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STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE

Donald Trump is back in the news for more than one reason, neither of them good. For starters, he’s feuding with the governor of Florida, Rick DeSantis over a rally he wants to have this weekend some 200 miles from Surfside. DeSantis is asking Trump to postpone the rally. Trump not so nicely gave him the finger. Stay tuned to this one.

Our take on this is that frankly, Trump should be a bit more sensitive to what is going on in Florida. It’s simply beyond the pale and to hold a rally where people are cheering etc is just plain insensitive right now. Put it off for a couple of weeks. He doesn’t have to worry that the same people won’t come to cheer him. They will all be there complete with their Maga hats.

Next up: Remember how they finally got Al Capone? Not for murder, extortion or any other lowlife things he was up to. Nope. They got him on tax evasion. Well, today in New York, Trump’s longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, a nice little Jewish accountant, surrendered to New York authorities for arraignment in the first criminal indictment arising from a two-year investigation into Trump’s company.

There is no doubt that Weisselberg knows where all the bodies are buried, so to speak. In other words, he has intimate knowledge of Trump’s business dealings. The case could give prosecutors the means to pressure Weisselberg into cooperating with an ongoing probe into other aspects of the company’s business. Dangling fifteen years in prison at the age of 73 would certainly make anyone sing like a bird.

Given that, one cannot help but wonder when people will stop making it their life’s mission to ‘get Trump’. Our guess is that they don’t want him running for office again, ergo their zealousness in this investigation.

Democrats, the woke culture, the squad, black lives matter, defund the police advocates etc have finally won the day in San Francisco.

Out-of-control crime and homelessness, with many openly injecting drugs on public streets, have prompted residents to begin thinking about moving out of the city. In a recent poll, more than 40% say they plan to move in the next few years. One resident who is not waiting said the following: “I really thought I was going to be sad when the movers loaded up the last container but I have never been more relieved”.

So what will be left? A once thriving city turned into a pathetic shadow of it once was. Is that what all those groups want? Guess so, eh Blanche? They won, but at what cost?

There is really no doubt that Bill Cosby is guilty of being a sexual predator. But clearly, guilt was not the only factor for the court.

Why was he not only freed from jail, but cannot ever be prosecuted for these crimes again?

In any criminal case, there are issues that can be hard to keep discrete because they are so closely related. They are: (a) is the defendant guilty, and (b) did the defendant get a fair trial?

It appears that Cosby was duped into acknowledging that he was a sexual predator by a prosecutor, who had assured him that he would not be charged.

In relying on that assurance by the Montgomery County district attorney Cosby agreed to testify in a civil case brought against him by Andrea Constand, then a Temple University employee whom he had sexually assaulted in 2004. Cosby made damaging admissions and paid a large settlement.

Subsequently, political pressure to charge Cosby intensified because numerous women made similar allegations. At the same time, Montgomery County got a new district attorney who reneged on his predecessor’s non-prosecution assurance. Blanche, you following all of this?

Pennsylvania’s highest court decided that prosecutors did not honor their previous assurance that he would not be charged as a new district attorney took office. This goes on and on. The bottom line is that Cosby is out for technical reasons. Whether or not his legacy is ruined is a moot point. On a surface level, it appears he got away with what he did. Feh.

Today would have been Princess Diana’s 60th birthday. Her sons, William and Harry – the heir and the spare as they were called – unveiled a statue of her together.

One can only hope these two men are able to reconcile their differences as they will one day figure out that life is just too short to hold grudges. Especially when it’s just the two of them.

The Surfside building collapse seems to be going from bad to worse. In the middle of the night very sensitive machines detected that what was left of the building was in danger of collapsing on the rescuers. Everyone was quickly evacuated.

Now it appears that a tropical storm is heading for Miami on Sunday or Monday which would make that pile of rubble even more difficult to deal with. For families waiting to hear any news, the hours and days must be excruciatingly long. G-d should spare them. It’s enough.

Our last piece has to do with the very important and crucial matter of free speech. Mercifully we live in a democracy, not a communist country. We are free to write what we want without fear that someone will come in the middle of night and take us to prison. This is to be taken very seriously.

For example, while we are certainly not fans of Justin Trudeau and have pointed this out on many occasions, we have not heard from him, anyone in his orb or anyone else we highlight in Blanche. Read between the lines here.

Along with Blanche, we also write a weekly blog called Short Shabbos Insights. It deals with the Torah portion of the week and as Jews we are taught to live ‘with the times’, meaning to live with the portion of the week.

This week, believe or not, deals with leadership. We won’t subject you to the entire blog, but will give you the lesson we took:

After reading this Torah portion I felt a bit better about the time we are living in, seemingly void of leadership. I believe that sooner than later, a leader will emerge. That person will have morals, values, common sense and not be afraid to say the truth.

But…don’t wait for that person or an opportunity to present itself for you to lead the way. Make that opportunity present itself and it will. Then show the world what they yearn to see – a place where everyone feels welcome and at home. A place where no one hides behind meaningless words. A place where the truth is front and center – uncensored.

It seems to be that we are the leaders in times of darkness, and I guess we must step up to the plate and make change happen ourselves.  

Good Shabbos We’ll talk…

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