Is Elon Musk in charge of America's government? OMG!

Echo opinion publised in the New York Times:

Elon Musk "not elected and never faced any kind of vetting or confirmation by appointed or elected officials"

Dear Editor: It is beyond maddening that Elon Musk (❓) is able to exert such influence over the actions of the United States government, which exists, let us remember, to serve the interests of all Americans.  (Opinion letter published at this site here.)

Musk is NOT ❗elected and never faced any kind of vetting or confirmation by appointed or elected officials.

Perhaps, worst of all, his wealth completely insulates him from any negative effects of his meddling. If things go wrong and he loses a few hundred million dollars, he won’t suffer.

Musk reminds me of a child who is playing a game. Hey❗ I’m at Mar-a-Lago! When I speak, markets and legislators react❗

Isn’t this fun❓ 

From Geoffrey S. Poor in Shoreline, Washington

How long will Donald Trump allow Elon Musk to be the president elect?

Bernie Sanders criticizes ‘President Elon Musk’ over effort to derail funding plan‘Billionaires must not be allowed to run our government,’ Sanders says after Musk derides bipartisan deal to prevent government shutdown.  (IOW who is on first?)

Bernie Sanders criticized “President Elon Musk” over the billionaire’s efforts to derail a bipartisan spending deal that would keep the government running for another three months.

“Democrats and Republicans spent months negotiating a bipartisan agreement to fund our government,” said Sanders, the independent senator for Vermont who votes with Democrats, in a statement.

“The richest man on Earth, President Elon Musk, doesn’t like it❓ Will Republicans kiss the ring❓”

He added: “Billionaires 💲 must not be allowed to run our government❗”

Sanders was referring to the deal reached by Republicans and Democrats this week to prevent a government shutdown, which would otherwise begin on Saturday. The bill would extend the deadline to 14 March.

With less than 48 hours to go, however, the bill (incredulously❗) came under attack from Donald Trump and his allies, including from JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy and Musk (the Trump cult trumverate) BTW- Musk is a native of South Africa) 

The spending bill also includes $100bn in disaster aid, economic assistance for farmers, a commitment to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, potential pay raises for Congress members and a stadium site for the Washington Commanders, among other things.

On Wednesday after the deal was announced, Musk, who is set to co-lead an agency Trump claims he’ll create, the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), opposed the funding bill. He called it “criminal” and said that it “must not pass”. 

Musk posted about the bill more than 100 (insanity❗) times on /X on Wednesday, according to NBC News.

Among his statements, Must threatens that “any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” (But, unelected Leon Musk is not in any position where he can make such false accusation toward anybody❗)

In one post, Musk alleged the bill was “funding bioweapon labs”, even though the screenshot of the text that he linked to refers to “biocontainment laboratories” that aim to conduct biomedical research to support public health and medical preparedness to combat infectious diseases.

In another post, Musk claimed erroneously that the bill includes a 40% pay increase for members of Congress. The Associated Press reported that the bill would remove a pay-freeze provision that could allow for a maximum adjustment of 3.8% – not 40% – and noted that the last time members of Congress got a pay raise was in 2009.

Musk, who has an estimated net worth of $350bn, spent more than $200m to help elect Trump in this year’s election.

Andy Barr, a Republican member of Congress from Kentucky, said his “phone was ringing off the hook” after Musk began criticizing the bill. “The people who elected us are listening to Elon Musk.”

Maxwell Frost, a Democrat member of Congress from Florida, echoed Sanders and decried Musk’s influence, calling him “Republican Unelected Co-President Elon Musk”.

“All he had to do was make a few social media posts,” Frost said.

“The US Congress this week came to an agreement to fund our government,” Sanders said in a social media post on Wednesday. “Elon Musk, who became $200 BILLION richer since Trump was elected, objected.” He added: “This is oligarchy at work.”

Invitation to Elon Musk to educate his BFF Trump about how to make the earth better again

Echo editorial publihed in the Houston Chronicle

https://www.chappatte.com/en/images/elon-and-donald-bromance

Editorial: Hey, dude ❗— hope you’re enjoying Mar-A-Lago.  Yeah, a

nd congrats on backing the winner. We have no doubt spending at least 💲119 million to ensure that Donald Trump returns to the White House will pay off handsomely for you.

We hear you’ve seized a Rasputin-esque role as the “First Buddy” on the transition team, floating potential Cabinet appointees and threatening to fund a primary to any senator who stands in their way. There are rumors that even more taxpayer dollars will flow to SpaceX to boost your colony-on-Mars ambitions. We imagine you’re whispering sweet nothings in Trump’s ear about eliminating the tax credits that benefit Tesla’s competitors in the electric vehicle market. Surely, you’re also going to leverage your role as the co-leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency to snip the red tape that constrains your efforts to create self-driving cars and brain implants.

All of that self-serving enrichment is going to be easy, right? Maybe too easy, even. We know how much you hunger for challenges — to do big things that the world believes are impossible. So we have a dare for you: We bet you can't get your buddy Trump to save the planet.

Remember back in 2016, when nearly 200 countries agreed that, to avoid calamity, average global temperatures must rise no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels? Well, we blew past that threshold a year ago. Human civilization has never experienced a climate this warm in recorded history, which means that droughts, extreme weather, collapse of massive ice sheets and sea level rise could wipe out some of our international neighbors. 

But guess what else❓ It also means that Texas, your new home state, will experience many more years of blistering heat that'll make 2023, — the hottest year on record here — feel like a cool breeze.

Remember your idealistic youth❓ According to one of your biographers, your chief concern was global warming; you also worried that the planet might run out of fossil fuels. Since then, your Teslas have showed the world what electric vehicles can do. And you've pioneered battery storage, crucial for capturing the energy generated by wind farms and solar arrays. "Green Tony Stark," people called you — or at least, they used to call you that, before you crossed over into the MAGA-verse.

