75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Dachau

29 Apr 2020

Those of us who lost family in the Shoah generally cannot know where or how they perished. We have an eye witness account of my Aunt Zina's death. She was shot while taking a heavy coat to her husband, who had been taken by the Germans in the latest transport. The last report had her body left to rot in the snow. We don't know about the rest of the polish branch, but given geography, they probably perished in Auschwitz if they lived long enough to get there.

My late Aunt Marion knew something of the German relatives, but all that information is gone now. Considering the number of Misches living in Berlin and its environs, the chances are good that some made it to Dachau.

Rabbi Eli A. Bohnen entered the Army in 1943 after graduating from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. He was a chaplain with the 42nd (Rainbow) Infantry Division during the liberation of Dachau on April 29, 1945. The following is a description of his experiences taken from a letter written to his wife, Eleanor, May 1, 1945.

"Nothing you can put in words would adequately describe what I saw there. The human mind refuses to believe what the eyes see. All the stories of Nazi horrors are underestimated rather than exaggerated. We saw freight cars with bodies in them. The people had been transported from one camp to another, and it had taken about a month for the train to make the trip. In all that time they had not been fed. They were lying in grotesque positions, just as they had died. Many were naked, others in thin clothing. But all were horrible to see.

We entered the camp itself and saw the living. The Jews were the worst off. Many of them looked worse than the dead. They cried as they saw us. I spoke to a large group of Jews. I don't remember what I said, I was under such mental strain, but Heimberg (my assistant) tells me that they cried as I spoke. Some of the people were crying all the time we were there. They were emaciated, diseased, beaten, miserable caricatures of human beings. I don't know how they didn't all go mad. There were thousands and thousands of prisoners in the camp. Some of them didn't look too bad but most looked terrible. And as I said, the Jews were the worst. Even the other prisoners who suffered miseries themselves couldn't get over the horrible treatment meted out to the Jews. I shall never forget what I saw, and in my nightmares the scenes recur. When I got back I couldn't eat and I couldn't even muster up enough energy to write you. No possible punishment would ever repay the ones who were responsible ......"

Chaplain Bohnen later served as an advisor to the U.S. military regarding displaced persons. He worked with Jewish displaced persons in Salzburg and Bad Gastein, Austria, helping them to regain a semblance of normalcy, and assisting in their resettlement.

GIs Remember National Museum of American Jewish Military History

Rabbi Bohnen was my childhood rabbi.

The Virus Chronicles (continued)

Quo Vadis?

Yesterday, Patrick Buchanan, the far right commentator wrote the following:

"After the Great Pandemic has passed and we emerge from Great Depression II, what will be America's mission in the world?

What will be America's cause?

We have been at such a turning point before.

After World War II, Americans wanted to come home. But we put aside our nation-building to face the challenge of a malevolent Stalinist empire dominant from the Elbe river to the Barents Sea.

And after persevering for four decades, we prevailed.

What, then, did we do with our epochal victory?

We alienated Russia by moving our NATO military alliance into the Baltic and Black Seas. We launched bloody, costly crusades for democracy in the Middle East that, invariably, failed. We exported a huge slice of our manufacturing capacity and economic independence to a coddled China.

Historically, blunders of such magnitude have undone great powers."

Sometimes Pat not only doesn't sound all that radical, he sounds a lot like the noises in my head, and some of the things I've written. After World War I British imperialists didn't want to come home, nor did they welcome the League of Nations mandates that drained the treasury rather than enriching the motherland as other overseas possessions were designed to do.

United States overseas overseas operations are different. Every one of them drains the treasury. Of course many of them have been for good. The entire NATO project, up until the fall of the Soviet Union, was an exercise in preserving Western Civilisation, something considered a worthy cause until the recent political correctness. Now, between the western hating youth, cheered on by their left wing professoriate, and the near collapse of society under the weight of the COVID-19 lock down, we should take care to not take for granted our country's priorities

Buchanan continues:

"Even before COVID-19, Americans had begun to realize the folly of decades of mindless interventionism over matters irrelevant to our vital interests. "Unsustainable" was the word commonly associated with our foreign policy.

But if our foreign policy was unsustainable during President Trump's economic boom, with unemployment at record lows and a bull market to rival the Roaring '20s, can an interventionist foreign policy be sustained after the losses of this major depression we have induced to kill the pandemic?"

No matter how many times scientists, politicians, and commentators speak of the new normal, I suspect most Americans still expect to wake up one day to the world they left before the plague of COVID-19 descended upon us. The descent was curious. One might say it descended with Donald Trump kicking and screaming that the whole thing was fake, until it became intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that it was here.

