Sunday, December 28, 2025
Saturday, December 27, 2025
Joe Rogan Rails Against Trump’s ‘Crazy’ White House Plaques
Rogan repeatedly described the plaques as "crazy" and said that historians should be writing these kinds of plaques, rather than the current president.
He said that somebody "needs to tell him like, ‘Hey, this is not good. You can’t do that, because other people could do that too, and then the White House stops being the White House,’ and it becomes whoever is in its house, where he could just go crazy and say everybody else is a crook."
Friday, December 26, 2025
U.S. clean coal program fails to deliver on promised smog cuts
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-coal-pollution/
U.S. taxpayers have spent billions of dollars subsidizing chemically treated refined coal, but a Reuters analysis of EPA data shows that the power plants burning it often pump out more smog, not less.
Champions of coal say the superabundant fossil fuel can be made environmentally friendlier by refining it with chemicals – a “clean coal” technology backed by a billion dollars in U.S. government tax subsidies annually.
But refined coal has a dirty secret. It regularly fails to deliver on its environmental promises, as electric giant Duke Energy Corp found.
Trump’s Inner Circle Sees Russia as an El Dorado for Business, but Pitfalls Abound
For Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s billionaire envoys working on a deal to end the Ukraine war, Russia is a land of vast natural resources and rich business opportunities.
Welcoming it back into the world economy will make money for American investors and stabilize Moscow’s relationships with Ukraine and Europe, according to their public comments and people familiar with their thinking.
Trump says violence in Nigeria targets Christians. The reality is more nuanced
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/25/africa/trump-nigeria-attacks-on-christians-explainer-intl-hnk
After months of warning that the US could take military action to stop violence against Christians in Nigeria, President Donald Trump announced on Christmas Day that he had done just that – delivering a strike on Islamic State terrorists in the country’s northwest.
US Africa Command said it conducted the strikes in Sokoto state, which borders Niger to the north, “in coordination with Nigerian authorities.” AFRICOM’s initial assessment is that “multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the ISIS camps,” according to a news release.
The US strike could “disrupt ISIS operations in the short term, but the long-term issues that surround violence in Nigeria are extremely complex,” said CNN military analyst and retired US Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton, pointing to the economic factors at play.
Alarming survey among British Jews finds 96% feel threatened
https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/12/21/alarming-survey-among-british-jews-finds-96-feel-threatened/
A new survey conducted by Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British non-governmental organisation, paints a bleak picture of the future facing Britain's Jewish community. The results echo a question that has become widespread among Jews across Europe since October 7: whether they, and their children, have a future on a continent undergoing profound change.
The survey finds that more than half of British Jews, 51%, say they do not see a long-term future for themselves in the UK, while fewer than a quarter, 23%, believe they do. Nearly half, 45%, say they do not feel welcome in Britain, compared with fewer than one-third, 32%, who say they do. A clear majority, 61%, report that they have considered leaving the UK over the past two years. Most cite the surge in antisemitism since October 7, 2023, as the main reason, while nearly half also point to broader anti-Jewish prejudice in society and antisemitism within political parties.
Hamas Is Loving Its Revival
The Trump team has come to treat the Gaza terrorists with deference.
Qatar is not a mediator, but an enemy of Israel
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/419935
A new research by Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi and the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCSFA) revealed the extent of Qatar's deep and ongoing involvement in advancing a jihadist mindset among the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
The research stressed that, "Qatar is not a neutral mediator but rather a state that provided Hamas with political sanctuary, financial lifelines, ideological reinforcement, and global reach. Through hosting Hamas leadership, sustaining aid flows that bolstered Hamas governance, and supporting clerical networks that sanctified violence and genocide, Qatar enabled Hamas’s transformation into a heavily armed, ideologically driven organization capable of carrying out the October 7 attack and seeking to expand its terror campaign beyond the region."
Trump Says US Struck ISIS in Nigeria in ‘Powerful’ Attack on Christmas
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-us-struck-isis-nigeria-christmas-attack-11270712
President Donald Trump said the United States launched airstrikes against ISIS militants in northwest Nigeria on Christmas, describing the operation as a decisive blow against extremists he accused of targeting Christian communities.
A Department of Defense official told Newsweek on Thursday: "The Department of War worked with the government of Nigeria to carry out these strikes. These strikes were approved by the government of Nigeria.”
Do frum self-help books contain ancient Torah wisdom - or pop psychology?
Conclusion - Update 8/16/13 It is apparent from the comments to this post is that there is no such thing as Torah Psychology or Torah Therapy that was given at Sinai. There are psychological insights which are found in our Tradition which can be used in therapy - but they don't constitue a program of therapy. A psychology or therapy based primarily or exclusive on Torah sources might be desirable - but it doesn't exist at present and it clearly is not part of our Tradition from Sinai.
