The Inevitable
Dear Editor:
There aren’t many things you can depend on in life besides taxes and you know what. However, I always believed that mail deliveries were as dependable as their slogan: “Neither rain nor snow...” (I can’t recall the entire line.) Therefore, it came as a complete shock to me when I noticed that I haven’t been getting my mail on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (take your pick) despite the lovely weather. True, no mail has postponed the bills, but it’s also prevented my receiving “The check is in the mail.” Instead, on the following day, my mailbox is stuffed with two AARP magazines, an L.L. Bean catalogue and voting information about elections I never heard of. All of these delays made me think about what one can expect in life, and what one can’t expect.
As Chodesh Elul approaches, we think of S’lichos and the imminent arrival of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Thus, a person like me who is always ready for hurricanes or tax season begins to peruse her bookcases for the appropriate machzorim. If it’s Rosh HaShanah, I can find the machzor for Yom Kippur, and if it’s Yom Kippur, I can only find Haggados. For Sukkos, when I need Koheles, I can find only Megillas Esther, and for Purim, I can find only Rus. You get the picture.
Something that you can depend on is that on the hottest day of the year (usually a Shabbos), your air conditioning breaks down, and on the coldest day of the year (see the above day), your heat breaks down. You can bet your bottom dollar (I never understood that) that the Shabbos you’ve invited ten guests for a meal for which you will serve steaming hot cholent, a fuse will blow, rendering your cholent inedible.
However, as a grammar geek, what really annoys me and what one can always bet on is the common misuse of lie/lay and number/amount. My dear readers, if you are sick, you lie down on your bed. Yesterday, you lay down on your bed. Right now, you are lying on your bed. Also, the number, not the amount, of Taylor Swift fans was staggering.
The bottom line is the only one that you can bet on is Hashem!
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
Thank you for your publication, which I enjoy reading.
I was dismayed at your recent glowing profile of Alexander Rapoport and his Masbia gig (August 10 issue – Cover and p. 18), focusing on their catering to migrants who have recently flooded our city at great expense, causing various problems, which are ongoing right now.
Masbia started as a chasidic effort to help poor fellow Yidden eat with dignity. Your feature shows how much they have strayed over time from that noble goal. Following in the footsteps of non-Orthodox organizations that preceded them, they pivoted to focus on other groups, and became involved in left-wing political advocacy for various types of illegal immigrants. Although Alex is closely connected with the ultra-liberal Democrat party (he appeared in a video promoting past NYC leftist Mayor de Blasio a number of years back), he is not authorized to break the law, and be a political advocate. It is a sad spectacle to see a purportedly chasidic fellow like him morph into a Reform-like advocate of “tikkun olam.” The Orthodox should cease supporting him. Let him go to Temple Emanuel or St. Patrick’s Cathedral instead.
On a side note, I have seen myself the fruits of his misguided naivete in the area of one of his centers. Homeless (or similar, possibly mentally ill) people (who may not even be Jewish, but certainly do not seem observant) get food packages from him (with chasidic type certifications), take a bit, and leave the bulk on the street to degrade as garbage, sullying the environment. I have seen that many times in my area. Shame on Alex for promoting outsiders at the expense of his own community. His Masbia may be a cash cow for him, but it is not a sacred cow, and must be held accountable for its misdeeds. The free ride he has gotten from the media and others for years needs to end ASAP. His publicity stunts and PR must not be allowed to obscure the dangerous deviations that he has promoted and developed under the Masbia banner. Investigation and closer scrutiny of him and Masbia is definitely in order at this point.
Yours truly,
Mordechai Samuels
Dear Editor:
Despite the more than $20 million in payments the Biden crime family has received from Romania, China, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, the bank records showing 20 dummy shell companies set up by the Biden crime family, the WhatsApp messages linking Joe and Hunter in an influence peddling scheme, Devon Archer’s testimony that Hunter would call Joe during business meetings, the laptop that produced emails showing Hunter was paying Joe’s bills, Hunter’s business partner Tony Bobulinski explaining who “10% for the big guy” referred to, and the IRS whistleblower’s account of illegalities and coverups by the Biden’s Department of Justice, Warren Hecht appears to indicate in his column that in the words of Hillary Clinton, “This is all a vast right-wing conspiracy” and there’s not much to see here. Now that Mr. Hecht has settled this issue, he can move on to bigger items, like helping OJ Simpson in his quest to find the real killers.
Jonathan Goldgrab
Bidenomics
Dear Editor:
David Pecoraro’s latest missive is too far off the rails to address in its entirety, but I would like to address one point in particular: his touting of so-called “Bidenomics” for reducing inflation over the past year. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre have been boasting publicly how inflation has come down for 12 months in a row. Time for a fact check: The rate of inflation has indeed come down over the past 12 months, but what that merely means is that while the rate of inflation going up has slowed down, it is still going up!
The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro analogized the current inflation situation to someone who sees his friend not doing so well and asks him how he’s feeling. The friend says, “Well, I’m better today than I was yesterday, and I was doing better yesterday than I was two days ago.” What the friend neglects to mention is that three days ago he got hit by a truck. We all got hit by the proverbial truck when inflation skyrocketed directly due to Biden’s incredibly wasteful and foolish spending and the introduction of trillions of new dollars into our economy.
