All but one member of the president’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities have resigned in protest against the president’s divisive comments.

Sixteen out of 17 members of a White House advisory panel on the arts and humanities resigned en masse Friday in response to President Trump’s divisive comments on the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va.

The committee works with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, along with other federal partners and the private sector.

Denis Smith has noticed that some of his acquaintances have been pulling out their old psychology textbooks to try to understand Donald Trump. But he thinks we can learn more about Trump by remembering old films and classic literature.

There is, for example, George Orwell’s 1984, which recently hit the top of the charts on amazon, which explains how a powerful government with a Ministry of Truth can manipulate the news and shape reality and facts to fit the government’s needs.

He also recommends the classic Hitchcock thriller “Gaslight,” in which a smooth Charles Boyer distorts reality for a frightened Ingrid Bergmann.

In the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, Gaslight, the vulnerable Bergmann is manipulated by – guess who – Charles Boyer, who does not invite her to the Casbah but, instead, masterfully controls his wife through questioning her memory, firm beliefs, and the otherwise mundane things in her home environment. The result is predictable. She becomes confused and questions her sanity and beliefs.

Again, while no sane person would compare the smooth Boyer with the Inspector Clouseau-like Trump, both achieve the same results in their gaslighting methods: Control the conscious environment, sow doubt on alternative explanations, and make receivers of the messages vulnerable as a result.

Perhaps you have some other suggestions. What have you read or seen that helps you make sense of this upside-down political environment?

When I was a student in the Houston public schools in the 1950s, our US history textbooks reflected the Southern view of the Civil War. We learned about the brilliance of Robert E. Lee, the perfidy of the North in forcing a brutal Reconstruction on the states of the South, the ignorant Negroes (sic) who lorded it over dispossessed whites during Reconstruction. We didn’t learn much about the abolitionists or the Ku Klux Klan. We didn’t learn about the cruel abuse of black slaves. Fortunately, when I studied US history on college, I encountered a different, accurate version of history, and in graduate school, read historians such as Eric Foner. I learned that Reconstruction legislatures, for example, passed the most progressive legislation the South had ever known. I learned that the end of Reconstruction began an era of whites terrorizing blacks into submission and abandonment of whatever rights had been guaranteed by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, passed after the Civil War at a time when ex-Confederate soldiers had lost their right to vote and were unable to block them.

Donald Trump seems to have studied the white Southern version of US history and has never read or heard anything to correct that interpretation of the Civil War.

Today, despite the overwhelmingly negative response to his Tuesday press conference from Republivans and European leaders, he issued several tweets lamenting the removal of Confederate monuments. To him, they are heroes, although they were in fact traitors who wanted to dissolve the USA. He clearly does not know that most of these statues were erected 50-70 years after the war, at the height of Jim Crow segregation and served as symbols of white dominance.

I recall during the campaign last fall that he appealed to black voters and said “What the hell do you have to lose” by voting Trump. Now we know.

Ignorance can be cured by education. However, a closed mind never learns anything new that challenges their preconceptions and prejudices.

My favorite news show is Lawrence O’Donnell. Last night, he branded Trump “Divider-in-Chief.” A good description of this man who is so thin-skinned that he lashes out at anyone who dares to disagree with him. Yesterday–which seems like a year ago–Trump retweeted an image of the “Trump Train” rolling over a human labeled CNN. The tweet was deleted. But it showed the fascistic temperament of the man who retweeted it, as well as the gross insensitivity of displaying this image after a fascist had used his car to kill Heather Heyer in Charlottesville.

A friend forwarded this report to me.

<emFriends,

We are posting this poignant letter written by Alan Zimmerman, president of Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville, VA. Besides those of us in our congregation who feel a kinship with Charlottesville having studied or had children that studied at the University of Virginia or worshipped at Beth Israel, all of us as Jews feel the horror of the events of this past weekend.

