Ever feel as if you were living in some weird schizophrenic world, never knowing what and when nor why something will occur? The feeling of having lost control, of having an ordered life, goes right out the door. Last night and this morning are perfect examples of this confusing world.
Last night we were on top of the world. We had one of our gorgeous, kind, and caring granddaughters graduating in a postponed ceremony which almost never took place. After losing the fun times of senior year, after a rocky four years when the world went nuts, finally, something went right. Shining faces half hidden behind masks, the kids waited to walk to their seats in a funny auditorium. It was the parking lot of a banquet hall, with parents and families in cars, facing the stage, able to watch the kids walk in. Pomp and Circumstance notes filled the air as the graduates were greeted by beeps of horns and flashing lights, with families sitting atop cars, standing in the roof windows, and grins upon all faces.
If we had been wearing shirts with buttons, they would have popped, so proud were we. This graduate was a kid who had to overcome severe dyslexia and did so with a bang! Graduating with honors, accepted to all nine schools she had applied to - even her reach schools - with offers of scholarships, wow!!! She stood as an inspiration to children in her elementary school who heard her speak at the school, encouraging them, a shining star and role model, a testament to the school's mission.
Yet even as we rejoiced, even shed a few tears as we watched via streaming, a niggling thought kept interfering with the world of joy. What kind of a world were these kids walking into? This world was a throwback to past times, with dictators rising, prejudice and racial and religious hatred rearing ugly heads and sharp teeth, school shootings, economic disastrous times, a pandemic that keeps getting worse, and an overwhelming lack of leadership never before seen in our country. Worse, it was not merely a do nothing administration, sitting passively as the world crumbles around us, no, for it actively set out on paths that were destructive, inimical to the survival of earth, of this country, of countries of the world, of the safety that people need to have.
In this dangerous topsy-turvy world we cannot believe a word Trump says, a leader who has failed in leadership, beyond any possibility of redemption. He lied about his knowledge of the Russian bounties and not only did not punish them, nope, he rewarded them with invitations to join the democracies of the G7, raves about Putin as his BFF, and puts this country in danger. This morning we all know that he was told of this way back in February!!!
Therefore, it is manifestly shocking and impossible to understand why 3 out of ten, 30% of people polled, still think this man can find a way to lead us out of the pandemic, intact and thriving, in a good place to move forward. How can we even think of moving forward when we have moved so far in the wrong direction that must be overcome before we can move once again in the right direction?
The numbers of cases are skyrocketing once again. Phases of opening are being halted, even rolled back, and nearly half - HALF - of Americans are out of work. Our reputation is in tatters around the world, and our unity within this country is shredded. Wearing masks, saving lives, has become political, much to our shame and detriment. The ugliness that has invaded our souls and hearts is frightening. And this is the world these bright and shining kids are walking into. This is the world we have given them. Shame on us! Fie upon us! We could have and should have done so much better.
So this morning the world continues on its wobbly path, its axis shaking under the pressure we have put upon it. People are dying. People are being killed for their birth. People are starving, holding skeletal children in their arms as they breathe their last breath. People are reaching a point of desperation and are ripe for a takeover by a false prophet, one who promises all, mesmerizes in his hate filled spewings of filth, and what will follow is anyone's guess. Will we wake up and take the necessary steps to fix this world or will we just lay down and surrender to it.
Think I like last night better than this morning. The hopes and dreams last night were bright and beautiful. The passionate speeches of class representatives were wonderful. Is that, will that, be enough to combat in a victorious manner, to defeat the pessimism of the day, the bleakness of its prognosis, the difficulties of living in a world where a hug could be a death sentence?
Remembering the shining faces, the smiles, the dreams, the integrity of these kids, I hope so. We could have the answers with this generation. Our generation has failed. So has the one following us.
I wish I could reach out and wrap these kids, wrap my grandchildren, in cotton and place them somewhere safe until it is a world safe to enter. But I cannot. Nor should I. For these kids are the puzzle solvers, those willing to take on the difficulties of fixing this country, this world. Tikkun Olam - the repairing of the world - is paramount in the mindset of these newly minted adults.
May G-d help them, for I believe He is just a tad angry and disappointed with and by us. Rightfully so. He has sent us some warning notes and we have somehow managed to ignore them. Wellness? Safety? Not now. Not yet. Soon? Maybe. I hope.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Monday, June 29, 2020
HUNKY - DORY!
The crisis is over. Don't believe me? Why then just turn to our esteemed VP, the Devil's Spawn, he of the dead face, as he reassures one and all that the situation we are in right now is just hunky-dory. Yup. Good old plain English with American folksy overtones. Hunky-dory! All is just fine - in the benighted world of Trumpian distortion, willful blindness, and inability to see, hear and speak the truth.
We are in good days beating the virus - so he says. It is winding down, numbers falling - so he says. Guess no one told Houston that as their hospitals are now at capacity for Covid-19 patients. Nobody taught that simple fact to the country as we added over 40,000 new cases yesterday, over two and a half million cases so far right here in the land of the hunky-dory USA. Yup. Just ask Pence. If you need more reassurance, well, then just ask his boss.
And then tell me how I am to believe that all is hunky-dory when Florida is spiking cases as a new epicenter of the virus? I am even more frightened than before, as I wonder, which idiot near me did not listen to nor heed directions, safety rules? When people reassure me that oh, not to worry, people you know, friends and family, are safe, well, guess they missed the family with 28 who have fallen ill and the eldest of the clan dead from it. Not before suffering hard for two weeks. Nope, but not to worry, for all is hunky-dory.
All is hunky-dory in the world of our union as well. Yup. Downright hunky-dory as we are so inspired and uplifted to see a video where once again Trump praises bigotry, finding even more 'fine' people such as the "great" people he praised who shouted White Power" in his video. Oh, he had to take that down, but not to worry, for in a hunky-dory land such as he imagines us to be, that will surface again. G-d forbid he wins again, carrying the electoral votes of those vast and empty western states, then hunky-dory will reign.
Even as the new terrorist fighting teams of the TSA come bashing in your door because you protested. Even as active military forces are instructed to use force, including live ammo, on peaceful protesters. Even as troops patrol the streets. Even as vital information such as Russia paying a bounty to kill our men and women in Afghanistan and who knows where else is ignored. Blatantly ignored. But, once again, not to worry, all is hunky-dory, for the WH claims not to have been told about this and my question is why the hell not!!! Just what is that ass doing there aside from sitting in his bathrobe, tweeting madly, insanely, and sending out his troops to assure one and all that 'alles' is hunky-dory.
Hunky-dory when the chills run madly down my back as he portrays the modern version of a Hitler, ranting, shouting, his face always angry or in an insane pout, always raving with words of hate, with scapegoating galore, with building blocks that actually are wrecking balls to our nation. Hunky-dory? Oh yeah. Oh so not!
Never before has any President sold our country so blatantly, handed us over to our enemies, all in order to gain office and stay there, much to the detriment of any kind of good future we might have had. Yes, there have been bad ones, incompetent ones, corrupt, even prejudiced ones, particularly in the temperament of their times, but never before one like this. Obviously mentally deranged, whatever innate intelligence he ever had now diluted by whatever form of dementia is besetting him, probably further damaged by ingesting of dangerous medications, possible virus exposure and the damage it does to the brains of the elderly, certainly all is not hunky-dory in that echoing empty chamber inside his head.
Certainly he is the worst Chief Executive we have ever had. He perverts every tenet of our country. He cripples the judicial system for decades to come. He favors benighted people who value his credo, contempt for all other than themselves, and possibly some family members - if they serve a purpose! He speaks of hiring people for their skills even as he practices cronyism, nepotism, and the hiring of incompetents only good for one thing - licking his shoes and feet!
But surely, all is hunky-dory. We just do not see that 'truth' of his. We do not evidently understand that more is actually less, so bigger numbers of the sick, the dying, are actually telling us that things are getting better. Do not understand that reasoning, if one can call it that? Well, neither do the thinking people of the world, as we, Americans, along with people of other nations stand, astounded, aghast, at this gross misbehavior and wonder how the hell we ever got to this point.
We got here, this dismal point, this lowest point in the history of our country, because we believed against all proof otherwise, that this man would keep us well and safe. That he would insure greatness. Well, he did not. His world is hunky-dory only in his demented mind as his lackeys tell him so. But it is manifestly not so.
We must lose this man before it is too late. We are almost there already. So now, to be well, to stay safe, to give us and the world a fighting chance to undo the damage he has caused, to combat the hatred he has endorsed as his own personal growth industry, well, we need to vote him and his out of office. Consign him to the garbage heap of failed dictators and tyrants. Consign him to the prison cell he has so truly earned. Vote. Vote against him and what he stands for. What he represents. Combat that false hunky-dory world he has invented and touted like a shill in a carnival booth.
It can be done. It must be done. Else we are lost.
We are in good days beating the virus - so he says. It is winding down, numbers falling - so he says. Guess no one told Houston that as their hospitals are now at capacity for Covid-19 patients. Nobody taught that simple fact to the country as we added over 40,000 new cases yesterday, over two and a half million cases so far right here in the land of the hunky-dory USA. Yup. Just ask Pence. If you need more reassurance, well, then just ask his boss.
And then tell me how I am to believe that all is hunky-dory when Florida is spiking cases as a new epicenter of the virus? I am even more frightened than before, as I wonder, which idiot near me did not listen to nor heed directions, safety rules? When people reassure me that oh, not to worry, people you know, friends and family, are safe, well, guess they missed the family with 28 who have fallen ill and the eldest of the clan dead from it. Not before suffering hard for two weeks. Nope, but not to worry, for all is hunky-dory.
All is hunky-dory in the world of our union as well. Yup. Downright hunky-dory as we are so inspired and uplifted to see a video where once again Trump praises bigotry, finding even more 'fine' people such as the "great" people he praised who shouted White Power" in his video. Oh, he had to take that down, but not to worry, for in a hunky-dory land such as he imagines us to be, that will surface again. G-d forbid he wins again, carrying the electoral votes of those vast and empty western states, then hunky-dory will reign.
Even as the new terrorist fighting teams of the TSA come bashing in your door because you protested. Even as active military forces are instructed to use force, including live ammo, on peaceful protesters. Even as troops patrol the streets. Even as vital information such as Russia paying a bounty to kill our men and women in Afghanistan and who knows where else is ignored. Blatantly ignored. But, once again, not to worry, all is hunky-dory, for the WH claims not to have been told about this and my question is why the hell not!!! Just what is that ass doing there aside from sitting in his bathrobe, tweeting madly, insanely, and sending out his troops to assure one and all that 'alles' is hunky-dory.
Hunky-dory when the chills run madly down my back as he portrays the modern version of a Hitler, ranting, shouting, his face always angry or in an insane pout, always raving with words of hate, with scapegoating galore, with building blocks that actually are wrecking balls to our nation. Hunky-dory? Oh yeah. Oh so not!
Never before has any President sold our country so blatantly, handed us over to our enemies, all in order to gain office and stay there, much to the detriment of any kind of good future we might have had. Yes, there have been bad ones, incompetent ones, corrupt, even prejudiced ones, particularly in the temperament of their times, but never before one like this. Obviously mentally deranged, whatever innate intelligence he ever had now diluted by whatever form of dementia is besetting him, probably further damaged by ingesting of dangerous medications, possible virus exposure and the damage it does to the brains of the elderly, certainly all is not hunky-dory in that echoing empty chamber inside his head.
Certainly he is the worst Chief Executive we have ever had. He perverts every tenet of our country. He cripples the judicial system for decades to come. He favors benighted people who value his credo, contempt for all other than themselves, and possibly some family members - if they serve a purpose! He speaks of hiring people for their skills even as he practices cronyism, nepotism, and the hiring of incompetents only good for one thing - licking his shoes and feet!
But surely, all is hunky-dory. We just do not see that 'truth' of his. We do not evidently understand that more is actually less, so bigger numbers of the sick, the dying, are actually telling us that things are getting better. Do not understand that reasoning, if one can call it that? Well, neither do the thinking people of the world, as we, Americans, along with people of other nations stand, astounded, aghast, at this gross misbehavior and wonder how the hell we ever got to this point.
We got here, this dismal point, this lowest point in the history of our country, because we believed against all proof otherwise, that this man would keep us well and safe. That he would insure greatness. Well, he did not. His world is hunky-dory only in his demented mind as his lackeys tell him so. But it is manifestly not so.
We must lose this man before it is too late. We are almost there already. So now, to be well, to stay safe, to give us and the world a fighting chance to undo the damage he has caused, to combat the hatred he has endorsed as his own personal growth industry, well, we need to vote him and his out of office. Consign him to the garbage heap of failed dictators and tyrants. Consign him to the prison cell he has so truly earned. Vote. Vote against him and what he stands for. What he represents. Combat that false hunky-dory world he has invented and touted like a shill in a carnival booth.
It can be done. It must be done. Else we are lost.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
THINGAMAJIGGER
We all know the meaning of that word or equivalent. Gizmo. Doodad. Whatchamacallit. Thingy. All great substitutes for the very word you cannot recall, yet everyone seems to know exactly what you mean. "Proper" English is not always about the very proper word, but also contains within it the words of the area, of the jargon and slang that creep into our lexicon.
I came across a listing of several words and phrases supposedly from the South, yet they are or were in common usage all over the country. I am sure that such terms are native to other languages as well, be it Chinese, Russian, British English, Hebrew, Arabic or whatever language one speaks. It was fun thinking of how one could use these words in describing the world of today.
So, thingamajigger. That must be either the gizmo that we need to buy to make life easier, or Heavens to Betsy! It might also mean the thing that resides in the White House. Thinking if it makes a difference whatever that thingy is called, but not really, not really at all. The message is loud and clear.
"Hush up!" is what one is often told when raising political issues these days. Why? Too much polarization I guess, but that does not make it right. Actually, "hold your horses" and take "your own sweet time" in understanding the factual reality of life as we know it today. It is when the presumed leaders tell us to shut up, to wait on our demands, to wait till the administration feels it has destroyed enough and will take a breather. We are told we need to hold up, hold those reins firm and deny protest rights, deny free press - other than in the biased media.
"Well, I'll be! " is yet another southern phrase that is now used to indicate fake shock, the exact opposite of its original declaration of shock. No one is shocked anymore at what is going on. When a Senator, Grassley, takes Fox!!!! to task, telling them they are allowing Trump to go off the trail, to speak too much and not to the point, well, shocked, yet? Shouldn't be. And why do we have as a president a man who is obviously not in control of his mental faculties at this point - if ever! Or how about when another Senator, Hawley, complains that the Supreme Court is not yet conservative enough - and read that backwards, divisive, oppressive, prejudiced, any pejorative word that fits - and takes Gorsuch to task for his most recent vote. We need more religion. We need more individual liberty. We need to be left alone - yet we certainly will take those farm benefits and any other monies from the government. And please make sure that those liberties, those religious rights so desperately needed infringe on the rights of 'others'. For sure! So, well I'll be? I think not?
"Might could" we could fix the situation, but we must make sure to do it right. Do we even know "what in the Sam Hill" is going on? Do we even understand the existential dangers we are facing? Do we understand anything worth a darn? And y'all know what? It don't amount to a hill of beans if we do not take permanent and strong steps to correct all the misdeeds, or at least try to make a dent in them. But what we have right now appears to be a bunch of "madder than a wet hen" people running around, shouting lies, stripping warning labels off seats so a Trump rally can show its devotion to their 'personal liberty' - and get sick and transfer that virus to so many others. Guess those others deserve no protection or have no right to be well and safe. Do they?
Well, be aware. We will not "wait till the cows come home" to do what is needed. We're "fixin' to" take care of the mess now. Everything now appears to be 'cattywampus", downright dangerous and out of sorts. Why that old English dude, Shakespeare I think his name was, wrote about how the "world is out of joint", all cattywampus, even then! We need to fix it. It seems that the world always needs fixing.
"I'm finer than frog hair split four ways." Well, considering that a frog has no hair and thus cannot be split into any amount of parts, that is how we are so delighted, so joyful in our current situation.
