Irony indeed. Today is Flag Day, a day when we honor the meaning and the history of our flag, that star spangled banner and yet today is a day when we can question whether it still waves over America, whether it still means what it has meant to millions over the two and a half centuries that it has indeed waved from one side of the world to the other.
In fact, the question truly is, whether America is still what it always meant as a concept, as a representative of all that is good in humanity, of the higher aims of humanity, of the willingness to know it is not perfect and to go after that which made it imperfect. Today, at this nadir of American history, the answer is sadly no. We have sunk to a point where truly, the flag means nothing, its history is mocked, its depths shallower by the day, and Betsy Ross must be turning over in her grave. I wonder what those Iwo Jima heroes would think now of the flag they raised on that brutal island. We have honor flights but what do they really mean in the context of what is going on in Washington today?
Today we read of a mayor who removed the portraits of Trump and Pence from town hall because he stated that "respect is earned, not demanded" and it raises questions about the man in the Oval Office who demands loyalty and respect and for what? Quite frankly, at this point he has my sincere disrespect for he has dishonored his position, his office, this country - my country.
Just what is going on today? We have a Senate hearing where the questions fell once again according to Party. Republicans tried to whitewash the Little Mouse testifying, allowing him to give long winded answers that responded to nothing that was asked. He was consistently allowed to plead an invisible executive privilege because Trump 'might' one day wish to invoke it, hence his refusal to answer questions directly. He "cannot recall " - the most obvious hideaway response of all those who have done something criminal or illegal or immoral. He contradicted himself time and again and when Kamala Harris pressed him, he was rescued by McCain and Burr who then allowed him to wander the world in his answer, but no answer was actually forthcoming.
So we have a President who has to be defended even though he is seriously incompetent and deranged. The image of the man with a sickly grin on his face as he went round the table soliciting compliments from his officers was truly nauseating, They were "blessed" to serve him, a privilege to serve him - but they serve US, the People, not this man who emulated every single dictator and tyrant of the world who always solicited praise about himself. One could superimpose the face of Hitler over Trump's and the meaning is clear - disgusting and dangerous. This man, this awful man, who now has over 200 lawmakers suing him for violations of the Emoluments Clause, who changes his mind more than a woman going thru her closet trying to find the right clothes to wear, this man who now says that the bill that he encouraged, the bill to repeal and change the healthcare in this country, this man now tells these people who listened to him that the bill is "mean"? Truly!! Who made it so, who brought this about?
So today we have a story how the rich are buying land to survive the apocalypse - uh huh, guess there really is a climate issue. Guess there really is much to be afraid of with Russia and terrorists and once again the rich survive. Told ya that we are all scheduled to die!! Saves money for the important stuff - like the thousands upon thousands of dollars that Melania's clothing costs! Wow, so much in common with the base that elected her husband, right?!
In a book I just finished, Testimony, one of Turow's characters states ever so truly that " After meeting people regarded as "legends" that what is called charisma, this outsize attractive power, was often rooted in madness. We experience these people as extraordinary because deep psychic distractions prevented them from observing the same boundaries the rest of us had learned to adhere to...... (yet)There are no rules, no order, no civilization if everyone is simply out for himself."
Can anyone find a better statement that is so descriptive of Trump and where we are today in the country, what this man represents and where he is going with his philosophy that business rules the day, particularly his!! As Commodore Vanderbilt once stated, "What do I care for the law? Haint I got the power?"
Actually WE have the power if only we will choose to exercise it. We can throw the pols in DC out of office. WE can stop weasels like Brian Mast from doing any more harm. WE can throw Trump out of office, force him to resign for if he does not go and take his corruptness and lack of care for others, there will be an implosion within this country the likes of which we have never seen and that bodes no good for us. The downfall of Rome will be nothing compared to the downfall of the best shot that humankind had - the United States of America. So let that flag still continue to wave. Make your displeasure, your disgust, your anger be clear as water. Get this man and his phonies gone. Truly drain the swamp and long "may that star spangled banner yet wave". Look at that flag today and ponder. Please. Please.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Monday, June 12, 2017
WHICH ROAD?
We are at a crossroads. Right here in the Village we are at one and in America the same type of choice awaits our decision. Are we going to stand up to what amounts to incapable government, decisions that are bad from the outset, government by a few for the many, even those who want no part of it, or are we going to stand up and shout "Enough!!"
Robert Frost wrote of the road not taken and there are many meanings and interpretations, but today the fitting, most apt one is the choice between the high road and the low one. We have made a major mistake, in both places. We allowed the tinpot dictator here to ram thru his programs, such as they are, and his financial decisions full of folly and woe for us. Our CAM appears to be working hard, but it is not enough to overcome all that needs to be done. Our finances are a mess and what comes across as a budget constantly neglects to answer the question as to where and how we are going to find the funds to take care of the crumbling and aged infrastructure, the funds to repave the road and do it right this time, the constant repair on the Clubhouse - both of them- that are actually capital improvements but we always suck it up and pay for it. Where is the money to come from? With all reserves going into a big slush fund, there is no way to tell and no way to separate it all out. The only road to take here is the road of on line elections where tampering would be nigh onto impossible - that is, unless the Russians are coming!! Seriously, there would be none of this recounting any more, this sham of honesty that still stinks to the heavens and the voting needs to follow democracy - one vote per resident owner. Enough of David and back to the way it should be with term limits, a constant flow of new blood and new ideas as volunteers are actually welcomed into UCO and asked for heir thoughts, not shut down as they are today.
Even more so do we have to choose the high road, the one which tells us that we have a government full of thieves and liars, incompetents and governmental amateurs at a time when we truly need public servants, professionals and honest people who know the needs of the people, be it healthcare or jobs, honest jobs that actually lead someplace, that offer a future. They know the needs of the environment and the need for us to work with other countries of the world. We have irritated our closest allies, be it the UK, France, Canada, Mexico or any other country which functions on democracy and not tyranny. On the other hand, it appears that Trump woos the dictators and murderers of the world, from the Philippines to Turkey.
The ranks of the government are empty as more and more choose to separate themselves from the ever growing cloud over the White House. Those who need to be confirmed are not reaching the Senate for that because no one wants the job and Trump is not nominating!! This is not a do nothing regime, far and away the opposite, but what it is doing is horrific and so bad for us.
Now we have a suit brought by lawyers from DC and Maryland who are arguing what I have long ago stated - that the moneys that foreign governments pay to the Trump outlets - or inlets, if one wishes - are a violation of the emoluments clause and a high violation of ethics. In fact, this whole administration violates ethics left and right and what is most annoying is the growth of the heirs apparent, the Trump family. Donald JR. seems to have developed a role for himself within the government, perhaps he will be called a new senior adviser right there along with Jared and Ivanka!! We do not need a royal family, thank you!!
When Sessions himself lied thru his teeth at the hearings then whom are we to trust when the very officers who are supposed to provide and guide justice in the country are themselves guilty of violating the law, grossly so. They took the low road and we need to go high and show the world once more that we are ourselves, open to the world, prepared to take our role and place within it. We need to show our own citizens that we welcome them, that we will provide that social safety net for them, that we will provide the funding for the new jobs for a new economy, that we all have a future - once we get rid of the trash now ensconced in DC. Not an easy job nor an easy road but it must get done. We must choose and choose the correct road or the future will grow even more dim. Choose.
Robert Frost wrote of the road not taken and there are many meanings and interpretations, but today the fitting, most apt one is the choice between the high road and the low one. We have made a major mistake, in both places. We allowed the tinpot dictator here to ram thru his programs, such as they are, and his financial decisions full of folly and woe for us. Our CAM appears to be working hard, but it is not enough to overcome all that needs to be done. Our finances are a mess and what comes across as a budget constantly neglects to answer the question as to where and how we are going to find the funds to take care of the crumbling and aged infrastructure, the funds to repave the road and do it right this time, the constant repair on the Clubhouse - both of them- that are actually capital improvements but we always suck it up and pay for it. Where is the money to come from? With all reserves going into a big slush fund, there is no way to tell and no way to separate it all out. The only road to take here is the road of on line elections where tampering would be nigh onto impossible - that is, unless the Russians are coming!! Seriously, there would be none of this recounting any more, this sham of honesty that still stinks to the heavens and the voting needs to follow democracy - one vote per resident owner. Enough of David and back to the way it should be with term limits, a constant flow of new blood and new ideas as volunteers are actually welcomed into UCO and asked for heir thoughts, not shut down as they are today.
Even more so do we have to choose the high road, the one which tells us that we have a government full of thieves and liars, incompetents and governmental amateurs at a time when we truly need public servants, professionals and honest people who know the needs of the people, be it healthcare or jobs, honest jobs that actually lead someplace, that offer a future. They know the needs of the environment and the need for us to work with other countries of the world. We have irritated our closest allies, be it the UK, France, Canada, Mexico or any other country which functions on democracy and not tyranny. On the other hand, it appears that Trump woos the dictators and murderers of the world, from the Philippines to Turkey.
The ranks of the government are empty as more and more choose to separate themselves from the ever growing cloud over the White House. Those who need to be confirmed are not reaching the Senate for that because no one wants the job and Trump is not nominating!! This is not a do nothing regime, far and away the opposite, but what it is doing is horrific and so bad for us.
Now we have a suit brought by lawyers from DC and Maryland who are arguing what I have long ago stated - that the moneys that foreign governments pay to the Trump outlets - or inlets, if one wishes - are a violation of the emoluments clause and a high violation of ethics. In fact, this whole administration violates ethics left and right and what is most annoying is the growth of the heirs apparent, the Trump family. Donald JR. seems to have developed a role for himself within the government, perhaps he will be called a new senior adviser right there along with Jared and Ivanka!! We do not need a royal family, thank you!!
When Sessions himself lied thru his teeth at the hearings then whom are we to trust when the very officers who are supposed to provide and guide justice in the country are themselves guilty of violating the law, grossly so. They took the low road and we need to go high and show the world once more that we are ourselves, open to the world, prepared to take our role and place within it. We need to show our own citizens that we welcome them, that we will provide that social safety net for them, that we will provide the funding for the new jobs for a new economy, that we all have a future - once we get rid of the trash now ensconced in DC. Not an easy job nor an easy road but it must get done. We must choose and choose the correct road or the future will grow even more dim. Choose.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
JINGOISM REDUX
Jingoism is a form of extremism, usually in the area of foreign policy and aggressive statements or threats. It goes quite nicely with populism and nativism and all these terms are not in the best interests of us or the world.
There has always been a false theory that any nation can so choose as to go it alone. But almost from the very beginning national policy, any nation's policy, was always determined by what would happen with its dealings with other countries and globalism grew until today there is no one country that can isolate itself, not even North Korea, who uses the world's media to advance its policies and who has gladly accepted food aid when their citizens were literally starving in the streets. So Trump can put aside all his chitchat in this area and face reality.
Nativism and populism are simply adjuncts to that outmoded theory and its only "grace" is that it allows people to cover their base and nasty prejudices and violence, cloak it in a fancier term, but it is what it is, no matter the name. The biggest purveyors of jingoism, nativism, always hawk their statements camouflaged as stating the needs of the nation, stating its problems so as to arouse the populace and cause them to turn into a mob, literally or figuratively. So Hitler did, so too does Trump as he goes on his 'campaign' trips even as his Presidency crumbles around him.
We, the people, have to choose. Are we going to give up our grievances and work towards a better and fairer world or are we going to continue to sulk and blame all on someone else, dream of a time long gone and that is never coming back short of an apocalypse?
We need to stop the passing along of lies, sheer lies, calling it news, and following along the byways of liars, pure and simple. A man known for his fake statements, including the use of a pizza store as a sex site, or that a Democratic staffer was killed, now types out that Comey declared Trump innocent, that he had never asked for the investigation to be stopped or handled differently. Did we all listen to the same hearing? But pass this trash along did the rest of the self deluders and even intelligent people who refused to believe what they had put into office, passed it along.
