How did Russian oligarchs get their wealth?

 https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-704153

Instead of benefiting the people, Russia’s resources are confiscated by the rich oligarchs, in return for two ‘favors’: blind unqualified support of the despot Putin, and a rumored slice of the wealth for Putin himself. This is Kleptopia.

True, in the US, Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of $200 billion, makes Abramovich and Khodorkovsky seem like paupers. But Bezos is a tycoon, not an oligarch. He founded and built Amazon and remains its executive board chairman.

Tycoons create value. Oligarchs steal it and capture economic rent through political favors.

Redemption from Egypt by G-d or angel?

 It is a clear message in the Haggada that the redemption was done by G-d and not an angel - but that seems to be contradicted by the Torah

Bamidbar (20:16) And when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and has brought us out of Egypt; and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the edge of your border;)

Rashi (Bamidbar 20:16) A MESSENGER (or an angel) — This was Moses; 

Rabeinu Bachye (Bamidbar 20:16), “He dispatched an angel, etc.” A supernatural being, not an emissary such as Moses (Ibn Ezra).   It is also possible to see in the word מלאך a reference by Moses to himself (Rashi) as we find in Chagai 1,13: ויאמר חגי מלאך ה', “and Chagai, the Lord’s messenger said to the people.” In the eyes of the people Moses enjoyed the status of an angel in that he was so totally devoid of preoccupation with matters pertaining to the body. We have proof that this is how the people had viewed him as at the time when they thought he would not come back from Mount Sinai they said: “this man Moses who has taken us out of Egypt we do not know what happened to him.” Apparently, until Moses’ failure to return on time the thought that Moses could be an ordinary mortal had not occurred to them (compare Exodus 32,1)..

Why Jared Kushner’s Saudi Arabian money is impossible to defend

 https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/jared-kushners-saudi-arabian-money-impossible-defend-rcna24102

Either way, this appears awfully corrupt.

At this point, if you’ve shared my missive with your weird uncle who consumes conservative media all day, he’s probably already sent you a furious email that reads in part, “What about Hunter Biden? If we’re worried about presidential family members engaging in shady deals with foreign governments, why focus on this and not President Joe Biden’s son and his international efforts?”

On the surface, this may seem like a fair question, but just below the surface, there’s a problem: Hunter Biden never worked at any level in any presidential administration. He didn’t steer his father’s foreign policies toward any country. His role in U.S. foreign policy was, is, and has been literally non-existent.

Kushner, on the other hand, was Trump's right-hand man in the White House, taking a special interest in U.S. policy in the Middle East.

‘The lunacy is getting more intense’: how Birds Aren’t Real took on the conspiracy theorists

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/14/the-lunacy-is-getting-more-intense-how-birds-arent-real-took-on-the-conspiracy-theorists

It’s the most perfect, playful distillation of where we are in relation to the media landscape we’ve built but can’t control, and which only half of us can find our way around. It’s a made-up conspiracy theory that is just realistic enough, as conspiracies go, to convince QAnon supporters that birds aren’t real, but has just enough satirical flags that generation Z recognises immediately what is going on. It’s a conspiracy-within-a-conspiracy, a little aneurysm of reality and mockery in the bloodstream of the mad pizzagate-style theories that animate the “alt-right”.

McCarthy faces grumbles from right over Biden impeachment remarks

 https://thehill.com/news/house/3266811-mccarthy-faces-grumbles-from-right-over-biden-impeachment-remarks/

Seventeen House Republicans have introduced or co-sponsored resolutions to impeach Biden, four of which are led by Greene. Several others have publicly called for impeachment, with Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) doing so at a Trump rally over the weekend.

Rabbinical court fines female divorce refuser despite her ultimately approving move

 https://www.israelhayom.com/2022/04/13/rabbinical-court-fines-female-divorce-refuser-despite-her-ultimately-approving-move/

The Jerusalem Rabbinical Court recently ordered a woman who refused to divorce her cancer-stricken husband despite his pleas for three years to pay a fine of hundreds of thousands of shekels.

Although details of the case have not been made public, this is likely the first incident of a rabbinical court fining a female divorce refuser. The court first ordered the woman to pay a weekly 1,250 shekel (around $400) fine eight months ago until she agreed to a divorce.

