Friday 8 April 2016

MY COMPUTER DIED

Well, it is sad to relate, but my vintage has PC finally given up the ghost and ascended to PC paradise. With it went all my links to my cartoon sources, a vast collection of files and folders, all of which are more difficult to replace than the hard drive itself. This is coming from the local coffee shop. A new PC is on the way so I will be back in action ASAP, hopefully by next week.

On the good side, this means starting fresh! Much is tucked away on an external drive, but it is not up to date at all.  It is the loss of links that will be more difficult to replace since many were not in English and were found by happenstance.  That money was intended for a much-needed tune-up, but necessity is a cruel mistress.

Not to mention, I am coming down with bronchitis so we shall see how things move along. Despite all of this, the mood is good at the moment. But then again, these things will, as always, pass. 

Wednesday 6 April 2016

2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: THE GREATEST CON IN U.S. ELECTORAL HISTORY


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ED Noor:  The author speaks candidly of elections and what they truly represent to the policy makers and those who shape our world.  By being a “good citizen” and voting for “the least of two evils” a person is actually condoning and giving carte blanche to their chosen candidate to do as they will. And it is only with our consent (in this case, voting) that they can lead us into further evil. The trickery of this election has been marvelously scripted to catch and hold our attention. 

"In view of this ever-intensifying predicament that the cabal finds themselves in, they really do know that they are a hairsbreadth away from a French Revolution style denouement. They also know that the final stage of their New World Order is vitally necessary if they are to avoid a public lynching.  Only by crashing the Global Economic and Financial System and starting a full-blown World War III can they be guaranteed their freedom from the clutches of We the People.  They really do get that."

***

"What is very important to understand is that your vote and tax dollars represent an energetic approval of who they are and what they do."  

***

"If ever there was a society-threatening lesson for the U.S. citizenry to learn, it is this.  It is never wise or acceptable to vote for the lesser of the two evils when you don’t even know how the game is being played.  By voting for leaders who only do great harm to the Republic, as well as inflict terrible injury on the world community of nations, Americans have given their implicit consent."

  ***

TWO OF THE WORLD’S MOST INFAMOUS SNAKE OIL SALESMEN 

MESMERIZE ELECTORATE USA

 

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The Dynamic Duos at the Trump wedding

 

Why were they each deliberately set up to be the lesser of the two evils for this 2016 election?

 

Why are Americans so addicted to deception?

 

State of the Nation

 

And in this corner we have a criminally insane, psychopathic career politician who fraudulently advocates all the politically correct causes … HILLARY R. CLINTON

 

And in that corner we have a sociopathic and compulsive salesman who is much more showman than anything else, much more barker than leader … DONALD J. TRUMP 

 

What you are about to read constitutes the single greatest CON in U.S. election history. This CON is so calculated and premeditated, so purposeful and deliberate, and so complicated and convoluted that very few will choose to believe it.  Trust us!  You will believe it when you see the results after January 20th of 2017.  However, what most may completely fail to believe ~ at the end of the day ~ is who the real con man really is.  We’re talking about the greatest CON MAN alive today.

 

“Let’s face it, the American electorate is in deep doo-doo … very deep!”
(Source: Is it time for a write-in candidate or full-blown voting boycott?)

 

Truly, the 2016 campaign season has underscored just how sorry a state the American electoral process is in.

 

2016 has shown every living American just how completely devoid of truth the whole political process really is.

 

Qualification: SOTN neither supports nor opposes Donald Trump for president.  On the other hand SOTN vehemently opposes every other candidate who has declared their presidential aspirations.

 

HILLARY

How, pray tell, does the Democrat Party even attempt to push a candidate who is running for President so that she can stay out of prison?

 

We’re talking about a former Secretary of State who illegally set up a private email address on an unlawful home server without proper security so that she could conduct her shady business deals with her husband’s ‘nonprofit’ foundation, which catered to the wealthy and powerful in countries that was directly related the official business of the U.S. Department of State. WOW!  Doing personal business at State while essentially running a parallel government from her personal unsecured email account on a home-based server.*

*Every political analyst knows that Hillary Clinton should have been indicted by now and removed from American politics forever.  Instead, her devotees support her more than zealously ever.  Such is the covert scheme to constantly thrust highly inferior and unethical candidates in front of the electorate so as to inure them to outright criminality … so that official misconduct actually becomes expected of their public servants.

This is the same person who was quite ignominiously fired from her position during the infamous Watergate hearings because she attempted to deprive Richard Nixon of his rightful legal counsel. It is also the same person who was Secretary of State during the meticulous preparation for both the catastrophic Syrian War as well as the equally disastrous unprovoked war on Libya.  Here is Hillary’s quote on the gruesome execution of Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi.

