Saturday, May 17, 2025

Talking Money & Friends vs. A Godly Test

He’s back from a whirlwind trip to the Mideast, inspiring reactions no president would appreciate.


From Feminist News:


Can we pause for a moment and let the gravity of this sink in (alluding to a picture of Donald Trump shaking hands with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar) … 


The Qatari royal family bankrolls Hamas. This is Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, relative of the man who the US Defense Department has identified as the funder of the mastermind of the September 11 attacks and helped Khalid Sheikh Mohammed evade capture for many years. 


Now they just bought their way into Trump’s inner circle.


This is the same regime that:

• Finances Hamas 

• Was found guilty of bribing hundreds of European Union officials to sway policy in its favor

• Financed 9/11 attacks


And it’s not just Trump with his snout in the trough:

• Pam Bondi – Qatar’s registered lobbyist $115,000 per month

• Kash Patel – Security consulting for Qatar 

• Eric Trump – Building Qatari-funded golf resorts

• Jared Kushner – Took $1.5B from Qatari and Emirati funds

• Lee Zeldin – His firm was paid by a Qatari-linked company

• Steve Witkoff – Business ties with Qatari interests

• Barry Bennett & Doug Watts – Secretly lobbied for Qatar

• Joey Allaham – Arranged Qatari meetings with Trump insiders


Qatar doesn’t spend billions for friendship. They don’t give ‘gifts.’ They invest to control. They’ve been cited as one of the most corrupt countries on earth, specifically for bribing targets and people it deems necessary to cultivate. 


Terror money is still terror. No matter how big the check.


(https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15uCzp26XP/?mibextid=wwXIfr)


Jon Stewart on Trump’s, and by extension, our “friends:”


“So let’s see …


“Our friends are now El Salvador, Libya warlords, Russia, Noeth Korea, the Saudi Arabia royal family responsible for the death and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, Qatar which funds Hamas, Syria whose president has been on the U.S. terrorist list due to his past ties with al-Qaeda, Mexican drug lords, and White Afrikaners who were the architects of apartheid.


“Are we missing anyone?”


(https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AMiSGzWJp/?mibextid=wwXIfr)


Falsely attributed on Facebook and other web sites to Pope Leo XIV, the following, nevertheless, is a profound truth:


“You cannot follow both Christ and the cruelty of kings. A leader who mocks the weak, exalts himself, and preys on the innocent is not sent by God. He is sent to test you. And many are failing.”

Monday, May 12, 2025

Come Fly with Me: Qatar Tempts Trump

If Donald Trump is able to accept a gift from Qatar of an airplane worth $400 million for his use while president, and then have it transferred to his presidential library foundation once he leaves office, what would stop him from also taking one, or both, of the Library of Congress’ two original copies of the Declaration of Independence, one for his library, the other for Mar-a-Lago? After all, a copy of the original declaration, known as the “Dunlap Broadside,” printed in Philadelphia on the evening of July 4 and the early morning of July 5, 1776, is said to be worth only around $10 million. Pittance compared to the flying luxury liner. 


Trump has been flexing his muscles demonstrating he has ultimate authority over all government assets and personnel. Last week he fired the Librarian of Congress, for what seemed to many observers to be for no good reason other than she is African-American and was appointed by President Barack Obama. 


Trump also vehemently argued that all papers he took from the National Archives as he left the White House in 2021 were his for the taking. He rejected any inference that he violated any laws. 


If the Qataris want to donate a plane, do they not have to give it to the United States and not to Trump directly because of the Emoluments Clause that restricts the value of gifts a president or any American government official may receive without congressional approval? 


If so, if the airplane belongs to the government, could Trump simply designate it as a gift to his presidential library foundation and use it to ride around in once he leaves office? if he can, what’s to stop him from designating any gift he or Melania have received, such as jewelry, and say it is part of his presidential library artifacts? Could they wear the jewelry for dinners or other functions they attend post-office?