At some time we must recognize what was done and pay the piper. But there are those who continue to deny. The man is ignorant so he is innocent of any true misdeeds. The man is not a politician so he can be excused for his moronic and madman like behavior. But is that so? Ignorance of the law is no excuse and never has been in the courts of law and if one deemed himself worthy of being President then he must do his homework. Period. And not a politician? Truly!!! Any one who has ever worked in business or education or indeed any workplace where there is more than one person knows that politics is the name of the game so cut the crap!!!
Swamp critters are swamp critters and it matters not whether they are crocs or gators or caimans. They all will gladly chow down on you and yours so lobbyists given waivers that bypass Trump's supposed new rules about them, businessmen who want to dismantle all that we have done to build a safer future, who preside over the demise of the very departments and programs they supervise - these are swamp critters who come in with the arrogance of business CEOS who can do as they wish as long as the cash flows.
“It's not about the party; it's about the people. And I can tell you the people are pissed.” So says Gillibrand, whom I hope runs next election in 2020.A tad earthy, but so true. There is nothing in Trump's program that is for the people unless they are of the ultra wealthy. There is nothing there for the people unless one can dig in along with the rest of the carnivores who devour the safety net, cut all social programs, who would leave the disabled in a bad way, who would let children starve, who know that the world has changed but who refuse to recognize it as it affects their wallets. But we are getting close to the tipping point when there will be no road back.
It is time that we fixed our election process and just as we are fighting here to get a basically one man one vote system into place in CV, so too do we need to do that here in the country nationwide. It would take a change in the Constitution, but that has been done before. We need to streamline the process of removing either a crook and/or a madman from office. We need to strengthen our system of ethics review and consequence. We need to do a lot of work and make no mistake about it, as we improve, so will our relationship with the other nations of the world. We are now being left behind and this will continue until there is a sane and knowledgeable person in the Oval Office who truly cares for the people and the rest of the world. That is the job of America. Too bad that our supposed leader and gang have forgotten that and have resorted to jingoism and nativism. Truly sad.
There has always been a false theory that any nation can so choose as to go it alone. But almost from the very beginning national policy, any nation's policy, was always determined by what would happen with its dealings with other countries and globalism grew until today there is no one country that can isolate itself, not even North Korea, who uses the world's media to advance its policies and who has gladly accepted food aid when their citizens were literally starving in the streets. So Trump can put aside all his chitchat in this area and face reality.
Nativism and populism are simply adjuncts to that outmoded theory and its only "grace" is that it allows people to cover their base and nasty prejudices and violence, cloak it in a fancier term, but it is what it is, no matter the name. The biggest purveyors of jingoism, nativism, always hawk their statements camouflaged as stating the needs of the nation, stating its problems so as to arouse the populace and cause them to turn into a mob, literally or figuratively. So Hitler did, so too does Trump as he goes on his 'campaign' trips even as his Presidency crumbles around him.
We, the people, have to choose. Are we going to give up our grievances and work towards a better and fairer world or are we going to continue to sulk and blame all on someone else, dream of a time long gone and that is never coming back short of an apocalypse?
We need to stop the passing along of lies, sheer lies, calling it news, and following along the byways of liars, pure and simple. A man known for his fake statements, including the use of a pizza store as a sex site, or that a Democratic staffer was killed, now types out that Comey declared Trump innocent, that he had never asked for the investigation to be stopped or handled differently. Did we all listen to the same hearing? But pass this trash along did the rest of the self deluders and even intelligent people who refused to believe what they had put into office, passed it along.
At some time we must recognize what was done and pay the piper. But there are those who continue to deny. The man is ignorant so he is innocent of any true misdeeds. The man is not a politician so he can be excused for his moronic and madman like behavior. But is that so? Ignorance of the law is no excuse and never has been in the courts of law and if one deemed himself worthy of being President then he must do his homework. Period. And not a politician? Truly!!! Any one who has ever worked in business or education or indeed any workplace where there is more than one person knows that politics is the name of the game so cut the crap!!!
Swamp critters are swamp critters and it matters not whether they are crocs or gators or caimans. They all will gladly chow down on you and yours so lobbyists given waivers that bypass Trump's supposed new rules about them, businessmen who want to dismantle all that we have done to build a safer future, who preside over the demise of the very departments and programs they supervise - these are swamp critters who come in with the arrogance of business CEOS who can do as they wish as long as the cash flows.
“It's not about the party; it's about the people. And I can tell you the people are pissed.” So says Gillibrand, whom I hope runs next election in 2020.A tad earthy, but so true. There is nothing in Trump's program that is for the people unless they are of the ultra wealthy. There is nothing there for the people unless one can dig in along with the rest of the carnivores who devour the safety net, cut all social programs, who would leave the disabled in a bad way, who would let children starve, who know that the world has changed but who refuse to recognize it as it affects their wallets. But we are getting close to the tipping point when there will be no road back.
It is time that we fixed our election process and just as we are fighting here to get a basically one man one vote system into place in CV, so too do we need to do that here in the country nationwide. It would take a change in the Constitution, but that has been done before. We need to streamline the process of removing either a crook and/or a madman from office. We need to strengthen our system of ethics review and consequence. We need to do a lot of work and make no mistake about it, as we improve, so will our relationship with the other nations of the world. We are now being left behind and this will continue until there is a sane and knowledgeable person in the Oval Office who truly cares for the people and the rest of the world. That is the job of America. Too bad that our supposed leader and gang have forgotten that and have resorted to jingoism and nativism. Truly sad.
Saturday, June 10, 2017
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Friday, June 9, 2017
A CATHEDRAL YOU MUST SEE - NOT WHAT YOU THINK
Today I has an amazing experience We went to the Cathedral of Learning that is an integral part of Pitt, the sister of Carnegie Mellon. It is the closet one can get to Hogwarts in style and architecture and it is amazing.
Totally build like a cathedral, it is amazing. I told my son I am coming back to enroll in the university so I can sit there at the antique tables in a rarefied atmosphere and study and learn. The aura is inspiring and the most amazing thing about it is that it is still in use as a building with lecture rooms and classrooms. There are approximately 40 rooms that are dedicated to the culture of different countries, with accompanying guiding talk. The ability, the right, to sit in these rooms and learn - wow!!!
Over and over we heard about universities, as early as the 10th century, the pride that the nations took in education, in the idea of freedom, of truth, of decency and I wonder where it all went. How did magnificent cultures and countries deteriorate into today's countries? Where did the culture and the humanity go? Where did the decency or at least the striving for it go or when did it turn rancid from disuse?
No pie in the sky naif, I know that there were some terrible things going on throughout man's history but certainly we could have, should have advance rather than receded. We have lost sight of what we should be, what we need to strive for, to seek the truth, to abhor lies, to continuously improve ourselves, better ourselves and make no truck with those who will not, who knowingly step off into the evil for the benefits it gives them.
A trip to the Cathedral of Learning should be a required outing for all politicians, for all CEOs and perhaps then they will feel the shame and take the steps needed to improve he world - but first themselves.
Pie in the sky, I know, but that Cathedral!!!
Wonder if Trump has ever been there - one does not even have to read to benefit from it.
Totally build like a cathedral, it is amazing. I told my son I am coming back to enroll in the university so I can sit there at the antique tables in a rarefied atmosphere and study and learn. The aura is inspiring and the most amazing thing about it is that it is still in use as a building with lecture rooms and classrooms. There are approximately 40 rooms that are dedicated to the culture of different countries, with accompanying guiding talk. The ability, the right, to sit in these rooms and learn - wow!!!
Over and over we heard about universities, as early as the 10th century, the pride that the nations took in education, in the idea of freedom, of truth, of decency and I wonder where it all went. How did magnificent cultures and countries deteriorate into today's countries? Where did the culture and the humanity go? Where did the decency or at least the striving for it go or when did it turn rancid from disuse?
No pie in the sky naif, I know that there were some terrible things going on throughout man's history but certainly we could have, should have advance rather than receded. We have lost sight of what we should be, what we need to strive for, to seek the truth, to abhor lies, to continuously improve ourselves, better ourselves and make no truck with those who will not, who knowingly step off into the evil for the benefits it gives them.
A trip to the Cathedral of Learning should be a required outing for all politicians, for all CEOs and perhaps then they will feel the shame and take the steps needed to improve he world - but first themselves.
Pie in the sky, I know, but that Cathedral!!!
Wonder if Trump has ever been there - one does not even have to read to benefit from it.
HAPPY DAYS!
Bet you think that happy days refers to the Comey hearing. You are wrong! Today I am happy because it is my B-day! Yay! The messages from friends, new and old, from students from my past life, it is kind of overwhelming at times. And no, no cards or wishes form Trump - Comey neither and none from David Israel!! Oh dear!
Seriously, I never expected that at this stage in life I would be protesting again, writing my heart out, frustrated at the turn of events, confused at the world and its actions and kind of pessimistic at times.
Yet I also am grateful for my blessings - my kids, my grandchildren, my friends, my life - and my best friend, Gerry. I am thankful for my faith, deeper than ever at a time when sometimes faith is all we have to hang on to and I thank G-d for giving me all that I have though could have left out a few surgeries! Seriously, in times like these
when the stress is high, when the anger rages in the country, we all need to retain a sense of humor, knowledge of the importance of friends and family and knowing that eventually things will right themselves.
Tune in later in the day for a more serious posting. Now I am off to receive more birthday kisses from the grandchildren. Love it!!
Seriously, I never expected that at this stage in life I would be protesting again, writing my heart out, frustrated at the turn of events, confused at the world and its actions and kind of pessimistic at times.
Yet I also am grateful for my blessings - my kids, my grandchildren, my friends, my life - and my best friend, Gerry. I am thankful for my faith, deeper than ever at a time when sometimes faith is all we have to hang on to and I thank G-d for giving me all that I have though could have left out a few surgeries! Seriously, in times like these
when the stress is high, when the anger rages in the country, we all need to retain a sense of humor, knowledge of the importance of friends and family and knowing that eventually things will right themselves.
Tune in later in the day for a more serious posting. Now I am off to receive more birthday kisses from the grandchildren. Love it!!
Thursday, June 8, 2017
SORRY SORRY SORRY
So sorry, folks. We left the house at 3:30 AM to catch a plane for Pittsburgh and have just caught our breath. A captain was missing , then found, a piece broke but was fixed and finally we reached our little ones. They are now blowing bubbles with the gum they are not allowed to have - a grandparent's perk!
What I found time to do was listen to Comey and wage a battle within myself to not explode with frustration and annoyance. It is shocking to think that all this could go on and even more shocking that a member of an institution based on law did not reveal the violations immediately. Why not? I am not a fan of Comey and believe he did wrong with Clinton and now with Trump but on opposite ends - one where there was no need to say anything and one where it should have been blasted from the windows of the FBI.
How could we have allowed such a crook to become president. Thought we learned from Nixon. How could we not see the difference between Camelot and TrumpWorld? How could we allow the unethical behavior to permeate our government? How could we have allowed his entire family other than Barron and Tiffany to get involved? How and when does this reach a border, a point of no return and a point of us saying - OUT!!!
What gave me hope at a dark moment was hearing on line a video put out by an Arab group that protested violence, that sang of love and meeting enemies with peace rather than hate, that Allah was better than the terrorists who kill people, even the innocent. There is hope in this world, as hard as it may seem right now.
Tomorrow I hope to write a longer posting, one which perhaps can make sense of what happened today and where we are going to go with this. Reading that the GOP Senate members think they can go on with repeal of the healthcare - that just blows my mind. Their ostensible leader is a crook, a liar, a predator, a disturbed man and yet they continue to strip the protection around their electorate.
