Category: Politics

MAGA Conservatives are mean spirited hipocrites.  I am talking about the way they behave towards their fellow human beings. The big issue here though, is the hipocrisy.

Republitarians (Republican-Libertarian) are currently legislating some of the most restrictive laws ever against Abortion. They say it’s to save babies. Ok, let’s say that that is true. They have also voted against regulations to ban assault weapons, or to keep assault weapons out of the hands of mentally ill people.

The year 2023 is only three point five months old, and there have already been 146 mass shootings in the United States. 11,500 people have died as the result of a mass shooting this year. Of those, 398 were adolescents and 71 were children.  GOP House and Senate members have voted against any kind of gun regulation across the board, yet they say they want to save children.

This makes their “pro-life” stand an outright lie. They’re not pro-life. What they are is misogynistic.  They don’t care about saving babies, they want to control women.

That’s the goal.

Outlawing abortion is step one.  Next will be to outlaw birth control. What’s after that? Well, these folks are allegedly Xtians.  So we can envision some kind of a Xtian version of Sharia Law. Maybe full on Burkas will be required. In fifty years, Maybe women and girls will no longer be allowed to get any kind of education. Girls will be brought up to be breed cows and sexual servants.

I joined a group recently that shows the scriptural errors of Christianity, and in particular “Messianic (NOT) Jews.”  I was once one of those, from the age of 18 until about 28.  My Saturn return hit me at that time, and I realized that there was something very wrong with Jesus, but that is for another post.

The name of the group is Debunking the Christian Eisegesis and what I saw there was a very good arguement against Christianity, and especially the “Biblical” support for it.  I took things slightly off topic, and paid for my mistake.

A fellow, speaking about the “scriptural support” Christians claim about Jesus being the Meshiach, asked: “Why must they lie?”  I made the mistake of answering it with “It’s the same reason Donald Trump lies. It’s because they know they can get away with it.”  And that opened up a whole can of worms.  This group is full of Republicans.  Ultra Orthodox Fundamentalist Jewish Republicans, who nonetheless support G-d-less, anti-Semtic Donald Trump. It’s incredibly mind boggeling.  But, also my own fault. I tend to speak from my heart.

The first response came from Tzion Josiah ari Barlev: “we got a anti Trumper uhhhh ohhhh”

Khalil Rashad chimed in with “Anti-Trumpers are STILL error minded!”

I responded:
Khalil Rashad: To be anti-Trump is to be pro-Israel, pro- democracy and pro-human. Trump is authoritarian, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, and a white supremacist. In fact he only got two things right while he was POTUS: moving our embassy to Jerusalem and affirming Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He did nothing for America. As much as I favor his acts toward Israel, I don’t live in Israel.

Next came Tzion Josiah Ari Barlev  who posted:
“Tell me you aren’t orthodox without telling me you support Ukraine the biggest Nazi fortress the world has seen since Hitler.”

My response:
I am not Orthodox. I don’t think I’m even religious. I do not support Ukraine, for exactly the reasons you have, but I don’t know what else can be done when an enemy of humanity, Putin, is doing his best to establish autocracy as a global norm. As far as Moshiach is concerned, I am one who believes that the establishment of the State of Israel, and especially the outcome of the Six Day War, may have fulfilled the requirements for Moshiach.

Tzion Josiah Ari Barlev  didn’t really address any issue in my resonse. Instead he responded:
“You are absolutely foolish.”

“A Jew can’t support socialism because it’s a system of theft. They can’t support the abortion laws of the democrats it’s murder. They can’t support removal of weapons from citizens because it’s unjust and against Torah as weapons only go away when Moshiach comes.”

“You absolutely are a fool.”

“Saying Trump didn’t nothing for America is the most ignorant uninformed comment ever.”

Maybe i should have responded with something like “you obviously know nothing about socialism.”

But my response was:
So, I guess the early founders of the State of Israel, the kibbutzniks, weren’t really Jews then? They were mostly Socialists. Some were Communists. As were Ben Gurion, Sharett, Eshkol, Meir, Rabin . . . Nice the way you want to rewrite history. Kinda like the BDS liars.

Josiah didn’t have a response for that. But he did go on to say:
Ellis Arseneau ‘you are beyond ignorant if you think a religious Jew would side with Biden and the democrats socialism and stealing? I don’t even know a Rabbi who is a democrat.”

I didn’t say “What part of my statement: I am not Orthodox. I don’t think I’m even religious,” did you not understand?” Instead,  I responded:
Tzion Josiah Ari Barlev Mine is. I would venture to say that the entire congregation of Temple Beth El (Eureka CA) belongs to the Democratic Party. We are Progressive Zionists.

Then Tzion Josiah posted a whole bunch of screen shots from my Facebook news feed, and then posted:

Ellis Arseneau “yes I can see you are progressive. Which is the opposite of Religious Jew.”

Ellis Arseneau “you are not religious whatsoever. You don’t speak for Torah. I saw your profile. Enough said it’s full of vile things and evil.”

