Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory and a Smear: Still, No Evidence of Trump Order for 10,000 Guard on January 6th

 https://www.justsecurity.org/93316/anatomy-of-a-conspiracy-theory-and-a-smear-still-no-evidence-of-trump-order-for-10000-guard-on-january-6th/

Nonetheless, on Mar. 8, Congressman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) and The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway tried to resuscitate the claim. In a hyperbolic piece, Hemingway alleges that: “Former Rep. Liz Cheney’s January 6 Committee suppressed evidence that President Donald Trump pushed for 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the nation’s capital, a previously hidden transcript obtained by The Federalist shows.” Loudermilk mimicked this language in his own press release.

Loudermilk released the transcript in question, which is from Anthony Ornato’s Jan. 2022 interview with the January 6th Committee. Ornato was the Secret Service agent in charge of Trump’s protective detail before he was appointed Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff for operations. That is, Ornato went from being a career Secret Service agent to one of Trump’s political appointees. (The January 6h Committee noted in the executive summary to its final report that it “found multiple parts of Ornato’s testimony questionable.”)

Trump did not sign an order to deploy 20,000 troops on Jan. 6

 https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-order-national-guard-156055113284

CLAIM: Former President Donald Trump signed an order to deploy 20,000 National Guard troops before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but was stopped by the House sergeant at arms, at the behest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. While Trump was involved in discussions in the days prior to Jan. 6 about the National Guard response, he issued no such order before or during the rioting. Speaker Pelosi does not control National Guard troops.

THE FACTS: New footage released Thursday of House lawmakers on Jan. 6 has sparked a resurgence of false claims and conspiracy theories about the insurrection.

Wealth would cause a Talmid Chocham to sin

 Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah (03:01) Any Torah scholar who spends much time in the business of the Torah and does not make much of a living, it  is a good sign for him. And if you ask if God loves his Torah why does he not make him wealthy? Because if he gets rich he will transgress the words of the Torah.

Work can be a Mystical Experience

 Michtav M’Eliyahu (1 page 34) In the Torah it is written: "And Enoch walked with G-d", and the Sages said that Enoch sewed shoes for his profession, and for each stitch that he sewed he had a  special unity with G-d. And I heard in the name of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, who explained this statement very nicely, and he said, it can not be understood that at the time he was sewing that he had his thoughts directed to higher matters because such is clearly prohibited by halacha because a worker is not to be thinking about matters other than his work that he is doing for his employer Rather, what is meant by the unification with G-d, is what he thought in  his heart and mind, that  every stich should be good and strong, and that the shoes should be good, so that they would provide benefit to the one who would wear them. Enoch was attached to G-d in a similar manner in that he was concerned with providing others with good and pleasure. In other words he was imitating G-d in that he had no desire for anything other than the welfare of others and consequently he had not the slightest negative thoughts or deeds  about others. 

Riyadh says demand that US delegation chair remove kippah an ‘unfortunate incident’

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/riyadh-says-demand-that-us-delegation-chair-remove-kippah-an-unfortunate-incident/

Davie, the USCIRF vice chair, described the incident as “stunning and painful,” adding: “It directly contradicted not only the government’s official narrative of change but also genuine signs of greater religious freedom in the Kingdom that we observed firsthand.”

US religious freedom commission leaves Saudi Arabia after rabbi co-chair is told to remove his kippah

 https://www.jta.org/2024/03/11/global/us-religious-freedom-commission-leaves-saudi-arabia-after-rabbi-co-chair-is-told-to-remove-his-kippah

A U.S. government delegation tasked with monitoring religious freedom around the world cut a visit to Saudi Arabia short after Saudi officials demanded that a prominent rabbi on the trip remove his kippah.

Saudi officials told Rabbi Abraham Cooper, co-chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, to remove his kippah while in public, the commission said in a statement on Monday.

Cooper, an Orthodox rabbi and the director of global social action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center advocacy group, “politely” refused the request with the backing of U.S. embassy staff, the statement said.

Orthodox women activists pledge to hold ‘sex strike’ to protest religious divorce refusal

 https://www.jta.org/2024/03/07/religion/orthodox-women-activists-pledge-to-hold-sex-strike-to-protest-religious-divorce-refusal

For the last seven weeks, Sash — an Orthodox feminist activist in Brooklyn known by her Instagram handle, Flatbush Girl — has led a team of activists, lawyers, and community leaders pursuing a “get,” or Jewish divorce document, for Berkowitz. Berkowitz’s husband, Volvy, is refusing to issue the get that would complete their divorce, making her what is known as an “agunah,” or “chained woman” who cannot remarry under Jewish law.

Aide tried to stop Trump praising Hitler – by telling him Mussolini was ‘great guy

 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/12/mussolini-trump-hitler-john-kelly-jim-sciutto-book

Donald Trump’s second White House chief of staff tried to stop him praising Adolf Hitler in part by trying to convince the then president Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, was “a great guy in comparison”.

“He said, ‘Well, but Hitler did some good things,’” the retired marines general John Kelly told Jim Sciutto of CNN in an interview for a new book.

