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“it isn’t Moral!”
Taxes are not only mutar they are mandated by the Torah and the Rabbis. See what Rambam says about what happens to people who don’t pay their taxes.
There was no inflation with Trump’s huge tax cut for the wealthy. Or the larger first COVID relief bill. Or the much larger printing of money by the Fed to prop up the stock market. It is about time normal folks get some benefit from the printing of money.
The child tax credit has long been a Republican priority. But when a Democrat proposes it the Republicans all vote against it. The Republicans have no principles.
“New Englanders, like John Adams, felt that State should care about religion and religious education, requiring towns in MA to pay salaries to preachers.”
Adams wrote Massachusetts’s Constitution of 1780. But there were test oaths mandated that effectively limited some public offices to Protestant Christians. (The amount of anti-Catholic bigotry in the US back then is shocking to modern sensibilities today and Adams was one of he bigots.)
Furthermore the religious education you mentioned was Puritan. Had their been any Jews in Massachusetts back then, we would have had to pay taxes to support the Puritan religious schools, as were Christian minorities.
Adams would die in 1826 and Massachusetts would finally distablish its Puritan Church (by then, largely Unitarian in the eastern part of the state) in 1833. The first Jewish religious congregation would not be started until 1842. Like every other Ashkenazi congreatation in existence in the US at that time that has survived, it is not orthodox.
10 percent mortality would be 33 million dead Americans. The actual case fatality rate is more like 2 percent which would be over six million dead Americans. Trump and Abbott support that.
“We should thank Herb Kelleher for starting SouthWest and developing a new business model ”
That did matter for a long time but more recently their success had to do with the price of jet fuel (and making correct predictions on its trajectory).
He is correct and given that we are very much a minority religion we benefit immensely from that attitude.
“The fact that Cuomo is responsible for thousands of deaths”
That is not clearly a fact. 17 states had higher nursing home death rates but only Cuomo gets attacked. Trump is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths but his Cult here still follows him. Trump should have resigned a year ago. He lied about the pandemic, obstructed testing obstructed PPE delivery, and created mass spreading events. That people continue to attack Cuomo yet defend Trump shows that this is really about partisan hackers.
That said, Cuomo and De Blasio realy should resign too, Cuomo for the cover up (not the nursing home deaths) and De Blsio for his support of perjury at NYCHA. But while Cuomo has a competent Lt. Governor, you absolutely do not want to try to force De Blasio from office. You will seriously regret getting rid of De Blasio.
Not only was Geisel virulently anti-Nazi he was a huge opponent of the American isolationist enablers. His cartoons of the time were particularly bitter towards Charles Lindbergh, essentially portraying Lindbergh as a Nazi tool, which he certainly was, if he wasn’t an actual Nazi himself, which is likely.
On the other hand there were no more vile racist caricatures or Japanese people than those by Geisel.
“are you on the record as having stated that you will reserve judgement on the sexual harassment allegations against Brett Kavanaugh”
Yes. I opposed Kavanagh because he was a perjurer not a harasser. I opposed Moore because he is a far right nut job who doesn’t believe in the US Constitution. And opposed Trump because he is a moral degenerate even if he never abused anyone sexually.
“The doctors all announced the massive spread after the blm rallies ”
There was a big decline in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in NYC after the BLM rallies. New cases dropped from 629 on 6/1 to 344 on 7/1; hospitalizations from 85 to 41; deaths from 47 to 15.
I am really tired of all these COVID lies from Trumpies.
I am also amazed at the chutpah of the Trumpies to continue to post lies that are so easily debunked. It took less than one minute to find those states online.
That’s a 6.3% test positive rate. Overall the test positive rate in Texas is 12.3% and the idiot Trumpie governor just ended all coronavirus restrictions. The Democrats are not the fools here.
“Crickets from the left wing of the CR.”
I had already called on him to retire — in the Coffee Room. The nursing home cover-up was inexcusable.
I will reserve judgement on the sexual harassment allegations until the investigations are complete.
