Why a worsening measles outbreak is a big deal

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/04/17/measles-outbreak-vaccine-children-families/

“I live in a retirement community where people love [Kennedy],” wrote Eve from Florida. “I hear them say things like ‘Measles is not that serious.’ They all got measles as kids. They didn’t get sick, it’s not even as bad as flu, so why the fuss? Some of them have family in Texas who aren’t vaccinating their kids. My reaction is that measles is very serious, but they say there have been only a handful of deaths, far less than the flu. So who’s right?”

You are. As I wrote in February, while it is true that most people infected with measles will recover quickly with no long-term consequences, complications affect as many as 3 in 10 infected individuals. Out of 1,000 unvaccinated children who contract measles, approximately 200 will be hospitalized. Fifty will develop pneumonia. Between one and three will die

Trump's United States of Emergency

 https://www.axios.com/2025/04/18/trump-national-emergency-declarations

In his first 100 days, President Trump has declared more national emergencies — more creatively and more aggressively — than any president in modern American history.

Powers originally crafted to give the president flexibility in rare moments of crisis now form the backbone of Trump's agenda, enabling him to steamroll Congress and govern by unilateral decree through his first three months in office.

"Troubling times call for serious responses. The previous administration left President Trump a nation in decline — financially vulnerable, with unsecured borders and dangerously unfair trade deals. The President is leveraging every tool the Constitution provides to Make America Great Again," White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement.

"You would hope to see authorities like these used sparingly and reluctantly, as the last resort in an actual crisis situation, because they are a real departure from the constitutional norm," Goitein told Axios.

The bottom line: Trump campaigned on "saving America" — framing his return to power as an urgent, existential mission. Now that he's back in Washington, the sirens never stop.

Trump said it out loud: He wants to deport Americans to El Salvador’s CECOT

 https://thehill.com/opinion/5251941-trump-administration-exporting-americans/?tbref=hp

To be clear, there is no legal pathway for any president to deport native-born U.S. citizens. Sending Americans to El Salvador would be illegal under existing U.S. and international law. Such a move would not only be unconstitutional, it could amount to an improper overreach by the executive branch into the judicial system.  

When the president said last week that he would “love” to send imprisoned Americans to El Salvador, he added, “I don’t know what the law says on that, but I can’t imagine the law would say anything different.”  

In fact, U.S. law does say something different. 

One statute says that any person in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons must be able to be transported to court. This would probably not be possible if a person were in El Salvador, where the government is currently maintaining that it cannot bring back a migrant wrongfully deported there. 

Another law states that incarcerated people can only be transferred out of the U.S. to the country where they are a citizen, which would rule out Americans being sent to El Salvador. The U.S. is also a signatory to the Convention Against Torture, which forbids sending people to a country where they could be at risk for torture.  

Then there’s the matter of the Constitution. Sending Americans to El Salvador would likely run afoul of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishments.” 

US citizen held by ICE despite judge seeing birth certificate

 https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5255137-us-citizen-held-by-ice-despite-judge-seeing-birth-certificate/?tbref=hp

An American citizen was held in a Florida jail at the request of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) despite the county judge being able to see a U.S. birth certificate in court. 

“It’s like this bureaucratic, dystopian nightmare of poorly written laws,” Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson at the Florida Immigrant Coalition, who attended the Thursday hearing, told NBC News. “We are living in a time when this man could get sent to El Salvador because, what, is he going to be treated like a stateless person?”

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida legal fellow Amy Godshall told The Independent that Lopez-Gomez’s detention was “based on a patently false allegation that he entered the state while undocumented,” adding that “all this despite his mother appearing in court with his Social Security card and his birth certificate showing his place of birth as the United States.”

Top NIH Researcher Airs RFK Jr.’s Dirty Laundry on CNN

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-nih-researcher-retires-early-in-protest-of-rfk-jrs-censorship/

This marks the third high-profile departure from the Department of Health and Human Services since March, stemming from rifts with the Health Secretary.

A top nutrition researcher at the National Institutes of Health is “retiring” early after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly censored reporting of his research.

Dr. Kevin Hall, a senior investigator at the NIH who studies ultra-processed foods, announced in an X post that he took an early retirement offer after Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services denied an interview request about his study from The New York Times.

“I had hoped to expand our research program with ambitious plans to more rapidly and efficiently determine how our food is likely making Americans chronically sick,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, recent events have made me question whether NIH continues to be a place where I can freely conduct unbiased science.”

