What’s the deal? 这是怎么回事？

Reader question:

Please explain “the deal”, as in: “What’s the deal with Biden’s poor polling with young voters?”

My comments:

US President Joe Biden, that is.

Biden’s approval among young voters is low, and the person who asks this question looks for an explanation to that.

Biden’s polling with young voters is usually good, relatively speaking as he’s rather progressive for his age.

Young people are mostly progressives, even radicals.

Again, relatively speaking.

One tends to be more conservative as one ages. But perhaps it’s neither here nor there where we are concerned right now. Right now, we’re wondering why young people do not like Joe Biden or the job he’s doing.

One reason for that may be that Joe Biden is not doing particularly well in the polls with any age group. A CBS poll on December 10, i.e. two days ago, for example, put Biden’s overall approval rating among all adults at 41%, which is tied for second-lowest approval rating of any president in the past 70 years.

Less than half Americans overall approves of the job Biden is doing, in other words.

So, and we return to the question, what’s the deal?

In other words, what’s the explanation for this?

The “deal” in “what’s the deal” refers to a transaction originally, i.e. a sale.

There’s a bargaining process involved in a sale or purchase. The seller begins the transaction by naming a price. The buyer names a lower price. The seller asks for more. The buyer gives more. The seller asks for still a little bit more. The buyer refuses.

So on and so forth. One gives a little. The other takes a little. Eventually they agree to a price, and a deal is clinched.

There’s the deal, as it were.

Someone looking on may be asking the question: What’s the deal with those two? They’ve been whispering in each other’s ears for half an hour? What’s going on?

Well, the answer to that is: Nothing, really. They’re trying to make a deal. Nothing strange or sinister. Don’t worry.

Likewise, metaphorically speaking, when people ask “what’s the deal” with someone or something, they want an explanation as to what’s going on.

In our example, the person who asks “what’s the deal with Biden’s poor polling with young people” is puzzled as to why this is happening.

They want an explanation.

Well, I can’t give a satisfactory explanation to that.

Fortunately, our readers are satisfied with an answer to what the “deal” is in “what’s the deal with Biden’s poor polling with young people.”

And I’ve given an answer to that.

Satisfactorily, too, we hope.

All right, here are media examples of the phrase “what’s the deal” with this and that:

1. If the polls are to be believed, Donald Trump has a commanding lead in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Can a “suppressed” 1991 documentary change that?

Trump’s lead, surprising though it may be to some, should not be taken lightly. As David Leonhardt argues for the New York Times, we should shrug off the urge among some to dismiss or treat him solely as entertainment. And that seems to be the intention behind the recent release of the documentary Trump: What’s the Deal?.

“Now that Trump is running for president, it is time for the American People to meet the real Donald and learn how he does business,” as the documentary’s website explains it. “The old Trump and the new Trump? They’re the same Trump.”

Leading up to the release of Trump: What’s the Deal? (the title is a play on Trump’s bestselling book, Trump: The Art of the Deal), the media has shed light on some of Trump’s past, including his use of underpaid immigrant labor (both legal and undocumented) for his empire, the fact that four of his companies have filed for bankruptcy, and the allegations that he violently raped ex-wife Ivana while they were married.

Combine these revelations with his statements on some Mexican immigrants being “rapists” and John McCain’s military record (“He’s not a war hero. … He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”), and it’s hard to be surprised by anything this documentary reveals. Instead, the film simply solidifies the boastful and corrupt image of Trump as a person who lives in a universe of exaggeration and hyperbole, all for the benefit of money and notoriety and at the expense of everyone else around him.

Trump: What’s the Deal? documents the activities of the real-estate mogul during “the decade of greed,” arguing against Trump’s image as a “self-made” billionaire while highlighting the greed, coldness, arrogance, and lack of humanity that the film says pervades his pursuit of wealth and fame. According to the documentary (and media reports), he owes everything to his father, Frank Trump, who accumulated a fortune and made political connections ahead of his son; Donald’s fortune, like his father’s, was amassed on the backs of taxpayers through the use of tax abatements, the film claims.

- What a ‘suppressed’ 1991 documentary reveals about Donald Trump, DailyDot.com, September 15, 2015.

2. We have received a lot of inquiries in recent weeks regarding “reports” that the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel has anointed the Messiah, which for Christians would mean a false messiah.

We say “reports” in quotation marks because this story appears nowhere in the Israeli media, not even in Orthodox Jewish news outlets that are almost as eager as their Christian counterparts to address this topic. Kind of strange if indeed a consensus had been reached in the Orthodox community regarding the identity of the Messiah.

Still, dedicated as we are to getting to the bottom of the story, we reached out to Orthodox Jewish contacts here in Jerusalem to ask what they knew. Not only had none of them heard about a messianic anointing, most were entirely unfamiliar with the young rabbi at the center of the claims, Shlomo Yehudah Be’eri.

