Thursday, November 11, 2021
Durham’s Attempt to Discredit Trump’s Enemies Is Falling Apart
Durham’s indictment does not even allege that the FBI committed any wrongdoing. Instead, it charges that the FBI was lied to — by Michael Sussmann, a lawyer who passed on leads about Trump’s ties to Russia that the bureau was unable to verify. Durham’s indictment claims Sussmann committed perjury by denying he was working for the Clinton campaign at the time he brought his information about Trump to the FBI in 2016.
The first weakness in the indictment is that even if every word Durham writes is true, the charge he has amounts to a very, very small molehill. Interested parties uncover crimes all the time. There’s just no reason to believe that Sussmann’s relationship with a law firm working for Clinton would have made any difference to the FBI — which was already investigating Trump’s ties to Russia and which wound up discarding Sussmann’s lead anyway as a dry hole.
Second, the evidence that Sussmann lied to the FBI is extremely shaky. As Benjamin Wittes
notes, the sole basis for charging Sussmann with perjury is the
recollection by FBI official Jim Baker. Baker testified to Congress that
he remembered very little about his conversation with Sussmann, i.e.:
Durham Unravels the Russia Case = nonsense from WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-russia-danchenko-steele-dossier-fbi-durham-11636152567
Special counsel John Durham’s latest indictment is an important step in unraveling what really happened in the long tale of false Russia-collusion allegations against the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. The facts in the indictment add to the evidence that this was from first to last a dirty trick by Hillary Clinton's campaign—and that the media were its gullible promoters.
2 leaders of Jewish Lev Tahor cult convicted of kidnapping, child exploitation
Nachman Helbrans and Mayer Rosner face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison for the conviction. The sentence for the case at the federal Southern District of New York court will be meted out later by a judge.
“Nachman Helbrans and Mayer Rosner brazenly kidnapped two children from their mother in the middle of the night to return a 14-year-old girl to an illegal sexual relationship with an adult man. Today’s verdict makes clear that our Office – and our law enforcement partners – will not be deterred from achieving justice for victims of child sexual exploitation,” said US Attorney Damian Williams.
When gedolim err
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt
Relevant to the claim that some gedolim initially viewed the founding of the state of Israel as the beginning of redemption is the similar reaction of Rabbi Akiva to Bar Kochba
Simon Bar Kokhba took the title Nasi Israel and ruled over an entity named Israel that was virtually independent for over two and a half years. The Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva, who was the spiritual leader of the revolt,[51] identified Simon Bar Kosiba as the Jewish messiah, and gave him the surname "Bar Kokhba" meaning "Son of a Star" in the Aramaic language, from the Star Prophecy verse from Numbers 24:17: "There shall come a star out of Jacob".[52] The name Bar Kokhba does not appear in the Talmud but in ecclesiastical sources.[53] The era of the redemption of Israel was announced, contracts were signed and a large quantity of Bar Kokhba Revolt coinage was struck over foreign coins.
The disastrous end of the revolt occasioned major changes in Jewish religious thought. Jewish messianism was abstracted and spiritualized, and rabbinical political thought became deeply cautious and conservative. The Talmud, for instance, refers to Bar Kokhba as "Ben-Kusiba," a derogatory term used to indicate that he was a false Messiah. The deeply ambivalent rabbinical position regarding Messianism, as expressed most famously in Maimonides "Epistle to Yemen," would seem to have its origins in the attempt to deal with the trauma of a failed Messianic uprising.[89]
Durham's Sussmann indictment is a bizarre coda for DOJ's Russia investigation
Special Counsel John Durham was tasked with investigating the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation. He now appears to have ended his work not with a bang, but with a whimper.
It is hard to see how the case Durham filed on Thursday against Washington lawyer Michael Sussmann meets Justice Department standards. The indictment alleges that Sussmann met with FBI General Counsel Jim Baker in September 2016 to provide information about connections between a Russian bank and the Trump Organization.
