THE FURTHER CORRESPONDENCES OF MARC SUSSELMAN PART 28

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18 August 2024

How I’m feeling these days – how I think a lot of people are feeling these days.

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYgRwefr-JU"

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20 August 2024

MS said:

Well, Michelle and Barack Obama hit it out of the ballpark again. Superb!

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21 August 2024

MS said:

Nate Silver has an interesting guest essay in today’s NYT, indicating that the Democrats, in persuading President Biden to step aside and nominating VP Harris, have repudiated their traditional risk averse legacy, and that Harris is likely to emerge from the DNCconvention as the front-runner. To prevail, the Democrats must avoid being complacent.

"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/opinion/kamala-harris-democrats-risk.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20240821&instance_id=132243&nl=opinion-today®i_id=116606494&segment_id=175694&te=1&user_id=306c6f279e52d371ba02c31b1c20638c"

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22 August 2024

MS said:

Harris gave a great speech. She promised that if Congress passes a federal law protecting abortion, she will sign it. However, given the current composition of the S. Ct., it would rule that such a statute is unconstitutional, based on the Dobbs decision.

But here is the good news. If Harris wins, there is a good chance she will serve two terms. During that time period, Justices Thomas and Alito are likely to retire. Harris can replace them with two liberal justices, which will replace the current 6-3 conservative majority, with a 5-4 liberal majority, which would overturn the Dobbs decision.

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23 August 2024

MS said:

Fantastically adorable!

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/22/politics/video/kerry-washington-name-pronounciation-kamala-harris-dnc-chicago-digvid"

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2 September 2024

MS said:

In law, a promise or contract made under duress is not enforceable, and may be breached without legal repercussions. Would fair-minded people condemn Israel if it made a cease-fire deal with Hamas agreeing to withdrew from Gaza in exchange for the release of all of the hostages, and the release of Palestinian prisoners; withdrew entirely from Gaza; and then, when all of the hostages were freed and in Israeli custody, reneged on the deal and reinvaded Gaza to destroy Hamas?

Would any of you condemn Israel for doing so?

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Michael said:

Marc,

Regardless of any legal or non legal repercussions, they would be guilty of subterfuge, similar to the boy who cried wolf.

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6 September 2024

MS said:

This demonstrates how corrupt the legal system is.

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/05/us/fontana-pressured-murder-confession/index.html"

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MS said:

"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/31/us/elections/conservative-moms-for-liberty-trump.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20240906&instance_id=133566&nl=from-the-times®i_id=116606494&segment_id=177052&te=1&user_id=306c6f279e52d371ba02c31b1c20638c"

Tiffany Justice? Could that possibly be a real name??

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7 September 2024

MS said:

If you are a Republican and even Darth Vader thinks the Donald is a danger to democracy and the country, you should think long and hard about voting for him – at least, one would hope.

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/06/politics/dick-cheney-kamala-harris-president/index.html"

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8 September 2024

MS said:

Saturday evening my wife and I saw the movie “Between The Temples,” which has been advertised as a romantic comedy involving a cantor who is going through a life crisis due to his wife’s death, which has caused him to question his faith. We expected to see a light-hearted romantic comedy with a Jewish ambience, along the lines of “Hester Street” or “Crossing Delancey.” Both of these films had aspects which showed Jewish culture in both a positive and negative light. Neither, however, was offensive or could be regarded as anti-Semitic.

However, my wife and I left the theater after seeing “Between The Temples,” which has received a positive 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, in utter disgust – disgust which I vocally expressed to other attendees as I left the theater. The movie, directed by Nathan Silver, a Jewish film director, contained numerous offensive aspects which went well beyond being merely satire. They were borderline anti-Semitic, and the fact that the director/writer is Jewish does not ameliorate the charge of anti-Semitism. The anti-Semitism was pervasive, repeated in numerous scenes and was unrelenting. For example:

1. Early in the movie, a scene depicts the rabbi putting golf balls in his office. He is putting into a shofar, the ram’s horn used during the religious ceremonies on the High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The scene was mildly amusing, but was a portent of more offensive things to come.

2. There is a scene at the synagogue of a fundraiser marking the Holocaust. The emphasis on money and materialism is unmistakable and corrosive, in keeping with the depiction of Jews as preeminent capitalists.

