Things NOT on my Bingo card.

Well, this is gonna be a very short blog this week. It seems that I was brutally attacked on Friday afternoon by an Orrefors Corona bowl filled with creamed herring As I attempted to put it in the refrigerator. If you know anything about Corona bowls, they are exceptionally heavy and in the process of putting it in the fridge, I jammed my thumb. Let’s just say this was not on my bingo card.

Thankfully, nothing is broken, but I did learn. I have arthritis in my thumb and I seem to have pissed it off so I’m in a brace. My left hand doesn’t work very well, So I’m actually dictating this and will attempt to edit it when I’m done.

There are a couple of other things that are pissing me off this week, not the least of which is the announcement from the treasury department that they are issuing a commemorative coin with President Felon. Now, according to the rules of such things, only dead people are on coins. This is not a new rule, it’s a rule that was established in 1866. And if you look at the illustration of this coin, I trust you’ll be as nauseated as I was. On the other hand, maybe he’ll be dead before they issue it.  

The US Treasury has removed much of their timeline dealing Acts of Congress on the light, but thanks to the Wayback Machine archive versions of that page exist. See below:

April 7, 1866 - An Act of Congress stated that only a portrait of a deceased person could appear on currency. The Act was caused by an uproar over the actions of the Chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Spencer Clark. Clark placed himself on a five cent note and had a large quantity of them printed before it was noticed. Due to Clark's actions the already prepared 15 cent note featuring Sherman and Grant was never released.

 This is a rendering of the proposed coin. Personally, I find it disturbing on a number of levels.

The positioning of President Felon's profile with "In God We Trust" divided like that (even though it mirrors the JFK half dollar) it has a creepiness factor exacerbated by the sheer size of his head. There is a visual implication that he is somehow related to God. For the record, as much as I like JFK, I was never crazy about the line split there either. Look, not even Hitler put his face on coinage saying he preferred to wait until he won.

As for the tush, well, that's a whole nuther' matter. "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT" calls into question the very nature of who We, the People are. Are we now to be a nation of warriors, setting out to conquer? Are we turning our backs on our allies? Have we now walked away from any and all peace negotiations? The message it sends is that the United States is not the peace-loving nation we once claimed to be, and that we are ready, willing, and ready to go to war. 

The other thing that’s really pissing me off is the firing of the National Endowment for the Humanities  directors. Just like the government is currently firing people from The Kennedy Center and the national museums around Washington, And replacing them with people that are wholly unqualified makes me wonder what the ultimate goal is. OK, granted, we should wonder what the ultimate goal was in appointing RFK, Jr as Secretary of Health and Human Services. President Felon’s continued insistence that all arts aligned with his version of America is exceptionally disturbing. He is deliberate in attempting to remove all of history that isn’t white. I know this is not news to most of you, and I’m assuming that most of you find this rather disturbing. I know I do. 

We all know that when the Romans used to conquer a people, one of the things they did was try to assimilate them into the Roman empire. This was pretty standard operating behavior. Even the Nazis try to make sure that all cultural affirmations were in support of the Nazi mentality of Some bizarre concept of racial and national purity. I keep thinking these announcements seem to fall into that same channel of “nationalist” thinking. 

The trends are undeniable. And the increased presence of our military be at national guard or any other branch of the service in cities that neither want nor request their presence is also very scary. But I’ve said that before.

Maybe it really is time to rethink what we expect of our nation, what we expect of our leaders, and whether or not this grand melting pot that we’ve all lived in is coming to a close.I do believe the midterm elections are at risk, and I do believe the next presidential election is at risk. The reshaping of American cultural history is no different from what the Roman or the  Nazis did across Europe. That which once made We, the People and America unique in history is under duress; attempts to replace our history with whitewashing and revisionism will ultimately be thwarted. One thing I do know: we will not be assimilated. 

