Taxes, jail sentences, religion coverage and Winter Solstice
Trump’s Tax Plan
Michael Olesker writes about the Republicans’ tax plan:
We used to say politics was the art of behaving as if no one has any memory. With the passage of the brand new Republican tax plan, we can amend that. It’s the art of behaving as if people are stupid. The Republicans passed this plan without an ounce of Democratic support, and almost without any support from the rest of the country. Only 24 percent of the nation – including Republican voters – like what they’ve seen and read about this tax plan. Only 31 percent of college-educated whites like it, only 29 percent of whites with no college education like it, and only 28 percent of rural whites like it. The last two categories are particularly important, since they’re the folks who voted Donald J. Trump into the White House. Trump’s the guy who was taking bows before the TV cameras as the bill headed toward his White House desk today. It’s the first piece of major legislation he’s been able to get through in nearly a year in office, yet he lost no time indicating that his administration is one of the great ones in American history. On the tax bill, Trump sat there still calling it a great day for middle-class Americans, despite figures from the Tax Policy Center showing why the super-rich, corporate CEOs and the Wall Street types are the ones doing cartwheels all the way to the bank today. Those Tax Policy Center nerds must be lumped in with the rest of us – too stupid to understand what a great thing this tax bill is.
Read the complete story: They Must Think We’re Stupid
Trump commutes Agriprocessors sentence
President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, the chief executive of what was then the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the country, who was convicted of bank fraud and money laundering charges. Trump cited appeals from across the political spectrum in making the move. “In 2009, he was convicted of bank fraud and sentenced thereafter to 27 years in prison,” a statement Wednesday by the White House said. “Mr. Rubashkin has now served more than 8 years of that sentence, which many have called excessive in light of its disparity with sentences imposed for similar crimes.” The statement described the commutation as an “an action encouraged by bipartisan leaders from across the political spectrum, from Nancy Pelosi to Orrin Hatch,” referring to the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Republican senator from Utah, respectively. Attached to the statement was a long list of lawmakers from both parties who backed Rubashkin’s release as well as former top-ranking Justice Department officials, also from both parties. A massive federal immigration raid in 2008 at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, led to the arrest of nearly 400 undocumented Guatemalans and Mexican workers. Rubashkin was charged a year later on the bank fraud and money laundering charges as he tried to sell the company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. As the company’s value plummeted, Rubashkin masked its poor financial health, leading to the criminal charges, according to this argument. Rubashkin, a member of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, is 57. He has 10 children, which Trump noted in his commutation. Billionaire Hershey Friedman of Montreal purchased the meatpacking plant in 2009 and rebranded it as Agri Star Meat and Poultry. –JTA
Auschwitz guard, 96, challenges jail sentence
A 96-year-old former Auschwitz guard has challenged his prison sentence in Germany, arguing that it violates his “right to life.” Oskar Groening was convicted and sentenced in July 2015 to four years in jail for his role in the murder of 300,000 Hungarian Jews at the concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. A federal appeals court rejected his appeal a year ago. He had remained free while waiting for a determination of his fitness to serve time in prison after requesting that the sentence be suspended. Last month, a regional appeals court in the northern town of Celle ruled that Groening “is able to serve his term despite his advanced age.” The court said Groening’s needs related to his advanced age could be provided in prison. On Tuesday, the German media reported that his attorney asked Germany’s constitutional court to determine if serving time in prison would violate Groening’s right to life because of his frail medical health, Reuters reported. Groening had admitted to being tasked with gathering the money and valuables found in the baggage of murdered Jews and handing it over to his superiors for transfer to Berlin. He said he had guarded luggage on the Auschwitz arrival and selection ramp two or three times in the summer of 1944. During the trial, Groening asked for forgiveness while acknowledging that only the courts could decide when it came to criminal guilt. Groening was held in a British prison until 1948. He eventually found work as a payroll clerk in a factory. The first investigations of Groening took place in 1977, but it was only after the conviction of Sobibor guard John Demjanjuk in 2011 that the courts were emboldened to try camp guards on charges of complicity in murder.—JTA
‘A Year of Beliefs’
The BBC said it will “raise our game” on religion by increasing the representation of religion on its TV and radio dramas and documentaries. On the heels of a yearlong review into its coverage of religion and ethics that was published Wednesday, the British Broadcasting Corp. also pledged to create a new global religious affairs team for the BBC News headed by a religion editor. The BBC said it will feature more reports on non-Christian festivals including Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Ramadan and Eid. In addition, characters in popular drama programs on both TV and radio will confront faith-based dilemmas. The broadcaster has dubbed 2019 to be “A Year of Beliefs,” with programs “looking at how people make big decisions and where they get their moral values from.” British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis was one of more than 150 faith leaders consulted by the BBC Religion and Ethics Review, the Jewish Chronicle reported. Members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews also were consulted. The BBC currently produces more religious coverage than any other broadcaster, with 7,000 hours devoted to faith programming. There have been cuts to religious programming in recent years, the Guardian reported. –-JTA
Gifts for the boss?
Still wondering what to do about workplace gift-giving, but don’t know who to ask? Here’s everything you need to know about the proper etiquette for the dreaded office gift exchange.
What’s the Proper Etiquette for Workplace Gift-Giving?
Happy Winter Solstice!
Today marks the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, while the Southern Hemisphere experiences just the opposite. CBS News asked University of Massachusetts astronomer Stephen Schneider to explain the astronomical cause of the solstice, and he answered seven basic questions about the phenomenon that everyone should know.
Get your Winter Solstice answers here.
Go to facebook.com/JMORELiving every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. to watch Need to Know with Editor-in-Chief Alan Feiler. Join the discussion on the week’s news and current events.
Only when we see the bigger picture do we understand that God has a bigger plan, writes Rabbi Dr. Eli Yoggev.
Former Baltimorean Mindy Sager Dickler, who made aliyah in 2021, writes about the experience of living in Israel over the past week.
The city’s not a winner when little girls can’t walk through a shopping mall with their mothers without getting shot, writes Michael Olesker.
When interviewing for a job, focus on everything you have to offer a prospective employer, advises Karen Hammer of the Ignite Career Center.