In current English, no idioms or unclear terms: just get out there and vote. Get rid of those GOP members of government who would keep the status quo - no, actually worsen the situation. Vote for those who will put us back on track. Make sure that all politicians now know, and will remember, that they are "public servants', lest they forget. Let us all remember that we are entitled to be well and to stay safe. So get out there and VOTE.
I came across a listing of several words and phrases supposedly from the South, yet they are or were in common usage all over the country. I am sure that such terms are native to other languages as well, be it Chinese, Russian, British English, Hebrew, Arabic or whatever language one speaks. It was fun thinking of how one could use these words in describing the world of today.
So, thingamajigger. That must be either the gizmo that we need to buy to make life easier, or Heavens to Betsy! It might also mean the thing that resides in the White House. Thinking if it makes a difference whatever that thingy is called, but not really, not really at all. The message is loud and clear.
"Hush up!" is what one is often told when raising political issues these days. Why? Too much polarization I guess, but that does not make it right. Actually, "hold your horses" and take "your own sweet time" in understanding the factual reality of life as we know it today. It is when the presumed leaders tell us to shut up, to wait on our demands, to wait till the administration feels it has destroyed enough and will take a breather. We are told we need to hold up, hold those reins firm and deny protest rights, deny free press - other than in the biased media.
"Well, I'll be! " is yet another southern phrase that is now used to indicate fake shock, the exact opposite of its original declaration of shock. No one is shocked anymore at what is going on. When a Senator, Grassley, takes Fox!!!! to task, telling them they are allowing Trump to go off the trail, to speak too much and not to the point, well, shocked, yet? Shouldn't be. And why do we have as a president a man who is obviously not in control of his mental faculties at this point - if ever! Or how about when another Senator, Hawley, complains that the Supreme Court is not yet conservative enough - and read that backwards, divisive, oppressive, prejudiced, any pejorative word that fits - and takes Gorsuch to task for his most recent vote. We need more religion. We need more individual liberty. We need to be left alone - yet we certainly will take those farm benefits and any other monies from the government. And please make sure that those liberties, those religious rights so desperately needed infringe on the rights of 'others'. For sure! So, well I'll be? I think not?
"Might could" we could fix the situation, but we must make sure to do it right. Do we even know "what in the Sam Hill" is going on? Do we even understand the existential dangers we are facing? Do we understand anything worth a darn? And y'all know what? It don't amount to a hill of beans if we do not take permanent and strong steps to correct all the misdeeds, or at least try to make a dent in them. But what we have right now appears to be a bunch of "madder than a wet hen" people running around, shouting lies, stripping warning labels off seats so a Trump rally can show its devotion to their 'personal liberty' - and get sick and transfer that virus to so many others. Guess those others deserve no protection or have no right to be well and safe. Do they?
Well, be aware. We will not "wait till the cows come home" to do what is needed. We're "fixin' to" take care of the mess now. Everything now appears to be 'cattywampus", downright dangerous and out of sorts. Why that old English dude, Shakespeare I think his name was, wrote about how the "world is out of joint", all cattywampus, even then! We need to fix it. It seems that the world always needs fixing.
"I'm finer than frog hair split four ways." Well, considering that a frog has no hair and thus cannot be split into any amount of parts, that is how we are so delighted, so joyful in our current situation.
In current English, no idioms or unclear terms: just get out there and vote. Get rid of those GOP members of government who would keep the status quo - no, actually worsen the situation. Vote for those who will put us back on track. Make sure that all politicians now know, and will remember, that they are "public servants', lest they forget. Let us all remember that we are entitled to be well and to stay safe. So get out there and VOTE.
Friday, June 26, 2020
I ADMIT: I'M AFRAID ARE YOU?
I admit it. I am afraid. Perhaps it is a result of the aging process as one's body begins to turn traitor, and what used to be easy becomes more and more challenging. Or perhaps it is the fear that hits one every time a search begins for the word that eludes you, or why the hell you cannot remember that person's name. I am afraid of what comes next, of the horror of living past one's ability to function as a working being, physically and mentally. And the growing fear of the world we are living in and with, begins to overshadow all.
So I worry. My PD symptoms grow worse, more tremors, a tad stiffer every day it seems, cannot hop or jump anymore, and just getting out of bed becomes an issue. Thank the Lord Above - and I do - every day, at times on an almost hourly basis, that my mental functions appear to be intact. But things do get harder as the body and its parts gang up on you and the main growth industry in your home is the number of pill bottles on the medicine shelf!!
I guess, though, that this side of the grass is better than the other, though at times I wonder what will be. Will the future actually encourage a positive attitude or will it get worse. Will pandemics grow more frequent? Will the destruction of an independent federal judgeship and the partisanship of Barr and the Justice Department induce failure in our government, in a loss of trust that will not allow any federal governmental organ to function? And what would that mean? What can be worse than a Senator voting to suppress an independent overseer body as Graham did? Are these people working for themselves or for us and unfortunately it seems to be landing more and more in the selfish and corrupt side. And then.....and then.......
No, life is not a sure and safe thing when the government and the people are out of tune. I fear for the future. When a President is termed a child, a whining and spoiled child - and worse - and worst of all, it is all true and more than that - yes, I am afraid.
When screaming banshees stand out there, maskless, in the midst of all this and rant "You do not have the authority to govern my body," I then wonder, for these are the very people who want control over women's bodies as they ban the right of choice. They shout "You guys are overstepping your boundaries," and do not realize that they are the sinners here as they are hypocrites, as they wish to defy the wise saying: one does not shout fire in a crowded theater!! Or anywhere that is false and endangers others. What the hell do they think they are doing when they endanger the rest of us. The deaths are not hoaxes. They are real and do they have to wait for the death of a loved one before they understand the parameters of this mess?!
Pence swears that the situation is getting better even as the cases set record numbers all over yesterday. People are unemployed, lost and losing their medical coverage so what does this administration that could give a *&** about people do? They ask the Supreme Court, now stacked with blind and backwards thinkers - or no thinkers - to cancel all of Obamacare! Be afraid! Be very afraid. This administration and its backers want only for themselves and as for the rest of us, well, either go straight to hell, or do that in your misguided and dangerous support for this man who has not a whit of feeling or empathy for anyone other than himself.
Russian criminals are hacking into the computers of home systems where people are working. Why not? We already invited them into our lives, just ask Trump, so what to do when a guest overstays? Grin and bear it?! We should not be in this place. However, at least the banks and Wall Street are wondering what will happen to their lovely world when Warren becomes Secretary of the Treasury and rules and regulations are reinstated; when there are inspections and audits; when fatcats will not live off of the little people.
So yes, there is much to fear. But, a small tiny glimmer of hope is out there as well. It begins to shine brighter with each person who changes a mind, who admits to the horrocious failures of Trumpian administration, who will pull the lever for life, for America.
Yes, and then while we might fear for our own individual situation, the fear of national survival, the fear lest we are not well and safe will be eradicated from the national psyche.
If only. But it can come true, at least the first steps on this better road. Just get there and vote on November 3 or mail in your ballots. Demand that mail in ballot. Demand to vote. Vote!!
So I worry. My PD symptoms grow worse, more tremors, a tad stiffer every day it seems, cannot hop or jump anymore, and just getting out of bed becomes an issue. Thank the Lord Above - and I do - every day, at times on an almost hourly basis, that my mental functions appear to be intact. But things do get harder as the body and its parts gang up on you and the main growth industry in your home is the number of pill bottles on the medicine shelf!!
I guess, though, that this side of the grass is better than the other, though at times I wonder what will be. Will the future actually encourage a positive attitude or will it get worse. Will pandemics grow more frequent? Will the destruction of an independent federal judgeship and the partisanship of Barr and the Justice Department induce failure in our government, in a loss of trust that will not allow any federal governmental organ to function? And what would that mean? What can be worse than a Senator voting to suppress an independent overseer body as Graham did? Are these people working for themselves or for us and unfortunately it seems to be landing more and more in the selfish and corrupt side. And then.....and then.......
No, life is not a sure and safe thing when the government and the people are out of tune. I fear for the future. When a President is termed a child, a whining and spoiled child - and worse - and worst of all, it is all true and more than that - yes, I am afraid.
When screaming banshees stand out there, maskless, in the midst of all this and rant "You do not have the authority to govern my body," I then wonder, for these are the very people who want control over women's bodies as they ban the right of choice. They shout "You guys are overstepping your boundaries," and do not realize that they are the sinners here as they are hypocrites, as they wish to defy the wise saying: one does not shout fire in a crowded theater!! Or anywhere that is false and endangers others. What the hell do they think they are doing when they endanger the rest of us. The deaths are not hoaxes. They are real and do they have to wait for the death of a loved one before they understand the parameters of this mess?!
Pence swears that the situation is getting better even as the cases set record numbers all over yesterday. People are unemployed, lost and losing their medical coverage so what does this administration that could give a *&** about people do? They ask the Supreme Court, now stacked with blind and backwards thinkers - or no thinkers - to cancel all of Obamacare! Be afraid! Be very afraid. This administration and its backers want only for themselves and as for the rest of us, well, either go straight to hell, or do that in your misguided and dangerous support for this man who has not a whit of feeling or empathy for anyone other than himself.
Russian criminals are hacking into the computers of home systems where people are working. Why not? We already invited them into our lives, just ask Trump, so what to do when a guest overstays? Grin and bear it?! We should not be in this place. However, at least the banks and Wall Street are wondering what will happen to their lovely world when Warren becomes Secretary of the Treasury and rules and regulations are reinstated; when there are inspections and audits; when fatcats will not live off of the little people.
So yes, there is much to fear. But, a small tiny glimmer of hope is out there as well. It begins to shine brighter with each person who changes a mind, who admits to the horrocious failures of Trumpian administration, who will pull the lever for life, for America.
Yes, and then while we might fear for our own individual situation, the fear of national survival, the fear lest we are not well and safe will be eradicated from the national psyche.
If only. But it can come true, at least the first steps on this better road. Just get there and vote on November 3 or mail in your ballots. Demand that mail in ballot. Demand to vote. Vote!!
Thursday, June 25, 2020
WHAT THE ............!!!!!!!!??????????
Feel that shiver down your spine? Wonder what the heck is happening to this world of ours? Wondering when it went totally off the trolley tracks and onto the rough road to craziness? Wondering, pondering, planning, desperately thinking, how do we get back to where we belong? Or, how do we at least get the process started?
Well, join the growing club of America, Third World country par excellence, leader to a desperately endangered world, so proud of its new heritage even as the Lady of the Harbor hides her head in shame beneath her glorious robes.
Need judicial corruption? Check. Interference in ongoing or even past cases? Check. Political influence and even orders to change outcomes? Check. Backwards individuals appointed as judges for life? Check. Check. A crooked official in charge of the whole shebang? Check. Check. Check. So proud, every mother should be so proud of those children who have bucked the American traditional values for a place in the most corrupt, inefficient, mad, mad, mad world that we now live in. So proud!!
Aw, geez! We forgot all about elections. Shame on us, as it is one of the most important ingredients in a Third World nation behind the eight ball of incompetence, of corruption, of faked outcomes, of false claims of tampering even as they do the tampering. Hmmm. What about here?
Okay, so we have the factual invitations to foreign countries to come have a party at our expense by hacking the election for president in 2016. We have a pathetic loser, a corrupt, demented misfit who badly needs to salve his ego as his troubled empire crumbles under his poor stewardship. We have the unfortunately successful efforts at squeezing people out of the voting booths by drastically limiting voting sites, particularly in poorer areas, for why should they vote, right? Particularly if they are anti present administration! We falsely discharge people from the voting rolls. We set impossible hurdles for felons to retrieve their voting rights.
The cherry on top, albeit a rotten one, is the false claim of the 'fraud" of mail in ballots. Oh, did you not hear? Foreign governments, international crooks, are going to flood the mails with fake ones of their own. So, never mind that the post office might notice some strange issues such as weird spellings, a flood of undeliverable mail, double mailings, strange stamps, and never mind that the ballots themselves appear a tad strange to the voter who is just a mite concerned as to why his/her ballot is half in broken English, kinda' like Trump's and the other half is in some strange language, the lettering not even English!! Nope, no one will notice. Not at all.
So why the push on this crap complaint? Because the mail in ballot will be the mainstay of the people denied the place to vote, the right to vote, the false dropping from the poll lists, the attempts to suppress a basic American right. Never let there be any doubt that these corrupt, truly unamerican and deeply unpatriotic people of the GOP will stop at nothing, trample over anyone and anything in their way, on the road to the total destruction of the USA and in its crumbling into a Third World country of the worst sort. Where corruption reigns. Where people are beaten in the streets, dragged off to prisons, jailed for years on trumped up charges and isn't that word so befitting this whole mess!
As for the rest of the issues, well, let's take a look. Great! What a victory! Only 180,000 dead or perhaps more, by October 1. Coulda' been two million. Oh, they tried hard, did they not? Denigrate the value of wearing masks. Make that a political issue, all the better to kill off people. Insure that we do not have the proper equipment or even enough of it to go around. Deny the deaths. Have an idiot GOP candidate write a 23 page paper on the deep hoax of the virus. Guess my friends who died, my aunt, all figments of my imagination!! Bastards! Making a joke out of so many tragedies here and across the world!
Oh, there were answers, correct? Why not take a toxic drug dangerous even in the purpose it was meant for, or, wow, a great one, inject with bleach, any cleansing agent will do. Actually, it might, but minor complication - for it would do in the whole person at the same time. But make no never mind about that, for perhaps in shuffling down a slippery, icy slope in used shoes, on a beautiful sunny, dry day, perhaps someone fell, gave himself a concussion, and thus came up with these so brilliant suggestions. Not his fault. Let us excuse him once again for his dangerous lack of knowledge, zero intelligence and overall stupidity. Hey, worse come to worse we have bigger numbers and aren't numbers the name of the game!!!
Need more to increase your shivers? Okay. Hmmm again. Ahhhh, stock market volatility. Insecurity of retired folks, and the doomed generation of young people today with an economy with no room for them, with low salaries, tricks in hiring such as 'contracted' individuals, and so much more, all here for your entertainment. A generation that is not catching any breaks are they? No wonder they are rebelling, protesting, for what else is there to do but try to right the wrongs of society, its backwards movements of late as they wait around for the "adults" to fix their messes.
So all shout hurrah! For the hatred growing apace, for the collapse of this great republic of ours into a pennyante country, for a growth industry of violent deaths at the hands of those who should be doing so much better than that! For the poor kids of today saddled with unbearable college debt even as they barely can feed themselves what with no jobs, or can join the ever growing homeless encampments. At least there is company in misery!
Well, to assuage some complainers and whiners, here is a little present for you. The next few days will prove to have some of the most glorious sunsets ever due to that wicked and seriously overgrown sand storm cloud on its way to visit us right through the weekend. Never mind that you will have problems breathing. Never mind the concern that this is related to the environmental damage we have inflicted on this earth. Never mind all that. And, hey, the locust horde is worse, so pray we do not get a visit from them! Just keep on truckin'. Build those numbers wherever you go, for numbers are king and if they are small, well, just lie about it! That works.
Wellness? Safety? Bah, humbug!!
Well, join the growing club of America, Third World country par excellence, leader to a desperately endangered world, so proud of its new heritage even as the Lady of the Harbor hides her head in shame beneath her glorious robes.
Need judicial corruption? Check. Interference in ongoing or even past cases? Check. Political influence and even orders to change outcomes? Check. Backwards individuals appointed as judges for life? Check. Check. A crooked official in charge of the whole shebang? Check. Check. Check. So proud, every mother should be so proud of those children who have bucked the American traditional values for a place in the most corrupt, inefficient, mad, mad, mad world that we now live in. So proud!!
Aw, geez! We forgot all about elections. Shame on us, as it is one of the most important ingredients in a Third World nation behind the eight ball of incompetence, of corruption, of faked outcomes, of false claims of tampering even as they do the tampering. Hmmm. What about here?