As so many wise people have said ....When someone tells you who they are, believe them. And if you're the least bit unsure about who President Felon is, read his speech to the generals.

Unless we wanna just close our drapes and not think about what’s happening outside our living rooms, we need to be prepared for what’s coming next. Do no, for one New York minute, think that there aren't private militias out there waiting for the call. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Never do anything that will upset the arthritis  existing  in one's thumb.

It will hurt to freakin' beat the band. 

When Do I Get My MedBed Card?

I worked really hard to find the fake medbed video, but the closest I came was finding a screen shot. Honestly, I don't know why people are so surprised/shocked/upset that he posted a fake video with him in it. I mean, folks, the guy has a well established penchant for medical quackery. Just look at his appointees: Ben Carson (who walks with Jesus,) RFK,jr, who has worms in his head and puts dead whales atop his car while claiming vaccines are responsible for what's wrong with us. (As a polio survivor, I definitely have an opinion about that and it's not one shared with that whack job Kennedy.) And let's not forget Dr. Mehmet Snakeoil Oz who now sends me emails as administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services full of nonsense. I have a headache; please pass the Tylenol.

Let's not discuss how President Felon is losing his grip on reality. Just listen to his speech to the General Assembly at the UN and that, alone, should give you a pretty good idea of how bad it really is. The guy lives in fantasyland. 

First...no one sabotaged the escalator. Second...no one sabotaged the teleprompter. From Reuters:

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said a readout of the escalator's central processing unit indicated it "had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator."

He said Trump's videographer had been traveling backwards up the escalator to capture his arrival with First Lady Melania Trump.

 "The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function," Dujarric said in a statement. "The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. findings.

On the teleprompter, Trump told the General Assembly on Tuesday: "I can only say that whoever's operating this teleprompter is in big trouble."

However, a U.N. official said the White House had operated its own teleprompter.

After Trump finished speaking, U.N. General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock said: "The U.N. teleprompters are working perfectly."

Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire

And for the record, he wasn't speaking from his heart; he was reading his speech....until he wasn't. As he wandered all over the map with his misstatements, preposterous opinions, and delusional attributes for his Nobel Peace Prize campaign, I was stunned the audience was not rolling in the aisles at this obscene comedy performance. How could they keep straight faces listening to him? Granted, his attack on the UN as a toothless joke wasn't too far off the mark, but he more than made up for that with the part about mahogany walls and marble floors. 

Moving on, the world got a glimpse of the tastelessly gilded Oval Office. I kept thinking about Napoleon and his grandiose coronation for some reason. The ormolu reliefs and friezes are just plain gauche:  tacky, cheesy, and cheap-looking. The august simplicity of the office once reflected the idea of democracy, a republic, and of-the-people. This looked like a whale vomited a gold leaf on the walls. Gilding the lily, as it were. But this isn't an accidental juxtaposition; President Tasteless's diatribe about refurbishing the UN is interesting since he's bringing that same over-the-top tasteless gilding to the White House. Has he never heard the expression Less Is More? Obviously not. 

His ravenous appetite for gaudy expression extends to this new dining hall carbuncle he's attaching to the White House. Today, it was announced he has settled his lawsuit with YouTube. From the Washington Post:

                               YouTube to pay $24.5 million to settle Trump lawsuit                 over post-Jan. 6 suspension

The agreement says $22 million will go toward construction of a new White House ballroom. The settlement follows similar multimillion-dollar agreements with Meta and X.

So just like this airplane from Qatar, President Emoluments is profiteering from the office but at least he's spending the money on the White House for which I am certain he will take one giant tax deduction. Nothing this troll does is without personal financial gain for him. Since the airplane is destined for his presidential library in downtown Miami (that'll be a good trick,) where's he gonna stash the dismantled balls room after he's out of office? 

Oh, wait. He's not planning to leave office. Ever. 

