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If you really hate it, ask how much they paid, and pay double to take the plaque off.
Moishe, for simple comparison:
imagine Pres. Bush’s wife, a librarian, opening a Chinese or Russian-connected business and earning millions of dollars from that.moishe,
note the difference between rich people going in politics, and politicians becoming rich while or after being in office. With the first group, we need to give some leeway for people to protect themselves, otherwise, nobody will go into politics, and we will only have professional politicians. Romney is now considered a standard of a kosher politicians – but his business experience was perverted and laughed at whenever he ran for office against Dems. (caveat: making sure they do not depend on foreign sources is legit).My thoughts on Trump specifically:
1) He was pretty transparent that he does not plan to do tax disclosures before elections. So, voters were able to take that into account
2) I am pretty much shocked that after so many years of investigations, he is not yet convicted of something. I was pretty sure that he would have been. I can’t imagine the level of kashrus in his business practices, as one of the remaining accusation is giving tzedoka to a Jewish school… Note that it is already documented that at least several people committed crimes or “mistakes” in pursue of these investigations.
3) level of suspicion should be proportional to expectations. If I hear accusations that T uses his presidency to sell rooms in his hotel, or his daughter gets trademarks approved in China – it is something possible and could be on this or that side of ethical behavior that arise in the course of running businesses that exist for many years. Compare it with a president’s son and uncle with minimal qualifications who get investments and payments from the world hot spots. Totally different level.It is understandable that this problem raises up again. See hemline index – an economic theory that the hemlines raise and drop with the stock market.
ramateshkolnick, apologize for being so incredulous. In other words: I do agree with you in worrying about state of US politics. On the other hand, US strength exists in spite, and sometimes because of, the problems that you mentioned! US system is designed to channel yetzer hara into shouting, posting, and voting (see writings by Madison). So, if you would like to make the point that colonies are doomed and should join the CommonWealth, you need to have a stringer argument than what you mentioned.
some people also get psak to be where one should not for parnosa purposes.
As to youtube, two technical solutions:
1) filters (or not watching youtube)
2) start frumtube or wutube where membership will be verified by gender as certified by a RavUK?! Pot. Kettle. Black.
And how long can you hold the grudge that Gen Washington made the streets in US not safe for Brits?let’s try to judge ujm l’tzad zchus. Maybe he went to the same BY some of my daughters did and learned to use “modern” as a substitute for the words BY grads are not supposed to use.
I am taking upon myself, bli neder, to reduce consumption of expensive meat till the end of this week, not counting tisha b’av. will also not heat my pool and sauna.
Why would someone with achievements run for any office? It is our problem. No incentives and lots of negatives – you can get businesses exposed, get banned from twitter and get exposed to covid. So, we end up with those who are looking to public office as a way to get respect and earn money. I agree it is better to have millionaires to run for office rather than office-holders becoming millionaires during or after service.
RW > Maybe just boycott
This is a good idea, actually used in halakha. In gemora, I think, Shmuel threatened merchants that he will let people to skip some mitzva (was it fish on shabbos, I think I am conflating multiple stories here, sorry), similarly medieval times and also in 20th century NY against a sweet wine manufacturer that raised prices on their wine.
RebE > There are two reasons for inflation, demand pull and cost pus
Either way it is Biden’s fault (paraphrasing the kid who blames his grades on either genetics or environment – parents’ fault either way).
jackk > This is very depressing for Republicans
as others pointed out, inflation is depressing indeed. But it is double depressing that a Jewish person will copy news media in their transparent influence campaign of writing daily about “decreasing” prices on front page, while writing about growing prices previously on Page 16. Either you are yourself are such a pure neshomah that is easily influenced by such tricks, or you think it is worth our time to engage in propaganda on a Jewish site. Haval hazman.
> As for her bank/stocks etc. – loshan horah and none of our business
Knowing finances of public figures is not loshon hara. Moshe gave a full accounting in Pekudim, kal v’homer Ms Pelosi should. It is a sad, and corrupt fact that, as I understand, there are only partial restrictions on congressmen trading stocks that they control. Not only it creates either corruption, or appearance of it, but also creates an incentive for them to exercise more control over economy.
> after having admitted she grew up MO.
this is way over your usual anti-social behavior. You do not remind a baaalos teshuva about previous avonos. This is a big aveira. How do you return her respect of other posters now!?
RW, I am not sure what is happening with you. You obviously know how to read English as you are replying to the posts, but then we started discussing a paper by Gates and you obviously did not bother reading it, or, presumably, any other. You are discrediting all thoughtful anti-vaxers out there!
