Silence doesn't communicate

For years, decades even, I thought that silence in any relationship, close or distant, didn't communicate, or communicated poorly.  I have changed my mind.  Silence does communicate, as loud as thunder.  It just doesn't communicate what I wanted to hear.

An Israeli Perspective

Americans have no problem offering their opinions when they have no facts.  Antisemitism is a perfect case in point.  Antisemitism is so old there must be some truth to it.  There are so few Jews and they don't fight back.  Worst case scenario, you say something and he takes offense and you didn't even know he was Jewish.  Good people everywhere hurled the charge of "war crimes" at the state of Israel before she even declared statehood.

The following is a response to a careless young man who didn't know what he was talking about.  One wonders just how long we must wait for young men to grow up and take responsibility for the words they speak.

End Notes from Stop the Steal

Ben's 2nd book, Stop the Steal, is only available in paperback.  Which makes viewing the sources noted in the End Notes a bit of a problem to find.  So, here, the solution.

1.   https://ballotpedia.org/Partisan_affiliations_of_registered_voters
2.   https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia%27s_Polling_Index:_Congressional_approval_rating
3.   https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2020:_Incumbent_win_rates_by_state
4.   You will find little evidence online for this assertion.  I contend that Big Money rarely impacts elections’ outcomes, it rather follows winners into their offices.
5.   a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”  See the film Stand and Deliver, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094027/
6.   Aristotle, Jefferson, and nearly every serious philosopher of politics and democracy
7.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WxdaU9AsnU
8.   https://today.yougov.com/ratings/politics/popularity/politicians/all
9.   https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/logic_in_argumentative_writing/fallacies.html
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect#Definition
11. https://citizensandscholars.org/resource/national-survey-finds-just-1-in-3-americans-would-pass-citizenship-test/
12. falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson, who nevertheless preached it until he became president
13. Unfit -- https://benpaine76.blogspot.com/2021/01/unfit.html
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman_1948_presidential_campaign#Whistle-stop_tour
15. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/20/presidents-ranking-trump-biden-list
16. “There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them"

The Price of Protest: An Open Letter to America’s Children

The following words were inspired by the anti-Zionist protests in “elite colleges and universities” across the United States which in turn were inspired by Hamas declaring war on Israel.  Full disclosure: the author of this piece is a Zionist, someone who affirms that the Jewish state of Israel has the right to exist, even if that right is based solely on the spoils of war.  I also declare that I, like so many Israelis, want Benjamin Netanyahu gone.  I further declare that anti-Zionism is 100% antisemitism, that it is 100% Jew hatred, both of which sentiments are quite legal in these United States, as sentiments.

Alexei Navalny

R.I.P. Alexei Navalny, 4 June 1976 – 16 February 2024

A Brief for Israel

It is April 5th, 2024.  But this needs to go upfront.  As an American who numbers Jews among my very best friends, as an American who is a sincere friend of the state of Israel, I am nonetheless deeply disturbed and horrified at the number of civilian deaths – even as "collateral damage" in wartime – in Gaza at the hands of the IDF under PM Benjamin Netanyahu.  But for 75 years, the policy and practice of Palestinians  – whether under Hamas, the Palestinian Authority or the Palestine Liberation Organization – has been the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians.  Where was the outrage?

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While many of us bemoan the ascendancy of Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel's Donald Trump?) and his supporters, you have to wonder: if you were an Israeli Jew, would you still be patient with the daily threats of bloodshed posed by Palestinians?  Yes, Israel has over-reacted to Palestinian violence, but what would you have done?

It is my conviction that a lot of anti-Israel sentiment in these United States, especially among young people, is due to a lack of historical perspective.

Fixing a Broken System in 800 words

This piece was written to be an Op-Ed.  The Washington Post has rejected it.  I will take it down when and if some newspaper publishes it.

Bias and Donald Trump

This piece is too long for a letter to the editor and too short for an Op Ed piece or even a Ben Paine blog post.  Here it is anyway.   When I write I publish.

On September 11th, 2023, the NY Times published an article: Trump Seeks Recusal of Judge in Federal Elections Case, as she had shown bias against him.  In the end, can Donald Trump get a fair trial anywhere?  Can this, or any, judge sit in judgment on Donald Trump without bias?

Who Can You Trust?

I have a young friend whose politics are informed by a lack of trust in government, a position that I am sympathetic toward.  Our presidents have lied to us, especially about the most momentous thing of all – going to war!  Woodrow Wilson lied to us, FDR lied to us, LBJ and Richard Nixon lied to us.  Donald Trump lied to us when he need not have.  But mistrusting the establishment and/or the mainstream media has its perils, like compelling you to ask: who do you trust?  One answer is, no one: but that kind of nihilism leads nowhere.  Another answer is the anti-establishment.  But who are they?  Donald Trump, the Prince of Lies, has tens of millions of Americans who trust him, despite the clear evidence that no one else in the American tradition has ever been accused, justly, of SO treating the simple truth like poison. 

Perspective

Both Carl Sagan and his god son Neil deGrasse Tyson had “cosmic perspectives.”  That is, they thought about the cosmos, the universe, everything.  Although they both were professional astronomers/astrophysicists, their cosmic perspective forced them to include physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, botany, and a host of human sciences in their quiver of useful knowledge.  As scientists in the public eye, who never ceased to enjoy teaching us stuff we didn’t know, their true roles were as advocates for scientific literacy.