TURKEY TALK

 HOPE EVERYONE HAD AGREAT THANKSGIVING. WILL BE BACK WITH NEW BLOG ON SUNDAY

WORD!!! FOR REAL OR NOT?

“Put your money where your mouth is.” Basically, telling any gasbag around who loves the sound of his own voice as the syllables so easily and smoothly trip and drip from false tongues, to watch it!! Align the truths better with one's words and intentions and backed up by actions. If a picture is worth a thousand words, deeds are far more telling, worth 10,000 words at minimum. Words can be possibly 'walked' back, explained, albeit inadequately, but deeds are here, never to be erased, always lingering somewhere in the memory files of historical truths.

Hence the cruelty innately within those nursery rhymes, telling the truth of history, reigning triumphant over attempts to disguise and diminish those very truths. Always, truths will out, even as much time might pass before the obfuscation of liars and their words are revealed as such. From the very first creature who used sounds to convey a thought to another creature, language, words, have become an integral and critical part of humanity and its choices - to go forward or to reverse any, even all, forward progress.

Wordsmiths, those who know how to use words, to   say one thing with those words of their craft even as the truth underlying those words are diametrically opposed. At times caught red handed, (red mouthed), they are forced to 'walk back' those words. Inadequate, the truth bares all, sooner or later. Always. 

The Pope's recent words re genocide, his obscene accusation aimed at Israel accusing the very victims of the first recognized genocide in human history as genocidal criminals, is a prime example of walking back one's words, though extremely inadequate at hiding the truth beneath. Infallible? Most definitely not. Here are his original words, followed by the words of 'walk back' attempt. 

 " ... he called for an investigation into claims Israel was conducting genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. "...dialogue must be the soul of the international community."

"I simply mention two failures of humanity today: Ukraine and Palestine, where there is suffering, where the arrogance of the invader prevails over dialogue," he added in an unscripted remark.... regularly prays for the people of Gaza ... (in) a forthcoming book, he called for findings that Israel was conducting "genocide" in Gaza to be "studied carefully". ...Pope Francis: "I continue to receive very serious and painful news from Gaza. Unarmed civilians are subjected to bombings and shootings. A mother and her daughter were killed by Israeli snipers while going to the restroom. It is terrorism."

Walk back:  Following the wave of criticism, Pope Francis said during an interfaith gathering in the Vatican Monday that ... had taken his comments out of context.

“I did not claim that Israel committed genocide,” the pope said. (But in fact, he did.)

“I was shown materials from the war, and I said that if this is true, then it needs to be investigated. I understand what is happening in Gaza. I think Hamas should no long exist in the world, but the war should also not be prolonged.”  

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Ignore other risks Israel took to lessen the harm to civilians caught in a web of their own making. In those attempts many of Israel's own were lost or   severely wounded. Ignored are those risks and consequences, in a war initiated by an invasion of Hamas beasts into agricultural communities of Israel. Slaughtering innocents, burning children, raping women, shattering a "permanent” ceasefire. Words and actions, including the ongoing torture of hostages held in inhumane conditions, dying over    the course of a year. Even as the ice-cold flames burned blazingly hot once again. Antisemitism openly embraced by the world, ever and always so. A burning cauldron of JewHatred, its ashes carried by the winds of hate, finding well-nourished homes in blackened hearts and souls.  

Words and actions. False words of an international figure, one who should know better and present better.  Even as more of the same continues on throughout the rest of the world. False words.  Frightening words. An ugly truth hidden beneath.   

A UN dominated by Muslim and Arab nations, by those who celebrate antisemitism, who practice their own war crimes within their own borders, now dismiss a renowned figure - "U.N. will refuse to renew the contract of Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the Kenyan who is the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide. ... dismissed because she has stood firm in her belief that Israel’s war with Hamas isn’t genocide. ... her refusal to endorse a lie in service of a political agenda has been a profile in courage. Ms. Nderitu’s removal is a political choice."

When the UN uses these words, these lies, what can we expect from any other organization supposedly dedicated to the betterment of the world, to a beneficial peace and respect of all humanity.  Not much, if anything at all. Not here. Not today.

 Additionally, not here within the United States. Not with a new president, actually, a tired yet threatening rerun, a retread whose tread is quite dangerously impaired. Not one whose governing and guiding principle of international and national politics is labeled “maximum pressure”, defined by experts as " Scare your negotiating partner into thinking you will do what most think is unthinkable". Rule by fear and intimidation. Rule with words of blatant lies dished out in heaping spoons of pap. 

Words diseased and contagious continue within the government itself. Departments are corrupt and bootlicking and loyalty to person rather than nation rules the day. How is it possible for the little people to combat the inequities such as unfair differing rates of compensation for the same thing varied by state and entity. How? No answer.

We perhaps need the example set by a brave teenager during the time of Nazi occupation of France when she received a literal "kick in the pants" and was energized into action and resistance. She knew and indeed suffered the consequences, was tortured, and lived. Where are our heroes today? Mostly, what I see around me are people afraid to speak. Afraid to engage in discourse. Afraid even to reveal themselves in public lest they get damned and attacked for it. This is not a way to live. Not within the United States of America. Surely not in 2024. Going on 2025.  

When a judge's legal reasoning is faulty and riddled within, when a Supreme Court is openly corrupt, engaged in taking bribery. when the incoming government officials refuse to sign transition agreements attesting to their honesty. and their loyalty to the government. When words and lines and limitations of power are not clearly drawn leaving gaping holes wherein the nation could drown, how do we find the words to explain it all, to try to understand it all and to act accordingly. How can we ensure good health of democracy when we are bombarded by false words whose intent and content fudge and wiffle-waffle the truths, denying comprehension of our dangerous situation.  What about the future? Beats me!!

Niceties of nursery rhymes with awful truths of history beneath. Fairy tales which are thin disguises of historical times and events, where we see the evil, though we hardly ever gain sight of a "happy ever after". No, life and the words which accompany it need major attention and remediation. As do the people who use words with evil intent. Who pierce and demean truth as easily and naturally as they brush their teeth.  

 Jewish tradition tells us that while we cannot think or take upon ourselves the responsibility of fixing every form of the 'off ' of this world, we must take a step forward and begin or add to ongoing efforts of remediation and improvement. 

Do we?  Really? In words of truth?

A question for the ages.

And for words.

And for choices.

And for the truth and the right, of those choices.

WORDS OF THE NURSERY RHYMES

Pick any nursery rhyme and/or check out any supposed children's dance based on a rhyme. and examine the words and their content carefully. These ostensibly child-oriented poems, these harmless, gentle little rhymes, catch children's interests   and even encourage participation in early poetry development. However, in light of current times, of historic times, perhaps these words and rhymes are deserving of more intense examination. Exactly what are we teaching our little ones? Does the import of these words, any words, carry over into real life decisions, and behavior?

Nursery rhymes I can recall are reeking of violence and tragedies in the making. Ring Around the Rosy, London Bridges, Jack and Jill, the moon and the cows et al, Humpty Dumpty and we can go on and on. Add to that the stories of the fairy tale genre.  Children being eaten, abandoned by parents, devalued and treated as trash, outer beauty emphasized, bizarre punishments and evil triumphing for quite some lengths of time. Over and over again. 

Now do not get me wrong; I am a strong opponent of censorship, but certainly, we need to know what the children are internalizing from these reading sessions. Perhaps it is upon us to add some commentary and discussion on the right and the wrong of these nursery rhyme selections as a child is capable of understanding.  What is real and what is not? What do we wish our little ones to understand and either reject or internalize in positive manner and outcome? 

 From there, we must take several giant steps into the world of growing children, young adults and mature adults. Check out the behavior patterns over the millennia. Examine the events of today and yesterday and years ago. Protest and protesters have abandoned the idea of quests for peace. Instead, we see violence valued, theft and robbery en masse, and the negative emotions and goals of anger, hatred along with calls for more, even deadly ugliness. Wild in the streets. Hurting. Violating security. Destroying. Examine the ugly phenomena of children bringing guns to school for the purpose of killing their fellow schoolmates. 

Now think of the glow seen from space, orange and yellow outbursts over the lands of our planet, and be horrified, terrified at the inevitable progress we are making at ever increasing pace, on the road to Perdition and the finality of the human race as we know it. Instead of valuing the better, true progress, we champion the worst of us. We selectively choose what we see and hear and act accordingly.   We indulge and empower our worst traits and thoughts as we accelerate, ever more intense and successful in our misguided paths and decisions.  Nursery rhymes on crack, adult level weight, and aren't we so proud.