Not Ch’V relating to any particular tragedy, but there is an appropriate R Avigdor Miller’s story that, I think, I brought in here recently: someone invites a beggar from the street, goes to get him another cup of tea, and the beggar meanwhile throws hot water into baby’s face. Incomprehensible would be the first reaction, but it is putting undeserved guilt onto Hashem. This person, while engaged in a mitzva, did an aveira of leaving a baby near an unstable person and was punished directly through that action. Not saying this is always an explanation, but this seems to be a reasonable way to look at things generally – not putting guilt on some people, but as public policy.
I am very happy that so many different leaders agree on the term! And it even has it’s own wiki page.
A perennial question comes up in the news when an unexpected petirah is reported: maybe it was a vaccine or a virus.
A jan 2022 article in Palos analyzes UK data for a million of patients. They show 10x increase in cardiac events first several weeks after COVID, getting back to normal after 3 to 12 months. Refer to the article for specific details if you have something to be concerned.
Cardiometabolic outcomes up to 12 months after COVID-19 infection. A matched cohort study in the UK
I am changing my opinion here, people should go. This is simply theoretical as I’ll explain below, please consult your rav, parents and spouses for actual halakha.
There is a difference between punishment coming to us directly from Hashem and via cruel humans. In the first case, endangering yourself is pure rebellion against Hashem: you sent a virus but we don’t care. In the second case, it is legit to stand up to the reshayim, even to change how we tie our shoes, as ShA says… So, it may be a good thing to go to uman, daven for demise of reshayim and end of suffering they are causing. And bring some business and human worth to the locals.
Is there a danger? Only if russkies will decide to make a point and send a missile to the kever. Not something they can’t do. Or getting into a drunken confrontation with locals. They are probably armed this year as 2nd amendment is now adopted there. So be warned.
Pennsylvania is indeed interesting to watch: general trends are R, but personal D as you described. 2 years ago, Trump asked Biden during debate what will happen with fracking in PA, and Biden refused to answer. By now, the question is more visible and the answer is clear.
Menachem, I agree on greatness of challenges starting at enlightenment. A lot of people lived happily before that without encountering challenges to their faith or simply opportunities to go otd. Spinoza could, but not people of lower abilities. So, there was less concern about amei haatetz in some sense. Yes they were irritating, and sometimes deserving of pity, but nobody worried that a Jewish farmer will stop producing potatoes. We even had extra days to read megillah when they come to the market. Too much to expect them to come on Purim itself, and it was okay. This all changed with haskala, and maybe reaching a new level with current generation, when they can travel the world on the phone before modeh ani.
Thanks for the references. So, I read The Next Epidemic — Lessons from Ebola by Bill Gates NEJM April 2015. Make sure to read appendix that is a little more detailed. It is not very insightful in terms of pandemic prediction: he is mostly referring to ebola and HIV and Africa, while mentioning that airborne diseases are most dangerous. He is not even mentioning SARS or propensity of China to send new viruses to the world. Maybe PC police didn’t let him. At the same time, his analysis of potential response is very good. He identifies weak spots in our defense systems: lack of surveillance, slow 3day pcr testing, unpreparedness to manufacture new vaccines in several months, and more. I suggest reading this short article for more details.
In retrospect, if some of his recommendations were acted upon, a lot of lives would have been saved from COVID. Really dispiriting that even an influential guy like that was not able to move the government to act. Maybe he should have locked them out of windows until they do.
RW,
do tell me this is a result of your research, or do tell us where you acquired this information so that I can review it.Having a “mock pandemic” event is a good thing; if more people would have done that, we would have been better prepared. Next, firefighter training causes fire, and army exercises provoke invasions.
shrinking labor force is at least in part due to lower labor force participation, not just demographics.
possibly multiple factors behind lower force participation. maybe some people, esp ladies, found working from home helpful, and decided to either (slowly) switch careers or stay at home. Some people retired in last 2 years, especially at people-facing positions. Most of senior doctors we went to, retired. Some moved to EY ..Coffee ☕, with More details coming out, president Manchin has multiple drilling and mining ⛏️ programs as part of clean energy spending. Didn’t see specific financials, though. It was maybe not so nice of him to not involve his old friend senator Biden into negotiations, hope the latter will not object and veto it
RebE, but you should also arrange to give an interest-free loan. For that, you need to find a struggling businessman and also have sufficient – and honestly earned – funds that you can lend.
Also, arrange for paying workers on time. I guess, you can do on a cheap this with cleaners.