3. At the fund-raiser, the rabbi tells a “joke” recounting that he had a wonderful bowel movement that morning at 7:30 A.M. – in his bed, because he usually does not rise until 8:30 A.M. I could not imagine any rabbi, or religious leader of any religion, for that matter, telling such a tasteless “joke” in a house of worship. This went beyond satire – it was scatological.

4. The protagonist, Ben Gottlieb (portrayed by Jason Schwartzman, the son of Talia Shire, sister of Francis Ford Coppola who portrayed Connie in Godfathers 1-3, and Aunt of Nicholas Cage) is a cantor and is going through a life crisis due to the death of his wife, whom he describes as an alcoholic writer. His wife’s death has caused him to question his faith and the existence of God. All well and good, and could have been the basis for an informative and thought-provoking cinema experience. However, his mothers (his natural mother has a female lover, and Ben regards and refers to both of them as his mother) are intent on getting Ben to start dating the rabbi’s daughter, Gabby, who purportedly is going through a crisis of her own. In the most offensive scene in the movie, Ben is at the Jewish cemetery visiting his wife’s grave. Gabby calls him and indicates she wants to visit him at the cemetery. Gabby shows up, indicating that she has read his wife’s book, which contained sexual passages which have sexually aroused her. Ben indicates that his wife was very good at this, and the she left him erotic phone messages, which he begins to play back to Gabby in the car. One of the messages depicts his wife watching Ben having oral sex performed by a stranger. The message arouses Gabby, who proceeds to imitate the phone message and then proceeds to perform oral sex on Ben – at a Jewish cemetery, on a man she hardly knows, by a rabbi’s daughter. Ben, a cantor, offers no objection or resistance. The scene recalls anti-Semitic tropes about Jewesses being sexually promiscuous sluts.

I also found the central plot of the movie dull and uninspiring. Ben is in the process of instructing his former elementary school music teacher, who is 20 years his senior, portrayed by Carol Kane (the Jewish wife in “Hester Street” and Billy Crystal’s wife in “The Princess Bride”) for her bat mitzvah. Carla supposedly somehow pulls Ben out of his depression, and revives his desire to live, and captivates him into falling in love with her, a love which he confesses to at a Shabbat dinner – embarrassing and humiliating Gabby. What, precisely, Carla, his former music teacher and some 20 years his senior, has done to inspire Ben’s undying amorism for her escaped me.

Mr. Silver may think that his portrayal of Jews is avant-garde and hip, but it is disgusting and reprehensible. The numerous stylistic and plot deficiencies could be overlooked, perhaps forgiven, but for the film’s overarching anti-Semitism, at a time in our country and around the world when anti-Semitism is on the rise, an anti-Semitism I have myself experienced in court related to my lawsuit against the anti-Semitic, Holocaust denying protesters in front of Beth Israel synagogue, an anti-Semitism I cannot forgive or overlook, regardless that its perpetrator is Jewish, whom some would characterize as a self-hating Jew. And the last thing the American Jewish community needs in today’s environment is a self-hating Jew who mocks the Jewish religion and Jewish culture, in order to advance his own professional career.

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MS said:

Keep your Tums and Excedrin handy.

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/06/politics/video/enten-2024-election-trump-harris-closest-in-generation-digvid"

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9 September 2024

MS said:

"https://honestreporting.com/1500-breaches-of-editorial-guidelines-bbc-excoriated-in-scathing-report-on-israel-hamas-war-coverage/"

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12 September 2024

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/11/politics/video/aiden-clark-father-trump-vance-digvid"

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16 September 2024

MS said:

I attended a Flip The Vote seminar on Sunday. Below is a link to the organization’s strategy and recommendations regarding the upcoming election.

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImUeViVwnEM"

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18 September 2024

MS said:

Those underhanded, cunning Jews.

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/world/video/john-miller-hezbollah-pager-explosions-israel-lebanon-ac360-digvid"

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20 September 2024

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/20/world/video/israeli-hostage-killed-sisters-interview-digvid"

An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. I have no problem with what you, David, describe as a morally myopic perspective.

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MS said:

Post-script:

In “Fiddler On The Roof,” there is a scene in which one of the village residents, during a discussion of the Czar’s pogroms, expresses the view, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Tevye responds, “Then we will have a world full of blind and toothless people.”

