Hassagot השגות

Because of religious faith...in Trump

How do we explain the following phenomena of American life in the past months?

• Death threats against responsible election officials who maintained the integrity of elections in states which Trump won in 2016 and lost in 2020?
• Threats against responsible public health officials who insisted on the use of masking and supported the use of vaccines to fight covid-19?  
• The fight against scientific knowledge about covid-19 in general, including the pursuit of dangerous, unproven treatments?
• The insurrection of January 6 2021 and valorization of its perpetrators?
• An embrace of violent fantasies among partisans of Donald Trump?

Efforts to 'make sense' of these things--of partisan embrace of election conspiracies, of opposition to public health measures and medical knowledge, of a last ditch effort to undo the results of a fair election, of an embrace of violence--these efforts fail.  These things do not  'make sense.'  They reflect not rational considerations but rather flow from faith.

For many, Trump plays the role of a religious figure.  For them, he is a savior--a god.

Adherents of a god love what the god loves and hate what the god hates.  They love whom the god loves and hate whom the god hates.  They know what the god knows and know not what the god knows not.  If the god says it is true, it is true.  "It is a lie," it is a lie.  

For these adherents, there is no neutral zone between the blessed and the cursed.  

 

 

 

For grave public sins for which we are responsible

 

Pitka  Tava - פתקא טבא - “a guten kvitel” - a good note of forgiveness...

...for Hoshana Rabba, 21 Tishri 5780 / Sunday, 20 October 2019

In addition to our private failings for which we might make an accounting, those of us who are Americans have public failings for which we might make an accounting.  At this time, a central public failing is the presidency of Donald J. Trump.  

 

His [=a king’s] heart is the heart of the entire congregation of Israel 

- Maimonides, Laws of Kings 3:6

The king’s - the leader’s - the president’s - character speaks to the character of the people as a whole.

 

May You pardon us

for all our careless—

for all our deliberate—

for all our rebellious—sins:  (introduction to “Al Chet’” / “For the sin”; recited on Yom Kippur)

 

For the sin we have committed before You...

...under compulsion or willingly.

Were we compelled to establish Trump as president, or did we choose him willingly?  One or the other.  He is our president and we—all American citizens—are responsible for him, since he was chosen by the American people—regardless whether we voted for him or not.

... by callously hardening the heart.

The president is a hard-hearted man; his administration is a hard-hearted administration; and we, as Americans, are becoming hard-hearted.

... unwittingly.

We did not know that having a Trump presidency would have as negative as impact on our country as it has.  Well, it has.  We are responsible for the consequences of our decisions, whether we were aware that things would be as bad as they have become, or not.

... by sexual immorality.

The president’s sexual immorality has become the country’s.

... by speech.

Through his use of speech, the president has made our speech coarse.

... by cheating a fellow-man.

The president has given himself a green light to break laws and deprive others of their rights and liberty (famously, to kill someone on 5th Avenue).  He has a track record of not paying his own contractors.  We are implicated in his cheating.

... by joining in a lewd gathering.

The president has a history of lewd gatherings and no history of repentance.  His gatherings are our lewdness.

... by showing contempt to parents and teachers.

The president has regularly shown the meanest disregard for the honor of Gold Star families, long-serving members of the Senate, and members of his administration who have been in a position to teach him about statecraft.  His disrespect is our disrespect.

... by using force [to harm others].

The president has brought the power of the executive branch down on powerless people in cruel ways.  His misused power is a stain on our souls.

... by foolish talk.

No commentary is needed.

... by impurity of the lips.

No commentary is needed.

... by the Evil Inclination.

Likewise.

... by evil talk [slander].

The president’s “lashon hara” (evil speech) against people of integrity and service is a stain on us.

... by scoffing.

The president has scoffed at our country’s values.  In doing so, he has cheapened those values in the view of the world.  His scoffing is our scoffing.

... by stretching forth the neck [in an expression of haughtiness].