Once the airplane becomes U.S. property, would Trump have the right to “donate” it to his library foundation? Would he have the right to “donate” a copy of the Declaration of Independence or any other document of national importance, such as Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, to his namesake heritage facility?


It’s mind-boggling the amount of grifting that could be contained inside Trump’s massive body. 



Tariff Deal: So, a tariff deal with China is a pain-no-gain exercise. 


Yes, tariffs between China and the U.S. will be reduced to more sane levels for the next 90 days. But didn’t Trump initiate his tariff onslaught against the world, and in particular China, to jumpstart American investment in manufacturing? 


From this new tariff agreement it is difficult to see any movement in that direction. China will continue to be our preferred production partner.


Though Wall Street rebounded Monday, the average American worker and small business owner have little reason to rejoice. Planning ahead will be constrained, given Trump’s volatility and the ensuing caution of businesses to invest in new projects. 


There never was a realistic expansion of American manufacturing for a majority of products produced in China. Except in technology and energy conservation. But Trump has stifled commitments made under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. 


We will know by mid August if Trump secures a deal beneficial to America. Until then, it would be an exercise in futility to speculate.

Friday, May 9, 2025

Trumpism vs. The New Pope

After Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV Thursday, a friend asked me, “Will an American pope criticize Trump?”


My answer: If he is rooted in compassion for the underprivileged, for the “strangers” among us, for respect for humanity, for tolerance of the different, for a whole host of attributes lacking in our bloviating, White House occupant, I cannot imagine he will be able to abstain for long from expressing how his beliefs do not align with Trump’s.


Pope Leo XIV has a trail of articles, most written by others, posted on his social media account. Predominantly, they directly questioned positions by Trump and JD Vance (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/jd-vance-pope-leo-xiv.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare). 


Naysayers are already throwing darts. As Heather Cox Richardson reported Friday, “Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who is close to Trump, called Pope Leo ‘another Marxist puppet in the Vatican.’ Influencer Charlie Kirk suggested he was an ‘[o]pen borders globalist installed to counter Trump.’” 


As the prelates of the Catholic Church have seemingly signaled the centrality of their faith in advocating for the welfare of even the most downtrodden, it is a sharp contrast to the savagery Trump is exacting on the once and current disadvantaged in our society. Trump is purging the contributions, even the very existence, of Black, Hispanic and Native Americans in the development and formulation of our country.


“A push to purge references to diversity and inclusion led to a page on Jackie Robinson’s life and military career temporarily vanishing from the Pentagon website. Arlington National Cemetery web pages highlighting the graves of Black and female service members disappeared. Books including “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the novel by Harper Lee about racism in the Depression-era South, were purged from schools run by the Defense Department, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union” (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/us/aclu-sues-defense-department-schools-over-book-bans.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F08.Tk4f.rrlA7SHFig50&smid=em-share). 



Leadership Questions: Do we want a generation of military officers and leaders to blindly follow orders, or do we want them to exercise judgment under fire, judgment that would uphold truth and the values of America? 


That dilemma is facing administrators and faculty at the nation’s service academies who are tasked with enacting directives from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to remove any inference to diversity, equity and inclusion in material cadets and midshipmen are exposed to at their respective academies (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/politics/west-point-hegseth-culture-wars.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare). 


It’s comforting to think our military responds bravely to enemies foreign and domestic. But the erosion of historical fact, coupled with the fear of retribution for not carrying out orders, has led to doubts about the backbone of our armed forces. 


“I’ve lost faith that most people will do the right thing under pressure,” Dr. Graham Parsons, a tenured philosophy professor at West Point, said. “That’s the really painful part of the last few months.”

 

Even if Trump doesn’t believe it, Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans contributed to the development of the United States. He can try to erase their heritage in schools, the military, business, science and politics, but all that will accomplish is a deeper burnishing of his image as a racist. 


Black slaves taught South Carolina colonists how to cultivate rice, turning the crop into Carolina Gold. The Pilgrims survived because of help from Native Americans.


