TOSH!! BALDERDASH!! ROT!! BOLLOCKS!!!.

 Assinity! (Is that even a word?) whatever, for it conveys the best word to describe the mask wars, along with other inanities (That is a word.) that cause epiglottal reaction and a pure outspewing of the results of the nausea that the antics of the GOP bring on. Really, do men never grow up? Do they ever get past the point of schoolyard antics, thinking, wrongly so, that ignorance and volume make up for what they lack - intelligence?

An example? Here's one. 

“Terrorism is the use or threatened use of violence, directed against victims selected for their symbolic or representative value, as a means of instilling anxiety in, transmitting one or more messages to, and thereby manipulating the attitudes and behavior of a wider target audience or audiences.” Certainly, that fits like a glove over the events of Jan. 6, over big mouth morons such as Bannon telling people the day before that "All hell is going to break loose." It sure as hell did.

The Brits have some good terms to describe the idiocies that crowd the airwaves these days. Balderdash. Rot. Tosh. Bollocks. Bloody stupid - bloody anything!

Into that category of descriptive terms we have Rubio poking fun at Austin, calling him out for wearing both mask and face shield. Uh huh! Backfires on him, the full on idiot, who, much to our dismay and horror is posing himself as a candidate for President, because - wait for it - it is the law of the land in the Philippines! Imagine that! Obeying the law. Quaint idea these days in some circles.

Boebert embarrasses her constituents with her antics, her mouth and her violations of laws. Tim Ryan calls out McCarthy who is angling so hard for a position of more power, as focused on that as were the ring obsessed characters of the Ring Trilogy. He is told to "Just stop with the nonsense." Would that this was all it is, but unfortunately, this nonsense has serious impact upon this country and the world, as they stand there, agape, taking in this seemingly never ending circus of assinity.

A retired General tells us, warns us, "It's my personal opinion that the executive branch was complicit in the planning and the delayed response that occurred in bringing in more federal assistance to the Capitol that day," the former president is continuing to tell people, 'This was not a riot, it meant no harm, it was like a picnic,... adding, "The last I heard from him, he told them to go to the Capitol and raise hell."

Yet, people speak knowingly, of the deep conspiracy that somehow turned all the true rebels, the anti fa, into impersonations of Trump supporters. Probably took place in that nefarious pizza store! Bollocks indeed!

At least there is some germ of sanity, responsibility, in the nation. The first load of Afghan interpreters have been flown over to refuge. Why? One asks incredulously. Because it is our obligation to pluck them and their families out of the fires of revenge retribution the Taliban will throw them into, revenge for what they did with the army. We owe them. It is the right thing to do. And no, they are not raving terrorists. They were vetted before getting on that plane. Certainly the 15 babies never asked to be involved and are worthy of saving, perhaps to  contribute in a big way to a future American society. Who knows! Such a revolutionary thought!

I think Biles had it right. The poor thing is exhausted, physically, emotionally. Her body is wrecked; her amazing feats destroyed it. She is entitled to say she wants out, she  needs out. Nor is it upon us, as we sit there in our comfy TV seats to be negative, oh so knowing about her failures, her 'obligation' to us. Really? Why? 

She had the "twisties", when body and mind had no clue where they were in time and space. Having PD, having suffered dizzy spells, loss of balance episodes that have put me in the same position-only knowing for sure where I am when I hit the ground, certainly, knowing the fear I feel, the damage I sustain, hers must be exponentially multiplied as she is up there somewhere in the air, demanding impossible achievements from her body. Leave the kid alone. Applaud her achievements, her courage, her sacrifices, and move on. Not our business. We have enough other "twisties" in our lives that demand immediate attention from us.

Perhaps we are beginning to untwist, a bit at a time. When the DOJ remembers that it is an organization of the people's government, not a servant to Trump and his rebels, and serves notice they will not serve as defenders of rebels, of those accused of treason, well, untwist one turn. 

No leader in our government is acting within the scope of his employment when he acts to subvert the free and fair election by getting people to go up and riot and interfere."  The leaders who perpetrated these travesties are personally responsible for their actions." ..warned that inciting an attack on Congress "is not within the scope of employment of a Representative - or any federal employee."

Read those again and take a breath. Can it be? Can we see an end to the beginning, a possibility of sanity returning to this needlessly embattled country? Will we finally be able to say we have turned a corner, put an end to the awful Trump Era, where treason was admired, where selfishness, greed and cheating were admired, where vicious hatred was encouraged.

Will we? Can we? Imagine. Sigh.

Ooohhh, Trump in an orange jumpsuit. A gal can dream.

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

 So yelled one GOP Congressman to a Democratic Congressman who had called him out for not wearing his mask as is now required in  the Capitol. Hate to burst his bubble, but the man was minding his own business, for an unmasked person represents a clear danger and chance of transmitting the Delta variant to anyone, including already vaccinated people. For those unvaccinated, the Delta variant and now the Delta plus variant surfacing in areas, are no joke, filling and jamming our wards once again as COVID wards reopen. Much to the dismay of most, normal, people.

But sanity seems to have deserted these rabid Trump followers, the audience of ridiculous media talk, as the talking heads spew dangerous nonsense, convince people to ignore the risks, until they are dying, push nonsensical statements re mask wearing and totalitarianism - oh, please - and riot over that as well. Be it the air they breathe, the water they drink, or the food they ingest, whatever it is, something has convinced these people to throw away all sense of what makes sense, put on their stupid red hats and go out there like twisted Don Quixotes!

There is a blatant and smug attitude that permeates the behavior of these puzzling people. How does one become so blind to reality that one can tune out the truth, the absolute physical proof, from testimony, video, actual wounds, and insist on falsehoods, right out in the open and get all hoity-toity when questioned and pushed to the wall. When Jamie Raskin asked Clyde to speak about his own statement, Clyde's own words, that the people damming the stairs, the corridors, chanting evil chants, threatening to shoot and hang people, were tourists, how can he deny his words, clearly there. Deny it he did, radiating righteous indignation at the whole process and questioning. 

This reckless behavior; this nonsensical opposition to the mask despite all that has been proven true; this denial of reality - all stem from some weird, absurd fear/admiration of Trump, a demented would be dictator if ever there were one. Here he is, in all his threatened glory, now facing a truly frightening, for him, probability of being put under oath about Jan. 6 and his role in it, with no presidential protection - not that he ever deserved it!

How the spit will fly. How the foul language will pollute the air. How hackles will be raised. How the chickens will fly to their coops, and the rats desert their ships. The truth, the obvious truth, the denied truth, will emerge, as it already has except to those willfully blind and deaf, who do not hear the pain in the voices of the witnesses, who do not feel the terror people felt simply watching an insurrectionist mob attempt to overthrow our government.

These were terrorists, not tourists. These were rebels, traitors. These were people interfering with everyone else's business, defying the integrity of an election - and worse, continuing to this day with the same futile, yet perilous path. These people are the traitors. These GOP members of Congress who knew of this, who aided and abetted either through action or simply standing aside, these people are the traitors as well. How can one distinguish statements of Gosar from those of a person beating the crap out of an officer? There is essentially no difference, nor is there any room, between the GOP members who now downplay it all, push the fable of nice and friendly people, deny Trump's incitement and probable participation in the planning and timing of it all. We all need to hang our heads in shame that we have come to this, that we have allowed a man such as Trump to be President. Double that shame for continuing adoration of him as if on a godlike status.

As Officer Fanone shouted "Disgraceful!!" - so should we. Jamie Raskin reminded all that this is not a game. The truth must be accepted, and the country pulled back from the perilous cliff edge it is presently on. It is an existential threat such as we have not faced since the Winter of Valley Forge, and the Civil War years. We have an internal tear within us such as might prove unfixable. The abyss grows daily, so egregious are the fables and conflation of lie with truth or rather, truth has become nonexistent.

