Ex-CTLawyer

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  • in reply to: Universal Health care, Obamacare, Managed Care #1990558
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Health

    Amil Zola is a FEMALE. She uses her late husband’s account and has explained this over the years.

    As I have posted earlier, Medicaid is a STATE program administering Federal funds.

    Here in CT, you must qualify via the means test. Our minimum wage is $13 per hour. If you work 4o hours, chances are you won’t qualify for Medicaid, but can buy a subsidized plan through the state ACA exchange that might cost you as little as $12 per month.

    Unlike many other benefits such as SNAP, the state can recover expenses paid through Medicaid if your financial position improves. When you sign up and accept Medicaid you are granting the state a lien on your present and future assets.

    As someone who has practiced family law, wills, trusts and estates I deal with Medicaid issues regularly, Most people don’t recognize that Title XIX that pays for nursing homes is Medicaid, The state often ends up owning the home of the nursing home patient who dies. They can claw back 6 years if it has been transferred taking it away from the patient’s children, etc.
    This is one of the reasons we suggest placing your home in a trust omce you reach the age of 50

    in reply to: Anyone know anything about SOUTH AFRICA #1990559
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    I lived and worked there in the late 70s (based in Yeoville neighborhood of JoBurg). It had a vibrant Litvish community with Kollel then.
    The country fell apart after the ANC took power and whites fled in droves.

    I have been back a number of times, last in 2019, not much to attract young families. Those who can find suitable economic situations abroad, leave. Not just Jews, but whites in general.

    in reply to: Universal Health care, Obamacare, Managed Care #1989472
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Health
    A couple of observations based on your comments.
    You have had Medicaid for years. I am sorry you earn so little to qualify for Medicaid.

    It is important to note that Medicaid is a state system paid for with Federal funds. 50 states have 50 different systems and they cover different things in each state.
    Here in CT, Medicaid recipients have NO co-pays. The doctor, hospital and pharmacy is paid in full at the agreed rate.
    I had an MRI last week, my co-pay was $175, the patient checking in at the next desk had Medicaid and had no co-pay. B”H I can afford it. I see no reason for the person who can’t afford it to be denied the MRI.

    in reply to: Universal Health care, Obamacare, Managed Care #1989466
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Syag
    “Reb E – i don’t know why you and CTL keep saying that. ”
    I haven’t said anything in this thread and it has been quite a while since I posted an opinion about the ACA.
    For Mrs, CTL and Myself the ACA was wonderful (now we both are Medicare age and donlt use it). At age 60 she had a $2million medical expense and our prior commercial policy with the c=same carrier as our exchange issued policy capped at $1 Million. She also had preexisting conditions which would have disqualified her from renewing our prior policy (we got a letter informing us of it).
    And yes the ACA policy bought through the CT Healthcare Exchange saved us lots of money.

    BUT>>>>>>>>>>>the exchange and policies are not the same in all states, nor are costs or out of pockets. The last year we had an exchange issued plan the maximum family out of pocket was $6700 per year, not the $14,000 a CR reader posted. Different policy, different state and different year (Mrs. CTL went off Exchange policy in early 2021).

    All of that said, I am disappointed in the ACA, the courts gutted its teeth when they did away with the financial penalty for not buying insurance. We need all the healthy young people in the pool to lower overall costs.
    We had an exchange policy from the year they started until Mrs, CTL turned 65 in 2021. We didn’t have a single one of our doctors, hospitals, pharmacies or other providers who were not in the plan, so we didn’t have to change any providers. CT is a small state, no city has more than two hospitals so they all take all insurance written in the state. In big cities with dozens of hospitals there may be some who don’t take exchange plans and can still survive financially.

    I can only speak from my experience, I can’t offer an opinion on current plans in the various states. That said, I would love to see a single payer national health plan to cover all Americans. I am willing to pay higher taxes to make it happen. I am a capitalist who believes in social programs for the greater good.

    in reply to: Chief Rabbis of France and South Africa #1988612
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    For those of us over 60………………………..

