Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls D.C. Jail Section Holding Jan. 6 Rioters 'Patriot Wing'

 https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-calls-dc-jail-section-holding-jan-6-rioters-patriot-wing-1646323

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene dubbed the section of the Washington, D.C., jail holding dozens of individuals arrested in connection with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol the "Patriot Wing" after a visit this week.

Greene, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, has become an outspoken defender of the rioters who violently assaulted the Capitol in an effort to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. The Georgia Republican has claimed that those involved in the attack who remain jailed are being abused. She has also suggested that the violent attack was in line with the Declaration of Independence.

Tucker Carlson: Why are Jan. 6 protesters still in jail while murderers walk free? - nonsense from Carlson

 https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-jan-6-protesters-jailed-murderers-walk-free

A mob of older people from unfashionable zip codes somehow made it all the way to Washington, D.C., probably by bus. They wandered freely through the Capitol, like it was their building or something. They didn’t have guns, but a lot of them had extremely dangerous ideas. They talked about the Constitution, and something called "their rights." Some of them made openly seditious claims. They insisted, for example, that the last election was not entirely fair. The whole thing was terrifying. And then, as you’ve been told so often, they committed unspeakable violence. By the time thousands of soldiers arrived to restore order, an unarmed woman, an Air Force veteran, lay dead. To this day, that woman is the one completely verified casualty of the insurrection, the only person whose death we can say definitively was caused by specific events on January 6th. We know how she died.

Bannon found guilty

"Justice For J6" Says They're Rallying For Nonviolent Offenders. Most Alleged Capitol Rioters In Jail Are Charged With Violent Crimes.

 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/insurrection-defendants-jail-rally-political-prisoners

Organizers of this weekend’s “Justice for J6” rally say the event is meant to support “nonviolent offenders,” but the majority of defendants held in jail in connection with insurrection are charged with assaulting police or other violent crimes.

Of the more than 600 alleged Capitol rioters arrested to date, 71 were in jail as of Sept. 17. The narrative that defendants ordered to stay behind bars while their cases are pending are “political prisoners” has become a rallying cry among conservatives who backed former president Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement. On Saturday, Trump supporters are expected to participate in a demonstration pitched as showing support for those charged with storming the Capitol and temporarily stopping Congress from certifying the results of the election.

Trump ‘100% Committed Crimes’: Evidence Moves From Speech ‘Incitement’ To Wider MAGA Conspiracy

Jan. 6 hearing dominates top TV networks — except one

 https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-sean-hannity-television-donald-trump-609dcc5bc158308d7bc633ad52462f3d

America’s top television networks on Thursday turned prime time over to a gripping account of former President Donald Trump’s actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol — with one prominent exception.

The top-rated news network, Fox News Channel, stuck with its own lineup of commentators. Sean Hannity denounced the “show trial” elsewhere on TV just as he was featured in it, with the House’s Jan. 6 committee examining his tweets to Trump administration figures.

The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-president-who-stood-still-donald-trump-jan-6-committee-mike-pence-capitol-riot-11658528548

No matter your views of the Jan. 6 special committee, the facts it is laying out in hearings are sobering. The most horrifying to date came Thursday in a hearing on President Trump’s conduct as the riot raged and he sat watching TV, posting inflammatory tweets and refusing to send help.Still, the brute facts remain: Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused. He didn’t call the military to send help. He didn’t call Mr. Pence to check on the safety of his loyal VP. Instead he fed the mob’s anger and let the riot play out.

Who Deserves to be Our Hero? by Rabbi YITZCHOK ADLERSTEIN

 https://cross-currents.com/2019/04/13/who-deserves-to-be-our-hero/

Heroes need not be perfect. Gedolim need not be perfect. They never were, and they never will be. A person who demands never to find fault in his or her mentor will never have a meaningful mentor.

The obvious question is whether therefore all faults are ignored and the gadol is never held accountable for mistakes?

Gedolim don't apologize because they don't think they make mistakes

 One of the most important factors in human relations is apologizing for hurting another person. Don't recall stories of gedolim  apologizing apparently because they never err or think they never err

How to Apologize

 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/97408/jewish/How-to-Apologize.htm

Some people are concerned about saying "I'm sorry." Perhaps they think that by doing so they will be admitting a wrongdoing. Perhaps they are afraid of what might happen if their apology is rejected. However, we would gain a lot more respect from others if we had the courage to apologize. All we would be saying is: I am smarter today than I was yesterday, and I have learned something new. "It is our anger that gets us into a fight," a wise man once said, "and our ego that keeps it there."

Is It Too Late to Apologize?

https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/339510?lang=bi

 Maimonides’ Four Steps to Apologizing

The most famous laws about apology come to us from the 12th century rabbi, philosopher, and physician Maimonides (1135-1204, Spain), or Rambam, one of the greatest Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. Maimonides wrote codes of law for the Jewish community, clarifying common Jewish practice and accepted standards of observance.

