YES or NO

Yes, or No! Why is it when many Cabinet members, Judicial appointees, and Supreme Court Justices are interviewed for their potential employment, the simplicity of a yes or a no seems so tricky…and worse, why is the denial of a yes or no, taken with a grain of salt as if, a nonanswer is just fine, thank you? Of course, we are all permitted a point of view, but serving a nation which at one time made a decision that all people should be considered equal under the law, there must be an insistence that your point of view ha more of a compromise than confusion and conflict. 

The truth of the matter is also teetering on a tenuous tightrope of partisanship, undermining any form of democracy and being replaced by demagoguery. Threats of some kind of retaliation, because easy questions asked, are hard to answer, because if answered with the facts, might diminish a candidates potential, and the plans of a political Party to undermine anyone’s goals but their own. Hissy Lindsey Graham insisting that he will get even with the Dems because, a lying scheming, temperamental tyrant is unqualified to embrace most of America, is like the Wicked Witch threatening to send out the Flying Monkeys. And for Brett, the Brat to maliciously mock and make light of serious questions regarding his past and his personality not only should dismiss him from sitting on the highest court but should BEG, for further investigation into all parts of his past and present. 

Look at the men behind the pursuit of having Kavanaugh placed in the Royal Court. Trump, a proven liar, an admitted sexual harasser of women, Hatch and Grassley both lost souls from there generations ago, whose beliefs have been demonstrated that females should be seen and not heard. Lindsey Graham, bragging about being that single white male who will never change his mind regarding his own perceptions of the way of the world, and Ted, The Prophet Cruz, who uses some kind of Christian voodoo, omitting the kindness and grace of his God, replacing it with punishment and hate. And look at most of the Republican Party, now seems more and more to have had the assistance of Russian Oligarchs, and their billions of finance dollars to aid and abed the political ambitions of the RNC.

Yes, or No! Jeff Flake is made to be a hero, and whimpering right behind him are Susie Collins, Lisa Murkowski, pretending that more investigation is necessary to find the truth. And all the while, as if some mind of bonus finally found its way into honest vetting, Trump, himself under a cloud of immoral actions, has limited the scope of discovering the truth.  It ain’t over, and until justice is served it will never be over, just more of the same old denial and refusal fo a YES or a NO!  

A Schicker

“But what is unjust? That depends on a person's thoughts, values, and beliefs. People differ sharply on what is just or unjust in this world. Thus, some people become angry much quicker than others.” The various problems the addict describes may sound like too much for anyone to bear. On closer analysis, though, an addict's problems are not that different from the nonaddict's problems. But the addictive thinker's perception is that they are radically different: Other people get a break once in a while, but not me. Never.

― Abraham J. Twerski, Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception

The Talking Heads had been herded I! More prophets, professionals, and psychiatrists then the population of the state of Delaware has been summoned to summarize PTSD, sexual abuse and sexual harassment. The presuming factor IS that as “Hissy” Lindsey Graham insisted, Dr. Ford has a problem. Of course, anyone but a white Republican Senator, most in dire need of term limits, all caught in the spidery and slimy web of Trump are in agreement. How could a high school and college athlete, a consummate scholar, a regular guy, a father who makes sure church is part of his every week routine, and of course a Yale Law School graduate be anything but perfect! Temper tantrums, denials, outrageous paranoid accusations, self-victimization, and a penchant for acting out, making an “I just drank pickle juice” face seemed to be overlooked by the GOP Royals, as common practice and provided a nothing to see here blasé faire response.  Not too many Talking Heads nor professionals in the field of substance abuse were called in to provide their insight…almost admitting that the real problem was just some silly lady still made about “horseplay” from a swell adolescent boy!

I don’t know if Brett Kavanaugh is an alcoholic, but common sense and his behavior for public consumption demonstrated that he not only consumes a lot of alcohol but is very aggressive in denying his use, very evasive as to how much and when he uses and very savvy at his approach of avoidance when the subject arises regarding his penchant for drinking…as he stated over and over don’t you like, BEER! But of course for men like “Hissy” Lindsey, “Time to Retire” Grassley, and “Over the Hill” Hatch, Brett is just a good ole’ dude, and good ole’ dudes are men and men can drink, cause that's what men do!

Rabbi Abraham Twerski, one of my personal role models and heroes also uses a phrase when speaking to a Jewish audience: “A Schicker is a Goy.” It translates as an alcoholic is not Jewish. For many decades, it was assumed that Jewish people, men, in particular, would never drink enough to be considered an alcoholic, only the Goyem would dot that (and it was also assumed that Jewish men never, ever abused their wives, such a shunda (sin). But Rabbi Twerski would then follow up with the point, alcoholism and abuse have no religious, ethnic, or national origin. Brett Kavanaugh has demonstrated a wide variety of reason why any sane American would demand his removal from the court system. I understand that the horrific hearing we just witnessed was about an accusation from Dr. Ford, but DAMN…there IS a whole lot more this nation must NOW consider regarding Brett Kavanaugh. As inappropriate and inept as Trump is to the Executive Branch, Brett Kavanaugh is perhaps even worse to the Judicial Branch. Trump plots and plans and follows instructions from his puppet master, Brett Kavanaugh believes he is his own master!

welcome to the 50's

Get ready for the 1950s, America, they are making a comeback, testimony to that is as easily prescribed as watching the tenuous and treacherous demonstration of the confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh. Today, Friday, September 28, 2018, a group of guys, filled with piss and spit and full of patronizing pathetic yadda, yadda, yadda have decided that it is okay to nominate a candidate to the Supreme Court who has a cloud of questions hanging low above his entire being.  As has been the case in the current world of Republican politics, finding facts is fruitless if, in fact, the results will discover a truth no one wishes to deal with. Of course, we are presumed innocent until proven otherwise, but, perhaps permitting the FBI to assure the nation that Kavanaugh is innocent, is too scary for Trump and Associates. We may have one more day until the calendar turns backward and the days of government-approved misogyny, homophobia, racism, and isolation become the norm. As with everything else the Trump Republicans have touched, it now seems the value and worth, the respect and resolve of the Supreme Court will also rot and rust.