Navaho code whisperers helped soldiers defeat Japan. Black women were instrumental in launching astronauts into space and returning them safely to Earth. 


Hispanic settlers built up the Far West. 


Culturally, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and, yes, immigrants from around the globe, transformed the ethos of America. 


Trump, and anyone who espouses his unitarian white vision of America, is an ignorant racist, a bigot on the wrong side of history. 


Monday, May 5, 2025

Another Bird-Brained Trump Idea

Perhaps Donald Trump’s infatuation with America’s past glory has no better example than his desire to resurrect Alcatraz as a maximum security federal prison from which there was no verified successful escape. “The Rock,” as the island in San Francisco Bay is known, has not been a prison for more than 60 years, decommissioned because of the cost to maintain it. 


“Those costs were because all the prison's food, water, fuel and other supplies had to be taken by boat to the island, while the prison's infrastructure was crumbling due to the maritime environment, causing millions of dollars in deferred maintenance,’ Fox Business reported


One of the best guided tours Gilda and I ever took was back in 1978 at Alcatraz.  the island prison in the middle of San Francisco Bay. We journeyed to Alcatraz as part of our first trip to California. We had heard about the Alcatraz tour and arranged tickets for the 15-minute boat ride to the island. 


Today, visitors are given headsets to listen to audio descriptions of Alcatraz as they walk at their leisure around the former federal penitentiary. Back in 1978, Park Service Rangers provided live commentary as they guided tour groups throughout the facility. 


Though it was the middle of summer during our visit, Alcatraz was chilly, with a dampness that invaded our bones. Weather conditions, we found out, were part of the unique punishment meted out to incorrigible prisoners who earned a stay in solitary confinement, what the inmates called “the hole.” There were six solitary confinement cells, as distinct from 36 segregation cells where prisoners were confined throughout the day. Their only relief from the segregation cells was one visit per week to the recreation yard which they “enjoyed” individually.  


To make them as uncomfortable as possible in solitary confinement, prisoners were stripped naked before being placed in the dark, lightless hole, the Park Ranger told us. The walls and floor of the cell were steel, not concrete, because steel would not become as warm from contact with the body. Rather, the wind blowing in from the bay would keep it cold, so prisoners would try their best to maintain a position that exposed the least amount of skin to the surface. They did that by squatting down on their haunches and balancing themselves with a few fingertips for hours on end, he said. He invited us to step inside a cell and assume the position. It was not a comfortable experience.


“Guests” of the hole received one meal a day. As the government had to provide a minimum number of calories to each prisoner per day, the guards concocted what became known as an “Alcatraz cocktail.” All the food from each day was blended together to form what I’m sure was not a savory drink. 


As we walked through the shower room where inmates were showered three times a week, to our surprise the Park Ranger said the showers used hot, not cold, water. His explanation made perfect sense. Prison officials had no desire to acclimate their charges to the frigid bay waters. If they were going to try to escape by jumping into the bay, they wanted them to be shocked by the cold water. 


One final tidbit of information—The “Birdman of Alcatraz,” Robert Stroud, made famous by a biography and a movie of the same name starring Burt Lancaster, actually was the Birdman of Leavenworth. Leavenworth didn’t have the same panache as Alcatraz so the location name was changed even though Stroud never kept birds in Alcatraz after being transferred to the island from Leavenworth, Kans., in 1942. 


If you’re ever in San Francisco, visit Alcatraz before Trump can bring us back to the future. I’m sure the trip will be fascinating, even if it’s electronically described. For more on Alcatraz and Trump’s bird-brained idea, click on this link: 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/05/us/trump-alcatraz-prison-history-hnk 

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

101 days down, 1,360 More To Go

If you were awake and plugged into any form of media on the 100th day of Donald Trump’s second residency in the White House Tuesday, you could not escape the frenzy journalists engaged in deciphering the meaning of the upheaval he has wrought to our government, our foreign relations, our economy, our educational system, our civil rights, in short, to our values as a country that has aspired to be a guiding light to all nations, a mantle many around the globe have admired and sought to be part of.


