USA

Rev. C.T. Vivian, a sweet lion, is free at last

Sometime in the blistering heat of 1965, while Martin Luther King, Jr. and his allies were marching for the nation’s first inclusive voting rights bill, a wiry, feisty, articulate Baptist minister stood up to the condescending white sheriff of Dallas County—which encompasses Selma, Alabama.  Rev. Cordy Tindell Vivian, better known as “C.T.,” was 41 years old at the time, a local pastor gifted with vision, strong loins, and indisputable courage. [Ben Kamin]

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USA

Kayleigh McEnany is not what she seems

“Science should not stand in the way of schools re-opening.” This recent statement by White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has made headlines. What children are supposed to learn in prematurely re-opened schools if not science was not clear. But pundits and internet trolls have been having a field day with the sheer absurdity of this statement. And it seems that at every press conference, Kayleigh McEnany will toss out such a bone. It’s like she’s not even pretending to sound credible or even halfway intelligent. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, USA

Satire: Expect the worst

To counter a boycott against Goya Food in protest of its CEO praising Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump posted a photo of her holding up a can of Goya Black Beans captioned in English and Spanish, “If it’s Goya, it’s got to be good.” Criticized for using her office to promote a product, she retorted that the photo was intended as a campaign ad to show Latino and African American voters that “black beans matter” to her father.  [Satire by Laurie Baron, Ph.D}

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Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA

What did the White House know about Rabbi Goldstein’s criminality?

I have more than a few questions about the conduct of the tax fraud case in which Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein is being recommended for probation, rather than a prison sentence, notwithstanding the fact that his pattern of illegal conduct reaches back several decades. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, San Diego County, USA

Less transparency will worsen the pandemic

Hospital data is now going directly to the Trump administration rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This will have immediate and far reaching consequences. Already valuable CDC pages that tracked changes in the number of occupied and available hospital beds in the nation for COVID-19 patients stopped working as a result of the switch. We have essentially lost this important metric for gauging the progress of the disease. The sidelining of the CDC is nothing less than a travesty and Americans should be outraged and alarmed. This loss of transparency will lead inevitably to an even worse pandemic and greater loss of life. [Sam Ben-Meir]

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Sam Ben-Meir, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

U.S. must reverse racist treatment of Black people

The rage, desperation, and determination which continue to bring tens of thousands of Americans to the streets in protest against racism and injustice hopefully will be just the beginning. They are sick and tired of systemic racism against Black people, of bigotry at the top, crude discrimination, police brutality, a prejudiced criminal justice system, economic disparity, and society’s robbing Black people of experiencing real freedom and equality. Hypocritically, White people blame the victims of racism for their own plight, claiming that Black people would do better in life if they were only willing to work harder. [Alon Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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Alon Ben-Meir, USA

DeSean Jackson: Ignorance or hatred?

Purportedly quoting the most reviled monster in modern history, the Eagles wide receiver last week posted on Instagram that Hitler accuses “white Jews” of having a “plan for world domination…Hitler said, ‘because the white Jews knows that the Negroes are the real Children of Israel and to keep America’s secret the Jews will blackmail America. … The white citizens of America will be terrified to know that all this time they’ve been mistreating and discriminating and lynching the Children of Israel.’” [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Sports & Competitions, USA

A ‘Rabbi for Trump’ tells why

I supports conservatism, fairness, love of country, and most of all the right of Jews to be free of anti-Semitic attacks and the public discrimination proclivity. Already when Donald Trump ran in the primaries, I had faith not only that Trump would be a good president for all Americans, but he would turn over the hostile tide President Obama established against the State of Israel. [Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg]

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Bernhard H. Rosenberg-Rabbi, International, Jewish History, USA

Black veterans denied rights of G.I. Bill of Rights

I recently heard PBS television host, Christiane Amanpour remark (really a question) to her guest, “I thought Black veterans of World War II did not receive benefits of the G.I. Bill of Rights.” Her statement passed without further comment, but not for me. As a veteran of WW II, I am familiar with the G.I. Bill of Rights and knew she was not technically correct. However, at this very moment thousands of protestors, Black and White, are marching on our city streets demanding an end to police brutality against Black men and women. With Amanpour’s remark burning in my mind and hearing those voices in the streets, I had to check what really happened to Black veterans 75 years ago. [Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel]

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Cantor Sheldon Foster Merel, z"l, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein pleads guilty to tax fraud

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, former spiritual leader of Chabad of Poway, who was welcomed at the White House after he was wounded in an April 27, 2019 attack on his synagogue by a gunman, had meanwhile been under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of tax fraud, to which he pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court.  U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer said he planned to recommend probation for Goldstein because he has helped his office obtain the convictions of five other co-defendants and is cooperating in numerous cases that are still pending. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Beth Jacob issues rules for outdoor davening

– Beth Jacob Congregation responded quickly to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order on Monday, once again closing down indoor places of worship in response to the spiking coronavirus pandemic. The governor’s order also included fitness centers, offices for “non-critical sectors,” personal care services, malls and  hair salons and barbershops. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, USA

Satire: Trumping the virus, the court, and Tisha B’Av

To characterize President Trump’s creative ideas as mind-blowing or mind-numbing would be classic understatement. So many of his ideas are so very brilliant, they’re almost blinding. Take the recent example, when he said there would be very few cases of the coronavirus if the United States stopped its testing and contact-tracing. So, taken to its logical extreme, if you don’t test, there are no cases of the virus, no victims..and, ultimately no need for a vaccine or even protective gear. [Satire by Joel H. Cohen]

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Jewish Religion, Joel H. Cohen, Trivia, Humor & Satire, USA