Some Say History Never Repeats...I Have News for Them

There are times that a single act of a government can inspire people to stand up for themselves and fight tyranny as they see it.  Stephen Biko, murdered in prison in South Africa under apartheid became a touchpoint for Black citizens and people around the world that led to the pressure that ended the discriminatory government in the country.  Emmett Till's murder and the failure of the justice system to hold the murderers accountable gave more life to the early Civil Rights movement. A decade later, Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by a state trooper while at a voting rights march.  His death prompted the Selma to Montgomery march and was instrumental in the passing of the Voting Rights Act.  George Floyd's murder by a police officer sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, while controversial because of some people engaging in violence at rallies, did shine a light on police tactics the seem to be used often with minority suspects.  (I could make a long list here).  There are new names being added to this list today.    

Alex Pretti is dead because a person, hired by us, fired into his body several times, while he lay covered by law enforcement officers. While he did have a legal sidearm with him that day, he had been disarmed by a person I am not sure has been identified before the first shot was fired.  Pretti, who was there to record the actions of ICE and Border Patrol in his city, was not violating the law.  Officers pushed him, tackled him, held him down and shot him.  Now the government officials, from those who have direct supervision over the killers to the President of the United States are openly lying about him and his actions.  They are telling us not to believe our eyes, or witnesses, or local law enforcement who want to investigate this as a homicide, but to believe them.  Meanwhile, the right wing noise machine is making up stories about Pretti, saying things about him that aren't true to smear his image.  There have also been several social media posts, likely from right wing run bots, that ask why someone would bring a firearm to a protest.  Like they never heard of Kyle Rittenhouse who they glossed a hero or any Proud Boys or Oath Keeper protest.  Today, there was a long post about how the gun might have fired accidentally prompted the officer response. Like it was all some brutal accident and the fault of the victim.  By tomorrow we will be told he was firing the guns like Yosemite Sam and had to be taken out.  I expect a White House AI video soon.

While this has rocked many people, most in the center or the left politically, I am stunned by the hypocrisy on the right.  Second Amendment absolutists are no where complaining the one of the reasons that is being floated is that he was armed, which I repeat, he was legally allowed to do.  Decades ago when the NRA called ATF agents wrongly Jackbooted Thugs today are supporting the people who are acting like they once described.  Those who complained about arrested made during the January 6th insurrection are not calling out the government for engaging, attempting to arrest and killing someone who was literally doing nothing illegal while they think the government should have left them alone after their clear illegal and anti-American activity on that day.  The clear failure of principles on every level is stunning.

Peter Gabriel wrote a song dedicated to the story of Stephen Biko in 1980.  A line from that song is "You can blow out a candle, but you can't blow out a fire.  Once the flames begin to catch, the wind will blow it higher"  It is time and maybe past time, for the flames to catch.  This has never been about criminal immigrants or undocumented people.  This has been able authoritarian rule and giving the current President a sense of power.  I beg real Republicans and Patriots to stand up and do what is right.  Call out the bad actors, the lies and criminal element that seems to permeate this administrations enforcement officers.  

The world is watching the great American experiment being stressed to a potential breaking point, now is the time to save it.

   

There is No Scientific Evidence that Putting Salt in the Corners of your Bedroom Does Nothing to Keep Vampires Away

 

A recent search of scientific literature on salt and vampires discovered that at no time in the history of this important issue has anyone found that putting salt in the corners of your bedroom does nothing to keep vampires away.  In fact, anecdotal evidence has suggested that salt in the corners does keep them away since there have been no reports in the literature of vampires entering bedrooms of people with salt in the corners.  While clearly not conclusive we cannot ignore the fact that after centuries of salts use no one has shown that it does nothing.  Should we assume it does? 

The logic of this scenario is being used by the current political appointees running the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.  Led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a devoted anti-vaccine advocate, the CDC is not saying there is no scientific evidence that vaccines don’t cause autism.  This ridiculous wordplay is driving the growing antivaccine movement to further encourage people not to vaccinate their children or get regular vaccines such as the flu.  The proliferation of so-called health gurus online has carpet bombed social media with this news, often promoting ridiculous, untested and often dangerous detox protocols for those who have been vaccinated. Parents are wondering if  they are to blame for any autistic symptoms of their children and feeling guilty. 

Worse the the future consequences.  Previously rare or wiped out diseases are coming back into our communities.  When a disease outbreak happens in a community with low vaccination rates, they right it off blaming others, bad nutrition or even calling it a hoax.

But the problem is that there have been many studies looking for a link between vaccines and autism and there is no data that vaccines or any kind create a greater incidence of autism. But since you can't really prove it since you can't have a controlled study to give vaccines to some babies and not to others in a controlled environment well nothing can be definitive. But looking at much of the data there simply is not a risk of increased autism among vaccinated in any research. In fact, the note about vaccines and autism was the result of a deal with a MAGA Senator, meaning another political decision on public health. 

This is dangerous on many levels.  The health leadership under the current administration includes people who are not only agenda driven and former snake oil salespeople, but have zero empathy for the American people.  The public health leadership is hoping to find a link between vaccines or any pharmaceutical products and autism, meanwhile the research that might find cures for other diseases that effect children, or learn new ways to reach autistic students in their learning process if set aside.  And people who have made a career out of attacking the efficacy of drug research to sell people on nonsense homeopathic hoaxes are pushing their own ideology based on fairy dust.  

There is a loud chorus of ignorance that supports this, made up of average people, some of whom want answers as to why their child is like they are, others who want to feel special because they don’t feel they have achieved what they should have in life.  Yet others who will cash in on this through selling fake cures or with internet clicks and ad revenue.  This must be stopped.

The CDC has been the gold standard worldwide in dealing with public health.  Since it has become compromised we need to find new sources of facts. This is not good for the nation or the world.  We can only hope that when this is over the results are not irreversible and real science will prevail.

In the meantime, you really don't need to put salt in the corners of your bedroom, I assure you the vampires won't come either way.  Like the link between vaccines and autism, vampires don't exist. 

Some Events Make People Lose Their Ability to Think Rationally

 In the weeks lead up to the anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks my social media was carpet bombed by the conspiracy theorists about the event.  Like many conspiracy theories about a major event, they all have their own vision of who did this and how it was done.  So on September 10th I was going to sit down when I got home from work and write about debunking them all.  I mean it is so weird that almost a quarter century after the fact there are still people who haven't seen how so many of the nonsense statements about the attacks have been proven ridiculous and impossible.  But there continues to be a tsunami of people willing to talk about how the "official narrative" in their mind is false.  They don't have a shred of evidence but are willing to vomit their absurd notions for all to see. 

But as I sat down and logged into the computer as I prepared for Hebrew School I got the alert that Charlie Kirk had been shot.  To be clear I have never been a fan of Charlie Kirk nor did I think his style of debate was a net positive, however he shouldn't have been shot because someone didn't like what he said.  It wasn't long until I learned he had died.  So I thought writing about 9-11 and conspiracy theorists would be inappropriate.  What I posted on Facebook was a condemnation of political violence and mentioned how some people are responding to murder.  It included this quote, " And it wouldn't be our current culture is conspiracy theories haven't already developed and finding a home in cesspool of the social media community." I couldn't imagine how far afield these conspiracy theorists will go.  There is some saying it was staged and that he is still alive.  This was all staged.  The worst is that his wife was a Mossad agent  involved in child trafficking.  (because all conspiracies theories tend to find its way back to the Jews.) I don't want to platform any of the nonsense but once again we have a major event that people can't accept. 

There are two competing issues that drive modern conspiracy theorists.  Historically, conspiracy theories were driven by people who wanted feel special.  Often people who felt they were worth more than their lives turned out.  Sometimes a brilliant person who was not seen as brilliant by peers or more likely someone who believed in their own brilliance that was not realized.  Simply put people created wild and unsubstantiated explanations for world events to make themselves appear smarter than the general population and the people investigating the incidence.  The results often have multiple results from different conspiracy theorists that are mutually exclusive.  But everyone of the promoters of their theory will tell everyone they are right.  

However today, with social media monetizing clicks and views, there are people performing on podcasts, YouTube and other platforms creating wild stories, often these are people who have already established a huge following from previous work.  Two people have done this in the wake of Kirk's murder.  Candace Owens, a woman who was once taken very seriously by the right wing noise machine, has gotten stranger and stranger in her assertions.  In this case she says she has evidence of Israel is responsible as part of a world wide conspiracy.  She has zero evidence but it drives viewership to her podcast so we will see her feeding at this trough.  Megan Kelly, a former Fox News reader and once worked for NBC's Today show, has elevated a Jezebel satirical article into a new bone to chew.  Jezebel  had an article saying they were paying Etsy witches to curse Kirk for his misogyny.  Kelly has decided that she was going to attack the notion of "the left" using demons and curses that resulted in Kirk's death.  Again, riling up people to look into her performances online.  And then there is Joe Rogan, a man who has turned being surprised and gullible into the most watched podcast ever.  Joe and his minions challenge everything up to and including reality itself. 

Both voices looking to elevate themselves over the truth recruit followers who begin to doubt everything.  While questioning can be healthy, doing so without evidence or to simply create an audience is dangerous.  It is also disgusting watching people use the murder of a man as a jumping off point for their own benefit.  They are pissing on Kirk's grave.  