 

“We Came, We Saw, He Died”

(Source: Hillary Clinton’s Six Foreign-Policy Catastrophes)

 

Then there is Benghazigate and Foundationgate, Emailgate and Servergate, Whitewatergate and Travelgate, Vince Foster and Ron Brown.  Who will ever forget Monica Lewinsky and Jennifer Flowers, Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones and Eileen Wellstone?  The list of examples enabling Bill’s exploits is quite long and sordid and is only mentioned because of the critical role that Mrs. Clinton played in the suppression of those sexual assaults, as well as the harassment of the victims.

 

Hillary Clinton Belongs In Jail, Not On A Presidential Ticket

Kathleen Willey: Hillary Will Have To Shoot Me To Stop Me

“Bigger Than Watergate” ~ Hillary Clinton And The Syrian Bloodbath

 

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“What difference does it make?!”

 

THE DONALD

As for the most likely GOP candidate, how does the Republican Party ~ not the entire political establishment ~ permit itself to be totally hijacked by a Gambling magnate and American Beauty Pageant promoter?

 

We’re talking about a guy who made his millions, or billions, or trillions in gambling casinos and Manhattan real estate development.  Nothing wrong with the real estate development, it’s just what you have to do in that cut-throat realm to be successful. As for gambling in Vegas and Atlantic City ….

 

The real issue with The Donald is that he is presenting himself as an outsider when he is, in fact, the quintessential insider.  He knows ’em all, and loves ’em all, as the following photo-documentary clearly illustrates.

 

Of course, the most obvious flaw in his current sales promotion tour of the USA is his patently fallacious narrative regarding the 9/11 false flag terror attacks.  He continues to cling to the absurd narrative that Islamic jihadists were responsible under the leadership of Osama bin Laden when he really does know exactly what happened.  His shocking defense of Israel in this same matter is even more staged and preposterous in order to deflect blame from Israel.

 

While The Donald may play all the right notes for his target audience (they’re being played like a violin), there is so much strident and dubious cacophony throughout his prevaricating campaign that it is quite stomach-wrenching to either watch or listen to.*

*Even Donald Trump himself said ‘I could shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters’.  In fact, depending on who he shot, he might even gain voters, such is the way he has been able to corral the angry and disenfranchised into his pen of political incorrectness. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being politically incorrect, except when the whole world is up in arms because of outrageously reckless and irresponsible statements.   

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ED Noor: Mussolini and Trump. The physical resemblance is amazing!

 

Yes, he gives the appearance of providing little truths here and there, but only as BAIT to string the electorate along to an election win.  Simply put, The Donald is a fraud, and he knows it.  He’s an imposter just as Obama is an imposter, except on the other end of the political spectrum.  Whereas Obama is a dyed-in-the-wool communist, Trump is a stone-cold fascist ~Mussolini style.  He embodies all the provocative rhetoric and inflammatory demagoguery necessary to rile up his new base so that he will win the nomination.

 

Is Donald Trump A Closeted NeoCon?

Donald Trump: Not Illuminati, Illuminati-Controlled Opposition, Or Illuminati Born and Bred?

Donald Trump: A Clinton Plant, A RINO Decoy, A Democrat Stealth Candidate, Or All 3

 

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“I Totally Swear I’m Rich!”

 

THE CON

With this little but essential understanding about both of our CIA cut-outs, it is much easier to comprehend this CON of the Millennium.  Both Clinton and Trump know the con game they are unscrupulously playing on the American people.  They know they have been quite purposefully chosen to run their respective sides of the con (You know ~ good cop, bad cop.).  Each is able to fully engage their fans and followers in a manner that convinces them of their phony authenticity.

 

Dear reader, if you get nothing else from this very serious exposé, let this be the message:

 

That both Clinton and Trump were pre-selected

for their mesmerizing showmanship and exceptional ability

to captivate the body politic.  

This is their primary and most important function

during this election cycle.  

And it is critical that they play their parts well for their Illuminati NWO masters.

 

WHY?

 

What’s the big deal about 2016 and especially the outcome of the upcoming election?

 

First of all, it is critical to understand that this election is IT.  The election of either Clinton or Trump will spell disaster for the nation.  Whoever is slated to win will be empowered to do things that will transform this constitutional republic into a transparent and tyrannical totalitarian state.  True, the “deep national security state” has been operating as such since 2001, but now it gets much worse after Obama created the legal framework for an outright presidential tyranny.

 

Ed Noor: Before leaving office, George Bush passed many laws and regulations regarding presidential privileges that he never intended to use but they set the place nicely for Obama to use the new powers Bush created.

 

Both Trump and Clinton are natural-born tyrants.  Like all tyrants, however, they are perfectly controlled and cannot make a move except with the permission of their true NWO masters.  As a matter of fact, they are both so controlled and programmed to implement different aspects of the NWO agenda that they cannot even hide their loyalty to their particular contingent within the World Shadow Government (WSG) hierarchy.

