Biden Wins Michigan Democratic Primary, With ‘Uncommitted’ in Second Place

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/in-michigan-primary-uncommitted-is-a-protest-vote-22915829?mod=hp_lead_pos2

Democratic voters in heavily Arab-American suburbs of Detroit and elsewhere chose “uncommitted” on the ballot in protest of Biden’s foreign policy. With 50% of the ballots in, Biden has 375,280 votes, 80.8%, compared with 62,238 for uncommitted, 13.4%, according to the Associated Press, which called the race for Biden as the polls closed. In 2016, Trump won Michigan’s electoral votes by just shy of 11,000 votes more than Hillary Clinton. Biden won the state in 2020 by some 154,000 votes.

Michigan is home to the largest percentage of Arab-Americans in the U.S., many concentrated in Dearborn, represented in Congress by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the lone Palestinian-American member of Congress. She and the city’s Arab-American mayor have backed the “uncommitted” protest.

Bitachon is far past events

 Igros Moshe (YD 4:37:19) Even though a person has an obligation to have bitachon in G d and not worry about what will be tomorrow, that applies to his attitude concerning what has already happened. In such a case he shouldn’t lose his trust in G d since everything is from Him and He provides for everyone - He will surely send appropriate sustenance to the person and his family. In fact, however, a person must obtain a livelihood, food and all his needs as well as those of his wife and family not just for a single day but also for a long time by agriculture or business…

Chazon Ish (Ha-emuna Ve-ha-bittachon, beginning of chapter 2). . . an old error has become rooted in the hearts of many concerning the concept of trust. Trust . . . has come to mean that a person is obligated to believe that whenever he is presented with two possible outcomes, one good and one not, then certainly it will turn out for the good. And if he has doubts and fears the worst, that constitutes a lack of trust. This view of trust is incorrect, for as long as the future outcome has not been clarified through prophecy, that outcome has not been decided, for who can truly know God’s judgments and providence? Rather, trust means realizing that there are no coincidences in the world, and that whatever happens under the sun is a function of God’s decree.

‘Yissachar – Zevulan’ Arrangements

https://torah.org/learning/business-halacha-5757-vol3no15/

A “Yissachar – Zevulun” relationship is an actual partnership between a person who studies Torah and someone who financially supports him in this endeavor. In other words, the “Zevulun”, who spends his day involved in business, gives “Yissachar”, who studies Torah, half of the profits that he receives from all business activities that he is involved in from the time that they made this agreement, even if this will amount to a large sum of money. In return, “Zevulun” receives half of the reward that “Yissachar” deserves for his Torah study. In heaven it is considered just as if “Zevulun” himself had studied this Torah. 

How is this related to Bitachon?

Is Astology prohibited?

 Maharal (Shabbos 156a): Pesachim (113b) says it is prohibited to consult with an astrologer because of the verse be tamim with your G d. 

Maharal (Shabbos 156a): The prohibition of consulting with an astrologer is going to ask one but there is nothing wrong with studying astrology. Someone who knows astrology should utilize this knowledge to protect himself since G d made them to have influence. Thus the only prohibition is asking them not utilizing this information. 

Pesachim (113b) How do we know that you must not consult astrologers? Because it is said: Thou shalt be whole-hearted with the lord thy God.

Shulchan Aruch (YY 179) We do not make inquiries to astrological seers, nor to the fates. [Comment of Rema: Because it is said, "You must be wholehearted with the LORD your God." (Deuteronomy 18:13) (B"Y citing Tosafot (???) and citing Sifrei) And certainly it is prohibited to make inquiries to magicians, diviners, and sorcerers. (Piskei Mahara"i 96)]

Netziv (Devarim 18:14): According to our explanation of Temimos as feeling completely secure and not worrying, why does the Torah recommend that one should be temimos and not go to astrologers but yet should consult instead the prophets about the future? The answer is that in general a person’s conduct in this world should be with simple trust in G-d  and not to investigate the future - …. Nevertheless at a time of war when it is not clear what to do and it is a life threatening situations one must search to know what to do. … However it is obvious that at a time when there is no prophet it is necessary to use divination techniques….However not everything that an individual wants to know can he receive answers from a prophet. We see even for Moshe Rabbeinu (Moed Koton 16) that he only learned of the negative comments of Dasan and Aviram because of the messenger but not from his powers of prophecy. So surely this limitation on knowledge is true of other prophets. … .In contrast there is no such limitation for magic and divination which is the result of hidden natural processes and when someone uses them to know that which he needs he is merely using these natural processes which were produced by G-d .

