From the River to the Sea | Real Time with Bill Maher

| Movin' Right Along | The Jewish School Principals - Rabbi Ari Segal, former head of 2 Modern Orthodox schools, accused of ‘sexualized’ communications with students

 

 

(JTA) — A Houston Orthodox day school says it found credible allegations that a former head of school engaged in “sexualized” communications with students.

The school, Robert M. Beren Academy, is inviting graduates with similar experiences to reach out to an investigator who is scrutinizing the behavior of Rabbi Ari Segal, who served in senior positions at the school from 2004 to 2011 before assuming leadership of a prominent Orthodox day school in Los Angeles.

“Recently, multiple alumni came forward and stated that our former Upper School Judaica Principal and later Head of School, Rabbi Ari Segal (who served from 2004-2011), engaged in sexualized, persistent, emotionally charged communications with them — including communications indicating each were in a relationship — while they were students at Beren,” said the email to parents and alumni sent Tuesday evening and signed by Ethan Ludmir, Beren Academy’s president.

An outside investigator “determined that these reports are credible,” Ludmir said. He appealed to any alumni who had similar experiences with Segal to write to the law firm of the investigator, Ellen Spaulding. He said Segal declined to cooperate with the investigation.

The email gained a wider audience when it was posted to Facebook on Wednesday by Asher Lovy, an advocate for sexual abuse victims in the Orthodox community.

“Upon learning of the allegations we activated this pathway quite simply because it’s the right thing to do,” Ludmir told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview.  He said the allegations came to light this year.

A 1997 graduate of Yeshiva University who also holds degrees in social work and business administration, Segal worked in Orthodox high schools for three decades until earlier this year, according to his LinkedIn profile. He gained a reputation for urging open-mindedness in the schools, including in columns arguing for more conversation about sex and sexuality. 

“Why do we not have serious discussion in our yeshiva day school system about Jewish sexual ethics, the realities of Shabbat observance on a college campus, belief in God, the ubiquitous and insidiousness of pornography or the culture of drinking and drugs?” he wrote in a 2019 New York Jewish Week column about ideas he said he had raised at an Orthodox Union retreat.

After leaving Beren Academy, Segal served as head of school at Shalhevet High School in Los Angeles until 2021 and then as a consultant there until earlier this year. Shalhevet did not reply to requests for comment, nor did employers before he took his job at Beren, including the Ramaz School in New York City.

He and his family moved to Israel in 2019. His LinkedIn profile says he now acts as a strategic planning consultant for institutions including Yeshiva of Flatbush and Israel’s Diaspora ministry. He did not reply to a message sent via LinkedIn.

A 2019 article on the Shalhevet school news site announcing his phasing out said he was responsible for the school’s substantial growth, for bringing in more women educators to Judaic studies and for pioneering the first LGBTQ inclusion pledge in an Orthodox school.

Beren’s transparency stands in contrast to how other Jewish institutions have handled harassment and assault scandals, with some allegedly engaging in coverups.

Who is Ari Segal?

 

PASSING THE TRASH - MAKING ALIYAH

 

A 1997 graduate of Yeshiva University who also holds degrees in social work and business administration, Segal worked in Orthodox high schools for three decades until earlier this year, according to his LinkedIn profile. He gained a reputation for urging open-mindedness in the schools, including in columns arguing for more conversation about sex and sexuality.

“Why do we not have serious discussion in our yeshiva day school system about Jewish sexual ethics, the realities of Shabbat observance on a college campus, belief in God, the ubiquitous and insidiousness of pornography or the culture of drinking and drugs?” he wrote in a 2019 New York Jewish Week column about ideas he said he had raised at an Orthodox Union retreat.

After leaving Beren Academy, Segal served as head of school at Shalhevet High School in Los Angeles until 2021 and then as a consultant there until earlier this year. Shalhevet did not reply to requests for comment, nor did employers before he took his job at Beren, including the Ramaz School in New York City.

He and his family moved to Israel in 2019. His LinkedIn profile says he now acts as a strategic planning consultant for institutions including Yeshiva of Flatbush and Israel’s Diaspora ministry. He did not reply to a message sent via LinkedIn.

A 2019 article on the Shalhevet school news site announcing his phasing out said he was responsible for the school’s substantial growth, for bringing in more women educators to Judaic studies and for pioneering the first LGBTQ inclusion pledge in an Orthodox school.

 

John Doe Vs. Shalhevet /Segal

https://trellis.law/ruling/bs173706/john-doe-vs-shalhevet-high-school-et-al/20181108675019

THE VILE CAMPAIGN TO DISCREDIT RABBI MOSHE FEINSTEIN BY THE SATMAR RAV YOEL TEITELBAUM & OTHER PEASANTS!

Will the Child Victims Act be permanent? “We believe that any legislation dealing with child sexual abuse or adult sexual abuse needs to be equally applied to public institutions as well as private institutions”

After the Adult Survivors Act expired last month, state lawmakers are undertaking a new effort that aims to eliminate the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases.

State lawmakers and advocates will make a push next year to completely remove the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases in a drive that supporters hope will have national implications. The measure is part of a four-bill package set to be unveiled today that’s meant to address New York’s laws for rape, sexual assault and human trafficking. The proposals are also intended to build on laws in recent years aimed at making it easier for sexual assault victims and survivors to file civil cases. “It’s to protect and improve society – whether it’s a skating rink, a church, Wall Street, or a prison,” Bridie Farrell, a former speed skater-turned-advocate, told Playbook in an interview. “It’s to improve society and make it safer.” Farrell’s organization, America Loves Kids, is leading the campaign to pass the measures. Farrell is survivor of sexual abuse herself and has pressed for laws across the country. The Child Victims Act , first approved in 2019, opened a “look-back” window for abuse survivors to file civil claims, regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred. The deadline to file cases was extended amid the Covid pandemic. Lawmakers and Hochul in 2022 also agreed to the Adult Survivors Act , a measure that applied to people aged 18 and older. The deadline to file cases expired Nov. 23. Prominent people have been sued under the measure, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Eric Adams and state Sen. Kevin Parker. All have denied any wrongdoing. But now lawmakers and advocates hope to go farther during the 2024 legislative session while also aiding survivors not covered by the initial laws. That includes ending the statute of limitations for most childhood sexual abuse claims – a sweeping move that could result in more cases being filed. “The most important thing that everyone has learned is that trauma takes time,” Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, the sponsor of the legislation with state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, told Playbook in an interview. “There are so many reasons why survivors don’t tell people. They’ve been threatened. They feel shame. They feel the stigma and they bury it deep within themselves because it’s so traumatic.” Lawmakers also want to expand the state’s rape shield law to include civil cases that would narrow the scope of what is considered admissible, like how a victim dresses. A one-year look-back window suspending the statute of limitations for sex trafficking victims to file claims is being pushed. And legislators propose creating a “tolling” provision to make it easier for formerly incarcerated people to bring sexual abuse claims once they are released. “The intent is to provide victims with a chance at justice,” bill sponsor Assemblymember Catalina Cruz said. “A person being in prison, a person being detained, doesn’t make them any less worthy of justice, let alone dignity.” Advocates have said they also want institutions that have covered up incidents of abuse and assault held accountable by the push to expand civil sexual assault laws. A flood of legal claims filed under the Child Victims Act have led to multiple Catholic dioceses in New York declaring bankruptcy. The New York State Catholic Conference had dropped its initial opposition to the Child Victims Act. Dennis Poust, the conference’s executive director, called for government entities that may have covered up abuse to be held accountable. “We believe that any legislation dealing with child sexual abuse or adult sexual abuse needs to be equally applied to public institutions as well as private institutions,” he said. — Nick Reisman  https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook/2023/12/19/will-the-child-victims-act-be-permanent-00132403?nname=new-york-playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b74f0000&nrid=0000016c-97f8-dfed-a7ee-fffdf1cb0000&nlid=630317

