fork

My chumash starts haftoras shelach with the 2nd perek.

Good post, the little I know, and if I could just stick in the little I know, there were a few points in crazykanoi’s post that weren’t addressed. crazykanoi didn’t say who he’s comparing Trump to and maybe means to compare him to a different politician. However, if he meant to compare him to Trump or Clinton, there are a few shocking points he made.
first of all, “We should be concerned when the president uses his position to attack free enterprises such as Amazon with lies and slander.” I much prefer that to a president who uses his position to encourage homosexuality.

“We should be concerned when the president fabricates falsehoods against law enforcement such as claiming that the FBI planted a spy in his campaign even though every Reuplican with access to the intelligence says that this is a lie.” Let’s be honest: the FBI did cover up for Clinton and was out to get Trump, as was evidenced by the texts discovered a few weeks ago. True, Trump probably made up planting a spy, but the fact that every Republican says so is little indication. They’re all trying to tone Trump down and make everyone get along nicely. So until there’s concrete proof they wouldn’t say it’s true.

“We should be concerned when the president publicly states that he can just do away with due process by saying we don’t need judges at the border to process asylum seekers and detainees.” I’m not a lawyer, but the feeling I’ve gotten was that the President, as chief of the executive branch, has a right to make such orders. (And a lot better than Obama’s executive orders.)

“We should be concerned when the president showers praise on unrepentant dictators such as Putin, Kim Jong Uhn and Dutarte.” Maybe. Maybe not. He was opening the doors to try to get some deals going. Maybe it was a bad idea, but if Obama would have done it he would have been awarded a second Nobel. It’s only when Trump does it that people mind.

“We should be concerned when the president attacks the free press and demonizes reporters who are doing their job and claims that any story that portrays in an unflattering light is fake news.” You really just hit a nerve with me. 1) The “free press” is Fake News, as everyone, but you, realizes. (See Avram in MD’s post about Rich Lowry’s article.) They are extremely biased against Trump and all conservatives, and twist his every action and every word. 2) “just doing their job” the golden excuse everyone makes for them. The fact that they support their families doesn’t validate any article whose truth is questionable. 3) How any Jew (besides Satmar) who sees the way the “free press” casts Israel in “an unflattering light” can still defend them is beyond me.
I personally would count Trump’s war with the media as one of the good things he’s accomplished.

“And when Trump refuses to distance himself from David Duke for three days and says that there were good people marching with NeoNazi’s in Charlottetown that should be enough to make every Jew shudder.” You have a good point here (with David Duke. The second part is news to me, I have to look it up.) Yes, that was very scary. However, I don’t find it better when someone kisses Arafat’s wife or when someone condemns Israel when they defend themselves and/or declare them a no-flying zone. In fact, the latter is worse in a lot of ways. It’s the typical wolf in sheep’s clothing that the liberals impersonate, worse than the conservative wolves.

“Even Trump’s withdrawal from Iran deal is of questionable benefit and may actually increase the threat of a nuclear Iran and much like Obama, Trump has done basically nothing to reign in Hizbullah in Syria.” Whereas Obama’s deal with Iran was of unquestionable benefit–i.e., of no benefit.

As for YWN’s coverage on these subjects, I do think they do a good job. Obviously, anything from the mainstraem media has to be taken with a grain of salt, but overall their balance is good and they don’t show bias. (Posting AP articles isn’t bias.) Thank you for your great work!

“The evidence of a corrupt system is that people ask questions like this.”
Paying Shadchanus is a halacha, not the result of a corrupt system.

AZOI.IS: you seem to have experienced brokering a shidduch and then not getting paid. Was this one isolated event, or does this happen often? By the way, you can take them to a din torah.