Saturday, January 31, 2026
השיטה הקדושה (שיטת ה"שוואנצונעס")
https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/מנחם_מנדל_הגר_(בני_ברק)#השיטה_הקדושה_(שיטת_ה"שוואנצונעס")
החצר בראשותו מחנכת לפולחן אישיות ומדגישה את חשיבות ההתבטלות המוחלטת כלפיו[11]. בעלונים שמתפרסמים בחצרו מרבים לעסוק בנושא ההתבטלות המוחלטת לצדיק[12], כך לדוגמה באחד המקורות שפורסמו נכתב: "שהרבי הקדוש אינו גוף ולא ישיגוהו משיגי הגוף, נערץ ונקדש מעל לכל דמות ודמיון […] לבדו ימלוך מלך ונשגב רבינו הקדוש לבדו, כי המלכות שלך הוא, ואנו קרוצי חומר זוכים בזכייה נשגבה ומתנת חינם ממש לעבדו בלבב שלם". עוד נכתב כי על הצעיר החסידי לשנן בכל עת "שיויתי הייליגער רבי לנגדי תמיד" (בתרגום לעברית: "שיויתי את הרבי הקדוש לנגדי תמיד"), משפט שבמקורו נאמר על אלוהים: שִׁוִּיתִי ה' לְנֶגְדִּי תָמִיד[13]. בשעת תפילת שמונה עשרה מתפללים לכיוונו ומביטים עליו, ואת ספריו יש להניח מעל שאר ספרי הקודש, ואף מעל החומש[14]. יש הטוענים כי החסיד מחונך שהאדמו"ר הוא מעל הכל, ואם יורה לאכול חזיר יש לעשות זאת.[15]
‘Melania’ promises to take us behind the scenes. There’s nothing to see.
‘Melania’ promises to take us behind the scenes. There’s nothing to see.
There is a controversial new Amazon documentary about Melania Trump released this weekend and every single review I’ve read has been terrible, but babe, if you suspect I have come here today to trash a movie about the wife of a notoriously thin-skinned, anti-journalist president, which was bankrolled by the company owned by the man who also pays my salary — NOT TODAY, SATAN. Do you think I’m a moron? (Don’t answer that). This house is clean.
What I ended up wondering throughout this documentary, while I kept waiting in vain for director Brett Ratner to peel back another layer on Melania, is if we were dealing with a situation that was not an onion but a potato. Yes, there’s a thin protective skin. But after you breach that, no matter how many times you go after it with a peeler, you’re dealing with pretty much the same pulp.
Her worldview seems based on optics more than reality: that what things look like is as important as what things are like. She carries on about redecorating the White House tennis pavilion not because she is dim but because, in her view, her highest calling is not to give the American public something they can identify with but rather something they can aspire to.
What is she thinking? It doesn’t really matter, honestly. The fact that she is disciplined enough to hide her true personality from the public is, in fact, her personality.
Epstein Survivors Slam Trump’s DOJ Over Shoddy Release of Files
https://newrepublic.com/post/204717/epstein-survivors-trump-justice-department-files
All those redactions and somehow the Department of Justice still didn’t redact survivors’ names.
Tulsi Gabbard’s appearance at Fulton County FBI raid raises questions
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/01/30/tulsi-gabbard-fulton-county-fbi-raid/
There are “only two explanations” for why Gabbard was in Fulton County on Wednesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia) said at the hearing.
One is that she believes there’s a “legitimate foreign intelligence nexus,” he said, in which case Gabbard “violated her legal obligation to keep the intelligence committees fully and currently informed,” or she is attempting to insert the intelligence community into what Warner called “a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.’’
Former senior U.S. intelligence officials called Gabbard’s participation in the FBI action unprecedented, and out of line with her office’s legal authorities.
Trump has long maintained that the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, was rigged. U.S. national security officials at the time said they found no evidence of widespread fraud and numerous courts rejected claims of election irregularities as unfounded.
