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Not worth responding to trolls…..if you watched the videos of the rallies where the cameras spin around to the attendees in the audience (not the props standing behind the podium), you would see reality. And no, I don’t work for any “news” outlet. It would be too depressing. Hopefully, you will remain healthy over yom tov. We continue to need comic relief here.
If the frum tzibur in the NY metro areas wanted to shut down the shuls and yeshivas, they couldn’t have done a better job than reported here on the pages of YWN over the past week or so. When you have a mayor/governor belatedly trying to look like they are aggressively taking action to slow the infection rate with simple mask/social distancing enforcement and segments of the frum tzibur following the lead of the Trumpkopf rather than his public health advisors, this iis a trainwreck that may play out over yom kippur.
Coffee: Next time try to have the caffienated version so you can stay up late and watch the TV coverage of the rallies. Beginning about 10 days ago, the event organizers started requiring masks for those sitting right behind the podium waving signs for the cameras while just about everyone else in the audience is crowded together and maskless (Unless of course, that One America and Fox which are the only networks covering these rallies have photoshopped off the masks from thousands of people). The protests are totally mixed. Some have majority masks and some are just as bad as a Trump Rally. Both super stupid but thats the world we are living in.
BK 613: Do you really believe that DB cares any longer about “political suicide” ?? He is so detached from the reality of what is happening in NYC and has a tin ear for the anti-Semitic tropes he invokes which are just as bad as those we are hearing from the fringes of the far right.
Tachles: I suspect demonstrations are “allowed” for the same reason that the Trumpkopf continues to hold large campaign rallies, both indoors and outside with virtually no social distancing or masks (except for the small number of people used as “props” sitting directly behind the podium). Both are justified in the name of first amendment/free expression rights. I agree that most of the rules governing davening in shuls, numbers allowed etc. seem arbitrary and are enforced very unevenly. The restrictions are NOT just on shuls. In most states where such rules are still enforced, they obviously apply to all religious gatherings and most indoor gatherings but again no consistently or logically. In Montgomery county, for example, Rav Hershel Kranz of Silver Spring was finally successful yesterday in getting approval for a relaxation on the indoor seating limits for shuls in a county which still has some of the most restrictive rules in the U.S. and has refused to go along with the State’s easing of restrictions on indoor dining etc.
HBS: Sadly, America is still a democracy and as citizens we ARE free to make our own decisions on voting for candidates. We certainly can consider the views of rabonim, askanim and those we respect but the final decision is our own. Yes, I’m sure there are still areas where everyone moves in step with directives from their Rav on everything from hashgacha to local elections but most yidden actually retain the ability to make their own decisions on political matters.
edited. The picture you paint with your word choices are not hashkafically appropriate. -29
To avoid 4 more years of having a vile, narcissistic, racist and misogynistic bully occupying the WH. Otherwise, I really don’t have a lot of strong feelings on the matter one way or the other.
“Harav Shmuel Kamenetzky begs to differ”
Just as we are free to differ on matters of electoral choice and select that candidate who best reflects the totality of our concerns. For some of us, another 4 years of the status quo would be a disaster for the U.S. and also for EY. Obviously, the large percentage of those here in the CR passionately believe the opposite is true if Biden wins. Thats what a democracy is about and lets hope that whatever the outcome on November 4-10 (since I really believe it could be a week for final determination) the peaceful transition that has governed our democracy for over 200 years continues.
G’mar tov to ALLIn our small improvised outdoor minyan, the shaliach tzibur wisely avoided including the usual tefillah after the haftorah for the leaders of our government so as to assure we still had a minyan for musaf.
To the question in the OP. EY is among the worst countries in the world in terms of the recent increase in Corona Virus infections, even when the data are adjusted for higher testing rates. In the NYC area, the most rapid growth in new infections are in frum neighborhoods. To those mindless yidden who continue to ask, “is there still Corona virus in the frum velt”, the answer YES and the numbers are again accelerating.