Oh, you don't believe that? Well, it's like this: if someone tells you who they are, you might want to believe them. President Felon keeps on ordering troops, National Guard or otherwise, into cities that clearly don't need help preserving public safety. Despite what the governors, the mayors, and even the state AGs say, he's sending troops where troops are not wanted. Ziggy woulda called this serious dick-waving. I would've agreed with him,

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Portland, Oregon, a city that usually defies description by us regular folks, is preparing for the invasion in a most Portlandian kinda way. I imagine Bette Midler will be leading a cadre of women ready to throw their PBS tote bags at them. I can almost imagine the denizens of the area trying to put daisies in gun barrels. Maybe they're gonna mobilize the backyard chicken populations? 

I've never been to Portland, but it's a place I would like to visit. I hear they do serious composting there, and, like Minnesota, pay close attention to the environment. They have a progressive tax in the city, and enforceable  laws and goals for emissions. Frankly, it sounds like my kinda town. There's a Masorti shul with a morning minyan! I would fit right in! If the country breaks apart and the West Coast becomes the place to go for now, Portland would be on my list.

And I'm still waiting for my medbed card. With insurance rates rising significantly, We, the People, have to be prepared for a catastrophic number of people to be without health insurance. As vaccinations become unavailable, we must be prepared for the surge in measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, and other preventable diseases we once thought to be eradicated. The fact is, the only disease believed to be completely eradicated is smallpox, but even that could come back. The reality is that right now, the US is taking massive steps backwards in terms of population health.

Maybe that shouldn't surprise us. A country that refuses to pass reasonable gun control laws as mass shootings increase across the nation while discouraging parents from vaccinating their kids is NOT a country that believes in the sanctity of life. Another church, this one Mormon,  was shot up and set on fire up this past weekend, in Grand Blanc, Michigan, leaving 8 injured, and 4 dead, including a 6 year old. 

But then again, this is a country carrying on about Gaza while ignoring the famine in Yemen, genocide in the Sudan, China, Syria, and Cambodia. No Jews, no news? Isn't that how it goes?

If you're not taking to the streets to protest Yemen, Sudan, China, Syria, and Cambodia, but you want to reward and encourage terrorism by supporting Hamas, that is your right. And it will be your right to be slaughtered just like the kids at Nova when the intifada comes here. The guys in the keffiyehs and the headbands will not spare you. They will simply put a bullet in your back after they rape you. They already have told us who they are. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

!‏צום קל וגמר חתימה טוב

Going Up Early Because Rosh HaShanah Begins Monday Night.

Local apples & honey,     matzah ball soup,                   squash,               8 Lbs of brisket       table set by grandkids
                                  

The very last thing I wanna be doing right now is writing this week's episode. As you can see from the illustration above, I have more pressing things to do at the moment. But this was one helluva a week and there are things to be said. 

Back in January 2014, I wrote an episode about the fight for net neutrality. Several readers sent it back to me asking if I really did see the canary in the coal mine. Kinda....but I really believed the FCC and Congress would do the right thing. This issue is more clearly defined in an article appearing in the January 8th, 2025 issue of Scientific American:

The sun has set—again—on U.S. net neutrality, the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. Last week a federal appeals court panel ruled that the Federal Communications Commission cannot classify Internet service providers, or ISPs, in a way that would prevent them from favoring certain content over others. Without net neutrality, providers would be able to slow down, or throttle, traffic to competitors’ websites. Or ISPs could demand payment for speedy connections to specific Internet destinations……

The FCC now says net neutrality’s fate ultimately lies with Congress. “Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a news release. “With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.”

Why bring this up now? Well, the internet ain't what it used to be, and because our crack congress never declared it a public utility, it's already up for sale. As the authoritarian government takes over, cancelling free speech, threatening broadcasters with license revocation if they don't like the criticism, instructing the attorney general to go after his foes are all canaries in this very bleak coal mine. 

Stick with me on this. I promise, it's sane.

