THREE QUESTIONS

  

After waking from surgery. a patient is almost always asked three questions. These questions relate to orientation of self, of time, of place. Apparently, if you do not answer correctly, steps need to be taken. From more time to sleep off the anesthesia to more serious steps, the problem will be addressed. However, these three questions are actually quite appropriate for the general public at large today. Our rather thick-headed species refuses to learn, to take instruction, or how to place more weight on the right, perhaps the more difficult to achieve, rather than on the momentarily liberating incorrect. All along, as choices are made, very few follow the thread of that choice to its consequences. Hence, the great shock and confusion when these consequences do take place. 

The first question usually refers to self, Asking for name and date of birth. Pretty simple. Second question generally refers to a specific date, week or month and year. The specific date can be a tad more 'challenging' as so many of us often ask of others, “What's today's date?”  The third question refers to orientation to and within life itself.  "Who is the president?" Shortly after Trump achieved office, I was asked that very question. My answer, delivered in sleepy tones, was “Don't make me say it.”  That answer was deemed acceptable.

What would be the proper answer to that question if asked in 2025? Who will be the president? With both candidates unfit for office, we must, nevertheless, make a choice. Two tired old men. One has served his nation well. The other has served only himself with nary a thought for anyone other than himself. One can continue to steer the ship of state with a good crew beside him. The other will remain alone at the helm, accompanied by a groveling, frightened coterie of enablers and sycophants. 

His plans, should he be elected, are to follow the plan book so graciously laid out for him by the Heritage Foundation, so conservative they are encased in old rock! It is a 922-page tome entitled Project 2025. Contained within is his detailed plan to morph this nation, to wrench this nation, from a troubled democratic one to a dystopian troubled nation. If we indeed have a nation remaining. An   example of the violence which will prevail, which will ramp up sharply even more than in present times, is the attempted assassination of Trump and the ever-growing numbers of mass shootings. 

When violence is used as a tool, a political tool, when the system of justice is perverted, with judges egregiously partisan or ill-educated, incompetent, greedy, we had better understand that this is a precursor to an even more violent future, a future nearly upon us. "What goes around comes around." If one advocates violence, violence will inevitably nip at them, perhaps even bite. It behooves all of us particularly the champions of violence to understand that truth.  

The perpetration of that violence is part and parcel of the plans of the GOP. They rabidly oppose any form of gun reform and gun control. Telling one and all that our pistols will be confiscated; our homes will be invaded. Our pistols are safe. It is the assault   rifles. It is the semi assault rifles. It is the bump stock. It is the target of gun control. Why is there such opposition to it? This confusion as the motivation can be addressed and understood upon reading Project 2025. It sends shivers down my spine. One can easily see ahead of us a grossly dystopian future.  It is described by a strong opponent of it.

"Under the leadership of Kevin Howard, the Heritage Foundation created an ultraconservative guide for building a dystopian future life in the United States. The document takes the US way back to a time when white males were the only power, women were barefoot, pregnant, only speaking when spoken to, and any minority or racial groups were discriminated against, persecuted, and resigned to living in racial ghettos."

While that may sound extreme, it is simplified, though not grossly overly much. It may not happen overnight, though the plans are that it will happen as of Trump's Day of Rage, Revenge, and Retribution, the first day in office, G-d forbid. It is a planned ugliness which will develop a deadly momentum of its own and where it will stop - if it will stop - is anyone's guess.  

We are at a crossroads. A most crucial one which demands careful thought before embarking on the one fork or the other. Thus, for now, when asked who you are. and when you were born and who your leader is, think carefully. Who are you exactly? Are you true to the values we were taught as children, to be loyal to the nation, to do right rather than wrong, to work for fairness and rights for all? Or have you chosen otherwise for whatever reason. Please think things through. We have a rotten choice, but one is worse than the other and bodes no good for our future as a nation, as Americans, for that concept will disappear. Look around, think. How could the extreme right and the extreme left find beliefs in common? Something very rotten here! When that inevitable alien comes along and asks to be taken to our leader, who will that leader be?     

People, we all need to be better. We need to stop sniping at each other. We need to stop designing programs and speeches to appeal to the level of the lowest common denominator. We must stop shrieking and shouting so we can hear each other and our inner selves cautioning us. We must put out the fires rather than feed them. Oppose, but properly, civilly, with respect. With good intentions. 

Three questions, folks. Three questions of a lifetime. What are your answers?

 

WHOA!

  Well, apparently, I turned the key yesterday and opened a door behind which lay much emotion, rather less so of careful thought. It was wow! Many heated, long responses, mostly privately, from both sides of the issues. There were many accusations, misunderstandings and misinterpretations on both sides of the matter. Ergo, I will reiterate certain feelings and statements or principles. First of all, and everything follows from that, I do not promote assassination. I despise the violence which has become the trendy thing to employ in pushing one's viewpoints. 

Yes, I have some strong feelings in this matter as well as others, but do not wish for us to shoot each other. That accomplishes nothing other than to flood the planet with more blood and guts and for what!! Ultimately, violence does not lead to solutions and instead promotes only more dissension and wounds incapable of healing.

Among my most powerful feelings, thoughts, are those of my opposition to the candidacy of Trump for President. He is most manifestly unfit for that role, as he was for his original presentation and occupation. He shamed himself and the nation. He is immoral, a felon, a selfish man and deserving of contempt rather than honor. This is our best and brightest? This is the true representative of our principals, as a people, as a nation? Heaven help us if that is the truth. 

Compounding the issue is the matter of Joe Biden's candidacy for a second term as president. This man is not a danger to America or to the world, unlike that posed by Trump. However, he too, is at this point, not the best candidate. But where are these best and brightest? These replacement candidates - why have they not stepped forward or been pushed forward? Why has service to the people become inverted and government positions, elected or appointed, have become sinecures of the type we thought we had long ago negated and canceled.

 And for that matter, why have we not established an age ceiling for these heavy-duty demanding positions. These two are youngsters compared to the aged folks who are approaching or have already reached their nineties and remain in Congress. Where are the young? Where is the inspiration we should have inculcated within during their education? We have failed them and ourselves. We have all become too selfish. We have all forgotten how grateful we should be that we have been allowed to live in a country such as America. We are blessed indeed, but we, most of us, have turned away from the gratefulness and instead morphed into demanding entitled shouting mouths. Most definitely not conducive for positive results.   

In truth, we have moved in recent years into the mode of doing things the wrong way and/ or for the wrong reasons. For all that we have ended up in a tragically muddled situation from which I do not see any exit. I do not even see a faint trail. We are so lost in the wilderness, the swamp, the desert - whatever part of nature we use as an example. So lost are we. There are too many of us at present who take it now for the preferred environment. In other words, too many of us have lost our bearings - emotional, mental, in every which way possible. We have become so extreme to the point that we are so busy xing out friends, family, acquaintances, so busy that we cannot and do not pay any attention to anything else.

Where do we go from here? I have no idea. Violence seems to have become a favorite mode of expression now. We take potshots at each other with varying amounts of toxicity in our verbal language, the resultant explosions simply sending more waves of pressure through the atmosphere, and we are blown over into more extreme positions. Whoa, everybody, just whoa! We need to stop and shake ourselves just a bit. Actually, more than a bit. 

What the hell are we doing? And what the hell have we done? And what the hell are we proposing for the future? Do we even allow for a future, one that is positive and promising? I truly doubt that and please notice I generally use "we" for I do not exempt myself from inclusion. I do not consider myself anything other than human, a being prone to making errors.  Subject to the same whirlwinds of emotion, and apart from a small group of those overstuffed with hatred for my people, I wish no one to be rendered asunder in actuality.      

  We are, none of us, exempt from life, having to make decisions which have consequences. We cannot shelter ourselves from their effects. We share the realities and all own shares in the business of ugliness which we have perpetrated. It is upon all of us to somehow set aside this strife, this noise of angry unthinking voices. Of rampant ramped up emotions precluding any thought. If we don't, if we won't, if we can't, then we will all share space within the same basket going straight to Hell! 

