Saturday, May 25, 2024

Alien life

The Sefer HaBris (Stars chapter 9) says this is support that there is life outside the earth

Shoftim (05:23)Curse Meroz!” said the angel of GOD.“Bitterly curse its inhabitants,

Moed Katan (15a) Meroz is the name of a star   

the reference is to a star and not a human being, and that it did not aid the Jewish people in their battle, as it is stated: “The stars fought from heaven; in their courses they fought against Sisera,” (Judges 5:20). This star, which did not help the Jewish people, was cursed. 

Rashi (Moed Katan 15a) Curse Meroz! One opinion is that this was a star. According to others, this was a distinguished person who was near the battle field but failed to appear.

Why does gemora record this?

 Sukkah (56b) It happened that Miriam the daughter of Bilgah apostatized and married an officer of the Greek kings. When the Greeks entered the Sanctuary, she stamped with her sandal upon the altar, crying out, Wolf! Wolf! How long wilt thou consume Israel's money! And yet thou dost not stand by them in the time of oppression! And when the Sages heard of the incident, they made her ring immovable and blocked up her alcove.

Tosefta (Sukkos 04:13) Bilgah's ring is for ever fixed and his window closed, because Miriam, the daughter of Bilgah, apostatized and married an officer of the kings of Greece, and when the Greeks entered the Temple, Miriam came and struck the top of the altar, saying to it, “Wolf, wolf, you have destroyed the wealth of Israel, and have not helped them in the time of their distress!” There are some who say that because he delayed to take up his watch, and Jeshebeab his brother came and took his place, that he is excluded for ever and Jeshebeab included for ever. Those who are neighbors to evil men receive no reward, save Jeshebeab, the neighbor of Bilgah, who received a reward. 

Avos DeRabbi Nosson (01:06)“Do not bring the foot of the arrogant upon me”: This is Titus the wicked, whose bones would grind in the grave because he would raise his hands and then strike the altar with them, and say: Locus! Locus! [Latin for “the Place,” i.e., “the Omnipresent God.”] You are a King, and I am a king! Come and make war with me! How many bulls have been slaughtered for You? How many birds’ necks have been snapped for You? How much wine has been poured out for You? How much incense has been burnt for You? And yet, You are the one who destroys the whole world! As it says (Isaiah 291–2), “Oh Ariel, Ariel, the city where David camped! Through year after year, and the cycle of festivals [I will assault Ariel, and there will be groaning and sighing].”

Friday, May 24, 2024

How Trump used his own court filing to claim an ‘assassination’ attempt

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/23/how-trump-used-his-own-court-filing-claim-an-assassination-attempt/

The original citation was in a three-month-old filing by Trump’s lawyers — a filing that misleadingly quoted from standard FBI language in search-warrant instructions. As is typical in social media frenzies, quotes were taken out of context without due diligence or actual reporting. Then Trump used the outrage to gin up a fundraising appeal.

Ironically, Trump in his effort to win immunity for his actions as president has suggested that ordering the killing of a rival would not be subject to criminal prosecution. Whether he’s successful will depend on the Supreme Court.

In the court of facts, the former president and his supporters earn Four Pinocchios.

Rabbinical court imposes million-shekel divorce payment on husband, citing ketubah

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/rabbinical-court-imposes-million-shekel-divorce-payment-on-husband-citing-ketubah/

The 34-year marriage came to an end after years of harassment and surveillance by the man who apparently suspected that his wife, identified by Hebrew media on Tuesday only by her first Hebrew initial “Aleph,” was cheating on him.

The suspicion, which the court found to be groundless, came despite Aleph having taken care of the man over many years while he suffered from health problems, including cancer, even donating a kidney to save her husband’s life.

The court, in response to the husband’s “unprecedented ingratitude,” ordered him to pay his wife the full sum specified in their ketubah: one million shekels, to be paid immediately.

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Jimmy Kimmel Rips MTG for ‘Dangerous’ Assassination Claims

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/jimmy-kimmel-rips-marjorie-taylor-greene-for-dangerous-assassination-claims?ref=home

Kimmel finished off the topic by accusing Trump’s “hysterical, dishonest scrooges” for presenting the news in an inflammatory, hypocritical way, while downplaying any story that reflects poorly on Trump himself.

“They’re so dramatic,” Kimmel joked. “The temperature in the courtroom is a ‘freezing icebox,’ recovering stolen documents is ‘an assassination attempt,’ but this?” He showed some brief clips of Trump supporters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “That’s just tourism.”

