They wonder why people are not having kids. That and the disappearing environmental protection, no the outright assault on the environment, and I too wonder if it is smart to have kids.
We should be calling our State Reps and ask them to support the dying with dignity bill. Even if you don't think you would use it, it's a right that people and their families should have available to them. If your belief doesn't allow you to make that choice, that's ok for you, but those who may need to, it's there for them.
A good idea! I like being specific in my messages to my Albany reps: Check to see if they have already co-sponsored the bill in their house (Assembly or NY Senate), and *thank them* if they have; ask them to co-sponsor if they haven't.
The Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID) proposed in New York is similar to MAID laws in other states, allowing terminally ill, mentally competent adults to request and self-administer medication to end their lives. The bill aims to provide a legal and compassionate option for individuals facing unbearable suffering at the end of life, while also including safeguards to ensure the process is not coercive.
The rural internet service was a super idea, but after watching Jon Stewart's interview with, I believe it was Ezra Klein, the description of exactly what it took for a company to apply, simply apply, to this - bureaucratic hell! It would be worthwhile to try to find that video. It was enlightening! The number of hoops to be jumped thru.
"Not once after any of those 5,000 interviews did any person ask me for forgiveness. The evil is not out of us. You will always find people to kill the Jews."
Mostly, people who are not Jewish are either unaware of what happened in Europe when much of it was occupied by Hitler's troops in W.W. II, or think it was an oddity that, though awful, could never happen again. Eighty years ago is a long time. But although the Nazis were more diabolically organized than most perpetrators of genocide, they were far from the only ones. What they did is what happens when people are turned into "Other." "Other" devolves into "Not Human," a state in which obscene cruelties can be visited upon them.
And cruelty is what the United States of America is inflicting upon people this insane President has labelled "Other:" Muslim graduate students, Central American parents, who knows who else or who is next to be "disappeared." Or worse.
I am a Jewish person. I had Ukrainian grandparents. I am two generations away from being "Other." What is happening here is terrifying.
Now the others are Palestinians and Ukrainians - dying - homes destroyed - lives destroyed.
I do remember the Holocaust (I was young) because it was in the public eye. But now I'm old!
If the schools arent teaching this history - just like the history of slavery? Thats wrong in so many ways. As is preventing the truth of both of these tragedys.
Yes, and now the Trumpies want to remove exhibits from the Smithsonian Museum of Black History that refer to the sins of slavery, lynching, rapes, forced illiteracy, "colored" water fountains, and all the rest. We'll just have ol' Hattie McDaniel shufflin' around grinning and lacing Scarlett into her dress. Oh, and maybe Jacke Robinson too.
Thank you for continuing to shine a light on the darkest side of anti-semitism, and the grim reality of man’s inhumanity toward men…women…and even babies.
My soon-to-be 101 yr. old dear friend Clara Rudnick continues to speak with utter clarity of her experience as a teenaged Holocaust survivor of several concentration camps, after the killing of her parents, two sisters and two brothers. With all the commemorations of this 80th Anniversay of her liberation, she is keenly aware that only 200,000 Holocaust survivors are still alive to tell their stories.
For many years, at the urging of Father Abraham, the SGF Greek Orthodox Church pastor, Clara spoke at local schools within her beloved “North Country” to keep her story alive on behalf of the millions of Jews who couldn’t tell their stories. She reflected yesterday once again on one of the biggest honors she experienced in being invited to speak to the St. Mary’s/St. Alphonsus school children. It’s one of my cherished memories also, watching the faces of those young students, totally enthralled by Clara’s presence and her Truth as she lived it… and the courage she still possesses in living life as fully as possible…and still believing “America is still the best country on earth…everything is gonna be OK.”
This is tragic...and it brings to mind the current situation in the Middle East. How can a peoples who were so incredibly persecuted inflict the same and more on the citizens of Gaza??? I do believe this is not the will of the Jewish people, but the efforts of Jewish Extremists, the Zionists, exactly like the Nazi's. So sad!
Right you are! The astonishing, extreme right-wingers in Israel, just as the extreme right wingers here, do NOT represent the mind-set of all Israelis, much less all Jews.
And FYI, "Zionist" refers only to people who believe the state of Israel should exist, and that it is a home for the Jewish people. It doesn't refer to extremists, or for that matter, non-extremists.
