WORDS OF WISDOM AND TRUTH

 There are many, many, many people who can and do right better than I can. At times what they write is so good that I feel I must pass it on to my readers. One such essay is written by Jonathan Tobin, a brilliant writer as well as an intelligent man who speaks truth in his writing and presents it in a way that is easy to understand and to internalize. With great humility I present the following essay for my readers. Read, think and think deep. 

Jonathan S Tobin is the editor in chief of the Jerusalem News Syndicate. I publish his essay here on my site for it is too important to miss.

The lies behind Mamdani's Netanyahu stunt are the real threat.

It didn’t take a statement from President Donald Trump to ensure that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani isn’t going to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he arrives in Manhattan for the annual U.N. General Assembly meetings in September.

Like all world leaders, Netanyahu is protected by the terms of the treaty by which the United States secured the placement of the world body in New York City in the years after the Second World War. Moreover, the United States is not a party to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, whose corrupt former chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, indicted the Israeli leader on false charges of having “intentionally and knowingly deprived” Gaza’s population of food, water, fuel and medicine in 2024. Khan resigned under fire because of a different issue entirely: accusations of sexual misconduct.

An empty threat

The Trump administration has rightly sought to dismantle the court, whose activities are a travesty of justice and motivated solely by political prejudice against the West, and especially Israel. The ICC’s influence may have made it impossible for Netanyahu to travel to most places in the world. However, it has no jurisdiction in the United States, and federal authorities would prevent Mamdani from interfering with the prime minister’s ability to visit New York or anywhere else in the country.

Mamdani is smart enough to know this. Why then, did he tell The New York Times that he had asked city lawyers to see if he had the authority to honor his campaign pledge to arrest the prime minister, whom he has smeared as a “war criminal”?

The answer isn’t any mystery. To those who support the Democratic Socialist mayor, Israel is the epitome of international evil. They truly believe that the actions the Jewish state took to defend itself against the Palestinian Arab terrorists who launched a war on Oct. 7, 2023, with the largest mass slaughter since the Holocaust were not merely wrong or excessive. They believe that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. And no amount of reporting, historical knowledge or the actual meaning of the word will convince them otherwise.

The ‘genocide’ myth

Wars are raging around the globe that have caused far greater civilian casualties than the one fought against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, who were responsible for the orgy of murder, rape, burnings, torture, kidnapping and wanton destruction that happened on Oct. 7.

But that doesn’t matter. Nor do the reasoned arguments of military experts who have repeatedly stated that Israel’s war against Hamas was conducted in a manner that was more moral and produced fewer casualties than against any foe in an urban environment—let alone one that deliberately, as Hamas did, hid behind non-combatants and sought to endanger as many of their compatriots as possible. Moreover, even the United Nations and The New York Times have finally admitted that it was Hamas that was blocking the distribution of food and other supplies to civilians in Gaza even though both spent most of the war denying it.

If you believe the existence of one Jewish state on the planet is not only illegitimate but that the key to solving all of the world’s problems is bound up in its destruction, then you are ready to believe any charge against it, no matter how false or outrageous. The toxic ideologies that enable such bizarre notions are also responsible for the surge in worldwide antisemitism, not least in New York City, where Mamdani has been forced to acknowledge that Jews are being targeted for hate crimes on his watch out of all proportion to their percentage of the population. And that is a far greater problem than a mayor who thinks that pleasing his base obligates him to make empty threats about arresting Israel’s head of government.

The embrace of critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism by the American education system and so much of popular culture has materially altered public discourse not merely about race, but about antisemitism and Israel. The belief that Israel and Jews are “white” oppressors, and that Palestinians are oppressed “people of color” who are their perennial victims, is contrary to the facts about both peoples. Jews are the most oppressed people of the last two millennia, and the majority of Israelis are people of color by the definitions of the American left since they trace their origins to North Africa and the Middle East.

The perpetuation of the conflict is the function of the fact that any outcome other than Israel’s destruction and the genocide of the Jews living there is an injustice the Palestinians cannot abide.