According to Maimonides, four of the most important steps of teshuvah (repentance) are the following:

Verbally confess your mistake and ask for forgiveness (Mishneh Torah 1:1).

Express sincere remorse, resolving not to make the same mistake again (Mishneh Torah 2:2).

Do everything in your power to “right the wrong,” to appease the person who has been hurt by your actions (Mishneh Torah 2:9).

Act differently if the same situation happens again (Mishneh Torah 2:1).

Stolen Innocence - Rabbi Baruch Lanner, the charismatic magnet of NCSY, was revered in the Orthodox Union youth group, despite longtime reports of abuse of teens. By Gary Rosenblatt

 https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/stol/Stolen%20Innocence%20-%20Gary%20Rosenblatt%20-%20Jewish%20Week%20-%20Sexual%20Abuse.pdf

Baruch Lanner is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant, dynamic and charismatic educators in Jewish life today. As director of regions of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, an arm of the Orthodox Union, the 50-year-old rabbi has been working with and supervising teenagers for more than three decades. He has also been a principal and teacher in yeshiva high schools in New Jersey, and for many years has led a highly successful six-week NCSY summer kollel program in Israel offering Torah study to up to 300 American boys. But even while he is credited with bringing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of youngsters closer to Judaism, reports have continued to circulate that he has harassed, if not abused, many scores of teens sexually, physically and/or emotionally, from the early 1970s to the present. Though Rabbi Lanner's erratic behavior has long been an open secret in some Orthodox circles, for the first time more than a dozen former NCSYers and others have come forward publicly over a three month period, telling their stories to The Jewish Week. They described in detail firsthand experiences, including Rabbi Lanner's alleged kissing and fondling scores of teenage girls in the 1970s and '80s, repeatedly kicking boys in the groin, and reports of taking a knife to a young man in 1987, and propositioning girls in 1997 at the yeshiva high school where he was principal for 15 years. 

Seven stunning moments from the Jan. 6 hearing

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3570046-seven-stunning-moments-from-the-jan-6-hearing/

In an audio clip, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) described McCarthy talking about calling the White House and getting through to Trump.

“He said, ‘You have got to get on TV. You’ve got to get on Twitter. You’ve got to call these people off,’” Herrera Beutler said. “You know what the president said to him? This is as it’s happening. He said, ‘Well, Kevin, these aren’t my people. These are, these are antifa.’”

Video of Josh Hawley Running Away From Capitol Mob Sparks Mockery and Memes

 https://www.newsweek.com/video-josh-hawley-running-capitol-mob-memes-1726994

A video of Donald Trump admitting he did not "want to say the election was over" was the real bombshell footage shown at the latest January 6 committee hearing, but another clip captured the public's attention on Thursday: one showing Sen. Josh Hawley fleeing the Capitol only hours after he cheered on the pro-Trump mob.

On January 6, 2021, Hawley was pictured backing the crowd preparing to storm the Capitol, raising his fist at them in solidarity and support.

The image, which went viral, became a form of political currency for the Republican senator among Trump supporters and an awkward testimony of his role in the riots, which he repeatedly denied inciting.

The video caused many of those in the committee room —reporters, congressional aides, security staff, and visitors— to burst into laughter.

January 6 suspects' D.C. jail complaints are hypocritical, but they're not wrong

 https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/january-6-suspects-d-c-jail-complaints-are-hypocrital-they-n1287184

Some defendants who have been held in the District of Columbia jail after being suspected of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol have complained that the conditions they’re being subjected to are inhumane. But in their case, they have conservative public officials who are echoing their complaints. In December, 14 Republican members of the U.S. House sent a letter to Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, complaining that the Jan. 6 defendants are being “treated as subhuman.”

The Crisis at the D.C. Jail Began Decades Before Jan. 6 Defendants Started Raising Concerns

 https://time.com/6137882/dc-jail-conditions-january-6/

For years, advocates have raised concerns to the District of Columbia government over what they say are inhumane conditions inside the CDF, a nearly 50-year-old jail just two miles from the U.S. Capitol. Yet it was only when detainees accused of storming the Capitol building last Jan. 6 began raising complaints about the conditions of a neighboring jail facility that reform efforts gained momentum. After Jan. 6 defendants’ lawyers raised allegations of poor conditions at the Department of Corrections (DOC) facility, including a lack of access to medical care, an unannounced review of the jail by the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) concluded there was “evidence of systemic failure.” USMS announced Nov. 2 that it would move 400 federal detainees out of the CDF to a federal prison in Pennsylvania.