Another leap into the words of today. It is just about at the point where we can honestly say words do not matter. Certainly not in any positive manner. Those which speak of hope and positivity are discounted and debased, treated as chaff in the wind. The predictions of better days never seem to materialize, and if they do, their existence is ephemeral. On the other hand, the words of threat and violence, of the emotions of hate realized via actions of hate - those words are seen as real and consequential. Hence, they are acted upon and believed. Hence, our world today.  

 When words are empty of meaningful truth, then they reek of negative attachments, when they portend only more violence and bloodshed, more loss of rights, progress derailed, even turned back, we find ourselves in a world of hopelessness. It is so deep and pervasive that even to imagine escape from this world demands a huge prodigious, almost superhuman effort to conceptualize and bring to an actual realization.

Homework for today: peruse the world of print and daily news, online tidbits sent to you via online paths. Ponder the many versions of truth presented before you on a cracked plate on the edge of total failure of use and purpose. Try to distinguish between the various versions of truth. Now think of the truth beneath those words and phrases. Heartbreaking in fact and deed. 

Tomorrow I will bring my homework results to the blog. Who among us will fail and who will pass? Which is better, in fact? Cudgel your mind almost to the breaking point, allow the reality and the truth to filter through. It will not be a pretty picture in images or spoken or printed word. 

Nursery rhymes adult style. Ugly.

DEFYING GRAVITY

  Yes. I saw the movie of that song. That song and sequence was true to the gossip, unbelievably well done. As the Climax of Part One of Wicked it certainly left us wanting more for which we must wait until next November. If it is anything like Part One, it is well worth the wait. 

The stars did not align well for me this morning, so a brief posting today and an urging to read the most recent postings for they are truly my troubled, worried, inner soul. So today, a few words before I must get going with the rest of my crazy day.  

We all must defy gravity. It is not just the physical act of flying against the force of gravity which holds us against the face of this earth. It is defying the gravity that keeps us immobile, in a crippling state of inertia. We run in ruts from which we do not know how to escape. We run as hamsters do on an endless getting nowhere wheel of futility. Getting nowhere fast. Simply tiring ourselves out in a futile exercise which drains all energy and opportunity to effect change.

We must make our exercises count. We must see a result, flatten out that wheel and insist that our run covers a distance, that we see an outcome we can measure, trust and be proud of. Only in that way can we defy gravity which can manifest itself in one's personal life, one's public life, wherever one wanders. It can be in the life of a nation as well. 

This nation is presently under the strong, deep, magnetic pull of a super gravity It has induced fear It has induced cowardice. It has induced and condoned moral turpitude. It has allowed the worst of humanity, its low weights of little to no account in a sane world, to rise to the surface, as gravity wants nothing of them, discounting them.

 WE know, though, they have the ability to turn life upside down, to co-opt the might of gravity against its will and wreak havoc upon this world. WE must defy that attenuation of gravity and return it to its proper role - proper and wise use of its powers and abilities. Defy it and obey it, work with it or against its lure of inertia, with wise leaders knowing the when, the why and the how.  

More tomorrow, topic unsure.

Have a good day and be safe.

Always walk with G-d.

WHYANDWHYANDWHYANDWHYANDWHY ...WHY!!!!!!

I, we, any sane person in the world, anyone with a scintilla of humanity within should be standing outside, inside, anywhere, shouting that word 'why', heaving it into the air, pushing it with all one's might into the heavens and into the depths of Hell from whence originates so much evil that takes place upon this earth. Why do humans exhibit this penchant for violence, the more egregious, the better. Why is it that humanity tamps down on its ability to be creative in a positive manner, amusing, entertaining, thought provoking, and instead sends that energy into ideas for murder, for slaughter, for harm.

Why have humans, blessed with the sense and ability of careful thought, with the ability to go beyond base instincts, chosen, willfully so, to be worse than the worst of the beasts of the field. Yes, these beasts will kill each other, but they do so in the name of survival, of protection of the young, the safety of the herd. They do not simply decide to wage war for naught. No such concept as hate within the animal world. Yet we humans who have been given the right and the power to rule the world, to be Head Honcho over all living creatures, takes that gift and turns it sour and stinking of rot and corruption. Why have we chosen to be lesser than the least of the beasts of the field?

Why do humans choose to fall upon their swords rather than applying their rear ends to a seat and talking out differences. Talk is always the end point of a war so why can we not skip the bloodshed? Why do we forever choose to emphasize the differences rather than the similarities, that which joins us together? 

It has long been said that one can choose one's friends but not one's family. However, families   must always try, have the inner instincts, to wage peace or compatibility within families, no matter the differences amongst them.  All humans belong to the same family. We look the same in generalities, and the differences are actually truly insignificant, deny it though we do. All have the same desires and needs. And yet we deny those very existential facts and instead concentrate on perceived differentials, growing them into bloodshed, horror, terror, all the worst we can be, discounting and even severing our shared kinship. 

Humans have an affinity to the worst within our makeup. Inevitably, we choose to be the least rather than the best. What humanity could be and should be, establishing a positive synergy enhancing the ability and power within us to solve the problems that beset this world, is shoved aside. Greed, a madness demanding power over others, overcomes all other behavioral motivations and we forget our family relationships and we persist, insist, in the   slaughtering each other. 

'Why' rings out loud but falls upon deaf ears. Blind eyes do not see the terror on the faces of the young nor comprehend the confusion of the elderly. All that is felt and acknowledged is the overwhelming pounding of bloodlust, desire for a piece of land always changing ownership, access to some natural resource we should all be sharing rather than hogging. Why do we not see that all can be resolved without butchery? Why do we always resist possibilities of solutions? 

Why do we always resist possibilities of solutions via peaceful talk, understanding and empathy, compromise. Why must we always choose the saber rattling and the saber application? Why must we always be the gladiators within coliseums of our own making, rather than conservators and champions of peace and harmony. Why? It does not make sense. It ignores the fact that we protect our loved ones from harm and terror. Why can we not understand that the very same emotions drive our designated 'enemies', actually, our fellow members within the family of humankind. If the world would strive to redirect our intellect and problem-solving abilities, how much better would our world be! 

We continue to fly in the face of all that is logical and reasonable, of all that makes sense. We push and we push, and we push until there is no other alternative to violence. And so once again, our men and women, our young, our future, marches off to war, pumped up with the desire to fight, to kill, to die for the country. Why can we not live for the country, for our families, for our future? Why must we go after the innocent? Why must we go after those who contribute? 

Here are the words of a local Chabad Rabbi upon hearing of the violent death of a young Chabad Rabbi. In these brief paragraphs, one can hear his tears, his confusion. He's asking why?! Why does this hate and its ugliness continue? Why do we persist in treading this path? Hear his defiance as well.

"What makes me such a threat? Is it because I stand at the green market, putting on tefillin with people? Or because I organize public menorah lightings that bring light to the streets? Maybe it’s because I give food to the poor, help families reconnect with their traditions, and offer kindness to the community.

We dedicate ourselves—our nights, mornings, and holidays—to helping people. Whether it’s supporting families through the joy of birth, the challenges of a midlife crisis, or the sorrow of loss, we are there. That’s what we did "wrong."

So why are we a threat? Because evil and darkness see light as their greatest enemy. In every war, the goal is to eliminate the opponent completely—to erase any trace of their existence.

But we will not back down. Now is the time to destroy the negativity and the evil in the world. We will fight it with light, with goodness, and with unwavering commitment. Darkness will not prevail."

  Why have we chosen to be so damn stupid, so damn violent. Why do we hunt and hate people all over the world simply because of who or what they are. Religion, the color of their skin, their political beliefs, their orientations, gender. Why can we not direct our minds and the power of our brains to discover or create peaceful, fair solutions, rather than to the ever more sophisticated intricate and dangerous weapons we boast of, so foolishly, so dangerously.  

To create something of goodness and beauty, of peace and progress, is beautiful.

To create weapons of war, of violence is ugly. It is counterproductive.

Which should we choose.

Which do we inevitably choose.

Do we have a choice? 

We certainly do, though too many deny that truth. They give in to the basest of drives and drag others into that toxic miasma, leaving them with no alternative other than to fight to the death for their very survival.  

what is the point of it all?

Between yesterday and today and all that has been going on, I feel as if I am broken. Certainly. my hopes and dreams. for my family, for my little ones so new and fresh and bright, for the world now have cracks and challenges of survival.