Once you buy into those myths, it’s easy to believe the blood libels about Jews committing genocide, whose downfall could liberate all of humankind. And if you swallow that, it’s easy to understand why a Democratic Party under the sway of Mamdani’s fellow left-wingers has accepted the hostility to Israel that has, alongside opposition to enforcing immigration laws, become the organizing principle of American politics.

Social-media algorithms versus facts

The real problem behind Mamdani’s latest publicity stunt isn’t merely a function of unjustified anger at Israelis and Jews. As an essay by historian Niall Ferguson and AI researcher John-Clark Levin in The Free Press argues, the same factors are responsible for the growth of Holocaust denial and what they call “The Death of History.”

Ferguson and Levin believe what we are witnessing in our public discourse, both on the left and the far-right, is a “comeback” of the same sort of genocidal hatred for Jews that led to the Shoah in the mid-20th century. Ferguson has spent a lifetime writing histories and producing documentaries warning that accepting these vile ideas leads to tragedy. But he has come to believe that his work—and that of other historians—is increasingly looking like it was all in vain because it is being overridden by social-media algorithms designed to spread hate. While in the past, thought leaders like conservative writer William F. Buckley were able to banish believers in these ideas from the political mainstream, now such efforts are failing.

Instead of denying the Holocaust, political commentators and podcasters on the far-right like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes “mock and celebrate it.” That amuses right-wing youth, who get their knowledge of the world from social-media feeds. Those on the left then “cleverly blend it with anti-Zionism and anti-capitalism.”

Ferguson and Levin point out that “as it is young voters who are most susceptible to these trends, the implications for the future of American politics are chilling.” It explains a lot about Mamdani’s appeal. It also shows how he can flip the narrative about the conflict between Israel and its genocidal foes. That is what is behind the accusations against Netanyahu and the widespread belief that it is Israel that is committing “genocide.”

AI images that feed rage

The lies that Mamdani—and those who echo his smears in outlets like the Times—tell about Israel are easily refuted by those who array the facts about the conflict against them in the same manner serious historians can answer Holocaust deniers. Still, the problem is that this only works against arguments that at least pretend to be reasoned.

But the algorithms that spread the new big antisemitic lies aren’t pretending to be rational. They are a function of manipulated images and rage about alleged crimes that are difficult to refute online. As Ferguson and Levin note, “The algorithms reflect our own vices back to us—and magnify them. As long as we indulge our wrathful impulses, we’ll see more rage bait that stokes them. As long as we give in to our short attention spans, our news feeds will carpet-bomb our brains with dopamine. As long as we guzzle flattering lies, the truth will be muscled off our screens by propaganda.”

That’s a sobering thought that puts the failures of pro-Israel voices to effectively counter the “genocide” blood libels in perspective.

With respect to Holocaust denial, historians now feel as if they are helpless to combat the fallout of so many lies.

“In the face of an avalanche of AI-powered anti-history, the real historians are powerless. We thought we could prevail in a fair fight about what really happened in the past. We naively believed that, if we went to the right archives, and read the right documents, and summarized them with the right footnotes, and published our scholarly books and peer-reviewed articles, then the Holocaust deniers would be driven from the field. What fools we were,” Ferguson and Levin conclude.

Can virtue defeat hate?

The same problem applies to the debate about Israel. Similar rage-based distortions about the actions of the Jewish state and those of its genocidal foes—combined with a biased media whose journalists have been indoctrinated in leftist ideologies about “white” oppressors—have materially altered public opinion. If a plurality of Americans now tell pollsters that they believe Israel has committed “genocide,” it’s not because of anything Netanyahu has said or done. It’s because we live in a time when fast-paced technology has the power to persuade people to accept patently false assertions with much greater ease than the manner in which the Nazis employed print, film and radio nearly a century ago.

