Rav Avraham ben HaRambam (Discourse on Agada): We are not obligated to accept the views of the sages of the Talmud on matters concerning medicine, natural science or astronomy - simply because of their greatness and authority - as we are concerning their explanations of the Torah. That is because concerning Torah, they were the ultimate experts and they had the exclusive authority to teach it as it says in the Torah, “You should do according to the Torah that they teach.”
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Fact-checking the ABC News presidential debate
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/10/politics/fact-check-debate-trump-harris/index.html
Former President Donald Trump repeated a false claim at Tuesday’s debate that has been promoted by numerous prominent Republicans in the past week, including Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance. Trump claimed that Haitian migrants in the city of Springfield, Ohio, are stealing people’s pet dogs and cats and eating them.
In the Trump-Harris face-off there was a clear winner but don't believe this election is over
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-harris-face-off-there-clear-winner-dont-believe-election-over
Although Harris clearly won the debate in my estimation, it isn’t at all clear that this debate, just 56 days before the election, will fundamentally impact the outcome on November 5.
Trump Spent the Debate Walking Into Traps Harris Laid For Him
https://time.com/7019832/harris-trump-debate-analysis/
Then he puffed up his political chest: “People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” The dispute was completely immaterial for undecided voters and would win him zero new votes, but Harris understood exactly what she had done: in inviting Trump’s ego to overtake actual issues, she was showing his pettiness in full display. And, for millions of voters watching Harris in such an environment for the first time, it’s impossible to imagine a better first showing.
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Sky News reporter resigns after comparing Gaza to Holocaust
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/395981
Sky News apologized shortly thereafter on air, stating "In an interview earlier today with Israeli politician Danny Danon, a Sky News presenter made a comparison between Mr Danon’s comments on Israel’s war with Hamas and the treatment of Jewish people in the Holocaust."
“Sky News recognized the complete inappropriateness of this comparison and the offensive nature of those comments. Sky News would like to apologize unreservedly for the comparison and to Mr Danon personally for making the comparison.”
Donati has not apologized and could not be reached for comment.
Predestination to Sin?
Vayikra Rabbah (26:07) G-d showed Moses every generation and its judges, every generation and its kings, every generation and its sages, every generation and its leaders, every generation and its lieutenants, every generation and its officers, every generation and its communal leaders, every generation and its extortionists, every generation and its robbers, every generation and its prophets.
Following Trump’s train of thought as it derails on a child care question
“Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down — you know, I was, uh, somebody, we had Sen. Marco Rubio [(R-Fla.)] and my daughter, Ivanka, was so, uh, impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue.
But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that — because child care is child care. It’s, couldn’t — you know, it’s something, you have to have it. In this country, you have to have it.
But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to but they’ll get used to it very quickly. And it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country.
Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s gonna take care. We’re gonna have — I, I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time. Coupled with, uh, the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country — because I have to say with child care, I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth.
But growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just, uh, that I just told you about. We’re gonna be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in.
We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people. But we’re gonna take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about: Make America great again. We have to do it, because right now we’re a failing nation. So we’ll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question.”
Trump’s Psychologist Niece Says ‘Donald Is Dementing’
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-psychologist-niece-mary-says-donald-is-dementing
Mary Trump, the psychologist and writer who is now an outspoken critic of her father’s younger brother, addressed the former president’s cognition after his rambling, incoherent answer to a question about childcare last week. Asked at the Economic Club of New York about what legislation he would advance to make childcare more affordable if he wins back the White House, Trump blathered on for almost two minutes in a response that left media pundits at a loss to explain what he was trying to say.
“Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down—you know, I was, somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue,” Trump’s answer began. “It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that—because look, childcare is childcare, it’s—couldn’t, you know, it’s something, you have to have it, in this country you have to have it.”
IDF strikes Hamas terrorists who operated in humanitarian area in Khan Yunis
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/395934
Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional means.
Monday, September 9, 2024
Donald Trump Holds Responsibility for Afghanistan Withdraw, Ex-Adviser Says
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-responsible-afghanistan-withdraw-ex-adviser-1944696
"Oh, yes," McMaster said after being asked by Cooper if Trump bears "part of the responsibility for what happened." McMaster then added, "The whole premise of talking to the Taliban before you leave Afghanistan...why the heck were we even doing that?"
"The Obama administration didn't negotiate with al-Qaeda and Iraq on the way out," he continued. "If we were gonna leave, why not just leave? What happened in these series of negotiations is we kind of threw the Afghans under the bus on the way out... then forced them to release 5,000 of some of the most heinous people on the earth
Trump officials back away from 2020 Taliban peace deal after withdrawal chaos
https://www.axios.com/2021/08/20/trump-taliban-agreement-doha-biden
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who was fired by Trump in November 2020, said he believed at the time the agreement was signed that it should have been "conditions-based," which is in part why he later objected to Trump's call for a Christmas homecoming for U.S. troops.
Esper told CNN that although Biden is responsible for the outcome in Afghanistan, Trump "undermined" the agreement and weakened U.S. leverage in negotiations by impatiently calling for troop reductions in the country.
"Our secretary of state [Mike Pompeo] signed a surrender agreement with the Taliban," McMaster said on Bari Weiss' podcast. "This collapse goes back to the capitulation agreement of 2020. The Taliban didn’t defeat us. We defeated ourselves."
GOP probe of Afghanistan exit rips Biden, labors to implicate Harris
But while the GOP report contains some minor new details, there are no major revelations that go beyond prior reporting already in the public domain via separate investigations conducted by the Defense Department, the State Department, news outlets and analysts, as well as the foreign affairs committee itself. And it contains no evidence that Harris played a major role in the withdrawal’s execution.
Democrats on Sunday panned the new report and noted the total absence of Democratic involvement in its drafting. “It is a politicized, cherry-picked report … a nakedly partisan campaign thing,” the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” That is all it was “designed to do,” Himes said — “not shed light on a tragedy.”
GOP releases critical report of Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4868649-gop-report-afghanistan-withdrawal/
The report asserts that Biden was not bound by the Doha Agreement negotiated under the Trump administration, arguing it allowed for the dissolution of the deal if the Taliban did not meet its commitments.
But Biden has made clear he viewed the U.S. as too far down the path of withdrawal to shift its approach and that doing so would commit the military to once again engaging with the Taliban.
“The choice I had to make, as your president, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban,” Biden said in a televised address in 2021.
Negotiators said to believe chance of hostage deal ‘close to zero’; US also pessimistic
Families reportedly told deal unlikely to happen as Netanyahu, Sinwar both hardened stances; US to delay presenting new proposal, does not want to reward Hamas after executions
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