appears to be no way to negotiate with them, not candy, not praise, not shaming them, not truth, nothing and that has us up that proverbial creek without the paddle.
So ever onward in its repetitious loops, the toddler dancers go on, wasting time and breath. Even getting them corralled does not do the trick for they are busy ginning up excuses for the bully who has delivered them into a vise of his and their own making. They have followed lockstep behind him, allowing his perversions of a pre school, of a dance, to overwhelm all concerned.
There is a courtroom scene of a type in this nightmare. There are earnest people up at a podium who are pouring their hearts out, spewing forth data, fact after fact, truth after truth, re the bully but the bully's sycophants are enmeshed too deeply in his traps and there are earmuffs around their ears blotting out the truth, the words which should set fire to their souls. Yet - nothing!! All they seemingly seem to feel is the need, the deep and intense yearning, to bring this activity to a halt, so no permission to engage witnesses, to bring in more exhibits, to produce more evidence for time is afleetin' and they must return to their nefarious toddler activities lest they go through a painful withdrawal.
So, folks, what do we do? So far we have done nothing of a permanent nature. Trump is there at Davos as the world's leaders discount him, Ivanka is running around looking for breaks for the "working man" as long as that working man is in the top tax brackets, and looking to "reskilling" them. Huh! Retraining, reeducationg, enabling more educational benefits, and we can go on but I surely wonder who and what will do the 'reskilling' and who will pay for it while the you know who's benefit once again.
Oh, but not to worry, for the man who swore up and down he would not cut entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security just announced he would. Why? His induced mammoth growth of the national debt is now biting his ass and he needs to fix it, so, as usual, let's fix it by smashing those who need that safety net. Full confession - I make no bones about it, for I need both those entitlements to make my way through an ever declining physical state of health and a growing need for medications that grow ever more expensive overnight. As for those who go hungry in our nation, well, just look at him for vicarious gratification as he chows down on yet another fast food meal or a steak dinner at one of his golf clubs for which WE pay!!
And ever onward we dance, looping and kicking, in and out. The man swears he does not lie, so please disregard his over 15,000 lies and certainly the 14 lies he threw at us after he said he never lies. Such a clever dude. Not. Watch as the Republicans sweat to restrict the damage, ignore the words of Schiff, “This is why if you find him guilty, you must find that he should be removed. Because right matters. Right matters and the truth matters. Otherwise we are lost.”
We are at a crossroads in the history and future of this world and planet of ours. We ourselves are to blame if we allow our own country to go down this route to dictatorhsip, to a President who is a king, even possibly in name too as he will be allowed to do as he wishes, use the call of executive privilege to cover up all his wrongs, defame and abuse the Constitution, and stick to the policy of being above the law.
No one is above the law. No one. Period. End of discussion. No one is allowed to be a dictator here in the USA. No one, no matter how bloated the ego and useless the spineless and balless legislators are. They need to develop some moral cojones - ooohhh, a Spanish word. Mea Culpa!
We need better people at the helm, not an idiot who compares the issue of being pro choice to slavery and the pro or anti choices there. There is only one choice there, De Vos, you moron. Huh!! Or a President who natters away in a demented manner and just look at his answer about Musk. It ends up with a mishmash of nonsensical sentences that we must protect Thomas Edison and all those who produced the electric bulb. I kid you not! What about all the other dead genius people? Do we protect them too? Do we neglect a live genius and only protect him/her after death? The choices here are sooooo interesting.
No, our only choice, our last remaining choice before we consign ourselves to perdition, is to find this guy guilty, remove him from office, stomp on Pence so that he either shape up or he gets removed on the same grounds as his boss, and we prove to the rest of the world and to us that indeed, truth matters, right matters, and we have not forgotten that, no matter how dim its memory has become. We can and will come back - if, and only if, we cut the dance, discipline the children and reshape that pre school into a prize winning example to and for the world, and mostly, for ourselves.
Thursday, January 23, 2020
AND THE ANSWER IS.........
Actually, I do not believe there is an answer forthcoming. No one is willing to sit down and concede truths, would rather defend garbage, filth and danger than admit wrongdoings and be forced into a wholesale revamping of their Party and its life approach. There is no question that it is a difficult undertaking, but again, those involved need to look in the mirror and ask that reflection just who or what is the cause of this situation.
Assuming responsibility for our actions is one of the main principles of life that parents and teachers try to teach children as we prepare the next generation for their roles in the world. It is embarrassing to watch what is going on in our nation's capital, to see it through our children's eyes. It is a sign of danger ahead.
So many of our younger generation are disenchanted by the whole mess. They have dumped all the politicians into one massive garbage heap, unworthy of their time, attention or interest. They have become cynical, uncaring and thus the danger grows ever more, ever nearer, ever more possible. If a nation's citizens do not care about their government, about the rules of the country, and watch apathetically as the rules are changed right under their feet, then as the vernacular goes - We. Got. Trouble.
We need also ask the question as to why it appears to be that the youth of other countries are more proactive, more daring, more committed to their views and positions than ours. A 16 year old has the courage to stand up there and give the leaders of the world a well deserved scolding.The youth of Hong Kong are protesting in the streets. Our youth paint their faces with team colors, get drunk, and could give a hoot! Where is the vaunted optimism that so clearly marked the American psyche? Where is its energy, the daring, the confidence to take it all on and correct, right the wrongs of the country and the world?
We, the adults are at fault here. Even those of the younger generations who wish to partake of process are discouraged by the behavior of those presumed adults. These so called adults appeal to the very lowest common denominators, the modern day reincarnations of those dictators and mob instigators throughout history who would use base emotions, lies and more lies in order to rouse that sleeping sense of violence, of entitlement and then stand aside and watch the destruction begin. All the time waiting to pick up the pieces and fit them inside a different pattern, one that does not bode well for humanity.
What do we say when the Senate is chided for language, and then one Party ramps up its language even as the other tempers it a bit, particularly as the one which tempers is the one with the truths on hand. It is a well known and well printed statement that the Senate will never vote to convict. They have said as much and as exactly so.They all need to be arrested as guilty of perjury as they swore to be nonjudgemental and hear the evidence, but then again, what do we do with their prior statements which gave their opinions preformed, pre trial, pre farce? What do we do with the accusation, the facts, of jury tampering, of jurors who are stained with the same accusations, having partaken of the same dish of corruption as did their ostensible leader? The whole thing stinks to the high heavens, the angels up there wondering just what that stink is, why it reeks so.
What do we say when a man claims to be so pro soldier, yet makes little of serious wounds, defending the lies about wounded soldiers by saying that their complaints and wounds were minor, for after all, it was only headaches, not severe wounds like the loss of a limb. Really? The whole advancement in the recognition and treatment of TBI was just flushed down the toilet, and by Captain Bone Spurs to wit!! How do people still support this man, this liar, this unfeeling corrupt individual who uses his position to inflate his own family and its worth, even to the point of using money raised for his inauguration to pay inflated prices to HIM for his hotel use. ICH!! YUCK!! Well, at least he can look at his brood with evil pride and marvel at how well his lessons of corruption have taken hold of them, crushing the morality out of them as they scoot around the world and the country, on our dime, rootin' and tootin' for pater. Double ich!!
But wait, there's more. We are on the verge of ripping our Constitution up in so many shreds that it is hard to keep track. We are on the verge of handing such power and control to the president that he might as well be pronounced king for so strong will be his powers and so weak will be the checks of the other branches, actually those branches becoming mere puppets, weak, powerless and self destructing.
Need more? Here is a goody. The Supreme Court, in all its stupidity and Republican packed bench, is about to crash 38 state amendments which enforce the separation between church and state. They are now contemplating approving a law which states that not only is the state able to contribute to religious schools, but wait, wait.....they MUST do so. So what now? Will our kids get the message of Pence and his Bishop about demonic and evil spirits inside people who are gay and lesbian? Will we be teaching our kids that women are subservient, good only for the Nazi principle of children, church and kitchen? Will our kids be taught to defer to 'mother' ? Whose religion will prevail and how far will this go? Whose prayer will be used in schools? Will we be forcing Jewish kids to pray to Jesus, or Catholic kids to praise Allah, or agnostic kids to pray in defiance of their beliefs? Will the prayers change as the regime changes? Will G-d become a plaything of the politicians?
So, the answer is..... The answer is that we must take stock of our position in life, of where we are at and if we wish to remain so. We must think carefully, long and hard and realize that we have gotten ourselves into a disaster difficult as all to fix, tear down and rebuild the right way, the Constitutional way, the moral way - the American way.The only way.