Okay, so we have the factual invitations to foreign countries to come have a party at our expense by hacking the election for president in 2016. We have a pathetic loser, a corrupt, demented misfit who badly needs to salve his ego as his troubled empire crumbles under his poor stewardship. We have the unfortunately successful efforts at squeezing people out of the voting booths by drastically limiting voting sites, particularly in poorer areas, for why should they vote, right? Particularly if they are anti present administration! We falsely discharge people from the voting rolls. We set impossible hurdles for felons to retrieve their voting rights.
The cherry on top, albeit a rotten one, is the false claim of the 'fraud" of mail in ballots. Oh, did you not hear? Foreign governments, international crooks, are going to flood the mails with fake ones of their own. So, never mind that the post office might notice some strange issues such as weird spellings, a flood of undeliverable mail, double mailings, strange stamps, and never mind that the ballots themselves appear a tad strange to the voter who is just a mite concerned as to why his/her ballot is half in broken English, kinda' like Trump's and the other half is in some strange language, the lettering not even English!! Nope, no one will notice. Not at all.
So why the push on this crap complaint? Because the mail in ballot will be the mainstay of the people denied the place to vote, the right to vote, the false dropping from the poll lists, the attempts to suppress a basic American right. Never let there be any doubt that these corrupt, truly unamerican and deeply unpatriotic people of the GOP will stop at nothing, trample over anyone and anything in their way, on the road to the total destruction of the USA and in its crumbling into a Third World country of the worst sort. Where corruption reigns. Where people are beaten in the streets, dragged off to prisons, jailed for years on trumped up charges and isn't that word so befitting this whole mess!
As for the rest of the issues, well, let's take a look. Great! What a victory! Only 180,000 dead or perhaps more, by October 1. Coulda' been two million. Oh, they tried hard, did they not? Denigrate the value of wearing masks. Make that a political issue, all the better to kill off people. Insure that we do not have the proper equipment or even enough of it to go around. Deny the deaths. Have an idiot GOP candidate write a 23 page paper on the deep hoax of the virus. Guess my friends who died, my aunt, all figments of my imagination!! Bastards! Making a joke out of so many tragedies here and across the world!
Oh, there were answers, correct? Why not take a toxic drug dangerous even in the purpose it was meant for, or, wow, a great one, inject with bleach, any cleansing agent will do. Actually, it might, but minor complication - for it would do in the whole person at the same time. But make no never mind about that, for perhaps in shuffling down a slippery, icy slope in used shoes, on a beautiful sunny, dry day, perhaps someone fell, gave himself a concussion, and thus came up with these so brilliant suggestions. Not his fault. Let us excuse him once again for his dangerous lack of knowledge, zero intelligence and overall stupidity. Hey, worse come to worse we have bigger numbers and aren't numbers the name of the game!!!
Need more to increase your shivers? Okay. Hmmm again. Ahhhh, stock market volatility. Insecurity of retired folks, and the doomed generation of young people today with an economy with no room for them, with low salaries, tricks in hiring such as 'contracted' individuals, and so much more, all here for your entertainment. A generation that is not catching any breaks are they? No wonder they are rebelling, protesting, for what else is there to do but try to right the wrongs of society, its backwards movements of late as they wait around for the "adults" to fix their messes.
So all shout hurrah! For the hatred growing apace, for the collapse of this great republic of ours into a pennyante country, for a growth industry of violent deaths at the hands of those who should be doing so much better than that! For the poor kids of today saddled with unbearable college debt even as they barely can feed themselves what with no jobs, or can join the ever growing homeless encampments. At least there is company in misery!
Well, to assuage some complainers and whiners, here is a little present for you. The next few days will prove to have some of the most glorious sunsets ever due to that wicked and seriously overgrown sand storm cloud on its way to visit us right through the weekend. Never mind that you will have problems breathing. Never mind the concern that this is related to the environmental damage we have inflicted on this earth. Never mind all that. And, hey, the locust horde is worse, so pray we do not get a visit from them! Just keep on truckin'. Build those numbers wherever you go, for numbers are king and if they are small, well, just lie about it! That works.
Wellness? Safety? Bah, humbug!!
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
MADE IN AMERICA
Last night I answered the phone without my usual check on the number. It turned out to be a poll related to the candidate for the School Board, with questions as to my views on charter schools and public funds. The question that stood out in my mind was the one now appearing on forms, including the census form. It asks for my origin, naming a few such as Eastern European, Asian, with breakdowns there, Black, Hispanic, etc. I asked, kind of wistfully, 'why can it not be just plain old American?"
What is wrong with that? The fact that my ancestors prior to arrival here in the late 1890's and early 1900's came from Eastern Europe does not make them something different from an American whose ancestors came from Haiti, or Samoa, or England, or Nigeria, or Spain, or anywhere. How about we all call ourselves American, for that is what we most emphatically are - or should be. It is the fact that we have forgotten that, or ignored it, or been persuaded to ignore it, that is symbolic of the mess we are in at present.
We have forgotten that we all are made in America, whenever we or family first arrived, from where, or why. It matters not the color, the religion, the race, the mix of races, the origin - or at least it should not - for we are all Americans, each and every one of us with all retaining the rights of an American citizen. As an aside, I am often tempted to write that I am a native Hawaiian for that is my most absolute favorite place in the world! And that would still keep me in the American pile!!
So where and when and how did we go wrong? It went off the rails when we elected our first black president. The venom outmatched the pride. The anger overwhelmed those who said, "So what? This is America." But this is also the America which allowed - and still allows - a poisonous hatred to run in the veins of citizens. In 2020 we are not only incapable of passing a law making lynching a federal crime - thank you for that Republicans! - but we are also allowing it to return!!! Real lynchings! Real nooses being placed in places meant to terrorize and intimidate. And let us not forget that Leo Frank was a white Jewish young man lynched by howling mobs on a false accusation of rape of a white teenaged woman.
This is the same America which allowed a drunken creepy Gibson to speak his filthy anti Semitism, but also added to it when he asked Wynona Ryder if she was an "oven dodger", meaning the ovens and crematoria used by the Nazis to burn the bodies of the millions of Jews they slaughtered. This, by an American who calls himself a patriot. This from an American who boasts of his intense religion.
That, too, is America, all made in America and we need to choose, to throw down our final offers and answers - and questions- and choose, stand forth, stand proud, and fight the hate that is rusting our country from within, that has pushed us along a terribly dangerous and ugly road. We have already lost the value and respect of that term, American, overseas, and are quickly destroying its value here. We have imported the ugliness of nationalism, populism, extremism, from overseas and topped off with our own ingrown and growing hatred and paranoia. Must we build on top of that or can we not implode it from within, set aside those feelings that are used by ugly people who have no true interest in America remaining as such, as the United States that welcomes all with the Lady of the Harbor?
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war..." Thus spoke a great American, almost two centuries ago and still, we have not fully accepted that premise, or worse, rejected it. We have aided in its probable demise by allowing a totally misfit person in as President, a man with no business there. How shameful is it that distinguished Americans who have served their country, be it in politics, the media, the armed services, have resigned in droves, driven out by animosity towards them, by the inability to work with such a corrupt and anti American administration, the courage to speak out, to whistle blow, to lose their jobs for a higher goal.
How shameful, how awful, is it that this man is described by well known people, respectable people, as a "moron, an imbecile" according to the very definition of those words? How shameful is it to have an illegitimate President who speaks only in terms of hatred, in prejudicial memes and tropes, who lives for the snarky laughs and cheers that greet his most hateful phrases, who lies and lies and then excuses them as the backlash to them rises in volume.
Obama used these words very well just the other day. "Trump..... was practicing a "shambolic, disorganized, mean-spirited approach to government" that put in existential danger American values,..... a structure that supports them that has not just differed in terms of policy but has gone at the very foundations of who we are and who we should be, ....."That actively promotes division. And that considers some American in this country more real than others," Are we willing to allow this to continue, or will we remember, push that glorious idea, that we are all made in America? Remember the song "Look for the Union label"? Well, let us look for the Union label again, the one which is the union of the states into the United States, the Union we fought so hard, so tragically, to retain and build even stronger.
Want to be well? Want to be safe? First of all, put on those masks and socially distance and stop being stupidly stubborn in a way that increases the losses. Think about the meaning of American citizen. And think carefully about your votes. Demand the right. Fulfill the right. Watch over that right, for as the road moves today, if we do not use that right, we will lose it. VOTE!!
What is wrong with that? The fact that my ancestors prior to arrival here in the late 1890's and early 1900's came from Eastern Europe does not make them something different from an American whose ancestors came from Haiti, or Samoa, or England, or Nigeria, or Spain, or anywhere. How about we all call ourselves American, for that is what we most emphatically are - or should be. It is the fact that we have forgotten that, or ignored it, or been persuaded to ignore it, that is symbolic of the mess we are in at present.
We have forgotten that we all are made in America, whenever we or family first arrived, from where, or why. It matters not the color, the religion, the race, the mix of races, the origin - or at least it should not - for we are all Americans, each and every one of us with all retaining the rights of an American citizen. As an aside, I am often tempted to write that I am a native Hawaiian for that is my most absolute favorite place in the world! And that would still keep me in the American pile!!
So where and when and how did we go wrong? It went off the rails when we elected our first black president. The venom outmatched the pride. The anger overwhelmed those who said, "So what? This is America." But this is also the America which allowed - and still allows - a poisonous hatred to run in the veins of citizens. In 2020 we are not only incapable of passing a law making lynching a federal crime - thank you for that Republicans! - but we are also allowing it to return!!! Real lynchings! Real nooses being placed in places meant to terrorize and intimidate. And let us not forget that Leo Frank was a white Jewish young man lynched by howling mobs on a false accusation of rape of a white teenaged woman.
This is the same America which allowed a drunken creepy Gibson to speak his filthy anti Semitism, but also added to it when he asked Wynona Ryder if she was an "oven dodger", meaning the ovens and crematoria used by the Nazis to burn the bodies of the millions of Jews they slaughtered. This, by an American who calls himself a patriot. This from an American who boasts of his intense religion.
That, too, is America, all made in America and we need to choose, to throw down our final offers and answers - and questions- and choose, stand forth, stand proud, and fight the hate that is rusting our country from within, that has pushed us along a terribly dangerous and ugly road. We have already lost the value and respect of that term, American, overseas, and are quickly destroying its value here. We have imported the ugliness of nationalism, populism, extremism, from overseas and topped off with our own ingrown and growing hatred and paranoia. Must we build on top of that or can we not implode it from within, set aside those feelings that are used by ugly people who have no true interest in America remaining as such, as the United States that welcomes all with the Lady of the Harbor?
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war..." Thus spoke a great American, almost two centuries ago and still, we have not fully accepted that premise, or worse, rejected it. We have aided in its probable demise by allowing a totally misfit person in as President, a man with no business there. How shameful is it that distinguished Americans who have served their country, be it in politics, the media, the armed services, have resigned in droves, driven out by animosity towards them, by the inability to work with such a corrupt and anti American administration, the courage to speak out, to whistle blow, to lose their jobs for a higher goal.
How shameful, how awful, is it that this man is described by well known people, respectable people, as a "moron, an imbecile" according to the very definition of those words? How shameful is it to have an illegitimate President who speaks only in terms of hatred, in prejudicial memes and tropes, who lives for the snarky laughs and cheers that greet his most hateful phrases, who lies and lies and then excuses them as the backlash to them rises in volume.
Obama used these words very well just the other day. "Trump..... was practicing a "shambolic, disorganized, mean-spirited approach to government" that put in existential danger American values,..... a structure that supports them that has not just differed in terms of policy but has gone at the very foundations of who we are and who we should be, ....."That actively promotes division. And that considers some American in this country more real than others," Are we willing to allow this to continue, or will we remember, push that glorious idea, that we are all made in America? Remember the song "Look for the Union label"? Well, let us look for the Union label again, the one which is the union of the states into the United States, the Union we fought so hard, so tragically, to retain and build even stronger.
Want to be well? Want to be safe? First of all, put on those masks and socially distance and stop being stupidly stubborn in a way that increases the losses. Think about the meaning of American citizen. And think carefully about your votes. Demand the right. Fulfill the right. Watch over that right, for as the road moves today, if we do not use that right, we will lose it. VOTE!!
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
HASTE MADE WASTE
At times it is good to be impulsive. Taking a walk. Playing a game with the kids. Taking a mental health day off from work. Whatever it is that makes the day that much brighter and does no harm to anyone. However, a great big however, there are times when that old adage makes sense. Rushing into things, not thinking thoughts all the way through, can lead one into the serious stewpot of waste and troubles.
Take a look at the situation today. We did not rush carefully into a reaction to the virus and consequently we have a pandemic. So where is the haste here? Simple. We were hasty to decide that this was just a fluke, a flu like virus that would run amok through the land, but then leave us, perhaps to return some time in the future or maybe not. So, no need to react or be proactive. How stupid we were. How amazingly dumb we were to allow the world's most incompetent 'leader' make that decision for a nation. And so we died, by the hundreds, by the thousands, by the tens of thousands and by the hundreds of thousands and we sickened by the millions. Haste and waste.
To be honest, we took the first step along the waste road when people made hasty decisions to push that button for Trump over Clinton which allowed an electoral victory over a popular vote majority which should have been a winner. Why did we do that? Because we were hasty. Because some people did not want a woman in the WH, did not like Clinton, and decided to combine the two and vote against her. Because we were angry at the growing uneven divisions in society. Because we decided that it was a good thing to vote for a liar, a reality star from TV, a pompous know nothing who used to call the paper under a fake name and boast of 'Trump's doings. Because we were overhasty and decided to overlook the consequences in the real world of this anti whatever movement, along with the growing support of extremist right wing sickos.
Evidently we did not learn our lesson and continued on this so dangerous a road. We decided that we had 'suffered' enough. No more isolation. No more quarantine. No more family separations. No more masks. No social distancing. And so we hastily rebelled, taking a yard where inches were offered and guess what? Here we go again. More death. More cases. More consequences and haste and waste have struck again.
People quickly jumped on the ugly bandwagon roaming through America. They wanted to be in on the ground floor, be the beloved pets of the madman, gain or retain power, and made haste in ridding ourselves of all safety regulations, of justice, of preparations for the future. Instead we savaged the hopes of the future as we loaded the benches with incompetent extreme right judges in the worst sense of the name and job. We have ruined the country for decades. We allowed creeps like McConnell to push through these names in haste and damage. Haste and waste again.
We were hasty in forgiving a man who was so eminently a racist, a misogynist, a sexual pervert and harasser of women, an ignorant, illiterate person with obvious damage from some neurodegenerative disorder and some form or another of dementia. We allowed him to sabotage our foreign policies and the friendships and alliances of the world. We allowed him to be a traitor to the country, a traitor! Our haste in electing him made for a ton of waste with echoes down into the future years.
We were hasty in laughing at his crazed antics, but here we are, in the wasteland of current day America. No immigration or the workers we need, the ideas and new thinking we need, no loyalty to our very core of values. No freedom of the press, even as once gain they are shuffled out of the WH. How many more times will we be hasty to forget and watch the piles of waste grow apace.
But now is the time to think carefully. Now is the time I advocate we think, no, we do, we act, on an anti Trump campaign. No more allowance for haste making waste. Think what harm we have allowed to our country. Think of the dangerous fascist movements that have grown in number and influence. Think of the crapped out economy, of the pandemic mishandled from the get go. Think of the harm caused by one man and those who groveled before him, sniveling cowards one and all. Would be fascists allowing their internal ugliness to push through to the surface.
Now we must make careful and planned haste if we are to insure a fair election vote. Stop the ruthless plans this man and his cohorts have for the ruination of that election and of the country. Think what a second term of hatred will do to us - and very likely never recover from. Are you willing to allow for that possibility to become a reality? And make no never mind about it - it will happen if we make the wrong haste and allow for the wasting of history, of the blood spilled to keep our country and the world safe.
Do not allow his lies, his insults to get you to rush to the polls and hastily make the wrong decision. Do not allow for the wastage of all that we hold precious in exchange for a hasty vote. Think, honestly, deeply, as to how this country has changed - for the worse- under his rule - yes, rule. Be brave enough to admit you made a grievous error last election and now you will fix it.
