Why You Need To Watch Iran... and other stuff to think about

First things first.

Miss Bialy

Last week was a disaster in the making. The short version begins when I had Bialy overnight, and on our first walk, she lunged and I didn't. Face plant thankfully in the grass. But once again, I bruised my torso and within 48 hours, I could not bend over which was a problem because Bialy was coming to stay for a week while Junior Son and family went on vacay. I could not pick up poop. So I did the least expected thing on the planet....I called Senior Son. Since he was already scheduled to come in for a gig at the end o'the week, I invited him to come here and work from my dining room. He was so shocked that The Iron Lady admitted she needed help, he came in on Friday and thank G-d he did. By Monday, I was felled by a good, old fashioned cold. I went down with a thud. Hence the 2-word blog. You're lucky you got that much

Bialy is old. About 98 in dog years. She's got arthritis. She's got kidney issues. She's skinny as a rail despite eating lots and lots of healthy, good things. She gets cold. She likes to snuggle up at night, preferably under a blanket glued to whomever is in the bed. And when she runs in her sleep, it's like have your own massage chair. Then, to add insult to injury, she dumped me for Senior Son. I suppose that was okay since he was the one walking her every hour. Over all, we had a good time. I am one lucky mam; that's a fer sure. 

Now, if you were wondering about why I told you all to watch Iran last week, it wasn't because the US freed up some of the cash we're holding. Nah,  I meant Hezbollah's increasing attacks on the northern border. Like Hamas, Hezbollah bows to its Iranian masters because they are the backers and the bankers. Iran supplies arms and cash to various Islamist groups. State sponsored terrorism at its finest. 

Iran has been supporting a terrorist network for years. Hamas is only one group. Iran also actively supports Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Iran's relationship with Hamas continues to evolve, and it's hard to tell what the real end game is. That said, they also support Hezbollah in Lebanon, Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, the Houtis in Yemen. The AJC posted a pretty complete list back in January. Go take a look if you think Gaza is the only place these Islamic Jihadists have a toe-hold. The network is extensively scary. 

Why bring this up? Well, it's like this. Hezzbollah is planning an attack similar to October 7th. They keep talking about it.  According to the UK's Jewish Chronicle, their offensive would be "October 7th on steroids;"

The Alma Research and Education Center, an institute located two miles from the Lebanese border focused on the security challenges along Israel’s northern front has obtained a Hezbollah video in which the terrorist group laid out an almost identical plan to the one carried out on Oct. 7 by Hamas: a rocket barrage followed by a ground invasion into Israeli towns and villages.

 

“All we have to do is listen to their own words, what they’re saying in Arabic, and cross it with their capabilities,” Alma Center founder Lt. Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi told JNS.

Last week, another network was in the news: ISIS. In this case, ISIS-K took credit for the Moscow theater bombing. NPR had a pretty good article about Moscow, ISIS-K, and where it falls in the terror networking scheme:

Despite military and territorial setbacks, ISIS-K has been expanding its ambitions and operations, experts told NPR. 

"There have been reports of active and foiled ISIS-K plots in Europe," Mir said. "[The organization] really has a global mission of going after all entities that it considers as being opposed to its brand of Islamism." 

"Most of its attacks until recently were largely confined to Afghanistan and Pakistan, but it carried out a major attack in Iran earlier this year that was incredibly devastating," Byman said.

Why Moscow? ISIS-K is still made about the Russian occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and then Putin's support of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Talk about holding a grudge. These guys hate everyone who doesn't align themselves with their version of world order. These are not guys without big dreams. Many believe in worldwide domination of Islam. The mission statements vary from group to group, but the reestablishment of an Islamic empire permeates them all. The violence will not end in the Middle East...Moscow illustrated that. So don't keep fooling yourself that this is about just Israel. Nor is it about Zionist or Zionism. It's about eradicating Jews from their homeland first, then the planet. 

And I keep wondering how these guys are fundamentally different from the MAGA crowd...the ones who wanna curtail civil rights, make this is Christian country, convert all the non-Christians, and who just haven't taken up arms....yet.

