No, We Can't Keep It

Long ago, in a city far away, Octavian broke the Roman Republic to his will. He did it not through force of arms, but by his own will and intimidation. At that moment no Roman senator realised what a crossroads the republic had reached. None understood that the republic was dead, and that the monarchy had been birthed. Yet there it was for all to see. With nary a word spoken, Octavian emasculated the Senate. We are close to this same situation today. Donald Trump has passed no laws; he has threatened many, but few of those weathering his wrath are political players. They are mostly minor functionaries, retired civil servants, or military officers, people who pose no threat to his rule. I intentionally use the word ‘rule,’ for in governing by decree, he has ruled rather than governed.

It is unlikely we can ever go back to the time before Trump began his second term with such focus on exactly what he wanted to do, most of which consists of satisfying grievances and seeking revenge against enemies actual and perceived.

No future president will be able to resist following in Trump’s footsteps. He has broken through the firewall separating the republican from the authoritarian — our past as a democracy is dead, for every future president will find it irresistible to wield the same power Trump is wielding in some form. The fact that his actions are illegitimate is irrelevant. They will now become the norm, and so become legitimate, even though they violate both the Constitution and federal laws.

Apocryphally, Benjamin Franklin is said to have remarked that the founders had birthed a republic, if we can keep it. Now we know that we cannot.

Since Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, Congress has passed no laws of consequence, and much existing U.S. law lies in tatters, irrelevant because it is ignored by both the President and Congress. The President and his acolytes in the executive branch have violated civil service law, the Budget Control and Impoundment Act, and several other laws tghat support the framework of our government and stitutions, some of which established independent agencies, and some of which mandated certain actions on the part of the federal government. There is much more, but it’s not worth citing the entire list.

The President and his supporters have hinted many times that there is a way for him to seek a third term. While the President himself hints at it with a certain coyness, supporters such as Steve Bannon and others speak of it with conviction, as something that is legally compliant. Considering the wrecking ball Trump has applied to most of the country’s governing framework, I believe he has no intention of leaving office at the end of his term, whether through an attempt at a third elected term or by ensuring that no election happens in 2028. At any rate, we can expect a nationwide state of emergency if Trump doesn't get his way through “legal” means.

His acolytes in the Supreme Court have essentially given him absolute power by ruling that anything the President does in the performance of his office is legal, including murder. The court steamed through decades of precedent going back to the Nixon administration to finally realise Richard Nixon’s contention that if the President does it, it cannot be illegal.

As a super mob boss he has conducted shakedowns of major corporations and law firms, and threatened criminal penalties on those he disagrees with, the Justice Department having essentially become both his personal lawyer and his enforcer. How ironic that one of the first acts of the current congress was forming a committee to investigate the weaponisation of the Justice Department by the previous administration.

With Eric Adams, the governor of New York, fully Trump’s pocket after a sweetheart cancellation of Hizhonor’s indictment, the Trump Justice Department announced an investigation of Adams’ probable primary opponent.

Our current government has become as one with Erdogn’s Turkey. Apparently The Donald spent time while out of office reviewing the Justice and Development playbook. We can expect Trump’s enemies to soon enough begin receiving ruinous tax bills; expect the recipients to include media outlets that disagree with Trump and corporations that his family covets.

A full bill of particulars of Trump's treasonous misconduct is too long to list here

The most powerful country in the world, the keeper (for now) of the world’s benchmark currency, has become a criminal enterprise, controlled by a small cadre of kleptocrats, and ruled by a head of state with the emotional makeup of a twelve year old who finds no perceived threat or insult too minor to leave unpunished. Assuming he agrees to leave office after his current term, he will have left the country a ruined hulk, and he and his family multi-billionaires.

How Does this End? Perhaps it Already Has

Not since 1932, when the Portuguese, to stanch the chaos, gave over their country to Antonio Oliviera Salazar, has a people willingly handed their country to a dictator. But the citizens of the United States have done just that with the election of Donald Trump.

For those who hadn’t noticed, we’ve had chaos since 6 January 2020. Leadership denying reality adds to the chaos. I don’t know what percentage of the population is unhappy with the situation; those opposing the administration are keeping low. But our president is en route to absolute power.

Several federal judges have invalidated his actions, but he continues as if there is no judiciary.

He is essentially ruling by decree via executive orders.

