Good God how could they not know! “A swastika is not a commentary on the policies of the State of Israel, nor is it a sign of solidarity with Palestinians. It is a symbol of hatred and division.

 “We do not know who did this. We do know that they wanted us to be afraid,” the Facebook post said. “A swastika is not a commentary on the policies of the State of Israel, nor is it a sign of solidarity with Palestinians. It is a symbol of hatred and division.

“We, the leadership of the synagogue, want everyone to know that we will not give in to either fear or division. We are blessed to live in a society in which hate speech is not tolerated by the police, who are working with us to keep us safe. We are blessed to live in a society where our neighbors of other faiths have already reached out to offer support.”

Good God how could they not know!

I’m familiar with peace activists. I walked with Father John McNamee and my friend Jim Victor to see Daniel Berrigan at the Race St Friends Meeting House in Philadelphia in 1966.  Over about a 57 year period there has never been a swastika at a peace event in Pennsylvania.

After talking to Father John my wife said, “What a waste!” Me, “What do you mean.” He can’t get married. John is a much more handsome man than David Morse in the film “Diary of a City Priest.”

This is a recent photo of Jim Victor & Father John McNamee at Villa St. Joseph in Landsdowne. He’s 90 years old. And still handsome!

Father John has a new book:

This is part of an older post:

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Living in an antisemitic forest trees etched with swastikas go unnoticed. It seems hate and love can be felt in our bodies, somehow transmitted in the air. In the antisemitic forest Democrats are assumed Jewish. Your body feels the hate.

Father Michael Doyle, John McNamee’s friend at Sacred Heart in Camden was at an event Betsy & me were invited to at my teacher Othmar Carli’s studio. My connection with John McNamee & Othmar came full circle. 

The SS scarred his back. He wouldn’t submit to the Hitler Youth. Othmar's kindergarten teacher took his class to see a burned out synagogue. At 6 years of age he made a pledge to himself to devote his life to rebuilding places of worship. 

Othmar is the kindest man I ever knew. I found this video about Mr. Carli's work at Sacred Heart in Camden:

The Restoration of Sacred heart Church, Camden, NJ

S Dougherty

 

***

I saw swastika graffiti in off the beaten path areas of Elkins Park, PA in the 1970s to1990s.

Writing as someone who has tracked white supremacists in Pennsylvania for decades it’s astounding that leadership of Temple Beth Hillel/Beth El in Wynnewood, PA believes that this must be a reaction to Israeli military policy. 

Temple Beth Hillel/Beth El is within the “Main Line Society” area of Pennsylvania where Jews have never been accepted. Where Jews cannot apply for membership in Republican golf clubs. That’s the nonviolent part.

Go a little into rural Pennsylvania and it goes from swastika painting to shootings. My Jewish college professor friends living near Reading PA need to keep a low profile.

Hatred of Jews has accelerated from a moving start in 2008 to Donald Trump’s supercharged acceleration of hate. 

Now swastikas regularly fly on flags at Republican Party events:

This milquetoast WAP version of the sorry saga of the once proud Republican Party comes close to reality. THE REALITY THAT CRIMINAL DEFENDANT TRUMP’S POLITICAL PARTY WILL LOSE IN THE COMING DEMOCRATIC PARTY TSUNAMI LANDSLIDE ELECTION.

 The subtitle is closer to reality:

“The surreal string of turnabouts capped another chaotic day of Trump’s 2024 run, with almost no resemblance to the conventional activities of campaigning”

“NEW YORK — Within the span of an hour, one court rescued Donald Trump from potential financial ruin, while another set a trial to start in the height of the campaign season.

The presumptive Republican nominee rolled with the rapid twists Monday with his usual defiance and bluster — in split seconds attacking one set of judges and praising another, ignoring reporters then suddenly pivoting to address them, brushing off heckles and welcoming cheers from onlookers along the streets.

The surreal string of turnabouts capped another chaotic day of Trump’s 2024 campaign, with almost no resemblance to the conventional activities of campaigning. Trump last held a rally on March 16 as his campaign juggled an overhaul of the Republican National Committee and has not announced where or when the next one will happen. He spent the weekend golfing in South Florida, then dropped into New York for a contentious court hearing and broad-sweeping news conference that most major networks carried live.

The unusual schedule highlighted Trump’s gambit to maximize the publicity surrounding his four separate criminal proceedings, using them to cast himself as a victim of a political persecution of a kind with his supporters who rioted at the formal certification of his last electoral defeat. That strategy helped Trump consolidate support in the Republican primary, but its effectiveness is less clear in the general-election rematch with President Biden now underway. And as much as Trump’s team is choosing to take this approach, they are also coping with the uncharted realities of overlapping, evolving court calendars, serious criminal charges, and a daunting cash crunch.”