Why do I say yet ? Because according to Feckless Loser, if he loses this election, there will be a bloodbath. Yup. He said it at a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16th. Here's the quote:

“If you’re listening, President Xi — and you and I are friends — but he understands the way I deal. Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now … you’re going to not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the cars to us, no. We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected...Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it...It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars. They’re building massive factories.”

 And if that was no bad enough, he added:

 “If this election isn’t won, I’m not sure that you’ll ever have another election in this country.”

When you say stuff like that, people believe you. Just like they believed January 6th was a call to arms. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

No blog episode next week. I will be speaking on my favorite topic, THE POMEGRANATE  in Connecticut on Monday night, so writing isn't gonna happen. If you happen to be in the vicinity of Hartford...specifically Manchester, I'll guest author, live and in person, for the Sandals Lecture at Beth Sholom B'nai Israel. It'll be a good time. I promise.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Be there or be square. 

TWO WORDS

Watch Iran

There Is No Accounting for Taste

I suppose everyone wants to talk about the Oscars. I've seen a few of the nominated films, hope to see a few more, but will go on record as saying I cannot abide Emma Stone as an actor. 

Seriously, I have hated just about everything she's been in, and at the top of my list is La La Land, her other Oscar winning turn. (Okay, I liked THE HELP but thought she was hopelessly miscast.) I may be alone in this, and I'm okay with that, but I think she has a plasticine face that has two expressions: eyes wide open, and puppy-eyes about to cry. She has no range, no passion, she squeaks, and she is boring. Jump on me about this all you will, but I would not cast her as an extra. I will probably see POOR THINGS some time this week. If I change my mind about her, I will let you know. 

On the other hand, I saw KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and thought Lily Gladstone was brilliant. Let's all hope we get to see a lot more of her work.

One film I definitely want to see is ZONE OF INTEREST, mostly because it's from such a different perspective. What I did not appreciate was the subsequent misrepresentation of Jonathan Glazer's speech:

Jonathan Glazer

All our choices we made to reflect and confront us in the present, Not to say ‘look what they did then’ — rather, ‘look what we do now.’ Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?

Glazer is not refuting his Jewishness, nor the Holocaust. He is saying what many of us are saying, that using our Jewishness and the Holocaust as some kind of screwed up rationale for what is happening in Israel and in Gaza is antithetical to who we are as a people and as Zionists who believe we have a right to live in our own country.. Based on the anti-government demonstrations in Israel, I suspect most Israelis share that view. 

Those who hate Jews use the Holocaust to discredit the right of Israel to exist on our own land. Yes, we say "never again," but conflating that stand with bombing Gaza is just intolerably inaccurate. The birth of the State of Israel came out of the ashes of the Holocaust, but our right to live on our own land in our own country is over 4000 years old. To compare Gaza to the Holocaust is to give credence to the idea that Israel wishes to murder all the people living there and take over the land. Again, ongoing demonstrations in the streets against the radical right of Netanyahu's government demonstrates the exact opposite. 

Instead of jumping to inaccurate conclusions, the mouthpieces of major Jewish institutions would have done well to actually read what the guy said, then quote him accurately. I cannot imagine they support the slaughter in Gaza. No one in their right mind wants more civilians to die. That's not Jewish. That's not who we are. And right now, I don't think the government of Israel represents who we are as a people, either. 

In other news...

Mark Robinson 

Jeff Jackson won his primary for North Carolina Attorney General by a significant margin even with all the dark money poured into his opponent's campaign. This is a really good thing because the guy running as the GOP candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, is a few cards short of a full deck. He's running on a party line not unlike the one Hershel Walker used in the Georgia senate race. Feckless Loser loves him and during a rally in NC, said he was 

...Martin Luther King on steroids...I told that to Mark. I said, ‘I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.’

Robinson, a long time fan of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, has used his platform to admit to wanting to go back another time. At a Moms for Liberty event last July, he told those moms:

Whether you’re talking about Adolf Hitler, whether you’re talking about Chairman Mao, whether you’re talking about Stalin, whether you’re talking about Pol Pot, whether you’re talking about Castro in Cuba, or whether you’re talking about a dozen other despots all around the globe, it is time for us to get back and start reading some of those quotes,"

Robinson is also a vociferous Holocaust denier:

...this foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash.

