The seedy underbelly of the life coaching industry

 https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240206-life-coaching-industry-scams

Angela Lauria, 50, discovered life coaching when she was struggling with postnatal depression and had been recently fired from her job. Initially interested in a coaching programme focusing primarily on weight loss, Lauria signed up for a $2,000 (£1,595) retreat. "In the first year alone, I spent $14,000 working with my life coach, and in the years that followed I probably spent $100,000," she says. She also spent thousands of dollars on additional courses and mentorships with other life coaches that her primary coach recommended. "I got sucked into it."

Studying Torah while working

 Tanna Devei Eliyahu Zuta (2) Even though the entire world belongs to G-d, He only took from it the Jews. This is to make known that all those who are involved in studying Torah despite suffering and especially those who study despite having a job, will receive benefits in This World while the main reward is reserved for the Next World

Torah and Astrology

 Devarim Rabbah (08:06) What is the meaning of, IT IS NOT IN HEAVEN? Samuel said: The Torah is not to be found amongst astrologers whose work is to gaze at the heavens. People said to Samuel: ' Lo, you are an astrologer, and yet you are also great in the Torah.’ Whereupon he replied: ' I only engage in astrology when I am free-from studying the Torah. When is that? When I am in the bath.

Greek Wisdom - learning?

 Yerushalmi (Peah 01:01) They asked Rebbi Joshua: May a person teach Greek to his son? He said to them, he may teach him at an hour that is neither day nor night as it is written (Jos. 1:8): “You shall meditate about it day and night.” If it is so, a man would be forbidden to teach a profession to his son since it is written: “You shall meditate about it day and night.” But Rebbi Ismael stated (Deut. 30:19): “Choose life!” That refers to a profession. Rebbi Abba, son of Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba, Rebbi Ḥiyya in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: Because of informants. Rebbi Abbahu in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: A person may teach Greek to his daughter since it is an ornament for her. Simeon bar Abba heard that and said: Because he wants to teach his daughters, he attaches it to Rebbi Joḥanan. It should come over me if I ever heard it from Rebbi Joḥanan.

Former FBI Informant Accused of Lying About Bidens Claimed Russian Intelligence Contacts

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/former-fbi-informant-accused-of-lying-about-bidens-claimed-russian-intelligence-contacts-f74ac6c6?mod=hp_lead_pos5

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) publicly released a copy of the record and, without naming Smirnov, described the claims as “very significant allegations from a trusted F.B.I. informant implicating then-Vice President Biden in a criminal bribery scheme.” 

But, in the court filing Tuesday, prosecutors cast Smirnov as an incessant liar who couldn’t be trusted even to provide accurate information about his own finances while he faces criminal charges. 

FBI informant who lied about the Bidens’ ties to Ukrainian energy company had high-level Russian contacts: DOJ

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-informant-who-lied-about-bidens-ties-ukrainian-energy-company-high-level-russian-contacts-doj

In court filings, prosecutors said Alexander Smirnov admitted during an interview before his arrest last week that "officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story" about the president’s son, Hunter Biden. They said Smirnov's contacts with Russian officials were recent and extensive, and said Smirnov had planned to meet with one official during an upcoming overseas trip.

Ex-FBI Informant Charged With Lying About Bidens Tied to Russian Intel: DOJ

https://www.newsweek.com/ex-fbi-informant-charged-lying-about-bidens-tied-russian-intel-doj-1871790 

Tuesday's DOJ filing claims that Smirnov has had "contact with officials affiliated with Russian intelligence" that "are extensive and extremely recent," while he purportedly had planned to take part in additional meetings before being arrested.

During a recent meeting with the "high ranking" Russian intelligence official, read the filing, Smirnov also met with "the individual who controls groups that are engaged in overseas assassination efforts," who revealed at least one detail of a plan to interfere in this year's election.

According to the filing, Smirnov told the FBI handler that Russian intelligence was intercepting phone calls "placed by prominent U.S. persons" that could be used as "kompromat," or damaging information, ahead of the November election.

Moshe was a Shepherd

Shemos (03:01) Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

 Rabbeinu Bachya (Shemos 03:01) And Moshe was a shepherd. Moshe chose this profession as was the custom of the early tzadikim as we see with Abel the son of Adam as well as our fore  Fathers and their children. The reason being to be far removed from settled areas which provide opportunities for sin and also to have solitude to achieve prophesy.

Cohen marrying Giores?

 Rav Shlomo Miller

Rav Reuven Feinstein

Trump Ranks Dead Last (Again) in Poll of Presidential Greatness

 https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-ranks-dead-last-poll-presidential-greatness-1234970893/

“It takes a lot to be known as the absolute worst in your profession in the history of your country,” Biden spokesman Kevin Munoz noted in additional comments. “But Donald Trump managed to do it, and it’s pretty clear why. Donald Trump spent his four years in office working for one thing only: himself.”

In historians' Presidents Day survey, Biden vs. Trump is not a close call

https://www.npr.org/2024/02/19/1232447088/historians-presidents-survey-trump-last-biden-14th 

"While partisanship and ideology don't tend to make a major difference overall, there are a few distinctions worth noting," said political scientists Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston and Justin S. Vaughn of Coastal Carolina University, who first published their greatness survey in 2015.

Experts responding to the survey who self-identified as conservatives rated Biden No. 30, while liberals put him 13th and moderates ranked him 20th. All three of those same groups ranked Trump, whose presidency was marked by his flouting of historical norms, in the bottom five.

Fox News is real sad that Trump is ranked worst president ever

 https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/19/2224416/-Fox-News-is-real-sad-that-Trump-is-ranked-worst-president-ever

As NPR noted about the presidential survey, it is hard to call out partisanism here:

Experts responding to the survey who self-identified as conservatives rated Biden No. 30, while liberals put him 13th and moderates ranked him 20th. All three of those same groups ranked Trump, whose presidency was marked by his flouting of historical norms, in the bottom five.

The good news is that by most accounts Trump’s first lady, Melania, is also the worst. That’s romantic, right?

The Moral Blindness of Putin’s Apologists on the Right

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/moral-blindness-of-putin-apologists-on-the-right-russia-civil-liberties-carlson-navalny-44a5d687?mod=trending_now_opn_3

But, need I say this? Mr. Biden isn’t Vladimir Putin. Mr. Biden doesn’t invade neighbors on a false pretext, killing indiscriminately. He doesn’t make people who have fallen into disfavor fall from the windows of tall buildings. He doesn’t throw a foreign journalist in jail for reporting the truth about what is going on in his country. He doesn’t arrange the murder of his domestic political opponents on the soil of other countries. And he doesn’t imprison, torture and preside over the “death by sudden death” of his principal domestic critic.

If you can’t see the difference then I say, respectfully, that you have lost—or discarded—your capacity for moral reasoning. And that is an even bigger problem.

John Bolton: ‘If Trump is elected, there will be celebrations in the Kremlin’

 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/18/john-bolton-trump-russia-putin-00142078

“Biden, he’s more experienced, more predictable, he’s a politician of the old formation,” Putin said during an interview with Russian state media last week. “But we will work with any U.S. leader whom the American people trust.”

Bolton called the comments a “clear disinformation effort,” by the Russian leader, “to give Trump the opportunity — which he is foolish enough to take — to say, well, I thought that was actually a compliment to me,” Bolton told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki.