Monday, December 12, 2022
The Sordid Saga of Hunter Biden’s Laptop
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/hunter-biden-laptop-investigation.html
Hidden inside the laptop, according to those (almost exclusively on the right) who have reviewed the data or who trust the word of those who claim they have, is a corruption scandal that implicates not just Hunter but other members of the Biden family, including the president. The laptop details Hunter’s involvement with a Ukrainian natural-gas producer that paid him millions of dollars to serve on its board — the relationship at the center of Donald Trump’s first impeachment. It shows how a Chinese energy company directed millions of dollars in consulting fees to Hunter and his uncle. It reveals White House meetings and slush-fund dinners and wheeling and dealing, from Romania to Monte Carlo to Cafe Milano. Most important, these people claim the laptop contains proof that, despite his denials, Joe Biden — allegedly referred to in emails as “the big guy” — was fully aware of, and looking to profit from, his son’s business activities.
Doctors and Lawyers Debate Meaning of Death as Families Challenge Practices
Radio host suspended for saying he hopes Haredi MKs hang themselves with tefillin
An Israeli radio station suspended a prominent host until further notice, after he said during an on-air rant Sunday that he hoped some ultra-Orthodox Jews would use ritual phylacteries to hang themselves, implying he was referring to Haredi lawmakers.
Natan Zahavi, known for his blunt style and frequent rants on various issues, made the remarks on Radio 103FM, while railing at Haredi political leadership.
Esau was the first victim
Researching the current fad for being the biggest nebach i.e. victim. I would like to nominate the original red neck - Esau. Why do Orthodox Jews want to emulate him? Esau was deceived by his own mother and brother and forced to sell his birth right to save his life. He was later defeated in a cosmic wrestling match and cheated out of marrying Leah. The real problem is that Esau is the prototype of the goy - so why aspire to be like him? Yitzchok seemed to be his only champion and admirer According to Malbim Yitzchok envisioned a partnership between the worldly manly Esau and the delicate yeshiva avreich in Yaakov.
Critics Call It Theocratic and Authoritarian. Young Conservatives Call It an Exciting New Legal Theory.
Does originalism — the theory of constitutional interpretation that conservatives have championed for the past 40 years — provide the conservative movement with the sort of intellectual ammunition that it needs to tear down half a century of liberal jurisprudence and rebuild American law on more conservative foundations? Or is it time, now that conservatives have secured a decisive majority on the Supreme Court, for the right to embrace a more aggressive and ideologically assertive legal theory?
Trump Can’t Quit the Victim Act
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/23/how-trump-plays-the-victim-card-00070763
If it has, the designation of victim won’t be so appealing anymore; in fact, being a victim will regain its old association with seeming whiny and weak. This is certainly what Mike Pompeo was counting on when he tweeted the day after Trump’s announcement, “We need more seriousness, less noise, and leaders who are looking forward, not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood.”
How White Victimhood Fuels Republican Politics
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-white-victimhood-fuels-republican-politics/
What could be fueling an increase in these views? Following Trump’s loss in 2020, the Republican Party leaned further into messages that paint Republicans and white people as victims of an overzealous movement for racial justice. For example, Fox News coverage of critical race theory — a decades-old framework for legal scholarship — surged during the Virginia gubernatorial campaign, according to a Newsweek analysis, only to quickly and starkly dip following Republican Glenn Youngkin’s win. And several pundits pointed to education and critical race theory as reasons for his success. Republicans have also found a seemingly successful political strategy in attacking and amplifying race-related buzzwords, such as “woke,” once used in activist circles. And as FiveThirtyEight contributors Hakeem Jefferson and Victor Ray pointed out on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, the current narratives of victimization and the associated backlash to racial progress are some white people’s way of reckoning with the changing times.
The Grand Old Party of Crybabies
Ironically, Republicans and Democrats are converging. Maybe no one likes a sore loser, but it seems everyone likes being one. Wallowing in this shared victimhood narrative may soothe the sting of defeat, but it’s poison to the rule of law. Republicans were in prime position to reject identity politics, including the game of identifying as a victim, but instead we used stolen election stories as a backdoor to embracing our own victim identity, pursuing the easy path to power. Fighting fire with fire might sound appealing, but water’s actually the better choice.
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Organized crime in Israel: '85 percent of Israel's building contractors pay protection'
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/364214
Speaking at a real estate conference in Eilat, Meir Deutsch, director of the Regavim organization, discussed the phenomenon of paying protection money to criminal groups in Israel, and the effect this is having on society in general.
"This is a problem that is entirely different from how people envision it," Deutsch told Israel National News. "It has reached the stage where it threatens the personal security of regular Israeli citizens, and I don't mean just in the Negev. 85 percent of Israel's building contractors across the country are paying protection money. This drives house prices up, and it also affects agriculture, businesses, and service providers.
America's new challenge: The gender reassignment industry
https://www.israelhayom.com/2022/12/07/americas-new-challenge-the-gender-reassignment-industry/
"The figure who formulated the sixties' theory that a person's biology – his body and his chromosomes – are completely separate from his subjective feeling as to whether he is male or female, was a professor of medical psychology named John Money. His research was eventually shown to be a failure and it was scientifically proven that the opposite was true. Nevertheless, the ideas of Money – who was later deemed to have sexually abused children – were adopted by the worlds of medicine, mental health, and psychiatry in the USA, and later on the education system too. Today, from kindergarten age, children already learn that their body might not necessarily reflect their gender." She is quoting a survey published in the New York Times, according to which more than 60% of those questioned in the 30-plus category said they believe that a person's sex is defined by his biological sex at birth. In contrast, 61% of those questioned in the 18-29 age group said they believe that their gender identity is separate from their biological sex.
Trump berates disloyal US ‘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.