Sometimes we see glimmers of that superhero still in you. On Saturday, for instance, you looked cool in that meme you tweeted, showing yourself hovering high above skyscrapers, in an Iron Man suit. You joked then that you're "Irony Man." But c'mon: Secretly, wouldn't you actually, earnestly like to save Earth❓🌎

Elon, we need you. As Trump’s BFF, you're in a unique position to nudge the president of the U.S. — the world's most powerful man — toward a clean energy future. Trump sees you, the richest man on the planet, as a fellow Master of the Universe, a corporate exec with a knack for bending federal regulations to his whim. If there’s anyone who can match Trump’s “dragon energy,” it’s you.

Plus, except for you, Trump is surrounded by people whose grasp of science is shaky at best. (We'd love to catch up sometime and hear what you really think about people like your DoGE partner Vivek Ramaswamy, who doesn't think climate change is a big deal.)

Trump listens to you, Elon: After you endorsed him, we noticed how his rhetoric about electric vehicles changed. He went from railing against “stupid” and “gutless” automakers ramping up EV production to praising EVs as “incredible.”

Can you work that same magic and save President Joe Biden's efforts to jumpstart domestic solar manufacturing? It’s cheaper in the short-term to get solar panels from China, but that's no way to make America first.

Play to his ego, Elon. Frame it as: Only you can save the world, Donald. 🌏😒😟😦

And so, we suspect, do you. So please, Elon, surprise everyone. Throw off your supervillain disguise and assume your mantle as a Climate Hero. Show that you're actually a force for good in the world. You once said you cared more about “the reality of goodness than the perception of it.” Now is your chance to prove it.

Only you can save the world,🌍 Elon. We're counting on you.Remaining in the Paris Accords would be Donald J. Trump's big, bold, surprising idea! Who would expect Trump, of all people, to pull the U.S. away from coal and into cool, futuristic forms of energy? To lead the world out of danger? To save us, just in the nick of time, from fires, floods and certain doom?

It'd be a great plot twist, right? Something that no one expects?

Trump loves a plot twist. And so do we.

Donald Trump and his dangerous revenge agenda

Echo opinion letter pubished in the Pierce County Journal a Wisconsin newspaper:

To the editor, It is already clear, based on his statements and actions, that Donald Trump’s only concerns as President will be revenge on his political enemies and enrichment for himself and the richest Americans. The greed of those who possess most of the wealth and now want it all is beyond belief.

Trump is hand-picking his administration to serve those ends. Where we have traditionally relied on the conscientiousness of civil servants, we will now have only servants of Trump.

How much of our government Trump will be able, with the help of his hard-right friends, to dismantle is anybody’s guess. With figures like Tulsi Gabbard, a vocal Putin supporter, heading National Intelligence and Matt Gaetz, under investigation for child sex trafficking and drug use, as Attorney General, we are justified in feeling deeply uneasy about our continued safety internationally and domestically. Even Trump’s hawkish former National Security adviser John Bolton has called Gabbard’s nomination a threat to security and the sleazy Gaetz’s nomination “the worst” in American history.

I sympathize with fellow voters who saw economic issues as of paramount importance in the election. Nevertheless, I do not think relief for them is in store when Trump’s tariffs raise prices on domestic goods.

There is no excusing the normalization of Trump by the media that have portrayed him as even marginally acceptable as candidate. After the 2016 election there may have been some justification in giving Trump the benefit of the doubt to see what he would actually do once in office. Today there can be no doubt and no honeymoon. We know what he is and what he would like to do.

For the sake of our own moral and ethical integrity we can never accept as legitimate a liar, a felon convicted on 34 counts, and sexual predator occupying our highest office, the most powerful and formerly respected in the world. What in heaven’s name are parents to tell their children looking toward the President for an example of honorable adult leadership?

By surrounding himself with corrupt and incompetent loyalists, Trump has made crystal clear that his allegiance is not to the people, half of whom he has branded as an “enemy within,” but to his own lust for power and retribution. His reckless appointments appear to signal an intent to push American government to the breaking point. New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie writes, “Neither chaos nor dysfunction nor incompetence is an obstacle to Trump’s lawless intentions. If anything, they’re assets.”

Our democratic system of government, imperfect as it may be, is the fragile product of nearly 250 years’ thought, work, and sacrifice of some of our most patriotic Americans. Do we really want to squander that inheritance on an unhinged man’s destructive rages❗ and vendettas?

From Thomas R. Smith in  River Falls, Wisconsin

Trump will need to change the US constitution if he intends to end birthright citizenship

Echo report published in the Los Angeles Times by Andrea Costillo:


WASHINGTON — Donald Trump promised to end the right to citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to undocumented parents shortly after he takes office next month.

In an interview earlier this month with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said he would attempt to do so through executive action. (But the Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker did not push back on Trump's misunderstanding about this issue and did not call out the Trumpian lie about the US being the only place where birthright citizenship is legal.)

“Yes, we’re going to end that, because it’s ridiculous,” Trump said.

But getting rid of birthright citizenship, a principle that can be traced in the U.S. to the end of slavery and the 14th Amendment of 1868, is highly unlikely. Here’s why:

What is birthright citizenship? There are two types of citizenship recognized by the U.S. government: one based on descent, and another based on birthplace.

The first type grants U.S. citizenship to children born abroad to at least one U.S. citizen parent. The other guarantees that right to anyone born on U.S. soil, except the children of foreign diplomats.

The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. It states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Thirty years after its ratification, the Supreme Court ruled that birthright citizenship applied to those born in the U.S. to immigrant parents. It has been interpreted to apply regardless of a parent’s legal status.

The case centered on Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco in 1873, to Chinese parents who were lawful permanent residents. He left the U.S. temporarily at age 21 to visit his parents, who had by then moved back to China. But upon his return, he was denied entry under the Chinese Exclusion Act, on the ground that he was not a citizen. The nation’s highest court ruled that the 14th Amendment made Wong a citizen.