GOP Accused Democrats of Politicizing IRS. Now Trump Wants It to Punish Harvard

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/gop-accused-democrats-of-politicizing-irs-now-trump-wants-it-to-punish-harvard-8ed9d247?mod=lead_feature_below_a_pos1

Republicans have contended for years that the Internal Revenue Service has been weaponized against conservatives. This week, it was President Trump who publicly raised the prospect of the agency removing a valuable tax benefit from a perceived opponent. 

Trump’s claims about Abrego Garcia’s gang ties largely rely on 1 confidential tip

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5254608-trump-administration-ms-13-claims/

The Trump administration has said that two judges have found Abrego Garcia was a “verified” gang member — a reference to Kessler’s decision, which was upheld on appeal by another judge.

But Kessler only said the informant had identified Abrego Garcia as a gang member, and her decision was limited to the question of whether to release him from custody.

Trump’s Bitter Personal Feud With Rival Billionaires Is Behind His Harvard Hate Campaign

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-bitter-personal-feud-with-pritzker-family-is-behind-his-harvard-hate-campaign/

“They attacked me when I was down,” Trump said. “Now I’m doing great again and it’s my turn. I always said, the first time I got back on my feet, the Pritzkers would be the first people I’d go after.”

Trump’s accountants had complied and by using further unorthodox procedures and came up with $667,155. Trump’s people howled when Burstein prepared to release the findings of her audit.

“‘His people called all the time saying, ‘This is Donald Trump. You can’t do this,’” Burstein remembered. “And I said, ‘He’s exactly like any lessee of the city… Of course I can publish it.”

Burstein went ahead and released the results. Trump responded like a married guy who has been caught cheating.

The Lesson of Trump vs. Powell

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-jerome-powell-federal-reserve-interest-rates-tariffs-8ef4a95e?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

Their dispute is a reminder that monetary policy can’t make up for economic policy errors like tariffs.

President Trump’s tariff war isn’t going well, with market ructions and evidence of a slowing economy. So it was probably inevitable that Mr. Trump would demand that the Federal Reserve ride to his rescue by cutting interest rates. The President took to social media Thursday morning to blast Fed Chairman Jerome Powell with his familiar nuance.

Mr. Trump was reacting to Mr. Powell’s remarks Wednesday that the President’s tariffs complicate the Fed’s job of maintaining stable prices with low unemployment. “The level of the tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated. The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth,” Mr. Powell told the Economic Club of Chicago.

RFK Jr.'s Child Autism Comments Spark Backlash: 'Flat Out Lie'

 https://www.newsweek.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-children-autism-comments-spark-online-backlash-2060850

RFK Jr. spoke to reporters on Wednesday after the release of a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, which found that autism prevalence in the U.S. had increased from one in 36 children in 2020 to one in 31 today.

He called autism a "preventable disease," adding: "We know it's environmental exposure. It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics. They can provide a vulnerability, but you need an environmental toxin."

Many medical experts and autism advocacy groups reject this idea and have suggested that greater awareness, in addition to increased testing and screening by health care professionals, has led to higher numbers.

'Criminal contempt' looms over Trump's showdown with courts over deportation fiat

A Passover Message to President Putin: Stop This Blood Libel by Rav Shalom C. Spira

       Shulchan Arukh Orach Chaim 472:11 declares that there is a mitzvah to prefer the use of red wine for the Seder.(*) However, Mishnah Berurah (§38) cautions that in a society afflicted with the canard of blood libels, white wine should be substituted.

      Unfortunately, it is Russian President Vladimir Putin who appears to be the exponent of a blood libel this Passover, continuing to attack Ukraine on the claim that he seeks to de-Nazify it. Alas, the actual Nazis are in the Hamas headquarters of Gaza [as explained at <https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-call-for-hamas-to-surrender-by-rabbi.html>] and not in Ukraine. To that effect, it is Putin himself who risks being branded as a Nazi, since his attack on Ukraine is potentially contrary to the Noahide Code, as argued at <https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2022/06/a-cri-de-coeur-for-russian-army-to_30.html>. Indeed, the manner in which Putin hijacked the democratic machinery of Russia to become its dictator seems reminiscent of Hitler's self-promotional technique in the Weimar Republic.

