Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson Don’t Understand the First Amendment

 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-and-tucker-carlson-dont-understand-the-first-amendment/672352/

Last night, on Fox News, Tucker Carlson also picked up the claim about the First Amendment. With characteristic breathless hyperbole, Carlson declared that the documents “show a systemic violation of the First Amendment, the largest example of that in modern history.”

Musk and Carlson are both profoundly wrong; the documents released so far show no such thing. In October 2020, when the laptop story broke, Joe Biden was not president. The Democratic National Committee (which also asked for Twitter to review tweets) is not an arm of the government. It’s a private political party. Twitter is not an arm of the government; it is a private company.

Girls in foster care: a vulnerable and high-risk group

 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19550260/

Results: Findings indicated that these girls had significant histories of maltreatment, chronic health issues, and foster care placement instability; 84% of the girls had been physically abused; 95% were victims of ongoing abuse by the biological parents (78%). Sexual abuse was reported by 81%, and 68% were sexually abused by more than one individual. Ninety-five percent were neglected; 51% of the neglect was classified as severe and chronic. All of the girls (100%) had been shown to exhibit sexually abusive and inappropriate behaviors toward other children, including exposing themselves to age-mates, violation of body space, sexually aggressive remarks, sexual touching without permission, and sexual touching of much younger children. Ninety-two percent of the girls had two or more changes in caregivers by age 16 years. Over one-third of the girls (39.2%) experienced four or more different living situations that lasted less than 1 month.

Palestinian teens order Haredi man to kiss their feet, post on TikTok, are arrested

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-teens-who-ordered-haredi-man-to-kiss-their-feet-in-tiktok-clip-arrested/

Police arrested two Palestinian teenagers who filmed themselves threatening an ultra-Orthodox man in Jerusalem’s Old City and ordering him to bend down on his knees and kiss one of their feet in a video that they later uploaded to TikTok.

The phenomenon of Palestinians filming themselves assaulting or humiliating ultra-Orthodox residents sparked outrage and clashes last year, leading to several arrests. In one particularly viral video, a Palestinian was filmed pouring hot coffee on an Orthodox man, leading to a two-year prison sentence.

The latest clip was captioned with the line “look at how he kisses his shoes” with a laughing emoji.

Adults 65 Years and Older and At-Risk Populations: Do Not Just Wait for the Next Wave, Get Vaccinated Now to Stay Healthy!

 https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/09112022-01

The Ministry of Health is preparing for this winter, foreseeing a wave of COVID-19 and influenza infections.

We advise everyone 65 years and older and at-risk populations to get the Omicron-specific vaccine for COVID-19 that protects against most Omicron sub-variants common in Israel and the world over.

'Prison is tough on them': Judge releases terrorists who tried to lynch a Jewish family

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/363749

Justice Amit wrote in his decision that, "The defendants come from normative families, and don't have criminal records, the detention is tough on them and they probably have learned their lesson. The defendants are currently being held in the Damon prison alongside security prisoners. I'm not convinced that this does any good for the defendants or the State's interests."

DeSantis Tells Allies to Stay Mum About Trump’s ‘Nazi’ Dinner. It’s Part of a Bigger Plan

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/30/tucker-carlson-gop-ukraine-00071205

But when it comes to some of Trump’s most Jewish and pro-Israel supporters who have spoken out against the dinner, the former president has been taking down names, as is his spiteful wont. In the past few days, some pro-Trump Jews — including his former Israel ambassador and bankruptcy attorney David Friedman — appeared to publicly back away from him or condemn his recent actions, the ex-president privately reacted with his typical fury and grievance, telling advisers that some of his top Jewish conservative backers were being “disloyal,” after all he’d done for them and for Israel, one person with direct knowledge of the complaints and another source briefed on them say.

What Tucker Carlson and Trumpist Republicans Get Wrong About Ukraine

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/30/tucker-carlson-gop-ukraine-00071205

Ironically, treating Ukraine with the restraint that neorealists demand today would lead to a high probability of strategic catastrophe tomorrow. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki got it just right when he noted that restraint isn’t that different from passivity.

“If Ukraine becomes dependent [on Russia], we will need to do absolutely nothing to provoke a war,” Morawiecki said recently. “It’ll come to us. Putin won’t stop. The Kremlin will go farther. Passivity will be our suicide.”