Lawrence Kelemen's parenting guide, To Kindle a Soul, for example, claims in the subtitle to contain "ancient wisdom." "At the foot of a mountain in the Sinai desert, the Creator of the universe directly revealed His profound wisdom to approximately three million people .... Those present received ... a comprehensive guide for raising great human beings." The book attempts to describe "this ancient, Torah approach to education" which is "more comprehensive and effective ... than any of the schools of child psychology I studied at university." Kelemen describes the "significant" differences between these supposedly "ancient traditions" and the practices of contemporary parents.""Yet Kelemen's parenting approach fits neatly within late twentieth century American parenting discourse, and it differs significantly from that of pre-modern Jewish sources. Kelemen combines an American religious-right critique of supposedly decadent American family life with a child-centered parenting approach advocated by endless American mass-market parenting guides in the 1990s. Criticism of American materialism and permissiveness; advocacy of limiting the mother's time at work; polemics against spanking; emphasis on good nutrition, proper sleep time, and bedtime routine; concerns about the adverse impact of television viewing; claims to provide a "system" for raising moral children; and advocacy of "quality-time" for empathy and close communication between parents and children, all characterized American experts' suggestions to worried middle-class parents at the end of the twentieth century. Even Kelemen's claim that his approach derives from the Bible follows the pattern of American religious parenting guides. Indeed, the book's unstated assumptions - that parenting is a full-time endeavor, and that parents should actively monitor their children's moment by-moment lives - typify experts' advice and popular assumptions in America during the so-called "century of the child."Not only does Kelemen's approach match that of contemporary parenting experts, but it differs from traditional Jewish sources on the topic. While a complete history of Jewish approaches to children and family has yet to be written, it is enough in this context to note that traditional Jewish literature speaks of childhood and parenting in spotty and unsystematic ways, scattered in works focused on other topics. This reflects a historical past in which families were considerably less child centered than they are today, and parents learned how to parent more by imitation, instinct, face-to-face conversation, and osmosis than from the written word of experts. Pre-modern Jews did not write parenting manuals since they assumed that knowing how to parent was an intuitive or natural thing.
Take the example of Kelemen's approach to corporal punishment and spanking. This is a particularly important example because traditional sources do say quite a bit on the topic, and what they do say clashes rather dramatically with the approach of contemporary Haredi parenting literature. Kelemen polemicizes against corporal punishment of children, and even harsh verbal reprimands. Instead - reflecting both contemporary notions of individual autonomy and the voluntary nature of modern religious commitments, which make it difficult to coerce people into religious conformity - he insists that parents should calmly explain to their children what is proper and improper. Parents should then serve as living role models of the proper, hoping thereby to help children come to their own appreciation of and identification with the parents' values.[...]
Thursday, December 25, 2025
Trump Tells Kid Coal Is Beautiful, Touts Election Wins in Christmas Calls
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-kid-coal-beautiful-election-wins-christmas-calls-11269533
Responding to a child calling from North Carolina who asked Trump if Santa would be angry if he did not find any cookies when he got to their home, Trump said: "I think he won’t get mad, but he’ll be very disappointed. Santa tends to be a little bit on the cherubic side, do you know what cherubic means? He’s a little on the heavy side."
He encouraged the child to leave some cookies, adding: "I think Santa has a serious appetite."
The same call has gone viral on social media after Trump told the eight-year-old girl that she sounded "so beautiful and cute." He also added that the child sounded "so smart."
DOJ says it has found more than a million additional Epstein documents
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/24/doj-epstein-documents-new-files-00706387
The Justice Department on Wednesday said it had uncovered more than a million documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case and will need more time to fulfill the release of files ordered by Congress.
In a post to X, the Justice Department said it received the documents from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI — but it may take “a few more weeks” before they can be processed and released to the public in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), co-sponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, appeared unimpressed with the Justice Department’s announcement Wednesday.
“Today the DOJ claims the Epstein-Maxwell file exceeds 1.7 million documents. And they still expect you to believe this involves only two guilty people,” Massie posted on X.
Khanna pointed out that six months before the bipartisan legislation passed, the Justice Department was saying the case was closed.
Candace Owens urges audience read antisemitic book, asserts Jews controlled slave trade
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-881052
Political commentator Candace Owens urged her audience to read a 19th-century antisemitic book and accused Jews of orchestrating the transatlantic slave trade and racial conflict between Caucasian and African Americans during her YouTube show over the weekend.
The episode focused on Owens’ grievances with conservative pundit and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro, who had criticized her in his Thursday speech at the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) AmericaFest conference.
Owens railed against Shapiro for the circumstances of her 2024 dismissal from the Daily Wire under allegations of antisemitism and tensions with the editor emeritus.
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
UN spends approximately $100 million in funding to target Israel yearly, new report shows
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-881170
The United Nations spends roughly $100 million per year on reports, debates, special mechanisms, and communication activities dedicated almost exclusively to singling out Israel, the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN said.
Israeli officials said that what has been exposed regarding the UN’s allocation of budgetary funds is not a call to defund humanitarian aid or silence legitimate criticism. Instead, this is meant to put an end to a system that has normalized discrimination, rewarded bias, and wasted vast sums of the public’s money.
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Banned ‘60 Minutes’ Episode Leaked Online: Watch Here
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.
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.
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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.
The Donald J. Trump Center for Everything
Only Congress has the authority to rename the Kennedy Center.
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.
Monday, December 22, 2025
‘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.”