Drilling eved ivri’s ear seems illegal in USA, so we skip that, or travel somewhere else to perform.
To catch a rodef, you may want to work as a policeman, soldier, or CIA. Maybe just volunteer as a security force at your shul ..
There is also a simple half-pasuk that we repeat weekly, but not everyone treats this is as a mitzva (some do): sheshes yamim seavod …
huju, “leading producer” and “not much impact” is economic malpractice looking myopically at a small part of a total picture. I’ll eat my hat if this is written by Larry Summers.
If there were no fracking, the prices would have been up whenever Saudis or Russians wanted it earlier.
And this is more than just prices. We are now sending – expensive – LNG to Europe. If we (and others like Qatar) did not have it, Europe would have already forced Ukraine to agree to “peace” losing half of their country.
So, if a potential ger comes to Syrians, do they tell him: “go to Chabad, then come back and we will give you a shishi”?
No, R- lead congressional ballot on average – it was +1%, not 0.2%. In comparison, In 2018, D-s led by 7%-9%
RW, you may not realize that probably China and Russia are pushing these stories that US started this (as well as other pandemics in previous decades). They are posting these ridiculous stories on social media and blogs, some under pretense of being citizens of other countries, and their stories eventually get to you from unknown (to you) direction. This, combined with “covid brain” effect makes the whole country susceptible. In fact, I don’t know whether you are or not a commie bot!
> They dropping like flies in China so I doubt their immunity is better.
Well, official numbers in China are extremely low, but we can’t trust them, of course. Let’s look at Taiwan actually had peak of deaths in last 2 months comparable to US in 2020! Probably, because they met Omicron without previous immunity? But total for whole epidemic so far US has 3000 deaths per million, Israel Canada 1200, Taiwan and Japan 300 – 10 times less than USA. China’s lying numbers are 4 per million …
RebE > Reichstag was done by the Germans to blame the Communists.
? Both sides were “Germans”. While it is presumed to be done by Nazis, Smithsonian article says that this never was proven in any way.
House R 233.
Senate R 51. Counting those who vote for R majority leader. Request waiting to January Senate day one, possibly some will change sides.er > we’ll always see higher crime rates in cities no matter who is in charge
er, NYC and some other cities had a mixture of D- or R- (or moderate D-) mayors. You may want to compare performance in those cities (comparing with others) under D- and R-. Those who live in NYC – were you safer under Dinkins and de Blasio or Koch, Guiliani, Bloomberg?
Gadol, appealing to “gold standard” NBER is a political trick: the estimate will come up in a year, denying us a real-time signal to change economics and – o, horror – politics via elections. We need early signals. Let’s see how recession is defined:
Oxford dictionary: a period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters.
investopedia: Because recessions often last six months or more, one popular rule of thumb is that two consecutive quarters of decline in a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) constitute a recession.
wiki: Though there is no global consensus on the definition of a recession, two consecutive quarters of decline in a country’s real gross domestic product is commonly used as a practical definition of a recession.[3][4][5] In the United States, a recession is defined as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the market, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales”.[6] In the United Kingdom and other countries, it is defined as a negative economic growth for two consecutive quarters
In a 1974 The New York Times article, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Julius Shiskin suggested that a rough translation of the bureau’s qualitative definition of a recession into a quantitative one that almost anyone can use might run like this:
In terms of duration—declines in real gross national product (GNP) for two consecutive quarters; a decline in industrial production over a six‐month period.
In terms of depth—A 1.5 per cent decline in real GNP; a 15 per cent decline non-agricultural employment; a two‐point rise in unemployment to a level of at least 6 percent.
In terms of diffusion—A decline in non-agricultural employment in more than 75 per cent of industries, as measured over six‐month spans, for six months or longerI agree, this is about intellectual and spiritual achievement, not just being ehrliche or shomer shabbos.
There are similar observations in other intellectual areas that may or may not transfer to Learning:
– regression to the mean. Every exceptionally gifted person passes his genes to kids but chances that they’ll be as or more gifted are slim. Starting that he will probably marry someone not in the same category and just basic stats
– exceptional intellectuals are not always good at chinuch and teaching kids alef-beis. I observed this among chess players and scientists: solid professionals invest at teaching their kids their skill and kids may reach same or higher level; those at the top spend 100% time on their own achievement and their kids are either abandoned or intimidated.
RebE > Any radicalism is no good on either side.
