Tag Archives: Trump

Strangers in a Strange Land

“You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger: You were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).

The Passover service reminds Jews that once we were slaves in Egypt. We also remember that not so long ago, millions of us were herded into concentration camps to be tortured, worked, or poisoned to death. These memories should encourage us to feel empathy for the people who are currently suffering under cruel regimes.

Most Americans are now aware that the Trump administration is a consistently cruel regime. Some of the meanest people Trump could find are running our government. Times are hard, and about to get harder, for anybody with little money. For immigrants, life has become not just hard but terrifying. Not much prevents ICE from disappearing any of them into some hellhole in El Salvador for no reason at all.

Jews left Egypt because Pharaoh had made life unbearable for us. But after our miraculous escape into the desert, some missed their old homes, especially the pomegranates and figs. We were free, but the migrant life brought us a new set of troubles. Few people leave home if they don’t have to. We love the landscapes, people, and communities where we grew up. If we can stay home and make a living in peace, that’s what most of us prefer to do. But if staying home means that our families are subject to violence, extreme poverty, or other forms of oppression, sometimes we have to leave.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, there were around 48 million immigrants in the USA in 2022. Some came because their relatives were here and could find jobs for them, or to study at our great universities. However, many of them were fleeing terrible conditions in their home countries. They had to leave. They crossed deserts, rivers, and mountain ranges to get to this country, where they hoped to be able to live in peace.

Immigrants look for work in sectors where there are labor gaps, in agriculture, health care, or construction. They include doctors and software engineers as well as farm workers and care providers. Together, they generated $4.6 trillion in economic output in 2022. Often they pay taxes without gaining the benefits citizens expect from the government. Without their youth and vigor, our country would not be able to support our aging population as it retires. We owe them a lot.

In addition to what US citizens gain in needed labor and new business ventures, we get a range of wonderful new food and music to enrich our lives. Anybody who visits a major city in the US can find and enjoy nearly every culture in the world. This has always been part of why most of us love this country: everybody is here. People from Iran and Iraq, China and Japan, Russia and Ukraine, manage to live together in America. Within a generation, they are as American as it gets.

Yet instead of welcoming these people who went through so much to get to our country, our government treats them like criminals. Democratic presidents have not done much better than Republicans in this regard. It’s easy to blame immigrants for situations that are clearly not their fault – like the American appetite for opioids, which has fed the growth of violent gangs worldwide. No American government wants to admit that our country’s cynical support for South and Central American dictators nurtured the drug trade and devastated the lives of their citizens. Yet we bear heavy responsibility for the brutal conditions that have made so many flee their homes.

The worst irony for many Jews this Passover is that another cruel regime causing tremendous suffering is the state of Israel. Jews who realize how badly Israel has treated Palestinians since the state was founded are struck with deep shame and horror. Most pro-Palestinian demonstrations include a strong showing of supportive Jews. We remember when we were the victims of cruel regimes. Now we must do whatever we can to stop the cruelty, even if the perpetrators of oppression and violence claim they’re doing it for our sake.

I would like to add two prayers to this year’s seder: May everyone in Israel/Palestine live together in peace someday. And may the United States learn to respect and protect all those strangers who honor us by coming to live here.

by Jane Collins
Please email me at janecollins1@gmail.com if you would like me to add you to my regular readers’ list.

What we do now

There will be no way to avoid a succession of horrors in the coming four years. It’s no use waiting for the Democratic Party to tell us what to do. It has become a creature of corporate interests, out of touch with the needs of the non-rich. We have to tell the Party what to do.

The non-profit sector is a mess of single-issue organizations competing for attention and money. We are not single-issue people. Whether you are on a board or just a member, pressure your group to join other groups in as many coalitions as it can manage. All our issues are connected under the banner of peace, justice, and a survivable environment. Progress on any of our goals helps us to achieve all of them. Solidarity is key. We must stand up for one another.

More than changing institutions, we need to change minds. Leave your comfort zone. Don’t stick to preaching to the converted. If you can get access, go on Fox or  the bro podcasts. Wait in line for a call-in radio talk show. Try to reach new audiences. Don’t talk down; persuade. Explain what you believe, and be ready to back it up.

We need big change. That means our actions must be non-violent. Violence is not change; it’s just part of the same cruel culture that is wrecking our world. If you are part of a protest, do whatever you can to keep things civil, no matter the provocation.