And why are we so ugly within, so black of soul that we cannot see the advantages and possibilities of harmony? Why do we always rate the benefits of violence and war over all else.

 What is the matter with us all?

 

BLOOD AND GUTS OR IS IT BLOOD VS GUTS?

Actually, no matter which part of the title we choose, it would be hard indeed for somebody these days to actually see a difference, discerning that difference and make it clear to others. The possibilities of recognition, of understanding this crisis of individual and societal souls are many. In fact, it can be clearly seen as presented to the public in the most recent big-time films. These two movies presently in the theater are bringing out the crowds. The parking lots are full, and the seats are taken. Will we use this to our advantage, or will we   remain stubbornly immune to the truths it lays out before us.

I believe that all forms of media and modes of presentation have lessons for us. We can either see them, learn them, internalize them, make sure they are the proper internalizations, or we can disregard.  Do we generally choose the less immediately rewarding or do we choose the blood and guts, the false glory. All through the lives of most people these choices are relatively small ones with no great effect on the rest of the world at large. (Though of course there is always that butterfly effect rule.) While the decisions taken might be consequential for the individual and for those close to the individual, these are not the decisions that break men's souls, causing them to crack and to revert to tactics which are equally reprehensible, born of the same evil of the causative tactics.  

There's a new word out there, newly introduced. from the world of psychology into the world of American politics. Actually, it is much of the American persona today. It is cold and heartless. Disinhibition refers to the condition where people become increasingly unable, unwanting, to regulate themselves. They cannot control their impulses and give way to growing ugly urges. Unfortunately, that is the take on American Society today. We have no brakes. We broke them. Too many of us rejoice in the loss of those brakes for they feel a freedom to do as they wish, to indulge the most bloodthirsty desires within. The question within the title becomes moot for they merge, erasing any distance between them.

The first movie is Gladiator II. It has received many accolades and is a good movie, though I think it is overrated. The standard gladiator movie, the Rome Coliseum movie of a corrupt and dying Rome with extras. Exotic animals. Crowds of Gladiators. Doing what men love. Willingly or forced to do. But the bottom line is whether there is an actual differentiation between the two.  I am not sure of that difference. Many men indulge in daydreams of gladiator roles and glory, ignoring the nightmares of the reality of those daydreams.  Wielding swords and pikes and weapons. Hearing the roars of the crowds cheering them on, calling for more blood, raising thumbs up or down, the intoxicating power of life or death over others, especially to the realistically disenfranchised. Equally as guilty, equally as complicit, for they determine the final end.  Do they fully understand what they are doing, feel at least a tiny ping of regret, or could they care less, or actually like it. Or are they ignorant? Perhaps woefully so. If that is the case where does mankind go? 

Where can it go? Is there a defect, a design flaw so huge, so overwhelmingly in control of the human psyche that once the wall of inhibition is breached there is no return. No going back. If so, this puts us in a pretty rotten position. Should the Lord actually look down and take an interest in what is happening with His creations, would He, will He send forth the waters again to wipe clean the surface of the earth? Or having promised us there will be no further floods of that dimension will it be via fire or drought or combat or disease? There is no lack of possibilities. Or will we receive compassion yet again, undeservedly so, with the Lord actually sending down some modicums of sensibility and understanding through the heads of enough people. Enough to halt this train wreck of humanity and move the lever and put us on a different track. A    better track. Always in the back of the mind is a niggling little question. Would we pay attention to that shift in track? Or would we scream and shout along with the bloodthirsty hordes at the Coliseum, demanding a return to what was.

Juxtapose the Society of the Gladiator and the Society of today and recent history. The elements clearly match up. We have a visibly demented, power hungry, power greedy authoritarian figure, and the movie has a set of demented, cruel twins who know no bounds, every whim indulged. There is the purveyor of gladiators whose ultimate goal to take revenge upon the state of Rome, to destroy it utterly until all that is left is crumbled ruins. We have those amongst us as well. It matches with the revenge hunger of the gladiator, the hero of the movie. Forced to renounce his heritage, he is hauled away to Rome as a gladiator who must prove his prowess in combat, tempted with a possibility remote opportunity of purchasing his own freedom even as he mourns the death of his wife and plots and plans only for his revenge. Ultimately, the same goal:   take down Rome. 

The question now is whether there is a difference between those two sets of desires for revenge. Does it actually make a difference if the end result is the same? Can there be such a turnaround in the hearts of people and will words spoken at high decibels actually influence them to do the right thing and turn aside from all they know and like? Most history tells me that the masses of people are more likely easier to turn to the evil, to the disinhibition side of life, rather than to the difficulty of maintaining proper standards.

 Hence the question. Are people born with a propensity for evil and blood and guts or are they made into these people, gradually morphing into such with no actual point to say" Ha! Here is the point of no return." I wish I knew that point but I am just as troubled and unknowing as everybody else. Now the movie Wicked comes to the fore. The question is asked by Glinda, the good witch.  “Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them.” How open are people to the adoption of that wickedness thrust upon them? Is there no defense or resistance?

The future Wicked Witch of the East enters the Academy with hidden unacknowledged unknown powers. Overridden by the deep desire to become part of something, to end her lonely status, she doesn't know how nor is she allowed to find that path in a positive manner. The atmosphere at her new school is off balance. There is something wrong within that Academy and society at large.   Regarded respected traditions are shattered and the wise goats, the instructors of voice and wisdom are losing their voices and rights. Their speech is unclear and vanishing and their long-held rights to teach are being taken away. Well in tune with my long-term thinking that art and life are all too often   impossible to actually separate. them. The situation within the movie is well paralleled with the world of today and the world of the 1930s. In both times Jews are being oppressed. They are being threatened. Their rights, their abilities, their contributions are being negated, denied. and refused. 85,000 students pour through streets shouting words of hate. There is no difference between those words of hate and the Horst Wessel song of the Nazis. Or when an official tells a person that destroying a synagogue is not an act of anti- Semitism. W here has truth gone. Regents of UC speak of the rampant antisemitism and the acts which followed on their campuses. Where is the response, the cures the preventions. Certainly not in any site in any meaningful form. 

As is upon Elphaba so it is upon us. To make our own way and to make the proper choice. Will we be our basest components or will we struggle and choose the more difficult but ultimately more rewarding path. Elphaba says, "I think I'll try defying gravity." She screws her courage to the sticking point as per Shakespeare and flies above all. Where will she fly? At the end of an absolutely wonderful climax, we file from the theater knowing that Part Two awaits and we are impatient for it even as we know what happens. But we hope.   Perhaps history can be changed Perhaps humanity can dig deep. Perhaps Elphaba will be strong, better than her oppressors, and not give in to righteous anger and tempting evil thoughts of revenge. 

This world unfortunately has many natural born wicked witches, male and female. We have an overwhelming surplus of those who will gladly join in, become the camp followers, the enthusiasts, and there is no difference between them and those who slay - literally. They all immersed in the blood of those they kill. They are all responsible for the rubble of society.

This disinhibition is a bad thing. It turns civilization back on itself. We fulfill the. warnings, the realities presented right before us, which we managed to ignore. Judge Learned Hand wrote " Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it." Can you not hear the warning bell of our society today? The ever growing. possibility, probability, of a one party, one-man authoritarian rule rising to the fore, locking out any other life. Will we fulfill the words of another who understands that which is almost upon us? “When truth becomes a casualty, we can only fight it on the streets." That is what we are doing. We are fighting on the streets of our cities, of our towns, of nations of the world. 

We have been warned by one who understands this quite well. He writes. that Trump won “because the majority of the voters wanted a would-be dictator as president. ... who promised them revenge on his and their enemies." The fault within us is equivalent to that of the roaring bloodthirsty Coliseum crowds.  Is this blood lust innate within humanity? Have we sought it out and planted it deep within our souls? An ugly road, nothing we should desire, but evidently, we do and have done consistently over the millennia. We must find our way back. Fight our way back. To the better part of us.

My favorite political cartoonist, Pepper... and Salt, makes our situation quite clear in two sentences. In one we have an adult instructing a child. “Polite company does not discuss religion, politics, gender, climate, diet, credit scores...”  Its corollary is found in another cartoon which states, "I get all my news from the voices in my head.” We are insane. That's the only logical answer. Too insane to understand that the blood and guts and the blood versus guts   are actually the same. Revenge rather than tackling the innate causes that leads to demands for revenge. It only leads to worse. Will we, can we, ever shed this ugliness within? Are we capable and wanting to regrow the inhibitions and govern society for the better? At present we are broken, as broken as ancient Rome. Is this the future of humanity. 