Assuming responsibility for our actions is one of the main principles of life that parents and teachers try to teach children as we prepare the next generation for their roles in the world. It is embarrassing to watch what is going on in our nation's capital, to see it through our children's eyes. It is a sign of danger ahead.
So many of our younger generation are disenchanted by the whole mess. They have dumped all the politicians into one massive garbage heap, unworthy of their time, attention or interest. They have become cynical, uncaring and thus the danger grows ever more, ever nearer, ever more possible. If a nation's citizens do not care about their government, about the rules of the country, and watch apathetically as the rules are changed right under their feet, then as the vernacular goes - We. Got. Trouble.
We need also ask the question as to why it appears to be that the youth of other countries are more proactive, more daring, more committed to their views and positions than ours. A 16 year old has the courage to stand up there and give the leaders of the world a well deserved scolding.The youth of Hong Kong are protesting in the streets. Our youth paint their faces with team colors, get drunk, and could give a hoot! Where is the vaunted optimism that so clearly marked the American psyche? Where is its energy, the daring, the confidence to take it all on and correct, right the wrongs of the country and the world?
We, the adults are at fault here. Even those of the younger generations who wish to partake of process are discouraged by the behavior of those presumed adults. These so called adults appeal to the very lowest common denominators, the modern day reincarnations of those dictators and mob instigators throughout history who would use base emotions, lies and more lies in order to rouse that sleeping sense of violence, of entitlement and then stand aside and watch the destruction begin. All the time waiting to pick up the pieces and fit them inside a different pattern, one that does not bode well for humanity.
What do we say when the Senate is chided for language, and then one Party ramps up its language even as the other tempers it a bit, particularly as the one which tempers is the one with the truths on hand. It is a well known and well printed statement that the Senate will never vote to convict. They have said as much and as exactly so.They all need to be arrested as guilty of perjury as they swore to be nonjudgemental and hear the evidence, but then again, what do we do with their prior statements which gave their opinions preformed, pre trial, pre farce? What do we do with the accusation, the facts, of jury tampering, of jurors who are stained with the same accusations, having partaken of the same dish of corruption as did their ostensible leader? The whole thing stinks to the high heavens, the angels up there wondering just what that stink is, why it reeks so.
What do we say when a man claims to be so pro soldier, yet makes little of serious wounds, defending the lies about wounded soldiers by saying that their complaints and wounds were minor, for after all, it was only headaches, not severe wounds like the loss of a limb. Really? The whole advancement in the recognition and treatment of TBI was just flushed down the toilet, and by Captain Bone Spurs to wit!! How do people still support this man, this liar, this unfeeling corrupt individual who uses his position to inflate his own family and its worth, even to the point of using money raised for his inauguration to pay inflated prices to HIM for his hotel use. ICH!! YUCK!! Well, at least he can look at his brood with evil pride and marvel at how well his lessons of corruption have taken hold of them, crushing the morality out of them as they scoot around the world and the country, on our dime, rootin' and tootin' for pater. Double ich!!
But wait, there's more. We are on the verge of ripping our Constitution up in so many shreds that it is hard to keep track. We are on the verge of handing such power and control to the president that he might as well be pronounced king for so strong will be his powers and so weak will be the checks of the other branches, actually those branches becoming mere puppets, weak, powerless and self destructing.
Need more? Here is a goody. The Supreme Court, in all its stupidity and Republican packed bench, is about to crash 38 state amendments which enforce the separation between church and state. They are now contemplating approving a law which states that not only is the state able to contribute to religious schools, but wait, wait.....they MUST do so. So what now? Will our kids get the message of Pence and his Bishop about demonic and evil spirits inside people who are gay and lesbian? Will we be teaching our kids that women are subservient, good only for the Nazi principle of children, church and kitchen? Will our kids be taught to defer to 'mother' ? Whose religion will prevail and how far will this go? Whose prayer will be used in schools? Will we be forcing Jewish kids to pray to Jesus, or Catholic kids to praise Allah, or agnostic kids to pray in defiance of their beliefs? Will the prayers change as the regime changes? Will G-d become a plaything of the politicians?
So, the answer is..... The answer is that we must take stock of our position in life, of where we are at and if we wish to remain so. We must think carefully, long and hard and realize that we have gotten ourselves into a disaster difficult as all to fix, tear down and rebuild the right way, the Constitutional way, the moral way - the American way.The only way.
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
PERFECTION? UH HUH!!
We have been recently treated to a man who calls his twisted and perverted actions as "perfect". Specifically, he is referring to a phone conversation wherein he is caught with his pants hanging off as he commits treason, yes, treason, especially as he is the head of the USA, sworn to protect it, to put it and its protection above all else. However, that 'perfect' man cannot and could not do that, for foremost within his tiny, little, demented mind is the urge to make money, to cover his huge debts, to increase his business dealings and over all, be a 'bigshot' in the world.
Well, he is certainly big, though in bodily size and obesity, is he not, but the 'bigly' quality he wants is sorely lacking. Worse, his perfect imperfection has spread around, trickled down in ever growing force and amount into level after level of society, with no end in sight. His perfect imperfection has created chasms dividing not only this nation within itself, but also between us and the rest of the world, particularly our allies, or should I say our former allies?!
Even at Davos the man cannot help but continue to carry out his perfect record as a liar. No, he did not save the historically black colleges and universities. In truth, it had nothing to do with him. Nor did he negotiate the biggest trade deals ever. These deals came about after great and growing crises on our borders, were actually a rewriting of the older deals. Nor is the economy so great for it has been a slower year than hoped for, not even topping the 3% growth, with wages stagnant or too small to make a difference in the buying power of most Americans, and the list goes on. Indeed, the man is perfect - a perfect buffoon and liar with the saddest part being how he has incorporated the free will of others, particularly the GOP and turned them into nonthinking zombies. Oh, some may open mouths only to fall in line when push comes to shove and a vote is taken - even the ones who are retiring!!!!!Perfection!
The 'perfection' of our nation continues with the use of children to pressure parents, be it the caged children of the immigrants or the children of Louglin who are going to be used against their parents. This from the supposed adherents to the importance of family unity!!! What the hell!!
Our dead from the neck up VP Pence is running scared, concerned that the shame of this whole impeachment and its accusations will rain down upon him as proof of his mixing in there comes to the fore. OMB has been forced to release documents that contain more information and so Pence runs to religion for help? Wrong choice, perfectly wrong. He listens to a Bishop rant how the "demonic Spirit' has entered and forced homosexuals and lesbians to desire the wrong people! Truly! In this day and age. So what, are we now going to burn that devilish spirit out of them, press it out of them with heavy stones, see if they drown, some other brutal backwards punishment that goes with devil accusations in this area? In fact, if they are indeed seeking the demonic spirit, its work and influence, well hello out there, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and neighboring official governmental buildings are just ripe for it.
Perfection. Today it has come to mean imperfection, in this upside down world. We ignore crisis after crisis here in our country with children hungry, homeless, no parents as they are opioid addicted, causing foster care crisis in states heavily affected. We could care less as the money and aid for this is perfectly ripped off, filtered to the corporations and the fatcats of society as they received their terrific, and perfect in their eyes, tax cuts.
Millions are suffering from weather and climate change but the perfect moron ignores it all, even as millions are right now, immediately suffering, becoming climate refugees. Are we going to call them murderers and rapists as well? Uh oh, these are not all brown and black, lots of lighter pigmentation in there too, so what now? How does the bigoted perfect imperfection of a man handle that? Answer - he does not, just as he does not handle anything else with any kind of positive result or spin. Perfection!! Of the wrong kind.
Oh, we must not forget the perfect storm of lies. For example, the Iranian missile strike on a base of ours in Iraq was seemingly a minor event, no harm, no foul but....wait for it, over two weeks later we are still sending wounded soldiers out for treatment. So for two weeks they did not receive the treatment they needed, all so we could perfectly deny the truth? All this so his perfect stupidity in rousing the lion has resulted in more dangerous results than were admitted to before, but as usual, the truth will out. Now what? What will be the perfect answer to this created crisis. Where will perfection be in this mess?
Last but not least, check out the mess in the Senate. If you watched it yesterday, be sure to take your pressure pills for that is how aggravating, ridiculous, crackling with dislike and hatred, bombasity and nonsense as ever seen before, mainly on the part of the GOP who pandered to the crowd with lies, who backed off challenging Trump for reaching the truth, for continuing to act without spine or balls, who perfectly have ramped up the imperfect view the world now has of us. Quite frankly, listening to the nonsense of the two GOP lawyers who said nothing and made sure to repeat that, to insure it be heard, the lies they threw out there, the lack of substance, and the efforts of McConnell to shut the whole thing down - it is perfectly imperfect in its every moment and I, as an American, am ashamed at this picture we have put before the world.