Think the world will make sense tomorrow? We will see what the morning brings.
What I found time to do was listen to Comey and wage a battle within myself to not explode with frustration and annoyance. It is shocking to think that all this could go on and even more shocking that a member of an institution based on law did not reveal the violations immediately. Why not? I am not a fan of Comey and believe he did wrong with Clinton and now with Trump but on opposite ends - one where there was no need to say anything and one where it should have been blasted from the windows of the FBI.
How could we have allowed such a crook to become president. Thought we learned from Nixon. How could we not see the difference between Camelot and TrumpWorld? How could we allow the unethical behavior to permeate our government? How could we have allowed his entire family other than Barron and Tiffany to get involved? How and when does this reach a border, a point of no return and a point of us saying - OUT!!!
What gave me hope at a dark moment was hearing on line a video put out by an Arab group that protested violence, that sang of love and meeting enemies with peace rather than hate, that Allah was better than the terrorists who kill people, even the innocent. There is hope in this world, as hard as it may seem right now.
Tomorrow I hope to write a longer posting, one which perhaps can make sense of what happened today and where we are going to go with this. Reading that the GOP Senate members think they can go on with repeal of the healthcare - that just blows my mind. Their ostensible leader is a crook, a liar, a predator, a disturbed man and yet they continue to strip the protection around their electorate.
Think the world will make sense tomorrow? We will see what the morning brings.
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
No, I am not rewriting Hamlet. In fact, while his question was whether to commit suicide or not, mine concerns whether it is wise to be afraid or not. This was a question posed to me by a resident of the Village and was a multi-part question.
My first response was to be yes, very afraid. I believe that the clock has ticked over to one minute before midnight. We have no sane leader of the country, we are pulling ourselves into a small hole, away from the world, ignoring our obligations and have turned into a country filled with hate, filled with concern at a mad leader and worried over the fact that every day another piece of information comes out related to the Russian probe. Yes, be afraid, be very much so.
Yesterday I watched a video of an observant Jew in LA get beaten up by a man waiting there for him to pass. The date? May 22, 2017. I just read a report of a 65 year old Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, in France being held captive and tortured until she was thrown out a window to her death, all the while the police and media standing outside her apartment door doing nothing, nada, zilch!! When? April of this year. Am I afraid, oh yes I am, especially when I read this morning of a drive by directed at two good kids because they appear to be of Moslem heritage, shot just before their graduation from high school. Is this what our country and the world has become, just a bunch of disaffected hate filled people, ready to harm others who are not 'like' us? Be afraid, be very much so.
We have more reports of Trump asking his national intelligence officer, Coats, and Pompeo, to intervene with Comey and the investigation and of course we know the incident with Comey who was so set off balance that he asked Sessions to run interference for him and keep Trump away from him.
We have reports of an obsessed Trump obsessively watching TV, tweeting away for all he's worth, cursing out the media, the "enemy of the people"! "The FAKE MSM is working so hard trying to get me not to use Social Media." MSM is mainstream media. He is vowing to take action and what will be that action? Talking, quite inappropriately to people who are on the committee in the Senate, dreaming that all would be forgiven and he can go ahead with his hateful plans? Sure, why not scare some more people away so now we have children who are American citizens being denied food stamps because their parents are afraid of being deported and their children being left alone. So there ya' go - the death plans once more. Be afraid, indeed so.
Today there is as report out that "President Trump's charity foundation funneled $100,000 in donations meant for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital into revenue for the Trump Organization by using his son's charity, Forbes reported Tuesday." And this has been going on to the tune of $10 million dollars over ten years. This is indeed the bottom of the barrel, taking money away from kids sick with cancer and other awful maladies and taking care of his golf courses instead. What a pathetic excuse for a human being, never mind a leader. Afraid? Oh yes!!
The second part of the question concerned a local 'leader', David Israel, a leader very much in the same category. No, I do not know what he gives to charities nor any intimate details nor do I care to know as that does not impact on the Village. What does is his abrasive and immoral manner of behaving and running his show. Yes, his show and evidently not ours. He violates Roberts' Rules when it suits him and violates every ethic of a chair at a meeting by behaving in a partisan manner and taking time away from the speakers to announce and reinforce his opinions and desires.
He continually foists financial disasters upon the Village and it is only through the hard and determined work of some that we have avoided many of them. He is obsessive in his behavior, mannerisms and goals, none of which appear to have any benefit to or for the Village in the long term. His latest fiasco? Trading the realty building for a shack that needs major renovation and why? Because WPRF said it would be a good idea? Because Levy said let's switch a wreck for a good building? Because the Rag needs a place to function? Not that they truly function as an independent organ of the Village for they are simply a mouthpiece for David Israel and allow no dissenting voices to be printed or discussed in the paper; in fact, the Rag treats these people as nonexistent until it comes time to denigrate.
He runs things in a Trump like secret manner, refusing to allow in any dissenting voices and like Trump, has a difficulty filling positions because most people are either forbidden by him, banned, or people simply cannot deal with him and his behavior and his mouth.
And when one disobeys that man sitting in the backroom all day, when one dissents from his plans, he threatens, he discards and he shouts nasty stuff. So was I afraid of him I was asked, afraid for what he could do to me? Well, most emphatically NOT afraid for what can he do? Illegally? Perhaps, but then again, that is pretty dangerous for him so I doubt that. And legally? Deny me a place in UCO, the ability to perform my responsibilities as an Executive Board member? His loss and the Village's loss so am I afraid? No indeed. In fact, it just makes me laugh that much harder.
But the fact remains that he is killing off this wonderful place, slowly taking apart our financial stability and amenities. Am I afraid for that reason? Oh yes indeed. But I must admit that he falls far, far behind the other so called leader whose deeds and behavior and incompetence and insanity make me much more afraid for us and for the future of the world.
To be or not to be? You decide for yourself.
My first response was to be yes, very afraid. I believe that the clock has ticked over to one minute before midnight. We have no sane leader of the country, we are pulling ourselves into a small hole, away from the world, ignoring our obligations and have turned into a country filled with hate, filled with concern at a mad leader and worried over the fact that every day another piece of information comes out related to the Russian probe. Yes, be afraid, be very much so.
Yesterday I watched a video of an observant Jew in LA get beaten up by a man waiting there for him to pass. The date? May 22, 2017. I just read a report of a 65 year old Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, in France being held captive and tortured until she was thrown out a window to her death, all the while the police and media standing outside her apartment door doing nothing, nada, zilch!! When? April of this year. Am I afraid, oh yes I am, especially when I read this morning of a drive by directed at two good kids because they appear to be of Moslem heritage, shot just before their graduation from high school. Is this what our country and the world has become, just a bunch of disaffected hate filled people, ready to harm others who are not 'like' us? Be afraid, be very much so.
We have more reports of Trump asking his national intelligence officer, Coats, and Pompeo, to intervene with Comey and the investigation and of course we know the incident with Comey who was so set off balance that he asked Sessions to run interference for him and keep Trump away from him.
We have reports of an obsessed Trump obsessively watching TV, tweeting away for all he's worth, cursing out the media, the "enemy of the people"! "The FAKE MSM is working so hard trying to get me not to use Social Media." MSM is mainstream media. He is vowing to take action and what will be that action? Talking, quite inappropriately to people who are on the committee in the Senate, dreaming that all would be forgiven and he can go ahead with his hateful plans? Sure, why not scare some more people away so now we have children who are American citizens being denied food stamps because their parents are afraid of being deported and their children being left alone. So there ya' go - the death plans once more. Be afraid, indeed so.
Today there is as report out that "President Trump's charity foundation funneled $100,000 in donations meant for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital into revenue for the Trump Organization by using his son's charity, Forbes reported Tuesday." And this has been going on to the tune of $10 million dollars over ten years. This is indeed the bottom of the barrel, taking money away from kids sick with cancer and other awful maladies and taking care of his golf courses instead. What a pathetic excuse for a human being, never mind a leader. Afraid? Oh yes!!
The second part of the question concerned a local 'leader', David Israel, a leader very much in the same category. No, I do not know what he gives to charities nor any intimate details nor do I care to know as that does not impact on the Village. What does is his abrasive and immoral manner of behaving and running his show. Yes, his show and evidently not ours. He violates Roberts' Rules when it suits him and violates every ethic of a chair at a meeting by behaving in a partisan manner and taking time away from the speakers to announce and reinforce his opinions and desires.
He continually foists financial disasters upon the Village and it is only through the hard and determined work of some that we have avoided many of them. He is obsessive in his behavior, mannerisms and goals, none of which appear to have any benefit to or for the Village in the long term. His latest fiasco? Trading the realty building for a shack that needs major renovation and why? Because WPRF said it would be a good idea? Because Levy said let's switch a wreck for a good building? Because the Rag needs a place to function? Not that they truly function as an independent organ of the Village for they are simply a mouthpiece for David Israel and allow no dissenting voices to be printed or discussed in the paper; in fact, the Rag treats these people as nonexistent until it comes time to denigrate.
He runs things in a Trump like secret manner, refusing to allow in any dissenting voices and like Trump, has a difficulty filling positions because most people are either forbidden by him, banned, or people simply cannot deal with him and his behavior and his mouth.
And when one disobeys that man sitting in the backroom all day, when one dissents from his plans, he threatens, he discards and he shouts nasty stuff. So was I afraid of him I was asked, afraid for what he could do to me? Well, most emphatically NOT afraid for what can he do? Illegally? Perhaps, but then again, that is pretty dangerous for him so I doubt that. And legally? Deny me a place in UCO, the ability to perform my responsibilities as an Executive Board member? His loss and the Village's loss so am I afraid? No indeed. In fact, it just makes me laugh that much harder.
But the fact remains that he is killing off this wonderful place, slowly taking apart our financial stability and amenities. Am I afraid for that reason? Oh yes indeed. But I must admit that he falls far, far behind the other so called leader whose deeds and behavior and incompetence and insanity make me much more afraid for us and for the future of the world.
To be or not to be? You decide for yourself.
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
TIME TO FACE THE MUSIC
The title is actually incorrect. It is not music we will be facing or hearing but rather a dissonance that has adversely affected us and indeed the world at large.
“His complete incompetence, his complete failure, and his complete inability to see his incompetence and his failure as anything except personal brilliance would get him fired everywhere from the boardroom at Microsoft to the deep fryer at McDonald’s.”
This is written about Trump, a leader who is most emphatically not! Keith Olbermann exposes this naked emperor and states clearly what I have been saying all along - “Donald Trump is not of sound mind,”. For sure we need to correct this situation, but it is not easy to face what we have allowed to be done. It is not easy to impeach or remove a sitting president but this must be done, it is imperative that it be so.
When a leader once more assumes the role of a most inappropriate schoolyard bully at a time when a leader of calm mien is needed - that is not good. When this happens time and time again, it is even worse and there comes a time when one must say goodbye and not with the sweet tones of Bocelli, but with the anguished and angry tones of the American people. Even his friends are sadly admitting that he is being himself and this self is most emphatically not good for us nor the world.
When State Department staffers, when Acting Ambassadors around the world resign - that is not good. When the man turns on his own aides, the ones he chose himself, that is not good, and when his main adviser is a populist and a nativist - fancy words for a bigot, one who in a previous century might be found in a white sheet, then we are on a dangerous edge of what? A calamity? It is already here!
This sick man, this demented man, sitting in the Oval Office, finds it more important to punish the leaker rather than repair what was leaked. The leaker is a whistle blower and it is sad that these reports have to be leaked rather than be addressed and of course, the first 'leaker" they choose to charge is a young woman of 25 - not those of the White House or the Congress, but a kid, who leaked a report of Russian interference in the election. Wow!! As if we did not already have knowledge and proof of that!