 Who the hell are we today? Where the hell are you and I today? Take a look. Assess. Repeat. Add it all up with honest eyes and soul and understand what we have wrought. Then to actually attempt to repair the world - beginning with us and the little decisions growing into big decisions.

Only we can do this. Only if we put in the sweat equity necessary.  

Beginning now. 

Yesterday.  

WHERE THERE IS TRUTH

Possibly with a bit of editing the title can be rephrased and reordered so as to ask a question. Is there a 'where there is truth'? Is there in fact on this planet a location where truth is of the utmost importance, valued as an integral part of the ethos of a nation? Where truth is valued as a virtue and necessity. Where confusion does not reign. A place under the sun which allows clear vision and space to act honorably, without fear of consequences of threats all the way to actualization of said threats.   Where a shell of truth is not hollowed out until all that remains within is falsehood and evil intentions. 

These days, decades after Peter, Paul and Mary sang of flowers and graveyards, of young people, of a never-ending cycle of pain, it remains clearly relevant to our times and into the visible near future. Humanity insists on perseverance of faulty beliefs, apparently unable to let go of the tool of war, of its inevitable consequences of horror, butchery, of inhumanity and cruelty beyond any understanding, let alone justification. 

Even as we make movies with ever larger than life Monsters, we do not discern the monsters hidden in the shadows, the humans pulling the strings, pushing the buttons of those front-line Monsters.  We ignore the Monsters within us, within all of civilization. No one is exempt. Humanity has clearly lost its way yet shows little enthusiasm or plans to reorient itself on its journeys through life. We fumble, detour, destroy the good before us and leave behind scorched earth.   

I can neither understand nor explain why this affinity of humanity for the negative and the harmful? Is it indeed that difficult for most people to understand and buy into the better options, the ones that elevate rather than deflate and debase? Why do we insist on ignoring the lessons our past misbehavior and failings have imparted to us. Why do we then persist in recreating versions of those erroneous times and deeds and follow them to perdition, to its inevitable bitter end. It is, as the King of Siam said, "a puzzlement". It is, as the Talmud tells us, one of the eternal questions destined to remain unanswered and unanswerable.

Peruse any format of news media, print, online or podcast. YouTube and its musical interpretations, or the verbiage of talking heads. Therein one can find a generous number of candidates for Monster status. Any number of clear villains, egregiously so, who have slaughtered thousands upon thousands, welcomed the Specter of Death to freely roam the land, denied and ignored until too late, or so feared and powerful that opposition was unable to be mounted. It takes oceans of blood and mammoth lakes of salty tears before any positive movement is visible.

Today, especially over the past decade(s), we are so frustrated, so apparently immutably blocked from any positive pathway. In that negative attitude and its pain, we return to thoughts of rescue, the Strongman and accompanying ethos. It may make trains run on time or distribute a few more loaves of bread, but it will not stop the evil rampant in the land. It will not give hope for the future. It will not allow dreams to be fulfilled or even dreamed of. The reign of a strongman is a reign of darkness and terror, an adoption of the worst of mankind and the rejection of the better aspects of Humanity. It promises only worse and more for the future. That is the world today in too many places, even looming right outside the doors of the nation, with too many already well within those doorways.  

Worse is that we reach out to those   "strong" people, climbing onto false hopes that will turn and bite us fiercely and too late. Too late we will have recognized the error of our ways and the state of being we have brought down upon ourselves. We allowed it to enter our lives, even cheered on its policies, which reeked of hate and bias, of falsehoods disguised as truth. 

As a result, we damaged something within us, whatever name we assigned to it - soul, heart, mind, the best instincts of mankind. Whatever name we give it, we will have gone a long way towards its eternal destruction.

If we are to redeem ourselves, find an open path to be better than what we presently are, we must understand the difficulties ahead of us and remain strong in a positive manner. We must delve deeply within those threatened aspects of ourselves. We must clearly acknowledge where we, you, me, all of us, went wrong. It is when and where we shed the recognition of a shared humanity. Instead, we stressed the differences, giving them far more importance than they deserved. The rot of these erroneous paths and thoughts grew without or with very little opposition. They were part and parcel of our daily modus operandi, of the foundations of a sick society. A society which absorbed the evil of the old societies of history.  

We turned off all feelings of kindness, of empathy and sympathy. Bought into the exaggerations of those who have now assumed the reins of terror and power.  Why have we done this? How have we allowed this? How have we enabled it so? How have we lost sight and understanding of the harm, the pain, the evil it has spewed forth over our lands, threatened this nation, the State of Israel and any forward-thinking people of the world.

How in fact are we able to look at a picture on the front page of a newspaper, a mother rather over vigorously being patted down for some nameless contraband or nonexistent weapon. Even as her little two-year-old baby stands there crying hysterically, not understanding what is going on, immersed in a terror beyond all comprehension. How have we been able to enforce a dichotomy between that two-year-old child, that terror that totally encompass him with the two-year-old child in our lives? There is no difference. No difference at all. Only in circumstance. Only in hearts of those who should and in fact, do know better but deny its truth.

If those circumstances appear to be dangerous for   society, then surely, we have enough brain power to overcome the issues, to plan properly and to be human and humane. To be fair, even apply the pure logic and understand the necessity of immigration to a nation. The labor it provides, the boost to the economy. The ideas of commercial activity, the fresh blood, and new 'boxes' of thought. All that a nation needs to grow and to be viable whatever the circumstances it faces now or in the future. The same as did our ancestors, and not so long ago. The same as we might very realistically be facing in the future. The very near future.  

We must not lose our goodness, our sympathy and empathy, our drive to benefit individuals as human as ourselves and better ourselves at one and the same time.  

We must not lose ourselves, the best of ourselves. Once totally forsworn, it will never return. Never. And we will all be the very worst for it.

Totally irretrievable. 

Truth. 

TRUTH. 

...LET'S TRY AGAIN, FROM THE TOP

 It is not so difficult to fool oneself. We can hallucinate, voluntarily or involuntarily. We can have partial even selective vision. Whatever works. However, the brutal facts, the brutal truth, is that eventually, sooner or later, the truth will out and the ugliness of what we have been denying will be front and center. And then what? How does one deal with the assault on one's eyes? How do we handle the salty sting of tears? The very bitterness of what we see. Its undeniably there presence. Just what do we do, how to handle it? Will the grit ever leave our eyes and halt the torment?  

The truth is no one, nobody knows how to handle a truth which was so voluntarily, mightily, denied. It smacks us upside and downside the head, punches one deep in the gut. Hard, unforgiving. We turn it away, in the vain hope that it will go away, be totally gone, when we turn back. But it does not vanish. And so here is the truth of what we have been denying. Like it or not, we're going to face it. If not now, then later, though, in my opinion it's going to be much, much sooner than later. We are well down the road to a really bad situation. Actually, we are getting to that there in record pace, breaching the border now. When will we arrive at that point of realization? If and when we do, I am not even sure if we can retrace our footsteps. Correct the errors. And clear our eyes, so that they see the truth before it becomes too late. Too late to find our way back, and then our way forward.  Frighteningly, we might already have missed that reckoning point and have lost the chance to find our way back and 'unstep' all those missteps. Horrid thought.

So, from the top. Crap flows in both directions, but generally, the flow begins at the top and the rotting of the body becoming more powerful, more prevalent, more destructive, as it flows downward, as the numbers of victims increase exponentially. So, truth. 

The eyes of the nation have been affected and infected for many a year. We have long ago become expert at denying the vision before our eyes. If we actually do get a glimpse, we blame its possible presence and indelible stain on those we find intolerable, indigestible. We deny the visual rot and the stinking odor of that rot as it permeates the air, ever more powerful. But deny it we do. We continue until we swallow it with no chance of regurgitation, or we   mount a dangerous last ditch Hail Mary effort to give humanity more hope and optimism. But once again, the truth is there. Will humanity be able to turn aside, step back from the brink, step off the erroneous path, see the truth and rebuild yet again. Be better than before. Again. How many chances do we get? Have we reached the limit already?