This is indeed not a game. This is indeed disgraceful, and is life threatening. The life of our country is threatened. We need to mind our business and fix this mess. There is no time to delay, procrastination inherently a threat to our viability. Truly, may G-d bless America for we sure as hell need that blessing.

DO WE? WILL WE?

Read the following excerpt from Liz Cheney's speech yesterday and then read again. And again. Even as you marvel at her courage, pay particular attention to the ending question. Answer it after open soul and mind are engaged, along with reality.

"America is great because we preserve our democratic institutions at all costs. Until January 6th, we were proof positive for the world that a nation conceived in liberty could long endure. But now, January 6th threatens our most sacred legacy. The question for every one of us who serves in Congress, for every elected official across this great nation, indeed, for every American is this: Will we adhere to the rule of law? Will we respect the rulings of our courts? Will we preserve the peaceful transition of power? Or will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America? Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country and revere our Constitution?"

And the answer is.....The game of Jeopardy has turned into a real and vital existential game of life. Our future or lack thereof depends on our answer, one demanding sanity, demanding truth and acceptance of truth, and a true horror and fear lest the planners of Jan. 6 destroy us after all. 

Anyone watching, listening, thinking, yesterday, knows that the national GPS, the country's WAZE have gone awry, sending us off on strange, perilous routes, having us u - turn at the next opportunity, illegality never mattering, betrayal of all that we have and should continue to hold as sacred, without question, discarded by the wayside as we frantically try to do....what? That is, to repurpose the iconic query: "That, is the 64,000question" - and a priceless answer.

As Kinzinger teared up, promising to "defend democracy", as the emotions, the fear, the trauma, were relived by Capitol and Metropolitan Police, even then, the liars, the Trump devotees,  struggling to maintain power, called these brave, wounded souls, "crisis actors! Definition from the twisted dictionary of the traitors? "a term used by far-right conspiracy theorists to refer to those who have been hired to manipulate public opinion by lying about events as victims and witnesses" . One Republican after another, be they government official or ordinary citizen, agreed to this obvious, outrageous lie, consented to the destruction of their lives, to loss of rights, only awaiting enforcement, and a new way of life -or, rather death - in the new Amerika.

Even as the vicious nastiness and lies of Jim Jordan were kept outside this vital hearing, the madness escaped, penetrating walls, the very heart of our country. No, Biden was not arrested by the military as they planned a coup. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. No, Biden has not instituted a "Communist takeover" of the country. Thankyou for that, Taylor Greene. Jordan obviously is a mentally challenged individual as he cannot answer a question with a simple yes or no, his memory so impaired that he cannot recall whether he spoke to Trump on such an inconsequential day as- Jan. 6. Even as it becomes clearer and clearer that he was in the planning right up to his neck!! A traitor. Not alone either, as there are other GOP members who stood at the ready to throw this country away, to trash its history, its ethos, its purpose, its accomplishments, its promises and standing as a beacon of light in an dark world, and yes, even its mistakes.

Mo Brooks, being sued, for his role in Jan. 6, has the temerity to argue that he qualifies to be exonerated, defended, by a government DOJ lawyer, as he was 'only' doing his job, a representative of the government. What a hoot that would be were it not so twisted and warped. If one works from within to overturn the legitimate government of a country, then one is fulfilling his duty to the people? Pardon me, but that is truly too big a gulp to swallow, no matter how many times nor how long it is chewed. It is just plain wrong!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, crazed characters continue to deny the pandemic, calling it a  hoax. Someone should inform the hundreds of thousands already dead as well as those dying once more.  Religious leaders get involved in medical areas, telling the congregation to not wear the masks, certainly, not in the sacred church building!! So much better to die, miserable, painfully, lonely, but  in the name of god. Explain that to me, if you can.

Racial physical and verbal abuse is on the rise, along with the worst terms and slurs. Those arrested continue, in cases, to be literally kicked when they are literally down on the ground. Past criminals are being told they are now participants, like it or not, in a program that uses past offenses as a reason to limit their freedom now, to be 'Big Brothered', as their every step, word, every action is examined under a microscope of questionable origin. Legality and values? Uh, sorry, but could care less.

So, we have arrived at the existential crossroads. Careful, for here are buried the witches, the accused and convicted, condemned to be buried at a crossroads, to never have any peace. Their restlessness, inability to repose in peace, are reflected in the unease of society, the roiling of its values, the uncertainty which plagues the future of all.

Look again at the excerpt from the speech of a brave woman, a true American. I do not agree on much that she espouses, but on this we agree. We are on a cusp, standing on one foot on the crumbling edge of a cliff, blindfolded, deafened, no clues as to how close we are to death - the death of a nation, the death of a beautiful experiment of mankind - a viable, positive democratic government. 

Please, read it again, paying particular attention to the closing question. It demands an answer. It demands courage, to know and defend the right cause, the right answer that will serve as the guide to us, to those who follow. Do we or don't we? Again, as always, your choice, your answer, your life. But mine as well.

STOP THE WORLD!!!

  "I wanna' get off!" is the second part of that statement from an iconic movie. Unfortunately, today we are talking in real terms of the possibility of this globe of ours deteriorating to the point of no viability, but then the hitch - where and how can we get off? Where would we go? No, that little rocket ride jaunt will not do the trick. 

The parameters of such a necessity are enormous, almost impossible to imagine successfully met, and the whole issue is the basis for one sci-fi movie after another. The worst point of all those movies? The fact that they failed to the point of destruction, with that likely fate due to the failure of the character of man to stand up, do the right thing, and leave behind all the earth bound problems. But no, along with their belongings, they dragged their emotional and mental baggage, weakening the 'colonies'. Yet another colossal failure.

So, back to reality. The western USA burns, others drown in Europe, as the smoke chokes us all over the globe, drought destroys the food producing capacity of mankind, and what do we do? Just about nothing, really. We pave over remaining acres, as our water, our air, the very ground we walk upon, are poisoned. Terra firma is not so firm anymore. Unfortunately, we are so busy squabbling over the sports equipment that the game is postponed until too late to play becomes a real issue. 

What are we doing? We are becoming ever more hateful, ever more selfish, ever more uncaring about the needs of others as we become too focused on maintaining our own perceived power. The power to do what, you might ask? Well, the power to destroy us. The power to actually kill those we simply do not like. The power to live a Big Lie, one after the other. The power to destroy all that our ancestors have built over the years. The power to turn this earth, this battered home of ours, this small globe, so beautiful when viewed from space, into a dung heap, a shameful future archeological site for some future space explorer.

Example par excellence? Just use your GPS to get to DC and cry over the debacle before you ."For months, lies and conspiracy theories have been spread, threatening our self-governance,”  but on we continue down that dangerous track.

 The step to remedy this is to "focus on fixing the errors", referring to Biles but absolutely applicable to our situation. Our problems are "mental' says one, but not for us, as we actually faced a physical attempt to overthrow this government. Not so simple, particularly as the GOP shuns its responsibilities and the truth, and calls the insurrectionists "political prisoners"!! I kid you not. Sadly so. Compounded by idiots, dangerous ones, like Goetz, who is more concerned about Brittany than his country, belittling the rebels' crimes. 

All this as the country continues to bleed citizens due to COVID and the superbly moronic dangerous approach of the GOP. It seems that supporting the GOP demands a deep loyalty second only to that of kamikaze pilots - die for your beliefs, follow the commands unto death with no hope of rescue, no room for thought, and do not question - anything. So we die here in Florida. We die in backwoods areas. We die needlessly. We die because we do not think, have been encouraged not to think, to be obedient robots to the Leader. The faint squeak of the door as it opens to the possibility of sanity among GOP governors is a welcome sound, but hurry it up, will ya'! With you, why not pack some of the recalcitrant members of Congress who remain in their own manufactured muck.