Expand your social set. Meet people who are not like you. Listen to them with respect. Everyone has something to teach. You don’t have to leave the country to find whole new worlds to explore. Besides, we need you here.

Most of all, keep yourself and your friends from wallowing in despair. If we think there’s no hope, we’ll stop trying, and then there really won’t be any hope. 

Trumpf the Insult Candidate

According to Trump, women are either fat pigs, horse-faced, ugly, dogs, crazy as a bedbug, nasty, birdbrains, whack jobs, or else can only succeed because they are beautiful or give blowjobs to the right people. But of course he doesn’t just pick on women. After the latest round of Trump campaign slut-shaming, I tried to think of any group Trump hasn’t insulted. Black people are low IQ. Muslims hate America. Jews who vote Democratic should have their heads examined. Reporters are public enemies.

Trump has mocked people with disabilities, Gold Star families, soldiers who died in war. Straight white Christian male Republicans are safe — unless they dare to cross him. African countries are shitholes. Immigrants are criminals, rapists, drug dealers, disease carriers. Poor people are morons. Anyone who believes in climate change, or that the last presidential election was free and fair, is a sucker who has fallen for a hoax.

What lies behind such relentless disrespect? Once upon a time, Trump was a handsome young prince, the scion of a racist real estate mogul who made him a millionaire by the age of eight. He learned all the skills a con man needs, including how to respond if anyone called him a fraud, a thief, or a sexual opportunist: “I know you are, but what am I?”

Owing to a lifetime of getting away with countless financial and sexual misdeeds, surrounded by sycophants, and protected by revolving squads of conscience-free lawyers, Trump is convinced he is invulnerable. He believes he is still young, strong, and handsome. His mind is clearly in tatters, but he continues to think he’s the smartest person in the room.

Who does get Trump’s respect? Tyrants. He makes puppy dog eyes at Putin and cherishes love letters from Kim Jong Un. He envies their ability to kill their enemies. Trump can only insult his.

I am proud to be part of some of the communities for which he has shown so much contempt. They comprise most of the United States, and really most of the world. If you haven’t been insulted by Trump yet, you’re just not trying.

(For a comprehensive list of Trump insults on Twitter, see https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/28/upshot/donald-trump-twitter-insults.html)

Broadcast News: April 25, 2023

It’s so weird how the major networks frame the news. A case in point is Nora O’Donnell’s CBS evening show on the day Biden announced his run for re-election.

The only issue CBS raised was Biden’s age. An interviewer on the street asked two young women for their opinion. One was white, one black – perhaps the network’s idea of balanced perspectives. Both thought Biden was too old to run. 

Trump appeared twice in this broadcast. The first time was a clip of him declaring that “you could take the five worst presidents in American history and they would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done.” One doubts he could name those five presidents, but never mind. What damage, what evidence? CBS does not comment or counter. Trump’s second mention was for the opening of his trial for sexual assault and defamation..

CBS followed the “worst presidents” quote with a finding from its recent opinion poll, in which they asked people “Are things in the US out of control?” and 72% answered yes. What did they mean? Mass shootings, climate change, the debt ceiling? A ridiculously vague question, no explanation of the response, and the blame for whatever problems respondents had in mind is tacitly placed on Biden. 

Later on in the same broadcast, O’Donnell ran a piece about Harry Belafonte, who died that day at the age of 96. The piece said he was an activist for social justice “during the civil rights movement,” even though he was an activist his whole long life. Clips proved he was still vibrant, articulate, passionate, and compelling in his early 90s. 

So does advanced age mean a person is unable to fulfill important public functions? According to this broadcast, the answer is yes in Biden’s case, but no in Belafonte’s. 

If the networks hadn’t given Trump $3 billion worth of free publicity during the 2016 campaign because he was so entertaining, he might never have become president, never encouraged the resurgence of white supremacy, never roused his followers to support police violence or misogyny. Maybe now things in this country would not feel so out of control. 

This broadcast also covered Texas storms with “hail bigger than ping pong balls” and more floods in Florida, and somehow failed to mention climate change. 

CBS newscasts are very similar to those of ABC and NBC. All three networks usually cover the same stories, in the same way, and often in the same order. They rarely mention other countries, unless American citizens are involved. They don’t use graphs or charts even when using them would be the most effective way to communicate what’s going on, as with COVID or climate change. And if they lean left, as common wisdom tends to suppose, they sure have a funny way of showing it.