Gaetz claims Israeli operation behind prostitution, underage sex allegations

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-881114

“Anti-semitism used to mean somebody who didn’t like Jews. Now it just means somebody Jews don’t like," Gaetz said in the episode.

Former congressman Matt Gaetz asserted Tuesday that allegations of prostitution and sexual relations with an underage girl were part of an Israeli operation to extort him because of his isolationist foreign policy.

During an interview on The Tucker Carlson Show, Gaetz denied that he had committed statutory rape, engaged in commercial sex, and used illicit drugs as alleged in a 2024 House Ethics Committee report, and that the supposed foreign influence operation was evidently fake due to not being given an opportunity to question witnesses and review records in a proper forum.

"It was an op to silence me, and Israel was involved, and I hate to say that," Gaetz told Carlson.

Supreme Court won’t allow National Guard deployment to Chicago in major loss for Trump

 https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5661555-supreme-court-blocks-trump-guard/

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled President Trump may not deploy the National Guard to the Chicago area for now amid his push for military troops to patrol the streets of Democratic-led cities, a major loss for the president at the high court.   

Solicitor General D. John Sauer had argued that the statute Trump invoked to call up the troops was lawful and consistent with a “long historical tradition” tracing back to President George Washington’s response to the Whiskey Rebellion.   

“At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the unsigned order reads. 

The court explained that to justify calling up the National Guard, a president must be unable to execute laws with the regular forces of the U.S. military. 

That would require “exceptional” circumstances because of the Posse Comitatus Act, a centuries-old law that generally bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement.

Trump was flying with Epstein around the time FBI got its first tip about Epstein

Right-wing antisemitism must be confronted before it dominates Republican Party - editorial

 Right-wing antisemitism must be confronted before it dominates Republican Party - editorial

The Republican Party has not become antisemitic. Its base remains solidly pro-Israel. Its elected officials reject Jew-hatred outright. But antisemitism does not need majorities to thrive.

Banned ‘60 Minutes’ Episode Leaked Online: Watch Here

 https://www.newsweek.com/banned-60-minutes-episode-leaked-online-watch-here-bari-weiss-cecot-el-salvador-11258079

A 60 Minutes report that was pulled by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss on Sunday has now become widely available on social media after a Canadian outlet reportedly posted it online. 

The segment features interviews with Venezuelans deported by President Donald Trump's administration to El Salvador's notorious maximum security prison, CECOT.

https://x.com/yashar/status/2003255913680191762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2003294279645729057%7Ctwgr%5Efaabba5afcae4c68a57dad0049d81e3442288bf3%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fbanned-60-minutes-episode-leaked-online-watch-here-bari-weiss-cecot-el-salvador-11258079

How the Yiddish-speaking Jews of Europe had themselves a merry little Nittel Nacht

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-the-yiddish-speaking-jews-of-europe-had-themselves-a-merry-little-nittel-nacht/

In his new book, “Christmas in Yiddish Tradition: The Untold Story,” Jordan Chad explores the folklore of  Yiddish-speaking Jews in Central and Eastern Europe from the Middle Ages through the Modern period. The study reveals that Christmas was surprisingly one of European Jews’ favorite days of the year, and how Christmas traditions were once transmitted in Yiddish — a language non-Jews didn’t often speak.

The sole remnant of the Jewish observance of Christmas Eve, as it was marked in Europe, is found among the largest Yiddish-speaking community. Hasidic men still vacate the study halls on December 24 and make merry. Those who aren’t up for the fun use the time to catch up on sleep, errands, or housework.

comment

Chasidic men are not "making merry" on nittel nacht - they are deliberately wasting time, by not learning Torah, so as not to allow any merit to accrue to the world on this night.  That at least is the official story.  I'm sure that the children - or at least most of them - enjoyed the break from the beis medrash nonetheless.

60 Chanuka History with Rabbi Berel Wein

The Real Story of Hanukkah

Trump's Epstein nightmare: NEW files have damning info amid cover-up (Melber on testimony, FBI file)

'Don't feed the pig': For all of his unpopularity, corruption may bring Trump's downfall

Trump SPIRALS Before Christmas: Greenland, Windmills & Epstein Panic

Lawrence on Trump DOJ failing to release all Epstein files: Trump can pardon anyone in a cover-up

The Donald J. Trump Center for Everything

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-kennedy-center-rebranding-congress-8a6c53af?mod=hp_opin_pos_5

Only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center.

President Trump’s desire to have his name on everything, preferably in gold, is well-known, and at first we thought the addition of his name to the John F. Kennedy center for the arts in Washington, D.C., was ignorable as familiar Trumpian news. But there is the matter of the law.

Under 20 U.S.C. § 76i(a), Congress in 1964 established the Kennedy Center as “a building to be designated as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” The title of the building isn’t a casual naming of the kind that happens when philanthropists donate to a museum and are honored with a wing named after them. The name is enshrined in statute as a memorial to the assassinated President.

‘60 Minutes’ correspondent says CBS’s Bari Weiss abruptly pulled segment on Trump deportations

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/12/21/cbs-news-bari-weiss-intervention/

CBS News abruptly pulled an investigative “60 Minutes” segment on the Trump administration’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison after the Trump administration refused to grant an interview, according to a correspondent who shared her concerns in an email obtained by The Washington Post.

The decision came directly from the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss, according to an internal email sent to producers from the segment’s correspondent, Sharyn Alfonsi, who called the decision tantamount to handing the White House a “kill switch.”