On his way back from the UK on Air Force One, President Felon told reporters:

I have read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me, I get 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.

He wasn't done. As reported in the New York Times:

Mr. Trump on Thursday indicated that Mr. Carr should go even further and scrutinize the broadcast licenses of local television stations that run programming from the major networks, suggesting that both their news coverage and late-night comedy shows were unfairly tilted against him. “They give me only bad publicity,” he said. 

“It will be up to Brendan Carr,” the president said, calling him “a patriot” and “a tough guy.”

President Felon is not the first powerful American politician to challenge the very existence of the Bill of Rights? How many of you, dear readers, remember Senator Joseph McCarthy? Or have even heard of him? Indulge me for a moment.

In 1940, Congress passed The Smith Act which forbade any attempts to “advocate, abet, advise, or teach” the violent destruction of the U.S. government. The Smith Act, an outgrowth of the red scare in Europe, is often credited as the underlayment beneath Senator McCarthy. Although ultimately repealed, it serves as a model of how to undermine free speech. His witch hunts were notorious. People were expected to turn each other in. What it did to the arts community in this country was unspeakable. 

And we are watching history repeat itself. 

Robert Redford, a man I knew, even if just a little bit, passed away this past week. I was a college kid on the set of THE WAY WE WERE and Bob was the kindest man you could imagine. I read the whole script when I was on set in Ballston Spa, and I was anxious to see how it would all be filmed. One of the most important scenes was in LA, at Union Station, when Hubbell (Redford) confronts his wife, Katie, (Streisand) about  her activism protesting McCarthy's HUAC in support of the HOLLYWOOD TEN. The following is taken from the brilliant script written by the great Arthur Laurents:

KATIE

I'm not telling off the world. I'm just standing up for something I believe in. You're not angry when Bissinger ridicules those men? Calling them martyrs because they have guts to fight for their Bill of Rights, his Bill of Rights and yours!

HUBBELL

We don't have any Bill of Rights. We'll never have free speech.

KATIE

We never will if people won't take a stand. We never will have because people are scared.

HUBBELL

This isn't college. This is grown-up politics, Katie. And it's stupid and dangerous.

KATIE

You're telling me to shut up because it's dangerous?

HUBBELL

I'm telling you it's a waste. And that those men are only gonna get hurt. And that nothing is gonna change. And after jail, after years of bad blood, when it's practical for a fascist producer to hire a communist writer because his movie's in trouble, he'll do it. They'll make movies, have dinner, they'll play tennis, make passes at each other's wives. What did anybody go to jail for? For what? A political spat?

KATIE

You're telling me to close my eyes and watch people being destroyed so you can work in a town that doesn't have spine enough to stand up for anything but a buck. I'm telling you that people are more important than a goddamn witch hunt. You and me. Not causes. Not principles.

KATIE

Hubbell, people are their principles.

Anything sound familiar? Yes, it's a movie and some of the most powerful scenes dealing with the blacklist ended up on the cutting room floor. Still, it was a cautionary tale. 

If you want to learn more, visit the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee University. I wouldn't put it off...it's bound to be noticed and shut down. 

The cancelling of Colbert, the removal of Jimmy Kimmel from ABC, the blatant takeover of the Kennedy Center, the executive order "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," the targeting of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of American History are all attempts to remove and revise history to meet Feckless President's delusion of grandeur. Similar directives aimed at the National Park Service to remove information about slavery and Indigenous Americans is a deliberate attempt to erase them. 

This is not a new tactic; it's one the Nazis used. The Greeks used it. The Ottomans used it. The Borg used it....you know the phrase: Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.

And from the truth is ever so much stranger than fiction department:

On Saturday night, President Felon posted what appeared to be a DM to Attorney General Pam "What Constitution?" Bondi:

This tweet, clearly meant for Bondi's eyes only, was quickly deleted, but not before the immediate world saw it. An hour later, the Orangeman replaced it with a post praising Ms. Bondi. 