MORE AT:

The Washington Post 

Trump reels from competing court decisions as trials disrupt campaign

The surreal string of turnabouts capped another chaotic day of Trump’s 2024 run, with almost no resemblance to the conventional activities of campaigning

Isaac Arnsdorf

March 25, 2024 at 6:19 p.m. EDT

“A day after a NY criminal judge ruled that Stormy Daniels is a key witness that can testify for the prosecution against Trump, she previewed her EXPLOSIVE trial testimony that she took Trump’s hush money ONLY because she feared that if she refused, TRUMP WOULD MAKE HER DISAPPEAR. Michael Popok explains how Stormy’s testimony  fits in with Michael Cohen’s and how a CRIMINAL CONVICTION is likely:”

“After a hearing today, Judge Juan Merchan scheduled the New York election interference (hush money) trial to begin on April 30th. Merchan did not hold back in his dismissove responses to Trump attorney Todd Blanche's claims.”

“Death toll in concert hall attack rises to 137” Security in Russia is focused on protecting Putin. Russian military exists to protect Putin. The Russian people don’t matter. Think about that when Trump says he will be dictator like his mentor Putin.

Death toll in concert hall attack rises to 137 — including 3 children, Russian Investigative Committee says

From CNN's Darya Tarasova 

“When Vladimir Putin finally spoke about the worst terrorist attack to hit Russia in 20 years, he swept over the glaring failure of his security state to prevent the assault, which left at least 133 dead, despite a clear warning from the United States on March 7 that a strike on a concert hall could be imminent…

But the gruesome videos of the attackers with automatic weapons coldly murdering innocent concertgoers and setting ablaze one of the Russian capital’s most popular entertainment venues smashed through Putin’s efforts to present Russia as strong, united and resilient…

Despite Putin’s rhetoric seeking to implicate Ukraine, analysts, former U.S. security officials and members of the Russian elite said the assault underscored the vulnerabilities of Putin’s wartime regime, which were also evident when Yevgeniy Prigozhin led his Wagner mercenaries in a brief mutiny aiming to oust top defense officials in June.

“The regime shows its weakness in such critical situations, just as it did during the mutiny by Prigozhin,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow with the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. Though Prigozhin abandoned the uprising, the damage was clear. Then, as during this weekend’s events, Putin did not appear for hours before finally addressing the emergency. “In difficult moments, Putin always disappears,” Kolesnikov said.

Just three days before the Crocus City assault, Putin dismissed the U.S. warning about a potential imminent terrorist attack as “open blackmail” and as “an attempt to frighten and destabilize our society.”

But with his authoritarian grip on power and virtually no one willing to challenge him, the Russian leader is unlikely to face any criticism or consequences for failing to take the warning more seriously…

A Russian academic with close ties to senior Moscow diplomats offered a similar assessment of Russia’s failure to prevent Friday night’s attack. “It’s clear that we will search for Ukrainian fingerprints and possibly those of Western security services,” the academic said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because Putin’s regime often retaliates against critics. “But probably any investigation will find failures by our security services.”

Russia’s security services have poured enormous resources into monitoring the movements of opponents of the Putin regime, using facial recognition technology to track and question those who participated in the recent protest against Putin’s election or who laid flowers in honor of Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who died in prison last month.

But providing adequate security for citizens against threats emanating from known terrorist groups appears to have slipped down the list of priorities, analysts said, despite the country consistently facing terrorist attacks over the years, including two claimed or attributed to the Islamic State in 2019…

“Everywhere there is the feeling we are living in a police state which is closely watching every citizen,” Kolesnikov said. “People now are often stopped and checked at the entrance to the metro system. At airports, security has become much tougher. … There really is a question how this could happen at all.”

Others said Russian security failures were not an exception, but the norm.

“Unless it’s a really high-profile public event like the Olympics or where Putin is involved … Russia’s guard on serious security is always down,” said one former senior U.S. intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “You really need to have an elaborate system focused on these kind of threats, and they have been focused elsewhere…”

The former U.S. officials said the potential terrorist threat emanating from Central Asia had become a blind spot of the Putin regime while it focused on pursuing political enemies in Russia and on threats resulting from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, including drone strikes and cross-border attacks.

“They have not prioritized the threat from ISIS that includes many Central Asians,” said Douglas London, a former senior CIA officer who has specialized in counterterrorism and Central Asia and serves as an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. “Thousands of Central Asians joined the Islamic State, and many returned from Syria and Iraq after the loss of the caliphate. A lot of them rose to very senior positions and had come from either the army, the police or the intelligence services of a number of Central Asian states.”

“The Central Asian element of ISIS had always targeted Russia,” London added. “I don’t think there is shock and surprise in Russian intelligence that there was an issue. It just simply wasn’t sufficiently high on their agenda.”

FROM:

The Washington Post

Terrorist attack in Russia exposes vulnerabilities of Putin’s regime

By Catherine Belton and Robyn Dixon

March 24, 2024 at 7:18 a.m. EDT

TRUMP DOORMAN, DINO SAJUDIN WILL TESTIFY in Stormy Daniels/hush money business record fraud criminal jury trial. That TRUE OR NOT TRUMP paid to kill SAJUDIN’S TRUMP LOVE BABY STORY.

 Did Trump have an out of wedlock child he wanted to hide from the voters in 2016? 