    Too many chiefs, not enough Indians,

    in reply to: Men wear black and white? #1988036
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    I have posted this in the past:
    I don’t wear black suits on a daily basis, I wear extremely dark blue or gray. When I first became an attorney and went into court in a Black Yeshivish suit, white shirt and non-descript tie, a friendly older judge asked to see me in chambers. He pointed to his black robe and said that the only one wearing black in the courtroom should be the judge, it is a sign of respect to wear another dark color.
    Although, I don’t appear on court most days, I never know when I might have to be there on a few minutes notice, so for decades I dress every day in a dark non-black suit.

    My sons grew up seeing what I wear and they wore similar garb. They attended the same yeshivah in Brooklyn that I, my brothers, my father and uncles attended. Some wore Midnight Blue suits as I do, others felt the pressure to wear the ‘cheap black suits’ worn by most of the young men in order to fit in. The one thing that never happened was the Rosh Yeshiva telling any of us we had to wear a black suit.

    Edited

    That said, the majority of my Shabbos suits in the past 59 years have been black

    in reply to: Top Five Yeshivas #1985697
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @CTRebbe

    Two last connected items.

    I DON”T live in a city.
    There is no such thing as a “suburban dream city.’ A suburb is smaller than and subordinate to, and dependent on a city for things such as employment, cultural institutions such as museums, entertainment (legitimate theatre, symphony, opera, ballet), certain shopping, transportation hubs, and at times medical care.

    My small town of about 40,000 people doesn’t have a hospital, a train station, museums, concert venues, a university, non-movie theatre, but all of these are available in the nearby city within a short drive.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    The fact that some people commute from one city (such as Stamford (where I don’t live) to another city (such as NYC or White Plains), doesn’t make Stamford into a suburb or the commuters into suburbanites.

    in reply to: Top Five Yeshivas #1985230
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @CTRebbe
    You do not know which small town in Fairfield County I live in. But, the crime rate is extremely low, mostly car theft, etc in the area closest to the nearby ‘big’ city.
    It is not a ‘bedroom’ town on the rail line to NYC for commuters, it wasn’t developed as a suburban but was a small colonial town, settled in the times before we were a nation.
    It doesn’t have filth, in fact a few times a year civic groups organize for a tidy up day, and clean up any debris along roadways, parks, etc.

    I know Waterbury and have for more than 6o years. My father had businesses there, so did I. I still own commercial property there. I would not send a teenager to live there. Boys leave the dorm and explore, even if it is going to the corner store for a soda.
    None of my comments have any reflection on the quality of the Yeshiva.

    I ask you this, since you are so gung ho on Waterbury……why the move and development in the rural farming community of Durham, when buildings were available so cheap in Waterbury? Some people didn’t want their youngsters living in the city.

    Lastly, how long have you had an association with Waterbury??????????
    I remember when it had a Jewish Center (that went bust and had to be sold to Post University) (I paid for a room there), had 3 Synagogues on or right off Cooke St, had a thriving Day school, kosher butcher and bakery. Do you remember any of this.
    All the small mill towns along RT 8 had Jewish communities and synagogues that started out at orthodox in the late 1800s….Naugatuck, Torrington, Derby, Waterbury. Between the death of northern manufacturing, downtown shopping districts, white flight the Jews abandoned these places and a group of frum Jews saw an opportunity to grab housing and shul buildings for next to nothing and leave NYC for a different life.
    In New Haven, where I was born and grew up, Catholic churches have closed with white flight and lack of funds. Chabad which had previously taken over the failed Young Israel, spent many millions buying the large St Brendan’s RCC and it’s school building for a new Yeshiva complex and dormitory. But for safety, the boys live within a fenced, protected ghetto abutting a neighborhood full of crime,

    in reply to: Top Five Yeshivas #1985003
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @CTRebbe
    I did not post about families, i write of sending a boy to live in Waterbury, quite a different thing. No student in the Yeshiva K-Tana is sent to live in a dorm in the city.
    That 250 families snapped up cheap housing in a derelict city so they could make a more affordable life and still get to NYC in 2 hours is good for them, but off point form my comment.

    in reply to: Top Five Yeshivas #1984873
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @lakewhut
    putting words in my mouth I did not utter, again

    I did not say I would not support the Yeshiva in Waterbury, I have written yearly checks since its inception. I said I would not send a boy to live in Waterbury, a city I consider and know to be filthy and dangerous.
    I never mentioned politics in the 1960s. I said my family had been in business in Waterbury since 1958. My father opened his first store there in 1958 and eventually had 3. I owned and operated a garment factory there in the 80s and still own commercial property there.
    Just last week I was there to appear in Family Court session of the Superior Court.