The liberal media, which I almost exclusively digest, have been effusive in their condemnation of Trump’s actions. They’ve been tripping over themselves in their quest to be the most comprehensive compilers of Trump transgressions. 


No, I do not come before you, to paraphrase Marc Antony a la Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” to praise Donald Trump, but rather to put our fears and anguish in context. 


For worse, surely not better, Trump will sit behind the Resolute Desk for another 1,360 days. Abetted by an archaic electoral system and a compliant Supreme Court, voters enabled him to unleash a tsunami on American exceptionalism. 


Pay little regard to polls that suggest his popularity is falling, for he cares not. Oh, sure, his ego demands people like him. His MAGA bros still do, for the most part, and those are the only people he cares about, even if many of his actions, from tariffs to gutting labor safeguards to decimating medical research, will adversely affect them. 


As long as there is no other alpha male in the Trumpian Party, he has no foil seeking to rein in his excesses. Even after he leaves office, whenever that may be, he is likely to wield undue influence on who can mount an election campaign for governor, for Congress, for Senate, even dog catcher. Just as Ronald Reagan enjoyed an afterlife for decades, Trump will cast a giant shadow, even from his grave. 


His cheeky feints of a third term—MAGA 2028 red hats already being sold—notwithstanding, Trump is boring in on his retribution campaign with apparent full understanding that his executive power has a finite date of January 20, 2029. 


Even if Democrats are successful in capturing the House and/or the Senate in 2026, they will have little leverage to thwart his destruction as any attempt to stymie him will be met with a veto that surely would lack sufficient votes to overturn. 


It’s a depressing picture, I know. It depresses me. But it’s an honest assessment, made all the more so by the failure of Democrats to offer compelling alternatives, both in viable candidates and corrective legislation. 


There is no short term relief. Stay informed, if not engaged. Practice what the opposition did for many years—get involved at the grassroots level, for elections for school board members, city/town and state representatives, sheriffs, mayors. Restoring America to pre-Trump compassion, rule of law, respect for the Constitution is a long process. Trust, believe it can be done.  

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Ducks and Geese Don't Scurry Here

I like to think Gilda and I are ahead of the curve on many trends, important and not, nonsensical and thoughtful (don’t ask me to identify any; just take my word). 


My reverie about trends was stimulated by a Washington Post story on the latest kitsch item to appear on porches—plaster or cement geese (https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2025/04/29/dressed-up-geese-statues-porch-trend/). 


Our goose, sans any clothing, took up guard duty on our porch next to a teeny pair of metal chipmunks a few years ago. He joined a menagerie of kitschy animals and people spaced strategically throughout Gilda’s garden: lots of rabbits, ducks, a donkey, a weathervane horse, a fox, a bear, two statues of young girls, two dragonflies, a grasshopper, a cat Buddha in the lotus position, a realistic meditating Buddha, and a Chinese general standing watch next to a three level pagoda.




 In a few weeks’ time, when the garden will mostly be in full bloom, many of our backyard residents will be obscured by flowers. Till then I will find whimsical pleasure contemplating their simple, peaceful coexistence with the very much alive rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, birds and even the occasional deer that inhabit or traverse our property. 


Thursday, April 17, 2025

Two Weeks of Argentina's Culture & Nature

 No, I can legitimately report from first hand observation, there is no discernible difference in the rotation of water in a sink or toilet in the southern hemisphere compared to North America. 


Trivial as that information is, it serves as the gateway to my report on Gilda’s and my recent two week journey to Argentina organized by our synagogue,Temple Israel Center of White Plains, in conjunction with Keshet Educational Journeys of Israel, as part of a continuing odyssey to lands of Jewish heritage, current and past (two years ago we traveled to Morocco.)


The trip we participated in had two distinct parts, one Jewish cultural, the other an exploration of Argentina’s natural beauty.  