We are coming across as the weakest, most confused and disorganized Third World banana republic just emerging from tribal mentality, in fact even as we reinforce tribal mentality and society where it has long been discouraged. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
So here we are, perfectly imperfect with a perfectly demented head of country, bolstered by the support of the perfect set of lackeys and moral cowards and we are perfectly screwed. Will Chief Justice Roberts manage to keep them under control after chiding them once already for their language and tone? I doubt it, for the seeds of perfect chaos anddisaster are there, sprouting perfectly, ripping apart the soil of democracy, of American society, of America. Just perfect!
Well, he is certainly big, though in bodily size and obesity, is he not, but the 'bigly' quality he wants is sorely lacking. Worse, his perfect imperfection has spread around, trickled down in ever growing force and amount into level after level of society, with no end in sight. His perfect imperfection has created chasms dividing not only this nation within itself, but also between us and the rest of the world, particularly our allies, or should I say our former allies?!
Even at Davos the man cannot help but continue to carry out his perfect record as a liar. No, he did not save the historically black colleges and universities. In truth, it had nothing to do with him. Nor did he negotiate the biggest trade deals ever. These deals came about after great and growing crises on our borders, were actually a rewriting of the older deals. Nor is the economy so great for it has been a slower year than hoped for, not even topping the 3% growth, with wages stagnant or too small to make a difference in the buying power of most Americans, and the list goes on. Indeed, the man is perfect - a perfect buffoon and liar with the saddest part being how he has incorporated the free will of others, particularly the GOP and turned them into nonthinking zombies. Oh, some may open mouths only to fall in line when push comes to shove and a vote is taken - even the ones who are retiring!!!!!Perfection!
The 'perfection' of our nation continues with the use of children to pressure parents, be it the caged children of the immigrants or the children of Louglin who are going to be used against their parents. This from the supposed adherents to the importance of family unity!!! What the hell!!
Our dead from the neck up VP Pence is running scared, concerned that the shame of this whole impeachment and its accusations will rain down upon him as proof of his mixing in there comes to the fore. OMB has been forced to release documents that contain more information and so Pence runs to religion for help? Wrong choice, perfectly wrong. He listens to a Bishop rant how the "demonic Spirit' has entered and forced homosexuals and lesbians to desire the wrong people! Truly! In this day and age. So what, are we now going to burn that devilish spirit out of them, press it out of them with heavy stones, see if they drown, some other brutal backwards punishment that goes with devil accusations in this area? In fact, if they are indeed seeking the demonic spirit, its work and influence, well hello out there, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and neighboring official governmental buildings are just ripe for it.
Perfection. Today it has come to mean imperfection, in this upside down world. We ignore crisis after crisis here in our country with children hungry, homeless, no parents as they are opioid addicted, causing foster care crisis in states heavily affected. We could care less as the money and aid for this is perfectly ripped off, filtered to the corporations and the fatcats of society as they received their terrific, and perfect in their eyes, tax cuts.
Millions are suffering from weather and climate change but the perfect moron ignores it all, even as millions are right now, immediately suffering, becoming climate refugees. Are we going to call them murderers and rapists as well? Uh oh, these are not all brown and black, lots of lighter pigmentation in there too, so what now? How does the bigoted perfect imperfection of a man handle that? Answer - he does not, just as he does not handle anything else with any kind of positive result or spin. Perfection!! Of the wrong kind.
Oh, we must not forget the perfect storm of lies. For example, the Iranian missile strike on a base of ours in Iraq was seemingly a minor event, no harm, no foul but....wait for it, over two weeks later we are still sending wounded soldiers out for treatment. So for two weeks they did not receive the treatment they needed, all so we could perfectly deny the truth? All this so his perfect stupidity in rousing the lion has resulted in more dangerous results than were admitted to before, but as usual, the truth will out. Now what? What will be the perfect answer to this created crisis. Where will perfection be in this mess?
Last but not least, check out the mess in the Senate. If you watched it yesterday, be sure to take your pressure pills for that is how aggravating, ridiculous, crackling with dislike and hatred, bombasity and nonsense as ever seen before, mainly on the part of the GOP who pandered to the crowd with lies, who backed off challenging Trump for reaching the truth, for continuing to act without spine or balls, who perfectly have ramped up the imperfect view the world now has of us. Quite frankly, listening to the nonsense of the two GOP lawyers who said nothing and made sure to repeat that, to insure it be heard, the lies they threw out there, the lack of substance, and the efforts of McConnell to shut the whole thing down - it is perfectly imperfect in its every moment and I, as an American, am ashamed at this picture we have put before the world.
We are coming across as the weakest, most confused and disorganized Third World banana republic just emerging from tribal mentality, in fact even as we reinforce tribal mentality and society where it has long been discouraged. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
So here we are, perfectly imperfect with a perfectly demented head of country, bolstered by the support of the perfect set of lackeys and moral cowards and we are perfectly screwed. Will Chief Justice Roberts manage to keep them under control after chiding them once already for their language and tone? I doubt it, for the seeds of perfect chaos anddisaster are there, sprouting perfectly, ripping apart the soil of democracy, of American society, of America. Just perfect!
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
DEFINITIONS, JUSTICE AND REALITY
In the squabbles and fracas of today, words are thrown around with no clear definition and/or changing ones, more convenient to whomever is in the hotseat. What is a crime? Does it matter if there is a legal crime under the impeachment accusations? Are the violations of Trump enough to reach the point of removal from office or does it need an ordinary everyday crime, like robbery.
Under the new team of lawyers, which includes some famous questionable ones, and 8 - eight! - House Republicans, the rabid ones, appointed to the defense team of the trial, it is all the better now to continue the charade of the GOP. They claim he did nothing wrong, was not after his own needs, and on and on and by the way, so okay, he did it but it is not a crime in the legal sense so there, and even if a crime is not there, his misdeeds do not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. What a crock!! These smug bstards think they have all eventualities and possibilities covered.
Well guess again. The most obvious? Trump is doomed in history. He is impeached and the shenanigans and moral cowardice of the Senate GOP will not change a thing. In fact, these cowards and collusionists will also go down in shame throughout history. And by the way, even that dense head of Trump knows that he is shamed before the world and I cannot wait to hear a nonsensical and rambling spech at Davos - unless he sticks to the script and then we will have minute after minute of hypocrisy. He got off the plane looking frazzled and grumpy and it did my heart good for all the harm that he has done to people and principles.
But here is the main and major tenet and definition. Justice. The Bible says, "Justice, justice shall thou pursue." According to the Biblical definition, justice and its concept deal with what is fair, right, moral, befitting the offense. And what about those who seek justice ouside the Bible, in normal everyday legality? Justice then means giving everyone his/her just due, in sync with the laws of the land.
I see no problem here in pursuing justice according to any definition, for this man surely deserves his just desserts although I wonder how one repays and compensates for the pain he has caused to others, for the trauma he has inflicted upon so many, for the mistreatmentof children, scarring them for life, for his pettiness, his criminality, his breaking of almost every rule by which we have been governed, allowing filth, corruption and incompetence to invade and drown this country. In fact, I doubt that we could even measure up in a tiny bit but still, justice deserved, justice earned, must come into play here and that goes for those who are denying it all in the name of fear, of cowardice, of greed, of stupidity.
Saint Bridget of Sweden says that "The source of justice is not vengeance but charity." Interesting thought, that, but does it come into play here? Does the man deserve that charity? Do the members of his cohort deserve charity after the harm, perhaps irreparable harm, they have inflicted upon this country? Have their misdeeds reached the point beyond which there is no reeturn, and no equal and deserving punishment even in existence?
My thinking, legally, morally, in deed, speech and thought, he deserves to be found guilty and should be removed from office. He then needs to be charged with all his crimes that deal with his finances, the violation of the emoluments law, his tax frauds and whatever can be found upon a full and detailed examination of all his papers. Only then will we be attempting to reach the full sense of justice for him and for us, its fair and equitable return.