Kosher Blackmail
https://mishpacha.com/the-fur-coat/
The fur coat, they noted, wasn’t there — and my father-in-law was intrigued. He launched an investigation. I don’t know how he found this out, but he determined that the lawyer had stolen the coat and given it to his mother.
He sent him the photo he had taken of my mother-in-law wearing the coat and told him he knew that he had stolen it.
“I have no interest in sending this photo to the police and ruining your career,” he wrote, “even though you deserve it for stealing from your client. But you need to do one simple thing — release the $300,000 for my grandson. My son-in-law will use it to further his son’s education in any way that he sees fit, without your involvement. You will make the transfer as soon as you receive this email.”
Why did G-d tell Moshe to stop praying?
Shemos (14:15) Then G-d said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.
Rashi ( Shemos (14:15)) WHEREFORE CRIEST THOU UNTO ME? — there is no mention that he prayed to God concerning this, but this teaches us that Moses stood in prayer. Whereupon the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, “It is no time now to pray at length, when Israel is placed in trouble”.
Friday, January 30, 2026
How two federal agents escalated an encounter with Alex Pretti into a deadly shooting
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/29/politics/video/immigration-agents-shooting-alex-pretti-vid-invs
In the chaotic moments leading up to Alex Pretti’s death on Saturday, the aggressive actions of two federal agents transformed the encounter into a deadly shooting, a CNN analysis of video has found.
The conduct of those two agents, from the earliest moments interacting with demonstrators up through their decision to pull weapons and fire at Pretti, illustrate the dangers of flooding American cities with officers ill-equipped to deal with protesters in urban environments, experts told CNN.
While major city police departments have embraced a philosophy of cooling down heated encounters with the public, the immigration officers in Minneapolis did the opposite – right up to the moment of Pretti’s death.
Law enforcement experts who reviewed the videos for CNN said the officers’ use of deadly force likely stemmed from lack of training or a failure by the agents to follow it during the heated encounter.
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Fuel tanker overturned, flooding section of Highway 60 in Jerusalem with flammable material
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/wwecwhp07
A gasoline tanker rolled down a hill onto Highway 60 in Jerusalem, between the neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Neve Yaakov, flooding the road with flammable material. Firefighting teams and a hazardous materials unit are working at the scene in coordination with police to prevent ignition.
Melania Trump documentary bombs with only 1 ticket sold
https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/01/28/melania-trump-documentary-box-office-failure-empty-theaters/
First Lady Melania Trump's documentary "Melania" sells just one or two tickets per screening worldwide, turning Amazon's $75M investment into a historic flop.
Not to disagree with Evil People!?
The gemora seems full of contradictions. Tonite I leaned that one should not figtht against Evil Men
Sanhedrin (110a)With regard to the verse: “And Moses arose and went to Dathan and Abiram” (Numbers 16:25), Reish Lakish says: From here we derive that one may not perpetuate a dispute, as Rav says: Anyone who perpetuates a dispute violates a prohibition, as it is stated: “And he will not be like Korah and his assembly, as the Lord spoke by the hand of Moses to him” (Numbers 17:5). Even the aggrieved party must seek to end the dispute. Dathan and Abiram accused Moses and by right should have initiated the reconciliation. Nevertheless, Moses was not insistent on this; he went to them.
However The Mishna Berura and many others say that one should protest against evil doers and hate them until they are defeated and destroyed
Biur Halacha (1.1) And he should not be embarrassed - Refer to the Mishna Berurah quoting the Beis Yosef. Know that the Beis Yosef is only dealing with [a case of] where he does [an exclusively] personal Mitzvah and men mock him, for then certainly their is no thoughtful assumption to mock them, nor to quarrel with them. However, if he is in a situation where there are heretics who rise against the Torah, and want to pass certain rules in matters of the city, and through this, detach the public from the will of Hashem, and, if one would try to negotiate peacefully, they wouldn't listen to his words- the Beis Yosef wasn't speaking about an example like this at all. Rather, it is a Mitzvah to hate them and to quarrel with them and to contradict their advice in whatever way one is able. As King David said in the verse, "For indeed, those who hate you, O Hashem, I hate them, and with those who rise up against you I quarrel! With the utmost hatred, I hate them...."(Psalms 139, 21).
