Israel has a right to defend itself, but more than that it has the right and ample cause to defeat the terrorists who won’t let it live in peace.
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Have babies for Russia: Putin presses women to embrace patriotism over feminism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/07/30/russia-putin-antifeminism-women-children-society/
Vladimir Putin, who has long cultivated an aura of machismo as Russia’s strongman leader, is enlisting women to grow Russia’s population through childbirth and to rebuild his nation as a great power steeped in traditional family values — a campaign that is eroding equal rights and protections, human rights advocates and Russian feminists say.
“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven or eight children, and maybe even more,” Putin declared to an audience of ultraconservative religious and political figures who had convened in the State Kremlin Palace in November. “We should preserve and revive these wonderful traditions.”
Trump Buries Project 2025
The Democratic attacks on Project 2025 were laughable because Mr. Trump is never going to have a governing platform. Oh, and anyone who becomes a political liability to Mr. Trump is expendable.
This is a hard education for Mr. Roberts, who made a loud cause of opposing aid to Ukraine when that became the view of the likes of J.D. Vance. He also adopted the line that anyone who resisted the new right-wing populism of Mr. Trump was a nostalgic Reaganite who doesn’t “know what time it is.”
The lesson for Heritage, and other think tanks, is that it’s better to stick to your principles rather than court the political flavor of the day. And never trust a politician.
Trump Buries Project 2025
In case there was any political doubt, Trump campaign officials Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita shot the wounded in a joint statement on Tuesday. “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign,” they wrote. “It will not end well for you.” Bang, bang, bang, bang.
Murkowski slams Vance's 'childless cat ladies' comments as 'offensive' to women
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) hit her party's own vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), for what she called "offensive" comments about “childless cat ladies."
"If the Republican Party is trying to improve its image with women, I don't think that this is working," Murkowski told POLITICO, calling Vance's comments unfortunate, unnecessary and "offensive to many women."
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Hitler encourages Germans to have multiple children with the Mother’s Cross
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hitler-institutes-the-mothers-cross
The German Reich needed a robust and growing population and encouraged couples to have large families. It started such encouragement early. Once members of the distaff wing of the Hitler Youth movement, the League of German Girls, turned 18, they became eligible for a branch called Faith and Beauty, which trained these girls in the art of becoming ideal mothers. One component of that ideal was fecundity. And so each year, in honor of his beloved mother, Klara, and in memory of her birthday, a gold medal was awarded to women with seven children, a silver to women with six, and a bronze to women with five.
J.D. Vance’s Basket of Deplorables
https://www.wsj.com/articles/j-d-vances-basket-of-deplorables-cf86985f?mod=trending_now_opn_5
One possibility is that at some level Mr. Vance really doesn’t respect people who make different life choices. Politicians often reveal their true beliefs when talking to supporters, as Hillary Clinton did when she sneered at the “basket of deplorables” who supported Mr. Trump in 2016.
J.D. Vance Says Racism ‘Definitely’ Helped Trump Win in Resurfaced Clip
Former President Donald Trump’s re-election running mate J.D. Vance was caught in another resurfaced clip talking about Trump and his MAGA fan base.
In the video, Vance blamed the “well-educated and the alt-right” for a “hyper-racialized” 2016 election—and even called some Trump voters “racists.”
JD Vance Slammed by Former Friend Over 'Lack of Integrity'
https://www.newsweek.com/jd-vance-slammed-former-friend-over-lack-integrity-1931791
"He always approached conversations with respect and kindness," said Nelson. "And what we've seen with Donald Trump is a callousness and a cruelty in the way he talks about people ... he's a bully and he calls people names."
"When JD decided to run for the Senate in 2022, he started adopting that similar persona," they continued. "He just started talking in this divisive, dismissive and cruel way about people who were different from him. And that's just not the person that I used to know."
Monday, July 29, 2024
Harris Erases Trump’s Lead, WSJ Poll Finds
The presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is essentially tied, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll that shows heightened support for her among nonwhite voters and dramatically increased enthusiasm about the campaign among Democrats.
The former president leads the current vice president 49% to 47% in a two-person matchup, but that is within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Trump held a six-point lead earlier this month over President Biden before he exited the race and backed Harris.
Alzheimer’s blood test catches 90% of early dementia cases, study finds
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/28/health/alzheimer-blood-test-p-tau-217-wellness/index.html
A combined blood test for cognitive decline has a 90% accuracy rate in determining whether memory loss is due to Alzheimer’s disease, a new study found.
In comparison, neurologists and other memory specialists correctly diagnosed Alzheimer’s in 73% of their cases. Primary care doctors had even less success, with only a 61% accuracy rate, according to the study.
Why JD Vance Worries About Childlessness
Vance said lower fertility might also be the result of less patriotism. In Israel, which has relatively high fertility, “there’s still a fundamental sense that they love their country, they want their country to keep going. America was always considered by our European friends to be kind of jingoistic back in the 1990s and 2000s. We had pretty healthy fertility rates back then. Now that we’re a little bit more like our European counterparts, much less sort of innately patriotic than we were 20, 30 years ago, our fertility rates have declined.”
J.D. Vance Takes Another Stab at Cleaning Up His ‘Cat Ladies’ Rant
He then went on to criticize Harris’ policies of harming parents, while falsely accusing her of seeking to cut the child tax credit. She has previously expressed support for the policy, which was expanded significantly under the Biden administration as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in 2021.
Safety and Religion
Would you invite your family and friends to a place that might endanger them and cause injuries? That is exactly what you are doing if the Simcha Hall is not licensed – because it means that it did not meet the safety requirements.
We went to a wedding and my husband ended up in the neurology department in the hospital with internal bleeding in the head, a broken nose and a fractured eye socket. He fell and lost consciousness because the hall was lacking simple basic safety features required by law – especially near steps.
Be Responsible! Before booking a Simcha ask the hall to show you their license and insurance policy. No insurance company will insure a business without a legal license. If an accident occurs, you bear responsibility and could be sued along with the hall for negligence!
Donald Trump May Replace JD Vance Within 10 Days—Chuck Schumer
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-may-replace-jd-vance-within-10-days-chuck-schumer-1931248
In an appearance on CBS News' Face the Nation, Schumer spoke on Sunday about the recent addition of Vance as Trump's running mate.