    For 100 years Waterbury has been known for hills, mills and dirty necks….the mills closed down after the Arab Oil Embargo of the early 70s, but the hills and dirty necks remain. The local Jews abandoned Waterbury in white flight and the Yeshiva picked up their buildings for a song as well as a bargain political deal for the former UCONN Waterbury campus. Maybe to a Jew in Crown Heights or Bed Stuy Waterbury (the city, not the Yeshiva) isn’t that bad, but to suburbanites it is horrific.

    in reply to: Top Five Yeshivas #1984376
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @BenchKvatcher
    As someone whose family was in business in Waterbury since 1958 and saw its complete collapse and corrupt politicians, I would not be sending a young man to live in learn there. I will say that the Yeshiva is a good repurposed use of a conservative Synagogue.

    BUT…Cooke St is not safe or desirable, nor is the former UCONN Waterbury campus. It was no surprise that a move to Durham has happened,

    in reply to: Robo calls getting out of hand #1984181
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @yserbius123

    Mesira is not an issue. Non-profits, political polls, organizations, candidates and any company you have ever done business with are exempt from the No Call List provisions of the law.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    90% of the true SPAM calls are being placed from outside the USA, they use false caller ID numbers that are computer generated and our government has no enforcement powers.
    Today I created a conference call and let the car warranty guy talk to the fake Social Security enforcement agent.

    in reply to: Top Five Yeshivas #1984182
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @CTRebbe
    Why did my response surprise you? It was succinct and on point.

    Some of the Ivies have announced that they no longer will automatically accept legacy candidates (as Yale did with GW Bush and then his daughter) keep them in and give them ‘gentlemen’s Cs’ as passing grades.

    My brothers and myself and our sons and grandsons attended the same Yeshiva in Brooklyn that my father and uncle attended before WWII. I assume family name, the fact that full tuition was to be paid and that a number of rooms have plaques with our name as the donor didn’t hurt their chances of admission. BUT, why shouldn’t a Yeshiva want multi-generation families that support the institution and share their hashgafa?

    Unlike a Yeshiva, a college or university that accepts any federal funding has to balance gender, and race in its admissions. They no longer have to factor in whether or not the student needs financial aid, as they used to.

    in reply to: Top Five Yeshivas #1983808
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    Hardest to get into???????????????????
    For whom?

    The son and grandson of alumni of the Yeshiva
    The son or grandson of a businessman making a multimillion dollar donation?
    The son of parents who can pay full tuition, room and board?
    A scholarship applicant?
    A BT?

    There is no set answer and no level playing field.

    in reply to: Its impossible to make a living in Israel #1982922
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @hml
    “priorities & materialism are less important here. ”

    NO….a priority cannot be less important anywhere, if it is less important it is not a priority.
    Perhaps you mean that you have different priorities in EY than chutz l’aretz.

    in reply to: Taking bets re Israel’s government #1982546
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    I believe that the Arab world will put extreme pressure (and pay money) to the Arab party to withdraw from the coalition. It is in the Arab world’s best interests to have Israel without a government that can rule.

    in reply to: Taking bets re Israel’s government #1982469
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @coffee Addict
    I agree, but probably less than 60 days

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1981932
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Avik
    You are correct about Ohio Nat’l Guard, not quite a senior moment, but I had been working on a trust for a client’s family in Illinois and had typed it so many times, it just flowed.
    We went to the Service, not the cemetery.

    Property Tax is local, not federal. so your stretch doesn’t apply. A yard or tag sale at a home is not at a place of public accommodation with licenses from Health Department, Sales tax permit, etc.

    As I said, we didn’t live in the city and the funeral service was my sole interaction with Lindsay, so I pass no judgment on his prowess as mayor. Splitting ballots used to be more common in the past.