Lest one think that the stupidity is on one side, think again. Yes, it weighs far more heavily on the GOP side; however, the Democrats are tainted as well. Lightfoot says she will ban white journalists, on a roll, she thinks. Well, she is not. She is simply perpetuating prejudice along a different path, just as bad, based on the same poison as any other prejudice. Excluding any one group, no matter the justification, is wrong. Wrong and dangerous. Existentially so. Furthermore, the mouths, the crude statements and trumpeted ugly beliefs of the "Squad" are just as reprehensible. Well worthy of criticism as well. Their ethnic origin or coloring does not preclude them from criticism. Not at all.

Nope. Back to the title statement. However, the truth remains. There is no way, no how, nowhere to go. Not now and not in the near future as well. The distant future? The prescient 1972 MIT study took care of that. We have until 2040 before the entire system collapses; no rescue in sight. Can we pull off  a global rescue? Maybe, just maybe, if we put aside all poisonous segments of our minds and accept that we are all in this together. Right down the tubes if it gets to that point. No rescue rocket ship for Baby Kal-el. No rescue rocket ship for us.

THINKING? THINKING? SAY AGAIN

  The world changes. Society and its values change. There has been perpetual political opposition since the rather stark times of Cain and Abel. New rules and understandings arise even as old, deadly ones resurface, too often for my liking. Even the venerable Olympics, run mostly by the stodgy, have seen the necessity to include new - and two former - competitions. 

Things change, mostly with rethinking. However, what do we do with change that comes about because evidently people have lost either the ability to think -rationally, logically, based on facts - or they have lost the desire to do so, preferring to live in a la-la land of their own making. Either way leads to nothing good. Either path leads to danger.

Today we speak of being part of a herd. Not quite sure that I like being compared to bovine creatures who will follow their leader, unthinkingly, even unto death, but there it is. There is the reality of it in the times we live in. History is replete with those who will do so, be it following Julius Caesar to Mussolini and Hitler to ?????????? 

Aahhh. That name does re-emerge, does it not? Yes, Trump, who, in his demented behavior and demands, with lies that spew forth from his forked tongue, has created a herd comparable to herds not seen since Evita and Fidel Castro. Certainly not in this country. Certainly not to the point of surreal existential threat. Not to the point of reaching the temperature of lynch mobs, that hold their own when compared with the worst of them. 

I want out of that herd! So should you.

What do we have? We have a mad mob, rioters, rebels, actually, seeking to partake in the thrill of overthrowing our government. Misled, unthinking, reacting as a herd, they attempt to do their very best to achieve their very worst. So they break into the Capitol. They try to batter down the doors to the Congressional Chamber. Violence. Terror among the hunted and lynch threatened. Officers being killed. Suspicious, serious holes in the security net and how did that ever happen. 

Worst of all, the open incitement and planning of the former President, an attack on his own country in the name of retention of power, a sick desire to become Leader for Life of this country, form a dynasty of his nasty children. Dear G-d, that thought alone!!! Perhaps, though, we can look past a deranged man, but we cannot look past the growing mountain of evidence pointing to the truth of alleged collusion by members within that very same Congress! Hard to believe? Not really, for look back at the past six years now, and wonder,  - how and when did citizens of America reject their own country turn into a herd of critters who resigned from the human race, ceded their minds and ability to think, to a man, and his ideas that threatened their very physical being, their very souls. When? Why?

The head of the investigation into this insurrection states that, "We have to get it right." Damned straight on that! But can this current herd mentality allow for that, allow for it to take place, for the truth to out? Will fascists such as Paul Gosar, Taylor Greene, Matt Goetz, non thinkers like Rubio and Cruz - will they allow for that to happen? Sincere doubts here, folks, truly sincere and very deeply worried doubts.

There are many other looming threats awaiting corrective thinking and prompt action. Yet how can this be, when people reject reality, to the point of dying alone, plugged into machines? As their "leaders" peddle lies, conspiracy theories that send these followers of the herd to death.  Oh, and by the way, a tidbit for you. Trump has explained the loss of the Women's Soccer team to Sweden. Not that they outplayed our team. Not that our team has too many talented, but aging players in a young person's sport. Nope Guess again. You will never guess. 

 Here it is. Hope you are sitting down. Protect your yes from the blinding light of this 'explanation'.  It is because of "wokeism". 

"Wokeism makes you lose, ruins your mind, and ruins you as a person. You become warped. You become demented. The US Women's Soccer team is a very good example of what's going on," Trump said. "Earlier this week they unexpectedly lost to Sweden, three-to-nothing, and Americans were happy about it." 

His very own words. I swear, you cannot make this up, so bizarre is it.

His dementia is clear. His pull for others - not clear or logical at all. It is threatening our very survival as America, the United States of America. Enough. Enough! This man must be tried for his myriad list of alleged crimes, his alleged treasonous behavior towards our country, supposed to be his as well. Try him and imprison him as he well deserves. Then his access to the public will be stopped in its tracks.

I know where I stand on this. Do you? Will you return to a sane status of independent and logical thought, or not? Will you remember who we were and should be or will you continue to pursue this strange amnesia and death wish of too many.

The time to choose is narrowing. Will you help lead the 'herd' back, turn away from the cliff, or will you prove to be a weak leader, and lead them right over the edge? 

Time to stand up. 

ALL TIED UP - OVERTIME?

An evidently wise man who sees the truth, called Tucker Carlson "the worst human being" - for this country, for the world. How prescient of him! However, I am not so sure that he is correct in his call of the winner? Loser? of this particular contest. There is a plethora of possibilities - much to our detriment. Not to mention, dismay.

Perhaps, though it is that we are 'so' blessed with people of such creative talent that they have filled our shelves and airwaves with new myths, old realities, new realities, and truths that will make your hair stand up.

A particular new, unpleasant reality is the low temperature needed for people to simply explode, negating all social niceties in their determination for ....who the hell knows! Abusing servers, assistants, flight attendants, fellow passengers - it matters not who they are, only that they irritate the person enough to make him simultaneously implode and explode.

Why is that? A Harvard professor opines it is because "We've been skating thin ice in the past year, and if the weight [becomes] too much, the ice cracks. I think that's what we're seeing,".      Perhaps that is the explanation, or at least part of it. However, I opine as well, thinking that people have simply lost the veneer of proper societal behavior due to the lockdowns and lack of real interaction with others. We have, simply put, forgotten how to play nicely with others. Furthermore, we really don't want to anymore either. Simple as that. So ... preschool for adults?

We have grown in self indulgence. What we want, what we feel, well, out the mouth they are. Why not, we think, as we are at death's door, either from the pandemic and the ones to come, with their pesky variants, or we die from the myriad "side" effects of the vaccine, so obviously created under a deep state conspiracy, complete with hags stirring the pot of murky soup of vaccine, - so we are told and vindicated by such talented creators of new myths, new poisons, the demented, deranged former President, Trump.

Everything has become political. A Staunch Republican? Well, of course, you cannot take the vaccine. You have been warned. Simply disregard the current new reality of so many of the former deniers taking the shot - or, more loyal, to the bitter end, suffering, dying in the once again overcrowded ICU units set aside for COVID19. Admirable, loyal - even unto their preventable last breath. 

A corollary is to protest even unto violence the mask. Of course, it is a Democratic plot to mask people up, introduce them to communism through fibers of the mask, to brainwash them, to leave them convinced that Biden actually won the election, a myth, you know, as all right thinking people know, just know, that the election was stolen. Yup. Put down that mask. Breathe on others and breathe in their germs they so generously wish to share with you. Always and forever, be loyal and true to the GOP, never mind the lesser loyalty to one's country. Bah, humbug!!

With so many  Republicans filling the beds of our hospitals, admitting in the last minutes that it is not a hoax, please take the vaccine - too little, too late. How do we plan for a future when the country is so deeply enmeshed in its own folklore, that they disregard the possibility of misinformation from both mythologies and truth as well. No one hears anymore. No one cares to hear anymore. Too many have become deaf to all but the sound of their own words echoing in their progressively emptying brain cavities.