Trump watched Fox News for hours, ‘chose’ not to act, panel hears

 https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20220722-jan-6-hearing-focuses-on-trump-s-response-on-the-day-of-the-capitol-attack

"President Trump sat at his dining table and watched the attack on television while his senior-most staff, closest advisors and family members begged him to do what is expected of any American president," said Representative Elaine Luria, a Democratic committee member.

The panel played videotaped testimony from White House aides and security staff discussing the events of the day. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone was asked question after question in the recorded testimony about whether Trump took this action or that action - did he call the secretary of defense? Did he call the U.S. attorney general? Did he call the head of Homeland Security? Cipollone answered "no" to each query.

Panel members said Trump's daughter Ivanka and son Don Jr. were among those who pleaded with him to act. The hearing, expected to be the last until September, detailed both the violence that played out as Trump supporters fought their way into the Capitol and Trump's actions in the hours after his speech in which he urged the crowd to "fight like hell" and the release of the video telling the rioters to go home.

First US case of polio in nearly a decade is an Orthodox Jewish man

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-712800

The first case of polio in the United States in a decade has been diagnosed in an Orthodox Jewish man in Rockland County, just north of New York City.

Local health officials announced the case Thursday and said they would begin a drive to increase vaccination against the potentially deadly virus. They said the victim was experiencing paralysis, a hallmark of the disease, and that he had not been vaccinated against it.

“He was released from the hospital,” one source told the Jewish Week on condition of anonymity. “He’s a young adult, in a wheelchair. He got married recently.”

Takeaways from the January 6 hearings day 8

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/21/politics/january-6-hearing-day-8-takeaways/index.html

The committee used Thursday's hearing to show how Trump not only failed to act, but chose not to as he watched the violent assault on the US Capitol unfold.

Several witnesses with first-hand knowledge of what was happening inside the White House on January 6 told the committee that Trump did not place a single call to any of his law enforcement or national security officials as the Capitol attack was unfolding, according to previously unseen video testimony played during Thursday's hearing.

The panel said it "confirmed in numerous interviews with senior law enforcement and military leaders, Vice President Mike Pence's staff, and DC government officials: None of them -- not one -- heard from President Trump that day," Luria said.

The committee used that testimony to make the case that Trump's refusal to intervene amounted to a dereliction of duty.

In a D.C. jail, Jan. 6 defendants awaiting trial are forming bitter factions

 https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092580753/capitol-riot-january-6-insurrection-defendants

Inside the Washington, D.C., jail, where a group of defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have been held for as long as a year or more, a bitter divide is growing, current and former inmates say.

A combination of that intense proximity, the stress of criminal cases and a fight over more than a million dollars donated to support the defendants has contributed to the rift.

One inmate described the situation to NPR as "too many rats together in a small cage for too long."

Capitol rioters’ tears, remorse don’t spare them from jail

 https://thehill.com/homenews/wire/587893-capitol-rioters-tears-remorse-dont-spare-them-from-jail/

Fifty-six of the 71 pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Most of them were sentenced to home confinement or jail terms measured in weeks or months, according to an Associated Press tally of every sentencing. But rioters who assaulted police officers have gotten years behind bars.

Eighteen judges, including four nominated by Trump, have sentenced the 71 rioters. Thirty-one defendants have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment or to jail time already served, including 22 who received sentences of three months or less, according to the AP tally. An additional 18 defendants have been sentenced to home confinement. The remaining 22 have gotten probation without house arrest.

James Murray's Trump Ties Face Scrutiny Over Deleted Secret Service Texts

 https://www.newsweek.com/secret-service-james-murray-trump-ties-texts-1726581

O'Donnell said that the agency has lost "the most important text messages in their history because no one there knew that those text messages were important" and accused Murray of being a "Trump guy."

רוצה טלפון? תן גט: הסנקציה שהבהילה את הסרבן

 https://www.kan.org.il/item/?itemId=131330

סרבן גט הסכים להתגרש מאשתו אחרי שבית הדין דרש ממנו למסור את מכשיר הטלפון הנייד שלו לשבוע. הסנקציה הוטלה עליו כי המשיך הקליט את הדיונים למרות שהובהר לו שחל על כך איסור

https://vinnews.com/2022/07/21/beis-din-confiscated-cell-phone-of-get-refuser-and-he-immediately-agreed-to-give-a-get/

Beis Din Confiscated Cell Phone Of Get Refuser – And He Immediately Agreed To Give A Get

The Double Standard for Policing Capitol Rioters and BLM Protesters

 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-07/trump-rioters-weren-t-policed-like-blm-protesters

Horrified onlookers including President-elect Joe Biden could not help but notice the striking contrast between the police response to Trump’s insurrection and the hard fist that met Black Lives Matter protests in June. During largely peaceful protests on June 1, D.C. police officers arrested 289 people, with federal officers tear-gassing demonstrators in Lafayette Square to clear the way for Trump’s infamous Bible photo-op at St. John’s Episcopal Church. By comparison, local police in Washington, D.C., who secured the Capitol grounds on Wednesday and enforced the 6 p.m. citywide curfew have made only 68 arrests as of Thursday morning.