He has de facto eliminated civil service protections, and openly threatened states with cancellation of government support if they don’t do his bidding.

He has violated the Budget Control and Impoundment act of 1974 by failing to release appropriated funds. The Congress has given its concurrence by its silence.

There is evidence that Trump has threatened leaders of major industries.

Donald Trump’s acolytes are floating the idea that he can have a third term, since his first two weren’t consecutive. And these same acolytes are pushing the idea that the man who would give over Ukraine to her invaders should get the Nobel Peace Prize.

A full bill of particulars would be too depressing.

As George Orwell wrote:

War is peace

Freedom is slavery

Ignorance is strength

Must We Continue to Fool Ourselves?

David P. Goldman, a right smart observer of military and geostrategic matters, and the Middle East in particular, recently wrote:

"We may not learn soon, if ever, exactly how the sectarian politics of radical Islam intersected and diverged between the Sunni jihadism embodied in the Brotherhood and Shi’ite jihadism sponsored by Iran. What the Gaza disaster makes clear is that neither Israeli nor American intelligence understood the opposition. The Biden Administration wooed the Iranians with a $6 billion cash ransom for American hostages, while the Qataris financed Hamas as it were under the nose of the American military."

Contrary to the articles contention, we do know how Sunni Hamas' and Shiite Iran's interests converged. It's called "do what I need and I'll like you for now." If it is ever in Iran's interest, they will squash Hamas like a bug, but the Mullahs of Iran have signed up to destroy Israel more than any other thing, except perhaps awaiting the return of the 12th Imam.

But there is a more important lesson here, one that is so far out in the open that only those who will call for peace at any cost will miss it. "If someone says they are going to kill you, don't imagine they're going away because you paid them." This isn't just true of Hamas, it's true of the "mainstream" Palestinian Authority (PA), which talks about a two state solution when speaking in English to the wishful fools in the West, while calling for complete extermination of Israel in its Arabic media. Those useful idiots, including those in the US State Department, who think the hate spewed in the Arabic media is just to appease the masses, are functional morons.

So, while it's correct that relationships in the Middle East can be complex, it's also accurate to say the the fundamental drivers and ambitions of the region can be distilled down to a few facts. Hate the Jews, destroy Israel, and get paid to 'not' do it by Israel's supposed allies as long as it's convenient. After that, move on to using the remaining moslem emigres in the west as a Trojan Horse for western civilisation. This isn't alarmist thinking; it's a simple reading of what 'they' say. If it weren't so, there is a good chance that at least some Arab regimes would actually be trying to improve the lot of their citizens, at least a little.

Understanding these facts makes for hard work; Israel's allies would prefer that she just go away, so that they can move on with their next do-gooder project. Unfortunately for the US and Europe, those pesky Jews have no place to go. That's how their ancestors ended up there in the first place.

We Can But Reap What We Sow

Now that President Biden has aided and abetted the Hamas attack on Israel, he has decided to “fully stand behind the Jewish state.” It appears that the only thing worse than a lying, thieving Republican is a lying, thieving Democrat. (Trump fans can stop reading now)

There is plenty of blame to go around. Hamas bragged months ago about their aim of conducting an attack to overwhelm the Iron Dome system. A pretty good thumb rule is, when your long-time enemy says he’s out to murder you, believe him and govern yourself accordingly.

There may be plenty of blame to go around, but we ought not to use that fact as a way to spread it thin, instead of identifying the clear culprits.

President Biden, and his National Security advisor, Anthony Blinken, are at the top of the list. They apparently need to hedge their bets with the Islamist wing of the Democratic Party. Upon taking power, Biden and his administration resumed aid to Gaza; it seemed as if they couldn’t wait. That’s the same as resuming aid to Hamas. It’s not sufficient to say that Hamas rules Gaza. Gaza is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hamas. In furtherance of this idiotic move, Biden released six billion dollars frozen funds Iran, supposedly only to be used for humanitarian purposes. I’m sure that’s enforceable. For reasons that are best understood by understanding that liberals never stop thinking that being nice to your enemies will make them be nicer to you, Biden-Blinken and company simply ignored all the physical evidence that demonstrated exactly what Iran and Hamas thought of both Israel and the United States, and what they have been saying they intend to do. The mullahs must have been laughing their heads off over American naivety. It may also be that the President is simply tired of those pesky Jews insisting that one can’t make peace with terrorists. In that regard, Biden and Trump have something in common: both don’t believe their own intelligence agencies. One can forgive Biden (a little) by remembering that he appears to be a doddering old fool, but Blinken, one of the principal architects of the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, should be held to account immediately. The man is a moron. He's Jewish, so I suppose one can't call him anti-semitic. Anyway, moron is a more precise technical term for what he is.

