Jews From The United States

"This is an excellent program. Nobody has said it has done a bad job. It is small. There are only about 50,000 visas a year. ... As I ride my bike around New York City on the weekends, I see what immigrants do for America. This program has dramatically helped."

"There was a strange aftertaste to many of the calls for grand social reform in 2020. As the coronavirus crisis overtook us, the left wing on both sides of the Atlantic, at least that part that had been fired up Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, was going down to defeat. The promise of a radicalized and reenergized left, organized around the idea of the Green New Deal, seemed to dissipate amidst the pandemic. It fell to governments mainly of the center and the right to meet the crisis. They were a strange assortment. Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in the United States experimented with denial. For them climate skepticism and virus skepticism went hand in hand. In Mexico, the notionally left-wing government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador also pursued a maverick path, refusing to take drastic action. Nationalist strongmen like Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Narendra Modi in India, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey did not deny the virus, but relied on their patriotic appeal and bullying tactics to see them through. It was the managerial centrist types who were under most pressure. Figures like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in the United States, or Sebastián Piñera in Chile, or Cyril Ramaphosa in South Africa, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Ursula von der Leyen, and their ilk in Europe. They accepted the science. Denial was not an option. They were desperate to demonstrate that they were better than the 'populists.' To meet the crisis, very middle-of-the-road politicians ended up doing very radical things. Most of it was improvisation and compromise, but insofar as they managed to put a programmatic gloss on their responses—whether in the form of the EU's Next Generation program or Biden's Build Back Better program in 2020—it came from the repertoire of green modernization, sustainable development, and the Green New Deal."

"People who enter the United States without our permission are illegal aliens, and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who entered the U.S. legally."

"One respectful question will be addressed to Jews who plan to continue to eat meat: In view of strong Jewish mandates to be compassionate to animals, preserve our health, help feed the hungry, preserve and protect the environment, conserve resources, and seek and pursue peace, and the very negative effects animal-centered diets have in each of these areas, will you now become a vegetarian, or at least sharply reduce your consumption of animal products?"

"Central to Jewish mysticism is the role that vegetarianism plays in messianic expectations: here vegetarianism functions in the concept of Jewish mystical time which chronicles human development from the vegetarian state in the Garden of Eden to the Messianic age when it is believed we will be vegetarians again. … in Judaism the laws governing responsibility to animals derive from the animal's place in the divine economy, assured by the covenantal statements, by the Jewish view of creation, and the Jewish view of a just and compassionate Creator. The stress of these laws with respect to the Jew is summed up in the question: How should the righteous (just) Jew behave toward animals, and the answer lies in the concept of the “imitatio Dei.” The just and merciful human behaves toward animals as a just and merciful Creator behaves toward humans."

"The color gauge theory postulates the existence of eight massless particles, sometimes called gluons, that are the carriers of the strong force just as the photon is the carrier of the electromagnetic force."

"Why was there a Big Bang? What, if anything, came before? What mechanisms generated the exponential inflation of the early Universe? What are dark matter and dark energy, which dominate today's Universe? How did the first stars and galaxies form? Why are the fundamental constants of nature what they are? Must we depend on the Cosmic Anthropic Principle to 'answer' such questions? Is our Universe unique, or must we appeal to a Multiverse? What will be the ultimate fate of our Universe?"

"In the midst of our high-tech, ostentatious, hedonistic lifestyle, among the dazzling monuments to history, art, religion, and commerce, there are the 'black boxes.' These are the biomedical research laboratories, factory farms, and slaughterhouses—faceless compounds where society conducts its dirty business of abusing and killing innocent, feeling beings. These are our Dachaus, our Buchenwalds, our Birkenaus. Like the good German burghers, we have a fair idea of what goes on there, but we don't want any reality checks."

"I was always bothered by the idea of hitting a beautiful, living, innocent animal over the head, cutting him up into pieces, then shoving the pieces into my mouth. I finally made my decision to stop eating animals when I came upon a ritual slaughter scene during a visit to Israel. My experiences in the during the Nazi Holocaust had a profound impact on my subsequent life choices. I felt some guilt that I lived when so many others didn't, and a sense of duty to redeem my survival by assuming their share of responsibility for making this planet a better place to live for all its inhabitants."

"Strong, weak and electromagnetic interaction are evidently part of a grand unified theory. These temperatures are today quite inaccessible. They were achieved only in the earliest moments of the Big Bang. Since then, the universe has congealed, losing its symmetry."