I wonder what kind of loyalty oath Kavanaugh signed with Trump. I wonder when Hissy Fit Lindsey will become Attorney General, I wonder when Robert Mueller will be fired, as a man I wonder when my daughter, sisters, female friends, aunts will no longer continue to have complete ownership over their respective bodies. As a Gay man, I wonder when my legal marriage becomes questionable. As a Jew, I wonder when this nation will become a Christian Theocratic Nation. As a grandson of immigrants, I wonder when we will no longer permit the pursuit of happiness for those who seek a better life. As an inclusive American, I wonder when anyone of color will become primary targets of segregation. As a senior adult, I wonder when my socials security will be cut. As a human I wonder when just paying for health care will require me to become poor, and decide if food or rent is the priority for that month.

An illegitimate president sits in the White House, hacked into office with the permission of the Republican Party, and in one day, we may discover an illegitimate Justice seated on the highest and most powerful court in the land.  Get ready, America for a new dawning of bias, bigotry, bogus and a country where equality will be banned like books. 

one more thing

Oh yeah, and a few more THINGS on my mind…I don’t care how long Senator Feinstein held on to Dr. Ford’s information because all Senator Feinstein did was use Mitch McConnell’s HANDBOOK OF DIRTY POLITICS

And HISSY Lindsey, how much ass can you kiss until you turn into orange hemorrhoid? You Putin loving/Trump sucking/Treason romancing douchebag! Sarah HUCKABEE Sanders has the gall to send a Tweet saying God Bless You. And Ted the anointed one all pompous and pretentious spewing the vile venom of a person being Exorcised, you have no idea of right or wrong, good or bad, but when it comes to the Con, well remember you came in second place after Trump.

And Brett, hope you went home to have a beer…but I hope your wife and daughters remained somewhere safe…You are a raging denying alcoholic with a mood disorder and terrible tendencies for Temper Tantrums.

And No Flat Earther’s/FOX Lemmings, Brett is as phony an American as your Emperor Trump. He may be the boy next door, but remember the movie American Psycho…

HELP

HOLY DAMN! Here I am alone, just my cute little dog Chance and me watching one of the most horrific, hypocritical, momentous moments in US political history…shouting at the televisions, so much so, that Chance ran into our bedroom to hide in his doggie bed…HOLY SHIT! The spectacle, the surreal snapshot of a 1984 world, or the Handmaids Tale, or Brave New World, or anything by Ayn Rand, as Senators, all of which have ZERO term limits, PRETEND that at interest is the justice of ALL US citizens, while in fact, each and every Republican puppet, portrayed the worst aspects of Trump, almost as if Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and ALL of the Kingsmen were trying to put his pieces together again. I wanted to turn away, I SWEAR, I did, but one I could not because the imagery of 11 Angry White Men huddled in one corner of the room, sitting upon their high horses, pompous and pretentious, was one of those 9/11 moments when people will ask do you remember where you were when terrorism came to the shores of America.

Hissy Lindsey, decided that his balls had fallen from his throat and no longer needed the assistance of some puppet spokeswoman from Arizona, and realized, he could talk man to man. Hissy Lindsey permitted the rest of the misogynist men to follow suit, and forgo their fear of facing a female and looking like the fools they indeed ARE. Excuse my language, but as far as these GOP wanna be giants were concerned, there was no more “pussyfooting around,” at this hearing, because now, it was time to play to the Flat Earth MAGA folks, and be man enough to talk for themselves. Suddenly, as is usually the case the rules changed, and the game was played differently! And all of that insipid insinuation of the Dems delaying the whole vetting process, while never once acknowledging the lack of even one interview with Merrick Garland, well that just made me scream louder, and I am surprised the police were not called. 

Let's talk about TEMPER, or being a privileged person used to always winning and never being questioned, or a person with control issues, and someone who refuses to admit they DO have a problem with alcohol, you know the angry denial voice, and face. Trump Tweets how courageous, Brett was, how tough he seemed, how the Dems coward in his defiance…Brett Kavanaugh is sham of a human, pretending that he is innocent, never once permitting the FBI to prove his innocence. UGH!, and then to end it for the day, with his Louisiana southern comfort voice, and shucks, ma’am attitude, all I am is a good Christian, Senator John Kennedy, tells Kavanaugh to look him in the eye…and swear to God, that he is telling the truth…And wham bam, its over…Worry big, America, worry REALLY big, to think that the best this nation has to offer to sit for a lifetime service, on the Supreme Court is a man named Brett Kavanaugh!

Little Lindsey

Watching Little Lindsey Graham’s performance in the Senate Chambers brought to mind two movies which are must-see for anyone interested in just hissy and determined to hide the truth a Southerner can become. Steele Magnolia’s and Sordid Lives… The characters are complex, each has a hidden agenda, each is trying to protect some secret, and each is willing to exaggerate the smallest of detail, to shield themselves from being found the fraud.

Little Lindsey, has a lot up his sleeve, and a lot he wishes to remain on the low down. A US Senator, looking like a blowfish, determined to ignore any truth, because he also ignores any truth about himself, pouts and shouts and almost throws a homemade apple pie at the reporters is a whole lot of DRAMA, and he acted like some of the best DIVA’s to ever throw shade!

Oh, Lindsey, the world was watching! 

once again

Few times in my 68-year-old life do I remember sitting in front of the television, wondering what comes next, and will there actually be a next day in which the world I live can survive….

My family gathered to watch as Walter Cronkite explained that we had initiated an embargo around Cuba…we observed the shots in Dallas and Jackie Kennedy marching along Pennsylvania Avenue with her young son and daughter…we watched as Dr. King’s death had been announced, and the fiery and flammable reaction from communities of color, expressing their most profound loss of a hero…we watched as Bobby Kennedy fell to the ground in a bath of blood in a hotel kitchen…

Now I am, sitting in my living room, witnessing a witch trial run by Republican cowards, unable to fulfill their own responsibilities as public servants…all eager to deny a fair inquiry into an alleged incident…wanting to play politics with the highest court of the land…painting an innocent woman as the villain…compromising all the checks and balances this nation had once provided to seek justice and truth…

Republican men are afraid to be seen bullying a female but able to sit back and find a lackey to their bidding…the Commander-In-Chief, himself an admitted sexual harasser, thinking his nose and abilities to seek the truth, presuming it is HIS own digressions being on trial… To listen to Little Lindsey Graham so self-assured that nothing anyone can say will deter him from his political determination to sneak in yet another Supreme Court Justice, threatening the Dems that if they don’t play fair, just watch out (of course forgetting the fact that Merrick Garland was NEVER given any chance at due process!

