Matchmaker…Shabbat…Economic
Progress (the dream), Danger lurking from Russian authorities…Jewish Diaspora
or immigration again…Good reasons to be woke under the Czar and even before communism.
My days are
spent learning more and sharing. If you see something say something, even about
history or politics. And let’s not forget my role as an educator.
Tradition has
been in the news with articles about Fiddler on the Roof. It’s been a long,
long time since the show appeared. I noticed today’s youth talking only about
the family and Jewish culture. Politics was left out. Have I not used one of
the key elements myself in an article or two? And I have been reading Jewish
history and in that latest reading a rabbi wrote about what Jews went through
in Eastern Europe as “slaves” of the governing powers. He mentioned three
elements that included the Czars, Nazism, and Communism.
Nikki Haley
was talking about the traditional values of the South where she comes from. And
that South could easily have been in Russia under the Czars where Jews lived.
Confederate
tradition…tradition
Today
leading Republicans often misuse two of those items which are closely linked
together. Nazism (Hitler) and Communism (Stalin). And have I not pointed out
that even a young Winston Churchill knew that at the time of the demise of the
Czars that capitalism was going to be shaken by its roots because of the many
evils of capitalism. The power of the Soviet Union caught up with Churchill,
Roosevelt, and the world when Stalin was making tough demands during World War
II that diminished the rest of Eastern Europe. When Stalin called heroes “fascists”
at that time, the others had to go along with it since Stalin was always in a
position to make a truce with Hitler (if Hitler agreed) to terminate their
conflict. It is also true that world leaders knew well that they could not
trust Stalin (they knew that he had killed thousands of Polish soldiers and
shifted the blame onto Hitler. That was an easy thing to do at the time. And do
I have to remind Americans again about all the lies and misinformation of a man
who still has over 45 percent support among Republicans.
So Fiddler
on the Roof asked US to remember the prayer for the Czar which was, just in
case you have never seen Fiddler, may God keep the Czar far away from US.
Please Republicans keep your “czar” far away from US after all the things he
has said and done. We await word from Georgia and Congress if Donald Trump will
remain free or be taken far away from US.
Nikki Haley
is back in the spotlight and I have written about her and others in the
Republican Party. That is my choice. My way! And I have applied that prayer to
45.
David Pakman
has a large following where he does things his way. And he covered important
facts about Nikki Haley and her traditions. That culture was and is her
culture. She was there, though, when the Confederate flag was taken down. I
could never honor that flag knowing what I know, but I did not grow up in Bamberg,
South Carolina. No Nazi flags or symbols for me as well. The latter point was
not made by David Pakman in his broadcasts, and I ask myself how that can be
overlooked.
Then Nikki did what others have done including Governor DeSantis. She announced her intention to run and it was reported that an anti-Semite was there with her, an 82-year-old pastor named John Hagee. Also, the man who just introduced Haley at her first campaign stop where she made her announcement texted a message to the Trump White House asking Trump to declare Marshall Law to block Biden’s path to the presidency. It is important for her to be inclusive her way, but to reject other forms of inclusivity. Today is my birthday (February 17) and I am digesting with intestinal discomfort throughout my body that she says Social Security is holding back the progress of our nation.
Tradition…tradition…Her
way!
It seems to
me that if Haley’s campaign survives long enough that the material will include
her statement about Trump not condemning the Ku Klux Klan which was made in
2016. And then, after realizing the potential danger to people, she went to
work for Trump at the United Nations as our nation’s ambassador. Substitute
Trump’s name for Hitler in the last sentence. True Trump is no Hitler, but
Haley took advantage of the situation by getting a boost from Trump for her
career. And this is the Trump who diminished just about everyone and the press
during his days in office. And then she accepted the reality that Trump is
important to the party many months after she disapproved of his actions after
the Biden victory was announced in 2020. All of this does qualify her to replace
Donald Trump, but she is clearly a bad fit for our nation particularly in these
dangerous times.