The investigation into the events of September 10th will continue.  If there was more than one person involved it will be discovered. (Even as the FBI is led by two former podcasters who would probably be on my list with Kelly, Owes, and Rogan if they weren't at the agency).  But we will see.  In the mean time we should focus on what is real, engage the world with facts and rational thought and hope that fewer people think violence is the answer to their problems.  

JFK Was Killed By Lee Harvey Oswald

 In the latest attempt by the current President to act like the cool dad, the Trump White House declassified thousands of pages of information surrounding the investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  Like much of what the last few months have been like it was a ham handed nightmare, in some cases releasing data that has national security implications and I heard included living individuals social security and other identifying information.  (Before you go nuts, this was from people seeking to look at some of the archived materials in the 1990s so yes they are alive and contemporaries of mine).  

Of course no one has found the smoking gun that would lead to the finger being pointed at anyone other than Lee Harvey Oswald.  The fact is however, for conspiracy theorists and their believers, this is the perfect Rorschach test.  What I have seen published includes:

• The CIA killed Kennedy. 
• The FBI killed Kennedy.
• The CIA working with the FBI killed Kennedy.
• The Secret Service killed Kennedy, saying the driver shot him.  (seriously look into this it is hilarious).  
• George H.W. Bush killed Kennedy. Not sure how he had the power as Harris County Republican committee chair at the time.  (But somehow that he would become CIA director over a decade later played a role).
• LBJ apparently killed Kennedy, thank you Oliver Stone
• The Cubans Killed Kennedy, both those who supported Castro and those opposed to him.
• The Mafia killed Kennedy.
• Even Joe Biden apparently killed Kennedy though an undergrad at university.
• And finally, like every other conspiracy, we eventually get to the Jews killed Kennedy. 

All of this came from the release of these documents and the fact that both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations were badly conducted and the investigations were rushed and started. it seems, with the conclusion. There was also a serious of bad decisions made right after the event that made people feel uncomfortable.  LBJ's insistence on being sworn in right away, the way Kennedy's body was handled, the coldness of some officials in response.  People today don't understand the Cold War footing we were on and this may have been an outside attack.  Later, an attempt to clean up the actions made it look conspiratorial when in fact it was most likely stupidity.  The was no protocol for what had happened and thus fumbling was common.   

The Kennedy Assassination has led to a virtual industry of information published, broadcasts and simply rants over the more than 6 decades since it occurred.  For a while I was deeply interested in it.  I read tons of books about it from all kinds of experts and theorists.  I watched tons of so-called documentaries and movies. I found that most places got things wrong about a lot of the facts because the information in the documents that were currently released was wrong.  So here we are, more nonsense to wade through and in the end the people who have clearly shown a lack of critical thinking will elevate themselves and call it a win.  Even as they argue over who did it among themselves.  

When the evidence is looked at from an objective perspective, Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.  People are not comfortable with that notion because it is hard to believe a single individual, without power, money or status, could change the world so dramatically.  But it happens all the time.  An Archduke is shot and World War I starts, a small group of terrorists find a weakness in US commercial aviation and the world is set on fire, and someone with a gun and a desire to be special or famous can take down a world leader.  No conspiracy necessary.  While conspiracies do exist, chances are that if they are able to plan in secret and avoid anyone leaking information you would see clues of it. 

As the people who thrive trying to feel smart and call other people sheep for not following their lead we must simply continue to look at what is actually important.  These documents are not that. 

Weaponizing Language, a GOP tradition

 It seems that the right wing in the United States has a long history of taking words and phrases used by the left and turning them into weapons by redefining them.  It is an on-going pattern that truly is genius because it appears their followers are easily lead to repeat their nonsense.  Some words and phrases stand out in my experience. They are politically correct, woke, and DEI.  This is not a limited list because other words and phrases have also been bastardized by the right, I am going to stick with these.  

I first heard politically correct (PC) in the late 80s or early 90s but it is much older.  Many say it originated in the former Soviet Union, used to explain how people who are in line with the political acceptable ideas of the ruling government.  Later used by Nazis in the same way.  In both cases being politically correct were necessary for success in the culture or simply remaining alive.  When it was first used in the 80s it was used by liberals, sometimes as self deprecating and others as a way to make fun of someone.  The idea was someone was more in-line with the current way to be counter culture.  I once heard someone say "He is so politically correct that he doesn't eat honey, he doesn't want to exploit the bees".  It was often seen as a joke or a way to call out the person trying to one up others.  That was true until President George H. W. Bush used it in a commencement speech at the University of Michigan to call out people who were trying to change hurtful language and imagery that was used in government and media. (Phrases like retard for example).  Over night the right wing noise machine, then mainly on radio with a few on TV, were calling out politically correct to the point that calling out anything hurtful was called PC.  Two comedians used the phrase in stage and TV shows to challenge people who suggest some things are not fodder for comedy.  This continues today.  When someone suggests a person with a disability should play a disabled person in a movie they can still be labeled politically correct.  Also we can still here people telling us they are not PC before saying something offensive, like it a vaccine against consequences.  The reality is what society will accept changes, and it isn't about bending to a political ideology, but today questioning phrases of all kinds gets you called sheep of the THEY that is THEM.  That is sad.

Woke, a word whose history goes back to the 1930s in the African American community, was originally used to describe one who is aware of the systemic issues that effect the Black community down.  "Stay Woke" is a phrase calling for being aware of what is going on in the world.  It was not unusual that some saw plots where their weren't any, but for the most part it was a way of helping people see a bigger picture that is not often shown in media.  In the last several years woke became an insult from the right for people standing up not only for minorities, but LGBTQ+ groups, women, people with disabilities and others.  Books were written talking about how being WOKE has led to discrimination against straight white (mostly) men.  One such author was ask during a news interview and couldn't define it.  Apparently it is like pornography, she knew it when she saw it.  Banning WOKE because a Republican agenda which led to banning books in schools, changing language to be less inclusive, and seeking out what is WOKE in education.  Again without knowing what they are looking for.  Anything that made them uncomfortable, like teaching about the Trail of Tears, Ruby Bridges, or Slavery was considered WOKE and thus it must be anti-American.  I still think it is fascinating that so many people use this phrase when talking about all kinds of things.  It is often embraced during the fictional war on Christmas when the age old phrases like Season's Greetings or Happy Holidays are considered WOKE, the word has no meaning.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is the latest ubiquitous phrase in right wing universe.  DEI is a systematic approach that tries to open doors from people that have been systematically been closed due to active bigotry or lack of thought.  DEI creates an environment where people who are often not considered for employment, awards, college admission, or even acknowledged are given a chance to compete.   An example of DEI that is well known and has been accepted in our culture is the Rooney Rule in the NFL that requires teams to interview minority candidates for important football jobs like Head Coaches.   Implemented in 2003 it has lead to teams to take a closer look at qualified candidates who would likely be ignored in the past.  However, even today the Rooney Rule is called racist by a sports writer on a right wing sports outlet.  It suggests that black coaches didn't deserve the interview, let alone the job.  Now whenever anything happens, like a helicopter crashing into a jet, the current President blames DEI. Seriously, it is nuts, but it seems part of a bigger ideology.  DEI is a being expunged from government under the right wing control in some states driven by the current administration.  It is funny, the Governor of Texas wants to end DEI, the same DEI idea that created the ramp that allows this wheelchair using Governor to get into the State House since it wasn't build with one. 

I am not going to dissect each one of  these and how the right manipulates it for their followers.  In writing this I want to start a conversation about how the left can take them back or begin to guard our language of reality and challenge attempts to turn them against us.  I am not sure how but I am willing to try.  We can't lose the narrative.   

It Is a Bad Idea to Teach from the Bible

The rise of Christian Nationalism and its influence on public policy is a troubling development in the current political climate in the United States.  I fear for the future of that which makes our country a free and open society.  While many times throughout our history religious zealots have held positions of authority it seems different today.  I remember a few years ago a local city councilman in a small town in Indiana wanted to have city parks closed on Sunday so people would go to church.  It was met with giggles by many.  Today I wonder how many votes it would get in US Senate for that regulation of  Yellowstone.  

One of the most interesting results of this shift in power is the growing attempts to put the 10 commandments and the Christian Bible in schools and have them be used as teaching instruments.  One state Superintendent said the Bible is an historical document and used to help the development of the nation.  I am not sure what he means by the Bible being an historical document, while it cites people, places and some things that we have evidence for existing, much of it cannot be proven and in fact can be disproven easily.  As for the founding of the country, while the great minds that created our government were influenced by post-Enlightenment thinking and were influenced by an intellectual exploration of Christian and Jewish thought of the time;  they were not nearly the religious people that so many suggest.  In fact they would be appalled by the efforts of some of today's so-called Christian leaders in government. 

