Shabbat shalom! And a tip of the kippah this week to Sir Paul McCartney, spotted attending Yom Kippur services in Chile, alongside his Jewish wife, Nancy Chevelle. McCartney was in South America as part of his big “Got Back” world tour, performed a concert in Santiago on a Friday night, and then went to Shul to atone for performing on shabbat. Not really, and thanks Sir Paul!
While McCartney “Get’s Back” and gives back to the world on his latest tour, there are billionaires in the US who have turned their back on democracy, and completely abrogated their role as stewards and protectors of this great nation. As a former journalist, I cannot begin to describe my disappointment in the crumbling and decaying foundations of the Fourth Estate, one of the most important institutions remaining to help ward off our decline into whatever brand of autocracy or “fascism” the orange turd represents. This is not hyperbolic. Dumb-as-a-stump Trump is actually telling us what he plans to do should he win enough electoral votes coming up in a few weeks, and it’s pretty alarming. Donny-dumb-fuck is actually willing to take the country to the edge of an abyss because he doesn’t have the decency to moderate his own narcissistic needs. And half our country is willing to role the dice and put their 401ks at risk. Why would they be willing to do this for an orange clown whose ethical and moral failures could not be more obvious? Because they loathe the ruling orthodoxy and the culture that it represents? Because the Dems didn’t provide a decent alternative? Because they got left behind by the global economy? All the above? I am also sick of “wokeness” and the crazy crap being bred into our young Ivy League leaders but I can see the big picture pretty clearly, and it aint good. There are not enough adult diapers in Costco to help the Dems deal with this shit.
What shouldn’t amaze me at this point, but nevertheless bugs the shit out of me, is that despite the recent news of the orange turd’s love affair with Nazi generals, Adolf Trump is actually gaining in the most recent polls. And the adults in the room, the ones supposedly speaking truth to power, and here I am particularly referring to the LA Times and The Washington Post, have not only turned their backs to holding this abhorrent would-be dictator to account, but have elected NOT to endorse Harris out of fear of reprisal should Heir Trump win. What a ghastly demonstration of cowardice, at a time when the country demands much more. This is just another sign of the growing irrelevance of the print media in this time of Tik Tok attention spans. I noticed a headline that thousands have already cancelled their Wapo subscriptions. Good for them. And there was this brilliant cartoon, a parody referencing Wapo’s mission statement, “Democracy dies in darkness”. Democracy is now on its last legs, and its only defense is now up to the voters. So, if you have to, hold your nose and vote Harris. Let’s keep the lights on.
And this is for all my friends and relatives in Virginia. Thanks to Jeff Tiedrich who writes “This week in stupid”:
If you’re a resident of Boones Mill, Virginia, you’re probably aware of Trump Town. Trump Town is yet another of these stores that exist only to separate the cultists from their money — but honestly, if you’ve a hankering to waste your hard-earned on the stupidest shit imaginable, where else are you gonna go?
The most spectacular specimens are in the back right corner: pairs of silvery, veiny metal testicles hanging from a ring and wrapped in protective clear plastic. “That’s Trump’s balls,” the store’s owner, Whitey Taylor, explains. The smaller set costs $75, the larger, $125. They’re heavy.
There are two things you need to know about this ball-slinging entrepreneur, Whitey Taylor. first, he’s running for Mayor of Boones Mill. second, he seems nice.
Donald “Whitey” Taylor was arrested Tuesday afternoon at the Trump Town USA store on Bethlehem Road, which he owns.
He’s charged with three misdemeanor counts of assault and one count of indecent exposure.
According to court documents obtained by WDBJ7, one woman claimed that on September 26, Taylor called her to the back of the store where he exposed himself and requested oral sex.
Court documents show the second woman claimed that, on October 15, Taylor grabbed her arm and shoved his hands into her pants, while restraining her from escaping.
You really can’t make this shit up. Let’s hope this store doesn’t become a museum or a shrine symbolic of our national disgrace and decline.
On hopefully a good news front, Israel continues to kick ass and take names. It’s refreshing to see the great “start up” nation start to take the offense for a change, helping the world rid itself of jihadists whose mission is to kill jews and western civilization. While it is still early to tell, it appears as though Israel rather deliberately avoided bombing nuclear or oil related sites, and focused instead on military targets in a broad message of “deterrence”. Here is a translation from an IDF spokesman this morning:
Following the directive of the political echelon, we carried out precise and targeted strikes on targets in different areas in Iran. These included missile manufacturing facilities used by Iran in its attacks on the State of Israel over the past year. Simultaneously, we targeted Iran’s surface-to-air missile arrays and Iranian aerial capabilities that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran. Israel now has broader aerial freedom of operation in Iran.