Donald Trump's 187 Minutes of Inaction To Be Key Focus of Jan. 6 Hearing

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-187-minutes-jan-6-hearing-thursday-1726602

The panel are hoping to suggest that Trump's inaction for more than three hours while the attack was taking place amounted to a dereliction of duty and a violation of his oath of office.

Jews and mazel

 Meiri (Shabbos 156): …. The gemora here says that in general Jews are not controlled absolutely by mazal. Don’t pay attention to the alternative view that says that Jews are in fact controlled by mazal. That view is the result of some of the sages became confused after they saw the lack of order in the manner of mankind’s reward and punishment. This confusion is also manifest in Moed Koton(28a) which states that “Lifespan, children and livelihood are not the result of merit but rather mazal.” This statement was made only because the author saw someone who was a tzadik and great scholar who was unsuccessful in these three areas.Another one of these confused sages stated in Bava Kama (80b): “A door which is locked is not readily opened” and “All those who suffer misfortune do not quickly obtain good fortune” while another one of this group said, “He will never obtain good fortune” . This statement was only made because of bad personal experience as the gemora itself concludes that it was not a general rule but he was only describing his own personal experience. All this shows that these statements asserting the importance of mazal were only made in response to their authors’ personal experiences or what they observed with others. Thus these are only exceptions to the general rule that “Jews are not governed by mazal.” In other words reward and punishment typically determines what happens to a person and not mazal. Our gemora here (Shabbos 156a) provides testimony concerning incidents predicted by astrologers such as being on the verge of death and yet nevertheless being saved through the merit of giving charity. There is no need to repeat the events described in this gemora because they are clearly stated.

Video of David Hogg Blasting Committee on Guns Viewed More Than 1M Times

 https://www.newsweek.com/video-david-hogg-blasting-committee-guns-viewed-more-1m-times-1726557

A video showing gun control activist David Hogg being escorted out of a House Judiciary Committee hearing following an outburst quickly received over 1 million views on Twitter.

Hogg, a survivor of the deadly 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, erupted at Republican Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona during the hearing on Wednesday after the congressman began speaking about an "invasion" of "illegal immigrants" coming across the U.S.-Mexico border.

People in Republican Counties Have Higher Death Rates Than Those in Democratic Counties

 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-republican-counties-have-higher-death-rates-than-those-in-democratic-counties/

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the link between politics and health became glaringly obvious. Democrat-leaning “blue” states were more likely to enact mask requirements and vaccine and social distancing mandates. Republican-leaning “red” states were much more resistant to health measures. The consequences of those differences emerged by the end of 2020, when rates of hospitalization and death from COVID rose in conservative counties and dropped in liberal ones. That divergence continued through 2021, when vaccines became widely available. And although the highly transmissible Omicron variant narrowed the gap in infection rates, hospitalization and death rates, which are dramatically reduced by vaccines, remain higher in Republican-leaning parts of the country.

Israel is no haven for sex criminals - editorial

 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-712631

To begin with, the story was strange. In her response, Shaked said that the decision to grant Lanner temporary residency was made by her predecessor, Arye Deri. Why he would have even considered granting citizenship to someone who has ruined the lives of so many people and is a registered sex offender in the US remains a mystery. It is true that Lanner served his time in prison and should be able to get on with his life, but that does not mean that it needs to be in Israel.

Righteous people can also change

Berachos (28b) The Sages taught: Shimon HaPakuli arranged the eighteen blessings, already extant during the period of the Great Assembly, before Rabban Gamliel, the Nasi of the Sanhedrin, in order in Yavne. Due to prevailing circumstances, there was a need to institute a new blessing directed against the heretics. Rabban Gamliel said to the Sages: Is there any person who knows to institute the blessing of the heretics, a blessing directed against the Sadducees? Shmuel HaKatan, who was one of the most pious men of that generation, stood and instituted it.

The next year, when Shmuel HaKatan served as the prayer leader, he forgot that blessing,

and scrutinized it, in an attempt to remember the blessing for two or three hours, and they did not remove him from serving as prayer leader.

Berachos (29aWhy did they not remove him? Didn’t Rav Yehuda say that Rav said: One who was serving as the prayer leader before the congregation and erred in reciting any of the blessings, they do not remove him from serving as the prayer leader. However, one who erred while reciting the blessing of the heretics they remove him, as we suspect that perhaps he is a heretic and intentionally omitted the blessing to avoid cursing himself. Why, then, did they not remove Shmuel HaKatan?