 

Because the extreme excesses of both communism and fascism actually end up on the same spot of the tyranny/totalitarian circle there is really very little difference between Trump and Clinton.  At the end of their prospective terms they will have both accomplished the perceptible incarceration of the American people on a NWO plantation of perpetual debt slavery and declining slave wages, just in different ways.

 

THE 2016 ELECTION MODUS OPERANDI

IS ALL ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT

AND ENGAGEMENT AND ENTRAINMENT

 

Because the upcoming four year term is so VERY special to the NWO ruling cabal, they require one thing more than anything else in 2016.  They desperately require the consent of the voters. Therefore, it was absolutely imperative for them to roll out the greatest dog and pony show in U.S. presidential election history.  And hasn’t this campaign season been a doozy with one unending whopper and unparalleled spectacle interspersed with one showstopper after another?

 

It is quite critical to understand that it just cannot get any crazier than election cycle this FOR VERY SPECIFIC REASONS.  In other words both Hillary and The Donald were purposefully trotted out onto the stage of this campaign season to entertain and entrain us, engage and enrage us.  They are here to capture our attention as never before.  The true reason for this is quite crucial to apprehend.

 

You see, the NWO cabal knows that the citizenry has grown very restless. They’re NOT stupid when it comes to self preservation.  They see their names all over the Internet mentioned within the context of “war crimes” and “criminal insanity” and “multi-decade crime sprees” and “psychopathic killing” and “sociopathic thievery” and “crimes against humanity”, etc.  They know that the Internet has permitted the whole world to peer inside of their personal histories and, therefore, to understand the depth and the breadth of their unrelenting betrayals and perfidy.

 

In view of this ever-intensifying predicament that the cabal finds themselves in, they really do know that they are a hairsbreadth away from a French Revolution style denouement. They also know that the final stage of their New World Order is vitally necessary if they are to avoid a public lynching.  Only by crashing the Global Economic and Financial System and starting a full-blown World War III can they be guaranteed their freedom from the clutches of We the People.  They really do get that.

 

This is why we are all being entertained and engaged by the Fric and Frac of 2016.  Enter The Donald and Hillary, to the extraordinary delight and sheer amazement of everyone along the political spectrum, from hardcore conservatives to extreme ultra-liberals, from stone-cold communists to hardened fascists.   

In Clinton and Trump will everyone sufficiently find the flavor that is just right for them.  We’re talking about total engagement practically all the time like never seen in America.  These two are the ultimate political Vaudeville act with their traveling retinue of handlers and pollsters, agents and shills.


maxresdefault-2-2-1024x576The Three Stooges

 

WHY, REALLY, ARE THEY SO ENGAGING?

 

Because they (ED Noor: The PTB) desperately need your consent. 


ONLY WITH THE CONSENT OF WE THE PEOPLE

CAN THEY PROCEED EXPEDITIOUSLY

WITH THE EXECUTION OF THE REAL NWO AGENDA

 

Yes, they are manufacturing that consent 24/7 everywhere the MSM exerts even a tad of influence, but still a vote for one of them in the voting booth serves as tangible consent for them to implement their nefarious plans.  While this manufactured consent has been socially engineered over many decades, it remain consent; albeit, by fraud.

 

This whole issue of CONsent should not be dismissed cavalierly, as it is so often.  It represents the very fulcrum around which they are empowered to oppress and imprison US.  Once a critical mass of people freely give their CONsent to one or the other of the lesser of the two evils, they then have permission to perpetrate their planned evil endeavors wherever and whenever they so choose just like Obama has done for 7 plus years.

 

What the vast majority of voters fail to realize is that by voting for either one of them, they are giving away their power to them.  They are providing their valuable energy to either a known or unknown commodity who is all but guaranteed to misuse and/or abuse it.  In so doing the voter becomes complicit in all the dirty deeds that

IN OTHER WORDS THEY TAKE ON SOME OF THE KARMIC RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT THAT IS ACTED OUT BY THE VICTOR. 

Now many will say that such karmic blowback is so attenuated and insubstantial given their distance from the scenes of the crimes that are committed in their name, that it is basically inconsequential. Well, not really.  You see, when a country like Palestine is formed and then the residents experience all the indignities and assaults inflicted on them by the Israeli Government, those war crimes and other acts of bellicosity represent the fruits of their actions from a previous time which is known in the biz as blowback.  It doesn’t make it right or justified in any way whatsoever, but it does reflect a form of cosmic justice.  Many call it karma.