For the Israeli leadership, this is an inexcusable intelligence failure, coming almost exactly fifty (Gregorian) years after their previous intelligence-failure fueled debacle – the surprise attack that opened the 1973 war.

Those who think Hamas doesn’t watch television or cruise the Internet might want to look at the video of a Hamas drone destroying an Israeli Merkava tank by dropping a bomb nearly vertically upon the tank’s vulnerable topsides. The Ukrainians have been doing this to Russian tanks for months, and publishing the videos.

Israel is now faced with a dilemma such as she hasn’t faced in decades. Does she go all out to destroy Hamas, or does she account for the hundreds of hostages the Islamic terrorist group has spirited away to Gaza. At least with Barack Obama gone from the White House we can once again use the term “Islamic terrorist.” That’s cold comfort, but it’s the only comfort we’re likely to have from Biden’s disastrous foreign policy.

Mothers

The folloing is the Mothers Day column by my wife, Rabbi Rose Lyn Jacob.

“When someone asks you where you come from, the answer is Your Mother!”-- Anna Quindlen

A Mother’s Day remembrance came across my in-box the other day. It’s author is a woman who is, herself, at this point in life, already a grandmother. She happens to come from a culture that also reveres motherhood. “Miss my Darling Mummy on this Mother’s day. Thank you so much for the wonderful memories you left with us - we love & cherish all the fun times we had with you and are still in awe of your generosity and love for all those lives you have touched. Love you and Miss you forever!! Till we meet again.” How fortunate to have had such a mother. How blessed to be remembered as such a mother.

We often place motherhood in a quasi “nostalgic bubble.” Or sometimes, we go the other direction. The humorist Erma Bombeck referred to Motherhood as the “Second Oldest Profession.” American mothers come in all shapes, colors, sizes and denominations, and cover a range from traditional birth mothers and adoptive mothers, to foster mothers, step-mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and a myriad of maternal stand-ins. In our desire to heed Commandment number five, the directive from God to HONOR our mothers, we shower moms with cards, flowers, candy and gifts in recognition of Mom’s unconditional love and dedication which, hopefully, has helped shape our lives in a positive way. This year Americans plan to shower mothers to the tune of 36 billion dollars-worth of appreciation, according to the National Retail Federation.

Married partners may have a strained, or barely existing relationship with their own mother, or that oft maligned creature, the “mother-in-law;” but the biblical mandate is to HONOR not LOVE our parents. It may not be easy to accept that not all mothers are “perfect,” no matter how you define or imagine maternal perfection, and yet, we are still obligated to HONOR her. That can be shown in any number of ways, but most biblical scholars take it to mean making provisions for her care later in life, even if we don’t really wish to or can’t care for her ourselves.

The most important functions of motherhood are to provide love, stability, security, education and a variety of survival skills, like learning to use a can opener or a microwave oven, or how to forage for edible plants, as well as hunt, skin and prepare an animal for consumption!

In 2018, however, motherhood took a dark, dark turn. We never could have imagined that, in America, the very inviolate nature of motherhood would take a beating as it has at our southern border, where children, literally ripped from their mothers and detained, have yet to be reunified with their mothers or other family members. Some, detained under the age of five, have been lost in the system. U.S. born children of non-citizen parents, were also ripped from their mothers. As citizens, these children were placed in Foster Care, where they may be kept until the age of 18. All this to discourage illegal immigration to the U.S. during the Trump administration. The current administration has yet to untangle the mess, and families have yet to be reunited.

Starting in 2021, motherhood was again under attack, this time as collateral damage of the war between Ukraine and Russia. In the chaos of rapidly shifting borders Ukrainian children were separated from their mothers and shipped to Russia for “re-education” and permanent placement with Russian families. Some have been returned to their Ukrainian families, brainwashed and traumatized. Fierce fighting left many Ukrainian children orphaned, with no one to claim them. Other children have been “misplaced.” The mental anguish of war, forced relocation, and maternal separation will leave these children scarred for the rest of their lives.