This guy also thinks transgender women should be arrested if they use a women's bathroom and should, instead, go leave the building to relieve themselves:

If you are confused, find a corner outside somewhere to go.  

And he longs to return to an earlier, simpler time:

I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote. Do you know why? Because in those days, we had people who fought for real social change, and they were called Republicans.

Oh, yeah....Robinson is running against current NC state Attorney General, Josh Stein. Yup, you read that right. He's Jewish.

North Carolina, y'all better elect Jeff Johnson cuz y'all gonna need strong AG if Robinson wins.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

I took an impromptu meeting with the ground last Thursday. Thankfully, it was spongy from all the fine weather we've been having, so I am relatively unscathed. That means nothing broke, not even my glasses which do need an adjustment. My nose is kinda scraped, but nothing grotesque. My torso, however, is another story. Just like my not-so-flying leap in Boston a couple of years ago, I bruised my right side. Why this hurts to beat the band is a mystery to me, but arnica gel and a rotation of Tylenol, aspirin, Advil, and Aleve make movement reasonably okay. That means I'm not screaming in agony every time I try to get outta the bed in the morning. 

While this is all Bialy's fault...she got excited because Poodle Puppy Lucy was returning from her walk...I cannot fault her post-flop behavior. With me for a sleepover, she was incredibly attentive...as in glued to my leg... the rest of the night, and again in the morning. She is such a limpet; she insisted on sleeping spooned up against me. Normally, I don't mind having the body on the bed, but she insists on sleeping tight...ergo pushing me off the bed. 

My grandpuppy returns for a whole week with Savata on Thursday while her family heads off on spring break. By the grace of timely gigs, the Senior Son is coming in so I will have back-up for poop-doody. (Yeah, that's weak.) If you're wondering why she doesn't go to a boarding kennel, ask yourself this: would you send your 98 year old grandma who thinks she's 20 to a trampoline park? Well, Bialy is 98 in dog years, but thinks otherwise when outside. No dog camp for you, Miss B!

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Spending time with Bialy is precious to me. 

I'm so glad she's coming for the week. 

FIL and Baby Bialystock

An Open Letter to SCOTUS

Dear Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States,

In 7th grade, we learned about checks and balances. Keeping in mind that I am a baby-boomer, the first generation after World War II and living amongst a great number of people with numbers tattooed on their arms, I thought checks and balances were the only way to prevent another attempt at genocide because the Supreme Court would uphold the Constitution to protect all citizens, not just a preferred few. I totally believed with a 7th grader's fervor that our representatives represented all of us when they sat in those two august chambers. That once someone was sworn in as POTUS, he was responsible for the good and welfare of all Americans because he couldn't possibly get elected if he wasn't an honest and upstanding kinda guy. 

But we weren't blind to the issues of governance. We studied the Civil War. We learned about Reconstruction. We were in New York, so we knew what was on the Statue of Liberty and that when they talked about huddled masses yearning to breathe free, they were talking about a lot of our grandparents. It was all very close to home. Our teachers told us what happened in Germany could NOT happen here because we had checks and balances built into our Constitution. And when push came to shove, the Supreme Court, an apolitical, unbiased institution would have the determining say on what could and could not legally be done. The Supreme Court was established to protect We, the People from those who would behave in unscrupulous ways. 

On the website for The Supreme Court states: [highlights are mine.]

The Supreme Court is "distinctly American in concept and function," as Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes observed. Few other courts in the world have the same authority of constitutional interpretation and none have exercised it for as long or with as much influence. In 1835, the French political observer Alexis de Tocqueville noted the unique position of the Supreme Court in the history of nations and of jurisprudence. "The representative system of government has been adopted in several states of Europe," he remarked, "but I am unaware that any nation of the globe has hitherto organized a judicial power in the same manner as the Americans. . . . A more imposing judicial power was never constituted by any people."