Daryl Messinger, chairperson of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote: "Our hearts, prayers and unwavering support goes out to Alan, his Rabbis Gutherz and Schmelkin and the entire congregation. Their courage and leadership are incredible. And I know we will all continue to act to stop this hate, racism and antisemitism."

Letter from the President of the Charlottesville, VA Reform Congregation

At Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville, VA, we are deeply grateful for the support and prayers of the broader Reform Jewish community. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of Heather Heyer and the two Virginia State Police officers, H. Jay Cullen and Berke Bates, who lost their lives on Saturday, and with the many people injured in the attack who are still recovering.

The loss of life far outweighs any fear or concern felt by me or the Jewish community during the past several weeks as we braced for this Nazi rally – but the effects of both will each linger.

On Saturday morning, I stood outside our synagogue with the armed security guard we hired after the police department refused to provide us with an officer during morning services. (Even the police department’s limited promise of an observer near our building was not kept — and note, we did not ask for protection of our property, only our people as they worshipped).

Forty congregants were inside. Here’s what I witnessed during that time.

For half an hour, three men dressed in fatigues and armed with semi-automatic rifles stood across the street from the temple. Had they tried to enter, I don’t know what I could have done to stop them, but I couldn’t take my eyes off them, either. Perhaps the presence of our armed guard deterred them. Perhaps their presence was just a coincidence, and I’m paranoid. I don’t know.

Several times, parades of Nazis passed our building, shouting, “There's the synagogue!” followed by chants of “Seig Heil” and other anti-Semitic language. Some carried flags with swastikas and other Nazi symbols.

A guy in a white polo shirt walked by the synagogue a few times, arousing suspicion. Was he casing the building, or trying to build up courage to commit a crime? We didn’t know. Later, I noticed that the man accused in the automobile terror attack wore the same polo shirt as the man who kept walking by our synagogue; apparently it’s the uniform of a white supremacist group. Even now, that gives me a chill.

When services ended, my heart broke as I advised congregants that it would be safer to leave the temple through the back entrance rather than through the front, and to please go in groups.

This is 2017 in the United States of America.

Later that day, I arrived on the scene shortly after the car plowed into peaceful protesters. It was a horrific and bloody scene.

Soon, we learned that Nazi websites had posted a call to burn our synagogue. I sat with one of our rabbis and wondered whether we should go back to the temple to protect the building. What could I do if I were there? Fortunately, it was just talk – but we had already deemed such an attack within the realm of possibilities, taking the precautionary step of removing our Torahs, including a Holocaust scroll, from the premises.

Again: This is in America in 2017.

At the end of the day, we felt we had no choice but to cancel a Havdalah service at a congregant’s home. It had been announced on a public Facebook page, and we were fearful that Nazi elements might be aware of the event. Again, we sought police protection – not a battalion of police, just a single officer – but we were told simply to cancel the event.

Local police faced an unprecedented problem that day, but make no mistake, Jews are a specific target of these groups, and despite nods of understanding from officials about our concerns – and despite the fact that the mayor himself is Jewish – we were left to our own devices. The fact that a calamity did not befall the Jewish community of Charlottesville on Saturday was not thanks to our politicians, our police, or even our own efforts, but to the grace of God.

And yet, in the midst of all that, other moments stand out for me, as well.

John Aguilar, a 30-year Navy veteran, took it upon himself to stand watch over the synagogue through services Friday evening and Saturday, along with our armed guard. He just felt he should.

We experienced wonderful turnout for services both Friday night and Saturday morning to observe Shabbat, including several non-Jews who said they came to show solidarity (though a number of congregants, particularly elderly ones, told me they were afraid to come to synagogue).

A frail, elderly woman approached me Saturday morning as I stood on the steps in front of our sanctuary, crying, to tell me that while she was Roman Catholic, she wanted to stay and watch over the synagogue with us. At one point, she asked, “Why do they hate you?” I had no answer to the question we’ve been asking ourselves for thousands of years.

At least a dozen complete strangers stopped by as we stood in front the synagogue Saturday to ask if we wanted them to stand with us.