Ellis Arseneau “you have mountains of slander against President Trump on your wall and supporting Socialist Bernie the *Karet.”

“Dude your never gonna be able to atone for all that. Not in this life.”

My response: Uhm, didn’t I already say I’m not religious? That said, why then would I speak for the Torah?

SLANDER AGAINST TRUMP?  Eveything I’ve posted about Trump is a matter of public record. It’s on videotape. The whole world has seen it.

Trump is a pathological liar, an adulterer, a misogynist, a thief, and if not an anti-Semite or a white supremacist, he is at very least the darling of those two groups. Hashem vomits Trump from His mouth. Hashem has no tolerance for liars and hypocrites. I may not be religious, but I do know the truth. You sir, have a strange way of turning Torah on it’s ear.

Tzion Josiah Ari Barlev
“You are sick in the head.”

My response:
Tzion Josiah Ari Barlev Yes, I am a horrible heretic. Here’s my take on the State of Israel. I’m sure you’ll think it’s all wrong. No worries. Progressives hate me too. https://el.avalonrisen.com/about-israel/

And:

Tzion Josiah Ari Barlev And you are really, really, really going to love this (which, I am very proud of) https://el.avalonrisen.com/…/04/13/a-pantheistic-shema/

His response, where he really degenerates to the level of a kindergartener: Ellis Arseneau “this you? Haha”
https://www.facebook.com/reel/164770519485712…

My Response:
Thank you Tzion, for sharing your true self. Very mature of you. You know, I joined this group because I once fell for the whole Messianic Mishigas. I was 18, recovering from a breakup and very vulnerable. At the time my spiritual education was in flux I guess. Anyway, I feel like I am still a recovering messy, so I joined this group because your goal, disproving Xtianity, spoke to me. One mention of my disliking Mr. Trump and suddenly I became an outcast, a pariah, bombarded by all sorts of things that have diddly squat to do with the alleged subject matter of the group. How did your heart become so full of hate? It boggles my mind. I’m going on 70 years old. I am reevaluating my place among the people of Israel. One of my best friends is a Chabad Rabbi, and he has helped me a lot. He has love. Pure love from and for Hashem. If I did not know Rabbi Shumer, and you had been my first exposure to my reuniting with Judaism, I would have rejected it outright. You need to learn to love.

He responded:
Ellis Arseneau “it is very mature.”

“To obey Torah and follow the rules. Thank you for knowing the laws of zealousness and defending Torah.”

“One day you should gather your Karet synagogue and teach them of the Elijah story of the pagan fire of the pyre challenge.”

“I’m sure you’ll find somewhere in the story a pagan screaming “Elijah is immature Ana bully.”

“Imagine being so far from Torah you complain when someone else follows it and scolds and rebuked you.”

My response:
Tzion Josiah Ari Barlev Donald Trump has committed more crimes against Hashem and the Torah than I could even dream of, yet you laud him as some pillar of righteousness, perhaps a prophet of Hashem. Trump commits his attrocities against G-d in front of cameras for all to see. That kind of makes you a brazen hypocrite.

This is where it all ended. I quit the group.  This guy Tzion is the typical Ultra-Orthodox (Fundamentalist) Jew who spends their time studying Torah,  the Mishnah, Talmud, and the rest of the Tenach. There is really nothing wrong in that, except it makes them  very, very self righteous and judgmental.  Oddly, they do not believe that the State of Israel should exist (this might be why in the above conversation, Tzion didn’t respond to any of my reflections on Israel). The more radical types even go so far as to publically support the Palestinian lie. I wonder if Tzion is one of those?

In Israel these guys don’t work, they don’t serve in the IDF. They just mooch off the state, and make their wives get jobs to support them. The opinion of the average Israeli is that these guys are utterly useless.

Footnote:

*Karet (pronounced KAH-rate), also known as excision, is a biblical punishment imposed for a number of offenses, including sexual immorality, eating leavened products on Passover, performing work on the Sabbath and failing to circumcise males. The word itself comes from the root meaning “cut off,” but the particulars of what this punishment entails are not specified in the Torah and are subject to debate.

“Do you realize that the mass of people still live under some totalitarian or autocratic regime? It’ll make you think.” – Ed Chigliak

 to·tal·i·tar·i·an·ism
(“)tO-“ta-l&-‘ter-E-&-“ni-z&m
noun
1 : centralized control by an autocratic authority
2 : the political concept that the citizen should be totally subject to an absolute state authority

It’s interesting to me that today’s Republican Party would have us living under a dictatorship – an authoritarian one man regime (Donald Trump) if they had their way.

I remember growing up in the ‘60’s and early ‘70’s, and how it was pounded into our heads that Socialism, and especially Communism, were evil and bad because they took away our rights to free speech, to worship as we choose, and to pursue “life, liberty and happiness.”  My father fought in World War II against the autocratic Hitler and his deranged attempt to control how everyone thought and lived in Europe.  We were told that that was the way Socialistic regimes were, and that we had to fight them to preserve our freedoms.