"... Why is the muon, some dumb particle, 200 times heavier than the electron? Why is the proton about 2,000 times heavier than the electron? Why is the electric charge of the electron what it is? Why are there six quarks in nature? Why not seven or eleven or five? There are many, many "why" questions. Also a number of 'how' questions. What is the mechanism that causes the weak interactions to be weak and the electromagnetic interactions not weak?"

"... If a distant galaxy is moving relative to us, its entire spectrum is Doppler-shifted in frequency. Its spectral lines are displaced relative to those of stationary light sources. Thanks to this effect, we know that distant galaxies recede from the solar system at speeds proportional to their distances from us. That's the effect that told us of the expanding universe, and of its birth, long ago, in the Big Bang."

"All kinds of questions remain. Many have to do with cosmology. How did the universe originate? How did the galaxies become distributed in space like the suds in the kitchen sink, as one of my colleagues has described it? Why is the cosmological constant apparently very tiny but non-zero and has a peculiar value that leads the universe to expand more rapidly?"

"We really look for a story first and scares second. I think that ultimately makes the scares more effective. Most people look for the scares first and build the story around it, but that’s something that I’ve been lucky enough to learn while working with these great directors who have spent their lives making these kind of movies. So that’s what we look for: is there great drama? And then we go from there."

"I’m a big believer in creating parameters for creativity. I think parameters make people more creative. So that starts with my budgets. I only do low budget movies, and I think that makes the movies better. I think that the movies that we do are better because our budgets are lower, and it forces people to think within a box."

"Among the results of the backlash against the family-separation policy was the decision by David Glosser to speak out against his nephew Stephen Miller, sharing the history of his family's difficult journey to the United States in order to disprove the premises of the White House's approach to immigration. In 2018, he wrote in Politico about having "watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, an educated man who is well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family's life in this country." "I had a unique platform from which to speak," Glosser told me. "I had no choice other than to reveal the truth to the background of our family and how it relates to the background of the architect of this catastrophe." Miller, for his part, sees his family's ancestral home of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, as having been harmed by "globalists" and the "owners of capital.""

"It's our blood and bones And these whistles and phones Against Miller and Noem's dirty lies"

"Stephen Miller (from that special category of American military-age males who nevertheless somehow Perpetually Evaded the GWOT, or PEG)."

"Stephen Miller: policy advisor and vitamin-D-deficient Minion. You might well think that's unfair, anyone can find a photo of someone looking a bit like a Minion. But with Miller, it is genuinely hard to find a photo of him not looking like a Minion."

"The ICE activity we are protesting is allegedly being directed by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Miller called a meeting of ICE officials last month and directed them to “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens.” Not to target “the worst of the worst,” as the president had indicated. Not even to target criminals or gang members at all. But to roll up to a Home Depot where day laborers gather. To post up outside of a grammar school graduation in a neighborhood with a high percentage of undocumented residents. Just go and grab them and pull them away from their homes and their babies and their lives. Just lock them up. Now that’s what they’re doing. That’s what we’re protesting. And if it turns out their papers actually are in order, which it has more than a few times, then tough shit."

"It wouldn't be military action against Greenland. The Greenland has a population of 30,000 people, Jake. The real question is, by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark? The United States is the power of NATO, for the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests. Obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States."

"There’s a video that made the rounds in the early days of the first Trump administration, when Miller was a lower-level spokesghoul. It’s our boy as a Santa Monica High School student and worth taking a fresh look at now that we know he’s one of the architects of this ICE campaign of random terror. There he is. The sneer for which he’d come to be known is already fully formed. His beard is largely too embarrassed to have anything to do with his face. He’s got the general look of someone you’d see juggling outside of a Barenaked Ladies show because he’s afraid to go inside the Barenaked Ladies show because someone in there might be doing pot. He’s arguing for his right to leave his trash behind. And he seems to want to be cheered for it. Los Angeles is crazy vast. Santa Monica High School is 12 miles from where I sit writing. If I left right now, I’d be there in an hour. But do you know what’s one half of one mile, one ten-minute walk away, from Santa Monica High School? The beach. A really nice, clean, and well-maintained beach, as a matter of fact. Miller could have been taking a surf lesson, eating some Dippin’ Dots, or watching a majestic sunset over the Pacific Ocean. Instead, he’s sneering to a crowd about his right as a white person to leave his mess behind for a brown person to clean up."

"We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time. ... [W]e are in charge because we have the United States military stationed outside the country. We set the terms and conditions. We have a complete embargo on all of their oil and their ability to do commerce."

"The President has been clear for months now that the United States should be the nation that has Greenland as part of our overall security apparatus ... [T]hat has been the formal position of the U.S. government since the beginning of this administration, frankly, going back into the previous Trump administration, that Greenland should be part of the United States. The President has been very clear about that. That is the formal position of the U.S. government."