Keen to identify the anti-Christ in order to confirm that we are in the very last of last days, the fact is that far more Christians than Jews seek to crown this man as “messiah.”

So what’s the deal?

Last month, some Spanish-language Christian channels on YouTube began circulating a video clip of young Rabbi Shlomo Yehudah arriving at the Western Wall, where he was greeted with great reverence by more senior rabbis and a throng of Orthodox Jews.

…

What’s really going on?

First of all, this young rabbi’s name is not Jizkiyahu Ben David or Jiziahu or any other spelling being used out there. Nor is anyone in Israel calling him that.

What’s with the title “Yanuka”? Rabbi Shlomo Yehudah Be’eri does appear to be a genuine prodigy with the ability to recite the Torah and other religious Jewish texts by heart. He’s been doing this since he was a child, making him highly esteemed in certain Orthodox circles. This is where he got the label “Yanuka” that’s also appearing in all the Christian videos and articles. In this context the term is analogous to “child prodigy,” though it’s a little outdated since Shlomo Yehudah is no longer a child.

Being a prodigy can lead to great popularity and fame, affording “rock star” status, if you will, but it doesn’t make someone a messiah. And, as we noted earlier, Shlomo Yehudah’s popularity and fame doesn’t seem to extend beyond the particular stream of Orthodox Judaism to which he belongs.

And the crowds that greeted him? As for the clip of him at the Western Wall, this occurred at the annual event that begins the Counting of the Omer during the week of Passover. That’s why the holy site was so crowded. It was not a special event to honor Rabbi Shlomo Yehudah.

Why did senior rabbis fawn over him? Well, he’s a famous rabbi (again, in some circles) and a recognized prodigy. It is not at all uncommon for Orthodox Jews, even senior rabbis, to kiss the hand of and give deference to a teacher or fellow rabbi whom they respect. And among those who appeared in the above video clip, Shlomo Yehudah is greatly respected.

The host of “Punto Breslev” later released an English-language video (which we won’t link to since he also spent a great deal of time slandering Yeshua) in which he explained the misunderstanding and stressed that neither he nor any other rabbi was declaring Shlomo Yehudah Be’eri to be the Messiah. And we can confirm this to be the case, as no one in Israel (at least no one with any authority) has announced the beginning of the Messianic Age.

- Christians Anoint Young Rabbi as ‘False Messiah’, IsraelToday.co.il, May 6, 2021.

3. For the first fifteen years of my career as a nutritionist and health professional, almost no one talked about immunity.

Back then, it was all about calories, weight loss and working out. Almost no one talked about “wellness”. The immune system was something we learned about in high school biology and just assumed worked the way it was supposed to work. In fact, the first time I became aware of immunity as a “thing” was in the 1980’s when a mysterious disease called Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome started showing up.

Now, in 2023, most of us are aware of the immune system and understand the importance of having one that is balanced. I’ve probably been asked about it more than any other subject in the last few years, the most common question being “How can I boost my immune system?” (The answer is that you don’t want to boost it. More on that in a moment.)

Is Aging Just the Deterioration of the Immune System?

We now know that the immune system is one of the most important and complex networks of organs, cells and proteins in the human body. Current theories of aging implicate something called immunosenescence, which basically means the aging (senescence) of the immune system cells, leading to the breakdown and dysfunction of the entire system.

As we age, our body’s ability to fight off invading microbes is compromised. When the immune system is no longer able to function properly, you’re left open to infections from all kinds of nasty invaders, which if your immune system were functioning optimally, you would easily be able to defeat.

This brings us to olive leaf complex, one of the best fortifiers and supporters of healthy immunity that I know of.

“Boosting Immunity”? No thanks.

Notice that I didn’t say “olive leaf complex boosts your immune system”. That’s because “boosting” your immune system is the last thing you’d want to do. Let me explain.

Your immune system is like a silent, well-trained army of cells (T-cells, B-cells) with specific functions that get activated whenever a foreign invader is sensed. Any army wants its soldiers well-trained, fit, alert, and ready and able to respond appropriately. It does not want its soldiers jacked up on stimulants (“boosted”).

A “boosted” (over-functioning) immune system is far more likely to resemble over-caffeinated troops that get excited and start shooting at everything. When an immune system is “boosted” you wind up with auto-immune disease – the system attacks your own body instead of just dangerous intruders, because it’s too jacked up to be able to tell the difference. You want to strengthen and support your immune system – not boost it.

So, what’s the deal with Olive Leaf Complex?

- Why Is Everyone Suddenly Talking About Olive Leaf Complex? By Jonny Bowden, Barleans.com, December 4, 2023.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣  编辑：丹妮）