Trump berates disloyal US ‘Jewish leaders,’ ignoring calls to condemn Kanye, Fuentes

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-lays-into-jewish-leaders-ignoring-calls-to-condemn-kanye-fuentes/

Former US president Donald Trump on Friday tore into “Jewish leaders” who he claims have forgotten the steps he took for Israel while in the White House, amid growing calls for him to condemn antisemites Nick Fuentes and Kanye West after hosting the pair at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month.

Trump shared a blog post on his Truth Social platform from far-right pundit and conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root who wrote that the former president “did more for the state of Israel and the Jewish people than anyone in history.”

Root rejected the criticism of Trump for dining with West and Fuentes, calling the former “mentally disturbed” and the latter a “stranger” who the ex-president had no idea would be coming to the Mar-a-Lago dinner with the disgraced rapper.

Brain Doctor to the Stars Labeled a ‘Snake-Oil’ Salesman

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/dr-daniel-amen-called-a-snake-oil-salesman-by-critics-and-former-patients-over-spect-brain-scans?ref=home

“There is no objective test. We can’t do a blood test for depression,” he says. “Dr. Amen has come in and found a way to provide that tangible evidence, whether it’s legitimate or not.”

Myocarditis after Covid vaccine low among teens and young adults, large study finds

 https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/myocarditis-covid-vaccine-teens-study-rcna60118

The incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis after Covid vaccination is low and most patients make a full recovery, a large international study from Nationwide Children’s Hospital found.

Most of the cases occurred in male teens and young adults and usually after the second dose of a primary series of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, according to the study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.

Although a majority of the people recovered quickly, 93% of the cases required hospitalization and 23% of the cases were serious enough to require admission to the intensive care unit. No deaths were observed.

Myocarditis after BNT162b2 Vaccination in Israeli Adolescents

 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2207270

Our study indicates that BNT162b2 vaccine–induced myocarditis in adolescents appears to be a rare adverse event that occurs predominantly in males after the second vaccine dose. The clinical course appears to be mild and benign over a follow-up period of 6 months, and cardiac imaging findings suggest a favorable long-term prognosis.

Modern Orthodoxy is facing a long term existential threat

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/364206

Avi Ciment’s recent series in The Jewish Press, The Modern Orthodox Conundrum (Part I, Part II and Part III), is an absolute must-read. The author rivetingly lays forth the issues facing Modern Orthodoxy and suggests solutions, with great detail and plenty of personal and third-person narrative, making the topic come alive and demonstrating just how serious and compelling the matter is.

Search for a scapegoat - Parents internet or Smartphones?

 Mishpacha has been running articles about The problem - for last two weeks it was the failure of family

Before that was the Internet - but we all now know never to criticize or discipline a child

 But now they are saying we are failing for not telling our daughters to go to sleep instead of spending hours talking to friends on their kosher phones. Just when you thought and accepted the blame they publish a new explanation - it is the fault of the yeshivas - contrary to what was stated in the Jewish Observer

https://mishpacha.com/growing-together/

Some of us might remember the famous 1999 “Kids on the Fringe” issue of the Jewish Observer, including articles by Rabbi Russell, Dr. Norman Blumenthal, Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, and Dr. David Pelcovitz. For the first time, the phenomenon was being discussed in an honest and fearless way, but that issue — the magazine’s all-time biggest seller — was actually a response to the previous volume, in which a well-respected mechanech wrote that the overwhelming consensus of Orthodox mental health professionals is that struggling children are the product of dysfunctional families.

“I knew it wasn’t true,” he says emphatically. “But I also knew one other thing: that if you have kids going off, and you’re willing to take the plunge, in relation to the normal functioning of a Torah family, you actually will have to allow your family a level of ‘dysfunction’ in order to save your child. It will most likely mean having someone in your house who isn’t dressed like the others and who isn’t keeping Shabbos.”

Trump hosts Mar-a-Lago event with prominent QAnon, Pizzagate conspiracy theorist

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3765836-trump-hosts-mar-a-lago-event-with-prominent-qanon-pizzagate-conspiracy-theorist/

Liz Crokin, a former journalist and celebrity gossip writer now associated with far-right conspiracy theories, spoke at a fundraiser intended to combat child trafficking, according to posts on her Telegram account.

