Friday, November 09, 2018
201811090706...
Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938
On the night of November 9, 1938, violent anti-Jewish demonstrations broke out across Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Nazi officials depicted the riots as justified reactions to the assassination of German foreign official Ernst vom Rath, who had been shot two days earlier by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year old Polish Jew distraught over the deportation of his family from Germany.
Over the next 48 hours, violent mobs, spurred by antisemitic exhortations from Nazi officials, destroyed hundreds of synagogues, burning or desecrating Jewish religious artifacts along the way. Acting on orders from Gestapo headquarters, police officers and firefighters did nothing to prevent the destruction. All told, approximately 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and schools were plundered, and 91 Jews were murdered. An additional 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Nazi officials immediately claimed that the Jews themselves were to blame for the riots, and a fine of one billion reichsmarks (about $400 million at 1938 rates) was imposed on the German Jewish community.
The Nazis came to call the event Kristallnacht (“Crystal Night,” or, “The Night of Broken Glass”), referring to the thousands of shattered windows that littered the streets afterwards, but the euphemism does not convey the full brutality of the event. Kristallnacht was a turning point in the history of the Third Reich, marking the shift from antisemitic rhetoric and legislation to the violent, aggressive anti-Jewish measures that would culminate with the Holocaust.
Over the next 48 hours, violent mobs, spurred by antisemitic exhortations from Nazi officials, destroyed hundreds of synagogues, burning or desecrating Jewish religious artifacts along the way. Acting on orders from Gestapo headquarters, police officers and firefighters did nothing to prevent the destruction. All told, approximately 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and schools were plundered, and 91 Jews were murdered. An additional 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Nazi officials immediately claimed that the Jews themselves were to blame for the riots, and a fine of one billion reichsmarks (about $400 million at 1938 rates) was imposed on the German Jewish community.
The Nazis came to call the event Kristallnacht (“Crystal Night,” or, “The Night of Broken Glass”), referring to the thousands of shattered windows that littered the streets afterwards, but the euphemism does not convey the full brutality of the event. Kristallnacht was a turning point in the history of the Third Reich, marking the shift from antisemitic rhetoric and legislation to the violent, aggressive anti-Jewish measures that would culminate with the Holocaust.
Thursday, November 08, 2018
201811081513...
This was sent to me by a close friend:
I’m sure we are all happy about the election results. Trump will finally get something he has probably never experienced in his entire life... accountability. But the high profile loses in the Senate, especially Texas, governor in Florida, etc., have led many in the media to proclaim there was not a blue wave. But here are some facts that belie that from other media sources that looked beyond these losses:
This was the largest gain (currently 28, may reach 35) in the House of Representatives for Democrats since the election after Watergate. And this came in spite of the fact of 30 years of extensive Republican gerrymandering of districts and outright voter suppression to exclude Democrats.
During the Obama years Dems lost over 1000 thousand legislative seats across the country. They regained over a third of that loss on Tuesday.
And if you look at who voted for who in the Senate races, overall 57% of voters voted for a Democrat candidate vs. 43% for a Republican candidate. But Republicans still picked up seats. The Senate is structurally a very undemocratic institution and was set up that way by our slaveholding founders, for among other reasons, in order to get everyone on board to form the US in the first place. State legislatures elected senators until the 17th amendment to the constitution mandating direct elections by the people took effect in 1913. Keep in mind that a senator from Wyoming who represents fewer than 300,000 people has as much power as a senator from California who represents 20 million people.
So, even more to celebrate than you might have thought.
201811080621...
13 dead including gunman in shooting at California bar
The massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at a Parkland, Florida school nine months ago. It also came less than two weeks after a gunman killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
The massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since 17 classmates and teachers were gunned down at a Parkland, Florida school nine months ago. It also came less than two weeks after a gunman killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
(And let's not forget the two victims at the yoga studio shooting in Tallahassee a few days ago.)
Wednesday, November 07, 2018
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