"The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States. There's no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you're asking of a military operation. Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland."

"I've always been a nonconformist. I think that nonconformity is part of the American DNA. And in today's culture, the nonconformists are conservatives."

"The Democrats are fighting for illegal aliens. Donald Trump is fighting for American citizens. That's what this whole thing is about. You have covered this better than probably anybody for years. You understand this is about sovereignty. It's about working men and women. It's about safe communities. It's about wages, living conditions, quality of life. This is the battle right now right before our very eyes."

"The president is the sole head of the executive branch. So there's 15 communist crazy judges on the court that, each of them working together, can block and freeze each and every executive action?"

"I would be happy if not a single refugee foot ever again touched American soil."

"The People ask me what emotions I am feeling right now. There is incredible sadness, there is incredible anger. And the thing about anger is that unfocused anger or blind rage is not a productive emotion, but focused anger, righteous anger, directed for a just cause is one of the most important agents of change in human history. And we are gonna channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks."

"The cousin of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller accused him Thursday of being responsible for an ICE agent fatally shooting a woman in Minneapolis. “When I called out my cousin for being the ‘face of evil’ I DID NOT stutter,” Alisa Kasmer wrote on Threads, referencing a Facebook post she made last year. “Renee Nicole Good’s death is blood on YOUR hands, Stephen. I’m just glad our grandparents are no longer alive to witness the shame you have brought to our family,” Kasmer added. [...] Kasmer, who lives in Miller’s Los Angeles hometown, where there were major protests last summer over ICE raids, publicly blasted him on Facebook in July, recalling babysitting him as a child and describing him as once “lovable and harmless” but now someone she could no longer support or tolerate. “I grieve what you’ve become, Stephen… I will never knowingly let evil into my life, no matter whose blood it carries—including my own,” she wrote at the time."

"Immigration is an emotional issue. And it ought to be an emotional issue because it affects people’s lives."

"Trump adviser Stephen Miller, considered the administration’s “brains,” says that “the real world” is governed by “strength,” “by force,” and “by power.” “The United States,” he says, “is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere. We’re a superpower.” The U.S. is supposed to be different, but Trump sees the world as an extension of himself — a place where bullies gain wealth and power by mistreating others and controlling them with fear."

"Everybody who stands against Donald Trump are the people who’ve been running this country into the ground. They’re the people who’ve been controlling the levers of power. They’re the people who are responsible for our open border, for our shrinking middle class, for our terrible trade deals. Everything that is wrong with this country today, the people opposing Donald J. Trump are responsible for."

"Acosta: What the President is proposing here does not sound like it's in keeping with American tradition when it comes to immigration. The says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." It doesn't say anything about speaking English or being a computer programmer. Aren't you trying to change what it means to an immigrant coming into this country if you're telling them you have to speak English? Can't people learn to speak English when they get here? Miller: Well, first of all, right now it's a requirement to be ; you have to speak English. So the notion that speaking English wouldn't be a part of the immigration system would actually be very ahistorical. Secondly, I don't want to get off into a whole thing about history here, but the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of liberty enlightening the world; it's a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. The poem that you're referring to was added later; is not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty."

"Acosta: This whole notion of they have to learn English before they get to the United States: are we just going to bring in people from Great Britain and Australia? Miller: I am shocked at your statement, that you think only people from Great Britain and Australia would know English. It actually reveals your cosmopolitan, er, bias, to a shocking degree, that in your mind... No, this an amazing moment... Acosta: It sounds like you're trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country through this policy. Miller: Jim, that is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said, and for you that's still a really... The notion that you think that this is a racist bill is so wrong and so insulting."

"One way in which feminists try to remedy the disparity is to legally mandate paid leave for female employees who give birth, even if a company is struggling to stay afloat. Such laws provide powerful incentives for bosses-male or female-not to hire women to begin with. Of course, it's easy to support such legislation until you end up getting laid off because your boss was losing too much money by paying absent employees."

"There are 7 billion people in the world. Most of them are good, hardworking, decent, honest, principled people. But the reality is there's a limit to how many people any country can bring in. And we as a country have a right to say we want to bring people based on their ability to contribute to our economy, to be safe, productive citizens, and to uplift the nation as a whole."

"I like the fact that I'm involved in a career that gives me so many different mediums to perform in. The entertainment industry in the last 10 years has been so fragmented, from scripted programming to reality. There's work not just on TV and in film, but you know, on your cell phone, on the Internet. There's so many [venues] now, and each of them looking for quality content, that, you know, I'm just going with the flow. And I'm having fun with every wave."