It is easy to understand why teaching the Christian, and particularly the Protestant understanding, of the Bible could be troubling to non Christians. There is no reason to ask a person of different faith or no faith to learn and somehow be held to the religious laws of another faith.  In fact it would be detrimental to such a person to have to sit in a classroom where posted on the wall is an indictment of their beliefs and the 10 commandments would do.  While the Bible was used in the early days of public education as a tool to teach reading, small local schools were made up of a far more homogenous population.  Today our country boast a rich tapestry of beliefs and understands both across many faiths and within faith communities.  Within a few miles of my offices there are very conservative and remarkably liberal United Methodist Churches.  How they approach the Biblical narrative would be very different.  As a liberal Jew I too see the text differently than the Orthodox synagogue I can see through the trees in back of my shul.  

And that is the problem.  The Bible can be sacred to a number of people and the translation chosen and the discussion of the meaning of the words can actually be disturbing to very people who are pushing this on the schools.  Imagine if you will if you think the Bible is the univocal, inerrant, word of God.  Then while studying it in a classroom you come across a contradiction that is hard to rectify.  You ask the teacher who gives a viewpoint that doesn't meet the doctrine of your fundamentalist church.   Should the teacher have to adhere to your faith's position, what of the child in the next desk who has a community that views it differently?  Would someone in the room have to have their faith attacked to meet the need of other?  This is the problem with  using sacred text, they cannot be studied in the same way you explore Shakespeare or Alice Walker.  It can't be picked apart like you might the theories of Piaget versus Vygotsky.   The notion that you can will always hurt someone.  That is just what will happen. 

Deeply religious Christians should be more troubled with the text being handed over to high school students who will look for the problematic passages, the contradictions and of course the translation errors and poor choices.  (For example: The first line of the Bible should not be translated In the Beginning and the commandment says Don't Murder not Thou Shalt Not Kill.)  But smart kids will challenge things they have read and smartass kids will push harder.   What does a teacher do in a class where discussing space exploration brings up the idea that we are living under a firmament.  You don't have walk very far down the information superhighway to meet a person saying that space isn't real. We live on a flat earth and there is a dome at that protects us from the waters above.  Do they acknowledge the Biblical cosmology to tell the truth? 

Atheists and others will challenge these attempts to sneak a particular religion into a public school.  The supreme court has ruled on this in the past.  While this court might overturn the concept it will really seal their legacy as the most anti-Constitutional court.  But if we allow for the Bible to become a classroom text books those who understand it is not will be fine, those that reject it out of hand will just challenge it and those that truly hold it sacred and the word of God will be the ones who have to balance how they learn it in their house of worship and how it is discussed in school.  They, I think, are the ones who will suffer from this most of all.  Oh the irony. 

They Are NOT Eating Cats A New Kind of Blood Libel

Last week we saw just how insidious the right wing noise machine and the new voice of the Republican party truly is.  A self-proclaimed white nationalist made up a story about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH were stealing pets and eating them.  They pointed to an early story in Ohio from Columbus were a mentally ill woman, American born, appeared to be eating a cat.  Then a flurry of images, one of a man cleaning up a dead goose, one of what looked like poultry on a grill, and one of what looked like a weird ritual came out.  None were from Springfield, none seemed to Haitian immigrants and none were confirmed to be illicit.  Yet it was an anti-immigration story and it had legs.  

Then Donald Trump repeated this crazy thing during the recent debate.  He was fact checked in real time and didn't back down.  He has since repeated it over and over.  The city of Springfield has said it isn't happening.  The person who started the viral spread of the story said she had no evidence.  But then people came out of the woodwork saying the heard it from someone. Sometimes getting more fantastical than the last time.  Trump now says that he will send ICE into Springfield to deport all the illegals there.  But the Haitian immigrants are not in the country illegally, the city sees them as good citizens, and the community is rallying around them.  

But since the elevation of the story we have seen bomb threats at municipal buildings and schools.  Threats of violence against Haitians from many online.  And the Proud Boys, the white nationalist supporters of Donald Trump who helped lead the attack on democracy on January 6th, marched through the streets of Springfield.  If not deescalated I am sure blood will be shed.  But today, Sunday, September 15th, 5 days after Trump and his Vice-Presidential nominee started the fire of hate and fed the flames with nonsense and bigotry, Vance went on national television and said in reference to this "Dana, the evidence is the firsthand account of my constituents who are telling me that this happened… The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana, because you guys are completely letting Kamala Harris coast." So he admitted the story is false, he knew it was false, he promoted it even though it was false and not the Haitian community, a community he says are illegal, they are not, is being terrorized.  I would say this is something new but it isn't.

For centuries we have seen this kind of thing said about the Jewish community.  Jews have been called outsiders, agitators, and of course accused of killing Christian children for their blood.  Throughout Europe in the middle ages through today on the same internet channels that promoted this false story we still see this and echoes of it.  The results of these kinds of made-up lies about the Jewish community led to pogroms where entire communities were devastated by angry mobs of people who believed the "first hand accounts" that turned out to be false.  When I heard the Proud Boys were coming to town I worried this is the start of something not the end.  As JD Vance, a Senator, a candidate to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, told the American people he is willing to make things up about and entire community to rile up the hate in others I can't for the life of me think what kind of person would continue to support such vile people.  This isn't about immigration policy, Trump certainly doesn't care about that, it is about attacking a group of people who have no real voice to gin up that hate.  To give people someone to blame for their own situation in life.  This cannot be what a major political party in our country stands for and should not be something that is lauded.  

Donald Trump and JD Vance appear to be comfortable lying about groups of people who were embraced by a community that need a work force to grow or simply sustain themselves.  I am happy to see Republicans in Ohio, including the government and the local government push back on this nonsense.  But history tells up that it is no laughing matter as so many have taken to making it.  Donald Trump and JD Vance are toying with embracing crimes against humanity.  You can join them or stand against them.  You have a choice.  Choose wisely.  

The Eclipse Is Bringing Back Memories of My Dad

In less than a day Indianapolis will be in the path of totality for a solar eclipse.  There has been a great deal of hype for this around here.  Well deserved hype as it is rare to be in the center of this amazing astronomical event.  Eclipses have been important to humanity since we first looked up at the sky.  In ancient times it was seen as a bad omen by some.  It sparked curiosity in early scientists that helped thinkers develop a better understanding of the movement of celestial bodies.  While we understand and can predict these and so many other movements today, there are still some people who try to link it to the supernatural.  A certain member of Congress and her propagandist boyfriend have both said it is a sign of God punishing us.  These, of course, are not serious people but do have a following.  I hope the eclipse brings out the best in people as they observe the moon pass between the earth and the sun and we have a few minutes of night in the middle of tomorrow afternoon.  I honestly can't wait.  

When I was young, like many small children in the late 60s, I was obsessed with space.  Rockets that eventually took humans to moon, satellites, and of course the mainstream science fiction has me thinking by the time I was going to be the age I am now we would be colonizing the moon and maybe Mars.  So in the spring of 1970 when an eclipse was happening that crossed New York State I really wanted to see it.  I honestly can't remember how much of it would be seen by us in Ogdensburg as I believe the center of the event would be over New York City almost 400 miles away.  So I have no recollection of the day of the event, I do know I missed seeing it.  However, one night not long after the eclipse my dad came to me in my bed, he had the cardboard with the hole punched in, a flashlight and piece of paper to project onto and showed me what I would have seen if I could see the eclipse.  I can't recall all the details of that evening, but the fact that he did that left an indelible mark on my memory and nearly 50 years later I still remember that he did that.  I lost my dad when I was not yet 13 years old.  All of my memories of him a childhood memories.  Some good, some bad and some just natural family stuff.  I remember that day we got cable in our house for the first time and my dad sitting in front of the TV watching his Yankees on WPIX with Phil Rizzuto, The Scooter.  I remember him in the kitchen making dozens of loaves of bread as he ended his army career in the mess cooking for the troops, I still have his fry cake maker an invention that you poured the batter in and it made round blobs that seized up when it hit the hot oil to make doughnuts.  But the memory of the eclipse lives with me because it felt like a one-on-one.  My brothers and sisters were not involved.  I am sure they all have similar moments and being older, maybe even more.  But what I have is a special memory I will always have. 

On Monday, as I look to the sky, I will be amazed by the apparent swallowing of the light of the sun.  I will watch through the special glasses and will likely also make a little cardboard device to see the projection.  At totality when we remove the glasses for those brief seconds and see the sun's corona, (if there isn't a lot of cloud cover) I don't know what other people will be thinking, but I will be thinking of my dad, and I will certainly make that memory a blessing. 

It is All a Conspiracy

 Sometimes an event could have a giant impact on the world we live in, but not have a similar cause.  A disgruntled man takes aim from a six floor window and a popular President loses his life, terrorists discover an easy way to wreak havoc in the United States and iconic buildings are destroyed or damaged, a virus jumps from animals to humans and a world-wide pandemic ensues.  For some these kinds of events demand in their minds a larger genesis or reason.  So they create a story of a hidden cabal of individuals that planned this out for nefarious reasons.  It is often not sure who did it, sometimes the ideas are several different groups.  Even worse when pressed, the why is often an amorphous answer that may or not make sense with reality.  We call these views of the world through the Picasso colored glasses conspiracy theories.  