I watch this am glued to the TV, and wonder, worry and can only hope good will triumph over evil!

Like a Virgin

I made it through the wilderness

Somehow I made it through

Didn't know how lost I was

Until I found you

I was beat

Incomplete

I'd been had, I was sad and blue

But you made me feel

Yeah, you made me feel

Shiny and new

Hoo, Like a virgin

Touched for the very first time

Like a virgin

When your heart beats

Next to mine ( Like a Virgin- Madonna)

Just had to make one more comment regarding Brett The Virgin Kavanaugh…he and his 1950’s housewife, really completed his sad story, of being the victim, while posing for the propaganda channel, FOX…It ain’t about your account Brett, it's about the disregard for women, stemming from Trump and his pussy grabbing to the mere idea that ALL the male Senators were too ball-less to actually sit in front of a woman and demean her for suggesting she was the aggressor and not the victim…

When I'm ridin' 'round the world

And I'm doin' this and I'm signin' that

And I'm tryin' to make some girl, who tells me

Baby, better come back maybe next week

Can't you see I'm on a losing streak?

I can't get no, oh, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey

That's what I say, I can't get no, I can't get no

I can't get no satisfaction, no satisfaction

No satisfaction, no satisfaction ( Satisfaction- The Rolling Stones)

And on another note: Trump loves to tell us via Tweet, or as he stands in front of his MAGA Nazi, bigots the real truth. He is such a narcism that he must let us know that he knows exactly what he has been up to. Thinking the rest of the world is as stupid as his cult followers, Trump always announces some dirty action, he has already been a part of, pretending that his name calling IS calling out the real culprit. Smart people understand this, dumb fuckers don’t. Today, September 25, Trump called the Dem Senators a CON MEN…actually as he does he repeated the words CON MEN a few times…Trump tried to explain the Dems were performing some kind of grifter activity regarding Brett The Virgin Kavanaugh. All the while, McConnell refused to release any real background information on Brett The Virgin, Grassley refuses to have the FBI investigate any more new evidence, and Trump has had Brett The Virgin at the White House so many times one has to wonder if the two men are lovers! Imagine the art of the deal made between Brett the Virgin, Trump the Pussy Grabber. We have so little time left and so few ounces of opportunity to save this nation!

foolish

Embarrassing enough, to have Trump stand in front of the world, and pretend that he represents our country…sure, he was hacked into office, indeed some states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin had their voters ballots somehow tinkered with, and yep his office is located in the White House, but it IS still the sham of sham’s the shame of snake oil salesmen everywhere to have this guy pontificate, as if anything he says has knowledge or purpose behind it. Then he goes on a rant about the anti-globalization! This guy owns the property, or should I say the Russian Oligarchs, the Arab Royal Families own and most like some Chines Banks, own properties all around the world, with the Trump name embalmed in sin and sorrow atop the apex of his Globalist enterprise. But as long as the American loser who thinks the isolation of this nation will make American great again, applaud this bait and switch, Trump will feel triumphant, and the lies will fall from his mouth as liquid diarrhea! 

Out of all the possible professional candidates, men and women with perfect and honest backgrounds, who prefer fair and equal, understand due process, and facts..we get Kavanaugh…perhaps no other man with the exception of Nixon needed, so separately his get out go jail free card, then Trump, so a dishonest misogynist with the right mixture of holier than thou, and a touch of homophobia, jurist is the answer, so all of the Dark Money owners of the GOP can continue to bribe their favorite empty and self-serving puppet politicians. Most Americans know this, yet the embarrassing and pathetic scene of OLD WHITE MEN threatened by the new world continues to be played almost as if we were watching an old 1950’s movie in black and white.

And, please wives of lousy men, why in the hell do you sit next to your lying, scheming, shyster, dishonest hubbies, and demurely nod and sigh as he sits there denying his truth. How can you live with yourselves, and worse how can you look at your own sone and especially daughters knowing what a real creep your hubby had been and most likely still is. There is the fool, and then to exasperate the tragedy, there is the FOOLISH, and the wives are just as much the problem as the husbands they enable!

TRANSPARENCY

What a Putz…a piece of Putin, pompous, protracted puke, pretending that HE insists on transparency…What the Fuck, TRANSPARENCY…And standing in front of a gaggle of reporters, imagining himself some Emperor, some King, some gift of God, Trump dared to insist that HE demands transparency…and no single reporter had the balls, the spine, the little guts to shout out, then show us your tax returns, let us look at your financial statements, let's see all the reams of paper hidden from the public, regarding your “GET OUT OF JAIL, FREE, Jurist Kavanaugh.

It happened to me so fast, I was about to escape the confines of the locker room at the very filthy and overrated 24 Hour Fitness in WEHO, but as is the case a bunch of Silver Sneaker men of MY certain age, had to fluff and dry, had to use an entire bench to line up their clothes, had to stand in front of three lockers at one time…ONE of them being mine…and there I was standing right in front of the TV…how Trump's tongue did not fall out or explode as he said he demands TRANSPARENCY, amazed me. All cocky, all conceded, all consumed with the emptiness that fills his narcissistic body instead of a heart or conscience, he acts as if the halo of the angels was made of gold and sent by Jesus himself to anoint him, rather than the fear that Putin has not only videos of Trump but a tom of IOU’s worth billions…

I finally felt my gut-grabbing at my throat, I could feel the tiny tendons as if they were fingers trying to climb out of my mouth and die. So, I had to be rude, I had to use my COME ON ALREADY MEN OF MY AGE, stop acting like teenaged boys primping and posing, or like Drag Queens all perfumed and polished…just move! TRANSPARENCY, TRUMP dared to use that word and no one, NO ONE asked him about his shadowy, dark, and dim world of lies and secrets…I got out of the gym just in time…but I am still stuck living in America, and I have begun to fear each and every moment!

step by step

No one knew the name, Rod Rosenstein until words like collusion, hacking, Putin, puppet, pee tapes, and Trump Crime Family were also introduced into the lexicon of American politics. As Abbot and Costello and the Three Stooges used to say, “step by step, inch by inch, slowly I turned”, Slowly and with high precision, Trump is trying his hardest, with great permission and pleasure of his Republican stooges, and Christian Evangelical Crusaders, to demolish any laws that might prohibit him from becoming Emperor!

