Trump's wishful thinking won't stop coronavirus impact

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/25/opinions/trump-downplay-coronavirus-ghitis/index.html

 President Donald Trump keeps telling us not to worry, that the fast-spreading COVID-19, the coronavirus, is "going to go away," soon, probably by "April," and that a vaccine is "close." The experts, including federally-employed top scientists, say he's wrong on all these counts. (Please don't fire them!)

Why is the President lying? Take a guess. Because he thinks the virus, and fear of contagion, is bad for him. On that count, he's absolutely correct. Unfortunately, claiming that the virus is not a big problem does nothing to ease the infection rate or the economic impact that is sure to span the globe before long.

 

Jewish academic: Under attack, US ultra-Orthodox are misunderstood, ‘terrified’

https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-academic-under-attack-us-ultra-orthodox-are-misunderstood-terrified/

 Do these communities feel the anti-Semitism coming from the right and the left?

Yes. There is a perfect storm right now of many factors. There seems to be something in our society that is allowing these ideas to intensify.

Trump is a complicated thing because on the one hand a lot of Orthodox Jews really like him for their perception of his support for Israel, but at the same time he gives press passes to virulent anti-Semites. He’s winking at anti-Semitism.

On the left Louis Farrakhan has gained pronounced influence. He was gone for years but recently his profile has grown. And if you don’t know better, if you don’t know anyone Jewish, you just sort of accept what he says.

It’s a scary time. On the one hand, Jews have never had it better. On other hand, they are under daily attack. It’s a paradox, but it’s true.

 

Syrian Refugees Fleeing Assad's Onslaught in Idlib Have Nowhere Left to Hide

https://time.com/5790278/syria-idlib-humanitarian-catastrophe-assad/

Although President Trump said in a Feb. 15 phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Russia should halt its support for regime “atrocities”, the White House has been near silent on the bloodbath in Idlib, where human rights groups have documented the death of nearly 2,000 civilians in the past year.

“The Trump Administration has publicly assured the Russians and the Assad regime that they will not have to deal with U.S. military strikes aimed at protecting civilians from mass homicide and state terror,” Frederic Hof, who advised President Barack Obama on Syria told TIME recently. “For people like Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad, this is a bright green light to do as they wish.”

 

Would Sanders, Bloomberg or Warren move the US embassy back to Tel Aviv?

https://www.jpost.com/Us-Elections/Would-Sanders-Bloomberg-or-Warren-move-the-US-embassy-back-to-Tel-Aviv-618842

"What I happen to believe is that right now, sadly, tragically, in Israel, through Bibi Netanyahu, you have a reactionary racist who is now running that country," Sanders said.

 

Trump and Weinstein are both on trial. Only one is still considered too powerful to fail

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/26/16526922/donald-trump-impeachment-harvey-weinstein-sexual-assault

“It’s not only the Republicans in Congress” who were willing to give Trump a pass, said Lawless. “It’s also the country. People think this behavior is unacceptable, but when push comes to shove, there are circumstances under which they’ll tolerate it because there are other things that matter more to them.”

Trump lashes out at liberal supreme court justices and demands recusals

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/25/trump-supreme-court-sonia-sotomayor-ruth-bader-ginsburg

 It would be exceptional for any supreme court justice to recuse themselves from all cases involving the White House.

otomayor’s dissent was written in the style justices use after losing a divided ruling. It depicted accurately how the Trump administration has asked the supreme court to intervene in cases playing out in lower courts at a higher rate than George W Bush and Barack Obama combined.

“Claiming one emergency after another, the government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases, demanding immediate attention and consuming limited court resources in each,” Sotomayor wrote. “And with each successive application, of course, its cries of urgency ring increasingly hollow.”

Sotomayor was critical of the court allowing this to happen, and wrote that such interventions usually fall in the Trump administration’s favor.

 In November 2018, Trump’s relentless focus on the courts prompted supreme court chief justice John Roberts to intervene. After Trump said a federal judge was biased because of the president who appointed him, Roberts denied the assertion.

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” said the conservative appointed by George W Bush in 2005. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

Trump ignored the rebuke.

 

"Orthodox" gay marriage and the path to destruction

https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-endorsing-same-sex-marriages-a-us-orthodox-rabbi-performs-his-first/   


Rabbi Avraham Gordimer, 24/02/20
 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/25249

 Last week, Avram Mlotek, a graduate of Open Orthodoxy's  Rabbinical Training Instittue,Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT),, posted:

“I had the privilege of officiating a wedding on Sunday. In many ways, it was like any other simcha I've officiated: joyous, Jewish, spiritual, full of love. What made it different was that they were two men who joined in sacred, covenantal relationship. This coming week Jewish communities will hear two words uttered in synagogues across the globe: naaseh v'nishma, we will do and we will listen. We will act and we will understand. As I shared to the chatanim, the grooms, it is their passion, charge and desire for action which made this holy day possible. While some may not yet or ever fully comprehend, it is their actions, deeds and maasim tovim, their mitzvot, which will speak for themselves with inherent worth and value. Mazel tov!”

Rav Gestetner

Leftist professor: 'Israel needs to close off haredi cities to prevent spread of COVID-19'

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/276465

 

In a Facebook post, Goldblum, who has a PhD in organic chemistry, wrote: "They're hiding the truth from you, because of the elections: The virus is spreading quickly in Israel since the Koreans visited the Cave of the patriarchs. In Italy they have closed off towns and cities to prevent the spread of the disease. Israel needs to close off Elad, Bnei Brak, and Modi'in Illit and Beitar Illit, and Netivot and Beit Shemesh, as well as large neighborhoods in Ashdod and Jerusalem."

All of the locations Goldblum named are home to large haredi communities.

Bernie Sanders: I thought this question might come up ..

Graham: Trump a 'race-baiting, xenophobic religious ...

What’s Next for Psychology’s Embattled Field of Social Priming

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-next-for-psychologys-embattled-field-of-social-priming/

 This is not the only area of research to be dented by science’s ‘replication crisis’. Failed replication attempts have cast doubt on findings in areas from cancer biology to economics. But so many findings in social priming have been disputed that some say the field is close to being entirely discredited. “I don’t know a replicable finding. It’s not that there isn’t one, but I can’t name it,” says Brian Nosek, a psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who has led big replication studies. “I’ve gone from full believer to full sceptic,” adds Michael Inzlicht, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, Canada, and an associate editor at the journal Psychological Science.

Lost 1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible found on dusty Cairo synagogue shelf

https://www.timesofisrael.com/lost-1000-year-old-hebrew-bible-found-on-dusty-cairo-synagogue-shelf/

 In July 2017, Israeli historian Yoram Meital stumbled upon a handwritten 1028 CE biblical codex that was lying abandoned on a dusty shelf in a Cairo synagogue. Wrapped in simple white paper of the sort one finds on tables in cheap eateries, at 616 pages, the Zechariah Ben ‘Anan Manuscript is one of the era’s most complete and preserved examples of the “Writings,” the third and concluding section of the Hebrew Bible. It had been lost to scholars for almost 40 years.

 

Netanyahu threatens war as sirens continue to wail in southern Israel

https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/IDF-hits-Palestinian-Islamic-Jihad-targets-in-Gaza-and-Syria-618547

 "If you don't shoot them, we will shoot you. I'm talking about a war"