I think there is a disconnect in the theory of Zionism and the actual results on the ground. I am a supporter of the state of Israel as a de facto state, although I have qualms about the nature of its founding. Israel exists, and it should continue to exist, but I cannot accept the label of Zionist, if it is an exclusionary state that is in its current form a state of ethnic cleansing of people who have their own claims to the territory, war crimes, and atrocities.
I believe there is a collective, or perhaps simply a related madness both here and in Israel and other places around the world which we names extremists, particularly religious extremists who are hardly different than the Nazis.
I'm glad you were at the ceremony to commemorate the genocide of European Jews. What is nauseating to read is the ability of spectators, including Jewish people, to watch with relish , the killings of other victims. Genocide has been committed historically, over and over by worldwide dictators and marauding raiders (I would hazard a guess in more continents than have been historically recorded or publicized) terrorizing the vulnerable, vying for hegemony over "the others". That includes our nation and every so-called "civilized" society. We hear about it, we may read about it, but it seems distant from within our comfort zones. But it is here. Got your "Real I. D. yet?" How will that be used? This administration has begun by launching a terrorizing attack on the most vulnerable, our planet, the sick, the poor, the livelihoods, education and scientific inquiry of present and next generations of the working and middle classes. Only the "chosen few" and the cackling loyal flunkies are temporarily exempt from the terror, until it is decided that they are expendable also. There is no difference between this administration and any South American dictator or a any fascist ruler. How far this goes depends on whether we fight it or become deluded entertained spectators.
Re your well-crafted piece on the Holocaust, a couple of thoughts:
-the tragic baby incident is
Reminiscent of the apparently only slightly fictionalized story in Styron’s “Sophie’s Choice” where Sophie must give up either her girl or boy for immediate death at Auschwitz.
-Another current non Jewish “hero” is Gunter Demnig, a tireless German who for the past 33 years has reminded us of the horrors of the Nazi era by incredibly placing more than 105,000 “stumbling stones” - small bronze markers - in the sidewalk in front of the last home of Jewish and other victims. The markers, with biographical information, have been set by Demnig in 31 countries.
My point is simple. Every single Republican is responsible for Trumps war on children and our nation. Stefanik, who hates everything, herself included, Stec, Simpson, Tony Jordan, Bob Landry, every single person who voted for Trump. There is no middle ground. Until we hold local loyalists feet to the fire nothing will change. The entire Trump agenda is based on lies and the Republican party has made that the norm.
That's why I believe the most effective path of resistance is to hold local elected officials accountable at the Town and Village Board level. They need to feel some responsibility.
The sad thing is that some people shudder to think that those things happened at some long ago time and place, and yet they watch it occur daily on their nightly news without it affecting their sleep. The warning is the tolling bell, but they do not recognize that it tolls for them.
Please, please don’t keep referring to the Medical Aid in Dying bill as an “assisted suicide” bill. That’s the language of the opposition, trying to convince you that it will let doctors help healthy people end their own lives. No! The people this bill will help are those who are already dying in the near future, who want to be able to choose to end their suffering when it becomes unbearable to them. It benefits all of us, because we all might come to that point at the end of our lives. Please tell it like it is. Talk so some of the people who have been working for 10 years or more to pass Medical Aid in Dying in NY. You use your voice for good - please add it to this cause.
Thank you Ken. I do believe it is a warning and the world is full of hate from the right and the left. The Jews are once again the canary in the coal mine. And all of us are in danger.
Elise’s second favorite New York State felon, George Santos, was just sentenced to 87 months in prison…vs the 2 months his defense lawyers were trying for…😁
They wonder why people are not having kids. That and the disappearing environmental protection, no the outright assault on the environment, and I too wonder if it is smart to have kids.
ProPublica is a shining example of what journalism should and can be.
We should be calling our State Reps and ask them to support the dying with dignity bill. Even if you don't think you would use it, it's a right that people and their families should have available to them. If your belief doesn't allow you to make that choice, that's ok for you, but those who may need to, it's there for them.
A good idea! I like being specific in my messages to my Albany reps: Check to see if they have already co-sponsored the bill in their house (Assembly or NY Senate), and *thank them* if they have; ask them to co-sponsor if they haven't.