Communications Minister: Kosher phone lines to be barred from blocking non-kosher content

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325862

Despite multiple efforts made by representatives of the haredi community, Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel has decided to cancel a central feature of kosher phone lines, barring them from blocking access to content that the haredi community finds reprehensible. Access for those under the age of 18 will be partially restricted, Ministry sources say, although details are not forthcoming.

Intensive efforts have been made by haredi representatives, including Hassidic leaders, over the past months to persuade Hendel to relent, but Hendel has rebuffed all approaches. Key among those organizations pressuring the government to ban the kosher phone lines from restricting access to certain numbers have been those representing LGBT issues.

Why does NYC still honor two French Nazi collaborators? - opinion

 https://stgdesktopcore.jpost.com/opinion/article-704113?utm_source=spotim&utm_medium=spotim_recirculation

Petain and Laval, incidentally, are not the only World War II villains to be glorified in the United States. The Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is named for Wernher von Braun, who, prior to reinventing himself as a key architect of the American space program in the 1950s and 1960s, was a Nazi major who lethally exploited inmates at the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp to manufacture the Third Reich’s V-2 ballistic missiles. A large bust of von Braun stands prominently outside NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, also in Huntsville. My father, who was imprisoned at Dora for several months, said that conditions there were worse than he experienced at Auschwitz.

ISIS terrorist believed responsible for string of murders

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325863

In a joint operation, Israel Police and Shabak agents have arrested a terrorist from Hebron who is suspected of having murdered Yehuda and Tamar Kaduri in their Jerusalem home in 2019, and who is also being linked to an attempt to murder a young girl in the capital's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. The terrorist is also believed to be responsible for last month's attack on two foreigners in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood.

In 2019, police received a report of a couple found murdered in their home in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, a "seamline" area where many nationalist crimes have been committed in the past. Yehuda and Tamar Kaduri had been cruelly murdered, their throats slit. On the previous day, a young girl had been attacked and wounded with a knife in the same neighborhood, and police suspected the attacks were connected.

An investigation was opened but no arrests were made, and then last month, two Moldovan citizens were attacked with a knife in their Jerusalem apartment. Ivan Tarnowski had been killed and his friend was injured. This time, police found evidence that significantly advanced their investigation, and just hours after the murder, Wassim Assayed, a 34-year-old PA Arab from Hebron was arrested in northern Jerusalem, while attempting to cross the separation fence and flee into PA-controlled territory.

Women eating children

Sefer Chasidim (411) There are women who are suspected of eating children either because they are forced or because they are witches. It should be publically announced that anyone hurting a child will have their teeth ground down on the stones surrounding the well or be killed/

Moshiach

 Sefer Chasidim (206) 

If you see that someone is obsessed with the time of the coming of  Moshiach you should know he is involved with magic or demons or the use of G-d’s name so that it should be revealed to him . However  because they are disturbing the angels he will endup disgraced and shamed before the whole world

Laura Ingraham Says Donald Trump's Endorsement of Dr. Oz is a 'Mistake'

 https://www.newsweek.com/laura-ingraham-donald-trump-dr-mehmet-oz-david-mccormick-endorsement-1697516

Representative Mo Brooks, an Alabama Republican, blamed Trump's staff for the endorsement." This is happening because Trump's surrounded himself by staff who are on McConnell's payroll & hostile to the MAGA agenda. Everybody telling Trump who to endorse in primaries works for The Swamp," he wrote. "They played him. Again."

Pioneering Orthodox sex therapist accused of harassment

 https://forward.com/news/485421/bat-sheva-marcus-jofa-sexual-harassment/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_4067165

Multiple claims of harassment have emerged against a pioneering figure of women’s empowerment from former employees of the organization she helped found.

Bat Sheva Marcus, a renowned sex therapist who was the president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, was accused in scathing Facebook posts this week by a former executive director of the group who said Marcus bullied her, made sexually inappropriate comments and, unsolicited, once gave her a sex toy.

‘Father unknown’: A dread biblical status leads to modern problems

https://www.timesofisrael.com/father-unknown-a-dread-biblical-status-leads-to-modern-problems/

Last week, the Israel Democracy Institute think tank, the Center for Women’s Justice and an organization that represents mamzers, the Dim’at Ha’ashukim Forum (in English the “tear of the oppressed”), organized a first-of-its-kind conference to discuss the mamzer issue in general and the 300-day rule in particular, bringing together experts in Jewish and secular law, activists, and researchers in the field of religion and state.