Or HaChaim (Devarim 18:14): Jews were given prophets so that they would not be in an inferior to non Jews in terms of knowing the future. Perhaps that was Shaul’s understanding when he made inquiries of a diviner (Shmuel I 28:7) because G-d  did not prohibit using diviners except when there are prophets. However when there are no prophets and there is a need to know diviners can be consulted.

GOP Senator Slams Republicans For Conspiring To Trash Border Deal

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/james-lankford-border-deal_n_65b7a71ce4b077c17ab5e608?d_id=7236948&ncid_tag=tweetlnkushpmg00000016&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=us_politics

Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday” asked Lankford why he would want to let Biden take a victory lap in an election year, and she repeated GOP claims that the proposed measures would still let in many immigrants.

Lankford, the GOP’s lead negotiator, said the bill is focused on preventing all illegal crossings with no amnesty, Mediaite reported.

He chastised his fellow Republicans in Congress for potentially sabotaging action on a central concern for the GOP and its voters, and hinted at the hypocrisy of it.

“It’s definitely not going to let a bunch of people in,” Lankford said. “It’s focused on actually turning people around on it. It is interesting ― Republicans four months ago would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give you money for this. We want a change in law.’ And now it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding. I actually don’t want a change in law because it’s a presidential election year.’”

Republicans Who Screamed About A Crisis On The Border Now Oppose A Plan To Fix It

 https://news.yahoo.com/republicans-screamed-crisis-border-now-044837983.html

“It is interesting. Republicans four months ago... locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give you money for this. We want a change in law,’” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the GOP’s lead negotiator on a deal pairing immigration changes with assistance to Ukraine and other allies, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“A few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding. I actually don’t want a change in law because it’s a presidential election year,’” he added.

Trump admits he ruined border deal to hurt Democrats

Fixing the border crisis is bad for Trump and good for Biden. That's the problem.

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/01/31/trump-republicans-stall-biden-bipartisan-border-reform/72400737007/

Democrats and Republicans working together to fix something is heresy to Trump.

Border crisis hypocrisy and what’s missing from the immigration debate

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2024/02/08/border-crisis-hypocrisy-and-whats-missing-from-the-immigration-debate/

 Former President Donald Trump warned Republican members of Congress not to give President Joe Biden a political win by passing the bill they had painstakingly negotiated. Trump prefers to campaign against the broken U.S. immigration system. So Republicans agreed to keep it broken for him.

US Supreme Court to hear landmark social media cases

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/25/tech/us-supreme-court-landmark-social-media-cases/index.html

If enforced, the state laws would lead to “absurd results” because they would give scammers, trolls and hateful extremists an excuse to overwhelm websites with censorship allegations, wrote the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a consumer advocacy group.

Cohen marrying Giyores

 

Russians See Republicans as 'Tools,' Former CIA Director Warns

 https://www.newsweek.com/russians-see-republicans-tools-former-cia-director-warns-1873162

Brennan added that Russian officials view GOP Congress members as "tools" in their information operations.

"I think that my colleagues are concerned that the Russians see the Republican lawmakers as tools. They are so willing to accept anything, and Russians use information operations very effectively. And I have no doubt at all that they are going to continue to use it in this presidential election.

"And the fact that Comer and Jordan and others willingly accept these things, and they don't care whether it's true or not as long as it's salacious, as long as it's something they can use. This is something that the Russian's recognize is ready for their exploitation," he said.

How to ensure a perfect psak~

 Some people think halacha is determined by applying the Torah to facts. The problem is the results sometimes go against what you want 

Others always get the results they want by simply making up facts - in other words they provide false information

This reflects a fundamental question - Is halacha determined by what a posek says or what the Torah says?

Actually this post was about people who lie to poskim in order to get the answer they want claiming that once they get a psak that determines the truth.

Is Shoplifting Really Surging?

 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/29/briefing/shoplifting-data.html

Videos of extreme but rare crimes can go viral today. On social media, people post videos of looting flash mobs or thieves ramming cars into stores. “There are millions of property crimes a year,” said Jeff Asher of the research firm AH Datalytics. As a result, people can always find outlandish anecdotes, even if crime is down.

Conservative media has promoted these videos as evidence of disorder in liberal cities and under President Biden.