Conspiracy theories all link to each other by the common thread that there exist a group or groups that want to control us by manipulating the world in ways big and small.  The big events are covered up by their partners in governments and the media.  This notion is that most people are sheep who just believe what they told but the conspiracy theorists have inside knowledge.  What is somewhat interesting is that there is even a conspiracy theory about term conspiracy theory.  There are those that say the term was invented by the CIA to discredit people who challenged the prevailing story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  People swear by this but in fact the term appears in print as early as 1863 in reference to a wild idea of how England should engage with the combating armies in the American Civil War.  On January 11th in the New York Times the term is used to reference the idea that the British Elite would look to support one side to help make the young reforms that led to the United States government fail.  Thus take over the country once again.  There are also printed accounts using the term in the 1870s and early 1900s.  

Conspiracy theorists for decades made their pitches to like minded individuals or people like me who dive down rabbit holes when I grow interested in a topic.  For example I have read, watched and listened to so much material on the Kennedy assassination that it seems like everyone was in Dealey Plaza with a gun and a plan.  When in fact, if you take a sober look at the events of November 22, 1963 the only conclusion is that Lee Harvey Oswald, a complicated and disturbed man, looking for some personal value, shot and killed the President of the United States.  

I will grant that the are in fact conspiracies that take place.  Efforts to obfuscate the facts to outright lying to meet an end.  But there is a difference between a conspiracy and a conspiracy theory.  Conspiracy theories take things that have a rational or easily examined cause and weave an elaborate and often ridiculous plot to explain the event.  

Conspiracy theories have looked to the government as the bad actor in the conspiracy but there is always a hint at something bigger than a single government.  Somehow there is an elite group of wealthy individuals who control banks, money supplies, even the necessities of life who are really pulling the strings.  The government is just another puppet, either willing or ignorant.  This has in recent centuries boiled down to being led by The Jews.  Driven by bigotry and often a sense that someone is keeping them down, people bought into conspiracy theories because it made them feel better about themselves and for some feel like they were special.  In this one area they knew the truth and everyone else was a fool.  So often when you challenge a conspiracy theorist the response is either that you are part of their conspiratorial worldview or too dumb to see the truth. 

In recent years however conspiracy theories have become far more partisan.  People are promoting and supporting certain wild conspiracy theories because it slips nicely into their view over who their candidate for office is.  Politicians and their surrogates have noticed and thus promote those conspiracy theories that garner them support.  Sometime directly and sometimes indirectly, they keep the fire of a nonsensical conspiracy theory alive in the hope of getting votes.

Partisanship driven conspiracy theories are dangerous.  In June John Rumpel, a Florida businessman and a Trump supporter was traveling to New York from Tennessee when the plane changed course and found its way over Washington DC's restricted airspace.  Fighter jets were scrambled to intercept but it became clear that no one on-board was conscious.  The plane crashed in Virginia with no survivors and Mr. Rumpel, his adult daughter and granddaughter among the victims.  This type of tragedy is rare but not unheard of.  In 1999, a private jet carrying Payne Steward, a PGA Gold champion, crashed due to decompression in the cabin cause the people on board to not have adequate oxygen.  The people on-board were likely already dead as the plane continued to fly until is ran out of fuel.  It crashed in South Dakota leading to the loss of Stewart and 5 others.  The flight had been intercepted by Military Jets but there was nothing they could do.  But for many in the right wing noise machine the similar tragedy that befell the Rumpel flight was not a simple accident.  No they suggested that the Biden Administration had targeted this plane and it was shot down because Rumpel was a financial supporter of Trump.  They said that the government is coming for Trump supporters.  Similarly this week, a man in Utah had been making wild threats against the various prosecutors who are working on the Trump cases as well as the Attorney General and President and Vice-President.  When confronted by the FBI, which is standard procedure in cases of threats, he told them the next time they come by he would shoot them.  So earlier this week the man made a specific threat to the President who was going to be in Utah so the FBI got a warrant and went to serve and arrest him.  It is still not know exactly what happened but the FBI chose to use deadly force and kill him.  This man had a stockpile of weapons and had on more than several occasions suggest exactly how he was going to use them on his enemies. Again, the right wing noise machine suggested they killed him because he was on outspoken Trump supporter and that he was old and frail and that he wouldn't hurt anyone.  The same people who dredge up instagram posts of unarmed black kids killed by police when they were teens looking violent and call them thugs don't show the pictures of this terrorist from a few days ago with a ghillie suit and sniper rifle saying he is ready to take action.  No for them this killing of a highly armed man is not part of a conspiracy to take out Trump supporters.  This certainly would be a highly inefficient way to do it.  But because the people killed, one by accident and one by law enforcement, were Trump supporters there must be a cabal behind it. 

The danger of this, coupled with the echoes of the Q Anon conspiracies, is that people will see all people opposed to a MAGA policy not only as wrong, but evil.  One roots evil out and what I fear is that there will be more violence, directed at Democrats and Republicans they deem unworthy of the party.  People die in accidents, people die when they challenge the police with weapons, and people die because the world is not perfect.  We don't have to look for the men behind the curtain on everything.  Mostly there is no curtain. 

I Only Every Saw My Dad Hit My Mom Once

 I only ever saw my dad hit my mom one time. It wasn’t out of anger but frustration. We were in the car, traveling during a terrible thunderstorm.  My dad pulled over as the wipers couldn’t keep up with the rain. My mother was crying and screaming, she wanted to get out of the car to run into the church. The rain, then hail, made the two block walk dangerous and my dad tried to tell her.  She wasn’t able to listen, my dad slapped her, then grabbed her and held her tight.  The storm eventually passed and my dad took us all home, in silence. 

 

We were in the car because whenever a storm came my mother had to get out of the house.

We would leave and go somewhere else, anywhere with people. During the day, if a storm came we would go to the Ames Department store.  We would go inside and walk around, I would mainly look at the toys. We could watch the storm through the big windows to the parking lot but it was impossible to hear the thunder.  

But the real fun came at night.  If a storm was predicted, when we went to bed we would be told to keep our clothes nearby on the floor. Like fire fighters socks in the shoes, pants and shirt handy, we needed to be ready to go when the call came.  

“Wake up, there’s a storm”

We would get up and pile into the car and go out.  Good nights we went to the hospital, the big waiting room that people sat in waiting to visit someone upstairs in a room or being treated in Emergency.  My mom chose there because it was a fallout shelter.  The yellow and black sign that looked like a weird pizza to me, the result of Cold War fears, hung outside the building.  For mom that was safety.  We would go in, climb a set of hard stairs and then sit in plastic covered furniture under the watchful eye of the Pinkerton guard at his desk.  I always tried to getting pennies for the gumball machine and was impressed I got two squares not one round one.

The large window that look out toward the river and the church parking lot gave us a clear view of the storm as it passed. Once, my mother went into the back and came out calmer and more comfortable. She fell asleep on the ride home.

 

If we were in luck however we would go to the all night truck stop at the edge of town,

Aptly named The Edge of Town. There we would cram into a booth as the server brought the children chocolate milk and my parents coffee.  We sat among overnight truckers, drunk college students (Denny’s had not come to the North Country) and often women seeking comfort from a driver or offering it for coin. 

This was my normal.  Storms meant you awoke, went someplace and waited them out.  I didn’t realize how strange that was until college.  When I lived in the dorms I was always surrounded by people so the realization came when I had an apartment and was sharing my bed through a late night storm.  I awoke and quickly turned on the TV to watch the storm information on the weather channel.  I felt anxious and wanted to leave but didn’t know where to go as my companion grunted questions about why I was up and to go back to sleep.  I realized that maybe not everyone reacts to the storms the way my family did.  She fell back asleep in the glow of the TV on mute as I watched the radar show the storm move off to the east.  As the weather quieted I slipped back under the sheets and continued the night.  

Over the years I have mellowed on my reaction to storms.  I watched my son grow up not caring about them.  But I still have to follow them, where they are, where they are going, when the threat is over.  Smart phones allow me to monitor this with stealth I didn’t have before.  I still must be aware of all that is going on.  Storms are always my nemesis and I must conquer them each time they come.  

Now you might ask why I carry this through life.  It is simple.  For my mom every time lightening flashed and was followed by a clap of thunder she was no longer a mother of 7, a wife, a survivor or a warrior that I saw her as most of the time.  She was the small child, one who heard the planes fly overhead in Mannheim 150 times in the years before she was 10 years old.  A child who hid in stairwells and basements and prayed with neighbors that the next bomb wouldn’t destroy their house, their school or their lives.  A child who saw the flashes of light at the city edge and waited for the rolling thunder of the bomb’s concussion as it rolled down the streets in the dark of night.  I have never faced death at the hands of an anonymous pilot dropping explosives on my home, but I inherited the fear that was delivered as well.  I carry with me the scars that she earned as a girl who for her 5th birthday saw her cousin’s house go up in flames from a British incendiary device.  The flash of lightening and the sound of thunder of a simple summer storm carried so much more for my mom, and still today for me.  A legacy of a war fought against an unspeakable evil that spawned this irrational response of punishment on the people of Germany.  My mom is gone, but that punishment lives on in me, a little less pronounced than in her, but still there.  I hope my son didn’t pick up on my reaction to the weather.  I hope my son will be able to sleep through the storms in his life.  But I worry about others.  