The unique position of the Supreme Court stems, in large part, from the deep commitment of the American people to the Rule of Law and to constitutional government. The United States has demonstrated an unprecedented determination to preserve and protect its written Constitution, thereby providing the American "experiment in democracy" with the oldest written Constitution still in force.The complex role of the Supreme Court in this system derives from its authority to invalidate legislation or executive actions which, in the Court’s considered judgment, conflict with the Constitution. This power of "judicial review" has given the Court a crucial responsibility in assuring individual rights, as well as in maintaining a "living Constitution" whose broad provisions are continually applied to complicated new situations.

Why have you abandoned We, the People?

You took away the right of women to determine how our bodies are to be used. You took away the right of parents to choose the life of the mother over the life of the fetus. (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,)

You refused to rein in Citizens United, thereby putting our elections on the auction block for anyone to spend unlimited amounts to buy votes, thereby overturning precedents dating back 100 years set by the Tillman Act of 1907. 

You refuse to take up the issue of ethics when it comes to personal behavior exhibited by members of the court, most noticeably Justice Clarence Thomas whose purchase price appears to be in reach of several of his robber-baron friends. The corollary issue of Mrs. Thomas' attempts to overturn the election has not yielded any sort of censure from that body. A shocking lack of ethics amongst the justices is not news. In fact, policing/monitoring their personal behavior has, for years, been a buried issue. Everyone knows it's an issue and it remains tidily under the rug. 

And now, you are working overtime to make sure Feckless Loser is re-elected. 

Let me clarify one thing: the states do NOT have the power or the discretion to remove him from the ballot. His name must appear. That's a given. But delaying the hearings on his immunity and instigation of the insurrection absolutely ensures the cases won't be heard/resolved before the conventions, and in turn, a convicted felon may very well be the GOP nominee. 

And then what happens? Let's say the trials are delayed until after the election and Feckless Loser becomes Feckless Leader Part Two? If he is a convicted felon, he cannot serve, according to the 14th Amendment, Section 3:

Disqualification from Holding Office

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

What happens if you delay the hearings and trials for so long that the election takes place and he wins? Do you think he's gonna stand around with his finger up his butt waiting for the paddy wagon to Club Fed? Or, do you think he's capable of summoning his personal military with an eye to suspension of the Constitution? 

Justices of the Supreme Court: guide us; tell us what YOU think is going to happen? Or are you already prepping your retirement on some Caribbean jewel where the agony and disarray that has become America cannot touch you?

To say I am disappointed in The Supreme Court would be a supreme understatement. I get that this is a highly polarized nation. I understand there is a giant disconnect between the Democrats and the Republicans. I grok the concept that there are three branches of government as designed by the drafters of the Constitution. That division and limitation of powers is supposed to protect us, but you are abrogating your responsibility. You patently ignore the will of the people in light of settled law and then you stage a paper coup to make sure that a candidate with a predisposition to act solely on his own behalf can retake the Oval office.

What is wrong with you people?

Recent polls show confidence in the Supreme Court to be at an all-time low. Just for shits and giggles, here are some numbers from the Marquette Law School national survey on the Supreme Court:

And the kicker:

You can see for yourself We, the People, are not thrilled with you. That's because you're supposed to be looking out for all of us, not just your preferred political ideologues. We, the People, understand we might disagree with some of your rulings, but repealing settled law is not in our best interest. The majority of Americans have serious issue with the Dobbs ruling. 

Now, all of that aside, allow me to make a recommendation: Clean. Up. Your. Act. Get your ethics house in order first and fast, then start looking out for the rest of us: get those immunity and insurrection hearings up, moving, transparent, and at the very least, transcript available to We, the People. We, the People, deserve to know if this guy is gonna attempt to overthrow the government. And We, the People, need to be prepared.

Do you really want to be known as The Last Court: The OneThat Failed America? I hope not, but folks, you are heading down that road at a pretty scary speed.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wifely Person

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

I want to believe We, the People,

are capable of electing  proper government. 

Then again, I know better than to believe 

the people behind the curtain.