 

Just in case you haven’t noticed, this unbridled violence, which the USA has unleashed upon the world, shows up (by way of karmic blowback) every single day in the form of so many mass killings by the last person to have either gone postal or gone off their meds or both. When a nation so cavalierly supports a foreign policy that is so invasive, intrusive and oppressive to other countries, this blowback will always occur when you least expect it. (Source: DRONES: The Rank Hypocrisy of Barack Obama)

 

What is very important to understand is that your vote and tax dollars represent an energetic approval of who they are and what they do.  Once these are willingly given to a thief or a murderer in a high position of power, knowing that they are a thief or murderer, the voter and/or taxpayer become complicit in the crime spree that is inevitably perpetrated by government every 4 years with a new ringleader.  In this fashion are the American people witnesses to a new con game or swindle, scam or sham, all of them conducted at their considerable expense.

______________________________________________________________

When the U.S. military collaborates with the war-profiteering Turkey, war-mongering Israel, war criminal Saudi Arabia and war-terrorizing ISIS, how can there not be some very serious blowback. No one ~ no person or party, government or corporation ~ under the sun ever gets away with any crime or offense against another person or country.   Surely, everyone understands that what goes around, comes around.  A vote for a political scoundrel or governmental rapscallion will certainly bind the supporter to the outcomes of their official behavior, illicit or otherwise.  Especially when that official misconduct does serious damage to others will the blowback be felt, often when it is least expected.  This is precisely why very, very few ever make the connection between their self-serving or narrow-minded votes and the unexpected destruction that might arrive on their doorstep from left field.  They don’t truly understand that: “You reap what you sow.” 
______________________________________________________________

 

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ED Noor: "By Deception We Shall Commit War" is also the motto of Mossad.

 

“ADDICTED TO DECEPTION”

 

All of this 2016 election melodrama is only able to proceed in living color during prime time because it has a captive audience.  That audience, dear reader, is completely held captive only because they suffer from the most unbreakable addiction in human existence ~ the dreaded and cringeworthy addiction to deception.   Only because of its vice-like grip suffered by every voter who plays this CON game every four years, are the con men able to win the game.  Over and over they play the American people for the fools that they truly are in the voting booth (Sorry, but it’s time to call a spade a spade, a Trump card a Trump card, and a Hildebeast a Hildabeast, yes?!)

 

Until there is a personal recognition and collective understanding that we’ve been played and we have ONLY lost year after year practically forever, will this unshakable addiction to deception rule our lives as it ruins our constitutional republic.  Got it?!  Play the game, pay the piper.  Once you pay, you follow the piper no matter where he or she goes.  Hardly anyone ever realizes that the political pipers are always programmed to head for the cliff. Get the picture?

 

So, here we are discussing the universally feared addiction to deception and we have not even identified exactly who it is exactly that is really running the con game.  The only way anyone can be addicted to deception is for someone to be perpetrating the deception. Bear in mind that the addiction to deception is the single greatest addiction suffered by humanity today.

 

Unfortunately, because a sufficient number people are thoroughly addicted to this form of deception, the rest of us who have broken free are forced to sit in the stink of so many skunks who have shown up at this year’s election cycle picnic. (Source: Is the USA Electorate Addicted to Deception?)

 

Where it concerns the American people, this particular addiction becomes a very serious national ailment, indeed, and one with far-reaching ramifications.  Simply put, whenever the United States of America sneezes, much of the world usually comes down with the flu, and some countries even get pneumonia as others suffer pulmonary failure.  In other words the U.S. leaders who have been pre-selected by the WSG, and then illusorily elected by the citizenry, have caused a tremendous amount of global instability through war-making as well as international economic and financial insecurity. The past four administrations, in particular, have proven to be an unmitigated disaster for the world community of nations.  One wonders, then, whether the American people are even aware of the earth-shattering consequences of their voting actions.

 

Voting for the lesser of the two evils

 gives them your CONSENT

 

If ever there was a society-threatening lesson for the U.S. citizenry to learn, it is this.  It is never wise or acceptable to vote for the lesser of the two evils when you don’t even know how the game is being played.  By voting for leaders who only do great harm to the Republic, as well as inflict terrible injury on the world community of nations, Americans have given their implicit consent.

 

The good news is that consent can be withdrawn as easily as it is given.  In fact there was a burgeoning voting boycott movement afoot during this campaign season which the NWO cabal was well aware of.  Such an organically grown voting boycott would be unprecedented in American history.  This is precisely why the ruling elites made sure they found the most dazzling snake-charmers in the land to bedazzle us. Each was chosen for their ability to mesmerize their respective political demographics. Hillary is even going after the UFO/ET crowd just like The Donald is making periodic pitches to the 9/11 truth movement.