Do I think this will happen? Nope. Such is the reality of the situation. He has the hypocritical votes of the Senators who swore to uphold their duty, to judge impartially, to hear all the evidence, all the while knowing that they are messing with the case, colluding with the accused, the dirty ones smeared with Trump's dirt voting on those same issues. So how can we expect justice? But we all know that every dog has its day, and history will have its way - if we do not self destruct under his overlordship and I use that word consciously and meaningfully. He and his are that deadly to the world and its existential reality.
But have faith. I do not have the source of the following statement, but it is well worth its repetition for the hope it gives. "Justice is like an abandoned child in a dark forest. She meanders slowly in search of the light. One must hope she will eventually find her way."
It is incumbent upon us to help that justice find its way out into the light, into safety, into fair and equitable distribution. History has shown how so many times the dictators and murderers and criminals of society have been found and introduced to justice. This time should be no different. Not here, nor in any other country in a world so beset by dishonesty, dishonor and a shocking lack of justice. It is our path back to right and just, fair treatment for all, a world filled with hope rather than despair.
Monday, January 20, 2020
WERE, ARE, COULD BE
Most people, at various times of life, usually at crisis time, examine their lives. They ask the questions of the title: who was I, who am I, and who can or will I be. Will they continue on in their known path or will they make changes, large and small, in their path and emerge a different person, hopefully a worthier person, though there are those who simply double down on their resident evil and deepen the depth of their commitment to wrong, to greed, to oppression and suppression.
This is the current situation of the nation today. We need to take stock of ourselves as that nation. Who were we, when we were founded, when we developed, when we walked the paths of growth? Did we do wrong? Did we work to correct those wrongs? Did we slip badly at times? What were our goals of the past and were they met or discarded as we moved into the present? This part requires honesty of backwards looking lenses and an acceptance that no one and no nation is perfect.
Next, the nation must evaluate its current status. Who are we in this moment? Who are we in the daily lives of the world's nations? Have we been keeping lockstep with our national goals, our ethos as a nation, or has our present turned sour as we walk down the wrong path, the path of death for democracy - and in our lifetime, in the present, not in some nebulous future time.
Part of the present time of evaluation is checking the leaders we have chosen, and there is no doubt about it but that our choice of leaders tells much about the nation's present status. We have chosen corrupt and corrupting individuals, those who sell the nation down the river; those who encourage others to flout the nation's ethos and break our three runged system of government as a nation. At present we have a nation in a moment of crisis, yes, but also in a moment of peril, peril such as we have never seen before.
When a nation's leader(s) breaks the law, knowingly, openly, and the cohorts live in a moral vacuum, then the nation is in existential peril. It is not enough that the name of the USA continue to exist, but that the name represent what makes us proud, a nation of the world, a democracy true to our founding basis, true to the patriots who decided it was time to throw off the yoke of corruption and oppression, of wrong laws, and become a stand up, proud, and independent nation. It was not easy, but what have we done with their efforts and what are we doing now?
Today, if they were here, visiting us from the past, their wigs would fly off their heads, Washington and Lincoln would lay down their heads and weep, Madison and FDR would wonder why we have neglected their warnings and guidance. Ike would wonder what he fought for all those years and the haunting moans and sounds of weeping and pain from those killed due to hatred, to prejudice, to the ignoring of morality, will overwhelm the air waves of the present. Even JFK will have no inspirational phrases, words or speeches to help us out of the hole we have dug for ourselves, as we keep digging ever deeper. No, our present is certainly not rosy.
The hardest part of the evaluation hits us now. Now, we as a nation, must make a choice. Who will we be if we continue as it is or sink ever further into the muck of hatred, of pervasive lies, over 15,000 already out of the chief liar, Trump, of exaggerations, of despair and supression, of opresssion and censorship of the falsest basis ever.
No, he did not win an overwhelming landslide victory in 2016. In fact, he lost the popular vote by millions, and cheated his way into office. No, the 'new' treaty with Mexico and Canada is not new, only a rewriting of the old one. NO, the economy is not the best, job slots are low, the economy grew only 2% rather than their prediction of 3% or more, and his supposed historical treaty with China comes as a partial one, after so many trade war characteristics with a resulting anger that remains. His tax cuts gave money to the fatcats, who store it overseas, not a penny of it coming back to the nation. NO, there is no truth to this man and his cohorts, his sycophants who back him up just as those selfish and evil and blinded people supported Hitler.
And here is when the individuals of a nation must examine themselves in the three time periods. What have we done, what are we doing, and what do we wish to do in the future? Have we been true to the past ideals which fueled the nation, to those who gave their lives for it, so that we might have the privilege of living here, of having a Lady Liberty express our dreams and purpose in life? Are we living the best life we can, now, in the present, being the best people, person, we can and should be? What will our present conduct and beliefs, our present activiites portend for the future.
Will we be true, genuine Americans in every sense of the word or will we be something else? It has been said that "All are not huntsmen who can blow the hunter's horn." Are we to be the true huntsmen of today, the setters of a good and blessed future for the oncoming generations, or are we to blow the horn in a mournful reminder of the impending death of the world and all the individuals upon it? We need to be the best individuals we can be if we wish the nation to be so. Time to make choices, hard ones, to face the facts as they are, not as we want them to be, and do the right thing. Before it is too late and all huntsmen horns will be silenced forever. The window of opportunity, of reform, of safety is shrinking rapidly, and once closed, do not look for its opening again, only possibly small cracks as the brave people who recognize right and the true path of the nation, fight to right the wrongs, perhaps tilting at Don Quixote's windmills, but to do something is better than to do nothing, or worse, to aid the wrong along and to victory.
This is the current situation of the nation today. We need to take stock of ourselves as that nation. Who were we, when we were founded, when we developed, when we walked the paths of growth? Did we do wrong? Did we work to correct those wrongs? Did we slip badly at times? What were our goals of the past and were they met or discarded as we moved into the present? This part requires honesty of backwards looking lenses and an acceptance that no one and no nation is perfect.
Next, the nation must evaluate its current status. Who are we in this moment? Who are we in the daily lives of the world's nations? Have we been keeping lockstep with our national goals, our ethos as a nation, or has our present turned sour as we walk down the wrong path, the path of death for democracy - and in our lifetime, in the present, not in some nebulous future time.
Part of the present time of evaluation is checking the leaders we have chosen, and there is no doubt about it but that our choice of leaders tells much about the nation's present status. We have chosen corrupt and corrupting individuals, those who sell the nation down the river; those who encourage others to flout the nation's ethos and break our three runged system of government as a nation. At present we have a nation in a moment of crisis, yes, but also in a moment of peril, peril such as we have never seen before.
When a nation's leader(s) breaks the law, knowingly, openly, and the cohorts live in a moral vacuum, then the nation is in existential peril. It is not enough that the name of the USA continue to exist, but that the name represent what makes us proud, a nation of the world, a democracy true to our founding basis, true to the patriots who decided it was time to throw off the yoke of corruption and oppression, of wrong laws, and become a stand up, proud, and independent nation. It was not easy, but what have we done with their efforts and what are we doing now?
Today, if they were here, visiting us from the past, their wigs would fly off their heads, Washington and Lincoln would lay down their heads and weep, Madison and FDR would wonder why we have neglected their warnings and guidance. Ike would wonder what he fought for all those years and the haunting moans and sounds of weeping and pain from those killed due to hatred, to prejudice, to the ignoring of morality, will overwhelm the air waves of the present. Even JFK will have no inspirational phrases, words or speeches to help us out of the hole we have dug for ourselves, as we keep digging ever deeper. No, our present is certainly not rosy.
The hardest part of the evaluation hits us now. Now, we as a nation, must make a choice. Who will we be if we continue as it is or sink ever further into the muck of hatred, of pervasive lies, over 15,000 already out of the chief liar, Trump, of exaggerations, of despair and supression, of opresssion and censorship of the falsest basis ever.
No, he did not win an overwhelming landslide victory in 2016. In fact, he lost the popular vote by millions, and cheated his way into office. No, the 'new' treaty with Mexico and Canada is not new, only a rewriting of the old one. NO, the economy is not the best, job slots are low, the economy grew only 2% rather than their prediction of 3% or more, and his supposed historical treaty with China comes as a partial one, after so many trade war characteristics with a resulting anger that remains. His tax cuts gave money to the fatcats, who store it overseas, not a penny of it coming back to the nation. NO, there is no truth to this man and his cohorts, his sycophants who back him up just as those selfish and evil and blinded people supported Hitler.
And here is when the individuals of a nation must examine themselves in the three time periods. What have we done, what are we doing, and what do we wish to do in the future? Have we been true to the past ideals which fueled the nation, to those who gave their lives for it, so that we might have the privilege of living here, of having a Lady Liberty express our dreams and purpose in life? Are we living the best life we can, now, in the present, being the best people, person, we can and should be? What will our present conduct and beliefs, our present activiites portend for the future.