When we do emerge, the world must be different. Whatever it looks like, one question Americans might ask is "what are all those troops doing in all those places around the world?" I don't mean NATO, or even Korea or Japan, but Niger, Djibouti, Afghanistan, and dozens of other places where America has carved out enclaves to hold back an enemy (or perceived enemy), assist an ally in doing the same, or maintaining a drone facility to seek out new enemies for our now famous targeted killings.

All this money, poured into all those places, doesn't seem to have delivered any increase in safety or security. It has produced violence, but little more. As we slip into what might become our new routine, it is time to decide what our new priorities are. Each time a feather merchant from the Pentagon comes to Congress looking for funding for his talking dog, and says we can't afford not to fund it, we need to break out the slide rules and green eye shades. There might be more power in ensuring that we have a strong industrial base in the U.S. rather than in bleeding ourselves white to ensure we can kill every last jihadi within seconds of detection by buying every last fancy weapon and stationing it with our troops in every last far off place. China is in fact nipping at our heels, but we won't prevail if our country is a carcass of consumer stuff with no foundation, core, or heart.

The Virus Chronicles (continued)

It's easy to keep the radio off while at home, I have plenty to do. But in the car, I tend to listen to all sorts of channels. It's a window into the world of a nation that is in the midst of a nervous breakdown. Led by a president with the emotional makeup and discipline of a toddler, who careens from one perceived slight to another, and who cannot wait for each adventure to be over as soon as he senses a bit of triumph, the United States is adrift and failing. Every government department appears to be led by a Trump acolyte who understands how the facts of every situation bend to a singular polestar — the phrase “Thank you, Mr. President, for your great leadership in this crisis.” After that phrase has been uttered, there is no critical content remaining to the briefing. One might as well read the phone book. That way there is no chance of contradicting the Trumpkin.

The President has thrived in the daily five o'clock follies, which often begin around six in order to gain a larger audience. He talks and talks, then fights with the press, acting as the national epidemiologist, while the real scientists watch him act out. But his advisors say he's tired of the game. He just wants the governors to fix it, and do it with their money. He didn't expect a marathon. This king is a sprinter; marathons are for slugs and chumps. Testing, so critical to success, is boring. He seems to be saying “why do we have to do it?” He wants to just cut the ribbon of success. It's what he does best.

How many times can one reaffirm that we now appear to have a country ruled by a toddler. The surrealism smacks one in the face daily, but what also smacks one is the chorus of supporters, those who find him "the greatest president ever." Therein lies proof of our decline.

He would especially like to bully Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia into 'liberation', or so he tweeted, throwing in Second Amendment liberation in the case of Virginia.

Today's briefing included a long soliloquy on how relations with a laundry list of nations, all evil, would go sour and damage the US if 'Slow Joe' wins [the presidency].

The Virus Chronicles (continued)

We Need an Industrial Policy

There are two great Republican curses. The first is — “That's socialism.” The second is — “That smacks of industrial policy, picking winners and losers.” There used to be a third, but “LIBERAL” has lost its meaning. The Republican Party, which has had a strong hand in all national policy since 1981, has ensured the United States has no industrial policy, or so it would like you to think. In fact we do have one, it's just a very bad one, unless you're agribusiness, a corn farmer, or any of a handful of favored industries. But as far as a policy that benefits the country and its citizens as a whole, one could say that we have a negative industrial policy, or one that benefits The Peoples Republic of China to our detriment. In the last forty years the American way of lawmaking has gone through a transition. During our last collaborative era, we created environmental and workplace safety laws, to the resistance, rather than in collaboration with industry, then informed industry that they'd better conform. We sent what amounted to OSHA and EPA thugs on surprise inspections (my father's shop experienced them). Our industries moved to better pastures in other countries such as China and Mexico. There they could avoid those pesky laws. That was our industrial policy — drive 'em out to clean up the environment. Corporate leadership doesn't care — they still profit.

The Democratic Party would be no better. Their idea of an industrial policy would be racial balance in the board room. We know this from their legislative initiatives. And one of the great hallmarks of the ill fated Hillary Care initiative, for those silly enough to have read the thing, was mandated racial balance in medical schools. Yipee! When it comes to the good of the country, I'd say their hearts are only halfway up their asses.

The right answer is that the country needs secure supply chains. It should be a lesson learned the hard way.

It's time to for our national leadership to care; our international supply chains are too fragile, and they lead right through our enemy, which has professed a desire to supplant the United States (see The Hundred-Year Marathon by Michael Pillsbury). Our supply chains don't lead through our enemy because he has captured them through stealth. They lead through him because we have put them there just to save money, and in the process we are giving away our intellectual property as well. It is our national sin of self destruction.

