Donald Trump – Dave's Gone By

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #200 (12/31/2025): 2025 Farewell

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RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #200 (12/31/2025): 2025 Farewell

airs Dec. 31, 2025 on Dave’s Gone By. Watch here: TBA

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the end of the year, 2025.

I don’t think I know anyone who hasn’t had a cruddy year. If they’re not upset with politics and the government, they’re dealing with death, illness, financial stress, mental problems, dental problems — if you actually had a good year in 2025, please let me know your phone number so I can play it for Lotto.

But here it is, December 31st, and whaddya know? You survived. I’m not saying you thrived, but you endured. And I hope you got your jollies along the way. Not every news event was tragic, and a few sad stories had silver linings. Pope Francis died, but the new guy’s from Chicago. He’s on the conservative side, but what do you expect from a Pope, Ru Paul? And while inflation is scaring everyone who has to buy a house, a car, a health plan, or, you know, groceries, the stock market has remained a juggernaut. Therefore, if, by the time you retire, you haven’t given all your money to Aetna, you might have a few bucks left in your 401K… to spend on cat food.

Politically it was another Civil War-level year, with liberals screaming “disaster!” at Trump’s every move, and Trump often deserving the screams. Did he need to renovate the White House Ballroom and make the silverware goldenware? Did he have to put his name on the memorial Kennedy Center — I mean, Trump’s bullet missed! And did the President have to redact all those pages in the Epstein files that showed him to be almost as big a perv as Bill Clinton? Well, at least Trump is ridding the country of useless foreigners with questionable visas. Anybody seen Melania lately?

Meanwhile, antisemitism, disguised as antizionism, still gives college students and left-wing wingnuts a hard-on, but Israel and the Palestinians are holding to some kind of cease fire, while America’s been going after ISIS in Syria and Nigeria and stopping nukes in Iran. And while the mass murder at a Chanukah festival in Bondi Beach reminded us Jews are still hated, a clump of Jewish corpses granted us a day or two of sympathy before the clown cars returned with their Free Gaza circus act. God help us, New York elected a rabidly anti-Israel socialist mayor, but the good news is: Mamdani’s policies will be so ruinous, bankrupting, and unenforceable, no one’s gonna give an alqaraf what he believes!

Oh, and if it’s not already evident, let me assert that this Rabbinical Reflection was written entirely with my two little hands and my too-preoccupied brain. That is to say, any intelligence you happen to find in my prose may be unexpected but not artificial. 2025 was the year that everything on social media or the internet was suspect. From heartwarming parables about celebrities to the sloppiest slop, algorithms were telling us what to buy, how to think, and where to vent. It was the year academics gave up fighting A.I. and instead told students, “Hey, my ChatGPT wrote this exam. Have your Grammarly take it, and then my Copilot will grade it. And afterwards we can all meet on the unemployment line because nobody has to fucking know anything anymore.”

But I digress. Anger is not the endgame of my annual review of the annum gone by. Nostalgic melancholy is more the mood because now is time to remember those we lost. Musicians, authors, performers — folks who left their mark, so in poetic form, we mark their passing.

Farewell to Pope Francis, as Popes go, a goodie

Adieu, Diane Keaton, we loved you with Woody

With his gifted family, Sly Stone took us higher

And tears for Jill Sobule, who died in a fire

We lost Lalo Schiffrin and his orchestrations

Let’s hope Brian Wilson picks up good vibrations

Ace Frehley and Ozzy now sleep in the sand

And farewell Garth Hudson, the last of The Band.

We lost Malcolm-Jamal Warner when he lost his grips

Loretta Swit and Chuck Mangione have sealed their hot lips

Farewell to Rob Reiner, what great films he did!

If only Nick Reiner was Greta Thunberg’s kid.