As drone strikes rain death from far away on camps in Middle Eastern deserts, as bombs take out both ancient buildings and modern apartments in places like Aleppo and Baghdad. I wonder as cruise missiles shake up the centers of the oldest cities in the world.  I ponder when suicide vests destroy pizza places and concert venues what exactly will their legacy be.  Will there be some mother or father, 20 years from now telling their children to keep their clothes close, there might be storm?  Will those children 40 years from now struggle with the weather like I do, knowing full well it is not rational and yet continuing to live in that manner.  When will it stop, and will we ever have the will to make it stop?  

 

Deplorable

When Damar Hamlin was hit during an NFL game, the Buffalo Bills defensive player collapsed on the field.  It was clear this was a very scary moment and after the ambulance took him to a near by hospital the game was suspended, later to simply be cancelled.  But while prayers both on the field, in the stands and across social media began, there was another voice in the ether.  The anti-vax conspiracy theorists, many who had not yet seen the hit, were proclaiming this was somehow related to the Covid 19 vaccination.  Within a day people were saying he was dead and the NFL was covering it up.  As time went on and we learned that Hamlin was recovering, the voices of the conspiracy theorists grew louder. When Hamlin attended the Bills' playoff game but didn't do an interview and was covered for the weather people people started repeating he was dead and they used a body double.  This suggested that the NFL, the Bills, the sports media, and Hamlin's family were all attempting to hide the death of a young man.  When pushed on it the conspiracy theorists would say it was about money.  Somehow they were even able to suggest that President Biden was involved and a long planned trip to Ohio by the President was somehow part of the effort to keep the death quiet.  Now that Hamlin is making public statements these people are even questioning his existence, calling the videos he is making deep fakes or using an actor.  Hamlin is promoting getting trained in CPR and recognizing signs of heart distress and these people are attacking the videos.  

The reason to them:  The vaccine is killing people in large numbers but there is a large cabal stopping the news of this.  They have no real evidence, so they make it up.  What is worse is that anyone who dies at a young age are lumped into this.  Watch any announcement of a death and there will be someone claiming it was the vaccine.  It doesn't matter if the person had a long history of illness, was a likely suicide, or have clear indications of trauma that caused the death.  This has dragged the names of people who lost their lives in tragic ways into their wild fantasy world.  Most recently a 14 year old named Denim Bradshaw.  Bradshaw was a young man at who was riding a bull at a rodeo and was dumped and stomped by the bull.  The trauma caused his heart to stop.  But the facts don't matter they added it to the so-called evidence that something is wrong.  

What is the most disturbing it is that this is not driven by anything more than politics.  It is a right wing driven narrative that populates social media and so-called news channels who are promoting lies and distorted data about the deaths of mostly young people.  Bradshaw's death was a terrible accident but his friends and family have to see people attacking his parents for getting him vaccinated (even though no one knows if he was).  Even worse was the story of a young athlete that died in an apparent suicide being talked about as a vaccine death.  

When Hillary said half the people who supported Trump were a basket of deplorable she appeared to under estimate by a lot.   He and the right wing noise machine have found that there is no real consequences of this kind of behavior.  So I assume it will go on.  I am glad to see Hamlin recovering from his accident, I am sorry for the families who have lost someone and hope they are comforted by friends.  I also would hope that these people who promote this hurtful nonsense find a way to come back to reality.  But that hope is slipping. 

No Jews are Not Trying to Replace You.

 Recently the channel NewsMax, a right wing propaganda producer masquerading as a news network, ran a segment on the American Girl franchise.  During the segment, which I assume was about some aspect of diversity that American Girl is expressing, a man on the panel said he took his daughter to the American Girl store in Rockefeller Center.  He made a point of calling her his white, six year old daughter.  He said the whole point of the store is that a child can go in and get a doll that looks like them and even get the same outfit as the doll.  But when he went there there he said there were no dolls for white girls.  He said that all the dolls were for people of color and it was a weird feeling.  Well, it is a good thing I buy my irony meters in bulk at Costco.  It would have been interesting if the panel had a person of color explain their childhood experience looking for a doll like them.  But what was amazing, during the segment the control room was scrolling through the American Girl catalog.  The vast the majority of the dolls being shown were white.  So this guy was gas lighting us or he forgot to take his tan sunglasses off.  I have walked past this store a few times in my visits to the city but I have never been inside.  I can't say that I noticed the dolls on display but I can't imagine that the store would only have dolls of color.  

The demographics of who visits Rockefeller Center, a tourist area for sure, would include a large percentage of white families.   But this show knows that the vast majority of their audience will never travel to New York, let alone the American Girl store at Rockefeller Center.  The image of New York that this network portrays is a wasteland populated by non-white immigrants and crime.  So they will believe him.  That is the essence of the right wing noise machine model. Ignoring reality even when you have it and give fuel to those who want to believe the worst.  It feeds the narrative that there is a war on white people, a dangerous conspiracy theory that we know leads to violence.  He basically said the grand replacement theory is happening in a toy store and that drives a growing narrative. 

There are many people, including elected officials in Congress, who believe there is a globalist agenda to replace white people in Western Society with immigrants.  The word globalist is often used to avoid calling it a Jewish plot.  Often mentioned is George Soros, a business man and philanthropist who is a billionaire and supporter of progressive movements.  This conspiracy theory has led to the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in the summer of 2017 which saw the death of Heather Hire, a woman who was killed by a man driving his car into the crowd of counter-protesters.  This theory has been used as justification for other violent acts including the shooting at a Walmart in Texas, a grocery store in Greater Buffalo and several attacks on synagogues.  

On Christmas eve the Governor of Texas, sent a bus with asylum seekers to the home of Vice-President Kamala Harris in Washington D.C. without notifying anyone he was doing it.  They arrived in the midst of a winter storm with nothing but what they were carrying.  He did this because he sees these legal people petitioning the US for help after leaving their home countries for fear of drug cartels and abject poverty as invaders who will destroy white culture.  He and other republicans have done this in the past and have little or no regard for the lives of these people.  Many have referred to them as vermin.  (Sometimes using language similar to how the Nazis referred to the Jews and Roma people).  

There appears to be a fear among conservatives that their long held seats at the table of power will be diluted by the inclusion of others who are finally being recognized in our culture.  Be it people of color, some immigrant groups, LGBTQ+ individuals or those whose faith is not Christian.  I would argue our strength can only be made greater by the diversity that we embrace.  That our country thrives when many voices can come together and find common ground in building a future.  It isn't always easy, it isn't always going to be what any group wants 100%.  But if our own history has taught us anything, diversity and innovation go hand in hand. 

So as the fear that Jews or others are in some kind of organized effort on a global scale to eliminate White People is driving a segment of the conservative movement.  Anyone who has ever tried to organize a Shabbat dinner by committee will know that is virtually impossible.  But what I say is that if people are asking for a seat at the table, put another leaf in and buy some more chairs.  

May the New Year bring us Joy, Love, Prosperity and Common Sense. 

 

What the Midterms Taught Us

There are many things we learned last night and into today as the results of the midterm elections come in.  I want to highlight a few.

1.  Inflation was not the big issue that we were told it was.  The GOP said a red wave was coming and that they could win up to 60 seats in the House of Representatives because of this issue.  That didn't happen and it wasn't for many people top of mind when voting. 

2.  Abortion rights was important to many voters.  Through ballot initiatives, Constitutional changes and who won in some states, it is clear Americans support abortion rights by a majority.  This is something that will continue to be an issue that will influence voting for some time.

3.  Redistricting is more important that good candidates.  In many states redistricting led to candidates being able to pick their voters and thus won.  Florida, led by Ron Desantis, truly worked the process to help the GOP gain House seats.  His re-election also showed he usurped Donald Trump as the leader of the Republicans moving forward and setting up a GOP civil war.  

4.  To that end, Trump is a drag on the GOP.  His hand-picked candidates lost in many areas around the country.  Some in spectacular fashion.  Trump's endorsement did not have the same cache as one would think.  What is amazing is that the election deniers were the worst performers across the country.  So perhaps the era of Trump is over.  

5.  The myth of the liberal media found its demise as well.  We watched in the last few months at CNN, once called the Communist News Network, pivoted so hard to bring in right wing voices in the last few months they cause so much whiplash they hired a in-house neck specialist.  Every major news outlet had pundits saying we were in for red wave.   That didn't happen.

6.  Punditry itself also took a hit.  There are several people who should be eating crow this morning after making outrageous claims about how Biden was in trouble, that people were going to send the White House a message, etc.  This morning those same voices are saying the opposite.  

EDIT:  I almost forgot 7.  Polls are getting worse.  Not because polls don't work, they do.  But because there are dishonest  biased pollsters who create a narrative, picked up by places like RealClearPolitics and Nate Silver and try to sell the outlier (or liar) polls as legitimate.  This had so many expecting a red wave that frankly was never going to happen.  

Our country is still divided.  We will continue to see nonsense in our politics.  There will be some who will say this election was rigged.  (Even if the Democrats lose the House).  But there is hope that we are still the country that our ideals say we are.  Look no further than here.  Tim Ryan's concession speech last night after losing to JD Vance is what we should all strive to be as a country.  Let's hope tonight is a lesson for all of us.  But we continue to stand up for the things we believe is good for our country.   

