"CANCEL EVERYTHING"

      This was the order of LA. For safety. For life. And it appears that people are actually listening, as LA became a ghost town. It seems reasonable for the rest of our afflicted country to do the same, as we breach, daily, the most horrific record numbers one can think of. Warned of numbers of 3 to 4 thousand deaths a day, we thought we would have to be deep into the winter for those numbers. Yesterday, we hit 2,879 dead for the day. Darkest days of winter have not even been reached yet. Over 14 million cases that we know of, and climbing by leaps and bounds, as we bump up against a record breaking 280,000 dead. The numbers are numbing, but we must react with pain and determination each time we hear them, for if not, we are consigning ourselves to death, for so many, for too many. 

It matters not any more whether we lay blame for this runaway pandemic on Trump and crew or not. The fact and the reality are that we are in deep trouble. Even as we began to feel some hope, a vaccine, more than one, coming down the pike, we hear that Pfizer is slashing its expected shipments of doses in half, due to supply chain problems. That will not ease as the pandemic grows, as more people fall ill, as more companies shut down, as unemployment grows.

So to whence do we look for aid in this terrible time of ours. Well, we could place all our diminishing resources into the pandemic fight. But evidently  Trump and his numb supporters feel that building that Wall along the border, crushing the rights of property owners, ruining migration trails for animals, cutting off cities and towns from resources, are far more important than saving lives. 

For sure, there are far more important, urgent, critically urgent things, that Trump could do, leave just a tad of a better legacy. But he is too busy ranting and raving insanely for 46 minutes. He is too busy playing a useless musical chairs game that will evidently last till Jan. 20, 2021. He is too busy raising dollars that need to be spent in places other than paying down his campaign expenses or subsidizing the just about treasonous behavior regarding the election and its outcome.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we evidently have continued our move into high school politics and bad behavior. Not enough that we have two sororities fighting each other, all the time during which there are enough women issues to unite the two groups. Nope, now we have that idiot, Rubio, fighting a most ridiculous war of words that he is bound to lose as he is dealing with AOC who has far more brains than Rubio, though she needs to learn where to employ them better. But there they go tweeting away at each other, comparing deeds, falling into this juvenile behavior encouraged by Trump and his own tantrums of a toddler.

"It's going to be hard," says Biden. There are certainly no cakewalk paths around and he knows it. What we need to do is face reality, as he is doing, tempering his goals and paths to those goals in such a manner as to reach at least some of them. This is the man we elected, the man who can talk with both sides of the aisle, make deals, and move this country along to where it needs to be. Glamorous? No. Exciting? No, Charismatic? No. But these are not what we need and we are getting what we need from him and Harris. There will be airtime and discussion time for things other than the latest outrage of the deranged man and his supporters.

Those deranged include McConnell, who is refusing to state publicly that Biden will be number 46. I wonder just what his point is? Does he think that like a toddler, he can make things happen if only he wishes hard enough and long enough, if he promises G-d to be good, whatever that means to him!? How blind and uncaring and egotistical can he be and for how long? Evidently forever, he thinks. Much to the detriment of this country.

This willful blindness, this persistence in doing the wrong thing, believing the wrong thing, the dangerous thing, the harmful thing, runs like a stream of poison through the body politic of this country. States, counties, cities and towns all have their naysayers, their truth deniers, the enemies of democracy, the wannabe petty dictators, and so, too, do we here in the Village.

We. too, have many issues that have grown progressively more dangerous and serious to our future over the past ten years or so that David has pulled the strings. The needs of repair to infrastructure grows by leaps and bounds as he persists in the piecemeal manner, wasting monies we do not have to waste, unable to get a proper contract going because he wasted all that money over the years, with that elephant in the room always there - the unbelievably awful paving contract he and Black foisted upon us. That almost broke us, saved from that by Dorothy, may she rest in peace. I remember how that brave and determined woman stood up in meetings, at Executive Board meetings - remember those - and faced down all the nastiness, the lies, the questioning of the truth.

David Israel has used the pandemic as a cover to shore up his weakened control over the Village. The last election victors from the Executive Board have never met, are as useless as a piece of paper in a rainstorm. We apparently can meet for movies safely, but cannot meet for an assembly of delegates in the same room. We are deemed useless, inimical even, to his mad desires and plans, as we watch the Village spend where it need not, must not, and not have the funds where they are so desperately needed. We are walking into a dangerous time as we negotiate the next multi year contract, but what is going on, what has been discussed, what are the provisions, what about answers to deep concerning issues of and to the Village - nothing! And that falls squarely upon his shoulders. Even as Ed Grossman, Olga Wolkenstein, a candidate for VP in the March election, even as they fight on, determined to break that blockade of the road for us, David continues on, coopting The Rag, denying rights to residents, refusing to show his face anywhere in public, maintaining a siege mentality in the UCO building.

Time for all of us to pick up our feet, perhaps march on his building, or circle the UCO building, announce, openly and forcefully, our disgust and dissatisfaction with the current situation and demand change. So fill out those biographies, flood The Reporter email with them,  run for office, and let us get back on track, back on the path to success and a future. Here and in the country.

Let us all stay safe, behave wisely and well, discern the sham and the charlatan from the real deal. It is within our power. There is nothing to fear. I hear tell that David has announced more than once that he hates me - and I wear that badge with pride. So should we all until we finally rescue our beloved home.