Answering this isn’t going to be enabled with attempts to ban hate speech. It will, among other things, require the clever use of social media and technology. But as Ferguson and Levin assert, there is more to it than that. “We must recover a shared sense of moral responsibility not to contribute to the conditions that let a Fuentes thrive,” they say. “It’s a lesson that dates back to Cleon in ancient Athens. Ultimately, as Plato and Aristotle discovered, the only bulwark against demagogues is a people virtuous enough to resist their lure.”

A leering young mayor peddling blood libels against Jews like Mamdani doesn’t seem to fear such a turnaround. Indeed, in an age where virtue seems conspicuously absent in our politics and culture, optimism about the future can be difficult to maintain.

Still, giving up isn’t an option. And the rise of current advocates for antisemitism, the hatred of Jews and Israel, like the mayor, isn’t unprecedented in history. They have been defeated before by decent people who are ready to heed fact-based journalism in the same way they have sometimes heeded the lessons of real, rather than AI-distorted, history.

What is required is not just better use of AI and social media by the forces of truth but an appeal to higher virtues by a new generation of journalists, artists and faith leaders that will undermine the appeal of social media-driven hate. It’s a tall task, but there is no alternative available but to begin that fight.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS. Follow him: @jonathans_tobin.

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WHAT HAVE WE FORGOTTEN?

   I believe we have indeed forgotten something. That something is quite critical and necessary as it enables a smooth sailing on calm seas for all the ships of state of the nations of the world. The sadness of it all is that we seem to have ignored this critical something from the time of Adam and Eve and we have not gotten any better at it at all. In fact, I believe we have gotten worse as we have discounted that critical ingredient and if humanity is to reach for the highest heights and achieve it in positive manner, we must strive to incorporate it into all our decisions and action. When we ignore it, shove it aside as not sufficient for the purpose thereof, it is then that we engage once more in trying to destroy our world and bring it down around our ears. The consequences of those foolish actions and decisions have remained with us since the beginning of time.

So, what is it that we have trashed and denied entry into the common lexicon of the world? It is a six-letter word easy enough to remember, but quite difficult to make use of, even as we claim to do so. The word is wisdom. As presented in the Bible, our most ancient guidance system, it is defined in several ways.

" It is a divine gift that combines knowledge, understanding, discernment and the ability to apply God's truth in righteous and practical ways."

In Proverbs it is often personified as a woman, perhaps less liable to be misconstrued as an act of enmity, calling out to all, reminding us that wisdom is available to all and true wisdom is worth far more than the largest of gems.

Unfortunately, most of the world, for most of the time, ignored that presentation of true wisdom and its critical importance to the world at large. They too often moved onto the next step using every trick and tool they had in their toolbox. Nationalism. Patriotism. Claims for land. Wealth. Prestige. Claims of legacies. Eternal enemies. And not to forget the enrichment of those who supply that which is needed to wage the wars under the above motivations and claims.

Simply scroll through the pages of tomes of history and find for yourself. See for yourself how often or how infrequently we share the truths of true wisdom and find ourselves embroiled in the situation. We know " winners" but also know for in fact all are losers, one way or another. Nor are most wars, from ancient history to the present and most probably well into the future, waged for pure reasons. The gang membership is always changing, always in flux as allies become enemies and enemies become allies and nary a true friend around.  

Why do we do this? Why do we persist in doing the same thing expecting something different but getting the same, with mostly inconsequential differentiation from one war to the next. Yes, there are some wars which are justified, and the Bible makes that clear, but that clarity, that wisdom is glaring in its absence. Certainly, absent from the thoughts of humanity and certainly from the minds and motivations of those so-called leaders who unfortunately lead us into perdition and sorrow. Will we ever learn or have those brain cells withered to the point of uselessness?

 One of the first signs of lack of wisdom is the constant motormouth activity of those wishing for war, for whatever reason. In the midst of that volume of dangerous words, they flip flop from day to day, from week to week, often from hour to hour. There is neither wisdom nor purity of reasoning and motivations and once again there we are, the same old, same old. No matter how tired it is, there is always that huge and cruel price to pay in destruction and death.