    Our Town Council is subject to minority party representation rules. We have 7 districts, each represented by 3 Council members. A party may only run 2 candidates and win only two seats maximum. So if I vote for two Ds, I then vote for one of the two Rs on the ballot. In our district, this year, I detest one of the Rs and will vote for the other, who I merely dislike

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1981761
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Always
    I have never used twitter or instagram
    I use FB only when our town is streaming a meeting via FB Live or to check our DTC group for announcements, I haven’t used it for social media type uses, I have the discipline not to get sucked into the shmutz, but I wouldn;t want my grandchildren using FB or TikTok

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1981588
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @AviK
    My parents left NYC in 1952. My grandparents were alive and living in NYC during the Lindsay administration and supported him, not so my aunt who lived in Queens during the snow removal debacle. He was mayor during the time that all northern US cities were falling apart; post Civil Rights Act, White Flight, Race Riots and departure of manufacturing for the cheaper sunbelt states.

    I had only one personal interaction with him, back in 1970. He was seated in the row with my grandmother (Lindsay was next to her), mother and myself at the funeral of Jeffery Miller (my 3rd cousin who was murdered by the Illinois National Guard at Kent State). he was most solicitous and when my grandmother began to faint he had his staff remove her to his limo to rest and revive. My grandmother had traveled by public transit to the funeral (we had come from CT) and Lindsay had her transported home by a city detective in his vehicle.

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1981581
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @AviK
    “CTL,
    1. You are correct if you mean that the government cannot make it only a public forum for liberals. However, it makes no sense to say that if they create a public forum they cannot create it because of the First Amendment.”
    This is not what I wrote. If the government creates the forum it IS subject to the First Amendment (creation is Government Action_.
    #2…what does paying have to do with it? If the forum (such as CompuServe or Aol in the old days) took fees from people in other states than their HQ it was Interstate Commerce and could be attacked under those rules. Gifts are not considered commerce (although the purchase and deliver may be commerce and interstate).

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1981575
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @AviK
    Restaurants are places of public accommodation, which is why they are subject to the civil rights laws. Even if not one morsel of food crossed state lines. They operate with licenses from health department and subject to inspection.

    in reply to: Best shabbos leftovers #1981569
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    Brisket or Sauerbraten with onion gravy served over the stale challah for Sunday lunch

    in reply to: Where have all the Yekkes gone? #1981372
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @always
    Why did my family move to America?
    I would have to break down 4 branches as I grew up hearing the stories from older generations.

    My Mother’s father’s grandfather was a cigar maker in southern Germany (Hoc Deutsch) running his own factory. He was made a large offer by an American manufacturer to come to Upstate NY in 1868 and run their cigar factory. They moved the entire family with 2nd class passage, bought them a house in the upstate city and paid him a large salary and 10% ownership in the factory. My grandfather moved to NYC to get a medical degree and stayed.
    My Mother’s Mother’s grandparents arrived in NYC from Frankfurt in 1869. The head of the family had been an attorney in Germany handling financial matters and he was brought over by a group of the ‘Our Crowd’ bankers (of the Goldman, Sachs ilk) to handle legal and financial issues concerning transactions and bond issues sold in Germany and Middle Europe. My grandmother was born in 1900 in the Yorkville section of Manhattan, where German was the neighborhood language.

    My Litvak Paternal Grandmother’s family started arriving in 1872, some traveling via England with a stay there of months or years. They were clothing or dry goods merchants and sought economic opportunities not available in the pale. Over a period of 10 years, the Great-great-grandparents, 9 children, 9 spouses and about 30 children arrived in Manhattan. By 1886 they were in Brooklyn and small towns throughout the northeast running the general or dry goods store. My Paternal grandmother was born 1896 in a small New England town where her uncle’s family ran the local department store until the 1960s. Her father, having only daughters moved them to Brooklyn about 1915 to find husbands, leaving the store to his brothers and nephews.
    My Litvak Paternal father’s family was last to arrive in 1878. Some cousins had moved to Chicago about 10 years earlier and left horse raising for the leather clothing and accessories business (because of the great meat processing business in Chicago, lots of cheap hides were available with great train transportation to ship finished goods). They brought my great Grandparents and their children to NY to set up a clothing manufacturing business, to add cloth items to the family line. My grandfather, was the youngest child and born in Manhattan about 1894. they had been making a fair living in the Pale, but did not like the chances of the sons being forced into the Czar’s army. The cousins in Chicago arranged the US immigration visas and passage by ship from Bremerhaven.