No matter what, if Rod Rosenstein, quits, is fired or finds his future diminished in the next few weeks, the foundation of checks and balances, the due process of the laws of the land the Constitution of the USA will implode, and ingest within its fiery calamity any hope for the truth to triumph. Trump and his Crime family and his Republican Enablers are creating a new World Order, one in which civil liberties and human rights will no longer exist for the common man, but will change in ways no American had ever expected.

If we don’t take to the streets if we don’t resist if we don’t protest…if we watch as if we were just hostages than Trump and Putin win. And please, does anyone with any savvy really believe that the Mid-terms are going to safe…nothing in earnest has been set in place to keep our democratic process healthy let alone thrive. If Rosenstein is gone, the pieces start falling, and no one wins but the corrupt and criminal con man named Trump! Yep, if you haven’t been worried, it is now time to start!

Witch Trials

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of women accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused, nineteen of whom were found guilty and executed by hanging.

On Thursday, September 27, 2018, Salem witch hunters will convene in the senate chambers of the United States in the of Washington DC. Undaunted and with great intention to protect the current Commander-In-Chief, himself an admitted harnesser of women, male Senators will hold a mock hearing and demean the due process of selecting an appropriate and acceptable Supreme Court Justice. Afraid of the rights of women to demand respect, the rights of women to be considered equal citizens of this nation and fearful that a group of dark money donors depending on the demise of the democratic process might take their bribery elsewhere, male Senators will pretend that “horsing around”, and attempted rape is nothing but history and have nothing to do with the refinement of a Supreme Court Justice.

For those in Trump Land who think this is just a final plan by the Democrats, a sort of a “Hail Mary”, try to explain why thought the process of vetting Brett Kavanaugh, ALL information discovered by the GOP hadn’t been released to the minority party, and why the American public, who will pay dearly for Kavanaugh’s lifetime appointment was not provided access to ALL of the facts. Perhaps Senator Feinstein played a little rough, as did Mitch McConnell, maybe the Minority party has pulled some of the schemes and smoke and mirror habits of McConnell and Company…suppose all you wish, but how much truth do we as Americans really know about Brett Kavanaugh…It wasn’t correct that we permitted Trump to NOT present both are financial and health records for public display, we are paying the price for our lack of caring…WE MUST NOT allow, the Republicans to once again kick us in our collective asses, and pretend, there is nothing to see here.

The only reason there is nothing to see here, IS because the GOP is not letting us look at it. If Mr. Kavanaugh is innocent, let's read the whole story…if Mr. Trump proclaims his innocence of oh so many crimes, why can’t we see ALL of his information…same story, different person, but the same SIN? We have already witnessed the demise of checks and balances in OUR lifetime, must we sit back and permit the implosion of fair and just, and the pursuit of happiness just die a death by the Republican Senators who are either scared shitless by Trump or blackmailed by Putin! The Salem Witch Trials, will not be history read, but history in the making once again, if we do not RESIST!

GAMES

Ahhhh, the smell or is it the stench of pretending, of hypocrisy, of insinuation, insult,  and lie, performing its dance with politicians, never wanting to seek the truth, just sneak a few perks for themselves, trying to score a point, a trick, a shady deal. We lose ourselves in the real matter, and the momentum moves from equality, fairness, justice, and freedom, to name calling, and parlor games of gotcha’ or gonna getcha.’

The only part of the Constitution that seems to matter to for the Putin paid politicians is the 2nd Amendment, especially the part about buying and owning enough guns to kill, of course to fight off some pretend enemy of the state, who in turn happens to be who you are (Neo Nazi’s, KKK, White Nationalists, Christian Crusaders). Separation of Church and State are so yesterday and the rights of minorities just pesky gnats in the actual fabric of an entirely white and Christian America. The Founding Fathers were not as savvy as we once thought, because they had no idea this nation would sink to such desperate measures as to find its Commander-In-Chief, a Russian agent, its one Legislative Branch a mastery of subversion and sinister intentions. We may not have a king, but we do have an Imperial President and a court full of his jesters whose only satisfaction is the demise of one person one vote, for fear they might be voted out.

I believe it was Saturday’s Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Editor who lamented that Dianne Feinstein is playing a foolish game, the editor insisted, just let the Republicans permit a vote on Kavanaugh. All these last-minute shenanigans are a game of folly, the editor continued. Hmmm…the Democrats never had a chance o even speak the name Merrick Garland, the Dems never had the chance to see all of the reams of potential information on Kavanaugh…Trump has met with Kavanaugh over and over again, flashing his “get out of jail free card…and now the spineless, ball-less GOP MEN won’t even be brave enough to address the words and worries of a woman who has reminded the Senators that sexual harassment still exists, and still is party to a future nominee for the Supreme Court.

And all the while, kids are still being kidnapped or held hostage, families are drinking poisoned water, the people of Puerto Rico are back to dark ages, the folks in the Carolina’s are flooded out from all of that wet water, that Trump so stupidly describes, and that is just in America! We never get to the point, we always avoid it…Games, we watch them so passively as politicians get to set the rules and the regulations, and We The People” are just on the sidelines!  

Justice

Injustice! All of us understand that the practice of the Republican Party under the direction of Mitch McConnell with the full blessings of its “God Father” Trump, has been to usurp any democratic process and replace it with a form of anarchy, treason, and crimes against the common citizen. Checks and Balances are no longer valid, the will of the people has been replaced with the wants of the wealthy, all of this coordinated with the belief that Vladimir Putin not only has the “goods” on the Trump but the RNC. Add to that, the Theocrats, whose disdain for a democracy which permits Freedom From Religious Persecution and their American version of the Taliban, and We The People…in 2018 are suffering consequences not even the brightest of the Founding Leaders of this nation even imagined.