Shmuel HaKatan is different because he instituted this blessing and there is no suspicion of him.

Let us suspect that perhaps he reconsidered and, although he had been righteous, he had a change of heart? Abaye said: We learned through tradition that a good person does not become wicked.

And does he not become wicked? Isn’t it explicitly written: “And when the righteous one returns from his righteousness and does wicked like all of the abominations that the wicked one has done, will he live? All of the righteous deeds that he has done will not be remembered given the treachery that he has carried out, and in his sin that he has transgressed, for these he shall die” (Ezekiel 18:24)? Abaye responds: That verse refers to a righteous individual who was initially wicked and repented, but ultimately returned to his evil ways. However, one who is initially righteous does not become wicked.

And does he not become wicked? Didn’t we learn in a mishna: Do not be sure of yourself until the day you die, as Yoḥanan the High Priest served in the High Priesthood for eighty years and ultimately became a Sadducee. Even one who is outstanding in his righteousness can become a heretic.

Abaye responded: He is Yannai he is Yoḥanan. In other words, from its inception, the entire Hasmonean dynasty had the same positive attitude toward the Sadducees, and there was no distinction between Yoḥanan Hyrcanus and Alexander Yannai. Yoḥanan the High Priest had Sadducee leanings from the outset. Rava said: Yannai is distinct and Yoḥanan is distinct. They did not share the same position in this regard. Yannai was wicked from the outset and Yoḥanan was righteous from the outset. If so, it works out well according to Abaye’s opinion; however, according to Rava’s opinion, it is difficult. How could Yoḥanan, a righteous individual, have changed and turned wicked?

 Rava could have said to you: There is also room for concern that one who is righteous from the outset will perhaps reconsider and turn wicked, as was the case with Yoḥanan the High Priest. If so, the original question is difficult: Why did they not remove Shmuel HaKatan from serving as the prayer leader?

Sefer HaChinukh (523:2) It is from the roots of the commandment [that it is] since the impulse of a man's heart is evil, and sometimes a passion comes to his heart against his fellow; and even if he is an extremely proper man, he is not saved from sometimes sinning. And even if a man stands for [a very long time] upon the ways of righteousness, it is not impossible for him to overturn his thoughts and to become bad. As behold, they, may their memory be blessed, said (Berakhot 29a) that Yochanan served in the high priesthood and at the end [of his long tenure], he turned into a Saducee; [they also said about him that he was at first a true prophet, and at the end, he became a false prophet]. Hence the thing is fit to not rely upon the heart of a man to punish his fellow according to his testimony; and even if the convicted is a total evildoer and the most common of commoners and the one testifying is the greatest sage in Israel. But when those testifying are two fit men, there is an assumption about all of the seed of Israel that they will not agree to testify falsely. And [this type of] an assumption is [powerful] about all things.

We see the issue of R Greenblatt is in fact a dispute between Abaye and Rava and clearly the gemora accepts the view of Rava that a righteous individual can change and do something wrong

Kosher phone dispute grips ultra-Orthodox Tel Aviv suburb

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/19/kosher-phone-dispute-grips-ultra-orthodox-tel-aviv-suburb

Tel Aviv’s booming science and technology industry, bolstered by graduates of elite state intelligence units, has earned Israel the nickname “start-up nation”.

Yet in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox suburb just a few miles east of Tel Aviv’s skyscrapers, a vicious fight is unfolding over whether smartphones are compatible with traditional Jewish law - and who should have the power to decide on internet access.

Three weeks are period of danger from demons

 Eichah Rabbah (01:29). Within the days of distress from the seventeenth of Tammuz to the ninth of Ab, during which Keteb meriri is prevalent The demon Keteb stalks through the greater part of the midday period, from the beginning of the sixth hour until the end of the ninth. R. Levi said: It spoils the course of the day from the end of the fourth hour until the beginning of the ninth; and it does not walk in the sun or shade but in the shadow near the sun. R. Johanan said: It is all over full of eyes, scales, and hair. R. Simeon b. Lakish said: It has one eye set over its heart and whoever looks at it falls down dead. Once a pious man looked at it and fell dead upon his face, and some say that it was R. Judah b. Rabbi. Samuel saw it but did not fall; for he said, ‘It is the snake of the house.’

Pesachim (111b) Seeing a Keteb Meriri approaching him on the left, he transferred R. Papa to his left and R. Huna son of R. Joshua to his right. Said R. Papa to him: ‘Wherein am I different that you were not afraid on my behalf?’ ‘The time is in your favour,’ replied he.   From, the first of Tammuz until the sixteenth they are certainly to be found; henceforth it is doubtful whether they are about or not, and they are found in the shadow of hazabe which have not grown a cubit, and in the morning and evening shadows when these are less than a cubit [in length], but mainly in the shadow of a privy.