Proud Repubican: You may discover motzi yom tov that most hospital have strict rules about dancing in the ER and that even where it is allowed, the tubes from the ventilators make it difficult to do anything but the most simple type of steps like a mitzvah tanz. important to know since both you and others are exposed to higher risk of infection when engaged in vigorous dancing w/o wearing a mask. Perhaps we will see you sometime on “Dancing with the Covid Stars”.
Even so called “safe” Apps which young men and women might need for job training need to be updated to address bugs and security patches. Perhaps they could disable internet and allow the Admin to download updates then transfer those downloads to the “brick computers” through and external thumb drive.
Also, there were media reports several years ago that Hillary Clinton had been able to “bleach” her computers but that was fake news. The reality was that she was “kashering” her computer where her internet mashgichim used a software application called “Bleachbit” which is one of several available Apps to permanently delete items stored on the server such as the 30,000 emails dealing with her yoga classes and daughter’s chassanah. This type of kashering software for a hard drive has nothing to do with the network card providing internet connectivity which I believe is the concern of OP.
First, they should only toivel the laptops during off-peak hours, especially in the peak season of the yamim noraim when the Mikvahs are in high demand. Second, once they remove any internet connectivity, HOW will these rocket scientists install updates to their operating systems, etc. since they are available only for downloads? Without internet connectivty, a PC is really not much more than an electronic typewriter and calculator. What would they teach???
Syag: Its really tough to be “serious” in re ANY aspect of this whole sordid affair but I’ll try. The answer to your totally fair question is that their actions were driven by he track record of this administration and especially DOJ in terms of unprecedented violations of established investigative norms and a President who uses DOJ as his personal law firm to further his own political agenda to a degree never seen. In that context, and especially after BARR had misrepresented the final report in his so called “summary” WHY would any independent counsel or member of his team want to leave an electronic treasure trove of information to be used in furtherance of Barr’s effort to discredit and undermine the report. Their concerns have been validated by Barr’s ongoing use of the Dunham investigation to further Trump’s vendetta against the special counsel team. Just the other day, a senior career lawyer working for Dunham resigned to protest the blatant politicization of Dunham’s investigation.
P.S. As a practical matter, and as Hillary Clinton discovered, “bleaching” (aka deleting” devices doesn’t delete copies of messages stored om external servers over which those messages were stored/distributed.
And since we are on a rare serious note, Shanah Tovah1: Yup….waiting for the Rx refills but for some reason the post-office has been slow in udeliveries, In the interim, just hunkering down in my basement just like Reb Joe (aka the Delaware Rebbe) until Moishiach arrives on 17 Mar Cheshvan.
Tzadik613: The yungerleit deserve at least TWO post-shteig drinks on those evenings they aren’t attending their AA meetings. Thursdays may be problematic since most cholent joints only serve beer but not hard liquor.
Toi: You are probably correct with regard to my focus on the Trumkopf’s efforts to undermine the public health and medical communities with junk science and political paranoia assertions of deep state activists in FDA working against him. Today he was out in California to survey the fire damage but deny that global warming was a factor as the scientists in the Forest Service and NOAA have concluded. Also, do you remember his ill-fated Executive order creating a Commission on Vaccines right after his inauguration. Once he brought in RFK Jr. to participate, his advisors quickly ditched the effort since it would have poured gasoline on an already growing anti-vaxer movement.
Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security and TSA didn’t get the memo from the Trumkopf as to how dangerous the Antifah terrorists are. You may recall the President’s so called “News Conference” (aka a Trump bloviation hour) where repeated the bubba meisa about “planes full of black clad Antifah terrorists” flying TO Washington just before the Republican convention so they could disrupt the events. Its reassuring to know that the TSA security screeners allowed them to board their flights in uniform. Two days later the Trumpkopf was repeating the same story but this time they were flying OUT of Washington, apparently again with the approval of the TSA.