"The addition of JD Vance to this ticket is incredibly a bad choice. I think Donald Trump, I know him and I think he's probably sitting and watching the TV and everyday it comes out Vance has done something more extreme, more weird, more erratic. And I bet Trump is sitting there scratching his head and wondering why did I pick this guy," Schumer said.
The Senate majority leader continued: "The choice may be one of the best things he ever did for Democrats. Now the president [Trump] has about 10 days before the Ohio ballot is locked in and he has a choice. Does he keep Vance on the ticket, where he already has a lot of baggage and probably is going to have more baggage...or does he pick someone new?"
Sunday, July 28, 2024
J.D. Vance’s Vision of Appalachia Is Nothing New
https://time.com/6999981/j-d-vance-appalachia-history/
For the next two decades, missionaries pitched their efforts to “reclaim” Appalachia by purposely shocking readers and compelling them to donate to the cause. Through newspaper and magazine reports that took unusually extreme examples and portrayed them as common occurrences—like the Tennessee minister who accepted payment for his services with a shot of whiskey—missionaries told stories about the supposed laziness, dirtiness, and violence of Appalachia’s white residents. Their favorite technique was to capture readers’ attention with sensational descriptions of what seemed like African Americans’ dilapidated, filthy, and dark hovels in the woods, filled to the brim with barefooted and rag-clad people—and then surprise the reader by announcing the report was in fact, about a typical mountain white home. Outside aid was needed, the stories told readers, to bring mountain whites up to a respectable level if white Americans were to “hold the fort” of their social and political authority.
WSJ editorial board slams Vance over cat lady remark
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4796125-wsj-editorial-board-slams-vance-cat-lady-remark/
The Wall Street Journal editorial board slammed Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance over previous comments he made about “childless cat ladies.”
“The comment is the sort of smart-aleck crack that gets laughs in certain right-wing male precincts,” the Journal editorial board said in a new opinion piece. “But it doesn’t play well with the millions of female voters, many of them Republican, who will decide the presidential race.”
Ben Shapiro Bets Donald Trump Regrets Picking J.D. Vance
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ben-shapiro-bets-donald-trump-regrets-picking-jd-vance?ref=home
In the wake of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ record-breaking fundraising numbers, Ben Shapiro has an answer for anyone wondering if Donald Trump would pick J.D. Vance as his running mate again: “I doubt it.”
“I think he probably would have picked somebody like Glenn Youngkin from Virginia in an attempt to broaden out his base,” Shapiro said on the latest episode of his self-titled show, according to Media Matters. “Instead, he went with J.D. Vance feeling, because he was right that at the time, he had a very solid advantage in the race against Joe Biden.”
12 killed, all aged 10-20, as Hezbollah rocket hits soccer field, sparking wider war fears
12 killed, all aged 10-20, as Hezbollah rocket hits soccer field, sparking wider war fears
At least 12 people were killed Saturday, mostly children and teens, and dozens more were wounded when a rocket fired from Lebanon hit a soccer field in the northern Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. It was the single deadliest Hezbollah attack on northern Israel since fighting there began in October.
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Donald Trump Saying 'You Won't Have to Vote' in Four Years Sparks Fear
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-saying-you-wont-have-vote-four-years-sparks-fear-1931054
Trump added: "Christians, get out and vote just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It will be fixed. It will be fine. You won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians."
Trump tells supporters they won’t have to vote in the future: ‘It’ll be fixed!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/27/trump-speech-no-need-to-vote-future
Former president implores Christian supporters to vote ‘just this time’, then ‘in four years, you don’t have to vote again’
Friday, July 26, 2024
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
What’s behind Trump’s lashing out at Netanyahu after Hamas’ attack on Israel
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-netanyahu-biden-rcna120078
An adviser to Netanyahu said there had been no outreach by Trump in the wake of the attacks. Instead, Trump has leveled repeated broadsides at the leader of a close U.S. ally in remarks on the campaign trail as he seeks a return to the White House.
“He’s pissed off because Bibi praised Biden and the Biden White House for being supportive,” said a former Trump adviser, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
Trump posts letter from Palestinian leader ahead of Netanyahu meeting
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/24/trump-palestinian-leader-letter-netanyahu-meeting-peace
But in April 2021 Trump told me his conclusion from four years of working on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was that Abbas wanted peace, while Netanyahu didn't.
"I thought he was terrific," Trump told me of Abbas, reflecting on their "great" first meeting. "He was almost like a father. Couldn't have been nicer. I thought he wanted to make a deal more than Netanyahu."
Suddenly Trump Looks Older and More Deranged
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/trump-looks-older-and-more-deranged/679186/
Whatever happens next, the frame has altered. Now it is the Republicans who are saddled with the elderly candidate, the one who can’t make a clear argument or finish a sentence without veering off into anecdote. Now the Democrats are instead proposing something new. Now it is the many pundits who were already bored by the race and ready to wrap it up who look foolish.
Elon Musk Backs Away From Reports He’s Donating Huge Sums to Trump
https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-backs-away-from-reports-hes-donating-huge-sums-to-trump
Elon Musk is backing away from reports that suggest he was set to donate huge sums of money to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying in a podcast interview this week that his plan to “commit” tens of millions of dollars to the former president—first reported by The Wall Street Journal—was “simply not true.” He added: “I am not donating $45 million a month to Trump.”
Monday, July 22, 2024
She Sucked Up to Trump but He Dropped Her Anyway
https://www.thedailybeast.com/elise-stefanik-sucked-up-to-trump-but-he-dropped-her-anyway
It’s got to hurt to be Congresswoman Elise Stefanik right now. Lots of women have been there on some level—proven their loyalty time and time again to the company, only to get passed over for the promotion by a less-qualified man. And boy is J.D. Vance ever less qualified. Just for funsies (and like Rep. Stefanik probably does every night before she goes to sleep now) let’s compare resumes.
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Project 2025 shreds American values
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/19/larry-hogan-project-2025-trump-abortion/
On the left, the refusal by some to clearly stand up to radicals such as antisemitic and pro-Hamas protesters, advocates of defunding the police, and the open-borders movement has done substantial damage. However, on the right, there is no clearer example of the threat to American values than Project 2025.
