HELL BENT!

  According to many people, asked about the various crises of the world, well, the direction it appears to have chosen is down, hell bent. Hell bent on what? Apparently on destruction, of self and of others. We are so immersed in our violence, in our own grievances, that we cannot see past them, see the connections between them, never mind trying to find a path through this thicket of thorn bushes that we have created for ourselves. The same thicket we are feeding with the blood of too many, literally and figuratively.

Liz Cheney was pretty much executed in public. Even as her head remained attached to her neck, it was seen rolling down off the Republican platform, bloodied and abused. The Republicans are, according to one observer, "eating themselves, devouring themselves" in their rabid and rapid deterioration. They have become a cult, worshipping one man, bending the knee numerous times to his rages and path of destruction. They have engaged in lies to obfuscate the truth. People were hugging and kissing the officers! Ask the poor guy beaten nigh onto death as the video clearly shows. But nope, all denied so it never happened. Soon enough, given enough rope, this insurrection of Jan. 6 will be written out of history totally unless turned into a love fest! I can hear Deborah Kerr singing "Toads, toads, all of you people are toads!" If the shoe fits....

This absurd questioning of the legitimacy of the election is corrosive. It is eating away at the very underpinnings of our nation, refuting the principles of the Declaration, of the Constitution, of the Bill of Rights and all Amendments. Rights will revert to privileges for the privileged, not for all, no more government of and by and for the people. Lincoln? Not his GOP any more even as McCarthy states with a solemn face that no one is questioning the legitimacy of that election! Really? Truly? But then again, truth is alien to this emerging GOP.

Meanwhile, across the sea, the blood is flowing once more on already blood soaked land. Close to 2,000 rockets thrown at Israel with 400 of them landing in the territory of Gaza, harming themselves but blaming it on Israeli attacks. Yes, some civilians were hit, but that is on Hamas themselves as they surround their arms and rocket setups with their own families, knowing the hypocritical voice of the world will be raised against Israel for this, with, as usual, the deaths of Israelis, of Jews, discounted once again, always of little value to the world at large.

The destruction to be found in the cities and fields of Israel are terrible, even as the amount of rockets held by the enemy is seemingly endless, supplied to them, paid for them, by Arab and Moslem nations. Money meant to ease situations, to build an economy are instead reverting to leaders of terrorist organizations, buying arms rather than food, building arsenals rather than schools or hospitals, encouraging children to grow up to kill Jews, rather than grow up to contribute to the world in a positive manner. So on they go, shooting rockets deliberately into the cities, to harm more, as many as they can, and on the Israelis go, 'knocking' on roofs, making phone calls to warn of a rocket on its way towards them. Who the hell does that, warning the enemy, other than Israel and yet the world accuses it of imaginary war crimes, of actions beyond their control. And the world spins on.

Hell bent, I agree. Ransomware attacks, panic in the streets. At least we have a President willing to speak to the public, to answer questions, to have a calm demeanor, to speak words rather than shout threats in an illiterate and crude manner. Still, is that enough to stop our slide downwards? I truly doubt it as everyday seems to bring yet another crisis even as the ones that came before are still among us, quite active, too.

I dream of the times when we can have an innocent girl singing of the "owls, hooty - hooting above" singing that she is in love. The only owls we have are the ones hooty- hooting the warnings of the wise. Sit up! Stand up! Thinking caps on! Brains functioning! Mouths shut as ears open. Simple directions and instructions, yet evidently too difficult for most of us. So hell bent it is. Maybe, maybe, we can stop it. Maybe.

LESSONS UNLEARNED

  Will we ever learn? Will we always play dumb and then look astounded by the turn of events? How many more warnings must we receive and ignore before we learn history's lessons? George Santayana said it well when he warned that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Now I read an apt statement attributed to Mark Twain: "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

Any which way you put it, the point is clear. Keep making the same mistake under the repetitive stupidly ignorant or purposely ignorant standpoint but do not expect anything to change, unless it goes from bad to worse and even more worse than that. Nor does it matter in what area or field one perseveres in that behavior. Keep an increasingly incompetent president in office in Century Village and do not expect things to get better nor policies to change. Run after a dictator wannabe, pump him up, insert fear into the equation, and add hatred innate in us all and we get another Hitler, another wannabe looking to succeed a la Trump. Keep on holding to false thoughts, wrong stresses and we will produce yet another repetitive tragedy of history. Yet another bloody turn of history.

Throughout history Jews have been targets for all sorts of reasons. They had the nerve to stand aside, separate and believe in one unseen G-d while the rest of the world worshipped wooden statues who desired firstborns to be burnt in their name. They refused to die, outliving all the vast empires and conquerors of history, this tiny, poorly armed, perpetually short of funds nation stubbornly holding on to their heritage and identity.

Exiled from their homeland, there was always a Jewish population throughout the ages who remained there, while many traveled at great risk through the centuries to pay homage, to mourn, at the last remnant of the two Temples. Taken by force, or invited in to help organize a government, or settle an economy needing help, always, always, there came a turn on them. Be it the rulers who borrowed money and refused to pay back, as Edward II did, or envious people who resented their success, or the Church that ranted and raved re false accusations about Jesus, or blood libel, or needed to turn attention from their own faults or the faults of the government, of the hunger and deep poverty of the people, or release of holiday tension, such as Easter or Christmas, needing a pogrom or two, an expulsion or two, the violence took place. And it never ever stopped.

Even here in America there were covenants in housing which banned a Jew from buying a home there. There was great prejudice in hiring and employment, in acceptance to universities. Leo Frank was lynched here for a crime he did not commit. Of value to every country in which they lived, prospering despite all attempts to stifle them, finally achieving in the nineteenth century some recognition as citizens, yet not everywhere, they realized that there was only one hope, one answer. That was to leave these countries and return to their own. Desperate enough to take any offer, these failures resulted in the understanding that there was already a homeland - the land under the Turkish Empire's control, known as Palestine, a play on the word Philistines, a people which once was part of the population there, then disappeared in the veils of history.

It was a land of desolation. Traveler after traveler, writer after writer, men of religious vocation, all wrote of the nothingness there, the empty lands, the marshes and the deserts, the small and miserable populations of some Arabs and some  Jews. The Jews apparently were rebuilding, trying for a life where they were free to live without fear of bloodshed, but sadly that never ever really happened, did it? Massacres by incited Arabs by the lords of Greater Syria who resented the growing presence of Jews, who showed that the land could be repaired, that  there was hope on these sands, founding Tel Aviv on the dunes of a beach. The riots of Hebron in 1929. All the intifadas where the population was incited, rewarded for killings, for terrorism, and always the rockets, the bombs, the physical attacks of assassins, no distinction between military targets and civilians.

To this day it has continued. Give back the lands and there will be peace. Well, we did. Sinai was returned. Sharm el Sheikh was returned. Lebanon areas were returned and there was no peace. Offers were made that were refused and even when they had the land there was no peace!!!

Stop the apartheid and there will be peace. What apartheid. Visit Israel. See the Arab population walk with no fear, with interest only in stores and purchases. They are on Rehov Yaffo. They are in the pharmacies. They are doctors and nurses, head administrators in hospitals, not Arab ones either. They own stores, attend national universities. They have special aid programs for Arab women, for the youth, all to encourage growth and education. They are teachers, members of Knesset and on and on. Apartheid? Where. No building permits? Go take a tour and see the handsome palatial three story homes they erect.

Bah, humbug said Scrooge and so say I. True, there is violence, True, there is hatred. True, there is the poison of ages, the presence of Big Lies and always, forever and ever, history repeats itself. Trouble in the land - blame the Jews. Kill the Jews. Massacre that family at the Sabbath dinner table and yes, even unto the infant. Never mind truth. Never mind the fact that while there are over 27 Moslem countries this is the only Jewish one, the country that takes in refugees of even faint Jewish ties for no one else wants them. The country where the Arab population lives better than in Arab countries.

Lies and historical hatreds always abound and rebound. Not even a century has passed after the exposure of the horrors of the Holocaust, of crazed prejudice taken to the extreme, of the Western powers, the Allies, ignoring the known facts, refusing to bomb train tracks, and still- kill the Jews, blame the Jews, be it here or Israel or wherever there needs to be  a scapegoat.

The violence today is not over a house in one area, but rather over the right of Jews to have a land of their own, an historically appropriate land, one where there were numerous Kingdoms of Israel and Judea, where always, Jews lived. Where the blood of Jews fertilized the nation, where people visiting or arriving to safety, for the first time, fall upon knees to kiss the ground. It is over the intransigent attitudes of Arab countries who need this supposed Palestinian people as a valued aid in turning aside people's attention to their faults, their inequities, their violations of rights, of their war crimes, and on and on.