And with
dozens of anti-Semitic incidents that have taken place referencing Kanye West,
incidents that did not have to take place in life, we have to look more deeply
at all of the horrific talks, misinformation of Repugnicans, and lies. This is
the eighth year of the marginalization of people including those crossing the
border, gays, African Americans, Jews, Chinese, Muslims, and others. Ron
DeSantis just blamed the teachers’ unions for schools with no books on the
shelves in his state and he did this without any supporting proof. His work
created the movement to ban books creating the same kinds of divisions that
have plagued the lives of Jews and others for more than centuries.
Tradition is
that Jews wanted to practice their faith in peace and progress instead of
facing hate. Confederate tradition still lives.
And the
Repugnican positions on Social Security and abortions are two things with a
long culture in our nation (90 and 50 years). Both will trigger much greater
poverty in our nation among older people and people capable of child birth.
This is recognized by Republicans, but people like Nikki Haley keep pushing the
Repugnican narrative. Even watching a news telecast with a former Republican
chairman who opposes his party’s position on abortion, I noticed no mention of
the religious rights of people to have an abortion which is being largely
overlooked by the Christian community. On purpose? The nation was formed by
colonies that had to contend with religious intolerance and the intolerance is
still there. Trump appears to be backing Americans on Social Security for now,
but what will happen as another lie takes place after a Trump victory in 2024?
Do you actually see a halo around his head?
I have had a
few occasions to speak to Jewish people who live down South in the last several
years. One call I made was about Jeff Sessions before he was appointed attorney
general by Trump. And recently I spoke with a Jewish man working for the Jewish
community in North Carolina.
I learned
things in both conversations. In the first one, I learned that Jeff Sessions
had received honors from Jews, Jews who were still concerned about what was
going to happen to them in Alabama which is the way Jews have felt for
thousands of years around the world. That point was made clear to me with a
reference that is often used in relation to The Holocaust.
The second
call was slightly different since the person told me that he grew up with the
history of the Confederacy, which was a normal experience. The few words that I
heard caused me to raise a red flag sensing the differences of the experience
we had had growing up. I had a friend, David, in elementary school in the 1950s
and David who was Afro America and even enrolled in a Hebrew class in junior
high school. There was neither Confederate history nor propaganda like that on
the Lower East Side of Manhattan. And we didn’t have any tributes to the fallen
Union soldiers either.
I found out
that Nikki Haley’s father holds a doctorate and was recruited to teach at a
historically Black college. And I recently wrote about how Jews secured jobs in
Black colleges in the 1940s as they escaped the oppression of Nazi Germany. In
addition, I wrote the article E = mc2 = Woke to show just how woke Albert
Einstein was knowing that African Americans were oppressed in America. And I
followed that article up with one about the segregation of Florida in the 1950s
writing the piece about a Jewish southpaw in Spring training. History still
needs amplification in schools and communities to reduce hate and violence.
Einstein was woke, but Haley’s father wasn’t? I would conjecture that with
Nikki Haley in the White House that the Confederate flag might easily return to
the state capital in South Carolina, thinking about just how she has flip
flopped in the past and seeing how she hangs out with the wrong crowd to build
support for herself.
Confederate
tradition…tradition…actually nothing to sing about.
And finally,
I just heard Nikki Haley speaking about her great success at the United Nations
touting sanctions, yes sanctions that did not work to make the world safer. And
in Ukraine right now it appears to experts that Putin has sent his entire
military to that country to win where he has failed repeatedly over the last
year. I wonder how many voters in South Carolina support Biden’s aid to Ukraine
and how many of them are isolationist. And how many of them can see the future
of that nation and the world keeping in mind that Putin attacked a nation without
good cause. In other words, is history repeating itself thinking about Hitler’s
attack on Poland in 1939. And we keep hearing that Trump propaganda that this
thing or that thing wouldn’t have happened under Donald Trump.
Tradition
from a liar…tradition
And would it
spoil some vast eternal plan if our nation resolved itself to more vigorously
fighting hate, fighting poverty that still exists even with all those Repugnant
critics, respecting everyone except people who spread the hate, concentrate on education
and tolerance…
And the plot
of Fiddler on the Roof includes this.
News spreads
quickly in Anatevka that Perchik has been arrested and exiled to Siberia.
