It's not a peaceful transfer of power if five people have already been killed.
It's not a peaceful transfer of power if you have to bring 10,000 troops to the nation's capital to prevent the transfer of power from being soaked in blood.
It's not a peaceful transfer of power if the only reason the gallows weren't used was because the terrorists chanting "hang Mike Pence" were just barely prevented from reaching the Vice President.
It's not a peaceful transfer of power if the nation's lawmakers are being encouraged to buy bullet-proof vests.
It's not a peaceful transfer of power if this is what it looks like in the building where your national legislators do their work.
Sheldon Adelson was a bad man who made the world measureably, objectively worse - less just, less fair, more fearful, more hateful. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
If you're American your life is measureably, objectively worse bc of Adelson's hateful ideology. If you're Israeli your life is measureably, objectively worse bc of Adelson's hateful ideology. If you're Palestinian? Well. Making your life well-nigh untenable was his primary goal.
His wife Miriam is equally bad, just as rich, & much younger; their noxious influence on Israel/Palestine & the United States, & thus the entire international community, is likely to continue, but there is something to be said for one bad man no longer being able to hurt anyone.
I've lived in a country marked by terrorism before - though, when I say that, people think I mean Palestinian terrorism, & I do, but I also mean Jewish terrorism, not least the massacre of 29 Muslims at prayer & the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
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In those cases (as in most Jewish terrorism) the terrorists wrapped themselves in religion; the former also wrapped himself in the nation's symbols, by wearing his reservist uniform.
The majority Jewish population was truly shocked & horrified by the massacre in Hebron;
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Rabin himself said of the terrorist & his fellow travelers that "Judaism spits [them] out." Less than 2 yrs later, one of those fellow travelers killed Rabin.
His assassination absolutely shattered most Israelis. Shattered. We were broken. It was terrible, terrible, terrible.
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And, funny story! The gif I used for Jan is from a scene where Johnny's hungover & David & Alexis are torturing him; Moira pats his arm, points at the wall, & says "Pick a point on the wall if you need to" - & "pick a point on the wall" became a bit of a mantra for me this year.
My mother has become symptomatic, and after a lifetime of telling her children (from when we were probably too young to hear it!) that she would never want invasive measures to artificially extend her life, we have asked that she be "transferred" to hospice care,
which in this case means being able to stay right where she is, cared for by the kind people who have cared for her over the past couple of years - which means that, though we can't be there, she'll be given comfort care by people she knows, who actively & openly love her,
whose voices she knows & whose faces she knows & whose hands will hold her with tenderness. We did have a lovely Thanksgiving Zoom (last week, how is that possible), & this morning, were all able to talk to her, her kids & grandkids, she knew us, she heard our love,
Listen. I have an account with the service that sent you your Wrapped lists, but I'm not proud, bc that service pays artists the merest of slivers of pennies per spin, & the checks they get are laughable - so I also spend money on CDs & merch & Bandcamp, etc.
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The year-end Wrapped thing is a way to get you to advertise that streaming service for free - ironically, they're paying you just a tiny smidge less than they pay the artists off of whose work they profit.
So, you know. Maybe don't let them use you as a billboard.
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