Tom Stoppard whose plays were quite The Real Thing

Now joins Robert Redford in feeling death’s Sting

Bye bye to Hulk Hogan who wrestled with glee

And Loni Anderson, who put the T&A in KRP

Ta-ta, Charlie Kirk, whose death gave us chills

So long to George Foreman whose life gave us grills

Bill Moyers once anchored the news desk with grace

And Charles Strouse helped us put on a happy face

With David Johansen we rocked and got funky

And Jane Goodall taught us the mind of a monkey

So long, David Lynch, whose films got tongues waggin’

“Puff” went Peter Yarrow, and his magic dragon

Connie Francis could sing and Roberta Flack croon

Jules Feiffer satirized life by cartoon

Gene Hackman found dead in his run-down chalet

Steve Cropper now dead on the dock of the bay

Val Kilmer, Diane Ladd, each one a sad loss

And Jimmy Cliff has no more rivers to cross

No love for Dick Cheney and his years of fears

But raise up a glass for George Wendt and his Cheers

And keep that toast going for loved ones departed

We mourn them, we miss them, and though brokenhearted

We bravely go forward through kicks, sticks, and bricks

And hope for the best in 2026.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York. Happy Jew Year.

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Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #198: 1000 Daves

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RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #198 (9/20/2025): 1000 Daves

airs Sept. 20, 2025 on Dave’s Gone By. Watch here: https://davesgoneby.net/?p=127752

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for September 20, 2025.

It is an honor, a privilege, and a joy to wish Duvid Lefkowitz mazel on his 1000th episode of the Dave’s Gone By radio-internet-podcast-Morse Code program. This would be a stunning achievement even if he didn’t spend three full hours a week talking his head off about absolutely nothing. But he manages this feat in a surprisingly non-annoying way, and has been doing so for 24 years.

I was there from the very beginning, you know. On the debut episode of Dave’s Gone By, the host brought me on to talk about breast-cancer awareness. I am aware of both breasts and cancer, so this was a natural fit for me. Despite complaints to the radio station about my calling breasts “boobs,” instead of—I dunno, hooters, jugs, melons, or love lumps—my segment was a hit. And it set the template for what would become my Rabbinical Reflections—mini-sermons about life, Judaism, politics, and my non-stop nagging prostate.

Today marks my 198th Rabbinical Reflection, and I thank Dave for allowing me this platform to expound upon my small world at large. It hasn’t been easy. My defense of Israel and Zionism has cost Dave a number of friends. They’re self-hating Jews and miserable anti-Semite bastards, but still, they’re missed. By the same token, I am appalled at the MAGA cancel culture going on right now, with late-night television hosts in the crosshairs of a despotic purge. I hate to say it, but the left-wingers were right: Columbia gadfly Mahmoud Khalil might be a lump of rancid hummus, but if he wasn’t breaking any laws, he had the right to peaceful protest, whether he was an American citizen or just a visa visitor. Now he’s being deported, and the government has gone from over-prosecuting “hate speech” to indirectly silencing anyone who doesn’t bow down to the orange clown.

So Dave, I celebrate your longevity and success. Such as it is. But I also urge you to speak your mind. You’re no Steven Colbert. You’re no Jimmy Kimmel. (If you were, let’s face it, you’d still be banging Sarah Silverman.) But you are you, an opinionated aging Jew with a moral sense of right and wrong and the linguistic skill to share your beliefs with those willing to listen. And if you’re sometimes reticent to tackle certain subjects and put your tuchas on the line for free expression, I am generally not. I promise, oh Captain, that as long as you keep allowing me to be part of your podosphere, whether doing interviews, Reflections, or baking shmura matzohs for you and your lovely missus, I will remain me. I will say what I feel needs saying, seriously or joking, and if ABC or Disney or Paramount-Skydance doesn’t like it, shtup `em. It’s not like they’re signing my checks. (Of course, if they do want to hire me, please forget everything I’ve said the last two minutes and God bless our stable-genius President.)

No matter what, though, I congratulate you, Dave, on giving the world 1000 examples of your humorosity. As you know, without comedy, irony, silliness, self-reflection, and a healthy b.s. meter—plus a little showbiz b.s.—this world would be a poorer place. Or just Newsmax.

I will close, Duvid, with a poem I have composed in your honor:

Hear, O Israel, about a Jewish guy

Who created a show called “Dave’s Gone By”

He tells of his bunions, his harelip, and phlegm

That turns off some people, but guess what? Fuck them!

He talks about theater, sometimes to excess

He jokes about life and how it’s a mess.

He lets me do interviews, though I’m controversial

He goes for three hours—with not one commercial!

