Dissident Veteran For Peace

An automated release of documents this week by the FBI has stirred up a minor Twitter storm. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports the release announcement "spark[ed] anger and confusion".

According to an FBI apology posted on August 19, 2020:

Earlier today FOIA materials were posted to the FBI's Vault and FOIA Twitter account via an automated process without further outlining the context of the documents. We regret that this release may have inadvertently caused distress among the communities we serve.

The apology doesn't say what the "materials" in question were nor does it mention that the offending tweet was deleted. As it turns out the FBI released its file on the "Protocols of Learned Elders of Zion", which you can, for now, still access in the FBI's "Vault". The deleted tweet can be viewed here.

It appears someone decided to try to put a lid on the whole matter because people were starting to pay attention and it wasn't all in support of the 'angry and confused' folks. Thus, three of the four non-FBI tweets quoted in the JTA article have now disappeared too.

They probably needn't have worried as—except for high-profile stories that simply cannot be ignored such as Jonathan Pollard, Jack Abramoff, Jeffrey Epstein, and Harvey Weinstein—the mainstream media seldom reports on matters that may offend Jews or cast them in a negative light. Examples of buried stories that warrant greater coverage are the ongoing nefarious activities of Chabad, including the $40 million in federal funds allegedly defrauded by the Michigan Jewish Institute. The Trump DoJ put an end to this particular inquiry early this year.

In any case, one of the more pointed replies to the FBI's now deleted tweet quoted from a 2015 article by Yossi Sarid in Haaretz on Republican Jewish operatives waging a "campaign of intimidation ... to stop Democratic lawmakers from skipping Netanyahu's upcoming Congress speech". Here's the excerpt:

In these very moments, the protocols are being rewritten. Rich Jews are writing them in their own handwriting. They, in their wealth, are confirming with their own signatures what anti-Semites used to slander them with in days gone by: We, the elders of Zion, pull the strings of Congress, and the congressmen are nothing but marionettes who do our will. If they don’t understand our words, they’ll understand our threats. And if in the past, we ran the show from behind the scenes, now we’re doing it openly, from center stage. And if you forget our donations, the wellspring will run dry.

Labels: Chabad, conspiracy, crime, fraud, government, Israel, Jews, media, quotations, Rothschild, Trump, Zionism

In the current American context reparations refers to the idea of forcing people who never owned slaves to pay compensation for slavery to people who never were slaves. Newsweek recently reported the estimated cost of reparations, according to one 2020 study, was "$6.2 quadrillion as of 2018" which "divided by 40,909,233 Black non-Hispanic descendants of the enslaved, could result in a total reparations payment per descendant of $151.63 million."

And don't get any ideas about a discount if one of your ancestors died fighting against slavery during the Civil War. The study's authors have that covered, too: 

... some reparations opponents point to the federal government's expenditures in blood and treasure to end slavery through the Civil War as a form of reparations already rendered. This argument suffers from two major problems. First, ending an injustice is not the same as making reparations for its enduring effects. Second, more than 200,000 Black soldiers, including slaves and free, fought and died disproportionately to earn the freedom of the enslaved. The moral credit for this self-liberation goes to them, not to the federal government that had permitted their enslavement for so long.

With Joe Biden and Kamala Harris poised to possibly begin relocating to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and 1 Observatory Circle, respectively, next January it's worth thinking a bit more about reparations.

Apparently, Biden's chronologically impaired thinking has, shall we say, quickly evolved on the issue. He reportedly said in 1975: "I don't feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather. I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation. And I'll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 [sic] years ago."

In a 2019 presidential debate Biden gave a muddled response when asked: "What responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?" However, by February of this year Biden was on board with a proposal by Cory Booker (he of not inconsiderable, say 45%, European ancestry) "to study reparations and make a judgment whether or not what they should be and what they should do". Then Biden publicly stated about two months ago that he is in favor of "slavery reparations".

Kamala Harris, the privileged daughter of not one but two PhD possessing immigrant parents, co-sponsored Booker's legislation. She also reportedly supports reparations when she's not hiding in the "study it" column.

It's worth pointing out that the idea of slavery reparations is not new. I do not intend here to go all the way back to 1865 and Special Field Orders, No. 15. Given its limited scope and purpose, it is debatable that the order was intended as reparations for slavery. No, my goal is much more modest and I wish only to go back about five decades.

In 1969, James Forman of the Black Economic Development Conference (and formerly of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) "interrupted services at New York City's Riverside Church to demand $500 million in reparations from white churches to make up for injustices African Americans had suffered over the centuries." These demands were in accord with the BEDC's "Black Manifesto".