 

In every case where these two carnival barkers are hawking their political prizes and governmental charms it will only end up like every other president since JFK. That’s just the way the whole con game is set up.  That’s the way it has always been set up, which is why high-profile assassinations have occurred every now and then. Consent can be a very influential and dangerous weapon when put into the wrong hands.

 

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CONCLUSION

 

Now you know that it takes two to play this con game.  Street hustlers like Barack Hussein Obama were chosen because of his demonstrated ability to game his audience when he was a young man.  The same with Bill Clinton during his years in Arkansas.  The same with George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas.  You don’t enter the Oval Office unless you have proven yourself a consummate con artist.

 

Much more significantly, it is the President’s skill in eliciting consent from the citizenry that really matters for his true masters.  In this way manufacturing consent becomes the single most important function that a sitting president can ever perform.  When that sole power is effectively exercised, the sky is the limit.  When it atrophies, they will never ever be re-elected.

 

Now you know why both Donald Trump (and Ted Cruz) and Hillary Clinton (and Bernie Sanders) were chosen.  All of them can successfully engage, and entertain, a big chunk of the electorate.  In this manner will 2016 see another instance when the people of America will vote for the lesser for the two evils.  They will also see the political pendulum swing further than it has ever swung in the past 100 plus years.

 

The most dangerous man in America knows that the U.S. electoral process is nothing but a sham whereby the ruling elites choose in advance both candidates every four years. They know that these pre-selected pawns have been fastidiously vetted so as to be sufficiently assured that the selected ones will never leave the NWO reservation. They know that both main party candidates will always be considered the lesser of the two evils by their respective constituencies. In this way the electorate forever experiences the pendulum of presidential politics being swung to greater extremes with each successive election cycle. (Source: The MOST Dangerous Man In America)

 

CAVEAT:  There are only two ways out of this predicament: a voting boycott or an extremely popular write-in candidate who is on the right side of every single issue.  Yes, there are right and wrong sides, regardless of what you believe or have been told.  With only seven months remaining to the election D-Day, it would seem that it is high time to get busy!  Truly, it has never been so urgent to take back the country from those who have misappropriated it (Congress and Corporate America) and expropriated it (Federal Reserve and The Crown Temple).

 

Ultimatum To America: Change From Within Or Be Changed From Without

 

State of the Nation
March 25, 2016

 

Special Note:

 

Only for the sake of brevity did this political commentary not take up the roles of either Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz.  Both of these transparent frauds make for the perfect supporting cast for their respective parties.  The Berniac has contributed tremendously to the Democrat extravaganza, just as the Cruzball has added so much deviousness and duplicity to the Republican showboat.

 

It may even be said that no previous presidential campaign season has seen such a strong supporting cast of dubious characters, especially during the thick of the season.  Sanders has put on an awesome display of political deceit and deception.  Likewise, Cruz has proven himself to be a true villain in every way using every campaign trick and political crime imaginable to win the nomination.  In both cases their true histories have been exposed in such a fashion that they are now quite well known to be complete and total frauds.

 

Editor’s Note:

 

SOTN is not oblivious to the reality that Donald Trump has emerged at this critical time of the American Republic to serve as a wrecking ball.  As follows:

“We’ve said it all along that The Donald is the perfect wrecking ball. That’s his mission.  To wreck the treasonous GOP.  To wreck the traitorous Democrat Party.  To wreck and ruin the whole fraudulent electoral process.  The wreck and ruin the mainstream media (MSM) rain on the quadrennial MSM election coverage parade.  In short, to completely expose the fabricated election scam, phony candidates, fake platforms, fictitious campaigns, and fabricated debates.  Let him do his job.” ~ (Source: The Hidden Powers and Dubious Money Behind Donald Trump)

What the preceding excerpt implies is that The Donald makes for a powerful change agent. Real change agents are rarely if ever liked, or even tolerated, by the establishment. Hence, if he was to win, how would he ever govern with both sides of the aisle looking for an opportunity to take him down in a New York minute?  And if not him, they will look at the very exposed Trump Towers to demolish … or any of his business ventures, just as they did with his Scottish golf course.

 

Bottom Line:  A wrecking ball will not make for a good president in 2017.  Yes, there is a desperate need for a LOT of purposeful destruction of the present hopelessly corrupt SYSTEM, but there is also a dire need to create new institutions to replace those which have profoundly failed the We the People.