If only we listened to the wise voices emanating often from unexpected places. One saying which I read recently, states that wars are not fought in the trenches but are fought in the hearts and minds of those involved. Succinct and so true. Would that we would have understood that simple but critical understanding. All the horror that we could have avoided. All the energy we could have directed   along proper pathways rather than expending it    in the design, invention and creation of more and more horrid weapons of war, that energy placed in the right way, in the right directions rather than in the awful creation of those weapons of war. What a blessing it would have been and still could be if we shut down the raucous voices of those spouting words of violence and hate. Allowing wiser voices to be heard. Pipe dreams, I guess. And as an aside, in the Ethics of Our Fathers is a verse which tells us that the wiser person will listen carefully. Think carefully. Before opening the mouth. With the loss of that hot air, we could have ended the warming of the planet.

The importance of wisdom and acknowledging the truth of that wisdom has been around for a long time to be found in all cultures. To wit an Irish proverb along those very lines.

" May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, the foresight to know where you're going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far." Would that those in seats of power, heavily misused power, hear these and similar words and straighten their twists and curves of their hearts and souls. Would that those who enable their rise to seats of power have understood what they were indeed bringing forth upon this planet.

Yesterday.

Today.

Tomorrow.

 Certainly, time enough to have learned from the first foolish decision made by Eve and compounded by Adam.

But we did not.

The result is, was, always will be, unless we do better and rid the nations of wicked leaders, of those who bear terror, horror, destruction to the residents of the lands. As well as leaders who are way past their sell by date. Unfortunately, there are many of those within the governments of the nations of the world.  Iran, Many Arab and Moslem nations. The foolish and dangerous ones of many of the Western nations of Europe. Leaders in Israel who fell down on the job and enabled murder upon the residents of Israel. Or the rather limited who lack morals and guidance, who charge hard along the paths of revenge and retention of power, those who appoint glaringly obvious misfit people into positions of power. ie, Hegseth and his crude raids on our armed services, who are supposed to be our guardians, to protect us.

Humph on that.

And not to forget that arrogant and dangerous, so called Democratic Socialist Party, who claim to be progressive but in every act, every statement, send us into retrograde propulsion rather than a forward movement. The Democrats, the Republicans, the Right and the Left, the Moderates who have forsaken the truths of that position, who for the sake of their remaining in office, have bought heavily into the latest rage - which is raging JewHatred

Surely there are those better suited to be leaders. Surely some intelligent people could present the words of truth from the Bible and let us make headway against those who would destroy us all.

So far there are few and far between capable of that role.

Suggestions anyone?

Someone? 

EICHAH LAMENTATIONS

  We are now in one of the most horrifying, saddest periods of time in Jewish history. It is when we mourn the destruction of the Second Temple and yet again more grief, horror and exile. One can understand how the constant fire and destruction rained upon the people of Israel have left a mark on their universal soul, an inherited genetic trauma. Proven time and again to recur, no matter the century and year, no matter the country, no matter the interwoven contributions of the Jewish nation, of the State of Israel into the fabric of the world.

On Thursday we fast and we pray and we mourn a violent period in our history, one whose echoes followed us through the centuries, one which we mourn today, even as there are sparks of hope in a seemingly hopeless world. What is that spark? It is the hope that someday relatively soon led into Jerusalem on a white donkey will be the culmination of what has been the one dream of the Jewish nation since time immemorial. 

The coming of the Messiah, a time of peace and goodwill, a time when all will live righteously in harmony, the actualization of all the dreams and metaphors and allegories of Jewish literature, from the sacred to the profane. The revelation that Jews have been waiting for since the time of their birth as the Jewish nation, the People of the Book.  

