Showing posts from December, 2019

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The Hellish Dingell Legacy

A decade ago, Time Magazine unveiled an in-depth article on the death of Detroit. One of the politicians whom the article blamed for Detroit’s woes was Rep. John Dingell. The Dingell clan has held a congressional seat outside Detroit since 1932. Their 87-year tenure has not coincidentally coincided with the decline of a thriving industrial city into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. But it’s been good for the Dingells, three of whom have sat in their congressional seat since the days of Herbert Hoover, the rise of Hitler, and the radio age, and fattened their pockets on its sinecures. Dingell Sr. was the son of Polish immigrants who started out in politics as a union boss, jumped into a newly created seat, and kept it through eleven elections before passing it on to his son. Dingell Jr, outdid daddy by becoming the longest serving member of Congress in American history. Before he died, he passed on the seat to his second wife, whom he married when she was 28 and he was 55 years old.

A Dangerous Holiday

Holidays are a calendar. They mark points in emotional and physical time. They remind of us who we are. Many celebrate Chanukah as nothing more than celebrations of 'celebration', the rituals and rites of entertainment, a special food, a symbol whose meaning they don't remember and a little family fun. Chanukah is not a safe holiday. It is a victory celebration in a guerrilla war. It is a reminder that the most recent war on Jerusalem was preceded long before by Antiochus's war on Jerusalem. It is a brief light in a period of great darkness. As we light the menorah, bringing light out of that darkness, we are called on to remember to treasure the price of that light. It is brought forth through the divine matter of heavenly miracles and the earthly matter of suffering and blood. Chanukah exists today because a small family, the remnant of a faithful priesthood, saw darkness, where many were blinded by the light of prosperity and progress, and they saw the light

Bloomberg Outs His Own Reporters as Political Operatives

There will never be a President Michael Bloomberg. Not unless some bankrupt African country decides to auction off the privilege to the highest bidder. But while Bloomy is no real threat to the Democrats or Republicans, his campaign is unintentionally telling the obvious truth about the role of the media. The billionaire famously banned staff from his eponymous outlet from investigating him or fellow Dems while declaring an open season on President Trump. He responded to criticism by saying that his reporters, “get a paycheck. But with your paycheck comes some restrictions and responsibilities.” Those restrictions and responsibilities are to serve the political interests of the guy signing the checks. The distinction between Bloomberg’s media outlet and presidential campaign are non-existent. Five staffers from the outlet, an executive editor, news editor, senior editorial page editor, social media editor, and another editorial page editor, have joined the presidential campaign o

How Cory Booker Protected the Black Nationalist Killers Behind the Jersey City Anti-Semitic Shootings

After black nationalist gunmen opened fire in a Jewish market in his state, Senator Cory Booker issued a statement that did not mention Jews, but did mention fighting “gun violence”. A secondary joint press release with Senator Bob Menendez, the other politician representing the state in the Senate, did mention "rising anti-Semitism" before shifting over to the need for, “lifesaving gun safety reform.” "There is no room in our communities or in our hearts for this evil," the press release concluded. The Senator from New Jersey doesn’t give himself enough credit. There is plenty of room for this evil in his heart. The Democrat politician has repeatedly quoted Stokely Carmichael in his speeches. The black nationalist also known as Kwame Ture would have approved of the Jersey City market shootings. “The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist we must take a lesson from Hitler,” Ture had once declared. “I’ve never admired a white man, but the greatest of them, to my

The Light of Chanukah

A candle is a brief flare of light. A wick dipped in oil burns and then goes out again. The light of Chanukah appears no different. Briefly there is light and warmth and then darkness again. Out of the exile of Babylon, the handful that returned to resettle and rebuild the land faced the might of new empires. The Jews who returned from the exile of one evil empire some twenty-six hundred years ago were forced to decide whether they would be a people with their own faith and history, or the colony of another empire, with its history and beliefs. Jerusalem's wealthy elites threw in their lot with the empire and its ways. But out in the rural heartland where the old ways where still kept, a spark flared to life. Modi'in. Maccabee. And so war came between the handfuls of Jewish resistance fighters from a small town in the hinterlands and the Hellenized elites of the big city, between those who wished to be Jews and those who wanted to be pawns in an empire, between the tra

What If You Hold Impeachment Rallies and No One Comes?

