It seems like forever ago when Americans were inundated by the daily news with the chaos in the Trump administration’s empowering Elon Must and his DOGE, Department of Governmental Efficiency, to slash and burn their way through federal agencies and federal workforce. Almost a year later, it’s becoming possible to get an approximate accounting of the real savings, if any, that resulted from all the sound and fury. Indisputably, despite the failure of the program to actually save taxpayers much money under its stated mission, the pain it caused is real and lingers, especially in situations like the almost complete defunding of the US Agency for International Development (AID).

The Times crunched some numbers, as they have been trying to do throughout this reign of terror. It still seems impossible to come up with a real, bottom line number for what amount DOGE and Musk really saved, partially because so many of their claims were completely false or exaggerated. Many times his young, inexperienced techies had no clue how to understand the contracts, whether they were let or not, and how many dollars they represented.

Federal officials — and unnamed contractors — would then flag voters as allegedly ineligible. States would be expected to remove those voters within 45 days, then resubmit their voter lists to DOJ for approval.

This is not a technical adjustment.

It is a structural shift of power.

Crime Minister Netanyahu told the UN recently that Israel is the only place in the Middle East where Christians feel safe. He even asserted that. He even has the nerve to claim that Israel is the guardian of Christianity. "No, Israel is not the guardian of Christianity," and Netanyahu is a habitual liar. He denied the IDF has thousands of children in Gaza even though the IDF admitted recently that over 83% of people killed in Gaza were civilians. And who can forget in 2015 when he suggested it was not Hitler's idea to slaughter Jews, but it was rather the idea of Jerusalem’s then-Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini who met with the Nazi leader in Germany in the early 1940s. A bird flies and Bibi lies!

Yesterday, Israeli Police attacked Christians celebrating Christmas in Haifa's Wadi Nisnas neighborhood. On Monday evening, the Police broke into a cultural center where a Christmas show was on based on a "noise complaint," destroyed musical equipment and arrested 3 participants, including one dressed as Santa Claus.

A Linden-area church offering Spanish-language mass at 7:30 pm on Christmas Eve and 11 am on Christmas Day has asked for a protective presence outside their building. We are recruiting people willing to show up in support of our neighbors. 

If you are or may be able to show up and protect our neighbors celebrating Christmas in this environment of fear, please respond to this email and express that you are able to join Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or both.