"Pam Bondi is doing a GREAT job as Attorney General of the United States

Sure she is. I guess she was absent from law school when they taught Bill of Rights and the US Constitution. Or, a more likely scenario, she got her law degree in a box of Cracker Jack. 

 

And not to be left to his own devices, President Felon was asked how he was holding up after the death of Charlie Kirk. His response was....was....was........stunning in it's hubris:

I think very good. And by the way right there you see all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House which is something they’ve been trying to get as you know for about for 150 years and it’s gonna be a beauty.

Excuse me? Did I just have a cosmic event? He was being asked about the guy he's busy canonizing and he responds with that? Can you spell N-A-R-C-I-S-S-I-S-T, boys and girls?

Meanwhile, back at the UN:

Funny thing about a Palestinian State. Everytime the Palestinians have been offered a state of their own, they've turned it down because it did not include the annihilation of Israel and the removal of all Jews from the region. 

This week, in incredibly ridiculous news, the UK, Canada, and Australia just recognized Palestine as a state. I don't know how that works since they refuse to have a state. Or are we just seeing the setting sun of the British Empire endorsing terrorism? Seems to me, that's gonna come back and bite them all in their collective arse. 

Interesting that this all comes on the heels of President Felon's visit to the UK. Is this part of a deal he cut with the king? I would love to know how the conversations went. Did he threaten the king, or did Chuck just go belly up at the sight of the Great Tangerine? I wonder if he told the Princess of Wales he'd date her because he's almost a king. Gag me.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

L'Shana Tova!

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life

for a happy, healthy, and sweet New Year. 

Happy 5786!

If you've ever wondered where that number came from...follow the link.

Thank you, Elon Gilad!

I have come to bury Charlie Kirk, not to praise him.

In the days since the murder of Charlie Kirk, I have spent an inordinate amount of time reading about this guy. I knew the name, but not much about him other than he was an ally of President Felon. To understand the divergent outcry, I started digging deeper into his statements, his declarations, and his positions on a whole lotta topics. What I came away with was a strange portrait of a guy who was intent on playing to whatever audience was in the house. 

He professed to be observant of Shabbat in the "Jewish way," but I have no idea what that even means. I've been doing it every week for about 73 years and I'm not sure what that means. Last January, he told an even audience he observed a "tech free sabbath" because as pastor friend told him it would reduce anxiety.

Every Friday night, I keep a Jewish Sabbath; I turn off my phone, Friday night to Saturday night. The world cannot reach me, and I get nothing from the world. It will bless you infinitely."

Of course, he also made it very clear that "Jewish" biblical commandments did not apply to Christians. Okay. I get that. Still, his periodic philojudaic statements do not necessarily reflect an acceptance for Jews to live their own lives. As a Christian Nationalist, Kirk believe that the United States should be inwardly AND outwardly Christian, reflecting and observing Christian biblical interpretations. 

As reported in the NY TImes:

Mr. Kirk also accused Jewish philanthropists of fomenting anti-whiteness by supporting liberal antiracism causes like the Black Lives Matter movement.

“The philosophical foundation of anti-whiteness has been largely financed by Jewish donors in the country,” he said on his show in 2023.

Not long after, he accused Jews of controlling “not just the colleges — it’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it."

One can love Israel because it's necessary for the rapture to occur without loving Jews. As a Christian Nationalist, it's pretty evident that there is a dichotomy between the two and Charlie Kirk was clearly in the evangelical rapture camp. What he needs from us is not Shabbat halacha or even Torah for that matter. He needs us to be in Israel so the second coming can happen. That's it, folks. We are expendable after that. He no more loves Jews than he loves Black pilots....and he's made his opinion of Black pilots pretty clear. 