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a city of 200,000, a grand total of 200 lefties turned out to rally for impeachment. The rally did not immediately manage to attract 200 lefties. Instead the very tiny mob of quarrelsome senior citizens shambled past trendy juice bars, restaurants decorated with festive lights, and a Subway shop while waving signs depicting President Trump as an orange with a combover. At some point this sad gathering on ‘Impeachment Eve’ managed to get all the way up to 200 people. The scene wasn’t much better in Boston Common where hundreds of protesters, in a city of 685,000, showed up to listen to former Governor Bill Weld, who is running against Trump for the Republican nomination in a campaign managed by his stepson, say something that neither the media nor his own campaign’s social media account saw fit to cover. And who can blame them? It’s Bill Weld. The turnout was equally miserable in Philly where once again hundreds of protesters showed up at Thomas Paine Pl

Why a Jewish Democrat Mayor Praised Trump for Standing Up to Anti-Semitism

At the White House Chanukah party, Mayor Michael Wildes approached President Trump to thank him for his support after the massacre at a Kosher market in Jersey City by two black nationalists. "Thank you, Mr. President for your extraordinary work today," the Englewood mayor told Trump in a video posted on Facebook. "Standing up to anti-Semitism has been in your DNA. Why is that so natural?" “It's always been the way I felt," President Trump replied. "As you know I have a son-in-law, daughter, and three magnificent children. Jewish. And what happened in New Jersey was horrible." "I can't tell you how much means to the Jewish community,” Wildes said. “This is not a Democrat or Republican issue." Mayor Wildes is a Democrat. And while he insists that standing up to the hatred that killed two Jewish people, as well as a police detective and a store employee is not a partisan issue, it very much is. The divide over whether to desc

Black Nationalist Hate Group Praised by Media Shot Up Kosher Market

The New York Times called them "sidewalk ministers" who practice "tough love." The paper quoted Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center who described them as victims of racism and claimed that they were non-violent. The Washington Post, in its own puff piece on the Black Hebrew Israelites, also falsely described them as non-violent, and concluded that, "Israelite street preaching in parts of D.C., Philadelphia and New York is commonplace, a familiar if odd accent to city life." The odd accent to city life in Jersey City came amid a hail of bullets as two members of the racist black nationalist hate group opened fire in the JC Supermarket. Despite initial claims by the media and the authorities that the Jewish market had not been targeted, David Anderson and Francine Graham ignored passerby on Martin Luther King Dr, to get to the store and kill as many Jewish people as they could. When the shooting had ended, Moshe Hersh Deutsch, a yeshiva st

In Europe, the Muslim Murder of Jews is a Mental Illness

Martin Colmans was selling furniture in the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam when he was stabbed in the thigh. His son, Sharon, ran out to help him and protect his mother and was stabbed in his back and chest. But he succeeded in preventing the stabber from getting to his mother, Orly. Tarik Ghani, the Muslim man who stabbed him, ran a hookah shop in the market. The victim said that he noticed a sudden change in his attacker after he returned from the Middle East and was often seen, “reading the Koran.” “He stopped talking to us, shaved his head and prayed all the time. He also began giving us nasty looks.” Other vendors in the Cuyp market stated that Tarik hated Jews. There had been warnings that he might turn violent and attack someone. Those warnings were however disregarded. Instead of sending him to prison, a Dutch judge sentenced Tarik to a year of psychiatric treatment. The Colmans had asked the judge to take his anti-Semitism into account, instead the judge accepted Tarik’s

Get High, Fix Race Relations in the People's Republic of Evanston

The last thing Evanston, Il needs is more drugs. The Cook County city bordering Chicago has already become notorious for its link to the Windy City’s drug trade with multi-million dollar busts and a former detective indicted last year for allegedly leaving the department for the DEA to work on behalf of the La Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos or the United Drug-Traffickers Organization. Violent crime was up 20% last year. Evanston’s population has declined at twice the rate as Chicago’s. The decline was most pronounced among Evanston’s black population. African-Americans, who made up 22.5% of the population in 2000, fell to 16.9% in 2017. But Evanston’s City Council found a solution. Get high and fix race relations at the same time. Evanston's Equity and Empowerment Commission, whose mission is to "eradicate" inequalities, met to discuss the issue. That body's members, Julie Corbier de Lara, a Chicago pastry chef, Pastor Monte L. G. Dillard, a former tell