More good news? A glutton for punishment? Okay, so we have plague in Colorado. Overworked health personnel once again. Hopelessness and anger directly building up each other. An Olympics where evidently the message of universality and brotherhood has not yet been caught as one 'Olympian', leaves, avoiding wrestling an Israeli. South Korea introduces stereotypes over the  athletes of the world's nations as they march in, singing, dancing, cheering. Such nerve! Must they be taught to emulate the teaching of hatred all the time? Tsk.

Even so, with all this unpleasantness going on, we can look around and see newer, kinder myths and realities. A prominent sports figure, not Jewish, along with other athletes, Jewish and not, combine their efforts to campaign against the physical, life endangering violence in the rising anti Semitism of this nation of ours and for that matter, around the world. Even as hatred, baseless ugliness, grows in so many, too many places and formats.

Folks, we need to do better, We need to be better. We need to see those staffing the pantries, delivering to shut ins, helping those who need a hand or two or three to stand up and manage on their own. We need to concede that once upon a time this wonderful  country of ours welcomed, as one welcomes clean air, the presence of newcomers, the richness they injected into society. We were increasingly candid about past errors, continuing errors, and tried to correct, though overdoing at times. At least we were trying.

We need to encourage those who wish to build, to encourage, to share in the overwhelming qualities of humanity at its best, celebrate both our similarities and differences. We need to be better. The end.

 

DUDU DUDU DUDU DUDU .....

  Listen, not even carefully, and you, too, will hear the iconic sounds of the Twilight Zone theme song. It is growing in volume all around us, and quite frankly, I am beginning to feel that this sound has no turnoff knob, button, nice lady living inside some device or another, just about nothing that will stop it in its tracks. It grows exponentially: dudu  dudu  dudu  dudu  dudu  dudu  DUDU... It invades every aspect of life, pervasive and invasive. 

It is the glee of the foxes as they revel in their growing, almost unstoppable in access into the hens' house. All the while, the farmer, the last defense of the hens, stands there just about helpless, with rakes and hoes minus their tines. Just about useless, even were the  confused, discouraged farmer to raise his damaged weapon of cracked and rotting wood. Perhaps even unwilling or incapable of mounting any defense effort at all anymore, let alone coming up with a workable, successful offensive. All the while, the screams of the dying hens tear at the souls of all farmers worldwide.

What are the ingredients in the deadly mix of kickapoo juice the Republicans are imbibing at every possible moment? This juice that developed a momentum of its own, led to a mass hysteria, a mass false belief system with the strength, the staying power necessary to defeat all oncomers.  

One hen says, "now we need them to do their jobs.", all the while urging the chief farmer to wield the bigger, stronger hoe that he has. Another plaints, “Go to Texas, and meet with a diverse group of people on the ground to put a face on this issue. Then go to Arizona. Go to West Virginia,” “There ought to be a speech from the well of Congress.”    The response, almost a helpless shrug of shoulders holding the useless, rotting stick, even as the clucking of the hens reaches new heights, new levels of panic and despair, perhaps the beginning of understanding that their very house, the shelter of long duration, is now  foundering, toppling, the 'parking garage' beneath it, with its sturdy supporting pillars, now spalling, breaking, crumbling and the house trembles. The hens tumble and fall, some never to regain their footing at all. 

When the farmer is questioned as to why this has reached this existential point, he responds,  "why doesn’t Biden get this done? “Well, because Biden only has a majority of, effectively, four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends.” Then adds "they are hard at work bringing together voting rights advocates, poll workers and others who can tell them more about problems on the ground.  .. Enough? Or, tragically, too little too late?

Huddled in the corner, now daring to venture out, emboldened by the tactics and success of their allies, the restive population, the whiners, the naysayers, the haters, and the masses of deluded, the frightened and the weak, well, they begin to cluck in an obscene replication of the 1812 Overture, claiming victory - even as the house tumbles, the brave hens crushed beneath. 

 Suddenly, it is no more. Suddenly, what had been a successful house, underlaid with principles of justice, concern for hens, advocating for rights of all hens no matter the color, ethnicity, religion, country of origin, whatever point was used to build  upon, well, it is all gone. Gone.

Everything had failed in a last hail Mary attempt. The Democratic hens refused to allow representatives of the GOP who had supported the first open and violent attempt to take possession of the hen house to participate in what would have been a useless 'investigation' into the event. The naming of these hens, the obvious rejection of them by the chairman of the hens, the expected self removal of all GOP hens, a cynical action,  hastened the destruction, the final fall of the hen house. The proposed plan, of meetings, plans for ground campaigns, was simply not enough to overcome the stifling results of the GOP and its denial of voting rights for too many hens. What was left was  hate, ugliness, an abandonment of so many of the hen house Rules of Foundation. What was left was this recognition: " We’re going to have to meet this challenge in the courts, in the halls of Congress and in the streets.”    

Was it not soon enough, timely enough, for that hen house? The question remaining, is what about our hen house? Have we left it too late? Has the split grown to impossible to repair depths and widths? Are we to destroy the hen house of our pride, our struggle, all the years we fought to improve upon its what we thought to be, solid, unbreakable foundations and principles? Frankly, at this point, I am almost at the same level of disbelief and faith of that beleaguered farmer with the useless hoe.

Have we come to that same point? Are we too going to have to fight in the streets, all other routes unsuccessful? Is that a point of no return, no positive rebuilding? All I know is that all farmers need to check, repair and replace where needed, hoist up their overall straps and gird for an existential battle. The hens are at stake - and the farmers too. Go, quick, look in the mirror and see that the hens and the farmers, well, they are us.

Twilight Zone? I am not so sure.

IDK = ANY TAKERS HERE?

  If you are like me, these increasing capital letter acronyms are doubling down as they leave me behind in a new world of esoteric abbreviations and    definitions. As for proper punctuation, grammar and spelling, well, humph, 'cause it all just went flying out the window. It  seems as soon as I learn to translate one term, another pops up and there I am again, scratching my head in confusion.

So this morning I ran across a new one, for me, anyway, but perhaps it has been around for a long time. Who the hell knows anymore, what with the lexicon changing not every day, but almost on an hourly basis. Surprise, surprise! I was able to break the code, defeat the encryption, and how relevant this one is. For everyone. In these times, that to borrow famous words, "try men's souls" and that includes the souls of women as well.

IDK. I. Don't. Know. Aha! Pure genius. The best acronym of the day. That is, if more people would be honest and use it truthfully, with full impact of truth and honesty. Would be, but is not, for most people today have chosen one of two paths. One path is to give up, ignore the daily events of lo, these many a year, (six, at least), and live on in their blissful world of ignorance. I envy them that bliss. The other path is to choose a world where to admit IDK or deny IDK is to choose a side, a self defeating choice, for when made, one apparently becomes deaf to the other side of IDK.

I don't know. So what. Keep your mouth shut, for today many claim to know everything. Just ask them. The arrogance involved, the stiffness and unwillingness to compromise, to hear positive in the words of another, well, IDK. Just to where and to what has this path led us? IDK. And that should be your answer as well.

IDK why so many people are refusing to take the vaccine and save their own lives along with the lives of others.

For that matter, IDK how so any of them continue to maintain the pandemic is a hoax, surfacing to the truth too late as they die in ICUs, alone, breathing, barely, through a tube. I just DK.

IDK why Trump and his coterie of dangerous clowns are not shut down already. Why do people continue to listen to the poisonous words and ideas they put forth as gospel truth from the New Testament of Donald Trump; you know, the one he tried to introduce as he came down that "golden" escalator, to be met by the paid claque. That time.

IDK why the suppression of voter rights has become the mantra of a political party that grew, a lot, due to its belief in certain universal rights and definition of man, of people. IDK where and why they went wrong other than the possibility that they are so enamored of power, that all else is discarded, abandoned by the wayside. IDK.  