 

Author’s Note: This exposé serves as Part II of our 2016 Election Reality Check series. Part I is linked here: TRUMP REALITY CHECK

 

REFERENCES:

POLITICAL BIPOLAR COMPLEX: National Affliction of the USA

The Obamanation: How One President Irreparably Destroyed The USA

Four Star General Presents Indisputable Case for a Temporary Military Takeover of the U.S. Federal Government

 

RECOMMENDED READING:

2016 ~ A Critical Year! The American People Must Act NOW … Or Face The Consequences Of Electing Treasonous Leadership

2016 in the USA: A 2nd American Revolution, Civil War, or Both

 

RESOURCES

The U.S. Electorate Has Been Tricked Into Voting For Criminally Insane Psychopaths

2016 Election Cycle: Year Of The Election Boycott

A Grassroots Movement Forms To Boycott The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Corrupt Elections Must Be Boycotted

ELECTION BOYCOTT ADVOCATES: “No matter who wins the working class loses”

2016 Election: Why there are times to boycott the vote

WAR AGAINST CHRISTMAS 2009: REFLECTIONS ON HANUKKAH, CHRISTMAS AND "NITEL NIGHT"

Excuse from the Editor: I have been receiving complaints from a few people lately to have images removed from my blog for one reason or another. Of course I am happy to comply. Who am I to quibble if an artist decides to change their politics and wish to be pulled from the fray? It is hardly worth arguing and potentially having the blog taken down and all that research disappear. 

Cut to the chase. I just got a notice from Blogspot about an image that was on this particular page when I originally posted it. I removed the image as requested and for some reason the page has been reposted as a new item. It isn't. I do find it interesting that, after all these years of some of the images that have been posted, with thanks by the original artist at the time, within the past month or two I have had several requests to do so.

So to the young lady who was upset about the image she posted of herself as a scantily-clad menorah that I had included here before, you may rest assured, your good name is intact and your image removed. Truly, you could just have asked me. I understand how we all do silly things when we are young. 

**********************************************************
   
It is time to update a piece I presented last year. Over the next few weeks these relevant pieces, in updated 2010 form, will appear. Now, tell me, after reading this, Can you spell Christmas envy?



The original reason for the season, the birth of Jesus Christ.

December 16, 2009

Eight years ago, when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a slightly abridged version of my first essay on the War Against Christmas, the paper offered a fair description of my argument to its readers:

“The public celebration of Christmas has been sacrificed, says Tom Piatak, to the feel-good forces of multiculturalism.”

A truly lovely Hanukkah dinner setting.

Last year, so much progress had been made in fighting back against the War Against Christmas that The Daily Beast’s Max Blumenthal was reduced to willfully misreading my essay in an attempt to scare people away from the struggle. [Who Started The War On Christmas, December 8, 2008 ]

But two things Blumenthal wrote about my essay were somewhat accurate: I did quote American Heritage’s Frederic Schwarz as calling Hanukkah the “Jewish Kwanzaa”, [Merry Chanukah, American Heritage Magazine, December 2000]and I did write that Hanukkah was among the many alternative holidays presented by “multiculturalists” as “faux-Christmases” in “order to compete with, diminish, and ultimately efface Christmas”.

A lovely German pine Hanukkah Tree.

Given Blumenthal’s singular focus on Hanukkah ~ which this year starts at sundown tonight, December 11 ~ I wondered if I had been unfair in my characterization of that festival. Is Hanukkah at all comparable to Kwanzaa, and is a desire to compete with Christmas really an important force in its celebration?



As fate would have it, an article addressing these questions appeared in my hometown newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, on December 20 last year. The article, How Hanukkah Has Become Hip by John Campanelli, noted that

“Until the late nineteenth century, the holiday was celebrated modestly in Jewish homes, with an adult male lighting candles and reciting the blessing”.



Indeed, the article, citing Dianne Ashton, a religious studies professor at Rowan University who is writing a book on Hanukkah, noted that “It’s hard to tell exactly how things were celebrated because there’s almost no record of it. Ashton found no mention of Hanukkah in old diaries and letters. Instead, they mentioned the Sabbath, Passover, and other, more significant holidays”.

Needless to say, the same can hardly be said of Christmas: even though the Puritans succeeded in suppressing Christmas for a time, both in England and parts of America, Christmas was enormously popular both before and after the Puritan interlude, with such carols as The First Nowell. “I Saw Three Ships,” “The Coventry Carol,” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” surviving the Puritans and being embraced by the Victorians.

Even the Jewish dog is dressed up for Hanukkah!

The whole world knows something about Christmas in 19th century London, thanks to Charles Dickens, who quotes from “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” in A Christmas Carol.
 
The impact of the Puritan interlude is also undermined by the fact that most Americans have ancestors from places where Puritanism never put a damper on Christmas. The 2000 census recording that more Americans claimed German ancestry than any other ancestry. And Germans, both Protestant and Catholic, have always celebrated Christmas with gusto.


"These are genuine Christmas carols that any Jew can sing with lusty pride and not a shred of prejudice; well maybe just a little.  Who else but a proud Jew could turn the Hallelujah Chorus into We Will Sue ya? These well-known Christmas carols when given the Yiddishe twist, often do not relate to this special birthday the majority of the world celebrates.  The intellectually creative includes Goys Rule the World (Don't ya believe it.) Order today, and get ready to laugh on the full 8 days of OUR holiday."