From terrible puns to trivia quizzes

To bantering with his unseen mizzus,

To crafting a loathsome limerick rhyme

Dave makes shabbos a happier time.

So, mazel tov, Dave, on your 1000th show

May good fortune follow wherever you go.

Amen.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.

–> https://shalomdammit.wordpress.com/2025/09/19/rabbi-sol-solomons-rabbinical-reflection-198-9-20-2025-1000-daves/

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #191 (2/8/2025): Gazaland?

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Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #191 (2/8/2025): GAZALAND?

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired Feb. 8, 2025 the Dave’s Gone By video podcast.

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections are heard on the long-running Dave’s Gone By radio/video podcast program (davesgoneby.com) and then archived as text and audio on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com, where a transcript of this Reflection may be read.

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage show, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon,” which played in NYC in Nov. 2011 and Aug. 2012.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com

Dave’s Gone By #966 (11/9/2024): O YES ONO

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Here is the 966th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook Saturday morning, Nov. 9, 2024.

Featuring: Dave interviews actor Peter Onorati; Greeley Times; Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Balzac); Bunion Watch; Dave’s Big Dictionary (inchoate); and a brand-new segment, My Old Phlegm

Guest: Peter Onorati

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce: Ffups
00:10:00 MY OLD PHLEGM: #1
00:20:00 DAVE GOES FURTHER IN w/ Joyce: McCall’s, Pesto the Penguin
00:40:30 GREELEY TIMES
00:59:00 GUEST: Peter Onorati
02:10:30 BUNION WATCH
02:21:30 DAVE’S BIG DICTIONARY: inchoate
02:26:30 DAVE GOES TO THE DENTIST
02:45:30 Friends of the Daverhood
03:00:30 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED: Balzac, CO
03:06:00 DAVE GOES OUT

Balzac (or thereabouts) in Morgan County, CO

Dave’s Gone By #934 (3/9/2024): HOUR TOWN

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Here is the 934th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook Saturday morning, March 9, 2024.

Featuring: StoryTime (“Good Job, Dennis”), Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Limon), Greeley Times, Dave’s Big Dictionary (levity).

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN: Daylight Savings Time, Mike Tyson, Biden n’ Trump
01:09:00 GREELEY TIMES
01:23:00 STORYTIME: “Good Job, Dennis”
01:37:00 BUNION WATCH
01:43:00 DAVE’S BIG DICTIONARY: Levity
02:00:00 Friends of the Daverhood
02:13:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED (Limon)
02:18:00 DAVE GOES OUT

Dave’s Gone By Skit: Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #165 (1/17/2021): FREE SPEECH

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(Rabbi Sol Solomon’s 165th Rabbinical Reflection aired Jan. 16, 2021 as part of the Dave’s Gone By show. watch video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Y0DFpad8eto).

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of January 17th, 2021.

Can we speak freely? No, I mean, can we speak, freely? I don’t like the “Stop the Steal” mishegoss any more than you do, and I think the nudniks who stormed the Capitol building deserve the strongest punishment. Like fines, imprisonment, or being trapped in an elevator with Jeanine Pirro in your left ear and Nancy Grace in your right. And they’re both using megaphones. And guess what? They’re angry.

But back to the point: we’ve got a paranoid President who is circling the drain because he’s terrified of being called the one thing he is–at least in terms of the 2020 election–a Loser. Not with Israel and the Middle East; he’s a winner there. Not with Wall Street and big business; he’s a Superman there. And, up till March of last year, not with the economy, which had low unemployment, tons of job growth, and a gung-ho attitude.

But COVID knocked him down, as it did 350,000 of his countrymen. Trump’s rash pronouncements and veiled racial signaling appealed to America’s baser instincts, so although 75 million people voted for him, 80 million didn’t. He lost. Deal with it. I wish he would. I wish his Confederate flag-waving acolytes would. I wish the folks on QAnon would get a Clue-Anon.

However, just before the riots, the President gave a speech where he dubbed the elections fraudulent, the news fake, and the elections rigged by Big Tech. He called on Congress to recount everything, and he said, and I quote, “I know that everyone will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” unquote. He also praised the size of the crowd–he does love a big crowd–and urged them to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. As a protest. As a way for those who legitimately felt the election was stolen to make their voices heard.