IDK why the vampire shows have become so popular other than it gives humanity an opportunity to rebuild society! IDK, but I approve of this trend.

IDK why and wherefore hatred of others has grown exponentially, why people are emboldened today to spout their filth and paste it wherever they can find room? Why do so many follow that hatred towards fascism, dictatorship, oppression, and death. Why, for heaven's sake, has the Holocaust become a target for snarky humor? Each and every one of that huge number, 6 million plus, and the additional 5 million enemies of Hitler and Nazism, was just that - an individual. With a story all their own. With a life all their own. With a family all their own. With hopes and dreams all their own. How can one find humor in that gross tragedy? IJDK. IJDK.

IDK how the hell DeSantis has become a favorite candidate for the next presidential election all the while he has encouraged anti-mask, anti-vax idiots, all the better to trim the population. But those dying are his supporters! All the while Florida is one of the worst hot spots in the nation today. IDK.

 IDK how and why this mass delusion and twisting of the truth. Biden stated it well the other day. "I don't care if you think I'm Satan reincarnated, the fact is you can't look at that television and say nothing happened on the 6th" of January "You can't listen to people who say this was a peaceful march."  

Imagine - telling it like it is. Espousing the truth. Wow! What a novel idea.  IJDK. 

 I am puzzled, but have apparently made my own new acronym. Wonder if it will catch on fire and romp through the ranks of the acronym mavens. IJDK. IJDK. Does anyone, these days?                                  IDK. IJDK.  DA?

(Does Anyone?)

SEA SNOT

   I kid you not. What a picture that draws in the mind - ugly! But think how ugly the real picture is and what it means to us. It is the catastrophic overgrowth of phytoplankton, smothering all under, around and in it, destroying life in the sea. Its physical appearance? Like the snot one streams from the nose when down with a severe upper respiratory infection. It is ugly in imagination and reality, symbolic of the 'sea snot' that is choking the world we live upon.

Stretching the imagery, we can 'see' in the mind's eye, the sea snot growing in our physical and mental worlds. Additionally, this ugly manifestation of a major ill of the world reflects back into the void of space all coherent thought and talk re pollution. It pollutes our minds as we ignore Siberia on fire, the thawing of the very ground in Alaska, drought draining our water supplies, and catastrophic floods taking the lives and homes of thousands.

This dry land sea snot clogs the cells of our minds. We spout dangerous nonsense, life extinguishing nonsense, and ride with it to our dying days. People who deny COVID, who refuse the vaccine, who are bogged down in the sea snot of very poor thinkers,  dying from it and this, they have brought upon themselves. What is so wrong, is their continual demented efforts to frustrate the  exhaustive measures taken to stop the spread in every manifestation and variants - even as they kill others due to their criminal neglect and stupidity. Furthermore, let us not forget who laid out the welcome mat for it - Trump and his enablers. Even as the biggest sea snot purveyors finally take their own vaccine injections. But not before so many have died because of their stupid mouths, the dangerous sea snot they encouraged, dimming rational thought in so many - even unto death. Even as they scream that the choice was theirs - to live or die. Maybe, but not to doom others caught up in that ever growing blight of sea snot, whose choice of life or death has been severely compromised.

Fresh air has become in short supply; our brains are denied life support, clearly evidenced by actions of great danger and 'wrongness'. A DEA agent flashes his governmental issued badge and gun - as he participates in the attempted coup of Jan. 6. Open fascists spew forth their poison and rant about communists under our beds again. Perhaps the next step will be the drills wherein we ask children to hide beneath their desks when the nuclear bombs are on their way!!! Dumb then and more so now.

There is nothing in the minds and opinions of too many, that can see past their own hubris. In orbit around the earth, our home so endangered by their 'cold' of mind and brain, they do not even look out the window in awe and respect, in understanding of humanity and its precarious situation. No, they prefer to throw Skittles around in yet another manifestation of the refusal of men, in particular, to truly comprehend the gravity of a situation, an existential situation at that! 

How is it possible that we can achieve so much, yet belittle it at the same time? How is it possible that a large percentage of the population can support an alleged criminal who surrounded himself with other criminals and their illegal activities? How and why did so many kowtow to dangerous nonsense, to lose capacity for sanity and clear thinking? Why are so many willing to overlook history, fall for the lies, the "Big Lie", a la Hitler? Where have we discarded our compassion and humanity even as we step over the sleeping bodies stretched out on the sidewalks? 

When did our public servants return to the days of corrupted government, of selfish behavior, of lockstep thought and deed? When did we lose sight of the importance of maintaining a positive environment and surroundings? That our very lives depended on it.

When, how and why have we decided that to stifle democracy, to stomp out care for others, to reward corruption and selfishness, to bring others down to the sea snot rather than clean it up, to lose, oppose, work to destroy the ethos of this country? When did it become okay to demean others as the fray for equal rights moves into final rounds, dangerous rounds? Why must we be so negative? Why do we not reach out to each other, rather than step on each other as we seek to accept the equality of all? It is called sharing and decency.

I do not have the answers. I simply cannot fathom this behavior, this return to full on nastiness, the deliberate attempts to stymie rights for others even as we demand them for ourselves. I just cannot figure out how to cure this 'cold' of America that is drowning us in the sea snot of our minds. Anyone have the answers to these questions? Anyone know how to head all this off at the pass? Anyone seen the Lone Ranger or Robin Hood, or classical dragon slayers, anyone who can solve this  quandary of ours, or even simply to ameliorate much of its induced agonies and wrongs?

Is anyone out there? Anyone? Someone? 

 

'SPLAIN ME THIS

  As an avid reader my whole life, as a teacher who delighted in introducing kids to new words, a richer vocabulary, as a moderately intelligent person who could converse on many a topic, I thought I was okay with vocabulary in its living, ever changing form and format. Well, I was evidently wrong, for I do not understand today's changes in many cases.

So 'splain me this. How did the word "woke" lose its rather positive meaning and turn into a curse word for many, to be flung at their opponents. What is the new meaning that has left me behind in great confusion. 'I woke up." It used to mean that at some time one aroused from a sleep of some duration. Or, one woke up when they realized some truth or other that had heretofore eluded them. All good and fine. Now, how and why did that change? Why is it no longer a good thing, a positive turn of events to gain more insight into the truth, into reality? 

We apparently have had a mass phenomenon of losing sensibility. Asked to define "woke", half said it means supporting racial equality. When did that turn into a bad thing? Guess I missed the boat on that one. Thankfully. Other nefarious categories? Supporting economic reform due to its ever growing inequality. Supporting equal rights for LGBTQ. Still struggling here, for again, when did these  become an evil thing, part of an apparent "deep state" that also, incidentally, ran a child trafficking business, mostly, no less, out of a pizza storefront.

My confusion groweth by leaps and bounds, for seemingly I have been somewhere else my entire life. Well, blame it on the usual rascals - the parents. They were evidently so misguided when they tried to teach me principles. Their energies should have been better spent on teaching me about the good side (is there any?) of inequality, of a segment of society remaining hopeless, desperate to meet basic needs of all people, of understanding the 'right' of some to oppress others. 

We all missed that train, or bought one way tickets, for I was taught that the right all possessed was to take those rights and earn their survival. Work, play fair, play nice, do the right thing, remember morals, be kind and sympathetic, lend a helping hand, demand that all work, contribute to society and its improvement. By the way, that included all within its categories. No one got a free ride on that train of ignorance and hatred. Two way ticket, please.

Today, it seems that this old and creaky, polluting train of unfair, of a superior class, of cheaters, of unfair burden bearing, of hatred, including violence, allowed because one is 'different', is back. Puff, puff it went, spewing bad smoke, polluting the air we breathe, changing the morals and outlook of too many. Woke became a bad thing, so what? Staying asleep is a good thing? What is the opposite of the new term woke? I struggle here, folks. Need some 'splainin', I do. However, do I really want it?

