Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Logan Praised by Russia as 'Real America's Voice' as Schwarzenegger Shunned

 https://www.newsweek.com/logan-praised-russia-real-americas-voice-schwarzenegger-shunned-1690289

Before being removed from her show on Fox Nation, Logan has become associated with media supporting QAnon and other conspiracy theories. Right-leaning political and media figures in the U.S., notably Tucker Carlson of Fox News, have been accused of promoting Kremlin talking points after clips of their remarks have been used by Russian state media.

Monday, March 21, 2022

Hawley says sentences in 10 child porn cases raise red flags on Supreme Court pick

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/598641-hawley-says-sentences-in-10-child-porn-cases-raise-red-flags-on-supreme-court

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) say Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s rulings in nearly a dozen child pornography cases are raising serious concerns about her judicial philosophy, but the White House says the senator is using “cherry-picked” examples.
“She’s had 10 that I’ve seen that we’ve found and I haven’t found a single case where she’s sentenced — for child porn offenders — where she’s sentenced with the guidelines. Always below, and almost always below the government’s recommendations — in some cases dramatically below,” he said.

Fact check: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson child porn sentences ‘pretty mainstream’

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-check-judge-ketanji-brown-jackson-child-porn/story?id=83565833 

Josh Hawley that the nominee has a "long record" of letting child porn offenders "off the hook" during sentencing.
"In every single child porn case for which we can find records, Judge Jackson deviated from the federal sentencing guidelines in favor of child porn offenders," Hawley tweeted Thursday, highlighting nine cases from her time as a district court judge.While court records show that Jackson did impose lighter sentences than federal guidelines suggested, Hawley's insinuation neglects critical context, including the fact that the senator himself has voted to confirm at least three federal judges who also engaged in the same practice.

"Federal judges nationwide typically sentence below the [child porn] guideline in roughly 2 out of 3 cases," Berman noted on his blog, and "when deciding to go below the [child porn] guideline, typically impose sentences around 54 months below the calculated guideline minimum."

How the GOP's dirtiest slur got a new life

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/20/republicans-2022-campaigns-00018591

While the RINO term has been employed in some form for more than 100 years, its meaning has shifted over time. In previous decades, a Republican risked getting tagged as a RINO for supporting tax increases, gun control or abortion rights. Today, in a reflection of the GOP’s murkier ideological grounding in the Trump era, it’s a term reserved almost exclusively for lack of fealty to Trump.

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Vladimir Putin: a miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man?

 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/06/vladimir-putin-a-miracle-defender-of-christianity-or-the-most-evil-man

A miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man? Well, it is Ukrainian Christians among others whom he is now slaughtering indiscriminately and he has little understanding of Jesus, who said “blessed are the peacemakers”.
No, this is a power vision threaded through with nationalistic Christian theology. And evil is the right word when a leader uses religion to justify in God’s name invasion, violence and annihilation.

The Myth of the “Crusader Putin”

 https://www.crisismagazine.com/2022/the-myth-of-the-crusader-putin

Russia and Ukraine, while both Christian on some issues, are pretty much like any other nation when it comes to their laws—cafeteria Christian and non-Christian on the preeminent issues.
Yet, even with all of these facts, you will hear that Russia is a Christian country, as if Ukraine is less of one. You will hear justification of Russia’s aggression as a type of a Christian crusade against Western atheism. But such an outlook fails to line up with the facts.

Putin's war against Ukraine may have spiritual, religious foundations: 'Good vs. evil'- more nonsense from Fox

 https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/putin-war-ukraine-spiritual-religious-foundations

Three years ago, the leader of the world's Orthodox Churches in Istanbul, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, granted the Ukraine Orthodox Church independence from the Russian Church in Moscow. It's called autocephaly.

To Western officials, it seemed a victory for religious freedom. But to Putin and the closely aligned Russian clergy, it was a shattering slap in the face.

Said Brownback, "That blew a gasket with the Russian Orthodox church. They were livid. It was also 40 percent of their membership, roughly, in Ukraine."

Ukraine refugees: Why the US has allowed so few

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/19/politics/ukraine-refugees-us-what-matters/index.html

Many Ukrainians -- more than 3 million and counting -- have fled their country since Russia's invasion, with nearly 2 million pouring into neighboring Poland and hundreds of thousands going to other nearby countries.
But only the smallest trickle -- around 690 -- have come to the US as refugees since last October. That means essentially no Ukrainians of those 3 million who left since the war began have come to the US.

Saturday, March 19, 2022

Most Ukraine refugees don't want to come to Israel

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-701632

To paraphrase, this is what the ambassador said: You Israelis are worried that your country, of all the countries in the world, will be inundated by Ukrainians just dying to live here? Relax, it won’t happen.

Though a bit jarring to hear, the ambassador is probably right.

BORDERLINE CHAOS


All this is more complicated than it looks. Think about the people who have had to wait in a line stretching 12 kilometers for over 24 hours. Suddenly, out of nowhere, all the people of a certain ethnic identity are whisked out, just like that. Of course this isn’t going to go over very well. Especially given the cold, the anxiety, the hunger.

Friday, March 18, 2022

One giant ... lie? Why so many people still think the moon landings were faked

 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/10/one-giant-lie-why-so-many-people-still-think-the-moon-landings-were-faked

Fox News broadcast a documentary called Did We Land on the Moon? Hosted by the X-Files actor Mitch Pileggi, it repackaged Kaysing’s arguments for a new audience. Launius, who was working at Nasa at the time, recalls much banging of heads against consoles. “For many years, we refused to respond to this stuff. It wasn’t worth giving it a hearing. But when Fox News aired that so-called documentary – stating unequivocally ‘We haven’t landed on the moon’ – it really raised the level. We began to receive all kinds of questions.”

Schwarzenegger, Vindman Team Up For Viral Video Against Russian Disinfo

 https://www.newsweek.com/schwarzenegger-vindman-team-viral-video-against-russian-disinfo-1689256

Schwarzenegger, former governor of California, took to social media Thursday sharing an intimate nine-minute video message to Russian citizens and soldiers deployed in Ukraine, stating terrible things "are going on in the world that are being kept from them. Vindman, who was born in Ukraine, retweeted Schwarzenegger's video to increase its reach.

Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski on Purim.

Purim according to Rabbi Sacks and Ashley Blaker