For What it’s Worth: Warren Hecht

One of the reasons that was repeatedly given for the Republicans’ poor showing in the midterm elections was candidate quality. The irony is that the worst candidate was a person who won his election. I can spend a whole column exposing all the lies that George Santos promulgated about his background. There have been so many, it would not shock people that George Santos is not his real name. He has already used two aliases.  Now his financial dealings are being investigated. On the face, his financial situation reeks of impropriety. How did someone who was earning $55,000 a year two years ago with no assets become able to loan his campaign $750,000?  If he was someone who was not a pathological liar, then maybe you could believe that it was due to business acumen. Although there are calls for him to resign before being seated, I doubt it will happen. Kevin McCarthy needs his vote to become speaker. That is why McCarthy is silent while the exposure of Santos’ lies has occurred. By the time this article is published, there will be a speaker chosen. It was surprising that Tulsi Gabbard, while substituting for Tucker Carlson, destroyed Santos when she interviewed him. Carlson probably would have made Santos into a victim of media hysteria or said that he was no worse than the president.

I would like to thank the Queens Jewish Link for placing an ad wishing me and my family Mazal Tov on my daughter Yael Rebecca’s engagement.

When deciding how to review the past year, there are so many choices. I decided to limit it to the unexpected.

The biggest domestic story that occurred during my vacation was Trump having a meeting with anti-Semites Kayne West and Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago. Trump is amoral, so the meeting did not come as a shock. He will do what he believes is best for him politically. What is more upsetting is that Trump, who has shown an ability to read the mood of the Republican base, thought that meeting with two well-known anti-Semites would help his standing with the base. In other words, antisemitism has become mainstream in the Republican Party.

There are many reasons why New York City is a popular destination for tourists. There are many things to do. As locals, we often do not take advantage of what the city has to offer. For a few weekends this time of year, there’s the special Holiday Train. The New York Transit Museum takes old trains out for a ride, and the public is invited. Some people dress up in period clothing, and there is a band. This year it was on the 1 line. Beth and I rode it on Sunday. I was a little disappointed since the trains were from the 1960s, which were in service until 2003. In the past, they had trains from the 1920s onward.

The cryptocurrency exchange FTX was valued in January 2022 at $32 billion. The investors in FTX include well-respected corporations SoftBank and BlackRock. On Monday, November 5, Sam Bankman-Fried, the chief executive of FTX, the world’s third largest exchange, took to Twitter to reassure his customers that FTX is fine and the “assets are fine.”