The Legend ---- Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz ZTVKL ---- The Visionary - The Ardent Zionist - The Giant of Giants!

RAV SHRAGA FEIVEL'S VISION OF THE ISRAELI FLAG -  "זכרו תורת משה עבדי"

 

LISTEN TO ALL 3 PODCASTS!

https://soundcloud.com/user-18061157/sets/the-history-of-yeshiva-torah

OR THIS LINK: https://on.soundcloud.com/xyvQj

Although the common practice for centuries has been unofficially to pay a high and even exorbitant price to redeem Jewish prisoners, the Maharam’s courageous decision to stay in jail is in line with the spirit of the Talmudic sources. His ruling adds to his unique status in Jewish history as one of the greatest Posekim of all times.

 

Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky ZTL - Man On Fire!

 

 …Although generally in a case of pidyon sh'vuyim (rescue of captives) the Jewish community is forbidden to ransom a captive for an exorbitant sum, the ruling in the case of a great scholar is that he should be ransomed even for a sum that exceeds his "worth." Thus, many Rabbis were of the opinion that every effort should be made to secure Rav Hutner's release. Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky dissented, however, arguing that the mitzvah of pidyon sh'vuyim only applies in peacetime, but surely not during hostilities, when the delivery of ransom money to the enemy would strengthen their position! He continued to explain that although a cease-fire existed at the time, the 1948 War of Independence had never really ended, for the Arabs' avowed goal to destroy the State of Israel and drive the Jews into the sea had never been renounced. In his view, although Israel was not then engaged in active battle, in the eyes of the halacha it was considered to be experiencing a mere lull in the ongoing original 1948 War of Independence.^[16]

1286: Maharam of Rothenburg’s Imprisonment

 

In the year 1286, during his attempt to move to Israel, the Maharam was captured and imprisoned in a castle in Ensisheim. He remained a prisoner for seven years, until his death. Eventually his body was released (after a heavy ransom was paid) and was buried in Worms.

 

There are several references in his writings, as well as those of his students’, to his imprisonment.[1] One disciple, Rav Meir Ha-kohen, the author of Hagahot Maimoniyot, mentions in his writings questions which he referred to his rabbi, indicating that he was able to visit him.[2]

 

During these years of confinement, Rav Meir worked on a commentary on the Mishna as well as halakhic responsa to questions of the time.

 

There is a popular claim that the Jewish community raised a large amount of money for his release, but the Maharam refused to allow the ransom to be paid. His concern was that this would encourage the authorities to kidnap other rabbis and leaders of the Jewish community.^[3] The source of this claim is Rav Shelomo Luria (1510-1574, Poland):[4]

 

I heard that the Maharam of Rothenburg was held captive in a tower in Ensisheim for a number of years. The minister demanded from the communities a large sum (to be paid for his release). The communities were willing to pay the ransom, but Rav Meir refused, quoting the rule that captives may not be redeemed at more than their worth.

 

I am surprised, as it is permitted to redeem him at any cost; he (the Maharam) was a prominent talmid chakham and was considered the greatest of his generation in Torah and righteousness. Nevertheless, perhaps he was too humble to consider himself such a great person; still, he should have been concerned about his own bittul Torah (wasting time for Torah study), as remaining in captivity affected his Torah learning.

 

He then goes on to explain that it is clear that Rav Meir thought that if he were to be ransomed at a heavy price, the kidnapping of rabbis would turn into a trend; thus, the entire Torah world would suffer.

 

The story of his refusal to be redeemed has served as an important source for the many halakhic dilemmas throughout the centuries raised in the cases of Jewish prisoners in similar situations.

 

The mitzva of redeeming captives

 

The mitzva of redeeming captives is considered a great one, as explained by the Rambam:

 

The redemption of captives receives priority over sustaining the poor and providing them with clothing. [Indeed,] there is no greater mitzva than the redemption of captives. For a captive is among those who are hungry, thirsty, and unclothed, as well as in mortal peril… There is no mitzva as great as the redemption of captives (pidyon shevuyim).[5]

 

However, the mishna in Gittin (4:6) rules that "captives may not be ransomed for more than their value.”

 

This reason given by the Mishna for this halakha is because of tikkun olam (the welfare of the world). In other words, we must act responsibly for the entire people of Israel and not necessarily think only about the individual. We must consider the welfare of the community against the welfare of the captive.

 

The Gemara[6] suggests two possible reasons for this ruling:

 

1. Preventing a "burden on the community," as collecting large sums of money to free a captive may cause great strain on the entire community.
2. Discouraging extortion, as paying exorbitant sums of money in exchange for captives inevitably encourages more kidnappings.

 

The Rishonim argue which of the above two reasons is the primary one. Some argue that if the captive in question is in a life-threating situation, then there is no limit to the price we must pay.[7] Should the Mishna’s decree hold up in the face of pikuach nefesh? Although the first reason would not withstand the challenge, the second reason might.

 

Rashi explains that another nafka mina is in a case in which the captive has a wealthy relative. In this situation, as the burden does not fall on the community, the only concern is the dangerous precedent this might cause.

 

Redeeming a Talmid Chakham

 

The Gemara tells us that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, while visiting Rome, was introduced to a good-looking Jewish boy in prison.

 

Rabbi Yehoshua quizzed the boy in his Torah knowledge and realized that the boy was well-acquainted with Tanakh. At this point, he exclaimed: “I am certain that this boy will become a rabbi; I will not leave here until I redeem him for whatever price they demand.”

 

The Gemara concludes the story by informing us that this boy grew up to become the great sage and kohen gadol, Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha. ^[8]

 

The obvious question is the following: how does this opinion fit with the rabbinical ruling mentioned above? The Rishonim offer several answers.