As Jason L. Riley put it:

Civil-rights organizations rejected the idea, which the NAACP's assistant director called "an illogical, diversionary and paltry way out for guilt-ridden whites." Bayard Rustin, who organized the 1963 March on Washington and was one of Martin Luther King's closest advisers, was another vocal skeptic of blacks cashing in on the tribulations of long-gone forebears. "The idea of reparations is a ridiculous idea," Rustin said. "If my great-grandfather picked cotton for 50 years, then he may deserve some money, but he's dead and gone and nobody owes me anything."

Rustin, profiled in this blog in 2006, called the demand for reparations "preposterous" and accused Forman of "hustling, begging." Rustin continued: "Furthermore, I don't believe that any black man in this country wants to be given a thing—just the opportunity to work, to work and take care of his family." Times have changed, Bayard.

Labels: Bayard Rustin, Biden, Black America, class, economics, history, Obama, politics, race, slavery, White folks

Rabbi Nachtner: How does God speak to us? A good question. You know Lee Sussman?

Larry Gopnik: Doctor Sussman? I think I - yeah.

Rabbi Nachtner: Did he ever tell you about the goy's teeth?

Larry Gopnik: No, ah ... what goy?

Rabbi Nachtner: So, Lee is at work one day, you know he has the orthodontic practice there at Great Bear. He's making a plaster mold - it's for corrective bridge work - in the mouth of one of his patients, Russell Kraus. The mold dries and Lee is examining it one day before fabricating an appliance. He notices something unusual. There appears to be something engraved on the inside of the patient's lower incisors. He vav shin yud 'ayin nun yud. "Hwshy 'ny". "Help me, save me". This in a goy's mouth, Larry. He calls the goy back on the pretense of needing additional measurements for the appliance. "How are you? Noticed any other problems with your teeth?" No. There it is. "Hwshy 'ny". "Help me". Son of a gun. Sussman goes home. Can Sussman eat? Sussman can't eat. Can Sussman sleep? Sussman can't sleep. Sussman looks at the molds of his other patients, goy and Jew alike, seeking other messages. He finds none. He looks in his own mouth. Nothing. He looks in his wife's mouth. Nothing. But Sussman is an educated man. Not the world's greatest sage, maybe, no rabbi Marshak, but he knows a thing or two about the Zohar and the Caballah. He knows that every Hebrew letter has its numeric equivalent. 8-4-5-4-4-7-3. Seven digits ... a phone number, maybe? "Hello? Do you know a goy named Kraus, Russell Kraus?" "Who?" "Where have I called? The Red Owl in Bloomington. Thanks so much." He goes. It's a Red Owl. Groceries, what have you. Sussman goes home. What does it mean? He has to find out if he is ever to sleep again. He goes to see ... the rabbi Nachtner. He comes in, he sits right where you're sitting right now. "What does it mean, rabbi? Is it a sign from Hashem, 'Help me'? I, Sussman, should be doing something to help this goy? Doing what? The teeth don't say. Or maybe I'm supposed to help people generally, lead a more righteous life? Is the answer in Caballah? In Torah? Or is there even a question? Tell me, rabbi, what can such a sign mean?"

Larry Gopnik: So what did you tell him?   

Rabbi Nachtner: Sussman?

Larry Gopnik: Yes!

Rabbi Nachtner: Is it ... relevant?

Larry Gopnik: Well, isn't that why you're telling me?

Rabbi Nachtner: Okay. Nachtner says, look. The teeth, we don't know. A sign from Hashem? Don't know. Helping others ... couldn't hurt.

Larry Gopnik: No, no, but ... who put it there? Was it for him, Sussman, or for whoever found it, or for just, for, for ...

Rabbi Nachtner: We can't know everything.

Larry Gopnik: It sounds like you don't know anything! Why even tell me the story?

Rabbi Nachtner: [chuckling] First I should tell you, then I shouldn't.

Larry Gopnik: What happened to Sussman?

Rabbi Nachtner: What would happen? Not much. He went back to work. For a while he checked every patient's teeth for new messages. He didn't find any. In time, he found he'd stopped checking. He returned to life. These questions that are bothering you, Larry - maybe they're like a toothache. We feel them for a while, then they go away.

Larry Gopnik: I don't want it to just go away! I want an answer!

Rabbi Nachtner: Sure! We all want the answer! But Hashem doesn't owe us the answer, Larry. Hashem doesn't owe us anything. The obligation runs the other way.

Larry Gopnik: Why does he make us feel the questions if he's not gonna give us any answers?

Rabbi Nachtner: He hasn't told me.

[Larry puts his face in his hands in despair]

Larry Gopnik: And ... what happened to the goy?

Rabbi Nachtner: The goy? Who cares? 

Source: A Serious Man (2009), written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Labels: film & television, Jews, Judaism