    None of the stories told spoke of leaving Europe because of anti-Semitism, and the Litvak side left before the 1880s pogroms hit their village (which is now in Belarus).

    To the best of my knowledge all the assorted extended family in these 4 branches had made it to the USA or England before WWI. My paternal Grandfather was a corporal in the US Army in WWI.

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1981315
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Always
    “I am not sure why humanity needs to offer control over their thoughts to corporations instead of writing on open internet, like this site does. ”

    NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YWN decides who can join/post, edits/moderates, approves/rejects posts posts. Ascribing First Amendment Rights would force posting of non-conforming religious content, sexually explicit content, anti-Semitic opinion, etc.

    BTW, I don’t know the business structure of YWN, it might be a corporation (or not).
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    In 1967 Joseph Einhorn ran for Mayor of New Haven on the Republican ticket. His wife had gone to Hunter College with my mother and played Mah Jongg with her on Thursdays night. Although, Democratic Ward Chairman and Chairlady, my parents voted for Joe. He lost, but so has every Republican city wide candidate in New Haven since 1953

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1981164
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @AviK
    You defeated your own argument when you wrote that the government can create public forums on the internet. If the Government creates the forum, it is Government action and the First Amendment applies.
    Back in the early days of the internet, when we paid to belong/use the bulletin boards such as Compuserve, AOL, etc. The Interstate Commerce Clause might have applied. BUT, when there is no fee for Facebook, Instagram or Twitter it would be a far stretch to call participation Interstate Commerce.
    There are thousands of FB groups that are geographically local in scope. I am the admin or moderator of a number of them that require proof of local residency to join and/or participate. No Interstate Commerce there. My Democratic Town Committee has a private FB group. Only members of the DTC, who must be registered voters in the Town can see the group and participate, again nothing Interstate about it.

    in reply to: Where have all the Yekkes gone? #1981042
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @always
    I believe Oma used the term to refer to those from tiny villages as opposed to the city folk in Germany.
    Our paternal family records going back to 1752 until they came to America about 1872 show the family raising and dealing in horses and having orchards and using the fruit to make distilled spirits. Sounds like a step above dirt farmers, but still agricultural life.

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1981045
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @always
    I did not ask him how he planned to vote.
    That said your supposition about Jews and Democrats is inaccurate. When we were growing up the Republican Party of the northeast was liberal, and may Jews voted for people such as Nelson Rockefeller, Kenneth Keating, John V. Lindsay. Lowell Weicker, etc.

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1980862
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @AviK
    Congress could pass a law that online forums were public forums, but it would lose a Constitutional challenge. Fairness Doctrine only applied to public airwaves and TV stations are licensed to operate at those frequencies for X years at a time.

    First Amendment rights cannot be applied to private business, unless they are acting in the government’s place. So if the Government rents space for a Post Office or Social Security office, the private landlord can’t ban Jews or Muslims from coming in the property, or distribution of literature on the sidewalk leading in, or other Free Speech protests

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1980863
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @AviK
    The Picture ID should be currently valid.
    In CT Drivers Licenses are issued every 6 years.
    College or High School IDs are issued yearly
    Most Employee IDs are updated every few years

    in reply to: Where have all the Yekkes gone? #1980860
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Commonsaychel
    My Litvak Zaidy used to ask: Tell me are you Jewish or Galitzianer?
    My Oma would put him in his place, by calling Zaidy a ‘peasant from the east’

    This pecking order is such nonsense

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1980864
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Reb Eliezer
    The affidavit requires a lot of personal info that is verified with records in the Registrar’s office
    Full Legal Name
    Date and place of Birth
    Address
    Phone
    Social Security Number.

