Liar-in-chief. Holocaust denial. True Americans. Trump insults. Activist victories.
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN NEWSLETTER #32 FEB 3, 2017
Where to begin? It's been a terrible week but decent people everywhere responded with appropriate outrage, spontaneous protests, acts of kindness -- and dark humor.
Send-up of Trump's "alternative facts." The caption on this parody of Edward Hopper's iconic painting, "Nighthawks," is no more bizarre than the real-life prevarications of American's Liar-in-Chief.
(Wish I could credit the creator but this meme reached me without attribution)
THE REAL AMERICA
After a mysterious fire destroyed the only mosque in Victoria, Texas just hours after Trump announced his travel ban,"local Jewish leaders gave Muslims a key to their synagogue. Four churches also offered their space for as long as needed, and in just a few days, people of all faiths contributed $1 million to build a new mosque."
Thousands demonstrated this week in response to Trump's travel ban against refugees and others from seven predominantly-Muslim countries. Below, a sign seen at JFK on Jan 28.
ISLAMOPHOBIA
Fewer than one percent of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims are Jihadists. Banning people from Muslim countries because of the existence of Jihadists, says my friend Larry, is like banning immigrants from Italy because of the existence of the Mafia. Islamophobia is no basis for foreign policy.
Since 9/11, not one person in the U.S. has been killed by an immigrant from any of the seven targeted countries, writes Nicholas Kristof. "Every lethal terrorist attack in the United States in the past decade and a half has been carried out by American citizens or legal permanent residents operating either as lone wolves or in pairs, who have no formal connections or training from terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda or ISIS." The real threat to Americans is home-grown terror. More than 100 times more of us have been killed or injured by gun violence in the U.S. than were killed by terrorist acts, including 9/11.
“There was a random quality to the list of countries," writes Charles M. Blow. "It excluded Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where the founders of Al Qaeda and many other jihadist groups have originated. Also excluded are Pakistan and Afghanistan, where persistent extremism and decades of war have produced militants who have occasionally reached the United States. Notably, perhaps, the list avoided Muslim countries where Mr. Trump has major business ventures.”
Ah, so that explains it. The ban applies to people from places where his companies have no business interests but not to places where he does do business -- namely Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and Indonesia (which, by the way, is the nation with the largest number of Muslims, about 209 million).
[Map credit: Forbes.com]
JEWS & HOLOCAUST DENIAL
[Never imagined I'd need this heading.]
John Podhoretz, rarely my go-to political analyst, nails it in "The White House Holocaust Horror."
Deborah Lipstadt "wonders if Trump's troubling statement flirts with "softcore" Holocaust denialism."
Deja vu all over again. The son of a Holocausts survivor makes clear that his Jewish mother's agony as a WW II refugee and mirrors the suffering of today's Muslim mothers trying to escape the war in Syria.
Shame on the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Peter Beinart exposes the stunning moral failures of the Wiesenthal Center, its dean & founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, and its complicit supporters. While Wiesenthal gets a failing grade, Beinart gives the ADL and its new leader, Jonathan Greenblatt, well-deserved praise.
Jewish Republicans protest Trump/Bannon-- finally. But look what it took to get them riled up. Only when the Administration erased Jews from the history of the Holocaust did prominent right wing Jews, ZOA president, Mort Klein, and billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, speak out against Trump et al. Since Klein & Adelson presume to speak for "the Jewish people," I think it's incumbent upon every Jew of conscience to repudiate these men's blatant self-interest and lack of empathy. A shonda for us all.
POLITICS
[Cartoon by Mort Gerberg]
Check out the 305 people, places, and things that Donald Trump has insulted on Twitter. Believe me, they don't deserve it.
Truth vs. fiction. Philip Roth, author of the prescient novel The Plot Against America (which imagines that Charles Lindbergh, the aviator hero and Nazi sympathizer, ran against FDR in the 1940 Presidential election and won) tells the New Yorker why Trump is worse than Lindbergh would have been.
Meet the guy who's writing the President's Executive Orders. Last summer, Julia Ioffe published a revealing profile of Stephen Miller, then policy adviser to Sen. Jeff Sessions. Now Sessions is about to be confirmed as Attorney General and Miller is Trump's wordsmith. Time to focus on what Miller stands for.
Yet another surreal appointee. Trump picks Jerry Falwell to head education task force. Only another Gerberg cartoon can capture the lunacy of this choice:
VIDEOS
Robert Reich asks all the right questions. Take notes on Reich's brief lecture then call your Democratic Members of Congress [202-226-8000] and tell them to stand up to the Republicans on every single issue.
Pro-immigration anthem goes viral. Rabbis Yoshi Zwelback and Angela Buchdahl compose a hauntingly beautiful song in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport after witnessing mistreatment of detainees at the International Arrivals Terminal.
Dr. Glenda Russell counsels how to be resilient in the age of Trump.
Soon to play in a theater near you. The short trailer for "P.S. Jerusalem," a new documentary by Danae Elon, daughter of Israeli writer, Amos Elon, will whet your appetite for the whole film, if only because of the featured role of the director's precocious children. "P.S. Jerusalem" shows what happened to Danae and her family after she and her partner leave Brooklyn and move back to the city she left 20 years before.
Comedy routine by Triumph, the insult dog. The video is flagrantly gross, coarse, vulgar, obscene, rude, crude, salacious, smutty -- & funny. Click here to watch, but don't say I didn't warn you.
YOUR MONEY, YOUR VALUES
Support corporations that oppose Trump's executive order on immigration. Daniel Gross, its creator, dedicates his "Be in Great Company" list to his grandparents who were refugees from Nazi Germany.
Boycott corporations that sell Trump products. Tell them you won't do business with them unless and until their names disappear from this list. Economic pressure = political resistance.
Fight antiSemitism & Islamophobia more effectively. Contribute to the ADL, not the Wiesenthal Center. If you missed the link above, click here to learn the difference between the two organizations.
Tithe yourself once a month -- even if it's only $10 or $20. Support Planned Parenthood and depend on them to protect reproductive rights and fight Trump's Supreme Court nominee.
ACTIVISM
Kudos to protestors who came out this week all over the world.
[ Sign at a demonstration in Paris.]
Thumbs up to concerned students, faculty, staff and alumni of Virginia Polytechnic Institute who signed a communal letter repudiating the actions of their fellow alum, Steve Bannon. The letter says he "does not represent our values — he stands in opposition to them. We denounce him, and his appointment as Chief Strategist in the Trump Administration."
Thanks to whomever sent this message into cyberspace: "When you feel exhausted, drained, or burned out, remember how much you actually accomplished this week.
"Because of you --
1. Federal hiring freeze is reversed for VA (Veteran Affairs). 2. Court orders partial stay of the immigration ban for those with valid visas.
3. Green card holders can get back in country.
4. Uber pledges $3M and immigration lawyers for its drivers after #DeleteUber trends on Twitter.
5. Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) enrollment ads are still going to air.
6. The ACLU raised 24M over the weekend (normally 3-4Mil/year).
7. HHS, EPA, USDA gag order lifted.
8. EPA climate data no longer scrubbed from website.
9. More people of different career/religious/economic/race backgrounds are considering running for political office than ever before.
10. MOST importantly, since we live in a participatory democracy, the people are engaged. While more action is needed, sometimes you have to celebrate your wins. Stay vigilant, but also take self-care seriously. Activist burnout is an occupational hazard. Marathon, don't sprint." #resist #resistanceisbeautiful Have a great weekend.