The Senate Oligarchs, like Grassley, Hatch, Cornyn, Graham, whose sideline is to  receive dark money from Russian Oligarchs, the 1% of wealthy Americans and corporations, have little respect for the people who elected them, but an excellent allegiance for self-preservation, and are so used to double speak, they have no idea how much they are smothering in hypocrisy. We the people try to reason, try to compromise, but our actions are meaningless, if we intend to STOP, these Oligarchs from receiving their bonus packages.

The Supreme Court had been diminished in stature once the Clarence Thomas fiasco was permitted to be ramrodded through with little to no insistence for the truth to be told. Justice Kennedy, a traitor to this nation, holding secrets regarding his son’s corrupt behavior for Trump, aided and abetted the demise of the Supreme Court, and the mere fact that Judge Garland had NO hearing at all, was the icing on the cake, for the Republican Party to shout out loud a big FUCK YOU AMERICA.  Here we are arguing if Brett Kavanaugh suddenly is the correct Justice to be placed on the Supreme Court, not knowing much about his history, except for the pieces that the GOP believe make the fairy tale have a happy ending. The Republicans and Trump, FOX News and Putin have become the new Axis of Evil and are destroying the very essence of free, equal, fair and just. When does the common man and woman begin the revolution to win back our nation? 

WHY

They were referred to as “Skin Doctors," in our house back in the early 60’s. (Especially the times our neighbor Aunt Ruthie would pile at least six neighborhood kids into her car and take us to the Blue Spruce Swim Club, and we would all lie out in the sun for at least 5 hours, sometimes using iodine just to make sure we were all perfectly red and raw, or whenever we were lucky enough to travel up to Lake Erie, which for me had been the largest body of water I had ever seen in person until I was a Senior in High School) The words “Skin Doctor” would be used in a sentence, coming from my mother which sounded like…”…two more minutes in all of that sun, and I am sure you will need to see the “skin doctor,” for your fourth-degree burns…” Growing up in the 60’s for our family there was only one kind of doctor, our Family Doctor, and only wealthy people could afford, at least mention something called a Specialist. (Oh yeah, my Grandmother did see a Foot Doctor”, but that didn’t count because he was the son of one of her friends.) All of this trivial pursuit because today, I was on Wilshire Blvd (in Beverly Hills, oooh, ahhh) returning from my annual best to the Dermatologist. I mention Beverly Hills because one might assume as did the Beverly Hillbillies, that the pavements are made from gold, and anyone seen standing (remember nobody walks in LA or BH) must either be famous or really, really rich! But I walked and was on my return route when two things happened at one time. A massive Escalade, was double parked, causing lots of traffic to build up, and blaring from its dark, mysterious interior, was the radio, and the talking head from some show, was speaking about just how hypocritical the GOP has regarded, their disregard for fair and just actions towards Dr Christine Blasey Ford, and how this IS just ONE more moment when the Constitution of the United States will either be used as toilet paper for Putin, or perhaps salvaged to live another day. Of course, as a news addict, I had to stop and listen, angry that no one was directly around me to hear me scream (If a Progressive American screams in a forest does he make a sound or not). Of course, I was pissed, anyway and shouted FUCK!

And here is the second amount of things that happened at the same time. The driver of the Escalade told me to fuck off, he could park wherever he wanted to. An older gentleman, (I know because as he spoke to me, he mentioned his age) I am 83, and I have to wait for that bus (pointing two blocks to the East) to get here because this idiot (the man in the Escalade) is, pardon my French an asshole. I am tired, my food (he was holding a cloth bag (no plastic in LA or BH) is going to rot, and this is all I have to eat for today. As this older man was talking at me, a girl oblivious to anything except either the game she was playing on her phone (she was quick as hell with only using her pinkie and thumb) or texting someone, when she stumbled into the older man with the bag, and said, you are the asshole, stand by the bus stop, in one place, or you will be stepped on. And while that was playing out, a lady shouted something to the girl on the phone in a language I had yet not known existed, who then came over to me asking me for a cigarette. There I was, struck with what I believed to be the end of the world, or at least the end of the last great democracy, worrying what I still must do to resist, when I witnessed, real life.

I replaced the air pods in my ear (I was listening to the music from the Broadway show Les Miserables…(musicals are the best kind of drugs to relieve the stress and strain of LIFE), made a quick decision to not flip off the Escalade driver, or tell the girl on the phone to fuck off, or offer the lady a few bucks, or call a LYFT for the older man whose food was melting, and quickly and earnestly walked forward toward home. It was the day after Yom Kippur, and supposedly the Book of Life is sealed, as I headed due east, I looked up into the sky (where I am sure my God just uses as an extra room, because he is always around me), And I began talking to God, or myself (but nowadays no one thinks you are crazy, for doing so, and said, what is real, what is not, what matters and what does not, oh yeah…and as I inhaled then with a giant puff of LA smoggy oxygen exhaled the word WHY!

Argentine Tango

“A tango is a sad thought that dances.”-Enrique Santos Discépolo, The main reason for the first wave of popularity of ArgentineTango, is a shortage of women. Immigrants were mostly men, and they immigrated for economic reasons. As a result, at the beginning of the 20th-century women were 100,000 less than men. So the only ways to get close to a woman for many immigrants were to visit a brothel or to dance with her. And being a good dancer increased a chance to dance with a partner. So no wonder that Tango is full of passion and sexual innuendo. Everybody knows that famous expression: “Tango is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire.” Tango is the first European dance that allows improvisation. It is a well-known fact that before Tango all couple dances were based on sequences, so all dancers moved in the unison. The second wave of popularity started in 1912 in Paris and, surprisingly enough, the upper class in Argentina began to dance the Tango as it was prevalent in Europe. The inception of the Argentine Tango, was for mere mortal men to demonstrate a variety of their machismo, and desire to dominate via dance their female partner. It was for many a poor male a sign of power!