The Quiet Acceptance of Antisemitism

A candidate for school board in Zionsville, Indiana recently said on social media that not all Nazis were bad.  His argument was that there were good people who were forced to participate in the atrocities during the Third Reich.  This is not exactly true and so that is troubling for a member who wants to shape the school system that has had some problems with antisemitism.   Just to be clear, many participated in the horrors of the Shoah (Holocaust) and the killing of Soviet prisoners of war who weren't forced, but chose to do so.  His policy positions squarely show him to be conservative. 

Ye, formally known as Kanye West, recently posted he was going “death (stet) con 3 on Jewish people,” meaning Defcon which is a defense condition jargon used by the US military.  He suggested that Jews as a group were somehow holding him back and that the real Jews were black people.  He has been clearly supporting the most radical conservative people and policies and was embraced by conservative voices in the media.  

Former President Donald Trump recently threatened American Jews who don't fully support him and the actions of the Israeli government.  He said Evangelical Christians are more supportive of Israel than what he calls Liberal Jews.  He went on to say they  better " their act together" adding "before it is too late".  This brings up a great deal of antisemitic tropes but also the threat has echoes of history.  

This comes as we see Republicans claiming the mantle of Christian Nationalism and some suggesting that Jews have no place in their campaign.  One even attacked the children's school (a Jewish Dayschool) of his opponent suggesting it is elitist.  

While for many of us who hear and see anti-Jewish rhetoric daily from around the world I don't spend a lot of worry about these particular nonsense statements though I think they should be called out.  What worries me is remarkable silence for conservative elected officials and the noise makers who jump on every liberal's criticism against the government actions in Israel or question American support of the Israeli government.  

When we teach about hate focused on us as Jews or on any other group it rarely starts with actions.  Words that become normalized in a society that tend to dehumanize or demonize a group often will lead to violence.  We have seen clear evidence of this around the world as both synagogues and mosques have been attacked by people citing the dog whistle writings and saying of American conservatives.  But it has become almost white noise of conservative parlance these days.  What is amazing is how no one on the right seems to care.  When the marchers in Charlottesville screamed "blood and soil" it was startling to some, but now when the ideology that led to that phrase is discussed in the halls of power as problem facing our country the lack of response is like living in a sensory deprivation chamber.  

I believe this is dangerous.  While some things written and said from the left is antisemitic it always appears there are more voices on the left calling it out, even if it isn't as loud as it should be.  But it is stunning, if a former President Obama were to say a similar thing to what former President Trump we would be deluged with commentary from the same voices who will find a way to make what Trump said seem banal.  

Hate in any form should be challenged, but if the hate is coming from your own house your challenge should be the loudest.  I challenge those on the right to find their voice.  Violence is not only done in someone's name, it is also done in someone's silence. 

 

Yom Kippur Lunch, Not A Joke but a Conversation

Emma Goldman was an anarchist political activist in the late 19th and early 20th century in the United States. Fleeing oppression in Russia she came to the US with the idea the it was "the free country, the asylum for the oppressed of all lands."  She quickly realized that oppression of the working class went on in our country as well and she slowly began to become more radical, especially after the Haymarket Square tragedy in Chicago in May of 1886 where a bomb exploded at a rally against police suppression of a strike.  In the aftermath many labor activists were charged and convicted of the violence that would take the lives of several rally goers and police officers.  She realized that she needed to speak out against the working conditions and the brutal actions of what she saw as the ruling class.  But not only did she focus on freeing the body from the oppression she felt as a factory worker and as a woman, but to free the mind of the oppression that she saw was forced on people.  One was that of religion.  While she saw the world through Jewish eyes drawing on the values of emphasizing justice for all, she was a atheist who had no place for Jewish law that was controlling.  She often spoke on Jewish topics, used Yiddish to reach Jewish audiences and found Judaism as a culture to be light to the world.  But when it came to religious practice she found it confining and thus did not create an environment of freedom.  Her open rejection of religious practice led her to promote and participate in a Yom Kippur Picnic in 1907.  A day seen by many as the holiest of the year when Jews fast for 26 hours.  She was encouraging people to gather to eat, in public, in face of religious Jewish authorities that would publicly attack Jews for eating on that day.  It was a challenge that opened eyes of people.  Goldman was a radical that truly made people question the status quo in politics and religion.  Her vision may have been ahead of her time and her legacy is seen in activists today who argue for the rights of many who are oppressed because of who they are.  But Goldman's vision of Judaism not as a strict religion, but as an ethical guide has helped many find a home in Judaism when disagreeing with some of the more traditional views of what it means to be Jewish.  But outrage over something like a Yom Kippur picnic will always exist in the Jewish world, as noted this year.   

 Rabbi Ilana Zietman, according to her biographic blurb,  is a pluralistic rabbi who loves to create Jewish experiences and foster communities that are relevant, thought-provoking and most importantly, welcoming.  She is the community rabbi for GatherDC is a Jewish nonprofit that serves as the one-stop-shop for everything 20s and 30s need to live their best Jewish life.  The goal of the organization is to reach out to young Jews to build relationships between them, connect them with Jewish life they are seeking and the institutions that can help.  Their website, for example, lists over 50 events on Yom Kippur from services at various synagogues from Chabad (A Chasdic Orthodox movement) to mindful Yom Kippur hikes and everything in-between.  But with shades of Emma Goldman, one event is getting Rabbi Zietman and the organization a lot of social media flack. The event is called  GatherDC 2022 High Holidays Intentional Yom Kippur Lunch Meetup, an Rabbi Zietman was promoting it on her account.  The event is described as such:

We know that there are many who do not fast on Yom Kippur for important personal, health, and religious reasons. This is something that should be celebrated because Jewish tradition acknowledges that fasting is just one of several valid ways to observe the holiday. This year, we’re experimenting with organizing a lunch meetup for those who would find it meaningful to gather with other people who also do not fast and even engage in a Jewish ritual to honor the act of intentional eating on this special day. GatherDC will pick a central meeting point on the SW Waterfront following our Alt YK morning experience, where you’ll have time to meet others and Rabbi Ilana for schmoozing and intention-setting before embarking on a self-led lunch excursion on the beautiful waterfront. We’ll be in touch separately with those who sign up. You also do not need to join our morning experience to participate.

Now the idea of eating on Yom Kippur is one of those lines that a lot of Jews feels shouldn't be crossed. Even Jews who have no connection to other prohibitions in Jewish law.  But when I look at this I see a different kind of energy.  There are those who, by Jewish law, must eat on Yom Kippur, if not eating may put your health in danger for example.  There are those who find to concept of fasting meaningless to them and choose not to fast even if they acknowledge the themes of the holiday.  Rabbi Zeitman is trying to find a way to make a space for those people to engage the holiday without feeling like they are on the outside looking in.  She is not Emma Goldman.  

Emma Goldman was a direct attempt to take down religion and religious leadership that she saw imposing rules and restrictions on free thinking people.  Goldman was like an invader in the ancient world that would destroy local temples and use the stones to rebuild a temple to their own gods.  Goldman wanted to use the foundation to build something new while erasing what she saw as oppressive. She maintained some of the visions of Judaism based on justice, but the religion of Judaism she wanted to end.   Rabbi Zietman isn't trying to tear down the proverbial temple.  She is building an approach ramp and creating a new door way in.  Too often there are Jewish people who find it hard to fit into a community and the age group that GatherDC (20s and 30s) find it harder to find a home in many place.  To me it looks like GatherDC and Rabbi Zietman are trying to provide an opportunity for a meaningful Yom Kippur experience, while not judging those who don't follow all the rules. 

There are many who are critical of GatherDC, calling out Rabbi Zietman, even suggesting she is not a real rabbi.  Many who don't appear to have problems violating the Shabbat as many of the posts appeared on a Saturday.  I would encourage them to meet with those who view Yom Kippur and other holidays differently.  On Passover we hear of the 4 children, each approaching the narrative of freedom differently.  One has been called Wicked because that child doesn't see the story as meaningful, but that child is there to hear the story.  There are many who think of a 5th child, one who isn't even at the table.  One who can't hear the story, one who cannot even reject what is meaningful because they will never find a way in.  GatherDC is looking for a way to add a chair at the table for that child.  

While I will fast on Yom Kippur but will not judge those that don't.  I find meaning in the fast, and that is what our tradition and frankly all traditions should be about, meaning.  In the end, Rabbi Zeitman may find a way to make meaning for Jews who had not place to do that, and help with self-reflection.  Isn't that what this time of year is about. 

 

The Enemy of my Enemy Isn't Always a Friend.

In the Torah, Noah is called an Ish Tzaddik, a righteous man.  But the Torah modifies it to complete the line saying he was "blameless in his age".  His age was the age of the people who were lawless  and corrupt.  The ancient rabbis took note and suggested that Noah was righteous, only when measured against those of his age.  Further commentary and even the Torah reveals that Noah was far from perfect.  

