Dear Editor:
In his article on the special election for the 27th Assembly District, Sergey Kandinsky, in contrasting this upcoming election with that in District 20 in the Five Towns, identifies the Republican Party as “the party of Donald Trump,” in contrast to the Democratic Party, which he characterizes as “more pragmatic,” as if Republicans in the Assembly cannot or would not advocate for Israel, anti-Semitism, yeshivah curricula, and resources for non-profits.
Why would Sergey use the Republican Party’s Achilles Heel, Donald Trump, as a synonym for the party itself? Why would Sergey claim that only the Democratic Party can advocate for the above-listed issues? It’s obvious that it’s due to Sergey’s partisan wish to promote his favored party, the Democratic Party.
It should be noted that Sergey didn’t mention that criminal justice reform, which supports criminals at the expense of law-abiding citizens (which includes bail reform, the cause of so many problems throughout the State), non-support of charter schools or vouchers for private school education, calls to defund the police, and higher taxes all emanate from the Democratic Party. The State Assembly and Senate each have supermajorities of Democrats. One party rule by Democrats is not good and certainly does not align with our community’s values.
This was an opinion piece masquerading as a news piece. Each has its respective places in QJL. They should be kept separate.
Sincerely,
Arlene Ross
Forest Hills
Dear Editor:
Warren Hecht’s views would begin to have some credibility were he to seriously address the absolutely unprecedented level of corruption in the Democratic Party, which clearly starts all the way at the top. But then that would require Mr. Hecht to first address his high level of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
This is not to mention, of course, how Mr. Hecht frequently glosses over how the Jews at high levels of the Democratic Party are more than willing to overlook the rampant anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party.
Choni Herschel Kantor
Kew Gardens, New York
Dear Editor:
The Deep State attacked candidate Trump and President Trump for years on end, with phony dossier information handed over to the FBI by his political opponent at the time, Hillary Clinton. This is not a controversial statement or one that anyone disputes anymore, as almost none of the contents of the dossier that was used by the FBI as a basis to spy on the Trump campaign was ever substantiated.
Trump’s entire presidency was clouded with accusations based entirely on rumor and innuendo. Contrast the treatment Trump received with the treatment given to Hunter Biden. The FBI has been in possession of Hunter’s laptop since 2019. The laptop details a multitude of felonies including illegal drug possession, trafficking prostitutes over state lines, gun possession charges, illegal foreign lobbying, money laundering, and tax evasion. According to reporter Peter Schweizer, the laptop that the FBI refused to look at for years contains details of the $31 million in payoffs the Bidens received from five deals they did with Chinese companies in a years-long influence-peddling bribery scheme. The infamous WhatsApp shakedown text Hunter sent, informing his Chinese business partners that he was “sitting here” with his father, resulted in a $5.1 million wire transfer to Hunter within five days. FBI whistleblowers testified to Congress that the DOJ squashed their investigation into Hunter every step of the way. With a treasure trove of evidence of years of felonious behavior, Hunter still was offered a sweetheart plea deal.
Given the disparate treatment the Bidens have received vs. what Trump has endured, it is laughable that Warren Hecht believes that we have a justice system “that works.” Works for whom? Democrats? The rogue, brazen, and clearly hyper-partisan actions of Merrick Garland and his DOJ would make some dictators of third-world Banana Republics blush.
Jason Stark
Dear Editor:
Mr. Hecht’s argument at the beginning of his latest column falls apart once context is added. The House committees are chaired by Republicans because they have the majority. The hearing to which RFK Jr. was invited to testify as a witness was on Government censorship of Free Speech. The Republicans didn’t invite him because of the content of his speech. They invited him precisely because his First Amendment rights have been trampled upon by Joe Biden and his administration.
Now, of course, Republicans did not condone the content of what he said. They all came out and rebuked him. It was the Democrats who voted against a pro-Israel resolution in the House last week. It was Democrats who boycotted President Herzog’s speech at a Joint Session of Congress. It is the Democrats and their party that embrace anti-Semitism – the same Democratic Party that embraces abortion, eugenics, segregation, racism, transgenderism, high crime, and illegal immigration.
The end of Mr. Hecht’s column is laughable. We do NOT have a system that works. It’s supposed to work – when it is not weaponized. Hillary Clinton should be in an orange jumpsuit in Leavenworth prison. James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page should have to face criminal charges for their abuses of FISA and their attempt to undermine the President of the United States. Those who were at the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, should not have been put in solitary confinement and charged with outrageous crimes. Hunter Biden should have to face criminal charges for not registering as a foreign agent, like Paul Manafort. He also should be charged for committing perjury on a federal gun license application.