This is an amusing retort, but it does not invalidate the expression as a moral precept; it merely describes its causal consequence. The victims of the immoral conduct of others have two choices – they can ignore it and do nothing, which will not suppress the repetition of the immoral conduct, and may only encourage it; or they can retaliate, which may lead to a cycle of retaliation and re-retaliation, resulting in a blind and toothless world. But the latter consequence does not detract from the morality of the precept.

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23 September 2024

MS said:

Atrocities and actual genocide are being committed in Sudan, but the world and the UN falsely accuse Israel, acting in self-defense, of engaging in genocide, while ignoring the Sudan. Applying double standards to Jews is the paradigm definition of anti-Semitism.

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MS said:

Bill Maher sums it up perfectly (for all the woke, liberal Jews).

Is Bill Maher morally myopic, David?

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYB3GUlzskk"

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25 September 2024

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/25/politics/clay-higgins-deletes-post-haitian-migrants/index.html"

These are the kind of people who are keeping Trump’s poll numbers up. Salt of the earth people.

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28 September 2024

MS said:

Get a kick out of this! Kamala Harris is using voodoo to win.

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/27/politics/video/pastor-witchcraft-harris-vance-newsnight-digvid"

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29 September 2024

MS said:

Francis Ford Coppola’s new movie Megalopolis is epic, about the end of our republic.

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/23/entertainment/video/cnn-screen-time-megalopolis?dicbo=v2-CUZqpf0&hpt=ob_blogfooterold"

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MS said:

The New Yorker Magazine has just endorsed Kamala Harris for President. Now she is sure to win. Or should I infer the opposite?

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MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/29/entertainment/kris-kristofferson-singer-songwriter-dead/index.html"

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/29/entertainment/video/kris-kristofferson-singer-obit-elam-digvid"

Willie Nelson is now the only Highwayman left alive.

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30 September 2024

MS said:

I watched this Nova episode last night. It will astound you.

"https://www.pbs.org/video/einsteins-quantum-riddle-ykvwhm/"

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1 October 2024

MS said:

The below video will surprise you – I just learned of it this week.

"https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube%2C+anthony+hopkins%2C+waltz&oq=youtube%2C+anthony+hopkins"

Best,

Marc

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3 October 2024

MS said:

Astounding!

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/03/politics/video/melania-trump-abortion-video-van-jones-digvid"

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8 October 2024

MS said:

Yesterday, in recognition of the one-year anniversary of October 7, Tikvah sponsored a panel discussion among Ruth Wisse, Liel Leibowitz, Dara Horn, and Elliot Kaufman. It was excellent; the link is below (1.5 hrs.)

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBP9_pKyXMs"

I found Dara Horn’s observation (author of the book, “People Love Dead Jews”) particularly salient, that in times of crisis, Jews have a history of blaming themselves, and references the Book of Lamentations. This pathological tendency was in full view on Rosh Hashanah, where a poem by two rabbis titled “An Urgent Prayer of Protection of Human Life,” was recited at one service, a poem which called upon Jews, and Jews alone, to be “beacons of light, defenders of the vulnerable, and champions of justice,” as if the current plight in the Middle East is somehow the fault of the Jews for not sufficiently being “beacons of light, defenders of the vulnerable, and champions of justice."

David would say that the panelists are morally myopic. I don’t believe that anyone who participated in this panel discussion is morally myopic.

Am Yisrael Chai!

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MS said:

A “prayer” titled “An Urgent Prayer of Protection of Human Life,” written by two rabbis, was recited at a Rosh Hashanah service I attended. It is exemplative of what I would refer to as the liberal Jew pathology. It is a prayer written after the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas terrorists, a prayer intended to be recited on Rosh Hashanah of the year 5785, a prayer to be recited to Jews, calling on Jews, and Jews alone, “to be beacons of light, defenders of the vulnerable, and champions of justice.” It states further, "May we [i.e., the Jews] be among those who speak out and resist evil [i.e., the Israel military actions taken in self-defense]. … And may we be among those who make peace and pursue justice [unlike the Israeli military and the Israeli Jews acting in self-defense].”