 

One possibility, suggest Tosafot, is that after the destruction of the Temple, many Jews became targets for kidnappings; thus, paying a high ransom would not cause more or less kidnappings to happen.[9]

 

Another answer, according to Tosafot, is that this story is an exception to the rule, as it is permitted to redeem a talmid chakham for more than he is worth. This opinion is brought down in Shulchan Arukh.[10]

 

Exceptions

 

However, this is not the only exception to the Mishna’s rule.

 

Rav Yosef Karo rules that the prohibition is on the community; however, an individual ransoming himself or his wife may pay any price for their freedom.[11]

 

In practice

 

In practice, it seems that there is an inconsistency between the Mishna’s rule and the actual practice of ransoming Jewish prisoners

 

Jewish history is filled with stories of Jews redeeming each other for exorbitant sums of money.

 

For example, the Gemara mentions that Levi bar Darga ransomed his daughter for the sum of thirteen thousand gold dinars.[12]

 

During the 15^th century, Rav Yitzchak Abarbanel raised a large sum of money to redeem two hundred and fifty Jews who had been taken captive.[13]

 

During the 18^th century, Rav Natan, the great student of Rav Nachman of Breslav, recalled how his rabbi was taken captive and was ransomed by the Rhodes Jewish community.

 

 

Explanations

 

Rav Shelomo Luria )16^th century) testifies that, in his time, Jews are redeeming Jewish prisoners for far more than they are worth, “since they are willing to overlook the financial burden on the community.”[14]

 

Similarly, Rav David ibn Zimra, Radbaz (1479-1573) attempts to justify the custom in his time that entirely ignores the Mishna’s ruling. He first testifies that:

 

The custom of all the Jewish people is to ransom their captives more than their value in the marketplace, for an elderly man or minor are only worth twenty dinars, yet they are redeemed for one hundred dinars or more.

 

He then explains that the communities rely on several reasons for this lenient practice. Among them is the claim that the kidnappers are not singling out Jews, as they kidnap non-Jews as well. This argument deals with the Gemara’s concern that paying off the kidnappers will increase the number of abductions.[15] He continues to explain that the reasons for the lenient practice to ransom groups of Jewish captives is also based on the existence of talmidei chakhamim as well as children who are at risk of being converted.

 

 

The story of Rav Hutner

 

A modern case of the abduction of a gadol and the halakhic discussion surrounding his release occurred fifty years ago.

 

In the summer of 1970, Rav Yitzchak Hutner boarded a plane which was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists and forced to land in Jordan.

 

Basing themselves on the above-mentioned heter to redeem a talmid chakham at any cost, a group of American Jewish leaders gathered and discussed the possibility of ransoming Rav Hutner.

 

Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky voiced his opinion that under these circumstances, the heter cannot be used. He argued that the hijacking was considered halakhically an act of war, falling under the halakhic definition of milchemet mitzva, a war which one has a mitzva to fight in.

 

Rav Hershel Schachter recalls the events, as well as the opinion of Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky:

 

…Although generally in a case of pidyon sh'vuyim (rescue of captives) the Jewish community is forbidden to ransom a captive for an exorbitant sum, the ruling in the case of a great scholar is that he should be ransomed even for a sum that exceeds his "worth." Thus, many Rabbis were of the opinion that every effort should be made to secure Rav Hutner's release. Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky dissented, however, arguing that the mitzvah of pidyon sh'vuyim only applies in peacetime, but surely not during hostilities, when the delivery of ransom money to the enemy would strengthen their position! He continued to explain that although a cease-fire existed at the time, the 1948 War of Independence had never really ended, for the Arabs' avowed goal to destroy the State of Israel and drive the Jews into the sea had never been renounced. In his view, although Israel was not then engaged in active battle, in the eyes of the halacha it was considered to be experiencing a mere lull in the ongoing original 1948 War of Independence.^[16]

 

However, on 9 September 1970, Rav Moshe Feinstein released a halakhic statement directed to the government of Israel, demanding that its leaders comply with the demands of the terrorists:

 

An urgent meeting of the Rabbinic Council held a solemn discussion about the dangerous state of the captives in Jordan and the difficulty of the State of Israel to reach a decision on the matter. We saw fit to express our opinion, the opinion of the Torah on this matter. In Jewish law, saving a life takes precedence. If there is no choice, the State of Israel must comply with the terrorists’ demand to save the hostages’ lives. May G-d protect His people, and may the Jewish people live in peace.[17]

 

Although the common practice for centuries has been unofficially to pay a high and even exorbitant price to redeem Jewish prisoners, the Maharam’s courageous decision to stay in jail is in line with the spirit of the Talmudic sources. His ruling adds to his unique status in Jewish history as one of the greatest Posekim of all times.

 

---

[1] See Yona Emanuel, Divrei Maharam Mei-Rothenburg Bi-shnot Ma’atzaro, Ha-Ma’ayan 33 (1993).

[2] Hagahot Maimoniyot, Hilkhot Tefilla 14:8, Hilkhot Keriat Shema 1:11

[3] The biggest question this raises is why this story is not mentioned earlier. Rabbeinu Yehuda, son of the Rosh, who was personally involved in collecting the ransom money, does not mention the Maharam’s refusal to be ransomed. See Ephraim Urbach, Ba‘alei Ha-tosafot, p. 426; Simcha Emanuel, “Did Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg Refuse to Be Ransomed?” Jewish Studies Quarterly 24, No.1 (2017) pp. 23–38; and Eitam Henkin, Iyun Mei-chadash Be-farashat Shivyo shel Ha-Maharam Mei-Rothenburg, Yerushateinu, Vol. 5, pp. 311-318.

[4] Yam shel Shelomo, Gittin 4:6.

[5] Hilkhot Matenot Aniyim 8:10.

[6] BT Gittin 45a.

[7] Tosafot, BT Gittin 58a, s.v. Kol.

[8] BT Gittin 58a.

[9] Tosafot, Gittin 45a, s.v. De-lo.

[10] YD 252:4.

[11] Ibid.

[12] BT Gittin 45a.

[13] See Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol.1, p. 103.

[14] Yam shel Shlomo, Gittin 4:6.

[15] Shut Radbaz 1:40.

[16] Rav Schachter, “Land for Peace: A Halachic Perspective,” RJJ Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society, Vol. 16.

[17] The letter can be found online at: https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/features/features-on-jewish-world/rav-moshe-feinstein-golda-meir-and-redeeming-skyjacked-hostages/2018/08/08/.