But in the meanwhile, we must wait We can dream, we can prepare. We can imagine the glorious time of the rebuilding of the Temple; this time a permanent rebuilding. It is hopefully a time when the people of the world and the people of the Jewish nation understand what it means to live a righteous life. To be accepting of differences among people. To manage to weave all the differences into a picture of harmony of the proverbial scene of the lion sleeping with the lambs. Of swords and weapons disappearing, to emerge from the fire as plowshares, ready to till the earth of this planet, of this world, that G-d has gifted to us.

Along with that beautiful scene of serenity, one can call it also a time when the debts of the individuals and nations of this world must be called and repaid in one manner or another. The Jewish people are well acquainted with such times. Often and understandably, they conflated the latest violence with the violence and upheaval that will come along with the appearance of the true Messiah.

 In fact, during some of these violent periods of history, be it the slashes of the Crusaders or the raids of the Cossacks, or the scientifically planned extermination of the Jewish people via the Nazis and others of their ilk, the despair often gave rise to desperately sought elements of hope, of the temporary nature of the awful times and of the bright light of the Messiah growing ever brighter, ever closer. The bloodshed and violence and despair of such times gave rise to the seeking of that Messiah and too often, repeatedly so, a false Messiah was declared found, or self-announced, and the end result was more despair as the truth emerged and the false hope disintegrated. 

We seek redemption. We seek an end to the copy paste methodology running through the history of humanity. We despair time and again when the humane is divorced from humankind, trampled upon, deemed irrelevant and even harmful to the ambitions of those who deem themselves the royalty of mankind, immune from all laws, legal and moral. 

At such times, the violence and rampant hate and uncertainty inevitably rains down upon the Jews, deemed the source and the cause of all woes of the world, hence, of necessity, there should be a total isolation of them and an inevitable extermination. Such has been the history of the world at large and of the Jewish people in particular. Jewish people are caught, always, in the middle of that hate drowning the world, swirling around. Leaders and their base followers take advantage and use the ugliness of the times to destroy those who stand in their way.  It could be a sect of religion, a tribe or caste, any pathetic reason deemed useful by those seemingly 'bespoken' souls for Evil, and always, the Jewish People.  

Thus, what we are mourning during this period of time is not "only” the destruction of the Second Temple but the shattering of a hope.  A permanent home for the People of the Book. To live in peace, to prosper, to raise families, to contribute to the world and leave the world a better place for their having been part of it.

Eichah, the Book of Lamentations, where and when we sat alone, as usual, as always, as we cried on the banks of a river, as we wondered how did we reach this point, that spark of hope was able to be seen and to be internalized by the Daughter of Zion. Even  in the depths of despair, she received comfort. There will be a better time, that this will not be the eternal condition of the Jewish people. 

And indeed, history has borne out the truth of that promise. Even as we mourn the losses of our past and contemplate the horror of current losses and the probability of more to come, we can build a firm basis for a better future. A time of promise and peace. Hope and an encouragement borne out many, many times in the books of the Bible, a reassurance that as bad as it has been, as it could be, always know that we are the Children of the Lord. We will always have a chance to think, to contemplate and to return from any wrong paths onto which we have strayed, along with the rest of a sorely disappointing humanity at large. 

A most telling and encouraging message of hope is from Isaiah 56:5 - 

“To them, I will give in my house and within my walls, a place and a name... an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." 

A permanent home never to be forced out, never to be exiled, never again to be unsure of our welcome and acceptance within humanity. 

Always to know and for the world to know we stand in direct line from within our history to the reestablishment and the reinvigorating of the State of Israel. A state of and for the Jews, promised to them, for them, by the Lord to Avraham Avinu, Abraham, our founding father. Validated by history. Validated by blood, by sacrifice and validated by the will of the Lord Above.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Always the same but capable of changing. It is up to us to create an opening and an opportunity for the fulfillment of our righteous and proper role in the world.

I recommend reading two books, very different. One is the Book of Lamentations, basically an explication of it, written by Joshua A. Berman, a professor, scholar and author of note and brilliance.

I also recommend a very different book which I unexpectedly came across. It is titled Justice for Some, written by Reid S. Cherner. A book most intriguing, most confusing, most enlightening and most frustrating. Well worth a read.    

