US Politics Mega-thread - Page 4191

My father-in-law is not an anti-Semite.

It’s that simple, really. Donald Trump is not anti-Semitic and he’s not a racist. Despite the best efforts of his political opponents and a large swath of the media to hold Donald Trump accountable for the utterances of even the most fringe of his supporters—a standard to which no other candidate is ever held—the worst that his detractors can fairly say about him is that he has been careless in retweeting imagery that can be interpreted as offensive.

I read the Dana Schwartz piece that appeared on Observer.com. As always, there are thoughtful points but journalists, even those who work for me at the Observer, are not always right. While I respect her opinion, I want to show another side to explain why I disagree.

In my opinion, accusations like “racist” and “anti-Semite” are being thrown around with a carelessness that risks rendering these words meaningless.

If even the slightest infraction against what the speech police have deemed correct speech is instantly shouted down with taunts of “racist” then what is left to condemn the actual racists? What do we call the people who won’t hire minorities or beat others up for their religion?

This is not idle philosophy to me. I am the grandson of Holocaust survivors. On December 7, 1941—Pearl Harbor Day—the Nazis surrounded the ghetto of Novogroduk, and sorted the residents into two lines: those selected to die were put on the right; those who would live were put on the left. My grandmother’s sister, Esther, raced into a building to hide. A boy who had seen her running dragged her out and she was one of about 5100 Jews to be killed during this first slaughter of the Jews in Novogrudok. On the night before Rosh Hashana 1943, the 250 Jews who remained of the town’s 20,000 plotted an escape through a tunnel they had painstakingly dug beneath the fence. The searchlights were disabled and the Jews removed nails from the metal roof so that it would rattle in the wind and hopefully mask the sounds of the escaping prisoners.

My grandmother and her sister didn’t want to leave their father behind. They went to the back of the line to be near him. When the first Jews emerged from the tunnel, the Nazis were waiting for them and began shooting. My grandmother’s brother Chanon, for whom my father is named, was killed along with about 50 others. My grandmother made it to the woods, where she joined the Bielski Brigade of partisan resistance fighters. There she met my grandfather, who had escaped from a labor camp called Voritz. He had lived in a hole in the woods—a literal hole that he had dug—for three years, foraging for food, staying out of sight and sleeping in that hole for the duration of the brutal Russian winter.

I go into these details, which I have never discussed, because it’s important to me that people understand where I’m coming from when I report that I know the difference between actual, dangerous intolerance versus these labels that get tossed around in an effort to score political points.

The difference between me and the journalists and Twitter throngs who find it so convenient to dismiss my father in law is simple. I know him and they don’t.

It doesn’t take a ton of courage to join a mob. It’s actually the easiest thing to do. What’s a little harder is to weigh carefully a person’s actions over the course of a long and exceptionally distinguished career. The best lesson I have learned from watching this election from the front row is that we are all better off when we challenge what we believe to be truths and seek the people who disagree with us to try and understand their point of view.

On July 08 2016 05:19 Plansix wrote:

There is an amazing interview from the West Wing TV show where they talked to White House staffers, including the president’s “body man” which is basically a personally assistant. It is referred to as the hardest job in DC because they are the least qualified person who has to handle General, diplomats and senators. Sometimes very rudely if they are pissed at the president. On average they make it about 12 months and every single one of them had gray hair and they were all under 25.

Trump's son-in-law under fire from family

Kushner, Ivanka Trump's husband, attempted to defend his father-in-law from what the campaign says is a journalistic mob driven by political correctness. In a piece published Wednesday, Kushner revealed his grandparents' story of survival during World War II because, he wrote, “it’s important to me that people understand where I’m coming from when I report that I know the difference between actual, dangerous intolerance versus these labels that get tossed around in an effort to score political points.”

But Kushner’s estranged relatives are angry about his decision to invoke their grandparents’ story as Holocaust survivors — and they let it be known on social media, complete with a few typos.

“I have a different take­away from my Grandparents' experience in the war,” Marc Kushner, a New York City-based architect and first cousin, wrote in a Facebook post Thursday morning with a link to his cousin’s Op-Ed. “It is our responsibility as the next generation to speak up against hate. Anti­semitism or otherwise.”

He also posted a link to a piece by Dana Schwartz, a Jewish woman who works for Jared Kushner at the New York Observer and who asked him point blank: “[H]ow do you allow this?”

Jacob Schulder, another cousin, went even further in a comment on Marc Kushner’s post, writing: “When an out of touch with reality nominee hires an out of touch with reality campaign manager, who is also a son­-in-­law, you get the BS Jared wrote. I don't think Trump is an anti­Semite; I think he's a lying idiot (among other things) with little to no experiences outside his teetering fiefdom of failed development projects, divorces, bankrupted sports leagues, fraudulent 'Universities' and golf courses (and the list keeps going). The very first thing a responsible campaign manager should do, I'd think, and I mean the very first thing, would be to take away his father-­in­-law's Twitter account. Even Joseph Kushner would've had the street smarts to figure that one out while living on boiled potatoes in the forest.”

He continued: “That my grandparents have been dragged into this is a shame. Thank you Jared for using something sacred and special to the descendants of Joe and Rae Kushner to validate the sloppy manner in which you've handled this campaign. From the references to 'Palestine' at the AIPAC conference (which got Donald jeered) to the justification of the itchy Twitter fingers your father­in­law has, you've managed to further prove what so many of us have known for many years. Kudos to you for having gone this far; no one expected this. But for the sake of the family name, which may have no meaning to you but still has meaning to others, please don't invoke our grandparents in vain just so you can sleep better at night. It is self serving and disgusting.”

On July 08 2016 05:35 GreenHorizons wrote:
People who defend the police, and more importantly defend the legal process that follows, I have to ask. What percentage of killings/complaints of abuse by police do you think there is no wrong doing worthy of criminal penalty?

On July 08 2016 05:41 amazingxkcd wrote:
Wikileaks goes on the offensive

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/751153144856514560

On July 08 2016 05:41 amazingxkcd wrote:
Wikileaks goes on the offensive

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/751153144856514560

On July 08 2016 05:42 GGTeMpLaR wrote:


The vast majority of police are just ordinary people doing their job.



Does this actually change anything?

On July 08 2016 05:53 LegalLord wrote:

Basically what I got from listening to the committee hearing was, "we can't charge Hillary for negligence or perjury because we can't prove she isn't just a moron who doesn't understand (C) markings."

On July 08 2016 05:51 LegalLord wrote:


Most of the Jews I know (who are admittedly from ex-Soviet/Ashkenazi roots) are pro-Trump. Or better to say, anti-Dem and very severely anti-Clinton. The more liberal Jews of Western roots are probably much less so fans of Trump.

On July 08 2016 05:42 GGTeMpLaR wrote:


The vast majority of police are just ordinary people doing their job.