 

https://www.etzion.org.il/en/halakha/studies-halakha/laws-state-and-society/1286-maharam-rothenburg%E2%80%99s-imprisonment

 

https://www.jewishhistory.org/the-incarceration-of-the-maharam-of-rothenburg/

The great political players of our moment include university presidents who cannot explain why they’ll expel students for failing to use made-up genderless pronouns (Zie! Zim! Zir! Zis! Zieself!) but not for calling for a global pogrom against Jews, which needs “context.” They include Jan. 6 vandals and goons and the former (possibly future) president who insists that the ones convicted of crimes are “hostages” and “political prisoners.”

 

Election 2024: You Asked for It, America

 

The prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch shows how far U.S. democracy has fallen—and we have no one to blame but ourselves. Don’t blame “the system,” you gormless weasels. You chose this.

 

283

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Tucker Carlson’s claim that Volodymyr Zelensky, a Jew, simply wants to persecute Christians and that pro-Ukrainian elements in the U.S. hate Vladimir Putin because he—a former KGB goon—is a defender of Christian piety. Meanwhile, Rep. Rashida Tlaib and her Squad can’t get entirely on the right side of the massacre-the-Jews issue.

 

The problem with campaign rally songs is that nobody ever picks the right one. Franklin Roosevelt chose “Happy Days Are Here Again” in the middle of the Great Depression with Adolf Hitler rising to power in Germany. Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” has charmed Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, none of whom apparently ever actually listened to the lyrics of that lament for post-Vietnam malaise and economic decline. George H.W. Bush used Woody Guthrie’s pinko anthem “This Land Is Your Land.”

Lately, Trump has been using Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.,” a diabetes-inducing hunk of treacle that makes me want to join the Islamic State, while Joe Biden has gone back to the Guthrie well with a version of “Shipping Up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys, a band that, like Joe Biden, is still getting by playing hits from the 1990s.

I have my own theme song for the 2024 election, David Bowie’s magnificent 1995 collaboration with Brian Eno: “I’m Afraid of Americans.” It is an anthem for our times.

Presidential elections are almost always showy, nationalistic affairs, full of appeals to patriotism and unity, occasions upon which even Ivy League diversity officers wave the flag and festoon the public square in red, white and blue. And that points to the tension at the heart of the dreadful and contemptible 2024 presidential election, which almost certainly will be fought out by Donald Trump, a depraved game-show host who tried to stage a coup d’état when he lost his 2020 re-election bid, and Joe Biden, a plagiarist and fabulist first elected to public office 53 years ago who is going to be spending a lot of time this campaign season thinking about his family’s influence-peddling business and the tricky questions related to it, like whether you can deduct hookers as a business expense.

Run Old Glory up the highest flagpole you can find, but 2024 is going to be the least patriotism-inspiring election in American history so far, a reminder of what a depraved, decadent, backward, low-minded, primitive, superstitious and morally corrupt people we have become.

Don’t blame “the system,” you gormless weasels. You chose this.

Rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

For most of my life, the dominant myth that informed American politics was that there was too much “big money” in the system, that Washington lobbyists in Gucci loafers gathered with self-seeking party bosses in smoke-filled rooms to subvert the will of We the People and foist their preferred candidates and policies upon the country. The moral of the story was that the common people do not have enough of a voice.

But that’s the great lie of American politics (and of democracy at large): that the people cannot fail but can only be failed.

Conservatives told themselves a carefully tailored version of that story, one in which Republican Party careerists insufficiently committed to limited government allowed themselves to be pushed around by the liberal media, selling out their principles and the electoral interests of the GOP so that they could feel welcome “at Georgetown cocktail parties,” as the slavering imbeciles of talk radio still put it. The left told itself a similarly inane story, with Big Business turning the Democratic establishment into corporate shills with no interest in anything more radical or fundamental than smoothing out the rougher edges of capitalism rather than—finally!—“putting people over profits,” as the idiots over in their village put it.

And then, a funny thing happened. Two funny things, in fact.

First, the Internet broke the old media oligopoly, which at the height of its power had consisted of three newspapers—the

New York Times

, the Washington Post and this one—alongside three television networks that aped those three newspapers, and the Associated Press, which digested all that and regurgitated it, birdlike, into the pages of 10,000 local newspapers. This ensured that the same biases that shaped the political coverage of the Washington Post ended up in the Sacramento Bee and the Tulsa World, serving up D.C.-N.Y.C. gruel at a hundred million breakfast tables across the fruited plain.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican.

With the old media gatekeepers gone, right-wing content creators rushed in and filled the world with QAnon kookery on Facebook, conspiracy theories powerful enough to vault the cretinous likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene into Congress, fake news sponsored by Moscow and Beijing and fake-ish news subsidized by Viktor Orbán and his happy junta, and whatever kind of poison butterfly Tucker Carlson is going to be when he emerges from the chrysalis of filth he’s built around himself. The prim consensus of 200 Northeastern newspaper editors has been replaced by the sardonic certitude of 100 million underemployed rage-monkeys and ignoramuses on Twitter. The news was democratized, and, as such, it became corrupt, irresponsible and ugly.

Second, the same forces that disintegrated the old media cabal have radically democratized fundraising for political campaigns and committees. Whatever control those smug party bosses once lorded over candidates mostly had resided in the power of the purse. But the Internet made it possible for politicians and hustlers to go straight to the people, who don’t want to hear about the need to raise their Medicare premiums and reduce their Social Security checks to avoid a national fiscal crisis.

No, We the People want to hear more from that Marjorie lady about the Jewish space lasers and how Donald Trump is going to wreak vengeance against the “communists” and “Marxists” who run…

Microsoft

, and how vaccines are what gave them lumbago. The digital masses may not be dropping bundles of C-notes into the campaign contribution tip jar, but they hit that tip jar pretty often with smaller change, and there are an awful lot of them.

Whatever real power big-money donors had to shape the political agenda has been dwarfed by the power—the much more thoroughly corrupting power—of small-dollar donors, who, unlike the National Association of Realtors or the AFL-CIO, do not have a long-term policy agenda or the attention spans to maintain one, because they are in this regard not citizens in a meaningful sense but only content-consumers. Spend a couple of hours reading political posts on Facebook and tell me that the smoke-filled room doesn’t look pretty good by comparison.

Like the protesters’ placards say: “This is what democracy looks like.” And it’s kind of gross.

An Occupy supporter in Denver, November 2011.

The great political players of our moment include university presidents who cannot explain why they’ll expel students for failing to use made-up genderless pronouns (Zie! Zim! Zir! Zis! Zieself!) but not for calling for a global pogrom against Jews, which needs “context.” They include Jan. 6 vandals and goons and the former (possibly future) president who insists that the ones convicted of crimes are “hostages” and “political prisoners.” They include Proud Boys cosplaying revolutionaries and the college professors who are sure there were some very fine people sawing the heads off Jewish children in Israel.