In fact, according to Ashton, it was the German-American zest for Christmas that was instrumental in creating the modern Hanukkah. The first concerted effort she found for more emphasis on Hanukkah occurred in the 1870s in Cincinnati where “Because of [the city’s] large German population, the traditions of Santa Claus, trees and gift giving were everywhere.”




In response, Cincinnati rabbi Max Lilienthal promised that “Our children shall have a grand and glorious Hanukkah festival as nice as any Christmas festival.” 

Ashton’s account is consistent with the one offered by Frederic Schwarz in the American Heritage article in which he termed Hanukkah the “Jewish Kwanzaa ~ an invented cultural celebration”. 

The first celebration of Hanukkah is described in the Bible I use, at 1 Maccabees 4, 35-59, but it is not found in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, since the book of Maccabees is not part of the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, as Schwarz notes,

“the tradition about one day’s worth of oil lasting eight days is not mentioned in any contemporary record. It first appeared several centuries later in the Talmud”.
Hanukkah matches, especially for the lighting of the menorah.
Because of Hanukkah’s absence from the Hebrew Bible, “many other Jewish holy days are more important from a religious standpoint ~ not just Passover, Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), but also Simchat Torah, Shavuot, and Sukkot.” 

“Of course”, notes Schwarz, the reason Hanukkah now enjoys at least as much prominence as any of these festivals “is Christmas”. And in fact it took a while for the idea of Hanukkah as an alternative to Christmas to catch on. Schwarz cites an 1855 New York Times article describing how Jews “in most European countries” gave presents at Christmas, and how Jews in New York City exchanged presents at New Year’s. Writes Schwarz:

In neither of these cases was substituting Chanukah considered an option; it was simply too insignificant”.
A Jewish couple created the Meshuga Nutcracher to save their child from Christian envy one December.

Empirical evidence showing that competition with Christmas is a driving force in today’s unprecedented emphasis on Hanukkah also became available last year. As Ray Fisman noted in his article The Invisible Hand of God in Slate, Stanford economists Ran Abramitzky, Liran Einav, and Oren Rigbi concluded [PDF] that “it is competition from Christmas . . . that makes families more likely to celebrate Hanukkah”.
Among the data supporting this conclusion was a survey conducted by the Stanford economists that showed that “only 30 percent of Israelis ranked Hanukkah as a ‘top three’ festival celebrated by their Jewish classmates” while “at Stanford the figure was more than 95 percent”.
Of course, there are different ways of interpreting the fact that Hanukkah is an historically insignificant holiday now given great attention to compete with Christmas. Schwarz regards Hanukkah as “the greatest American holiday”, because it is “democratic, inclusive, and multicultural”, whereas Fisman wonders if the “outsize importance” attached to “a minor holiday largely unrelated to Judaism’s core values” is necessarily the correct response to the appeal of Christmas.
But there can be little real debate over whether Hanukkah has indeed become a “faux-Christmas”: plainly, it has.
Hanukkah Claus needs a Star of David embroidered on his jacket!
Last year I also came across, at the website of Catholic apologist Mark Shea, a 2004 article from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, discussing what Hasidic Jews call Nitel Night and the rest of us call Christmas Eve:

“According to kabbala (Jewish mysticism), on the night on which ‘that man’ ~ a Jewish euphemism for Jesus ~ was born, not even a trace of holiness is present . . . . For this reason, Nitel Night . . . is one of the few occasions when Hasidim refrain from Torah study. On this horrific night, they neither conduct weddings nor do they go to the mikveh (ritual bath)…” [For them, it's wholly unholy, by Shahar Ilan, December 24, 2004]
Of course, such outlandish ideas are far outside the Jewish mainstream, and would be completely irrelevant to a consideration of Hanukkah except for this fact: the group responsible for erecting giant menorahs in public places to observe Hanukkah is Chabad. And Chabad is run by the same Hasidic sect that observes Nitel Night.
This is a new look for the Christmas season at the Whitehouse. Thank you, Mr. Bush.
Far more mainstream, and vastly more enjoyable, was Dahlia Lithwick’s witty and intelligent analysis last year in Slate of which Christmas specials are viewed as acceptable for Jewish children. 