“there were no golden standard studies performed (correctly) at all”
That is a lie.
“On the henry ford study”
The Henry Ford study was an observational study. The clinical trials did not show the same results. There are many other examples where observational studies have been confirmed by clinical trials. The reason is simple: even the best observational study cannot control for unmeasured confounding.
Get vaccinated. Even Trump did.
“Nobody tried to steal an election.”
You are welcome to return to reality at any time.
“how can someone like you settle for distortions”
Challenging anti-Semites is a distortion of Torah? Where does Chazal say that????
“g-d told the water not to go over the land”
Obviously the water didn’t listen.
“among certain left-wing Yarmulka donning who call themselves Orthodox but attack those they deem extremely “too frum”.”
Actually I have seen more of the opposite. Check out the vile attacks against Rabbi Avi Weiss in the Yiddeshe Cancel Culture thread in this coffeeroom.
“Eric Yoffie and Avi Weiss”
I don’t know anything about Eric Yoffie. Rabbi Weiss is a retired orthodox rabbi who continues to defend our interests, most recently by challenging an out of line Congressman from his district on his anti-Semitic lies. The consensus of YWN commenters is that such lies should go unanswered, apparently.
“For example, in 1832”
By 1860 things had completely reversed. Tariffs were at the lowest levels in generations and I have already pointed out how the South had used federal power to override state laws against slavery. Had the South cared about State’s Rights it would have opposed the Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scott Decision. But it loved both.
The Civil War had nothing to do with State’s Rights and everything to do with perpetuating slavery. Stop apologizing for that.
“And he causes people to go astray from the Torah.”
Yet another lie. I personally know many people whom he brought to Torah.
“Ilhan Omar challenges Donald Trump and you challenge Ilhan Omar. Whose side are you on?”
Now you are comparing Rabbi Weiss to the anti-Semites Omar and Trump.
Is there no limit to the extent of your motzi shem ra?
“That’s not courage, that’s attention seeking.”
Would that more of our leaders would get attention by challenging — in person — rashaim ranging from Carlos Menem to David Duke!
Rabbi Weiss challenges anti-Semites and you challenge Rabbi Weiss. I know whose side I’m on.
“suffered from untreated mental health problems”
Rabbi Weiss does not need me to defend him, but it is typically people against whom he protests who have the untreated mental health problem of vile unjustified anti-Semitism. Would that more of our leaders had the courage of Rabbi Weiss.
Avi K,
I have often written that the Progressive Movement in the early 20th century had a strong racist component to it. Wilson was just the most obvious manifestation. Wilson was indeed a vile racist although of the gentile aristocratic variety. Ironically, his widow, descended from some of the earliest settlers of Virginia, would be classified as Black by Virginia law in 1924 because she was a ninth generation descendant of Pocahontas, making her 1/512 American Indian. That was the “one drop” rule. Wilson gets credit for appointing Brandeis (a LaFollette Progressive Republican) to the Supreme Court and for vetoing a racist immigraiton law, but he also appointed James McReynolds to the Supreme Court and as you said segregating the civil service. Wilson was a rasha who did some good things for Jews. (There are numerous other examples in history: Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell come to mind immediately.)
But Wilson was not unique. The great accomplishment of the Progressive reformers who took over the state government of Virginia in 1901 was to institute a poll tax in order to disenfranchise black voters (and poor whites as well). Most Americans have never heard of Andrew Jackson Montague but he was the Progressive Governor who led this effort. Another big leader in this effort was the Progressive newspaperman Carter Glass, who would later become famous as the father of the Federal Reserve system and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, two major Progressive accomplishments. Virginia’s poll tax had been around since 1619. but had only been linked to voting in 1876. A miracle occurred in 1882 when a multiracial political party took control of state government and repealed that linik but the Progressives restored that link in 1902. Texas did the same at about that time, in another Progressive reform. But Montague and Glass made peace with the racist political machine they had overturned and each served decades in Congress (Glass in both houses) with the machine’s approval.
