Category: 2024

In trying to gather my scattered everywhere thoughts I was mulling over what do I write about this time? Do I end the year with another one of my Rants, or do I end it on as Upbeat a Note as I possibly can? It is difficult to decide which one, because 2024 has been a Disconcerting, Sorrowful, Frustrating, Infuriating and Maddening Year! So here goes . . .

. . . I have decided that My Woman Of The Year Honorable Award has been Rightfully Earned by Gisele Pelicot! This incredible, long-suffering woman exposed her husband, a sick and twisted Sadistic Rapist (who also raped his daughter!), as well as all the men who participated in raping her at his behest as she lay drugged on her marital bed. Not only was her trial about Vindicating Herself, but she spoke for every Female across this world and also unveiled how prevalent the heinous crime of rape is today even in Civilized France. This crime has been going on since Tribes and Armies invaded each other centuries and centuries ago, when they looted, burnt, pillaged and Raped women as a Prize for their victory. Gisele Pelicot’s courage has allowed us, once again, to face this Evil, and, hopefully, to endeavor, once and once again to address it. My Opinion? Every Rapist should have his Rape Instrument Lopped Off In Public and then be thrown in jail for the duration of his miserable lifetime! Merci Gisele, and A Votre Sante!

Then there was Luigi Mangione, the young man who shot and killed Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, a medical insurance company. I cannot condone violence of any kind or sort, and I do not in this case. Therefore, the young Luigi  will be subjected to a trial just like any person accused of murder. However, this event as no other has put the health care system of the US on the chopping board and invited a heated discussion of Greed, Arrogance and Runaway Capitalism that places Profits ahead of All and Everything else as the Health Insurance Companies, as well as all the Major Corporations are doing. In this sense, Luigi deserves our gratitude for having served the Public Good more than any of our vaunted Politicians who have chosen to Ignore and Mishandle the egregiousness of the health care industry (mainly because they have the top-of-the-line contract, which none of us do!), as well as the many Crisis in our country! This discussion needs to continue and magnify itself!

The Honorable Award for the most Conscientious and Moral Human Beings in our nation goes to Bernie Sanders (My precious daughter gifted me his book: It’s OK To Be Angry About Capitalism and I was delighted!) and Elizabeth Warren who have been in the trenches fighting for Equality, Justice, Honesty, Integrity and Humanity for decades in our corridors of Power, as well as to Any and All Elected Officials following in their noble footsteps! They are the Voice of the Voiceless Ordinary Human Beings whose concerns are being totally Invalidated!

My Most Ethical and Socially Responsible Awards go to Josh Paul and Every Single Employee of the State Department and White House who has resigned from a career that they loved, and issues that they believed in, over the bloody and disgraceful behavior, hypocrisy and double-standards of Genocide Joe and Worthless Blinken regarding the Atrocious War On Gaza, and may the souls of the murdered Palestinian Children, People and Courageous Journalists haunt them forever!

My Most Outstanding Awards for Fearless Reporting go to Amy Goodman, Nermeen Shaikh and Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now, as well as to The Guardian, Haaretz, The Intercept, The Quincy Institute, C-Span (especially every show host on their Washington Journal) Jeffrey Sachs, Jonathan Cook, Chris Hedges, Juan Cole and Every Single Journalist and Whistleblower with Integrity, Fairness and Humanity, as well as to all the Al-Jazeera Reporters and Journalists, especially those who were Deliberately Targeted and Martyred by the Israeli Government.

And, the Most Disappointing Award goes to the United States of America’s Government for being a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when it comes to its cherry-picking and discriminatory Application of Democracy, Freedom and Human Rights. Its record is Dismal and leaves us with the blatant truth that it is Not Democracy, Freedom and Human Rights that are our Values, but Arrogance, Greed and Unfettered Power! Shameful! However, whether it is the US, or Any and Every Country that is Mishandling the Concerns of Ordinary People it is becoming clearer and clearer that the Global Majority of Human Beings are fed-up with the Ineptness of their Political Leadership. It is also becoming clearer and clearer that Ordinary People whether on the Right, in the Middle, or on the Left, and no matter what their Religions, or Ethnicities have had enough of Political Distractions, Frivolous Issues and Divisiveness while ignoring the Essential. It is Truly Enough!

Lastly, The Hall of Shame Awards go to the Corporate Media Shmucks, their Superficiality, their Sensationalism, their Trivial Discussions and Worthless Opinions! They are Slaves, not Journalists! They are Echo Chambers, not Reporters! They prove that Greed is above Honesty and Integrity! Fox News is Worthless; CNN has proven their Bigoted Non-News, especially in their latest shocking scandal depicting one of Assad’s “Prisoners” when he was one of his Torturers; and, MSNBC that has nothing to cover but what Trump Said, Trump Went, Trump Came, Trump Sat, Trump Stood, Trump Tweeted. Trump Posted. Hello? Not that I voted for Trump, and not that I am not anxious about the next four years as most of us are, however: when are they going to passionately and breathlessly tell us when Trump Burped and when Trump Farted? Come off it, schmucks! Get a grip!

So to Politicians and Leadership Everywhere on this Sad Planet I say: Shape Up and address Humanity’s Vital Concerns before the Angry Global Majority gets really fed up with you!

