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How about Baltimore or Lakewood? Not very Israeli and they cater to the chutznik lifestyle.
What’s the point of living in Israel if you’re afraid of the Israelis?
Our first apartment in Yerushalayim was 6000 NIS, 2 bedrooms and brand new. But in Baka… 8 years ago.
We just got a new apartment in Arnona. There is a dirah available downstairs, 3 bedrooms and very high quality, but I don’t think we’re you’re crowd.
Hatzlacha.Google “Simpsons Tiger Rock.” A fool and his money are soon parted.
Cuomo and Franken resigned after pressure from the left. Trump is still the leader of the GQP.
Arrogance and hypocrisy… I think those words do not mean what you think they mean.
He planned to make aliyah after the Chagim this year.
Universal healthcare (really universal health insurance) was the announced policy of the Heritage Foundation in 1993 in response to “Hillarycare.”
Without hyperbole, why are you against it?
In countries with universal healthcare, it is unheard of for a person to go bankrupt because of illness. 60% of bankruptcies in the US are because of health care costs. And who bears the burden of the loss? The rest of the country.
Israel is a great example (you love Israel, right?). Every single citizen automatically has some minimal health insurance and, thereby, healthcare. Is it perfect? Of course not. Are there some delays? Sometimes. But for a middle class person, this is not a problem because supplemental insurance is cheap enough.
Are England, France, Israel, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Norway bastions of radical communism? Not by any rational measure. Are their taxes higher… sure. But put their higher taxes against the cost of private insurance premiums and the increased taxes come out lower because of distribution of risk.
Countries with universal healthcare and some form of socialized medicine have longer life expectancy, higher quality of life, lower instances of chronic illness, lower fatal and maternal mortality (pro-life, good Christians!), and fewer bankruptcies than the US.
Reality-based decisions. Evidence-based decisions. These WERE Republican principles. The US is bigger than England, France, and Israel, and creates different challenges because of its size. But there is no reason we can’t have an American form of universal healthcare.
Rant and rave with your ideology right to the grave (after 120 years).
Yeah… no. Restoring congressionally mandated funding to the poor and starving that we (Israelis) would rather not have grow into terrorists does not violate anti-terror laws. YWN “news” is little more than fictional propaganda so don’t take anything it says outside the yeshiva world seriously.
Ivri anochi…
Life on other planets fully comports with the narrative of Bereshit. There is no reason to think that “shamayim v’aretz” is limited to the sky above our heads and the land under our feet. This is one of the biggest problems that Orthodox Judaism has in its relationship with the rest of creation. Too many frum Jews limit Hashem’s reach. Hashem is infinite. More infinite than the human mind can fathom. Hashem is the Creator of Earth, Mars, and those galaxies 11 billion light years away. He created the black holes and pulsars and asteroids. He moves galaxies and universes, not just mountains and streams. While Hashem created and controls the impossibly vast and infinite universe, he is also concerned with the moment-to-moment existence of each living creature right here on Earth. And among the 7 billion people on Earth that he takes care of, He has a vested interest and concern for YOU, personally. Contemplate THAT.
You clearly don’t live in Israel or care about the Jewish people who do. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians work in Israel and hundreds of thousands of Jews live in Shomron and Yehuda. We all interact on a daily basis. Until the virus is brought under control in the PA it will never fully be under control in Israel. Even Israel is sending 500,000 doses to the PA. Stop just hating and and hating and fearing and fearing. Perhaps just try living in the real world for a little while.
Lakewhut – Selective memory on your part? Is that intentional? Pres. Biden speaks with 100 world leaders and gives a speech at a global security forum, and you pretend that never happened. Instead, you think about the couple of times the Vice President spoke with world leaders… as the Vice President does from time to time.
Why do you do that? Is it intentional? Or did you not know about Pres. Biden constantly speaking with world leaders? Perhaps you should reconsider your sources of news.
Is this a person who lives in your area? Meet them outside, like at a park. Sit 6 feet apart, wear masks, and shteig away. We do it in Yerushalayim all the time.
Ulysses Grant!
Why does this bother you but not Trump setting national policy when he told the country that the virus was a hoax, that it would magically go away, that it would be gone by Easter, that it can be cured with an untested drug, and G-d knows what else? Why does this bother you more than Trump appointing Kushner hiring a bunch of college kids to supply the nation with PPE, specifically excluding NY because the voters are majority Democrats, and requiring states to bid for limited supplies? Why does this bother you more than DeSantis, Kemp, Abbott, and the other ghoulish governors opening their economies in April 2020 so the virus could spread most easily in those states killing hundreds of thousands of Americans?