“I said, ‘Well, what?’ And he said, ‘Well, [Hitler] rebuilt the economy.’ But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world. And I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing. I mean, Mussolini was a great guy in comparison.”

Kelly, a retired US Marine Corps general, was homeland security secretary in the Trump administration before becoming Trump’s second chief of staff. Resigning at the end of 2018, he eventually became a public opponent of his former boss.

US literary magazine retracts Israeli writer’s coexistence essay amid mass resignations

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-literary-magazine-retracts-israeli-writers-coexistence-essay-amid-mass-resignations/

Emily Fox Kaplan, a Jewish writer who had shared the essay before it was retracted, wrote that she saw the criticism of Chen’s essay as part of a much wider dynamic.

“The problem, when it really comes down to it, is that it presents an Israeli as human,” she tweeted. “The people who are losing their minds about this want to believe that there are no civilians in Israel. They want a simple good guys/bad guys binary, and this creates cognitive dissonance.”

Some non-Jewish writers also lamented the piece’s retraction.

“Anyone who wants to seriously grapple with war had better be prepared for far more shocking opinions than are found in this thoughtful essay by a translator and writer living in Israel,” tweeted Phil Klay, a US military veteran whose writing draws on his war experiences. “Shame on @GuernicaMag for pulling it down.”

Honoring father brings him to sin

 Sefer Chasidim (338) When it is time to do G-d's work nullify your Torah (Tehilim 19) Normally  the son will do the work, even though the father is an ignoramas and let the father be free to do as he pleases. But if the son knows that when the father is sitting idle he is engaged in bad deeds, such as going  after prostitutes, or getting  involved in quarrels and gossip about others or other sins, the commandment is for the son to let his father work so that he does not sin at that time. However if the father tells his son “Go study Torah and I will keep busy by chopping wood or I will take over your job” then the son should study Torah. 

Biden says he never meant to keep classified documents. Hur stands by report on president’s memory

 https://apnews.com/article/classified-documents-biden-hur-special-counsel-122526da6d89d7bf4d6ccfc54590312b?taid=65f044fe26cd000001606a0f&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter

While Biden fumbled some details in his interview, the full transcript could raise questions about Hur’s depiction of the 81-year-old president as having “significant limitations” on his memory. It paints a more textured picture of his discussions with prosecutors, filling out some of the gaps left by Hur’s accounting of the exchanges.

Fighting frumkeit with frumkeit

 Yesterday I traveled to Beit Shemesh for Sheva Berachos with the Chasidic portion of the family

One of my nephews told me the following -

There was a very very pious Jew who was so frum that when he was on  his first trip in an airplane the stewardess asked him if he wanted a drink - He was so upset hearing a female voice he threw up. 

Later in life he had a job which required walking a short distance from the frum bus - through a block of Manhattan. He couldn't deal with the sights so he decided to ask his Rav for permission to stop work to preserve his holiness.

 His Rav thought about the issue and said he could not give him permission. 

The holy man asked for an explanation for refusing his request which was obviously needed

The Rav answered simple "It states clearly in Chovas Halevavos - that the foundation of all Prishus (asceticism) is to have an adequate job so that you are not a burden on others         - Obviously I can not tell you to stop working."

Chovas HaLevavos (09:05)And likewise, you need to use your body for what will provide your livelihood, so that you will be saved from borrowing and stealing, and from needing the kindness of people to support you and to benefit you, thereby giving away to them your merits, and giving your piety to he who was pious towards you. Likewise, so that you won't be a burden on people, as one of the Sages said: "G-d will have great mercy on His servants who separate from this world, but only if his separation has not become a burden on his friends, because he engaged in a trade thereby freeing them from troubling themselves for him", as written: "For you shall eat the labor of your hands: happy shall you be, and it shall be well with you" (Tehilim 128:2). It has already been said: "the beginning of abstinence is the securing of a livelihood". And it was further stated: "the beginning of abstinence is to think properly on arranging the obtaining of one's needs", which means to work to secure one's needs.

Torah written with HorowitzTikun

 

Hannity’s Tale of Trump’s Jan. 6 National Guard Order Blows Up in His Face

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/hannitys-tale-of-trumps-jan-6-national-guard-order-blows-up-in-his-face

For months, Fox News star Sean Hannity has led his network’s charge to push the flimsy claim that former President Donald Trump ordered thousands of National Guard troops to secure the U.S. Capitol in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection. This assertion, meant to undermine the Jan. 6 House committee, was pushed by Hannity on his primetime TV show 43 times and his daily radio program 48 times, according to liberal watchdog Media Matters. The committee, however, refuted this claim when it shared testimony from former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller saying Trump gave no such order. “I was never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature,” Miller said in the video released on Tuesday. “There was no direct—there was no order from the President.” The ex-Trump official added: “We obviously had plans for activating more folks, but that was not anything more than contingency planning. There was no official message traffic or anything of that nature.” Trump, meanwhile, insisted just last month that he “suggested & offered” up to 20,000 National Guard troops be deployed. Other defense and security officials, however, have testified that Trump never asked for a law enforcement response to the attack.