Will we be true, genuine Americans in every sense of the word or will we be something else? It has been said that "All are not huntsmen who can blow the hunter's horn." Are we to be the true huntsmen of today, the setters of a good and blessed future for the oncoming generations, or are we to blow the horn in a mournful reminder of the impending death of the world and all the individuals upon it? We need to be the best individuals we can be if we wish the nation to be so. Time to make choices, hard ones, to face the facts as they are, not as we want them to be, and do the right thing. Before it is too late and all huntsmen horns will be silenced forever. The window of opportunity, of reform, of safety is shrinking rapidly, and once closed, do not look for its opening again, only possibly small cracks as the brave people who recognize right and the true path of the nation, fight to right the wrongs, perhaps tilting at Don Quixote's windmills, but to do something is better than to do nothing, or worse, to aid the wrong along and to victory.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
THE POINT OF NO RETURN
How many times have we used that phrase or heard it in shows or read it in books. It is a point wherein the harm that has been done, or the path that has been trodden, has brought us to a tipping point, a point where there is no way to stop, to return to that fork in the road where we took the wrong one. That is the point of no return.
The question today is whether or not we have reached that point and if so what to do about it? If so, do we just give up? Do we make all the new accommodations, the ones that will sap the very souls, the very humanity out of us or do we decide that there is a way to stop the reckless and seemingly no return path and fix the mess. Read the following excerpt from an excellent novel - The Man From Berlin - and see if it helps you formulate thoughts that have been roaming around your mind these days.
"So the question is this:If a policeman is allowed to act without restraint - to the boundaries of what is permitted, and perhaps even beyond - will he do so? If not, what will constrain him. What holds him back?Will the law, will his society, his conscience, show him clearly not every goal sanctifies every means? And perhaps
even there are means that cannot - ever - be sanctified.
….What I am saying to you, is you have reached this boundary. You may even have gone over it before. ....It does not mean you must always do so. There has to be something to come back to."
Herein we perhaps have asked and answered, even given us encouragement along with the scolding and the warning. Not every thing under the sun is worthy of crossing the line for and yet there are some that do demand that action but, a great big but, we must be able to measure and evaluate. We must also make sure that there is nothing of the selfish and harmful for personal reasons within the action and its reasoning.
The main character of this novel, and two that follow, and hopefully more to come, is a man who is lost within the fog of war and the war with his conscience as he attempts to deal with his losses and his job. He felt "that the track of his life was a scar that hid what was and what might have been. ...Was there a chance? To change the track of that scar, alter it...? The past was what it was, and what might have been, could have been - should have been - ....The past could not be changed, but the future was different, and it was here, now. It always has been."
This is a dark, yet rosy, take on life and what we can do to change situations, especially those that are wrong, evil, seemingly past the point of no return. I wonder about that as I read of the efforts to tally just how many kids we separated from mothers and fathers, how much permanent trauma we have inflicted upon them and upon the soul of the nation? I wonder how the GOP members sleep when there are kids out there homeless and hungry, tossing and turning, perhaps part of that mile log homeless encampment along a bike path. Most homeless do not want to be there but have been driven there through the malevolent winds of society - and that society is composed of us. Period. We cannot say we are cutting the budget and do it on the backs of the weaker elements of society, especially when we cut the taxes and give more money to those who do not need it, who have multiple homes throughout the country and the world, who can spend thousands upon thousands of dollars at posh hotels. Palm Beach County alone has spent $13.7 million for trips to Mar a Lago, for golf weeks as\nd weekends, this for the man who chided Obama for playing golf and meanwhile he has way, way played more - and tweeted more garbage and hate than any other public government figure that I can think of.
The point of no return. The point wherein the poison spewed forth on a second by second rate from that man's mouth is contagious. It is the scarring of our past and our present. It is what happens when, as they say, "good men do nothing", but it is more than that. Good men need to DO something. We here in America are at a point of no return. We have already crossed the lines so many times, allowing the criminality of this man and his henchmen, the absolute moral shame of the Senate and those who lie and cheat for this man, for his power to so overwhelm us, that deeds and remarks that would have destroyed other presidents are washed off with the next breeze.
If we are to succeed in changing the immediate present and the future, we must act. We must do. We must leave no law unturned to bring low this man and his cabal who would destroy our America, our democracy. Think I exaggerate? Not so. What do we say when the National Archives!!!!! changes pictures of the first Women's March on Washington, blurring the anti Trump signs, blotting references to vagina because "children might be shocked and harmed' - by what, perfectly correct language? Better to spew hate and nasty names? Censorship is here, powerfully so. It is already hiding much of what has made us a great country, endangering the Constitution that has kept us going. What next? What next?
Only we, you and I, can answer that question. Act. Protest. Write officials. Join marches. Get out the vote. Vote for a strong woman just as well as a strong man. Make sure you vote for one who will reunite our country rather than further the divide. Vote for one who is inclusive of our diverse society. Remember the salad bowl of our fifth grade class, describing the strength of our society? We need that again, not the plates and dishes which separate us into separate, never mixing compartments.
It is our choice. It is our responsibility. We must force the curve on that road to the point of no return. We must, for if not, our children's future is lost - due to our inaction, stupidity and greed. We have been patient, more than patient, for more time than we should have been. Now- "Beware the fury of the patient man." (John Dryden) Let us fulfill our destiny, our responsibility, our hope for the future, set and be an example and inspiration to the world, and cover over the scar that has been made to this point. That scar of a misbegotten reign must be stopped, it having reached the point of no return and met the power of the people.
The question today is whether or not we have reached that point and if so what to do about it? If so, do we just give up? Do we make all the new accommodations, the ones that will sap the very souls, the very humanity out of us or do we decide that there is a way to stop the reckless and seemingly no return path and fix the mess. Read the following excerpt from an excellent novel - The Man From Berlin - and see if it helps you formulate thoughts that have been roaming around your mind these days.
"So the question is this:If a policeman is allowed to act without restraint - to the boundaries of what is permitted, and perhaps even beyond - will he do so? If not, what will constrain him. What holds him back?Will the law, will his society, his conscience, show him clearly not every goal sanctifies every means? And perhaps
even there are means that cannot - ever - be sanctified.
….What I am saying to you, is you have reached this boundary. You may even have gone over it before. ....It does not mean you must always do so. There has to be something to come back to."
Herein we perhaps have asked and answered, even given us encouragement along with the scolding and the warning. Not every thing under the sun is worthy of crossing the line for and yet there are some that do demand that action but, a great big but, we must be able to measure and evaluate. We must also make sure that there is nothing of the selfish and harmful for personal reasons within the action and its reasoning.
The main character of this novel, and two that follow, and hopefully more to come, is a man who is lost within the fog of war and the war with his conscience as he attempts to deal with his losses and his job. He felt "that the track of his life was a scar that hid what was and what might have been. ...Was there a chance? To change the track of that scar, alter it...? The past was what it was, and what might have been, could have been - should have been - ....The past could not be changed, but the future was different, and it was here, now. It always has been."
This is a dark, yet rosy, take on life and what we can do to change situations, especially those that are wrong, evil, seemingly past the point of no return. I wonder about that as I read of the efforts to tally just how many kids we separated from mothers and fathers, how much permanent trauma we have inflicted upon them and upon the soul of the nation? I wonder how the GOP members sleep when there are kids out there homeless and hungry, tossing and turning, perhaps part of that mile log homeless encampment along a bike path. Most homeless do not want to be there but have been driven there through the malevolent winds of society - and that society is composed of us. Period. We cannot say we are cutting the budget and do it on the backs of the weaker elements of society, especially when we cut the taxes and give more money to those who do not need it, who have multiple homes throughout the country and the world, who can spend thousands upon thousands of dollars at posh hotels. Palm Beach County alone has spent $13.7 million for trips to Mar a Lago, for golf weeks as\nd weekends, this for the man who chided Obama for playing golf and meanwhile he has way, way played more - and tweeted more garbage and hate than any other public government figure that I can think of.
The point of no return. The point wherein the poison spewed forth on a second by second rate from that man's mouth is contagious. It is the scarring of our past and our present. It is what happens when, as they say, "good men do nothing", but it is more than that. Good men need to DO something. We here in America are at a point of no return. We have already crossed the lines so many times, allowing the criminality of this man and his henchmen, the absolute moral shame of the Senate and those who lie and cheat for this man, for his power to so overwhelm us, that deeds and remarks that would have destroyed other presidents are washed off with the next breeze.