"Shows like Queer As Folk, The "L" Word, Will & Grace and Sex and the City, all do their part to promote alternative lifestyles and erode traditional values."

"Am I the only one who is sick and tired of being told to pick up my trash when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do it for us."

"Kasmer described a young Miller as an “awkward, funny, needy middle child who loved to chase attention” but was “always the sweetest with the littlest family members.” She added that he was “young, conservative, maybe misguided, but lovable and harmless.” “People always ask me, ‘What happened to you?’ I don't have a clear answer," Kasmer continued in July. “I can only surmise it was a perfect storm of ego, fear, hate, and ambition-all of it mangled into something cruel and hollow, masquerading as strength. You were born into privilege, into safety, and wealth. And somehow, you've weaponized all of it.” Kasmer has also accused Miller of hypocrisy, criticizing him for leading the Trump administration's harsh immigration policies that take away the very opportunities that once helped his own family come to the U.S. and build a life. “We’re Jewish—we grew up knowing how hated we were just for existing,” Kasmer told The New Republic in December. “Now he’s trying to take away the exact thing that his own family benefited from: that ability to create a life for themselves, to prosper, to build community, to have successful businesses—to live a rewarding life.”"

"Trump’s rhetoric in his speeches to the military has been awful—he has ridiculed former commanders in chief, castigated sitting elected officials, and told the members of America’s armed forces that other Americans are their enemies. But his actions are worse. In deploying troops to American cities, he has set up a confrontation in which military commanders may soon have to choose between obeying the president and obeying the law. “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Judge Karin Immergut—a conservative Trump appointee—wrote last week when she blocked Trump’s attempt to send troops to Portland. The White House aide Stephen Miller likely foreshadowed Trump’s next moves, including possibly ignoring such rulings, when he lashed out at Immergut’s decision. Miller, a man who hates being called a fascist, made the fascistic accusation that a “large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country” is being “shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors and attorneys general.”"

"The one thing people crave above all else at this moment in history in the people they send to Washington is authenticity — people who are real, and in person, in private and in public the same person — people of character and integrity and dignity — people you can rely on to defend your interests and your values and to never be persuaded or influenced or manipulated by forces and interests and people who do not have the interests of America at heart...One of the things we’re missing from our political dialogue right now is the idea that the United States is a home. It is more than an accounting sheet. It is more than the sum of its GDP, its total tax collections or its total outlays. America is a family. America is the place that we love, to whom we give our loyalty and our allegiance and our devotion.But Washington has forgotten for too long that it owes its loyalty, dedication and devotion to the citizens of this country who call it home. Washington does not serve the interests of people living overseas or corporations headquartered all across this globe, but the real flesh and blood citizens who together create this nation, this home."

"Far from the images of 1960s kids rebelling against power, most of my classmates who were upset by the things I was saying ... wanted to have a more disciplined administrative environment with stronger, tougher rules about what you can and can’t say—set by adult authority figures!"

"I'm a student of the movies. I'm a student of all media. This is what I do, and I like to immerse myself in what's current and what's topical. And I find that I'm drawn to those things."

"My mantra is “stay perpendicular.” Horizontal is not as good. Half the people that came along and up with with me are either gone to another dimension or don’t remember what they had for lunch. I’m fortunate. I don’t know why. I just want to have a good time."

"Doubt is an important part of the human being. Trust has to be attained. If you don’t trust yourself, you won’t trust others. You make a choice and see where it goes."

"I have done some films along the way that have been screwed up and not as good as they read. Some films that are not that good on the page turn into good movies. So I’m fallible is what I’m saying. It’s OK to be wrong. You learn from your wrongs. You don’t learn from being right. If you’re right, you already know it. If you’re wrong, it’s because you don’t know about it, and you made a mistake."

"Most proponents of a mandatory retirement age or term limits claim that we should amend the Constitution in order to alleviate the problems associated with life tenure. Their proposals implicitly reject an incentives approach to retirement because they assume that Justices will not act rationally in response to institutional modifications. In other words, both proposals are not only radical in their scope and represent substantial constitutional change, but they also rely on the remarkable proposition that Justices are fundamentally different from the rest of us in the way they approach economic decisions. There is little evidence to commend this view, and there is considerable empirical research to the contrary that supports Judge Posner’s thesis that Justices maximize the same thing everybody else does: their own utility.11 Put simply, legal scholars have not thought creatively about life tenure, shunning promising interdisciplinary approaches in favor of drastic constitutional change."