 No, we do not learn from history. We continue to make excuses re the murder, the persistent attacks of violence upon Jews wherever they are found, including France, America, Russia, Britain, wherever. It seems there is a new word in the lexicon of prejudice - invisible. Groups claim that others do not see them, that they are invisible to others, ignored. Well, we Jews wish that we were invisible, rather than being kept in the public's eyes, all the better to serve as scapegoats that save their nuts from their proverbial fires.

Please, ignore us, allow us to live in peace wherever we live, in Israel or countries around the world. No more throwing an old woman, a survivor, out of her window after beating her. No more attacks on schools, stores, on the streets. No more. Hear the truths of history and understand. Please, let us be invisible to the wrong eyes.

And despite it all, we will survive. Through it all, through all the historical attempts to get rid of us, to take our properties and lives, to steal our children and baptize them, to crush us beneath the feet of rulers and the duped members of their nations. Please, let us be invisible. We do not wish to compete for the crown of who is the biggest target of bias. Just leave us alone. We are invisible - and invincible - in history. History has shown the truth of that. Invisibility - a blessing surely to be prayed for. Invisibility that will allow us to settle problems without the eyes of the world turned hypocritically upon us. Invisibility. Ahhh....

CACOPHONY

  What is cacophony? It is defined as loud and strident noise. It is not the soothing music that calms men's souls, but rather the noise that precludes any real hearing and listening. Cacophonic is defined as unpleasant noise, with an example of a henyard's noise, or indistinct noises of people talking at a time when they could not be heard distinctly. If ever a word fits the times, well, this is it. 

We here in America, and in fact, all over the world, are so busy screaming at each other, ramping up the volume higher and higher, talking over each other, that nothing is heard other than the negative and hostile tones that come through very clearly. Supposed new deals, historical statements and supposed progress, is muted, as the participants revert to the old, hateful ways, ranting and shouting, as in yesterday's rocket attacks on Israel, on its civilian population.

While in a politically sensitive area, the question yesterday is a matter of a sale of a parcel of land to a Jewish family by an Arab family years ago. Banned from that property for years, until 1967, the land was sold after years to a Jewish organization, one that  believes in settling the land. Period. A private matter belonging in court, now played out in the court of the streets. Arab teens, goaded by older men of terrorist organizations who then hide away from the physical consequences, gathered a supply of stones - not pebbles, but big rocks and concrete blocks, thrown by hand or powered by deadly slingshot energy, enough to kill or seriously maim the wounded. Hamas, always ready to strike, then shot rockets, continuing to do so, at anyone they can hit, including civilians while Israel hits military targets warning the occupants about it!! The new 'friends' of Israel now shout out against Israel and here we are again, embroiled in cacophony, all the old enmity coming out in the open, the faces of monsters reappearing beneath their obfuscating masks. The winners? The haters on both sides are in this loud and strident - and deadly - noise.

There is much cacophony among the nations of the world, blustering like little boys in the schoolyards during recess, only these 'boys' are bolstering their verbal attacks with deadly weapons from guns to ships and planes. Cacophony!! Can anyone hear the voices of reason here? Can anyone hear the consequences in this deadly showboating? No, for the cacophonic results block all off.

Here in the USA there is new cacophony, so loud and unpleasant that we refuse to hear what is being said. Lindsay Graham tells us “Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no,” Graham said.  I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.” Are you frightened yet? Do you read and hear between the lines? We are being told that the GOP has willingly and consciously gone with the fascism ,the personality cult, the deranged hate mongering that will only grow under more Trump control. They have chosen a demented man as their leader and pace setter. G-d help us. G-d help America and the rest of the world.

Now we have the shouting of the "critical race theory" threatening to upend our entire educational system and a whole lot more than that. Has there been racism in America? Of course. That racism went both ways as we all refused to accept the 'others' as equal to us, whomever 'us' is at the moment. Every single group has faced racial hatred, ethnic bias, some worse than others. The hate seems to hide beneath the surface, just below, always ready to peek out. However, has that racism defined our country, underlay all that we have done and propose to do? Absolutely not!!Most emphatically not!!Most newcomers came here to build a new life for themselves, their families, to find hope, education, to live. To save their lives from the violent hatred back in their former homelands.

Sure, they faced and still face bias, but it does not underlay it all. That theory is demeaning, and consequently will have bad results. White people are being made to feel guilty for being born with lighter skin, to examine their every breath for implicit bias, so radically the same effect and philosophy as self criticizing meetings demanded of citizens in communist countries and other dictatorial areas. It is fascistic, communistic, just part and parcel of all anti democratic philosophy. It is wrong. So wrong. So dangerously wrong.

Sure, improve the content of our history classes, but think not that this is a new issue. It is not. States have been revising their history texts for years, depending on where one lives. Wrong? Yes and no for it depends on the revision!!! People change, we hope become more enlightened. But c'mon! An entire country based on imposing racial bias and hatred on others? An entire country to nitpick its every action and policy for connection to bias, particularly against the group of the day? Trying to read the minds of people long dead? Really? Think ahead and wonder at the cacophony resulting, the cacophonic noise that will preclude any positive, clear thinking to approach the problem of bias.

McConnell seems to have reformed himself. It precludes anything and everything that does not fall into the category of 'defeat the Democrats". Block access to vote? Yup. Deny needed injections of money into the economy? Yup. Destroy the environment? Yup. Why yup to these and more? Because he has signed on with the Trump Party, with the imitation Jabba the Hutt, accepted its revision into America's fascist party, with one goal - defeat the Democrats. Then quiet the noise with an America that is no longer America.

Can we all just settle down, take a deep breath, use our indoor voices for once, possibly hear each other enough to try to hear more? Can we do that? Dora the Explorer will say, "Yes, we can!" Perhaps we need to revert to another childish aspect of ourselves and hear the optimism expressed in children's talk. There has to be a path to follow, a good one, a rational one. Doesn't there?

OH, HECK!! SOMEONE'S GOTTA' SAY IT.

  Tired. Everyone's tired. These past fourteen months and still counting, still being warned of new dire future possibilities and probabilities. Confusion about truth and lies in the body politic. American values seen discarded on the roadside. Major changes domestically as well as in foreign policies. A world spinning so fast that even were one to want to get off, it is nigh unto impossible. Enough! Enough with the overkill re racial feelings, anti racism, and all the buzzwords that now just about kill us and any interest we have in remedying racism and its consequences. I am not even sure we know exactly anymore what racism is and when to cut it out already. Enough with the Big Lie and the lie theory of government. Patience is at short shrift and yet we keep trying, pushing the envelope, testing the boundaries.

First, I read of blood chits and yes, I agree, we are way behind in honoring them, in paying our debts to those who have helped us, courageously, put themselves in the path of danger, unto loss of life and harm to their families.  Basically, this is what a blood chit says: "Help me return to friendly territory, and my government will reward you."    We have disregarded and dishonored that promise through war after war and then wonder why no one wants to help, serve as interpreters, guides or simply a friendly face. It is because when we pull out of a country, we leave behind detritus. We  sell billions of dollars worth of equipment as scrap, letting it fall into the hands of the enemy, and costing the taxpayers of America billions and trillions as we replace what should never have been lost!

Worse, when the planes pull out, all the threats  to those friendly forces of locals come true, the exact reverse of the fairy tale wish of living happily ever after. We leave these people behind, disregard our promises, blowing them off, ignoring their panic, at their misplaced trust in America, as we leave them, desert them, abandon them, to gruesome fates and awful debts. Blood chit? Bah! Humbug!!

This pattern of lying, of accepting lies and false promises has become a plank of the GOP platform. A growing number of politicians disregard the voters and their votes and spout the Big Lie, our own homegrown Hitlerian imitation, the one that leads to peril, to American Fascism. No, Trump did not win. No, Trump did not even come close. No, there is no merit at all in these baseless claims and lawsuits, all being thrown out of court by increasingly irritated judges. Yet, there it is, creeping and  crawling into American lexicons, debates and worse, conviction of its truth and the accompanying lies about Jan. 6. That lie maintains that it was either an anti fa organized violent attempt at rebellion or it was peaceful, no big deal and everyone's memories to the contrary. The GOP has fallen to the level of the very perpetrators, now claiming innocence, peaceful origins, lying through their goddamned teeth!!

Finally, we come to the fatigue hitting America. Yes, there is racism, overt and covert. Yes, true as it is, there has been progress. More is needed. DWB cannot be a capital offense. Law enforcement need some retraining. But..... people are tired of the growing victimhood that is the new meme. Everyone is now claiming this status, pushing their own troubles, forgetting that it all stems from the same dank and moldy source.

We need to remember who we are - all humans on the planet earth, all subject to the same whims of Nature, the same threats to our existence, the same consequences to our actions. That is all. We are more alike than not. That is the lesson. That is the simple cure. Overwhelming us all with page after page of black faces in ads, in TV shows, in movies, in articles, all saying and claiming the same thing, the overuse of the term 'invisible'. Now Asians.