The FBI was unable to substantiate any links between Alfa Bank and
former President Donald Trump’s businesses, but the charge against
Sussman — making false statements to the FBI — doesn’t allege that the
substance of the information was false. Instead, Sussman is accused of
having misrepresented on whose behalf he was providing it.
The Durham Indictment Fuels the Real Russia Hoax
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/09/the-durham-indictment-fuels-the-real-russia-hoax/
The Trumpers and anti-Russiagate propagandists keep grasping for straws. They are like QAnoners waiting for Trump’s reinstatement as commander in chief… But even if Durham were to find evidence of inappropriate actions related to the FBI’s decision to investigate Trump associates in connection with Putin’s attack, that would not change the fundamentals: Putin mounted a covert assault on American democracy to assist Trump, and the Trump camp, which falsely denied this attack was happening while it was secretly interacting with Russian operatives, was complicit.
Murderer of Holocaust survivor sentenced to life in prison in France
A French court sentenced a man to life in prison for what it termed the antisemitic murder of a Holocaust survivor in Paris in 2018.
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
2,300 NYC firefighters call out sick as vaccine mandate begins, but mayor says public safety not disrupted
Hundreds of New York City firefighters called in sick Monday morning as the Covid-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees went into effect, bringing the total number of sickouts in the fire department to 2,300, FDNY Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said at a news conference.
FDNY-Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro said he doesn't know how many firefighters would not be permitted to work Monday morning due to still being unvaccinated, stating the FDNY does not share those numbers with them.
Is this the great vaccine-mandate resignation that wasn’t?
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/is-this-the-great-vaccine-mandate-resignation-that-wasn-t/
Workers in the US have been vocal about plans to quit en masse in response to mandates; a follow-through hasn't materialized. Resistance to a New York Police Department mandate portended the departure of thousands of officers, but just 89 (0.3% of the force) ultimately left.
Hallel with beracha on Israel's independence day?
שו"ת יביע אומר חלק ו - אורח חיים סימן מא
Israel said to promise to return Ethiopian immigrants who committed war crimes
Israel has promised that if any of the Ethiopian immigrants airlifted to Israel in recent months during an intensifying war in the African country are found to have committed war crimes, they will be sent back, Channel 13 reported on Tuesday.
The unsourced report came a day after the channel reported that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed angrily complained in a phone call with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that some of those airlifted to Israel were officers involved in war crimes.
Channel 13 cited a security source involved in the matter as saying at least four officers — among the over 2,000 people brought to Israel over the past year — are suspected of taking part in rebel massacres in the Tigray region.
International arrest warrant issued for smuggling grandfather Shmuel Peleg
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/316660
Italy has issued an international arrest warrant for Shmuel Peleg, grandfather of cable car crash survivor Eitan Biran, Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera reported.
According to the report, a warrant was also issued for driver Gavriel Abutbul Alon, age 50, who lives in Cyprus.
The newspaper quoted the words of the Italian prosecutor, who claimed that, "The grandfather planned how to take the child out of Italy the moment he understood that he would no longer be able to receive authority over him within the country."
Reform seminary investigation: ‘Good old boys’ culture has left scars
The report also suggests a “reordination ceremony” for students who feel their original ordinations were tainted by offending rabbis.
The 37-page report was based on interviews with 170 individuals, including current and former staff, students and faculty, and it paints a picture of a school — spread across four campuses stretching from Jerusalem to Los Angeles — that tolerated a range of inappropriate behavior toward students who were not white and male.
Probe finds sexual harassers led Reform’s rabbinical school for over 3 decades
Sexual harassers led the Reform movement’s rabbinical school for more than three decades, according to an explosive new report commissioned by the school.
Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk, the president and then chancellor of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion from 1971 to 1996, and his successor, Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, who served until 2000, both harassed and assaulted women at the seminary, according to the report. While the allegations that led to Zimmerman’s suspension in 2000 had broken into public view earlier this year, Gottschalk had never before been named in public allegations.
In addition to leading the institution and teaching students, the men were also responsible for ordaining generations of Reform rabbis.