 “I think, therefore I am." The point is that we must think before we rush into things without looking. What is before us? What is beside us? Where will our next footstep take us? Should we all stop, take a breath and try to think things through before we jump?! I think, maybe, if we did so, we could, would, begin to hear each other. First in whispers. and hopefully growing louder, acceptably so, allowing for hearing each other and allow for validation where possible and true.           

While we can never discount nor erase all the trauma of humanity, in general and individually, we can, if we wish to, smooth the wound over, allow it to heal, and minimize the permanent scarring. The trauma remains but with lessening pain. We can suture them and muffle, increasingly, the shouts of pain from beneath that suture and allow for healing. It will take time and determination and patience, but it can be done. If we wish it so. If we make it so.  We must do so, for we, all of us, exist     together on this one tiny little planet. G-d help us if we forget that truth. 

As Frost wrote, we have miles to go before we sleep so let us start out on that proper path. Stop thrusting fists into the air. Stop spitting and shouting at each other. Stop ranting how superior we are to others, for we are not. We are all the same with the same needs, the same desires and dreams and the sooner recognized, the better we are. It is easier to give vent to emotions, but more productive if we talk rather than shout, if we hear rather than deafen ourselves. Better to aspire for the stars than dig our way to Hell. The Good Lord can begin again, but we cannot once it is permanent. Think upon that.

-------------------------------------------------------------- Yitzy, sweet boy, as we finalize the plans for the weekend of Remembrance, a weekend we wish never to have been necessitated, we are in pain, feeling all the grief anew. We miss you so, and nothing will ever erase that pain. Tears dim our eyes as they continue to fall. Nor will our hearts ever be whole again. And we will love you 

Always and forever. Always and forever.

THINKING ABOUT THINKING

 The thing is that many of us don't like to think too much. It gives us a headache and aggravation. It takes away from the joy of the moment because thinking is not generally about which ride at the amusement park you should go to first, but about far more serious things. Questions of life. In fact, sometimes life itself. Therefore, most of us delay thinking as much as possible or limit it as much as possible. Perhaps that's the thing to do, especially to safeguard one's sanity during a time of major crisis and pressure. But, in fact a major but, those are exactly the times when thinking is a must and cannot be avoided, nor shirked. If we try to do that, hide our heads in the sand, mute our brains, we are asking for trouble to rain down upon us.  

Refusing to think, deliberately refusing to face reality, and the need for immediate deep and clearheaded thinking will simply enmesh us deeper, ever more entangled in a negative situation. Thus, making it even harder to emerge safely and as quickly as possible. That awful reality will not remain passive but will proceed to hunt us down, no matter where we hide. Objection and denial are futile. Escape and immunity are nonexistent and what happens to the nation, to the society, will happen to you and yours as well. 

Authoritarian governments do not work the same way as democratic ones. The go to tool of such a government is the use of fear and violence. Threats, the implementation of threats, even the mere possibility of its implementation and application are enough to foster compliance along with rebellion and resistance. Fear, deep, dark, intensive and eternal, works well to create a bloody, hopeless reality.

At present time we are late, very late, perhaps too late for a convocation of thought, of thinkers. We have almost permanently silenced all thinkers. We have negated validity and truth, and the impediments and resultant delay has given rise to frightening circumstances. Take a look around. See with clear eyes. Hear with open ears. Think with a mind finely tuned and oiled. See what we have allowed. See how close we are to the point of no return, facing difficult defense and offense in extremely hostile circumstances. We are on the brink of the installation of a totalitarian government. Jan 2025 quickly approaches and perhaps it will not wait till then.

Using the tools and techniques of democracy against itself, the proponents of totalitarianism have brought democratic society to its knees. Their heroes of the fascist worlds of history are crowing with pride from the depths of Hell at the success of their modern incarnations. The thought of the role model of democracy being forced to her knees and denied existence overwhelms them with joy.

Who has done this? We are the culprits. Why have we enabled this horror? Because we didn't want any headaches - not today. Not tomorrow. Not yesterday nor in all the yesterdays of the past. We should have been thinking years ago, but we did not. Now we must invest in a marathon of thinking in opposition. We must think with our heads. Not with wishful thinking. Not with outdated outlooks. We are well past that time, very much so, with little time left before a decision must be made as to which fork in the road we will choose. Choose the wrong one and our America dies.

Actually, I am not quite sure that we have not already buried our democracy. Yesterday was an example of our future unless we take a step back and get a clear picture of what is happening around us and what will happen if we do not act, if we refuse to understand reality as it is. A young man little more than a child shot at Trump. He missed.     Nicked his ear. Enabling oh so dramatic small rivulets of blood to flow down Trump's face. He ate it all up and raised his fist. That miserable, iconic, vicious thick fist, to shout to the world that he remains and is also brave. Why was he shot at this particular time or place? I have no answers as of yet. That is being investigated at present. However, just the thought. Perhaps he was put up to it, urged on.  Why? Think of the publicity value.   Who comes out of this shooting smelling like a rose. The aroma of that bouquet is strong enough to overcome the reek of at least some of his lies and inherent evil and risk to this nation. To the world, in fact.

I hate thinking this way but how can I think otherwise? Our ethos has changed dramatically and hastily, and we have been helpless in the onslaught of its proponents. All other roads and pathways have been shut down. We are at a point in our history where we take the proper, though difficult, road, or we take the evil fork, the one of surface simplicity and serenity - and roiling currents beneath it all. On that fork we will continue our trek into the dark of a hopeless future and take us further and further back into past darknesses. From the time the first caveman discovered that his hands could hold the rock with which to hit another man. And then to sharpen that rock in the first step of a weapons race which is permanently ongoing, we have not changed at all.

Violence breeds Violence. There are some wars that have unfortunately been necessitated but each war fought is a failure. We never should have reached that point, though we have- far too many times.  The future ain't looking any better, is it? This version of violence emerges every more powerful, ever more inclusive. Ever more existentially threatening. Perhaps it is even the time of when, not if.

 What goes around comes around is the maxim. If one is an adherent of violence, one day that violence will turn around and snap back revealing who is the true master. Not a pretty picture, is it?  

Perhaps there is a weird kind of light. Finally, the nation has become more aware of Project 2025. If you are not, please. google it. Read it and weep. Cry my beloved country indeed as a clear outline of the death of this country in its democratic form is laid out clearly. Every aspect of life is touched upon. Delineated. Every backward step of humanity is contained within. Worst fears are recognized as   we become more cognizant of our surroundings, the fetid swamp burial place of the best of humanity's hopes.    

Where are we to find the leaders untainted by corruption and extremism from the right or the left? Where are we to find qualified, competent, intelligent people to fill positions of leadership and government? When are we going to rid the bench, all the benches of the nation, from those who demean it. When will we muster our courage, clear our eyes and Do What Must Be Done. We must be firm and determined.  We must see past the lies and go to the truth.   Are we to vacate democracy or reinvigorate it Not a clue. Only hopes. Prayers. Ask me what will be on the Wednesday after the Tuesday of Election Day. One of the most important, perhaps the most important Tuesday of our history.

  Where will you be?

 

         

          

       

AMERICA, AMERIKA, WHAT THE HELL!!!

  If one question was to be asked of America today, it would be what the hell indeed? What the hell has happened to America? Her ethos, her dignity, and yes, her equity. We have lost our way. Our leaders have gone astray, their flutes play tainted music, and the flock remains to wander, leaderless, hopelessly lost. Hither and thither, from swamp to desert, always a hostile environment. Not conducive to peace, to amity, to brotherhood. Certainly, the celebrated land “from sea to shining sea" has acquired a layer of tarnish.