Meanwhile, the family-values guys over in the evangelical Christian world are showing more loyalty to Donald Trump than he ever showed to any of his wives, insisting that the lying, chiseling, philandering, coup-plotting grifter and occasional porn-movie performer is Jesus’ Own Personal Guy chosen to hold off the forces of darkness in Anno Domini 2024. Apparently, all that old “Thou shalt not bear false witness” stuff has gone right down the theological toilet.

Nobody makes boots tall enough to wade through the avalanche of B.S. headed our way in the next 11 months. Republicans, having decided that knee-walking Trump sycophant Kevin McCarthy was not quite sycophantic enough, have entrusted their legislative agenda to Mike Johnson, a swamp grotesque from Louisiana who was among the leading 2020 coup plotters and apparently believes that he is the second coming of Moses. And so critical national priorities will be taking a back seat, for the foreseeable future, to utter kookery.

If you think Ukraine aid has been held up by legitimate concerns about border security, you are not paying attention. Ukraine aid is being held up because a sizable portion of Republicans are Putinists, in and out of the closet to varying degrees, and believe (or pretend to believe) Tucker Carlson’s claim that Volodymyr Zelensky, a Jew, simply wants to persecute Christians and that pro-Ukrainian elements in the U.S. hate Vladimir Putin because he—a former KGB goon—is a defender of Christian piety. Meanwhile, Rep. Rashida Tlaib and her Squad can’t get entirely on the right side of the massacre-the-Jews issue.

 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat

If Trump wins, he’ll try his best to act like some kind of midcentury caudillo, the unholy spawn of Augusto Pinochet and Don Rickles. If he loses, then expect something along the lines of Jan. 6 or worse. But if you think Democrats can’t hold their own when it comes to irresponsible claims about election-rigging and voting-machine tampering, then you weren’t around for 2016, 2004, 2000—or any other big election that Republicans have won going back to 1864.

Sometimes, a country is doing so well that it can afford a silly season. This is not that time, and the U.S. is not that country. The government has a very, very large military budget—but as of 2023, spending on interest payments for federal debt now exceeds defense appropriations. Which is to say, we are spending more money refinancing Medicare subsidies for the dentures your granddad got 20 years ago than we are spending on things like infrastructure, scientific research or, you know, building aircraft carriers and making sure all those nuclear missiles we built back in the Reagan years still work. And the Reagan-era stuff is the new stuff: We’re still enriching uranium in the same facility they were using back in Robert Oppenheimer’s day.

So who do we want sitting across the table from Xi Jinping? Do we prefer the guy who got flummoxed celebrating the musical legacy of “LL…Jay…Cool…J…Uhh” before calling him “boy,” or do we want the guy who was in “Playboy Video Centerfold: Playmate 2000 Bernaola Twins” and who, you know, tried to overthrow the government by invalidating the lawful election of his feckless successor last time around?

Your choice, America. Enjoy all that pure, uncut democracy.

A QAnon supporter at a rally in Olympia, Wash., May 2020.

Democracy isn’t our form of government. It is a feature of our form of government—an important and irreplaceable element—but it is only a means. The end is well-ordered liberty. Democracy works well only when it is enabled and fortified by a great many institutions that are not in themselves democratic—or that at least aren’t supposed to be democratic.

One of those important institutions is functional political parties, which, in a sane world, would keep figures such as Donald Trump—and here I mean 2016 Donald Trump, to say nothing of the Caligula-Travis Bickle hybrid he has become—well away from political power, along with, at this stage in the game, Joe Biden. All those gatekeepers occupying the party offices, running the fundraising operations, working in the media, conspiring at the bar at Café Milano in D.C.—it turns out they were doing something really quite valuable, whether they intended to or didn’t.

Some of the institutions that make democracy work—that make it tolerable—are formal, like the Bill of Rights. Some of them are the result of longstanding conventions. But many of them are organic and ad hoc, institutions and norms that evolved in particular conditions for particular purposes—and that have been swept aside by the radically democratic and relentlessly homogenizing forces of political life in the digital age.

China, Israel, the debt: Dealing with any of the urgent issues before us is going to be hard in the best-case scenario. And say what you will about Donald Trump or Joe Biden, nobody outside of a few daft cultists believes that either one of these senescent miscreants represents the best-case scenario. Being president is hard, it’s harder if you’re stupid, and it’s even harder if you are stupid and your next landmark birthday is your 90th.

That being stipulated, the No. 1 issue in the 2024 presidential campaign is not the debt, the economy, Ukraine, Israel or crime—the main issue is, beyond any doubt, immigration. At least, it’s the one at the top of my agenda and foremost in my own thoughts.

I just haven’t settled on where to go.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/election-2024-you-asked-for-it-america-8028bc04

Holidays are a calendar. They mark points in emotional and physical time. They remind of us who we are. Chanukah is a dangerous holiday because it asks us to question our comfort zones. Its overt militarism and its dangerous underlying message that a time comes when you must choose between the destruction of your culture and a war you can't win, is too frightening for a comfortable age.

 Every year that we celebrate Chanukah, the left makes another attempt to "desecrate the temple" by destroying its meaning and replacing it with the usual grab bag of social justice issues under the union label of "Tikkun Olam" For those liberals who believe that Jewish identity should be limited to donating to help Haiti, agitating for illegal aliens and promoting the environment; Chanukah is a threatening holiday. They have secularized it, dressed it up with teddy bears and toys, trimmed it with the ecology and civil rights of their new faith.

 

A Dangerous Holiday

Many celebrate Chanukah as nothing more than celebrations of 'celebration', the rituals and rites of entertainment, a special food, a symbol whose meaning they don't remember and a little family fun.

Chanukah is not a safe holiday. It is a victory celebration in a guerrilla war. It is a reminder that the most recent war on Jerusalem was preceded long before by Antiochus's war on Jerusalem. It is a brief light in a period of great darkness.

As we light the menorah, bringing light out of that darkness, we are called on to remember to treasure the price of that light. It is brought forth through the divine matter of heavenly miracles and the earthly matter of suffering and blood.

Chanukah exists today because a small family, the remnant of a faithful priesthood, saw darkness, where many were blinded by the light of prosperity and progress, and they saw the light in the past, where their Hellenistic cousins saw only darkness.

This most dangerous of holidays does not represent a final victory, but the challenge to see the darkness around us and understand what it will take to summon even a little light.

The trivialization of Chanukah into camp and comedy, an eye roll at the lameness of tradition and the repetitiveness of games and jokes intended for children is its own kind of darkness. Those who would strip away the historical and religious meaning of Chanukah today would have been fighting against the Maccabees. The battle to preserve the meaning of Chanukah is part of the struggle to preserve the Jewish traditions and culture from the universalism of Hellenism.