Some 230,000 Jews live in Argentina, 85% in the greater Buenos Aires area, making the country the sixth largest concentration of Jews in the world. They represent the second wave of immigration, the first being in the 1500s-1600s, all of whom died off, assimilated or emigrated to other lands including, via a short stay in Recife, Brazil, New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony that became New York once the British gained sovereignty over the area in 1664. In 1654, they were the first Jews to settle in North America. 


Jews returned en masse to Argentina in 1860 as part of a pan European migration to escape famines, poverty, persecutions and wars that has made Argentina among the most cosmopolitan of countries. Antisemitism fueled Jewish emigration. Among Jewish immigrants, German Jews were first, followed by their brethren from more eastern countries. 


They prospered, at one time numbering some 350,000. They established synagogues, religious schools and country clubs that cemented cultural and ethnic bonds. Yes, they encountered assimilation, but for many intermarriage meant a marriage between an Ashkenazi and a Sephardic couple. The city has some 60 Jewish day schools. Along the narrow streets of the city’s commercial district many kosher restaurants can be found. Buenos Aires even boasts the only kosher McDonald’s outside of Israel. 


Perhaps the most memorable Friday evening Kabbalat Shabbat service I ever attended was at Comunidad Amijai, a Masorti/Conservative synagogue. After passing through a nondescript streetfront door, our group encountered a beautiful, expansive courtyard before entering a vast, wooden sanctuary with plush seating for more than a thousand congregants rapturously engaged by a bongo playing/singing rabbi, guitar playing cantor, female vocalist, another drummer and a pianist. Commentary was in Spanish, but Hebrew prayers being universal, foreign guests felt comfortable and welcome.


Most days in Buenos Aires we were instructed by Rabbi Ernesto Yattah, dean of the rabbinical seminary of Latin America. Yattah was a disciple of Rabbi Marshal T. Meyer, was a former congregational rabbi in Houston, and is an expert on Jewish history and life in Argentina. His expertise included a personal link to Eva Peron.


Yattah’s father and uncle owned a fabric store frequented by the entertainer Maria Eva Duarte. His father asked their general manager to escort her on January 22, 1944, to Luna Park Stadium for a charity event for earthquake victims in San Juan, Argentina. It was there that she met Juan Perón. They married the following year. 


During the last half of the 20th century Argentina wavered between democracy and dictatorships. Juan Perón headed two governments, one taken by force, one elected by the people. Perón courted the working class. His second wife, Eva, commonly called Evita, championed women’s rights and the poor. She died of cancer at 33 in 1952. Perón’s third wife, Isabel, succeeded him as president when he died in office July 1, 1974. A coup removed her after less than two years. Shortly thereafter the “Dirty War” began. It was only after the military lost the war with Great Britain over the Falkland Islands that its grip on the government ended and democracy rekindled.


Though less than 0.5% of the country’s population, Jews have wielded disproportionate influence, a factor that resulted in a disproportionate number of Jewish victims during the Dirty War junta years of the late 1970s-early 1980s when as many as 30,000 Argentinians were imprisoned, tortured, killed or simply vanished. Jews accounted for 15% of the “missing,” not because of their religion but rather because of their intellectualism and socialistic leanings.  


Among the heroes responsible for contesting the oppression was Rabbi Meyer, an outspoken critic of the junta who visited the imprisoned and recorded names from all faiths. After Meyer left Argentina, in 1985 he joined Congregation B’nai Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper West Side as its rabbi. 


Jacobo Timerman, a Jewish journalist and publisher, publicly confronted the military. He was imprisoned and tortured, eventually exiled to Israel where he wrote of his persecution: “Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number.” He returned to Buenos Aires after the junta was toppled. Rabbi Yattah arranged for Timerman’s son, Javier, to talk with our group. 


Meyer and Timerman were not alone in confronting the military. Every Thursday afternoon at 3:30 women wearing white kerchiefs symbolizing a baby’s diaper paraded around the central square of Buenos Aires demanding information on their loved ones, often their children, taken by the junta.  