   What the hell has happened? Well, for one thing, I was greatly shocked when the most recent column written by Thomas Friedman actually struck home.  (I never would have bet on that ever happening.) Basically, borrowing some adages, America is between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, the Rock and the hard place, a lose-lose situation. Friedman compares Trump and Biden, their obvious deficiencies, which, in a saner world would have precluded them from their current situation, running for the office of President of the United States. “Just because we managed to barely survive the Trump stress test to our constitutional order once, does not mean our democracy can survive another four Trump years ... especially if we combine the self-induced stress levels from a second Trump term with the boiling external stresses already building up around us. That would indeed be playing Russian roulette again, only this time with a fully loaded pistol. That's a game only the Devil himself would design.” 

(I believe the devil is already here.) He continues:

   "If Biden were to win, we'll all need to pray that he can get out of bed every day to carry out his agenda as well as he did in the past. If Trump were to win, we'd all need to pray that he stays in bed all day so that he can't carry out his impulsive agenda which seems driven first and foremost by which side of the bed he gets out of."

The rather troubling conclusion is that " Biden and Trump are both unfit to be president. One is a danger to the nation." 

Such is the ugly choice we must make. We must think carefully before we push that button or X that box. Yes, it is lose - lose, but from one lose we can return, from the other grave doubts indeed. One side is rife with corruption, with judges who do not know justice, and legislators, infected with the virus of Trump Derangement Syndrome who swear fealty to their leader rather than to their nation.  

Not since time immemorial has the world been so wrecked by reality induced cramps. Nations roil within even as, at the same time, they are engaged in the similar spasms outside their borders. Rather than peace, we have little and not so little wars round the world. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands dying. Bu the bloodshed continues.     

 

The other. day my favorite Pepper... and Salt cartoon presented a confused man saying: “Sometimes I feel like Stone Age guy in Bronze Age world.”  I believe that is what we are all feeling. In time and space, out of sync with the reigning philosophies of the time, confused as to how we got here and how the hell we get out of here. If there is even a way to get out of here. The Pollyannish side of me, always hoping that things will turn out to be best for all appears to be losing the battle against my pessimistic side, my Cassandra side, seeing only danger ahead.     

 

My American persona feels unwanted. For the first time ever, as I watched the Capitol Fourth, the worst I have ever seen, I felt no tug at my heart. No pride. No sense of belonging. the music jangled, annoying. I felt counted out. I hate that feeling. I hate losing my country, but I believe my country lost me first.  

In my persona as a Jewish woman in a troubled and challenged world, the pessimism is overwhelming at times. Jews attacked on the streets. Spit at. Threatened. Cursed. Prevented from entering their synagogue for an event within. Harassed at work and play, in their homes, Killed. Egregious JewHatred always conflated with an Islamophobia more apparent in its invisibility and non-appearance than in actual occurrence. Chants inciting violence come from the mouths of Jew Haters and not from the assaulted.  However, open. obvious statements of hate, racial hate, religious hate, hatred that has any connection to being a Jew, an Israeli, the nation of Israel, the idea of Zionism are tolerated, even celebrated. Right there in your face slapping you upside and downside the head. And so well ignored or downplayed. Hard times.  

Another well-known columnist. John Ondrasik, wrote a column entitled "America's Invisible Hostage Crisis". He wrote of times when Americans were held hostage, where the government worked diligently to free them by diplomacy or action, whatever was necessary. When an American was killed or wounded, all went ballistic.  As it should be, for a nation must protect its citizens. 

Why is it then, that American citizens waiting. deserving of the protection of their government, are ignored, set aside, and await their rescue in vain.  Left not hanging but withering, subject. to violence. During the horror of October 7, 8 American citizens were taken hostage. 3 are now presumed to be dead. The remaining 5, consigned to inevitable death, a terrible one, and the nation does nothing. Americans were murdered at Nova, but silence from America and all affected nations. Jewish captives? Feh!  Unseen by an American representative or an IRC employee. Merely Jews. As Evan Gershkovich remains for over a year in a brutal prison in Russia, yet another Jew ignored by his government, as was Daniel Pearl, another Jew kidnapped and murdered. Silence reigns, a deadly silence now for these Jewish victims of terrorism.   

America does not just have a hostage crisis. It has a conscience crisis. It has a moral crisis. Once a role model for the world, a refuge for the "huddled masses" yearning for freedom and hope - no longer. We have abdicated our ethos and ethics.  Hope drains from within me It leaks, even as I try to stem those leeks, it appears to be hopeless. Is there a place for Jews in this world in the future? Will there be room for a Jewish nation? Will there be room for Jewish people in all the countries of the world? Answers unknown.     

 

I wish I had the answers I wish I could read poems or tarot cards or hear a message from a crystal ball or get sent a message from the deep beyond telling me not to worry, to be reassured. Things will improve. Things will be better. People will come back to their senses. America will welcome once again its Jewish citizens, even as it allows them to remain a proud and open Jew and not force them to renounce their own Jewishness. I listen hard, very hard. I seek. and do not find.

The only pathway out is to somehow bring us to our senses. All of us, from every aspect and facet of life. Somehow an impossible task must be achieved. We must find a common element, a common concern shared by each and every nation, by each and every religion, by each and every ethnicity. Important enough to cause us to push aside the differences and work together. If we continue to remain selfish and violent, well, there's nothing to write home about. Nothing. at all. 

-------------------------------------------------------------

OK, Yitzy, you would see how ugly this situation is. You would not have understood this. But please know, though we all miss you so, the plans for the giving of the Torah to the school, for the naming of the new campus, the Yitzy Sutofsky campus, are well in place Many people will be coming together to speak of you, of their love and admiration of you. Know that your entire family will be there. And always you are in our thoughts and wrapped in our love. 

Always and forever. Always and forever.   

 

 

JUSTSO UGLY. SO DESTRUCTIVE. WHDRE ARE YOU?

    Is it ever the time? Will I ever again be able to pick up a paper, a magazine, log on to some social media site or news report and not read of more anti-Semitic actions? More outrageous accusations and more instigations, ever more, of a growing despair and worse, a growing fear. It is not pleasant to live with fear. It is not pleasant to wonder if this ugliness, this newly refreshed revitalized now in the open toxic. manifestation of JewHatred will persist in its growth and erupt with blossoms of thorns with blood sucking capabilities, already bloodstained with the nourishment it seeks and finds. Finds too easily, helped along by the willing, eager, hands and minds of filthy Haters who now pollute this planet ever increasingly, ever more toxic, ever more apparently contagious. Or enjoyable. Or both. A world pandemic with no long-lasting vaccine to be found.

Woe upon us. Woe upon the world. History tells us that no campaign of giant extermination proportions is ultimately successful. Instead, the perpetrators, the instigators, the executioners receive their just dues. Their regime is punctured. and leaks supportive air and ultimately collapses. However, the time lapse between initial onset and growth pattern to time of collapse is way too long. This pattern must stop. It must. But how? How can this be done? Just taking a minimum account of the incidents of JewHatred, of the discounting of the persecution of the Jews once again. Of a persistent campaign to isolate world Jewry in any capacity, venue, or appearance. Well, here is what I picked up on merely between yesterday and this morning. And not really having to dig for it at all. It was there in fact, on a rusty, ugly platter already bloodstained and reeking of that awful coppery odor of spilled blood.

The most outrageous? Read and weep and sob, hopelessly, even as you are consumed with rage. I personally know a twin subjected to this horror.

Candace Owens " theorizing that some of the horrific experiments conducted on Jewish children during the Holocaust may be nothing more than propaganda."

But there is more to her ugly words of dangerous ignorance and stupidity, all mired in a cesspool of obscenities and hate. Virulent senseless, vicious hate now burgeoning round the world. Read and weep. What is to be done, can be done?

 "Some of the stories, by the way, sound completely absurd," she said in a clip shared to social media. "The idea they just cut a human up and sewed them back together. Why would you do that?"

"Literally, even if you're the most evil person in the world, that's a tremendous waste of time and supplies," she continued. "That just sounds like bizarre propaganda."

Denying Mengele's horrendous inhumane twin "experiments. And she is not alone. Sadly, tragically, so.