How does the U.S. compare to the rest of the world? 
During the NBC interview, Trump erroneously said the U.S. is “the only country that has it.” In fact❗more than 30 countries recognize birthright citizenship, most of them in the Western Hemisphere. Most countries around the world recognize citizenship by descent. (Moderator Kristen Welker did not push back on this lie.)

Birthright Citizenship is legal under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution

Sam Erman, a law professor at the University of Michigan who studies citizenship, said that the U.S. modeling birthright citizenship is part of the reason more countries have it now.

“If you have it based on descent, then you can end up with people who spend their whole lives in your country and don’t get to be members — and their children, and their children’s children,” Erman said.

Birthright citizenship, he said, “works as a way to ensure that the people being governed in a place are actually part of the place.”
Could Trump end it?

In a post last year on his campaign website, Trump wrote that he would issue an executive order his first day as president, directing federal agencies to “require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident for their future children to become automatic U.S. citizens.”

He said the order would clarify that children of undocumented immigrants “should not be issued passports, Social Security numbers, or be eligible for certain taxpayer funded welfare benefits.”

On NBC, Trump said he would end birthright citizenship “if we can” through executive action.

Legal scholars broadly agree it is not within the president’s executive power to end birthright citizenship, leaving the courts or a constitutional amendment as the only ways to achieve a change.

Amending the Constitution is a rigorous process, with a high bar that would require the approval of two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of each state legislature or state convention.

Targeting “anchor babies” and “birth tourism,” Trump planned to sign an executive order that would end birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants during his first term. But, he skirted the issue by instead issuing a rule to deny pregnant women visas if they appeared to be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth.

Republicans have also introduced bills in Congress to end birthright citizenship, though none have passed. In September, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2024, which would end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and tourists.

After Trump’s recent comments, Graham said he is also working on a constitutional amendment to end the practice, which he has vocally opposed for decades.

“One of the most valuable commodities in the world is American citizenship,” Graham said during a news conference introducing his bill. “I can understand why almost everybody in the world would want to come to America and be a citizen. But we’ve got to have an orderly process when it comes to granting American citizenship. We have to have a process that is not exploited.”

Graham has said the Supreme Court probably would take up the case, noting that there has never been a ruling by the high court involving cases of birthright citizenship in which the parents are undocumented or are on temporary visas.

But Erman, the Michigan law professor, said it’s unlikely that even the conservative-leaning court would move to end birthright citizenship.

“Wong Kim Ark was decided by a court that was quite anti-minority and quite conservative, and even there the text and the history is just really clear,” he said. “If Wong Kim Ark could win in 1898, it feels like the precedent should be able to hold in 2024.”
POLITICS Trump said he would revoke birthright citizenship. It hasn’t worked in the past

Donald Trump promised to end the right to citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to parents who are undocumented. (Brandon Bell / Associated Press) By Andrea Castillo Staff Writer Dec. 16, 2024

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end the right to citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to undocumented parents shortly after he takes office next month.

In an interview earlier this month with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said he would attempt to do so through executive action.

“Yes, we’re going to end that, because it’s ridiculous,” Trump said.

But getting rid of birthright citizenship, a principle that can be traced in the U.S. to the end of slavery and the 14th Amendment of 1868, is highly unlikely. Here’s why:

What is birthright citizenship?There are two types of citizenship recognized by the U.S. government: one based on descent, and another based on birthplace.

The first type grants U.S. citizenship to children born abroad to at least one U.S. citizen parent. The other guarantees that right to anyone born on U.S. soil, except the children of foreign diplomats.

The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. It states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Thirty years after its ratification, the Supreme Court ruled that birthright citizenship applied to those born in the U.S. to immigrant parents. It has been interpreted to apply regardless of a parent’s legal status.

The case centered on Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco in 1873 to Chinese parents who were lawful permanent residents. He left the U.S. temporarily at age 21 to visit his parents, who had by then moved back to China. But upon his return, he was denied entry under the Chinese Exclusion Act on the ground that he was not a citizen. The nation’s highest court ruled that the 14th Amendment made Wong a citizen.

POLITICS Trump confirms deportation strategy will include national emergency declaration and military. Nov. 18, 2024

How does the U.S. compare to the rest of the world?

During the NBC interview, Trump erroneously said the U.S. is “the only country that has it.” In fact, more than 30 countries recognize birthright citizenship, most of them in the Western Hemisphere. Most countries around the world recognize citizenship by descent.

Sam Erman, a law professor at the University of Michigan who studies citizenship, said that the U.S. modeling birthright citizenship is part of the reason more countries have it now.

“If you have it based on descent, then you can end up with people who spend their whole lives in your country and don’t get to be members — and their children, and their children’s children,” Erman said.

Birthright citizenship, he said, “works as a way to ensure that the people being governed in a place are actually part of the place.”
Could Trump end it?

In a post last year on his campaign website, Trump wrote that he would issue an executive order his first day as president, directing federal agencies to “require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident for their future children to become automatic U.S. citizens.”

He said the order would clarify that children of undocumented immigrants “should not be issued passports, Social Security numbers, or be eligible for certain taxpayer funded welfare benefits.”

On NBC, Trump said he would end birthright citizenship “if we can” through executive action.

Legal scholars broadly agree it is not within the president’s executive power to end birthright citizenship, leaving the courts or a constitutional amendment as the only ways to achieve a change.

Amending the Constitution is a rigorous process with a high bar that would require the approval of two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of each state legislature or state convention.

Targeting “anchor babies” and “birth tourism,” Trump planned to sign an executive order that would end birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants during his first term. But he skirted the issue by instead issuing a rule to deny pregnant women visas if they appeared to be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth.

POLITICS California Sen. Alex Padilla urges Biden administration to protect immigrants before Trump takes office Dec. 11, 2024

Republicans have also introduced bills in Congress to end birthright citizenship, though none have passed. In September, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2024, which would end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and tourists.

