Tucker Carlson Mocked for Nicotine Comment: 'Absurd as George Santos' Lies'

 https://www.newsweek.com/tucker-carlson-mocked-nicotine-comment-absurd-george-santos-lies-1775519

Carlson most recently touched on the topic during his Friday night broadcast while discussing efforts to ban menthol cigarettes. In addition to claiming without evidence that nicotine, the addictive chemical found in most tobacco cigarettes, "frees your mind," he also insisted that efforts to ban types of cigarettes are actually part of a plot to promote marijuana.

"Boy do they hate tobacco, and it's not because it causes cancer," Carlson said. "They don't care about your health...They hate nicotine. They love THC. They are promoting weed to your children, but they're not letting you use tobacco or even non-tobacco nicotine delivery devices, which don't cause cancer. Why do they hate nicotine? Because nicotine frees your mind, and THC makes you compliant and passive. That's why."

His comments about cigarettes, like ones he has made in the past, were immediately picked up on social media, with detractors either sternly criticizing the conservative host or mocking his full-throated support of smoking. One Democratic representative compared Carlson's comments to the lies of Representative George Santos, a New York Republican.

YU Statement On The NYT Story

 YU Statement On The NYT Story

How extinct animals could be brought back from the dea

 https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230113-how-extinct-animals-could-be-brought-back-from-the-dead

Archer agrees that the moral rights outweigh any wrongs.

"I think it would be unethical not to do it. I think the ethical issue here was the impropriety of humans making these animals extinct in the first place. It's not about playing God, this is about playing smart human by undoing what we did."

Expanded cardiovascular benefits shown when wearing tefillin - study

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-729013

The cardiovascular health of both men and women who wear tefillin (phylacteries) around their arms can improve, according to new research at the University of Cincinnati (UC). The study suggests those benefits are the result of ischemic, or reduced, blood-flow preconditioning that produces protection from the damage caused by heart attacks.

Navy Vet Who Claims Santos Stole Dog Surgery Money Describes Shock at Revelation

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/navy-vet-who-claims-george-santos-stole-dog-surgery-money-talks-shock-at-revelation?ref=home

U.S. Navy veteran Richard Osthoff said in a CNN interview Wednesday that he was “sick” when he realized only “a week ago” that serial liar Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was the man who he had known as “Anthony Devolder” — the same person who he alleged stole $3,000 intended to pay for surgery on Osthoff’s service dog.

Embattled US Rep. Santos was drag queen in Brazil pageants, associates say

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-728995

Rochard said the congressman was a "poor" drag queen in 2005, with a simple black dress, but in 2008 "he came back to Niteroi with a lot of money," and a flamboyant pink dress to show for it. Santos competed in a drag beauty pageant that year but lost, Rochard said.

"He's changed a lot, but he was always a liar. He was always such a dreamer," Rochard said.

Biden’s Documents Case Isn’t Similar to Trump’s. It’s Really Like Hillary’s.

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/01/14/biden-documents-trump-hillary-00077923

Like the Clinton investigation, it’s not clear that this matter meets even the low bar for initiation of a criminal investigation. (Not to mention, there is a longstanding policy at DOJ against indicting a sitting president, a policy that Trump directly benefited from at the conclusion of Robert Mueller’s investigation.) Certainly, a national security review is needed, given that a former (and now current) high-ranking government official kept at least 10 classified documents — including at least one marked Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information, the highest classification in the government — for over six years in an unsecured office and additional classified documents in his home garage.

How Joe Biden's Approval Rating Has Been Affected by Documents Scandal

 https://www.newsweek.com/how-joe-biden-approval-rating-affected-documents-scandal-1774353

A collection of polls collated by FiveThirtyEight also suggested the January 9 discovery had little impact on Biden's popularity.

On January 8, the poll aggregate put gave Biden's an approval rating of 43.5 percent, vs. 51 percent who disapproved. Five days later, on January 13, his approval had risen slightly to 43.9 percent, while his disapproval fell to 51 percent.

Israeli man swindled $47m. from Orthodox Jews in Ponzi scheme - SEC

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-728561

A 35-year-old man who allegedly bilked Orthodox Jewish investors in Los Angeles and New Jersey out of $47 million and then fled to Israel has been charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with using the proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle.

The SEC alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday, Jan. 12, in US District Court that from December 2018 to January 2021, Yossi Engel induced at least 29 individuals to invest in his company, iWitness Tech, LLC by claiming their funds would be used to purchase and install security camera equipment.

Additionally, Engel also allegedly promised that investor funds would be used to purchase property in Israel that would be developed and sold.

Biden 'had no authority to declassify anything' as vice president: Chris Salcedo

Do Vice Presidents Not Have Authority To Declassify Documents?

 https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-documents/

Comparisons between the two cases ran rampant. Among the alleged differences, according to some social media users, was that Biden, in his position as vice president, did not have the authority to declassify government documents, while Trump, as president, did.

"[Trump] as President had the unlimited power to declassify whereas VP Biden didn't," journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted, for example.

New House Oversight Chair Clueless on How Trump’s Docs Mess Is Different

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-oversight-chair-james-comer-clueless-over-how-trumps-docs-mess-is-different?ref=home

“As we heard the president say before, the president has the authority to declassify documents. The question is whether or not the president actually declassified the documents. The vice president does not have the authority to declassify—”

But Comer was cut off by Tapper, who rightly said the vice president did hold the power to declassify documents. That was instated by a 2009 executive order signed by President Barack Obama, which included the vice president among those with “original classification authority.” Those with that designation, according to the order, could start the declassification process.

Tapper asks GOP lawmaker if he will investigate Trump or just Biden

G-d as backup for tzadik in chasidic thought

 ו