    Remember CT is a small state. Our town has only about 26,000 registered voters and 7 polling places. With 3 checkers from each party on duty at all times, plus two moderators, two asst, Registrars of Voters, two ballot clerks and two clerks working the tabulating machine the chances are near 100% that at least one of the poll workers will know any voter who shows up.
    I’ve worked the same polling location for 15 years, I probably know 60% of the voters who come in.
    I won’t know new arrivals in town or the 18 year olds voting the first time, but chances are they will be known.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    Quick story….
    My father always went to NYC by train on Tuesdays and then voted on his way home from the train station, back in 1974 (before we had an ID requirement and drivers licenses didn’t have pictures), I was a poll worker. At 7:45PM a man walked in gave his address as his own and then my father’s name. I yelled out Challenge and asked the Moderator to have the man arrested. The moderator said how do you know? I said, that is not my father, whose name and address were given to get a ballot.
    Three minutes later my father walked in to vote. The policeman asked for his ID, then cuffed the first man and led him away.

    in reply to: Where have all the Yekkes gone? #1980795
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @always
    I go to sleep between 11 and 12, I am up no later than 4 every day and have been most of my adult life. The early morning hours are quite productive time for me with few interruptions.
    I spend at least three mornings a week on calls to China that last 2-3 hours. This involves a business venture separate from my law practice.
    I always wear a watch, I’d feel naked without it, but don’t need it to know the time. My watches are all Swiss and will pass to my children or grandchildren at sometime in the future. My eldest grandson wears a watch that belonged to my maternal grandfather and is about 100 years old. The young man is named for his great-grandfather and it was appropriate for him to receive the watch when he was married.
    As for Swiss Jews, the current youngsters might be selling Swiss watches, not wearing them, but I haven’t been in Switzerland in about 7 years, so I don’t really know.

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1980790
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @RebEliezer
    ‘currently we vote through signature recognition’

    WHOA…hold your horses. Each state sets their own rules.
    We do NOT use signature recognition in CT. Speaking as an asst. Registrar of Voters who works as a supervisor at the polls on Election Day: In CT voters are asked to present a picture ID, but not required, they can refuse and sign an affidavit that they are registered to vote and then vote. Their ballots are held separately and not put through the tabulating machine at the polling location. They are placed in a bag, which is sealed by the moderator and sent to Town Hall. The affidavit is verified and if acceptable the vote tabulated with absentee ballots.
    The checkers at the poll look at the picture ID and the person presenting it and see if it looks like the same person. They do NOT look at signatures. The voter does not sign anything at the polls and the signature from the voter registration form is not available to be checked.
    At this point we have many senior citizens voting who registered more than 60 years ago. Their signatures may be quite different from when the registered.
    I registered 49 years ago and my signature is not even close to what is was when I was 18. The Town Clerk was not required to retain original registrations all these years. The last twenty years’ applications have been digitized in our town.

    Please avoid the word WE when you have no idea if what you post is universal,

    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    Because when Benjamin Franklin published this adage, there was no electric or gaslights in homes and businesses.
    People had to make the most of daylight hours to be productive and earn a living.
    Go try farming in the dark….That’s why we have Daylight Savings Time…to increase farm production.
    Candles were expensive, they gave limited light for work purposes.

    in reply to: The future of the democracy of the U.S. government #1980614
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @AviK
    The First Amendment applies to GOVERNMENT ACTION. It has nothing to do with big tech or other private concerns.
    A private concern has the right to decide who it allows to post or not.
    If the government ordered a private concern to allow an individual to post, that would be a great threat to Democracy

    Way back when most TV and radio (in the USA) was broadcast over the ‘public airways’ and the FCC ordered equal time provisions for opposing viewpoints. That could NOT be extended to cable, satellite or internet platforms. It has since been dropped for broadcast networks, who claimed it was an unfair burden since most of the competition wasn’t subject to the same requirements

    in reply to: Where have all the Yekkes gone? #1980613
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @always
    Alarm clocks?????????????????/
    Never saw one in Oma and Opa’s home, or my parents or my home.
    If you have to be up at a certain time you are up.
    Mrs. CTL was amazed early on in our marriage that I have an internal body clock and know the time close to the minute. Early this morning I got up to make a business call to China where it is 13 hours ahead. She asked me what time it was? I said should be hitting 3:00. She looked at a wall clock and said you’re wrong it’s only 2:59………I said better than it being 3:01.

