I emailed my Senator to ask that he vote no on Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.  In case you are unaware of her lack of qualifications:  she is not an educator; she spent $5.6 million in attempt to change Michigan’s constitution to allow vouchers; is apparently “confused” about federal law that protects children with disabilities; and in addition, she plagiarized responses to her Senate confirmation inquiry.  You kind of have to pick your battles, and this one was particularly egregious.

I decided today should be a bit about history – mainly of Germany and WWII immigration policy of the United States, However, before we get to that, we can’t ignore that in his comments at a Black History month event, President Trump said that Frederick Douglass, the great black abolitionist, (1818-1895) “is someone who’s done an amazing job.”  I would agree that he must be doing an amazing job if he is still doing it while being dead for 122 years.  President Trump, tenses do make a difference.

OK, now to some history.  Because, unlike Betsy Devos, I’m not into plagiarism, I will refer you to a variety of sources for historical perspective.

You can read that German anti-Semitism, didn’t start with the Nazis – in fact, there was an 1881 petition signed by 200,000 people, urging the government to restrict the immigration of Jews.

Anti-Semitism percolated under the surface until Hitler was firmly in power and then the Alt Right of the time had a field day. Right wing newspapers started urging drastic action against Jews and racial criteria was applied for deporting them.

You will discover the sad facts behind the refusal of the United States to take in more than just a few Jewish immigrants and the fate of the MS St. Louis – the Voyage of the Damned.

Remember, if you don’t know history, you are bound to repeat it.  Yes, history is important, but we must remind Kellyanne Conway that it’s only real history that counts – the Bowling Green massacre???????

References:

www.yadvashem.org   Weimar Republic (1918 – 1933)

J. Llewellyn et al, “Nazi anti-Semitism”, Alpha History, accessed 2-02-17 ], http://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/nazi-anti-semitism/.

www.ushmm.org  Obstacles to Immigration

www.crfimmigrationed.org/index.php/lessons-for-teachers/144-hl5

First, a note on the headline of the day – President Trump insults the Australian Prime Minister and hangs up on him.  Prime Minister Turnbull should be very proud.

So yesterday I joined Change.org.  This is a site where you can actually start a petition.  I don’t think I will ever do that, because I know that I would be so obsessive about the grammar that it would never get circulated.  I did, however, affix my name to a petition asking the President, Vice President and Representative Paul Ryan to reverse Steve Bannon’s appointment.  That will show ‘em.  I’m sure soon I will end up on the Enemies List --- it’s likely that I’m on somebody’s enemy list already anyway.

So, I got to thinking about what the Alt Right really means, and me being me, I started doing some research:

The Alt Right mainly uses websites, chat boards, social media, etc. to spread their predominantly anti-Semitic and white supremacist message.  Bannon, as chairman of Breitbart, has called Breitbart the platform for the Alt Right.

OK, so how bad could the Alt Right postings be?  Talk about being naïve!  I pulled up just a few websites (before becoming physically ill)  – Holocaust Handbooks, Real Jew News, Jew Watch, Daily Storm, Storm Front, and National Vanguard.  Don’t go there, believe me, don’t go there.  I’ll give you a few snippets.  Holocaust Handbooks sells lots of really, really scary videos – with titles such as The Jewish Gas Chamber Hoax, and A Holocaust Denial Movie.  Real Jew News has such delights as How the Jews Destroyed America and Jewry’s Agents of Depravity.  And then there is National Vanguard’s horror – If Hitler Had Won World War II, We’d Have A Better, More Just World Today.

Now, I’m not suggesting President Trump follows these view, but he does immerse himself in this atmosphere – promotion of Breitbart, praise of Milo Yiannopoulos, using Peter Thiel as an advisor.  He should be disavowing the twisted philosophies of the Alt Right continually – not just a throw-away statement during the campaign.

Tomorrow, maybe a little history lesson.

Nothing humorous to start with today.  Thirteen Jewish Community Centers across the country received bomb threats yesterday, one quite close to home.  I predicted this escalation the day after the election.  My grandchildren attend a Jewish Community Center in another state, and this is absolutely horrifying.  The President didn’t even respond with a tweet.  Of course, he also forgot to mention that 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust.  I’m surprised Sean Spicer didn’t reply that it is “pathetic” that people are concerned about bomb threats.  Spicer’s picture came up on TV last night while we were having dinner.  Somewhat involuntarily, the word “asshole” spewed out of my mouth along with a bit of quesadilla.

 

So, I started to take some baby steps.  I made a contribution to the ACLU – www.ACLU.org.   I already make a regular contribution to the Anti-Defamation League – www.adl.org.  I signed a petition that was sent to the President, my Congressman and my Senators, asking that they do all they can to reverse the Executive Order.  My Republican Congressman sent a very nice robotic reply, which in total stated that the message had been received.  I can’t wait to receive more of these cogent responses.

 

So what’s next?  I’m already thinking about marching.  I think that it is only fair these 68 year old knees get some punishment.  Unfortunately, the first march I can find here isn’t until Tax Day, with marchers demanding that President Trump release his tax returns.  Sounds good to me – I’ll be there.  On the other hand, maybe we don’t want to even see the extent of his lies.  Until then, I’ll just chase the cat to keep my knees in shape.

OK, so a stern note of warning.  This blog is the home of an extremely pissed off, worried, slightly demented, cantankerous 68 year old Jewish grandpa who is seeing the country go to hell in a handbasket.  If this is unappealing to you, move your ass to another blog.

Today's pisser:  Social media postings that say, "Take America Back."  Who is taking back America from whom?  First of all, I didn't know the country was even available for retrieval.  Are the Native Americans finally deciding that it's time to show the damn Europeans that they have no business here?

Maybe it's the American bison who have been quietly reproducing so they can get back at the Native Americans for trying to kill them off.  Perhaps the Brooklyn Dodgers are making their ghostly presence known to retake their rightful location instead of in that Communist Los Angeles (and is that really part of America anyway?)

Or, and you knew it was coming, is it those who are certain the United States of America is no place for Muslims, Hispanics, African Americans, LGBTs, Asians, Jews (I snuck that in), or anyone else that really, really doesn't belong here.  Because, after all, nobody wants to be a minority, and they really, really don't want to become a minority.

Well, all I have to say is, that as a Jew, my predecessors and I have been a minority for oh 5,000 years or so, and you kind of get used to it.  Sure, we don't get to have Christmas trees but we substitute Chinese food.  We've been excluded from neighborhoods, country clubs, hotels, but so what - we just built our own.  The KKK has been after us forever, but we definitely dress better than they do.  The Nazis killed 6 million of us, and yet I'm still here to kvetch.

All joking aside (and I rarely put joking aside), the parallels with 1920s Germany are so striking, so frightening, so absolutely mind blowing, that being pissed off isn't enough.  For the first time in my 68 years, I think I am about to become a political activist.  I'll let you know my progress.