I think of this when I hear people speak of Liz Cheney.  Cheney is an arch-conservative whose father was once referred to as Darth Vader.  Cheney has a history of voting against virtually everything Democrats hold dear.  In fact, when she first ran for Congress she made anti-gay statements despite her sister being a lesbian.  Cheney is not a friend of the left, or Democrats or even moderates.  But after she lost her primary to a Trump supported candidate who is less than qualified to serve in the Senate, a number of voices on the left were praising her.   Praising her for the simple fact that she is one of the few Republicans who are publicly denouncing the former President's complete and utter lie about the 2020 election and helping to investigate the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and by extension our very Democratic government.  An attacked by people called to Washington D.C. by the former President and ginned up by many of his most ardent supporters.  

The old adage that politics makes strange bedfellows was used to describe this situation but I would argue this is not about politics.  It is about embracing the reality that the 2020 election was fairly won by President Biden or the fantasy of wild conspiracies that somehow an elaborate system of cheating took place.   I do have respect for anyone on the right who stands up to Trump and is criminal and antidemocratic attempts to hold on to power or regain it.  Early on there were many who found Trump to be unfit to serve as President.  Reince Pribris famously said early in the 2016 election season, as then chair of the Republican party, that as Trump gained ground on the primary field he was pouring Bailey's on his breakfast cereal.  He then went on to be his Chief of Staff.  Only to be neutered by Trump and eventually forced out.  Many on the right called themselves never Trumpers who know support him and what we are calling Trumpism, the authoritarian effort that is reshaping our system of government.  So Cheney, who loses her seat in Congress, should be seen as a profile in courage.  She could have denounced the investigation on January 6th instead of joining it.  But she did what so few others have, put country over party or power.  

As we watch the 2022 election cycle we have seen candidate the GOP, through the former President has promoted more candidates that have no business anywhere near making our nation's laws.  In Georgia, Hershel Walker, a man with a violent domestic violence past and seems to understand little of how government works and has trouble with complete thoughts even in his own ads.  In Pennsylvania, a famous quack doctor who actually lives in New Jersey is running on his celebrity but a recent attempt to attack the high cost of food and blame the President.  It was so cringe from his misnaming the store, to him saying the wrong prices while attempting to buy items for crudités.  Also in Pennsylvania there is a candidate who has someone working for his campaign who doesn't want, even if conservative, Jews in the campaign.  Because all over the country the Republicans are embracing Christian Nationalism.  One currently sitting member of Congress has suggested we should do away with the the separation of church and state.  These are just a few of the highlights that have gone so far as the calling the execution of people who oppose Trumpism. 

I understand the desire and comfort one might have to embrace Representative Cheney as she stands in a small group of conservatives who haven't fallen under the spell of Trumpism.  But we should be aware of who she is and not put all our faith in the standing up against those who have decided to jettison the values of the party and in fact the country.  We can feel bad that a person who continues to live in reality is no longer going to serve.  But the idea that she should serve in the Biden administration or be on the next Democratic ticket is nonsense.  We can support her in her efforts to find the truth.  We can admire her efforts to maintain her values in the face of the  rotting of party that she grew up in.  But lets be careful how close we get to what we have always fought against.  As in everything, the enemy of my enemy isn't always a friend.  

Criminal Behavior Has Consequences

 Yesterday, the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-A-Lago, the current home of former President Trump, in what is reported an investigation of him taking documents with him when he left office.  The FBI, headed by a Trump appointed director, organized evidence of crime to bring before a Federal Judge, appointed by former President Trump, to obtain the warrant.  This is not something that we have seen in our history but that doesn't make it wrong or unAmerican.  For all those saying this is somehow us devolving into a third world country or a banana republic I would say this is the most American thing that could happen.  

The former President was accused of taking Presidential records to his home at Mar-A-Lago and the National Archives asked the FBI to investigate when they weren't returned.  There is some reporting that some of the records may contain highly classified documents that could damage our national security if they fell into the wrong hands.  Others are just normal records that by law must remain in the custody of the Federal government.  Since there has been little to no effort to return all the documents intact the FBI collected evidence and filed an affidavit with the court to obtain the warrant it executed.  That is the process and what is good about it is that even a former leader is not immune from the rule of law.   

We have never been to this place because we have never had a President who so brazenly flouted the rule of law both before, during and after his time in office.  In fact we never had a President call a gang of supporters to Washington DC to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.  This is not a typical thing, that doesn't make it a politically motivated investigation.

For months, a lot of people on the left have been asking why the Attorney General is not moving faster to prosecute Donald Trump for what they see as obvious crimes.  The response from many on the right is the reason why.  When you are in power and your political opponent is under investigation it gets tricky because it has the appearance of being political.  The Department of Justice has worked really hard to not appear to be doing that and even worse get over their skis in pursuit of a crime.  They knew regardless of how locked down the information was, how damning the evidence is and how many on the right support the moving forward with an investigation or charges the right wing noise machine and the Trump sycophants in Congress will call it retaliation or worse.  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has already threatened the Attorney General is the Republican take back the House.  Some on the right have been more measured. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina said "We need to let this play out and see exactly what happens. But we should have been stunned and surprised and shocked with what happened yesterday," That earned him many on the web calling him a RINO, an acronym that used to me Republican In Name Only.  Today for many it means anyone who doesn't give full throated support of Trump.  There are voices on the internet saying they are coming for Republicans who aren't in the streets to Trump.  This is why it is difficult to investigate, charge and convict a political figure when they are of the opposition party and may be the nominee for President.  

Is Trump guilty of violating not only the Presidential Records Act but bringing seriously classified material to his home and out of government control.  No one really knows.  What we do know is that he had a history of destroying documents he was supposed to preserve.  That is played fast and loose with classified information and some reported caused an important human asset in Russia to have to leave the country quickly.  We know that flushing documents down the toilet is part of a new book on the Trump White House (which begins to answer the question why he was obsessed with low-flow toilets).  This execution of the warrant may lead to serious charges.  It may lead to the former President's lawyers turning everything over.  It may go nowhere if the agents, who spent hours at his home, got what they came for.  What I do know is that those screaming about their outrage the loudest don't know either and they are damaging the image of the country almost as much as the fact that the FBI felt the need to issue this kind of warrant on a former President.  

So what I would say is this:  We have a Department of Justice that will move forward with this investigation and I certainly hope that as they do they report appropriately to Congress when warranted.   I hope that if the President is found by a Grand Jury to have committed a crime that a fair and impartial jury will judge him without a lot of noise from those on the right.  I don't expect any of that.  Months ago I told someone when and if the DOJ did make an aggressive move in the investigation of any of Trump's alleged criminal behavior there will be ignorant outrage and threats of violence and that is why they are moving slowly.  I didn't realize just how bad it would be.  But in the words of a man that I fear will probably be retracting them by the time you read this We need to let this play out and see exactly what happens.

How Does It Get This Far?

Another elementary school has suffered a tragedy that should not happen with the frequency that it does in this country.  A teenager fought off police to enter the building and slaughter 21 people, mostly children.  Children, whose bodies were so abused by the bullets, could only be identified by DNA.  While many of the children in the one classroom are dead, the ones who survived are deeply wounded, some physically, all emotionally.  This happened on a Tuesday and by the weekend another story will push it off the front page.  Like so many before it is a few survivor victims, family members and a handful of elected officials who will remind us, but often they don’t get the forum they deserve.  It is clear we have given up on trying to keep kids safe in order to not even do some reasonable and Constitutional restrictions of gun ownership.

Instead, we run children through drills to deal with the possibility of an active shooter in their school.  Those too are traumatizing.  Children have suffered psychological damage after such drills.  On twitter one father told how his Kindergarten student was taught that if they are near the door as a shooter comes in to wave their arms at the shooter and throw things, so their classmates might have a chance to escape.  We are asking 5 year olds to put themselves in harm’s way to save others.  Another comment mentioned the fact that if a student is outside the classroom when an active shooter is in the building, you must not let them in the room.  Even if they pound on the door and start screaming. One adult who remembers being caught outside the room during one such drill was so unnerving (he didn’t know it was a drill since his school did them by surprise) he needed therapy.  “The life of the many must outweigh the life of the few or the one” should never have to be a 1^st grade motto.

 When events like this occur the camps are already in place.  Too often if you raise a concern using the latest example of a shooting you are told to not politicize it.  If you talk about common sense gun reform you are attacked for wanting to take everyone’s guns away.  If you discuss the gun at all the clap back is we need better mental health or criminals will still get guns.  However as I write this the shooting in Buffalo and in Uvalde were committed by 18 year olds with no criminal background to speak of and their mental health issues seemed to be ignored or go unseen.  They both had easy access to guns and in fact in Uvalde, the shooter had access directly due to the fact that the law was changed so someone his age could buy the weapons he used with no real questions asked.  The law stopped him from buying it sooner, he waited until it was legal.  A law that not long ago would have prevented him from buying the weapons until he was 21, but the current state government was embarrassed that more guns weren’t being purchased in their state. 

There is no panacea for this, I know that by the time this is read there will likely be another mass shooting.  But we can put up speed bumps to perhaps find a way to prevent it.  I don’t want people not to be able to own and use fire arms.  I know why there is a second amendment and why the founder felt the need for a state based way of responding to tyranny.  I know what it is like to have a loved one murdered in my home. I know that guns are both a way of defending oneself, a hobby, and for some a way to feed their family.  We shouldn’t want to ban all guns.  That is not what most people want.  But most people want to find some way to find a way to make it harder for people who shouldn’t have weapons to get them.  Simply raising the age one can purchase certain weapons, limiting high capacity magazines and universal background checks.  I would love to have waiting periods for buying more than one weapon but that is a tougher thing to get passed and may get too close to the 2^nd amendment.  Calls to repeal the Second Amendment, by the way, are non-starters.  It is that kind of rhetoric that is as bad as those who think “cannot be infringed” means there are no rules.  Both do not help the debate.   