    I understand that my grandchildren’s generation doesn’t wear watches or have alarm clocks, they are using their phones for those functions.

    in reply to: Where have all the Yekkes gone? #1979847
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Mesivta bachur

    The late Yekke….is dead
    No live Yekke worthy of the name is ever late.

    in reply to: Where have all the Yekkes gone? #1979480
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Reb Eliezer
    My wife and were married cover by my Opa’s and her father’s Taleisim. I never met her father, she was walked down the aisle by mother and step-father.
    My parents were alive for our sons weddings and were also covered by my Opa’s Tallis. Our daughters did not follow this custom as they followed traditions of their new husbands (none of whom had Yekke forebears_.

    in reply to: Where have all the Yekkes gone? #1979315
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    We were brought up with the attitude that if you are not 20 minutes early you are late. BUT you arrive exactly on time.
    10am appointment, you are parked outside the place and at 9:58 you exit the car, adjust your clothing, make sure you have everything you need and walk to the door. You ring the bell (or of a business location you enter exactly at 10am…NOT 9:59, NOT 10:01, but 10:00am.

    This comes from my Yekke mother.
    Just as Chicken soup is made with dill
    Yiddish never spoken in the house…..it was used/learned for business, but as OMA called it a gutter language it remained outside.
    BTW>>>>>before someone chimes in with what the Germans did to Jews who were so comfortable in Germany in the 1930s and 40s, our family left Germany for America in the 1860s. Our Litvish family were latecomers, arriving at Castle Garden (Battery Park) in 1872.

    in reply to: Constitutional Rights? #1979072
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Always
    Please don’t give up your day job, you’ll not make it in my profession
    “>> Amendments 1-10 were added soon after adoption of the Constitution

    There would not be enough states to sign constitution without bill of rights, so they should be considered part of the main body.”
    WRONG!!!!!!
    The Constitution went into effect on June 21, 1788 when New Hampshire became the 9th of the 13 States to ratify it (until then the US operated under the Articles of Confederation<wonder where the South took their name?>),
    There were actually 12 original Amendments passed by the First Congress sent for ratification to the States. Only #s 3-12 were ratified as of December 15th, 1791 and became known as the Bill of Rights and numbered as Amendments 1-10.

    The Constitution was ratified by the States and took effect 3 years before the Bill of Rights. Your assertion is incorrect.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    ” if you have a general statement that anything not in constitution is reserved to states and people, this is enough to protect personal liberties.”

    No such statement exists, The correct statement is that ‘all powers not assigned to the Federal Government is reserved to the States.’ This is where we get the concept of States Rights, Nothing is reserved to the people. The Preamble puts it bluntly: We the People in order to….” The people have ceded their power to a representative form of government and retain rights only through the ballot box that can elect representatives.
    Over the years, the Federal Government has usurped powers by claiming things fall under their jurisdiction by using things such as the Interstate Commerce Clause, etc. The SCOTUS has been complicit in this power grab.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    As for your remark about the First Amendment originally meaning Congress, this has been expanded to all levels of Government as all levels accept and operate with Federal funds comingled with state and local funds.
    Here in CT, all houses of worship had to be chartered by the State until the late 1800s. Our family belonged to three shuls in New Haven (yes out of town it is common to belong to multiple shuls in town, especially business owners do this to this day) all of whom were chartered by the State of Connecticut.
    Towns and villages got their names from the Congregational Church Parish (Puritans) whose pastor or Parish Council acted as local government and levied local taxes for the Constable, jail and school. This ended about 1840. The town I live in is made up of three of those Parishes and they are used as the names of the three main neighborhoods in town.

    in reply to: Where have all the Yekkes gone? #1979078
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    My mother’s side was Yekke, my father’s Litvak.
    Opa and Oma were quite unhappy that my mother married a peasant from the east (even though both my parents were third generation in America.
    My Opa was one of three brothers, but all fathered only daughters. My mother’s sister did marry a Yekke. He had one son and that son’s three male children (now in their 30s follow the Yekke ways.