His haughtiness is our haughtiness

... by haughty eyes [an expression of arrogance].

His arrogance is our arrogance.  

... by insolence.

He has demeaned the character of our country.  We are responsible for that.

... by perverting judgment.

How many are those who deserve to be called to account for their crimes, for whom he seeks clemency?  How many are those who are innocent, for whom he calls for imprisonment?  His perversion of judgment is our perversion of justice.  

... by entrapping a neighbor.

He has separated and imprisoned children and families.  We are responsible. 

... by a begrudging eye.

For our president, every act of generosity is a grievous mistake.  We are learning to follow his example and see our relations with others in purely transactional terms.  His mean-spirited miserliness is ours.

... by unwarranted hatred.

He has encouraged hatred of Latino people, of Muslims, of Black people.  His misanthropy is our misanthropy.  

And for all of these, God of pardon,

pardon us, 

forgive us,

grant us atonement.

Amen.

Dr. Blasey Ford

On Thursday, September 27, 2018, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing concerning the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh (see the entire transcript, here).  I found her testimony to be highly credible.  She is also courageous and inspiring.  She has done the country and humanity a service, regardless the decisions the Senate may make about Judge Kavanaugh's nomination.

The significance of Dr. Blasey Ford's testimony for the Kavanaugh nomination, to my mind, is not that she has established that, as a young man of 17, he sexually assaulted her.  That is a matter for a court setting, not a nomination process.    Rather, Dr. Blasey Ford's testimony helps to establish the character of Judge Kavanaugh when he was a young man.  That adolescent character, in turn, is relevant to the public's understanding of his character as an adult.

 To say that Judge Kavanaugh's categorical denials of Dr. Blasey Ford's accusations render her testimony a matter of "he said, she said," is incorrect and, more importantly, misses the deeper point.   To begin with, the hearing was not a court proceeding.  Additionally, the denials of an adult who experienced (from many indications) bouts of drinking intense enough to impede anyone's memory of times past, mean little.  More importantly, Judge Kavanaugh has problems with alcohol and poor behavior choices which stayed with him in college and law school.  He has character problems.  Kavanaugh cannot deny his way out of that.  That is the abiding meaning of Dr Blasey Ford's testimony for Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to SCOTUS.  

(See also my previous post on Judge Kavanaugh's nomination.)

Kavanaugh for SCOTUS?

Here are some considerations for evaluating any nominee for a seat on the Supreme Court, as well as my sense of how Brett Kavanaugh stacks up on each.  In the following, I intentionally bracket Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee of Thursday, 9/27/2018--not in the least to call into question its credibility, but to argue that, independent of that testimony, my view on BK's fitness would be the same.    (For the entire transcript of that lengthy hearing,  see here.)  I will address that testimony in an upcoming post.

 

The Land of the White and the Home of the Cruel?

When we paint America by numbers, what picture do we reveal?  A land of the white and a home of the cruel.

A Moral Dictionary of this Presidency

Notes toward a moral dictionary of this Presidency.  These are not the view of Hassagot.  They appear to be the view of the president, based on hundreds of days of statements and actions.

Created on June 18, 2018.  Last edited on July 4 , 2018

Alliances, Allies - Allies and Alliances are impediments to the exercise of Power.  They are results of the mistaken policies of the past.  There can be no true relationships between America and other nations.  The President, as the epitome of America, has relations with Leaders, not with nations.  Nations that see themselves as Allies are, in fact, seeking ways to cheat America and take its Money.  They are, in effect, Enemies.

America, Americans - America is a country that belongs to the Americans, who are the citizens.  White people are Americans.  Followers certainly are Americans.  One cannot assume that people in America who are dark skinned are actually Americans.  They may be illegal migrants.  It is not clear that Enemies are Americans.  