Further examples of the erasure of Jews, their agonies, this persistent hatred, this overwhelming Hate that continues to wave its ugly teeth and claws, time and time again, always finds eager hosts to nourish and grow it, are unfortunately always there. Do you not want to hear it? Well, we cannot indulge ourselves in selective deafness for like it or not, we are all affected and suffer via this dangerous virus of hate. You must see the necessity. of making a decision: on which side of that decision will you be? Will you go along? Get along? Wallow in the blood of that hate. Or will you stand up and fight against it? Help make people understand that hate consumes all. No particular pickiness or focus, for its permanent hunger for more, always more, is always there. If for nothing else other than self-survival, then hatred must be fought on that basis. Whatever works. Whatever is needed. Whatever must be done. 

JewHatred finds its own way to wherever it wishes to go, wherever there is an opening. Harvard, after allowing the ugliness of the encampment and the voices chanting for violence, for murderers, for rapists, for baby killers, now reneges on the little that it actually had done. Those who had received a penalty for their participation in the encampment, or worse, have now been pardoned. No consequences and no lessons taught. No, I am wrong. The lesson taught is clear. It is OK to violate your word when it comes to the Jews. They do not count. They are not important. In fact, the more we can isolate them, the better we are. 

Truthfully. the ugliness of this hatred is to be found in the highest ranks of Harvard as they made a joke of their supposed investigation and new Commission. Even as many other universities move along the same jagged lines. Supposed promises and settlements have been reached with Colombia and other schools. To be watchful and wary of Jew- Hatred, to combat it. Well, fat chance of that based on past performance and future "promise". There is no optimism within me. 

Furthermore, the path of destruction is clearly to be seen. More and more of academia, of business, of industries, of research, are joining in the oh so fashionable boycott and exclusion of Israel, Israelis and Jews. From the sublime to the ridiculous, from Airbnb's to the highest halls of supposed learning, Jews are being isolated. A demand is growing to have nothing to do with them. To not converse with them. To not work with them. To not acknowledge them as human beings. Hence, any dismay, any nastiness perpetrated upon them must be discounted. Belittled. Perhaps even ignored totally and completely.  Oct7? Feh! Citizens and civilian infrastructure deliberately under attack by Hezbollah with growing deaths - so what!  Our hostages brutally kidnapped, tortured, threatened, raped, killed, the few remaining alive, oh - so what! is the reigning movement. Slight hope or bit of light - Meta has acknowledged that there is in fact a use of anti-Zionism as antisemitism and will block it on their site. Hoorah! Hurray! But too little, too late.

There is more, unfortunately so much more. So many incidents of hate. So many moments of growing fear. Haters feel that they do not need any longer the official status of an OK of the UN or formal declarations of boycott from nations. No. All they need are the energies of the deluded and the foolish young. The haters of the right and the left, and even of the middle. Catchy chants of support for evil and extermination and the growing attractiveness of the freedom that hatred confers upon its practitioners. Read this and understand the significance of this movement and its consequences. Where are you in this whole ugly thing? Are you a descendant of fascism? Of a hate as old as time, perhaps even older than that. Or are you a member of the Righteous. Your choice. Your thought, your acts. Your humanity. Where are you?

As an aside, the vicious attacks upon Biden if indeed he has Parkinson's, are uncalled for. Physically, yes, there is generally a growing problem with flexibility of the body, but cognitive degeneration does not follow as a dog does its master. I have PD and am not cognitively damaged. I know many others, many, many others who are the same as I.

That's what the arrangement and dementia mental instability and illness look no further than Trump. The embodiment of evil and malice of forethought and "everthought" Think. Think Democracy. Think civility. The ugly wave of hatred and its poisonous growth have much to do with the Trump era. and it's continuing unfortunate and tragic existence in the world today. 

We all must think, delve deep down into our consciousness and understand truly what we have before us. We must make a decision. That decision must be firm. Hopefully it will be the right decision.

WHERE. ARE. YOU?     

AND PLENTY MORE!

  Socrates led the way with his Socratic method. That is to ask questions, always questions, for questions lead to other questions and eventually questions do lead to answers, hopefully productive, positive and responsive ones. At the very least, it would force us to think and to rethink and to hopefully move forward. Unfortunately, some questions are not asked. Why? Beats me as at times those questions are not the one elephant in the room, but rather the entire herd and the cousins and extended family are coming right behind them.

Here are a few elephants. Perhaps someone can find some answers so that we can engage in some worthwhile and beneficial culling. Yes, Joe Biden is old. So are many of us. Donald Trump is 77. As one near that bracket, I know there is no difference between 77 and 81. Both are old. Period. However, distinctions remain in other areas. We don't count ourselves out, nor do we allow others to count us out. We all realize that age has brought about a slowdown. We move slower, less fluidly, constrained by aching bones and stubborn muscles. We think or rather respond in slower manner. We take that extra second or two to respond in a responsive and thoughtful manner rather than shout nonsense, or worse, hoping that volume will conceal ignorance and/or untruths. That pause does not mean dementia nor incompetence. It means someone is taking the time to do the right job the right way.  

Be that as it may, neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump is the ideal candidate. In fact, they are far from it. However, if we are forced to confront that choice, we must make a choice from what is and not from what we wish it to be. Joe Biden is imperfect. I don't like that wishy washy business re Israel. If one promises to stand with us, then stand with us. Stand firmly alongside and air differences at home, not in public. On the other hand, I do like many of his domestic policies. I do like that he understands that the United States of America is part and parcel of a world of nations. To isolate ourselves is to attempt to turn back the clock. People have tried that before and it does not work out well.  I believe he's basically a good man with flaws - as we all have. And now we need to move on to his opponent.  

 With Donald Trump we are up against a future of totalitarianism in this country. Democracy.  Freedom of thought, of speech, even of religion. Gone. The federal government so decried and booed by many of Trump's base who refuse to understand that if he were to win election, Project 2025 would be installed and enacted. The federal government would be everywhere, its fingers in every pie, in every drink, in every breath. Even religion and to wit - two states now rule that the Ten Commandments be in every public schoolroom from top to bottom.

One man is evil with an inner core consisting only of ugliness and darkness. There is no compassion. There is no empathy. One man is well meaning though most definitely capable of errors. However, I have never seen within him any of the evil and sheer nastiness which fills Donald Trump to overflowing. Like it or not, this is the choice we face, and we must choose. We must choose the one who lives in light rather than darkness. We must choose the one who thinks of others as well as himself rather than the one who is consumed only by and with his own concerns and needs.  

More elephant questions. Why is Trump never called out for his lies? Why is Trump never called out for his own form of the Parkinsonian spectrum?  Why is cognitive testing never demanded of him?   Why are everybody's eyes turned only upon Biden? Why and why and why?  Aggravates me like the Dickens. Worries me greatly.  And Trump's perpetual smirk is nauseating, a display of his belief in his own superiority. The man who would be ruler vs. the man who would be President. The Constitution vs. Project 2025. 

Here are some more questions, some more elephants stomping around. Where are we going here in this country? Why and wherefore have we left our brains? Why have we handed over the exercise of our intelligence to those who would lock it up. Keep it far, far away. Never to be returned. Why are we suddenly ignoring the immorality of not only Donald Trump, but also that of the crooked judges of the Supreme Court - Alito and Thomas and Kavanaugh and all them right down the line. Canon who probably has a picture of Trump pasted on her mirror. Any other person charged and convicted of his crimes would already be clad in a lovely orange jumpsuit.  Where are the streams of media? Where are we, for that matter!  

Never short of questions, we move on to the world. What is going wrong with the world? Has there been some kind of E. M. P. of the brain? Suddenly the people of the world are behaving and reacting as robotons with defective AI. Someone pushes a button, and we all scream. Someone pushes a button, and we march. Someone pushes a button, and we hate. Lies have become the currency of the day. 

