Telling lies has become the norm for today’s Republicans

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/01/politics/republican-party-kevin-mccarthy/index.html

 During Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Biden’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Republican senators including Texas’ Ted Cruz concocted the charge that Jackson had handled child pornography cases with inordinate leniency. The conservative National Review dismissed the attack as “meritless to the point of demagoguery”; Cruz earned a rebuke from an eminent conservative federal judge for whom he once had clerked.

Kari Lake Sued For Defamation By Arizona GOP Election Official She Accused Of Election Sabotage

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/06/23/kari-lake-sued-for-defamation-by-arizona-gop-election-official-who-she-accused-of-election-sabotage/?sh=7437080475b7

The lawsuit against Lake was filed by Maricopa County’s recorder Stephen Richer—who is also a Republican—and it accuses the GOP candidate and her campaign of making repeated false accusations that he “sabotaged the election” to prevent Lake from winning, the Washington Post reported.

To defend Clarence Thomas, GOP senators slander the wrong target

 https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/defend-clarence-thomas-gop-senators-slander-wrong-target-rcna85258

The Republican defense of Thomas is similar: They’re not bothered by Thomas’ alleged misconduct; they’re bothered by anti-corruption officials like Wolf who noticed Thomas’ alleged misconduct.

Rep. Adam Schiff Grills Special Counsel John Durham on Sham Report

Durham accused of cover-up by Matt Gaetz

WSJ editorial board defends Alito, calls ProPublica report ‘non-scandal built on partisan spin’

 https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/22/wsj-editorial-board-defends-alito-calls-propublica-report-non-scandal-built-on-partisan-spin-00103093

Meanwhile, a new poll from Quinnipiac published Wednesday found the Supreme Court’s public approval rating sinking to 30 percent among registered voters, the lowest since the poll began nearly two decades ago.

GOP senators want Roberts to take action on Supreme Court

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4065348-gop-senators-want-roberts-to-take-action-on-supreme-court/

“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.  

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”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06/samuel-alito-supreme-court-ethics#:~:text=He%20also%20claimed%20to%20have,to%20Alaska%2C”%20Alito%20wrote.

“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.

Moscow has stepped back from civil war with Wagner. But the danger’s not over, experts warn

 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/25/europe/russia-prigozhin-wagner-insurrection-belarus-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html

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.

   Rav Dovid Feinstein's plea to set Gital free

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

 https://nypost.com/2023/06/24/harvard-behavior-scientist-who-studied-honesty-accused-of-fabricating-data/

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.