It is exemplative of the liberal Jewish pathology. Why? Because it is intended to be a message to the world that we, the liberal Jews, are the “good” Jews, we are the “moral” Jews, we are the Jews not limited by the theology of our forefathers, but are the “modern,” “enlightened” Jews, who are spiritually connected to the universe. We are not as barbaric, as vindictive as those other Jews. So, please, people of the world, do not confuse us with those other Jews. Please like us, and do not hold against us what those other Jews, those Jews in Israel, are doing. We ask for your forgiveness and acceptance, and are willing to flagellate ourselves to prove that we are deserving of your forgiveness and acceptance.

Thank you.

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9 October 2024

MS said:

Innocent? Bull shit. Listen to what Sapir Cohen says what the innocent civilians did to her when she was brought into Gaza City. Listen to her describe how she was treated when she was kept captive in the home of a civilian. Innocent? Bull shit.

And David, where is your ethical proof that killing of human beings is immoral, without resort to biblical texts or moral intuition? Where is your "rational" proof? I am waiting. Don't preach to me about morals and moral myopia until you have provided me with that proof.

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10 October 2024

MS said:

Read Haim Bialik's poem "In The City of Slaughter," about the 1904 Kishinev pogrom. He castigates the Jews for praying, instead of fighting back.

Am Y'israel chai!

H.N. Bialik, "The City of Slaughter" in Complete Poetic Works of Hayyim Nahman Bialik, Israel Efros, ed. (New York, 1948): 129-43 (Vol. I)

ARISE and go now to the city of slaughter;
Into its courtyard wind thy way;
There with thine own hand touch, and with the eyes of thine head,
Behold on tree, on stone, on fence, on mural clay,
The spattered blood and dried brains of the dead.
Proceed thence to the ruins, the split walls reach,
Where wider grows the hollow, and greater grows the breach;
Pass over the shattered hearth, attain the broken wall
Whose burnt and barren brick, whose charred stones reveal
The open mouths of such wounds, that no mending
Shall ever mend, nor healing ever heal.
There will thy feet in feathers sink, and stumble
On wreckage doubly wrecked, scroll heaped on manuscript,
Fragments again fragmented
Pause not upon this havoc; go thy way.
The perfumes will be wafted from the acacia bud
And half its blossoms will be feathers,
Whose smell is the smell of blood!
And, spiting thee, strange incense they will bring
Banish thy loathing all the beauty of the spring,
The thousand golden arrows of the sun,
Will flash upon thy malison;
The sevenfold rays of broken glass Over thy sorrow joyously will pass,
For God called up the slaughter and the spring together,
The slayer slew, the blossom burst, and it was sunny weather!
Then wilt thou flee to a yard, observe its mound.
Upon the mound lie two, and both are headless
A Jew and his hound.
The self-same axe struck both, and both were flung
Unto the self-same heap where swine seek dung;
Tomorrow the rain will wash their mingled blood
Into the runners, and it will be lost
In rubbish heap, in stagnant pool, in mud.
Its cry will not be heard.
It will descend into the deep, or water the cockle-burr.
And all things will be as they ever were.

Unto the attic mount, upon thy feet and hands;
Behold the shadow of death among the shadows stands.
There in the dismal corner, there in the shadowy nook,
Multitudinous eyes will look
Upon thee from the sombre silence
The spirits of the martyrs are these souls,
Gathered together, at long last,
Beneath these rafters and in these ignoble holes.
The hatchet found them here, and hither do they come

To seal with a last look, as with their final breath,
The agony of their lives, the terror of their death.
Tumbling and stumbling wraiths, they come, and cower there
Their silence whimpers, and it is their eyes which cry
Wherefore, O Lord, and why?
It is a silence only God can bear.
Lift then thine eyes to the roof; there's nothing there,
Save silences that hang from rafters
And brood upon the air:
Question the spider in his lair!
His eyes beheld these things; and with his web he can
A tale unfold horrific to the ear of man:
A tale of cloven belly, feather-filled;
Of nostrils nailed, of skull-bones bashed and spilled;
Of murdered men who from the beams were hung,
And of a babe beside its mother flung,
Its mother speared, the poor chick finding rest
Upon its mother's cold and milkless breast;
Of how a dagger halved an infant's word,
Its ma was heard, its mama never heard.
O, even now its eyes from me demand accounting,
For these the tales the spider is recounting,
Tales that do puncture the brain, such tales that sever
Thy body, spirit, soul, from life, forever!
Then wilt thou bid thy spirit Hold, enough!
Stifle the wrath that mounts within thy throat,
Bury these things accursed,
Within the depth of thy heart, before thy heart will burst!

