The Way It Iz

You may have been caught up in the majesty of the semiquincentennial celebration and forgotten that we are in the middle of negotiations to end a war with Iran. Somehow - and I can’t believe this is still the case - Iran seems to be able to continue its incredible streak of never winning a war or losing a negotiation. Based on the current terms of the negotiations, it seems that the United States is in a worse position than it was before.

Perception is reality. This is a general rule in politics. It doesn’t matter that the economy was improving under President Biden, and continues to do so under President Trump. The perception is that things have been unaffordable since COVID hit, and politically, whomever is in charge will take the hit.

Some will tell you that the United States of America, at 250 years old, is in its most precarious state in history. Some will tell you that we, as a nation, have never been more divided—politically, religiously, racially. Some will tell you that America is seeing its decline and its inevitable destruction. Some will tell you that our enemies are attacking us at levels never seen before in history. These people are imbeciles.

Let’s just say it: the story of Esther is not the courageous story we have been force-fed for the last 4,000 years. It is the original exposé on a corrupt imperial regime, a beauty-pageant-industrial complex, and what I am going to call—without hesitation—the Deep Palace State.

There has always been one question that irked me when it came to the Pesach story. After finally granting permission to B’nei Yisrael to leave Egypt, Pharaoh gets the urge to bring them back after a mere three days. Obviously, we have the mefarshim who tell us that it was Hashem making him change his mind, but let’s leave that out for the purposes of this conversation. Let’s say it was actually Pharaoh who realized he was losing out on slave labor and wanted to bring B’nei Yisrael back on his own.

It is no secret that Mayor Zohran Mamdani has had a less-than-stellar first month and a half as mayor of New York City. While the mayor touted his year-over-year drop in overall crime, which dropped by 6% as compared to January of 2025, he has failed across the board in most other areas. His policy of not forcing homeless people inside during the extreme cold resulted in the deaths of 18 homeless people.