If the system worked, then it would be equal justice under the law. It is clearly not that way. President Biden should be facing bribery, extortion, racketeering, and wire-fraud charges for all the money he and his family took from foreign countries. All the evidence is coming out at how corrupt Joe Biden really is. However, he has abused the DOJ and FBI and criminally charged the former President, who faces over 100 years in prison. It is clearly a political hit job. The Presidential Records Act lays out the procedure for declassification. It is a process crime, not a criminal one. You cannot charge a former President with the Espionage Act because he has the constitutional right, as President, to declassify anything. Now, Joe Biden, as Senator and as Vice President, retained classified information and he should have been charged under the Espionage Act. It does not seem like the system is working to me.
Shalom Markowitz
Dear Editor:
Bring on the caffeine, the burning hot showers (unless you’ve seen your latest Con Ed bill), and go shop for your new pink Barbie wardrobe. You’ve made it! You’ve gotten through the three weeks, the nine days, and Tisha B’Av. Yes, it’s now August and the dog days of summer, but ignore the Al Pacino reference and go out and enjoy life.
Now you will be grateful for having written that huge check to (fill in the name) camp. True, you could get the house painted and complete a project you’ve been considering for the past (fill in the blank) years. You could also cook for the Yomim Tovim and freeze all the food, but where’s the fun in that? You can tackle the lengthy list of school supplies instead of joining the mobs of parents at (name your store) on September 1. No, I have some better, less practical suggestions for you, the reader.
I’m not going to tell you to go to Israel. Save that for the Chagim. Also, as an aside, stop asking me when the last time I was in Israel and then responding in shock as if I had committed some aveirah, G-d forbid. Don’t consider Europe in this unbearable heat. I’m asking you to stay close to home. Try Cooperstown, N.Y. Without the kids, it might even be affordable and enlightening (I don’t mean for its namesake, James Fenimore Cooper) for its baseball memorabilia. Go to Howe’s Cavern and enjoy the cold climate there.
If baseball isn’t your cup of tea, try Boston, a mere four-hour car trip, sans children. You may skip Fenway Park, but why you would is beyond me. Instead, walk The Freedom Trail and take in the magnificent architecture. Visit Harvard, and the next time someone asks you what college you went to, you can reply, “I went to Harvard (albeit for two hours, not four years). If the guy in Suits can get away with it, you can too.
I still want to go to Lego Land or just stay in NYC environs and visit as many museums as possible or go to Broadway and see some plays. This way, I can be your educated art critic and help you make sagacious decisions before opening up your wallet or Birkin bag.
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
I hate sounding like a broken record, but Moshe Hill has made a habit of writing essentially the same column every few weeks, where he accuses President Biden of corruption while trying hard to work around the fact that none of the evidence that he cites actually proves his central claims, which forces him to mostly rely on innuendo. It’s perhaps not surprising that he keeps on coming back to this, as that seems to be the primary focus of congressional Republicans, who keep on repackaging the same few bits of information in the hope that something sticks. They won a majority in the House with a campaign that focused on inflation and crime, but have proceeded to basically ignore those issues, unless they are really code words for Hunter Biden. (Of course, both have been falling without them lifting a finger, but that is a story for a different time.) That majority being slim seems to be an important factor, as Kevin McCarthy apparently handed the keys over to the circus in order to win enough votes to become Speaker.
As Mr. Hill details, the central claim is that Biden was receiving bribes from the co-founder of Ukrainian company Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, in order to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin. As I’ve mentioned before, the fundamental flaw with that is that all available on-the-record evidence shows that part of the push to fire Shokin (from Biden as well as the EU and others) came from the fact that Shokin was not investigating corruption by Burisma and was obstructing a British investigation of Zlochevsky. So how do those making these accusations deal with that? Usually they just ignore it, but in his column, Mr. Hill just states multiple times as a matter of fact that Shokin was investigating Burisma’s corruption. Problem solved! Mr. Hill writes about the FBI document detailing an unverified second-hand tip that the President receibribes but but fails to find space to mention a 2019 interview of Zlochevesky by an acquaintance of Rudy Giuliani where he denies that anything like this occurred. And of course, Rudy and other Republicans have spent years trying to find evidence of these bribes and have come up empty. This leaves Mr. Hill with little choice but to rely on a cast of characters like Tony Bobulinski and Devon Archer, who despite being Hunter’s former business partners have provided nothing to actually show that Joe was in business with Hunter.