The Maccabees fought for freedom of religion. They fought against the tyranny of a universalistic mass culture. But they also fought to make faith meaningful again. That is why Chanukah is more than a celebration of victory over what they fought against, as important a component of the holiday as it is, but a celebration of what they fought for, to reach Jerusalem and feel the presence of G-d.

When we light the menorah, we are meant to do more than perform rote ritual, and then on to childish games, but to feel, at least for a moment, the darkness that surrounds us, and aspire to feel G-d.

Chanukah is a dangerous holiday because it asks us to question our comfort zones. Its overt militarism and its dangerous underlying message that a time comes when you must choose between the destruction of your culture and a war you can't win, is too frightening for a comfortable age. The children of a material age are unwilling to consider the dark days in which a doomed war must be fought if the soul of the nation is to survive. It is too alien a notion for most. It was an alien one for the descendants of the pioneers who had struggled and sacrificed to return from exile, only for their descendants to eagerly embrace the gymnasiums and baths, the stadiums and idols of a new empire.

There are worse things than death and slavery, the fate that waited for the Maccabees and their allies had they failed, the fates that came anyway when the last of the Maccabees were betrayed and murdered by Caesar's Edomite minister, whose sons went on to rule over Israel as the Herodian dynasty. Nations can survive the mass murder of their bodies, but not the death of their spirit. A nation does not die, until its soul dies, and the soul of a nation is in its culture and its faith.

The mystery of history is that peoples endure through their willingness to for their people. that first candle, that first glimmer of flame over oil, marks the night that the Maccabee forces entered Jerusalem, driving out the enemy armies and their Jewish collaborators, and reclaiming their people's culture and religion.

The light of the flame was a powerful message sent across time that even in the darkest hour, hope was not lost. And G-d would not abandon the people. Time passed the Maccabees fell, Jerusalem was occupied and ethnically cleansed over and over again, and still the menorah burned on. A covert message that still all hope was not lost. That Israel would rise again.

Israel had used signal fires and torches held up on mountain tops to pass along important news. The lighting of the menorah was a miniature signal fire, a perpetuation of the temple light, its eight-day light a reminder that even the smallest light can burn beyond expectation and light beyond belief and that those who trust in G-d and fight for the freedom to believe in Him, should never abandon hope.

That divine signal fire first lit in the deserts by freed slaves has been passed on for thousands of years. Today the menorah is on the seal of the State of Israel, the product of a modern day Chanukah. The mark of a Jerusalem liberated in a miracle of six days, not eight. Six as in the number of the original temple Menorah. And the one on the seal as well.

For those liberals who believe that Jewish identity should be limited to donating to help Haiti, agitating for illegal aliens and promoting the environment; Chanukah is a threatening holiday. They have secularized it, dressed it up with teddy bears and toys, trimmed it with the ecology and civil rights of their new faith. Occasionally a Jewish liberal learns the history of it and writes an outraged essay about nationalism and militarism, but mostly they are content to bury it in the same dark cellar that they store the rest of the history of their people and the culture that they left behind.

Holidays aren't mere parties, they are messages. Knots of time that we tie around the fingers of our lives so that we remember what our ancestors meant us to never forget. That they lived and died for a reason. The party is a celebration, but if we forget what it celebrates, then it becomes a celebration of celebration. A hollow and soulless festival of the self. The Maccabees fought because they believed they had something worth fighting for. Not for their possessions, but for their traditions, their families and their G-d. The celebration of Chanukah is not just how we remember them, but how we remember that we are called upon to keep their watch. To take up their banner and carry their sword.

History is a wheel and as it turns, we see the old continents of time rising again, events revisiting themselves as the patterns of the past become new again. Ancient battles become new wars. And old struggles have to be re-fought again until we finally get them right.

Modiin, the rural center of the old Maccabee resistance, is a revived city today, larger than it ever was. Modiin-Maccabim has some 80,000 people living there. In the ancient days, this was where the Maccabee clan rose against the Seleucid conquerors over religious freedom. Today it is a place that the European Union labels an illegal settlement. A place that Jews have no right to live even though it is within sight of the Maccabees who lived and died there. Over two thousand years after Chanukah, Jews are still not allowed to live in peace in Modiin.

The new Maccabees are farmers and teachers, men and women who build families and homes in the lands of their ancestors, who brave the threats of terrorists and international tyrants to live their lives and raise their children. Knowing that they will not be allowed to live in peace, that everything they stand for is hated by the UN, in the capitals of great empires and even by their own government, they still put flame to wick and mark the first day of many days of the miracle that revived the spirit of a nation and inspires it to this day.

Not only may Jews not live in Modiin, but they may not live in Jerusalem either. And yet they do. They persist, to the eternal frustration of empires, in this quiet resistance of building a future with their buildings, their bodies and their lives. They persist in living where so many would like them to die. And they persist in lighting the menorah when so many would rather that it be forgotten.

The Jew today is called on to forget. To turn his children into bricks in order to construct the utopia of their new world order. To bend to the progressive wheel and wear the social justice chain, and cast his own offspring into the sea of zero population growth. To give up his  nation, his land, his faith and his future to toil in the shadow of the pyramids of socialism. To go down to labor in Egypt once more, in South America and Haitian slums, in barrios and villages, in ghettos and madinas, to give up who he is in order to serve others in the new slavery of social justice.

It takes courage to resist physical oppression, but it takes even greater courage to resist cultural oppression. The terms of physical resistance are easy to understand. Force is used against force. Cultural resistance is far more difficult, and by the time the necessity for it is apparent, it can often be too late.The Maccabees had to resist not only physical oppression and armed force, but the cultural oppression of a system that regarded their monotheism, their nationalism, their traditions and rituals as barbaric. A system that much of their own fellow Jews had already accepted as right and proper.

The Maccabees rose up not only against physical oppression, Israel had and would face that over and over again, they rose up against an assault on their religious and cultural  identity.  The lighting of the Menorah is the perpetuation of that cultural resistance and when it is performed properly then it reminds us that cultural oppression, like physical oppression, is ubiquitous, and that just as the forms of cultural oppression can often go unnoticed, so too the resistance to it can go unnoticed as well.

Every year that we celebrate Chanukah, the left makes another attempt to "desecrate the temple" by destroying its meaning and replacing it with the usual grab bag of social justice issues under the union label of "Tikkun Olam". And each time we push back against their ruthless assault on Jewish history and tradition the same way that the Maccabees did, by reclaiming our sacred places, cleaning away the filth left behind by the occupiers, and lighting the Menorah to remind us of who we are.

Chanukah marks the culmination of the Maccabee campaign for the liberation of Jerusalem. It is the time when we remember the men and women who refused to submit to the perversion of their values and the theft of their land. It reminds us that we must not allow our land to be stolen under any guise or allow our religion, history and culture to be perverted on any pretext. The light of the Menorah reminds us that the sacredness of a nation is in its spirit and that preserving that spirit is an eternal struggle against the conquerors of land and the tyrants of souls.