So what do we have now? We have a man who profited over the past few months from Saudi delegations staying at his hotel trying to fight off a 9/11 bill. Nice!! Good business, right? $270,000 of good business! Ethics, anyone?
We have admirals and generals who are warning us that we are falling behind, lagging behind in energy replacement, lagging in research that is needed to face the future. Coal anyone?
We are a country where a baseball minor league team is allowed to advertise with a Caucasian Heritage Night or now an "Hourglass Appreciation Night" and you guess what that refers to!
We have lost all manners, all decency, have retrogressed to a more vicious and backwards time and look who is at the head of it all - a self confessed sexual predator, one who thinks that TV is reality, that he can be a man baby even as the country and the world deteriorates in front of his eyes. Time to take action. Time to impeach or remove him from office via constitutional means.
It is a sad and dangerous time for us now when we desperately need a leader, a sane and rational and capable leader and all we have is a big baby who throws tantrums, who thinks he can command all and frighten all, a man who would tear us, the United States of America, tear us down and away from the world, yield our position of leadership, abdicate our position as leader of a world trying to be moral, trying to do the right thing.
These are desperate times, as has been said before, but the words fit the times and the needs. We must face the music, the music that we have allowed to be corrupted, the music that strikes the ears with dissonant tones. This is not an Aaron Copland production of atonal music but rather the noisy and disturbing music of a broken mind.
There is nothing more to say at this point, is there? The need is clear.
Monday, June 5, 2017
BACK TO VOLTAIRE
"It takes twenty years to bring man from his vegetable state inside the womb... to the stage where he begins to grow into maturity. It took thirty centuries to learn something about his structure. It would take an eternity to learn something about his soul. It takes only an instant to kill him." Voltaire, 1764
Read those words and feel their wisdom. Feel the truth found within those sentences and then ask oneself what the hell are we doing? We find ourselves living in a world that seems to echo all day and all night with the sounds of violence, with the sound of weeping, with the roar of hatred and we wonder what to do about it.
And amongst the wonderers certain thoughts come forth. We remember Goldwater and his "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." We encounter the thinking throughout history that says that one must lose some individual liberties if we are to have security, but then we must think over that again for how many societies over the centuries have promised that security and never truly kept it going nor gave security to those who were ripped away from their families in the middle of the night?
War always comes up as an answer to the violence of terrorism. It has been tried often, but masses of troops are not the answer either as we have found that out to our detriment as we continue a war of almost two decades in Iraq and Afghanistan. War seems to irritate those caught within its spiked web, only raising more violence and die hard opinions. "Men are not made for war. But neither are they made for slavery." (Jean Guehenno, 1942). Yes, there are some wars that needed to be fought because all else failed and we need to be able to see more clearly which path needs to be taken, but we need to be absolutely clear and make the decision in a calm and rational manner.
Having a madman sit there and tweet away, use his capitals incessantly, get into a fight with the mayor of a city under attack, shout about how we need to tighten bans here in America to keep us safe - no, folks, this is not the answer either. We are not made for slavery either - not for the slavery of rules that break the back of society, that turn us from the achievements of mankind back to the rude and crude ways of a dictatorial society. That has been tried before and is still being tried in certain countries and it leads to naught but more violence.
We need sanity more than ever but it seems that all we are getting is more insanity, more shouting and more threats. Ban these people, threaten those, attach suspicion on anyone who dares to question and Eugene McCarthy is smiling in his grave. Yes, we need to be vigilant but we also need to be realistic and wise. Unfair rules and regulations cause people's backs to rise and tighten and then we simply get more violence and a split in society such as the one we are building right here in our country. The two sides will never hear each other, never think over the concerns and worries of the other person and the dream of America will be gone, shattered and for what? Turning America into Amerika is not the answer. Never the answer. Never!!
So the USA is tightening visa applications. Fine, although it is already very tight - if only we would remember to scrutinize and smooth the operation into being able to actually see the individual standing before the booth waiting for entry. But we are careless there and also forget that the borders of any country are leaky, even the borders of the countries that used to live within the Iron Curtain boundaries. It is never sealed tight with no space for leaks so simply adding pages to an application that is already tight is foolish. Besides the fact, once we set up sealed borders, no visitor laws and crazy competition out there in the world rather than cooperation in the economic and scientific and humane areas, what do we have left? Only the desire to keep breathing, even under awful rules in breakback societies, but is that what we want for ourselves and our children? Can you remember all the names and passwords you have used in the past five years? I cannot and I bet you cannot either so why do we expect others to be able to do so and if not, what? They are banned forever? So we lose their contributions to our society? We ignore the value that immigrants have added to our country over the centuries. Think of the names of foreigners who fought in our own Revolutionary War, from Lafayette to Kosciusko to von Steuben and others. Alexander Hamilton was an immigrant as were so many of our fighters in our ragtag army.
We must keep our sanity and our heads and only that way will we keep our freedoms. Yes, it appears to be that this streak of violent and extreme Islam must be stopped, but we must find the right ways. Setting up extra burdens on those of our citizens who happen to be Muslim is not the answer. It only pushes them away and stops them from helping authorities. We have lost too many people because of religion. Jews were often the target of this religious hatred and religious canards, the Holocaust being the most recent and actually the anti Zionism that is barely disguised anti Jewish hatred appears to be alive and well today. Must we add more hatred of others to the cause?? It never works.
Today four Arab nations have cut ties with Qatar due to their support of terrorism, one being Saudi Arabia - hypocrisy to the nth degree, but perhaps they are learning, We will see. And do we hear Trump saying we are pulling our 10,000 troops out of Qatar where they are based? Shhhh - nope, sorry. All is quiet.
So we continue to live in a world that is changing its geography, changing the challenges, man made and natural, denying reality in the words of others, losing our perspective and even our leaders are loyal to themselves and to their party, demanding personal loyalty from Party members and is this America? Is this the future of the world? It is a sad future - an awful present - we are expecting and living with.
Do I know the answers? No, way above my pay grade, but certainly the answers we are getting now are not the answers that work either. We need thinking outside of the box. We need open minds and hearts. We need to develop trust. We need to reach out to others, allow them into society so that they will turn against those who would destroy it. We need to show that all of us are victims. Now I am not a particular admirer of Justin Bieber, but out of the mouths of babes we hear words of wisdom. At the OneLove concert in Manchester he shed tears, as did many others and said, that he has not lost hope, that "God is good in the midst of the darkness; God is good in the midst of evil. God is in the midst, no matter what is happening in the world. And He loves you, and He's here for you." Perhaps we need to refer back to the Image hidden within us for we are sure not doing so well right now. We must change. We must.
Read those words and feel their wisdom. Feel the truth found within those sentences and then ask oneself what the hell are we doing? We find ourselves living in a world that seems to echo all day and all night with the sounds of violence, with the sound of weeping, with the roar of hatred and we wonder what to do about it.
And amongst the wonderers certain thoughts come forth. We remember Goldwater and his "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." We encounter the thinking throughout history that says that one must lose some individual liberties if we are to have security, but then we must think over that again for how many societies over the centuries have promised that security and never truly kept it going nor gave security to those who were ripped away from their families in the middle of the night?
War always comes up as an answer to the violence of terrorism. It has been tried often, but masses of troops are not the answer either as we have found that out to our detriment as we continue a war of almost two decades in Iraq and Afghanistan. War seems to irritate those caught within its spiked web, only raising more violence and die hard opinions. "Men are not made for war. But neither are they made for slavery." (Jean Guehenno, 1942). Yes, there are some wars that needed to be fought because all else failed and we need to be able to see more clearly which path needs to be taken, but we need to be absolutely clear and make the decision in a calm and rational manner.
Having a madman sit there and tweet away, use his capitals incessantly, get into a fight with the mayor of a city under attack, shout about how we need to tighten bans here in America to keep us safe - no, folks, this is not the answer either. We are not made for slavery either - not for the slavery of rules that break the back of society, that turn us from the achievements of mankind back to the rude and crude ways of a dictatorial society. That has been tried before and is still being tried in certain countries and it leads to naught but more violence.
We need sanity more than ever but it seems that all we are getting is more insanity, more shouting and more threats. Ban these people, threaten those, attach suspicion on anyone who dares to question and Eugene McCarthy is smiling in his grave. Yes, we need to be vigilant but we also need to be realistic and wise. Unfair rules and regulations cause people's backs to rise and tighten and then we simply get more violence and a split in society such as the one we are building right here in our country. The two sides will never hear each other, never think over the concerns and worries of the other person and the dream of America will be gone, shattered and for what? Turning America into Amerika is not the answer. Never the answer. Never!!
So the USA is tightening visa applications. Fine, although it is already very tight - if only we would remember to scrutinize and smooth the operation into being able to actually see the individual standing before the booth waiting for entry. But we are careless there and also forget that the borders of any country are leaky, even the borders of the countries that used to live within the Iron Curtain boundaries. It is never sealed tight with no space for leaks so simply adding pages to an application that is already tight is foolish. Besides the fact, once we set up sealed borders, no visitor laws and crazy competition out there in the world rather than cooperation in the economic and scientific and humane areas, what do we have left? Only the desire to keep breathing, even under awful rules in breakback societies, but is that what we want for ourselves and our children? Can you remember all the names and passwords you have used in the past five years? I cannot and I bet you cannot either so why do we expect others to be able to do so and if not, what? They are banned forever? So we lose their contributions to our society? We ignore the value that immigrants have added to our country over the centuries. Think of the names of foreigners who fought in our own Revolutionary War, from Lafayette to Kosciusko to von Steuben and others. Alexander Hamilton was an immigrant as were so many of our fighters in our ragtag army.
We must keep our sanity and our heads and only that way will we keep our freedoms. Yes, it appears to be that this streak of violent and extreme Islam must be stopped, but we must find the right ways. Setting up extra burdens on those of our citizens who happen to be Muslim is not the answer. It only pushes them away and stops them from helping authorities. We have lost too many people because of religion. Jews were often the target of this religious hatred and religious canards, the Holocaust being the most recent and actually the anti Zionism that is barely disguised anti Jewish hatred appears to be alive and well today. Must we add more hatred of others to the cause?? It never works.
Today four Arab nations have cut ties with Qatar due to their support of terrorism, one being Saudi Arabia - hypocrisy to the nth degree, but perhaps they are learning, We will see. And do we hear Trump saying we are pulling our 10,000 troops out of Qatar where they are based? Shhhh - nope, sorry. All is quiet.
So we continue to live in a world that is changing its geography, changing the challenges, man made and natural, denying reality in the words of others, losing our perspective and even our leaders are loyal to themselves and to their party, demanding personal loyalty from Party members and is this America? Is this the future of the world? It is a sad future - an awful present - we are expecting and living with.
Do I know the answers? No, way above my pay grade, but certainly the answers we are getting now are not the answers that work either. We need thinking outside of the box. We need open minds and hearts. We need to develop trust. We need to reach out to others, allow them into society so that they will turn against those who would destroy it. We need to show that all of us are victims. Now I am not a particular admirer of Justin Bieber, but out of the mouths of babes we hear words of wisdom. At the OneLove concert in Manchester he shed tears, as did many others and said, that he has not lost hope, that "God is good in the midst of the darkness; God is good in the midst of evil. God is in the midst, no matter what is happening in the world. And He loves you, and He's here for you." Perhaps we need to refer back to the Image hidden within us for we are sure not doing so well right now. We must change. We must.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
WHO ARE WE REALLY?
Who are we? What truly resides in the hearts and minds of all of us and is there no hope for us, for the world? Opening the computer last nite I found that what had been my quiet and restful Sabbath had not been so for the world. Yet another attack, this time in London, a three pronged attack, with one area being London Bridge. As one who has an avocation of British history, there was a special sting to it. Is there nothing sacred anymore? Are we to destroy ourselves and all the bookmarks of history while we are at it?