If we are to succeed in changing the immediate present and the future, we must act. We must do. We must leave no law unturned to bring low this man and his cabal who would destroy our America, our democracy. Think I exaggerate? Not so. What do we say when the National Archives!!!!! changes pictures of the first Women's March on Washington, blurring the anti Trump signs, blotting references to vagina because "children might be shocked and harmed' - by what, perfectly correct language? Better to spew hate and nasty names? Censorship is here, powerfully so. It is already hiding much of what has made us a great country, endangering the Constitution that has kept us going. What next? What next?
Only we, you and I, can answer that question. Act. Protest. Write officials. Join marches. Get out the vote. Vote for a strong woman just as well as a strong man. Make sure you vote for one who will reunite our country rather than further the divide. Vote for one who is inclusive of our diverse society. Remember the salad bowl of our fifth grade class, describing the strength of our society? We need that again, not the plates and dishes which separate us into separate, never mixing compartments.
It is our choice. It is our responsibility. We must force the curve on that road to the point of no return. We must, for if not, our children's future is lost - due to our inaction, stupidity and greed. We have been patient, more than patient, for more time than we should have been. Now- "Beware the fury of the patient man." (John Dryden) Let us fulfill our destiny, our responsibility, our hope for the future, set and be an example and inspiration to the world, and cover over the scar that has been made to this point. That scar of a misbegotten reign must be stopped, it having reached the point of no return and met the power of the people.
Friday, January 17, 2020
BREEDING GROUNDS
Breeding grounds are places which lead to ideas, plans. At times that is a good idea and at others, well, someone should have known better! Think tanks are places specifically meant to generate or breed ideas, while that hunched over group of seventh grade boys is probably hatching a no-no idea and how to put it into action. Obviously, there are levels and measurements but we certainly have come up with a doozy of a breeding ground today.
Where is it, you ask? About midway along the east coast of the country, ostensibly the capital of our country. Many good ideas have come from that breeding ground. Women's rights. Civil rights. Equality. The end to slavery. SNAP - or as we commonly know it, food stamps. Regulatory safeguards for the country. Treaties and pacts. Declarations of war - and of peace.
We hope that most will be beneficial to and for the country, but today that is a major area of doubt, for the country is ignored and the ideas that are thought of and approved are ones that cut aid to people, that encourage actual hunger today, in 2020, in America. They encourage greed amongst manufacturers, and death to people caught up in fetid areas polluted by industrial waste. Today's breeding grounds offer ideas and support that have led to increased and violent prejudiced acts against minorities, including the shocking growth of violent and murderous anti Semitism.
Today's breeding grounds in DC are concentrated in two places - the White House and the Senate with branches throughout DC. Our supposed government for the people has fostered hate, lies, a miasma of evil and greed that threaten to take down this country. Truth no longer matters, for denial is the name of the game and the game of every hour. Open faced lies that deny pictures, distinguished officials, that turn the accusations and the sins of the dangerous breeders into deflected accusations which are then blamed on those seeking the truth. In order to best know the crimes, study the accusations of the side which breeds the wrongs.
It is a sad world when the leaders of a country lead us into a dangerous situation which imperils our very being, our 'Americaness' shall we say. Every day more and more filth about our present administration, the breeding ground for so much that has afflcited us these past three years, comes spewing forth from the never ending fountain of muck and the swamp of ill, of lies, of corruption, continues to grow, overwhelming all in its path.
The adjunct areas - Senate offices. House offices. Anywhere a Republican lives as they discuss thetruth of the impeachment accusations, the new evidence that keeps rising to the surface, like the scum that it is, even as they determine to lie, to violate sacred oaths, one of which they swore to yesterday, to ignore and defy, veto, the decisions of the Chief Justice who is presiding over the trial. What a sham of a trial that will be. We do not even know if the Chief Justice will prove to be nonpartisan or be false to the country and true to the fear and cowardice, the lack of morality which has drowned the GOP in its depths.
If one needs extra encouragement, more room for concocting nefarious deeds, then simply walk over to the Washington Trump hotel where therein one will find enough planners, conspirators, breeders of wrong to last a lifetime or two. Unfortunately, that lifetime will also prove to be our lifetime as well. And the lifetime of our children. And the lifetime of our grandchildren and so on and so on.
What we need to do is set up our own breeding ground, one meant to develop ideas that will restore America to its Americaness, that will welcome the immigrants, that will feed its hungry, that will see to the safety of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we walk upon. It will arrive at plans as to how to fix the harm of the past and avoid crimes in the future. In other words, it will do what a true and good government is meant to do. Be a government of the people, by the people and FOR the people - not the Senators or the industrialists or the military or the fatcats.
We need to fumigate these breeding grounds of wrong that are overwhelming the country. We need to educate our children and our population as a whole how to distinguish the truth from convincing lies, to separate bombast from truth, and to push aside those that would wrong all that 'do not matter' in their eyes.
It will not be easy, but then again, nothing good ever comes easy, does it?
Where is it, you ask? About midway along the east coast of the country, ostensibly the capital of our country. Many good ideas have come from that breeding ground. Women's rights. Civil rights. Equality. The end to slavery. SNAP - or as we commonly know it, food stamps. Regulatory safeguards for the country. Treaties and pacts. Declarations of war - and of peace.
We hope that most will be beneficial to and for the country, but today that is a major area of doubt, for the country is ignored and the ideas that are thought of and approved are ones that cut aid to people, that encourage actual hunger today, in 2020, in America. They encourage greed amongst manufacturers, and death to people caught up in fetid areas polluted by industrial waste. Today's breeding grounds offer ideas and support that have led to increased and violent prejudiced acts against minorities, including the shocking growth of violent and murderous anti Semitism.
Today's breeding grounds in DC are concentrated in two places - the White House and the Senate with branches throughout DC. Our supposed government for the people has fostered hate, lies, a miasma of evil and greed that threaten to take down this country. Truth no longer matters, for denial is the name of the game and the game of every hour. Open faced lies that deny pictures, distinguished officials, that turn the accusations and the sins of the dangerous breeders into deflected accusations which are then blamed on those seeking the truth. In order to best know the crimes, study the accusations of the side which breeds the wrongs.
It is a sad world when the leaders of a country lead us into a dangerous situation which imperils our very being, our 'Americaness' shall we say. Every day more and more filth about our present administration, the breeding ground for so much that has afflcited us these past three years, comes spewing forth from the never ending fountain of muck and the swamp of ill, of lies, of corruption, continues to grow, overwhelming all in its path.
The adjunct areas - Senate offices. House offices. Anywhere a Republican lives as they discuss thetruth of the impeachment accusations, the new evidence that keeps rising to the surface, like the scum that it is, even as they determine to lie, to violate sacred oaths, one of which they swore to yesterday, to ignore and defy, veto, the decisions of the Chief Justice who is presiding over the trial. What a sham of a trial that will be. We do not even know if the Chief Justice will prove to be nonpartisan or be false to the country and true to the fear and cowardice, the lack of morality which has drowned the GOP in its depths.
If one needs extra encouragement, more room for concocting nefarious deeds, then simply walk over to the Washington Trump hotel where therein one will find enough planners, conspirators, breeders of wrong to last a lifetime or two. Unfortunately, that lifetime will also prove to be our lifetime as well. And the lifetime of our children. And the lifetime of our grandchildren and so on and so on.
What we need to do is set up our own breeding ground, one meant to develop ideas that will restore America to its Americaness, that will welcome the immigrants, that will feed its hungry, that will see to the safety of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we walk upon. It will arrive at plans as to how to fix the harm of the past and avoid crimes in the future. In other words, it will do what a true and good government is meant to do. Be a government of the people, by the people and FOR the people - not the Senators or the industrialists or the military or the fatcats.
We need to fumigate these breeding grounds of wrong that are overwhelming the country. We need to educate our children and our population as a whole how to distinguish the truth from convincing lies, to separate bombast from truth, and to push aside those that would wrong all that 'do not matter' in their eyes.
It will not be easy, but then again, nothing good ever comes easy, does it?
Thursday, January 16, 2020
WE'VE FALLEN. NOW, CAN WE GET UP?
When is enough enough? When is it time to stop, look around, and make an assessment of the situation, how to fix it?When do we take a final mind picture of exactly where we are in terms of political space? Apparently now would be a great time for us as we have definitely fulfilled the scenario of an iconic TV ad: "I've fallen and I can't get up".