Chanukah is a Holiday of Resistance. It commemorates the physical and spiritual resistance that is required of us sooner or later in all times. Chanukah takes us back to the armed resistance and the moral awakening that liberated Jerusalem and connected the Jewish people with their G-d once again. And that reminds us to never give up, not in the face of an assault on our bodies or on our culture. The lights go out, but they are lit again, each day, for thousands of years, reminding us to hold on to our traditions and our faith, rather than trade them in for the trendy trinkets and cheap jewelry of progressive liberalism.

To light the menorah on Chanukah is to pass on a signal fire that has been kept lit for thousands of years. From the first holiday of Passover, after which the freed slaves kindled the first Menorah, to the final holiday of Chanukah, that light burns on. The historical cycle of Jewish holidays begins with Moshe confronting Pharaoh and demanding the freedom of the Jewish people. It ends with the Maccabees standing up to the tyranny of Antiochus and fighting for the right of the Jewish people to live under their own rule on their own land.

The lights of the menorah embody the spirit of the Jewish people. A spirit that has outlived the atrocities of every tyrant. In the heart of the flame that has burned for a thousand years lives the soul of a people.

https://www.danielgreenfield.org/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Daniel+Greenfield+Article%3A+A+Dangerous+Holiday&utm_campaign=20231214_m178161488_Daniel+Greenfield+Article%3A+%28post_title%29&utm_term=sultan_header_new_minimal_alt_5b__2__jpg_3F1655324709

The War in Gaza: A Conversation with Dan Senor and Douglas Murray

Behind the Birth of an Anti-Vaccine Story A 24-year-old’s sudden death devastated his family — and caught the attention of the movement of vaccine opponents.

George Watts Sr. with a photograph of his son, George Watts Jr., who died in October 2021. George Jr.’s cause of death was documented as Covid-19 vaccine-related myocarditis.

Before he received his second shot of a Covid-19 vaccine, there was little reason to think that George Watts Jr. was about to die.

He was 24 and showed no obvious health problems. His family said he lived cautiously. He spent most of his time playing video games in his room at his parents’ house in Elmira, a city in south-central New York.

That is where he was when he collapsed on Oct. 27, 2021.

George Jr.’s mother, Kathy, called 911 and started C.P.R. Paramedics rushed him to the emergency room, where doctors pronounced him dead.

What happened?

To the family, the answer was instantly obvious. “I blame that damn Covid vaccine,” Ms. Watts said in the hospital’s waiting room after learning her son had died, according to her husband, George Watts Sr.

The medical examiner at a New York hospital reached a similar conclusion, adding more specifics: The cause of death, he wrote, was “Covid-19 vaccine-related myocarditis,” an uncommon and often mild condition involving inflammation of the heart. It can develop when the body battles viruses, responds to certain vaccines, or nearly a dozen other reasons. Multiple studies say the condition can develop in some people, particularly young men, who receive a Covid-19 vaccine.

Before long, news of George Jr.’s death ricocheted around the internet, transforming the family’s tragedy into a powerful anecdote inside anti-vaccine communities. It was shared as an urgent warning about vaccine dangers on online forums, podcasts and Facebook groups. The Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit founded by the anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., contacted the Watts family and solicited donations for the organization off their name.

To vaccine opponents, George Jr.’s case delivered an unambiguous life-or-death warning: Don’t believe what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells you. Vaccines can kill, and here was all the proof anyone needed.

As those claims spread online, many medical experts started raising questions about the story. Myocarditis could have been the culprit, they said, but it was difficult to conclude that the vaccine was the cause — especially without further examination of George Jr.’s body. That is now impossible. His body was cremated.

The C.D.C. received specimens from George Jr.’s autopsy and is finalizing a pathology report, according to the New York State Department of Health. The agency has not released any information publicly, citing privacy concerns.

Those outstanding questions, however, have not stopped activists, radio hosts and disinformation peddlers from declaring unambiguously that George Jr.’s death resulted from his Covid-19 vaccination, and painted myocarditis as an automatic death sentence instead of a typically mild condition. And they are reaching a growing audience.

A Young Man Gets Vaccinated

The New York Times conducted dozens of interviews over several months for this article — including with the Watts family; the coroner’s office in Bradford County, Pa., which reviewed the case; and myocarditis experts, pathologists, lawyers and doctors who have reviewed details about George Jr.’s case.

When George Sr. talks about his son, a few things stand out. George Jr. was an avowed homebody, spending so much time at home that he planned to live there forever. He was so careful that he cringed at the thought of running a yellow light in the car.

He hoped to transform his passion for video games into a career by enrolling in community college in nearby Corning for computer science. The pandemic derailed much of his campus experience, and his grades were slipping heading into his last semester because of remote learning. He thought getting back to the classroom could turn things around.

But first, he needed to be vaccinated — a requirement for students at the school, run by the State University of New York.

His parents did not trust the vaccine. George Sr. believed it had been developed too quickly.

George Jr. had avoided the vaccine earlier in 2021 when it had received emergency-use authorization. He received his first dose on Aug. 27, 2021, four days after the Food and Drug Administration gave it its full approval.

Shortly after receiving his second dose, on Sept. 17, George Jr. started feeling pain in his heels, according to medical records and his father’s account. By early October, his fingers started going numb, and he had difficulty holding onto objects.

By mid-October, his father was so concerned that he drove him to the emergency room. Among other things, George Jr. had the markers of an upper respiratory infection: sinus congestion, a sore throat and a cough. An X-ray showed no abnormalities or fluid in his lungs, according to a summary of the visit from the coroner’s report. He said he didn’t have chest pain or shortness of breath, according to the coroner’s investigation, two common symptoms among myocarditis patients.

Doctors diagnosed him with a sinus infection and bronchitis and prescribed antibiotics. He also started taking NyQuil.

A week later, George Jr. was rushed back to the emergency room after coughing so much that he started vomiting. Doctors found no obvious lung problems, his heart wasn’t enlarged, and there were no signs of cardiac issues, according to the coroner’s report.

If there were clear signs of myocarditis, doctors would most likely have monitored George Jr. and prescribed drugs, like blood pressure medications, beta blockers or corticosteroids.

Eight days after his emergency room visit, George Jr. collapsed and died. His body was transported 40 minutes east, to Binghamton, for an autopsy at Lourdes Hospital.

The medical examiner at Lourdes found that the heart muscle, the myocardium, was losing some of its strength and sagging. Parts of the heart, when examined under a microscope, were inflamed. Both are clues that point toward myocarditis.

Soon after the government authorized Covid vaccines for the public, myocarditis became a flashpoint for health officials and vaccine opponents.