But then I remembered a tale I read from a wise man and it gave me hope. There is a legend about the Divine Image and the angels of G-d. Hearing that man was to be created in the image of G-d, they decided they needed to hide that as humans were not worthy of this honor and the debate arose as to where to hide this Image. One angel said to place it on the highest mountaintop, but another said that it could be climbed. Another said to leave it at the bottom of the sea and yet another angel said also no good for humans will be curious about their world and will explore.
One angel came up with what was felt to be the best idea. The Image would be hidden inside man, the last place they would be likely to look and so it was done. Most religions and truly religious people know that we must look for that Image within us, seek it out, strengthen it and foil those, from angels to man, who would prevent us from being the best we can be, from truly living as we should.
Even those who have no religion can find this Image thru their deeds for they instinctively feel that man is meant to be good, to be kind, to be peaceful. Yet today it seems that man has truly gone off the track. There are those among us who lead the unsuspecting to evil places There are those who act more like the image of the Devil rather than the other way. They cheer the blood and the pain imposed on others. They cheer the sight of blood and death.
These people are the cowards of mankind. There is no glory, certainly no Divine Image present in these actions no matter how they are disguised. There is simply at the heart of it, an evil that needs to be eliminated from within us all, for these killers instigate hatred in others and a vicious cycle runs endlessly, leaving horror behind.
But this horror is not the possession of only one religion. Rather it can be found within all as extremists have been known throughout history to kill those who are different from them, who worship otherwise, or even do not worship at all. Whips and beheadings, prayer patrols, no matter the country, imposing one's private beliefs on the public via laws - all are wrong and all lead to bad and worse things.
So who is man? What is to be the destiny of Mankind? Will the evil within us win out or will we delve deeply within ourselves and find the strength of that Divine Image? Will we truly feel the sympathy for others, the understanding of how this horror has come about, the ability to separate the evildoers from the innocent or will we mash all together and create more horror and diminish hope? Will we just be people who take advantage of horror to push our own agenda? Trump using this in a truly gross misuse of it, displaying opportunism at its worst, is an example par excellence of the contravening of the Image within us. This needed to be an opportunity to stand up to terror and madness as did the Mayor of London. It needs to showcase the brave people who stepped forward to help, to shut down the perpetrators. That is what is needed, not more hate for that leads nowhere. We need to be above what these people wish us to be, to become.
A wise man in Jewish history, a great Rebbe or Rabbi, once scolded his students with a statement. "Masks! Where are your faces?" We, all of us, wear masks over our true faces and feelings. We need to remove those masks, to show our true faces, to allow ourselves and others to see the true inner selves and if we all do this, if we learn how to do this as children, internalize it as we learn our religion and learn of our humanity, then there will be hope. But till we do, there will be more of this violence and it behooves us all to look within, to reach for that Divine Image that will lead us to the proper path. Bombs and knives and guns break us apart, literally and figuratively. How do we teach the opposite? How do we become the better people we can be? Would that we have an easy answer, some simple actions to achieve that. It is always easier to take the low road, the shortcut, but most times there are bad results from that. Doing good, being good is not easy and demands that we invest a great deal of energy into that search. May G-d bless us all and all our efforts to reach that goal.
But then I remembered a tale I read from a wise man and it gave me hope. There is a legend about the Divine Image and the angels of G-d. Hearing that man was to be created in the image of G-d, they decided they needed to hide that as humans were not worthy of this honor and the debate arose as to where to hide this Image. One angel said to place it on the highest mountaintop, but another said that it could be climbed. Another said to leave it at the bottom of the sea and yet another angel said also no good for humans will be curious about their world and will explore.
One angel came up with what was felt to be the best idea. The Image would be hidden inside man, the last place they would be likely to look and so it was done. Most religions and truly religious people know that we must look for that Image within us, seek it out, strengthen it and foil those, from angels to man, who would prevent us from being the best we can be, from truly living as we should.
Even those who have no religion can find this Image thru their deeds for they instinctively feel that man is meant to be good, to be kind, to be peaceful. Yet today it seems that man has truly gone off the track. There are those among us who lead the unsuspecting to evil places There are those who act more like the image of the Devil rather than the other way. They cheer the blood and the pain imposed on others. They cheer the sight of blood and death.
These people are the cowards of mankind. There is no glory, certainly no Divine Image present in these actions no matter how they are disguised. There is simply at the heart of it, an evil that needs to be eliminated from within us all, for these killers instigate hatred in others and a vicious cycle runs endlessly, leaving horror behind.
But this horror is not the possession of only one religion. Rather it can be found within all as extremists have been known throughout history to kill those who are different from them, who worship otherwise, or even do not worship at all. Whips and beheadings, prayer patrols, no matter the country, imposing one's private beliefs on the public via laws - all are wrong and all lead to bad and worse things.
So who is man? What is to be the destiny of Mankind? Will the evil within us win out or will we delve deeply within ourselves and find the strength of that Divine Image? Will we truly feel the sympathy for others, the understanding of how this horror has come about, the ability to separate the evildoers from the innocent or will we mash all together and create more horror and diminish hope? Will we just be people who take advantage of horror to push our own agenda? Trump using this in a truly gross misuse of it, displaying opportunism at its worst, is an example par excellence of the contravening of the Image within us. This needed to be an opportunity to stand up to terror and madness as did the Mayor of London. It needs to showcase the brave people who stepped forward to help, to shut down the perpetrators. That is what is needed, not more hate for that leads nowhere. We need to be above what these people wish us to be, to become.
A wise man in Jewish history, a great Rebbe or Rabbi, once scolded his students with a statement. "Masks! Where are your faces?" We, all of us, wear masks over our true faces and feelings. We need to remove those masks, to show our true faces, to allow ourselves and others to see the true inner selves and if we all do this, if we learn how to do this as children, internalize it as we learn our religion and learn of our humanity, then there will be hope. But till we do, there will be more of this violence and it behooves us all to look within, to reach for that Divine Image that will lead us to the proper path. Bombs and knives and guns break us apart, literally and figuratively. How do we teach the opposite? How do we become the better people we can be? Would that we have an easy answer, some simple actions to achieve that. It is always easier to take the low road, the shortcut, but most times there are bad results from that. Doing good, being good is not easy and demands that we invest a great deal of energy into that search. May G-d bless us all and all our efforts to reach that goal.
Friday, June 2, 2017
STOP THE WORLD - I WANT TO GET OFF!
What a world. As our head here in America we have a man who has now defined himself by two countries who know no freedom, no democracy, only violence - Syria and Nicaragua. One is a pile of bombed out rubble and dead bodies and the other is a monument to bad and violence in government. And here we are, opting out of the Paris Accord as the third nation to do so. Shame on us and shame on Trump - again.
So Elon Musk has resigned from a White House committee as have others in various industries because Trump is being a shortsighted man of no vision at all in this deed. Perhaps when he sees Mar a Lago go down for the third time he will realize that he did wrong and then he will say oops! Too late. But at least we have industries here who realize that our economy would benefit from technology that will help clean the air, provide clean water, stop the meltdown at the Poles and give us and the world a chance. There are cities and states that are doing the same and even wish to join the Accord on their own.
Yesterday, as I read his decision, I said to myself that maybe a move to Canada or even France would do the trick of bettering the situation. At least Macron has the toughness to know what to do and as he said, " To make the world great again!" In the meanwhile, Trump is actually sandblasting the American economy and jobs will be lost.
This is not the end of his stupidity as he pens in another message that would allow companies to not provide contraception coverage. I remember paying for the pills every month and thought it wonderful when my kids did not have to or for anyone to pay for the choice of contraception,.Now we will have no coverage - but Viagra et al are covered for you guys and so once more women have no control over their own bodies or at least having it very difficult to do so. An inevitable result - more back alley abortions, more death, more maiming, more unwanted babies, more domestic abuse and more people dying for lack of medical coverage and health care, but it must be the 'mindset' as Carson maintains!!!
There is a lack of caring today in the world and that is represented quite strongly within the Trump administration and actually right here in the Village. Ethics seem to be a rare and hard to find principle. David Israel hates me with a passion and why? Because I tell it like it is and show no fear of him and in fact, ridicule him and call him out on his dictatorship tactics and his falsehoods and lies. Today there was a close call on the Atlantic contract and he won after calling out after anyone who opposed it and we, the Village, will suffer for it just as we did with the roads, infrastructure and financial issues in the Village. I will not relent and will watch and write of what I see. And if he hates, well, he can join the crowd typical of Trump who seem to hate all who are different, the "other".
The world is a hateful place of late. Nooses are drawn and left on buildings, a vicious symbol of hate. Old and nasty prejudices are being raised and shouted and bruited about with the alt right reveling in it. If one does not follow the mainstream then one is wrong, worthy of hate, of diminishment. The latest piece of scary news - the governor of Kentucky is establishing prayer patrols!!!. So what is next? Whips and beatings if one is not modest enough or if one does not join the prayer as it comes by? What is the difference between this and the "modesty" patrols of the Moslem countries and the whips of the Sharia patrols? Actually - nothing!!
So as the world itself is deteriorating, as the world groans under the burden of environmental disasters that we have placed on it, as the situation gets worse and as people turn a blind eye to it for selfish reasons, we, the people of the planet turn worse as well and it will get far worse than that as the situation grows dimmer and hope fades. Take a look at a map of the earth and place a pin where there is a flare up, a war, a dictatorship, a crackdown on liberty, mass imprisonment and growths of hate and you will soon have more pins than one could believe.
So just came back from seeing Wonder Woman, a superb movie. Of course, I loved hearing the Israeli accent of Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman herself, but the movie has a message as well as a story and good acting. Basically it states that we, the humans on earth, mankind in particular and emphasis on MAN, have a choice. We have within us good and bad, light and dark. It is up to us what we choose. WE choose either evil or good and one cannot be abstaining from that choice because to stand aside is to allow evil to flourish and we have heard that from many philosophers over the years. Whatever power it was that you believe in, that gave us the choice, that power has given us the individual power to choose and thus what is in the world is in us!
And it is indeed a shame, a criminal act, an act of base immorality, when we have a government of the United States of America that now is appealing to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, to make it official that bias and hatred will be the law of the land. One can only hope that these judges will be touched by the power within them, the responsibility within them, to do the right thing and not allow hatred to cover the land, to turn the land dark with prejudice and violence. This is not a question of conservative versus liberal, but a question of good vs evil. We are all the children of immigrants or immigrants ourselves. We must remember that and hope that the spirit of those that founded America remains with us, within us.
Go see the movie. Go read some history. Go read the Bible. Check your inner soul and realize what we have all come to, when we demonize all those that differ from us be it in opinion, or skin color, or ethnic background or cultural ethos or religion or tribal affiliation or sect in the same religion. How petty and how dangerous and mean have we become. And I admit, it is sometimes very hard to hold back when one is the target of vitriol and lies, but why must there be that at all. Why can we not rely on truth and goodness, love, or at least not hate, perhaps call it cooperation if you must?
We have not done too well of late in this area. One can smell the sulphur of the demon, the darkness of Heart of Darkness. We feel the eerie current of hatred and prejudice and the smoke from the ovens of Auschwitz can be seen again. We destroy each other's cultural symbols, do idiotic things such as banning the movie from Lebanon and other areas because Gal Gadot is Israeli. Pettiness that leads to larger areas and depths of hate and that hatred leads to death.
Enough of this already. Enough. We can feel that we want to get off this world, but we cannot so let us try to cooperate to save it and mankind.
Let us all become Wonder People. The clock is ticking and I would bet that it is now about one minute to midnight.