Then wilt thou leave that place, and go thy way And lo The earth is as it was, the sun still shines:
It is a day like any other day.

Descend then, to the cellars of the town,
There where the virginal daughters of thy folk were fouled,
Where seven heathen flung a woman down,
The daughter in the presence of her mother,
The mother in the presence of her daughter,
Before slaughter, during slaughter, and after slaughter!
Touch with thy hand the cushion stained; touch
The pillow incarnadined:
This is the place the wild ones of the wood, the beasts of the field
With bloody axes in their paws compelled thy daughters yield:
Beasted and swiped!
Note also do not fail to note,
In that dark corner, and behind that cask
Crouched husbands, bridegrooms, brothers, peering from the cracks,
Watching the sacred bodies struggling underneath The bestial breath,
Stifled in filth, and swallowing their blood!
Watching from the darkness and its mesh
The lecherous rabble portioning for booty
Their kindred and their flesh!

Crushed in their shame, they saw it all; They did not stir nor move; They did not pluck their eyes out; they Beat not their brains against the wall! Perhaps, perhaps, each watcher had it in his heart to pray: A miracle, O Lord, and spare my skin this day! Those who survived this foulness, who from their blood awoke, Beheld their life polluted, the light of their world gone out How did their menfolk bear it, how did they bear this yoke? They crawled forth from their holes, they fled to the house of the Lord, They offered thanks to Him, the sweet benedictory word. The Cohanim sallied forth, to the Rabbi's house they flitted: Tell me, O Rabbi, tell, is my own wife permitted? The matter ends; and nothing more. And all is as it was before.

Come, now, and I will bring thee to their lairs
The privies, jakes and pigpens where the heirs
Of Hasmoneans lay, with trembling knees,
Concealed and cowering, the sons of the Maccabees!
The seed of saints, the scions of the lions!
Who, crammed by scores in all the sanctuaries of their shame,
So sanctified My name!
It was the flight of mice they fled,
The scurrying of roaches was their flight;
They died like dogs, and they were dead!
And on the next morn, after the terrible night

The son who was not murdered found
The spurned cadaver of his father on the ground.
Now wherefore cost thou weep,
O son of man?

Descend into the valley; verdant, there
A garden flourishes, and in the garden
A barn, a shed, it was their abbatoir;
There, like a host of vampires, puffed and bloated,
Besotted with blood, swilled from the scattered dead,
The tumbril wheels lie spread
Their open spokes, like fingers stretched for murder,

Like vampire-mouths their hubs still clotted red.
Enter not now, but when the sun descends
Wrapt in bleeding clouds and girt with flame,
Then open the gate and stealthily do set
Thy foot within the ambient of horror:
Terror floating near the rafters, terror
Against the walls in darkness hiding,
Terror through the silence sliding.
Didst thou not hear beneath the heap of wheels
A stirring of crushed limbs? Broken and racked
Their bodies move a hub, a spoke
Of the circular yoke;
In death-throes they contort;
In blood disport;
And their last groaning, inarticulate
Rises above thy head,
And it would seem some speechless sorrow,

Sorrow infinite,
Is prisoned in this shed.
It is, it is the Spirit of Anguish!
Much-suffering and tribulation-tried
Which in this house of bondage binds itself.
It will not ever from its pain be pried.
Brief-weary and forespent, a dark Shekinah
Runs to each nook and cannot find its rest;
Wishes to weep, but weeping does not come;
Would roar; is dumb.
Its head beneath its wing, its wing outspread
Over the shadows of the martyr'd dead,
Its tears in dimness and in silence shed.
And thou, too, son of man, close now the gate behind thee;
Be closed in darkness now, now shine that charnel space;
So tarrying there thou wilt be one with pain and anguish
And wilt fill up with sorrow shine heart for all its days.
Then on the day of shine own desolation
A refuge will it seem,
Lying in thee like a curse, a demon's ambush,
The haunting of an evil dream,
O, carrying it in thy heart, across the world's expanse
Thou wouldst proclaim it, speak it out,
But thy lips shall not find its utterance.

Beyond the suburbs go, and reach the burial ground. Let no man see thy going; attain that place alone, A place of sainted graves and martyr-stone.

