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What happens when an American President reviles competence? One week ago, Donald Trump called out Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman for reporting that Elon Musk would receive a Pentagon briefing on potential war with China. Trump went schoolyard bully. He called Haberman, Maggot. He said she should give him her Pulitzer Prize. And:…
Mea culpa! I didn’t understand Donald Trump when, during the presidential campaign, he said that “starting on Day 1,” he would drive down inflation, including egg prices. I didn’t comprehend during his inaugural address when he proclaimed that “the golden age of America begins right now.” Now, I get it. The President of the United…
The internet revealed Vladimir Putin wrote Donald Trump after Trump’s address to the nation last Tuesday. I herein pass it on. Everyone knows, if it’s on the internet, it’s true. Tovarich Donald: I applaud 99-minute speech you gave Tuesday night America time. Comrade’s advice: Leader’s speech should be minimum three hours. Four, better. Five, you show…
Last Monday, the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemned Russia 93–18. Sixty-five nations abstained. Conscience forces me to protest Israel’s vote against. According to news.un.org, the resolution “called for a commitment to ‘the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders’ and the…
A good friend is disturbed by photos of the cosmos. What is a human being in the vast universe? Rabbi Simcha Bunim (1765-1827) addressed this. He exclaimed that everyone should have two pockets. One should hold a note declaiming, The world was made for me. The other should hold a note stating, I am but dust and ashes. We’re motes…
On February 6, Donald Trump signed a head-scratching executive order about religion. From section 1: “It is the policy of the United States, and the purpose of this order, to protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian weaponization of government.” The executive order further states that, “the previous Administration engaged in an…
The Torah and the Israel-Gaza war offer lessons about denying reality and risking terrible consequences. In Exodus, God strikes Egypt with ten plagues, concluding with the slaying of the firstborn. Pharaoh had continually refused to let Israel go. At first, he hardening his own heart. Then God hardened it. The biblical scholar Richard Elliot Friedman…
Some people are quick about things and respond to life in the moment, but I live life in the slow lane. When you do that, you learn to laugh at yourself. After all, other people are laughing at you. So, how slow am I? I’m so slow, I get dizzy watching paint dry and grass…
This past week, approximately 1,500 hostages were released, yet only three were transferred from Hamas to Israel. Adds up? Depends on how you define “hostage.” Israelis welcomed home three young women dragged off on October 7, 2023: Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher. Where does the above number come from? Last Monday, Donald Trump…