 Perhaps if we stop using these terms, stop the overkill, stress the similarities, publish the accomplishments of ALL peoples, all races and ethnicities, by groups from other ethnicities, perhaps then we would realize that by emphasizing the likes rather than the 'unlikes', we can make progress. But now, now we are in for a tiring overkill, testing the already tried patience of those who already know the truth, riling those who do not, and just about forgetting the positive goal - acceptance and appreciation of all by all. Simple, yet so difficult. Seemingly even further away from being reached than ever before. Even as we ignore all the positive that has already happened.

So, gotta' say it. We are losing our way. We are on the wrong path, the wrong instructions being followed, and the consequences are dire. Can we all take a deep breath or two, pause the rhetoric, think about what is and what is not of value, what we wish for, hope for? Then find a new set of directions, cut off the Fascists at the proverbial pass and remember, take pride in being America.

Let us honor the blood chits we so lavishly doled out. Let us honor our word as Americans, recognize those who have done well for us, both within and without the nation. Can we at least try?

NOT ALONE, BUT IS IT ENOUGH?

  Sadly, I believe it is not enough, and it scares the dickens out of me. For years I have been writing of the turn of America towards the side of fascism, call it by any name you wish. Fascism is fascism and no name calling or Big Lie or demented tactic is going to change that. Most frightening is the turn of so many once moderates, relatively speaking, from that position to one of backing Trump, demented, deranged, as it is. 

In fact, it boggles the mind how many formerly intelligent and independent, moral persons have learned to ignore the vast litany of wrongs committed by Trump and his backers, the danger he poses to democracy, his unbelievable lack of morality, both he and his supporters, many of whom are well known. These behaviors are condemned when manifested by others, but Trump somehow gets a pass.

In any case, I have been told by some that I was overstating the issue, that this was a typical campaign, a typical disagreement between parties, and I was overly frightened for naught. This, even as the demands and the outrageous statements began coming down the chimney, in the doors and windows, and in the minds and mouths of too many, especially when expressed in and by physical violence. Sadly, some of the opponents of this egregious behavior settled for the low standards of the Trump fans and used violence as well, though not as accused of by the extreme right.

What induced the seeds of panic and fear for the future of this country was how the otherwise normal folks began to be won over to the extreme memes of the new GOP, a partisan political party disguising itself under an old and respected name. However, inside, in truth, they were increasingly voicing and becoming a fascist party, with threats to the 'out of line" members, the need to impose restrictions on opponents, the demonization of opponents and the extreme demand that all follow the Party Line as embodied in the Party Leader, found in the body and damaged mind of Trump, followed and touted by his off the wall progeny and backers.

Now we have the added , very strange, dangerous vocal backing by extreme Christian evangelical pastors, or who claim they are. Trump was 'prophesied ' to win, ergo he did, making the results  a lie. So they crazily insist. Trump was seen with some golden object, hence he is the leader. An attempt to do a Mormon replication? This new Party takes whatever it wants, touts whatever it wants, twists whatever it wants, all in the name of The Party and their cult Leader, Trump. He was supposed to win, so in their bizarre world he thus won; the vote was apparently tampered with, mass violations taking place, including Asian ballots smuggled in. These unbelievable, outrageous statements are accepted as etched in stone, of divine origin. Trump is now the equivalent to G-d in their newly organized Parthenon of gods, twisted, demented, heretical, and oh so dangerous.

Apparently, it has taken time for others to join in the calls to be wary, to be watchful, to be of concern over this turn to an extreme right that has not been seen here in years, in decades, other than by a limited group. Today, it is becoming more of a norm and too many are so blind, not seeing or not caring. Claiming that they ignore politics because it is too unpleasant enables the monsters of today's American politics to dissolve our Declaration, void our Constitution, negate all the values we have heretofore chosen to champion, and overturn all the progress we have made in social care.

Now, finally, we have people speaking out, openly stating that while Trump is a clown, his politics and political influence is not comical, but rather dangerous. Stefanik, once a moderate, now backs Trump, all the better to gain power in the Fascist GOP, engaging in the same willful denial of reality, denying his crimes and connection to the Jan. 6 rebels, denying the proofs of his engagement with the enemy over the years, excusing his immoral behavior and imbecilic imitation of a toddler in his emotions, spoken rants, and his writing!!!

Liz Cheney warns the GOP that they had better learn that they must back freedom, democracy, choose the moral path. Call after call now to remember that we are Americans first and always, not GOP first and only. We do not pledge allegiance to a man, but rather to the country and its standards. We do not push the Big Lie, a la Hitler, but rather face and accept reality, work to change it if we do not like it, but do so within the law. We do not try to reimpose old and hateful restrictions on members of the country because we do not like them or their politics. We must remember history, know that hatred keeps on going, like a demented energizer bunny, from one group to another, for fascism demands victims, always seeking to sate its greedy maws, devouring all in its path. We must remember that democracy is still endangered and so Thomas Friedman wrote in his recent essay, warning those who think we are past the crisis. We are most eminently not.

No, I am no longer alone. Others, far more well known and powerful, influential people, have finally stated the same things. But are we enough? Are we strong enough to withstand the pressures, push back on these new fascistic laws being foisted upon us? Can we restrain the new limitations on our freedom to choose, for our decisions in life to be ours, not imposed on us from the top by those from the bottom who have climbed their way there over all they left behind, over all they have devoured in their crazed wish, need, to dominate, to hate, to immorality, to negation of all that is good and wise. 

Those walking dead that we are told to fear, well, they are not only on TV screens, are they? Our walking dead are right out there, only in real life. We are the devoured ones, unless and until we speak up, fight back, end the America First fascist tour, cancel the hatred and lies spewed forth by the Real America's Voice, impose truth on our politicians, negate the culture of lies and hate espoused by those such as Bannon, or Dobbs or  Carlson. Insure that there will be no more threats to impose military rule in this country. Try so hard to become the role models our children need to see, hear and emulate.

No, not alone, but are we enough? Are we? Can we do what we must? Are we strong enough? Determined enough? Watchful enough? Are we enough? Time will tell. Whose watch does the timing and the telling - .........

GOTT IN HIMMEL!!

  G-d in Heaven! A statement of a belief? A fact? A plea to whomever? A statement of despair, at a wondering based on shock? Try all of these, apply where applicable and then sit down and try to think how the hell we ever got here and how do we find an exit. I do not know that we will even find a hint of an exit now. We are so deeply mired in the bog of our own making that there is nary a soul left to extend a branch to pull us out. As we go under, as America leaves behind the United States of America and becomes America First, we wonder - does anyone even care to at the very least move their eyes in a minimal effort to find a possible branch for aid. There are times today that I doubt even that.

Tomorrow is the birthday of one of the most caring people I have ever met. He would have been 101 and I miss him every day, even as we laugh and tell a story or two, anecdotes that tell of the man inside, of his quiet charity, of his intellect, of his caring for others, of his feistiness and willingness to debate anyone for a cause, write a letter, speak out, and the deep depth of confusion he would feel now if he came back. Middle schoolers pulling guns out of backpacks and shooting. Two Fascists who are in Congress no less, go on an America First talking tour. For what? To push sexual depravity? To celebrate the turn of America to fascism, to  restrictions that were once banished? Where has his country gone? What has happened to its ethics, its values, its principles?

We have lost them over time, mostly in the past five years and we continue to allow this evaporation of our souls, of the soul of the country. A man touted as a leader in contention for the next Presidential campaign shuts out the media. That is anyone other than Fox, a biased and slanted outlet that has long ago traded off truth for what is now called "foxitis" and "foxmania". Well, true, they send out lies all the day long, but we are at fault for simply not turning the dial, as we used to - or now just punch another time on the remote and find truth.

We cannot lay off all the blame on the dangerous idiots, or the dangerous creeps who know better, yet persist in their efforts to pervert the country. State after state, those dominated by Republican legislators, are blocking voting rights, laying on layers of restrictions and roadblocks. Gerrymandering is worse than ever. Corruption in GOP led administrations has grown drastically in the wrong direction. Dynasties are openly spoken of, and what, are we looking at a proposed imposition of an absolute monarchy? A Trump return? Gott in Himmel!!

I just finished watching a video recording of a road stop as a woman used a cellphone while driving. Legit, absolutely. Instead of behaving, much to my shame as an educator, as she cursed the guy, made derogatory and prejudiced remarks, provoked the man beyond all boundaries, even as he stood there calmly, speaking in an even tone, she boasted of being a teacher!!! Those teachers we do not need. Those teachers perpetuate the wrong ideas, encourage the destruction of our system of government, of the democracy we are, of the values we stand for - or stood for.

My dad would have been flabbergasted and then would have rigged for battle. Alongside would be me, proud to be and stand with him. And so I do, every day that I write on my blog, when I support America and despise the Amerika that others wish for. We must all speak up, find the proper heroes and role models and when if we find few or next to none today, then we must become those missing heroes, those missing role models and resurrect the values of humanitarian standards, of democracy, of the Statue of Liberty, of the best part of humanity rather than the worst.