There is no talking anymore. The only thing we do with our mouth and our brain are to further enmesh ourselves in the stinking fetid swamp of hate and violence. We threaten and demand. We seek violence and we reanimate old tropes which long ago should have been declared illegal immoral and simply dead, dead and buried deep, deep within the ground. Unreachable. Instead, we have defeated ourselves and become our own conquerors. We think of rude and crude chances to hate. We threaten. We demand. But we also demand that there be no consequences. We hurl words of hate and ignorance and do not even understand. from whence these words appeared.  

What has happened to the middle? Why have we decided that we must split ourselves with a huge abyss between, a chasm which can never be plumbed nor bridged? What happened to compromise? What is happening with discussion? What has happened to decency and diplomacy? Why have all the people in the world from top to bottom adopted hatred, ugliness and violence as proper pathways to walk through life. Why, as a Jew, am I being asked, demanded, to kindly eliminate myself?  ASAP.

Is there any way out of this morass, our perverted self-made cesspool? Is there any way to delve deep within and reconnect with and revive sunken morals and principles? Can we reinvigorate the ability and willingness to talk, to compromise, to rethink, to adjust, to set goals of betterment and righteousness? Or have we lost it all already. Beyond any possibility of return and revival?

Why and why and why. Lots of elephants indeed. 

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Yitzy, some world we have down here! Got any suggestions? We could use some, and are in fact, in dire need of such!

You were, are, of such golden life and goodness. So how could you even try to comprehend the nastiness suffusing the world at present? 

Much better that you remain our pure golden boy. Always loved, always missed.

 Always and forever. Always and forever.

WHO'S GOT THE MAP?

 And so, we are lost. We are in a wilderness of our own making. We are in a wilderness that is unmapped, unknown as to extent nor to dangers and perils within. Without even a hint from previous trekkers through this wilderness and suddenly, without any map, one is certainly entitled to worry about the future. Will we ever find our way through? Will we be able to muddle through with some optimism, some light intact or are we doomed to walk forever in circles, to go nowhere other than to tire ourselves out and finally lay down and submit to the fate we have bequeathed to ourselves. Ironic and well earned.

We entered this wilderness via our own stubbornness and stupidity. We entered this wilderness sans preparation, without knowledge.   Instead of backing out, retracing our steps and finding a better path we insisted on continuing and here we are. A world grown, constantly growing, with violence. With malice of forethought. With fewer and fewer sane minds and wise heads capable and willing to persuade us to retrace our steps and find the proper track. But we refuse. 

We treat that useless, bloodstained dangerous map as the Holy Grail. It would take great courage for us to heed the words of the wise and admit that we have been wrong, so, so wrong, so dangerously wrong, so stubbornly wrong. Unfortunately, courage is in short supply. Apparently, the supply line has been cut, perhaps irreparably. 

There are many words of wisdom, words of guidance were we only to look for them and understand them. Will we remain selectively blind, unseeing of these words of guidance? Accepting these words will give us the strength and the courage to step forth and begin this slog to a good reality, to a good future. It is a slog with many tricky side trails leading nowhere, forcing us to retrace our steps and sometimes to begin again. However, we need not do this alone.

By whatever name we call our God. that God is actually one and the same. It is we mortals down here with our limited thinking, with the ossification of our brains, the shattering of our souls, and our abandonment of morality who have chosen the road of differences rather than the one of similarities. The consequential harm is upon us by our own inadequacies. 

 We are deaf to the words, to the voices of unity. We are unhearing of the call which will remind us that we are not alone, never been alone. We were, are, and will continue to be the engineers of our loneliness and our sense of abandonment. We are the ones. We are the ones to blame for these waves of violence wreaking horror and terror throughout the world. We are the ones, and no one else. We are the ones who refused to see what has been plainly placed in front of us for all the millennia of our existence. It is with great irony that the more we advanced in technology, in literature, in awareness of the world around us, we actually retreated in spirituality and acceptance of our limitations and reveled in our misplaced pride and lack of morality. We - no one else.    

Instead of commonalities that quest for unity, we insist upon our differences We build fences of barbed wire and broken glass physically and figuratively. We fight because, because we really don't even know why we fight. We simply insist on continuing to become more and more enmeshed and trapped in a morass of our own making. At present it seems to be impossible to ever find our way through all of this ugly mess, through to the truth, to true peace. 

Nobody is being asked to love one another. Nobody is being asked to even like each other. The ask is that we accept each other. Accept the frailties and imperfections. Accept the inevitable errors and mistakes which will be made. But there is no necessity to solve the issues which arise via the sword. If we pay careful attention, we might hear the harmony of minds and hearts and souls. and discard the swords. Leave the bloodshed behind. Stop the tears of the bereft and the screams of the wounded.     

We have been granted all of the above though for far too long we have allowed them to be cast aside, abandoned, dormant and atrophying. Here is a passage which explains what we need to read and see, hear and feel in our deepest crevices of our souls. Here are the words from Deuteronomy 32:10 which perhaps might give us a little encouragement, comfort and courage to forge new/old paths and repair old/new grievances. Maybe. Worth a try. Find the cartographers.     

In Deuteronomy 32:10, we find these words. 

 "He found him in a desert land. and in the howling waste of a wilderness. He encircled him. He cared for him. He guarded him as the pupil of his eye.”

See the words. Read the words. Hear the words. Feel the words.

 Create a new map.

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Yitzy, this is the time when we could have used. your wisdom, your instinctive understanding of the positive way to walk through life. Perhaps you can send down some words of wisdom, some words. of persuasion which will find reception even in the most hardened heart and hearts. Worth a try, sweetie. Definitely worth a try. 

Always and forever. Always and forever.

 

QUESTIONS AND MORE QUESTIONS

  Oh, questions I have many but answers I have none. So today I list my questions, or at least some of them and perhaps someone out there will read these queries and actually have an answer. A truthful answer. One that makes sense.  But hope remains weak and besieged.  Perhaps some questions are to remain unanswered as a permanent state of being.

So, to begin. Why is Harvard making anti-Arab bias a part of the task of the antisemitism probe committee and how to deal with that problem.

In fact, why are there claims of rampant incidents of Islamophobia when all protests- hate and violence- are directed in one direction - against Jews in any form whatsoever. Anti-Arab- few and far between.

Why is the war in Gaza called Israel's war? Who began it with a vicious attack on civilians on Oct 7? On a day of holiness and worship. a peaceful Saturday morning.  

Who was it who k Kidnapped innocent civilians and brutal. and brutally. killed them during captivity. Where are the outraged cries of the world? So caring for others. but only silence reigns in this moment.    

Whose leader has openly stated that the more dead Gazans, the better off he is. the more power Hamas has, is granted, by the world. The lies, the tears  a'plenty. but only directed for the Gazans. who   joined the raid with glee in the attack, cheered and jeered at the parade of captives. Held them as prisoners in their own homes. Allowed their homes to be used as tunnel shafts, exits and entrances. and refused to rebel against the corruption of Hamas. Thus they are complicit in their own death and tragedy.     

Where are the outrage voices of the world? Why is Israel the one constantly being under pressure. To concede, to give in to the point of existential danger.  And to no avail for where are their people.  A deal is aways scuppered as Hamas changes the parameters and conditions making it impossible to carry on. And so, our people die. As usual.

Where are the voices in the world when it comes to our hostages? Perhaps only 40 remaining alive of the hundred 20 who remained. And that is a big question in itself. Where is the anger of the world when it comes to the Bibas family? How have they forgotten that awful picture of that terrified mother holding on to her 2 little boys? Now, Hamas says they will return the Bibas boys at the exchange in a new ceasefire deal. Where have they been till now? Are they alive? How do we trust them? And when? When will there be a new ceasefire agreement?  e.

  The world remains silent as Sinwar and Hamas use the deaths of civilians, of their own civilians. callously. Why is the world silent unseeing.

Where is the understanding of the world? As our civilians are evacuated for nine months already to save their lives. The northern communities are silent other than the sounds of roaring fires and exploding bombs sent over by Hezbollah. The South remains with great ruins. Remnants of October 7. The world takes no notice. as usual. 