For this, Donald Trump was again impeached. For spinning a false narrative, yes, about the election, but moreover for inciting the crowd to riot. “Something is wrong here, really wrong,” he said, “and we fight. We fight like hell, because if you don’t, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” You know what that’s called? Rhetoric. Not insurrection, not incitement to anarchy. It’s a politician telling his believers not to give up hope and to channel their rage into action. If some followers in buffalo skins and football-fan camouflage took that to mean storm the government, break stuff and take stuff, that’s on them. At the very least it’s trespassing; at most it’s sedition.

The Democrats are accusing the President of having a signed First Sedition. True, he wound the bozos up, but he didn’t set them loose, any more than the makers of Cabbage Patch dolls doing TV commercials telling parents “buy these horrible things for your even-more-horrible children,” caused riots in Kmart.

But pushing past impeachment and trying to remove Donald Trump from office–which will happen two weeks after he’s already been removed from office–my problem is with the censoring of free speech. President Trump has been banned, permanently, from Twitter. Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram have deleted him for however long they choose, and YouTube has pulled his channel down. Far more worrisome, they’re doing the same for all his nutty followers who now have no place to share their cries of “fraud!” and “conspiracy!” Google, Apple, and Amazon have all removed the social-media site Parler, because too many kooks were spoiling the broth.

Now, these are private companies–sort of–so their CEOs have the right to monitor everything that goes on them. If you own a restaurant, you can’t discriminate against your customers based on race or gender, but you can still demand, “No shirt, no shoes, no service.” I’ve thrown people out of my synagogue for wearing dirty tallises. Well, they weren’t wearing anything underneath them, but that’s neither here nor there.

The point is we are on a very slippery slope when our biggest purveyors of public palaver start telling us, “Well, you’re allowed to post hopeful things about Joe Biden’s inauguration, but you can’t write anything questioning the legitimacy of his victory.” “You’re allowed to condemn the violent idiots rioting in Nancy Pelosi’s office, but don’t you dare encourage the peaceful idiots to keep marching two blocks away.”

When I was a little Rabbi, a Rabbette, I was taught three things you couldn’t do: yell fire in a crowded shul, slander someone, or be so obscene that a reasonable person would go, “dude, I’m as kinky as the next fetishist, that’s messed up.” But no law says you can’t lie. That’s not even one of the Ten Commandments. Wait, let me make sure (thinks and counts), nope. False witness is different. And there’s certainly nothing in there about not sharing things that you actually believe are true–even if there’s overwhelming evidence they’re false.

So what happens when you censor folks on the fringe? You make them angrier, you drive them deeper underground, and now it gets harder to track them to make sure they don’t escalate from angry TikTok videos to kidnapping Ilhan Omar. You also cause everyone else to self-censor. “Hmm, maybe I better not post this because they’ll just take it down anyway. Maybe I better not think this, because then I’ll waste time posting it, because they’re just gonna take it down anyway.”

I am of the mind that you say what you have to say, and if I hate it, I get to say what I have to say back at you, louder. The problem in 1925 was not that Hitler published Mein Kampf; it’s that not enough people read it and went, “ooh, this guy’s bonkers and maybe dangerous.” The problem is not that right-wing Republicans are posting that the elections were a fraud; it’s that they believe it and won’t be de-convinced no matter the proof. Still, prohibiting them from non-violent, non-slanderous, non-obscene communication is non-okay.

Big Brother is already watching us from every stop light, website, Smart TV, closed-circuit camera, and GPS system. You can’t sneeze without someone in the CIA muttering gezundheit. Must we have social-media platforms that restrict content based on alternative narratives? Do we really want to side with Cardinal Maculani over Galileo? With Anthony Comstock over James Joyce? With Ayatollah Khomeini over Salman Rushdie?

In my version of reality, Donald Trump was an okay president who made just enough poor decisions to lose the election. In your version of reality (points), Donald Trump was a terrible president who should have been impeached before he was elected. Or in your version of reality (points elsewhere), Donald Trump was a great president who got cheated out of a second term. Can’t we all just not get along? Tolerating stupidity is one of the great virtues of our nation. That and cream soda. What, you disagree? That’s your right.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.