Why does mankind always find a way to revert to the worst level it can find? Why are there always to be found those who willingly, with relish even, dare to kill others, to demean and torture, to crush beneath their feet? Gott in Himmel! Where have we gone wrong? How have we gone wrong? How do we fix this? Gott in Himmel - help!

And Happy Birthday, Pop!!

HELLO? HELLO!! ANYONE HOME?

 Well, folks, I am not sure that there is anybody home. Not anymore, or at least not very often. I wonder at the ignorance displayed by people who should know otherwise or at least know to fact check before they open their stupid mouths, the mouths that push lies, that adhere to false stories, that commit themselves to fabrications of ridiculousness and should instead be committed to some kind of mental rehab facility. Such is the state of leadership today and such is America today. What a shame.

 Every fifth grader learning American history discusses the Constitution and the formation and acceptance of certain formulas and viewpoints, the 3/5 compromise being one of them. That allowed for the inclusion of slaves as 3/5 of a person. Notice that they were not accorded even that nonsense when other rights of a human were discussed. It was a shameful concession to the southern states and has haunted us ever since, etching certain distorted values into the psyche of too many, destroying lives and potentialities of too many.

Evidently Justin Lafferty, a state legislator from Tennessee was not present for that term or was asleep at his desk, for he says he was running on his memory rather than fact checking before he spoke. Anyone have a spare American history textbook, worksheet, stored lecture, a vial of common sense?A vial of decency and the minimum smarts needed to know what was wrong and what was right? Evidently not, much to our dismay and the ever widening crack within the American people.

Oh, here is another one where evidently no one is home upstairs. The idiots, the dangerous idiots in Arizona, who are endangering the right to vote, the surety of voters that they will not be harassed as they vote a secret ballot, well, these same morons are actually looking for bamboo shoots and fibers and 'Chinese' paper to support their 'brilliant' theory that 40,000 ballots were replaced by the same number of Asian ballots that were allegedly illicitly smuggled into the country and then exchanged! I kid you not! Anyone home there? I think not. Yet there they are, with the chief dangerous idiot shouting as he continues to try to steer the ship of the American state right on to the rocky shoals.

How about those who think that the Supreme Court's job is to mediate private arguments or that being a publicly traded company means certain demands are applicable. Nope, wrong on all counts, and yet here we are with the Court ringing in on it. The same court that epitomizes the rabid attitude of the GOP with government in the lives of American citizens. Guess the people on the first floor forgot or neglected to caucus with those of the second floor; hence the absence of anyone in the attic!! Hello? Nope, nary a soul. Not even a whisper of one. Not anymore, anyway.

Then we have the what? The basest of ignorance and prejudice coming out? The fallback to old stereotypes, ones that leaned on backward thinking memes? When a GOP Representative calls another one "Buckwheat", well, then he wonders why that Representative yells at him!? Another empty vessel speaking dangerous nonsense, along the same vein of thought and attitude which enabled the /35 compromise to be inserted into a most forward thinking document of world history. An empty vessel can bring about a whole lot of noise which obscures the truth and instigates violence and more hate and ignorance.

Then, of course we have the local supposed leaders who seemingly have also gone away on long term vacations, thinking that no one will challenge their decisions - to overdevelop, of changed funding, of opaqueness in government, or the increase of the danger level due to politics. Or those who think that not talking to someone is a mature attitude. Nope, no one home. Hello? Hello? Uh-uh, not the Adele hit song, but a plaintive query about the state of America today.

We need to heed these words, an echo of the shouts of the Vietnam protesters, the one that went "The whole world is watching."

Today's version: "History is watching Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process."

Ahh, someone is finally home.

The rest of us? Hello? Hello?

 

WAZE AND GPS

  Ever look around and wonder whether you are in the midst of a nightmare, the supposed dream actually being reality? Ever feel that discerning the true line that separates reality from non reality has become and grows even more difficult? Then one turns to find advice, for aid in solving the dilemma, and finds none, or such 'help' that is being offered is of little or no value, or is actually even more misleading than the original problem.

See, there is no Waze or GPS for real life. The errors of those two systems can be remediated- make a u-turn, disregard, or read a real map. Yup, that can be done. However, the maps for real life, the role models, advice as to proper and righteous behavior, directions for finding the right path, the correct route - nope, all gone, disappeared into the ether and all we have in return are flawed, imitative personalities wherein adults engage in fantasy play, returning to the days of yore when they were children in the schoolyard.

Now, you wonder, if this is reality, do I want to wake up or stay asleep? If it is a dream, well, the same question, I guess, depending on where you stand on truth vs. the Big Lie, on decency vs. hatred, on progress vs. regression. How do we find the truth when we hear a judge accusing Barr of obfuscation, of knowingly hiding the truth, defending Trump from his just desserts? Indeed, how do we know which road to take. Cheney for being independent, refusing to back down on the truth re Trump, about Jan. 6 and the insurrection. McCarthy and McConnell have long ago lost sight of their directional signals of right and wrong, of truth and lies, of decency vs crippling and cruel societal downturns. Josh Hawley is way down the road already, deeply immersed in fascistic behavior, always at the ready to deny truth and support the Big Lie.

People, we have a job to do. We need to wake people up, reminding them, advising them, warning them, that the dream is a living nightmare, is only going to get worse unless we all stand up in opposition. Truth is not falsehood. Democracy is not denying people the access and right to vote. Society is not improved by consigning segments to hunger, uncertainty, despair and death. The USA is not supposed to emulate the worst countries of the world, but rather to be a role model for them, a proper role model of democracy and progress, of justice, of caring, with a vibrant economy powered by a smoothly running government.

How have we come to this low level when supposed leaders are of the miserable caliber of a Ted Cruz, a Donald Trump along with his progeny, a DeSantis, who cares naught for safety of citizens, only on the importance of defying rationality, appealing to the basest of bases, encouraging more to lower themselves into that category. A Taylor Green who is an open supporter of QAnon, a denier of truth, of the rebellion. A Matt Goetz who is simply disgusting!

Nope, our social and political Waze and GPS systems are majorly on the fritz. The big question here is whether there remains hope of remediation, or repair, or is the breakdown too intense, too deeply enmeshed within the system and cannot be denied any longer. It is an evaluation we must make and must be honest while doing that. Then we must make a choice - ceding control or resisting, fighting back against this vicious tide of cruelty, of regression, of hate, of anti democracy, of suppression of rights, of DANGER AHEAD!! warnings in screaming red letters being ignored or even cheered.

Time is running out. We must make a turn in our directions. We must remember our roots, our paths till today. We must ignore the new mechanics if they are so wrong as to destroy us, who we are, what we are supposed to be. Nightmare or dream, reality or not - your choice, but that time for choice and reversal of wrongly stated directions is growing ever slimmer. Tick tock. Tick tock.

Who is the "enemy within" - the accused - the Democratic party -  or the accuser - the GOP?

 

“We believe the right to vote is sacred. When more people participate in our democratic process, we will all prosper,”

The right to vote is key to it all, to the directions we are getting  or rather the misdirections we are getting. Tick tock again, folks. Tick, tick ,tick.

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  I am so afraid! Not! I am most frightened. Not. I am offended. Well, maybe, but not so much for me as for someone else, a target because of a connection to me. Yes, apparently guilt by association is a crime here in the Village. Have doubts? Well, let's see.

So, first a little history. It was apparent years ago that David Israel was not the President for this Village of ours. Financial shenanigans and incompetence brought us to the brink of bankruptcy, $11 being the amount left in the accounts until their nuts were saved by Dorothy Tetro, may she rest in peace. Our roads were a disaster, physical needs of the Village were neglected, opaqueness was the designated word associated with the administration and rules and regulations were flouted daily, as David violated rules of assembly, engaging in partisan behavior from the stage, interrupting, threatening, even to the point of calling in armed  deputies to stand there at the Assembly, threateningly posed. Wow! I guess those walkers and canes are actually too threatening to some people!

In any case, I put my money where my mouth is and despite being mostly unknown in the Village,  chose to run in opposition to David for President of UCO. I did not expect to win, was not running for that purpose but rather to draw attention to his lacks, his faults, his falling down on the job and the need for change or better supervision, whatever would work for the betterment of the Village, for its residents.

He pulled out all the stops, even calling down the authorities on the synagogue across the street for allowing me to use a fence area for a sign, just as is commonly done in all elections. Nitpicking, desperate, the man called out authorities to threaten the synagogue for violations of ridiculous things, generally ignored, unless pointed out by people with malicious intent. 

New rules were initiated by David and cohorts so as to preclude any meetings on Village grounds to discuss the election issues, no more poolside meetings, no more anything, even to the point of allegedly threatening people to do damage to them via the Internet as he was so  proficient on it, so we have been told. Guess the age of Zooming has  proven to be too much for him though as it was not used to have meetings of the Village during this past year.