The world demands a cease fire and pressures Israel to commit. to terms of great existential danger. The world forgets who broke a permanent ceasefire on October 7 as they have done before several times. Always leading to bloodshed.

Back home at the ranch, other questions raise their ugly heads. Why? and wherefore, as the United States, a powerful United States of America, come down to this situation where two old folks are running for president. What? should be an elder statesman. The other should be in jail, already convicted and awaiting more convictions. One is a man who does not mean harm albeit he might be mistaken at times. The other is a man of evil. No heart, no soul. Only a deep dark black hole whose miserable evil depths have not yet been plumbed completely.        

Those who have the power to shut that man down. to insist that we have a true election, not a mockery of it, to be shamed before the world. Well, they are silent. Or they speak out in defense of that monster because they are chickens and cower before him. They are no different than those and who cowered before Hitler or Putin or Stalin or any dictator.    

Why has it taken so long for the infamous evil Project 2025 to gain attention? It contains within a plan to subvert this nation and turn it into an authoritarian ruled nation. The ruler. to be a man sick of mind. Black of soul and heart. and his cowardly enablers.  

Why and wherefore has this all come to be? How the hell did we allow the country to sink to such depths? Why did some even push it there? 

Is there any chance of a sane election here with a reasonable choice? I highly doubt it, certainly not at this point in time. What is upon us? To screw our courage to the sticking point and vote not for the lesser of two evils, for one is not evil, simply not as able as he used to be. That is the one, like him, like it, or not, for whom we have to vote. The other option is not an option. 

Why are people whining re expenses when for most, visibly so, consumption has actually risen. Yes, prices have risen, but so have salaries. What has gone wild is the cost of keeping a roof over one's head. The way to deal with that is to control the greed of too many and to enact laws   which will actually help. When the cost of shelter is reduced monies will be freed up to purchase better health care, better foods, better clothing.     Who needs to correct this? The same cowardly legislators and perhaps it would not be a bad idea to check into their records and see who among them actually owns realty. 

Why has the Supreme Court, in fact, the entire justice system for the most part, become a cesspool of ignorance, of greed, of corruption? The highest judges of the nation form a 'gang of six' whose intent is clear - back up Trump, back up Project 2025 and screw the rest of the Americans. Screw the world. Legislators could take care of this problem, but once again, their chicken feathers abound. Their morality absent. 

Where is America today and where is she headed? If anybody can answer that question with any realistic sense of any possible chance of a better future than it appears to be right now. Speak up. Now.  

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Yitzy, sweet boy, I haven't spoken with you for some time on the blog. Topics have been so ugly. I don't wish to associate you with them. But I guess you see all from above, do you not? Sorry for that. Wish we down here did better.  

In the meanwhile, as usual, keep us as close to you as we keep you to us. 

Always and forever. Always and forever.

SOMEONE SPEAKETH WITH FORKED TONGUE

   Or with visually impaired eyes. Or with a heart of stone. It does not really matter for at the end of the process, as it is today the outcome is dangerously the same. Existentially threatening to our republic, to the ethos of that Republic and to the individuals within, for what comes through is a very, very dangerous existential threat, with great collateral damage to the world as well. 

While in modern times, it has been very clear that some, too many and of growing number of the conservatives in the political realm have gone off, over the cliff with their extremely backward and lockstep thinking. However, there remained a rather feeble, undernourished hope that perhaps, just maybe, these conservatives would understand that loyalty to party never overrules loyalty to nation. Instead, we have a pitched battle between old style moderate Republicans and the crazed former outliers, now become the GOP elite and policy makers. Corrupt, fascistic odor emanating from their list of demands and plans, they smack of danger to our nation and to what it means. 

A time fraught with danger, with a world fractured and at each other's throats, these new 'conservative' fascists forget loyalty to the nation and its inhabitants. Instead, they pledged loyalty to a party an organization and a leader. This misplaced loyalty is bad enough and is compounded by a strong misplaced loyalty to one leader. Even more so is the peril to freedom and democracy, to our national heritage and thought, when that leader demands complete, total, unthinking loyalty. More trouble than ever when that leader is immoral, clearly demented, a liar who has never met the truth, a convicted felon and an inciter of rebellion and treason and rants re awful desires of revenge and retribution along with mass deportations. Extreme trouble in fact when that supposed leader rules by fear, threats and intimidation. 

When and where did we go wrong as a nation, as a people? Why did we agree with the coopting of our thinking processes, our independence? How have we enabled and/or looked away from our deep, ever faster decline and allowed for a situation where this once great nation has only two old folks to compete for the most powerful office of all. One genuinely means well but is hampered by the waning strength of the elderly. The other is simply WRONG from any and every aspect. And yet terrifyingly so there is a chance he might yet achieve a second term of office. 

What will happen should he succeed?  The dismantling of our republic. The destruction. of democracy. The shredding of the Constitution. The corruption of the defense forces and the justice system. A highly possible war of the world again. What the hell are we doing? Furthermore, how have we allowed a private highly conservative in its new negative representation, the Heritage Foundation, to gain control of the reins of power should fascistic demented Trump wiggle his nasty way into office. They have already done much damage through their campaign called Project 2025.

The Heritage Foundation published a thick tome presenting Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project. It is a strict, offensive, and far out conservative effort to ensure their platform to be that of the second Trump Presidency or any GOP candidate for that matter.  "the way for an effective conservative Administration," is its ambition, its picture of a future no longer America but rather that of Amerika.

Here are a few of its provisions and demands. Some quite advanced, long time in the making and effecting, in place already, ongoing and unfortunately too successful. For example, the revision of the entire justice system from top to bottom. It is basically a bold program to twist the meaning of the word justice, enabled to do so as each open judgeship is filled with an adherent of the new 'conservative' outlook. Witness the likes of Cannon, Thomas, Alito, etc., etc., etc.  and their recent decisions, granting the President, any President, total immunity, to be above the law, a violation of our Constitution, a knife in the back for the Founders of this nation, an installation of a monarchy notably turned down by Washington.

 There are many other similarly shocking plans and guidelines within that notorious plan book. Shall we count the ways we are going to be shafted? Let's list but a few. This rather ambitious ugly program follows immediately upon the footsteps of the Mandate for Leadership the Conservative Promise, a 922-page tome of treason, A plan to turn back the clock, so far and so fast it might well break. And break us as well. An egregious lie promising 'reform' and better lives, even as rights hard won are simply canceled. Gone.

The book Project 2025, all 900 destructive pages in five sections, proposes nothing less than the dismantling of our nation, the trashing of its democratic traditions. Denial of Rights. and the legitimization of the whims of the president. Harsh and shocking denial of rights for federal workers and all workers and consumers.  

A horror beyond belief. And yet, there it is in black and white for all to see and ignore, denied by too many. Scoffed at by those who say "Not here. We are not the countries of lawlessness and rebellion and myriad dictators. I refer you back to January 6, 2020.  Never say never. Not anymore. It is happening, has already happened to too much of a degree and will continue to happen unless we wake up before we are living in a real nightmare of permanent disposition.   The information and plans are out there. Below is a brief summary of some of the important tenets. As for the details, seek them, read them, know them.    The Mandate and Project 2025 are two parts of one whole. 

Four principles of the mandate:

• Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.
• Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people.
• Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats.
• Secure our God-given individual rights to live freely—what our Constitution calls “the Blessings of Liberty

  More of what a Trump or clone Presidency would entail: 

 " Abolishment of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration,"

 "Abolishment of the Department of Education and the Gender Policy Council," 

   "Suggests a pro-life task force within the Department of Health and Human Services "to ensure that all of the department’s divisions seek to use their authority to promote the life and health of women and their unborn children."  

  "Proposes to defund the Department of Justice, criminalize pornography, and place the Executive Branch of the U.S. Federal Government in the control of the president."

 "Includes reshaping the powers of the executive branch, gutting small government agencies" 

Read. Think. Inform yourself, Know the truth of the underlying principles and proposed actions. All is not as it is written and make an informed decision. Brain on track. Eyes wide open. Choose a future.