So Elon Musk has resigned from a White House committee as have others in various industries because Trump is being a shortsighted man of no vision at all in this deed. Perhaps when he sees Mar a Lago go down for the third time he will realize that he did wrong and then he will say oops! Too late. But at least we have industries here who realize that our economy would benefit from technology that will help clean the air, provide clean water, stop the meltdown at the Poles and give us and the world a chance. There are cities and states that are doing the same and even wish to join the Accord on their own.
Yesterday, as I read his decision, I said to myself that maybe a move to Canada or even France would do the trick of bettering the situation. At least Macron has the toughness to know what to do and as he said, " To make the world great again!" In the meanwhile, Trump is actually sandblasting the American economy and jobs will be lost.
This is not the end of his stupidity as he pens in another message that would allow companies to not provide contraception coverage. I remember paying for the pills every month and thought it wonderful when my kids did not have to or for anyone to pay for the choice of contraception,.Now we will have no coverage - but Viagra et al are covered for you guys and so once more women have no control over their own bodies or at least having it very difficult to do so. An inevitable result - more back alley abortions, more death, more maiming, more unwanted babies, more domestic abuse and more people dying for lack of medical coverage and health care, but it must be the 'mindset' as Carson maintains!!!
There is a lack of caring today in the world and that is represented quite strongly within the Trump administration and actually right here in the Village. Ethics seem to be a rare and hard to find principle. David Israel hates me with a passion and why? Because I tell it like it is and show no fear of him and in fact, ridicule him and call him out on his dictatorship tactics and his falsehoods and lies. Today there was a close call on the Atlantic contract and he won after calling out after anyone who opposed it and we, the Village, will suffer for it just as we did with the roads, infrastructure and financial issues in the Village. I will not relent and will watch and write of what I see. And if he hates, well, he can join the crowd typical of Trump who seem to hate all who are different, the "other".
The world is a hateful place of late. Nooses are drawn and left on buildings, a vicious symbol of hate. Old and nasty prejudices are being raised and shouted and bruited about with the alt right reveling in it. If one does not follow the mainstream then one is wrong, worthy of hate, of diminishment. The latest piece of scary news - the governor of Kentucky is establishing prayer patrols!!!. So what is next? Whips and beatings if one is not modest enough or if one does not join the prayer as it comes by? What is the difference between this and the "modesty" patrols of the Moslem countries and the whips of the Sharia patrols? Actually - nothing!!
So as the world itself is deteriorating, as the world groans under the burden of environmental disasters that we have placed on it, as the situation gets worse and as people turn a blind eye to it for selfish reasons, we, the people of the planet turn worse as well and it will get far worse than that as the situation grows dimmer and hope fades. Take a look at a map of the earth and place a pin where there is a flare up, a war, a dictatorship, a crackdown on liberty, mass imprisonment and growths of hate and you will soon have more pins than one could believe.
So just came back from seeing Wonder Woman, a superb movie. Of course, I loved hearing the Israeli accent of Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman herself, but the movie has a message as well as a story and good acting. Basically it states that we, the humans on earth, mankind in particular and emphasis on MAN, have a choice. We have within us good and bad, light and dark. It is up to us what we choose. WE choose either evil or good and one cannot be abstaining from that choice because to stand aside is to allow evil to flourish and we have heard that from many philosophers over the years. Whatever power it was that you believe in, that gave us the choice, that power has given us the individual power to choose and thus what is in the world is in us!
And it is indeed a shame, a criminal act, an act of base immorality, when we have a government of the United States of America that now is appealing to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, to make it official that bias and hatred will be the law of the land. One can only hope that these judges will be touched by the power within them, the responsibility within them, to do the right thing and not allow hatred to cover the land, to turn the land dark with prejudice and violence. This is not a question of conservative versus liberal, but a question of good vs evil. We are all the children of immigrants or immigrants ourselves. We must remember that and hope that the spirit of those that founded America remains with us, within us.
Go see the movie. Go read some history. Go read the Bible. Check your inner soul and realize what we have all come to, when we demonize all those that differ from us be it in opinion, or skin color, or ethnic background or cultural ethos or religion or tribal affiliation or sect in the same religion. How petty and how dangerous and mean have we become. And I admit, it is sometimes very hard to hold back when one is the target of vitriol and lies, but why must there be that at all. Why can we not rely on truth and goodness, love, or at least not hate, perhaps call it cooperation if you must?
We have not done too well of late in this area. One can smell the sulphur of the demon, the darkness of Heart of Darkness. We feel the eerie current of hatred and prejudice and the smoke from the ovens of Auschwitz can be seen again. We destroy each other's cultural symbols, do idiotic things such as banning the movie from Lebanon and other areas because Gal Gadot is Israeli. Pettiness that leads to larger areas and depths of hate and that hatred leads to death.
Enough of this already. Enough. We can feel that we want to get off this world, but we cannot so let us try to cooperate to save it and mankind.
Let us all become Wonder People. The clock is ticking and I would bet that it is now about one minute to midnight.
Thursday, June 1, 2017
THE DIE IS CAST TOMORROW
Tomorrow morning we vote whether to give David Israel permission to sign on the dotted line for Atlantic whether they fix the missing details and questions or not. That means that Atlantic will still be able to switch channels on us without warning - and their selection already stinks, far worse than Comcast. They will be able to raise fees ANYTIME they wish. They will not hold themselves responsible for breakage of the lines or no service - and how many times do you think that will happen with only one line coming up from Miami - if it even gets here on time.
Comcast has multi millions of customers or subscribers all over the country- the biggest footprint in this arena. And Atlantic? 1.5 million in twenty states. To compare is a joke - on us!! And as for people to service us? Atlantic has under 200 employees and Comcast - thousands upon thousands so who will have the numbers to service us? Uh huh.
There are
some fairy tale numbers coming from Ed Black about how much service calls will be costing the Village. First of all, it does not cost the Village - it costs the individual who calls so to put it on the Village is incorrect. Second of all, it has been years since we have had service calls and that goes for many of my neighbors. Just check the numbers for service outrage from Atlantic's subscribers and even free it is worth nothing!! Besides the fact - who knows any service company that does not charge a service fee when they roll? Call for a fridge repair or air conditioning or whatever you want - always a service fee.
Want more numbers? Okay. How about the value of the Xbox for free. That comes to about a million dollars a year if figuring the $10 per month times the 7,000 plus units times 12 months. Go figure that out and let us ask again - where are we saving the Villagers money and where is it just a number plucked from the air. Jack Adams knows his figures - listen to what he says and see who is right - him or Ed Black - Jack all the way.
I could keep going, but people tell your delegates you want to say NO for Atlantic. NO for David signing a contract that sucks and royally screws us. Say NO to bad numbers. Say NO to signing a contract that is incomplete and when did you ever hear of that being done? Say NO to Atlantic.
And notice, I am not calling anyone names who disagrees with me. They are just mistaken, grossly misunderstanding of what this contract will do to us and if doing this purposely then there are serious issues here to be discussed at another time. But this Atlantic is not good for us at all. SAY NO!!!!
Please note that I will be posting a new piece later on today. Thank you for your readership, here and abroad.
Comcast has multi millions of customers or subscribers all over the country- the biggest footprint in this arena. And Atlantic? 1.5 million in twenty states. To compare is a joke - on us!! And as for people to service us? Atlantic has under 200 employees and Comcast - thousands upon thousands so who will have the numbers to service us? Uh huh.
There are
some fairy tale numbers coming from Ed Black about how much service calls will be costing the Village. First of all, it does not cost the Village - it costs the individual who calls so to put it on the Village is incorrect. Second of all, it has been years since we have had service calls and that goes for many of my neighbors. Just check the numbers for service outrage from Atlantic's subscribers and even free it is worth nothing!! Besides the fact - who knows any service company that does not charge a service fee when they roll? Call for a fridge repair or air conditioning or whatever you want - always a service fee.
Want more numbers? Okay. How about the value of the Xbox for free. That comes to about a million dollars a year if figuring the $10 per month times the 7,000 plus units times 12 months. Go figure that out and let us ask again - where are we saving the Villagers money and where is it just a number plucked from the air. Jack Adams knows his figures - listen to what he says and see who is right - him or Ed Black - Jack all the way.
I could keep going, but people tell your delegates you want to say NO for Atlantic. NO for David signing a contract that sucks and royally screws us. Say NO to bad numbers. Say NO to signing a contract that is incomplete and when did you ever hear of that being done? Say NO to Atlantic.
And notice, I am not calling anyone names who disagrees with me. They are just mistaken, grossly misunderstanding of what this contract will do to us and if doing this purposely then there are serious issues here to be discussed at another time. But this Atlantic is not good for us at all. SAY NO!!!!
Please note that I will be posting a new piece later on today. Thank you for your readership, here and abroad.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
HAS IT COME TO THIS? TRULY?
Every day I get up, open the computer and pick up my NY Times and then shake my head. Every day it gets worse. Every day I wonder how the hell is this man a President of the country and how the hell are we going to get thru the next three and a half years.
In my last posting I wrote of the hunger and the poverty, the hate and the fear that is rife within the country, and then I read of the budget cuts that are among the most inhumane ever - cuts to SNAP (food stamps), lunch programs, housing help, shelters, afterschool care, the wearing away of the wall between religion and public forum, the ripping away of rights from women and why not when we have an alleged sexual predator as president, one who could talk in salacious terms of dating his own daughter! Yuch!!!
So the country continues to crumble and the president continues to get bigger and bigger with his suits not fitting and the faces he makes are definitely ones for the book. He is like an infant, sending out those ridiculous tweets again, calling Germany "bad, very bad", blowing hot air about the whole Russian mess which gets bigger and messier hour by hour. And of course, do not forget his ridiculous handshake challenges. How could he not have known as more and more of his people are mentioned and called on to testify. And if somehow he was unaware of this, then how can he remain as head of country when he is so blind and such a poor picker of assistants and aides? Either way it is not good nor reassuring.
Why is it that men can never figure out when they have hit their own personal glass ceiling? What is it that pushes them, impels them, to keep going until they are mired down and have not a clue as to how to rectify the situation? He should have stayed with his reality show because he sure does not know reality now.
And now we are shooting off a missile that is supposed to intercept incoming missiles? Right off the coast of California? I am ready to go back out there and drag my grandson home! But then again, are any of us safe wherever, when the gun lobby ramps up their efforts and the wrong people get a hold of the wrong guns. How can we put an end to international violence when the other countries do not know how to evaluate this Donald, this misplaced man.
Well, folks, I have no answers, just questions, but perhaps can come up with answers if I tried long and hard enough. The question is - who amongst us has the courage to stand up to this guy, this no president of mine, and impeach an indict and once out of office - indict for criminal charges. Three and a half more years and we will no longer be the country that we were or are at present even as our liberties are violated daily, even as we lose the humanity and uniqueness of this country. Time for the politicians to man and woman up and do the right thing before we implode!
And time to do the right thing here in the Village. Allowing a person to sign a contract before it is complete is wrong and downright stupid. Trying to play something too smart will always backfire and evidently the administration here is doing just that and additionally are sulking over what they presume is disrespect to their poor insecure egos. Information is not dispensed clearly as in trying to show how one company is giving a bigger doorway fee, but the truth is that the original company is forgiving two years of its previous doorway fee and thus they are the same. Lies and omissions. Business as usual.
I will not be putting anything new on for Thursday but will post again on Friday. Please take the time to go back and read and reread those postings that you missed or need to reread for their info.
In my last posting I wrote of the hunger and the poverty, the hate and the fear that is rife within the country, and then I read of the budget cuts that are among the most inhumane ever - cuts to SNAP (food stamps), lunch programs, housing help, shelters, afterschool care, the wearing away of the wall between religion and public forum, the ripping away of rights from women and why not when we have an alleged sexual predator as president, one who could talk in salacious terms of dating his own daughter! Yuch!!!