Vladimir Putin has decided that Donald Trump become his partner and has prevailed as the master dancer in the form of a Tango, similar to the Argentine, but with a more sophisticated movement designed to humiliate, intimidate, and demonstrate the weakness of a narcissistic personality, and the weakness of a political party, unable to convince the voters that their particular rhythm and rhyme is even danceable, let alone livable. How exciting, that Russia's ambassador to Sudan was found dead Wednesday, September 12, 2018, in Khartoum. The same time period that there has been plenty of discussion about Trump’s loyalists either flipping on Trump or remaining as subservient peons, hoping for a pardon from the premiere of the United States, Trump. Like the Tango, the machismo male makes a move directing his female partner to acquiesce and comply. This latest accidental death of a Putin Foe makes number seven, but the timing seems something more than a random headline to me. It seems Putin wants his dance partners to follow his lead or perhaps when it is time for the dip backward of the female partner she might just fall all the way back and break her neck.

All the while, like deceit, disgrace, crime, collusion, and corruption swirls around Trump, and after a well-viewed visit by Putin to North Korea, more promises are being made by Kim Jung-Un regarding some kind of peaceful solution to the Korea Conflict. Images of the two Koreas dance on the screens of TV’s providing some sort of credence to the half-assed attempt by Trump, most likely at Putin’s behest to be the peacemaker. Watch the dancers as they move around the floor, athletically and artistically, almost like they are floating on air…now pay close attention to all that might be happening in the very near future to dismay, more people to tell the truth, more Republicans to act more American, and don’t stop keeping your eyes off of the polling places, the roster of voters, and the kind of Tango, Putin has been dancing with Trump as his partner!

at one ment

Before I attempt atonement, or as one Rabbi of mine would insist At One Ment, I must vent, no I must SCREAM, because, in my lifetime, I am watching the destruction and death of the democracy of a country I call home. The images of men insisting women have no idea of being harassed…the idea that a Supreme Court nominee is so flawed as to permit a decent amount of time to check his entire history…a political party so submerged in the blackmail and anarchy originated by a foreign enemy…the fact that religious leaders insist that while being a homosexual, or a female desiring the rights to her reproductive body parts, or being a person of color, or living in poverty, or actually smothering the Earth is fine and dandy as far as fine and dandy relates to Jesus, but will NOT admonish the sins and crimes of Trump…the fact that each and everyday war is being declared on the innocents of this nation, and we are just expected to wait with great patience for the laws of the land (the same discarded and denounced laws being walked and shit upon by the Trump Crime Family)…ALL of that…has and does make me crazy, it makes me feel as if the end is no longer near, but has arrived, and that EVIL has finally triumphed over GOOD, at the hands of the most heinous and insidious of humans on this planet.

For me, this Eve will begin an accounting of my life and those in my life from this past year, and for me the past 68 years…I have no idea how to find peace, real peace in my soul when, there are children starving, kidnapped from their parent, shell-shocked from bombardments of weapons too awful to fathom…I have no idea how to find peace when differences are met with disdain and degradation…I have no idea how to find peace when each day the air I breath becomes more dangerous, and the planet I live upon is dying a dangerous and deadly for its inhabitant's death…I have no idea how to find peace when there are still people, who consider others the enemy and never want them to be anything but the enemy…I have no idea how to find peace in just being passive…It is Yom Kippur Eve, as I have grown from my childhood, and my belief in Judaism, this is the Eve and the next Day when the Book of Life is to be closed, and all consideration complete….For me, I have never been so confused, so scared, so angry, so frustrated, so lost.

For those who will fast, considering their sins, asking for forgiveness, wishing atonement, I hope all comes to fruition…for me, I am not too confident, that God has been listening intently this year…so I will try my best to find my At One Ment!

Dear God

Dear God,

Okay, I believe in God, not just any God, but mine, my particular one, who as of 68 years of my life have found in me, albeit has provided me with struggle, consequence, failure, truth, good, bad and all of the nouns and adjectives in between…but nonetheless, God my Higher power, and I would instead take it than leave it….BUT this year, I am struggling to understand, the where’s and what for’s the how’s and why’s of what is going on, while my God and I look upon the world. I feel the urge, no it is the necessity to blog about this now, because, I DO NOT understand how much evil can once again prevail, not as in history, but as in RIGHT NOW…

Name your hurricane, define your destination, the Carolina’s Houston, Florida, Puerto Rico, and now Hong Kong, pick your wildfires, your mountains, and valleys in California, Colorado, New Mexico, pick your heat wave, especially the one in Pakistan and Bangladesh…choose your holocaust, be it in Syria, the United States, Sudan, Yemen…or silently watch as human beings suddenly think of themselves as Gods, as lifetime rulers in Russia, China, Philippines, the entire Arabian Peninsula, and perhaps the USA. Listen as mere mortals pretend to be voices of some kind of God, not the one I believe in, those who will look the other way just so they remain in power, those who are hypocrites, so they stay in power, those who pay to pray, those who have no understanding of anyone but themselves!

Death of the planet, the death of its flora and fauna, death of its people, all happening fast, faster, and soon forever…I am not confident, what to do God. The Senate, who has yet to officially set in motion punishment for sexual abuse of its own members is casting a vote on a man who has secrets, not just about his distaste for woman rights, but for the rights of other minorities, except the president. The EPA is burning more carbon, the laws of checks and balances have been expunged, a blackmailed, agent for Russia is sitting in the White House and his enablers the GOP also blackmailed have sold the soul of democracy for their own infinitesimal miserable momentary lives…And I can yell, I can scream, I can listen to Talking Heads in beautiful suits and dresses tell me what is wrong…but nothing changes…NOTHING! Dear God (my God), soon the supposed Book of Life for the next year is about to close…REALLY! I don’t get it, God…am I thought too, or am I just to wait and hope and pray?

Yours, you know who I am!