Trump makes more than 20 false claims in RNC acceptance speech
Former President Donald Trump repeated his claim that President Joe Biden wants to hike people’s taxes by four times.
This is false, just as it was when Trump made the same claim during the 2020 election campaign and in early 2024.
Biden has not proposed quadrupling Americans’ taxes, and there has never been any indication that he is seeking to do so. The nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center think tank, which analyzed Biden’s never-implemented budget proposals for fiscal 2024, found this: “His plan would raise average after-tax incomes for low-income households in 2024, leave them effectively unchanged for middle-income households, and lower after-tax incomes significantly for the highest-income taxpayers.”
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Biden hits Trump over RNC speech: ‘What the hell was he talking about?’
President Biden took to social media Friday evening to blast former President Trump over the speech he gave while accepting the GOP presidential nomination at the final night of the Republican National Convention (RNC).
“I’m stuck at home with COVID, so I had the distinct misfortune of watching Donald Trump’s speech to the RNC,” Biden posted on social media platform X. “What the hell was he talking about?”
Professor Who Accurately Predicted Past Elections Says 'Biden Can Win'
https://www.newsweek.com/allan-lichtman-accurately-predicted-elections-joe-biden-can-win-1927988
Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University who has accurately predicted past elections, said in an op-ed on Saturday that President Joe "Biden can win" against former President Donald Trump in this year's presidential election.
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
Fact-checking night 2 of the Republican National Convention
Facts First: Johnson’s claims about dramatic increases in violence and crime are false, as is the convention video’s claim that there is a problem “everywhere” with “rising crime.” Official data published by the FBI shows violent crime dropped significantly in the US in 2023 and in the first quarter of 2024, though there were increases in some communities; violent crime is now lower than it was in 2020, President Donald Trump’s last calendar year in office.
Stefanik’s claim of a “violent crime crisis” under Biden is subjective, but she certainly did not acknowledge that the current numbers under Biden are superior to final Trump-era numbers.
Kamala Harris did not call Joe Biden a racist on the debate stage
https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-9244041620
CLAIM: California Sen. Kamala Harris called former Vice President Joe Biden a racist when they were facing off as potential Democratic candidates for president in 2019.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Harris criticized Biden on certain topics related to race during a debate in June 2019, but she prefaced those remarks with “I do not believe you are a racist.”
Donald Trump's Chances of Winning Election Are Declining
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-polling-data-five-thirty-eight-1926226
Donald Trump's chances of winning the November 2024 presidential election are declining, according to a new aggregation of polls.
FiveThirtyEight's poll tracker, which was originally published on July 8 and updated on July 16, shows Joe Biden with a 53 percent chance of winning the election, while Trump has a 46 percent chance.
According to the tracker, Biden is favored to win in 534 out of 1,000 of FiveThirtyEight's simulations of how the election could go, while Trump wins in 462. The poll also shows that the simulations indicate that Biden is on track for a three-point win.
Historian who predicted 9 of the last 10 election results says Democrats shouldn't drop Joe Biden
Allan Lichtman, the historian who has correctly forecast the results of nine out of the 10 most recent presidential elections argued on Saturday that replacing President Joe Biden could cost Democrats the 2024 election.
Lichtman, a professor at American University, rejected the growing chorus of political pundits and Democratic activists who have called on Biden, 81, to bow out of the presidential race after his disastrous debate performance last week against former President Donald Trump. The pivotal moment brought fresh questions about Biden’s age and ability to serve a second term.
“It’s a huge mistake. They're not doctors. They don't know whether Biden is physically capable of carrying out a second term or not,” Lichtman said during an interview with CNN of calls to replace Biden. “This is all foolhardy nonsense.”
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Judge Cannon goes another step too far
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/15/trump-documents-cannon-dismiss-case/
The courts have blessed the tradition, pointing to the 19th-century statute that authorizes the attorney general to “appoint officials … to detect and prosecute crimes against the United States.” The Supreme Court cited the code in U.S. v. Nixon after Watergate; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit confirmed the same thinking in a case about the Iran-contra independent counsel; the D.C. Circuit said in 2019, pursuant to the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III, that “binding precedent” settled the debate. Judge Cannon, meanwhile, looked not to precedent at all. Her only reference was Justice Clarence Thomas’s recent concurring opinion in a Trump immunity case — in which no other justice joined.
JD Vance, Trump’s VP pick, once called him a ‘moral disaster,’ and possibly ‘America’s Hitler’
Vance also said that racism and xenophobia played a role in Trump’s rise.
“There is definitely an element of Donald Trump’s support that has its basis in racism, xenophobia, but a lot of these folks are just really hardworking people who are struggling in really important ways,” Vance said in a September 2016 “PBS NewsHour” Interview.
“Definitely some people who voted for Trump were racist and they voted for him for racist reasons,” Vance said in an interview at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.
Speaking with CNN in October 2016, Vance criticized Trump for “actively antagonizing” Black voters, claiming this tactic was a long-standing Republican strategy.
“It’s not just that Donald Trump doesn’t speak to issues of special concern of minority voters or Black voters, it’s that he seems to like actively antagonizing a lot of the Black voters,” Vance said during a panel discussion.
THE TRUMP–VANCE TICKET IS A DISASTER FOR AMERICA’S DEMOCRACY AND ISRAEL’S FUTURE
“With Trump and Vance in the White House, the Israeli right would have full US support for their wildest fantasies – a judicial coup, West Bank annexation, settlements in Gaza and military confrontations with both Hezbollah and Iran,” said J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami. “Vance will enthusiastically help bulldoze the democratic foundations of our union, embed antisemitic conspiracy theories deeper into our society, and hand victory to Putin in Ukraine. We cannot afford to have Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House.”
Where JD Vance stands on Ukraine, Israel and China
https://thehill.com/policy/international/4773538-jd-vance-foreign-policy/
In a speech delivered at the Quincy Institute in May, Vance addressed the contradiction between his conditional support for Ukraine — “ I think we should stop supporting the Ukrainian conflict,” he said — and unconditional support for Israel.
Trump’s Judge Cannon Found Her Legal Tutor: Clarence Thomas
While Judge Cannon’s opinion is weak and might even appear to the cynical as a well-timed audition for an appointment to the Supreme Court should Trump win, there is an aspect of her decision that raises the important question of why DOJ needs any form of special counsel.