At the event, Crokin said she discussed Pizzagate, a debunked conspiracy theory suggesting Hillary and Bill Clinton and other political elites run a child sex trafficking ring at a pizza shop in Washington.

US pathologist falsely claims Covid-19 vaccines causing cancer

 https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32WY6M8

Health authorities around the world say the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccines far outweigh the known risks, but a pathologist from the US state of Idaho claims in a series of interviews shared on social media that the shots are linked to an uptick in cancer. This is false, according to medical experts and a leading cancer treatment hospital.

Open Letter to U.S. Lawmakers by Rabbinical Union Opposing Respect for Marriage Act

 

Supreme Court seems poised to reject robust reading of ‘independent state legislature’ theory

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/07/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-theory-00072713

A robust adoption of the independent state legislature theory by the court could grant state legislatures significantly more power in setting the rules of the road for elections. A maximalist version of the theory would prevent state courts from weighing in on disputes over everything from voter ID to last-minute polling place adjustments, and could even imperil voter-passed referendums creating independent redistricting commissions that take over traditional legislative powers. Some would even go so far as to use the federal Constitution to deny state governors their usual role. Getting the Supreme Court to sideline governors would require overruling the 90-year-old high court precedent Roberts cited, which may be why Thompson stopped short on Wednesday of advocating for such an outcome.

Clarence Thomas' Own Ruling Used Against Him in High-Stakes Election Case

 https://www.newsweek.com/clarence-thomas-own-ruling-used-against-him-high-stakes-election-case-1765471

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Moore v. Harper case involving the North Carolina Supreme Court and its state legislature. "North Carolina's legislative leaders are appealing a ruling from the North Carolina Supreme Court striking down the state's congressional map as an extreme partisan gerrymander," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, North Carolina legislatures have argued that the state Supreme Court did not have the authority to block a "gerrymandered congressional map."

"The legislators have argued that a debunked interpretation of the U.S. Constitution—known as the "independent state legislature theory"—renders the state courts and state constitution powerless in matters relating to federal elections," the Brennan Center said.

Takeaways from Moore v. Harper, the historic Supreme Court arguments on election rules

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/07/politics/takeaways-moore-harper-supreme-court/index.html

Arguments in the Supreme Court’s blockbuster election rules case played out for more than three hours on Wednesday as the justices examined claims from the North Carolina GOP legislature, which argues that state constitutions and state courts have little or no authority to impose limits on how state legislatures craft their rules for federal elections.

The controversial “independent state legislature” theory is being used by Republican lawmakers to argue that state courts could not redraw the congressional map the legislature sought to enact in 2021.

A version of theory was promoted by allies of former President Donald Trump during their attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Danger to democracy in Supreme Court case isn’t theoretical

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/07/arizona-legislator-danger-to-democracy-00072580

The Supreme Court begins oral arguments this Wednesday on Moore v. Harper, a North Carolina case in which Republicans are pushing to invalidate a state court’s redistricting decision based on the independent state legislature theory, a constitutional interpretation that would effectively remove the ability of state courts to check election-related laws.

“What’s at stake here are truly the checks and balances our founders laced into the system,” said Neal Katyal, a former acting U.S. solicitor general under President Obama and partner at Hogan Lovells who will argue before the court on Wednesday.

In a recent call with reporters, Katyal emphasized the unfettered ability of statehouses to draw gerrymandered maps — which are frequently challenged and overturned in state courts — as the most immediate consequence of a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs. Already in Ohio, for instance, the GOP-led legislature has for most of this year been in open defiance of the state Supreme Court’s repeated orders to redraw congressional and state legislative maps it has deemed gerrymandered.

GOP smells blood with wounded Trump

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3764391-gop-smells-blood-with-wounded-trump/

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who was a reliable Trump ally while he was president, said the comments about suspending the Constitution and Trump’s meeting with Fuentes are potentially “fatal” to his political aspirations.  

“I do think this recent behavior … these are foibles that are approaching fatality among the group that loves Donald Trump,” he said. “That’s the head-scratcher.