After Trump’s recent comments, Graham said he is also working on a constitutional amendment to end the practice, which he has vocally opposed for decades.

“One of the most valuable commodities in the world is American citizenship,” Graham said during a news conference introducing his bill. “I can understand why almost everybody in the world would want to come to America and be a citizen. But we’ve got to have an orderly process when it comes to granting American citizenship. We have to have a process that is not exploited.”

Graham has said the Supreme Court probably would take up the case, noting that there has never been a ruling by the high court involving cases of birthright citizenship in which the parents are undocumented or are on temporary visas.

But Erman, the Michigan law professor, said it’s unlikely that even the conservative-leaning court would move to end birthright citizenship.

“Wong Kim Ark was decided by a court that was quite anti-minority and quite conservative, and even there the text and the history is just really clear,” he said. “If Wong Kim Ark could win in 1898, it feels like the precedent should be able to hold in 2024.”

What opposition would Trump face?Any move to end birthright citizenship is sure to face legal challenges.

“Citizenship is both a bundle of rights and a form of belonging. Saying these people who are citizens are not really Americans I think does a lot of damage,” Erman said.

Migration experts have warned that repealing birthright citizenship would cause the number of people in the U.S. illegally to skyrocket. Democratic lawmakers have voiced their opposition after Trump’s recent comments.

“That concept of birthright citizenship is sort of like the backbone of America. It is very much a part of the history of our nation and it should continue as such,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) said on CNN.

Even some Republicans have disagreed with Trump. Then-House Speaker Paul Ryan broke with Trump in 2018 when he said the president could not end birthright citizenship by executive order.

“As a conservative, I’m a believer in following the plain text of the Constitution, and I think in this case the 14th Amendment is pretty clear, and that would involve a very, very lengthy constitutional process,” he said. “But where we obviously totally agree with the president is getting at the root issue here, which is unchecked illegal immigration.”

Donald Trump is seizing power with incompetent cabinet nominees

Echo opinion letter published in the Citrus County Chronicle, a Florida newspaper:

Dear Editor:  Trump's (incompetent) cabinet picks are a clear indicator of the impending disaster💢 for our country. We’re all aware of Trump’s mental lapses, but these choices for key positions highlight just how unqualified and alarming his administration could be❗

Trump's controversial Cabinet picks raise questions about lower ethical standards.

Trump's worst Cabinet picks aren't just unqualified, they're part of a bigger power grab.  One horrible person, take the drunkard Fox (Fake❗)News host Pete Hegseth, as a weird example — wronfully selected (😕) for Secretary of Defense😟😧. A 😡Fox News personality with no significant military leadership experience, Hegseth has been married three times and has seven children and stepchildren with his third wife. Hegseth is also on record saying he doesn’t wash his hands because he believes germs aren’t real. In 2015, during a Fox & Friends segment, he accidentally threw an axe over a wall, hitting a member of a nearby marching band. 

This is who Trump wants to run the most powerful military in world history❓ 🎖️❗

Oh, yes there’s also Tulsi Gabbard, named for Director of National Intelligence. Since leaving Congress, Gabbard has frequently appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, where she has been critical of U.S. support for Ukraine. She has ties to the Science of Identity, a Hinduism-derived group described by some as a cult, which reportedly seeks to leverage her influence for ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since 2018, Gabbard has appeared on Fox (Fake❗)News,

over 280 times.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is Trump’s incompetent pick for Secretary of Homeland Security. In her memoir, she recounted shooting a 14-month-old dog in a gravel pit because it wouldn’t behave — an anecdote seemingly intended to bolster her national profile.

Finally, Florida Senator Marco Rubio 😱reportedly being considered for (what❓) Secretary of State. (Rubio’s track record includes a reputation for laziness and a reported 2.1 GPA in high school.

It’s clear why Trump is selecting such questionable figures to lead the military, intelligence and homeland security — unqualified “yes men” and ideologues willing to carry out his chaotic agenda.

From Ben Benassi in Inverness, Florida

Rise in antisemitism requires access to resources to respond with education and advocacy for human rights

Rise of overt antisemitism in Jersey Shore towns: An Asbury Park Press investigation by the Asbury Park Press staff
Asbury Park Press and other sources:

Editor's note: Antisemitism isn't just on the rise in the Lakewood area. It's becoming more aggressive and it's happening out in the open. The Asbury Park Press spoke to community leaders, residents old and new and analyzed hundreds of police bias incident reports to get a sense of how antisemitism has become a part of daily life in several Jersey Shore towns. Here's what we found:

The Atlantic: Most people do not realize that Jews make up just 2 percent of the U.S. population and 0.2 percent of the world’s population. This means simply finding them takes a lot of effort. But every year in Western countries, including America, Jews are the No. 1 target of anti-religious hate crimes. Anti-Semites are many things, but they aren’t lazy. They’re animated by one of the most durable and deadly conspiracy theories in human history. (Yair Rosenberg)

According to published reports, New Jersey recorded the third-highest level of antisemitism in the nation in 2022, the most recent year of data. This was a 25% increase over the previous year, which at that time had been the highest ever recorded.

Wikipedia report:  The history of Antisemitism in New Jersey dates to the establishment of the Province of New Jersey. Prior to the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, Jewish people were excluded from living in many white Christian neighborhoods throughout New Jersey due to the use of restrictive covenants and quotas. Between the 1920s and 1950s, quota systems were instituted at universities in New Jersey to limit the number of Jewish people, including at Rutgers University and Princeton University. During the 2010s, and 2020s, New Jersey has seen an increase in reported incidents of antisemitic vandalism and violence.