FYI, right now DCCCC is spending $$$ to support extreme Republicans in primaries. Even D- congress-“people” are not happy with that. This really makes claims that R- extremists are a threat to the country (unless there is a partisan advantage to milk). See Weimar Republic as a reference: those against Communists voted Nazi; those against Nazis votes Commie. Th rest is history.
As please write to your D- rep to protest this.
R Avigdor Miller seemingly got this treatment by mistake – by people trying (unsuccessfully) to emulate his approach… His posthumous blatt for kids brings this week a kid who was given a tochacha by a Rebbe, and then he gives a “similar” tochacha to other kids. To his surprise, the Rebbe tells him to stop because he is doing it in anger… so, be careful when emulating a style.
jackk > in the over 240 years of this country we have had a peaceful transition between presidents except for one.
Not sure whether we/you actually was here for 240 years. Otherwise, you might know that not everything was perfect: there were transitions resulting from assassinations, one transition lead to Civil War, Aaron Burr almost became President, White House was burned, a Soviet agent was a VP …
You may constructed in your mind that this event is somehow unique in features you describe – but in what sense it is more concerning than several Presidents who were killed? Killing of an Austrian prince caused WW1, but not in US. And so a demonstration that walked into an under-protected Congress was not a burning of Reichstag.
Menachem, RebE, but what is the symbolism behind shmitah, and Torah seemingly means that this is symbolic, not just agricultural technology. If having something “seventh” is meaningful regardless of what it is, then any other “seventh” is also meaningful. The main argument “for” yom = 24 hours is based on preponderance of such statements in mesorah, although some sources may allow other allegories, and also reject other options based on the science of their days. As you read modern authors on both sides (some count actually 6 sides), each of them does not look fully proven (and that is why I am not bothering quoting any, sorry). I guess one lesson we can learn from history of science that sometimes one must suspend judgment until further information. Not everyone in history appreciated how much was still unknown and often “jumped to conclusions”.
covid could already be a DNA weapon. Chinese might have better immunity, not just because China is a police state, and they agree to wear masks, but also because they might have been exposed to similar viruses over time more than other countries.
hm, seems that Manchin is having covid brain effects and forgot what he said last week … can he be recalled?
interesting for the literal shabbos length.
if you are saying that belief in yom being always 24 years is needed to be shomer shabbos, h’V, then what do we do with shmitah that is shabbos for the eretz?! is shabbos a day? then what do we do with a year?
Saying that yom is 24 hours is anachronism. At the Chumash times, Jews probably used Talmudic uneven hours: dividing day in 12 parts. Not sure what Egyptians used. Night didn’t have a sundial for such precision so it has 3-4 shifts. Possibly 12 hours correspond to 12 months or general Babylonian method of dividing 6, 60, etc
Interestingly French revolution converted space and weight to metric but they couldn’t concur Jewish time: ten day week and ten hour day wasn’t accepted, but they tried
lakewhut? H’V, why one needs to go out of Torah environment and also “just work”. This is almost Zoroastrian division of the world into good and bad forces. Why not work in Torah environment, why not work (or study) for a couple of hours? The balance may vary for different individuals, but work is not a satan waiting for you behind a corner, it is a normal human condition allowing you to fulfil a lot of mitzvos! I heard people arrange to be able to do shiluach hakan for good money, why not arrange for paying your workers on time; being honest in business; saving human lives; giving food to poor; making free loans; catching a rodef …
Do you know the history of Lakewood hotel? Who built it and why?
lakewhut
> to be able to learn all day without interruptions
> is a risk that he falls into a bad crowd of other 20 year olds not learning.both of these considerations have merit, but presumably these are for different people. Some may learn whole day (Steipler?) and some are at risk of falling into a bad crowd.
In our days, with so much affluence, the first one for sure should be given a chance to grow into a Talmid Chacham. Ad kan? One Rav I know was asked, when in yeshiva, to help a shul in his community once a week. Rosh Yeshiva told him to decline as “you will be more useful for them later on if you learn full time”.
For the second guy, you should think ahead and help him avoid problems now and also later, and that includes ability to earn an honest living and support a family, which implies either/or professional training and being able to work 8 honest hours. There is no reason this can not be done in safe environment.
rw, you missed out. real estate prices were down.
Ayn hara – just when I mentioned Manchin, he got covid. Maybe all the libs wishing him bad …
RebE, Mitt Romney already tried and he lost because he was too nice to fight fellow Americans who were playing dirty. He was used to respectful arguments in the boardroom. I don’t recall libs saying – look at an honest clean businessman with reasonable medical insurance plan, no, he was guilty of war-mongering and dog-torturing.