 

DON'T "SCUPPER THE DEAL"

     There has arisen a new hope, weak, struggling, but there. Finally, a possible deal for hostage release. Too late for too many as we have learned over the months that more and more have been killed in captivity, or died, due to criminal neglect and brutal mistreatment during their long, overlong, captivity and descent into a living hell. There is now a trembling flame of hope that perhaps we can actually bring out people home. There remain differences and we know by bitter history and experience that Hamas is willing always to "scupper the deal", playing Israel and America, along with the blinded eyes and deafened ears of the world even as Israel has made concessions way over the safety line re continued existence and is constantly pushed to concede more. But at least there is a slight flame of hope rekindled and let us hope it does not go out or extinguished by the murderers of Hamas.

It must be stated, however, that this hope, this fragile hope will shatter into smithereens and dust    unless the world understands that at present the world is in danger of global disaster such as we have not seen since WWII and the aftermath of the hottest times of the 'Cold War'. The sane people of the world are being overwhelmed by two sides of the same coin. The frightening worldwide trend of turning to the right, of reinvigorating fascism, along with the extreme left crazed in their insistence that all must follow lockstep with them or be discounted, eats away at our sanity even as it dims the hopes for a positive future. 

While there are many causes of our current situation, I believe that much of it stems from. a United States of America gone rogue with itself. We have forgotten who we are. We have forgotten. who we are supposed to be. We have forgotten how to discern good, even excellent leadership. We have allowed ourselves instead to have succumbed to the equivalent of the bread and circus of the Roman Empire as it too was disintegrating.

 Furthermore, as we look deeper into the causes, into the rot within America, it is easy to separate the wheat from the chaff and clearly locate and define the beginnings of this rot, the increased success of its planners and the awful present we now are witnessing. We know to the very last cell of ourselves, mind, body and soul, with every atom of our existence, even as we deny it, that by ignorance, arrogance and deliberate sidelining of crucial issues we have cultivated and nourished the rot within. We have fed the boll weevils of our ethos and enabled the success of those with nefarious plans for the future of America - actually, the demise of America as we know it, as we hope it to be, as we expect it to be.

 Our structure of three branches of government providing for checks and balances has been undone and corruption and incompetence and even evil have woven its ways into the very fabric of our being.  Imagine, if you will, as you must, the orders of the first day of the presidency of a corrupt, convicted, weasel of a human being. One with only hate in his heart and evil as his guide, surrounded by the same ilk, the dregs of humanity. Buoyed by a Congress and a system of 'justice' headed by a most corrupt, co-opted, bribed, partisan Supreme Court which has already set the stage for horror with its egregiously improper, immoral, Constitution defiling, turn the clock back to the Stone Age decisions. And it will only go downhill from here at ever increasing pace. No hurdles to overcome, a clear pathway.

Imagine, if you will, the memo.

To: Self     From: Self  

Subject; Conduct of the nation

Day One

Defund all federal departments and fire all employees.

Set up interviews for loyalty tests and appoint only those who pass. Those who do not must be banned from any future federal employment.

Disband Congress and follow the same process as above. Reappoint those who acquiesce to the oaths. Appoint appropriate replacements for empty seats. 

De- bench all justices and judges who will not swear loyalty to Donald Trump, the Supreme President for Life of the new nation, Trumpia. Name replacements from the prepared list. 

Cancel and forbid any projects re climate change and the environment necessities. 

Cancel any and all current and planned legislation of limitations of fossil fuels. 

Legalize the provisions for gratuities, for nepotism, and for advantageous employment.  

Fine tune for installation of censorship at all levels and the repression of free speech, which will include all facets of media.

Cancel any current or future planned legislation ensuring the rights of those deemed necessary of reiteration. Remind all that 'rights' emanate ONLY from within my office. Period.

Restructure every branch of defense forces, security forces, law enforcement branches of the entire nation. ALL are accountable to me and my appointees.  

Assemble committees or individuals to check for overlooked needs and fine tuning for loopholes. 

Remind the nation that any deed, action or word that I deem to be under the umbrella of "official care" is permissible. No liability of negative consequences unless I change my mind. 

Have aides assemble lists:

Those needing to 'disappear'. All my enemies.

Appropriate women 

Individuals who value cooperation or are subject to blackmail.

Finally, buy more ketchup.

Folks is this what we want? Is this that which we will allow to happen? Please examine the choices as we go to the polls. Understand what is at stake. Yes, I wish both candidates were other than who they are. But they are not. And we must deal with the reality of it. Like it or not, we must take upon us the challenge and do the right thing. We need to remember who we are. and why we are here. No ketchup for us. No scuppering the deal that we as Americans have made with our Founders. Our predecessors. Our parents and grandparents who bravely made their way to this nation wanting and seeking the best for their children. For those who continue to come with that hope, that dream, in mind. And for us - with ourselves and with and for our children. For the future of America as America. Not Amerika. Not Trumpia.

Do Not Scupper the Deal.

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Yitzy, the world has gone awry, off its axis and trembling in anticipation and understanding of imminent peril. We wish and hope that you angels up there do something to help mankind along.  

But even in the worst moments, our love for you remains as strong and as constant as ever.

Always and forever. Always. and forever.

Happy Independance Day

 Taking the day off. Going to enjoy what might be the last real Independance day we may haveand will be back Friday morning.

THE QUESTION? THE ONLY QUESTION? WHEN, ONLY WHEN/

  Nothing can stop the ticking of the clock. Tick Tock. Tick Tock. The fate of the world, the fate of the individual. Everything and everyone are subject to the passing of time. It is what we do with that time that determines the parameters of our lives. and the parameters of our contributions. to the world. Many, however, can count that time via the evil they have perpetrated upon this world with the consequences of that evil echoing down the ages perhaps until   eternity. It cannot be denied, nor change the reality it birthed. Nor its consequences, as much as we wish it would for the good, the innocent, the do nothings and the enablers reap these consequences. No emergency exit, no amelioration past a certain point. It is as it is and as it will be. Merely a question of when. When.

How did we reach that point? Make no mistake about it, that point is right here. Front and center. One can possibly convince oneself that there remains a space between us and that point, maybe, I hope so. But I also know that without due process and procedure, without a deep and candid dive, a true introspective evaluation of ourselves, nothing   with stop our downslope ride to that point, stop its inevitability. Unless we understand its exigency and we jump right on it. Talk, yes, but action, a great deal of determined action. Understand what is at stake and ACT! DO SOMETHING!

Now we can figure out where are the sites of these critical "whens"? When must that be undertaken and where do we start? 

The when is NOW. Right Now. Always begin the attacks on the Enemy closest to home. Unfortunately, in our times, these times, that enemy is truly close - actually within us. The most dangerous enemy of all. This enemy knows us, knows how to combat us and any attempt to revise the situation. In truth, the enemy is us. 

Over the past few years, we have enabled the destruction of a system of democracy, a system enabled by the participation of all or at least most. Along with that is the understanding that to serve the nation is to stand on the highest level of humanity. Today we have enabled incompetent deluded, even demented, even criminal leaders. They now stand on the very steps of the highest levels. Their impending election to office. brings to mind only situations of no good, rife with fear, for no longer will the rules be the same or of equal treatment. An elite of poisoned souls will rule, place themselves above the law and will favor corruption, bribery, nepotism, sexual perverts, the evil and the greedy, the incompetent and the selfish to rise to the top of that scummy pond.  

Censorship. Denial of opportunity. Misinformation. Disinformation. Big Brother mentality. Usage of AI to interfere in our lives. Disregard for the disabled, the homeless, the hungry families. The neglected children. Our corrupted system of justice. The rising angst, fear and hostility of a nation. The loss of a dream that was America. Our hostility to immigrants though we ourselves were immigrants. That we have a deep need of their labor and the taxes they pay. The infusion of fresh and inventive minds. Not to forget the absolutely insane denial of climate change and an ever more hostile environment. Remember that old line. “It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature.” 