Let us be more careful and thoughtful, weigh decisions carefully, plan deliberately rather than hastily or not at all and leave room then for hasty decisions in time of national emergencies.
Pull the handle, fill in the circle, draw the connecting line, push the button, use that computer filing well, and use the mail in ballot for extra insurance that your vote will count. Fight back against those who would take away the vote from people. Remember who we are and what we stand for.
We will never be well nor safe again if we do not do this. We need to move ahead in careful full speed if we are to correct the current situation, to throw off the growing yoke of oppression and suppression, to insure that our children are not taught twisted theories and to love the evil ruler.
Think not, for we are America? No, we are not, not now and never again if we do not do the right thing, make haste in correcting the waste we made when our haste walked us down the wrong and wasteful road.
Take a look at the situation today. We did not rush carefully into a reaction to the virus and consequently we have a pandemic. So where is the haste here? Simple. We were hasty to decide that this was just a fluke, a flu like virus that would run amok through the land, but then leave us, perhaps to return some time in the future or maybe not. So, no need to react or be proactive. How stupid we were. How amazingly dumb we were to allow the world's most incompetent 'leader' make that decision for a nation. And so we died, by the hundreds, by the thousands, by the tens of thousands and by the hundreds of thousands and we sickened by the millions. Haste and waste.
To be honest, we took the first step along the waste road when people made hasty decisions to push that button for Trump over Clinton which allowed an electoral victory over a popular vote majority which should have been a winner. Why did we do that? Because we were hasty. Because some people did not want a woman in the WH, did not like Clinton, and decided to combine the two and vote against her. Because we were angry at the growing uneven divisions in society. Because we decided that it was a good thing to vote for a liar, a reality star from TV, a pompous know nothing who used to call the paper under a fake name and boast of 'Trump's doings. Because we were overhasty and decided to overlook the consequences in the real world of this anti whatever movement, along with the growing support of extremist right wing sickos.
Evidently we did not learn our lesson and continued on this so dangerous a road. We decided that we had 'suffered' enough. No more isolation. No more quarantine. No more family separations. No more masks. No social distancing. And so we hastily rebelled, taking a yard where inches were offered and guess what? Here we go again. More death. More cases. More consequences and haste and waste have struck again.
People quickly jumped on the ugly bandwagon roaming through America. They wanted to be in on the ground floor, be the beloved pets of the madman, gain or retain power, and made haste in ridding ourselves of all safety regulations, of justice, of preparations for the future. Instead we savaged the hopes of the future as we loaded the benches with incompetent extreme right judges in the worst sense of the name and job. We have ruined the country for decades. We allowed creeps like McConnell to push through these names in haste and damage. Haste and waste again.
We were hasty in forgiving a man who was so eminently a racist, a misogynist, a sexual pervert and harasser of women, an ignorant, illiterate person with obvious damage from some neurodegenerative disorder and some form or another of dementia. We allowed him to sabotage our foreign policies and the friendships and alliances of the world. We allowed him to be a traitor to the country, a traitor! Our haste in electing him made for a ton of waste with echoes down into the future years.
We were hasty in laughing at his crazed antics, but here we are, in the wasteland of current day America. No immigration or the workers we need, the ideas and new thinking we need, no loyalty to our very core of values. No freedom of the press, even as once gain they are shuffled out of the WH. How many more times will we be hasty to forget and watch the piles of waste grow apace.
But now is the time to think carefully. Now is the time I advocate we think, no, we do, we act, on an anti Trump campaign. No more allowance for haste making waste. Think what harm we have allowed to our country. Think of the dangerous fascist movements that have grown in number and influence. Think of the crapped out economy, of the pandemic mishandled from the get go. Think of the harm caused by one man and those who groveled before him, sniveling cowards one and all. Would be fascists allowing their internal ugliness to push through to the surface.
Now we must make careful and planned haste if we are to insure a fair election vote. Stop the ruthless plans this man and his cohorts have for the ruination of that election and of the country. Think what a second term of hatred will do to us - and very likely never recover from. Are you willing to allow for that possibility to become a reality? And make no never mind about it - it will happen if we make the wrong haste and allow for the wasting of history, of the blood spilled to keep our country and the world safe.
Do not allow his lies, his insults to get you to rush to the polls and hastily make the wrong decision. Do not allow for the wastage of all that we hold precious in exchange for a hasty vote. Think, honestly, deeply, as to how this country has changed - for the worse- under his rule - yes, rule. Be brave enough to admit you made a grievous error last election and now you will fix it.
Let us be more careful and thoughtful, weigh decisions carefully, plan deliberately rather than hastily or not at all and leave room then for hasty decisions in time of national emergencies.
Pull the handle, fill in the circle, draw the connecting line, push the button, use that computer filing well, and use the mail in ballot for extra insurance that your vote will count. Fight back against those who would take away the vote from people. Remember who we are and what we stand for.
We will never be well nor safe again if we do not do this. We need to move ahead in careful full speed if we are to correct the current situation, to throw off the growing yoke of oppression and suppression, to insure that our children are not taught twisted theories and to love the evil ruler.
Think not, for we are America? No, we are not, not now and never again if we do not do the right thing, make haste in correcting the waste we made when our haste walked us down the wrong and wasteful road.
Monday, June 22, 2020
INTERNAL EXAMS
Nope, not one of those, but one of a different kind or type. This is an exam of introspection, of self examination of our internal selves. Who are we? How have we reached wherever we are? Are we happy with our present internal health or not? Whatever the answer, what do we do about that?
I am not happy with either the internal state of the people of the country, nor of the country itself, and finally, I am distressed about my own internal status. Together and as individuals, we are overrun with toxicity, of a rare degree and intensity. We are daring to think thoughts, proposals of actions unthinkable two or three years ago, and use language and words of description that would have gotten a mouthwash for our troubles from our parents.
Most of all I am scared re the level of toxicity in our deeds, words, and wishes. Personally, I remember being told by my parents that while a person might not have earned respect, his/her position might deserve respect and we must behave accordingly, even as we fight to change society. However, things have changed. How do we respect positions when their very occupants disgrace them all by themselves?
How is it that we have allowed, tolerated, even perhaps encouraged the raving language of the big shots of society? How and why is it that we have allowed the level of hatred to rise so much that we no longer do much more than shrug shoulders or perhaps wince a bit when Trump comes through with yet another racial negative? How is it that we have allowed the anger level to rise so high that politics is no longer a topic of discussion among friends and family?
We have developed either a level of tolerance that is too high, making excuses, condoning bad behavior, or we have sunk to a new low, having no more understanding of the intricate and complicated motivations and thoughts of people. We now expect all our past figures to have been perfect, and if not, we tear down even the good that they have done.
No, I am not advocating rehabilitation of the Confederacy. It is a part of our conjoined history that must be explored, but we must also remember that many little people were drawn in, with or without consent, into a fight which they little understood nor had any part in. We need to understand that so that we avoid any similar situations in the present and future. If you think that we are not at the cusp of another civil war, then look again, listen again, and think again. As far as the statues, get rid of them. I never saw the need for them or for any purpose they served other than as a roost for pigeons or places to meet friends.
On the other hand, because Wilson was benighted in a racial way, we must not downplay his building of the League of Nations, which though proving to be powerless, has led us to the UN, also somewhat of a dangerous joke, and somewhere along the line, to another, better, more purposeful and achieving organization that will allow peace to reign and for nations to work together to solve world wide existential issues.
And no, this does not generate false history. Hitler was horrific, and getting people to work or fixing an economy on the backs of terror is not possible of reformation. Discovering new medical knowledge or techniques after inhumane experimentation upon people held against their will, is not justifiable. Giving land to one group of persecuted people whilst taking that very land from yet another persecuted group is not.
Somewhere along the line we took a wrong turn, changed values, gave importance to things that need to have been kept in place or left out altogether. Somewhere along that line we began to lose our self control, ramping up the anger, using strong language, language that often left us no way to go but that same path to hell.
I count myself among those who have allowed anger in, or perhaps allowed it to rise to a dangerous level, toxic to myself. But even as I reason that Trump and his cohorts are worthy of this anger, so dangerous are they to life and limb, to the survival of the United States of America as it is supposed to be, so redolent of hatred are they, I despair at the level of anger and blind following of some people whom I love and value. I wonder where all this toxicity has led and where it will go and end - if ever.
I am so tired of the hate. I am so tired of our valuing of unimportant points such as the color or shade of the outer covering of a human being. We are all human beings, all creations of the same Being, of the same process, and if He deigns to use a varied palette of colors, then who are we to argue against it? Who are we to forget that it is the inner soul, the hearts, that make the most difference, that are most important?
Have I always thought this way? No, for as I grew up, matured, mixed with people, I began to evolve. I began to wonder about some precepts of society. I understood prejudice and hatred, for I grew up with the parents of friends having tattooed numbers, or families which were missing people, holes in the generations. I understood and understand even more the horrors of hatred, the levels of evil it gives birth to, the excuses it uses to justify it all.
In all honesty, even as most of the country rises in horror at the most recent replays of times and ideas which should have been long gone, this hatred will continue, certainly in my lifetime. There will be violence on both sides of the divide, not only on racial issues but on societal issues, on divisions as to what is most important or not, correct or not.
My internal examination leads me to want to try to eliminate the poison of toxic anger from my life. Yet how is that possible when there remains so much to be done. And yet again, how can I not be so very angry at those who not only perpetuate these immoral behaviorisms and thoughts, but even encourage them to grow and become more powerful, more hateful, even more toxic.
Certainly the upcoming election and its attendant clamor, accusations, will not be the final answer, will it? There is too much to be done, too much upheaval before we are leaders of and to the world in the right way. Until we can heal ourselves. Until we can teach ourselves how to be well and stay safe and insure that all have that right. Tired of the hate, of the toxicity, yet continue we must. If not for us, then for all the children of the world.
I am not happy with either the internal state of the people of the country, nor of the country itself, and finally, I am distressed about my own internal status. Together and as individuals, we are overrun with toxicity, of a rare degree and intensity. We are daring to think thoughts, proposals of actions unthinkable two or three years ago, and use language and words of description that would have gotten a mouthwash for our troubles from our parents.
Most of all I am scared re the level of toxicity in our deeds, words, and wishes. Personally, I remember being told by my parents that while a person might not have earned respect, his/her position might deserve respect and we must behave accordingly, even as we fight to change society. However, things have changed. How do we respect positions when their very occupants disgrace them all by themselves?
How is it that we have allowed, tolerated, even perhaps encouraged the raving language of the big shots of society? How and why is it that we have allowed the level of hatred to rise so much that we no longer do much more than shrug shoulders or perhaps wince a bit when Trump comes through with yet another racial negative? How is it that we have allowed the anger level to rise so high that politics is no longer a topic of discussion among friends and family?
We have developed either a level of tolerance that is too high, making excuses, condoning bad behavior, or we have sunk to a new low, having no more understanding of the intricate and complicated motivations and thoughts of people. We now expect all our past figures to have been perfect, and if not, we tear down even the good that they have done.
No, I am not advocating rehabilitation of the Confederacy. It is a part of our conjoined history that must be explored, but we must also remember that many little people were drawn in, with or without consent, into a fight which they little understood nor had any part in. We need to understand that so that we avoid any similar situations in the present and future. If you think that we are not at the cusp of another civil war, then look again, listen again, and think again. As far as the statues, get rid of them. I never saw the need for them or for any purpose they served other than as a roost for pigeons or places to meet friends.
On the other hand, because Wilson was benighted in a racial way, we must not downplay his building of the League of Nations, which though proving to be powerless, has led us to the UN, also somewhat of a dangerous joke, and somewhere along the line, to another, better, more purposeful and achieving organization that will allow peace to reign and for nations to work together to solve world wide existential issues.
And no, this does not generate false history. Hitler was horrific, and getting people to work or fixing an economy on the backs of terror is not possible of reformation. Discovering new medical knowledge or techniques after inhumane experimentation upon people held against their will, is not justifiable. Giving land to one group of persecuted people whilst taking that very land from yet another persecuted group is not.
Somewhere along the line we took a wrong turn, changed values, gave importance to things that need to have been kept in place or left out altogether. Somewhere along that line we began to lose our self control, ramping up the anger, using strong language, language that often left us no way to go but that same path to hell.
I count myself among those who have allowed anger in, or perhaps allowed it to rise to a dangerous level, toxic to myself. But even as I reason that Trump and his cohorts are worthy of this anger, so dangerous are they to life and limb, to the survival of the United States of America as it is supposed to be, so redolent of hatred are they, I despair at the level of anger and blind following of some people whom I love and value. I wonder where all this toxicity has led and where it will go and end - if ever.
I am so tired of the hate. I am so tired of our valuing of unimportant points such as the color or shade of the outer covering of a human being. We are all human beings, all creations of the same Being, of the same process, and if He deigns to use a varied palette of colors, then who are we to argue against it? Who are we to forget that it is the inner soul, the hearts, that make the most difference, that are most important?
Have I always thought this way? No, for as I grew up, matured, mixed with people, I began to evolve. I began to wonder about some precepts of society. I understood prejudice and hatred, for I grew up with the parents of friends having tattooed numbers, or families which were missing people, holes in the generations. I understood and understand even more the horrors of hatred, the levels of evil it gives birth to, the excuses it uses to justify it all.
In all honesty, even as most of the country rises in horror at the most recent replays of times and ideas which should have been long gone, this hatred will continue, certainly in my lifetime. There will be violence on both sides of the divide, not only on racial issues but on societal issues, on divisions as to what is most important or not, correct or not.
My internal examination leads me to want to try to eliminate the poison of toxic anger from my life. Yet how is that possible when there remains so much to be done. And yet again, how can I not be so very angry at those who not only perpetuate these immoral behaviorisms and thoughts, but even encourage them to grow and become more powerful, more hateful, even more toxic.
Certainly the upcoming election and its attendant clamor, accusations, will not be the final answer, will it? There is too much to be done, too much upheaval before we are leaders of and to the world in the right way. Until we can heal ourselves. Until we can teach ourselves how to be well and stay safe and insure that all have that right. Tired of the hate, of the toxicity, yet continue we must. If not for us, then for all the children of the world.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
DOUBLE RAINBOWS
Rainbows are magnificent. No doubt about it. The most jaded adult will join the chorus of oohs and ahhs, as people look out windows, go out to see it better, just stand and admire it. Once upon a time the good Lord sent a rainbow as a sign to Noah and the rest of mankind that he would not destroy the world with water ever again.
For thousands of years we have relied on that omen, even as floodwaters inundated our homes, our farms, our cities, even as the drowning of the lands increased. But think about it. Think what is not there and what is implied. Think about the message that rainbow sends us.
Friday, late in the day, there was a most magnificent double rainbow up in the sky. Doors could be seen opening as people came out of condos to admire its glory. Hands raised, heads tilted upwards, fingers pointing. A divine message that the world is safe? Or rather a divine message of another kind? Remember that the world was almost totally wiped out and it could happen again. This time, maybe not through waters that are sent from above, but rather from the people themselves.
We are not safe from ourselves. That has been conclusively proven by history, and unfortunately, history has become repetitive as we never seem to learn the lessons of history. Time and time again we make excuses for our troubles. Time and time again we honor the dishonorable, believe the false prophets, repeatedly denying the evidence of our own ears and eyes.
And the news today? The evidence today? Are we back in that same old destructive pattern that we inevitably find ourselves in or are we finally, slowly, coming to our senses?
Here is my question for history. Why is it that we allow ourselves to fall prey to the weakest of us, the worst of us? Why is it that we refuse to back down even as the ugly truth is surfacing, coated with the lies, the grievances, the crimes, the hatred, the incompetence, the plain and simple madness replete with infantile behavior and megalomaniacal paranoid tendencies and traits? Why do we allow ourselves to be coaxed into accepting the situation as our rights are abrogated, disappearing by the minute, justice perverted until there is no more justice, and violence ramped up? Why is it that we cannot seem to hear and see the rise in oral violence, the ugliness of the political rhetoric, the increasing imagery of violence, the ramping up of the encouragement to hate all others.