Satan is actually a person

 Rabbeinu Bachya (Kad HaKemach, Providence 1:5) Rav Saadiya Gaon  said that Satan mentioned in the book of Iyov was actually a person who was complain about Iyov out of hatred and jealousy because of his success and good deeds. Similarly he says that the “Children of G-d mentioned there were his contemporaries who also hated him and were jealous. The reason one of them is called Satan is because he was the most famous of all of them and was their leader

Rabbeinu Bachya (Kad HaKemach, Providence 1:6) However the Ramban and the majority of comentators to Iyov say that Satan is an angel and the Children of G-d are also angels. Ramban says that our tradition is that he was created as an angel to prosecute and harm mankind. Our Sages (Bava Basra 16) have stated that Satan is the yetzer harah and the angel of death – obviously he is an angel not a person. There are many statements of our Sages which support the idea that he is an opposing and harmful angel. Our Sages also say he is the angel of Esau who is involved in fighting and wars, The demons referred to as sheidim or satyrs also are associated with Esau. 

A rogue Trump judge has thrown the Supreme Court in disarray

 https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/11/29/23484335/supreme-court-united-states-texas-ice-immigration-drew-tipton-trump

So the good news for the Biden administration is that several members of the Court, at least, appear open to ideas that might limit lower court judges’ power to singlehandedly block federal policies. It is far from clear, however, whether Prelogar’s proposal, or any other, will receive five votes when it is presented to the Court in a future case.

And, in the meantime, judges like Tipton will most likely be allowed to act as agents of chaos

Democrats succumb to political reality on same-sex marriage bill

 https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3753625-democrats-succumb-to-political-reality-on-same-sex-marriage-bill/

The Senate’s Respect for Marriage Act has progressives arguing that efforts to safeguard same-sex unions remain unfinished after concessions were made to Republican demands for bolstered religious liberty protections.

The bill as it currently stands would officially repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and require state recognition of legal same-sex and interracial marriages but would not codify the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex unions nationwide or prevent the high court from eventually overturning the landmark decision.

Walker to Trump: Please phone it in.

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/29/walker-trump-georgia-midterm-results-00071054

Erick Erickson, a conservative talk show host who lives in Georgia, said the Republican electorate has mostly shrugged at the race, in part because Democrats have already taken the Senate majority by winning 50 seats; Vice President Kamala Harris provides the tie-breaking vote.

“There’s a lack of enthusiasm about Walker as a candidate, and it’s kind of like, what’s the point if we’re not going to win the Senate? So why bother?” Erickson said. “There is a palpable sense of frustration with Georgia Republicans who saw their entire statewide slate win except the guy Trump convinced to get into the race, and there is a lingering sense of frustration that anyone else would have won, and Herschel’s baggage weighed him down.

Israeli data provides ‘safety assurances’ to world on fourth COVID shots — study

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-data-provides-safety-assurances-to-world-on-fourth-covid-shots-study/ 

A new study, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, presents the first large-scale research into the safety of taking a fourth shot of the Pfizer vaccine.

“We believe this study provides safety assurances to the global population who are eligible to receive an additional COVID-19 booster inoculation,” wrote Prof. Dan Yamin from Tel Aviv University’s Center for Combating Pandemics, together with his co-authors.

“These assurances can help increase the number of high-risk individuals who opt to receive this booster vaccine, and thereby prevent severe outcomes associated with COVID-19.”

Republican establishment to conservative and faith-based voters: ‘Drop dead’

 https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3747399-republican-establishment-to-conservative-and-faith-based-voters-drop-dead/

So, here’s a question for the Republican establishment and leadership to ponder: Because of your incompetent, duplicitous actions, how many conservatives and faith-based voters do you think will sit out the 2024 election?  

Herschel Walker Only Recently Stopped Renting Out Georgia Home He Claims as His Residence

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-white-lotus-season-2-is-officially-the-horniest-show-on-tv?ref=scroll

It was widely known at the time that the Republican hopeful had been living in Texas for decades, though he has claimed to maintain a residence in Atlanta for “17 years.” Less widely known, however, was that Walker’s wife collected tens of thousands of dollars in rental income for that residence, according to his 2021 financial disclosure forms.