THAT WHICH I WISH I HAD NOT!

  Did you ever feel that you had an overabundance of certain things in your life which you would much prefer not to have? That is the position in which I find myself today. I had several choices for titles of this posting, but I decided to go with the one which expressed my frustration at the overabundance of things needful of addressing. Well aware that I cannot address all, certainly not to be able to do justice to the concerns, I can hope that others will pick up the slack and by the way, now that we're talking about slack, I am not sure that there will be a posting on Friday. I will do my best, but the situation might be out of my control. But I will return, certainly, on Sunday, if I do not have one on Friday.

So, what to use as a title? Should I use my initial feeling of "we're late"? We're late for very important dates, redline dates we have crossed multiple times, each time the consequences becoming more dire and at faster pace. Or should I use my favorite political cartoon Pepper... and Salt with the most apt caption and I quote, "a turbulent hodgepodge of ill formed ideas. Let's do it”. 

We are so late for so many things in our time span. We have allowed overtime play when it certainly was not called for and should actually have been cut short. We have taken ideas and churned and churned them all around until we do get a hodgepodge of bits and pieces of ideas, but nothing making sense. Nothing pointing a way, nothing giving direction, just nothing but garbage or, as we used to write, GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.

Honesty actually is a very short commodity these days in the world of politics and/or when commentators are generally taking sides, not hearing anything of the opposite side. I presume I am somewhat guilty of that. No, I must say that though I am not always right, unfortunately I have been too right too many of the times. It makes me quite uncomfortable. I am most definitely not the sharpest pencil in the lot amongst all the talking heads of this world, so why is it that so many cannot see the forest for the trees, nor the trees for the forest. So bewildered are they by the shadows that the leaves cast upon the forest floor and the whooshing of the sound, which evidently confuses them and causes select deafness to occur.

Indeed, how are we to move forward when not only are we missing WAZE and GPS but our ancient paper maps are outdated, so faded in the folds that we cannot extract any relevant or for sure information. Thus, we seem to revolve around winding roads never finding a way out and when we do try, we just gin up more trouble, more antagonism and instead of going forward, we engage in retrograde propulsion, an aspect of Parkinson's where one cannot help at times taking a step backwards and hopefully maintaining balance. Unfortunately, I don't think the balance on this world is the way it should be. It is on a scale which wobbles from side to side, affected by nasty politics, by corruption, by filth such as we thought we had long ago outlawed from our government.

Humanity has seemed to develop an antipathy to all other human beings. We somehow cannot see past the caul within which we are wrapped. We cannot discern their humanity, nor can they see through to our humanity. We are like punch drunk boxers in the ring, swinging out, hoping we hit something of any value, but knowing that the chance of that happening is quite rare and so we continue to stumble and tumble and trip over each other, and nothing gets done. 

Nothing is accomplished other than ramping up the terrible vibrations shaking this planet on its axis. A letter to the New York Times editor reminds us that, though it is correct that equality is America's defining principle, he says, or suggests, that our equality runs even deeper. We are not equal in many ways. We do not possess the same talent, the same gifts, the same education. However, every human being bears the same inherent worth. 

What is that worth? I quote again, "the spark of our Creator... Rights flow from that truth, not the other way around". Even if one does not believe in the Supreme Being, it must be acknowledged that there is enough writing out there to convince one that there is an overall guiding principle that all men are created equal, that we are governed by the consent of the population and there should be no turning back, no filthy, broken shortcuts, no pitfalls waiting to snare us, no punji sticks to wreak havoc in our minds and body.

Where and why have we gone off track? Where and when and why have we lost our sense of propriety? When and why have we so immersed ourselves in a race to nowhere that we cannot find anything which allows for connection, to find the path through the thicket of thorns that we have allowed to grow up around us. When have we gotten so stuck on hooks where we hang out our beliefs, our thoughts and depending on what those thoughts are, even in one area which displeases us, we then totally write off the entire person with no room for relevant talk. 