From Nero and Caligula, to unnamed dictators of ancient times, all the way through the centuries to Mussolini, Hitler, Maduro, Orban, Lenin, Stalin, Putin, Mao, Kim, the hate filled utterings of a political leader in England, and our own home grown rotten potatoes, our own American violent worms, from 'boogaloos', yet another ridiculous name for a violent rabble to White supremacists, a revived KKK, left extremists who also advocate violence, and the monsters masquerading as politicians out to save the day, our day, they tell us. What is wrong with us.
Time and time again we allow our own homegrown monster, he of the orange hair, the strange conduct, the hate filled words, the mentally and physically deterioration, allow him to continue on in his ugliness, in his monstrous plans. Media denigrated, threatened, suppressed. The judicial system raped, violated, dipped into the ugly mud until it is totally coated, even as those trying to do the right thing are removed, even as the Justice Department turns into the typical dictator ruled joke , a dirty joke, run on and to the whims of that crazed man.
Lies proven lies by photos. Words said and denied, even as the encouragement they provide for the violence seekers grows in intensity and frequency. The venomous hatred rolls off the forked tongue of this man and his buddies, denied by the Republican wimps, moral weaklings, of the Senate, and inserting a knife in the heart of America, using the last refuges of tyrants - false patriotism and false religion.
But there is hope. Some of that pathetic party are finally whispering out loud, not enough, never enough, but there it is. The asinine denials of reality are facing growing ridicule, the emperor is more and more exposed by his own nakedness, more and more of those who voted for him are beating their chests for that action. All that remains now, hopefully, are those who will find the self respect within them to admit their oh so bad and dangerous error, the harm, the existential threat to our country that they have enabled, and vote this man out. OUT! And then, chant his own favorite verse - lock HIM up!
Show the world that we have not lost our inner souls. That we are America in the fullest sense of the word and meaning. That we will once again, forcefully, participate in renewing regulations for safety, to welcoming new immigrants, the building blocks of our nation, the glue between blocks, the cultures that enrich immigrants and citizens all.
We are America. We are a salad bowl, each ingredient enriching the flavor of the others. We are leaders of and to the world. We do not allow treasonous presidents to suborn and invite, beg for, foreign interference in our elections, particularly our enemies! We do not attend rallies that push hatred. We will demand the best from our administrations and send home those who refuse to rise to the standards we set and demand, insist upon.
Is this taking place? Are we seeing signs of new rainbows, new messages, new hopes and possibilities? Perhaps the message is also to us that we need to take care of our own messes. G-d will not destroy us via the water route, a promise, but there are so many other ways and we find ourselves so damnably impressive at finding those ways and pushing it to the end. Nope, the message of the double rainbow? We can all be well and stay safe - through our own deeds and beliefs. We can all save ourselves, save the world, by being good people. Not heroic. Just good and caring, honest people who demand the best from all. Who recognize our purpose on this earth, to enhance it and its residents, not to destroy.
It is up to us. Personally, I believe that the Lord Above is a tad tired of us and our constant return to the dark side. We follow our own homegrown Darth Vader and Storm Troopers, rather than a Hans Solo and his Jedi. Let us dig deep down, accept our responsibilities and do what must be done, and not necessarily an easy thing to do. But then again, what of worth is ever easy to accomplish. G-d is out there watching. Smoking His pipe, wondering, along with His Angels what these peculiar creations of His will do next, turning a deaf ear to those Angels and surrounding souls to do something, to save these humans from their own folly yet one more time. But is there one more time in us, on this earth? The answer - catch me on a good day for that.
For thousands of years we have relied on that omen, even as floodwaters inundated our homes, our farms, our cities, even as the drowning of the lands increased. But think about it. Think what is not there and what is implied. Think about the message that rainbow sends us.
Friday, late in the day, there was a most magnificent double rainbow up in the sky. Doors could be seen opening as people came out of condos to admire its glory. Hands raised, heads tilted upwards, fingers pointing. A divine message that the world is safe? Or rather a divine message of another kind? Remember that the world was almost totally wiped out and it could happen again. This time, maybe not through waters that are sent from above, but rather from the people themselves.
We are not safe from ourselves. That has been conclusively proven by history, and unfortunately, history has become repetitive as we never seem to learn the lessons of history. Time and time again we make excuses for our troubles. Time and time again we honor the dishonorable, believe the false prophets, repeatedly denying the evidence of our own ears and eyes.
And the news today? The evidence today? Are we back in that same old destructive pattern that we inevitably find ourselves in or are we finally, slowly, coming to our senses?
Here is my question for history. Why is it that we allow ourselves to fall prey to the weakest of us, the worst of us? Why is it that we refuse to back down even as the ugly truth is surfacing, coated with the lies, the grievances, the crimes, the hatred, the incompetence, the plain and simple madness replete with infantile behavior and megalomaniacal paranoid tendencies and traits? Why do we allow ourselves to be coaxed into accepting the situation as our rights are abrogated, disappearing by the minute, justice perverted until there is no more justice, and violence ramped up? Why is it that we cannot seem to hear and see the rise in oral violence, the ugliness of the political rhetoric, the increasing imagery of violence, the ramping up of the encouragement to hate all others.
From Nero and Caligula, to unnamed dictators of ancient times, all the way through the centuries to Mussolini, Hitler, Maduro, Orban, Lenin, Stalin, Putin, Mao, Kim, the hate filled utterings of a political leader in England, and our own home grown rotten potatoes, our own American violent worms, from 'boogaloos', yet another ridiculous name for a violent rabble to White supremacists, a revived KKK, left extremists who also advocate violence, and the monsters masquerading as politicians out to save the day, our day, they tell us. What is wrong with us.
Time and time again we allow our own homegrown monster, he of the orange hair, the strange conduct, the hate filled words, the mentally and physically deterioration, allow him to continue on in his ugliness, in his monstrous plans. Media denigrated, threatened, suppressed. The judicial system raped, violated, dipped into the ugly mud until it is totally coated, even as those trying to do the right thing are removed, even as the Justice Department turns into the typical dictator ruled joke , a dirty joke, run on and to the whims of that crazed man.
Lies proven lies by photos. Words said and denied, even as the encouragement they provide for the violence seekers grows in intensity and frequency. The venomous hatred rolls off the forked tongue of this man and his buddies, denied by the Republican wimps, moral weaklings, of the Senate, and inserting a knife in the heart of America, using the last refuges of tyrants - false patriotism and false religion.
But there is hope. Some of that pathetic party are finally whispering out loud, not enough, never enough, but there it is. The asinine denials of reality are facing growing ridicule, the emperor is more and more exposed by his own nakedness, more and more of those who voted for him are beating their chests for that action. All that remains now, hopefully, are those who will find the self respect within them to admit their oh so bad and dangerous error, the harm, the existential threat to our country that they have enabled, and vote this man out. OUT! And then, chant his own favorite verse - lock HIM up!
Show the world that we have not lost our inner souls. That we are America in the fullest sense of the word and meaning. That we will once again, forcefully, participate in renewing regulations for safety, to welcoming new immigrants, the building blocks of our nation, the glue between blocks, the cultures that enrich immigrants and citizens all.
We are America. We are a salad bowl, each ingredient enriching the flavor of the others. We are leaders of and to the world. We do not allow treasonous presidents to suborn and invite, beg for, foreign interference in our elections, particularly our enemies! We do not attend rallies that push hatred. We will demand the best from our administrations and send home those who refuse to rise to the standards we set and demand, insist upon.
Is this taking place? Are we seeing signs of new rainbows, new messages, new hopes and possibilities? Perhaps the message is also to us that we need to take care of our own messes. G-d will not destroy us via the water route, a promise, but there are so many other ways and we find ourselves so damnably impressive at finding those ways and pushing it to the end. Nope, the message of the double rainbow? We can all be well and stay safe - through our own deeds and beliefs. We can all save ourselves, save the world, by being good people. Not heroic. Just good and caring, honest people who demand the best from all. Who recognize our purpose on this earth, to enhance it and its residents, not to destroy.
It is up to us. Personally, I believe that the Lord Above is a tad tired of us and our constant return to the dark side. We follow our own homegrown Darth Vader and Storm Troopers, rather than a Hans Solo and his Jedi. Let us dig deep down, accept our responsibilities and do what must be done, and not necessarily an easy thing to do. But then again, what of worth is ever easy to accomplish. G-d is out there watching. Smoking His pipe, wondering, along with His Angels what these peculiar creations of His will do next, turning a deaf ear to those Angels and surrounding souls to do something, to save these humans from their own folly yet one more time. But is there one more time in us, on this earth? The answer - catch me on a good day for that.
Friday, June 19, 2020
WACKOS. PUPPIES, TRAITORS AND MORE
The air is heating up and not just with the daily temperature. Nope, for what we have is the intense buildup of nuclear powered words that indicate danger ahead. Words get sharper, though sanity does not. Accusations grow in intensity, yet perfect opportunities were and continue to be ignored. And if wishes were horses, as they say, then where would we be riding?
John Bolton had a perfect chance to testify during the impeachment hearings. So why didn't he? Democrats are saying that it would have weighed in heavily for conviction, yet would it? The Senate was and remains a swamp of Republican majority where no word of criticism of Trump was ever valued or validated in their twisted moral vacuum, so who would have listened to Bolton and why would they? They were still sitting pretty, still assuming that Trump was a shoo in victor of the race. They denied the words of so many earnest and honorable witnesses so why would Bolton's have been different? Perhaps he is right, and now, after so many major errors and screwy behavior by Trump, well, the words ring true.
If wishes were horses, Trump would have been long gone, perhaps on "vacation" as his family would have quietly retired him from public view, insuring that his wackiness, as Bolton said, is controlled and out of public view. Perhaps Pence would have discovered emotions and facial expressions and dared to have a conversation without express permission by Mother! Better yet, he, too, would have gone down, either indicted and convicted for his participation, or resigned due to incompetence, evidently a Republican trait.
Finally, flying through the air on a modern day Pegasus would have been Madame President, Pelosi, following in the list as Speaker of the House. Ahhh, if wishes were horses, if dreams came true. But they do not, so we are left stranded in a bitter reality turning ever more bitter by the second. No hope in sight. Horror began to crystalize at the possibility of a second term by an anti democratic fascist of few working gray cells, an evidently increasing physical incapacity, and the growing uncontrolled anger of the demented.
So yes, now is the proper time for release of the book by Bolton that hopefully will settle all questions re Trump's incompetence and the danger he portends for our country and indeed, the world. Trump is a man who sees no borders but not in a good way. Instead, all countries of the world serve as springboards to his election, as HE turns traitor and invites in all sorts of present enemies who wish us harm, to help him into office.
Do you not gag at the truths revealed? Do you not yet accept these truths? How many people must write exposes, speak the awful truths of Trump's betrayal of us, before you believe? The book Too Much and Never Enough, by Mary Trump, will prove to be the cherry on top as she reveals his lifetime rife with bizarre, fraudulent, demented behavior, misogynistic to the core, empty of all empathy or concern for anyone other than his own disgusting self.
Fauci warns of the dangerous attitude towards science by these new versions of Luddites. Pompeo, another loser, calls others liars even as they speak the truth. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Trump adherents continue to try to stifle all opposition, a true tyrant in the making, a true clear and present danger to America. Why and how have we sunk so low? How have we allowed this to happen? Why is there still a chance that he could return to office, particularly if buoyed by the virus and fear of standing for hours to vote, stymied by shut down polling sites, particularly in Democratic and minority areas, and postal mail ins are denigrated and stolen, called fraudulent, and any other attack on our election process, even to becoming , yet again, a minority popular vote elected candidate.
What if he attempts to call in the troops once more? Riots and violence? A rebellious army, refusing these orders, refusing to shoot on fellow citizens asserting their rights? Think that over the top? Think back not so far to DC and someone holding an upside down Bible!, to all the cities, where protest was met by violence, where protesters were physically hurt by military styled police.
GOP candidates are worried not for the destruction of our values, of the devastating division this man has caused in our country, but rather on the possibility that the truth has been outed and as Trump goes down, so, too, will they! Could not happen to a more deserving bunch!!!
So Bolton calls Trump a wacko, a sick puppy, a traitor. We have ignored the truth for far too long, sung the praises of the new clothes of the Emperor even as he parades naked through the streets, brazen and contemptuous of all as he pushes forward in his arrogance and gains the blinded support of non seeing people, of truth deniers.
Can we all just wake up and find our way back through the fog of insanity, the filth of deregulated environments, of catering to the fatcats, the evil miasma and heartbreaking sounds of sobbing, as children go hungry, as parents watch their children huddle in a street for they could not afford rent. Could we not find ourselves in a world where all are educated, where color and religion do not matter as individuals are free in a color blind, religion blind, ethnic blind. gender blind society. Where justice is a given and concern for all is a must. Where hatred and violence, lies upon lies, are not the approved daily behaviors. Where truth is valued, empathy a virtue, and honor a must.
If wishes were horses we would all be flying in on that heroic Pegasus, blessed by the gods of all, living in a world getting better by the minute. Sigh, but horses do not fly. Our wishes remain just that unless we work to achieve them, even as we find ourselves in bizarre times. Unimaginable, and yet here we are.
We wish each other to be well, to stay safe, even as we lay mines in the roads leading to that goal. Can we all just wake up and come to our collective senses again? That is a must, not a dream, not a wish, just a fact of life. Let us face the truth for once in these desperate times. Just once and we will be on our way. Just once with honor, justice and care for our fellow human beings, for that is what we all are, creatures and creations of the Lord Above, meant to emulate him, and now ponder that. Can we come back from our abysmal failure? I hope.
John Bolton had a perfect chance to testify during the impeachment hearings. So why didn't he? Democrats are saying that it would have weighed in heavily for conviction, yet would it? The Senate was and remains a swamp of Republican majority where no word of criticism of Trump was ever valued or validated in their twisted moral vacuum, so who would have listened to Bolton and why would they? They were still sitting pretty, still assuming that Trump was a shoo in victor of the race. They denied the words of so many earnest and honorable witnesses so why would Bolton's have been different? Perhaps he is right, and now, after so many major errors and screwy behavior by Trump, well, the words ring true.
If wishes were horses, Trump would have been long gone, perhaps on "vacation" as his family would have quietly retired him from public view, insuring that his wackiness, as Bolton said, is controlled and out of public view. Perhaps Pence would have discovered emotions and facial expressions and dared to have a conversation without express permission by Mother! Better yet, he, too, would have gone down, either indicted and convicted for his participation, or resigned due to incompetence, evidently a Republican trait.
Finally, flying through the air on a modern day Pegasus would have been Madame President, Pelosi, following in the list as Speaker of the House. Ahhh, if wishes were horses, if dreams came true. But they do not, so we are left stranded in a bitter reality turning ever more bitter by the second. No hope in sight. Horror began to crystalize at the possibility of a second term by an anti democratic fascist of few working gray cells, an evidently increasing physical incapacity, and the growing uncontrolled anger of the demented.
So yes, now is the proper time for release of the book by Bolton that hopefully will settle all questions re Trump's incompetence and the danger he portends for our country and indeed, the world. Trump is a man who sees no borders but not in a good way. Instead, all countries of the world serve as springboards to his election, as HE turns traitor and invites in all sorts of present enemies who wish us harm, to help him into office.
Do you not gag at the truths revealed? Do you not yet accept these truths? How many people must write exposes, speak the awful truths of Trump's betrayal of us, before you believe? The book Too Much and Never Enough, by Mary Trump, will prove to be the cherry on top as she reveals his lifetime rife with bizarre, fraudulent, demented behavior, misogynistic to the core, empty of all empathy or concern for anyone other than his own disgusting self.
Fauci warns of the dangerous attitude towards science by these new versions of Luddites. Pompeo, another loser, calls others liars even as they speak the truth. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Trump adherents continue to try to stifle all opposition, a true tyrant in the making, a true clear and present danger to America. Why and how have we sunk so low? How have we allowed this to happen? Why is there still a chance that he could return to office, particularly if buoyed by the virus and fear of standing for hours to vote, stymied by shut down polling sites, particularly in Democratic and minority areas, and postal mail ins are denigrated and stolen, called fraudulent, and any other attack on our election process, even to becoming , yet again, a minority popular vote elected candidate.