May 2025 bring us all Sanity, Wisdom, Justice and Peace! Fingers Crossed Tightly!

There is a taste of Bitterness in my mouth that is mixed in with Sarcasm and stirred in with Cynicism as I watch the World during these Horrific Times!

What can I, or Anyone say as we witness the unravelling of the Middle East Region that began One Hundred Years Ago and continues to this very day?

It is not only Misinformation, Disinformation, Lies, Deceit and Propaganda, but it is also the Redefinition of Events and Entities that want to convince us that we can designate Some as “Terrorists”, and Some Others as “Rebels.” The first Designation is meant for Any Group that we consider impeding the Design for the Middle East Region as envisioned by Some Powerful Political Entities – namely the Colonist Enterprise, including Israel, and The Arabian Peninsula with all its component countries – and that is meant to generate Fear, Revulsion, Horror! The second designation is meant to impart an image of a Noble Cause, an aspiration for Dignity (which has replaced Democracy since that doesn’t work anymore), an Organic Sentiment of the People. Really? Are we total idiots, or what?

We can go back to One Hundred Years Ago as the terrific Rashid Khalidi mentioned when writing his book about the Palestinian Catastrophe, or, if we don’t want to go that deep into our history we can go back to the Civil (Uncivil!) War in Lebanon that began in 1975 and continued through Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, that ill-fated Arab Spring (more like an Arab Winter!) Syria and the Multiple drip, drip dripping of the Wars of Genocide on Gaza that are reignited every once in a while, but continue to become more Savage, Cruel and Merciless with each sordid episode. But, what for to do this when I can’t help but surmise that the Dirty Fingers of the Conspiracy to Subjugate, Demolish and Turn to Rubble Any Opposition to this Design are – or should be – Clear to all of us. Horrific is not enough to explain it all! Traumatic is not enough either! Therefore, what happened in Syria was Not Surprising! The Optics, the Choreography, the Media Schmucks aping the Conspiracy’s storyline were well coordinated to impart the impression that this was all Organic! It was not! What Is Organic, though, is that the Syrian Humans were relieved of a Stifling and Ruthless Oppression no matter what the root causes for this were and whether they were fueled by Assad’s Paranoia – which led him to that extreme version of cruelty and brutality – at being targeted by the Colonist Enterprise Design for decades, or whether it was any other reason.

What is very clear is that Every single country that has been Meddling in the Middle East Region for the past One Hundred Years has Blood on its dirty, unscrupulous hands! No exceptions! Their stated reasons don’t even matter to me anymore, because they are all Hypocritical, Deceitful Warmongers who have Double Standards that have become comedically apparent to me after eighty plus years of witnessing their wicked ways! One day they Meddle for this “Noble” Reason and the next day it is for another “Noble” Reason that they invent. The end result is that we are at this dismal point. But there is one thing that stands out for me more than any others: The abominable cruelty of all those jails and prisons whether in Israel, Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and you can name so many others is one thing that they All Have In Common. ALL of them! There is no Saint Nitouche here! There is no Political Ruler who can say that they are holier-than-thou! I always wonder, though, who these people are who commute these sentences of Cruelty and Torture? It is unfathomable to me that they can then go about their lives normally, without one speck of remorse? They, and those who issued their Orders have All proven to be just as Despicable, just as Merciless, just as Savage, just as Barbaric! And, just in case you have forgotten, the so-called Western Civilized Nations send their so-called Terrorists to “Renditions” in the jails of the above named countries, as well as to other places equally cruel on this good-for-nothing Planet. Do you remember how we became more aware of this during Dubya’s infamous War On Iraq?

All this Infusion and Saturation of Vulgarity, Greed, Lies, Hypocrisy, Cruelty and Torture into the Political Systems of the World while not being anything New have reached horrific levels recently leaving us Ordinary Humans aghast, horrified, traumatized, having run out of any more words to convey our wounded souls! There is a High Stakes Game of Quid Pro Quo being Orchestrated in the Corridors of Political Power in which the Major Players are All Complicit, and to top it all off the Unabashed Oligarchs of the World now have more of a Say and a Sway in this Major Game of Risk than ever. We Cannot Undo This at the moment. It will play its sordid self out at the expense of Justice, Equality, Humanity, Peace and Mercy. We will have to wait a very long time before the Political Intrigues and Conspiracies that are inflicting so much Pain on Innocent Human Beings are Extricated. If ever!

Although I have always maintained that A Surprise Could Always Be Around The Corner, it does feel as if Nothing can surprise me anymore, especially that the Israeli Government supported by the Colonist Enterprise has gone all Rogue, defying Any Semblance of adherence to Any Laws, or to the Conventions of International Institutions. We are at the very nadir of their unfettered lawlessness!

Meanwhile . . . Meanwhile most Humans are fed up, exhausted, demoralized and disgusted with the way our Political Leadership and the Oligarchs are behaving and allowing all these harrowing conditions and events to continue. This is not the world I was hoping to be living in during these waning years of my life, nor the world I was hoping that my children, grandchildren and All Humans would be living in. Sadly, nothing can drown out the disappointment, pain and sorrow enough to erase this taste of Bitterness, Sarcasm and Cynicism from my anguished soul!