Yes, we, the once mighty USA, have fallen. We have face planted so hard, so almost irreversibly that there is indeed a question whether we can pick ourselves up again and step back to proper space and time, or is it too late, too much damage done to us and by us to be able to reverse the whole thing?
We can call upon Pete and his sake of yesterday's posting. For Pete's sake, are the Republicans nit picking on the amount of pens Pelosi used to sign that historical document, the Articles of Impeachent? Seriously? Is that all they can think of now? It is a Washingtonian tradition to give away pens used to sign Executive Orders - ahem - bills, pronouncements, whatever is official. So never mind the new filth coming out. Never mind the fact that all the rats are leaving the sinking ship of state - I hope - as the smell grows ranker with each pasing hour. Just count pens.
Now they are denying knowing Hyde, a big dude in politics and big donors, caught up in the knowledge, time appropriate, of the Ukrainian plan of Trump's. They are denying the visual and oral testimony and truth of Ukraine, what with Giuliani sitting in a liquor soaked bar, with Lev Parnas who has stated openly and unequivocally that "Trump knew exactly what was going on". Feh!!! For Pete's sake, is this what we want in our government in leadership position?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they say, the Republicans are running a defense system and a jury trial with the same personnel. McConnell says "I'm not an impartial juror". Hmmm....pen usage versus open corruption at an impeachment trial of one of the most corrupt humans ever in a sullied Senate with Republicans of no moral value or courage holding the fate of the accused, the fate of our country, and the fate of the world in their hot, red handed, guilty hands. Hmmm.
But we are not yet finished with Pete and his sake! As Washington crumbles under the weight of corruption and lies, as the body politic seems to be imitating a ship going under, the contagion spreads. In Missouri they are planning a new level of censorship in public libraries that will remove many classics from the shelves and neuter much of future writing for public consumption. Another step down the road to dictatorship right here in no, not River City, but here, in the former bastion of freedom, the United States of America. Ever closer to the point of not being able to get up any more. And we just keep chugging along, dragging Pete and his sake along with us, coughing in the dust raised by all this proposed loss of liberty.
What is next? The burning of books? The permanent removal and destruction and the punishment of imprisonment if found with these "bad" books? Do we then follow in the steps that adhere to the maxim that "he who burns books will end up burning people"? Been there, done that, have we not! Do we really want to go there again and yet chillingly, with anti Semitism on a steep rise, with essays being written trying to explain why Jews need be afraid, have we not come a long way on that disasterous road?
Religious conservative organizations are paying tribute at Trump's Washington hotel, the faithful coming to pray at the feet of the apparent new messenger of a god definitely not rendered in proper terms. Carnival Cruise Line has now taken on new rules of censorhip of clothing, and everyone is now a boss apparently and not for the good either. R.E.M. is incensed at the use of their music to support those poisonous mob rallies of Trump, want everyone to know they are fighting this in the courts as Trump refuses to stop and that they "do not condone the use of our music by this fraud and con man." Such a 'lovely' man sitting there in the White House!!
The question, and more importantly the answer, is in our hands. Have we indeed fallen past the point of no return, cannot possibly get up once more? Have we driven such deep cracks within the country's very soul that they can never be repaired? Are we too far down that road with all its censorhsip, hatred, rules that are anathema to the United Staes as conceived by our Founders?
I do not know about you, but it seems that more and more people are thinking as I do. We are all afraid that the angle of descent is too steep to fight our way back to a standing and honorable position, sure and safe, secure on a proper footing. I would love to be proven wrong here, to know that we can get back up, that we will get up, that we will oust those who are not the Americans we need them to be and sadly enough, contrary to the hateful words of so many of that ilk, these hateful and destructive people live in Washington, in enclaves of their own around the nation, huddled against the world; they do not live at the borders, where there are people looking tofulfill the American dream, just as we all did and do. I hope. I pray. I struggle to remain in an upright position and keep others there as well. Together we can fix it. Together, in silence, we cannot.
Yes, we, the once mighty USA, have fallen. We have face planted so hard, so almost irreversibly that there is indeed a question whether we can pick ourselves up again and step back to proper space and time, or is it too late, too much damage done to us and by us to be able to reverse the whole thing?
We can call upon Pete and his sake of yesterday's posting. For Pete's sake, are the Republicans nit picking on the amount of pens Pelosi used to sign that historical document, the Articles of Impeachent? Seriously? Is that all they can think of now? It is a Washingtonian tradition to give away pens used to sign Executive Orders - ahem - bills, pronouncements, whatever is official. So never mind the new filth coming out. Never mind the fact that all the rats are leaving the sinking ship of state - I hope - as the smell grows ranker with each pasing hour. Just count pens.
Now they are denying knowing Hyde, a big dude in politics and big donors, caught up in the knowledge, time appropriate, of the Ukrainian plan of Trump's. They are denying the visual and oral testimony and truth of Ukraine, what with Giuliani sitting in a liquor soaked bar, with Lev Parnas who has stated openly and unequivocally that "Trump knew exactly what was going on". Feh!!! For Pete's sake, is this what we want in our government in leadership position?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they say, the Republicans are running a defense system and a jury trial with the same personnel. McConnell says "I'm not an impartial juror". Hmmm....pen usage versus open corruption at an impeachment trial of one of the most corrupt humans ever in a sullied Senate with Republicans of no moral value or courage holding the fate of the accused, the fate of our country, and the fate of the world in their hot, red handed, guilty hands. Hmmm.
But we are not yet finished with Pete and his sake! As Washington crumbles under the weight of corruption and lies, as the body politic seems to be imitating a ship going under, the contagion spreads. In Missouri they are planning a new level of censorship in public libraries that will remove many classics from the shelves and neuter much of future writing for public consumption. Another step down the road to dictatorship right here in no, not River City, but here, in the former bastion of freedom, the United States of America. Ever closer to the point of not being able to get up any more. And we just keep chugging along, dragging Pete and his sake along with us, coughing in the dust raised by all this proposed loss of liberty.
What is next? The burning of books? The permanent removal and destruction and the punishment of imprisonment if found with these "bad" books? Do we then follow in the steps that adhere to the maxim that "he who burns books will end up burning people"? Been there, done that, have we not! Do we really want to go there again and yet chillingly, with anti Semitism on a steep rise, with essays being written trying to explain why Jews need be afraid, have we not come a long way on that disasterous road?
Religious conservative organizations are paying tribute at Trump's Washington hotel, the faithful coming to pray at the feet of the apparent new messenger of a god definitely not rendered in proper terms. Carnival Cruise Line has now taken on new rules of censorhip of clothing, and everyone is now a boss apparently and not for the good either. R.E.M. is incensed at the use of their music to support those poisonous mob rallies of Trump, want everyone to know they are fighting this in the courts as Trump refuses to stop and that they "do not condone the use of our music by this fraud and con man." Such a 'lovely' man sitting there in the White House!!
The question, and more importantly the answer, is in our hands. Have we indeed fallen past the point of no return, cannot possibly get up once more? Have we driven such deep cracks within the country's very soul that they can never be repaired? Are we too far down that road with all its censorhsip, hatred, rules that are anathema to the United Staes as conceived by our Founders?
I do not know about you, but it seems that more and more people are thinking as I do. We are all afraid that the angle of descent is too steep to fight our way back to a standing and honorable position, sure and safe, secure on a proper footing. I would love to be proven wrong here, to know that we can get back up, that we will get up, that we will oust those who are not the Americans we need them to be and sadly enough, contrary to the hateful words of so many of that ilk, these hateful and destructive people live in Washington, in enclaves of their own around the nation, huddled against the world; they do not live at the borders, where there are people looking tofulfill the American dream, just as we all did and do. I hope. I pray. I struggle to remain in an upright position and keep others there as well. Together we can fix it. Together, in silence, we cannot.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
OH, FOR PETE'S SAKE!!
I would bet that most of you, at least in my generation, have heard that expression. My parents, who never let a foul word cross their lips, would express emotions of disappointment or anger with the above expression At times there would be added, either before or after, the words "Fer cryin' out loud".
Now imagine my confusion from the youngest days I can remember. Who was Pete? Why should we worry about his sake? And what was sake anyway? Why was it never my sake or a sibling's? And who was crying out loud? I never heard anyone other than me or a sibling at times and what, is it better to cry silently? Very confusing and every time I asked my parents to explain it, they broke out in laughter and told me not to worry about it. When I asked if Pete was fine, and who he was anyway, somehow, the answer never came up. Very confusing to a young child who never quite understood why these questions provoked laughter all the time, even when I asked and polled all my aunts and uncles, getting an answer of sorts only from my Bubby who asked me, in response, "Vus is Pete? Is he hungry?" She did not know him either and as usual, worried only that there was a mouth around that needed feeding and she had never met him yet!