Myocarditis sometimes interferes with the heart’s function, interrupting electrical signals and causing chest pain, an irregular heartbeat and, in extremely rare cases, cardiac arrest.

It is well established that the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna slightly increase the risk of developing myocarditis, especially in young men who receive two or more doses. The overall numbers are small — there were 224 verified cases of myocarditis among vaccinated children and young adults in the United States from late 2020 to mid-2022, out of the nearly seven million vaccine doses that were administered, according to one study. Most patients recover from the condition after at least 90 days, according to another study published in late 2022.

Doctors concluded the benefits from getting vaccinated far outweighed the risks. Their views were supported by the finding that myocarditis was significantly more likely to develop after a Covid-19 infection than from the vaccine, according to a report from 2021.

Deaths tied to the vaccine are extremely rare. Worldwide, there are a few known myocarditis deaths among vaccinated individuals, among hundreds of millions who received a shot.

Partly in response to myocarditis risks, the C.D.C. has changed its guidelines, increasing the amount of time boys and men from 12 to 39 years old should wait between their first and second vaccine dose — eight weeks, up from three to four weeks.

Yet the agency also continues to say that no one has died from Covid-19 vaccine-related myocarditis.

An Anti-Vaccine Story Takes Off

Almost as soon as Covid vaccines were approved in Washington, concerns about myocarditis started fueling claims from anti-vaccine activists. Fears that the vaccine would kill scores of Americans trended repeatedly on social media under the ominous hashtag #DiedSuddenly.

Prominent celebrity deaths helped the idea gain traction. Vaccine opponents said Lisa Marie Presley died in January from myocarditis after getting vaccinated, though an autopsy later found she died of a bowel obstruction. The deaths of Bob Saget and Betty White, two actors, and DMX, a rapper, spurred similar claims. None of those deaths were linked to the Covid vaccine.

Elon Musk, the owner of X, also suggested vaccine-related myocarditis was to blame after Bronny James, a son of the basketball star LeBron James, fell ill in July. Doctors later pointed to Mr. James’s congenital heart defect as the culprit.

Yet in the case of George Jr.’s death, vaccine opponents had one piece of concrete evidence: a death certificate that placed the blame squarely on the vaccine.

After his son’s death, George Sr. turned to Facebook, broadcasting details about his son’s story and posting images of the coroner’s report. His language was so forceful that Facebook temporarily limited his ability to post.

“I want to say how much I love and miss my son George J everyday that goes by it hurts us even more,” he wrote on Facebook. “I would give up my soul to get him back, that is what I’m willing to give up my afterlife just to have him here again.”

George Watts Sr. wears a bracelet commemorating his son George Jr.’s life.

Noticing that George Jr.’s story could yield some political influence, a collection of anti-vaccine influencers sought out the Watts family, introducing them to large platforms and even larger goals.

Shannon Joy, a radio and podcast host in Rochester, brought George Sr. onto her show for an hourlong interview in which they both shared concerns about vaccines.

“It is so hard for people to stand up and tell their stories of people who were maimed and tragically killed by Covid-19 vaccines,” Ms. Joy said during the show. “But we need to see the people. We need to hear their stories.”

In her mind, George Jr.’s case “got to the truth” about vaccines despite pushback from mysterious forces.

Children’s Health Defense, the group founded by Mr. Kennedy, approached the Watts family, kick-starting a relationship that resulted in a long-shot lawsuit brought by the Watts family and C.H.D. against the Defense Department, which had overseen the vaccine’s development under Operation Warp Speed. The lawsuit claimed the department had used George Jr. as “an unwitting guinea pig” in a “mass human experiment.” The group also started fund-raising in George Jr.’s name. (The Defense Department filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in September.)

Ms. Joy had also informed George Sr. about a website that showed that George Jr.’s vaccine batch was “toxic,” a claim that was based on misleading data. Soon he learned a lot more about Covid-19 conspiracy theories.

His wife, Kathy, shared a TikTok video with him claiming that Covid-19 is caused by snake venom — a conspiracy theory that was gaining popularity at the time.

“It affects the heart,” he said in an interview with The New York Times last year at a hotel restaurant in Elmira, near the prison where he works as a guard. “And then they put it in the vaccines and they’re putting it in water you drink.”

He also heard that hospitals were trying to euthanize Covid-19 patients by putting them on ventilators.

“Do I believe that? I don’t know,” he said. “You don’t know what to believe anymore.”

Doctors Raise Doubts

As claims about George Jr.’s death spread online, they made their way into the medical community and provoked questions among doctors who doubted the simple explanation offered by the medical examiner.

What stood out to several doctors was what happened in the rest of George Jr.’s body. Some said it raised more questions about his cause of death.

When George Jr.’s spleen was removed during autopsy, the medical examiner found it remarkably enlarged. It weighed 1,350 grams. A typical spleen weighs around 200 grams. This can happen if the body is showing symptoms of heart failure for months. But the examiner gave no explanation.

His kidney was also damaged, showing both inflammation and dead tissue. His lungs showed late-stage pneumonia. His brain showed chronic inflammation.

Autopsy tools at the Bradford County morgue in Wysox, Pa.

 

“It’s like the whole immune system was just revved up everywhere,” said Dr. James Gill, the chief medical examiner for Connecticut and former president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, who wrote a paper exploring two other deaths he linked to Covid-19 vaccine-related myocarditis and reviewed details about the case.

Even more alarming was the condition of George Jr.’s prostate gland, which was yellow in places and partially necrotic, meaning partially dead. That could explain the blood found in his urine during his emergency room visits.

Dr. Elizabeth Murray, a pediatrician from nearby Rochester who heard George Jr.’s story circulating in the local medical community, was skeptical about the medical examiner’s conclusions. If he “is going to say myocarditis due to the vaccine, then why isn’t he also saying kidney damage due to the vaccine? And lung damage and brain damage and prostate damage due to the vaccine?” she said. “None of that was listed.”

The Lourdes Hospital medical examiner’s office said it did not comment on cases. Since the C.D.C. has not publicized any details of George Jr.’s case, the coroner’s report and autopsy records are the best synopsis of his case.

“I would have no problem putting myocarditis on the death certificate as the cause of death,” said Dr. Mary Jumbelic, a retired forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner of Onondaga County, N.Y., who agreed to review details about the case. “But the leap here is the conclusion that it’s vaccine-related.”

The report being prepared by the C.D.C. could shed more light on George Jr.’s death. If they agree with the medical examiner, George Jr.’s death could become the first that the department has tied to vaccine-related myocarditis in the United States. If they disagree, it could offer more clarity about what happened to George Jr.

George Sr. said he would find no comfort in any new details that would point to causes other than the vaccine.

“I still got the reports that tell otherwise,” he said. “They’re not going to come knock on my door and try to take it from me. I won’t let that happen.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/technology/covid-anti-vaccine.html