There is also a cultural issue in our country that can’t be denied.  We fetishize guns and that has to change.  Be it the way guns play a role in cultivating an image in parts of the entertainment industry, or those whose family holiday card includes everyone holding a rifle this is not healthy. 

Little kids should not have to make a split second decision to Run, Hide, Fight.  They shouldn’t have to think like a forward battalion in war zone deciding who will live and who will die.  They shouldn’t have to know how to see a classmate so destroyed by bullets that even their parents can’t recognize them.  We can work together to fix this.  We can find a way.  

I am Not a Biologist

 When Ketanji Brown Jackson, the latest Supreme Court Justice, was asked in her confirmation hearings to define a woman, she replied "I am not a Biologist".  Of course this made the right wing of the country set their hair on fire.  The answer was terse to a question that was way outside of the discussion.  Another culture war question from a party that has devolved into discourse worthy of a social media comment section.  But her answer does make sense.  It is far harder to define what is a woman or man as the long known diversity of human sex, sexuality and gender becomes more mainstream.  About 30 years ago I helped organize a conference on the Cultural Construction of Sexuality.  This looked at the then changing view of homosexuality, bisexuality, polyamory and what we called the heterodoxy of our culture.  It explored the wide variety of gender expressions, sexual attractions and the overall view of sexuality at the time.  I am surprised that an entire generation has grown up since then and we still are having the same discussions.  

This question was likely prompted by the recent win by a female transsexual college athlete.  So how do you define a woman.  Well by looking at her.  No, you can see an expression of gender when you see someone, but you know nothing about a person's sex just by seeing them in public.  Fully clothed.  Virtually everyone has encountered someone where they assumed a sex and made a mistake.  Now we are probably hardwired to tried to identify the person we are looking at as a potential mate and look for attractive features.  But we know those can be faked and disguised.  There is also the question of non-gender conforming people whose appearance could not fully define one way or another.  This is not as uncommon as you think and hasn't been for a long time.  So mere physical appearance isn't a good indicator.

Now, for some, it is whether a penis is present.  You will hear this a lot.  If someone has a penis they are male.  In most cases that is true.  But it would also make the opposite true, without a penis means female.  Here is the problem.  When a child is born sometimes their physical appearance is unclear, or worse undeveloped. In the Dominican Republic there are children known as  Guevedoces , which effectively translates as "penis at twelve". These are boys born with what looks like a vulva and vagina.  At puberty they develop a penis and tentacles descend.  So now they are girls for their entire life, brought up as such and suddenly are not boys.  There are also cases were an injury causes the removal of a penis does the make someone a woman.  Those big eunuchs of the past would be woman by that definition.  

So some say the ability to give birth makes one a woman.  Well, there are many women incapable of giving birth, does that make them men?  Senator Josh Hawley used this definition and was immediately stymied by the fact that post-menopause woman can't have children.  Do they become something else?  

So genetics is the answer right?  XX is a woman, XY is a man.   Well it isn't that simple.  You see there are six fairly common genetic possibilities in the human genetic code for sex chromosomes.  They are:  

X – Roughly 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 people (Turner’s syndrome )

XX – Most common form of female

XXY – Roughly 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 people (Klinefelter's symdrome)

XY – Most common form of male

XYY – Roughly 1 out of 1,000 people

XXXY – Roughly 1 in 18,000 to 1 in 50,000 births

Each of these has their own different expression and in some cases, like Klinefelter's, a person may not know their genetic make up or that they have anything wrong in their genes and it is not uncommon.  So genetics might not be the answer either without making some subjective discussion.

Couple this with the fact the gender and sex are not the same thing, that for about 100 years we have been able to perform sex reassignment surgery and in very recent times we are returning to a time when gender expressions were far more comfortably diverse, the question requires even more than a biologist.  

Human sexuality, sex, gender and social interactions are all complicated.  Saying it is simple doesn't make it so.  Real fear of this diversity is more of a problem that if someone wants to redesign their body and outward appearance to match their mind.  

It is difficult to make a lot of change quickly for many people.  But the fact that members of the Senate are trying to use it as a cudgel to divide the country is disgusting.  I would hope that as a culture we can embrace the diversity that exists in the human condition and not continue to force people to hide who they are.  In the meantime, I am glad that Justice Jackson is confirmed on the court.  Maybe next time we won't have to deal with this nonsense.   

I Shouldn't Have to Tell You This

There has been so much nonsense vomited out on the internet recently that I thought I would vent a little about it.  Some will make you angry and some will just make you wonder how the person talking dresses themselves and finds food.  It continues to be an amazing world on the web.  

1,  Your Inconveniences are NOT like the Shoah* (Holocaust) :  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this at a rally, “Even in Hitler’s Germany you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.” This was in references to recent restrictions on people who have not been vaccinated against Covid 19.  It isn't the first time he dabbled in Godwin territory.  This however was an extra stupid an offensive statement because the unvaccinated could easily get out of their, so called crisis, by getting a shot.  But what is more interesting is that RFK Jr. apparently didn't read to the end of the book. 

2.  Speaking of the Shoah, a recent county in Tennessee decided to remove the graphic novel MAUS from the school curriculum citing a drawing of a nude woman (which is a mouse) and bad language (found in many other books in the curriculum).  Of course that and several other recent statements by many on the teaching of Nazi Germany (true story, one Indiana lawmaker suggested it would should be taught objectively, this trying find out if he is Swiss), have led to people asking why the Shoah should be taught and what makes it unique.  I would be able to write a book on why but here are a few points.  

a.  Germany at the time of the rise of the Nazis was a Republic and Hitler and his supporters used the system to change to a dictatorship leading to the events of World War II. 

b.  The government didn't just attack the Jewish people and others they didn't like, they used the tools of state and then built vast infrastructure for the purpose of killing an entire people, with the vision of doing it worldwide.

c.  By killing the Jews of Europe that was not land won, there was no political gain, and very little economic gain to be had.  The Nazis killed people simply because they wanted them dead. 

d.  It wasn't just the Germans or the military who helped in the effort.  Ordinary citizens supported the deportation, killing and cover up of the Shoah, and we are still uncovering stories today.  

The idea that this is unique does not diminish the horrors of other genocides or attempted genocides in the 20th or 21st centuries.  But it is a point in history we can all learn from and hope to stop in the future.  And no, you having to wear a mask to go into Kroger or the Court House is not a sign imminent concentration camps. 

3.  A law professor, who has become a favorite of the right wing noise machine, Jonathan Turley, suggested the President Biden's pledge to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court may be unconstitutional.  For someone who teaches classes on the constitution he may want to read it.  Still others in the echo chamber that is the Republican disinformation cycle also suggested it violates the Civil Rights Act.  Neither is true of course because, like many of the Executive Branch responsibilities, it is absolute and the review is the advise and consent of the Senate.  He can nominate anyone, doesn't have to be a lawyer.  He can announce who he wants to nominate long before there was an opening.  Which he did by saying during the campaign that he would nominate a Black Woman to the bench.  Some have called that unprecedented.  However they are either massively ignorant of the history or the court or are simply lying.  Ronald Reagan, while running for President, promised GOP women that he would appoint a woman to the Supreme Court if given the chance and they repeated it.  When a seat came open he did just that.  When this was pointed out they said that Reagan didn't do that.  They said he never ruled out anyone.  That of course is nonsense.  But the right wing noise machine finds facts to be an allergen.  

4.   Joe Rogan, who apparently wants to be the next Alex Jones, had Jordan Peterson, on the show.  Two white guys who decided that the only people who should be called Black are those in what they called the darkest parts of Africa.  Trevor Noah, a man who grew up in Apartheid South Africa and current host of The Daily Show, did a segment on what it means to be Black.  Including reminded the two ignorant fools that in Africa no one referred to themselves as black.  In fact in the United States there were rules about how even the smallest of African ancestry made you black.  So of course someone who wants to appear relevant in the right wing theater had to speak up. Josh Denny, a comedian of sorts, decided to say that Noah had only lived in the US as a millionaire so Denny, an Irishman, knows more about being Black than Noah.  Seriously, he said that.  But then he got fired from the Food Network for suggesting he knows that woman can tell they are pregnant within 6 weeks of conception.  So being without a uterus or dark skin doesn't stand in his way of thinking he knows better about what that is like than people who do.  He is wrong but that is not unusual. 

These are just a few of the things that are just part of the mountain of nonsense that gets dumped on social media and the right wing airways every day.  It is always a good idea to take any of it with a grain of salt.  But I shouldn't have to tell you that.  

*Shoah is the Hebrew word for catastrophe.  Used since the 1940s it is a more direct description of the killing of 6 million Jews by the Nazis.  In English this is often referred to as the Holocaust, which is Greek for sacrifice by fire and has a religious connotation.