Then there’s the matter of the whistleblowers. It’s telling that Mr. Hill skips over the last overhyped Republican whistleblower, Gal Luft, who had been mysteriously missing in action. It turns out the reason he was unavailable was that he had been indicted for being a Chinese spy and arms trafficking, among other things. Of course, Republicans were quick to claim he had been charged in order to silence him, which sounded good until you realize that he was indicted before the Republicans gained control of the House and started their probes. He did have a meeting with the FBI in 2019, but part of the charges against him were for lying at that very meeting. This is part of a pattern of Republicans twisting themselves into a pretzel to make claims of a cover-up with little regard to the facts (for the latest example, see them trying to claim this past weekend that a standard procedural move by the DOJ in Archer’s criminal case was an attempt to stop him from testifying).
The whistleblower Mr. Hill does discuss is an IRS employee (there were actually two) who wasn’t happy that his more cautious superiors overruled him on some investigative steps. Now this was an investigation that went on for five years, that was started under the Trump administration, and that seemed to use a lot of resources for a relatively small amount of money for the IRS. Some of the testimony indicated that Trump had interfered, in addition to there being other missteps that could have left prosecutors leery of aggressive charges that would lead to discovery. And the testimony that there was a limit on what was allowed to be charged was contradicted by the Trump-appointed US attorney leading the probe. Mr. Hill takes all of this as evidence that the IRS and DOJ were “working on behalf of the Biden family.” I’m skeptical, as the testimony mostly detailed the type of disputes that you might expect in a politically charged high profile case, but at least this whistleblower doesn’t seem to be a foreign spy.
Regards,
Yaakov Ribner
Dear Editor:
Congress adjourning and leaving Washington for the traditional August recess to return to their districts is actually great news. Our civil and economic liberties are continually at risk when any legislative body – be it the New York City Council, New York State Legislature, or Congress is in session. Elected officials on a bipartisan basis routinely pass legislation to increase spending, taxes, borrowing, and deficits. They also pass bills benefiting their “Pay for Play” contributors, funding pork barrel member items along with new rules and regulations infringing on our day-to-day lives. When Congress is not working, they can’t cause mischief and grief for the rest of us. I wish they would stay home even longer!
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Dear Editor:
Eighteen-year-old Bronny James, a University of Southern California freshman and the son of NBA superstar LeBron James, suffered a cardiac arrest during a basketball workout last week. This comes a day after Shaka Hislop, a former soccer star turned announcer, collapsed on live TV. The mainstream media is treating the stunning number of young athletes in peak physical condition having sudden cardiac issues as a mystery that need not be solved, as the Bronny James situation is being treated as an unfortunate event, perhaps just some bad luck for poor Bronny. The mainstream media have circled the wagons for Big Pharma on this one the same way they did when 24-year-old Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills collapsed on the field this past January. One constant that the mainstream media, Big Pharma, and the medical establishment knows for sure: They know what DID NOT cause Bronny’s cardiac arrest.
Recently, the Centers for Disease Control, while acknowledging the existence of adverse events post-COVID vaccination, emphasized that it is crucial to differentiate between events caused directly by the vaccine and those occurring coincidentally.
That statement coming from the CDC should be maddening to anyone with knowledge of recent history. The CDC piled up the numbers during the pandemic, scaring the daylights out of every living man, woman, and child for a disease that disproportionately affected the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions. While a few sane people pointed out at the time that there’s a difference between dying from COVID and dying with COVID, the CDC completely ignored this fact for years. In January 2022, then CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky admitted that about 75% of COVID deaths were of patients with four or more co-morbidities. And in January 2023, nearly three years too late, one of the leading scare propagandists, Dr. Leana Wen of CNN and the Washington Post admitted that the actual COVID death count might only be 30 percent of the official count.
They can re-write the entire COVID saga, whitewashing all their intentional mistakes and those committed out of sheer ignorance, while gaslighting all the dissenters who called out their lies in real time. Jason Stark and Meir Kirschner may be the ones writing on this topic, but we all know the truth. We all know the damage they inflicted upon us with their nonsensical, arbitrary edicts such as shutting down small businesses while allowing big box stores to remain open, closing schools, vaccinating kids for COVID without providing a bona-fide medical reason, and my personal favorite: “Mask up between bites!” It is on us to never again allow ourselves to be controlled by this ignorant, ruling class masquerading as “experts.”
Doniel Behar