A Gentle Giant : Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt”l by Rav Aharon Lichtenstein
https://jewishaction.com/tribute/gentle-giant-rabbi-shlomo-zalman-auerbach-ztl/
Reb Shlomo Zalman was of this world and he served to guide it. While not a philosophic devotee in the narrow sense of the term — he was, generally, not much involved in philosophic thought — he had great respect for Rav Kook. And beyond that, while certainly not an ideological Zionist, he had an intuitive appreciation of the significance of the enterprise of shivat Zion and the building of Eretz Yisrael. Hence, he related positively to the whole gamut of the religious spectrum, and dati-leumi bnei Torah turned to him no less than others. And they found a ready ear and an open mind.
Heter Mechira is only bedievad
http://www.eretzhemdah.org/content.asp?lang=en&pageid=299
The economy is great, but voters don't believe it
By the numbers: Economic strength is undeniable, both in the country overall and at the household level. The economy is expected to grow 5.7% this year.
- Almost 6 million jobs were created just between January and October; the unemployment rate is now just 4.6%. The quit rate, the standard barometer of workers' optimism, hit an all-time record high of 2.9% in August.
- Average earnings are up 3.5% this year and 4.9% annually, to $31 per hour.
- Checking accounts are 50% fatter than they were pre-pandemic, while the bottom 50% of the population now has more than $3 trillion in household wealth — up 32% just in the first half of this year, and up 55% from before the pandemic.
- Stocks hit a new record high every day last week (and yesterday, too), and are up more than 30% year-t0-date.
Yes, but: 56% of voters think the country is on the wrong track, up from 39% in June, per the Harris Poll; 57% think the economy is weak, up from 43% in June.
Trump cannot shield White House records from Jan. 6 committee, judge rules
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/09/trump-executive-privilege-court-ruling-kings-520512
A federal judge has rejected former President Donald Trump’s effort to block Jan. 6 investigators from accessing White House records related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, determining that he has no authority to overrule President Joe Biden’s decision to waive executive privilege and release the materials to Congress.
Top Trump Officials Violated Hatch Act Ban on Political Activity During 2020 Campaign, Watchdog Says
Several Trump administration officials showed a “willful disregard” of
laws restricting government employees’ political activity in the final
weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign, according to a federal watchdog
report released Tuesday.
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Only 60% of Israelis think Yigal Amir murdered Rabin — poll
https://www.timesofisrael.com/only-60-of-israelis-think-yigal-amir-murdered-rabin-poll/
Only 60 percent of Israelis believe Yigal Amir assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, according to a poll released Friday.
Shekel reaches NIS 3.11 to the dollar as 'avalanche' continues
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/shekel-reaches-nis-311-to-the-dollar-as-avalanche-continues-684489
Yitzhak Rabin assassination conspiracy theories
https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Yitzhak_Rabin_assassination_conspiracy_theories
The matter has been reported as clear cut in the media, and the Shamgar national inquiry commission and the court all drew the same conclusion that Amir was guilty of murder. Nevertheless, some inconsistencies in the evidence have been alleged, both in the medical records and in the inquiry testimony. These allegations and other suspicions have been included in occasional left-wing, and more prevalent right-wing conspiracy theories.
QAnon Followers Think JFK Jr. Is Coming Back on the 4th of July
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/qanon-jfk-jr-conspiracy-theory-854938/
Hardcore Q believers think that JFK Jr. is not only alive and well, but also that he plans to emerge from his 20-year hiatus from public life by coming out and supporting Trump as his running mate in 2020. Moreover, they believe that a guy in Pittsburgh named Vincent Fusca is actually JFK Jr. in disguise, and they have made T-shirts promoting this belief.
America’s Forgotten Posek
https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/interviews-and-profiles/americas-forgotten-posek/2013/03/24/
He was the Gadol haDor in the United States prior to Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l. And, unfortunately, his rulings and his seforim have, by and large, been completely forgotten.
Walk into any shul or Seforim store and you will be hard-pressed to find a sefer written by Rav Yoseph Eliyahu Henkin zt”l. Open up a contemporary Halachic work and you will rarely find a ruling quoted in his name.