Dealing with People who are bad Influences

 Devarim (28:9-10)You stand this day, all of you, before your God יהוה —your tribal heads, your elders, and your officials, every householder in Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to waterdrawer—

Rashi (Devarim 29:10) FROM THE WOODCUTTER [UNTO THE DRAWER OF THE WATER] — This teaches that some of the Canaanites came in Moses' days to become proselytes just as the Gibeonites came in the days of Joshua, — and this is the meaning of what is stated of the Gibeonites, (Joshua 9:4) “And they also acted cunningly”; — and Moses made them woodcutters and drawers of water (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Nitzavim 2).

Rashi says the woodchoppers and waterdrawers are the lowest in society. He says they are Cananites who decided to convert rather than be killed. Since they were an undesirable influence they were given the most menial tasks so that they should be avoided and not influence others. I saw in the Sefer Mishna Torah that they in fact were assigned to work in the Temple. He asks but this would seem as a reward for their trickery? He answers there are two ways of dealing with bad people 1) ostracize or isolate them 2) Expose them to good influences so they become good also. The Temple was the place of optimal good and thus they might become better.

Charlie Kirk: 'You should be allowed to say outrageous things' 1:35

"All 9 Justices against MAGA censorship — if ABC defends Kimmel: 1st Am. Attorney Melber's report"

"‘Are you KIDDING me?’: Joe calls out MAGA for ‘trying to CRUSH free speech’"

‘The first amendment is not what it used to be’: Nicolle Wallace reacts to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension

Velshi 9/20/25 Trump is losing to Kimmel

Trump demands Bondi prosecute political foes in Truth Social posts

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/09/20/replacement-named-va-prosecutor-ousted-over-probes-trump-foes

President Donald Trump demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi move swiftly to prosecute several political opponents in a series of extraordinary social media posts Saturday, a breakdown of traditional fire walls that have existed between the White House and Justice Department on prosecutorial discretion.

He urged the prosecutions of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), former FBI director James B. Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), claiming all three were “guilty as hell” and that his supporters were noting “nothing has been done.” Comey and James were both investigated but ultimately not charged by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia this year. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

Trump’s messages were one of his most overt attempts to date to override the traditional restraints on the president’s involvement in law enforcement investigations after months of calling for criminal charges against those he perceives as political enemies. It comes a day after he called for the ouster of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik S. Siebert, who resigned amid pressure over his decision not to seek indictments against Comey and James.

A vengeful Trump props up the unproductive as his economy falls apart

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/5512232-a-vengeful-trump-props-up-the-unproductive-as-his-economy-falls-apart

 Inflation rose to 2.9 percent in September from 2.7 percent last month, and the economy produced a dismal 22,000 in the latest jobs report. Meanwhile, the imminent threat of a recession indicates a tarnishing rather than the “golden age of prosperity” President Trump promised at his inauguration.

Under normal slowdowns that any economy undergoes, such numbers would be of cyclical concern, but in in the current climate they may be precursors to large economic disasters lurking underneath the numbers.

Prices, jobs, and economic health are not just self-propelling numbers, but rest upon ever-deepening layers of an economy and their connection to a host of institutions which provide signals to investors to take risks, for consumers to buy, and for governments to spend or not spend.

The deeper malaise lies in the “wrecking ball” metaphor now regularly employed to describe Trump’s approach to economic institutions. This has played out at three levels: the direct government interventions in market behavior; the willingness to disregard the most productive sectors of the economy in favor of the least; and the disastrous approach to scientific research and innovation that the administration hails as a war on liberal elites.

Donald Trump Says Late Night Shows Aren't Allowed to Mock Him

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-says-late-night-shows-arent-allowed-mock-him-jimmy-kimmel-2132463

President Donald Trump has said TV networks that air overly-critical commentary of him aren't allowed to do so and should have their licenses taken away.

"All they do is hit Trump," he told reporters on Air Force One Thursday on the return trip from a state visit to the U.K. "They're licensed. They're not allowed to do that."

Earlier during the plane-based press conference the president said "maybe their license should be taken away," in reference to those networks that aren't positive about him.

Trump’s media enforcer is relishing his Jimmy Kimmel moment

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/19/trumps-media-enforcer-is-relishing-his-jimmy-kimmel-moment

“We can do this the hard way or the easy way,” he said, counseling Disney — and by implication its competitors across the media sector — to “find ways to change conduct” or else.

The threat he implicitly leveled at the Hollywood giant that owns ABC is one he has wielded before: that the FCC would pull local broadcast licenses — an extraordinary step with almost no precedent, and which First Amendment experts said is probably illegal.

Whether the threat was bluster or not, it worked: In response to pressure from Carr and affiliate station owners Nexstar and Sinclair, ABC preempted Kimmel’s show “indefinitely” on Wednesday night. It is unclear if and when Kimmel will return to the airwaves, and the network provided no further comment. Carr did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Before Trump’s election victory, Carr often advocated against government intervention in speech.

His wife was dying, his federal job crumbling. It tested his faith — in God and Trump

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/20/trump-administration-resignation-offer-supporter

One federal worker was rejected three times from the administration’s early resignation offer. Would he blame the president he voted for?

“I’m disappointed in this administration, specifically Pres. Trump’s failure as a leader,” he wrote. Trump, Brandon scrawled, was “abandoning his commitment to ensuring that the common person is protected.”

Judge tosses Trump’s $15B lawsuit against New York Times

 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/19/donald-trump-new-york-times-lawsuit-order-00573073

A federal judge threw out President Donald Trump’s $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times, calling it an undignified public relations exercise meant to “rage against an adversary” rather than present a well-reasoned legal case.

“As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective,” U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday, an appointee of George H.W. Bush, said of Trump’s 85-page grievance-laden lawsuit. “A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally or the functional equivalent of the Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner.”

Merryday gave Trump’s attorneys 28 days to refile the lawsuit and ordered it to be limited to 40 pages, saying Trump must follow the rules requiring complaints to be clear and precise. He said the lawsuit, if it proceeds, must do so in “a professional and dignified manner.”

Vaccine panel that limited covid shot scrutinized after chaotic meetings

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/09/20/acip-vaccine-cdc-criticism-rfk/

The chair of a new panel of federal immunization advisers selected by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday that the group’s “enormous depth and knowledge about vaccines, about science” should be obvious to anyone listening to them work.

But medical associations and scientific experts who watched the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meetings Thursday and Friday panned the panel’s performance as the group reversed recommendations for coronavirus and a combined measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox vaccine.

They said the members were unprepared, misunderstood or ignored key data and highlighted flawed or inconclusive research often trumpeted by vaccine critics.

Critics argued the new panelists lack the expertise for the job and risk undoing measures that have long curbed preventable diseases.

During two days of meetings at a CDC campus in Georgia, committee members appeared at times uncertain about the issues before them or the powers of the panel, prompting staff to explain steps in evaluating data and setting vaccine recommendations.

Trump: ‘It’s no longer free speech.’

 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/19/trump-no-longer-free-speech-00574219

President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated his claim that critical television coverage of him is “illegal” and pushed back on criticisms that his administration was taking actions that chill free speech.

“When 97 percent of the stories are bad about a person, it’s no longer free speech,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, complaining about an apparent asymmetry between his victory in the 2024 election and his treatment by media organizations. It was not immediately clear what statistics or laws he was referencing.