Don't let the touchy feely internationalists kid you. The Chinese are not panda bears. They are racists, irredentists, and international criminals. It's time for a change, and the fools currently running the US government don't have the intelligence or the attention span to make that change. I'm not sure that the financiers have the desire. They would rather feed off the dying corpse of their country.

The Virus Chronicles (continued)

The right wing noise machine says “let us out” and “restore Americans' freedoms.” It began two days ago with tweets by Laura Ingraham, but now it's a coordinated symphony of rage. They are all saying the same thing, in slightly different ways, as if they have a giant conservative staff meeting each morning to ensure they are all on the same sheet of music. There might have been a time when we naive folks thought the noise machine was echoing the opinion of the Donald, but now we know that the President has very little mind beyond what he 'feels'. It is the job of the noise machine to shape his views. From Fox and Friends when he first awakens, through Rush Limbaugh, and on to Mark Levin, then the all important Hannity, whom the President is just as likely to call as not. The noise machine is there to insert the proper ideas into the Presidents mush filled head, then describe the President as brilliant for having spit out its ideas.

“Know your enemy,” we are reminded, and so an aggregation of the President's Twitter feed pops into my email box each morning, and occasionally throughout the day. He thrashes the “lamestream media” for its fake news, citing the TV ratings of his daily news conference as proof that he is superior. It doesn't occur to him that people are shut in, mostly unable to work. Citizens are listening all day to broadcasters who can get paid to work from home while they try to collect from a strapped unemployment system. What the hell else are they going to do, Don, except tune in to find out how close to redemption they are from the National Carnival Barker?

And finally, the scientists recommending that we keep the country buttoned up until “the virus says it's OK to come out” are also still getting paid through all this. I don't mean to be disrespectful of their expertise, but at a certain point, the ordinary citizen will break, and come out of his and her own accord. So a wise government would plan for it instead of shooting for the moon. (see my The Limits of Efficacy in the 6 April entry).

The Virus Chronicles (continued)

The following piece is a column written by my wife, Rabbi Rose Lyn Jacob, for the Culpeper, Virginia Star-Exponent's 1 April Edition

PASSOVER, EASTER, RAMADAN in the Time of Covid-19

It is going to be hard, very hard, to observe the important holidays of the season this year. All three holidays have codified observances, rituals and obligations held sacrosanct by their adherents. Those customs, rituals and family traditions bind us, comfort us, and are a framework for our beliefs. And so, as churches, synagogues and Islamic centers close their doors to slow the spread of the virus, we are left to find creative and meaningful ways to connect with our faith.

What unifies these springtime holidays is that each one reaffirms “membership in the tribe.” Jewish family and friends eat a communal meal, called the Seder, while recounting their “origin story,” the highly ritualized retelling of the story of harsh servitude by the Children of Israel under Pharaoh, and how Moses went before Pharaoh repeatedly to ask that the Israelites be let go to serve their god. It took ten plagues sent by God to convince Pharaoh to “let my people go.” Eventually, God, “with signs and wonders and with an outstretched arm” redeemed His people, split the sea, and, under guidance from Moses left in a hurry for the Promised Land. I have heard so many people bummed out because they can’t be with friends and family for Passover. Many plan to attend “virtually,” being together, but separately, each with a plate of ritual foods and a song sheet in front of their computer screen.

Christians also reaffirm “membership in the tribe,” coming together at Easter to commemorate the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. The key ritual of the worship service is the Eucharist, or Communion. Partaking of consecrated bread and wine enhances the communion of believers not only with Christ, but also with one another. For some the bread and wine are symbolic. For others, the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. While most are resigned to watching their clergy perform the ritual “on-line” I have heard plenty of people complain that they will truly miss the magical feeling they get when receiving communion.

For Muslims, Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim year, is a month of prayer, reflection and community, as well as a commemoration of Muhammad’s first revelation. A dawn until sunset fast is observed, and is followed nightly by a festive, communal break-the-fast meal.

All three festivals focus on community and belonging and require a physical presence . All three holidays will take place in April, as Covid-19 cases grow at an exponential rate and deaths are predicted to be in the thousands. At a moment when we crave closeness, we are not quite sure how to proceed without becoming more depressed than we currently are. Technology can only go so far in uniting us. Televised services, emailed sermons and teachings, virtual Communion and on-line workshops about how to conduct a Passover Seder without guests offer some comfort, if only to remind us that we are not alone in our misery.

