It CAN Happen Here

Ahead of the 2024 Presidential election, I was talking to anyone willing to listen, about Donald Trump, the Fascist. Donald Trump, the narcissistic psychopath. Donald Trump, insurrectionist and traitor, who has nothing but disdain for immigrants, people of color, and women. 

I could see the handwriting on the wall. If you give Trump an inch, he will take ALL your miles! If you trust him to keep his word, you'll be sorely disappointed, just as anyone he conned into thinking he is a Christian has to be feeling the wind leaving their sails, in real time.

Now, Elon has been IN the Treasury computer systems, along with a group of twenty something tech bros , none of whom can get a security clearance. WHY?! What are they actually looking for and what have they already  downloaded and taken with them?! 

Well, folks, it finally got the best of me. 

I have five siblings. Our parents are gone now but they were lifelong Democrats, active in local politics and community service, and were leaders in our church family, as well. They were what I'd call "conservative", as far as government staying out of our private business, but fairly liberal on social issues. Our parents taught us to work hard and honestly, but to also be generous with those less fortunate. We cleaned our supper plates hearing  stories of children across the world who are starving, reminding us to be mindful of waste and not be "greedy" or "selfish". God didn't like that, you know! We are to give freely of what we have been blessed with.

Those were the same messages to each one of us six kids.

I don't know what happened after the folks passed away. Most of my siblings seem to have lost track of those important qualities we were taught by two of the greatest people I have ever known. I did not forget it.

So, when I chatted on social media last week with my younger sis, I told her how concerned I was for my friends who have immigrated to the U.S., many of whom are from Middle Eastern and North African countries. They have their citizenship now, but Trump is so unpredictable, we cannot trust "official policy" with these people, because it changes daily or hourly, on a whim. Trump decides after a few tweets or truths or trothes--whatever he's tapping furiously into this week--as staffers wait for the latest shit show of a daily briefing to start in the Oval. If it's too long or if it doesn't have pictures, he won't hear it! He will actually yell things like "What are you telling me all this for? Do you think I'm dumb? What the hell is this?!"

(Numerous staffers in his last administration said that this was routine for Trump.)

So, there can be no guarantee of government working as it is supposed to and bad things could happen to people we love. I told me sister I also don't want my kids living in a police state. I thought that was a reasonable possibility to ponder, given the lawlessness we saw on January 6, 2021, later pardoned by the President . That day plainly said this is not "business as usual".

So, I was absolutely dismayed when this sister I love, with nephews I love, expressed she was  perfectly okay with deportations and detention facilities. She said "they are only deporting the criminals" and that I was being "melodramatic" to think legal immigrants and those with citizenship would be deported. 

She then decided to end contact with me so I'm not sure what she has to say today. If not about immigration, then what of DOGE cuts? Her husband gets veterans benefits, including paying my sister to be his in-home caretaker. She retired from teaching so I'm not sure what the stock market does to her pension, if anything.  And I won't contact her to find out. I will respect her wishes. 

I simply hope that if the people I've encouraged to read "Project 2025- Mandate For Leadership" have not yet done it, they do so very soon.

It is absolutely a recipe and blueprint for a fascist, power takeover from within our government. The things Trump, DOGE, the DOJ, FBI, HHS, and ICE are doing in real time are IN THAT PLAN!! 

READ PROJECT 2025-MANDATE FOR LEADERSHIP.

Project 2025 Playbook

 

Death of a Dream

As I have watched events unfold in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Israel I have been genuinely shocked by the United States' response.

The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 was horrific in its brutality. Let's not mince words here. This was violence waged on civilians to achieve a political end. That is the dictionary definition of terrorism.

Hostages were taken to be used as pawns in a plan to  exchange Palestinian prisoners for them. In part, they've been successful in achieving that goal.

 However, the cost to the average Palestinian in the OPT has been devastating!

I have spent the past fourteen years going online to learn more about this conflict and to communicate with the actual people in it.

Their dream is simply to be free, to be equal in their rights, and to raise their families in a secure environment -the same as anyone else wants for themselves and their kids!

But, Israel has spent seventy-five years attempting to kill that dream, in the name of their own security. 

Israel has walled themselves off from the Palestinians, for the most part. The areas they want, for new Jewish settlements, they have simply annexed into their own borders, displacing people even in East Jerusalem. This was to be the capitol of a future Palestinian state-the same state Prime Minister Netenyahu now says he will never allow! All this is in violation of the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law.

Today, settlers in the West Bank(with IDF protection) are waging increasingly violent attacks on Palestinians and hundreds of innocent people are dead as a result. 

In Israel, Hamas killed some 1,200 people in their terror attack.

In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed over 30,000 people, two-thirds of whom have been women and children. Approximately 70,000 have been injured and now have a collapsed medical system trying to provide care. The Israeli's  complete blockade of even food, water and medicine has caused a humanitarian crisis that was quite avoidable. In other words, Israel is waging violence against civilians to achieve a political end. As I said, the dictionary definition of terrorism is exactly that!

The whole situation has been heartbreaking and I cannot help but feel angst toward my leaders, as I see them supporting a genocide of people I dreamed would be free some day.

It has reminded me of another unrealized dream I once had.

Shortly after I was married, I became pregnant with our first child. I was apprehensive about a baby coming so soon but I dreamed of what he or she would be like.

Unfortunately, I was involved in a car accident in my ninth week and I miscarried.

Months later, sitting in a psychologist's office, I asked how I could feel such grief for someone I had never really met.

This woman said to me "You are grieving for the death of a dream."

I had dreamed of a baby girl.

My counselor went on to explain that all of the pictures in my  mind of what this baby would look like, sound like, all the school plays I would see her in, the future bride she would be-all of that died when she died. 

Today, I see Gaza, all of Palestine, as a dream I am watching die. I have lost a friend there, a beautiful woman who taught school and painted as a way of resisting her occupation. She had children she told me she feared for. Another friend has been displaced with his wife and four young children. I have lost contact with him and worry for their safety. Still, another friend lost his sister, who was killed along with her husband, leaving four children orphaned, who are now left with no medicine, little food and even less hope. The extended families in Gaza, trying to care for whoever they have left, are desperately trying to keep these kids alive while they pray for a ceasefire.

But, one has to wonder, "Alive for what? What future is there?" I have no answer to that.

The Palestinian dream of a free and secure land of their own may not be realized anytime soon. Changing attitudes are evident around the world but here in America, Zionist  propaganda reigns supreme! President Biden just cut off all aid to UNRWA, based on unsubstantiated allegations by Israel that members of the aid organization helped in the October 7th Hamas attack. UNRWA is the U.N. agency charged with humanitarian aid, healthcare, and education for Palestinian refugees, not only in the OPT, but in Jordon and Lebanon, as well. Those people did not attack Israel, yet will be punished unjustly by this financial abandonment of  UNRWA.

The dream of a free land for the Palestinians seems to be less of a possibility every day. It is on life support at this point and the question for the U.S. is whether or not to pull the plug entirely. 

Stay tuned! As the famous  Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over till it's over."