Your selective outrage is showing.
Health – The pandemic came under the leadership of Republican Trump. 400,000 death Americans, the worst economy since the Great Depression, the only modern administration to lose jobs in their term, tens of millions sick. That wasnt the liberal DemocRats. That’s your guy. Own it. And dont blame President Biden tomorrow at 12:01 PM.
ujm – Democrats (and Mitt Romney, and other Republicans that left the party and voted for impeachment) used the impeachment power exactly when it was needed and what it was designed for. An extreme and rare case. When a president abuses his power to such a degree. Can any non-president get a foreign country to announce a sham investigation into their political opponent in exchange for military aid?
I was against Pres. George W. Bush and many of the things he did. But I NEVER (and most Democrats NEVER) said he should be impeached. I am 100% sure that had any of the other Republicans running for president in 2016 gotten into office, not a single one of them would even think to do what Trump did.ujm – You talk about impeachment like it’s something normal that is done during every administration. It’s extremely rare. Andrew Johnson’s impeachment was an extreme (and probably wrong) case in the aftermath of the Civil War when the powers of the Vice President to take over after a President dies were not well-established. Nixon was almost impeached, but had the decency to leave office rather than drag the country down that road. Bill Clinton got impeached for lying about an act of no national significance that I can’t repeat on this website.
Trump is the third present in 231 years to be impeached (Pres. Washington was inaugurated in 1789). He is the first president to have a senator of his OWN PARTY vote to remove him from office. This is NOT a normal thing and should not be repeated in future congresses regardless of party. Trump has so normalized extremism that it’s become nothing more than a political tactic.
ujm – Trump was impeached because he conditioned military aid legislated by Congress on a foreign government announcing an investigation into a political rival. He admitted it, and said it was OK. Of course, there was nothing to investigate. Trump just wanted the announcement of an investigation to it would hurt Biden’s chances in the upcoming election.
And, as I’ve told you in other posts, Biden did not do the same thing. During the Obama administration, it was the policy of the United States, as approved by the REPUBLICAN Congress, that Ukraine had to get rid of corrupt government officials, including the attorney general who WOULD NOT investigate Burisma. This was the policy of the EU and NATO. This was the policy voted on by Sen. Ron Johnson and every other Republican in the Senate. There was not condition of helping in a domestic political race.
In 2018, it was not the policy of the United States that Ukraine has to investigate President-Elect Biden in order to receive military aid. Congress passed the aid without that condition. Trump tried to use the aid as leverage for a domestic political advantage. This is the WORST form of presidential abuse and corruption of power, short of taking bribes for pardons.
Gohmert sued Pence claiming that Pence has the power, under the Constitution, to NOT count the electoral votes of states that did not vote for Trump. Brilliant! How come no one thought of this in the last 231 years?! You can just keep the opposing party out of power by not counting the votes on the Senate floor! That’s totally how democracy works and what the Founders intended.
Except the Constitution doesn’t say that. “The President of the Senate **shall**, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open **all** the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted.” But why let a little think like the Constitution get in the way of a coup by a wanna-be dictator? It’s not like Republicans have been yelling and screaming “the Constitution!!! strict interpretation!!!” from the rooftops since the 1850s.
When it comes to the egel hazahav, this troop will follow him into the ocean because he says it’s dry land.
The government pays for it. Which is why it was, and will be, a short-lived and minimally-used solution. Those of us that have homes in Israel should be able to quarantine at home as we did before. The new British variant of the virus is already out. Having ALL citizens who travel abroad in hotels is a waste of resources.
There are two ways to look at this:
1) Religious – It will “click” when Hashem wants it to. He chose your zivug 40 days before you were born. When you come upon her it will click. He runs the world. You just do your part. Keep dating and He will bring her to you. Hashem has a reason why you will wait however many years or months before you find her. And that reason must be for the best.
2) Rationalist – Honestly assess yourself and the women you’re seeking to date. Does who you are and who you want to be match or fit with the characteristics of the women you want to be set up with? There’s a story I tell to potential jurors when I’m picking a jury before trial… “I’m not looking for the best juror, I’m looking for the RIGHT juror. When I played football, I told the coach I wanted to try playing running back. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘son, we could time your 40 with a calendar and you couldn’t catch a cold. You’re not meant to play running back. Now go over to the offensive line and learn protection.'” You may be a great guy, but not the RIGHT guy for these girls (and vice versa). Also honestly look at yourself in the mirror. Are there things YOU could improve? Get in better shape? Haircut? Better clothes? Work on your dating communication skills? Find more interesting places to go on dates?
