“These Republicans are caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they don’t want to have to cooperate with Democrats on ethics legislation, because it sort of accepts the premise that the Republican justices are behaving corruptly and there’s a need to rein them in,” he said.
Monday, June 26, 2023
I did Alito’s ethics prep for his confirmation hearing. His new excuses are nonsense.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/alito-supreme-court-ethics-scandal-vacation-rcna90819
And in any event, the free travel to Alaska had to be disclosed. Alito invokes the “empty seat theory” to say he hitched a ride on Singer’s plane that was headed to Alaska anyway, that it didn’t cost Singer anything additional, and thus was not a gift that needed to be disclosed. This is utter nonsense, of course. In ethics meetings my staff and I also discussed and poked fun of the empty seat theory. No American who is not a Supreme Court justice (or perhaps an ethically challenged governor) can just hitch a ride on a billionaire’s private plane. Try using the empty seat theory to board a plane or a cruise ship without a ticket and see what happens.
Samuel Alito's Justification for Taking GOP-Billionaire-Led Trip: The Seat “Would Have Otherwise Been Vacant”
“This is an unseemly effort by the Democratic left to destroy the legitimacy of the Roberts court,” Republican Lindsey Graham complained during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month on Thomas’s apparent ethics violations.
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Moscow has stepped back from civil war with Wagner. But the danger’s not over, experts warn
Within a remarkable day and a half, Russia faced the very real threat of an armed insurrection, with President Vladimir Putin vowing to punish Wagner fighters marching toward Moscow and occupying cities along the way – before a sudden deal with Belarus seemed to defuse the crisis as rapidly as it emerged.
For Adam Schiff, censure is a gift from House Republicans
https://news.yahoo.com/column-adam-schiff-censure-gift-120056282.html
The rebuke from the House GOP boosted Schiff's political stock even further, edging the Burbank Democrat closer to his goal of besting a handful of party rivals and succeeding Dianne Feinstein as the next U.S. senator from California.
"I would call it an advertisement for Adam Schiff," Bob Shrum, a veteran Democratic strategist who teaches political science at USC, said following the party-line censure vote. "Brought to you by the MAGA caucus in the Republican House."
In today's nihilistic political climate, what a candidate accomplishes is increasingly less important to partisans than whom they antagonize along the way.
With enemies like Trump and his acolytes, Schiff might well ask, who needs friends?
Weiss-Dodelson : R' Avraham Meir Weiss had already agreed to binding arbitration back in May 2013
I was asked to print this letter today written by Rav Dovid Feinstein - the son of Rav Reuven Feinstein. It is important to be aware that Gital's husband - Rabbi Avraham Meir Weiss - had in fact agreed to binding arbitration with the widely respected askan - Rabbi Ronald Greenwald back in May 2013. It is not clear why Gital Dodelson thought it necessary to give the interview to the New York Post telling the whole world that she was an Aguna chained to a failed marriage by her husband and Torah - and that only public outrage would free her. It is odd that she failed to mention that she had unilaterally abandoned binding arbitration which her husband had already agreed to in writing.
She concluded the NY Post article with the following:
It’s an insulated community. It takes a strong push to step out beyond that. This step I’m taking is difficult but necessary. I’ve decided to go public with my story after exhausting every other possible means. the Orthodox are fiercely private, but I am willing to air my dirty laundry if it means I can finally get on with my life.
Avrohom, if you’re reading this, this is my last bid: Let’s both move on with our lives. Let us focus on Aryeh and our future, instead of being stuck in the past.
I think that all reasonable people will agree with the sentiment that are expressed in this letter. If Gital really wants a Get - it is clearly available - but only through good faith negotiations.
Yair Lapid gives Knesset Torah lesson after haredi MK says LGBT are 'Israel's greatest danger'
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-747492
Finally, Lapid accused the Haredi MKs of one of the sins mentioned in Proverbs, creating rifts and conflicts among the people of Israel "which is exactly what you do today, from morning til evening."
Harvard behavior scientist who studied honesty accused of fabricating data: report
Harvard Business School’s Francesca Gino allegedly chalked up phony results tied to studies, including one focused on honest behavior, the New York Times reported.
Saturday, June 24, 2023
Trump’s business deal with Oman raises new ethical questions
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trumps-business-deal-with-oman-raises-new-ethical-questions
He was quite friendly with Saudi Arabia. And so now, after he leaves office, his son-in-law gets $2 billion worth of investment from the Saudi public sovereign — sovereign wealth fund. And then the sovereign wealth fund always — also LIV Golf. And LIV Golf puts several of its tournaments at Trump golf courses in the United States.
And this — there's a lot of money between the Middle Eastern companies, be it in Saudi Arabia or now in Oman, and Trump business operations that overlap with his activities as president. What were those deals and reward for his actions as president? It's an open question.
Did the biblical prophet Moses promise his firstborn son to idolatry?
https://www.jpost.com/judaism/article-747272
In an unexpected passage in the Midrash, the sages recount a deal struck between Moses and his future father-in-law, Jethro. Moses had already decided to serve God when he came to Jethro to ask for Zipporah’s hand in marriage. Before giving his blessing, Jethro asks Moses for one undertaking.“What is it?” inquired Moses.
Jethro explains: “Your first child should be for idol worship, from here onwards,” – referring to subsequent children – “they will be for the sake of Heaven.”
When Moses said to Jethro, "Give me your daughter Tzipporah as a wife", Jethro answered, "If you do what I ask of you, I will give her to you as a wife." Moses said: "What do you ask?" Jethro replied: "Your first son must serve idolatry. The following sons may serve God in heaven." Moses accepted. Jethro said: "Swear." And Moses swore. [Mechilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 18:3]
Prigozhin’s coup attempt unleashes chaos on Russia
https://www.vox.com/2023/6/23/23771853/wagner-group-russia-prigozhin-feud
Russia is in turmoil as the leader of a powerful paramilitary group staged an armed and brazen challenge to the Russian regime.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the private military company, the Wagner Group, said Saturday that his forces will halt their march on Moscow, and that he is “turning around our columns and returning to field camps according to plan.” We don’t know what that plan is, but Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko claimed to have reached a deal with Prigozhin. Prigozhin has denied a deal, saying he turned around to avoid bloodshed.
‘Freaked Out’ Russia Shocked by Military Coup Against Putin
Millions of Russians woke up on Saturday to shocked social media messages and baffling memes depicting a full-on civil war.
Fox News Analyst Pours Cold Water on Hunter Biden Allegations
https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-analyst-pours-cold-water-hunter-biden-allegations-1808842
What we have this week was a decision by a Trump-appointed prosecutor who had full authority over the case, by his own account, to bring two misdemeanor charges basically against Hunter Biden," Williams said. "That was it. All these other things that we're hearing about, an app message? We don't know if the president was involved and he wasn't even president or vice president at the time. This was from 2017."
Williams went on to compare the allegations against Biden to the Steele Dossier, a 2016 report that alleged collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. In making the comparison, he dismissed the Hunter allegations touted by Republicans as "a bunch of rumors and innuendo" with "no hard evidence, no proof, nothing."
Friday, June 23, 2023
Russia Demands U.S. Pay Reparations for Helping Ukraine in War
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-us-antonov-blinken-reparations-ukraine-war-1808439
Russia Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov speaks during a World Affairs event at the Fairmont Hotel on November 29, 2017 in San Francisco, California. He has demanded that the U.S. pays reparations for helping Ukraine in the war.
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