 When did we allow or encourage the lowest common denominator to serve as our lawgivers and why did we do that? Is it too late to change, to re-formulate our society? When can we find the time? If we can find the time? When and where can we find the energy and the will to do so?  Do we have the time and the distance to find an adequate 'when'? way. Beats me.

Here's another question. Where will we all be by this time next year? Rather frightening thought is it not?   

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Yitzy, I am at the point. where I believe the only way out is to have an intervention by some kind soul, with influence to wake up the Good Lord and remind Him that His creations are in need of aid again. We certainly are not perfect, and a helping hand is not too much to ask, is it?     

The one thing I know for sure is that I, we, will always remember you, love you, and treasure those memories.

 Always and forever.  Always. and forever.

REQUIESCE IN PACE

 Rest in peace. How appropriate to use a dead language from a long deceased, dead empire as we stand here, the day after the day democracy died. That is to be the sum of the consequences of the decision made by the corrupt Supreme Court yesterday. Actually, it would be more correct to say that over the past few years, intensifying at an ever-increasing speed over the most recent weeks and days, the long-range plan of the extreme conservatives, of the foes of true democracy, has won. 

Democracy is to be dismantled in all but name only. “These here United States of America” will be gone. Or rather united via a turmoil such as we never expected to reach. But we have. The most corrupt Supreme Court in our history as a nation, along with the corrupted incompetent partisan system of the lower courts of the nation have brought this country not to its knees, but to its death.  

The day democracy died. The day the Age of America as an "empire", as a world force, as an ideal, as a life lived, as an attempt to improve the condition of humanity - dead. DEAD. DEAD! In all but name only the enemies of this nation have succeeded. The worst enemies, those who bored from within, the boll weevils of the American dream, their efforts have paid off., their darkest dreams realized, as that corrupt Supreme Court stamped immune on the forehead of Trump. He will, along with other such "presidents" of the future, have free reign - to commit any and all dastardly deeds, to violate each and every law as fits their needs and desires. The Court has deemed them immune. They are deemed above the law. The ideal and idea of America is shattered to pieces barely able to be glued together in some semblance of totality.

Rest in peace. I don't think so. I think we are now entering one of the worst periods in our history. Perhaps the last chapter in our history. There is a slight chance that we can still run the race, jump the hurdles in our path, but it will demand great effort. Do we yet have the courage, the impetus, the determination to the degree necessary if we are indeed to reform this nation, to return us to a place from whence we can step forward into the future. A good future. 

I don't know. I don't know that anyone knows. But if we do not try, if we simply resign ourselves to this ugliness, we are canceling the world as we know it and leaving an uncertain future for our kids. Definitely a legacy highly undesirable. Highly shameful. And before that future. you'll have a reality of the despot, of the cruel dictator of a heart of stone and a blackened soul. You cannot allow this to take place. We cannot allow this to come to fruition. Every step we take now must have the aim of restoring our democracy, our America. Every vote must be cast with that in mind.

The voices of the ages call out to us. Washington. Lincoln. Jefferson. Roosevelt. Kennedy. Dole. Bush. All the common people, all the everyday heroes. All beseeching us to do what we must to stand strong. To be firm. To be determined. To remain intact as America.

No, no resting in peace. Not until and unless the job is done.

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Yitzy, Sweet boy how could you possibly understand this ugliness? 

Only think of, feel, our loving arms and our hugs.

 Always and forever. Always and forever.  

 

 

   

 

YES, VIRGINIA - NO, VIRGINIA - WHO THE HELL KNOWS, VIRGINIA!

 Perhaps God does. I'm not too sure about that. I think we, the world, are in a state of turmoil the likes of which we have not seen for. many, many a year. Frankly, I believe some might call it even worse in many ways and levels than pre-WWII. The Anti Semitism of today is visible. more virulent, and even more governmentally approved, out in the open and encouraged, accepted and praised. 

Worse is that inevitable coterie of foolish Jews who cannot see past the rhetoric of the ugly words their haters espouse. They spout their oh so self-righteous words of self-effacement and apology where none are due; in fact, it is rather the opposite. In joining the calls for their own destruction, they are pushed forward to the front of the lines to be used as visible examples of the "truth" of their mob mates. They pat themselves on their backs as to how "progressive" they are, even as they are being used to bolster and perpetuate the oldest hatred of the world. 

Virginia, yesterday, I would have answered your question as to the existence and reality of Santa with a resounding "No, sorry, sweetie, but it does not". In fact, the very concept of Santa, what it represents, is in dire immediate need of an input of energy, an infusion of revival and refreshment. 

On the other hand, Virginia, perhaps despite all that we see, perhaps, just perhaps, there is that Santa remaining, a faint echo of the words and sentiments of "joy to the world" in inclusive intent. Of all. For all. The message and moral code of a true faith, no matter its presentation. 

Goodness and humanity transcend all lines of differentiation and unites all within the bounds and bonds of humanity. That Santa whose existence is challenged is actually a modern visualization of the moral values of good people. It is the core of the Torah as related to a seeker of truth by Hillel, a great Rabbi and scholar of ancient Israel. "Love your neighbor as you love thyself" and all the rest is commentary and explanative detail. 

If only the world would remember that and internalize that concept - truly, completely, rather than in the present presentation of hypocritical espousing of and reality disposing of.  In that world Virginia, there is no Santa. But in that other world, that possible world, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa". The world of today swings back and forth. Positive and negative forces pushing against each other with a line in between. At times one side controls that line and at other times, the opposing force is the controller.  Which side will prevail is up to us and the answer to your question, yes or no, well, that is up to us, to humanity, to our recognition and acceptance of a shared humanity, of shared goals meant to be achieved in equity and justice. How far we are from that goal at present, a sad truth indeed. 

Yesterday in the midst of a sea of gray yesterdays and todays and tomorrows there was a glimmering of light, a possibility of a yes answer. Attending a performance of Mamma Mia, (the best production I have seen of it, and I have seen many,) the theater was packed. This audience who came for relief in a time of stress and confusion, shared laughter with all. We clapped and roared at the same moments. We shared many moments and gone for those moments were the differences which separated us. Caught in the midst of a most frightening time, we forgot it all, and felt only a shared feeling of happiness, brief, but reminding us that our commonalities remain intact.

 Upon us is a responsibility, the task to dig deep, deep down, past the overlayers, those layers of ugliness and obfuscation and return the shared qualities, the virtues, the truths, to the light. I was reassured of their continued existence, their survival beneath the crushing pressures of reality, that there was a continued existence of life remaining even beneath all the pressure above.

These days I often wear T shirts reminding all of the remaining hostages held within the depravity of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. I wear the dog tags and my symbols of Judaism. It reminds all that we must stand together, that we must remember the dead and the dying and the living. And that we MUST act.      Yesterday numerous people among that crowd came over to me to compliment me and remark upon the shirt, to join in wishes that the situation would be settled quickly and positively, that no such thing ever, ever take place again. Jew and non-Jew, child, adult, elderly. It mattered not.

A refreshing breeze. Can we build on that breeze? Turn it into a gale of hope and assistance, truth and justice and humanity. Can we? Will we? Do we want to? I think yesterday told me that yes, we wish to. We can, and hopefully we will, but it will take much hard work, much sweat, many tears and many errors will be made. But we must persevere for the alternative is not really one that we would choose. Would that we all wake up to this. Would that we turn out all the crooks and incompetents within our governments, from our legislatures, from our corrupt courts. Return to true justice and adherence to our true values, here in America and present in all true faiths. If we are to do so, we had better do so soon for the sands of time flow swiftly.

We own the capability. do we also own the desire to fulfill that capability? It is within our power.  Is it within our will? 

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Yitzy, I have left you out from the past few postings. I did not wish to associate you with such ugliness. However, yesterday there was a bit of light, so once again, sweet boy, we love you, miss you.

Always and forever. Always and forever.