I may not have agreed with Charlie Kirk on a whole raft of issues, but exercising his right to free speech in the public forum is not something with which I can take issue. His dialogue with the attendees at his rally was, apparently, open and an excellent exchange of ideas. But even if he had been shouting, which he was not, he did not deserve to be gunned down. He had every right to be heard, and the kid that shot him must face prosecution and punishment accordingly. Justice must be served.

But that justice cannot and must not be usurped by pathological partisanship. Within hours after the shooting, President Felon declared he would punish Kirk's critics. An article in the Washington Post reported:

President Donald Trump, following the death of GOP activist and close friend Charlie Kirk, vowed to unleash the weight of his administration onto those he said contributed to an environment of “radical left political violence.”

 

How that might translate into policy has remained unclear, as the president and his aides have spent part of the last two days grieving while strategizing their next steps.

 

Trump invoked Kirk’s memory to urge supporters to refrain from retaliatory violence. But he also indicated a desire to not just punish the killer, but also to tackle what the president and his staff described as a movement bent on the destruction of the American way of life. 

 

“The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy,” Trump said Friday morning on Fox News.

According to NBC News, other high ranking government officials are being dragged into the net of retribution:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told his staff to identify any members of the military who have mocked or condoned the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk so that they can be punished, two defense officials told NBC News. 

Several service members have been relieved from their jobs because of such posts, the officials said, adding that Hegseth’s directive also pertains to others associated with the Defense Department. It’s unclear exactly how many people have been disciplined.

Hegseth and other senior Pentagon leaders posted messages on X this week calling on the public to report any posts that could be interpreted as negative about Kirk or unsympathetic about his murder.

I think this is worth noting.

The White House ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff for Charlie Kirk, something was was not done when Melissa Hortman, Minnesota Speaker of the House, was assassinated with her husband and their dog at the front door of their home. According to FOX News, he was too busy that playing golf with GOP leaders in preparation for his budget bill. And he posted on his Truth Social page:

********

UPDATE: THE PRESIDENT DENIES BEING FAMILIAR WITH THE ASSASSINATION OF MELISSA HORTMAN:

Trump at first says he is ‘not familiar’ with Minnesota Democrat’s assassination

********

The differences in President Felon's response to the murders is terrifying. It demonstrates not simply an unwillingness to recognize all lawmakers as contributors to our government on many levels, instead, he reaffirms the creeping obsession he has with obtaining authoritarian control. Ever the opportunist, President Felon and his staff are using the death of Kirk as a opening to undermine the first amendment. This is yet another attempt to remove a plank from the platform of American democracy. Individuals across the country are being fired for comments made about the death of someone not even elected to office, someone whose opinions differ in fundamental ways from Kirk's. Why are his opinions to be held up as sacrosanct?

No, no one should be celebrating. But nowhere in our Constitution is there a clause for the existence of thought police. Just like nowhere in the Constitution is the president given the power to deploy armed forces at will. 

And no, I do not believe for a single moment that Charlie Kirk should be given the hero treatment by our government. Feckless President Felon and J.D. Bedbug can like him all they want. But he was not an elected official. Not even Martin Luther King had a state funeral because Lester Maddox refused to allow it: 

A state funeral or lying in state was refused to King by then-governor of Georgia Lester Maddox, who had considered King an "enemy of the country" and had stationed 64 riot-helmeted state troopers at the steps of the state capitol in Atlanta to protect state property.               Wikipedia

Flown home to Arizona on Air Force Two with the Vice President Bedbug, the memorial service is scheduled to be held at State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals. President Felon and his associates plan to be in attendance. 

Just bury the guy with  all the pomp and circumstance his church allows. Since he was a religious figure, bury him that way. He doesn't need civil beatification to meet his God. And we don't need to spend any more tax money on it, either. 

Somehow, still, this all feels like a desecration of our Constitution. Not that I care, but it still feels weird. Like our government has been taken over by aliens. 

Maybe that's the part we're not yet seeing clearly.