New Jersey isn’t alone:

• A Brooklyn teacher told CBS News New York that students called her a dirty Jew and drew swastikas on her desk and bulletin boards. She notes Jewish students have left the school as a result of antisemitic incidents.
• A parent of a student in Westport, Connecticut wrote in Newsweek that his son was subjected to ongoing antisemitic harassment from other students, shouting at him phrases such as, “We must exterminate the Jews!” and pointing a squirt gun at him while yelling, “Shoot the Jew!”

There is a marked increase in desecration of Jewish ritual items such as mezuzot and menorahs, in antisemitic messages blaming Jews for 9/11 and either cheering or denying the Holocaust and in threats of violence and murder against Jews at colleges and universities—including posting the names, faces and faculty positions of Jewish professors.

This rise in hatred is a state and national problem. Education plays a key role in reducing hatred and building safe, inclusive environments for all students. Schools must help students deal with the fear resulting from highly publicized news stories involving antisemitism, such as the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The story was again recently in the news following the sentencing of the perpetrator.

Knowing how best to deal with antisemitic incidents is only part of the solution. The best time to address antisemitic acts against students and staff is before they happen. Learning more about how to recognize and address evidence of antisemitism can prevent such incidents from occurring. That is critical because even the best-addressed incident of antisemitism leaves a lasting mark on the students and staff who experience it.

Below are several resources to help NJEA members counter antisemitism in their schools and communities.
Resources to combat antisemitism

NJEA (New Jersey) Review
“Connecting educators with Holocaust education resources”
njea.org/connecting-educators-with-holocaust-education-resources

National Education Association
Resources to Counter Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial
nea.org/professional-excellence/student-engagement/tools-tips/resources-counter-antisemitism-and-holocaust-denial

“Taking on Antisemitism on CollegeCampuses”
nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/taking-antisemitism-college-campuses

New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education
Curriculum guides and materials for the Holocaust, genocide and human rights
nj.gov/education/holocaust/curr/materials

U.S. Department of Education
Resources for Preventing and Addressing Antisemitism in Schools
sites.ed.gov/cfbnp/resources-for-preventing-and-addressing-antisemitism-
in-schools

Republicans will do a favor for themselves and their cult leader Trump by rejecting unqualified cabinet nominees

Echo opinion published in The Columbian a Vancouver, Washington newspaper, by Carl P. Leubsdorf is a columnist for the Dallas Morning News

Even Trump's (grade of "C") - more of less best choices, like Secretary of State-designee Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary-designee Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary-designee Brooke Rollins, earned their jobs by their fealty to Trump. Rubio and Bessent abandoned past positions on Ukraine and tariffs, respectively, to bring their views in line with his.

Most won’t encounter confirmation problems.
Unfortunately, however, their level of expertise and competence is not matched by Trump’s choices for Secretary of Defense, Director of National Intelligence, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Education and director of the FBI.

The Republicans in the House and Senate will lose nothing if they impeach Trump. At a time with the GOP has a political majority in all three branches of government, this is the pefect time to declare him to be incompetent❗

Each is a strong candidate for rejection. Here’s why:

• Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth — National Guard service, even on active duty, is no qualification to run the sprawling Pentagon. And the Fox (Fake❗)News anchor’s denigration of women in the military and history of questionable sexual conduct should disqualify him at a time the Pentagon is coping with these issues. His standing took a new hit with the release of emails in which his own mother called out his history of sexual misconduct. “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego,” she wrote in the 2018 email which The New York Times obtained from an unnamed family member. In addition, a lengthy review of Hegseth’s record by The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer disclosed allegations of financial and personal misconduct in several prior positions.

• Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard — Between her questionable ties to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and statements echoing Russian criticism of the U.S. role in Ukraine, the former Hawaii Democratic congresswoman would seem like an especially bad choice to manage the nation’s most sensitive secrets.
• Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — When Trump rewarded Kennedy for his support by naming him to “run wild” over the nation’s health programs, he opened a pandora’s box that could threaten the very health of Americans he has vowed to improve. Not only has Kennedy denigrated the need for childhood vaccinations, he is yet another nominee with a history of sexual misconduct.
• Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon — The former president of World Wrestling Entertainment and his first term Small Business Administrator also has sexual misconduct issues. A lawsuit accuses McMahon and her husband, WWE founder Vince McMahon, of ignoring alleged sexual abuse by a WWE employee against teenaged boys. In 2010, she resigned from the Connecticut State Board of Education after the Hartford Courant reported she misrepresented her education qualifications.
• Federal Bureau of Investigation director — Trump plans to demand the resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Republican he appointed after firing his predecessor, and install Trump loyalist and fierce FBI critic Kash Patel, a major perpetrator of the falsehood that Ukraine, not Russia ❓, tried to influence the 2016, election. Patel has labeled the FBI “a threat to the American people.”

Because the Senate’s 47 Democrats will likely line up against most of Trump’s most questionable nominees, it will take at least four Republicans to defeat them. These confirmation votes will test how seriously the Senate plans to maintain its constitutional role in the Trump years.

Senate rejection would actually do the president-elect a favor. Some of the nominees would only cause Trump (what goes around comes around) grief, if they’re confirmed.

Senate Republicans! GOP Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Trump's incompetent cabinet nominees are not qualified

Reject unqualified nominees  echo opinion letter to The Columbian a newspaper published in Vancouver, Washington, by Mark Bickley, in Ridgefield, Washington. 

Trump is incompetent and he is dragging down the Republican "Grand Old Party" just because he can.

To the Editor:  Most Americans capable of critical thinking realize that no president can be fully knowledgeable and competent in every domestic and foreign arena. We ought to be at least as interested in Cabinet picks as we are the president. 

Thus far, we all ought to be very concerned. Donald Trump has again shown us that he primarily values television personalities and those who avow loyalty, fealty and subservience to him.

I am a 72-year-old male with strong conservative bona fides; born and raised in Idaho, graduate of a Christian college and a career spent in the pharmaceutical industry. I have spent my life confident in our American democracy. That has all changed in recent years as we have seen virtually every norm shattered by arguably the most ignorant, amoral, corruptible, narcissistic and authoritarian-leaning person to ever occupy the Oval Office.