Chaos - It is good for the world to approach chaos.  This makes it possible for the president to achieve Victory.  The president and his followers cooperate in spreading chaos in any institution that inhibits the president’s victory, such as the legislative branch, the judicial branch, the FBI, the national security community, NATO, the G7, the European Union, the United Nations, NAFTA, the press and media (unless they are loyal to him), etc.

Cruelty - A necessary and appropriate attitude to take toward the weak.  It is a sign of strength.

Predicating the Jews’ Security on One American President

I.    The degree to which many Orthodox Jews have predicated the security of the Jewish people on President Donald Trump is noticeable.  The degree to which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has predicated Israel’s security on Trump is also noticeable.  

Musings I on Liberty after Parkland

After the Parkland shooting (2/14/2018).  May the memory of the dead be a blessing, and may the living find consolation.

We are told that the right to bear arms is a right of self defense.   How do we balance that right with the rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”?

Cass Sunstein observes (2/15/2018) that the late Antonin Scalia determined  that 

the Second Amendment is restricted to weapons “in common use at the time.” He added that the Constitution leaves government with many tools for combating the problem of handgun violence, including regulation.

This reader wonders what ‘common use’ means, and wonders whether AR-15 rifles meet that criterion.  (In his darker moments, he wonders:  what stops someone from arguing that bazookas are protected by the Second Amendment?) 

Among some supporters of gun rights, calls for gun control after Parkland represent an attack on freedom.  As reported in the New York Times (2/22/2018),  Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association, 

warned darkly that “our country will be changed forever” at the hands of socialist conspirators.

“History proves it. Every time in every nation in which this political disease rises to power, its citizens are repressed, their freedoms are destroyed and their firearms are banned and confiscated,” he said, reading slowly and deliberately from his prepared text.

Our president appears to feel that the problem is not guns but mentally troubled people, according to the New York Times (2/15/2018):

“So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior,” Mr. Trump said in a tweet hours before he addressed the public. “Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!”

He delivered similar remarks in November, after a gunman with a military-style rifle mowed down more than two dozen parishioners in a church in Sutherland Springs, Tex. Mr. Trump told reporters that the problem “isn’t a guns situation” and that the shooting signified “a mental health problem at the highest level.”

In October, after a gunman in Las Vegas killed 58 people and wounded hundreds in the deadliest mass shooting in United States history, Mr. Trump called the assailant “a very sick man” and a “demented person.”

Is the problem of mass shootings a sign that the mental health system is not functioning as it ought?  Dr. Amy Barnhorst, Vice Chairwoman of Community Psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, in a piece entitled “The Mental Health System Can’t Stop Mass Shooters” (2/20/2018), observes:

The reason the mental health system fails to prevent mass shootings is that mental illness is rarely the cause of such violence. Even if all potential mass shooters did get psychiatric care, there is no reliable cure for angry young men who harbor violent fantasies. And the laws intended to stop the mentally ill from buying guns are too narrow and easily sidestepped; people like Nikolas Cruz and my patient are unlikely to qualify.

Some might argue:  Let’s lock hateful young men away, so that they won’t kill people.   What irony!  In order to avoid reasonable regulation, consistent with the Second Amendment, would we rush to deprive people of their liberties for hateful thoughts?  

I’d rather lock up AR-15s than people.  

Little Donny

Little Donny stews and screams,
That boy Jimmy, he's so mean.
Make him, make him, go away!
Now, now. Rod has found a way.
Jim's been fired. It's in the news.
Little Donny screams and stews...

No one is more naive than the cynical man

In The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross writes:

The protagonist of Alfred Doblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz, Frank Biberkopf, is a stubborn, tough-minded, self-reliant man who finds himself transformed into a Nazi stooge. In much the same way, [the composer Richard] Strauss's philosophy of self--"The laws of my mind determine my life," to quote Guntram--left him defenseless before Hitler's seductions. Nazism was itself the product of egoism, nihilism, cynicism, and amoral aestheticism.

No one is more naive than the cynical man.