A Hill With A View

“No one is above the law” is the mantra that tyrants use when abusing their power to decimate their political opponents.  A seemingly innocuous, if not abjectly good notion, proclaiming that “no one is above the law” is protesting too much.  It's clear that the opposite is true.   There are plenty of people who are above the law.  Alec Baldwin can shoot a woman in the face and have zero repercussions.  Jeffrey Epstein was allowed to act with impunity for years.  Members of Congress engage in insider trading on the regular.  Of course, Hunter Biden has hours of video footage and mountains of evidence documenting his misdeeds. This is not to say that President Trump is not subject to the laws of this country.  This is to say that if someone is ferociously typing into social media “no one is above the law,” a giant asterisk should be placed next to that statement.  They don’t mean it. So should Trump be frogmarched into court and face the consequences for the enormity of his sins - ho

Originally published August 17, 2022 https://queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/7095-afghanistan-withdrawal-one-year-later   As Democrats prepare to become the minority party once again by rushing through monstrous climate change legislation on pure party line votes, President Biden hopes that the legacy of his first term can be written in the next few weeks. After a disastrous couple of years, Biden is attempting to unring the bells of inflation, high gas prices, food rationing and war as the centerpieces of his foreign and domestic policy.  He is hoping the American voter has a short memory, and desperately desires radical action on climate change instead of steady leadership at home and abroad.  He’s hoping that people forget about the one issue that turned his presidency on its head, and forced him to negative approval territory - a place from which he never recovered.  That, of course, was his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.   Biden has flip-flopped on Afghanistan sinc

 Originally published August 10, 2022 https://queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/7059-you-just-got-mugged   EMPTY As Vice President Kamala Harris cast her tiebreaking vote to ensure the Senate passage of the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” the Democrats in the chamber broke into a resounding applause. The whooping, cheering, and hollering was a celebration, an achievement they did not think they would accomplish before the end of the Congressional term.   They mugged the American people. This is not new to Democrats, who have made stealing from the American people a central tenet of their platform since inception. Biden was always lying when he pledged to never raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000, but to do it so blatantly, with such fervor, will go down as the greatest lie of his vastly dishonest and failing presidency.   The “Inflation Reduction Act” does nothing to curb inflation.  This is not the rhetoric of a rapid right-winger who is, at minimum, skeptical of eve

 Originally published August 10, 2022   EMPTY https://queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/7060-fbi-raids-mar-a-lago Forgoing all precedent in American history, the DOJ under Joe Biden targeted the former President and chief political rival of the party in power, President Donald Trump.  In a shocking statement on his website, Trump announced that the FBI raided his home in Palm Beach, Florida - Mar-A-Lago. “These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a statement. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.” It was later revealed that the reason for the raid was to find classified documents that Trump allegedly took from the White House that should have gone to the National Archives.  According to reports, the FBI agents arrived in plainclothes, only

Originally published August 10, 2022 https://queensjewishlink.com/index.php/featured-stories/11-israel/7057-ceasefire-brokered-after-israel-destroys-pij-command-structure   The largest confrontation between Israel and Gaza since May 2021 concluded with a ceasefire brokered by Egypt. After a mere 54 hours, Israel managed to completely demolish the command structure of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and prove to the world at large that it will not allow her citizens to be the indiscriminate target of attack. Israel preemptively struck PIJ command after a surge in militant activity in Judea and Samaria (aka The West Bank) forced their hand. What began with the arrest of Bassam al-Saadi, the leader of PIJ, ended with the destruction of 170 PIJ targets, according to Israeli intelligence. In retaliation for the strikes, PIJ launched over 1,100 rockets into Israeli civilian population centers, prompting millions in the small Jewish state to stay close to their bomb shelters. Due to a combina

Originally published August 3, 2022 https://queensjewishlink.com/index.php/9-news/7029-less-than-100-days-left-until-midterms-here-s-what-to-know August is here, which means that the politicians are going to start hitting the trails harder than ever, making their push to prove they are the best candidates to vote for in November.  While there are expectations for the upcoming year, there are some surprises that may come up as well. The midterms elections are usually a referendum on the Party in power, but that is no reason for Republicans to get complacent.  Especially in New York, Republicans have a lot of work ahead of them to get their message across.  It’s politically fortunate for them (even though it has been realistically unfortunate for us) that New York has been under one-Party rule since 2019.  Before Covid hit, there was a marked decline in quality of life in New York State, especially in the metropolitan areas.  Everything from plastic shopping bags to judicial discretion i

 Originally published August 3, 2022 https://queensjewishlink.com/index.php/local/26-community-corner/7020-lee-zeldin-visits-chazaq-food-pantry-in-kgh Every Tuesday, Chazaq, in association with the Met Food Council, opens up the Lev Aharon Food Pantry in the heart of Kew Gardens Hills. The pantry, which distributes food to anyone in need, received a special volunteer this week: Republican Candidate for Governor of New York Lee Zeldin. Congressman Zeldin has been on the campaign trail for well over a year, hitting each of the state’s 62 counties at least twice, even before he won the nomination back in June. He was immediately impressed with the small operation that was built from the ground up. “What do you need?” he asked the group of volunteers who were packing bags to distribute. Yaniv Meirov, founder of Chazaq, has been working on growing the organization since he was a teenager. “More days, more services, more ways to help our community,” he said. Zeldin couldn’t agree more. The C