What If They Held A Day of Hate...and no one showed up?

I am suffering through a wretched case of sniffleous. COVID negative, possible minor sinus infection that quickly resolved itself with lots of green tea with jasmine, and not enough of a sore throat to bother with, but that frickin' sniffleous took me down with a dull thud. 

I guess not breathing may have played a part, but I felt so lousy that on blizzard morning, I asked Ziggy for tea and toast. Wasn't 'til I actually opened my eyes that I figured out two major things: 1) he wasn't in the bed, and B) as the senior sympathetically pointed out, his dad, like Generalissimo Franco, is still dead. Y'know, I know this, but I was still annoyed that I had to get up to make my own tea and toast when I felt like my head was closer to the Titanic than to the surface.  

I was alert enough on Shabbat morning to flick on CNN to see what was happening with National Day of Hate. I admit, I was somewhat curious about who was gonna do what to whom, despite a couple of nagging ideas in the back of my head. As I was lying in state, much as Franco had once done, I watched CNN, then MSNBC for a while, before I checked in at (shudder) FOX before I fell asleep from boredom. When I awoke, still nothing was going on. Not exactly a surprise. 

Let's unpack this red herring a bit. 

To the best of my research, there was no evidence anyone applied for parade or gathering permits in preparation for Day of Hate rallies across the countr. That should've been a bit of a red herring flag right there. 

Okay, you're not gonna rally, but maybe you wanna blow something up.

Let's pretend you want to blow up the local synagogue. Do you announce it to the media prior to setting the explosives, or after setting them in place, but before detonation? Either way, bomb squads and sniffer dogs are gonna show up. After detonation, it's a sure bet they're gonna show.

Okay, no building. Maybe what you had in mind was a mass shooting. Again, are you gonna send out flyers to the media so they can catch you in action?  Nah, I don't think so. 

But the NYPD did. They sent out a secret memo that was leaked, of course, detailing what they thought, based on various social media posts, was being planned for this Day of Hate: graffiti, flyers, banners, stickers.

Yup. Stickers. 

Groups in Iowa, California, and New York, according to their social media, were on board to scare us all with stickers. I bet they even had bumper stickers made up. Someone should check hardware stores and assorted Walmarts for sharp increases in spray paint sales. 

But that didn't stop every cop house in the country from prepping battle gear just in case something went down. 

Sure, forewarned is forearmed. Granted, based on NYPD intelligence, nail polish remover and GooGone instead of assault weapons were more in order...but then again, maybe there were code words for guns (graffiti,) fireworks (flyers,) bazookas (banners,) or semi automatic rifles (stickers.) 

On the other hand....

What a great way to float a trial balloon...Chinese or otherwise... to see what precautions are being taken and how they are laid out. It's a reconnaissance mission. A dry run. A rehearsal. Call it what you will, but nothing happened on Shabbat because it wasn't supposed to.

Do not think for one New York minute that we are outta the woods on this. I think all the speechifying, pot banging, and sabre-rattling does not scare these guys. Quite the opposite. I think they gathered more than enough intelligence to actually do something on another date set aside to hate Jews, only this time, they are not gonna announce it to the media. 

The hate is being fanned on two sides, tragically enough. From the white supremacist side on the extreme right, and by the "anti Zionist" side of the extreme left. BOTH sides, people. "The left?" you ask. If you haven't figured it out yet, let me clarify the extreme left "anti Zionist" position. This is the new shadow phrase for antisemitism. "Anti-Zionists" conflate all Jews with an extreme form of Zionism that does not represent the majority of Jews either in the Diaspora or in Israel. You know as well as I do there are radical sides to every. group,  but do you damn an entire population for a wing-nut side? Usually, not, unless there are Jews involved; then it's okay.

photo: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS

Jews have been expelled from almost every country in which we have settled as a small minority, where we were content to keep our laws and customs within our own communities, usually discouraging conversion, often shunning intermarriage, thriving in the businesses which we are permitted to operate. But that never stopped anyone from passing laws about how we were to dress, walk down the street, build our houses. It wasn't enough we gave the rest of you our Bible? Did we ever mention how we feel about cultural appropriation of our beliefs as you morphed them into something alien to us? How many times have you seen Jews rushing into a church or mosque to deface the building, or worse, shoot down worshippers in cold blood? Nah. I didn't think so.

