“Plus ca change, plus c’est la même chose.”

Translation: The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.

I heard heartbreaking stories about my Syrian grandparents from my paternal aunts and uncle.

All three spoke chillingly of ethnic cleansing.

From approximately 1914 to 1923, terrified Syrian Christians, Syrian Jews, and Armenians were forced by the Turks into hard labor, murdered, raped, robbed, starved, and if they were lucky, deported.

They were called Ottoman soldiers from the Republic of Turkey back then.

My uncle once described the horrific experiences his parents went through as the “Turkification” of Syrian border towns and villages.

Turkification gave the bad guys the license to expel, kill, and destroy anything or anyone non-Turkish.

Christians and Jews were seen as a danger to the integrity of the Ottoman Empire.

An inconvenience.

The Ottoman soldiers were systematic, and the killings were well organized and state-sponsored.

They needed to clear out their border, and so they did. The Turkish government denies that they slaughtered innocent men, women, and children, but they lie.

Hearing Trump’s words: “They had terrorists, they had a lot of people in there they couldn’t have …. and they had to have it cleaned out” gave me the chills.

The president of the United States called for northern Kurdish Syria to be “cleaned out.”

They’re at it again, I thought to myself, but this time with the assistance and blessing of my president.

When is enough enough? Have we as a country no shame? Where is the outrage? Why are we not taking to the streets?        

These were my thoughts as Trump spewed his hateful words.

According to my uncle, my Syrian grandmother was either Christian or Jewish.  She had sisters who were raped and slaughtered, although he doesn’t know how many sisters she had. She hid and somehow escaped to France as did one brother.

I still have so many questions.

Did my grandmother have more than one brother? How many sisters did she have? What happened to her parents?

My grandfather was a Syrian Christian who saw the writing on the wall.

The Turks wanted to clear Turkish soil of Christians, including the Syrian border, and he was on the run.

My grandparents were from an area called Suedeyeh in the Hatay Province, although I’m not sure of the spelling.

But what I am sure of is that Turkey eventually annexed the Hatay province and after the area was cleaned out, Suedeyeh was no longer part of Syria and renamed Samandag.

Were it not for my grandmother and grandfather’s escape to France and then to the United States; I wouldn’t exist.

I recently read that there were a lot of German officers in Turkey during the massacres of the Syrian Jews, Syrian Christians, and the Armenians, who in WWI went back to Germany.

What happened in Turkey left an indelible impression on the German officers and many of them ended up in the Nazi party.

And we all know how that ended.

Below is a recent white supremacist attack you’ll probably never hear about.

Early Wednesday morning, on August 7, a house exploded and burned to the ground in Sterling Ohio.

Officials investigating the incident found a swastika and an anti-black slur painted on the garage.

The homeowners who were thankfully not in the house at the time, are an interracial couple who lived there for 23 years.

The wife was quoted as saying: We decided that whatever happens, we’re not rebuilding here.”

To quote Trump: “We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning.”

I decided to write this blog post for two reasons:

#1: My Republican friends are angry, and rightly so.

#2: As a MeToo I can’t tolerate stupid.

Plus, does Joe Biden think his inappropriate touching is funny?

I don’t know about any of you, but the above photo that I chose for this blog post is especially creepy. It makes my skin crawl.

First off, these two biker guys from Ohio don’t know what the heck to do.

The guy on the left is rolling his eyes at the guy on the right.

And the guy on the right, is side-eyeing the whole seedy scene, like WTF?

And secondly, is this woman married to one of these guys????

I don’t know about you, but if I were her significant other, I’d be extremely annoyed.

Extremely annoyed is putting it mildly.

I mean, back off Joe.

So, in answer to my friend Ken’s VERY valid question:

“And by the way America this picture is OK because the creepy old white guy is a Democrat where is #MeToo?”

I can’t answer for every #MeToo, but I’m here Ken, and Joe needs to back off.

But I am still going to vote for Biden because…

…well Biden vs Trump?

That’s a no brainer for me.