The Israelis Prove Biden Wrong on Rafah

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/rafah-evacuation-israel-biden-administration-antony-blinken-jake-sullivan-hamas-3e3c85f7?mod=hp_opin_pos_2#cxrecs_s

Remember Rafah? For months, the Biden Administration bitterly opposed an Israeli invasion of Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza. The mantra was that Israel had “no credible plan” to evacuate the city’s 1.3 million civilians. Yet the Israelis went ahead anyway, and two weeks later they have safely evacuated an estimated 950,000 people.

Colombia to open embassy in Ramallah after cutting ties with Israel

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/colombia-to-open-embassy-in-ramallah-after-cutting-ties-with-israel/

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered the opening of an embassy in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo told journalists on Wednesday.

“President Petro has given the order that we open the Colombian embassy in Ramallah, the representation of Colombia in Ramallah, that is the next step we are going to take,” Murillo said.

At the beginning of this month, Petro, who had already recalled the Colombian ambassador from Tel Aviv, said he would break diplomatic relations with Israel over its prosecution of the war against Hamas in Gaza. The embassy was closed on May 3.

Regular use of fish oil supplements linked to increased heart disease risk in healthy individuals

 https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240521/Regular-use-of-fish-oil-supplements-linked-to-increased-heart-disease-risk-in-healthy-individuals.aspx

Regular use of fish oil supplements might increase, rather than lessen, the risk of first time heart disease and stroke among those in good cardiovascular health, but may slow progression of existing poor cardiovascular health and lower the risk of death, suggest the results of a large long term study, published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine.

Trump Claims the FBI Wanted to Kill Him. Fox News Ran Wild With It.

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-claims-the-fbi-wanted-to-kill-him-fox-news-ran-wild-with-it?ref=home

Trump set MAGA world ablaze on Tuesday afternoon when he took to his failing Truth Social platform to blare in all-caps that Biden’s Department of Justice had “AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY.”

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

How Trumpworld convinced itself that the feds aimed to take out Trump

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/22/trump-documents-fbi-force/

The right-wing blog Federalist wrote a story about it. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shared Kelly’s allegation, asking if the FBI was “going to shoot SS then Pres Trump, Melania, and Barron too???” When Trump himself posted the allegation on Truth Social, Greene took credit for tipping him off that the “Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light.”

Moscow Eats Up Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Nutso Trump ‘Assassination’ Claim

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/moscow-eats-up-marjorie-taylor-greenes-nutso-trump-assassination-claim?ref=home?ref=home

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s baseless claim that the feds planned to “assassinate” Donald Trump in 2022 may not have been taken seriously by most of the American public, but Moscow’s propaganda machine is reporting it as fact.

“The FBI planned to kill Donald Trump: details revealed in the USA,” one popular Kremlin-friendly newspaper blared, citing the “popular” Republican congresswoman.

German occupation of Norway

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_Norway

Acceptance and collaboration

Of the Norwegians who supported the Nasjonal Samling party, relatively few were active collaborators. Most notorious among these was Henry Rinnan, the leader of the Sonderabteilung Lola (locally known as Rinnanbanden or "the Rinnan gang"), a group of informants who infiltrated the Norwegian resistance, hence managing to capture and murder many of its members.

Other collaborators were Statspolitiet (STAPO), a police force that operated independently of the regular police. Statspolitiet was closely related to the Quisling regime and took also orders directly from the German Sicherheitspolizei.

Hirden was a fascist paramilitary force with party members subordinate to the ruling party. Hirden had a broad mandate that included the use of violence.

Furthermore, about 15,000 Norwegians volunteered for combat duty on the Nazi side; of the 6,000 sent into action as part of the Germanic SS, most were sent to the Eastern front.

Hamas leader and Neturei Karta members pay respects to Butcher of Tehran

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/390367

Among those present at the funeral were senior members of Iranian-backed terror groups including senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.

In addition, several members of the extremist anti-Zionist Jewish sect Neturei Karta came to pay their respects.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1793151990823858570


Israel Rages as Ireland, Spain, and Norway Move to Recognize Palestinian State

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/israel-rages-as-ireland-spain-and-norway-move-to-recognize-palestinian-state?ref=home

Although the majority of countries in the world already recognize a sovereign state of Palestine, most in Western Europe, along with the U.S., do not. The news of the latest additions—whose formal recognition will begin Tuesday—was welcomed by Palestinian officials as a highly symbolic victory for their people and derided by the government of Israel, which wasted no time in excoriating the decision.