And I have
written about just how Siberia became a huge prison under Stalin. There were
all kinds of charges without proof, but people could end up in jail for a
decade or more. Trials actually violated the constitution, but the people said
nothing. There was fear everywhere. Fear exists in Florida and other places
right now and it’s the law. And where is Nuevo Anatevka, the town where Fiddler
on the Roof took place. Anatevka, Anatevka is in America. Just take any road
like I-95 and you will get there fast. The people drive fast!
But let me
end by giving some details of the USSR that ring out loud in DeSantis’ Florida
and elsewhere.
Hostile
activity against the policy of the Soviet Communist Party (Republicans and
Disney).
Expression
of slanderous opinions of things related to the Soviet Union (Telling the truth
was slanderous and in Florida it could be teaching about the role that Black
homosexuals have played in African American history).
Expression
of a desire in the Soviet Union such as a return to capitalism (In Florida that
would be not to prosecute people who have abortions which is the case against
the governor by Andrew Warren). And Andrew Warren is back in court to fight his
termination in court. I have seen conservative news that portrayed the decision
not to give Warren back his job as a victory or VICTORY. I capitalized that
word to dramatize the declaration which is based on much falsehood since the
judge pointed out clearly that Warren’s rights were violated. That is what Stalin’s
people did even when they violated the constitution.
A 70-year-old
Tsarist diplomat was charged with propaganda for saying that the working class
in the U.S.S.R. lives badly (teachers cannot bring up racism in Florida and can
be fired).
My comment
about Black homosexuals led me to a search of James Baldwin and there was
material about that. His stepfather was a preacher who frowned on much of
Baldwin’s existence. Harlem, where he was born and raised, was falling apart and
he moved to Greenwich Village in New York City.
Baldwin’s
first essay, “The Harlem Ghetto”, was published in Commentary and
explored anti-Semitism among Black Americans. His conclusion in “Harlem Ghetto”
was that Harlem was a parody of white America, with white American anti-Semitism
included. Jewish people were also the main group of white people in Harlem as
it was largely segregated and it spelled trouble back then.
Baldwin left
the United States with forty dollars to fly to Paris and lived there for many
years. He traveled to other countries, and he wrote this “No road whatever will
lead Americans back to the simplicity of this European village where white men
still have the luxury of looking on me as a stranger.”
But his bio
online is full of sexual adventure which might not sit well with Governor
DeSantis and others. A simple Google search anywhere including at school would
lead anyone to that. And should we compare James Baldwin at this point to
pornography? Would that be justice for the man and the African American
community? Ask DeSantis that.
That justice
would certainly be Hitler’s kind of justice since people like Josephine Baker
were cancelled in Nazi Germany. And I should tell you that Josephine Baker and
other famous African Americans met with James Baldwin in France during his stay
there. And they met together in some of my favorite places in France.
Baldwin was
still in France when Brown v. Topeka Board of Education ruled against
segregation in schools, the murder of Emmet Till, and Rosa Parks and the bus in
Alabama. He yearned to return home.
And today’s
racism is (pause) even though Repugnicans keep saying that the United States is
not a racist country. What Baldwin experienced was the same thing that Frederic
Douglas experienced in Europe long before Baldwin was born. But there is racism
in other countries as well and I have recently written about seeing protests
against racism in France on one of my trips long ago.
Tradition for
Jews…. Tradition! Tradition for Confederates and their supporters…. Tradition!
There is a Spanish word traición that may appear to be close to tradition, but
that word reveals a huge amount of human treachery or man’s inhumanity to man. And
my readings at night continue about The Crusades and The Black Plague and the
Jews. History is repeating itself again and again with White Supremacy and
COVID-19. Germany and Austria were cited in the book by the rabbi for its major
role back then and for The Holocaust.
And what
about Nikki Haley and this cast of millions? Is there a prayer for them? Yes
and that part of Fiddler on the Roof has to be told to everyone now.
And you know
that I often like to reveal breaking news and the news right now is about
Abraham Lincoln and the resettlement of freed slaves in Haiti. Students and
particularly students in Florida should seek out The Île-à-Vache project. This
is an “Exodus” story in American history. And Haitian Americans in Florida and
elsewhere should take note of the history.