Stand on the fresh-turned soil.
Such silence will take hold of thee, thy heart will fail
With pain and shame, yet I
Will let no tear fall from shine eye.
Though thou wilt long to bellow like the driven ox
That bellows, and before the altar balks,
I will make hard thy heart, yea, I
Will not permit a sigh.
See, see, the slaughtered calves, so smitten and so laid;
Is there a price for their death? How shall that price be paid?

Forgive, ye shamed of the earth, yours is a pauper-Lord!
Poor was He during your life, and poorer still of late.
When to my door you come to ask for your reward,
I'll open wide: See, I am fallen from My high estate.
I grieve for you, my children. My heart is sad for you.
Your dead were vainly dead; and neither I nor you Know why you died or wherefore, for whom, nor by what laws;

Your deaths are without reason; your lives are without cause.
What says the Shekinah? In the clouds it hides
In shame, in agony alone abides;
I, too, at night, will venture on the tombs,
Regard the dead and weigh their secret shame,
But never shed a tear, I swear it in My name.
For great is the anguish, great the shame on the brow;
But which of these is greater, son of man, say thou
Or liefer keep thy silence, bear witness in My name

To the hour of My sorrow, the moment of My shame. And when thou cost return Bring thou the blot of My disgrace upon thy people's head, And from My suffering do not part, But set it like a stone within their heart!

Turn, then, to leave the cemetery ground,
And for a moment thy swift eye will pass
Upon the verdant carpet of the grass
A lovely thing! Fragrant and moist, as it is always at the coming of the Spring!
The stubble of death, the growth of tombstones!
Take thou a fistful fling it on the plain Saying,
"The people is plucked grass; can plucked grass grow again?"
Turn, then, thy gaze from the dead, and I will lead
Thee from the graveyard to thy living brothers,
And thou wilt come, with those of shine own breed,
Into the synagogue, and on a day of fasting,
To hear the cry of their agony,
Their weeping everlasting.
Thy skin will grow cold, the hair on thy skin stand up,
And thou wilt be by fear and trembling tossed;
Thus groans a people which is lost.
Look in their hearts behold a dreary waste,
Where even vengeance can revive no growth,
And yet upon their lips no mighty malediction
Rises, no blasphemous oath.

Are they not real, their bruises? Why is their prayer false? Why, in the day of their trials Approach me with pious ruses, Afflict me with denials? Regard them now, in these their woes: Ululating, lachrymose, Crying from their throes, We have sinned! and Sinned have we! Self-flagellative with confession's whips. Their hearts, however, do not believe their lips. Is it, then, possible for shattered limbs to sin? Wherefore their cries imploring, their supplicating din? Speak to them, bid them rage! Let them against me raise the outraged hand, Let them demand! Demand the retribution for the shamed Of all the centuries and every age! Let fists be flung like stone Against the heavens and the heavenly Throne!

And thou, too, son of man, be part of these:
Believe the pangs of their heart,
believe not their litanies:
And when the cantor lifts his voice to cry:
Remember the martyrs, Lord,
Remember the cloven infants, Lord,
Consider the sucklings, Lord,
And when the pillars of the synagogue shall crack
At this his piteous word And terror shall take thee, fling thee in its deep, Then I will harden My heart; I will not let thee weep! Should then a cry escape from thee, I'll stifle it within thy throat. Let them assoil their tragedy, Not thou, let it remain unmourned For distant ages, times remote, But thy tear, son of man, remain unshed! Build thou about it, with thy deadly hate Thy fury and thy rage, unuttered, A wall of copper, the bronze triple plate! So in thy heart it shall remain confined A serpent in its nest O terrible tear! Until by thirst and hunger it shall find A breaking of its bond. Then shall it rear Its venomous head, its poisoned fangs, and wait To strike the people of thy love and hate!

Leave now this place at twilight to return
And to behold these creatures who arose
In terror at dawn, at dusk now, drowsing, worn
With weeping, broken in spirit, in darkness shut.
Their lips still move with words unspoken. Their hearts are broken. No lustre in the eye, no hoping in the mind,
They grope to seek support they shall not find:
Thus when the oil is gone,

The wick still sends its smoke; Thus does the beast of burden, Broken and old, still bear his yoke. Would that misfortune had left them some small solace Sustaining the soul, consoling their gray hairs ! Behold the fast is ended; the final prayers are said. But why do they tarry now, these mournful congregations? Shall it be also read, The Book of Lamentations? It is a preacher mounts the pulpit now. He opens his mouth, he stutters, stammers. Hark The empty verses from his speaking flow. And not a single mighty word is heard To kindle in the hearts a single spark. The old attend his doctrine, and they nod. The young ones hearken to his speech; they yawn. The mark of death is on their brows; their God Has utterly forsaken every one.