Yet there is a segment of these here United States' population that thinks it's a great idea to sponsor a Day of Hate in our honor. Not that anything happened. No one seemed to show up. 

I don't know about any of you, but that's the part that worries me more. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Day

Never underestimate the grit and determination of

a newly minted 5-year old.

Lego directions today...tomorrow, Ikea...the day after that?

Maybe NASA.

Happy 5th Birthday, Young Sir

No Intro Tonight?

ZJOD the logo

Back in ye olden tymes, if Ziggy didn't have the impetus to write an intro for Ziggy's Joke o'the Day, he would just make a snarky comment, then publish the joke. 

I wish I had a joke to publish today, but alas, not my bailiwick. 

Right now, I have a whole bunch of changes to make to the look-book that will make it look even better. I know this is a total long shot, but there are nibbles out there who think it's definitely worth pitching, so I am more than happy to make this thing as snazzy as possible at the same time giving the viewer the push to want to make this limited series. 

Amongst other things, the person who evaluated the look book posed a question he thinks is crucial to answer: why this book now?

He said I had to write a passionate answer. Believe it or not, this is really hard for me. My tendency, when not writing fiction, is more dispassionate. Yeah, you can argue about me and my variety of soapboxes, but when I write about my own book, I tend toward less florid, hyperbolic prose and more towards just the facts, ma'am. 

I like DRAGNET, okay? But here's the thing Jack Webb's Joe Friday really didn't say that on the TV show. Dan Ackroyd, who played Joe Friday in the movie, said it. Which was kinda a parody anyway. It's one of those quotes that didn't really happen like, "Play it again, Sam," or "Judy, Judy, Judy." Not that any of that matters, but right here, right now, you're reading a research dump because I wasn't gonna use the quote unless I was sure it was right, which it's not. Get my drift? 

I may write fiction, but it's historical fiction. The actions of the characters are consistent with the time period. I'm really big on that. But that doesn't answer the question: why this book now?

The snarky answer is that not all Jewish stories are Holocaust stories, and Jewish women are not princesses. Batsheva is definitely not from the whiny princess division. Challenged by events, she figures out how to deal with the challenge, then dispatches it. Frankly, that's the real story of Jewish womanhood, but that image doesn't match the preconceived stereotypes, therefore it's of no interest to the general public. 

Wrong.

I would debate that vociferously; women who are continually challenged by events and continue to meet those challenges incrementally are very much of interest because they  tackle real life head on. The reader may not be able to predict what Batsheva will do next, but it's not because she's flighty; she is thoughtful, deliberate, and, most of all, driven to survive.

From the THE POMEGRANATE:

Lying on her back, staring up at the too familiar drape of the tent, she pondered the future. What would happen to her when he tired of her? Would he leave her in the desert to die? Or would he give her to his men for their pleasure? With no way of knowing where she was or if there was a city nearby to which she could escape, Batsheva had to decide how she would end her days. In all the lessons with the rabbi who came to tutor the Hagiz children, the sanctity of life was always stressed. One could eat pig meat if there was nothing else to eat, for to observe the law and die was worse than disregarding the law to live. God was omniscient. God would know the decisions she made were ones necessary for life. She knew that atop Masada, the people chose death over slavery, Kiddush ha-Shem, sanctification of the Holy Name, but somehow her situation did not warrant so drastic a measure. Not that she would have been able to carry out her own death sentence. In the scheme of all things, there was no choice to be made. She would survive as his slave for that was what she was while she would pray for rescue.

Thus, the decision to live was made. 

The cover of the look-book

The above quote is the best example of how Batsheva the character thinks. And as the days pass, however, she comes to the realization praying for rescue is not enough; she must control whatever she can. This is what Jewish women have done for generations, and still do every day. We did it in Spain, in Germany, in Ethiopia, in Yemen, in the United States...any place where Jews are threatened for being Jews. 

Everyone knows a Batsheva. Jewish or not, she walks the earth amongst us, standing strong for her family, taking shit from no one. She is Everywoman. 

Okay, break time is over....I gotta get back to work on this. If you haven't read the book, read the book. Share it with your friends and family. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Tomorrow is Rosh Chodesh Adar

(the first day of the month of Adar)

There's an old Jewish saying about that:

Be Happy! It's Adar!