Meanwhile, back at the gold-flocked White House, The administration has ordered the removal of exhibits, including photographs from National Park sites. This removal, according to officials 

is in line with President Donald Trump’s March executive order directing the Interior Department to eliminate information that reflects a “corrosive ideology” that disparages historic Americans. National Park Service officials are broadly interpreting that directive to apply to information on racism, sexism, slavery, gay rights or persecution of Indigenous people. 

Following Trump’s order, Interior Department officials issued policies ordering agency employees to report any information, including signage and gift shop items, that might be out of compliance. Trump officials also launched an effort asking park visitors to report offending material, but they mostly received criticisms of the administration and praise for the parks.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week
Removing the documentation 

does not make the truth go away.

It simply reminds the world

of your cowardice.

Slated to be removed:
“The Scourged Back”
escaped slave Peter Gordon, Louisiana, 1863.
National Gallery of Art 

Oh, for G-d's Sake....Stop Drinking Hamas Kool-Aid

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Pash, Sarah Mendelson,
Yaakov Pinto, Rabbi Israel Matzner
Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, Rabbi Yosef David

I lost my editor today. She is very ill, and I knew this day would come. But that's not the whole reason I lost her. She is angry with me because I don't simply condemn Israel to its core over Gaza.  Today. When 6 people were gunned down at a bus stop in Jerusalem. When 6 people were minding their own business when terrorists fired into the crowd

Of course, the NYT headline read "Gunmen Attack Bus Stop in Jerusalem, Killing at Least 6;" G-d forbid they should call them terrorists because, after all, it happened in Israel. If a bunch of guys shot up a bus stop in Peoria, you damn well better believe they would've immediately been labelled terrorists, domestic or otherwise. But wait! There's more. The NYT goes on to say:

The Israeli police described the shooting as a terrorist attack and said that the perpetrators had been killed at the scene.

Excuse me??????? Described ???????? What? Did they think it was some unruly teenagers?

This is the double standard in the media. Had this happened ANYWHERE in the world except Israel, it would've immediately been labelled terrorist. 

The civilian deaths in Gaza are tragic. The death of children is hard to fathom. Yet, it really isn't. Their deaths underscore the arc of the human shield. They are meant to die, and their deaths are meant to cause outrage and anger. Hamas had more than enough room in the hundreds of miles of tunnels to protect most of their civilians, but the chose to put them directly in harm's way. And when their own bombs fell on their own civilians, they made sure to take no responsibility for those deaths....remember Al-Ahli Arab Hospital? 

When your charter calls for the dismantling of an entire country and executing the population of said country, why would you think said country would go, "Okay. We'll just march into the sea for you." ?

If only Israel had Hamas's PR machine.

If you drink the Kool-Aid, you do more damage to Palestinians than Israelis. If you insist on chanting FREE PALESTINE!, do the Palestinians a favor and add the real, second part of that sentiment: FREE PALESTINE FROM HAMAS. Give those people a fighting change to actually have a state. Unless you rid them of the yoke, the oxen will never be free. 

In today's, MORNING MUSINGS, Peter Himmelman puts today's terrorist attack into harsh perspective:

This “oppressor versus oppressed” binary makes Israel automatically the villain. The narrative requires it: Israel strong, Hamas weak. Once you’ve accepted that framing, the facts no longer matter. And here is where the human cost comes in. I have seen the images from Gaza—children torn apart, families buried. The kind of horror no parent, no human being, should ever have to witness. Anyone who claims those lives don’t matter has cut away their own humanity. 

Yet, to see those deaths and leap to the word “genocide” is to compound the tragedy with a lie. When you declare that Zionists are Nazis, you are saying my mother, my late father and sister, my other siblings, my wife, my children, my grandchildren—you are calling nearly everyone I know and love a Nazi. You may revel in the irony of calling Jews Nazis. To you it feels clever. To me, it is sickening. It shows your ignorance, your gullibility, and your malice. 