In fact, all we do is shout at each other so loud that we cannot hear each other over our own voices We shout threats and re-threats. We take back the threat and then replace it with another threat before we return to the first threat. There is no surety here, no confidence that we can believe for a reasonable time, at least, what one has said, how one leader has spoken. In fact, even as Abraham searched for one good person, for 10 good people in the wayward cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, so do we to the people of the world, having to search, seeking low, seeking high, seeking all around, trying our best to find that one good leader, that one leader we can trust. That one leader with whom we can talk and make our point as well as trying to see his point. And when I say his, it's just too tiring to constantly write his/her, but it is to both genders that we talk.

We are all guilty of refusing to see through the fog that we have allowed to build up around us, so thick it cannot be penetrated. We have conflated fiction with fact and argue when we are shown to be wrong. We shout accusations at the other and the important responsibility of true historians, to be impartial and truthful in the reporting of history, goes down the toilet. Each faction in history wishes to prove its point and its point only, to shred completely the other point of view, to not allow for anything of positive virtue or use to come through. 

No, we condemn it all. In so doing we have lost control of all the bodies politic that are around. We have lost the battles and are very close to losing the war in its entirety as we return to days which should not have a presence anymore in our lifetime. Yellow journalism, corruption in government, nepotism, bribery, who you know, not what you know. What you promise and what you want. Never mind the   talent, the knowledge that is necessary to build better, to build beyond the point where we have fallen. We have so lost ourselves, that from day to day we contradict our own selves. Worse, we discard, throw with great force in any direction away from us all that which we firmly believed, all that we were taught as kids. Not perfect but certainly more believing of the goodness of people contained within humanity.

How ashamed are we to be? When we absolutely pay no attention to lack of moral fiber candidates, when we make a big deal of investigations that go nowhere, and when they do go somewhere, we discard the information if it displeases us and our plans. Rapists allowed to run for Senate. Why not, we have one in the Oval Office. Cheaters and liars, financial criminals, all just keep on going. Keep on trucking. And again, why not? We have, allegedly, one in the White House. In fact, we have many in the White House via that family of the one sitting in the Oval Office and all those who buy into corruption. Who forget that when they make these items for which they bid, it is not a make-believe item, but one that will find its use among people. The faultier, the more likely the harm. But evidently that doesn't matter anymore. So why do I worry my head about it? I don't know.

We claim to care for others, many of us do, but too many of us don't quite know how to put that concern into action and so we let things slide and when we turn around once, twice, thrice, we find we are living in a different reality. One where the justice system, the very jurists and lawyers who are supposed to keep us on track, to make sure that the laws of the nation, the just and moral laws of the nation, are abided by, well they are entirely on the other side of the curtain on this one. When judges who by law are supposed to be nonpartisan, to decide on the rights and wrongs of the issue before them, now decide on what their political thoughts tell them to do, what their political cronies tell them to do, what their crooked boss wants them to do. Differences of opinion are fine but these are etched in stone before the case is actually judged.

These are the same type of errors which affect others, sometimes to the point of losing lives that we see in the new policies of the current administration which never should have been given the chance for a second term. Supposedly, we had once turned the corner and law enforcement agencies and agents were supposed to be very careful before they fired, and certainly not to fire to kill but to wound, to disable, to keep themselves safe, along with others. Now, the law enforcement agents shoot at will. You think the person inside a truck might be an illegal immigrant? Ah, no problem. Run them down and shoot them. Shoot through the window, claim that he weaponized his car. I'm tired of hearing that same line, the same lies, over and over and over again. Most of the people who are being stopped at these traffic stops don't want any trouble. Many of them have been working in this nation for 10, 20, 30 years, becoming part and parcel of our economy, reviving the economic life of cities which had gone down the drain.