Unless you're making Pesach....

then you know cleaning bomb detonation is 6 weeks away. 

Be afraid. Be very afraid. 

Or not. 

It's Game Playing in America!

Kelce brothers - 1 Chief, 1 Eagle.

I do not watch the Stupid Bowl. 

I do not watch the ads.

I do not care who wins or loses. Not even the Vikings...

Okay, I would care about a Vikings Super Bowl because Ziggy would've cared. 

Okay, I admit I liked the Kelce brothers playing against each other. Had to be hard on their mom. 

But the bottom line is, to be truthful, I think football does more harm than good. 

Escaping from the hype around the ads is kinda hard, but I pretty much don't give a flying fart in space who's manning the Dunkin' Donuts drive through. 

I did, however, give a flying fart over Bruce Springsteen's Jeep ad in 2021 telling America that Christianity is the middle of our country. And we should all strive to be in that middle. I resented the implication that unless you were moved to be in the chapel with the big cross, you were not a part of the "common ground." 

And while I didn't watch the M&Ms debacle, or even Rihanna's half-time show,  I did manage to see all of this year's contribution to America Isn't For Everyone courtesy of YouTube. 

HE GETS US brand campaign is all over the country. The link will take you to the overview of the campaign. Hey, take a look-see. Jesus is just like you. You're an immigrant? No prob; he was an immigrant. You have radical social ideas? Whoa, so did he. The government is trying to marginalize you? Wow, he was so marginalized he ended up in jail for his beliefs. See? Something for everyone. According to the folks running the ads, they are trying to "rebrand Jesus Christ in America" as Everyman...someone we can all relate to. 

Excuse me? Rebranding Jesus? Uh, you mean to tell me his brand isn't good enough? I guess their original plan wasn't bringing in the customers, so they're adjusting. 

While the idea of the campaign might look/sound great on the surface, the reality is that the movement is funded by people and organizations who do NOT support anything but their own narrow agenda...and it's about as far from civil rights and respect for the other as you can get. Hobby Lobby, the same people who refuse to cover drug insurance for women's reproductive health, is a big donor here. They are the same guys who fight against stuff like sane gun laws and expanded health care for all. Can you even imagine Jesus, whether or not you're a Christian, being against those things? The ads shout out all sorts of lovely acceptance tropes, but behind the scenes that same money is not helping the needy, not helping the country, and definitely not helping civil rights. 

Yeah, I can see Jesus saying to Lazarus, "Hey, dude, not much I can do if you don't have insurance." Just like I can see the board of Hobby Lobby saying, "Sure, we can cover Plan B."

The supporters of the campaign are praised, extolled, and admired by the same folks who support Feckless Loser and insurrection. They are the same folks who think George Santos and Anna Luna, another veracity-challenged pol, are qualified to sit in Congress. The same folks who think lying on your resume is as minor a deal as sex trafficking minors. They are the same folks who heckled and shouted down POTUS when he cited irrefutable facts about health insurance during SOTU. How are any of them qualified to speak on behalf of Americans, much less a guy they call their messiah? 

The people backing this thing are the living, breathing, examples of hypocrisy. They carry on about the sanctity of life while they block ANY and ALL legislation to remove automatic weapons from store shelves while trying to do away with background checks. Not exactly pro-life, people. The kids from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School made that real clear to America. And what did you folks do? You called them names. Yup; I can sure see Jesus doing that, too.

And for the record, Jesus was one of us....not US as in Americans...us as in Jews. So the next time you wanna practice your not-so-clandestine version of antisemitism, just remember, your buddy woulda been one of the beneficiaries of your hatred. 

Here's the thing, all you purveyors of greed and gilded religiosity: there is a difference between trying to sell the public your squeaky clean, compassionate fantasy of Jesus and the incredibly anti-Christian behavior you exhibit on a daily basis. You may think that young people are gonna buy this hipster rebranding effort because they're too dumb or too lazy to look behind the curtain, but let me assure you, this Wizard-of-Oz-look-behind-the-curtain generation is not. They know how to Google real well, and most of them don't buy into the "if you see it on the internet...." kind of thinking us oldsters are supposed to do. They see what you actually do in Congress and in state government, and they know politically obscene when they see it.The bottom line? They're not gonna make a beeline back to church because of some hotline. They are way more sophisticated than that. 