In three states a bizarre law is being promulgated which will in fact not only deny the right of choice, of abortion if necessary for whatever reason, but will actually force women to have more babies. The states claim they are harmed, face grievous damage punishable by the law, by these abortions as it denies them more workers. Anybody here see, feel the echo of Slavery? Do not make a mistake. Do not indulge yourself in the thought that nah, this will never be, for the courts which will rule on these attempts to pass these laws and keep them on the books, enforce them are polluted by Trump appointees who do what Massa wants lest they lose their jobs. The judiciary has been compromised, and its tangled threads of compromise and rot will not be easy to untangle, if even possible. The worst of it all is that the courts and the system are rotten. Right to the Supreme Court and the justices of that bench in majority numbers. No aid from that corner.

Perhaps you think education will do the trick. Think that not, as in our system and current idea of education, we're already at a dangerous point of no return. We are burning and censoring, denying wise words of the past and stunting the present and the future. We have one state and other states following, a tad under the table at present, of rejoining Church and State. Teaching lessons   based on readings of the Bible. Whose Bible? That of the “Beloved Christians” of Trump. 

How do we explain to that little Catholic boy that this is not his religion, that he is not going to Hell, as he is not bad. How do we explain to that little Jewish girl that no, we do not worship Jesus, nor follow this Bible, that Jesus was one of us. A plain old simple Jew attempting to right some wrongs of society. As many Jews have done and do, much to their detriment. What do we tell atheistic parents who do not wish to have the child dipped in a pool of belief contrary to their beliefs and their lifestyle. It is so wrong that its blare deafens the ears even as the colors of its presence are shocking to the eyes.  Yet Texas is ordering textbooks, and too often, where Texas goes, so goes the nation's educational world along with the textbook printers.

 Do you erroneously think that these are the only problems that we must face and fix? If so, you are ever so wrong, ever so fooled. You're right in thinking there are other more ingrained problems more difficult to fix and to replace with the proper laws, proper attitudes and proper visions and hopes that we in this nation need so desperately at this time. In fact. the world does as well. However, the fix is not easy, not in any of the problems we face. Our opponents will put forth mighty efforts to keep the status quo so beneficial for them, not for the rest of us, the nation. 

We, the crowned leader of the West, have tossed aside that crown. and spit at our allies and played footsie with our enemies. We've gone into the wrong stores and bought the wrong items, not only incorrect, but actually dangerous. To all and everything we hold right and proper and even holy. More on that tomorrow. 

I sincerely hope that writing about it along with others writing about it, will begin to put on the brakes, and slow our track down the wrong path. Perhaps even allow us to possibly take some steps back. Erase the erroneous ones. Step freshly anew in the proper direction. 

Will we? Can we?

How much of a betting person are you?

YOICKS!! WE DID INDEED

Exactly what did we do? For one thing we proved the historical veracity of some very intelligent warnings and what happens when these truths are ignored. The worst is that we get exactly what we have asked for, via so many words and actions.  By refusing to follow the thread of our thoughts and deeds we allowed the inevitable consequences to morph into reality. And oh, so quickly as well. 

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence who has   perused the news outlets in any format has had   body, face and soul splashed with ice cold water. It is water of so cold a temperature that life as we know it cannot, will not, be able to survive. Certainly not in format hospitable to those who live within it. Trump's egregiously purposely dangerous picks to fill the positions open in his administration have left this country vulnerable to serious wounds inflicted from within, the most dangerous kind. 

Too often the rot from these wounds is difficult to discern and treat, no plan for treatment to reduce and heal those wounds. Instead, we have a perverse encouragement of the growth of the destructive rot, to inundate all in its path, all that once the United States of America meant to the world. No longer.  The atmospheric rivers of the political and philosophical world are overtopping the foundations of this nation. All in the name of proudly vocalized plans of revenge and retribution.  Evil, yes, Evil, are the paths chosen by the President elect, gleefully, unopposed by those who are supposed to be the brakes to his destructive road trips as they are broken, silenced, terrified. 

 Trump has emulated his buddy Putin and all the dictators who preceded him. It is a scorched earth policy, where opponents are jailed, even killed, and frankly, there is very little space between his path and the path of Trump. While not yet embracing execution in a precise manner, Trump's plans of using the military to enforce his evil immoral plans are obvious and openly acknowledged. The legislative and judiciary branches of this government are so tainted, already biased and under the thumb of Trump that the fear of the third leg of this triangle of terror, the military, will not stand in his way, but will indeed allow itself to serve his plans, his wishes, his machinations, his paths of destruction. The result? That scorched territory once known as the United States of America. 

Trump himself said that only via and with great fear is true power achieved. Somehow, he has managed to frighten all. His canny dementia, similar to that of the despots of history, their disconnect from humanity, and morals highlighted in their absence as immorality rules, has brought this nation to its knees and actually lower than that as frightened and/ or enamored cohorts and camp followers prostrate themselves before him, assigning him royal power, royal blood. and godly powers. 

We have abandoned. our hopes and dreams, our drives to be ever better. Instead. we have taken the express elevator all the way down to the sub - sub basements. There we muck around in the filth and the sludge of humanity, celebrate perverse appointments of those who would destroy the department they are supposed to lead. Chant and cheer at their approval and their plans. Apparently, we are not sensitive enough to gage the speed at which we are disappearing into that sludge. We have become a senseless mob of senselessly chanting idiots, rooting, cheering for our own destruction. 

It is not necessary to reiterate all the names of his destructive appointments. It is sufficient to know the harm they will inflict. Those beneath, around, and even above will suffer as they ramp up their own inner evil and dissolution. Yes, I am told, and I acknowledge that so far, his appointments have been pro-Israel. However as soon as Israel displeases him, or American Jews displease him, or Netanyahu steps out of line, I am afraid that policy will be flipped over onto its back, stomped into the ground. One cannot, must not, trust a visibly crazed individual. One must not attempt to build upon such shaky foundations for they will surely crumble and all that is built above will crumble as well.    

Red lights flashing. Alarms blaring but ears are deaf. Do not expect any justice. Do not expect prosperity. Do not extend or expect any careful thought. Do not anticipate policies that are pro humanity. and truly progressive Understand that our learning curve of comprehension is steep and of short duration. 

This man once again with no mandate of a majority of the population of this nation has taken hold of the reins. Encouraged by the turn of events he has become even more of a despot than he had already planned for. There's nothing in his way. No person brave enough to say 'no more'. Who is to stop him? Will we become a nation of cruelty, ripping   parents from children, ignoring the tears of a two-year-old crying for his Mommy. Begin to use and plan for the forced labor of those in deportation camps AKA American concentration camps? Will we force a false Christian religion upon the nation? Will we become a nation where women will be downgraded, discounted and bereft of all that women have achieved. Will censorship bring about a state of miseducation?

It is incumbent upon us to truly see and hear what is clear just below the surface. Follow the threads of reality and understand the outcomes, the contradictions contained within these plans. Governmental reins in the hands of dangerously ignorant incompetent people. To ignoramuses. Others given free entry to mess around with our money. Why? Because they are wealthy. So of course they can create a new money wasting Department of Governmental Efficiency, DOGE, like the ruler despots of Renaissance Italy. So backwards is our vision, so wrong our directions. 

See the truth. Hear the truth. Know the truth. Act on the truth. Be a true American. Be loyal to America - the entity and the idea. 

It is upon us to save ourselves from ourselves.

 No excuses.  

Little leeway and litle time.

          

        

    

 

     

 

 

SO SORRY

  My apologies. I was up half the night. Couldn't quiet my mind. And when I finally fell asleep, I overslept. Now the rest of the morning's appointments are calling out to me. "Move it. Move it. Move it." So, my apologies. God willing, there will be a fresh bog tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I invite you to catch up on some of the blogs you might have missed. I wish you all a good day and I hope the world takes a turn for the better on this very busy Monday. 

DO NOT FORGET THEM

These are the last words of an article written about the American hostages remaining in the filthy bloodstained hands of Hamas. They are Jews. They are Israelis. They are Americans and yet America has left them behind somewhere, in the land of we could care less. Three of them are already dead, known beyond doubt to be dead and four possibly surviving. Actually, with the slaughtered Hersh, I believe that makes eight. 

We know naught about the remaining hostages. Certainly, the exact fate of the Bibas family remains obscured. Argentina has forgotten her citizens as have the other nations of the world. France. England, Australia where are you? Guess you are too busy indulging the anti-Semitism rampant in your lands. Or perhaps you are voting for the sovereignty of Palestine in the UN which states most assuredly that Israel has on purpose caused starvation in Gaza. The same starvation claimed as imminent, two days away, 6 weeks away, on and on and on as of October 7th last year, after Hamas and thousands of "innocent civilians' joined in the rampage and/or cheered as the captives or their corpses were paraded through Gaza and desecrated. 