      The Mishnah, Pesachim 49a teaches us that if a Jew on Passover Eve is occupied with a mitzvah enterprise such as the Pesach sacrifice, circumcision or a betrothal meal, and he suddenly realizes that he forgot to liquidate chametz from his home, then [provided he has enough time to go home for chametz liquidation and then return to his mitzvah enterprise] he must go home. However, continues the Mishnah, if the same Jew is occupied with saving a human life from an attacking army, an overflowing river, bandits, a conflagration or an avalanche, then [even if he has enough time to go home for chametz liquidation and then return to his mitzvah enterprise] he is obligated to continue forward without first going home, and the prohibition against owning chametz will have to be meagerly satisfied by nullifying the chametz in his heart. [According to Torah law, mere nullification of chametz in the heart is sufficient, as per the Gemara, Pesachim 4b. There are certain exceptions to this principle, such as where the Jew accepted custodial responsibility for someone else's chametz, or where it is past the hour on Passover Eve when chametz becomes forbidden in benefit, beyond the scope of this essay. The requirement to actually liquidate the chametz is generally rabbinic in nature. The rabbis suspended the latter obligation when the Jew in question is embarked upon a piku'ach nefesh sortie.] Clearly, what this Mishnah underscores is that as important as the liquidation of chametz may be in the context of celebrating Passover, saving lives from an attacking army spiritually trumps that value. And so, President Putin should abort his invasion of Ukraine this Passover. 

      Furthermore, the Mishnah compares saving lives from an attacking army to saving lives from an avalanche. The latter fact pattern, detailed in a parallel Mishnah of Yoma 83a [and the ensuing Gemara, Yoma 85a with its attendant commentaries], yields the potential conclusion that there is a mitzvah to medically treat a brain dead patient. It is for this very reason that my father heroically gave his life in sanctification of the Name of Heaven by refusing a heart transplant, as I eulogized three months ago at <https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-eulogy-for-my-father-bt-av-shalom-c.html>. The heroism of my father ought to inspire President Putin: If my father was so concerned about one life being snuffed out by a cardiac harvest that he categorically refused the medical procedure, then how much more so should President Putin be concerned about the myriads of lives in Ukraine that are at stake.

      The above clarion call for President Putin to abort his invasion of Ukraine should be carefully distinguished from the absolute halakhic prohibition against intermarriage between a Jewish gentleman and a Noahide lady. As Rema to Shulchan Arukh Even ha-Ezer 16:2 rules, a Jewish gentleman must forfeit his life in sanctification of the Name of Heaven rather than marry a Noahide lady. Obviously, then, the personal behaviour of Volodymyr Zelensky is completely unacceptable. However, that problem can be resolved without necessarily killing the other human beings in Ukraine. [See also Chazon Ish, Yoreh De'ah 2:16, final paragraph, that heretics in the contemporary era should be brought to repentance in a diplomatic manner "as far as our hand reaches" (be-mah she-yadeinu maga'at).]

(*) = The preference of red wine over white wine also occurs in an entirely separate context which by remarkable coincidence was featured in the Daf Yomi this past Passover Eve. Namely, Tosafot to Makkot 4a, s.v. amar, observe that a sea-submerged barrel of white wine will wreak havoc with an immerser's attempt to purify himself there, since the white wine is visually indistinguishable from seawater. By contrast, continue Tosafot, red wine suffers from no such difficulty, since the presence of wine (that would interfere with valid immersion) optically announces itself. [And see the Haggadah of the Gra, s.v. Rabbi Eliezer omer, for a fascinating suggestion how to conceptually unite the Seder with the laws of sea immersion.]

      

Rabbi Spira works as the Editor of Manuscripts and Grants at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, a Pavilion of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Canada

Trump Flabbergasted That Judge Wants to Uphold Due Process

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-flabbergasted-that-judge-wants-to-uphold-due-process/

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security informed about 532,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela that they would lose their legal status on April 24, after which they would have to self-deport or face arrest. They were granted parole under the Biden administration’s CHNV program and allowed to work in the U.S. legally for two years.

But U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani ruled on Monday that the Trump administration can’t revoke the migrants’ parole without an individual review.

“The early termination, without any case-by-case justification, of legal status for noncitizens who have complied with DHS programs and entered the country lawfully undermines the rule of law,” she wrote.

Talwani said the government “offered no substantial reason or public interest that justifies forcing individuals who were granted parole into the United States for a specified duration to leave (or move into undocumented status) in advance of the original date their parole was set to expire.”

Judge Boasberg Warns Trump Officials of Criminal Contempt

 https://www.newsweek.com/judge-boasberg-warns-trump-officials-criminal-contempt-2060613

 A federal judge wrote Wednesday that he has found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court for disobeying his order to turn back planes carrying deportees to El Salvador. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg warned that unless the administration takes immediate steps to "purge" itself of the contempt finding, he will initiate formal hearings and may refer the matter for prosecution.

"The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory," the judge wrote.

"The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it," Boasberg continued.