So the GOP apparently thinks that cheating on income taxes, not paying fair share of societal costs, is a good thing. Thus the 'right' thing to do is vote, like robots, against any bill that would change this status quo. Furthermore, allowing all to participate in this wonderful, creaky, tattered, needing rehab democratic experiment of America, is an outgrown concept. So to be woke is to be for the above and anti anything that  speaks otherwise. Aha! Got it! No, I do not. Nor do I want it.

This 'splainin' effort is losing ever more traction with me. Here is an attempt of one to define it for me. 

"The term "woke" generally refers to someone who is aware of social issues such as racial prejudice and discrimination."      

 Do you agree? What about the inevitable tail? That the word woke "has increasingly become a divisive word in political circles."

Really?

Now where are we as I remain confused, at sea, on a  lost train, a foundering ship, a stuttering car. Guess I am old fashioned to believe that right is right and wrong is wrong. That to wake up is a good thing. That to realize that the words of Leduc, the attorney for a rebel, are so telling.  "If you want to go in there and you want to defend that, that's not defensible,".. They need to come in, they need to step up, they need to accept responsibility."   How could that be wrong?  There go more free hours for me as my poor overtaxed brain needs more 'splainin'. Oh, heck, where is that creaky train? That is the one I want, I need, we all need, desperately, no matter what! Anyone joining me? All I can promise is a rough train ride over neglected rails but the end station is one of good things. I promise. No explanations needed.

Anyone coming? All welcome. All aboard!

       

MUST WE? MUSTN'T WE? MUST WE? MUSTN'T WE? WE NEED MORE DAISIES!

  All of us can recall the myriad times we picked a daisy and then pulled off the petals, one by one, all the while reciting a mantra, of variations on ...does and doesn't. Today, it seems that is exactly what we are doing and consequently this country is reeling.

Should we bust the filibuster? But what happens  should the GOP regain control of the House? How do the Democrats then block any national restriction of voting rights - the first step to the installation of Trump or clone as First Dictator of the United States? But is the filibuster proving to be a tool of repression supporters now, much to the harm of the ethos of this country - or what used to be its ethos. Are Manchin and Sinema actually aiding the 'enemy' by their presumed support of a bipartisanship whose ship has long ago sailed?

So, must we or mustn't we? Do we give up a tool that has served us well in many instances, or do we keep a tool that is now a negative weight on our necks? Must we or mustn't we? I believe there are millions of people out there whose heads are spinning right along with mine, as we try to maneuver and remain on our feet on a ship rocked and battered by  super strong winds, winds that carry nothing good along with it.

How the heck do we proceed? One talks of a "red letter" of shame that a rebel of Jan. 6 wears, thus negating the need to sentence this reprobate to a meaningful term for participating in an attempt to overthrow this government. What? Say that again? Shame? I don't think so! This man will be praised, lionized, by his crowd, the same crowd that believes in the deep state that allows for child trafficking! Shame! No, not at all. None at all. He will be congratulated for escaping any punishment, for pulling it off.

Even as the prosecutor reminds us all that "each rioter contributed to the collective threat to democracy", the defense, quite cynically, in my humble opinion, attempts to usurp the image of Lincoln, the man who tried to restore some sanity to this country, the polar opposite of modern day actions of the present GOP, and urges that we "share the  chance to emulate Lincoln". As Biden asked, " Have you no shame?"

Meanwhile, the retrograde GOP is trying to return to the days of yesteryear as they encourage religion to directly mix in to politics, where they do not belong. Every extremist is convinced that his/her view is the correct one, the cure-all this country needs in its present throes of uncertainty. The Catholic Church, in the form of some backwards bishops who think we are living in the days of Henry VIII, want to refuse communion to Biden as a political tool - where they have no business being, by the way. Let them , all religions, argue about their own lacks, their own needed reforms, before trying to inject their poison into our body politic. All religions. All extremists.

COVID has allowed absentee voting, a perk  legislators are using to enable multi tasking, abusing its original intent. However, not being present is actually a revelatory statement of their attitude these days. Unfortunately, too many   legislators are not present, not there in any positive sense of the word, absent in the necessary defense of this country and what it stands for - or stood for, anyway. Today, I, and too many others, are adrift in a sea of confusion, wondering where it all went. Where did the youthful idealism of so many turn green with mold and then rust away, leaving holes in our foundations. When and why?

QANon says, so 'cutely' clever, that believers “drop all references re: 'Q' 'Qanon' etc.” to avoid being banned on social media. A month later, Q declared that “there is Q, there are anons, there is no QAnon.”  The term was no longer necessary, because Q’s mythology of an all-powerful deep state that enables child trafficking and election fraud was entering the mainstream conservative discourse."  People believe it, point it out, use false words, false flags, and purposeful misdirection.

On we forge, using useless polls to direct mistaken efforts, harmful efforts. We are being warned that our way of life is threatened, but whose way of life? That is not very clear to many, as they deny the truth of the pandemic, even as the death rate rises in their very own backyards; even as they deny the alleged criminality of their demented leader, Trump, his traitorous actions and statements, instigations of violence, as common sense seems to desert them. 

With great apathy and a huge atmosphere of denial, we are walking straight into the fog of "Nacht und Nebel" of all fascists, all dictators. We use polls as we like, deny them if contrary to our needs, and as one said, "we do not know with whom we are not talking" as we take these polls. Many, if not most, people these days do as I do. We do not answer unknown numbers. No one wants to hear anymore about car warranties, criminal warrants, Social Security issues, and imaginary student loans - or of a loved one in an overseas prison! So we do not pick up.

And we have grown into that habit. We are not picking up anymore, ignoring the calls to action, allowing others to fulfill our responsibilities. We allow misguided people to usurp our rights, to supposedly speak for us. We are fooled by false flags and wake up too late to turn the clock back on the damage done.

We need to put down the daisy. We need to end our careless way of life, the apathy that deafens us to the calls of the alert and wary.

Must we ?  Mustn't we?  Oh yes we must, daisy petals or not.

 

TISHA B'AV

 That is the name in Hebrew, for today, the ninth day of the month of Av in the Jewish lunar calendar. It is a day when millions of Jews around the world will be doing one or more of the following: fasting, discussion groups, presentations, special prayers, looking back and forward in time to find answers. They will officially be mourning the destruction of both Temples, the First and the Second, and the inevitable dismantling of the Jewish state. It will also be mourning the blindness of the world to the fact that these Temples were built on what is called Temple Mount, thus Jews have every right to pray there in orderly manner. Yet today, if they are seen to even be moving lips, voicelessly, they are subject to arrest. Truly, a day of mourning. What we have lost.

But there is far more to the day; it has become a day of tragedy, of dread, of awful events, a cursed day. Tragedy after tragedy have been linked to this day, yet also a day when it is said that the Messiah will be born. But until then, we Jews look upon that day with squinted eyes, worrying, wondering, what is next. Even as we recite The Book of Lamentations, or Eichah, recite special kinnot, prayers, fast, and remember, we wonder. What is next? 

There is always a next. History has shown us so. In the atmosphere of today, this past Friday, a Jew was set upon in NYC and dreadfully beaten. Why? Because he was obviously a Jew, thus free prey for all monsters of the world. A horrifying echo of the past, not restricted to the Holocaust. Jews have been subject to this murderous behavior from time immemorial. We wonder all through today, when is it enough? When does it stop? In fact, for many Jews, most Jews, throughout history, that has been a perpetual existential reality, a permanent question in our lives. Today, you wonder? Today is the same as anti - Semitism grows by leaps and bounds, as monsters in human form repeat the behavior of so many, too many, through the millennia.

A bit of a history lesson and perhaps an understanding re this day of eternal tragedy and what thinking and worry goes on in the heads of most Jews at one time or another. For some, still, always a concern, always a reality of ugliness. Of repetition of history in all its inhumanity.