And here it is again. We are told that many have already died due to starvation. I am not quite sure where they are or where they have been, for I have perused the many photos that have come out of the war. I see wrapped 'bodies', but never an unwrapped corpse. I wonder, are there designated sheet wrapping stocks to use, for how are they so readily available and tied ever so properly? 

Beats me, but then again, having never plotted war nor mass murder I cannot answer, only can marvel at the foresight of laying out supplies of sheets in every building in Gaza. Amazing! Evidently, the planning heads of Hamas found a great sale for burial sheets and stocked every building, but somehow stocked only their tunnels with food, water, fuel, etc. All the necessities of life in order to inflict death and horror upon their own people!! Their people used as a weapon of war and accepted as such by the world. Oh, so welcoming of anything which could be laid at Israel's door. A world ever ready and accepting of any claims against Israel and all Jews for that matter.  

Foremost in those claims is the fairy tale of starvation. But I see no victims of starvation. I see no sunken eyes nor prominent ears. No hollowed-out skulls. No walking sacks of bones. No walking skeletons. No piles of bodies who died of starvation so rampant and endemic within Gaza. So many, impossible to gather and bury. And the world buys into these lies, hook, line, and sinker, even as Israel allows in trucks of food and supplies, even as Hamas hijacks the contents. Even as the supplies end up either in the black market or on the shelves of stores selling them for a profit. Everywhere, other than in fair distribution among the 'starving innocent' people of Gaza who are used as cannon fodder by their rulers. Their rulers whom they have tolerated and joined since 2005. 

 Sniff, sniff. Smell something rotten?        

What I and the world do not see are the hostages. Yes, their pictures are up all over Israel and in Jewish neighborhoods, in store windows. In homes well stocked with the myriad books and memoirs of the horror of Oct 7 and its ongoing horrid blood-soaked aftermath. This nation and nations of the world are crisscrossed by freed and rescued hostages, accompanied by relatives of those who remain in captivity or are known to be dead. I see and hear the words, the pictures, but evidently the nations of the world are selectively blind, able to ignore their own citizens still held in a captivity of brutality and torture, used as psychological items of warfare as a video is shown and then the prisoner is murdered. 

The hostages are real. Their situations untenable and intolerable, yet there they remain. The guilt of Hamas in that instigation and brutality of its attacks that began this war, foisted upon Israel, is totally denied. Hamas has screwed their own people, cutting them off from their jobs in Israel, which paid them decent salaries, enabling them to build homes, to educate their children. No more - thanks to Hamas. No more thanks to their acquiescence and cheering at the outset, now so different - yet inevitable.  

Israel has gone far above and beyond in her efforts to minimize civilian deaths but when civilians cannot be differentiated from combatants, on purpose, there are limits. Those limits and the consequences belong at the doorways of Hamas, not Israel. And yet, that obvious truth is denied.   Hamas brought this horror down upon their own. The conditions Gazans now have been the consequences of Hamas.  Due to the outrageous misplaced support for the beasts of Hamas, it behaves and demands as a victor. Israel should cede all, leave Gaza and perhaps, maybe, whenever, sometime, there will be discussion re the hostages. Maybe. Maybe not. Certainly not all. Of course not. And the world goes right along, the roots of JewHatred are deep indeed. No nation in the world would do this yet it is demanded of Israel.  

Ironically, awfully, the future for Israel and world Jewry rests upon the shoulders of a clearly demented man who delights in causing aggravation, in being perverse, immoral and a felon. Yet at present he clearly supports Israel. His appointments connected with the Middle East are pro-Israel, all clearly outspoken, Rubio rightly calling Hamas beasts - which they are. Yet how strong will they be should Trump change his mind, clearly a possibility, even a probability. And yet his support now is strong and hopefully will remain so. 

I now have a dichotomy within me. Difficult. There it is. I despise Trump for everything that he is, for everything that he proposes, for every antagonistic appointment he has made. Placing people who are diametrically opposed to what they are supposed to defend and protect. People of no relevant experience whatsoever, therefore grave doubt as to their capabilities in their most important sensitive positions. Yet he's outspokenly pro-Israel though statements re American Jews are not reassuring. Nor are some of his White Power buddies. 

And yet such is the reality, such is the dichotomy of my soul with which I must contend. Is there any wonder why the words of my prayers for the safety of Israel, the safety of my people, the sanity of the world, are ever more fervent and ever more frequent. Even as I see "I told you so" moments growing, there it is. Upon the man who is anathema to me in so many ways, is the best booster for Israel at present, other than the Lord Above. Frankly, I do not understand the Lord's actions and thoughts any more than those of Trump! 

 I hate it all. And yet ... I must tolerate my own personal schizophrenia in this manner and hope and pray for the best, albeit with great trepidation and unease. Not a pleasant situation. 

Do not forget them, the hostages, nor the standards of justice and truth which must prevail.  

   

  

  

 

NO AND NO AND NO AND NO AD INFINITUM

  And for those of you hard of hearing or bleary of eyesight, I will repeat it again. No. and no and no and no and no and no and no ... You may keep going if you wish or cut it off, but it will not change. It has never changed - not in the past and nor will it change in the present or future. The old adage which tells us "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" is quite applicable in the current status quo of the world today. 

As humans among humanity, we are disappointed by the return of an overbearing negative air of intolerance and its exceptional attraction for so many. The world was never a perfect place, not in the past, certainly not in the present, and a long hard slog through hostile territory before we can look towards a much better future. There are too many places where even today hate rules the day, slaughter the ultimate goal. Slavery in all its ugly guises remains alive and unfortunately well in too many areas and nations of the globe. But at least we were making progress. At least and at last there were voices raised louder, more in numbers and    frequency, against the ugliness of these practices. Progress was being made albeit too slow in speed.

However, almost overnight, voices of the better part of Humankind were vanquished, shouted over by ugly voices returned to the surface, a reinvigorated. hatred of old that never seemed to die. It was always there. Sometimes louder. More pervasive, more harmful; at other times. it remained as a dull roar in the background. 

We knew this roar existed. We heard it on a minute. by minute-by-minute basis. But we thought with time we could quieten that roar. Perhaps never making it disappear, but to be almost negligible in decibel and certainly never to reappear openly, with actions accompanying the words. Certainly, we thought, we had progressed higher on the ladder of civilization. Surely, we were able and would be   more able, enough so as to discard all these negativities. How deaf and blind we were and remain. How foolish we are even today. Too many continue to prefer to cling to a dangerous policy of denial of reality. 

With hindsight always perfect, we can look back and see that it was not suddenly overnight but was rather, at first, a slow but steady buildup and then faster and faster and faster until the world seemed afire with the reimagined and fortified hatred which consumes all - the haters and the hated. It is often, too often now a challenge to walk down the street. It is a situation with people either hiding and/or denying their connection to Judaism, to being a Jew. Or, as I and many others do, we flaunt it, wear garments and accessories which highlight our status as Jew. In your face is the attitude. Screw you is the emotion prevalent within, along with the anger and defiance. 

Along with that comes the inevitable Hate. Yes, I now hate where I did not Hate before. I hate those who have made me a Hater. They have squeezed something out of my soul, taken something from my heart. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and belittles the core of humanity, that core which impels us to be better, to strive for higher and purer thoughts and behavior. To care for others as we care for ourselves and for our own. To have pride in who and what we are without denigrating others and casting them aside, denying them their place in society. It intimidates those who would contribute much for the betterment of all. 

 Hate does not allow nor make room for the positive. It stomps on that. It sends people flying backwards in high reverse speeds. It is an ugly phenomenon which haunts our streets. It echoes in the canyons of the big cities. It taints the rivers and the waters of the land. It sinks into the earth and dyes the grains of the sand. It pollutes all that it touches, subtly and not so subtly.

The oldest most malignant hatred has returned   invigorated, retrenched, soaked in pools of toxic thoughts and deeds and its toxicity drips loudly and endlessly. It strives to emulate the worst proponents and practitioners of Hatred through the millennia. It is a hatred which cannot be separated from that which is its target. It is JewHatred. One word. Unique. 

It is the rampant ugliness of the streets today. It is the attempt to deny life not only Israeli Jews but all Jews along with their advocates. The right to live, to exist, to be free, to be safe. To dream, to raise families, to contribute. To be recognized as people. Why in 2024 are we still facing this ugliness? Why in 2024 has it assumed a more powerful guise and methodology. Why in 2024 are we now facing people who condemn us to death merely for who we are, for our history, for our survival against all odds. Not only survive but thrive. Blamed for being slain and brutalized. Blamed and cursed for all that has inevitably occurred as a result of a war forced upon us. A war for our very survival. 