    Opa bought me a Talis for my Bar Mitzvah. I wore it when I went to his shul in NY, but not in my Zaidy’s shul in Brooklyn. Mt father has asked the Rav in our shul in New Haven and was told that I should war it when in shul with my Opa to honor his tradition.

    the demise of the kehilla in Washington Heights has been a sharp blow to the Yekke Community. When I was a teen and twenty something their were loads of Yekkes in the Rockaways. My Opa and Oma had a summer place there, wintering in the city.

    in reply to: Constitutional Rights? #1978357
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are two very different Documents written at different times by not necessarily the same people for different purposes.

    The Declaration says, we have had enough of being governed by the King of England and we thirteen colonies declare our Independence for the following reasons. The stirring terms such as: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, …” are used to gather support for the action among the populace.

    Having won the Revolutionary War, the former Colonies, now 13 States have to organize a system of Government for the new country: The Constitution is that system of Government.
    The Preamble lays out why it is needed:
    “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
    It has no reason to talk of ideals such as ‘unalienable rights’ as we were no longer English colonies in revolt, we were now the People of The United States.
    Like many new systems, it needed tweaking, thus the Bill of Rights..Amendments 1-10 were added soon after adoption of the Constitution and the establishment of our three branch government.

    One should NEVER attempt to combine the purpose of two radically different documents

    in reply to: Constitutional Rights? #1978356
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    Reb Eliezer

    There is NO law that separates religion and state in the USA.
    The First Amendment to the Constitution reads:
    “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”

    This means Congress may not pass a law establishing an official religion of the USA.. We have no ‘Church of the USA’ while there is a ‘Church of England’ and the English Monarch it titular head of the Church.
    Government meetings, sessions of Congress are free to open with prayers. In 1962 The Supreme Court ruled that there could be no school prayer. The members of Congress are adults (although they may not act that way, while young schoolchildren are impressionable and subject to indoctrination, and peer and teacher pressure.

    The second clause says that Congress may not interfere with the practice of religion. This is what allows minorities such as Jews to observe and practice our religion in the USA.

    Personally, I believe the second clause is far more important than the first. I could care less if there was an official Church of the USA id inhabitants could not be required to belong or adhere to the religion and no tax dollars spent on its buildings and operations….as long as Congress could not interfere with the practice of other religion.

    The term Separation of Church and State is not in the Constitution, but was used by Thomas Jefferson to explain the operation of the two clauses of the First Amendment referring to religion.

    in reply to: President Biden the new Regan #1978178
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @AviK
    Reagan did not save the economy. His 1981 tax cuts were followed by 8 years of tax increases wiping out the cuts. He gave the breaks to the rich and harmed the middle class.

    I did not say he harmed the economy, I said his trickle down economics was the start of the destruction of the middle class. Please don’t put words in my mouth or shift the subject as if I had addressed what you shift to.
    Reagan was a senile former Democrat, former Labor Union President, the first divorced person to be elected President…some Family Values platform and an actor, B grade at that.

    in reply to: President Biden the new Regan #1978015
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    Rabbi………………….
    There never was a President Regan
    I detested him, but he deserves to have his name spelled correctly: REAGAN

    His trickle down voodoo economics was the start of the destruction of the American middle class.

    in reply to: conservatives’ liberal approach #1977316
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    @Always
    The FIRST AMENDMENT ONLY applies to Government action. A private business can censor your words, or not let you participate.

    YWN Mods censor regularly.

    in reply to: Scooter Explosion #1977019
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    Now we know why they are “self” funding

    in reply to: Bochurim Self-Funding #1975979
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    A Go Fund Me is NOT Self-Funding, it is schnoring!

    in reply to: setting up kiddush during mussuf #1975978
    Ex-CTLawyer
    Participant

    Who is setting up the Kiddush…………….
    Male members of the shul?
    Female members of the shul?
    Paid employees of the shul?
    The caterer’s staff?

    It makes a difference.

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