I pray that you find your match soon and in Hashem’s time. We all look forward to a follow up post where you announce your engagement.
For the record… THIS is the type of discussion I (and others) come to YWN and the Coffee Room to see. The Yeshiva World, not CNN vs. Fox vs. OAN vs. MSNBC. Shkoyach to the OP and those that contributed to this discussion. I learned a great deal. I hope to see more of this.
Health – the case in Georgia was thrown out. Badly. I know Judge Grimberg. A Republican appointed by Trump to the federal district court. A law-and-order prosecutor. We worked together on a case when he was an Assistant US Attorney many years back. Also, Sidney Powell isn’t part of the Trump legal team anymore.
The judge in Pennsylvania called Trump’s argument “Frankenstein’s monster” because it cobbled together so many disparate and contradictory theories (none of which were backed by facts or evidence) that it couldn’t be taken seriously. Did you ever read the affidavits they submit? They’re on CM/ECF. You can read them. Allegations of “the poll worker was mean to me” and “the person counting the votes wore a BLM tshirt” are not evidence of election fraud or miscounting. The 1,300 missing votes in Georgia were in Floyd County, northwest Georgia, that went for Trump by like 60%. I’ve been up there many times.
Appeals don’t work the way you think they do. You can’t present evidence on an appeal. The appeals court (including the US Supreme Court) will only look at evidence already on the record. So if they’re holding something back for a Supreme Court “biblical” bombshell… it’s going to land like a dud.
Based on your posts, it seems that you received your American civics training in the Soviet Union. I think it would be best for you to close down your account, go open a Gemara, and think about why you have the world view that you have.Recanting his recanting of his recanting.
1. The head of Project Veritas is a convicted felon. His crime was breaking into the office of a member of Congress to steal documents. He has been found to have doctored videos, lied to public officials, and using fraud to prove that there is fraud by showing that he attempted fraud. In ALL of his videos. All of them.
2. The postal worker said under oath in front of congressional investigators, and in a sworn affidavit, that the story he told Veritas was fiction. You can read the affidavit. It’s not a secret. This is what happens when “voter fraud” claims are put to the test. People can lie on YouTube or at a press conference. But when their behinds are on the line in front of a judge or under oath, they tell the truth. This is why Trump is 0-for-10 in his fraud lawsuits.
3. The postal worker recanted his recanting (on YouTube, not under oath) because he was going to lose the $136,000 he raised on a GoFundMe page when it came to light that he lied. GoFundMe already said that he did not get any money and that the account is closed. So we’ll never hear from this guy again.
4. Backdating ballots is completely implausible. In Pennsylvania, the ballots themselves are in two envelopes. So to change the date on the ballot the postal worker would have to open the envelopes (a federal crime punishable by 15-20 years in prison), change the date, and reseal them in two new envelopes while copying the voter’s signature. And doing this all under surveillance cameras. Backdating the post-mark is impossible. If it was post-marked already, it’s a stamp on there, it can’t be altered. To change the date on the post-marking machine is either impossible, or would log evidence of tampering (the kind of evidence that would be expected in court). There is no such evidence, nor even an allegation. That’s why all this nonsense fails.While I CAN vote by mail, there’s something about the ritual of going out on Election Day and casting a ballot in person that always gets me. Maybe we’re just a ritual-centric people. In fact, this years I’m flying back from Eretz Yisrael to vote in person and volunteer to work at the polls. Of course, I fly to Eretz Yisrael to vote in the elections here. The joys of dual citizenship.
@always – You make a good point. I don’t think COMPELLING people to vote is the answer, but make it easier for those who want to vote, and are eligible, to actually cast their vote. Some people are more motivated than others. Some people will crawl through broken glass to vote for their candidate. Others have a preference and will vote, but if it doesn’t take away too much of their time. I think everyone should have the opportunity to be heard.
I agree that much of the problem is political. The sad thing is that one party has said publicly that they want fewer people to vote because it’s better for them. I think, in a democracy, you should try to sway the public to your point of view, not deny the ability of your opponents to exercise their rights. I guess I’m an idealist…
So… it looks like somewhere in this conspiracy-laden rant is an actual question that folks on this forum may or may not want an answer to. Having worked as an election lawyer (off and on) for 15 years in one of the states at the center of voting controversy I’m happy to give you some answers and perhaps correct some of the baseless misconceptions you’re carrying around.