Sadly, there are some churches which have tossed social responsibility to the wind, and continue to hold services, causing me to wonder if the leaders of these churches are so selfish, self-serving, so egotistical that they put their need for self-aggrandizement and money in the collection plate above the safety and health of their congregants. My heart breaks when I hear interviews with deeply devout people of unquestioning faith determined to put that faith to the test. The greatest way these pastors can serve their flock is to extend love, comfort, and caring while assuring their followers that they have not been abandoned by God or their faith community. What we need is to support each other in other ways, making sure that we act in Godly ways by reaching out to those who have lost their livelihood, ensuring that they have food, shelter, medical care, and a virtual shoulder to lean on.

The corona virus pandemic challenges our faith in God. As each day passes, we are more aware of the fragility of life and we become more thankful for simple things we’d never noticed before. We can only ask so much of God, and try to shoulder some of the burden ourselves. We can ask God to protect us, but that is made easier while wearing masks, goggles and gloves. We can ask God to take us under his sheltering wing, but it is safer to do so while standing six feet apart. We can believe in an all -powerful God, who will save us, but it helps if we can get our government to increase the production of ventilators, because without those ventilators, doctors will be forced to play God, and decide who lives and who dies. We can ask for a miracle, or we can make sure everyone in our household washes their hands in warm water and soap to break down the fatty layer on the virus and kill it. We can scan copies of the Book of Job, and Why Bad Things Happen to Good People and try to figure why the universe is conspiring against us, or we can look at the science behind what is happening and use that knowledge to assure ourselves we are not being punished, nor tested, by any deity.

The next few months will be a whirlwind of chaos, as one after another, our weaknesses are exposed. Our lives will be increasingly difficult, and we have no idea what the world will be like when a vaccine arrives and the pandemic is beaten down. As a nation we have great sadness ahead of us, great economic and social turmoil. To weather the storm, we can turn to God for comfort through meditation and prayer. We can act as God’s agents by finding ways to volunteer, to donate, or just be a comforting and reassuring voice on the phone. And amazing as it may sound, there won’t be a family in America left untouched by this moment in history.

The Limits of Efficacy

Social distancing is the new term we have all learned, but sheltering in place is the activity that is having the greatest effect on society. Social distancing is a pain in the neck when you’re in line at the market. Keeping six feet between each person can make the check out line run halfway to the back of the store if we all follow the rules. But being shut in is a different story. People aren’t just isolated. Too many are now either unemployed or underemployed. Unemployment insurance and the government’s supplement won’t cover the wage gap, nor will whatever federal largess is planned keep most small businesses afloat. Somehow the Boeings and the Raytheons will do just fine. I know keeping the population sheltering in place works, but reality says that after about two months, the population is going to come out. People will be nearly broke, half crazy, and ready to riot. They will know their jobs are gone. Proprietors will know their businesses are finished. We may have rioting or at least excess crime. While that may be a good excuse for the gun control crowd to get to work, it won't be good for the country overall.

We might as well face the fact that we will have to open up the country by the beginning of June, whether it's the best thing to do or not. The people telling us otherwise are scientists with paychecks who understand the epidemiology but not the psychology. The result will be (I assume) infection spread. So, (in the words of Lenin) "what is to be done." The answer is to plan on an industrial scale to the medical fallout for the consequences. I assume this means testing nearly the entire population. It means much more, but our country is no longer the scientific giant it once was. Science means respect for facts, and a significant segment of the population no longer respects facts they don't like.

I think the alternative to my idea is widespread social unrest fueled by both being shut in and incitement by the lunatic media. Just a thought, but sometimes you have to look at more than just the science, and plan ahead for doing something that appears ill advised.

The Virus Chronicles (continued)

03 April 2020

Jared Kushner is a Fool, an Idiot, and a Buffoon

The fact that he is rich is strictly an accident of birth, and of course marriage. After weeks of rumors that son in law Jared was heading a second, off the books, secret anti COVID-19 Task Force, The Boy himself appeared on stage with the President yesterday for what I've come to think of as the Five O'clock Follies, that ever elongating press circus in which President Trump generally insists on hogging center stage as the nation's faux chief epidemiologist.

Apparently Boy Jared, having failed as Middle East Peace Maker (I'm not sure he can be faulted for that, except for having taken on the job at all) is now chief national medical logistician. He and the Vice President insisted that Boy Jared reports everything right to the Vice President, hence his mixed government/industry task force is not a parallel organization to that of the Vice's, and is definitely not a secret. How could it be — The Boy was right out in front of all those reporters.