Anyway, the man has been steadily going downhill, to the point of even formerly 'loyal' believers beginning to whisper about his apparent growing list of lacks and faults. He refused and continues to refuse to do the right thing and resign, go home, take a break, read a paper, watch a streamed show. take a walk, and give us a break! But no, he continues to misgovern and misdirect, keeping negotiations for a new contract with Benenson a deep, dark secret. Nothing has been presented to the Executive Board nor the Assembly, to the Village, for discussion and voting throughout the entire year. Contracts? Say what? Nothing given over to us as he took over the reins as an open dictator. 

Even as he was forced by the improving health situation to actually call for meetings, he then adjourned them almost as quickly, allowing for no discussion or even presentation of any important, vital issues of the Village, keeping on his path of no transparency, no sharing, no anything! However, this is what has upset me now. 

David, never having been married, apparently does not understand that a good and solid marriage between two independent thinking adults who respect each other, who understand the independence of each, the individuality of each, is possible. In any case, it has worked for us for 53 1/2 years to this point and G-d willing it will continue.

Aha! So why now? Apparently, at the Executive Board meeting so quickly adjourned yesterday, the first meeting in over a year, David, responding, after the meeting, to a question by a member, said that David will not speak to him because of me and what I write in my blog. Wow! Does he think one of us controls the other or must walk lockstep, together? Well, it does not work that way. I am me and Gerry is himself and there are very few people who do not like him or value his opinions, with many turning to him for advice or aid. I think he is too nice at times, but if one has to have a fault, that is not a  bad one at all, is it?!

So David, acting true in manner to his apparent behavioral age of toddler years, will 'punish' me through Gerry, thinking that what? It will shut me down, close my mouth, stifle opposition? I am one voice, sometimes musing in my thoughts, or writing of a national or world situation, or about the Village and yes, about David, if appropriate. So tough!! Remember that old but wise adage about the kitchen and the heat, David. No one says that being President of UCO is an easy job, but if one undertakes a responsibility, one must fulfill all the obligations or get the hell out of the way and allow others to do it right.

So, do me and everybody else a favor and grow up. Gerry has nothing to do with me in this instance. He has his thoughts as I have mine. I do things one way and sometimes he does it another way agreeing and disagreeing as it happens. It is called being independent, thinking adults. Imagine that! People can get along even if there are differing opinions and who disagrees on what is none of your business as far as the Village is concerned. So grow up already. Accept criticism, positive criticism, concern for the Village, from whence it comes. Stop using guilt by association as a rule of thumb, direct from whatever dictator you model yourself on. 

Seriously, enough of this nonsense. You are not talking to Gerry? Really? So stupid! So infantile! I can hear the echoes of schoolyard fights and disagreements. Talking is the path to progress. Not threats. Not regressive behavior. Not threats. Just plain old adult behavior. Try it, David, and maybe you will even like it. Grow up!!

RED DAWN, THE SEQUEL

 Do you remember the movie? It was a stock film, Grade B, which became  a cult favorite, commanded a sequel and imitations, and became a talking point for many. The USA was invaded by Soviet troops, I believe, and heroic teens and the adults inspired by these youngsters, managed to set a challenge, light a spark in the defeated people of the nation. They defeated the collaborators. It was a film with action - of the time - no fancy CG tactics or techniques and did its job in entertaining and making people feel good by the end of the movie. All well and good.

 However, today we are facing, living through, actually, whether we realize it or not, our own version of Red Dawn as the GOP loses its soul and commits itself to a cult culture, serving up their own 'cancel culture' movement. One GOP leader states, quite telling, that  "We Republicans need to remember that we are united by fundamental principles such as belief in personal responsibility, individual freedom, opportunity, free markets, a strong national defense. Those are the principles that unite us. We are not a party that is just led by one person."  This, after Romney was booed at a Utah meeting, and GOP candidate after candidate in so many races swear loyalty to Trump, becoming  a Party of ONE, no different in behavior and intent from historical fascist dominated countries. 

This, after they have forsworn these principles, spoken by their own actions or lack of action. Yes, we have Red Dawn once again, only this time in real life rather than the movies. This time it is not foreign intervention, though we have seen much evidence of foreign interference in the Trump administration, but rather the insider attack by the GOP members of a Party who have sold their souls and mortgaged the nation to Trump. 

We have created our own Red Dawn. We are self defeating, carrying out attacks on our own democracy, throwing away all that was and is good in the nation, posing an existential threat to the leading democracy of the world, denying it a future, and busily engaged in cutting noses in spite of faces, as they unbelievably turn on a dime in order to remain in power. An example of such nose cutting? There is a bridge in McConnell's state that badly needs replacing and he has fought, unsuccessfully, for years, for the funding necessary. Now that Biden's infrastructure bill has funds allotted to it, he protests that very fact! Weird. Ridiculous. Unbelievable. And dangerous. There is no more thought, only partisanship and the people of this country be damned. 

Voter rights attacked. Restrictive laws passed wholesale, despite all historical knowledge and lessons to the contrary. Gerrymandering of the most egregious and evil inspired plans. Hatred abounding. Anti-Semitism . Anti Asian. Anti people of color. Does it ever stop? Principles of democracy, uniquely American tenets, being discarded, the Lady of the Harbor tarnished, as Emma Lazarus cringes at the defiling of her welcoming poem etched on the Statue. Citizens in need neglected, religion becoming extreme and demanding, interfering in politics, supporting lies without compunction. Lies after lies after lies, with only 23% of GOP members agreeing with the truth, the facts, that Biden won the 2020 election. The introduction of mistrust, distrust, in our democracy, setting us up for the culmination of our own native born and supported Red Dawn.

How has it come to this? Biden asks that we become united, act together as a nation, but how can that be? We still cannot talk politics in a civil manner, continue to have families and friends divided along deeply etched lines in the soul of our nation. We condone attempts to overthrow this country's legitimate government, attack its own leaders, falling to the level of corrupt countries who see no harm, nothing wrong, in murdering their heads of state in order to replace them with their own cult figures.

Red Dawn in the morning. Or the evening. Or whenever, but we are well on our way there, with the colors of the country changing drastically, faster and faster, as we give away our own rights, cede it all to Trump and his rabid, unthinking followers, traitors to their own oaths of office. One Republican, trying to show that it is wrong to blindly follow one person, says, no, our loyalty needs to be to the Party. Really? What happened to loyalty to the nation, to its population? Gone, with the red, white and blue overlaid by the layer and colors of Red Dawn.

What have we done? What have we allowed? How have we reached this point, denying our heritage, turning our collective backs on the values of this country, negating the efforts of the Founders, of the Reformers, of its soldiers who fought and died for it? Have we become willfully blind, deaf, to its agonies, to the cracks thundering louder and louder in the nation's strained psyche, to the dangerous words and behavior of supposed leaders of this country? What have we done? Is there still a way back? You tell me. You do not want my opinion, the expression of my fears, my answer, in blunt words.

OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE...

 ..."shall not perish from the earth." This was Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address when the nation was in twists of agony, the same category of agony which is twisting us today. Only today, we are closer than ever to negating that last sentence of his. Yes, democracy is certainly in danger in these United States of America. The very name of the country has turned into a bitter farce, for in no way are we the "united" states. In fact, the divisions within this nation have led to the closest we have come to the negation of democracy, to the rapid, extreme turning back of the clock to days that should never be repeated.

 Yet repeating them we are, or at least attempting to do so with mighty heaves pushed along by waves of hate, of violence, of lies galore. We have descended into a nation that is divided within itself, not necessarily along the lines of the Civil War, but lines nevertheless. These lines are growing, in depth, in intensity, in ever growing distances, nearing the tipping point, the point of no return, every day, in every egregious violation of that sentence that rings through the centuries.

This country was founded on the principle that people needed, deserved, to have a voice in their government. True, those deemed worthy of that right were limited to men with various qualifications, others denied this "right". But the country moved ever forward, correcting this error over the years, adding more men, white men, then Black citizens, then finally women. At last!

However, on paper and in reality often do not mesh. Attempts to deny these legislated rights, these 'natural' rights, lived on. Jim Crow laws. Violent opposition to women's suffrage. All here, yet we persevered, more people voted, and our legislators became more diverse. Not perfect, not nearly so, but at least ever approaching it, as much as humans can demand improvement and perfection!

And so we moved, in jerky movements and motions, forward - until we hit a wall, a wall of hate, of obsession with power, with money, and a growing trend to overlook those that need help. We allowed huge holes to develop in the social safety net. Corporations became more valued, of more importance, of protection and favoritism by law than humans. We fell down on the job, and the years of Trump, campaign and administration, and its aftermath, still heavily with us, just about leveled all that we had done. Strong attempts are being made to remove this right to vote, to have a voice in one's government. Combine this with the determined opposition to this, to the deeply rooted values that made America, and we got trouble!!