So the country continues to crumble and the president continues to get bigger and bigger with his suits not fitting and the faces he makes are definitely ones for the book. He is like an infant, sending out those ridiculous tweets again, calling Germany "bad, very bad", blowing hot air about the whole Russian mess which gets bigger and messier hour by hour. And of course, do not forget his ridiculous handshake challenges. How could he not have known as more and more of his people are mentioned and called on to testify. And if somehow he was unaware of this, then how can he remain as head of country when he is so blind and such a poor picker of assistants and aides? Either way it is not good nor reassuring.
Why is it that men can never figure out when they have hit their own personal glass ceiling? What is it that pushes them, impels them, to keep going until they are mired down and have not a clue as to how to rectify the situation? He should have stayed with his reality show because he sure does not know reality now.
And now we are shooting off a missile that is supposed to intercept incoming missiles? Right off the coast of California? I am ready to go back out there and drag my grandson home! But then again, are any of us safe wherever, when the gun lobby ramps up their efforts and the wrong people get a hold of the wrong guns. How can we put an end to international violence when the other countries do not know how to evaluate this Donald, this misplaced man.
Well, folks, I have no answers, just questions, but perhaps can come up with answers if I tried long and hard enough. The question is - who amongst us has the courage to stand up to this guy, this no president of mine, and impeach an indict and once out of office - indict for criminal charges. Three and a half more years and we will no longer be the country that we were or are at present even as our liberties are violated daily, even as we lose the humanity and uniqueness of this country. Time for the politicians to man and woman up and do the right thing before we implode!
And time to do the right thing here in the Village. Allowing a person to sign a contract before it is complete is wrong and downright stupid. Trying to play something too smart will always backfire and evidently the administration here is doing just that and additionally are sulking over what they presume is disrespect to their poor insecure egos. Information is not dispensed clearly as in trying to show how one company is giving a bigger doorway fee, but the truth is that the original company is forgiving two years of its previous doorway fee and thus they are the same. Lies and omissions. Business as usual.
I will not be putting anything new on for Thursday but will post again on Friday. Please take the time to go back and read and reread those postings that you missed or need to reread for their info.
HUNGER AND FEAR, POVERTY AND HATRED
The Goldene Medinah. The Golden Mountain. "Amber waves of grain". "Fruited plains". "The tired, the poor....yearning to be free." This used to be the America we all knew, or thought we knew, the America to which we pledged allegiance. The America in which we could trust our elected leaders to put the country first and themselves and their party second, at least for the most part. A country where partisanship was not the be all and end all of life.
And yes, there was always a place, a person, a group, which did not fit into that America. There were the pockets of poverty, be it the 'hollers' of Appalachia or the tenements of an urban city, or even the family of middle class status whose breadwinner had lost the job. But now it has become a land where food pantries are pressured by the growing and more frequent demands of people, where McMansions are being built with extravagant features while more and more are homeless, including families with children.
As for those "huddled masses yearning to be free", today instead of spending the money on welcoming, training, absorbing, we spend the money on more officials and hired crew to chase them, to deport them, to house them for years in deportee and immigration centers. We chase after the young and the old, it matters not in this new America.
Our officials consort with the enemy and we abuse and insult our allies. We have alt right gatherings of hate and a growing number of vociferous purveyors of prejudice and hatred, feelings that should long ago have died. So today we have a rampant hunger in many places, hidden or out in the open. We have a loss of hope and faith amongst those whom the economy has left behind, untrained and not ready for the new world. We have frustrated and angry university graduates, weighed down by debt, who cannot find jobs commensurate with their training and who work as servers and barristas and temporary help. Our elected and appointed officials seem to think that they are there to serve themselves rather than the electorate and our 'leader' is certainly not that!
So in our wonderful country we have hunger and poverty, hopeless cases. We have fear for our children, fear of the future and hatred grows apace. Old canards come rocketing back and never before has there been such a time of concern for our future, the future of an increasingly abused Mother Earth, and a deep gnawing worry for our future generations.
Yet there is hope. There is a dim light growing and standing out amidst the darkness. We have those who stand up with courage and defend the helpless - and even die for it - but it is there. We have the man who buys a soldier desperate to get home a ticket out of his own pocket. We have the truly elderly honored for their part in defending our liberties and country in WWII and the Korean War. We have the volunteers who staff the food pantries, who walk amidst those who need help and who give that help. We have some of the 1% who realize they must give back and who set up true philanthropies. But it is not enough. The hatred must be fought and the hope must be strengthened.
The world of politics must be cleansed of those who would rip us off, betray our country, defy our allies, anger them even as some among us give comfort to the enemy. We need to demand qualified people serve once more as our representatives and not run our government as a business, a failing one at that, but as a government envisioned by Lincoln and our Founding Fathers - and Mothers for that matter - a government of and by and for the people. We need to become a country where women are respected, equal in rights as all humans should be. We need to become a country where even the administrations of smaller entities realize that force and abuse, that chicanery, lies and selfishness are no longer going to be tolerated.
Can we become this country? Can we chase out the hatred and the fear, the hunger and the poverty? I certainly hope so for if not, if we do not make an attempt, a serious, hard and long attempt to do so, then we indeed have to fear for our country and the world. The choice is up to us. We need to stand up to the false leaders, to voice our demands and insure that we are heard. We need to reach out to the underdogs. We need to destroy the venomous hatred that runs rampant thru our society for it poisons all of us. And we need to take care of our planet, our home and science fiction and fantasy aside - there is no other place and no secret fleet of spaceships ready to haul the 1% and their servants off to safety. Nope, this place is it and our civilization can be the forerunner of a better world or the forerunner of all that is bad and that will kill all of us as the planet dies.
Choose. Remember that we are choosing for more than ourselves.
And yes, there was always a place, a person, a group, which did not fit into that America. There were the pockets of poverty, be it the 'hollers' of Appalachia or the tenements of an urban city, or even the family of middle class status whose breadwinner had lost the job. But now it has become a land where food pantries are pressured by the growing and more frequent demands of people, where McMansions are being built with extravagant features while more and more are homeless, including families with children.
As for those "huddled masses yearning to be free", today instead of spending the money on welcoming, training, absorbing, we spend the money on more officials and hired crew to chase them, to deport them, to house them for years in deportee and immigration centers. We chase after the young and the old, it matters not in this new America.
Our officials consort with the enemy and we abuse and insult our allies. We have alt right gatherings of hate and a growing number of vociferous purveyors of prejudice and hatred, feelings that should long ago have died. So today we have a rampant hunger in many places, hidden or out in the open. We have a loss of hope and faith amongst those whom the economy has left behind, untrained and not ready for the new world. We have frustrated and angry university graduates, weighed down by debt, who cannot find jobs commensurate with their training and who work as servers and barristas and temporary help. Our elected and appointed officials seem to think that they are there to serve themselves rather than the electorate and our 'leader' is certainly not that!
So in our wonderful country we have hunger and poverty, hopeless cases. We have fear for our children, fear of the future and hatred grows apace. Old canards come rocketing back and never before has there been such a time of concern for our future, the future of an increasingly abused Mother Earth, and a deep gnawing worry for our future generations.
Yet there is hope. There is a dim light growing and standing out amidst the darkness. We have those who stand up with courage and defend the helpless - and even die for it - but it is there. We have the man who buys a soldier desperate to get home a ticket out of his own pocket. We have the truly elderly honored for their part in defending our liberties and country in WWII and the Korean War. We have the volunteers who staff the food pantries, who walk amidst those who need help and who give that help. We have some of the 1% who realize they must give back and who set up true philanthropies. But it is not enough. The hatred must be fought and the hope must be strengthened.
The world of politics must be cleansed of those who would rip us off, betray our country, defy our allies, anger them even as some among us give comfort to the enemy. We need to demand qualified people serve once more as our representatives and not run our government as a business, a failing one at that, but as a government envisioned by Lincoln and our Founding Fathers - and Mothers for that matter - a government of and by and for the people. We need to become a country where women are respected, equal in rights as all humans should be. We need to become a country where even the administrations of smaller entities realize that force and abuse, that chicanery, lies and selfishness are no longer going to be tolerated.
Can we become this country? Can we chase out the hatred and the fear, the hunger and the poverty? I certainly hope so for if not, if we do not make an attempt, a serious, hard and long attempt to do so, then we indeed have to fear for our country and the world. The choice is up to us. We need to stand up to the false leaders, to voice our demands and insure that we are heard. We need to reach out to the underdogs. We need to destroy the venomous hatred that runs rampant thru our society for it poisons all of us. And we need to take care of our planet, our home and science fiction and fantasy aside - there is no other place and no secret fleet of spaceships ready to haul the 1% and their servants off to safety. Nope, this place is it and our civilization can be the forerunner of a better world or the forerunner of all that is bad and that will kill all of us as the planet dies.
Choose. Remember that we are choosing for more than ourselves.
Monday, May 29, 2017
LIARS AND FOOLS AND TRAITORS - OH MY!!
Before we talk of the Friday vote about Atlantic and Comcast, let me give a brief take on the trip of Donald. His ignorance showed thru - Israel is IN the Middle East, moron, and one does not show boorishness and push other people. Bully, as usual! One does not have one's wife dress in an awful black outfit and apparently she cannot stand you at all as she constantly pushed you away - and good for her. That there were no protesters in Saudi Arabia is not due to your popularity, ignoramus - they are not allowed - but you go ahead, keep on praising all the nasty dictators of the world. Just highlights your true nature. Blind eyes and deaf ears apparently as you began to twitter almost as soon as you landed though your aides are desperate to keep you from that pastime. And by the way, congratulating a man who is facing assault charges against a journalist is not a good idea. Freedom of the press, remember!!
Donald and David Israel have much in common and that is not a compliment. He sits there in his office playing with what- his computers, his navel and listens to all Ed Black has to tell him. Best contracts ever - and yet, we always get screwed and this time around they want us to approve an incomplete contract. That is a real nerve and shows contempt for all of us. And by the way, are we not supposed to have a contract looked over by an attorney before we sign so who could possible be the attorney so ill informed and so guilty of malpractice so as to advise us to sign this incomplete and faulty contract? Or is it that it was never shown to one!!!
Donald and David Israel have much in common and that is not a compliment. He sits there in his office playing with what- his computers, his navel and listens to all Ed Black has to tell him. Best contracts ever - and yet, we always get screwed and this time around they want us to approve an incomplete contract. That is a real nerve and shows contempt for all of us. And by the way, are we not supposed to have a contract looked over by an attorney before we sign so who could possible be the attorney so ill informed and so guilty of malpractice so as to advise us to sign this incomplete and faulty contract? Or is it that it was never shown to one!!!
People, time to think for yourself. Time to realize that David does not have your best interests at heart, certainly not the best interest of the Village. I cannot fathom why he is so hot to trot on this faulty Atlantic deal unless there is something in it for him and his crew. The power they feel they have? Monetary reward? A better private deal? All these are alleged possibilities but there has to be something unless they are just guilty of being so careless that it verges on fiduciary irresponsibility. And of course there are questions that have been simply ignored. If the new contract begins immediately, then what happens to the unearned doorway fee or is that the reason why a lesser doorway for Comcast in the new contract? Or does it start the same time as the proposed Atlantic, that awful contract. Clarification and details needed - which we never get anyway!!
Following are two pieces we all should read and think about
and then go to my blog posting of May 26th for reinforcement and check out thecenturyvillagemessengerclub.blogspot.com for more info.
What do you get for $450.000?
That's a good question..... CSI, the consulting firm working to negotiate a new cable contract stands to put close to that amount in their corporate pocket once a new contract is finally settled.
The burning question that should be on everyone's mind is : What did CSI do to earn that much money ?
Better yet :we should ask:what should they have done to earn all that money?