"By new court order, the  NY criminal jury in the Stormy Daniels/hush money business record fraud is going to hear evidence that whether the story was true or not, Trump paid off a doorman in one of his buildings Dino Sajudin $30k to “kill” the story about the baby. 

Michael Popok explains why Dino, a former playboy playmate AND Stormy Daniels (along with Michael cohen) will all be testifying at the criminal trial against Trump. 

The real question is who’s going to testify FOR Trump and his defense?"

 

“Trump has just told our foreign enemies in court filings that he is FINANCIALLY VULNERABLE and compromised and that our NATIONAL SECURITY and foreign policy is For Sale.” Looks like PAUL MANAFORT WILL BROKER the RUSSIAN part.

“He's told the world that he has a potential security risk. That he is a president for sale.”

“We have a white house for sale.  We have a president for sale. 

A presidential candidate for sale who has told the world that he is in such dire financial shape that the entire financial Services community in America and globally has turned their back on him.”

“You know what that sounds like to our enemies?  You know what that sounds like to foreign agents around the world?  That's a target. That is somebody that we can turn. That is somebody that needs money and will do anything in desperation including sacrificing on the altar of his desperation American foreign policy and American Security."

“Manafort worked for Trump in 2016 before being ousted and later convicted of tax and bank fraud felonies as part of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into RUSSIAN interference in the 2016 elections. He served time in prison before receiving a pardon in the final days of Trump’s time in office…

The hiring of Manafort would be likely to revive discussion of RUSSIAN’S involvement in the 2016 elections, which Mueller concluded was “sweeping and systemic.” Mueller also found that Manafort shared internal Trump campaign polling data with a longtime associate who the FBI assessed had ties to RUSSIAN intelligence.

A bipartisan Senate committee that investigated RUSSIAN interference in the 2016 elections concluded that Manafort’s receptivity to RUSSIAN outreach was a “grave counterintelligence threat” that had made the 2016 campaign susceptible to ‘malign RUSSIAN influence.”

“Manafort was found guilty of hiding millions he made lobbying on behalf of pro-RUSSIAN Ukrainian politicians in overseas bank accounts, then falsifying his finances to get loans when his patrons lost power. He was originally sentenced to about four years in prison but was released early to home confinement due to the coronavirus before he was pardoned by Trump.

During the 2016 campaign, Manafort also allegedly shared Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a RUSSIAN who the U.S. government said had ties to RUSSIAN intelligence. The special counsel accused Manafort of lying to the FBI about his interactions with Kilimnik, even after Manafort had said he would cooperate and provide truthful information.

Manafort also allegedly worked with Kilimnik to spread RUSSIAN disinformation that it was actually Ukraine that interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.

In a report issued in 2020, the Senate bipartisan committee that investigated RUSSIAN interference found that “Manafort’s presence on the Campaign and proximity to Trump created opportunities for RUSSIAN intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign.”

Before joining Trump’s orbit, he owned multiple properties in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Fla., drove luxurious cars and spent millions on fancy clothes and rugs. But Mueller found that he had “no meaningful income” when he agreed to work for Trump for no salary in 2016 and instead intended to find ways to monetize his newly prominent role in the presidential campaign, including with former clients in Ukraine.”

“Manafort has since written a book called “Political Prisoner” and defended Trump, attacking the Justice Department and other Trump critics.”

FROM:

The Washington Post

Trump may enlist Paul Manafort, who was criticized for RUSSIAN ties

The former campaign manager was pardoned by Trump for bank and tax fraud convictions and accusations he hid millions he made consulting for pro-RUSSIAN Ukrainian politicians

Josh Dawsey

Updated March 18, 2024 at 12:24 p.m. EDT|Published March 18, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EDT

63 TOTAL JOURNALISTS KILLED IN 20 YEAR VIETNAM WAR - 90 JOURNALISTS & MEDIA KILLED IN 5 MONTHS OF ISRAEL’S WAR ON PALESTINIANS

IT'S OBVIOUS THE ISRAELI ARMY IS TARGETING  JOURNALISTS

“The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders tallied 

63 JOURNALISTS WHO DIED OVER A 20 YEAR PERIOD ENDING IN 1975 WHILE COVERING THE VIETNAM WAR with the caveat that media workers were not typically counted at the time.

FROM:

List of journalists killed and missing in the Vietnam War

“NINETY JOURNALISTS AND OTHER MEDIA WORKERS IN GAZA HAVE BEEN KILLED IN JUST OVER FIVE MONTHS, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists — the deadliest period for the profession since the group began collecting data in 1992.”

FROM:

Drone footage raises questions about Israeli justification for deadly strike on Gaza journalists

By Louisa Loveluck, Imogen Piper, Sarah Cahlan, Hajar Harb and Hazem Balousha

March 19, 2024 at 10:27 a.m. EDT

"The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza amid the highest death toll of media workers in any recent conflict."

FROM:

The Guardian

Israeli military accused of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza

Chris McGreal

Thu 21 Dec 2023 13.47 EST