CommentsMY TURN--On Monday, February 1, 2021, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Monday rebuked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling the Georgia Republican as a "cancer" for the GOP party.
While Rep. Greene has a history of loony ideas, her most laughable one is the anti-Semitic claim that Jews used space lasers to start California wildfires. The space laser claim is anti-Semitic not only because it blamed Jews, but for the very fact it chose Jews as a group. She did not accuse the state of Israel. She did not name certain Jews like Soros and Jeff Bezos (Bezos says he’s not Jewish but he’s wealthy and his name is “jewie.”) It’s just Jewish space lasers (no doubt invented to perform long distance circumcisions.) Greene believes that Jews, as a group, are some dangerous cabal with secret space lasers.
Why Should Anyone Care If One Representative out of 435 Suffers from Anti-Semitic Delusions?
The entire House GOP caucus gave her a standing ovation! Let’s look a little closer. Who is Jewish? Other than Jesus, Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared and three of Donald Trump’s grandchildren are all Orthodox Jews. Of course, Rep. Greene engages in other despicable acts such as pursuing Parkland school survivor David Hogg down the street in order to taunt him about the school shooting being a hoax. As most people realize, anti-Semitism is accompanied by other harmful behavior, the Nazi party is anti-Semitic, the KKK is anti-Semitic, QAnon is anti-Semitic. People with anti-Semitic delusions tend to harbor other dangerous beliefs. Extreme anti-Jewish conspiracy theories like secret Jewish space lasers indicate a significant mental illness, but when such beliefs are socially acceptable, anti-Semitism becomes highly destructive. A society which relies on the belief in a secret Jewish cabal as the origin of their troubles is one which is unable to rationally understand itself or fashion sane public policy.
If one believes that Jewish lasers are starting wildfires, then the countermeasure to get rid of the Jews. It seems logical; the fewer Jewish arsonists, the fewer wildfires. It is interesting that the GOP is comfortable with the idea that Jews cause wildfire but see scientifically proven Climate Change as a hoax.
Of course, de jure anti-Semitism is more dangerous to society than a scattering of mentally disturbed individuals. When the government gets behind anti-Semitism, then even people who do not share the beliefs are forced to carry out anti-Semitic policies. Not all Germans who loaded Jews into box cars hated Jews or even disliked Jews, but it was the government policy. Nor did German anti-Semitism start as official government policy. First, Germany has anti-Semites like our Marjorie Taylor Greene who were useful to other German politicians. By approving anti-Semites with standing ovations, the German politicians like the GOP 80 years later, gained political power by signaling to the Nazis that their policies are acceptable to many within government. Just as German politicians in the 1920's and the 1930's encouraged Nazism by support of anti-Semitism, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy encourages the American Nazis, the White Supremacists, the KKK, QAnon, etc. In turn, these extremist groups, which have already tried to violently overthrow the government, will grow stronger inside the government.
Americans Are Naive about Anti-Semitism as Part of Government Policy
On August 12, 2015, the California Supreme Court agreed that judicial anti-Semitism was protected by the California State Constitution, Article VI Sec 10 as within the constitutional power of a judge to control his courtroom. On February 10, 2015 in the case of SaveHywd vs City of LA, Judge John Torribio learned that SaveHywd’s attorney Richard MacNaughton was actually Jewish. Judge Torribio learned this fact when Attorney Frank Angel urged Judge Torribio change his tentative ruling which was in Attorney MacNaughton’s favor, by telling Judge Torribio that MacNaughton was a “troublemaker Jew who would refuse Jewish Christ.” Thereupon, Judge Torribio had a whispered sidebar with Frank Angel from which the Jew Attorney was barred and thereafter Judge Torribio altered the evidence in the case and ruled against Attorney MacNaughton. (MacNaughton is also known as Richard Lee Abrams, author herein.)
Judge Torribio’s Additional anti-Semitic Behavior
Attorney MacNaughton represented another client before Judge Torribio, Hollywoodians Encouraging Logical Planning (HELP). Judge Torribio then barred HELP from his courtroom. HELP objected that Judge Torribio’s exclusion of HELP was based upon his anti-Jewish prejudice against its attorney. Judge Torribio did not deny a single allegation but rather defended his action on the basis of Cal. Const. Art VI Sec 10. When the case reached the California Supreme Court, the High Court sided with Judge Torribio by allowing the lower court’s interpretation of Art VI Sec 10 to stand as California law. [# BA 138370 order date 5-14-2015; 2d Dist Appeals #B264397 order date 6-26-2015; SC # S227630, order date 8-12-2015].
In the SaveHywd case, one might say that there was a mitigating factor in that Frank Angel had put Judge Torribio up to it. But with HELP, it was 100% Judge Torribio with no known motive other than his dislike of Jews which caused him to exclude HELP because its attorney was Jewish. It is not as if there has not been six years and numerous court hearings where Judge Torribio could dispute the facts or at least say that an attorney’s religion-ethnicity should not be a factor in court. Nor has California Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye said anything negative of the admitted use of anti-Semitism by California judges. Instead there has been total silence. There was not even the standard non-apology apology, “I am sorry that my being a Jew hater offends Jews.”
Is Greene’s saying Jewish space lasers start wild fires any more ludicrous than California Supreme Court’s saying that Cal. Const Art VI Sec 10 authorizes judicial bigotry? Who is more dangerous Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene or Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye? It is the difference between a lunatic serving in government and vicious bigots running the government.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams’ views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.)
-cw