Suicidal to go to the polls on Election Day – Not really. If you’re wearing a mask, have no symptoms of illness, and stay 6-feet distant from others while cleaning your hands before and after touching any paper or machine most folks will be fine. It’s more dangerous for the elderly and immunocompromised, obviously. But if you’re healthy and take common-sense precautions, there’s no reason you can’t go to the polls in person on Election Day.
Before we begin, we have to agree on a basic assumption… that we support democracy and representative government, and that every citizen should vote and should be able to exercise their right to vote. If you believe like some, that more people voting is bad, then I suggest you find another country where they do not practice democracy.
Universal mail-in ballots – There are three different things here that you’re talking about: (1) states that mail actual election ballots to the registered addresses of every registered voter in the state; (2) states that mail absentee ballot applications to every voter in the state; and (3) states that require a voter to affirmatively file paperwork to apply for an absentee ballot. I’ll respond in reverse…
(3) Requiring registered voters to apply for an absentee ballot isn’t, in and of itself, bad. But it does limit the ability of many citizens to vote. The absentee ballot application is usually only available online. We all know frum Yidden who do not have computers. There’s also many elderly who either don’t have computers or don’t have the skills to use them. And as we learned with distance learning, many poor families do not have computers. The only way for them to get an application is to go to the county voting office. In many states, in rural areas, those offices are open one day a month and there is no public transportation to get there. You may think I’m finding a narrow population to justify my point. In my state, I know that narrow population to be at least 300,000 citizens. In a representative democracy that tries to be the world’s beacon of light, should it be SO hard for citizens to exercise their right to vote? So… it’s limiting, but not a bad thing to have.
(2) Many Republican governors in the primaries sent out absentee ballot applications to all registered voters. Some thought this was terrible and would open things up to fraud. It’s very hard to fraudulently request an absentee ballot. If an identity thief using someone else’s name to get a ballot, there will be two requests under the same name and address, and that will be flagged. Similarly, signatures won’t match and the application will be rejected. If someone is hell-bent on committing voter fraud, they can just as easily take advantage of Option 3 above, which has the same safeguards.
(1) Nine states and Washington, DC have universal mail-in voting where the county sends every registered voter a ballot to their registered address. This has been done for decades in some states with the result being high voter turnout and almost no discernable fraud. Why does this work? Voter fraud is a high risk, low reward crime. And it’s easy to catch. Where would the fraud come in here… someone swipes a ballot from another person’s mailbox and fills it in? First, each ballot is bar-coded, so names+address cannot be duplicated, nor can fake ballots be printed. Even if someone had the technology to duplicate a ballot, the bar code would not work when the ballot is received. Back to the mailbox… if a person didn’t get their ballot they would know and alert the county, which would then be on the lookout for an extra, fraudulent ballot. What’s the reward for the fraud? A single vote. What’s the risk? 15-20 years in jail for stealing mail and 5-10 years in jail for voter fraud. And if a person or group did this in an organized way and stole many ballots? It’s even easier to catch.
What about vote harvesting? Taking validly cast ballots, collecting a bunch, and tossing them… you seem to elude to that in your post. Well… same problem. Each ballot is bar-coded so the voter can check online or by calling their county election office to see if their ballot was received. In my state the county sends you an email when it’s received and accepted. If you sent in your ballot but it wasn’t received, you know something is wrong and you can alert the county to fix the problem. And if this happens on a large scale (as it did with Republicans in North Carolina) then it’s very easy to catch because hundreds of ballots are missing, and it’s not hard to find who took them. The people involved in the harvesting were arrested and prosecuted. Now… what about a well-meaning person collecting ballots and delivering them correctly as a bunch to a county office? I think that’s fine, though it should be done with caution.
Bottom line… there is very little danger of election fraud with universal mail-in voting. This is not 1874. Things are computerized enough to spot problems.
Fraud we’re witnessing every day – What fraud? Ballots dumped and shredded? You’re getting half stories from your media. I’m still waiting to find out into which river in Wisconsin those “Trump” ballots were thrown. Why? Because it didn’t happen. It’s fiction. What happened was that a box of general mail fell out of a truck and was found on the side of a road. There were some ballot applications in there (there weren’t absentee ballots yet), and there’s no way to know who those people would eventually vote for. This is the point… it was caught! A pile of ballots were shredded? No they weren’t. The story was that a new worker in a clerk’s office moved a pile of ballots to the wrong side of a table. It was caught and fixed. Wrong addresses and wrong people? Yeah… you know about it because it was caught a month before the election and was fixed. With 130,000,000 votes being cast there WILL be problems and mistakes. For the most part, those mistakes are caught and fixed.