But today, today I know all about Pete. I know all about crying out loud, expressing a dread out loud. Pete is Everyman - and Everywoman. Several times a day and into the night I am saying, "Oh, for Pete's sake!" I thank my parents for that outlet, for if not, a stream of foul language would be there, as I contemplate all that is going on in this country, always worried about Pete's sake.
It is for Pete's sake that we must encourage change, urge change, demand change, demand justice, demand that Senators grow some spine, that something be done already!! For Pete's sake!! And for his sake, how much longer are we to tolerate a criminal in deed, mind, action and thought as the presumed President. Personally, I never refer to that man as President for I have never accepted him as my legitimate one at all. And I believe with better and more open forensics and discovery, I would be proven correct in these thoughts. For Pete's sake, I wish this would have happened long ago!!
Pete is you and I. He is ahead of the times as he actually could use the pronoun 'they' in referring to himself for that is whom he represents. So let us think a bit about Pete's sake and how we are neglecting the poor dude and dudette.
For Pete's sake: why are Senators refusing to hear evidence?
For Pete's sake: why are Senators or have Senators, openly tampered with a jury system? Is this not a contemptible, punishable offense?
For Pete's sake: why have we allowed a Demented Man to serve in the Oval Office, tweeting away, wasting our time and our resources?
For Pete's sake: why are there people still supporting him, washing off every damned lie and dangerous action of his?
For Pete's sake: why do we not admit that he has brought us to the brinkof nuclear war, an existential dangerous state of being, yet there he remains?
For Pete's sake: what answer do we give our children, so disappointed in and by us, as we allow such open disregard for the Office of the President, allowing a dangerous buffoon to hold it?
For Pete's sake: why have we not realized that the answer to these questions and more, are to be found within Amy Klobuchar. She speaks with a straight tongue. She can give as good as she gets. She has concrete plans. She should be IT!!!
For Pete's sake: why is the Justice Department under its pathetic head, Barr, who sold his soul to that devil in that office, going after parents who wanted to help their kids get into a college. It has been done since time began for everything from jobs to schools to meeting the right people, to anything a parent thinks good for a child. No one got hurt. The kids are carryig their loads and the parents are under threat and charges of racketeering! Facing 40 years in hard time fed pens?! Fer cryin' out loud, for Pete's sake, what is the matter with this picture?
For Pete's sake: will we ever wake up, and in enough time that we do not have to cry out loud the morning after, cry out loud with fright that this man and his cowardly supporters will bring us all to the point of total risk and terror? We need to avoid that cryin' out loud - for Pete's sake!!
For Pete's sake: we need to demand that evidence and witnesses be allowed at the trial and that the Senators be charged with crimes and malfeasance if they ignore the truth, and kowtow to corruption and rot.
For Pete's sake, let us grow up, understand why Pete's sake is at risk and yes, Bubby, he is hungry - hungry for justice. Hungry for decency. Hungry for a return to a three branch government and the Constitution. Hungry for the dollars that are flowing out for walls, for golf trips, for vacation and business trips of his progeny. Funds that should go for societal needs, for the military for refreshing and repairing our relations with former trusting, now distrustful, allies. Hungry to know that our young are not being sold down the river as mercenaries, their blood being sold cheaply, sold at all!!!
We must remember all the Petes around this country and around the world. We need to remember that all Petes are more similar than not and surely that is a good basis on which to improve our very being, our policies. For Pete's sake we need, above all else, SANITY in the government, particularly in the Oval Office and new and fresh thinking, honest, courageous people in the adminsitration levels of government. We need to bring back those who quit in disgust and to oust those who have given up their souls.
FOR PETE'S SAKE - LET US STOP CRYIN' OUT LOUD AND FIX ALL OF PETE'S BOOBOOS. FOR ALL OUR SAKES.
Now imagine my confusion from the youngest days I can remember. Who was Pete? Why should we worry about his sake? And what was sake anyway? Why was it never my sake or a sibling's? And who was crying out loud? I never heard anyone other than me or a sibling at times and what, is it better to cry silently? Very confusing and every time I asked my parents to explain it, they broke out in laughter and told me not to worry about it. When I asked if Pete was fine, and who he was anyway, somehow, the answer never came up. Very confusing to a young child who never quite understood why these questions provoked laughter all the time, even when I asked and polled all my aunts and uncles, getting an answer of sorts only from my Bubby who asked me, in response, "Vus is Pete? Is he hungry?" She did not know him either and as usual, worried only that there was a mouth around that needed feeding and she had never met him yet!
But today, today I know all about Pete. I know all about crying out loud, expressing a dread out loud. Pete is Everyman - and Everywoman. Several times a day and into the night I am saying, "Oh, for Pete's sake!" I thank my parents for that outlet, for if not, a stream of foul language would be there, as I contemplate all that is going on in this country, always worried about Pete's sake.
It is for Pete's sake that we must encourage change, urge change, demand change, demand justice, demand that Senators grow some spine, that something be done already!! For Pete's sake!! And for his sake, how much longer are we to tolerate a criminal in deed, mind, action and thought as the presumed President. Personally, I never refer to that man as President for I have never accepted him as my legitimate one at all. And I believe with better and more open forensics and discovery, I would be proven correct in these thoughts. For Pete's sake, I wish this would have happened long ago!!
Pete is you and I. He is ahead of the times as he actually could use the pronoun 'they' in referring to himself for that is whom he represents. So let us think a bit about Pete's sake and how we are neglecting the poor dude and dudette.
For Pete's sake: why are Senators refusing to hear evidence?
For Pete's sake: why are Senators or have Senators, openly tampered with a jury system? Is this not a contemptible, punishable offense?
For Pete's sake: why have we allowed a Demented Man to serve in the Oval Office, tweeting away, wasting our time and our resources?
For Pete's sake: why are there people still supporting him, washing off every damned lie and dangerous action of his?
For Pete's sake: why do we not admit that he has brought us to the brinkof nuclear war, an existential dangerous state of being, yet there he remains?
For Pete's sake: what answer do we give our children, so disappointed in and by us, as we allow such open disregard for the Office of the President, allowing a dangerous buffoon to hold it?
For Pete's sake: why have we not realized that the answer to these questions and more, are to be found within Amy Klobuchar. She speaks with a straight tongue. She can give as good as she gets. She has concrete plans. She should be IT!!!
For Pete's sake: why is the Justice Department under its pathetic head, Barr, who sold his soul to that devil in that office, going after parents who wanted to help their kids get into a college. It has been done since time began for everything from jobs to schools to meeting the right people, to anything a parent thinks good for a child. No one got hurt. The kids are carryig their loads and the parents are under threat and charges of racketeering! Facing 40 years in hard time fed pens?! Fer cryin' out loud, for Pete's sake, what is the matter with this picture?
For Pete's sake: will we ever wake up, and in enough time that we do not have to cry out loud the morning after, cry out loud with fright that this man and his cowardly supporters will bring us all to the point of total risk and terror? We need to avoid that cryin' out loud - for Pete's sake!!
For Pete's sake: we need to demand that evidence and witnesses be allowed at the trial and that the Senators be charged with crimes and malfeasance if they ignore the truth, and kowtow to corruption and rot.
For Pete's sake, let us grow up, understand why Pete's sake is at risk and yes, Bubby, he is hungry - hungry for justice. Hungry for decency. Hungry for a return to a three branch government and the Constitution. Hungry for the dollars that are flowing out for walls, for golf trips, for vacation and business trips of his progeny. Funds that should go for societal needs, for the military for refreshing and repairing our relations with former trusting, now distrustful, allies. Hungry to know that our young are not being sold down the river as mercenaries, their blood being sold cheaply, sold at all!!!
We must remember all the Petes around this country and around the world. We need to remember that all Petes are more similar than not and surely that is a good basis on which to improve our very being, our policies. For Pete's sake we need, above all else, SANITY in the government, particularly in the Oval Office and new and fresh thinking, honest, courageous people in the adminsitration levels of government. We need to bring back those who quit in disgust and to oust those who have given up their souls.
FOR PETE'S SAKE - LET US STOP CRYIN' OUT LOUD AND FIX ALL OF PETE'S BOOBOOS. FOR ALL OUR SAKES.
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