akuperma

Charliehall: What’s wrong with political spending. Both parties have oodles of money. There is no close correlation between having lots of money and winning elections. While groups such as the Libertarians, the Greens, etc., do suffer for lack of money, if there ideas ever became mainstream they would have no trouble getting money.

Would really prefer a country where rich people spent their money on living well, rather than on being concerned enough with the welfare of all to get involved in politics? Better they spend money on politics that looking for for $1K bottles of wine, caviar, parties costing millions of dollars, etc. Give people like Soros and the Koch brothers credit – no one makes them spend money to discuss public matters, and it is good for society that they do so.

If you really don’t like campaign spending, I suggest you try North Korea. The Kim family has been winning elections, often with over 100% of the vote, for almost 75 years – and without wasting any money on campaign spending.

The strongest evidence against fraud is the lack of a “Blue wave”. The Democrats did very poorly in the congressional elections, in state elections and in referenda. In the past, ballot stuffers never split their tickets. It defied belief to think the Democrats “stole” the presidential election, will giving away meaningful control of the Congress and state legislatures in order to cover their tracks.

Trump was rude and insulted many people. Based on the returns in congressional and state elections, and referenda (even California voted for conservative positions on affirmative action, labor laws and taxes), the Republicans would have won based on ideology. Trump’s thoughtless twittering and vulgarity was the difference.

Based on how the Republicans did in the Congressional races, Trump should have one easily, instead of winning or losing by fractions of a percent in a single state. Insulting part of the audience might work for some entertainers, but not for politicians. The lesson will be learned that politicians should not let their mouth (and twittering fingers) run independent of their brains – a skill that most politicians and persons in “corporate life” learned, but that Trump (who never had to deal with an independent board of directors or stockholders or anyone else he had to answer to) never learned.

The people who plan to riot would riot if Trump or Biden win, so unless you believe they are angry Libertarians or Greens, the “violence” the media is rooting for (violence earns clicks) is not related to the election.

If he murders a civilian as part of a military sponsored program of ethnic cleansing (genocide), I would say yes.

If he kills an enemy soldier who is trying to kill him, and whose army is engaged in aggression, almost certainly not.

What about killing civilians as part of a program to destroy the enemy’s ability to fight (e.g. bombing enemy cities as was done in World War II)? What about killing an enemy soldier when the enemy country can rightly claim to be defending itself from a rodef (i.e. our soldier’s country)? What about a soldier ordered to destroy property as retaliation or engage in sexual attacks on enemy civilians?

“Right” and “Left” refer to the sides of the French National Assembly during the latge 18th century. While there were plenty of Jews in France, they weren’t allowed to vote or hold public office until later.
This world’s politics can be entertaining, but this is only the “prozdor”, not the real thing. Blink your eyes, and it will go gone for good. Rooting for Trump or Biden is fun, just like hopeing for the Mets to play the Orioles in the World Series, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter.

1. The only conservative in Chief Justice Roberts. There are five originalists, but that doesn’t guarantee a right wing decision, not would it necessarily be good for Jews. The anti-test act clause never was understood as requiring religious accommodation, and the first amendment was understood to protect belief not practice, and if the originalists take a look at the 14th amendment, they may object to it having been expanded beyond protecting the rights of ex-slaves and their descendants (bad for religious minorities). And the right to privacy, which is the basis of allowing “sexual freedom” is also the basis for laws allowing parents to control the religious upbringing of children – and that right isn’t written in the constitution.

2. It only takes a simple statute to turn a 6-3 majority into a 7-6 minority. Plus the Congress and the blue states can probably manipulate things to restrict the ability of the Supreme Court in ideological matters (e.g. making abortion a matter of state rights and prohibiting anyone from traveling to a blue state for an abortion).

Politics influence courts. That is how politics works. For almost 250 years, American have considered having judges chosen by politicians to be a serious feature, not a bug. In fact, in many states, most judges are elected. In practice, an independent judiciary would mean one controlled by the leading law firms and law schools, reflect the upper class (in America, the 1%, largely reflect Wall Street and Silicone Valley at the expense of the rest of society).

The reliability of polls broke down over the last few years due to: 1) lack of standard ways of contacting people being polled since in stead of everyone having a landline phone, people have diverse ways of being contacted; 2) mass media become highly politicized, since people being being polled tend to give the “right” answer to the pollster regardless of who they plan to vote for, and the mass media are overwhelming “blue” (Fox and the WSJ tend towards purple, nothing tends solid red until you get to specialized sources such as Breibart).