“Social media has sickened the world and it must be stopped…”
By whom??? Are you that naïve to believe that “somone” will STOP a technology that has become ubiquitous across billions of people around the globe and in some cases, provides the only platform for people to access everything from financial services to medical care? For those of you who regard FB or Twitter as the “av ha’tumah” then delete those Apps from your smartphone or even better, get rid of you smartphone and get an old fashioned rotary dial phone on EBay.Little: As you said, everyone is entitle to their opinions. I do happen to believe that there has been a very broad and pervasive undermining of public health norms across the board with mixed messages on vaccinations, masks, social distancing etc. There is this phony and dangerous libertarian theme that ANY government public health guidance is politically driven by the deep state, designed to take away your liberty, etc. Obviously, increased drug and alcohol use and peer-driven smoking were critical problems before Trump and the Corona Virus came along but his actions and rhetoric, in my view, have made it considerably more difficult to effectively respond to these other public health crises.
edited
“he issue is not Trump, except in your mind”
And yes, I have a very active imagination. I imagine a President who would lead by words and actions. A president deliberately undermines the credibility of the nation’s public health leadership by questioning their motives, contradicting their advice and offering garbage science in lieu of expert advice from those who have the best available information. His actions in terms of mocking those who wear masks, refusing to wear one himself, flouting social distancing guidelines at his events and pushing reopening even where there are high rates of infection ALL have caused death and suffering. So yes, I do blame him for what he has some ability to control and fails to do so in the same way I blame political leaders, the media, and those in the entertainment sector who knew tobacco killed and continued downplaying the risk for over a decade.
1: “GH – do you ever think about anything other than trump?”
Thinking about Trump helps me get my mind off the shidduch crisis, nightmares that the kids will break the Pitom off our $400 Calabrian esrog and revelations that Milhouse is really Uncle Moishe posting under a pseudonym.
!: There are good arsonists on BOTH sides…..
What is the problem here?
The problem is the narcissistic intellectual void occupying the Oval Office who has taken an already polarized American populace to new extremes and has used critical public health issues as a “metric” of personal freedom and liberty to energize his base. His mindless rants and irresponsible assertions regarding just about every aspect of the current pandemic is like Baltimore Mayven’s “denial” that smoking is like the Virus and has just “magically” gone away and is no longer a concern. Yes, there has been gross stupidity on BOTH sides with regard to Covid-related decisions (aka Cuomo sending infected patients back to the nursing homes) but the Trumpkopf’s actions are knowing and deliberate to further his personal ego and agenda.
To all those who assert that the Trumpkopf is sitting in the Oval Office only because the Ebeshter wanted him there, I assume you will be equally accepting (and perhaps even add a chatzi hallel) when Reb Yosef and Kamala move in on January 20th.
Yes…..Many……Just so many Zoom calls you can take in a day and looking forward to next shabbos’ virtual kiddush club are about as exciting as a PTA meeting, assuming your Rav found some way of giving you a heter for your computer to be preset erev shabbos. Thus, for those desperately in need of comic relief from our regular trolls, seeking validation of their dystopian political views from fellow Trumpkopfs or desperately searching for the latest chumrah promulgated by our CR poskim, posting here is the only game in town in a Covid-velt.
If you don’t think buchrim were doing stupid things BEFORE Al Gore invented the internet, than you obviously are a recent arrival from another velt where Moishiach has already come and all the buchrim lives perfect torahdik lives shteiging 24×7……There is a fairly good argument to be made that the large percentage of yidden using social media use it with proper cautions and particularly for the past 6 months and perhaps for the next 6-12 months doing so provides essential social interaction when most person-to-person interactions are limited or non-existant.
“For starters, how about not lie to the people who take him seriously??”
Well, for starters, there are at least SOME who take him “seriously”, including some of those commenting on this thread” who are intelligent and thus he has to fabricate “alternative facts” do keep them in line. I would agree that the majority of Trumpkopfs probably would accept he “truth” along with his assertion that we should discard all of our prior understandings of reality. However, lying to his sheeplach and insisting that any disagreement is “fake news” or in some cases “treason” makes it a lot easier than having to actually work on explaining why the true facts aren’t as they seem. Ask you 10 yo son why its easier to say the dog or tata “ate my homework” rather than explaining why the teacher’s assignment was not well thought out and it would have been a poor use of histime to write the essay rather than playing fortnight or learning a blat gemorah online with his chavrusah.“Trump told a reporter to take off his mask when asking a questiion at a news conference.”