All well and good.  We won the “cold war” and so today there are very few Communist countries left, and few others are interested in becoming Communist. So why is it that in these United States, where our freedom of speech is allegedly guaranteed, that we no longer have that freedom?

“What do you mean?” You might ask.

Well, consider actor Danny Glover: he was fired from his spokesperson position with MCI because he used his freedom of speech to speak out against this government and the war in Iraq. (This happened when George W. Bush was our POTUS).

Congressperson Liz Cheney (daughter of GWB’s vice president, Dick Cheney) has been censured by the GOP because she has denied the lie that former President Trump  won the 2020 election.

Is that freedom?

Many conservatives would say that if you speak out against the President and/or against the war (any war actually) you are a traitor, and traitors should be killed. But I ask you, if you are only free to speak out in favor of the President and in favor of war, how is that freedom of speech?

Many conservative fundamentalist Christians will tell you that the First Amendment (and the rest of the Bill of Rights, and the rest of the Constitution) only applies to conservative fundamentalist Christians. Not only that, but they will also tell you that the freedom of worship only applies to conservative fundamentalist Christian churches (everything else is a cult). They will tell you that American citizenship is really only applicable to conservative fundamentalist Christians, because the founding fathers were in fact, conservative fundamentalist Christians themselves.

Now you and I and any other thinking individual will realize that conservative fundamentalist Christians are full of shit, have their heads WAY up their asses and don’t know what they are talking about (or worse, are deliberately making up the grossest lies ever conceived). But I warn you, people like Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell Jr. and other well known evangelists are spreading these damnable lies so far and wide that many otherwise educated Christians are starting to believe it, and if they have their way, conservative fundamentalist Christianity will be the law of the land, and this country will become the very totalitarian state that millions of our fathers, brothers, mothers and sisters (many of whom were Catholic, Episcopalian, Unitarian, Atheist, Moslem, Jewish, Wiccan, Pagan, etc.,) gave their blood and their lives to prevent.

I digressed a bit here. Freedom of Speech is not totally dead:

If you are very wealthy, you can say whatever you want, to whomever will listen, and get away with it (and if you happen to employ workers, you can force them to listen and even agree with you).

Likewise, if you are very poor (and I mean, homeless, nothing-to-lose, poor), you can also say whatever you like, whenever you want, wherever you want, to whomever will listen (but no matter how truthful or right you are, very few will listen to a “looser”(and in America today, anyone making less that $100k / year is considered a “looser”).

But the vast majority of us can safely exercise our freedom of speech only in the voting booth, or anonymously. With “Patriot Act” powers in effect, even the later is questionable, and maybe the former as well.

What good is the First Amendment if you can lose your job, or your house, or have to fear for your family’s safety, for practicing it?

And, if it is true that our fathers, brothers, mothers and sisters gave their blood and their lives to keep this country free of totalitarianism, why are we so willing to allow their sacrifices to go to waste?

It’s a very strange world we are living in today.  There is a Pandemic happening across the globe. Millions have died and more millions have suffered from the virus known as Covid-19, or the Corona Virus.  It’s latest incarnation, Omicron, is much more catchable, but not nearly as deadly.

Millions have received the vaccine, but not enough for us to achieve herd immunity.  This is because a very large minority — mostly adherents of the Trump stolen election lie and/or Q-Anon conspiracy theories, refuses to take the vaccine.  Even more refuse to mask, and they openly encourage others to not mask or take the vaccine as well.

It could be a good thing.  For the past fifty or more years we have heard of the dangers of overpopulating the planet.  We are now seeing the rise of tides and the drastic changes in weather patterns so symptomatic of Climate Change.  It may be that the Earth Mother created the Virus to cull the herd.

That aside, we are in a crisis situation. Hospitals across the country are running out of room and there is a severe shortage of health care workers.  Mandates don’t seem to mean anything, and some even have the audacity to take protests against masking and vaccination to the streets.  The Virus doesn’t care. It rages on.

Back during World War II the Govt. rounded up all the Japanese Americans are put them in internment camps.  The Japanese were totally innocent, and many were fighting in the war along side other citizens.  This was a totally racist reaction to a crisis situation.

Now, we have a real crisis situation.  I would propose that the Govt. build some new internment camps.  I would -propose that a fleet of vans be sent out and go door to door, equipped with nurses and National Guardsmen.

The Nurse knocks on the door, “Hello how are you? Have you been vaccinated?”  “Yes, I have.” “Very good. Have a nice day.”

Next stop, “”Hello how are you? Have you been vaccinated?” “No, I haven’t.”  “I can vaccinate you right here, right now.”  “Great, let me have it!.”

Next stop, “”Hello how are you? Have you been vaccinated?” “No.”  “Ok, I can vaccinate you right here, right now.” “No, I don’t believe in that.”  “Ok. No worries,” and then the nurse signals to the National Guardsman to take the person, or persons, into custody. They are taken to an internment camp to live with other unvaccinated people.

I know this isn’t probably a very popular idea, but, “the good of the many outweighs the good of the few.”

I bet that within a year of the institution of this policy, we could go back to normal.