The imprisoned were housed in multiple locations including the former Officers’ Quarters of the Navy Mechanics School in a middle class neighborhood on a busy thoroughfare of the capital. It is now the Museum of Memory. Gone are any instruments of torture. But on the grounds of the museum sits a twin engine propeller plane from which drugged prisoners weighted down by cannonballs were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. 


Explosive terrorism twice struck the Jewish community. In 1992 the Israeli embassy was blown up. In 1994 a bombing destroyed part of AMIA, the headquarters of the Jewish community of Buenos Aires. Both attacks were attributed to Iran and its proxies.


Despite United States pressure for Argentina to side with the Allies during World War II, the country remained neutral, a position favored by Winston Churchill. Argentina was Britain’s bread basket during the war. Churchill feared Nazi submarines would sink Argentinian ships carrying much needed grain to Britian if the country aligned with the Allies. 


With its sizable German immigrant population Argentina was a natural refuge for Nazis fleeing after the war. Adolf Eichmann, organizer of the “Final Solution” to kill Jews, changed his last name when living in Buenos Aires. His sons did not. He posed as their uncle. 


One of the sons started dating the Jewish daughter of a mostly blind man, Lothar Hermann, who became convinced the “uncle” was Adolf Eichmann. Hermann wrote letters to the Mossad in Israel. An initial investigation was inconclusive. Hermann’s suspicions were reinforced when the boyfriend called Eichmann “father” when walking with his date. 


Mossad’s subsequent investigation led to positive identification, Eichmann’s kidnapping, trial in Israel and execution, the only judicial death penalty ever exacted by Israel. Lothar Hermann’s role is part of the exhibition inside the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires.


Perhaps I’ve seen too many Hollywood movies that have colored, even in black and white, my picture of what South America would be. The second part of our trip provided spectacular natural vistas stretching from the north to the extreme south.


Thirteen hundred kilometers (780 miles) to the north of Buenos Aires, straddling the border with Brazil, are the Iguazu Falls, a series of more than 275 waterfalls ranging in height from 197 to 269 feet. They form the largest waterfall system in the world. Aside from gazing at them from catwalks above, most of our group boarded large speed boats that took us nearly into the cascading waters. We were drenched by the spray. 


From Iguazu we flew south, first back to Buenos Aires, then another 780 miles, with stops in El Calafate and Ushaia. Calafate is part of Patagonia, near Argentino Lake, the largest in the country. Aboard a multi-level catamaran we sailed close to glaciers. On nearby land we heard and saw a glacier “calving” icebergs. 


Ushaia is the jumping off seaport for trips to Antarctica. As the fall season had just begun, those trips had ended. We paddled a 10-person raft in the Beagle Strait that carried Darwin linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We hiked in Tierra Del Fuego National Park along the coastline, trekking poles not required but thankfully provided by our tour guides.


In Calafate and Ushaia the Argentinian integration with nature was exemplified by their laissez-faire attitude toward seemingly stray dogs and horses. The canines and equines roamed streets and trails, never barked or neighed, and kept their respectful distance from humans. 


If dogs and horses were omnipresent, also ubiquitous was the consumption of “mate” (pronounced ma-Tay), a caffeinated drink Argentinians drink throughout the day through special straws, mostly made of metal. They can be be seen carrying thermoses from which they pour mate into small cups. Said to be slightly bitter in taste (I did not try it), mate is believed to be an energy booster.  


A few words about accommodations: With one exception for religious purposes, each hotel we stayed in was exceptional and kept raising the bar for our next stay. The Sofitel in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, was very nice. The Loi Suites Iguazu Hotel in a subtropical rainforest was breathtaking, especially when traversing the slatted, shaking suspension bridges linking different buildings on the property. In Calafate, the Xelena Hotel provided a view of the lake, while the Arakur Resort and Spa in Ushaia overlooked the harbor and one of its trails led to a promontory with an expansive observation of the tip of the continent.