YOICKS!!!!

 Latest brouhaha? In the midst of a growing crisis once again re COVID. In the midst of a political atmosphere toxic with threat to democracy - from within. With the world either burning, or flooding, or turning to desert, this is what gains attention? Wait for it.....a $5,800 bottle of whiskey, a gift from Japan to Pompeo. Just where is it, ask the bean counters? Where is it, ask the thirsty? Where is it ask the jealous? Burp!!! Hiccup!! All gone.

Granted, this was 'stolen' from the people, as all gifts basically over $300 are to be turned over to the government. How would we share this one bottle? Vicarious satisfaction as we watched a line of politicians drink up? Is this all we need worry about? Surely not. And yet, we must, for it represents the corruption endemic in the Trump regime, without much thought of right or wrong other than to wonder how they get theirs. 

It is the validation of an essay piece yesterday on the op-ed page of the NYT stating the obvious to many, but not so much to others. Simply, understandingly, they crave relief from the past five years, the continuing strife of politics, ever growing more acidic, more inimical to democracy. Much easier to ignore - until too late. The content was obvious from the title. Trump is both ridiculous and dangerous at one and the same time. We forget that - to our own peril. Ignorance might be bliss for a while, but that bliss evaporates pretty quickly under totalitarian rule and the breakdown of democracy.

So, the bottle was stolen, along with other monies or equivalents within the Trump regime. But what is the larger meaning? The true aim is to steal the country from its citizens. Doubt that? Over the top, you tell me? Pshaw, you say? Wrong, so falling off the cliff wrong. Every day, anew, we learn we are not done with that man and his coterie. Day after day, until we are numbed, only wishing to be left in peace, but is there to be peace unless we are vigilant in strengthening our democracy, true patriotism, loyalty to a country rather than to a person? 

The man is an idiot. The man is demented. The man is also, much to our dismay, quite clever along the same path as Hitler, another deranged and toxic figure in history. Overthrow this government, Trump says, be 'true patriots', he would shout in so many words. Alongside, in goosesteps, are his believers, fascists of the GOP, white power extremists, haters all. Gosar, whose siblings state he had become "unhinged", ranted anti-Semitic rhetoric. Mo Brooks who now craves immunity from suit, the consequence of his speeches inciting riot and violence. The people - 21 GOP - who refuse to recognize the bravery of security personnel who saved them from the insane wrath of the mob. The people who maintain it was basically a picnic that went a tad astray, that is all. Deny an attempted coup and it will go away. So they think. So they try.

But we must insure that it does not, for understanding the truth of it all, how close we came to the end of democracy within this country, is paramount to our survival, the prevention of such an enemy of the people becoming head of government. This is the same man who wishes to disregard laws, hide his cheating on taxes, molest woman freely, no punishment awaiting him as it does Cuomo. This, the same man who suborned the willing deluded to pressure others to do wrong, to subvert an entire department dedicated to justice. To negate the results of the election, to chop down the tree of Liberty and extirpate its roots, our roots as a democracy, the impetus for the original revolution. Nope, he is teflon. 

So we ignore his new identity cards, as he tells us 'These are BEAUTIFUL. We should let the American People decide - they ALWAYS know best!" "The card you select will be carried by Patriots all around the Country. They will be a sign of your dedicated support to our movement to SAVE AMERICA, and I'm putting my full trust in you," 

Anyone hear the echoes of the Nazi party in its early recruiting efforts, sending out the siren call of place within the powerful, of being supporters, patriots, even as he used them for his own evil goals, costing the lives of millions upon millions of soldiers and civilians. Legitimated slaughter, genocide.

The poisoned roots remain in place, with the likes of DeSantis, who cares naught for the lives of Floridians, once more falling ill at record rates as he cavorts with the devil in disguise. "I am standing in your way" he tells Biden. No, he is standing in our way, in our survival path, and could care less, hoping to appeal to the deluded remnants of Trump, to wave the Trumpian banner, carry the card, increase his own power and to hell with the people.

"We will undermine the morale of the people of America.....Once there is confusion and after we have succeeded in undermining the faith of the American people in their own government, a new group will take over; this will be the German-American group and we will help them assume power."

"He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good.. that it can lie dormant for years and years...that it bides its time....and the day would come... it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city"

Those words were spoken by Adolf Hitler in 1933. Following them is a paraphrase of Albert Camus from The Plague, a metaphor for disaster awaiting, hiding, among us.

Are you hearing those words, hearing the echo in our own times? None so foolish - or dangerous - as those who will not learn from history, or worse, actually desire to relive it, to emulate the worst of mankind.

Can it happen here? No, you say. Wrong you are, for it is happening, growing and we are willfully blind and deaf to its appeal to a segment of society. Remember, recall, or learn for the first time, that during WWII the members of the Los Angeles Community Relations Committees of the Jewish Federation Council battled Nazism in Los Angeles. Yes, that LA. This fight became part of a TV program as well, evidently not caught by enough people - or by the wrong ones. Real. Frightening.

Is that what you want?