Several of Trump’s Cabinet picks are among the least qualified and possibly dangerous our republic has ever faced. Here’s hoping our Senate will not approve Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Having said this, I doubt that the Republican-controlled Senate can now find anything resembling integrity, character, judgment and backbone. Good luck, America!

Expect a major stock market correction early in the Trumpzi administration because thie idiot has zero economic policy and the cost of "groceries" (a word he just learned, spelled with 9 letters and three syllables) 💰will not be going down.

Rise of antisemitism violence is the "canary in the coal mine" warning about a future with worse to come

Echo opinion republished in The Boston Globe by Jeff Jacoby from the newsletter "Arguable". 

Elijah and the Burning Synagogue - Tablet Magazine

Melbourne, Australia- Shortly after 4 a.m. on Friday, two people in masks were spotted dousing the main entrance of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, one of Australia’s largest and busiest shuls, with gasoline. Moments later, the building was set on fire and rapidly became an inferno. At that very early hour, only a few men were in the sanctuary; they had come to study before morning prayers began two hours later. They realized what was happening when they heard glass shattering and were able to get out of the building through a rear door, though one suffered burns to his hand and two had to be hospitalized for smoke inhalation. Had the arsonists struck an hour later, far more people would have been inside. There is no telling how many might have died.

The damage was massive. Much of the interior was gutted. Many religious books were turned to ash. It took 60 firefighters and 17 trucks to put out the fire. At least six Torah scrolls — the most venerated objects in Jewish worship; each one typically takes 12-18 months to write — were damaged by heat and water.

Adass Israel was founded after World War II. Many of its first congregants were European immigrants who had survived the Holocaust. Rebuilding their lives following the Nazi nightmare in which one-third of the world’s Jews were murdered, they would have remembered only too vividly the smashing and burning of synagogues across Germany and Austria in November 1938 — the Kristallnacht pogrom that foreshadowed the genocidal whirlwind to come.

To Jews of that era, born in a world where antisemitic violence and destruction was not only routine but often promoted by political and religious leaders, it would not have come as a bolt from the blue that Jew-hating arsonists would attack a synagogue. Not so for the 21st-century Jews of Melbourne, some of whom naively believed that in civilized societies, such atrocities are no longer possible.

”I’m shocked, just absolutely shocked,” Benjamin Klein, an Adass Israel board member, told Australia’s 9News TV network. “We didn’t think it will happen here in Melbourne to us. We’re a quiet community. We have our heads down, we don’t bother anybody, we wish everybody well.” Klein practices strict Orthodox Judaism, but there was a similar reaction from less religious Australian Jews. Benjamin Preiss, a Melbourne newspaper editor and a self-described “largely secular” Jew, wrote in a column Monday that even as he was covering the burning of the Adass Israel synagogue, “I struggled to believe that anyone in Australia would so brazenly target a place of peaceful prayer. The fact that there were people inside at the time of the attack makes it all the more sickening.”

Yet there had been no shortage of reminders for Australia’s Jews, especially since October 7, 2023, that many of their fellow Australians hate them. Just two days after the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, a mob of Hamas supporters rallied in front of the Sydney Opera House, waving Palestinian flags and yelling “F*ck the Jews” and “Gas the Jews.” Last week the Executive Council of Australian Jewry reported that almost 2,100 anti-Jewish incidents had occurred in the 12 months following Oct. 7 — a fourfold increase from the year before. “With a few honorable exceptions,” the council noted, “the response from political and community leaders, university executives, and civil society has been tepid at best. The result has been a ratcheting up of antisemitism from hateful words to steadily more serious hateful actions.”

Such as screaming antisemitic slogans outside Jewish schools. Or vandalizing Jewish homes. Or physically assaulting Jews in the street. Or torching Adass Israel.

The burning of synagogues is one of the oldest evils perpetrated against Jews. Long before there was a Third Reich or a modern state of Israel, those who hated the Jewish people often expressed that hatred by setting ablaze the places where Jews gathered to pray.

The historian Robert Wistrich, in his sweeping history of antisemitism, “A Lethal Obsession,” describes the fourth-century Church father St. John Chrysostom, who “justified the burning down of synagogues” on the grounds that they were “a temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults, a criminal assembly of Jews … a gulf and abyss of perdition.” Chrysostom’s contemporary, St. Ambrose of Milan, shared that view. 

When a synagogue in Mesopotamia was burned down in 388 at the instigation of the local bishop, the Roman emperor Theodosius ordered that it be rebuilt at the expense of those responsible. An outraged Ambrose argued forcefully that the order should be rescinded. No Christian should be punished for burning a synagogue, he declared, since any building where Jews worshiped was “a home of unbelief, a house of impiety, a receptacle of folly which God himself has condemned.”

When the First Crusade reached the Holy Land in 1099, recounted Simon Sebag Montefiore in “Jerusalem: The Biography,” they fought not just the ruling Muslims but also the beleaguered and powerless Jewish community. “The Jews sought refuge in their synagogues, but the Crusaders set them on fire,” Montefiore wrote. “The Jews were burned alive, almost a climactic burnt offering in Christ’s name.”

Martin Luther, the central figure of the Protestant Reformation, was one of history’s great antisemites. In an infamous 1543 treatise, “On the Jews and Their Lies,” he offered his “sincere advice” for dealing with “this rejected and condemned people, the Jews.” His list of recommendations began: “First, set fire to their synagogues or schools and bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn.”

In the Muslim world, too, synagogues  burned were to the ground again and again: in Persia in 1839, in Cairo in 1945, in Algeria in 1956, in Istanbul in 2003, in Damascus in 2013, in Tunisia in 2023, and in numerous other instances.

