Three Blind Mice

Autocrats All

1.

Impeach Biden? For what? Doing a damn good job? Do I really need to list his accomplishments? Impeachment is reserved for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, not for retribution against the impeachments of a former faux-president. What crimes has Joe Biden committed? You don't file for an impeachment proceeding and then come up with a charge. That's not how the Constitution maps it out. Why isn't there more screaming and hollering about the what the GOP led House of Representatives is trying to do? Again, we appear like fools to the rest of the world. America, the laughing stock of the globe. How often do we have to go through these charades and clown shows?

The spectacle shows even more graphically than ever how beholden the GOP is to Donald Trump. Like an addict with his dope, they just can't let go--the dope in this case being Trump himself. Why do they hold on to the hot stove so long? Why do they persist in supporting this obvious blowhard, this failed human being, this vindictive sexist and racist con man. His failings are so apparent that a five year old can satirize them, as one already does on Instagram--very effectively, I might add. So what will it take to get MAGA Republicans to let go of Donald Trump? And is there anything--anything--you and I can do to more readily make that happen, besides of course getting out the vote, big time, next November?

What the media has settled on is the realization that MAGA Republicans, Trump's tried and true base, are more in interested in an authoritarian government, on the same line as Putin perhaps, than democracy. Is that really true? If so, we are truly in the fight of our democratic lives. Because if Trump does win, he will not stop at a one day dictatorship, as he professes. Already, he has manipulated the political infrastructure to make it happen. The Supreme Court packed with the extreme right wing of the political spectrum. The Speaker of the House a religious fanatical nut job ready to reverse an electoral college tally at will. A Republican National Committee completely beholden to King Donald. A network of scammers and death threat thugs ready at the phone, the text, the email, the front door. White supremacists, still active, still meeting, still totally loyal to their Supreme Commander, armed and ready to do his bidding. Even, possibly, secret Trumpsters embedded in local police departments, state militias, and even regular Army units.

I paint a grim picture, I know. And I do apologize for that. But I don't know how else to present it. I can't candycoat it. My maternal grandfather didn't candycoat the Pogroms perpetrated against the innocent Jewish communities of Ukraine in 1910 and he left for America. My paternal grandfather didn't candycoat the growing anti-semitism in Germany in 1914 just before WWI and he left for America. On the other hand, other Eastern European ancestors did candycoat the advent of Hitler, called him a flash in the pan in the late 30s and even early 40s. I am here alive today because of the courage of my two grandfathers. I will honor them as I face head on the danger Donald Trump and his MAGA minions present to our free nation.

So it is more a state of mind then any particular action. We are not about to flee to Europe or my wife's Brazil. If for nothing else, I need my pension's health insurance, a lifeline as I struggle with late in life medical issues. So the conservatives' mantra, Stand Your Ground comes to mind, not an image of a racist with a gun to the head of a black jogger in the suburbs; but a man--me--reclaiming his flag and opposing MAGA with every ounce of his being.

I don't know what else to tell you. I'm no Thomas Paine. I'm no Thomas Jefferson. I'm no Abraham Lincoln. I'm no John F. Kennedy. I'm no Martin Luther King Jr. I'm no Winston Churchill. I'm just, as you, a citizen who sees a great nation increasingly duped by a con-man, a fraudster, a cult leader, moment after dangerous moment enticing his followers to drink the nice delicious Kool Aid he's prepared for them, a mutant Jim Jones on steroids who wants to run down the planet like Nero did Rome.

This is the primary battle in the war for autocracy and against democracy. America is the hope of the planet and always has been since its inception. If democracy fails here, mankind will not survive itself.

2.

Putin's War in Ukraine represents the second front on the battle in the war of autocrats. In 1989, I considered the fall of the Soviet Union to be the seminal event of the 20th century, the signpost of an era of peace, prosperity, and cooperation between former cold war enemies. The fall of the Berlin Wall told the whole story in one dramatic, destructive yet constructive event. But it wasn't long before an inept, inebriated Russian prime minister gave way to a former KGB agent, who quickly turned power hungry, vindictive, and murderous. The dream soon turned nightmare, and the nightmare metastasized further into a brutal war instigated by a madman named Vladimir Putin.

And now MAGA Republicans are again doing Trump's biding and denying military supplies to the outnumbered and out-armed Ukranians. Why? Probably because Putin is a buddy of Trump's, someone Trump admires and wants to emulate. What else can their motive be? If Russia wins this war, he may set his sights on other vulnerable countries. Trump has already professed his desire to leave NATO and leave Europe relatively defenseless against Putin. Putin, with his allies in China and Iran, could well accomplish what Hitler could not. Need I say, the fate of the Western world hangs in the balance.

3. Hamas's War against Israel is no small regional thing. It is a highly engineered propaganda war designed to bring the wrath of the world once again down on the Jews and drive Israel into chaos and destruction "from the river to the sea", a standard Palestinian trope for the destruction of the Jewish State. On October 7, Hamas staged a genocide against Israel so horrific that to cite specifics would rival what the Inquisition, Hitler, and The Crusades did in their time. Hamas rules Gaza with a the iron hand of a brutal autocracy, but has managed to paint itself as the oppressed victim to poorer countries and now even to the left wing of Western richer countries. It rivals ISIS in its goals and tactics. It is closely allied to Lebanon's Hezbollah, another labeled terrorist group--a terrorist group and sworn enemy of its neighbor Israel. Despite increasing calls for a cease fire, Hamas, which still holds at great peril to them and their families, some 130 Israeli hostages from Oct. 7, must be thoroughly defeated and driven from the region. Only Israel is held to an unrealistic standard when it comes to how they retaliate.

Why? For many, many centuries, Western peoples have hated and still hate Jews for reasons that have long lost their rational connection to any actual truths or sanity. The world, the Middle East, and particularly we Jews, need the democratic state of Israel to exist now and forever. It helps us sleep at night. Yes, establish a viable state for the Palestinians but only,BUT ONLY, if they agree to acknowledge Israel and its people as a valid country and live in peace and cooperation with its neighbor as Israel must do as well.

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In my lighter moments, I write songs. Just type in my name to your favorite streaming service, and check them out. It's a way to balance out some. Used to be you could go to a store and pick up a CD of my tunes. Not so much now. But I hear CDs are staging a comeback. Who knows? Keep checking these pages. And now that an LA music company has contracted with me to represent my songs, that might just happen sooner rather than later. They join an Italian company who has another of my tunes, What I Feel For You. Good things are happening.