Given the historic trend of presidents who manage to crash the economy being defeated for reelection (“it’s the economy stupid”), Trump probably is in big trouble. Regardless of what media say, people ask themselves if they are better off than four years ago, and for most people the answer is “no”, and especially among the working class voters who are the core of Trump’s base.

If it prevented the disease, than no one wearing a mask would ever get Covid19. The statistics say only that wearing a mask reduces the chance of getting sick from Covid19, from perhaps one chance in fifty (the chance of an infected person becoming ill) down to something less. Other statistics show that most infected people were wearing masks.

The data discussed shows that masks reduce the change of becoming infected with Covid19, though as with any such virus, it probably won’t prevent you from becoming infected if you are exposed to it. Only a vaccine would do that, Fortunately, for most people, becoming infected with Covid19 rarely makes you sick. If you feel that avoid Covid19 is a life or death matter (e.g. an 85 year old with a dysfunctional immune system and lung diseases), rather than relying a mask lowering the probability of becoming infected, you should isolate yourself in sealed environment which would probably prevent catching the virus.

An analogy would be walking out into a battlefield with or without a kevlar vest. The bulletproof vest will certainly reduce your chance of being killed, but it won’t prevent it (e.g. many soldiers in spite of wearing them). To avoid being shot, it is best to avoid going to a battlefield.

You can move out of New York City without a passport. No Passport is required to move to any of the other 49 states or the District of Columbia, or to various possessions of the United States.

Perhaps you are like the stereotypical New Yorker who believes that the civilized world ends when you cross the Hudson? And if the United States becomes hostile to Jews, where would you move other than Eretz Yisrael (if the USA goes nazi, the rest of the world will follow) , which has never required a passport from Jewish refugees.

So unless you plan to go touristing abroad, you can postpone renewing your passport .

Your English is using an absolute past tense, which doesn’t exist in Hebrew. Hebrew only has two tenses (the “present” is a gerund pretending to be a present tense). With two tenses, the past continues to the present (e.g. Ha-Shem created the world, and is still creating it), and the future begins now (e.g. Meshiach will come, and he is already coming). The Aryan-speakers probably consider the limited tenses in Hebrew (and other Semitic languages) to be a flaw, but it is a feature and indicates views of what is time that can’t be expressed in Aryan languages.

“They don’t, they are doctors and I am not it seems to be a matter of class.”

If they have a rule on religious accommodation applicable based on “class”, you will find attorneys offering to represent you for a contingency fee (instead of getting paid, they get a piece of the profits – something they only do if they are sure you will win). You might also induce a heart attack when the employer’s attorney hears about this (a phrase heard often among lawyers: “clients do the dumbest things”).

Make sure the supervisor is aware that this is a request for religious accommodation under the civil rights laws. That will force the supervisor to refer the question to the lawyer. It is also possible the supervisor is unaware of the religious aspect of the beard (many people, especially non-hareidi Jews, are ignorant on this subject).

Where Rabbonim, voluntary or in response to state-sponsored coercion, posken on wearing a mask in shul, we should follow out of respect for our government. They sincerely believe wearing a mask is a health measure, and even if wrong, they should be respected.

When we go on the goyim’s streets, given that their rule is that only members of politically incorrect minorities must wear masks and refrain from gathering together, we are under no obligation to follow them. The only reason to obey an anti-semitic tyrant is fear that the tyrant will try to kill you, and if we actually believe that Cuomo and DeBlasio are ready to engage in ethnic cleansing against us we should be moving elsewhere with all deliberate speed.

The government is unlikely to support widespread testing since it would reveal a large number of people who have, or had, Covid19, but didn’t get sick. This would undermine the narrative that Covid19 is a very dangerous plague that justifies canceling the education of children, destroying small businesses and closing synagogues (and all religious institutions). When the emperor has no clothes, the last thing he wants is accurate data.

Data needs context. Measure the “normal” death rate. If instead of 2.8 million deaths, there are 3 millions deaths, that does NOT suggest a disaster that warrants the social and economic disruption. If instead of 2.8 million deaths, there are 28 million (what one expect from Smallpox or Plague, and probably ten times that), there is a need to panic.

