Katzen_Kradle

Personally, I can't help but feel that Hasidic culture oppresses their own people. I won't knock religious principles, as they reach more towards a group's fundamental understanding of the way the world, and after-life works, thereby deserving it's own "bucket". But most of what differentiates the Hasidic community from the rest of Judaism is not religious, but cultural. To my knowledge, there's nothing in Jewish texts that dictates that you need to dress in Hasidic fashion, not acknowledge the rest of the world exists, exclude ones self from the internet, prevent women from driving, live in one neighborhood in Brooklyn, etc.

New York City is the epicenter of cultural mixing in America, and arguably the world. Yet, generations of people are born and raised within the city and are vehemently shunned for interacting with it. New York city literally offers you access to the world, and yet Hasidic culture blocks that freedom from its own people.

What this means is that you can be reasonably sure when you interact with a Hasidic person that they will not have the worldliness you may expect from most other New Yorkers. They're generally encouraged to not play by your rules and consequently end up being somewhat rude.

Likewise to OP bigot, the vast majority of my interactions with Hasidic people have been negative. They typically refuse to open up to or acknowledge you as a direct result of their cultural principles. For example, I used to volunteer in a NYC hospital that many Hasidic Jews frequented, and they were so incredibly difficult to deal with – not by religious restrictions – but just by how they systemically talked down to "the help", refused to see some women doctors, refused to acknowledge visiting hour restrictions, often overstayed their time and needed to be escorted out by security leading to many legal battles, and more often than not didn't attempt to pay their hospital bills.

That said, I'm absolutely certain that there are more curious and open Hasidic individuals interested in interacting with the world, like OP of this thread.

However, on the whole I can't help but feel that the culture is very oppressive, yet people are afraid to criticize it because it's under the thin veil of religion.

How would you best summarize Staten Island?

It could have been, yes. But I think what he's saying is that it wasn't, and they killed a bunch of civilians and sank their ship.

Sounds like they had no choice, but nonetheless I'm sure it doesn't feel good.

Cargill isn’t really active in the crop types produced in agriculture regions around the Colorado River.

Take a look at satellite imagery, and you’ll see there’s really only a couple of relatively small agricultural areas that draw from the river, eg CA’s Imperial Valley. These areas are large alfalfa producers, which makes hay that is largely exported to Asian markets. To my knowledge Cargill is not really in this business.

And yes, alfalfa is also a massive water user - more so than almost any crop grown in CA.

For what it’s worth, I work in ag and personally know farmers who lease from Gates’ team. They pay average cash rents, and say only good things about working with his team.