In the NY Assembly:
https://nyassembly.gov/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=A00136&term=&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&Committee%26nbspVotes=Y&Floor%26nbspVotes=Y&Memo=Y&Text=Y
My Assembly rep, Carrie Woerner, has co-sponsored. Good!
In the NY Senate:
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S138
My NY Senator, Jim Tedisco, has not.
Here's background from the group "Compassion and Choices:"
https://compassionandchoices.org/in-your-state/new-york/bill-summary/
Thank you for providing the info.
Great service to provide this info.
The Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID) proposed in New York is similar to MAID laws in other states, allowing terminally ill, mentally competent adults to request and self-administer medication to end their lives. The bill aims to provide a legal and compassionate option for individuals facing unbearable suffering at the end of life, while also including safeguards to ensure the process is not coercive.
...dark times, indeed / -signs of an [if not "the"] apocalypse...
It is obvious Stefanik does not give a damn about kids.
Did she ever address school shootings beyond, "thoughts and prayers?"
We never got the internet service to rural areas that would enhance education.
Did she even visit a school ?
But, by God, she did fight for all school children's right to drink chocolate milk!!!
The rural internet service was a super idea, but after watching Jon Stewart's interview with, I believe it was Ezra Klein, the description of exactly what it took for a company to apply, simply apply, to this - bureaucratic hell! It would be worthwhile to try to find that video. It was enlightening! The number of hoops to be jumped thru.
"Not once after any of those 5,000 interviews did any person ask me for forgiveness. The evil is not out of us. You will always find people to kill the Jews."
Mostly, people who are not Jewish are either unaware of what happened in Europe when much of it was occupied by Hitler's troops in W.W. II, or think it was an oddity that, though awful, could never happen again. Eighty years ago is a long time. But although the Nazis were more diabolically organized than most perpetrators of genocide, they were far from the only ones. What they did is what happens when people are turned into "Other." "Other" devolves into "Not Human," a state in which obscene cruelties can be visited upon them.
And cruelty is what the United States of America is inflicting upon people this insane President has labelled "Other:" Muslim graduate students, Central American parents, who knows who else or who is next to be "disappeared." Or worse.
I am a Jewish person. I had Ukrainian grandparents. I am two generations away from being "Other." What is happening here is terrifying.
Now the others are Palestinians and Ukrainians - dying - homes destroyed - lives destroyed.
I do remember the Holocaust (I was young) because it was in the public eye. But now I'm old!
If the schools arent teaching this history - just like the history of slavery? Thats wrong in so many ways. As is preventing the truth of both of these tragedys.
Yes, and now the Trumpies want to remove exhibits from the Smithsonian Museum of Black History that refer to the sins of slavery, lynching, rapes, forced illiteracy, "colored" water fountains, and all the rest. We'll just have ol' Hattie McDaniel shufflin' around grinning and lacing Scarlett into her dress. Oh, and maybe Jacke Robinson too.
Cant blame any of those old white people etc!
Thank you for continuing to shine a light on the darkest side of anti-semitism, and the grim reality of man’s inhumanity toward men…women…and even babies.
My soon-to-be 101 yr. old dear friend Clara Rudnick continues to speak with utter clarity of her experience as a teenaged Holocaust survivor of several concentration camps, after the killing of her parents, two sisters and two brothers. With all the commemorations of this 80th Anniversay of her liberation, she is keenly aware that only 200,000 Holocaust survivors are still alive to tell their stories.
For many years, at the urging of Father Abraham, the SGF Greek Orthodox Church pastor, Clara spoke at local schools within her beloved “North Country” to keep her story alive on behalf of the millions of Jews who couldn’t tell their stories. She reflected yesterday once again on one of the biggest honors she experienced in being invited to speak to the St. Mary’s/St. Alphonsus school children. It’s one of my cherished memories also, watching the faces of those young students, totally enthralled by Clara’s presence and her Truth as she lived it… and the courage she still possesses in living life as fully as possible…and still believing “America is still the best country on earth…everything is gonna be OK.”
This is tragic...and it brings to mind the current situation in the Middle East. How can a peoples who were so incredibly persecuted inflict the same and more on the citizens of Gaza??? I do believe this is not the will of the Jewish people, but the efforts of Jewish Extremists, the Zionists, exactly like the Nazi's. So sad!