You are working under the assumption that there absolutely is wide-spread voter fraud of some form. There is no evidence for this assumption. None. None at all. In 2017 Trump convened a committee to investigate voter fraud led by Kris Kobach. Why? Because Trump’s ego wouldn’t allow him to accept the idea that while he won the election under the Constitution, he lost the popular vote. And do you remember what Kobach’s report from the committee said? Do you remember it? Should I give you time to go look it up? No… you don’t remember it because there was none. The committee disbanded after a few months because there was nothing to investigate and no findings to publish.
More recently… Trump’s campaign has lawsuits going in several states to strike large swaths of mail-in ballots of all types (even the ones you like). What happened in those lawsuits? They’re all dismissed. Why? As the TRUMP appointed judge in Pennsylvania said last week, because the plaintiffs presented no allegation of fact (a standard far lower than evidence) to support a claim of voter fraud. The judge (Trump appointed) called it a “fiction.” The plaintiffs couldn’t even tell the court a plausible story without the requirement of evidence. That’s how flimsy this notion of wide-spread voter fraud in the US really is.
Why would I support universal mail-in voting? While I accept that it is a good system with no evidence of systematic fraud, I don’t think it’s the best. I like the Israeli model better, with universal automatic voter registration. Some states have this. But that’s just my opinion. I think the US, as a country, has to consider ways to move voting into the 21st century. We’re working on a model from the 1870s.
What ARE problems in the voting system? There is no reason why, in the United States, the richest and most advanced country in the history of the world, the most developed democracy, that people should have to wait in line for eight (8) hours or more to vote. THAT is the problem. I salute the dedication of those folks (and I will be one of them) to stand in line for so long. But it should not have to be this way. It is the result of incompetence and willful neglect across several states and all political parties. There’s also a lot of blame shifting. For example, in my state, the same secretary of state who, on his own, threw 500,000 people off the voter rolls without cause, said that he did not have the authority to allocate resources to get better equipment or more workers in areas with larger populations (he did, there’s a statute). In some counties you have one voting machine per 100 voters and in the next county over you have one machine per 10,000 voters. Do you think that’s right or acceptable?
I will tell you what ACTUAL voter fraud cases look like. You can research this for yourself on any state election commission minutes database. I watched the hearings. The vast majority of cases involve mistakes. Someone moves right before an election and they’re not sure where to vote. They ask the county clerk and the clerk gives them the wrong information. So they vote in the wrong place. Is that voter fraud? Should that person’s vote be counted? Was there criminal intent? Or my favorite… a poll worker was charged because a 90 year old voter asked him to demonstrate how the touch-screen voting machine works. Not vote for him… not see his vote… just how to push the buttons. That worker was charged with voter fraud. Is it?
And this is my point. The safety-net is so fine that even these very minor accidents are caught and resolved. So there is little to worry about when it comes to a concept of wide-spread election shenanigans.
First, you’re getting the quotes wrong. Second, you’re taking them wildly out of context. Third, you’re confusing mistakes in speech with policies designed to harm minority communities.
And regarding Robert Byrd (if you didn’t know, that’s who your last sentence refers to), he was a segregationist that did teshuva. He spent the last 50 years of his life repenting for his segregationist sins and working to undo the harm that he did in the 40s and 50s. This is well known. I think that deserves praise. When you see a ger tzedek or baal teshuvah who is a yieras shamayim living a Torah life do you first remind him of when he ate cheeseburgers 30 years ago?
Speaking specifically for Israel… because the ONE protest going on is several hundred people total but millions of Jews go to shul on Yom Kippur (and likely a million each Shabbat). The number of potential interactions at a protest is 437,000 on a national basis. But the number of potential interactions in shul on a national basis is 37,000,000… or nearly 100 times more. It’s worse for schools. So if you’re going to act like these are the only 2 things people do and pretend this is a zero sum game, then you limit the activity that is 100 times worse. Similarly, it is legal to drive 55 mph on a highway, though some accidents will occur, but it is not legal to drive 100 mph because the likelihood of accidents is many times worse.
The source of my statistics is publicly available and was published yesterday. My wife is a professor here in Israel whose doctoral students are doctors doing research and treatment for COVID-19.Second, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, the Agudah, and pretty much every rav on Earth have said that not wearing a mask makes one liable for the death of others. Do we follow daas Torah only when it’s convenient? Or it doesn’t contradict a political talking point?