And thou, too, pity them not, nor touch their wound;
Within their cup no further measure pour.
Wherever thou wilt touch, a bruise is found.
Their flesh is wholly sore.
For since they have met pain with resignation
And have made peace with shame,
What shall avail thy consolation?
They are too wretched to evoke thy scorn.
They are too lost thy pity to evoke,

So let them go, then, men to sorrow born,
Mournful and slinking, crushed beneath their yoke.
Go to their homes, and to their hearth depart
Rot in the bones, corruption in the heart.
And when thou shalt arise upon the morrow And go upon the highway,
Thou shalt then meet these men destroyed by sorrow,
Sighing and groaning, at the doors of the wealthy
Proclaiming their sores, like so much peddler's wares,
The one his battered head, t'other limbs unhealthy,
One shows a wounded arm, and one a fracture bares.
And all have eyes that are the eyes of slaves,
Slaves flogged before their masters;
And each one begs, and each one craves:
Reward me, Master, for that my skull is broken
Reward me for my father who was martyred!
The rich ones, all compassion, for the pleas so bartered
Extend them staff and bandage, say good riddance, and
The tale is told:
The paupers are consoled.
Avaunt ye, beggars, to the charnel-house!
The bones of your fathers disinter!
Cram them within your knapsacks, bear
Them on your shoulders, and go forth
To do your business with these precious wares At all the country fairs!
Stop on the highway, near some populous city,
And spread on your filthy rags

Those martyred bones that issue from your bags, And sing, with raucous voice, your pauper's ditty! So will you conjure up the pity of the nations, And so their sympathy implore. For you are now as you have been of yore And as you stretched your hand So will you stretch it, And as you have been wretched So are you wretched!

What is thy business here, O son of man?
Rise, to the desert fee!
The cup of affl iction thither bear with thee!
Talc thou thy soul, rend it in many a shred!
With impotent rage, thy heart deform!
Thy tear upon the barren boulders shed!
And send thy bitter cry into the storm!

********

11 October 2024

MS said:

In a rational world, with rational people, Trump’s trashing of Detroit in Detroit; his spreading lies about FEMA and relief for hurricane Helene victims; his sending covid testing equipment to Putin, and then lying about it; his threats against NATO; and on and on would be the death knell for any candidate for President of the United States. Yet the race between him and Vice President Harris is still too close to call, indicating the nadir of the rationality of the American voting populace, and if, God forbid, he prevails, it will indicate not only the demise of the American republic, but the demise of the rationality of its voters.

********

14 October 2024

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/14/politics/trumpiest-county-georgia/index.html"

Why do 90% of these people blame the Democrats for their financial problems, and what do they think Trump and the Republicans have done to improve their financial situation?

Is the answer that they are just stupid, with the exception of 2 people?

********

MS said:

“I Was Trump’s Ghostwriter. A New Biopic Gets the Most Important Thing Right.”

"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/opinion/trump-movie-apprentice.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20241014&instance_id=136831&nl=opinion-today®i_id=116606494&segment_id=180410&user_id=306c6f279e52d371ba02c31b1c20638c"

A must read.

It reminds me of what the future Pope Leo X (of the Medici family), said upon the election of Pope Alexander [Borgia] VI: “Flee. We are in the clutches of a wolf!”

********

MS said:

Harris needs to have some prominent Black male celebrities to come out and support her at her rallies: Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Snoop Dog, Tyler Perry, Michael Jordan, and Dwayne Johnson, for starters.

********

MS said:

The following raises questions regarding the integrity of the news media.

Today, there was a report by CNN of an interview with the parents of Hersh Goldberg. The headline states, “The world failed us.”

Below is a link to the CNN report and the excerpt from the interview in which Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg-Polin purportedly state, “The world failed us.”

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/14/middleeast/hersh-goldberg-polin-parents-anderson-cooper-intl-latam/index.html"

Nowhere in this video clip does either of the parents of Hersh state, “The world failed us.”