Outside of New York City, there isn’t a serious problem. The response of most Western European Jews to the Crusades was to move to adjacent Christian territories where they people were nicer. The response of most European Jews to the holocaust was to move to other countries where the people were friendlier. If you can’t stand the New York Democrats, move. Note that under American law, no visa is needed to move to another state.

The government statistics are internally incoherent since they base them on people tested (a non-random population) rather than people infected (as revealed by random testing including antibody testing). The government lied from the beginning claiming that most persons infected by Covid would be become seriously ill and several percent would die, whereas in facts over 90% of those infected don’t get sick, and the death rate of those infected is in tenths of a percent and in fact represents only a tiny “blip” compared to the overall death rate (in part since Covid19 kills mostly old people or those already quite ill). In real epidemics, such as smallpox in a new population, death rates would be in the tens of percents, everyone would get sick, and children would be the most vulnerable – a “plague” that doesn’t cause illness for most people and kills only the elderly is not a social threat. The shutdowns and closures were and are a mistake, and we are right to suspect ulterior motives.

The government in “blue” states do not believe their own propaganda since they routinely allow their supporters to gather without masks or social distancing (note: these are the people they would least want to die), while at the same time striking a blow against religions whom they have for a long time regarded as mortal enemies. It should also be noted that the frum community is much less likely than the general population to be affected since we are radically younger, not to mention that the age group most at risk from Covid19 are those who are older than “boomers” (i.e. those born after World War II, which in our community is an age group that is still artificially reduced due to high mortality among Jewish children during the period preceding 1945). Some frum media have unwisely “bought” the false narrative put out by the hyper-secular liberal media.

And why do you see relatively few frum women protesting? In our community, large, noisy and potentially violent protests are not seen as a place for women. If you don’t realize that, you really don’t understand the sociology of the frum community.

The best answer is to move. If B&H or the diamond district were to get up and move all their operations (other than storefronts) to a low tax, red state – it would speak more loudly than all the screeching heard here.

The Zionists are no better than the American secularists.

Civil disobedience might be an option. Americans have a long history of supporting peaceful resistance to government. It is for Daas Torah to decide whether to fight, and how.

Few living can remember when to be a Yid meant to live with limited rights, and under constant persecution and discrimination. This is actually normal and we should get used to it, and remember as our ancestors have for centuries, that this is only the fake world, and our attention must remain focused on the real world.

It depends on the local government. If you have a pro-Trump rally in New York, you can be certain the government will object. That the government lets its supporters rally, and cracks down on its opponents (and socialists believe that trying to crush religion is a policy to be supported), suggests that those in charge do not perceive there to be a serious public health threat from Covid19 (if they did, they would be very protective of their supporters, and demand that their enemies, which includes frum Yidden, get together mask free).

If you have a large family, and receive many entitlements (food stamps, medicare or medicaid or a CHIP program, housing assistance), unless you run a business, you are probably better off economically under the Democrats. If you aren’t a fanatic zionist, Biden is no worse than any other Democrats in terms of aiding Israel (though he won’t support “transfer”). While Biden supports or tolerates many very morally dubious policies, most Yidden have historically assumed the goyim are amoral and don’t see that as very shocking. More frum Jews (unlike our non-observant cousins) are fairly poor and benefit from the Democrats largesse (and taxing and spending are what Democrats do best).

The medinah as a Jewish state never existed. Indeed, the “dream” of a Jewish state has been a nightmare for most zionists since the beginning. The “crackdown” on shuls and yesvhivos is based on blatantly false public health claims, suggesting a rather obvious ulterior motive.

Note the zionists claim 1000 Israelis out of 8 million have died, but by their death rate statistics .5 percent (one in 200, or 40000) die annually so the 1000 “covid deaths” (many of whom would have died anyways) is a tiny drop in the bucket – hardly the basis for measures more appropriate for something such as a renewed smallpox or bubonic plague epidemic.

When I was that age, I found it annoying (I never smoked, and almost never drink except on Shabbos).

When I was a tatti, I found it outrageous that yeshivos put up with such things.

Now that I’m a Zeidy, I realize that kids will be kids, and that’s been true since the beginning. And they tend to outgrow it, and at least I had less trouble than Adam he-Rishon, whose kids really got into mischief.