How does one explain to a child why he/she is hated? Why must we have to do so? How does one keep a family safe? These and many other questions are difficult and varied. The answers are even more difficult, but one thing is for sure. We will remain strong, determined, defiant and will outlast all who oppose us. We have been told in the Bible that those who curse us will be cursed in turn. Those who bless us will be blessed with the same blessings. So, world, make your choice. 

For those of you who need a refresher course as to what and who people are, no matter the origin, the ethnicity, the skin color, the beliefs, that we are all the same - here are some words which might help. Feel the anger, the plea, the confusion. 

We are all the same.

Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice Act III

 He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

WE ARE ALL THE SAME.

HATE SOMEONE AND YOU WILL BE HATED IN TURN.

WE. ARE. ALL.THE. SAME.

 

DOES ANYONE HEAR THE THUNDERING HOOVES?

Actually, I believe the question should be how can one not hear those hooves thundering, pounding, tearing away at the earth? How could one avoid the sight of them as the herd gets closer and closer and closer.  To what? Perhaps, somewhat dramatically, to the end of the world as we know it today. As has been predicted. Particularly within the boundaries of an entity once known as the United States of America. 

 Once upon a time, approximately 250 years ago, a group of bold men combined self-interest and public interest, motives low and high and took a leap of faith. They challenged dictatorial   monarchy. They foresaw a time and place where the people would be able to design their own government and live with the consequences. To remediate as needed. To err, large and small, and be terribly faulty and inefficient, falling short of goals. However, when compared to other forms of government, it stood high over the rest. A role model, an encouragement to strive for the best of us and what we could achieve. If only.  If we kept our determination to be, always, the shining example of the best of Mankind, its true potentialities. If only. 

 Over the years there were good times and bad, highs and lows, but always there was an enthusiasm and inner push to seek the better, to find the higher, and to stand tall and proud. With open arms and welcome for those with the same goals, who wished to contribute and grow with the nation. And we were so much the better for it.

However, somewhere in the first quarter of the 21st century, something broke, something snapped. Out drained our idealism, hope and welcome, discarded   as useless. We grew in selfishness and near sightedness. We hoarded rights belonging to all and were the weaker and poorer for it. We saw whom we wished to see and labeled others as unworthy outliers. We replaced ideals and help for a better world. We filled the resultant vacuum with increasingly twisted ideas and a growing pervasive odor of evil. Yes, evil in their contemplation and evil in their coming to fruition.  

And so, within this fairy tale of what was, what could have been, a deep rot from within and without chewed away at the reality of those dreams and goals. The allure of the permission of that rot, the faulty eyesight of those who could not, would not, see the forest for the trees, nor what awaited at the exit proved overwhelming and the situation grew worse. Lies and misinformation became the lingua fraca of the day, parroted and swallowed whole and uncontested, even as the liars worked behind closed doors on their true plans to negate all that was good, all that was fair within the nation. Nothing was to be left untouched and spoiled. The lies grew and words of warning fell unheard to the harsh unyielding earth. Threads of rot reached deep into the world, grew into the thickness of cables and nations of the world began to turn as well. The desire for a "strong" man as savior grew and was increasingly put into place and practice. 

The doors and gates of Arkham Manor opened wide, and the inmates flooded out. Today the inmates indeed are running the show. Sanity is devalued.  This fairy tale has an ugly ending and a slim chance of remediation and new beginning and end. Certainly not if the man now chosen as the "strongman" of America remains in power, tightly grasping the reins of control.  

The following are words used to describe a designated candidate for the position of Attorney General of the United States of America. Read them and weep. Read them and understand that this description is applicable. to 99% of those Trump has nominated for various offices of government of this nation. Miniscule touches of positivity are swamped, overwhelmed, greatly impeded by deadly calcified hearts and missing souls. Empathy is totally unknown. Selfishness. Greed. Power. Those are the names of the games. Here are the players.

"The committee, which had been probing allegations that he “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct” 

The majority of the Supreme Court Justices.   Apply those words. and cry. Cry for our country. Now think of Tulsi Gabbard as head of National Intelligence. One of the stupidest people who has crossed the threshold into the realm of politics and political control. Think of Rubio. A pretty face and nothing behind.  All these striving to be another Donald Trump. The felon. The pervert. The fraud, the cheat, the liar. The enemy of democracy and diplomacy. His words and promises full of holes and mistrust. Voices of sanity? Voices of restraint? Voices of truth? Are there any with a strength of character to stand up to this man as he wallows in his excesses? Is there a true public servant among his appointees?   

  Unfortunately, the healing magical waters of the wishing well have disappeared, drained back into the earth, there to remain until there is a point of benefit to return our coins of wishful thinking along with those wishes. Now though, the coins fall with a harsh clang upon the hard earth and we walk away knowing that all those wishes did indeed turn into horses, those horses into herds which are trampling. upon us and into the world of men.

I look hopefully into possibilities of this new administration. However, as much as I hope, as much as I pray, all I can see before my eyes at the present time are herds of horses, thunderous hooves and a flood into the White House and official buildings of government of dangerously inane, ignorant. and hate filled characters. Our Batman signal is dead. Superman is on a long vacation as are the rest of the superheroes. It is upon us to remediate the situation, to be our own heroes.       Can we define which fork in the road was the incorrect one and choose again? Reset our compasses for the true path?   Will we find the courage within to go forward? 

Can we rope all those herds of horses, still their hooves and tame and train them to our needs. Damn. But I hope we can. But all I can see ahead of us at present is an ugly sight of the rear ends of horses. However, we are actually the herd of horses' asses at present - are we not! 

AND SO

And so it continues. And so it has always been. And so it seemingly will always be. Is there never to be an end to this? A positive end? Or are we in some living nightmare condemned to relive over and over again the moments of horror and bloodshed that has been a major repetitive part of the history of Mankind, and especially of my people, the Jewish nation.     

There are those who persist in saying it can't happen here; it won't happen here. Take a look and decide if that is the correct call. Unfortunately, they are wrong. Very wrong. The ability, even the desire, to go along with extremes of behavior have found homes within the souls of too many. It is frightening to a degree unimaginable, yet very clearly possible, even probable. History has proven this truth and there is no reason why one should or would think otherwise these days.

In frightening replication of 80 years ago in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in its entirety, the nations of Europe, North Africa, the Arab Middle East, the streets of Amsterdam exploded in multiple days of "Jew Hunts", of Hamas imitative tactics of motorcycles employed as vehicles of war and terror. The Dutch of yesteryears acquiesced with the extermination program of their Germanic Cousins, dutifully obeying rules and orders. Quite comfortable, even enthusiastic, were they. 

Today, they have enabled, openly allowed what they knew was to be a bloody pogrom. Equal to any of the Middle Ages. Chasing down people, threatening them, forcing them to prove who they are or who they are not. Well detailed plans of those wallowing in the cesspool of JewHatred climaxed in seas of blood and shocking enmity. And so it has always been and so it will always be. Also   unsurprising is the corollary of blame. The blame for this bloodshed obviously, undeniably, historically, is the fault of the Jews even as they fall beneath the clubs and knives and guns of their haters. We are so assured by the perpetrators of the pogroms. 

Their mere existence, their persistence in outliving all enemies, large and small, their survival and stubbornness in insisting upon their continuity is enough to incite 'justifiable' anger and hate and murder. But of course! Why would anyone think otherwise? If only the People of the Book would accept their designations as anathema to the rest of the world, as outliers and pariahs, the eternal scapegoats of others, the convenient go to targets, the root of all evil in the world, how much simpler life would be for the rest of humankind. 

The truth would then be so clear, so undeniable. The 1200 butchered in the communities of southern Israel were the cause of their own death. Apparently so powerful are the Jews that there was much to fear from 9-month-old Kfir, three-year-old Abigail and 4-year-old Ariel, or the weak elderly, the beaten and shot, stabbed 250 captives hauled into Gaza. To await a grisly demise.  

In accordance with that thinking the Maccabi fans should have gotten out of the way of the motorcycles. They should have acquiesced to the blows upon the head and the kicks to the bodies.      Accepted the shedding of their own blood. Why? Why not? It would make things so simple. No debates about roots and causes and results.