And our wonderful rabbis stood on the front lines with other Charlottesville clergy, opposing hate.

Most attention now is, and for the foreseeable future will be, focused on the deaths and injuries that occurred, and that is as it should be. But for most people, before the week is out, Saturday’s events will degenerate into the all-to-familiar bickering that is part of the larger, ongoing political narrative. The media will move on — and all it will take is some new outrageous Trump tweet to change the subject.

We will get back to normal, also. We have two b’nai mitzvah coming up, and soon, Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur will be upon us, too.

After the nation moves on, we will be left to pick up the pieces. Fortunately, this is a very strong and capable Jewish community, blessed to be led by incredible rabbis. We have committed lay leadership, and a congregation committed to Jewish values and our synagogue. In some ways, we will come out of it stronger – just as tempering metals make them tougher and harder.

Alan Zimmerman is the president of Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville, VA.

This article includes the tweets of many elected officials of both parties.

Worth perusing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/charlottesville-protest-reactions/?tid=a_classic-iphone&utm_term=.a00a9db5a551

On Saturday, Trump said that the violence in Charlottesville was caused by “many sides.”

On Monday, in response to outrage from members of his own party, he finally spoke out against new-Nazis, white suptremacists, and the KKK.

However, today he forget what he said yesterday.

At a news conference, he went back to blaming “both sides.”

Trump doubles down on initial Charlottesville response, saying ‘there is blame on both sides’ for violence – The Washington Post
https://apple.news/A_4V3DRP1R566CzuVhzXdPA

This is a visual treat that will help you coool off.

Enjoy!

A group of charter schools in New York State applied to the SUNY board for early renewal, but the New York Board of Regents slowed down the process, reports Lisa Egbert Litvin. They were right, she says, to insist on a careful review, not a rush to judgment.

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post jeered at the Regents for insisting on due diligence, but what’s the rush?

Litvin writes:

“In a pointed response to NY’s Board of Regents, the NY Post recently wrote that “you’d have to be nuts” not to fast-track renewals of a number of charter schools. Actually, the opposite is true.

“As background, NY’s byzantine charter school rules authorize the SUNY Charter Schools Committee, a group of four men (3 lawyers and a businessman), to decide whether to renew many of NY’s charter schools. NY’s highest education body, the Board of Regents (a 17-member diverse group, including many life-long educators), is relegated to merely reviewing the SUNY Committee’s recommendations and giving feedback. Ultimately the SUNY Committee has final say.

“Over the past months, the SUNY Committee recommended that a total of 19 schools be pushed ahead for early renewal. The Board of Regents responded that these requests were premature, and that to ensure full accountability, a school’s renewal should be assessed in the year when its current term would expire, so that the most up-to-date data can be used.

“The Board of Regents was right to advise against the rush. In fact, the data submitted by the SUNY Committee shows problems so deep running through these schools that the discussion should turn to whether the model used by these charter networks is even sustainable.

“While the 19 schools are attaining high scores on the state’s standardized English and math tests, far too many of these schools are experiencing financial losses, negative assets, high suspension rates, and under enrollment.

“Specifically, over 40% of the fast-tracked schools are unable to cover their expenses, and are operating at a loss. In addition, over a quarter of the schools have been managed in a such a way that they report having negative net assets. Rather than pushing fast-track renewals of these financially stumbling schools, the SUNY Committee should be assessing whether these schools are financially viable and are worthy of taxpayer funding.

“Further, despite the claim of extensive wait lists, every one of the 19 recommended schools has failed to meet its target enrollments for struggling children, i.e. children with disabilities, English Language Learners, and economically disadvantaged children. This dereliction should be challenged, not rewarded with early renewal.

“Making matters even more profound, the suspension numbers are strikingly high, and against the trend in education to reduce suspensions and end the “suspension-to-prison” pipeline. The average suspension rate of these schools — none of which includes high school students — is a stunning 10%, with some schools as high as 20%, and even k-3 schools with rates of 12% and 14%….”

Almost all of the charters are Success Academy.