We Should Condemn Violence. And Trumpism
https://www.newsweek.com/we-should-condemn-violence-trumpism-opinion-1925422
There is a narrative being sold that this attempted assassination was the result of unfair or misapplied rhetoric against Trump, as if he is just some peaceful character or a Republican of times past, who we simply have differences of opinion with. Don't buy into it.
What Trump said with his ‘very fine people’ comments vs. what he meant
It is true, as the Snopes headline indicates, that Trump said that he was not talking about the white nationalists when offering praise for some of the participants in Unite the Right. But as The Washington Post’s Fact Checker pointed out in a 2020 assessment of the controversy, it’s not clear that there were any participants who weren’t allied with the white nationalist elements that announced the rally in the first place. The Washington Post reported Aug. 10 that there would be a “white nationalist rally” in Charlottesville; does someone who attends a white nationalist rally deserve rhetorical distance from white nationalism?
Donald Trump’s New Mr. Nice Guy Act Doesn’t Even Last a Day
“As we move forward in Uniting our Nation after the horrific events on Saturday, this dismissal of the Lawless Indictment in Florida should be just the first step, followed quickly by the dismissal of ALL the Witch Hunts — The January 6th Hoax in Washington, D.C., the Manhattan D.A.’s Zombie Case, the New York A.G. Scam, Fake Claims about a woman I never met (a decades old photo in a line with her then husband does not count)....
Why Is Snopes.com Helping Trump Clean Up “Very Fine People”?
https://newrepublic.com/article/183082/nopes-trump-very-fine-people
According to Trump, there were “very fine people” in both of the two groups, which included the people who went to the rally organized by neo-Nazis and people who protested the neo-Nazis. Those were your “sides.” Trump, here, said that within the group of people at the neo-Nazi rally, where “the night before” they were marching with tiki torches and chanting “Jews will not replace us,” there were “very fine people.”
What to know about Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/15/politics/jd-vance-trump-vp-what-to-know/index.html
Other tweets liked by Vance said Trump committed “serial sexual assault,” called him “one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs,” and, in a since-removed set of tweets, harshly criticized Trump’s response to the deadly 2017 White nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — something Vance now defends Trump over.
KFile also previously reported that Vance deleted past anti-Trump tweets ahead of his announcement in July 2021 that he would run for the open Ohio Senate seat. Vance in February 2016 privately wondered whether Trump was “America’s Hitler,” and a few months later wrote in The Atlantic that Trump was “cultural heroin.”
Vance also said he even contemplated voting for Clinton in 2016, but ultimately said he would vote for independent candidate Evan McMullin.
Monday, July 15, 2024
Aileen Cannon’s nuking of the Trump documents case continues her trend of embracing long-shot legal theories
After a year of court hearings examining far-fetched theories about presidential classification power, flimsy accusations of prosecutorial misconduct and heated debates about redacting court filings, Judge Aileen Cannon ended Jack Smith’s classified documents prosecution of former President Donald Trump on Monday for a more foundational – but nonetheless astonishing – reason.
She said Smith was unconstitutionally appointed as special counsel and that the funding of his office also violated the law. Her dismissal of the case on that rationale is at odds with several other court rulings from judges across the country that have upheld the Justice Department’s use of special counsels to spearhead politically sensitive investigations.
J.D. Vance’s journey from a ‘Never Trump’ guy to Trump’s VP pick
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/15/jd-vance-vp-pick-trump/
“I can’t stomach Trump,” Vance told NPR that August. “I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy. I never liked him,” Vance told Charlie Rose in October 2016, weeks before Trump was elected president. That same year, he compared Trump’s candidacy to cultural heroin and reportedly told a former roommate that Trump was either a “cynical asshole” or “America’s Hitler.”
Unity’ Doesn’t Mean Covering Up the Truth About Donald Trump
About his speech, Trump, showing his new softer side said, “I had all prepared an extremely tough speech, really good, all about the corrupt, horrible administration.” Then he added, “But I threw it away.” He then said, “I want to unite our country.” Which is an idea that held up during his conversation with with New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin all the way until when asked about how he would change his tone that policy differences were, in Goodwin’s words, “the stumbling block.”
But has he changed? As soon as the dismissal of the classified documents case was announced Monday, Trump took to Truth Social to call for the dismissal of all the other charges and cases he faces, overseen by a “Democrat Justice Department.”
Thomas uses Trump immunity ruling to question Jack Smith appointment
Thomas was weighing in on what is generally considered a far-fetched legal theory pushed by Trump’s attorneys in lower courts and by some conservative legal groups. They argue that Smith was illegally appointed and funded and say the criminal cases against Trump should be dismissed.
Schumer: ‘Misguided’ dismissal of Trump classified docs case ‘must be appealed’
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4772736-schumer-trump-classified-documents-dismissed/
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Florida Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of the felony charges accusing former President Trump of mishandling classified documents “breathtakingly misguided” and called for her ruling to be “appealed immediately.”
“This breathtakingly misguided ruling flies in the face of long-accepted practice and repetitive judicial precedence,” Schumer said in a statement issued shortly after the ruling.
Judge Cannon Dismisses Trump Classified Docs Prosecution: ‘Unconstitutional’
Cannon based her decision largely around Justice Clarence Thomas’ recent concurrence that cast doubt on the legality of special counsel appointments. In his presidential immunity opinion, Thomas questioned whether the Attorney General Merrick Garland violated the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause by appointing a special counsel to an office not created by law, writing that the Executive Branch “cannot create offices at his pleasure.”
Trump’s classified documents case dismissed over Jack Smith appointment
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4772516-trump-classified-document-case-dismissed/mlite/
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday tossed former President Trump’s criminal charges accusing him of mishandling classified information, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith was not lawfully appointed.
Candace Owens Weighs In on Donald Trump Shooting 'Conspiracy'
"So you're telling me that guy walked up and was trying to get the attention, the Secret Service saw him, and he's pointing and he's saying, 'This guy's got a gun,' and they're pretending they don't know what's going on? I mean, am I crazy?"
Trump’s vow to only be a dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric
As Donald Trump faces growing scrutiny over his increasingly authoritarian and violent rhetoric, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave his longtime friend a chance to assure the American people that he wouldn’t abuse power or seek retribution if he wins a second term.