What if he attempts to call in the troops once more? Riots and violence? A rebellious army, refusing these orders, refusing to shoot on fellow citizens asserting their rights? Think that over the top? Think back not so far to DC and someone holding an upside down Bible!, to all the cities, where protest was met by violence, where protesters were physically hurt by military styled police.
GOP candidates are worried not for the destruction of our values, of the devastating division this man has caused in our country, but rather on the possibility that the truth has been outed and as Trump goes down, so, too, will they! Could not happen to a more deserving bunch!!!
So Bolton calls Trump a wacko, a sick puppy, a traitor. We have ignored the truth for far too long, sung the praises of the new clothes of the Emperor even as he parades naked through the streets, brazen and contemptuous of all as he pushes forward in his arrogance and gains the blinded support of non seeing people, of truth deniers.
Can we all just wake up and find our way back through the fog of insanity, the filth of deregulated environments, of catering to the fatcats, the evil miasma and heartbreaking sounds of sobbing, as children go hungry, as parents watch their children huddle in a street for they could not afford rent. Could we not find ourselves in a world where all are educated, where color and religion do not matter as individuals are free in a color blind, religion blind, ethnic blind. gender blind society. Where justice is a given and concern for all is a must. Where hatred and violence, lies upon lies, are not the approved daily behaviors. Where truth is valued, empathy a virtue, and honor a must.
If wishes were horses we would all be flying in on that heroic Pegasus, blessed by the gods of all, living in a world getting better by the minute. Sigh, but horses do not fly. Our wishes remain just that unless we work to achieve them, even as we find ourselves in bizarre times. Unimaginable, and yet here we are.
We wish each other to be well, to stay safe, even as we lay mines in the roads leading to that goal. Can we all just wake up and come to our collective senses again? That is a must, not a dream, not a wish, just a fact of life. Let us face the truth for once in these desperate times. Just once and we will be on our way. Just once with honor, justice and care for our fellow human beings, for that is what we all are, creatures and creations of the Lord Above, meant to emulate him, and now ponder that. Can we come back from our abysmal failure? I hope.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
SHOES AND SUCH
"If the shoe fits." A short remark made by a black House member to a white one, known for his deep, groveling loyalty to Trump and all his twisted ideas. At issue was the bill, which among other things, would make lynching a federal crime. The Republicans, as usual, try to add in extraneous amendments that will kill any possibility of succeeding. This, in the year 2020. We are still debating over the magnitude of lynching as a crime!!! In the year 2020.
Parents are frightened for their children. Their children build up rage in their hearts. Gangsters and criminals use the times as excuses for their misbehavior and misdeeds. The pendulum continues to swing wildly, totally off rhythm, with no one able to control it, get this pendulum of society back in sync any more.
And the shoes, they remain as foreign to others as ever before, perhaps even more so as anger clouds the situation, blinds the vision of Americans caught up in the difficulties of the times and no one, no one, seems to have any idea how to untangle this mess, find the correct and proper shoes for all, allowing society to walk on in proper gait, in proper rhythm, in proper behavior.
Several iconic songs speak of the comfort that one needs to take or find in trying times. There is always someone there, always a light at the end, for it does end, but we must remember that these tunnels can be long, so long that decades and centuries are evidently not enough to fix those damned shoes.
Hate seems to pervade the air. Groups vie to portray their particular woes as paramount on the list of needing fixing. What we all need to realize is that the hatred stems from the same sources: ignorance, fear, anger, an unfair society which values antagonism, and an administration that values secrecy, furthering the growth of these negative values and emotions.
I am so tired of this skewed behavior of a misaligned and off balance society. I am so tired of politicians, supposed leaders, who hide their misdeeds, calling it national security, or following guidelines, all the while simply hiding their misdeeds, financial chicanery and mishandling, demented behavior, the ugly faces of their true selves. The arrogance they have, thinking they can hide and cover up forever all of what they have done, the wrong roads they have taken, the incorrect shoes they have worn.
These people then use the courts and governmental departments as their own defense attorneys. They sue, trying to keep all things hidden. So Bolton's book, which supports all that has gone before and much more, Trump's niece who has a blistering tell all that her uncle desperately needs to stifle, tax records, fraudulent medical evaluations, determinations to stay beyond any possibility of proper functioning, and the persistence of never, ever, ever, trying to feel the empathy that comes from walking in the shoes of others, of caring for others, rather than only for one's own being.
The secrecy of Trump and cohort, the secrecy and stonewalling of David Israel here in the Village, the loopy behavior of Di Santos and others who deny and excuse the rapid rise in cases and death, about 118,000 at the present moment - and be sanguine about it. All this must stop. It all comes out anyway so why do we allow this delay at all levels of government.
Here in CV, I, and many others, want to know what is going on in UCO. What is happening with our funds? What is happening with the former golf course? What is happening to the required audit that is going on over a year and shows no ending any time soon? What is happening with meetings? Why do we not Zoom, like the rest of the world.
As far as other levels of government, the same questions with particular changes for their shoes. We now have seen the very public demonstration of the rotting of Trump, his walking and thinking, his ability to even function, badly damaged. Beyond repair, actually. Or so it seems to any sentient being. At this point, I think that the proverbial alien asking to be taken to our leader would add in the addition of - but not Trump!
We have so blistered our soles, and the other souls, that our chosen shoes are now misfitting. As for the proper shoes - who knows when they will ever fit or even where to find them.. Who knows when the time will come - it it ever will - that we once again walk properly, apace with all, kick the hell out of hatred and prejudice, walk people into security for themselves and their children and develop walking and hiking paths for all. When the shoes will be on the feet of those guarding our media, their freedom to function and tell the truth, not serve as shills for the tyrants, as opposing media are stepped upon, stomped upon, all in the efforts of stamping out truth.
It is a long and difficult path we will need to walk. It demands proper shoes, ones that will force us to walk the walk, and if we do not, blister our feet, rub them so that we have to pay attention. If we but realize that the shoes of all can be similar and dissimilar ,yet match, allowing us all to truly walk in and understand how it is to walk in the shoes of others, then, only then, can we truly be well and safe. Only then will the shoe properly fit.
Shoe shopping anyone?
Parents are frightened for their children. Their children build up rage in their hearts. Gangsters and criminals use the times as excuses for their misbehavior and misdeeds. The pendulum continues to swing wildly, totally off rhythm, with no one able to control it, get this pendulum of society back in sync any more.
And the shoes, they remain as foreign to others as ever before, perhaps even more so as anger clouds the situation, blinds the vision of Americans caught up in the difficulties of the times and no one, no one, seems to have any idea how to untangle this mess, find the correct and proper shoes for all, allowing society to walk on in proper gait, in proper rhythm, in proper behavior.
Several iconic songs speak of the comfort that one needs to take or find in trying times. There is always someone there, always a light at the end, for it does end, but we must remember that these tunnels can be long, so long that decades and centuries are evidently not enough to fix those damned shoes.
Hate seems to pervade the air. Groups vie to portray their particular woes as paramount on the list of needing fixing. What we all need to realize is that the hatred stems from the same sources: ignorance, fear, anger, an unfair society which values antagonism, and an administration that values secrecy, furthering the growth of these negative values and emotions.
I am so tired of this skewed behavior of a misaligned and off balance society. I am so tired of politicians, supposed leaders, who hide their misdeeds, calling it national security, or following guidelines, all the while simply hiding their misdeeds, financial chicanery and mishandling, demented behavior, the ugly faces of their true selves. The arrogance they have, thinking they can hide and cover up forever all of what they have done, the wrong roads they have taken, the incorrect shoes they have worn.
These people then use the courts and governmental departments as their own defense attorneys. They sue, trying to keep all things hidden. So Bolton's book, which supports all that has gone before and much more, Trump's niece who has a blistering tell all that her uncle desperately needs to stifle, tax records, fraudulent medical evaluations, determinations to stay beyond any possibility of proper functioning, and the persistence of never, ever, ever, trying to feel the empathy that comes from walking in the shoes of others, of caring for others, rather than only for one's own being.
The secrecy of Trump and cohort, the secrecy and stonewalling of David Israel here in the Village, the loopy behavior of Di Santos and others who deny and excuse the rapid rise in cases and death, about 118,000 at the present moment - and be sanguine about it. All this must stop. It all comes out anyway so why do we allow this delay at all levels of government.
Here in CV, I, and many others, want to know what is going on in UCO. What is happening with our funds? What is happening with the former golf course? What is happening to the required audit that is going on over a year and shows no ending any time soon? What is happening with meetings? Why do we not Zoom, like the rest of the world.
As far as other levels of government, the same questions with particular changes for their shoes. We now have seen the very public demonstration of the rotting of Trump, his walking and thinking, his ability to even function, badly damaged. Beyond repair, actually. Or so it seems to any sentient being. At this point, I think that the proverbial alien asking to be taken to our leader would add in the addition of - but not Trump!
We have so blistered our soles, and the other souls, that our chosen shoes are now misfitting. As for the proper shoes - who knows when they will ever fit or even where to find them.. Who knows when the time will come - it it ever will - that we once again walk properly, apace with all, kick the hell out of hatred and prejudice, walk people into security for themselves and their children and develop walking and hiking paths for all. When the shoes will be on the feet of those guarding our media, their freedom to function and tell the truth, not serve as shills for the tyrants, as opposing media are stepped upon, stomped upon, all in the efforts of stamping out truth.
It is a long and difficult path we will need to walk. It demands proper shoes, ones that will force us to walk the walk, and if we do not, blister our feet, rub them so that we have to pay attention. If we but realize that the shoes of all can be similar and dissimilar ,yet match, allowing us all to truly walk in and understand how it is to walk in the shoes of others, then, only then, can we truly be well and safe. Only then will the shoe properly fit.
Shoe shopping anyone?
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
HEAR OUR VOICES
Today there is a growing feeling that we are often spitting into the wind, useless, even as it intensifies. I believe that feeling is wrong and going along with it, saying things like "it will never change" or "what can you expect" is the wrong way to go.
I know, believe me, I know, the temptation to give up, the feeling of frustration, of annoyance, of deep anger, when it appears that things really will not change. But that is falling into the arms of the negative people, the people who would trade off many rights as long as they feel they got something in return. That something could be nebulous and usually for the worse in the long run, but there you have it.
Yesterday, though, I watched a production from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, made with a long list of cosponsoring organizations and many, many members of the entertainment world contributing songs, words, readings, and inspiration. It was entitled: We Are Here. Instead of celebrating negativity, or pointing out all the sore spots of the world, it focused on Reconciliation, Resilience, and Hope. I wish I could beam it into the homes of the world, perhaps inspiring so many that need that inspiration, who need to see the connection between all the peoples of the earth. We are one. No matter the color, the beliefs, the practices, the anything. We all live, want to live, but a good life, with room for hope, with cooperating fellow members of the human race.
Of the many points made, a most serious one was the accusation of standing by, doing nothing, as neighbors are removed forcibly from home and hearth, robbed of all they own, families destroyed, murder the accepted way of the day. Elie Wiesel warned us of the enmity to civilization of indifference, of shrugging the shoulders and thinking not me, so what the hell do I care or should I even care at all.
The world has stood by too many times and continues to do so. We ignore the glaring fact that we are one. We are one with all those who are discriminated against, on the receiving end of hatred in too many ways to count. We forget that this prejudice hits us all and ignoring it, to our detriment, our own peril, we separate our own selves into competing groups, forgetting the cooperation that led to advancement and progress. We let our anger win the day - or rather lose it for us.
From the bittersweet lullabies of Jewish mothers to their children, warning them of the dangers they will face, but go to sleep now in my arms, to the songs of the Deep South as the victims of slavery sang longingly of freedom, to the Inquisition in Spanish and Portuguese territories, the brutal auto da fe, the burning at the stake of so called heretics - and the madness and greed that perpetuated this for so many years, and the arms folded, the silence of those who stood by, watched, and even cheered. The lists of "Jews Killed - 1841 in so many places, or List of Jews killed Kishinev 1941. It never stops, does it? The vicious itch from within to destroy the 'other'; to show the world that indeed, we are not the lowest for there are those beneath us, and we are one of the regular guys.
But it all backfires as the bitter tastes of such a life overcome the sweetness. The hope? We must remember the resilience of people, their determination to survive, to resist the death sentence imposed on them and their people. We must remember the resistance of people to those who would tyrannize the world, kill all who oppose. They refuse, and even as the world crumbles around their ears, they fight on, be it in the Warsaw ghetto, in the fields of the South as slaves fled, took their chances, or in any country where people within their border are persecuted.
And there is always hope. The partisans of the forests of Europe, hungry, poorly armed, chased from pillar to post, had hope. They shouted, with feet stamping, - We Are Here. The Rev. King spoke of his dream. The Tutsis ran in the hope of living on, despite the insane rampages of the Hutus. Yet the slaughter of one people by another continues, so what do we do? Will the resistance, the resilience, the hopes be enough?
There were two answers, or rather two parts of the same answer. A haunting version of an ancient and pleading prayer of the Jewish nation sings to our Father in Heaven, our King. Avinu Malkenu, rendered so beautifully by singers, such as Barbra Streisand, pleads with G-d to help, to remember He is the King and the Father of us all, so please consider showing mercy and forgiveness to us even as we render our apologies, sorrows, and promises to reform, to be better children to him. Shema Kolenu - hear our voices and while doing so, we hope that G-d hears our hearts and souls as well.
The second part? That was the phrase sung, spoken, repeated, by personality after another, by plain people, sitting in their homes, quarantining, all saying, with fervor, with hope, with a smile, with a prayer - We Are Here. The unspoken- we will always be here. Hence, the hope, the resilience, the remembrance and resistance to a continuation of the negative, the hatred, the murders, the worst, the bestial side of mankind.
The message? We are better than we have shown so far. We have within us the capabilities to do better, to live up to our positive possibilities. We have within us the traits of the children of G-d - as long as we remember that we ALL are these children, believers or not.
We ALL can be well, stay safe, and can make it so. It is within us. We need to have the fortitude, the inner strength to fight the evil that rears its ugly head. We need to remember that we truly are one people of the earth, the human race, with all the different paintings and colors of the One Above. Nor is it upon us to determine who is better! We Are Here, all of us. WE.
I know, believe me, I know, the temptation to give up, the feeling of frustration, of annoyance, of deep anger, when it appears that things really will not change. But that is falling into the arms of the negative people, the people who would trade off many rights as long as they feel they got something in return. That something could be nebulous and usually for the worse in the long run, but there you have it.
Yesterday, though, I watched a production from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, made with a long list of cosponsoring organizations and many, many members of the entertainment world contributing songs, words, readings, and inspiration. It was entitled: We Are Here. Instead of celebrating negativity, or pointing out all the sore spots of the world, it focused on Reconciliation, Resilience, and Hope. I wish I could beam it into the homes of the world, perhaps inspiring so many that need that inspiration, who need to see the connection between all the peoples of the earth. We are one. No matter the color, the beliefs, the practices, the anything. We all live, want to live, but a good life, with room for hope, with cooperating fellow members of the human race.
Of the many points made, a most serious one was the accusation of standing by, doing nothing, as neighbors are removed forcibly from home and hearth, robbed of all they own, families destroyed, murder the accepted way of the day. Elie Wiesel warned us of the enmity to civilization of indifference, of shrugging the shoulders and thinking not me, so what the hell do I care or should I even care at all.
The world has stood by too many times and continues to do so. We ignore the glaring fact that we are one. We are one with all those who are discriminated against, on the receiving end of hatred in too many ways to count. We forget that this prejudice hits us all and ignoring it, to our detriment, our own peril, we separate our own selves into competing groups, forgetting the cooperation that led to advancement and progress. We let our anger win the day - or rather lose it for us.