Even when Jewish communities have ceased to exist, the synagogues they leave behind have been destroyed by arsonists. In 2005, Israel ended its occupation of the Gaza Strip, unilaterally turning over the entire territory to the Palestinian Authority, dismantling the 21 settlements that had been built there and removing the 9,000 Jewish residents who had lived in them. But they left the synagogues intact. The buildings were both sacred and beautiful, and Israelis didn’t have the heart to flatten them. It was thought that even if the former synagogues would no longer be used for Jewish prayer, the Palestinians could put them to good use — as community centers, perhaps, or office facilities, municipal buildings, or schools.

But upon taking over the land that Israel had voluntarily relinquished, the very first thing the Palestinians did was to put the synagogues to the torch. “Gaza’s night sky turned orange as fires roared across the settlements,” the Associated Press reported. “Women ululated, teens set off fireworks, and crowds chanted ‘God is great.’ “

What happened last week in Australia has happened in the United States and Canada, too. Congregation Beth Israel in Gadsden, Ala., was firebombed by a Nazi sympathizer in 1960. The similarly-named Beth Israel synagogue in Austin was burned in 2021. A Vancouver synagogue was doused with fuel and set on fire this past May; fortunately the damage was confined to the front doors and no one was hurt. Six months earlier, Molotov cocktails were hurled at a synagogue in suburban Montreal.

There will be more. As overt antisemitism becomes increasingly normalized, the hate crimes will continue to pile up. 

Tragically, more Jews will be menaced and assaulted, more antisemitism will be pumped into social media, more cities will experience “Jew hunts” — and more synagogues will go up in flames. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, to borrow Yeats’s phrase. Our world is deeply disordered and increasingly out of control. Something truly frightful is coming. Jews, as always the canary in the coal mine, are the first to be targeted. But they won’t be the last.

This column is excerpted from Arguable, Jeff Jacoby’s weekly email newsletter. To subscribe to Arguable, visit globe.com/arguable.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a dangerous person to be put in charge of anything related to Health and Human Services

I’m a pediatric emergency medicine physician and a physician-scientist funded by the National Institutes of Health. (The views expressed are my own, not my employer’s.) Echo opinion letter published in the Houston Chronicle: 

Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., also known by his initials RFK Jr.

Years ago, I cared for a patient who had life-threatening pneumonia that was vaccine-preventable. The child needed multiple tubes in the chest to drain pus from the infection, and many of the organs simply shut down. The lungs no longer worked, so for weeks, using a complex machine, we removed the blood from his body, ran it through a filter to put oxygen back in, and pumped it back through the body.

I vividly remember holding his mother’s hand as she cried in grief and regret for not having gotten her child vaccinated. I advised her that there was nothing she could do about the past, but that moving forward, she could share her story and that of her child, hopefully preventing the pain she experienced for another mother.

This was just one of the many casualties I’ve witnessed due to vaccine disinformaton.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., spreads dangerous misinformation to the detriment of people’s health, ultimately leading to deaths. One alarming example is the 2019, measles outbreak in Samoa. Vaccine hesitancy fueled by misinformation campaigns, including those from RFK Jr.’s organization, Children’s Health Defense, led to over 5,700 cases and 83 deaths, primarily among children. Such actions undermine trust in life-saving public health initiatives. 

Sadly, the dangerous notion that he may lead the federal agency charged with protecting the health of the public is troubling.

Many respected scientists and leaders share the same concerns about processed foods while not being so in love with their preconceived notions that it blinds them to science and facts. Let’s be clear: There is no silver lining to a RFK Jr.-led Department of Health and Human Services.

Shubhada Hooli, in Houston Texas

"A child's health should not be dictated by the circumstances they were born into," Dr. Hooli.

Americans are blessed to live in a nation with abundant food- thanks to immigrant labor: Thank you!

Are you ready for guacamole to become a luxury item?

Echo opinion essay published in The New York Times by the economist Rebecca Patterson: 

Donald Trump’s first term is a reminder of the financial damage a trade war can create. After the United States in 2018, imposed tariffs on a range of countries, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Mexico and Turkey struck back against American exports. The Agriculture Department says the retaliation raised the price of farm goods from the United States; that in turn contributed to a decline in export revenues of $27 billion in 2018, and 2019.

Now we’re settling in to watch the same movie again. Hours after Mr. Trump’s late November Truth Social post threatening a new round of tariffs, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, responded, “For every tariff, there will be a response in kind.” Just as a reminder to the incoming administration, about two-thirds of vegetables and almost half of fruit and nut imports to the United States come from Mexico. And how many avocados? Ninety percent.

It’s not just tariffs❗ American farmers and ranchers, many of whom have supported Mr. Trump, would struggle to find enough workers if he delivers on his vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. And financial aid from Washington to offset the damage might not be forthcoming, given the giant size of the federal deficit.

Farms and related businesses would be most directly hit, but the impact would be felt at kitchen tables around the country.

In fact, the quality and supply of grocery-store staples would suffer and prices would probably rise, something consumers have little appetite for after the pandemic-era inflation spike.

The American food ecosystem, including farms, ranches and processors, has heavily relied on immigrant labor for decades. 

More than half of farmers reported labor shortages in 2022, up from 14 percent in 2014, according to surveys conducted by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Michigan State.

In 2022, about seven in 10 farm workers were foreign-born, according to the National Agricultural Workers Survey. 

Many of those workers obtain seasonal visas. The rest of the immigrant labor pool, as much as 44 percent of foreign farm workers, are undocumented and have no work authorization.

American consumers acutely felt the pain of insufficient labor, coupled with plant closures and transportation challenges, during the pandemic. Beef and veal prices spiked more than 20 percent in just three months from March 2020, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More broadly, the government’s cost measure of food eaten at home showed a notable increase: Prices rose 4.3 percent over those early pandemic months, up from a roughly 1 percent inflation rate over the prior 12 months.