Republicans were no better. Starting about 1890, leaders of the party made systematic attempts to purge Blacks from any and all leadership roles in the Party all over the South. William Howard Taft and Herbert Hoover, who ironically were not personally racist and were also associated with progressive causes, were leaders in this effort. While the 1920 Republican Platform opposed lynching (and the Progressive Republican Governor of Kentucky managed to get a strong anti-lynching law through the legislature and even ordered the National Guard to open fire on a lynch mob), Calvin Coolidge openly sought KKK votes, two Republican KKK members were elected Governors (Indiana and Colorado). By 1936 they realized that they had alienated their most loyal voters and did a 180 degree turn; from then until 1960 the Republican Party was better on Civil Rights than the Democratic Party but Black voters never returned.
“states rights was very low on the list of reasons”
It was worse than that. The South was extremely hostile to states rights prior to the Civil War. It rejoiced at the Dred Scott decision which overturned slavery bans in every state, at least ninie of which predated the US Constitution. It rejoiced at the fugitive slave law that forced states to cooperate with federal slave catchers in violation of the Tenth Amendment. Today it would be known as an unfunded mandate.
The people who cite states rights as a reason for the Civil War are either ignoramuses about history, or hypocrites who don’t want to admit that they are apologists for slavery. Or both.
“it’s killed many people within a few hours”
That is a lie. COVID, however, has killed millions.
Simply releasing names of vaccine refusers is letting them off easily. They really should be quarantined until they come to their senses. They are basicallly rodfim.
“whats wrong with the confederate flag?”
The same thing that is wrong with thr Nazi swastika flag.
“Are you a Typical Trumpie? ”
You obviously have not been reading the coffee room very long.
“He caved on the Houthis and UN sanctions but the Iranians are still backing away.”
Even a lot of Republicans agree we should not be supporting Saudi proxy wars. And do you have any suggestions to get Iran to stop enriching uranium other than starting World War III.
“1. Made a mess of the attempted Iran deal. (so far)”
What mess? He hasn’t managed to do anything. Trump really screwed us on this and it will take mushroom clouds over Tel Aviv before the Trump cult admits that there is anything wrong.
“2. His administration is telling people that the vaccine will not mean they can go back to normal which means that less people will get vaccinated.”
Typical Trumpie — you want the government to lie.
“3. Has yet to open schools despite the CDC stating that it is perfectly safe (they have since backtracked. Not suspicious at all).”
With the exception of the small number of schools on military bases, Biden can’t order any school to do anything. Only Trumpies think that a President is a dictator.
“John Sullivan of Utah is a Antifa and was arrested”
He *was* arrested. But he doesn’t claim to be Antifa. He does claim to be BLM but several BLM groups expelled him when they discovered he was actually an agent provacateur working for right wing groups! Basically a double agent — and a grifter.
The accession of Dayarvesh (Darius) in what we would today call a coup is documented in both Persian (the famous Behustan Rock!) and Greek (Herodotus) sources. Herodotus reports a debate between Dayarvesh and his fellow coup plotters; Otanes argued for democracy, Megabyzus for oligarchy, and Darius for monarchy. Darius won the argument and Persia would remain an absolute monarchy until its overthrow by the Muslim Arabs over 1,100 years alter.
Bavli Avodah Zara 10a points out that the Roman Empire didn’t have monarchs in the usual sense of the term, in that it was not hereditary. (Secular sources point out that Rome maintained most of its republican instittuions until the late 3rd century CE, and at least in theory the Emperor was subject to the law not above the law.) Emperors would typically designate a successor and in Avodah Zara 10a-b Rebbe tells Antoninus that it is okay that it be his biological son, which was quite rare until that point. If Antoninus was the Emperor better known as Marcus Aurelius, then Rebbe’s advice triggered the decline and fall of the Roman Empire because Marcus Aurelius’s son Commodus turned out to be a disaster, leading a venal and corrupt administration and promoting a personality cult of himself before being assassinated. Rome never fully recovered.
“open orthodox travesty”
In honor of your slander I just sent a contribution to Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.