Do not underestimate the coming generation. I listen to Little Miss dissect a podcast and I know these kids are way ahead of wherever we ever were. They are smart and they are savvy. Much smarter and much more savvy than any of you who are pushing this pseudo-agenda. 

Jesus the guy might get the full spectrum of what America is supposed to be...but it's pretty clear that you do not. 

As that next generation goes looking for someone who gets it, they're gonna find Jeff Jackson because he's walking the walk, talking the talk, and posting it. That's what we all should be looking for: someone who puts his face and his mouth on the line. 

I want you all to listen to North Caroline Congressman Jeff Jackson. He is doing what every congress clown should be doing: he's posting regular updates about what he's doing now that he's on Capitol Hill. Some of it is terribly funny, some will make you mad because that's the only thing you can be. But Representative Jackson is that rare bird in the House: he's the adult in the room. Please listen to what he has to say about Congress:

Jeff Jackson: The Outrage Olympics

Watch more of his stuff. It's great. He's what I always imagined a Congressman should be like: American first, party guy last. I hope he stays this way. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

In all likelihood, you're reading this on Tuesday

February 14th.

Hug someone today.

You never know when that won't be an option.  

Hey, Ziggy! Whaddya mean we, Kemosabe?

There Is No Adult In the Syrian Room

A massive earthquake hit the Middle East today at 4:17 a.m. At a magnitude of 7.8, the quake itself was felt in Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Cyprus. Aftershocks, one even with a magnitude of 7.5, continue to be felt throughout the region.

I'm certain everyone reading this has already seen the news reports of thousands killed with survivors being pulled from the rubble. Across the globe, other nations have begun prepping assistance teams to be sent with SAR dogs and triage units. Israel is one of those nations. 

According to Ha'Aretz, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken with Israeli President Herzog. Medical and rescue teams have been dispatched to Turkey. Israel also received a request for aid to Syria:

Israel has reportedly agreed to transfer basic equipment such as blankets and medicine, but is not ready to provide medical treatment to the injured, Israeli officials told Haaretz. However, Israel is willing to provide treatment on Turkish soil or by opening the border crossing in the Golan Heights and admitting Syrians to Israeli hospitals.

The request, according to Israel's KAN-Radio, came via Russian diplomatic channels. But according to a report in Arab News they were unwilling to accept any aid from Israel. 

But a Syrian official told reporters Damascus “ridiculed and denied the allegations” that it had requested aid from Israel.

“How can Syria ask for help from an entity that has killed...Syrians for decades?” said the official.

Not a country....an entity. Is the animosity so great that they refuse any help for their dying population?

What's left of Aleppo, Syria

Let's not forget to mention that the area is already under constant bombardment from Syria itself as it attempts to quash the rebellion in that region. The people are already living in extreme poverty, highly reliant on humanitarian aid. Several countries have sent messages to Syrian President Assad asking him not to take advantage of this disaster to increase bombing in the area. 

Is not possible to put the needs of the people first?

Apparently not. 

I confess, there are days I do think we should all just step back and let the Taliban and the Afghans duke it out. Or the Russians and the Ukrainians. There is no peacekeeping action that will ever get Putin to step back until the Russians either assassinate him or have some kind of coup that involves lots of arrests and dungeons. Which is a horrid attitude to take, but one that dovetails right into the mystery of why Assad won't accept blankets and medicine from Israel. It's not about the blankets or the medicine, I'm afraid; it's about punishing the people of northwestern Syria who are not in lockstep with the regime. There are no adults in those rooms, but you gotta wonder how long it's gonna take before it all collapses...and takes the rest of us with them.

The earthquake is a tragedy of incredible magnitude. But the bigger tragedy is unfolding in Syria, where the government pretends to care...and people are dying by the hundreds every day.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you want to contribute to earthquake relief, 

vet the organization carefully.

These places have funds specifically designated for earthquake relief in Turkey and Syria:

Save The Children/Children's Emergency Fund

Jewish Federation of North America/earthquake relief

Project Hope/earthquake relief fund

Doctors Without Borders - Emergency Gifts