One more fact check: The cumulative rate of inflation since Biden took office is 16%. Over the same time period, real wages are down 4%. What that means is your purchasing power has declined 20% since Biden took office. When the cast of clowns currently occupying the White House tell you inflation is down and wages are up, they are relying on an uninformed, ignorant public and an obedient media to pick up what they’re dropping.
Mr. Pecoraro, we are all entitled to our opinions, but when discussing issues that have actual data points, please stick to the facts.
Jason Stark
Democracy for the Left
Dear Editor:
The political Left is outraged over Ron DeSantis’ suspension of a prosecutor in Orlando who wasn’t doing her job. She dismissed 40 percent of her cases and allowed violent felons back out on the street to menace law-abiding citizens.
DeSantis was accused by many, including the prosecutor, of being a dictator and of conducting a witch-hunt against her. The same political Left has no problem with Joe Biden unleashing his political thugs at the Department of Justice against his main political rival, Donald Trump. To them, that’s just Warren Hecht-style Democracy in action.
Doniel Behar
An Apology From The “Follow The Science” Crowd?
Dear Editor:
Interesting analysis by Jason Stark in last week’s “Your Say” on the reactions of the various parties to the Covid fallout. Personally, I think he goes way too easy on the people he categorizes as “people who got the vaccine and suffered no harm.” Included in these folks are many people who took the Covid shots and thumbed their nose at those who did not.
Whether they mistreated their non-compliant neighbors, discriminated against them, bashed them in a Facebook group, blamed them in this very newspaper for the failure to eradicate Covid, or any other sort of harassment, there should be a reckoning here. The reason they smugly felt morally superior to their friends who refused the shot is because they followed the purported experts who were allegedly “following the science.” Okay, fair enough. But what about now?
Many medical experts are still calling for Covid boosters. I still see commercials on TV reminding everyone to get boosted. Incredibly, the CDC is still recommending the shot for small children. Yet, according to all available data, only a tiny fraction of the 2021 “follow the science” crowd are still taking boosters. What happened?? Do you no longer trust the medical experts? Is “following the science” no longer a priority?
No need for any public proclamations denouncing your former beliefs, as your current (non-)actions speak volumes, but perhaps you owe your friend an apology.
Sincerely,
Avi Goldberg
Dear Editor:
Last week, David Pecoraro wrote that I made a false allegation of Trump Derangement Syndrome, but how would he know that, since he’s clearly one of those who has Donald Trump residing in his head rent-free?
There are highly prominent rebbeim on TorahAnytime who have been publicly declaring that “Hashem is with Trump,” since how else could any person survive what all the r’sha’im are putting him through. Because they all know that once Trump is re-elected, then it is they who will be the one’s heading for jail.
And were Mr. Pecoraro to ask himself: What’s good for the Jews, instead of what’s good for his political party? Then he will be able to see matters much more clearly.
Choni Herschel Kantor
Kew Gardens, New York
Dear Editor:
“Bidenomics” stinks, and anyone who thinks otherwise is foolish and has never taken a basic economics course in college. This president and his administration do not adhere to any basic principles of economics. Instead, they worship the false green idol and deliver platitudes, like “middle out and bottom up.”
We are suffering under the worst inflation in 40 years. We were at a high of over nine-percent inflation last July. When the latest announcement is that we are at 3.2 percent, the White House says inflation is coming down. Compare that with 1.6 percent under President Trump. Last I checked, 3.2 is higher than 1.6. That means it’s still up, especially when the Federal Reserve target is two-percent inflation year over year.
Real wages aren’t rising. Anyone who has gone to the grocery store or filled his car with gas isn’t stupid. We all see that prices are going up. When you deplete our Strategic Petroleum Reserves to artificially bring down gas prices, once there’s no petroleum left, it’s simple supply and demand. Supply is down and demand is up, so prices go up and up and up. We are back at almost $4 per gallon. Parenthetically, we haven’t begun to resupply the reserves in case there is an emergency. When energy prices go up, food prices go up because they’re intertwined. That’s why the government fudges the numbers and removes food and energy from their inflation number, which should really be at 4.7 percent today.
Interest rates are also the highest they’ve been in 30 years, thanks to the Fed. That is contributing to bringing down inflation, but again, as energy prices go back up, inflation will as well.
The government doesn’t create jobs. Businesses create jobs and the businesses that were able to reopen after the lockdowns hired workers. Others stayed on the government dole, stopped looking for jobs and therefore are not included in the unemployment number.
Unions today stink! The only two that are necessary and that I back are the firefighters and the police officers. The Teamsters union just put the third largest freight company into bankruptcy, with a little help from mismanagement. Now, 30,000 people are out of work. Great job! Infrastructure? Supply chain? I cannot recall more interruptions in the supply chain or this many train derailments in 30 years. And the President still hasn’t visited East Palestine, Ohio! The teachers union is the absolute worst. They are all in on indoctrinating our children with Marxist ideology, rather than teaching math and science.
If Joe Biden thinks he’s getting reelected on his economic policies, well, as Judas Priest sang: “You’ve got another thing coming.”
Shalom Markowitz