UCO and The "team" who are working so hard on our behalf to achieve a good deal on the contract are missing the boat.
How's that? you might ask. CSI and UCO have been working on this deal for about two years. CSI reps have been busy running back and forth with papers and questions, and a few answers now and then. They have been at all the Broadband meetings and seem to be quite knowledgeable about the intricacies of cable TV and Internet and all that stuff.
Two years later and we still don't have a contract ! How can that be?
Here's the way I see what happened.
UCO went to CSI and said"GET US A CONTRACT"
CSI goes to the cable providers and says "GIVE US A PROPOSAL"
Of course the companies supply the committee with their proposals but the committee think they can do better.
So UCO says " GET US A BETTER PROPOSAL"
CSI runs back and forth to their connections and says " "THEY WANT A BETTER DEAL" .
Again the companies sharpen up their pencils and come back with better deals. More stuff and rosier promises.
BUT STILL NO CONTRACT! The proposals are shot full of holes and the committee doesn't like them so they send them to lawyers then sit at endless meetings devising strategies.
For all the money we are supposed to pay CSI for their services you would think it would be a simple matter for them to draw up a contract that works for us. If CSI was to be paid a commission on the savings they produce it would give them the incentive to get tough in negotiations,
You might also think that someone. ANYONE, on the committee would have thought of doing it this way.
.
It's just another example of the wrong headed, incompetent thinking that goes on in the UCO administration.
It's not the first time . Remember the "best deal ever" with the security contract that was a complete disgrace. It finally failed leaving a bunch of committee members with egg on their faces and scrambling to find another " best deal yet". I don't even want to think about the horrible one page contract that engaged a paving company to do a $5,000,000.00 job. I guess the paving company drew up that contract too.
CSI ?...... They are getting well paid to run around shuffling papers and mumbling platitudes. As for doing a real consulting job ....... NOT !
Paying all that money out to hire someone to ask cable companies for contract proposals speaks volumes about the incompetence of this administration. Any former businessman would have cleaned this up long ago without having to resort to hiring super expensive consultants to do what could be done with a couple of phone calls and letters. But that is not about to happen, anyone worth their salt either wouldn't put up with Israel's nonsense or already tried and were thrown under the bus.
That leaves Century Village in a position where hiring expensive(and unneeded) consultants becomes the order of the day.
The burning question that should be on everyone's mind is : What did CSI do to earn that much money ?
Better yet :we should ask:what should they have done to earn all that money?
UCO and The "team" who are working so hard on our behalf to achieve a good deal on the contract are missing the boat.
How's that? you might ask. CSI and UCO have been working on this deal for about two years. CSI reps have been busy running back and forth with papers and questions, and a few answers now and then. They have been at all the Broadband meetings and seem to be quite knowledgeable about the intricacies of cable TV and Internet and all that stuff.
Two years later and we still don't have a contract ! How can that be?
Here's the way I see what happened.
UCO went to CSI and said"GET US A CONTRACT"
CSI goes to the cable providers and says "GIVE US A PROPOSAL"
Of course the companies supply the committee with their proposals but the committee think they can do better.
So UCO says " GET US A BETTER PROPOSAL"
CSI runs back and forth to their connections and says " "THEY WANT A BETTER DEAL" .
Again the companies sharpen up their pencils and come back with better deals. More stuff and rosier promises.
BUT STILL NO CONTRACT! The proposals are shot full of holes and the committee doesn't like them so they send them to lawyers then sit at endless meetings devising strategies.
There is a better way.
It should have went like this:
UCO hires CSI and says" For all the money we are paying you, we want you to draw up a contract that we can put in front of the cable companies" " You guys are supposed to be the experts, you claim you know all about how all this stuff works " "So draw up a contract and we'll get one of these companies to sign it"
"We don't mind paying you for your services" " But you earn your pay by saving us some money"
Doing it this way would avoid all the running back and forth and changing the deals. Not only that; Century Village would be in the drivers seat and be dictating the terms.For all the money we are supposed to pay CSI for their services you would think it would be a simple matter for them to draw up a contract that works for us. If CSI was to be paid a commission on the savings they produce it would give them the incentive to get tough in negotiations,
You might also think that someone. ANYONE, on the committee would have thought of doing it this way.
.
It's just another example of the wrong headed, incompetent thinking that goes on in the UCO administration.
It's not the first time . Remember the "best deal ever" with the security contract that was a complete disgrace. It finally failed leaving a bunch of committee members with egg on their faces and scrambling to find another " best deal yet". I don't even want to think about the horrible one page contract that engaged a paving company to do a $5,000,000.00 job. I guess the paving company drew up that contract too.
CSI ?...... They are getting well paid to run around shuffling papers and mumbling platitudes. As for doing a real consulting job ....... NOT !
Paying all that money out to hire someone to ask cable companies for contract proposals speaks volumes about the incompetence of this administration. Any former businessman would have cleaned this up long ago without having to resort to hiring super expensive consultants to do what could be done with a couple of phone calls and letters. But that is not about to happen, anyone worth their salt either wouldn't put up with Israel's nonsense or already tried and were thrown under the bus.
That leaves Century Village in a position where hiring expensive(and unneeded) consultants becomes the order of the day.
The other piece _Cost Analysis Atlantic vs Comcast
Donald, David, et al,
Attached are the numbers just run comparing Atlantic Broadband VS Comcast 7/15/17 THRU 6/30/27.
Regarding Atlantic Broadband, the only way to compare apples to apples is to use the Comcast numbers for the first two years of a hypothetical Atlantic Broadband contract because those current Comcast cost would continue in effect until 7/15/19
.Calculation eliminates the last two years of an Atlantic Broadband contract (total of $8,559,650) as again only way to compare apples to apples. It would be extremely more favorable to eliminate the last two expensive years of 2028 and 2029 in any new TV bulk agreement.
Unless made an error somewhere, only arguable numbers seem to be first the broadcasting fee and second the estimated savings to some individuals currently paying Comcast for services over and above the current bulk agreement with Comcast.
Analysis indicates an incredibly close net excess cost for Comcast vs Atlantic Broadband in the amount of $278,153 for the subject ten year period.
Also, the gateway fee of $450 per unit offered by Atlantic Broadband is $785,400 higher than the $350 per unit offered by Comcast. This difference is included in the total net difference of $ 278,153 with Comcast being more expensive by that net amount.
2) It would be extremely more favorable to eliminate the last two expensive years of 2028 and 2029 from any new TV bulk agreement so that also favors Comcast.
An award to Comcast in effect results in an extension of eight years over their current in effect contract while an award to Atlantic Broadband will result in a new contract in effect until 6/30/2029. With technology changing so rapidly it is not in the best interests of CV-WPB to have a ten year contract all the way out until 2029.
3) Comcast's proposal does not involve any build out or construction issues so its contract can become effective 7/15/17 without any of those additional risks which would be applicable if the contract would be awarded to Atlantic Broadband. Atlantic Broadband's proposal includes the laying of new fiber to each building in Century Village -WPB. They have also indicated that their fiber network currently only comes as far north as Boca Raton and that they plan on extending their fiber all the way to West Palm Beach so they can service additional communities. There is certainly no guarantee they can meet the 7/15/19 time frame.
4) The enhanced services under the proposed Comcast contract can be effective as early as 7/15/17 while services from Atlantic Broadband can not be effective until 7/15/19.
5) The $278,153 difference in the costs of a Comcast contract over and above an Atlantic Broadband contract do not warrant the assumption of the additional risks inherent in an award to Atlantic Broadband.
6) Per the Atlantic Broadband proposal, Atlantic Broadband will only offer their TIVO 6 cable box to CV residents who purchase broadband services from Atlantic Broadband while Comcast has indicated that they will offer their X1 box to all residents under the bulk agreement regardless of whether or not broadband services are purchased from Comcast. This analysis does not include any adjustment in the increased cost of Atlantic Broadband's services should a resident have to pay for a TIVO 6 over and above the bulk agreement. However, if such a calculation were included the amount would undoubtedly wipe out the current $278,153 Atlantic Broadband cost advantage multiple times over the length of the entire contract period.
If you should notice any errors and/ or omissions please bring them to my attention for review and possible revision. We all want the most accurate data being presented to the CV unit owners, they deserve the most accurate information.
Thank you,
Jack Adams
Member, Executive Board
Member, Bid Committee
Attached are the numbers just run comparing Atlantic Broadband VS Comcast 7/15/17 THRU 6/30/27.
Regarding Atlantic Broadband, the only way to compare apples to apples is to use the Comcast numbers for the first two years of a hypothetical Atlantic Broadband contract because those current Comcast cost would continue in effect until 7/15/19
.Calculation eliminates the last two years of an Atlantic Broadband contract (total of $8,559,650) as again only way to compare apples to apples. It would be extremely more favorable to eliminate the last two expensive years of 2028 and 2029 in any new TV bulk agreement.
Unless made an error somewhere, only arguable numbers seem to be first the broadcasting fee and second the estimated savings to some individuals currently paying Comcast for services over and above the current bulk agreement with Comcast.
Analysis indicates an incredibly close net excess cost for Comcast vs Atlantic Broadband in the amount of $278,153 for the subject ten year period.
Also, the gateway fee of $450 per unit offered by Atlantic Broadband is $785,400 higher than the $350 per unit offered by Comcast. This difference is included in the total net difference of $ 278,153 with Comcast being more expensive by that net amount.
In my opinion, based solely on the bulk TV deal, Comcast is very much superior because:
1) While customer service is not appreciated by many at either Atlantic Broadband or Comcast, the services of Comcast are much more well known by our residents and when the service is functioning IMHO it is excellent. Atlantic Broadband (even if consolidated with Cogeco its Canadian parent company) is a significantly smaller company than Comcast so its financial viability is more speculative.2) It would be extremely more favorable to eliminate the last two expensive years of 2028 and 2029 from any new TV bulk agreement so that also favors Comcast.
An award to Comcast in effect results in an extension of eight years over their current in effect contract while an award to Atlantic Broadband will result in a new contract in effect until 6/30/2029. With technology changing so rapidly it is not in the best interests of CV-WPB to have a ten year contract all the way out until 2029.
3) Comcast's proposal does not involve any build out or construction issues so its contract can become effective 7/15/17 without any of those additional risks which would be applicable if the contract would be awarded to Atlantic Broadband. Atlantic Broadband's proposal includes the laying of new fiber to each building in Century Village -WPB. They have also indicated that their fiber network currently only comes as far north as Boca Raton and that they plan on extending their fiber all the way to West Palm Beach so they can service additional communities. There is certainly no guarantee they can meet the 7/15/19 time frame.
4) The enhanced services under the proposed Comcast contract can be effective as early as 7/15/17 while services from Atlantic Broadband can not be effective until 7/15/19.
5) The $278,153 difference in the costs of a Comcast contract over and above an Atlantic Broadband contract do not warrant the assumption of the additional risks inherent in an award to Atlantic Broadband.
6) Per the Atlantic Broadband proposal, Atlantic Broadband will only offer their TIVO 6 cable box to CV residents who purchase broadband services from Atlantic Broadband while Comcast has indicated that they will offer their X1 box to all residents under the bulk agreement regardless of whether or not broadband services are purchased from Comcast. This analysis does not include any adjustment in the increased cost of Atlantic Broadband's services should a resident have to pay for a TIVO 6 over and above the bulk agreement. However, if such a calculation were included the amount would undoubtedly wipe out the current $278,153 Atlantic Broadband cost advantage multiple times over the length of the entire contract period.
If you should notice any errors and/ or omissions please bring them to my attention for review and possible revision. We all want the most accurate data being presented to the CV unit owners, they deserve the most accurate information.
Thank you,
Jack Adams
Member, Executive Board
Member, Bid Committee
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