From the bittersweet lullabies of Jewish mothers to their children, warning them of the dangers they will face, but go to sleep now in my arms, to the songs of the Deep South as the victims of slavery sang longingly of freedom, to the Inquisition in Spanish and Portuguese territories, the brutal auto da fe, the burning at the stake of so called heretics - and the madness and greed that perpetuated this for so many years, and the arms folded, the silence of those who stood by, watched, and even cheered. The lists of "Jews Killed - 1841 in so many places, or List of Jews killed Kishinev 1941. It never stops, does it? The vicious itch from within to destroy the 'other'; to show the world that indeed, we are not the lowest for there are those beneath us, and we are one of the regular guys.
But it all backfires as the bitter tastes of such a life overcome the sweetness. The hope? We must remember the resilience of people, their determination to survive, to resist the death sentence imposed on them and their people. We must remember the resistance of people to those who would tyrannize the world, kill all who oppose. They refuse, and even as the world crumbles around their ears, they fight on, be it in the Warsaw ghetto, in the fields of the South as slaves fled, took their chances, or in any country where people within their border are persecuted.
And there is always hope. The partisans of the forests of Europe, hungry, poorly armed, chased from pillar to post, had hope. They shouted, with feet stamping, - We Are Here. The Rev. King spoke of his dream. The Tutsis ran in the hope of living on, despite the insane rampages of the Hutus. Yet the slaughter of one people by another continues, so what do we do? Will the resistance, the resilience, the hopes be enough?
There were two answers, or rather two parts of the same answer. A haunting version of an ancient and pleading prayer of the Jewish nation sings to our Father in Heaven, our King. Avinu Malkenu, rendered so beautifully by singers, such as Barbra Streisand, pleads with G-d to help, to remember He is the King and the Father of us all, so please consider showing mercy and forgiveness to us even as we render our apologies, sorrows, and promises to reform, to be better children to him. Shema Kolenu - hear our voices and while doing so, we hope that G-d hears our hearts and souls as well.
The second part? That was the phrase sung, spoken, repeated, by personality after another, by plain people, sitting in their homes, quarantining, all saying, with fervor, with hope, with a smile, with a prayer - We Are Here. The unspoken- we will always be here. Hence, the hope, the resilience, the remembrance and resistance to a continuation of the negative, the hatred, the murders, the worst, the bestial side of mankind.
The message? We are better than we have shown so far. We have within us the capabilities to do better, to live up to our positive possibilities. We have within us the traits of the children of G-d - as long as we remember that we ALL are these children, believers or not.
We ALL can be well, stay safe, and can make it so. It is within us. We need to have the fortitude, the inner strength to fight the evil that rears its ugly head. We need to remember that we truly are one people of the earth, the human race, with all the different paintings and colors of the One Above. Nor is it upon us to determine who is better! We Are Here, all of us. WE.
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
NOTHING IS CONCRETE
That is, unless it is apparently the area resting between the two ears of Trump. Or, should I rather say he is on that slippery slope of which we should all beware. Sorry for the puns, sorry for the groans, but I could not help it. This supposedly most healthy President ever, at least according to Trump and his oh so incompetent doctor who typed and signed a note dictated by Trump!, has just stepped into the mess left behind by his own excesses.
Senate Majority Whip Thune says that nothing is concrete, referring to plans to take up a most timely review and revamping of police training and restraining policies. Nope, the concrete evidently is spilling down that very slope that Trump had a great deal of difficulty maneuvering. Well, at least the concrete was dry on a beautiful and sunny day, though apparently it must have rained strictly upon that ramp, making it indeed, the proverbial slippery slope! Or, perhaps Trump could not maintain a normal gait as he had not taken in enough fluids, at least based on the difficulty he had remembering where the water is always placed and could not get bottle opening and mouth to meet without using a left hand to bolster the right. Concrete damage?
Nor should one think that the concrete has struck only physical modalities, for there are always the lies, the lies, the more lies, the illiterate level of writing, the pathetic structure of his speeches, the ugh image of him sitting there late into the morning, doing his policy calculations whilst in his bathrobe, seeking out the best falsehoods with which to stir the concrete he pours out upon his nation every hour on the hour and that is a generous time allotment!
Add to that yucky image his evident mental issues. Megalomania. Paranoia. Narcissism. Anger. Defensiveness. Forgetfulness, as he evidently cannot remember one lie from one day to the next. All that behavior is significant in its similarity to a technical description of the behavior of one falling under the shadows of dementia of one type or another - or perhaps more than one type in his situation as the dementia become more and more apparent.
Truly, all is concrete, but worse than that is the seemingly contagious effect it has, causing concrete to grow in the brains of so many others, though thank goodness that seems to be abating somewhat as people realize the truth. Drinking bleach! Taking a toxic medication meant for malaria and using it for Covid-19!! (Perhaps that is one cause of his latest deteriorations.) Science is useless and contains falsehoods re the climate endangerment! Covid was a Democratic hoax.
It would only be a few people, maybe two, by the end of the week. Meanwhile, now in mid June, we are at over 116,000 dead, over 2,000 added yesterday and we are on target for....... I hate even to contemplate the numbers as we approach date deadlines. And yet, as cases grow way over 2 million, the concretized heads of his dazed supporters are refusing to wear masks, refusing to follow distancing, refusing to follow precautions, and that stupidity is even affecting otherwise at least somewhat intelligent people who should know better. I hate the masks as well, hating the heat beneath it, but it is better than the alternative.
Trump states that we have to take care of our seniors, even as he uses age as a factor in demeaning his opponent. Evidently, this man cannot put together words and consequences and seemingly cannot absorb the fact that he too is a senior citizen and not one of those lucky enough to maintain physical and mental capacities!
We need to learn to accept that this damned virus has changed our lives and while perhaps we will gin up a vaccine that works, make enough to cover all needs, life will not resume same old same old anytime - ever. We have lost too many, so many friends and loved ones, even acquaintances. Not all have the privilege of having those around them tested up the wazoo before being allowed to approach His Royal Majesty! Nope, we, the peasants, must deal with the constant danger called life. Furthermore, as we continue to live recklessly, destroy nature, devastate the environment, we are going to face more terrors as we push together the animal world and the human world, the plant world and our world, losing hopes of natural pharmaceuticals before we give it a chance, as we destroy the habitats, as we destroy the rain forests.
Yes, nothing is concrete other than the heads of those who follow the original concretized one, Trump. Nothing is concrete other than the fact that we are dooming ourselves by our behavior. Nothing is concrete other than the fact that we are creating our own slippery slopes, meeting even dry slopes with slippery viewpoints and bollixing the whole kit and caboodle.
Once again, we need to realize that no one will be well or safe if we persist in this self destructive behavior, allow a false and truly damaged person to be our so called leader. Register. Vote. Whether you like Biden or not. The alternative is not acceptable. The consequences of a second term are disastrous. Let us aim for wellness and safety and follow the growing trend, reject that man and all his concrete, all that he stands for, and vote Biden, vote Democratic, send the message to all our politicians that they will be held responsible for their deeds and votes. They will need to have a moral spine, be honest, not engaging in ripping off the public and enhancing their own bottom lines.
We have much work to do if we are to return this country to a semblance of what it once stood for and to take the necessary steps to go forward, to support true equality, to install a true safety net so no one goes hungry, homeless or immersed in despair. We need to resume our role as leader to the world.
Chip away at the concrete and all it represents. Reject it. Firmly and clearly. Realize that our slopes are clean, dry, leading us forward, crossing divides, healing the nation.
Senate Majority Whip Thune says that nothing is concrete, referring to plans to take up a most timely review and revamping of police training and restraining policies. Nope, the concrete evidently is spilling down that very slope that Trump had a great deal of difficulty maneuvering. Well, at least the concrete was dry on a beautiful and sunny day, though apparently it must have rained strictly upon that ramp, making it indeed, the proverbial slippery slope! Or, perhaps Trump could not maintain a normal gait as he had not taken in enough fluids, at least based on the difficulty he had remembering where the water is always placed and could not get bottle opening and mouth to meet without using a left hand to bolster the right. Concrete damage?
Nor should one think that the concrete has struck only physical modalities, for there are always the lies, the lies, the more lies, the illiterate level of writing, the pathetic structure of his speeches, the ugh image of him sitting there late into the morning, doing his policy calculations whilst in his bathrobe, seeking out the best falsehoods with which to stir the concrete he pours out upon his nation every hour on the hour and that is a generous time allotment!
Add to that yucky image his evident mental issues. Megalomania. Paranoia. Narcissism. Anger. Defensiveness. Forgetfulness, as he evidently cannot remember one lie from one day to the next. All that behavior is significant in its similarity to a technical description of the behavior of one falling under the shadows of dementia of one type or another - or perhaps more than one type in his situation as the dementia become more and more apparent.
Truly, all is concrete, but worse than that is the seemingly contagious effect it has, causing concrete to grow in the brains of so many others, though thank goodness that seems to be abating somewhat as people realize the truth. Drinking bleach! Taking a toxic medication meant for malaria and using it for Covid-19!! (Perhaps that is one cause of his latest deteriorations.) Science is useless and contains falsehoods re the climate endangerment! Covid was a Democratic hoax.
It would only be a few people, maybe two, by the end of the week. Meanwhile, now in mid June, we are at over 116,000 dead, over 2,000 added yesterday and we are on target for....... I hate even to contemplate the numbers as we approach date deadlines. And yet, as cases grow way over 2 million, the concretized heads of his dazed supporters are refusing to wear masks, refusing to follow distancing, refusing to follow precautions, and that stupidity is even affecting otherwise at least somewhat intelligent people who should know better. I hate the masks as well, hating the heat beneath it, but it is better than the alternative.
Trump states that we have to take care of our seniors, even as he uses age as a factor in demeaning his opponent. Evidently, this man cannot put together words and consequences and seemingly cannot absorb the fact that he too is a senior citizen and not one of those lucky enough to maintain physical and mental capacities!
We need to learn to accept that this damned virus has changed our lives and while perhaps we will gin up a vaccine that works, make enough to cover all needs, life will not resume same old same old anytime - ever. We have lost too many, so many friends and loved ones, even acquaintances. Not all have the privilege of having those around them tested up the wazoo before being allowed to approach His Royal Majesty! Nope, we, the peasants, must deal with the constant danger called life. Furthermore, as we continue to live recklessly, destroy nature, devastate the environment, we are going to face more terrors as we push together the animal world and the human world, the plant world and our world, losing hopes of natural pharmaceuticals before we give it a chance, as we destroy the habitats, as we destroy the rain forests.
Yes, nothing is concrete other than the heads of those who follow the original concretized one, Trump. Nothing is concrete other than the fact that we are dooming ourselves by our behavior. Nothing is concrete other than the fact that we are creating our own slippery slopes, meeting even dry slopes with slippery viewpoints and bollixing the whole kit and caboodle.
Once again, we need to realize that no one will be well or safe if we persist in this self destructive behavior, allow a false and truly damaged person to be our so called leader. Register. Vote. Whether you like Biden or not. The alternative is not acceptable. The consequences of a second term are disastrous. Let us aim for wellness and safety and follow the growing trend, reject that man and all his concrete, all that he stands for, and vote Biden, vote Democratic, send the message to all our politicians that they will be held responsible for their deeds and votes. They will need to have a moral spine, be honest, not engaging in ripping off the public and enhancing their own bottom lines.
We have much work to do if we are to return this country to a semblance of what it once stood for and to take the necessary steps to go forward, to support true equality, to install a true safety net so no one goes hungry, homeless or immersed in despair. We need to resume our role as leader to the world.
Chip away at the concrete and all it represents. Reject it. Firmly and clearly. Realize that our slopes are clean, dry, leading us forward, crossing divides, healing the nation.
Monday, June 15, 2020
OOOHHHH, WHAT WE SAW !!!!
So what was that we saw? We all participated in "I Spy With My Little Eye" all week long and the weekend followed right along. It was brutalizing to see the video of a supposed lynching class of justice being meted out. It is frightening to realize that if law enforcement representatives are allowed to do this to one, they can and will stretch it to others. Kangaroo courts led by the police, at the moment, will be the play of the day, the I Spy winning sight. The public will follow, emboldened by the official responses.
I do not understand why it is so difficult for people to understand, to follow the thread of hatred and its consequences from start to not a finish but rather to an expansion. Why do people feel exempt, that they will be the bystanders, perhaps even tsk tsking, but the object of that immediate and applied 'justice' - never, they think. That is until they are right there in the next video. Worse, seeing all this violence will inure us to it, roll off our backs with a shrug, if that, just as we have grown so terribly indifferent to the gaffes, lies and outrageous behavior of Trump, and that is not only on a daily basis, but almost on an hourly basis.
However, there is always a second time around when something catches the eye of the beholder. Something calls to the onlooker, forces that same onlooker to reevaluate, to weigh and measure, be forced, compelled, by the proof to make the right decision. This is not the romantic second time around but rather the harsh dose of reality, actually like the zillionth time around. This, what we see, is not funny, nor entertaining, and has great and important messages and warnings behind it.
However, as we view these videos with half an eye closed, as if to halve the horror, as we jerk with shock, there are some redeeming videos. No, not the ones of violence, of hate. Those we should not be seeing for the first time, let alone a second time around. Nope, what gave me great glee, that oh so sweet feeling of what goes around comes around, well, that was the video of Trump inching his way down a ramp.
It was a beautiful day for a commencement. It was sunny, dry, not too hot or cold or windy or threatening or whatever weather related negative you dig up. Nope, it was perfect. Perhaps it wasn't, one might think, as for some reason Trump had to bend his head forward to reach the mouth of a bottle of water whose location he could not remember, and then hold that bottle to his mouth in an awkward position, with both hands. Just like a little child lacking strength or surety of a firm one hand hold. Nor was this a one time performance, for we have seen it more than once, more than twice.
Nor did the rest of his body prove loyal to him. The hesitation seen upon approaching the ramp. The soldier beside him, to stand as insurance to prevent a fall on that dry ramp on a clear day...... The bent body, the head focused in the downward direction, the lack of movement of his arms, the steps of a baby, first one and then bring the other to meet, and the final stumbling, the loss of balance at the end, of control, which led to the stumbling stutter steps he took. No, there was no ice. No, there was no running of the last ten feet. No, there was no truth at all in the excuse he and others made for him. He lies, they swear, and a segment of the public sees once more, the 'new, not there at all' clothing of the would be emperor.
Now, what did we see other than an old man, well past his sell by date, stumble. Well, for most we might chalk it up as just an off moment. Others might look at his postural signs and urge a complete checkup, as possible neurodegenerative or muscular degenerative syndromes are possible and probable. Add to that the lies, the water bottle problem, the visions of grandeur, and well, is the man capable of staying in office? Can we afford an obviously incapacitated president at such a moment of crisis, multiple crises, in our country?
This is the man who was so very cruel and nasty when Hilary stumbled as she was ill with the flu. He taunted her, demeaned her, challenged her physical capacity to remain in the race, let alone the office for which she ran. He went with this for quite some time, and now he is accusing Biden of being a wiped out old dude, incapable of either physical or mental agility. Well, guess he had better look in the mirror, for what I saw, what the nation saw, is a damaged senior citizen who has demonstrably proven his incompetence, his delusions of grandeur, his physical weaknesses and his huge mental deficit, let alone the glaring lack of a moral backbone, with no values or goals other than to see himself in office.
Pots and kettles, folks. Goose and gander. Time to look in the mirror and acknowledge what is there. Time to realize that this man is a man engaged in a chaotic, autocratic race to stay in his position and benefit his bottom line, provide jobs for his twisted children, and play down enough of his mental incompetence, so that people will just brush it off.
That is what we saw not just yesterday but all the days of the past four years. We should be ashamed of ourselves, living out a fairytale of new clothing when we all should have known better. We should be ashamed of our Republican members of both Houses of Congress for their apparent spinal injuries, so bad that they could not stand up to danger, a clear and present danger to this country. We should acknowledge and recognize how this Senate has handed all the keys, all the balance scales, all the power of the three branches, over to a megalomaniac who cannot keep his lies straight, has not an ounce of human empathy for anyone, and now apparently his bloated body is acting up, the finishing touch to the devolution of a human.
