Elsewhere in the News

Donny Deutsch has been a television commentator and advertising executive.  This is what he said on MSNBC after the mass shooting in Buffalo:  "Brand every Republican"...as the party of "racist, violent replacement theory."  Just despicable.  How about we brand every Democrat as a liar, willing to say anything, and engage in any demagoguery, in order to make a political point.

Although, I wonder if our President is that far from siding with Deutsch.  Here is Biden:  "This MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that's existed in recent American history."  Hmm.  Occupy Wall Street.  Black Lives Matter.  Antifa.  

In Kiel, Wisconsin, some Middle School kids (age 13 years) are being accused of Title IX sexual harassment.  No, not rape, not improper touching, not even calling the "victim" a nasty word.  Their offense?  Not using the desired pronoun.  The "victim" wished to be referred to as "they" and "them."  I do not know if the offenders mocked the individual in question, or repeatedly bullied the other child in some way.  I do know that these school administrators are prone to act too hastily in dealing with these situations, when perhaps a sit down with the involved parties might solve the matter.  But calm reflection and counseling seems to be the road less traveled.   

Robin Abcarian is a columnist at the LA Times.  In today's paper was an Op-Ed by her decrying the overturning of a 2018 California Law mandating that publicly held corporations have a certain number of female directors on their boards.  An LA County Superior Court Judge declared the law to be an unconstitutional denial of the equal protection clause under the state constitution.  Some of you may wonder why it's the government's business to dictate a corporate board's makeup.  So do I.  Are women always to be victims, unable to accomplish on their own?

I am proud to say that one of my daughters works for an organization called "Chief."  Chief bills itself as a women's empowerment group.  Here are a few lines from their website.  "Chief is the only private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders."  "Chief drives women to the top and keeps them there."  "Chief is changing the face of leadership."  How about that?  Changing the face of leadership without government involvement.  

I recently had an email exchange with a fellow Jewish colleague who happens to be on the left.  He assured me that any anti-Israel sentiment in the Democrat Party is on the fringe only.  Let's see.  Recently, President Biden appointed Karine Jean-Pierre to replace Jen Psaki as the White House press secretary.  Jean-Pierre has criticized AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group) as having "severely racist, Islamophobic rhetoric."  She also accused AIPAC of using "anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric."  (Full disclosure.  I have donated to AIPAC, as well as to ZOA, the Zionist Organization of America.)  

First, I do not think anyone who has the position of White House press secretary can be said to be on the fringe.  Unless, we also agree that the President being served by that press secretary is also on the fringe.  Second, it is well known that AIPAC is nonpartisan.  It supports both Republican and Democratic candidates for congress.  AIPAC has only one goal - support for the continued existence of the State of Israel.  Democratic leaders and elected officials regularly attended the yearly AIPAC conventions in the past.  It has only been since the party has become increasingly anti-Israel that attendance by Democratic officials has declined.  

Recently, the CUNY (City University of New York) School of Law faculty voted to support a student resolution supporting the anti-Israel BDS movement.  (BDS stands for Boycott, Divest and Sanction.)  The resolution accused Israel of war crimes; and said that the exchange programs with Haifa University and Tel Aviv University were a "form of propaganda," meant to "normalize settler colonial and apartheid rule."  The purpose of this post is not to prove the absurd lies behind those allegations.

However, if anyone thinks CUNY is on the "fringe," think about this.  CUNY consists of 25 colleges, with campuses in all five boroughs of NYC.  A whopping 275,000 students are enrolled.  If an institution of this size and magnitude, in the largest city in the country, is considered "fringe," then I am at a loss to understand the definition of the word "fringe."