The noted author, Flannery O'Connor, wrote in The Habit of Being: Letters, that "Around here it is not a matter of finding the truth but of deciding which lie you live with better." How true. How shameful. How existentially dangerous. How dehumanizing. Yet we go on, with more and more outrageous attempts - successful ones - to limit access to voting, to inclusion, and to the growth of violence against people caught up in danger fraught situations. But the excuse that there might have been an infraction does not allow for the imposition of capital punishment for any offense deemed worthy of it by operating officers. The system that allowed this, that continues to allow this, though there is finally some open disclosure, is one that harms us all and must be changed - immediately.

All this as more and more legislation is rushed through by GOP members, members of a party which has forgotten its origin. Members of a party that have the use of lies as an unofficial platform plank! A party which condones violence, condones an attempt to overthrow this government, to subvert the vote, the policies and operating principles of this nation. So access to voters is limited. More and more cuts are made to voting procedures. Even the very act of handing bottles of water to those waiting in the burning heat, of southern states especially, is now being criminalized! Sounds strange, yet here it is, in more and more states. Including in the benighted state of Florida with its growing ever more dangerous man, DeSantis. Another Trump, only one with a brain, damaged as it is in its thinking.

America First, a close cousin to any Fascist party in history. The same words, the same principles, the same angry people, the same lies and delusions perpetrated upon the nation.  The same desperation of downtrodden to find a way up not blocked off to them. The same anger that then gets diverted to the wrong places and people and the damage that ensues is beyond repair.

Many of us are bewildered by all this. How is it possible that so many are so grossly deluded. How is it that heretofore intelligent people fall for the fake promises, the awful statements, the raging and growing hatred for 'others', seemingly not understanding that the category of 'other' grows to include more and more - including them!! Jews in Italy who had joined the Fascist Party there, early on in its establishment, found themselves mocked by their own beliefs, their own pride, as they were oppressed and killed by that same Fascist Party of Mussolini- the same one they had joined.

We can so easily forget truths, eternal and universal ones, in our seemingly blind quests for power, for money, for what we deem success, leaving behind our humanity. Nick Cave, in One More Time with Feeling wrote a simple sentence which says it all.

 "I don't know what the chords are. They keep changing all the time."

We have broken the instruments of society, forgotten to tune them on a regular basis. We have forgotten to keep a check on the ambitions of those who play the music, who determine what sounds emanate from these instruments. The music becomes atonal, discordant and unpleasant. We do not understand it nor how to work with it, or get rid of it. We ignore the music of Prospero, the one that calms the beast in all of us, the Caliban within. We do not know the new chords and their constant changes are demoralizing and paralytic to society. And so here we are.

Anyone remember Abraham Lincoln?

Anyone for music lessons?

 

IT ALL ADDS UP AND THE BILL COMES DUE

  Too often so many of us walk around in a state of oblivion or denial. We think that our behavior, our very thoughts, have no consequences and again, too often, foolishly and dangerously so, we continue on our path of destruction without a second thought. Even as there appears to be an almost heavenly consequence, with catastrophic results, we ignore, deny, and then mourn - and wonder why, what has happened!

We now blithely ignore last year, a year of death, of agony, of loss and a profound change in society, changes that will resound through the coming years. The GOP is trying hard to perpetuate a Big Lie and adds to it a willful and dangerous denial of the truth of Jan. 6, of the truth of a President who turned traitor on his country and dragged so many along with him. They dare to rewrite history, engaging in a massive denial of truth, of facts, even as they occur.

We do this at our peril. We foolishly think that we are in the free and clear of this pandemic, of the agonies of partisanship so exacerbated by Trump and his enablers, people who knew all along that he was dangerously awry, askew, on the sanity scale, yet went along, denied and lied, all in order to maintain power and for what end? That end lives  with us now, an administration that left the nation to battle a pandemic on its own, that antagonized friends until we now remain in the position of trying to woo them back, weakening us.

We are now a nation that is being attacked by an unknown power or faction, foreign or domestic, or a collusion of the two. Strange, science fantasy weapons of energy are being directed at groups of us, with long lasting and debilitating harm, and there we stand, thumbs where they should not be, unable to figure it out. Once again, we are defenseless. Will another surge of pandemic arise or will it be yet another virus coming to us from the world of the other living creatures on this earth? What awaits us? And do we have a share in this, are we part of the cause of this world turning upside down, more so every day?

There is a line in Ecclesiastes which warns us that our dancing will turn to mourning. I think of that line when I watch a horrifying video of two brutal people attacking a motel clerk who was standing  by the ice machine, chatting with another guest. Suddenly she is brutally attacked, thrown down, viciously kicked, many times in the head. The couple, arrested, are seen dancing down a flight of stairs by the court. What the hell is the matter with us? Is there any hope for us at all? Or is the sense of evil, its presence in our lives so prevalent that we have long ago crossed the tipping point?

Yesterday there was yet another deja vu moment for many of us. A terrible disaster, as 100,000 people in Meron, Israel, there to celebrate the end of a period of traditional mourning, were instead part and parcel of the beginning of yet another period of mourning, as a crush of panicked, running people trampled so many underfoot as they ran through corridors and paths trying to get away. Away to where? Why were they running? Did someone yell, falsely instigating a stampede? Once again we found ourselves calling relatives and friends, checking on their welfare, their whereabouts, for we knew that they, or loved ones, were there. Were they okay? Were they among the so many wounded terribly or even crushed to death by rampaging feet as humans ran like a frightened herd of cattle?

Is there no end to this litany of bad, of evil? Is there no end to the thoughts that pervade the sick minds of too many, who deny others their humanity, who laugh at breaking the humerus of a 73 year old woman and laugh about it, or who pull a librarian out of her car by her hair? Are we truly the descendants of the mobs of evil throughout history, giving the enemies of mankind, the foes of good, a win? Have we deliberately or unconsciously chosen the wrong path, more and more of us? Does it even matter how or why, or only the results at this point?

"Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense". That is the motto of the prestigious Order Of The Garter in England. It translates to "Evil to him who evil thinks." Well, we certainly have thought much that is evil, and worse than that, we have done evil, evil coming to touch our lives in so many, too many, ways.

We all made fun of Jimmy Carter when he spoke of lust in the heart, not acted upon, as still a sin. Perhaps he was on the right track. Evil thoughts lead to evil acts, especially as we lose our sense of morality, as we lose our differentiation between good and evil, between right and wrong, as we memorialize these no good thoughts in legislation meant to harm and deny others.

Where are we now? How did we get here? Is there a way out? Answers anyone? Someone?

THE GOOD SIDE

  There are times that I absolutely despair about humankind. I wonder if we ever really and truly climbed out of the slime or are we still mired in it, deeply so. I wonder if the creation of man had a glitch, or a purposely left weak point, demanding that humankind pull itself out of the muck, demand standards of morality and always try to progress. The path to improvement would be in the hands of humankind and brother, but have we fallen down on the job.

The history of humans is rife with wars, large and small. I do wonder if any war can be called 'minor', for the grief of the loss of a loved one or the destruction of one's home, the rape that seemingly always accompanies the victors, much to the horror of women, - all that is not ever 'minor'. Never.

We claim to be better than the animals over which we have dominion. We label certain misbehaviors and aberrations of humankind under the cover of the names of animals. i.e. the person is a snake, or he is a wolf, or she is a fox and on and on. Yet we are the ones who have decided to apportion this behavior to the animals and then labeled people with the names. But we are the ones who do this. We are the ones who supposedly have the higher thinking power, the strength to overcome instincts, the power to ideate and progress. But do we? And if we do, why do we consistently refuse to leave the muck behind, willingly crawling back into it?

There are so many examples of this behavior. A video from 2013 shows the now embattled NRA president involved in shooting elephants, doing a hell of a miserable job, wounding and shooting again and again, even as his wife shot her own 'prize', holding up the tail of one of the most intelligent animals alive as a symbol of victory. Really? How has she missed all the shots and videos of elephants joining a circle to protect their young and weak, or working together to help a young one stuck in a physical mudhole, even as we remain in our moral one!!

The crap of humankind never seems to end. In fact, of late, we seem to be reverting once again en- masse, wholesale, shall we say. One idiot in Louisiana states that the children in school should be taught the "good side of slavery". You read that right. The 'good' side. Is there? Perhaps one owner did not allow severe whipping or did not sell and break apart families. Or perhaps there were none. Or perhaps some people like to be enslaved, their very lives in the hands of others with no say about it at all, no legal recompense, for 'property' has no voice in courts! The good side indeed!

Follow the meaning of this idiot's statement. So there must have been a 'good' side to the Tuskegee horrifying project. Or there must have been a 'good' side in the injecting of prisoners with viruses and experimental medicines without their consent or knowledge. Or there must have been a 'good' side to the genocide planned by the Nazis against the Jewish people and  all the scientific processes and knowledge that came out of it, out of the absolute inhumane experiments they performed on the prisoners, men, women, children, and even the unborn. No. there is most eminently NO good side to any of this.