Even with the pandemic in the rearview mirror, labor shortages continue. More than half of states have counties heavily dependent on farming, according to the Agriculture Department. The lack of workers “has been a problem for decades, and it continues to worsen,” the House Agriculture Committee said in a March report.

Trump’s deportation plan is almost certain to increase the strain on farmers. Greater labor shortages would make it harder to produce food, cut farm revenue and pressure sellers to increase prices.

There’s a solution here, and that’s imports. Despite its fruited plains and amber waves of grain, the United States, astonishingly, is no longer a net agricultural exporter. Since 2019, it has imported more food than it exported in four of six years, and 2024 is expected to see a record food deficit. Labor shortages and their subsequent costs have contributed to the shift in the balance of trade, along with exchange rate trends (the strong dollar makes American goods less competitive overseas) and tariffs.

The pandemic, however, showed us the risks of relying on overseas supply chains for critical goods. A broader and more aggressive trade war would add to the burden on American farmers. The incoming president has already suggested he will levy 25 percent tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada and put an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports. All three countries play critical roles in global food-supply chains, with Mexico and Canada the United States’ two largest suppliers of farm products, and China its largest buyer of agricultural goods, as of 2023.

Beyond the potential short-term tensions, Mr. Trump’s policies threaten to reinforce changes in international trade that occurred during and after his first term. China in particular seems keen to reduce its dependence on the United States, and already is shifting more of its purchases to countries such as Brazil.

American farmers may be hoping that any new trade-war pain will be softened through government largess. In recent years, government programs provided huge cash payments to farmers; these were expanded in 2020 during the pandemic. According to analysis of Agriculture Department data, farm-related companies received over $80 billion in federal payments between 2018 and 2020.

This time around, such handouts will be harder to come by. The budget deficit has widened, from 3.9 percent of gross domestic product in 2018 to 6.4 percent today. 

Government debt has similarly risen, from roughly 77 percent of gross domestic product in 2018, to 99 percent in 2024. Members of Congress have said they want to find spending cuts to offset some of Mr. Trump’s proposed tax cut extension. Politicians from farming districts may want to help their constituents if a trade war accelerates, but may not have funds at their disposal.

Farmers, many already under financial pressure, are surely hoping that some of the Republican Party’s campaign promises fall by the wayside 😕❓or are carried out in limited ways. They also saw a glimmer of hope in comments made by the European Central Bank’s president, Christine Lagarde. In a recent interview, she urged European leaders “not to retaliate, but to negotiate” with Mr. Trump, and offer to buy more U.S. goods to avoid a trade war. 

Unfortunately for American farmers, the European Commission, not its central bank, ultimately makes that decision.

Trump sees tariffs and deportation as means to strengthen the country, and his cult voters seem to agree. Let’s hope his administration also understands that those same policies risk undermining one of America’s greatest inherent economic strengths — the ability to use its terrain and climate to provide great quantities of affordable food both at home and abroad.

Liz Cheney is a "woman for all seasons" in the spirit of Saint Thomas More

Threatened With Jail, brave Liz Cheney Condemns Trump’s ‘Assault on the Rule of Law’: Echo report published in The New York Times by Peter Baker. 

Liz Cheney, (daughter of the former Vice-President Dick Cheney) is the former Republican representative from Wyoming. She said President-elect Donald J. Trump “lied about” 🤥❗ the bipartisan House committee that investigated his role in the January 6, 2021, attack.

Former Representative Liz Cheney on Sunday called President-elect Donald J. Trump’s threat to imprison her and other members of a congressional committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol an “assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”

Responding to comments Trump made in an interview aired on Sunday on “Meet the Press” on NBC, Ms. Cheney said the incoming president “lied about the Jan. 6 select committee” and that there would be “no conceivably appropriate factual or constitutio" nal basis to prosecute its members. (Unfortvery much on these outrageous Trump accusations. Like why can she not ask, "Where is the proof❓"  Her useless interview was unproductive but gave the orange guy the opportunity to generate more lies and to continue the saga of chaos unlimited.)

“Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020, presidential election and seize power,” she said in a statement. “He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes. Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave.”

She continued: “This was the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history. Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”

Her statement came after Trump repeated his unfounded allegation that the committee destroyed evidence during its investigation.

“Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” he said, referring to Representative Bennie G. Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the committee’s chairman. “They deleted and destroyed all evidence.”

(OMG despicable racist languate😟💢❗)

He went on: “And Cheney was behind it. And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee. For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.”

In fact, the committee did not destroy all evidence❗ It released an 800-page report as well as 140 transcripts of testimony and various memos, emails and voice mail messages. The evidence remains online. Mr. Thompson explained in a letter last year that the committee had asked the executive branch to go through some material first to protect “law enforcement sensitive operational details and private, personal information that, if released, could endanger the safety of witnesses.”

Ms. Cheney pointed to that letter in her statement. “Donald Trump knows his claims about the select committee are ridiculous and false, as has been detailed extensively, including by Chairman Thompson,” she said. “There is no conceivably appropriate factual or constitutional basis for what Donald Trump is suggesting — a Justice Department investigation of the work of a congressional committee — and any lawyer who attempts to pursue that course would quickly find themselves engaged in sanctionable conduct.”

President Biden’s staff is debating whether he should issue blanket pardons before leaving office to people targeted by Mr. Trump like Ms. Cheney as part of the president-elect’s promised “retribution” against his foes. Ms. Cheney did not say in her statement whether she would accept such a pardon to protect herself from a politically motivated prosecution by the next administration.

But she said that the evidence that should be made public was the material gathered by the special counsel Jack Smith in his investigation of Trump’s role in trying to overturn the 2020, election. “The Justice Department should ensure that all that material is preserved and cannot be destroyed. As much of that information as possible should be disclosed in the special counsel’s upcoming report.”

Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times. 

Saint Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt:  The story of Sir Thomas More (later beatified as Saint Thomas More), who stood up to King Henry VIII.