But instead of offering a perfunctory answer brushing off the warnings, Trump stoked the fire.
“Except for day one,” the GOP front-runner said Tuesday night before a live audience in Davenport, Iowa. “I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
And in case anyone missed it, he reenacted the exchange.
“We love this guy,” Trump said of Hannity. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’”
Chazal - authority on Medicine
Rav Avraham ben HaRambam (Discourse on Agada): We are not obligated to accept the views of the sages of the Talmud on matters concerning medicine, natural science or astronomy - simply because of their greatness and authority - as we are concerning their explanations of the Torah. That is because concerning Torah, they were the ultimate experts and they had the exclusive authority to teach it as it says in the Torah, “You should do according to the Torah that they teach.”
Why Many Leaders Are Suggesting Trump Is Ordained by God After the Assassination Attempt
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/trump-assassination-texas-christians/
Many evangelical supporters and far-right Christian leaders now have come to see Trump as their ordained champion in the fight for the country they believe is rightfully theirs. Any resistance—a legal challenge, an electoral loss, a bullet of still-mysterious origin, caught in the early stages of investigation—only further sanctifies the cause and its vessel. God’s ways are not mysterious to them. His ways, they believe, are their own.
Sunday, July 14, 2024
Pro-Trump Christian extremists use scripture to justify violent goals
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/13/trump-christian-nationalist-violent-rhetoric/
Democrats aren’t opponents, but enemies to be “smited.” Vice President Harris is depicted as Jezebel, the epitome of womanly wickedness who meets a grisly end. Teachers, librarians, drag queens — all perceived as introducing dangerous ideas to children — are condemned to drowning with millstones around their necks, a la Matthew 18:6.
Friday, July 12, 2024
Trump gets away with dodging the key questions
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-809813
Trump may see the media as his permanent enemy but in reality they are his greatest ally. He is a skilled performer and his rage and rants at his rallies have been rewarded with more airtime and ink than his opponents, and with minimal scrutiny. He’s been more entertaining than any of his opponents, Republican and Democratic, and that attracts the viewers and advertisers.
Economists Say Inflation Would Be Worse Under Trump Than Biden
In a Wall Street Journal survey, economists see Trump’s plans to raise tariffs and crack down on illegal immigration as putting upward pressure on prices
Thursday, July 11, 2024
Americans Aren't Abandoning Joe Biden
"I spent time in Pennsylvania the weekend after the debate. Not a lot of folks were worried," Democratic Senator Chris Coons told Newsweek.
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Joe Biden Starts to Turn the Tide on Rebel Democrats Published Jul 09, 2024 at 9:28 PM EDT
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-starts-turn-tide-rebel-democrats-1923058.
New York Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler, who on Sunday reportedly argued in favor of Biden stepping aside during a private call with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, appeared to reverse course in comments to reporters.
MAGA Senator Josh Hawley Advocates for Being a Christian Nationalist
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-senator-josh-hawley-goes-mask-off-on-being-a-christian-nationalist-at-national-conservatism-conference?ref=home?ref=home
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) assured the National Conservatism conference on Monday that he is a “Christian Nationalist.”
Hawley has previously written that “America as we know it cannot survive without biblical Christianity,” reiterated his Christian nationalist bona fides for the conservative conference.
“Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian nation. And so I am,” Hawley told the crowd. “And some will say that I am advocating Christian nationalism. And so I do.”
'186,000 Gazans dead’: Lancet magazine publishes new blood libel
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-809632
The Lancet magazine, an esteemed medical journal founded in 1823, published a piece earlier this week authored by doctors Rasha Khatib, Martin McKee and Salim Yusuf, which claimed that “it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”
Sunday, July 7, 2024
Health Ministry says 153 diagnosed with West Nile fever since start of outbreak, 11 have died
The Health Ministry reports that 153 patients have been diagnosed with West Nile fever in an ongoing outbreak, and a total of eleven people diagnosed with the virus have died.
Biden gaining ground on Trump in battleground states despite disaster debate: new poll
https://nypost.com/2024/07/06/us-news/biden-gain-ground-on-trump-in-battleground-states-poll/
It’s the smallest gap since the poll began in October.
Although Biden is losing in Pennsylvania, the state where he grew up, he now leads Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Saturday, July 6, 2024
NJ mother said she murdered 2 daughters for 'religious purposes': Court docs
https://abc7ny.com/post/naomi-elkins-lakewood-nj-mother-kids-killed/15006859/
During an interview with police, she allegedly said that she knew that it was illegal to kill her children and that what she did was wrong.
Friday, July 5, 2024
Disturbing footage: Hamas operatives beat Gazans who 'stole' from aid storehouses
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/392608
Footage published by the IDF Arabic language spokesman shows the brutal public beating of Gazan civilians who attempted to procure food from Hamas-controlled storehouses.
Biden moves into tie with Trump in new survey
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4753402-biden-trump-race-white-house-poll/
Each candidate received 40 percent support in the poll. That’s a 2-point improvement for Biden, who trailed Trump 41 percent to 39 percent in an identical poll in mid-June. A fifth of respondents were undecided.
The results for Biden could lessen concerns about his candidacy after a poor debate performance last week. A rising number of Democrats have called on Biden to leave the presidential campaign and let another candidate lead the ticket in November.
Supreme Court’s weakening of public corruption safeguards sparks alarm
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4754860-supreme-court-decision-bribery-law-corruption/
Ethics and legal experts warn that the Supreme Court has struck a serious blow to prosecutors’ ability to crack down on the abuse of power and public corruption.
And that’s ringing alarm bells when Donald Trump, who was convicted in May by a Manhattan jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and who was hit with a $355 million penalty in a civil fraud trial in February, is leading in the presidential race.
A New Report Adds Evidence That Trump Was a Russian Asset
Donald Trump was a tool in a long-running Russian campaign to weaken the United States. That’s been documented in Republican-led investigative reports, and now it has been updated with new evidence, thanks to the U.S. Intelligence Community’s assessment of the 2020 election. The report, drafted by the CIA, the FBI, and several other agencies, was released in unclassified form on Tuesday, but it was presented in classified form on Jan. 7. In other words, it was compiled, written, and edited during Trump’s administration. It destroys his lies about the election, and it exposes him as a Russian asset.