This dangerous stupidity is evidenced all over the place these days. Partisanship demands that no progress be made at all in any of so many needy areas. Let families go hungry. Stand aside and watch how a country such as India falls apart under an overwhelming pandemic. Such a 'good' side, for we can then plan our own needs in such a time!! Stand aside and watch inhumanities taking place all over the world and stay silent, for otherwise business might suffer! See, the 'good' side is that there will be jobs! Never mind the reek, the coppery odor that pervades these jobs.

There is always an excuse, always a desire, demand and action to be ignorant of the 'wrong' side, of the evil inherent in oppression, in the relegating of a segment of other humans as being of lesser value, good for the 'good' side of nastiness and horror, allowing for new ideas to be able to be investigated with no boundaries and then use the knowledge gained to improve the life of the rest of humanity.

NO! Most emphatically no. There is no "good" side to slavery. There is no good to be found in evil. Making excuses, looking away from the evil, from the suffering, from the very 'wrongness' of it, only pushes us back, further, deeper into the muck. Do you not think it about time that we pull and push and shove and claw our way out of this moral muck, out of excuses for doing wrong, for seeking good where there is none?

If not now, then when? And if not us, then who?

EXPOSED

  So this morning I read an article which talks of an area where rock that is part of the earth's mantle, which should be waaaayyyy below us, is right there on the surface. Images of apocalyptic disaster form in my mind. Are we turning inside out? Is the earth collapsing in some way reminiscent of those B movies of this genre? What does this mean? Should we be afraid? Is there any way to survive if we turn inside out and upside down? How useful is that survival backpack for two for 72 hours in real life?

But read further on and calm down. It has been here for a long time and so far we appear to be stable. I believe that fracking does more harm to our stability than this area of outcropping mantle rocks. Our own behavior towards our home, our only little planet, is far more dangerous to its survival. Furthermore, there is a heck more to worry about in the fracturing of society, in the formation of not outcroppings but deep chasms of division, than in the interesting geological formation.

Turn around, figuratively, and look back at the path we have left, at what we have put forward as history for future study. As historians analyze this era, what will they say? Will they be able to point out when the structure of the earth, of society, began to fracture? Will they notice exactly when strange behaviors formed, when the first growing crack of chasms developed, and for how long they were there, ignored or encouraged?

Fake stories in papers, denigrating the opponents. Real articles that present the readers with horrifying scenes of rebellion, of needless killings, of bizarre and harsh behaviors of law enforcement personnel, the straits in which decent law enforcement finds itself, unable to fight a rising tide of extreme proposals and accusations. A huge trend among the media to report only that which further divides and inflames, causing a growing inability and worse, a lack of desire, to mediate, to change, to reunite, to become America once more, a leader and example par excellence to the world - and to itself.

A GOP member of Congress who hides on a toilet seat, armed with an obsolete Civil War era sword, afraid of a mob allegedly generated, encouraged by the very President of this country and his enablers and partners in crime. Then the growing denial of the truth of this attempted coup, the retraction of truths in favor of lies.

The growing disrespect evidenced in open sight in our society. Poison that lay pretty much hidden under layers of civility, begin to form outcrops, like the mantle rocks in Maryland. These ugly outcroppings of society pose a huge danger to it. One wonders why now? Why has it become socially acceptable, even desirable, in certain circles, to evidence hatred and contempt of others? Why is it okay that streaks of nastiness and worse, that had been squashed down, repressed, hopefully defeated, now find a welcoming atmosphere among too many. 

Please note that this hatred of others, of those different from ourselves, goes both ways. There are no innocents here. Either you are 'fer or agin'. A stand must be taken. One cannot be neutral in issues that divide between good and right, evil and wrong.

It is not an easy road that is before us. It is always even more difficult to overcome retro behavior than to move forward in a straight, perhaps somewhat wavy line. To have to rehash old topics that should have long ago been disposed of, is hurtful to individuals and society at large, yet it must be done. Talk, truthful and honest talk must take place and hard listening must take place as well.

It will not be a smooth road to walk, and we will be tempted by weariness, hopelessness, and bad thinking and leaders, to quit. We will ask why? But we need to turn back in history to a hero of the people, Lafayette, whose motto was, "Cur Non". Why not? Why not make the effort? Why not face the truth? Why not think and believe in ourselves, in the possibility of reform, the founding of a better society, a better world? Why not? Why not?

AND IN THE LOCAL NEWS...

 ...We have a developing story in CV WPB.  Hang on tight, friends, for we are in for a rough, wild ride and the end of the trail is not yet fully in sight. The miserable state of the administration of this Village is traceable directly back to COVID, but even further back than that to the current President, wishfully self deemed the President for Life according to his ambitions, David Israel.

For all the years he has been in office, there has been a growing lack of transparency in government. There has been a shrinkage of diversity of people in the various advisory committees, with the same suck-ups being recirculated, so much so that the same people often vote two to three times on the same item. Not really opening up to the residents is that?

But there is worse than that. Though he has customarily shut down and debased speakers opposed to his opinions, speaking from his seat at the dais, totally against all rules of assembly, and as of March, 2020, it has been much worse. First there were no meetings of committees at all. It was as if the rest of the world knew of Zoom, but this place was still living in 1010 rather than 2020. This from the man who insists he is G-d's gift to the tech world of this earth.

When meetings finally were held, in rather severely  truncated sessions, very little was done, less than that was discussed, and nothing was truly and fully relayed to the residents, if anything at all even was. Contracts were made without prior discussion and committee meetings and votes. Plans were made for a revised agreement for the administration of the Village and wow! What a mess here. 

However, the worst, and most egregious violation of the laws and rules of the Village, the desecration of oaths of office, the ignoring of the residents, was the discussion revolving around a new Millennium Agreement. We were royally screwed the first time around, with a very similar personality in office at that time. It seems we never learn here in the Village.

In any case, it has come out that the Clubhouse was offered for sale, a happening greatly to be desired, with fees on the residents going down as we did not have to provide millions in profit to Benenson or Levy. We could remake the rules better suited to our needs, and take over the  responsibility of it. But was that disclosed, or even offered to the residents? Uh uh! Nope. No way. Zilch. We already are paying for it all, including items on the budget that are really capital improvement under any meaning and interpretation, yet we end up paying for them. Then are told the fees must be raised to cover the costs - which we paid for - and in return for an improved Clubhouse!! The gall of it all!

So, after over a year of nothing, of darkness from the UCO office, other than that building and the guardhouses being constantly cleaned and power washed, with emergency whatever always being checked, with all the neglect of the past year, finally, there is supposed to be an Executive Board meeting on Friday. Seeing is believing, folks, and I hope it is true. I hope there is a quorum. I hope even if there is not, that the discussion is held, issues opened up, and air let in to our suffocating Village.

There is much to be debated. Much air to be let in. Not the least of it all, is where have all the officers been this past year and for many years prior? With almost a constant litany from them as they state "nothing to report", thus publicly admitting their do nothing approach, there have been serious consequences to the very fabric of the Village.

Why did the VPs not go around visiting the Boards of the various associations? It could easily have been done with masks, outside, with distancing, especially as vaccines were introduced. Evidently not much of that happened, did not take place, and hence the absolute growth of hoarding situations and devastation to buildings, and in the case of a Waltham Association, well, I simply cannot see an answer there other than total demolition of that building, top to bottom, side to side.

It is the responsibility of UCO to keep this Village a viable and desirable place to live. They have most manifestly not done that. Yes, there have been individuals who have done their respective jobs, chief among them Don Foster, but too few, too little being accomplished and our very viability challenged. And it all comes down to the shoulders of UCO officers, particularly the President who had a responsibility to the residents and who totally defaulted on that responsibility, simply, catastrophically, fallen down on the job.

So what now, folks? You tell me, or are too many of us still mired in the paralytic muck of inertia and apathy. Most of all - "they" will take care of it, without any idea of who 'they' are. Well, here is a clue to that answer. Go look in the mirror. There you will see 'they'.

CHIMERAS AND HORSES

  That is all I could think of as I skimmed over the news feed at this early hour. "A horse is a horse, of course, of course..." - unless it is not. Nor do we have a talking horse, a Mr. Ed, unless that would explain some of what is coming out of the mouths and broken minds of legislators. A chimera is a thing, a creature that is not of the natural world, the stuff of which horror movies are made. It is a combination of two organisms and is fearful. 

When we read that an embryo with both human and monkey cells has been grown on a plate, for far too long a survival time, be afraid. Be very afraid. That is crossing an ethical line that should never be breached. It behooves us to remember Biblical and  early legends of civilizations re what ensues when man attempts to cross the dividing line between Man and G-d. Be it the Tower of Babel, an apocalyptic flood, plague, or whatever one can bring up, it is the ethical violation that is extremely dangerous to mankind. It signals a recklessness, a fraying and shredding of moral values and borders, an overwhelming threat to a continued existence based on eternal truths and common sense.