Health says: “That was one time”…
If you are trying to be funny, its a poor attempt at humor. This moron on the WH was forced kicking and screaming to even acknowledge on one occasion that wearing masks is one of the simplest and easiest things we can do with the potential to save lives. At every possible opportunity he has mocked and belittled those on his task force and other public officials who have urged Americans to wear masks. At the peak of the Summer spikes he held rallies where masks were not worn and even at his convention acceptance speech at the WH there were few masks around. At tonight’s rally in NC, there were no masks evident behind the podium when the cameras were turned on and only then were the Trumpkopfs crammed together behind him handed an optional “MAGA mask” which only about half put on. In simple terms, he has made wearing masks another one of the litmus tests dividing Americans. There is good evidence that wearing masks helps reduce transmission to some degree where social distancing is impossible and will save lives. But to Trump, its just another way to push back against what he considers the “elite”.Outside of a few chassidish clusters, Yidden are no longer a bunch of sheeplach who mindlessly vote for whomever some Rav tells them to. Hopefully, most will examine the views of both candidates on issues of importance to them and their families and balance that with the behavior and performance of those candidates and make a decision. There clearly is a wide gap here in the CR and throughout the tzibur as to how we should separate and discount Trump’s personal behavior from his few positive actions with respect to EY. I’ve noted multiple times how frustrating it is for BOTH parties to continually nominate mediocre candidates but that is the binary choice we are confronted with. In our democratic system, our gadolim and askanim are entitled to express their own opinions on political candidates and policy issues but in contrast to matters of halacha, we as individuals can make our own informed political judgements after consulting with our on Rav.
The difference is that the Trumpkpf’s “gaffes”, misstatements, garbled pronunciations, outright lies and incoherent rants actually endear him to his hard core base. He can do no wrong and anyone saying anything to the contrary immediately is branded as fake news or part of the deep state. Whatever he says becomes “alternative facts” and his aides immediately rush out to spin ‘what he really meant to say is XYZ and those who took him literally are the crazy ones.i
One needs to distinguish between a politician who supports the Supreme Court decision granting a secular legal right to same-gender marriage and a politician who is the personification of “Toevah” in terms of his adultery, misogyny, vulgarity and pervasive lying. And that is only the stuff we know about.
Manhattanite: First of all, increasing numbers of women today ARE learning talmud so will have the same fluency in Aramaic as their husbands (and perhaps better in some cases). Secondly, for those that don’t, Google Translate can do an adequate job of interpretation.
P.S. What kind of jerk wouldn’t want yidden to share information on Shalom Bayis with their wives or beschert?? Is that some special thing in Lakewood??Akuperma’s advice is right on point. If you son is considering a law degree focused on business law to supplement his accounting skills, than any of a number of smaller law schools offer the opportunity of extending the time for obtaining the needed degree credits and probably offer more focused instruction on nuts and bolts contracts/commercial litigation/tax/real estate etc. Not sure exactly what you mean by “frum friendly”. Almost all will involve “mixed gender” classes but most will be accommodating on attendance/exams for a shomer shabbos and yom tovim. I wouldn’t consider any of the totally “online” law schools. I’m not sure about their ABA accreditation and many employers would not consider hiring. Finally, if you are from the “south”, consider a local state university law program rather than coming to NYC if the intention is to hang out a shingle locally. Its tough to waive into the local bars from New York (which has one of the tougher bar exams).
P.S. If you really want to get a feel for the point noted above regarding the editorial slanting of the photos used to highlight the various news stories, look at the current lead photos on the news page of DeBlasio (on the right side of the page) looking as if he is waiting a diagnosis in a trauma center and the smiling and positive photo (on the left) of Mahmoud Bin Salman, the butcher of Saudi Arabia, who just granted El Al flyover rights for all their flights and provided some positive momentum for Trump’s pre-election middle eastern “peace” efforts.