Iran attacked Israel twice, including in locations that endangered civilians, and has paid the price for it. We are focused on our war objectives in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. It is Iran that continues to push for a wider regional escalation.
The targets that were struck were selected from a broad target bank – targets of various types, and we will be able to select additional targets from it and strike them if required…
This is a clear message – those who threaten the State of Israel will pay a heavy price.
Whether this “punch in the mouth” will deliver the kind of deterrence intended remains to be seen. But so far, the Iran response has been to show normal civilian activity and to downplay and joke about the Israeli response. According to one analyst and friend of the JNR:
Iranian Telegram is full of posts downplaying the attack, laughing at the weakness of the response. They joke that when Israel is attacked, Israelis run to rocket shelters; when Iran is attacks, Iranians go to the rooftops to take videos (clearly missing the fact that Israel strikes military targets, where Iran and Hezbollah fire aimlessly and threaten civilians). Crowing aside, this narrative suggests that the attack was not too obviously overwhelming and shaming for the Mullahs. Iranian Public Relations can laugh this attack off, domestically, without appearing weak.
And now, without further ajieu, here is your weekly smorgasbord of jewy journalism, carefully and craftily curated for your reading pleasure by the staff of the JNR:
- The Sandy Koufax World Series dilemma – For millions of baseball fans, this year’s matchup of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees — arguably the sport’s two most storied franchises — is a dream decades in the making. But for a small number of them, the World Series schedule reads like a cruel joke: Up to four games of the best-of-seven series — the first two and, if played, the last two — overlap with the Jewish day of rest in parts of the U.S.. What to do? Hire a shabbat goy of course to turn the TV on and off! For more, click here.
- Kill the lights Hymie – I love that line from Maxwell Smart, who asks his Jewish robot friend to turn off the lights, but in this case, Hymie’s Deli in Philly is killing their business by running an ad for the orange turd. “I will never set foot there again”, claims one of its most historic customers. Rachel Ezekiel-Fishbein said she cancelled her plans to eat at Hymie’s on Friday night after she saw the ad. She said it presented Jewish women as caricatures, with their Yiddish inflections, sighs of “oy vey” and references to Ivy League students beleaguered by campus antisemitism. And she accused the RJC of fear mongering. I actually think the ad is pretty effective. You be the judge.
3. Solidarity sukkahs – Students at more than a dozen universities have built “Gaza solidarity sukkahs,” connecting the Jewish holiday, which is celebrated by living in temporary outdoor structures, to the pro-Palestinian tent encampments that popped up at schools across the country last spring. Police have dismantled several of the structures, spurring claims that they are infringing on the religious freedom of Jewish students. Go deeper ►
4. Everybody wants this – The show is trending hugely popular, but has been widely panned by Jews for it’s portrayal of Jewish women. Personally, I loved the show (but agree with the criticism) and found it very entertaining and I also liked the way it represented Jewishness and Judaism, without hammering us over the head with it.
5. In the latest episode of his podcast, Jonah Platt — the actor, musician and brother of Ben Platt — hosts actress Jackie Tohn, who plays the hot rabbi’s Jewish sister-in-law on Netflix’s popular romcom Nobody Wants This. Tohn opens up about her family’s Holocaust roots and the ongoing challenge in getting Jewish portrayals right in movies and TV. Watch it above.
6. The Jewish Quarterback at a Mormon College – Being a Jew and into sports, I am always looking for good Jewish sports stories. Thanks to my sister for forwarding this one for the JNR. “There may be, quite simply, no place in America less Jewish than Brigham Young University’s football stadium on Yom Kippur. In a typical year, few of the roughly 63,000 fans who streamed into LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah, for the annual homecoming game would even be aware that Saturday was the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. But this is no typical year: The star quarterback for BYU, Jake Retzlaff, is Jewish. And he has led the team for the flagship Mormon university to an undefeated start that’s confounded prognosticators and propelled the Cougars to a top-15 national ranking.” For more, click here, although you may hit a pay wall.
That’s enough for this week. Let’s be careful out there, and help us keep the lights on for democracy. Vote early and vote often for Kamala!
Brad out.
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