Fischer’s mother was Jewish, which makes him Jewish. But he joined a Christian cult and became an anti-Semite, denying his Judaism. He praised the 9/11 attacks. He violated US and UN sanctions on Yugoslavia when it was perpetrating genocide.
“Pat Toomey”
And old style conservative. And willing to risk his political career for principle: he and Manchin tried to get a gin control bill through Congress. No wonder the Trumpies passionately hate him.
“There are safe prevention options.”
True. Permanent lockdowns, social distancing, and mask wearing are all quite safe.
The vaccines will allow us to get back to normal lives.
“much safer treatments and prevention options like vitamin D, HCQ, ivermectin”
None of those are as safe as the vaccine, or a ywhere close to being as effective. HCQ is useless for COVID. Vitamin D is a good thing to have adequate levels of even without a pandemic. The ivermectin studies in humans have been a disappointment; it is not a cure.
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
— Attributed to Benjamin Franklin on the occasion of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.
“the Washington Redskins are now the WFTs”
The man who created the ‘Redskins’ nickname was George Preston Marshall, one of the most vile racists in the history of American sports. He should have been cancelled.
Some Jews who should have been cancelled:
Pablo Christiani
Shabbatai Tzvi
Jacob Frank
Karl Marx
Trotsky (Stalin did cancel him)
Bobby Fischer“Every post is another plug for the experimental vaccine of which no one knows the long term effect”
Actually we do know the long term effect. You get the vaccine you aren’t dead from COVID.
I have seen no advertising from Pfizer, or Moderna, or AstraZenica, or Johnson & Johnson, or the Russian or Chinese governments here.
We are cooking Indian food because India is specifically mentioned in Megillat Esther.
In the past we have cooked Persian food.
One of these days I will learn to cook Ethiopian food.
“How did Israel’s next door neighbors in the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Lebanon do better than Israel?”
Less international travel and fewer mass spreading events?
“The murder rate in NYC is way down by 35%”
As of last week it is down by 12%.
It never ceases to amaze me how people post such easily debunked falsehoods, not bothering to take the one minute it takes to check.
“When was the last decent Republican who cared for the poor?”
Richard Nixon cared for the poor. Unfortunately in other respects he was anything but decent.
“But since leaving office the Democrat Party has failed to produce any decent elected officials.”
We have a decent President today, Joe Biden, but he did enter elective public office before Moynihan did.
Anyone who supported Trump has absolutely no standing to complain about Democrats not being decent.
The biggest hypocrisy is commenters focusing on Cuomo’s cover-up (the actual nursing home police was and is defensible) and completely ignoring Trump’s lies and Kushner’s venality that killed t tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.
“Cruz has opposed efforts to make Texas power suppliers and T&D companies in the ERCOT portions of the state, comply with the same reliability requirements as non-ERCOT Texas utilities and those in the other 47 states subject to FERC jurisdiction.”
That is the real scandal here. But we the suckers in New York will pay to bail out Texas and probably won’t demand that they start acting like a normal state. Wind turbines in Alaska continue to operate; I found one wind farm that is doing fine with temperatures that have not been above minus ten this week.
“the narrative that america is systemically racist is garbage”
Not garbage at all. Fact.
I am old enough to have gone to a segregrated all white elementary school. The all-black school was an underfunded dump. My parents also went to all white schools. Black schools paid their teachers more poorly everywhere other than Washington DC (which, no surprise, had some great all black schools during the segregation era), and the very first victory of the modern civil rights movement was a lawsuit that forced Norfolk VA to pay teachers at its white and black schools the same. Further lawsuits required facilities in black schools to be improved and the racists resented paying the taxes. Then when integration came, Virginia closed public schools in four districts to avoid integration.
Many institutions of higher education would not accept black students, or accepted very few, and to this day they give “legacy preference” to descendants of alumni from those racist years.
This is racism. This is systemic. And that legacy preference stuff negatively affects Jews yet people who claim to be Jews defend it.
And I didn’t even mention slavery.