I would first like to say this about that:

ARE THERE NO PEEPS UNDER 70 THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DEEM QUALIFIED?

And another thing.

I wish Trump would quit.

Oh, wait. Trump can’t quit.

Because if he does, he’ll probably get indicted.

Sad.

Anyway, let’s get back to Biden.

Seriously Joe?

You see the photos.

Don’t you think they look creepy?

Do yourself a favor.

I know you’re a good guy.

And I know you mean well.

But puleeze, exercise some self-control.

AND STOP TOUCHING PEOPLE.

And don’t try to make a joke out of it.

Because inappropriate touching is not funny.

Oh, and as far as asking if it’s okay to touch someone.

You think asking and having someone say yes makes it okay?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It doesn’t make it okay.

Because if you ask, they will probably say yes, even though they don’t mean yes and even though they really mean no.

YES IN MANY CASES MEANS NO.

To Joe:

YOU’RE POWERFUL, SO PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO SAY NO TO JOE.

Stop asking, and stop touching.

And above all, stop joking about it.

Joe,

PLEASE.

I have a lot of respect for you.

For a lot of reasons.

You’ve been a stand-up guy.

So do the right thing.

Don’t touch, and don’t joke.

“The National Rifle Association is setting aside years of documents related to its interactions with a Kremlin-linked banker, as the gun-rights group appears to be bracing for a possible investigation, according to sources familiar with the situation.” – CNN, 4/27/18

The FBI is purportedly investigating whether Alexander Torshin, a top Russian banker and ally to Vladimir Putin, illegally funneled money to the NRA to help sway the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.

Additionally, at least three congressional committees are probing Russia’s 2016 operations and have also shown an interest in Torshin, who is a lifetime NRA member and has attended several of its annual conventions.

The NRA has fought every meaningful attempt at gun reform. Now, it appears that they may have broken the law. But Republicans in Congress don’t seem to care. And neither do Trump or Pence.

Now the NRA is bracing for an investigation into possible campaign finance violations with Russia, and yet many Republicans in Congress still take their money.

This from Bloomberg News back in August 2016:

“Torshin, a leading figure in Putin’s party, has been implicated in money laundering by judicial authorities in Spain. … Spanish investigators alleged in an almost 500-page internal report that Torshin… capitalized on his government role to assist mobsters laundering funds through Spanish properties and banks.”

A summary of the report obtained by McClatchy DC Bureau linked Torshin to Russian money laundering and described him as a godfather in a Russian criminal organization known as the Taganskaya.

According to McClatchy DC Bureau in January 2018:

“FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of …  the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said. It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections. The NRA reported spending a record $55 million on the 2016 elections, including $30 million to support Trump – triple what the group devoted to backing Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. Most of that was money was spent by an arm of the NRA that is not required to disclose its donors.”

According to NPR in March 2018:

“A prominent Kremlin-linked Russian politician has methodically cultivated ties with leaders of the National Rifle Association and documented efforts in real time over six years to leverage those connections and gain deeper access into American politics, NPR has learned. Russian politician Alexander Torshin said his ties to the NRA provided him access to Donald Trump — and the opportunity to serve as a foreign election observer in the United States during the 2012 election.”

According to Business Insider in March 2018:

“The National Rifle Association is fielding a growing number of questions about its ties to Alexander Torshin…  who has been described as “President Putin’s emissary” in the US … said that he knew President Donald Trump through the NRA.”

According to Mother Jones in the May/June Issue 2018:

“Now attention is focused around a middle-aged Russian central bank official and a photogenic young gun activist from Siberia who share several passions: posing with assault rifles, making connections with Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates, and publicizing their travels between Moscow and America on social media. Alexander Torshin and his protégé Maria Butina also share an extraordinary status with America’s largest gun lobbying group, according to Torshin: “Today in NRA (USA) I know only 2 people from the Russian Federation with the status of ‘Life Member’: Maria Butina and I,” he tweeted the day after Donald Trump was elected president.”

We all know what happened to Maria Butina.