Our new Chief National Medical Logistician had this to say to those complaining in state governments, and to the ungrateful hospital treatment centers of our country: “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” he said, “It’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.” Apparently if the federal government happens to need a bunch of ventilators or masks, it can hop over and get 'em from the stockpile, but don't you states try to get your grubby hands on them. Order yer own! We bought these with our money. Boy Jared is unfamiliar with FDR's analogy of the garden hose from Lend Lease days. If your neighbor's house is afire, and you have a garden hose all hooked up, you don't negotiate a price on the hose, you pick it up and put out the fire, lest it spread to your house as well. Anyway, HHS had stated that the Strategic Stockpile's purpose is to supplement state and local supplies in times of emergency.

It could be that Young Jared was out getting measured for his first silver sippi-cup on the day that Sesame Street aired the sharing episode. More likely, he was just reflexively insisting on the administration's perfection. ('It was a perfect call, a perfect letter, a perfect stockpile, &c.')

In the few minutes since I began writing this very piece, and since Boy Jared's unfortunate encounter with truth, the HHS website has been magically revised to reflect the stockpile's mission as being more in conformance with Kushner's statement. It's a clear 1984-ish revision of the documentation to conform to the desired facts. Technically, this turns Jared Kushner from an idiot to a seer. Kushner also noted that states shouldn't be calling the feds for more ventilators before they need them, simply to stockpile them “just in case.” “Call when you need them,” he advised. Boy Jared may not have learnt at Famous Medical Logistician School that ventilators are a critical care item. By the time you need them, it's too late to go out and procure them. That wrinkle may not have been covered in Pandemics 101.

The Virus Chronicles (continued),

02 April 2020

Well, well, I here tell the whole US Navy fleet has been ordered to sea in an effort to avoid the plague, er, virus. It did take quite a while. Two or three days ago the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier staffed with about 5500 sailors, requested a port call and near evacuation to get its Coronavirus problem under control. Apparently that captain lost it. When you're CO of such a strategic asset, you need a unique strength of psyche.

If fortune favors the brave, and innovation is critical to carrying the modern fight, our fully joint qualified warriors dithered for about three weeks too long. I can just see those heavily career conscious flag officers stealing side glances at each other, wondering who will blink first on the one good idea that should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer — if you send sailors home every night, they are going to mix with a sick population. The yardbirds they see during the day will be an additional sick population. Going to sea is self isolation, eh? By the time ships get back to port, most of the gear will be wrung out, too, and lots of ship handling practice will have been done.

The President's acolytes spent the day praising chloroquinine, the big idea he got from somewhere (he's “a believer, smart guy, &c.”). An acolyte who will go unnamed assured his morning listeners that if the President hadn't pushed this idea thousands would die. The data will prove nothing; President Trump knows how to jump on either side of an issue quick like a bunny. No one can catch Fred Trump's little boy in a lie.

Why Dana Milbank is a Fool

The Washington Post's well know columnist Dana Milbank showed himself a fool today with a column stating that Republicans were warned about the pending dangers of the Coronavirus, yet they persisted in defending the President. By now Milbank should know that Republicans will defend the President to the death, even if he kills several small children in public with his bare hands, then consumes them. Milbank wasted valuable space in one of the nation's major newspapers stating the obvious, instead of saying something important. In so doing, he showed the real nature of the bankruptcy of the mainstream press.

Apparently we will be treated to millions of words stating the obvious for the next several months.

Sherlock Self Isolates

The black form arose silently from the floor onto my lap. In spite of her full grown-cat weight, Sherlock's touch was so gentle that I hardly felt her land. She walked back and forth a few times to get her bearings, then began rubbing the top of her head on my leg. Sherlock stopped rubbing, lay down on my lap, and looked up at me, purring and batting those deep green eyes up into mine.

“What?” Silence, as she rubbed adoringly against my leg, occasionally glancing sideways at me. She wouldn't talk to me while Rose was in the room. Sherlock can talk, but only to me. She only speaks when we're alone. She rolled halfway over to look at Rose, then back over to me. Sitting up, she rubbed my cheek, then lay down for a rest.

Rose left for the kitchen. The black tail swished, then Sherlock sat up to nuzzle my right cheek. “There's no monitor in here, Gary,” she whispered. “What about a video? The one with the nuthatch and the squirrel.” “I've been at that monitor all day, Sherlock.” “You don't need to sit there with me, Gary. Just start the video. I'll sit in your chair and watch it.” It was a pleading purr. “That never works, Sherlock. Either Emily chases you out, or you lose focus and run off.” “It'll be different this time. You'll see.” “OK,” I said, and off we went to my computer, where all good cat videos were bookmarked. That is what computers are for.