Maggie's Farm

Somehow thjroughout recorded history the story remains the same: the Jews reveal the tyrants, and the tyrants hate them for it. And the tribe is small, and the tyrant wants to criminalize his followers and bind them to his ends, so the small tribe falls into danger, and well, the wandering begins again if not far worse. That and the culture of accomplishment means there will always be property to confiscate --confiscation being the highest return on lowest investment, impeded only by virtue of right and wrong, which the tyrant will define unless he is stopped cold.

My middle daughter's fiance's baby sis, student at a California university, had her facebook network turn on her --she's Jewish, and she defended Israel against some loose remark about the city hall flying an Israeli flag on Israel's independence day anniv a couple weeks ago, and suddenly several [what she thought were] friends turned hard and vicious on her --and have kept it up, driving her out of the group and upsetting her quite a bit. Anyhoo the incident got her brother talking about a building recognition of --well there's no other word for it --vulnerability. This from a guy who has blithely minimized Israel's predicament for all the years i've known him (we talk a good deal of politics, and it's always been me trying to get him to peer out of the "equanimity" frame that among other things so supports USA Democrats, to --i'm convinced --the deadly peril of Israel). IOW, he's the last person i'd ever expect to hear the question BK is asking re the tyrant Chavez: "what is going on here?"