Senior Hamas official: We never agreed to disarm, no one’s raised it with us directly
Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk said Wednesday that Hamas never agreed to disarm, casting doubt on whether the terror group will fulfil a key US and Israeli demand included in the American-backed plan for postwar Gaza.
Abu Marzouk’s statement runs contrary to the insistence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump that the terror group give up its weapons in the near future as part of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire. Trump has repeatedly asserted that Hamas “promised” to lay down its arms, and has threatened the group over the issue.
Abu Marzouk also suggested Hamas has a de facto veto on any appointment to the new technocratic committee set up to run the Gaza Strip, and stressed that Hamas still rules over the part of the enclave that, in accordance with the ceasefire, is not under IDF control.
National Guard deployments cost taxpayers almost half a billion dollars
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/28/national-guard-deployments-cost/
President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard and active-duty Marine personnel to U.S. cities cost approximately $496 million between June and December last year, according to an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Continuing the deployment for the next year could cost the nation over $1 billion, the estimate found.
Trump has repeatedly said his deployments are necessary because local leaders have not done enough to combat crime in major cities. The deployments, however, have been repeatedly challenged in court, and legal experts have warned that Trump may be exceeding his authority.
‘Our cities are no longer safe’: GOP mayors condemn Trump immigration enforcement
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/28/republican-mayors-trump-ice-00754195
At a gathering of mayors in Washington on Wednesday, Republicans criticized the White House’s recent immigration crackdown as chaotic and damaging.
A number of Republican mayors are condemning the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement tactics in Minnesota, as they call on the president to pull back from Minneapolis and worry their cities might be next.
The Republican leaders’ calls for Trump to deescalate after the fatal shootings of two Minnesotans by federal agents show the GOP’s deepening fissures over the administration’s aggressive immigration agenda, even as the mayors and Republicans broadly offered support for the president’s overall goal. And their alarm comes as ICE ramps up operations in other states, including Arizona and Maine.
I was a Marine in Afghanistan. ICE’s tactics are strategically incoherent.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/01/28/minnesota-ice-unrest-reader-reaction/
In 2009, I was a Marine in Helmand province during the height of the shift to counterinsurgency operations. We were heavily armed and trained for violence, as Marines are expected to be.
But when we encountered local Afghans, we took off our helmets. We removed our sunglasses. We put a hand over our hearts, we looked the Afghans in the eye and said Salaam Alekum, or “peace be upon you.” If the situation allowed, we sat down. We drank tea. We talked. This wasn’t weakness or wokeness. It was strength, discipline and strategy.
We were still Marines. When it was time to fight, we did so decisively. But we also understood something essential: You cannot intimidate your way into lasting security. You cannot terrorize a population into cooperation. And you cannot claim moral authority if your posture communicates only contempt or fear.
I reflect on those lessons as I watch an anti-immigration agenda in the United States that has gone badly off course. Masked officers in military-style gear, conducting raids with theatrical dominance rather than measured authority. Communities treated as hostile terrain rather than neighborhoods. I find this not only disturbing but also strategically incoherent.
In Afghanistan, we understood that showing up as faceless, armored enforcers was a fast way to lose the population’s trust. We knew that intimidation buys compliance only temporarily, and resentment compounds faster than control.
If Marines could understand this in a war zone, we should be able to understand it in our own country.
Opposition MKs send ‘deep regret’ to Biden for PM blaming ’embargo’ for IDF deaths
Lawmakers pen letter thanking former US president for post-Oct. 7 support, say he is ‘one of Israel’s greatest friends’; senior Israeli security officials said ‘furious’ with PM’s claim
Biden has not commented on Netanyahu’s claim, though when he was in office, his administration denied the premier’s previous allegations that the US had placed an “embargo” on arms shipments to Israel, saying that it had only withheld one batch of 2,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs amid concerns about how they would be used in the southern Gaza city of Rafah at that time.