And now, as the market tanks, as we face either a continuation of the first wave, or the beginning of the second, for whatever difference it makes, as the death toll crosses over 114,000, and the cases over two million, as we stand increasingly alone in the world, why are we allowing this would be Nero to remain in office, let alone run for a second term? Will we have a president in the full throes of dementia, of having to be fed his food and water, who will have the stamina of a tired, sick and ailing, old man who should be resting in his rocker in one of his over the top gaudy homes?
Be Well. Stay Safe. With him at the helm? With his weak and useless morally vacant crew behind him? Never. And just think what history will write of us and him. We will all be rolling over in the proverbial graves, ashamed at our lack of action, of our growing acceptance of hatred and incapability, of allowing the earth to be trashed under his rapacious behavior? Nota good legacy, is it?
I do not understand why it is so difficult for people to understand, to follow the thread of hatred and its consequences from start to not a finish but rather to an expansion. Why do people feel exempt, that they will be the bystanders, perhaps even tsk tsking, but the object of that immediate and applied 'justice' - never, they think. That is until they are right there in the next video. Worse, seeing all this violence will inure us to it, roll off our backs with a shrug, if that, just as we have grown so terribly indifferent to the gaffes, lies and outrageous behavior of Trump, and that is not only on a daily basis, but almost on an hourly basis.
However, there is always a second time around when something catches the eye of the beholder. Something calls to the onlooker, forces that same onlooker to reevaluate, to weigh and measure, be forced, compelled, by the proof to make the right decision. This is not the romantic second time around but rather the harsh dose of reality, actually like the zillionth time around. This, what we see, is not funny, nor entertaining, and has great and important messages and warnings behind it.
However, as we view these videos with half an eye closed, as if to halve the horror, as we jerk with shock, there are some redeeming videos. No, not the ones of violence, of hate. Those we should not be seeing for the first time, let alone a second time around. Nope, what gave me great glee, that oh so sweet feeling of what goes around comes around, well, that was the video of Trump inching his way down a ramp.
It was a beautiful day for a commencement. It was sunny, dry, not too hot or cold or windy or threatening or whatever weather related negative you dig up. Nope, it was perfect. Perhaps it wasn't, one might think, as for some reason Trump had to bend his head forward to reach the mouth of a bottle of water whose location he could not remember, and then hold that bottle to his mouth in an awkward position, with both hands. Just like a little child lacking strength or surety of a firm one hand hold. Nor was this a one time performance, for we have seen it more than once, more than twice.
Nor did the rest of his body prove loyal to him. The hesitation seen upon approaching the ramp. The soldier beside him, to stand as insurance to prevent a fall on that dry ramp on a clear day...... The bent body, the head focused in the downward direction, the lack of movement of his arms, the steps of a baby, first one and then bring the other to meet, and the final stumbling, the loss of balance at the end, of control, which led to the stumbling stutter steps he took. No, there was no ice. No, there was no running of the last ten feet. No, there was no truth at all in the excuse he and others made for him. He lies, they swear, and a segment of the public sees once more, the 'new, not there at all' clothing of the would be emperor.
Now, what did we see other than an old man, well past his sell by date, stumble. Well, for most we might chalk it up as just an off moment. Others might look at his postural signs and urge a complete checkup, as possible neurodegenerative or muscular degenerative syndromes are possible and probable. Add to that the lies, the water bottle problem, the visions of grandeur, and well, is the man capable of staying in office? Can we afford an obviously incapacitated president at such a moment of crisis, multiple crises, in our country?
This is the man who was so very cruel and nasty when Hilary stumbled as she was ill with the flu. He taunted her, demeaned her, challenged her physical capacity to remain in the race, let alone the office for which she ran. He went with this for quite some time, and now he is accusing Biden of being a wiped out old dude, incapable of either physical or mental agility. Well, guess he had better look in the mirror, for what I saw, what the nation saw, is a damaged senior citizen who has demonstrably proven his incompetence, his delusions of grandeur, his physical weaknesses and his huge mental deficit, let alone the glaring lack of a moral backbone, with no values or goals other than to see himself in office.
Pots and kettles, folks. Goose and gander. Time to look in the mirror and acknowledge what is there. Time to realize that this man is a man engaged in a chaotic, autocratic race to stay in his position and benefit his bottom line, provide jobs for his twisted children, and play down enough of his mental incompetence, so that people will just brush it off.
That is what we saw not just yesterday but all the days of the past four years. We should be ashamed of ourselves, living out a fairytale of new clothing when we all should have known better. We should be ashamed of our Republican members of both Houses of Congress for their apparent spinal injuries, so bad that they could not stand up to danger, a clear and present danger to this country. We should acknowledge and recognize how this Senate has handed all the keys, all the balance scales, all the power of the three branches, over to a megalomaniac who cannot keep his lies straight, has not an ounce of human empathy for anyone, and now apparently his bloated body is acting up, the finishing touch to the devolution of a human.
And now, as the market tanks, as we face either a continuation of the first wave, or the beginning of the second, for whatever difference it makes, as the death toll crosses over 114,000, and the cases over two million, as we stand increasingly alone in the world, why are we allowing this would be Nero to remain in office, let alone run for a second term? Will we have a president in the full throes of dementia, of having to be fed his food and water, who will have the stamina of a tired, sick and ailing, old man who should be resting in his rocker in one of his over the top gaudy homes?
Be Well. Stay Safe. With him at the helm? With his weak and useless morally vacant crew behind him? Never. And just think what history will write of us and him. We will all be rolling over in the proverbial graves, ashamed at our lack of action, of our growing acceptance of hatred and incapability, of allowing the earth to be trashed under his rapacious behavior? Nota good legacy, is it?
Sunday, June 14, 2020
SOLA VIRTUS INVICTUS
Translation: Bravery alone is invincible.
I would rather have liked to think that truth and honor are the virtues that are invincible in the long run, but perhaps it is still so. Link those virtues with that of bravery and one gets the road signs to a better world. We sure as heck need that right now. Desperately so.
Bravery has certainly lost its way somewhere along the way. It has apparently morphed into the charge of militarily armed police who then resign with the cry that they are underequipped, unable to insure their own safety. Yet not since 9/11 can any police force claim to be under equipped. Not with it being impossible to distinguish them from the National Guard that has been called out upon their fellow citizens so often as of late.
Approximately a two thirds majority of the protesters or those who crowd into that population are there for protest alone. It is the "bad crowd" that causes the troubles. But it is not those about whom we have to worry. Rather it is about the summary judgement passed on people for minor offenses. Annoying ones - yes. Dangerous ones - no. Police should have been trained as to how to defuse situations of minor offenses without the use of lethal force and certainly a person can be brought down by a non lethal wounding rather than a shot to a vital organ. It is just wrong.
It is truly a scary job, to be part of the police. One can get killed while doing one's job, but apparently today, anyone can get killed while doing his/her job or exercising rights guaranteed to all citizens. They are compensated well, with heavy overtime, good health benefits, unlimited sick days, and they signed up for it all - protect, serve, defend and the consequences that might arise. I am not demeaning nor denigrating the risks, but today we all have risks and there must be better ways to subdue individuals who pose little risk. Sitting on necks. Violent takedowns to the ground for walking in an empty country road with no sidewalk does not merit that. Sleeping in a car does not either and if the taser had not been pulled, it would not have gotten into the hands of the 'offender'. Our primary first responders are on the whole wonderful at doing their job and are now being placed in situations fraught with danger. Apparently their training has been lacking. This cannot be allowed to continue. Bad for all sides in this mess.
A character in a novel said so aptly for our times, that we appear to be "human tumbleweeds moving with the winds of hate." This is a statement crafted for our times, for the truth of it all. Watch the faces, check the videos, return back to hearings in the Senate and the House and cringe as you see the ugliness of hate projected on the faces of the committee members. See the ugliness of the winds of hate appear on the outside.
Or attend a Trump rally. See the hate on the faces, in the shouts of the attendees. In the incitements to violence and growing hatred by Trump. See the growing numbers of extremist right wing groups, fine people all, who attach themselves to his campaign and spout his words, or in fact, place them in his very mouth. And see the lack of bravery in the lack of response, or flimsy, meaningless responses that say nothing, made by our apparent representatives - on all levels of government.
Now, only apparently after the violence of the riots, of the continued kangaroo justice, of the very real actions of Trump in bringing our military to fire on our citizens - echoes of China, Hungary, Russia and when it was the USSR, Bolivia, Venezuela - and on and on. WE DO NOT DO THAT. NOT HERE IN THE USA. And yet, there it is. In the open. Cheered on by that hateful human directed by his own waves of hate, placing our military in situations where the choice to obey orders or the demands that they ignore patently illegal ones, immoral ones, well, we are in major trouble. And I am not confident of our ability to fix this mess, so deeply are we mired down in its poisonous muck.
We have lost respect for one another. We see the opponent as an enemy, rather than as one who thinks differently, but not worthy of hate. Yet, this school of thought is growing in numbers every day. We have lost our dignity, our humanity. I wonder; do these Johnny come lately members of Congress actually dare to question, to wonder, as to why Trump is throwing down on so many outlandish and dangerous matters, why he rules by fiat, by Executive Orders, why almost every move of his is one of hate, of limitations of rights, of insensitivity to historic wrongs.
His actions reek of evil, of his intense mad drive to negate Congress, corrupt the judiciary and run this country as a puppet state of The Dictator, of the President for Life. Just read his statements over the years and see the egregious growth of paranoia and megalomania, in the explosive usage of words and tropes, sad memes of hate, of evil. Truly, Congress wonders how it reached this point? Look in the mirror. Read the Congressional Record. Check their own words and deeds. Learn to check their craven cowardly behavior at the door and stand up for America. Have a little dignity. Remember the virtue of bravery and defy the temptation to forget one's duties, all in the name of fear and cowardice.
We have done, and are doing, what every conqueror wants to do - to strip the population of its humanity, of its dignity, of forcing them into places where no human should be. Yet, check these prisoners. Check the dignity with which they conduct themselves, despite all odds, more than one would think. The Prisoners of Conscience of Russia. The protesters of Tiananmen Square and Hong Kong, the mothers of the Desaparecidos of Argentina, the concentration camp prisoners, and protesters of all kinds and causes who quietly lay down in the streets or sit at a counter, or try to buy a home in restricted areas. There is dignity in their faces, in their actions.
"One required an extraordinary moral force to teeter on the brink of the Nazi infamy and not plunge into the pit. Yet I saw many internees cling to their human dignity to the very end. The Nazis succeeded in degrading them physically, but they could not debase them morally." Olga Lengyel
Surely we can use them as our role models. Surely we can learn from history. Surely we do not want to repeat it, in any form, with glimmers and streaks of growing hate and violence. Most certainly, this is manifestly not the way to Be Well and Stay Safe. Instead, it will force those two concepts into the category of impossible dreams. Instead, let us be brave, follow the truth, and always act with dignity.
I would rather have liked to think that truth and honor are the virtues that are invincible in the long run, but perhaps it is still so. Link those virtues with that of bravery and one gets the road signs to a better world. We sure as heck need that right now. Desperately so.
Bravery has certainly lost its way somewhere along the way. It has apparently morphed into the charge of militarily armed police who then resign with the cry that they are underequipped, unable to insure their own safety. Yet not since 9/11 can any police force claim to be under equipped. Not with it being impossible to distinguish them from the National Guard that has been called out upon their fellow citizens so often as of late.
Approximately a two thirds majority of the protesters or those who crowd into that population are there for protest alone. It is the "bad crowd" that causes the troubles. But it is not those about whom we have to worry. Rather it is about the summary judgement passed on people for minor offenses. Annoying ones - yes. Dangerous ones - no. Police should have been trained as to how to defuse situations of minor offenses without the use of lethal force and certainly a person can be brought down by a non lethal wounding rather than a shot to a vital organ. It is just wrong.
It is truly a scary job, to be part of the police. One can get killed while doing one's job, but apparently today, anyone can get killed while doing his/her job or exercising rights guaranteed to all citizens. They are compensated well, with heavy overtime, good health benefits, unlimited sick days, and they signed up for it all - protect, serve, defend and the consequences that might arise. I am not demeaning nor denigrating the risks, but today we all have risks and there must be better ways to subdue individuals who pose little risk. Sitting on necks. Violent takedowns to the ground for walking in an empty country road with no sidewalk does not merit that. Sleeping in a car does not either and if the taser had not been pulled, it would not have gotten into the hands of the 'offender'. Our primary first responders are on the whole wonderful at doing their job and are now being placed in situations fraught with danger. Apparently their training has been lacking. This cannot be allowed to continue. Bad for all sides in this mess.
A character in a novel said so aptly for our times, that we appear to be "human tumbleweeds moving with the winds of hate." This is a statement crafted for our times, for the truth of it all. Watch the faces, check the videos, return back to hearings in the Senate and the House and cringe as you see the ugliness of hate projected on the faces of the committee members. See the ugliness of the winds of hate appear on the outside.
Or attend a Trump rally. See the hate on the faces, in the shouts of the attendees. In the incitements to violence and growing hatred by Trump. See the growing numbers of extremist right wing groups, fine people all, who attach themselves to his campaign and spout his words, or in fact, place them in his very mouth. And see the lack of bravery in the lack of response, or flimsy, meaningless responses that say nothing, made by our apparent representatives - on all levels of government.
Now, only apparently after the violence of the riots, of the continued kangaroo justice, of the very real actions of Trump in bringing our military to fire on our citizens - echoes of China, Hungary, Russia and when it was the USSR, Bolivia, Venezuela - and on and on. WE DO NOT DO THAT. NOT HERE IN THE USA. And yet, there it is. In the open. Cheered on by that hateful human directed by his own waves of hate, placing our military in situations where the choice to obey orders or the demands that they ignore patently illegal ones, immoral ones, well, we are in major trouble. And I am not confident of our ability to fix this mess, so deeply are we mired down in its poisonous muck.
We have lost respect for one another. We see the opponent as an enemy, rather than as one who thinks differently, but not worthy of hate. Yet, this school of thought is growing in numbers every day. We have lost our dignity, our humanity. I wonder; do these Johnny come lately members of Congress actually dare to question, to wonder, as to why Trump is throwing down on so many outlandish and dangerous matters, why he rules by fiat, by Executive Orders, why almost every move of his is one of hate, of limitations of rights, of insensitivity to historic wrongs.
His actions reek of evil, of his intense mad drive to negate Congress, corrupt the judiciary and run this country as a puppet state of The Dictator, of the President for Life. Just read his statements over the years and see the egregious growth of paranoia and megalomania, in the explosive usage of words and tropes, sad memes of hate, of evil. Truly, Congress wonders how it reached this point? Look in the mirror. Read the Congressional Record. Check their own words and deeds. Learn to check their craven cowardly behavior at the door and stand up for America. Have a little dignity. Remember the virtue of bravery and defy the temptation to forget one's duties, all in the name of fear and cowardice.
We have done, and are doing, what every conqueror wants to do - to strip the population of its humanity, of its dignity, of forcing them into places where no human should be. Yet, check these prisoners. Check the dignity with which they conduct themselves, despite all odds, more than one would think. The Prisoners of Conscience of Russia. The protesters of Tiananmen Square and Hong Kong, the mothers of the Desaparecidos of Argentina, the concentration camp prisoners, and protesters of all kinds and causes who quietly lay down in the streets or sit at a counter, or try to buy a home in restricted areas. There is dignity in their faces, in their actions.
"One required an extraordinary moral force to teeter on the brink of the Nazi infamy and not plunge into the pit. Yet I saw many internees cling to their human dignity to the very end. The Nazis succeeded in degrading them physically, but they could not debase them morally." Olga Lengyel
Surely we can use them as our role models. Surely we can learn from history. Surely we do not want to repeat it, in any form, with glimmers and streaks of growing hate and violence. Most certainly, this is manifestly not the way to Be Well and Stay Safe. Instead, it will force those two concepts into the category of impossible dreams. Instead, let us be brave, follow the truth, and always act with dignity.
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