The Biblical twelve spies returned from Canaan, speaking derogatory words. The consequence: a delay in the entry of the Israelites into their Promised Land and all the historical echoes.

Both Temples were destroyed, much of the underlying cause being a lack of unity among the nation, leaving them open to destruction. Hmmm. The destruction of the Second Temple began the official Galut, or Exile, of Jews from their homeland, building a Diaspora of Jews, never ever to be fully welcomed or feel at home anywhere.

A rebellion by Bar Kochba was put down, over a half million Jews killed, and the grounds of the Temple were plowed under.

The First Crusade began along with the murder of thousands of Jews in Europe and the destruction of Jewish communities.

A Day of Expulsion and Exile - England, France, Spain where the Inquisition dug its frightful claws into so many, to be echoed down through history,  until we were told basically, Jews could not live here, there - not anywhere -  The Holocaust. And not much of this thinking has changed in the minds and hearts of too many.

WWI  -  Germany joined the War. Jews suffered great oppression directed at them as lands changed hands, throughout the war and afterwards. Always a convenient enemy, a pressure relief valve, a substitute enemy, shall we say.

1941 - official permission to enact the Final Solution - the murdering of ALL Jews in ALL countries of the world.

1942 - the beginning of the mass deportation of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka,  slaughtered, in that accursed death camp.

1994 - The bombing of the AMIA center in Buenos Aires, with a toll of 85 dead and over 300 wounded.

Every year this day rolls around and we wonder - what is next? G-d willing, one day it will prove to redeem itself, turn darkness into light, chase the darkness of the world away. Light destroys the power of darkness and perhaps, just perhaps....one day, one year, someday. Until then, we remember, we commemorate, we mourn and we hope. We hope our prayers are heard and answered. Soon and with positive result. One day.

.

OH BOY!!!!!

  All thoughts of sophisticated wording fly away on troubled wings. What is there to say, to write, to dread, any more than has been said and warned about before. Yesterday and today, columnists, commentators, are writing and speaking of the horrendous revelations in book after book by Trump people re his behavior in the last days of his reign. The exact same thing that I have been sounding the alarm about for years is now ringing the bells in the  steeples. Are we calling our citizens to war? Is that what will be necessary to insure the continued survival of our country as a viable democracy?

 "gearing up for direct action and civil disobedience in support of voting rights as Republicans continue their attacks on free and fair elections" 

Evidently so, according to the words of a Congresswoman arrested, along with a few other middle aged and older women, obviously very dangerous, for protesting, peacefully. The civil disobedience has begun and it will only grow larger and impact much of our lives on a daily basis. It will be more than about voting rights; it will be about the very nature of our country and the government it will have. Multiply the Cuban protests of recent days, think of the streets and highways blocked, multiply exponentially, and there it is. There it must be if we are to rescue ourselves and this country should all else fail.

"If I was going to do a coup," said the former President of the United States, "one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley." Later ... he added that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs "had no courage or skill, certainly not the type of person I would be talking 'coup' with. I 'm not into coups!"

Juxtapose that false statement of the villain with  the statements that say otherwise, all from people within his administration. He knows the people he would talk coup talk with! Really! What a revealing statement. What frightens me even more, since I always believed, correctly, that Trump was demented, insane along the lines of an insane demagogue a la Hitler, - who did some good things, according to Trump - is the fact that these people went along with it, spouted his words, championed his cause, denied his lies, put the people of this country at high risk, DefCon whatever number you want, but so they did. And so we remain. 

You see, now the voters will be restricted, but worse, the very machines are now tainted, having been in the hands of these dastardly revisionists. Who the hell knows what had been done to them to distort the true numbers.

As we are losing our very rights as Americans, sold down the river by the GOP, we have yet another crazed individual, Ron Johnson, leading the charge against the vaccine, even as more and more die in those Republican benighted areas that believe the false claims re the vaccine. So what, wait for them to die and gain numerical superiority? Won't help, as the machines have been tampered with! Seriously, how does one deal with people who cheer a growing anti vaccination campaign? They cheer their own deaths!!! So they die. Bad idea, though evidently not in the Trumpian dystopian world where all things go.

What is ahead for us? I shudder to think. The rest of the world wonders "Will it be okay?" even as the uncertainty grows. The malevolent shadow of Trump and his enablers, his believers, darken our days, our future. Kevin McCarthy goes to bow the knee to the Ruler for Life, at Mar a Lago, he the next possible House Leader? What is that all about?It is the warning to us that the champion of dictatorship, the enemy of democracy, along with allies such as the rabid  Gosar, Fuentes, Brooks - just choose a name from the many available, - is alive and well, and thriving, flourishing in the not so dark world of his.

"We have come too far and fought too hard to see everything systematically dismantled and restricted by those who wish to silence us. Be assured that this is just the beginning. This is Our Power, Our Message,” 

Those are the words of the arrested Congresswoman, but she is telling us more than that. In fact, it is about the entire way of life, the beliefs, the very ethos of this country. We will all have to choose, no more sidelines. One hopes that this "#Good Trouble", ala John Lewis as civil rights advocates staged demonstrations, practiced civil disobedience, and were arrested, will suffice to correct our paths before violence rises and the country burst into flames, a Civil War Part II.

But we need to be aware of all possibilities. We cannot go along with the lies of friendly tourists coming to say hello to their representatives. Armed with friendly pikes boards, bats, threats, ropes to lynch - such friendly dudes!

No, folks, we need to wake up, set aside petty differences in the face of the far more severe, life changing level 5 hurricane that is bearing down on us.  I have no clue as to how or why people succumbed to this man and his lies, the crazed statements of his public supporters. However, they did and still do and we are in the cone of threat from that hurricane!

Gearing up. Our very rights. Oh, boy!!!!!

HEARING

 Hearing plays an important role in the history of our planet. This 'hearing' also involves reading, listening carefully, openness, and sheer common sense. Unfortunately, most pay little or no attention to what is being said, so firmly fixed are they in their determination to be heard over all other voices. Replay the iconic "Can you hear me?" ad. The answer would have to be no, certainly for the population of this troubled country of ours. This is not a new phenomenon, 'merely' the growth of it, its strength, its possibility morphing into a probability - if we do not hitch up the nation's pants and get to work to save it. And us.

Here are some relevant figures and words that might poke a hole in the blase attitudes of so many, too many. No particular order.

"10 key variables, such as population, industrial output and persistent pollution, and determined our business-as-usual mentality will spark a decline of economic growth within the next decade. 

However, the data revealed an even bleaker future – our world could experience a total societal collapse by 2040.

A total societal collapse would mean an abrupt decline in quality of life, food production, industrial output and ultimately the human population." 

"nearly 190,000 crossing the border just last month and expectations that over one million will"

"two-thirds of Republicans in the South favor seceding from the United States while nearly half of Democrats in the Pacific region and almost 40 percent in the Northeast say the same, Support for secession is also considerable among independents in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions, where 43 percent say they would favor breaking away and forming their own country.

Half of independents in the South also favor secession while 43 percent of Republicans in the Rocky Mountain states share the same view."

“We’re going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis aren’t getting in.” (Note, this is about DC in 2020.)

Milley said Trump preached “the gospel of the Führer” in pushing the big lie. “believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military.” This is a Reichstag moment,” 

Read enough? Have a sense of the feelings that roil the very air we breathe in this country? Like it or not, we are no longer a united country, united states, for we have lost our way. I hate to say so, but I will, in great sadness. Told ya' so. Despite people telling me I was nuts, over the top, too pessimistic - told ya' so indeed. Wish I had been wrong. Wish the words of One More Day from Les Miz did not echo, asking if we could hear the voices of the people shouting. Shouting for the  things we need to be shouting about today, but are tragically lost in the furor and clamor of political power and the ignoring of the true needs of a troubled country and world.