Because I’ve seen the other images too; the ones you never mention. October 7th. Hamas slaughtering, raping, burning people alive. Hostages dragged into tunnels, some barely alive, others fully murdered. And still, marches in Western capitals waving Hamas flags, demanding ceasefire before a single hostage was freed. Hamas is not a liberation movement. It is a death cult steeped in radical Islamist ideology that seeks not peace, but the eradication of Israel and the murder of Jews. That day, as today, showed us exactly what we are up against. 

And here is the brutal irony: supporting Hamas does not “save” Gaza—it destroys it. Every rocket fired from a schoolyard, every tunnel dug beneath a hospital, every hostage still held prevents any chance of rebuilding. Gaza cannot be restored so long as Hamas remains, because Hamas thrives on ruin. It needs suffering as its currency. Those who excuse or endorse it are not allies of the Palestinian people. They are accomplices in ensuring that the rubble remains rubble.

When you boycott Israel, Israeli products, Israeli artists, scientists, engineers, and medical research, you are cutting off your nose to spite your face. None of that helps the world, much less the Gazans who live beneath the thumb of a regime that sees them only as cannon fodder.  It doesn't get them food or jobs or housing or clean water. You are simply enabling the leaders to take the money and run...usually to Dubai where they live is opulence while Gazan children starve. It's nothing more than performative activism that is all show and absolutely no action. All those celebrities and musicians who preach this non-active performative activism are doing nothing to help the people of Gaza. If anything, you are supporting the very regime that continues to enslave them. 

Look, when Europe was done trying to kill us, they sent us to a barren strip of sand no one wanted to settle. But like Br'er Rabbit in the briar patch, this is exactly where we wanted to go. It's our home. Before you know it, the desert is green, industry is booming, and Israel, that little strip of land, is thriving. So instead of saying, "Hey! How did you do that?" our neighbors attacked with the intent to destroy. It didn't work in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, two intifadas, 2008, 2012, 2014, or on October 7th, 2023. Offered a state 5 times since 1948, they have never accepted the offer of statehood. Why do you think that is? Because it meant Israel would continue to exist. 

I've said it often enough in this space: the government of Israel is not perfect and Israelis are as unhappy with the prosecution of this war as everyone else. They want the hostages, alive or dead, to be returned. They want the missiles to stop. Everyone is tired of racing to shelters. Israelis are no more interested in war than anyone else, but it's tough to stand down when you are constantly under attack. 

Just like all Americans in this melting pot of a country, everyone has a vested interest in American democracy...or so we all hope.. Same in Israel, a smaller but no less diverse democracy. Most of all, Israelis, whether they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, Baháʼí, Buddhist, Rastafarian, or pastafarian...they all want one thing: to be left in peace to live their lives. 

Photo by Sharon Waxman

In a few weeks, I will be in Israel. One of the things we are planning is a trip to the Nova site. It's not that I want to go; I feel that I must go. Just like the World Trade Center site, I never want to go, but I do because it's my cousins' grave site. I may not have known anyone who died there or in the kibbutzim, but they are also my family. Each one has had a profound impact on my life, my psyche. I will go and I will grieve for the lives mowed down by terrorists. 

If anyone is to blame for all the deaths...Israeli or Palestinians....it's Hamas. They attacked. They raped. The executed children in front of parents and grandparents. They used their own children as shields. They stole humanitarian aid to feed their fighters and left the civilians without sustenance. The Palestinian people are caught in the middle of a war they probably don't want either....but what choice do they have? Just remember, all those dead bodies would probably be alive had Hamas not attacked on October 7th. 

If you really wanna free Palestine.....Free Palestine from Hamas. That is the only chance those people have. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

It's getting to be cemetery visit time again.

Jewish tradition tells us people die twice:

once when they leave their body

and again when people no longer say their name.

Talk about your family...the live ones and the ones who are gone.

From generation to generation, pass on that which makes you unique.