On the death of #SheldonAdelson - a brief thread.

Sheldon Adelson - the megadonor to the GOP who received the genuflection of virtually all hopefuls on the Republican national stage - is dead. 1/

Adelson pumped money into the very GOP machinery that has enabled Trumpism, facilitated policies that have torn children from their parents, cultivated racism, antisemitism, and white supremacy, and that has now led to the deaths of 350,000+ Americans from COVID. 2/
Some people who appreciated the money he threw at Israeli groups and initiatives are going to be angry if I celebrate the demise of this merchant of corruption and death. "Jews don't celebrate death", right? Wrong. 3/
The "Song of the Sea" (Exodus 15:1-18) is the oldest text in the Hebrew Bible, the foundation of Israelite religious belief, and it is nothing but a celebration of a mass death of Egyptians at the Red Sea during the Exodus. 4/
1 Samuel 18 preserves an old song that tells us that both David and Saul were celebrated for slaughtering "thousands" and "myriads". 5/
The Passover Seder ritual has a song that literally contains a line saying that Jews would have been satisfied if God only killed Egypt's firstborn. 6/
And every (non-Pandemic) year, Jewish parents take their kids to synagogue to hear the Scroll of Esther read on the holiday of Purim, and celebrate as the passages describing the slaughter of Haman, his sons, and other adversaries are read aloud. 7/
"But these were enemies!" the argument will go. Sure. And so was Adelson. An enemy to this country, an enemy to democracy, an enemy to intellectual honesty and facts, and ultimately, an enemy to his fellow American Jews who did not share GOP values. 8/
I'm a Jew, living through an antisemitic, white supremacist, Trumpist insurrection that is the closest thing to the Nazi threat in early 1930s Germany that we've seen SINCE that threat. And Adelson helped empower these people 9/:
Adelson was a fiend, a source of danger, a traitor to this country's principles and an enabler of violent destruction. Now he's dead. His memory will not be a blessing. 10/10

More from Government

Long thread: Because I couldn’t find anything comprehensive, I’m just going to post everything I’ve seen in the news/Twitter about Trump’s activities related to the Jan 6th insurrection. I think the timing & context of his actions/inactions will matter a lot for a senate trial.

12/12: The earlier DC protest over the electoral college vote during clearly inspired Jan 6th. On Dec 12th, he tweeted: “Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn’t know about this, but I’ll be seeing them! #MAGA.”


12/19: Trump announces the Jan. 6th event by tweeting, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Immediately, insurrectionists begin to discuss the “Wild Protest.” Just 2 days later, this UK political analyst predicts the violence


12/26-27: Trump announces his participation on Twitter. On Dec. 29, the FBI sends out a nationwide bulletin warning legislatures about attacks https://t.co/Lgl4yk5aO1


1/1: Trump tweets the time of his protest. Then he retweets “The calvary is coming” on Jan. 6!” Sounds like a war? About this time, the FBI begins visiting right wing extremists to tell them not to go--does the FBI tell the president? https://t.co/3OxnB2AHdr

You May Also Like