Senate Russia report proves Trump collusion was very real. But do voters care?
Far from a hoax, as the president so often claimed, the report reveals how the Trump campaign willingly engaged with Russian operatives implementing the influence effort. For instance, the report exposes interactions and information exchanged between Russian intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik and then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. According to the report, campaign figures “presented attractive targets for foreign influence, creating notable counterintelligence vulnerabilities.” (Manafort was later convicted of tax and bank fraud.)
All of Trump’s Russia Ties, in 7 Charts
These charts illustrate dozens of those links, including meetings between Russian officials and members of Trump’s campaign and administration; his daughter’s ties to Putin’s friends; Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant; and his short-lived mixed martial arts venture with one of Putin’s favorite athletes. The solid lines mark established facts, while dotted ones represent speculative or unproven connections.
Links between Trump associates and Russian officials
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Links_between_Trump_associates_and_Russian_officials
By April 19, 2019, The New York Times had documented that "Donald J. Trump and 18 of his associates had at least 140 contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, during the 2016 campaign and presidential transition."[16]
Segula- Rav Moshe Shapiro
From Looking into the Sun by Rabbi Menachem Nissel published by Feldheim
Rav Moshe explained that segulos are not a magical shortcut. The avodah (hard work) for parnassa includes tefillah, maasim tovim, and working on emunah. If you've worked on these things, the heavenly shefa can come pouring down. 1he segulah can then be a vessel to contain them.
Rav Shlomo pressed on. "What did Rav Moshe think of the new custom where Ashkenazic men do pesichah (opening the Ark)when their wives are in their ninth month?" Rav Shlomo's greatgrandfather,Rav Shimon Schwab, did not approve of the custom. (Note: The custom is mentioned in the Chida, Avodas Hakodesh 1:90.)
Rav Moshe replied that pesichah all year round unleashes rachamim min haShamayim. However, to do so without kavanah and tefillah is a maaseh kof b'alma, nothing more than the actions of a monkey.
Not all my friends received such positive responses. When asked about the Yerushalmi segulah of going to the Kosel for forty days, Rav Moshe responded with, "Why can't you just daven?" When a close talmid suggested a certain segulah, Rav Moshe gave him a piercing look and said, "Why don't you just hang up a horseshoe?"
Trump wasn’t exonerated by the presidential immunity ruling, even though he says he was
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday misrepresented in a social media post what the U.S. Supreme Court’s Monday ruling on presidential immunity means for his civil and criminal cases.
“TOTAL EXONERATION!” he wrote in the post on his Truth Social platform. “It is clear that the Supreme Court’s Brilliantly Written and Historic Decision ENDS all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me, including the WHITE HOUSE AND DOJ INSPIRED CIVIL HOAXES in New York.”
Thursday, July 4, 2024
Justices claim immunity ruling allows presidents to poison staff, have Navy SEALs kill political rivals
But although the majority opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts explicitly stated that the president "is not above the law" and immunity is only a factor when it involves an "official act" — the justices sent the case back to lower courts to determine if the acts at the center of Trump's case were "official" — the ruling raised a series of frightening possibilities, according to the trio of dissenting justices.
Trump immunity decision shows that conservative ‘originalism’ is a farce
Writing for a 6-3 majority, Chief Justice Roberts announced that presidents have a presumption of absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. He identified a handful of obvious official acts that underpin Special Counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment of Donald Trump for his actions relating to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which must therefore now be excised from the case — while at the same time refusing to draw any lines for unofficial acts, instead punting that question to the lower courts for the justices to resolve in an inevitable appeal another day
Trump’s attorney argues that fake elector scheme falls under 'official acts' of president
In an interview with CNN, the attorney, Will Scharf, also argued that Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election qualify as official acts, which would shield the former president from prosecution.
Trump's Lawyers Claim paying Hush Money to PornStar in White House is Core Presidential duty
Trump’s lawyers say jurors should not have heard the Hicks testimony, and other evidence from the ex-president’s stint in the White House that they claim unfairly influenced the jury.
What is an ‘official’ act, and how will a judge interpret Trump’s immunity?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/07/02/official-act-trump-immunity-trial-judge/
The Supreme Court sent Trump’s federal Jan. 6 case back to a trial judge to decide three questions: Which alleged acts by Trump charged by special counsel Jack Smith fall under the executive branch’s exclusive constitutional authority and are therefore immune from prosecution? Which are official acts but prosecutable because they pose no danger of intruding on the power or function of the presidency? And what acts can be prosecuted because they involve private conduct, such as actions taken by Trump as a candidate, not as an officeholder?
Garnel disagrees with this
Garnel IronheartJuly 4, 2024 at 5:28 PM
The Constitution defines what official acts are available to the President. He cannot push someone into traffic and claim it's an official act. Kal v'chomer activating a SEAL team to go and assassinate an American citizen who is no objective threat to the country.
The hysteria surrounding this ruling is not unlike claiming Jews poisoned the local well.
Project 2025 Leader Unveils Plan for Life After Second American Revolution
https://www.newsweek.com/project-2025-heritage-foundation-republicans-american-revolution-1920870
In a statement to Newsweek, Roberts echoed the remarks he made on X and said, "Unfortunately, it's the Left that has a long history of violence, so it's up to them to allow a peaceful transfer of power. As we saw in 2020, organized groups on the Left have the capacity to carry out violent riots, take over cities, and weaponize taxpayer-funded agencies to target their political opponents."
Roberts outlined how the ruling might help transform the federal government with conservative policy proposals, should Donald Trump win the White House in November and adopt Project 2025. The Project 2025 website states that it is a presidential transition project seeking to "build on four pillars that will, collectively, pave the way for an effective conservative administration: a policy agenda, personnel, training, and a 180-day playbook."
Can the President Send SEAL Team Six to Assassinate His Rival? After Monday, Yes.