But Lithwick was puzzled by the popularity of Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas among her peers, and concluded that “perhaps my colleague Emily Bazelon is right, and Jewish kids like the Grinch because ‘Without the ending, the movie is the ultimate fantasy for a Jewish kid with a case of Santa/tree/carols envy ~ Christmas, canceled.’” [Oy, Hark! | A Jewish parent's guide to Christmas specials, Slate, Dec. 17, 2008]
 
Adults can be envious as well. My uncle, who lived in Manhattan, noticed some years ago flyers for a performance in December of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus at a Manhattan temple. What caught my uncle’s eye was the flyer’s description of Judas Maccabaeus as “Handel’s greatest oratorio”.
The implicit comparison, of course, was to Messiah, which was first performed in America at Christmas and has become a staple of the American Christmas, and the score of which Handel is depicted as holding in his hands at his tomb in Westminster Abbey.
Fortunately, such crabbed attitudes are in the minority. I agree with Dahlia Lithwick that “the proper non-Christian response to Christmas joy is not to try to block, suppress, or hide from it”, and Lithwick’s sentiment is, in my experience, shared by the vast majority of American Jews.
A wall hanging of the Hanukkah nut cracker.
As I wrote in my 2001 essay, “Much of the public celebration of Christmas was capable of being enjoyed by non-Christians as well as Christians, and almost everyone did enjoy at least some of it. I know non-Christians who enjoy Christmas specials, Christmas movies, Christmas music; I do not think these people are unique.” 

Indeed, American Jews have made significant contributions to the American Christmas ~ contributions that have been widely embraced by American Christians. The best selling Christmas recording of all time is Bing Crosby’s rendition of White Christmas, written by Irving Berlin, who was of course Jewish.

The driving force behind the War Against Christmas remains multiculturalism, ~ a credo embraced by those of all faiths and of none, that insists that Western culture, of which Christmas is undeniably a part, is problematic at best and oppressive at worst. 

As E. V. Kontorovich, himself Jewish, argued long ago, the public elevation of Hanukkah represented the first triumph of the multiculturalist idea in America. But the multiculturalist approval of Hanukkah is not based on an appreciation of Judaism, since, as I have demonstrated, Hanukkah has historically not been an important part of Judaism and an overemphasis of Hanukkah therefore leads to a misunderstanding of Judaism.
Is this what it basically all boils down to?
The multiculturalists approve of Hanukkah for the same reason they approve of all the other faux-Christmases they are promoting these days, including Kwanzaa, Eid, Diwali, Bodhi Day, and the winter solstice: none of these holidays is Christmas. 

And thus we have the War against Christmas ~ a War that will only be won once we again realize that there is nothing problematic or oppressive about the public celebration of Christmas, one of the crowning glories of the Western culture that gave birth to America and sustains us still.
Tom Piatak (email him) writes from Cleveland, Ohio.
And what, pray tell, is THIS?
I know there is a lot of controversy over the birth of Christ. I could tackle all of that another time. For now, I speak of how it is, not how it shoulda coulda woulda been was the world a different place. One thing I thought very interesting is, for a culture that is against Christian manifestations of their religion, whatever Christians do in red green and gold, the Jews do in blue and silver. 
For more of the latest debate on the onslaught on Christmas as it has been going for the past decade, please refer to the following links. It seems the author has been involved for at least 10 years and has built up quite a library.
WAR AGAINST CHRISTMAS COMPETITION 2009: [blog] [I] [2] ~ See also: War Against Christmas 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999
THIS JUST IN!
What do we have here? A group of hirsute rabbis all dressed in red and searching for frivolous and demeaning Christmas trees?

JEWISH LOBBY WAGES WAR ON CHRISTMAS TREES
Lobby for Jewish values passes out fliers against hotels,restaurants putting up Christmas trees, other Christian symbols ahead of civil New Year, say businesses who do so risk losing kosher certification.
By Ali Galhar
Ynet
 
A new front for religious battles ~ hotels and restaurants. The "Lobby for Jewish values" this week began operating against restaurants and hotels that plan to put up Christmas trees and other Christian symbols ahead of Christmas and the civil New Year.

According to the lobby's Chairman, Ofer Cohen, they have received backing by the rabbis, "and we are even considering publishing the names of the businesses that put up Christian symbols ahead of the Christian holiday and call for a boycott against them." Fliers and ads distributed among the public read, "The people of Israel have given their soul over the years in order to maintain the values of the Torah of Israel and the Jewish identity.
"You should also continue to follow this path of the Jewish people's tradition and not give in to the clownish atmosphere of the end of the civil year. And certainly not help those businesses that sell or put up the foolish symbols of Christianity."


One man's fool is another man's Savior, Rabbi.
The Jerusalem Rabbinate also works each year to ensure restaurants and hotels receiving kosher certification from the Jerusalem Religious Council do not put up Christian symbols.

According to a senior official in the kashrut department, this is done each year consensually, but that businesses which do not meet this requirement may find their kashrut certificate revoked.
It should be noted that most of the hotels in Jerusalem and a significant part of the restaurants in the capital receive permanent kosher certification from the city's religious council.



Of course this piece means I MUST post an image of a Christmas tree!