Okay, so the title just exposed my age, as if it was not known before! For you young whippersnappers, catching the brass ring when one rode a horse on a merry-go-round won admiring looks as well as jealous ones as a free ride was the prize. One had to lean far out from the horse in order to catch hold on it, scoring a point for 'bravery' - stupidity, too, maybe? In any case, like all fun things in life, this custom disappeared until it is no more.
Today, people are reaching for another brass ring, the ring that would be the manacles on Trump's hands, round his wrists, as he learns that he is neither exempt from nor above the law. An ex- President, an offense against the laws of nature at that, does not entitle him to a Get Out of Jail Card for the taking - againandagainandagainandagain.
He has the same rights as do all residents within this country's borders - or are supposed to have, though there are some heavy doubts about that these days. He can answer charges in court, before a judge and jury, as can everyone else. Or he can bite the tired old bullet already and 'fess up'. Enough of this waste of time, this disheartening show of wealth and privilege as he both avows and disavows the accusations and the gravitas of them.
Will he? Will a jury be willing to convict? Will the judge impose a fitting sentence and not suspend it? Will the sentence be carried out? Now that is an interesting question as all the die-hard excuse makers will come crawling out of the infested woodwork, will they not! It boggles the mind to think that there remain any lawyer(s) willing to defend him, stand ready to become complicit in Trump's egregious attempts to overthrow our government, to declare democracy dead in America.
It boggles the mind to watch as everyday normal people, listen to the conversation that has damned Trump under a charge of racketeering, clever DA, and then excuse it. Oh, is that illegal? Is that a crime? No, one cannot believe what he says, but he did a good job! Huh! Oh, he is no good, but I will hold my nose and vote for him. Really? Will that action save you, this country from drowning in our self-created fetid swamp, unable to be successfully crossed? I think not.
I watch as GOP members stumble over their own words when trying to pull Trump's nuts out of the fire. They - the highly politicized and morally, ethically challenged Justices of the Supreme Court, used an old ruling to sacrifice women on their bloody altar. However, now out of GOP forked tongues it is stated that the 14th Amendment which would bar Trump from running, let alone taking office is actually nonapplicable here. Why? Oh, it refers only to the Civil War era. How do we infer that great piece of legal wisdom? Oh, of course, silly me - it refers to slavery, not odd, in that it was meant to address remaining issues especially restrictive laws. It is called interpretation and precedent, pillars of the law in this nation. Apparently not for the GOP.
Anway, the news today is replete with such lovely news. An officially sanctioned out in the open publicized conference run by two universities known for their antisemitism and the privileges it has granted to Jewhaters, rabid purveyors of Jewhatred - well, read
The Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism’s (ICSZ) conference “Battling the ‘IHRA definition’: Theory and Activism” is set to be held on Oct. 13 – 14 at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and the New York University (NYU) School of Law,..The conference will host six panels with a range of academics and activists who are committed to fighting against the IHRA definition. Potential attendees and sponsors are asked to “confirm their agreement” with the ICSZ’s “points of unity,” ... The points include the belief that “Israel is a settler colonial state” just like the U.S. and a “racial project.” ... claims that academic research should not be neutral and argues that “neither studying or criticizing Zionism is anti-Jewish,”
.... aims to interrogate and intervene in racism, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and the appropriation of liberatory rhetoric by repressive political forces, among other harms,” .
One of the members of the planning collective for the conference is Rabab Abdulhadi, founding director and senior scholar of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program at San Francisco State University. Abdulhadi has been repeatedly criticized for allegedly antisemitic comments about Israel and Jews who support Zionism, and for inviting individuals with known associations with the terrorist groups the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to speak on campus, "
I sincerely hope you are as offended as I am at this not a replay of the underhanded antisemitism as has been going on increasingly on college campuses, but an open blatant attempt to pass antisemitism as a righteous attempt to gain their goals of defaming Jews and Israel, casting them as outcasts, deserving only to be recipients and targets of Jewhaters and Jewhatred. As a Jewish American woman, born, bred, in this country, America, I read and wonder - am I, my family, my people, safe here any longer? Should we pack up, be ready, and go.....where, exactly? Oh, Portugal has been declared the best place to move and retire. Hmmm. Oops! Portugal expelled Jews just a bit after Spain, so... where?
So, I have writ daily of the concept and need for togetherness, the strength of that united front. Now I write of another togetherness. That is the one united in evil. Unless we fight together, unite against hate, we will all face another 'together' as we all hang together, consigned to a trash heap of designated non-humans. Unless we stop hatred, the corruption, this thumbing the nose at law and justice, at equity, at all that is right.
We need to put an end to the espousing of evil and arrogance which can emerge anywhere. Needed is a mixture, an amalgam of all who oppose those who would wreak havoc upon us. Fight for what is right, fair, welcoming. Unless we stand together in resistance, we will fail ourselves and the earth and go down together anyway. Let us stress the good of our togetherness and reject those who would wreak havoc upon us.
Let us see clearly and choose correctly. This togetherness has helped Yitzy greatly in his wicked battle against cancer. He is a real trooper and is slowly getting stronger, able to take a walk in the park or go to the forest and birdwatch or observe snakes (Ugh!)Still a boy under all that chemo and still with his signature grin.
Thank you.
Together.
Together.
We can heal the nation.
HEAL THE WORLD.
HEAL YITZY!
Yitzchak Elimelech ben Chana Sarah
May he be granted refuah shelaymah bimheyrah beyameinu.
AMEN. AMEN
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