We should never underestimate the importance of a mother in any life. The words of the Negro spiritual ring true in every generation, in every corner of the world:

”Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.

A long way from home, a long way from home.”

Gimpy the Kitten Doesn't know He's Handicapped

Taxes and the Convergence — Apologies from the Editor for an Incomplete Column

Your editor failed to publish the entire column. It has been corrected.

The following is the latest column from the Culpeper Star-Exponent by my wife, Rabbi Rose Lyn Jacob. Caution: There is humor for accountants in here.

It only happens every thirty years or so, the convergence of Easter, Passover and Ramadan. Whatever your faith tradition, I hope you have been enjoying a season of renewal, rebirth, and also one of reconnecting with family and friends after several years of cautious social interaction instigated by Covid and the prohibitively noxious behavior of folks with differing political views which made sharing a dining table insufferable!

The excitement is over, and we’ve consumed the last Chocolate Easter Bunny and/or Matzah Ball. We now enter a different season; one of reflection on the past year and consideration of and resolutions for behaviors in the coming year. I am, of course, referring to Tax Season. Mercifully, this year, Tax Day has been pushed forward, from Saturday April 15 to Tuesday, April 18; a brief but welcome reprieve. As Ben Franklin said: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes!” To which we can add that only one of those two allows for an automatic extension!

Looking back at my tax records, as I thumb through the documents, my life literally passes before my eyes. You may have had the same feelings putting together your very first FAFSA form to get financial aid for college. W-2’s from those barista and construction jobs you took to get you through college. Your first REAL job and a first contribution to your very own IRA account; already planning for retirement. You might come across the first year you filed jointly with your new spouse, followed by the birth of your first little deduction. By the birth of your NEXT little deduction, you are mumbling to your new accountant that while each baby brings its own blessing, it would be nice if it also came with its own Certificate of Deposit. Your accountant says it’s time to sink money into a house, and the following year, VOILA! a new deduction – a mortgage! Sooner than you ever thought possible, your little deductions have grown, fled the nest and aged out of the system, and you’re being taxed on your Social Security!

Some of the kindest human beings I’ve ever met have been accountants. Just think about it, they know more about you and your habits than your priest, minister or rabbi, and they have heard or seen just about everything. They can’t absolve you if you’ve morally or financially flubbed it, but if they are honest, as most are, they will give you good advice and steer you in the right direction to try to keep your life together, even if there are moments when it seems to be falling apart. No judgement. They are there through the good and the bad, and, just like your therapist, they charge by the hour.

Taxes are, well, a taxing subject. It’s easier to say what they ARE NOT. They are not intended to be charitable giving nor should they be considered money “stolen” from us by our government. Taxation, in the United States, is intended for the common good; schools, infrastructure, transportation, health and safety, national security, police, a safe food supply and clean water. And, if you are really lucky, there is enough to pay for garbage pick-up.

But no community can thrive on taxes alone. We are just weeks away from the largest give back opportunity in our area sponsored by the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation. “Give Local Piedmont,” a four-county, one-day, on-line giving event, will be held on May 9th, 2023. This community fundraiser benefits over 120 non-profit organizations located in Madison, Culpeper, Rappahannock, and Fauquier counties. To date, it has brought in and distributed over $8 million in nine years.

“Give Local Piedmont” inspires community members to give to nonprofit organizations that are making our region stronger. Every dollar donated is increased with additional "bonus" dollars provided by the PATH Foundation, as well as sponsor-driven prizes. Visit www.givelocalpiedmont.org/giving-events/glp23/ to see if you and your family can identify causes that speak to your heart, and that would bolster our community and our quality of life. There are a dozen categories to check out including animals, health, the arts, and nature, just to name a few!

Now, I want you all to feel free to use your TAX REFUND to donate to Give Local Piedmont, or you can dig even deeper into your pocket for the good of your community. If you have been blessed with a little additional prosperity this past year, set an example for your children by asking them to help review and choose the organizations they would like the money to support. No matter how young, can get them in the spirit of giving and supporting local causes by creating a collection jar they, (and you) can add to through the year so that next year, they can donate to a cause!

After all is said and done, isn’t it true that you don’t know just how fortunate you are and just how much you have to be thankful for until you pay taxes on it!

Wishing you health, happiness and prosperity, so that you may work and share with an open heart.