But as Justice Sonia Sotomayor explained in her dissent, the lesson from Nixon is that when presidents use their power to commit official acts in pursuit of a criminal scheme, that is when we should be most concerned about their conduct and most eager for them to face accountability. Because that is when their criminal conduct poses the most heightened threat to democracy. If the president can take this immense power we entrust him with and manipulate it for corrupt ends—knowing he will never face accountability—then we have fundamentally changed the nature of what the presidency is. He is no longer a person who is elected by the people to represent them for four years. He is an emperor who walks into office, surveys his new powers, and gets to decide how to use them for his own corrupt advantage—to enrich himself, to entrench his authority, to prevent the peaceful transition to power, to even execute his rivals. I just think that is exactly the opposite of how the executive power had been understood until Monday morning. And I find myself baffled that six justices would say that presidential accountability is now constitutionally prohibited rather than constitutionally required
Fauci says he has ‘no doubt’ Biden is capable of continuing as president
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4754808-fauci-no-doubt-biden-capable-as-president/
He called Biden “very probing in his questions, very analytical, very calm about things,” and said during briefings, Biden always asked “very relevant questions.”
Fauci continued, “So my interactions with him, I have to say, have been very, very positive, in every way.”
Conservative Heritage leader: ‘Second American Revolution’ will be bloodless ‘if the left allows it to be’
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4753439-heritage-leader-second-american-revolution/
The leader of conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation argued the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity will reinforce a “second American Revolution,” which he said would “remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Trump attorney argues ‘fake electors’ scheme was an ‘official act’
Trump attorney Will Scharf told CNN Monday night that some acts alleged in the former president’s federal election subversion indictment do constitute private conduct but the effort to put forth slates of alternate electors in 2020 from key battleground states is not one of them.
“We believe the assembly of those alternate slates of electors was an official act of the presidency,” Scharf said, noting the Supreme Court left that question for lower courts to decide.
John Dean says Nixon ‘would have survived’ Watergate under immunity ruling
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4750581-supreme-court-immunity-nixon/
John Dean, former White House counsel for the Nixon administration, said he believes former President Nixon “would have survived” the Watergate scandal if the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling issued Monday, which largely shields former presidents from criminal prosecution for actions in office, existed at the time.
Not Responding to Embarrassment Gives power of Beracha?
There is a widespread claim that not responding when someone insults or embarrasses you gives you the power of Beracha
Does anyone know its source?
I have been told it comes from the statement "toleh eretz al blima" but can find nothing, it is also claimed the following is the source but I don't see how?
Chullin (89a)With regard to that verse, Rabbi Ile’a says: The world endures only in the merit of one who restrains [shebolem] himself during a quarrel, as it is stated: “He hangs the earth upon nothing [belima]. Rabbi Abbahu says: The world endures only in the merit of one who renders himself as if he were non-existent, as it is stated: “And underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27), i.e., one who considers himself to be underneath everything else is the everlasting arm that upholds the world.
Rambam (Sanhedrin 26:06) Although a judge or a nasi has the right to look past affronts to his honor, he cannot look past being cursed. Similarly, with regard to other people, even though the person who was cursed is prepared to look past the matter, the person who uttered the curse is lashed, for he committed a transgression and incurred liability. If, however, a person is obligated to be placed under a ban of ostracism, because he conducted himself in an unbridled manner in court, and the judges desire to look past the affront to their honor and not impose a ban of ostracism, they have that license, provided it will not lead to a decline in the honor of the Creator. For example, people at large were repudiating the words of the Torah and the judges. Since the people overstepped the bounds, the court must act firmly and punish as they see necessary.
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Donald Trump Says Fake Electors Scheme Was 'Official Act'
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-fake-electors-scheme-supreme-court-1919928
Donald Trump lawyer has said that an alleged fake elector scheme was an "official act" and so should be immune from prosecution in Trump's federal election interference case.
Trump's team is alleged to have created and submitted fraudulent certificates to falsely claim Trump had won the Electoral College vote in certain states to disrupt President Joe Biden's victory.
Johnson dismisses Democratic ‘hyperbole’ over immunity ruling: ‘It’s madness’
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4750970-house-speaker-dismisses-presidential-immunity-fears/
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday shrugged off Democrats’ concern over the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling, calling their fears of future presidential criminality “madness.”
“Look, there’s all sorts of hyperbole tonight…and just this, fantastical, these hypotheticals they’ve made up [that] future presidents are going to turn into assassins and all the rest,” Johnson said Monday in an interview on Fox News. “It’s madness.”
“Listen, remember this. The president and vice president are the only two officers in our constitutional system that are elected by all the people, no one who is elected to that office going to be prone to this kind of crazy criminal activity,” Johnson added.
Trump’s Assassination Fantasy Has a Darker Purpose
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/05/trump-biden-assassination-fbi/678476/
Trump has a way of projecting his own vices onto others. His view of presidential power is absolute—to the point that his lawyer recently argued before the Supreme Court that ordering the military to assassinate a political rival “could well be an official act.” There is probably some limiting principle to this particular argument, but the fact that the issue is even under discussion is not a good sign for our democracy. Perhaps he believes that Biden was out to shoot him because he thinks that’s an order that presidents can freely give.
The Supreme Court’s disastrous Trump immunity decision, explained
https://www.vox.com/scotus/358292/supreme-court-trump-immunity-dictatorship
Roberts’s opinion in Trump, however, seems to go even further than Trump’s lawyer did. The Constitution, after all, states that the president “shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” So, if presidential authority is “conclusive and preclusive” when presidents exercise their constitutionally granted powers, the Court appears to have ruled that yes, Trump could order the military to assassinate one of his political opponents. And nothing can be done to him for it.
Macron’s implicit endorsement of ‘antisemitic,’ ‘pro-Hamas’ far left shocks French Jews
Macron, who will remain president regardless of the parliamentary electoral results, “just endorsed a party controlled by pro-Hamas” forces, Yohann Taieb, a French-Jewish journalist, wrote on X on Monday. The Jewish groups that endorsed him were “being taken for a ride,” Taieb added.
This sentiment, shared by many French Jews, stems from a series of unusual choices by Macron throughout one of the most tumultuous political episodes in France’s recent history.
Hypothetical SEAL Team 6 political assassination resurfaces in Supreme Court presidential immunity dissent
In their dissents, both Sotomayor and Jackson addressed the question of whether a president would have immunity from criminal prosecution for acts of murder -- including ordering the assassination of a political rival.
"This new official-acts immunity now 'lies about like a loaded weapon' for any President that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation," Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.