Dave’s Gone By #781 (1/16/2021): WICKENSPEDIA

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Here is the 781st episode of the long-running radio show/podcast Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook Saturday morning, Jan. 16, 2021. More info: davesgoneby.com.

Guests: comedian Shawn Wickens, theater critics Leslie (Hoban) Blake and David Sheward

Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews comedian Shawn Wickens and offers his Rabbinical Reflection on Free Speech; Inside Broadway; Greeley Crimes & Old Times; Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Cascade); Today/Yesterday theater quiz (Jan. 16) with Leslie (Hoban) Blake and David Sheward.

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (clerk typist, approaching 57)
00:30:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Shawn Wickens
01:16:30 TODAY/YESTERDAY Trivia Quiz (Jan. 16 w/ Leslie (Hoban) Blake & David Sheward)
02:39:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES
02:50:00 INSIDE BROADWAY
03:01:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #165 (Free Speech)
03:13:30 Friends of the Daverhood
03:19:00 DAVE GOES FURTHER IN (Carvel)
03:25:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED (Cascade)
03:26:30 DAVE GOES OUT

Dave’s Gone By #771 (11/7/2020): SAPOZITORY

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Here is the 771st episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning Nov. 7, 2020. More info: davesgoneby.com.

Guests: musicologist Henry Sapoznik, theater critics Leslie (Hoban) Blake and David Sheward, Dave’s wife Joyce

Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews musician and musicologist Henry Sapoznik; Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Goodrich, CO); Wretched Pun of Destiny (election); Today/Yesterday (Nov. 7 trivia quiz w/ Leslie (Hoban) Blake and David Sheward

Historic Note: During the Today/Yesterday segment, news came down that Joseph Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (writing challenge)
00:36:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES
01:05:30 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Henry Sapoznik
02:04:00 TODAY/YESTERDAY (Nov. 7 w/ Henry Sapoznik, Leslie (Hoban) Blake, David Sheward
03:21:30 WRETCHED PUN OF DESTINY #83 (election)
03:24:30 Friends of the Daverhood
03:29:30 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED (Goodrich)
03:32:30 DAVE GOES OFF (voting)
03:48:30 DAVE GOES OUT

Nov. 7, 2020 playlist: “Chicken” (01:04:30; Henry Sapoznik). “Yidele Farlier Nit Dein Hoffnung” (01:50:30; Thomas LaRue).

Dave’s Gone By #735 (2/29/2020): FAITH OF LEAP

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Here is the 735th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020.

Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guest: author Jenni Raney Edwards

Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews author and traveler Jenni Raney Edwards, Greeley Crimes & Old Times, StoryTime (“Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln, part 2), Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Severance), Today Yesterday (Feb. 29).

00:00:01 RABBI SOL GOES IN
00:04:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Jenni Raney Edwards
00:45:00 DAVE GOES IN (1st Bank, Bloomberg ads)
01:21:00 INSIDE BROADWAY
02:12:30 TODAY YESTERDAY (Feb. 29)
02:34:00 Friends of the Daverhood
02:42:30 STORYTIME (Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln, part 2)
03:00:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES
03:14:30 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED (Severance)
03:19:00 DAVE GOES OUT

Playlist: “Riding in My RV” (00:42:00; Traveling Robert). “Tonight” (02:02:00; Christian Bautista & Jenna Burns). “The Leap Day Leap Year Song” (03:27:00; The Motern Media Holiday Singers).

Dave’s Gone By #733 (2/15/2020): PRES RELEASE

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Here is the 733rd episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020.

Host: Dave Lefkowitz

Featuring: Greeley Crimes & Old Times, Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Bent County), Inside Broadway, StoryTime (Grumpy Lobster), Potato News, Today Yesterday (Feb. 15).

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN (Presidents Week, politics)
00:52:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES
01:08:00 INSIDE BROADWAY (news & review (01:12:00; Grand Horizons)
01:36:30 POTATO NEWS
01:49:30 STORYTIME (The Grumpy Lobster)
02:07:00 Friends of the Daverhood
02:20:00 TODAY YESTERDAY (Feb. 15)
02:43:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED (Bent County)
02:47:00 DAVE GOES OUT