Awe

The ten days starting with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur are commonly known as the Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim) or the Days of Repentance. This is a time for serious introspection, a time to consider the sins of the previous year and repent before Yom Kippur. My Grandma Buncher, actually born in America, kept Kosher, and spoke perfect English, always instead that her grandchildren understand the values that the nation of America provide, and respect both our Jewish heritage as well as our American entitlements. My Grandpa Buncher from Ukraine, happened to find himself with a Tailor Shop in a very non-Jewish neighborhood, and reminded his grandchildren to fight for their identities no matter who the bully, and to always believe that God is on your side, with respect to his expectations, but continue to be the Jew you were meant to be. My Grandma Braff was both a stubborn person (she refused her arranged marriage) and a very superstitious Romanian Jew. She was enthralled with the magic of America but packed in her very limited cargo at least two dozen Romanian superstitions, which somehow seemed to grow in size, similar to the Gremlin’s when water had been added to them. For my mother's side of the family, there was always worry, never comfort in not suffering, and when the Days of Awe came about, less gossip and more graciousness. I grew up in a household where too many sides of the story were told, leaving me to invent my own version of the Days of Awe. And in all of that confusion, I became a Jewish Communal Worker devoting myself to uncrazy the craziness o being a Jew trying my hardest to understand my similar position in a world of non-Jews. Along the way, I also discovered that all of the definitions and seemingly black and white world of the 50’s, one in which God played a REAL important role in establishing rules, were more hyperbole, hype, and hope that all of us would remain the same cog in some imaginary wheel. I discovered that something called homosexuality was not a disease, was not a curse and certainly could be as healthy as being Jewish and being an American.

If you have been reticent enough in reading my entire lengthy introduction, thank you; I had to write ALL of that to make the point, that I happen to be a Jewish man who happens to be a homosexual who happens to understand forgiveness, compassion, empathy, sympathy, equality, and acceptance, and no matter the meaning of the Days of Awe as scribed in the Bible…And I find myself in a strange world filled with men and women Jewish and non-Jewish who somehow exist in a dimension so different, than any norm I have to wonder what the fuck God is thinking right now? For all of the LGBTQ Jews, the RepublicanJews, the Jews in the Trump Crime Family or his Jewish Fixers or Donors, have you no idea of the sins and sinister machinations and intentions, of the man you adore? For all of the Republicans and non-Jewish 1% folk who somehow go to church and then pray to your bottom line of wealth with a hardy AMEN, have you no idea of how impotent and unimportant your ideology to God has become.

Supposedly throughout the Days of Awe, the Jewish God, has a book, the Book of Life, the pages open on Rosh Hashanah, and we have 10 days to undo, the most heinous, hideous or just simple sins, so when the when it is time for the Book of Life to be closed On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we have another year, to try again. I am not sure, how I, no we as humans have made it through this year…From Flint to Puerto Rico, to good Nazi’s and Black Lives, from lies and money laundering to grant theft of tax dollars, to politicians more concerned about their own needs…this has been a year. I am in awe, but I am not sure for the reasons God has supposedly set aside!

Spiders

There was a very corny movie titles Spiders, and sci-fi D film with promises of man-eating spiders, with venomous wisps of fire and weed that would ensnare and entangle you in a sweet cocoon until one of the slides, itself would demolish you in a matter of seconds; oh yeah with enough fake blood and a few phony body parts rolling and rocking just to make the yuck factor was in full focus. Of course I, as an aficionado of all kinds of Sci-fi schlock watched the movie, knowing that I was in for a wonderfully poor hour and a half of blatant trash! As unusual, all of the people involved in trying to rid the town of these monster spiders tried their best, many dying along the way, but some surviving long enough to realize perhaps there was something EVEN more sinister and AWFUL than the army of fire-breathing, web entrenching arachnids, and low and behold, as the battle for mankind ran its course, just when we thought the unattractive but wise scientist and the of course ultimately unbelievable babe reporter were about to kiss…the MOTHER of all spiders found her way from the recesses of Earth and began a rampage unlike anything all of the characters ninth movie had witnessed. If you watch enough of this amateur attempt at sci-fi, you know it ain’t over until the big spider tries to obliviate all and everything. The small stuff is just a detour to the real destination!

If I hear one more sob story about Manafort’s loss of luxury, one more attempt to portray Manafort’s love for the security of his family, one more hand washing recital of a fairy tale by Giuliani or HUCKABEE Sanders of Trumps’ relationship with Manafort. If I have to watch the same footage of a traitor, an American Anarchist walking out of a courtroom with his smiling cadre of coconspirators…if i have to endure the smirk the snark, the glee by which each and every Talking Head speaks, regarding Manafort I will implode, Like all the other Trump Crime members, those who have placed Party or Personal Gain before country, it is sad that watch justice just slap these guys on the hand and acknowledge that treason IS genuinely a terrible thing, but since you were coerced into finally telling the truth, you are now resolved of your war against this nation. Just like in the movie about the Spiders, we are capturing the chump change, but the MOTHER is still hiding in plain sight, and the MOTHER is again manipulating lousy stuff, and getting away with it.

In this nation, it seems sleazy to commit a crime, but oh so difficult to be punished for tour actions. I, of course, want all of the little spider monsters caught and stopped, but WHEN dear GOD, will the MOTHER of all evil finally find justice!

Thomas Paine

I am Gerry Buncher, and I AM a new addict. I AM Gerry Buncher, and I AM a history addict. I am Gerry Buncher, and I have promised myself to NEVER forget nor forgive the past, but to recall, reflect upon it, to insist that the present and the future, refrain from containing the virus and parasites of which the past had been riddled and fro which many of its lessons have died. “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” (Thomas Paine)

I am Gerry Buncher, and I demand that there be less about the truth, but more of a battle for its protection. The truth is not up for arbitration, long, arduous arguments, nor to be simply set aside as an inconvenience. The waste of time discerning fake from fact is only a fools game to permit folly and fantasy to prevail. “But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.” (Thomas Paine)

It is not just the arrogant, and aggressive men and women in the Trump Cabinet, Court, Crime Family who have decided that privilege and power are worth whoring themselves as non-thinkers. It IS also the deceit and the destruction of men like Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan, Devin Nunes and Mike Pence toward a democratic process; who have decided to obey permits their bottom lines to remain in the black, while the population they once pretended to serve rot with ounces and ounces of red. It is not just seemingly howling in the wind the wind at Trump, mulled sounds of frustration HE will never hear, but it IS time to slowly, quietly speak in the ears and look in the eyes of the anarchists whose only desire is their self-interests. “Reason obeys itself, and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.” (Thomas Paine) “When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.” (Thomas Paine)