Putting aside the usual YWN tribal political affiliations, does anyone else feel the frustration that BOTH parties put forward geriatric candidates with serious flaws?? I don’t believe either has dementia although both have clear signs that they have “issues”. With such really talented and “normal” young leadership of both sides of the aisle, why do we continually have to choose between the lesser of two sets of damaged goods??
Have we ever seen a photo of the Trumpkopf having his hair sprayed with dayglo orange paint and crazy glue prior to his white house media appearances. Apparently Navarro used the Defense Production Act to assure continued supply of the spray paint when he discovered the sole supplier was terminating production as a result of the tariffs imposed on China.
It shouldn’t be so hard to simply not “play’ with your tzitzis during davening if you really are serious about equating an inadvertent disentanglement to opening you business on shabbos.
I think the OP is referencing the occasional editorial decisions to use unflattering stock photos of Democratic politicians to convey their distaste for the relevant individual(s). I sense that happens much less with Trump. While Biden is a gaffe machine, there is little focus on Trump’s frequent incoherent rants using the same set of “superlative” adjectives (greatest, strongest, beautiful, powerful etc) intermixed with his mangled pronunciation of words from the teleprompter when he chooses to read from it. Nor is there any focus on the endless efforts by his Staff to clean up his garbled messages by either claiming he “was joking” or claiming the media took his gibberish “out of context”.
Baal T: I suspect Reb Milhouse fully understands who were being referenced by “a cabal of global elites controlling everything that’s going on in the world”. In ordinary times and from someone else, you might have given her the benefit of the doubt and perhaps she was referencing globalists from the Trilateral Commission and their ilk. However, given her prior posts, media statements etc., she was clearly using the standard trope of anti-Semites throughout the world. Yes, Milhouse is 100 percent correct, the Qs are a bunch of idiots but some of those idiots are also hateful and dangerous purveyors of antisemitism and the fact they are embraced by our President is disgusting
Other than tzinius, I cannot think of another area of hashkafah that is so personally subjective as kashruth. If you have an established relationship with a LR/P, than it should be a simple question of asking their advice (and taking it). Otherwise, you may ultimately be happy with how they wash their kale but then freak out when you discover their standards for checking for small worms in salmon are really inadequate. There is no “perfect” hashgacha. Many consider chasideshe hashgachos to be the gold standard, but that is certainly not a universal view.
CA: From your prior postings, I know you have the historical perspective to realize that the underlying concerns of the BLM movement didn’t start with Trump, Obama, Bush etc. but date back decades. Obama failed to establish a clear program to address inequities in the criminal justice system and there is some legitimacy to the argument that Biden’s criminal justice bill in the 1990s was also a contributing factor. However, its my belief, perhaps shared by a few others here, that Trump has done more than any other President to deliberately fan the flames of racial hatred and enable white supremacy than any other President in history.
The Trumpkopf will do all he can to frighten the sheeplach to believe that there will be a “civil war” unless he is reelected in November and that only he can prevent total anarchy. In reality, he is the source of much of the anarchy and his likely defeat in November will restore some semblance of “normality” in our country.
CA: Laura was not even within the “top 10” of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the U.S. Very fortunately, it was more of a wind and storm surge event than a wind event and the winds dropped down incredibly quickly once it made landfall. The biggest problems seem to be the electric distribution line outages in the Entergy and CLECO service areas. While any loss of life is tragic, compare with Katrina, Harvey etc. the residents of Texas and LA were very fortunate. Whats worrisome is that we’ve had several big storms in the past few years that were hyped as “monster storms” or the “biggest in history” and they turned out to be considerably less. People seem to be getting jaded to these predictions and more willing to “ride out the storm” rather than evacuating.
Coffee Adict: My apologies….its getting touch tracking all the warped logic that goes along with the Trumpkopf’s weather forecasting. Last night, he tried to take credit for the very few casualties and limited damage resulting from what he incorrectly characterized as one of the “most powerful Hurricanes” in American history (it didn’t even come close) blah, blah. Try taking a honey-coated cough drop (with a cup of tea and schnaps).