Pesachim (111b) Keteb Meriri: there are two Ketebs, one before noon and one after noon; the one before noon is called Ketheb Meriri, and looks like a ladle turning in the jug of kamka. That of the afternoon is called Keteb Yashud Zaharaim [Destruction that wasteth at noonday]; it looks like a goat's horn, and wings compass it about. 

  Vayikra Rabbah (12:3) Our Rabbis explain that ‘keteb’ is a demon. And why was he called keteb’?’ R. Abba son of Kahana said: Because he breaks into the daily studies from the beginning of four hours of the day to the end of nine. R. Levi said: Because he robs pupils of their noonday lessons from the end of four hours to the beginning of nine hours. He holds sway neither in the shade nor in the sun but between the shade and the sun. His head is like that of a calf and a horn grows out from the centre of his forehead, and he rolls like a pitcher. R. Huna, in the name of R. Joseph, said: ‘Keteb meriri’ is in form covered with scales, hairy all over, and full of eyes. And, said R. Simeon b. Lakish, he has one eye set in his heart, and anyone who sees him can never survive, whether it be man or beast. Anyone who sees him drops down dead. ‘Meriri’ holds sway during the period between the seventeenth of Tammuz and the ninth of Ab. Hezekiah saw him and dropped down on his face and died. R. Phinehas the priest said: It is related that one saw him and was stricken with epilepsy They reported that Judah b. R. Samuel saw him and did not drop down. Nevertheless, it is reported that he died.

Bamidbar Rabbah (12:03) Our Rabbis explain that ‘keteb’ is a demon. And why was he called keteb’?’ R. Abba son of Kahana said: Because he breaks into the daily studies from the beginning of four hours of the day to the end of nine. Levi said: Because he robs pupils of their noonday lessons from the end of four hours to the beginning of nine hours. He holds sway neither in the shade nor in the sun but between the shade and the sun. His head is like that of a calf and a horn grows out from the center of his forehead, and he rolls like a pitcher. R. Huna, in the name of R. Joseph, said: ‘Keteb meriri’ is in form covered with scales, hairy all over, and full of eyes. And, said R. Simeon b. Lakish, he has one eye set in his heart, and anyone who sees him can never survive, whether it be man or beast. Anyone who sees him drops down dead. 

The Secret Service's actions on text messages don't pass the smell test

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/19/opinions/secret-service-texts-raise-questions-wierson/index.html

Whatever happened does not pass the smell test. To paraphrase Marcellus from Shakespeare's "Hamlet," something appears rotten in the Secret Service.

Why Democrats are begging Trump to start 2024 right now

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/15/dems-dreaming-of-trump-pre-midterm-announcement-00045969

Democrats aren’t just eager for Donald Trump to cannonball into the 2024 presidential race before the fall midterms. Across the country, they are actively plotting ways to immediately capitalize on a pre-November announcement.

Interior Ministry: US rabbi convicted of sexual assault won’t receive citizenship

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/interior-ministry-us-rabbi-convicted-of-sexual-assault-wont-receive-citizenship/

The Interior Ministry has denied the immigration request of an American Orthodox rabbi convicted of sexually assaulting his pupils, the ministry said Tuesday.

However, the disgraced rabbi, Baruch Lanner, will be able to remain in Israel for nearly a full year with the temporary residency status he was granted a few weeks ago, a spokesperson for the ministry’s Immigration and Population Authority told The Times of Israel.

The Civics Project: A constitutional ban on bullets would be a difficult target

 https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/opinion/columns/2021/05/02/civics-project-constitutional-ban-bullets-would-difficult-target/4886037001/

While bullets are not specifically mentioned in the Second Amendment, it is likely that the Court would find that a prohibition on bullets would prevent the exercise of the individual right that was recognized in the Amendment. If requiring trigger-locks was too far for the Court, I suspect the prohibition of bullets would be as well. While a state could make bullets more expensive through taxation, even that would probably face Constitutional challenge if the tax made the cost of purchasing bullets prohibitive.

"Thanks to failed Dem policies, beer is 9.1% more expensive."

 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jul/18/ron-johnson/yes-beer-prices-are-no-s-not-only-because-democrat/

• Like many other products, the price of beer has steeply increased since 2020, rising just under 10% since April 2020. 

• Experts say there are a host of reasons that prices have risen, including the Russia invasion of Ukraine, supply chain issues and the resonating impacts of the pandemic. 

• In other words, it can’t be solely attributed to the policies and spending under Democrats, such as the American Rescue Plan.