When the president "uses his official powers in any way, under the majority's reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution," she continued. "Orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune."
I Saw the Grim Brutality of a Conservative Supreme Court Close Up
As Justice Sotomayor began to read her dissent, the atmosphere in the courtroom grew palpably more tense. In a powerful dissent joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, Sotomayor called out the majority’s lack of legal reasoning, writing: “[a]rgument by argument, the majority invents immunity through brute force” and calling the majority’s conclusions “utterly indefensible.”
Supreme court ruling would permit Biden to assassinate Trump as a threat to Democracy
Legal experts said Monday that yes, as horrific and authoritarian as that sounds, the 6-3 decision by the court’s conservative supermajority means that President Joe Biden could theoretically order that Trump be killed and be immune from criminal prosecution.
Biden issues a warning about the power of the presidency – and Trump – after Supreme Court’s immunity ruling
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/01/politics/joe-biden-immunity-supreme-court/index.html
President Joe Biden on Monday condemned the Supreme Court’s decision which ruled that presidents have an absolute immunity from prosecution for core official acts, and issued a stern warning over a possible second term for former President Donald Trump.
“There are no kings in America. Each, each of us is equal before the law. No one, no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Biden said in a speech from the White House.
Sigmund Freud and the Lubavitcher Rebbe
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12519653_Sigmund_Freud_and_the_Lubavitcher_Rebbe
In the winter of 1902-1903, Rabbi Shalom Dov-Ber Schneersohn, the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe (known by the acronym RaSHaB), from a scion of Chassidic Rabbis, travelled from Russia to Vienna to consult with 'the famous Professor Sigmund Freud. This paper discusses their 'encounter.'
Monday, July 1, 2024
As a Therapist, Freud Fell Short, Scholars Find
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/06/science/as-a-therapist-freud-fell-short-scholars-find.html
New revelations depict a Freud who seems at times mercenary and manipulative, who sometimes claimed cures where there were none, and who on occasion distorted the facts of his cases to prove his theoretical points. And, judged by current knowledge and standards, it is a Freud who, at least once, stepped over the line into malpractice.
In one little-known case that barely missed becoming a major scandal, researchers say, Freud induced two patients to divorce their spouses and marry each other. In addition, he hinted that the man should make a generous donation to his psychoanalytic fund.
Supreme Court Deals Blow to Trump’s Prosecution, Ruling He Has Broad Immunity
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/donald-trump-immunity-supreme-court-ruling-7ce6415b
The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges he sought to subvert the 2020 election, ruling 6-3 Monday that former presidents enjoy sweeping immunity for their acts while in office.
The president “may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, joined in whole or part by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
The court on its own threw out parts of the prosecution’s case against Trump, including on his alleged efforts to use the Justice Department to advance his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and submit slates of false electors to replace those President Biden won.
The ideologically divided decision didn’t kill the prosecution entirely, with the chief justice saying a president “enjoys no immunity for unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official.”
Scathing Sotomayor dissent: "The President is now a king above the law"
Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not hold back in her dissent.
“Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today. Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done. The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”
“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”
“Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today.”
The justice did not end the dissent with the traditional “respectfully” language.
“With fear for our democracy, I dissent,” Sotomayor wrote.
Psychological projection
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
Projection (German: Projektion) was conceptualised by Sigmund Freud in his letters to Wilhelm Fliess,[12] and further refined by Karl Abraham and Anna Freud. Freud considered that, in projection, thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings that cannot be accepted as one's own are dealt with by being placed in the outside world and attributed to someone else.[13] What the ego refuses to accept is split off and placed in another.[14]
Freud would later come to believe that projection did not take place arbitrarily, but rather seized on and exaggerated an element that already existed on a small scale in the other person.[15] (The related defence of projective identification differs from projection in that the other person is expected to become identified with the impulse or desire projected outside,[16] so that the self maintains a connection with what is projected, in contrast to the total repudiation of projection proper.)[17]
Some studies were critical of Freud's theory. Research on social projection supports the existence of a false-consensus effect whereby humans have a broad tendency to believe that others are similar to themselves, and thus "project" their personal traits onto others.[37] This applies to both good and bad traits; it is not a defense mechanism for denying the existence of the trait within the self.[38] A study of the empirical evidence for a range of defense mechanisms by Baumeister, Dale, and Sommer (1998) concluded, "The view that people defensively project specific bad traits of their own onto others as a means of denying that they have them is not well supported." [38] However, Newman, Duff, and Baumeister (1997) proposed a new model of defensive projection in which the repressor's efforts to suppress thoughts of their undesirable traits make those trait categories highly accessible—so that they are then used all the more often when forming impressions of others. The projection is then only a byproduct of the real defensive mechanism.[39]
Freud Was a Fraud: A Triumph of Pseudoscience
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/freud-was-a-fraud-a-triumph-of-pseudoscience/
Freud was a despicable person with multiple character flaws. He betrayed his scientific training in a tour-de-force of self-deception, succumbing to all sorts of irrational beliefs. His vaunted psychoanalyses never objectively helped a single patient. It is astounding that his ideas and his cult were so influential for so long. Freud was a fraud, a liar, a bad scientist, and a bad doctor; but Crews’ book about him is excellent. Crews’ detailed, well-referenced investigation of Freud’s descent into pseudoscience is a fascinating read. Readers familiar with the development of alternative medicine treatments will find many parallels.
Moses and Monotheism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_and_Monotheism
Moses and Monotheism shocked many of its readers because of Freud's suggestion that Moses was actually born into an Egyptian household, rather than being born as a Hebrew slave and merely raised in the Egyptian royal household as a ward (as recounted in the Book of Exodus).[4][5] Freud proposed that Moses had been a priest of Akhenaten who fled Egypt after the pharaoh's death and perpetuated monotheism through a different religion,[6] and that he was murdered by his followers, who then via reaction formation revered him and became irrevocably committed to the monotheistic idea he represented.[1]
KA please provide Torah sources for your hero
The Philadelphia Inquirer calls on Donald Trump to drop out after debate performance
"The debate served as a reminder of what another four years of Trump would look like. More lies, grievance, narcissism, and hate. Supporters say they like Trump because he says whatever he thinks. But he mainly spews raw sewage," the Inquirer wrote.
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