But today we seem to have no more borders. So called red lines not to be crossed are crossed every day. No consequences follow, and indeed, after some time, some of our growing herd of talking horses, or asses might be a more befitting term, though certainly the talking ass of Balaam's had more smarts than our modern versions, speak up!! In fact, we keep beating what are dead horses, determined to revive them, participating in civilly unnatural doings.

A conspiracy. A Deep State. A mysterious Florida based company taking over a growing segment of the Pentagon's internet, literally at the last second of Trump's awful,  abysmal Presidency. The insurrection of Jan. 6, with clear clues leading to pre planning, a knowledge that this was meant to be violent, then blaming it on invisible 'anti-fa' people. The massive beating of many dead horses when months after Trump lost the election, there is an armada of trucks carrying votes from Maricopa County in Arizona to a broken down arena, where they will recount - for the third time - at taxpayers' expense -  the votes in a dead horse campaign to overturn an election that has actually been the saving of America as it had just about reached the tipping point into a bottomless pit of self destruction.

Now we have a chimera, an unnatural creature composed of former sane Republicans and extreme supremacists who push hatred, who push antiquated systems of thought that should have been buried long ago. We have talking horses who violate their own words. Rubio, one of the biggest horses around, forgets that he once approved, in 2013, an immigration bill and defended this with these words.  "we are not afraid of people coming in here from other places. I support this reform. Not just because I believe in immigrants, but because I believe in America even more." Then we have another Floridian ass, Scott, who says that he gave Trump an award because Trump had "worked hard". Really? At what? Golf? Destroying this nation?

Finally, we have the ass on top, McCarthy, who says that Trump never knew anything at all about the rebellion and violence at the Capitol and when 'told', he did something about it. So - he knew. He had been watching it on TV. His 'something' to be done was a video hours later which said truly nothing, other than the rebels were 'special' people, basically displaying their love and concern for America. And pardon me while I spew out the nausea induced by this man and his crowd of chimeras.

Dangerous nativism. Excusing drivers who ram protesters with their vehicles because they say they were "afraid for their lives" - even as they drive their vehicle into defenseless people. Now calling a group of THREE people a riot!!!! They can be charged with a felony!!! Where are we? Rubio endorses this, the Republican Party endorses this, and where are we? Belief in America? Not when it has become a dangerous chimera of all the oppressive regimes of the world. Not if it is the America which has forgotten its roots, its natural behaviors, its true tenets.

Dead and talking horses. Lies and nefarious behavior by a chimeric GOP. Let us make sure to support Biden, the Democrats, and the sane Republicans, the few and decreasing, who truly believe in America. Let us set goals, high ones, and even if we do not meet them entirely, at least we strive towards the good, the natural, the true paradigm of "Out of Many, One", the living display of "E Pluribus Unum". Talking asses? Dead horses? Chimeras? Let us be done with them. Now.

RANDOM

 Suddenly the word random is a most popular word. Is it randomly that this has occurred? Or is it just random chance that makes the younger generation settle on the word? Will it change the meaning of the word, like 'sick' or 'fat' or 'my bad' or will it remain in its original definition? These are just random thoughts about the word random.

 I decided to take a random look at the news and see what is going on. Admittedly, I have taken quite a break from serious and long perusal of the news of the day. Yes, I paid attention, but not as intensely as during you know who's administration. I thought, I hoped, foolishly perhaps, that we were done with all that, but there I was, proven both right and wrong.  Wrong in that I hoped that things would improve and right in my predictions and evaluations that said that as a united nation we were in deep trouble.

 This state of Trouble is not a random happening, though. In fact, it is a continuation and exacerbation of all that has come before. It is not random that laws are being passed that restrict voting rights and access nor are the targets of these laws that are so immoral. It is not random that we now have laws being passed that restrict protest rights and even make arrests during a protest, simply for just being there, a felony!! Are we serious!!! What has happened to America? No, this is not random!!

 More 'random'? Another audit in Maricopa County where Biden won by 45,000 votes? Trump wants the National Guard there during this ridiculous and expensive third recount?! Nothing random here, merely another track on the highway that leads towards overthrowing this government. Open violence and rebellion did not work on Jan. 6, so on to the next step. After 360 futile suits to overthrow the election count and results, now on to legislation that passed, is in the courts almost immediately. It is not a random choice to fight these new immoral and should be illegal laws, for if we do not, then we deserve what we get as a result of inaction,  inertia and apathy.

It is not random that we are getting more wars of hate words in our legislatures. It is not random that we have fascistic representatives in those legislatures, people like Taylor Greene or Josh Hawley, or Tom Cotton or Ilhan Omar or Rashida Talib. See there are bad seeds on all sides, but we refuse to recognize that and we fall ever deeper into that seemingly random abyss that grew beneath our feet of clay.

 We have demonized immigrants from doing what immigrants to America have been doing since time immemorial - coming to America, legally or not, driven by deep needs. We have demonized opponents and now cannot distinguish between freedom of speech and forbidden hate speech. We have people still following a man who said "And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute and is there a way you can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs."  Even his own ex-aide said  "That's why we've got to remember moments like this... because we can't allow him or someone like him to ever hold power again."

Will we ever learn to distinguish the truly random from that which only appears to be so? Will we allow a change in meaning of a word to change the course of history? Making and taking a random choice ...... well, golly gee, but I surely hope not!

 

MORE BROKE!

  The title might be bad grammar, but I beg pardon and plead writer's license to make a point. There is something so wrong with our system that we cannot make any kind of distinction between right and wrong, between differences in events. We do not have the patience to wait and sort things out, to delve into the truth of whatever matter is the issue.

We hide the truth like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar, only this cookie jar contains matters of life and death, considers or designs the values of our society. Brother, do we have it wrong! Moreover, until we straighten this mess out, unless and until we accept the dangerous uselessness of lying, well, there is no hope of stopping the chasms developing within American society. These are chasms so deep, the bottom invisible, that the existence of America is at stake.

Please, do not make the error of thinking there is right only on one side and all the wrong is on the other. We have done such harm to ourselves with that thinking, but it is understandable as we look backwards in time to the devastation wreaked on America by the lack of values, by the corruption, by the hatemongering of the Trump administration. However, we must, MUST, look past that and self correct, stop the dangerous trends we have, for they will only make it even more difficult to change ourselves.

The shootings, the murders, of so many Black people, especially those incidents that decide that traffic episodes and minor violations are worthy of immediate capital punishment, must immediately cease. Period. There is simply no excuse for it, and indeed, there is often no excuse to pull someone over or issue a ticket for some of the infractions. But it is done and the horror continues.

However, we also cannot jump to conclusions that all tragedies at arrest scenes are the fault of law enforcement. We must learn to wait for the evidence. We must require all video from body cams and witnesses to be collected and released. The truth will out in these times when there is almost always a recording of events. However, not all of these shootings are the same, and when police officials lie, trying to cover up the uncoverable, as the blood of the victim cries out for truth, they only aggravate the situation and make it impossible to ever believe them.

Take the sad situation of a 16 year old kid, Ma'Khia Bryant, shot by a police officer as she held a knife and charged at two other teens, with the evident attempt to do bodily harm to them.  Put yourself in their place, a knife held by an angry opponent as she comes straight at you. What do you feel? Do you think death is arriving at your door right now? But there are police present, so there is hope for you, you think. The police officer is now in a bind. In a hostile environment, what does he do? Does he shoot, as the knife holder is seemingly intent and focused on doing harm to her foes, or do you think that the better idea would be to say it was too late or there was uncertainty or whatever excuse would work. But would it, for would people say then that the officer did not value the lives of the Black would be victims? Rocks and hard places, with lives at stake.

The shouting has already begun on both sides of the matter and that is exactly the problem. This is not such a clear cut event, tragic though it is. Whenever a life is lost, or taken, it is tragic. But what exactly happened here? How much time did the officer have to make a decision? Whose life was at stake here? What about the videos, whosever view they support? But we immediately jump to conclusions. Each viewpoint supporter shouts so loudly, so incoherently, so sure of oneself, that they cannot and will not hear the other, nor look at the evidence, nor accept the verdict of that evidence.

I do not know what happened there; nor do most, other than the cams, the videos and those involved. However, we must remember that each participant or bystander had a point of view, physical, emotional, political, and could not see the whole picture nor feel the emotions, intents and thoughts of the people involved. Hence their information is inherently faulty for completeness and meshed with that or others. The whole picture must be drawn, completed, before decisions are made.

Unless we all unlearn bad behaviors and habits of the past, we will never have a chance at the present, never mind the unfathomable future. It is a hard thing to do, rife with deep emotions, with hurt that does not go away. But if we are to be America, then that is what needs to take place. The question here is - are we ready, are we capable, are we understanding of the problem and its consequences if we do not reform and change paths -right now!

I am not optimistic.