The Tyranny of Time

 http://www.ced.org.in/docs/ced/publications/DD/DD3/The-Tyranny-of-Time.pdf

But Historian Stephen Kern, a professor at Northern Illinois University whose book The Culture of Time and Space chronicled the soaring velocity of life between 1880 and World War I, pointed out that "new speeds have always brought out alarmists." In the 1830s, he noted, it was feared that train passengers would suffer crushed bones from travelling at speeds as high as 35 miles an hour. Kern considers the current concern about the effects of our speeded-up lives a similar form of hysteria. "Technologies that promote speed are essentially good," he said, adding that, "the historical record is that humans have never opted for slowness."

How to escape the tyranny of the clock

 https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200306-how-to-live-without-time

Holly Andersen, who studies the philosophy of science and metaphysics at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, also warns about what losing our sense of time could do to our sense of self. She believes it’s not possible to have conscious experience without time and the passage of time. Think about how your personal identity is built over time, filed away as memories.

Countering the tyranny of the clock

 https://www.economist.com/business/2020/10/17/countering-the-tyranny-of-the-clock

Two hundred years ago, a device began to dominate the world of work. No, not the steam engine—the gadget was the clock. With the arrival of the factory, people were paid on the basis of how many hours they worked, rather than their material output.

The tyranny of time

 It is interesting to note as we have a strong movement against smartphones and internet - because they are supposedly taking over our existence. There was a similar reaction to the introduction into the world of clocks and time

https://www.noemamag.com/the-tyranny-of-time/#:~:text=The%20clock%20is%20a%20useful,and%20the%20world%20around%20us.&text=Joe%20Zadeh%20is%20a%20writer%20based%20in%20Newcastle

The more we synchronize ourselves with the time in clocks, the more we fall out of sync with our own bodies and the world around us. Borrowing a term from the environmentalist Bill McKibben, Michelle Bastian, a senior lecturer at Edinburgh University and editor of the academic journal Time & Society, has argued that clocks have made us “fatally confused” about the nature of time. In the natural world, the movement of “hours” or “weeks” do not matter. Thus the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the sudden extinction of species that have lived on Earth for millions of years, the rapid spread of viruses, the pollution of our soil and water — the true impact of all of this is beyond our realm of understanding because of our devotion to a scale of time and activity relevant to nothing except humans.

IS THE UNITED STATES A DEMOCRACY OR A REPUBLIC?

 https://act.represent.us/sign/democracy-republic

We often hear a question debated in person and online by Americans who care deeply about making sure our government works for the people: is the United States a democracy or a republic?

Here’s the answer: The United States is both a democracy and a republic.

We promise we’re not dodging the question. It would be much easier if one word was absolutely correct and the other was not, but the terms are not mutually exclusive. The United States can be accurately defined as both a democracy and a republic.

If Trump looks like a fascist and acts like a fascist, then maybe he is one

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/16/if-trump-looks-like-a-fascist-and-acts-like-a-fascist-then-maybe-he-is-one 

I can see three objections to calling a large section of the Republican party pre-fascist. The first can be dismissed with a flick of the fingers as it comes from a self-interested right that has to pretend it is not in the grip of a deep sickness – and not only in the United States. The second is the old soothing “it can’t happen here” exceptionalism of the Anglo-Saxon west, which has yet to learn that the US and UK are exceptional in the 21st century for all the wrong reasons. The third sounds intelligent but is the dumbest of all. You should not call Trump or any other leader a pre- or neo-fascist or any kind of fascist until he has gone the whole hog and transformed his society into a totalitarian war machine.

Trump says murders are up in Democrat-run cities. They’re up in Republican-run cities, too.

 https://www.vox.com/2020/9/29/21493428/presidential-debate-trump-biden-violent-crime-murder-democrats-republicans

All of that is to say that whatever is causing murders to spike this year, political party isn’t it.

So what’s going on? Criminologists and other experts caution that they don’t really know yet. But they’ve offered several potential explanations: The Covid-19 pandemic, and all the chaos that it’s wrought, could have led to more homicides — by hurting social support programs that can prevent escalating violence, damaging the economy, and overwhelming hospitals that treat violent crime victims, among other possibilities. The protests around police brutality and systemic racism may have led cops to back off proactive policing, or caused the general public to trust the police less and subsequently work with the cops less often, both of which could have led to more unchecked violence. A surge in gun purchases this year could have fueled more gun violence.

Study: States With High Murder Rates More Likely To Be Republican

The Red State Murder Problem

 https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-red-state-murder-problem

The rate of murders in the US has gone up at an alarming rate. But, despite a media narrative to the contrary, this is a problem that afflicts Republican-run cities and states as much or more than the Democratic bastions.

In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.

8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.