We either personally witnessed or regaled in the stories of our immediate ancestors of the pros and cons of our government. We have often been misled with adulterated facts, excluded truths, and often times been told more Patriotic paintings and panoramas of our past, to enhance the value of government, but from my perspective there have been earnest etchings providing the function, purpose and proposed value that this government had tried for the creation of all men and women being equal and a genuine pursuit of happiness. With Trump and either is puppet master, or owner, Putin, and his Republican enablers; the government in which we find ourselves struggling to keep alive, there is nothing but dark shadows of doubt. “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” (Thomas Paine) Thomas Paine was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary. Gerry Buncher has become a political activist and is now driven to resist, and perhaps become a revolutionary! A famous quote from Thomas Paine, and sadly one which has resonated, much too loudly for me ever since the inception of Trump is: “These are the times that try men's souls.”

voices

I WANT MY VOICE HEARD, I WANT OUR VOICES HEARD… enough already, how much more bull shit must we endure, must we merely and plainly inhale, must we adhere to, regarding the corrupt Trump Administration and his comrade of clowns who insist that the Constitution was never really written for the common  man or woman, but for the elite for the black monied 1% who only care about their well being, ENOUGH already. Trumps corrupt, the Republicans are evil, the Russians have corrupted them. I am so tired of the Talking Heads pretending there are alternative reasons form not calling Trump a LIAR. I am tired of corrupt Republican politicians paid to speak in double speak to protect Trump as if he was something holy!

How much more must we take to understand that an illicit and illegal narcissist a puppet of Putin is sitting in the Oval Office? Stop the madness already. We have a hacked hooligan as president, a sham of a snake oil con man pretending to be the President. EVERYONE must shout out loud treason, anarchy, and impeachment…every moment Trump remains in office is every moment the innocent suffer and the evil win!

what's in a name

To have lost the life of a loved one, for whatever reason, one dies, IS one of the most challenging experiences of the human condition. More has little to no relevance when in fact one person, one exceptional, unique individual in your life is no longer alive. The pettiness, the lack of empathy, and the perverted privilege, assumed by Trump to speak as if fewer deaths is a good thing, versus more, only demonstrates his empty void, venomous, soul, and a signal to all GOOD people, just how evil a man Donald J Trump is and has been. The only fact that the Talking Heads should be bemoaning is that Trump cares more about his own reputation than the importance of one mere mortal. And each and every so-called religious Republican politician feigning faux knowledge of Trump's pomposity to place PR before people is just as gutless and guilty of hate as the Imperial President they so covet and for which they cover up! 

Sexual impropriety, money laundering, ignoring financial regulations, and filing imperious toward any laws you designate as a useless bit of paperwork is nothing new to those surrounded by Trump, and most of the times are a badge of courage, sort of a Gold Star in the arena of becoming a better Snake Oil Salesman. Just ask Mitch McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao about their offshore accounts, or if the Beavis and Butthead Trump actually are running the trump organization without Daddy’s input, or ask Clarence Thomas about his views on sexual harassment. But better yet lets DEMAND that Brett Kavanaugh begin sharing a bit more of his opinions on loans, and lovers, and now his lack of understanding regarding the divide between church and state. So it seems, the man who might let Trump get away with collusion, crimes, and criminality is himself a clone of the hypocritical Christian right. And once again, WE THE PEOPLE get stuck with the bottom of the barrel about to embark on what was once the most admired court in the land, only to find that the flaws of Brett Kavanaugh are filthy, dirty, and disingenuous, much like Trump and the rest of the GOP.

Hurricane Rita/Harvey, in Texas, had a Gregg Abbott, Hurricane Irma in Florida had Rick Scott, both Hurricanes also had smiling Donald Trump patting his Republican Governors on the back, almost as if it were a Campaign stop, celebrating the ease and experience at which both GOP minions handled the devastation. Funny, in a sad way, if you ask the Texans and Floridians how much better things have gotten you may not hear the words once spoken by George Bush, “Good job Brownie.” Hurricane Florence is about to hit South Carolina, who has Henry McMaster a GOP kind of guy, so we know that Trump will be eager to express his gratitude for a job well done, but one might have to worry when Florence is finished with North Carolina, who has Roy Cooper, that stubborn Democrat, if True will even acknowledge that any devastation took place. And of course, there were too many brown people on that Island somewhere near Cuba, called Puerto Rico, when Hurricane Maria hit, which of course had it not been weak, to begin with, could have done a better job against mother nature.  And here we are America, just calling names, and not much else!

which dimension

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone. (Rod Serling)

There was nothing more frightening for me as a kid, as the opening few seconds of the Twilight Zone television series, like Rod Serling, as ominous and statue-like, standing in front of the set, I swear looking just at me, and reminding me, that that might come next, IS something that MAY or MAY not be fiction. Rod Serling warned us, be prepared he would say in his sardonic systematic message. Then at the end of each and every episode, Mr. Serling would caution us, with a three or four part soliloquy as to what went right and what went wrong.  All I knew, was that if something had gone right, I was relieved, but if in fact, the opposite of right took place, I became worried, very, very worried! My father would chuckle, taking my nervousness severe enough, but would add two things…”You wanted to watch it, just know its not real, but if in fact it ever happened, you just learned how to handle it.”  My mother would pooh-pooh the whole thing and try to entice me with some home baked cake or pie to take my mind off of the Twilight Zone.

I am not sure upon which dimension Trump thrives, but I do know it is one of sour imagination, insecure facts, and narcissistic evil intent. The fact that there is NO Rod Serling to help set us straight, but instead a cadre of enablers also living in some weird dimension, more concerned about their political livelihood, rather than the lives of their constituents, so the word SCARED comes across loud and long.

We know, even the GOP Enablers and the Mercer/DeVos/Adelson/Koch families, understand the mental ailment from which Trump suffers, one which can lead us all to the crazy place, Trumps survives, but as long as democracy is being replaced with a theocracy/authoritarianism/and fascist government. No one gives one hell of a shit. When can the people reclaim the office of president? When?