"Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?"

Parshat Bo Exodus Chapter 10
ז   הֲטֶרֶם תֵּדַע, כִּי אָבְדָה מִצְרָיִם.	7 . .. knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?'

The United States of American is plagued by a modern-day pharaoh.

Our pharaoh has plagued us with the plague of "dahm/blood."  Trump's policy of favoring business interests at the expense of the environment have almost literally turned our rivers red and threatened both our health, with cutbacks to protective regulations, and our public lands, through extraction of resources.  
 
His policies and/or the lack thereof on guns have led to deadly violence in places such as a concert in Las Vegas and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

His not-too-well-hidden willingness to ignore, if not encourage, racist attitudes led to a death at a demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia.

His indifference to human suffering has contributed to the deaths of two would-be-immigrant children at our southern border. 

And he's trying to deprive people with pre-existing conditions of the right to life itself by attempting to destroy the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) without providing a substitute.

He may be putting lives at risk with his hoped-for ban on Muslim immigration and his legal maneuvers to take away a woman's right to choose.

(Speaking of Trump's attitude toward women, is it true that he fired Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellin because he thought she was too short?!)


Now we're dealing with a United States federal (national) government shutdown that leaves the nation at risk, especially in terms of safety and health, with hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors either not being paid or at risk of missing a paycheck by this weekend if the federal government is not re-opened.

The only reason why the federal government is still shut down is that Trump has hardened his heart regarding his plan to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and is throwing a temper tantrum to get his way.


As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said,
“American democracy doesn’t work that way. We don’t govern by temper tantrum. No president should pound the table and demand he gets his way or else the government shuts down, hurting millions of Americans who are treated as leverage. […]"

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it:

“Many federal workers will not be receiving their paychecks, and what that means in their lives is tragic... the president seems to be insensitive to that,” Pelosi said. "He thinks maybe they could just ask their father for more money. But they can’t.”

She added: “If you don’t understand financial insecurity, then you would have a policy that takes pride in saying ‘I’m going to keep the government shut down for months or years unless you totally agree to my position.’”

How can we change the government when voter suppression sometimes keeps the majority from having their voices heard? 

We are truly in a leil shimurim, a night of watching (Parshat Bo, Sh'mot/Exodus 12:42).  When will we be liberated from this pharaoh?



See also Vayera, pipe bombs, & a mass murder in a Pittsburgh synagogue--yes, there's a connection