Right you are! The astonishing, extreme right-wingers in Israel, just as the extreme right wingers here, do NOT represent the mind-set of all Israelis, much less all Jews.
And FYI, "Zionist" refers only to people who believe the state of Israel should exist, and that it is a home for the Jewish people. It doesn't refer to extremists, or for that matter, non-extremists.
I think there is a disconnect in the theory of Zionism and the actual results on the ground. I am a supporter of the state of Israel as a de facto state, although I have qualms about the nature of its founding. Israel exists, and it should continue to exist, but I cannot accept the label of Zionist, if it is an exclusionary state that is in its current form a state of ethnic cleansing of people who have their own claims to the territory, war crimes, and atrocities.
I believe there is a collective, or perhaps simply a related madness both here and in Israel and other places around the world which we names extremists, particularly religious extremists who are hardly different than the Nazis.
I'm glad you were at the ceremony to commemorate the genocide of European Jews. What is nauseating to read is the ability of spectators, including Jewish people, to watch with relish , the killings of other victims. Genocide has been committed historically, over and over by worldwide dictators and marauding raiders (I would hazard a guess in more continents than have been historically recorded or publicized) terrorizing the vulnerable, vying for hegemony over "the others". That includes our nation and every so-called "civilized" society. We hear about it, we may read about it, but it seems distant from within our comfort zones. But it is here. Got your "Real I. D. yet?" How will that be used? This administration has begun by launching a terrorizing attack on the most vulnerable, our planet, the sick, the poor, the livelihoods, education and scientific inquiry of present and next generations of the working and middle classes. Only the "chosen few" and the cackling loyal flunkies are temporarily exempt from the terror, until it is decided that they are expendable also. There is no difference between this administration and any South American dictator or a any fascist ruler. How far this goes depends on whether we fight it or become deluded entertained spectators.
Re your well-crafted piece on the Holocaust, a couple of thoughts:
-the tragic baby incident is
Reminiscent of the apparently only slightly fictionalized story in Styron’s “Sophie’s Choice” where Sophie must give up either her girl or boy for immediate death at Auschwitz.
-Another current non Jewish “hero” is Gunter Demnig, a tireless German who for the past 33 years has reminded us of the horrors of the Nazi era by incredibly placing more than 105,000 “stumbling stones” - small bronze markers - in the sidewalk in front of the last home of Jewish and other victims. The markers, with biographical information, have been set by Demnig in 31 countries.
My point is simple. Every single Republican is responsible for Trumps war on children and our nation. Stefanik, who hates everything, herself included, Stec, Simpson, Tony Jordan, Bob Landry, every single person who voted for Trump. There is no middle ground. Until we hold local loyalists feet to the fire nothing will change. The entire Trump agenda is based on lies and the Republican party has made that the norm.
That's why I believe the most effective path of resistance is to hold local elected officials accountable at the Town and Village Board level. They need to feel some responsibility.
The sad thing is that some people shudder to think that those things happened at some long ago time and place, and yet they watch it occur daily on their nightly news without it affecting their sleep. The warning is the tolling bell, but they do not recognize that it tolls for them.
It is happening in the Middle East, Sudan, etc, etc...
Watch it, even subtly suggesting the genocide in Gaza may get you deported.
Please, please don’t keep referring to the Medical Aid in Dying bill as an “assisted suicide” bill. That’s the language of the opposition, trying to convince you that it will let doctors help healthy people end their own lives. No! The people this bill will help are those who are already dying in the near future, who want to be able to choose to end their suffering when it becomes unbearable to them. It benefits all of us, because we all might come to that point at the end of our lives. Please tell it like it is. Talk so some of the people who have been working for 10 years or more to pass Medical Aid in Dying in NY. You use your voice for good - please add it to this cause.
Thank you Ken. I do believe it is a warning and the world is full of hate from the right and the left. The Jews are once again the canary in the coal mine. And all of us are in danger.
Elise’s second favorite New York State felon, George Santos, was just sentenced to 87 months in prison…vs the 2 months his defense lawyers were trying for…😁
He was small fry, I want to see the big fish go down!!
One smelly fish at a time…🐟