Worse to contemplate is the sure knowledge that what comes will be of far greater consequence than what has come before. Pro-Israel protests or anti Hamas, anti-murder protesters are being threatened, stifled, up to and including death and some of the voices are stilled. Mealy mouthed officials do nothing other than encourage the violence directed at Jews and their supporters, as their words carry no weight and their actions are negligible. In fact, the very people who are there to protect, to serve, opt out of that responsibility and/or in fact take part in the demonstrations, quite enthusiastically.   

America is not immune to this hate. It is contagious, as evil and indiscriminate as cholera. More people that you would expect see no harm in mass deportations, in the building of detention camps surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences and the ugliness that would inevitably follow. They see no moral block to becoming adherents, proponents, and of service, even working in these camps following every single rule handed down.

It can't happen here? It won't happen here? Or there? The world has surely learned better, internalized the lessons of the dark moments of history. Think again. It is already happening here. The ground has already been softened and hate has taken strong root. When the head of a country and the followers are amoral and immoral, when people cry out without understanding what they are crying out for - a 'strong' leader, well, when they get what they wished for they will regret it. Too late. 

The poisonous fangs of hate bite deep and wide. The reach of the diseased limbs will be long and inescapable, but oh yes, we will have that strong leader who tolerates no dissent. Who has no brakes, internal or external, to halt the rapid slide the nation will take into savagery and despair.   The danger to this nation, the damage done to it, will be astounding in duration and consequence.  Be careful what you have wished for; be very careful. Antenna should be up and quivering, hackles raised, and shoulders approaching ear territory.   Are yours?  

Can we not do better? Certainly, we must do better for the alternatives are unthinkable, though unfortunately neither unreasonable nor impossible.

Think deep, longer, and with more comprehension. Choose your path carefully. It could be a permanent choice and outcome.   

WISHES AND CHICKENS AND ROOSTS, OH MY!

There are reasons why certain statements become well embedded into the vernacular of a nation. If wishes were horses. Chickens coming home to roost. Foxes in the hen house. Be careful what you wish for. All these and many more, including those mentioning dark tunnels, and we had better take a long, intensive fresh look at them and what they portend for our future. Perhaps if we can open enough minds to actual thought and an understanding of threads of actions and consequences, of actions and reactions, we will better be able to protect the nation from the worst damages Trump and his Trumpy allies intend to foist upon us. In other words, to present the truth to unwilling ears and closed minds, unable to admit, comprehend, what has been wrought upon this nation and in fact, the world at large.

The irony is that when some explanation is presented there is some movement along the correct line. Though crowds of calloused hearted hooligans rant and rave re the 'harm' and 'danger' of immigrants and call for mass deportations, when the details are presented, the support is not so clear.

"A Marquette University Law School poll in September showed the percentage who favor deporting immigrants ... dropped from 61 percent to 45 percent when you cite people who “have lived here for a number of years, have jobs, and no criminal record.”

Another poll showed strong opposition to deportation for many types of undocumented immigrants — all except criminals and recent border crossers. '

Add the enormous costs arising from such a program, the ugliness of detention camps, of masses of children separated from parents, of babies going unattended, and my, oh my, some heads and hearts and souls are to be awakened from deep sleep and begin to gain a glimmer of understanding of the actuality of those words. Of course, in the air, lingers the question and the answers - who exactly are we?

Support for law and order, for enforcement of public compartment, all shatter behind the truth of the pardoning by the convicted felon, now at the head of this government. Worse is the example he sets as this amoral felon and sexual pervert now draws the unfortunately rather legal conclusion that he can do anything he wants, claim it an official act and get away with it all. Thank you, corrupt Supreme Court! This is all that we have wrought This is all that we will come to regret. I truly do not know how much value that regret will provide. Nor if there will in fact be any regret.

The truth is ugly. No amount of plastic surgery will be able to disguise that ugliness. It is deep within the bone, the marrow of this society of this corrupt, withering American society. Free passes will be allotted to those who embrace violence and moral turpitude. Who will embrace all the tropes and memes of hate and bigotry. Project 2025 and the rather obscene Project Esther of the Heritage Foundation lays it all out. It embraces the trusted old tactic of blaming the victim for the sins perpetrated upon it.  Read the following and weep as the truth is revealed, - the underlying ugliness open to the eyes of those who would see.  

“We really understood the Jewish perspective, but it was important for me to have all these organizations represented, and quite honestly, if they were doing their job and they were being effective, we wouldn’t have the problem that we have.”

Yuh huh! The ugliness barely beneath the surface.   For women, there is more. We are to submit to the masters of the world. Certainly, the masters of our household. Glass ceilings disappear, as women disappear as well, staying home to breed and cook.    Is this truly what the average American wants? Is this what women will submit to as we are handed red cloaks and white bonnets? Is this what the men of this world wish for their daughters, for their mothers, for their sisters? I hope not. I pray not. 

We can expect further deeper divisions and separation of society into opposing forces, revenge and retribution will be the guiding principles. The name of the game. Federal employees will be asked to swear loyalty, not to the nation, but to Trump. Refusal to do so will mean unemployment. 

Corruption and incompetence will be rampant. A recent political cartoon from Pepper ... and Salt aptly presents this truth to us. One man is telling the other of the path to success. It is reached through careful planning and follow through, hard work, - and who you know. To whom do your knees bend and your inner soul cede its humanity?

America is on the path to become a bizarre interpretation of its once and former self. The next two years at a minimum will be an attack upon democracy. Frankly, I am not sure how or if we can actually withstand this attack. We have a president who demands the ability to name people to positions without any kind of a vote. He demands that the GOP dominated Houses of Congress submit to his every demand, to remain unquestioned, and unchallenged. No resistance.  

The result is a very perverted America. A mockery of what it is supposed to be. John Mccain once said words to the effect that when we think the tunnel is at its darkest and we peer ahead for some sign of light, the tunnel actually then turns pitch black. A harsh picture of a very possible future.   

Then the final coup d'état. The appointment of Rubio as Secretary of State. The pretty face of an empty head of an obedient servant to Master Trump. The top of the heap of a pile of useless administrative personnel who will have not one word of restraint re the excesses of Trump. We know there will be excesses. We have all read his words. We have all heard his words. His design for revenge and retribution. Pardoning of the evil, including himself, and his planned imprisonment of those who oppose. 

We can anticipate. a flowering of fascist ideas. It is already in one state which provides a template for this process. Florida champions censorship of books, of ideas and thoughts. The rights of an American are abrogated almost daily, observed more in the breach than in the keep. Church and state will be enmeshed, much to the detriment of any who do not fall within the religion of the state. 

Where are we going? What path have we chosen? Is that choice immutable? Is there any possibility of a return to sanity and morality, to humanity? Is there a point of no return? Have we or will we reach that point. Where are we going? In what manner would it affect the world at large? I am unwanted in this country and what will be of my other country, the land of my people? Thunderstorms and hurricanes of condemnation rain down upon Israel as it fights for its life on multiple fronts. There is a rising call of Hate, to   ensure the demise of the Jewish nation as the arms and ammunition necessary to defend itself are facing recall and denial.

Where are the truths? Who began this war? The slaughter and barbarity. Who now wishes to pick and choose the consequences upon itself. Who were those who stood and cheered and celebrated that   bloodshed and jeered the captives, tortured them and killed them?  Why are those truths so blatant yet so visibly ignored and discounted.

Will the world ramp up this vicious campaign of JewHatred? Will they emulate and more all that has gone before? Those moronic pathetic self-denying Jews will find their efforts in vain. Hate conquers all and safety is nonexistent. They worship false idols and will pay the price.

People are tired, exhausted physically and emotionally. Unfortunately, now is the time when we need to dig deep, deep and find more strength and more determination, to fight the wrong, the evil, to shed light upon this darkness and return sanity to the world. Time to stop the hate. Time to stop the violence. Time to remember, to understand, to know that hatred and violence have no end. They will always seek out fresh food and care not who stands in its way.  These are the truths and realities   of life and the dangerous changes we have wrought upon the face of this earth.  

Time goes by quickly and there's no time to waste. There's no time to rest. Dredge deep and find that which is necessary to protect us and our children. To keep America and Israel and democracy safe. 

To fix the world. 

 Our chickens have indeed come home to roost. We have hired the foxes to guard the hens, and then wonder where they have gone. We purport to support one thing and then turn on it in actuality. We wished, and indeed, got what we wished for - and more.    

Life. Life. What have we done?