But evidently Trump, the heads of ICE and the rather crude agents they have hired and put in place have no care for anyone other than themselves and hark back to the days of the frontier when one shoots first. Alibis prepared and of course no cameras. We indulge in the cruelty set up by awful regimes such as the Nazis, the Communists, and now the capitalists in the form of Trump et al. We separate families. We thrust children aside We hold people in inhumane conditions. We refuse them elementary basic rights of proper care, proper food, proper medical attention. The ability to contact lawyers and most important to see their families, not to disappear into the night. We cannot abide Nacht und Nebel here. Unfortunately, it is already well entrenched. And it behooves us that we behave, that we act quickly to set things straight.

Never did I believe that I would be living in a nation where people are afraid to speak up, to speak out, where people do not engage in honest, open conversation so as not to get into arguments with      family and friends and lose those members of their friends and families. I cannot begin to tell you how many people supposedly joking around admit that when they get off the phone the alphabets are called out: "just joking, guys, just joking". When has America become a police state? Why, in fact, why have we tolerated this?

 We invented a world where right is wrong and wrong is right and to distinguish between the two is nigh unto impossible. I don't even know if we care anymore. I think that most of us simply pull ourselves away, out of the world, thinking that if we see no evil, hear no evil, we will speak no evil, nor will any evil come our way. Grotesquely wrong. Grossly inadequate and majorly full of harm waiting to hit its targets.

And mind you, those out there who think they are free and clear, not you they are after, but your Jewish neighbor, think again. Think of Pastor Niemueller who warned that they will come after this one and that one and though he keeps silent in an attempt to be invisible, they will come for us too. And there will be no one left to speak for us. 

Not even us.

Serious dangers are ahead. It seems those dragons that lay beyond the point where land ends have crawled up onto the land and are making their way through all impediments, finding their way to us. Drooling at the mouth for they know we are ripe targets and will satiate their appetites, at least for a while.

Now, when you finish reading this don't wave your hand as if waving it off. Don't poo- poo it with no real thought. Go online to past headlines, recent past headlines. Go back more. Go back to when Trump first started to run and this Trumpian perverse moronic universe clawed its way to power. For their own selfish and ignorant reasons. See how even those who spouted at least somewhat moral sayings have now totally discarded them, trashed their souls, made deals with the devil, and mark my words. This will end in one of two ways One, either this nation and any other nation that loses its backbone, that loses its innate sense of right and wrong, that leaks its courage, will be devastated and will become the Democratic Nation of America or wherever they are located. And we all know what the word Democratic or Socialistic means in any name given to a political party. Or there will be enough people come to their senses who can gird their loins for the battles ahead. Stand up straight and erect and come out fighting. Determined to regain what was once theirs by right. What was right and should be right and is right, though it is denied.

Think not as I again warn you that you are not immune. Using that as the principal guide, what do you see ahead? Be creative. Don't be afraid of speaking, but the law says no, not so much anymore.  Because the Law is becoming weaker and less relevant by the day. Pronouncement by pronouncement of the judges. The ranting and raving statements of Trump. The dangers now converging on the population of the world, and even here in the United States. Why? Because there is no one home, no one to answer the door. The ring bell is broken, and we wish to hide, to remain in our homes, thinking that no one will break in. Nothing will seep under the doors nor leak through the roof. How foolish these beliefs are.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

The foolishness, the evil denial, the cowardice and the brave few are always there. Is it not time that we stop rewording and rewriting yesterday so that it fits our designs of today so that it gives forth the tomorrow that is so harmful, existentially so. When will we come to our senses, to the realization of the reality and what awaits us. To know we must do what is right and do what must be done.

Finally, do not think that the GOP headed by Trump is the only monster in the nest. For sure, there are many others who can and indeed are included in that same pile of trash. Those who call themselves Democrats and Democratic Socialists who spout hate, who run all campaigns for office on a basis of Hate! Who call yet again for the extermination of the Jewish nation, their one tiny state to disappear into the 2 billion population of the Moslem states.

Does this ever get better?

Or are we on a never-ending loop of horror?

Thoughts, anyone?