The Jewish Percentage

It's Not Just About Josh: Abq Jew shares your pain. And there's plenty of pain to go around, so sharing it is even easier! From the US elections to Amsterdam to the Land of Israel, bad things have happened this past week.

But if you're a Jew named Josh - take heart.

A good thing has happened.

The above image is an AI (Artificial Intelligence)-generated depiction of the Biblical hero Joshua. Holding a printed, apparently paperback copy of (or perhaps the original) Bible, to which our guy would not have had access for ... well, a few more years.

On his tunic(?) is printed (or perhaps hand-written) the well-known English word? acronym? initialsim? abbreviation? NAH. The significance of NAH here is unclear; perhaps a reference to NaH, the highly reactive inorganic hydride sodium hydride? (Despite its hich basicity, NaH is not nucleophilic.)

Or perhaps NAH is used here as an adverb. The earliest known use of the adverb NAH is in the early 1700s. OED's earliest evidence for nah is from 1720, in the writing of Alexander Pennecuik, physician and poet.

A more recent use is the anthem known officially as Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, a 1969 song written and recorded by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, with NA instead of NAH, and attributed to the then-fictitious band Steam.

And then there is always 

Northern Arizona Healthcare

Ah, yes. We were talking about a good thing and Jewish men named Josh. (Want to know more about the first, really Biblical Joshua? Chabad says "click here and here.")

Forward editor emeritus Jonathan Jeremy ('J.J.') Goldberg, Forward writer Benyamin Goldberg, and several dozen others have pointed out that, as one good yet curious result of the recent elections -

6 percent of US governors (that's 3 out of 50, folks)
are or will be Jews named Josh.

For those keeping score: that's 

Governor Josh Green of Hawaii; Governor-elect Josh Stein of North Carolina; and, of course, the unforgettable Governor Josh Shapiro (who could have been should have been VP and may someday be P) of Pennsylvania.

Please keep in mind that we Jews represent an amazing (considering the publicity we get) 0.2% of the total world population. And we all-powerful Jews represent an all-powerful 2.4% of the total US population. 

And - in case you were wondering, as was Abq Jew, about the percentage of Jews elsewhere in the US (a random sampling):

• 8.8% in New York
• 8.3% in Washington, DC
• 6.7% in New Jersey
• 4.3% in Massachusetts
• 3.3% in Pennsylvania
• 2.5% in Illinois
• 1.7% in Colorado
• 1.7% in Rhode Island
• 1.5% in Delaware
• 0.7% in New Hampshire
• 0.6% in New Mexico
• 0.5% in North Carolina
• 0.5% in Hawaii
• ~.~% in South Dakota

As one more good yet curious result of the recent elections -

12 percent of US governors (that's 6 out of 50, folks)
are or will be Jews.

For those keeping score: in addition to the above three, that's Governor Matt Meyer of Delaware; Governor Jared Polis of Colorado; and, of course, the ubiquitous Governor Jay Robert '(J.B.') Pritzker of Illinois. Six, total.

And yes, still another good yet curious result of the recent elections -

10 percent of US governors (that's 5 out of 50, folks;
and that's 83% of the 6 Jewish governors)
are or will be Jews whose first name begins with J.

Unfortunately, many (but not all!) of us are fully cognizant of exactly what in hell is happening. Even though many of TFFG's (The Future Former Guy's) new suggested team members appear to be fervently pro-Israel - their true focus is pro-Evangelical, which may or may not coincide with the true interests of the US or worldwide Jewish community.

To which Abq Jew can only add, with thoughts and prayers -

it may pass like a kidney stone, but it shall pass

Could Be Worse

Could Be Raining: Well. The 2024 elections are more or less over, finished, wrapped up, concluded. Some of the results - especially those here in our own New Mexico -  pleased Abq Jew no end; others, however, force him to remind you, his loyal readers, that, as Igor noted in Young Frankenstein, 

Could Be Worse.

Could Be Raining.

Yes, Abq Jew - along with about half the nation - had a sleepless night. As the one and only Yogi once observed (after Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit back-to-back home runs during the 1961 season) - 

It's like deja vu, all over again.

Many, many others had more to say about the 2024 election's results.

Public opinion consultant Fernand R. Amandi was succinct:

This election — the most critical and important in our lifetimes — was fundamentally about what kind of country and what kind of people we actually are — and I’m afraid we now have our answer.

Mother Jones' David Corn was not succinct. He wrote:

America Meets Its Judgment Day  

Trump’s victory signals a national embrace of the politics of hate and a possible fascist future.

Every election is a Judgment Day, but this one more so than any other in the history of the nation.

Never before has a major party run a nominee described by retired military leaders who worked with him as a “fascist” and a serious threat to American democracy. 

Never before has the electorate been provided the choice of a nominee who previously refused to accept vote tallies, falsely declared victory, covertly schemed to overturn an election, and incited a violent assault on the US Capitol to stay in power, as well as one whose mismanagement of a pandemic caused the avoidable deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. 

Never before have Americans been asked to return to office a politician who waged a massive disinformation operation fueled by the most vicious vitriol to exploit hatred, racism, misogyny, and ignorance.

Is America a nation that accepts and embraces all that?

The answer is yes.

Despite Trump’s multiple offenses (criminal, political, and social), tens of millions voters—more than half of the electorate—said they want more of him and desire this felonious, misogynistic, racist, and seemingly cognitively challenged wannabe autocrat to lead the nation once again. 

Trumpism triumphed, and the godhead of this cult has become both the first fascist and the first convicted felon to win an American presidential election.

And he concludes: 

At this fork in the road, Americans made a decision on what sort of country the United States will be. A judgment has been reached: 

This is a nation to be ruled by Trump’s politics of hate.  

It can happen here, and it has.

As for The Jews - Brianna Wu posted:

As the polls close, I'm really only interested in one number.

Just how badly has the Democratic Party lost the Jewish vote by refusing to denounce the antisemitism that has infested our party?

And as for women - Jill Filipovic quoted Germaine Greer:

Women have very little idea of how much men hate them.

The Atlantic's David Frum offers a note of hope:

Eight years ago this night, my son asked me: "What do we do now?"

I answered,

We walk to the bar, strike up the band,

and sing The Marseillaise.