November 3rd: A Day of Infamy?... Just a few years ago, American Presidents behaved publicly, for the most part, in a dignified manner: in a word, ‘Presidential.’ In their well-tailored Brooks Brothers suits, Presidents spoke in intelligent [to a degree] and complete sentences, and dealt with their peers around the world in a respectful, civil and judicious manner, as their positions warranted. Oh sure, we’ve had Presidents who were not particularly suitable for the job, i.e., Ford, Carter, but they did fulfill their Presidential duties as guardians of the nation as best they could.
Our fragile democracy was not threatened by demagogic and deranged individuals.
Not anymore. The current President is dismissive of the principles of our democracy, including a cruel disrespect for our basic humanity, no belief in oppositional fair play, and absolutely no regard for our constitutional-mandated freedoms. He’s only interested in amassing as much money as he can, regardless of legality, along with promises to obliteraate his enemies: he comports himself like one of those marauding Russian soldiers entering Berlin at the end of World War II: he’s essentially out of control.
Mr. Gripes’ long-held belief that this the stable political culture of this country, at the very least, would keep us safe from all the turmoil and kleptocracy of the rest of the world no longer is viable.
The reason? Trump may take us all down.
It’s obvious, I think, to anyone paying attention for the past year that there’s a Republican plan to keep Mr. Trump in office, whatever the result of the November election may be. Let’s start about a year ago when President Trump ‘kidded’ that if he loses the 2020 election, he’s not leaving office. At first, I think, Americans thought the idea was just another of Trump’s ‘throw-away’ lines, meant to be chatted among the media for a few days, but nothing for us to be worried about.
Donald Trump repeatedly has asserted it’s going to be a ‘rigged’ election, if he loses. ‘Rigged’ is Trumpian code for what exactly? That no matter if Mr. Trump gets trounced and beaten badly in the election, popular-vote-wise or electorally, he’s going to mount a no-holds-barred, exhausting campaign through the courts and God-knows-where-else to overthrow the verdict. ‘Rigged’, to Trump, means the election results coming up will change nothing – Mr. Trump is staying. And, even if he ‘loses’ in the courts, he’ll still resist: He’ll have to be carried out of the White House.
There’s a recent precedent for a disruptive election process. Mr. Gripes, who sadly possesses an elephantine memory when it comes to political chicanery, recalls an incident during the 2000 Florida ‘hanging chad’ recount imbroglio: in a county-government office in Broward County, a few days after the voting, ballot-counting inspectors, maybe a dozen seated around a large table, were beginning to take on the task of assessing the validity of some of those questionable ‘chad’ ballots.
Suddenly, there was a pounding on the glass doors and windows surrounding the room. Screaming Republican operatives, just outside the room, and certainly under a directive of the Bush campaign, made such a racket and created such consternation and fear that the task at hand was suspended, never to be resumed. That insurrectional action was the initial phase of Republican state officials’ push to award Florida’s electoral votes to George Bush weeks later. Intimidation worked to perfection. Dare I say it? ‘Anarchy’ won the day.
Is it possible the election coming up will be ‘fair ‘, according to the President? No way. Donald Trump has a foolproof strategy that’s worked so many times for him in the past: undermine the legitimate processes, throw a million charges at his opponents, denigrate them, confuse the public, and, above all, create a lot of chaos. And if that doesn’t work, create even more chaos.
Just imagine what the Republicans have in store for us the day after the election: a demand for recounts in every state that’s close; a demand to validate every ballot one-by-one; a rush to the courts for rulings, whether justified or not; a million accusations of a rigged election, further gumming up and delaying the process, even replacing state electors of the Electoral College with new ones who will then back Trump; and at the end of this insanity, as Trump gets legal backing from his sycophantic, boot-licking Attorney General Bill Barr, calling in the military to deny a Biden victory, citing ‘a national emergency.’
The overall strategy is real simple: Legally, illegally, justified or unjustified, just keep the plates spinning until the other side gives in, and gives up.
Batten down the hatches, Americans: we’re in for one hell of a ride.
A Repeat Corona Crisis in NY?.....New York, regrettably, appears to be descending into another perilous corona-virus crisis akin to the grim days of March and April in which, you remember, shortages of hospital beds, personal protection equipment, and ventilators were the most urgent issues, and the threat of hospitals being overwhelmed very real.
Somehow, through a confluence of missteps by politicians’ timidity and religious leadership, blind ignorance, pig-headed stupidity, or authoritarian willfulness, we’re heading down that road again. And, this time, the winter and flu seasons will be here soon.
Dissecting this developing calamity, the largest fault, despite their vehement denials, lies with a particular segment of the population: the ultra-Orthodox who are concentrated in some areas of New York, and comprise a very significant percentage of citizens who live there. In those zones, during the last month or so, the positivity rates for contracting the virus have jumped [from a little over 1% to as high as 16% in some areas].
The conclusion as to the direct cause of the startling rise has to be the ultra-Orthodox citizenry and the disregard for basic virus safeguards and rules. As they say, ‘Just look at the data.’ It’s impossible, looking at that data, that it could be anything else.
But the inhabitants of the areas with rising infection rates are not solely to blame. In fact, I think it’s the political and religious leadership, who know better, that are especially at fault. But in the affected communities that’s not the prevalent sentiment. In fact, the rabbinate in areas like Williamsburg, Borough Park and in mid-Hudson Valley asserts that the ultra-Orthodox groups, among all the putative culprits, are being ‘singled-out’. Come on, man. Don’t BS me. You know what that statement represents? Denial.
The most vexing problem in these communities is the leadership: it has been pitiful. Instead of acknowledging that face-covering mandates are being ignored, despite warnings from doctors and medical authorities, and that large congregants of adults attending religious services or weddings are probably ‘superspreaders’ of the virus, these elderly religious leaders, whose numbers incidentally have been decimated in this corona period, encouraged the dissemination of the misinformation, which accelerated the virus spread.
But blame for this impending disaster is not only limited to religious leadership. Timid politicians here in New York State and the city are at fault, too.
After all, it’s a fact that the rabbinical hierarchy can deliver virtually a 100% bloc of votes for a candidate they favor in an election; their congregations look to them to make that decision for them.
Breaking that down, that means if we posit a rabbi supports a particular candidate, and there are, let’s suppose, 2,000 members in his synagogue, that’s 2,000-to-zero votes in the bag for that candidate. You can imagine what a mother lode that represents for avaricious politicians like Cuomo and de Blasio [any politician, probably.] That’s got to be the reason why during the past few weeks, there’s been no police enforcement of a mask policy or a crowd-limitations mandate. We can’t offend anyone, is the calculus of de Blasio and Cuomo; those unanimous voting blocs are too precious.
Oh, yes, the cops tell people to put on masks, maybe, but no arrests or fines. Warnings and slaps on the wrist, that’s it. There’s only one policy that would work: fat fines of $500 per individual, $25,000 for institutions. Only a few days ago, Mr. Big Shot, Andrew Cuomo, very late in the game, made the point that enforcement with fines and even imprisonment will now occur. That’s like shutting the barn door after the horses have run out. The move is much too late. Corona virus now runs amok in neighborhoods. It’s the same story once again, isn’t it? The politicians always disappoint, don’t they?
Mr. Gripes
October 14, 2020
By Jim Israel
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