Republican-controlled states have higher murder rates than Democratic ones: study

 https://news.yahoo.com/republican-controlled-states-have-higher-murder-rates-than-democratic-ones-study-212137750.html

Republican politicians routinely claim that cities run by Democrats have been experiencing crime waves caused by failed governance, but a new study shows murder rates are actually higher in states and cities controlled by Republicans.

Republicans wince as their Ukrainian-born colleague thrashes Zelenskyy

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/15/republicans-spartz-ukraine-zelenskyy-00045949

Spartz is dredging up old dirt on Zelenskyy and his advisers at a time when Ukraine’s future as an independent nation may depend on allying with him, her detractors say.

“I don’t share her criticisms,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has worked with Spartz on Ukraine-related legislation. “I believe that the Zelenskyy government and the Ukrainian people have risen to the moment. It is in our national security interest to stand with the Ukrainian people and their elected leadership.”

Trump's White House Treated Him Like a Child. Congress Won’t.

 https://time.com/6197446/donald-trump-white-house-jan-6/

While Trump is indeed not a child, the Jan. 6 hearings have made one thing crystal clear: Over and over again, the former President found himself surrounded by loyalists who treated him like one.

Tuesday’s hearing offered just the latest evidence, with Trump’s White House counsel, his press team, even his diehard supplicants thought him infantile. They saw his mood as fragile. They spared him bad news. They placated his whims. And when he wanted to deputize the military and the Justice Department to chase conspiracy theories, his own bureaucrats decided to humor him. They even buried his dangerous plans to name a fringe favorite as a special counsel empowered to seize voting machines in a heap of process.

Defending R Nota Greenblatt

 Many are puzzled how to explain or even understand R Nota Greenblatt's involvement in the Tamar Epstein Get annulment

 The facts are clear and are publicly available

http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2016/07/kaminetsky-greenblatt-heter-does-gadol.html

Tamar Epstein and her husband were going to a well known and highly regarded beis din - the Baltimore beis din

At no time did Tamar mention the claim that she thought her husband was mentally ill. She wanted a divorce because she and her mother decided she could do better. Not a basis for forcing a get or annulment.

R Shmuel Kaminetsky's son wrote an embarrassingly ignorant  letter outlining the reason for dissolving the marriage without a get that he claimed to have shown to his father and gotten his approval. The letter was sent to many poskim trying to get someone to agree to it.  The letter makes claims  about incurable mental health issues based on an anonymous source as well as claiming to be based on the psakim of Rav Moshe Feinstein. Neither Shalom or Shmuel Kaminetsky are viewed as experts on the laws of Gittin

The letter was widely ignored/ridiculed by those poskim that received it. Which is why it was shown to me even when it was not made public

Tamar's father was a major supporter of the Philadelphia yeshiva so this intervention can not be viewed as neutral and impartial. There were also peripheral figures such as R Rakefet who were providing advice to the mother that the marriage could be annulled

The correct procedure would have been to bring the so called evidence of incurable mental illness to the Baltimore beis din which had been accepted by both sides instead Shalom Kaminetrky bypassed this and tried to get any outside posek to annul the marriage

R Nota was one of the outsiders contacted and he agreed not only to annul the marriage but to remarry her to another man.

This was absurd and in addition he agreed to do this without investigating the facts of the case or speaking to the husband or the Baltimore Beis din. R Shmuel made his acceptance dependent on the approval of Rav Dovid Feinstein. When Rav Dovid decided the heter was invalid he withdrew his support. Rav Nota bizarrely did not.

In sum Rav Notah was annulling a marriage based on facts he didn't know to be true, an invalid heter and he had not been authorized to intervene in the case of the authorized beis din and refused to alter his position when the only basis for his involvement was removed.

I will now try to defend this absurd behavior which was universally condemned by all the major rabbis and rabbinic leaders

Defense:

R Nota viewed the request to be involved by a recognized gadol as binding at least as a rabbinic halacha.

R Kaminetsky is on record claiming the request of gedolim is at least as binding as any rabbinic takkanah

https://mishpacha.com/they-dont-teach-corporate-in-yeshivah-the-conversation-continues/

As long as R Kaminetsky did not ask him to withdraw his heter he felt he was obligated to support it.

In sum R Nota did a horrible perversion of halacha because he felt the need to obey the words of a gadol and the gadol insists  incorrectly that Rav Nota was an independent authority that can be relied upon. As a result of this nonsense a marriage was destroyed and an adulterous relationship was given credibility to the loud acclaim of feminists and incompetent "orthodox" rabbis.

It appears to me that Rabbi Kamenetsky still actively supports the annulment, stating that it is a machalokes and that Tamar may rely on Rabbi Greenblatt. it also seems that the beis din convened by Rabbi Feinstein was intended by Rabbi Kamenetesky as a smoke screen so that he could pretend he doesn't support the annulment.