Puzzled by the absence of this statement, I searched for the entire interview, thinking that, presumably, they said this in another part of the interview not included in the clip. Below is the link to the entire interview. (Warning: it is disturbing and upsetting):

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhiOsf6uk08"

Nowhere in the unexpurgated interview does either parent state, “The world failed us.” This may be a fair and accurate assessment of their tragic experience, but they did not state it. It is a misrepresentation, a misrepresentation not justified by poetic, journalistic, or interpretive license.

Why would CNN use a headline, with a statement in quotation marks, which misrepresents what they said? And how many other headlines by CNN, and other news organizations, purporting to quote what a person in the news story stated, when it is not true? Is this another example of contemporary degradation of the truth and the absence of journalistic integrity?

********

15 October 2024

MS said:

As I indicated in my previous comment about a misleading CNN headline, truth is becoming a casualty in contemporary journalism.

It is my current experience that it is also increasingly a casualty in law. A popular meme about lawyers, unfortunately, is to identify them as liars, e.g., Roy Cohn, Trump’s mentor. Recent experiences in several of my lawsuits indicate that this propensity is occurring with even more frequency.

I am representing one of my clients in both state and federal court on claims of unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution by a sheriff’s deputy. The deputy claims that my client was harassing some employees of his former employer, that he showed up in proximity to their workplace, and was disturbing the peace by yelling at passing truck drivers. The deputy approached my client, accused him of disturbing the peace, proceeded to tase him, beat him, then handcuffed and arrested him. (No, the client is not African-American.) Even if it were true that he was yelling at passing motorists, this alone would not constitute disturbing the peace under Michigan law. The defense attorney has filed a motion to have the lawsuit dismissed. The deputy’s body cam recording does not show my client yelling at anybody, and there are no vehicles in the recording being yelled at. Yet the attorney states in his brief, and the deputy testified at his deposition, that he “saw,” although he did not hear, my client yelling at passing motorists.

In another case I am representing a woman charging a business owner with malicious prosecution for filing criminal charges against her and falsely accusing her of assaulting him. The defense attorney has also filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and has included in support of the motion an audio recording of a police officer’s conversation with my client in which the attorney claims my client admitted that she assaulted the defendant. The attorney quotes my client saying to the police officer that Yes, she did shove the defendant. He neglects to quote the rest of the conversation on the audio, however, in which my client states she did so in the course of a tousle in which she was preventing her notebook from being taken from her, which she had a right to do in self-defense. Physical contact in the course of self-defense does not constitute an assault.

In a third case which I have previously alluded to, involving display of the Pride Flag, I have taken the depositions of the six City Council members of Hamtramck, Michigan, at which they have each testified that they are devout Muslims, but that they do not know if homosexuality is considered a sin in Islam. When I asked one of the City Council members to read excerpts from the Quran, which clearly state that sexual relations between men is forbidden, their attorney raised hell, objected that it was blasphemous for me to force a Muslim to read from the Quran at a deposition, and accused me of being Islamophobic.

Distorting the truth, misrepresenting the truth, as Donald Trump does on a regular basis, appears to becoming the norm in our society. It represents the break-down of rationality, as predicted by Kant and his categorical imperative.

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/15/politics/video/trump-dancing-pennylsvania-ldn-digvid"

Yes, that’s what I want in a President - not some dull politician who talks only about policies and what his plans are for the country, based on facts and his values - but a guy who’s willing to make an ass of himself and entertain me by dancing to hip music and acting like a clown. That’s what I want- an entertaining clown!

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/15/politics/video/kamala-harris-charlamagne-tha-god-trump-unfit-black-voters-van-jones-digvid"

Was it valid for Charlemagne tha God to accuse White leaders supporting Harris of hypocrisy for not wagging their finger at White women voting for Trump, the way Obama wagged his finger at Black men for not supporting Harris?

Moshe tha Messiah

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/16/politics/video/ted-cruz-beto-orourke-texas-lcl-digvid"

If you want to make a difference in this election, getting rid of Ted Cruz may be your best bet. Contribute to Colin Allred’s campaign, to turn Texas Allblue.

********

MS said:

"https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/15/politics/video/bob-woodward-book-war-mark-milley-ac360-digvid"

********

The End.