People today all around the world are often at a loss for the basic needs of a person - shelter, food, clean water, and a hope for a better future. There is a growing decline in the acceptance of the idea that all people are deserving of rights, of fair treatment, of safety and security. Here in  the USA, we, in the form of a backwards thinking GOP desperate to regain and keep and wield power, stands in the way of all chance of bipartisanship. A country that could possibly begin to turn the fates in a different direction or at least at a slower speed, enabling us to perhaps find the answers we so desperately need.

Instead, tragically, we have bitter wrangling, a Party that kowtows to a demented would be dictator, that attitude being unmasked by the former enablers, no denial in sight, just a deep and dark silence, a  refusal to condemn the "big lie", and leaving those of us with any sense at all, wondering, puzzled, as to why, when it was clear to all that he was falling into a crazed image of himself as dictator, restored to power through the military, a full and present danger to this country, why did his people support this? They are guilty, as guilty, perhaps more so, than those deluded rebels, insurrectionists all, who attacked the Capitol, threatening life and limb of any and all who stood in their way.

Why have we allowed national legislators to remain in office when they shout and espouse the beliefs of Nazis, of Fascism,  of race hatred, of ethnic hatred, of religious hatred, any hatred one can think of. Paul Gosar.  Taylor Greene. Lauren Boebert. Mo Brooks. Kevin McCarthy. Josh Hawley. And the list grows as others see that the power bases of these people grow. More haters flock to them, as they become emboldened and validated with and by their growing support at rallies. Rallies  which the former President, Trump, loves, where he speaks, perpetuating his Big Lies, over and over again.

Biden challenges the GOP - "Have you no shame?" Apparently not, as their thunderous silence deafens us. Apparently not, as he reminds us that the voter restrictions, and who gets to count the votes will determine our future. We are asked to stay vigilant, even as a brave, rare GOP member admits that Trump was and is a malignancy. Calls it like it is.

In his Inaugural Address, Joe Biden told the nation “I know that the forces that divide us are deep and they are real.” 

The existential question is whether we can overcome all this, remain a United States in name and fact, and find , stumble, walk, limp, grope, whatever, to the right path, restore faith in ourselves and our destiny, in the role we are meant to play in this world, the hope we must generate, the energy we must find, if we are to save all of us. All of what we are and what we are meant to be.

The whole world is watching.

The whole world is watching. 

 

ANY VACANCIES?

  Well, we have almost certainly done it. We have just about reached the Rubicon, are ready to cross it, perhaps there are boats out there already, but this Rubicon is different. When we begin to cross it en - masse, well, that is a river, shall we say, of another color, the color of betrayal, of loss, of non thinking, of an enmity that should never have been. This Rubicon consists of the blood of our ancestors, our friends, our neighbors, even our families, and it cries out in despair. As the Bible reminds us, the blood of our brother does speak.

Do we even realize what we have done? Do we even care? Or are we doing it purposely? Are we so busy,  fascinated by the sound of our own voices, with the amplification of dangerous, outrageous words and concepts that we neither see nor hear the envelope ripping, our pushing it so violent - or worse, is that what we want? Do we really have so many of our own citizens whose goal is to destroy this country, to rip it apart for good?!

We have taken to twisting words, using them to push the knives in deeper, perceive victory as the total destruction of opponents, along with the destruction of this country. Even should it survive in name, it would be in name only, as all the concepts upon which it was, is and should always be founded are being crushed beneath the feet of ALL of us. Yes, Democrats, Republicans, apathetic people, non thinkers who think that politics is a game they can opt out of - all are guilty. When will they realize this? When it is too late and what we have sown, we will reap.

Yes, MLK spoke in his Dream speech of a time when people will not be judged by or for their color, but for their virtues, their abilities. He did not exclude anyone from that realization or that Camelot time. He did not say that White people should be ashamed of their skin color, though honestly, the only 'white' people, truly, are albinos! And most Black people are actually shades of brown. Does it matter? Most certainly NO!! In any case, no one is to feel personal shame, disgrace or guilt because others of their race or gender or whatever trait you choose, did something wrong.

 Yesterday is not today and our grandfathers, good or bad, our grandmothers (of course, always good), are not us. Whatever good they did, we must keep, build upon, value. Whatever bad they did, whatever they neglected to fix or did not see the need to fix, well that is our job. But nowhere, no how do we feel shame personally. 

There is good and bad in every race, every ethnicity, every shade of skin color, every division one can think of. No one is immune from this fact. We all share in the need to improve, but we need not, do not, have to feel personal shame for the deed of another. What is upon all of us, is to insure that we, today, do not repeat previous errors, or  aggravate the situation even more, thus actually go backwards in results. That is what should shame us. That is what we need to fix. There is enough going around for all to share; no need to go looking for the burdens of others and adopt them as your own package of guilt. Responsibility to improve upon, yes. Guilt? No.

Just look what we are doing these days. We are talking of redesigning the flag of this country, designing an alternate for the Olympics?! What the hell! The same Olympics that ignored safety alerts re the Israeli delegation , enabling the atrocity to take place? The same Olympics that had the games go on, never mind the slaughter? The same Olympics that cowardly, refused to confront athletes for drugging, or for countries who drugged and abused their own athletes in a twisted sense of pride? Nationalism? Sheer stupidity!? No, we honor own own flag and if we are uneasy with some errors committed in its name, well, then we fix that, but keep the flag.

If we truly are to honor the meaning of the words of MLK and others who understand that a human is a human, period, then we do not vote in restrictions to voting. The GOP has lost its way, now wandering, in a jungle of backward thinking, in vicious attempts to turn the clock back, to rescind rights that belong to all. They threaten, in their  state of delusion, that they can force a group of Democrats to vote; who have fought against this by absenting themselves from the legislature, hence canceling a possible vote - at least for now. Texas authorities, and what the hell is the matter with Texas anyway, in the voice of Gov. Abbott, says, " Once they step back into the state of Texas, they will be arrested and brought to the Texas Capitol, and we will be conducting business," . 

But democracy is the polar opposite of that. Forcing people to vote, rigging the game, crying foul where there is none, or the foul was committed by themselves, well, that is more likely to be under fascism or communism, any dictatorship flying a false flag of freedom, but most emphatically is way the hell and gone out of place here, in my America. Your America.

Why does the GOP cheer on the possibility of democracy in Cuba when they trample on it here? Why do "progressives" and that term is questionable, shout about White guilt, increasing the divide? Why have we all apparently lost our collective minds? How and why has this happened? How do we fix this situation? Can we even achieve that in any case? Or have we all crossed the Rubicon in the wrong direction already, too many to change the outcome? No more vacancies in the motel of sanity?

How do we fix a situation where truth is ignored? Where people cheer on their own deaths, reject proof, facts, as their own sicken and die, all because they, in deep delusion, believe this behavior is 'American", patriotic. How ignorant! How wrong! Or when DeSantis, a candidate, he hopes, for President in the next election - and who knows how that will work out after the wrecking ball finally stops - uses dumbed down slogans even as his state, my state, is undergoing a surge of yet more COVID, especially worrisome with the new Delta variant. But stupid is stupid, wrong is wrong. Division is division, only getting deeper, more acute, the longer people deny the truth, refuse to acknowledge their own part in this existential situation.

Want to feel shame? Want to impose shame on others? Need guilt in order to get up in the morning? Then look out your window. Open your door. There are no troops out there - as of yet. Most people can still vote. But we are attacking our own country from within, elating our enemies and dismaying our allies. We are the ones who are guilty of this. Divided as we are, we cannot unite to fight the true battles of our time. Climate change. Eternal warfare. Starvation, drought, desertification and floods, health and education, and the list is ad infinitum. We cannot concentrate on that for we are wasting our energies and capabilities, rather working towards our own demise as a democratic country. What a shame! What guilt we will then feel.

Too little. Too late. Are we there yet? The eternal cry of trips. In our case, a bad road trip indeed. I hope and pray we never 'are there' yet, or at any point in time. Perhaps a futile hope. We will see.