Why de-escalation training and communication matters when federal agents police city streets
WEXLER: Look, what would it take for both sides to ratchet it down? But I think that starts, honestly, with ICE sort of saying look, let's step back, and let's look at how we're doing these kind of cases. How can we do them differently? And if this was a local police department, they would be reaching out to the community. They would get the community involved. They would say, we need you. We need to build trust. But when you have federal agents coming into a community, they can sometimes come off as an occupying army. And in American policing, that's not what we've learned. We know, you know, communication, trust, all of those things are essential.
WEXLER: I mean, that's a good point. American police have recognized it's important for them to have their name, their ID, to be visible, to communicate. American police wear body-worn cameras. All of these efforts have been to try to regain trust and legitimacy with the community. I think when you go into these situations masked, it creates this image - somehow, whatever they're doing is not legitimate. And look, they have a difficult job. I don't envy ICE agents. I think, though, when you put them in these positions and you put masks on their face, and they're not communicating, they have no relationship with the community, it really becomes almost, you know, a recipe for disaster.
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Trump says he shuts eyes in Cabinet meetings because they're 'boring as hell'
President Donald Trump explained that he closes his eyes during Cabinet meetings because he finds them extremely boring, and his aides say he is still listening. He defended his health, saying he feels as fit as 40 years ago, and White House staff described his eye‑closing as a thinking posture rather than dozing.
Trump Finally Admits Why He Was Sleeping in All Those Cabinet Meetings
https://newrepublic.com/post/205695/trump-admits-asleep-cabinet-meetings
After months of denials, President Trump has finally admitted that he has been falling asleep during Cabinet meetings.
In an interview with New York magazine published Monday, Trump said that he closed his eyes during those meetings because they were “boring as hell.”
It’s a stark admission in an article about Trump’s health that the president agreed to in an attempt to quash negative reports about his age and his visibly declining mental and physical fitness. The president previously claimed to be “resting” or “blinking” his eyes, despite having fallen asleep multiple times in full view of the press and public: in the middle of his own military parade, while meeting foreign leaders, and four different times in the month of December.
Much of the article is Trump telling doctors, staffers, and members of his Cabinet to brag to writer Ben Terris about how healthy and energetic he is. At one point during his interview, he turned to his physicians from Walter Reed hospital and asked, “Real fast. Is my health perfect?
Netanyahu’s incendiary accusation against Biden underlines need for the state inquiry he opposes
Unprompted, the PM alleges that an arms embargo instituted by the previous US administration directly caused the loss of soldiers’ lives. It’s a charge he’s never made before, and it finds no echo in the IDF’s war probes
'False and ungrateful': Biden envoy Hochstein slams Netanyahu’s claim US embargo killed IDF troops
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-884837
Former US special envoy Amos Hochstein denounced as untrue Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Tuesday remarks that IDF soldiers died in Gaza due to a partial embargo imposed by the Biden administration.
Later on Tuesday, Hochstein told Israeli reporter Barak Ravid, "Netanyahu is both not telling the truth and ungrateful to a president that literally saved Israel at its most vulnerable moment."
“After more than $20 Billion military support, largest in #Israel's history, 2 aircraft carriers rushed to the region, deterring a massive regional war, defeating Iran missile/drone attack x2, defending israel at most vulnerable moments, after SAVING countless lives of Israelis,” Hochstein wrote in a subsequent post to X/Twitter.
Assume this loutocracy is lying about ICE until proven otherwise
Minneapolis is today’s Birmingham. Citizens with smartphones are supplementing journalists in gathering facts. It is infuriating, yet grimly sublime, that the current national administration, which will not stop banging on about how it is restoring America’s greatness, is incessantly embarrassing (about Greenland, vaccines and much else). The administration requires an addition to the typologies of government: loutocracy.
For a glimpse of what government of, by and for louts looks like, find on the internet the video, taken by a citizen in Minneapolis, in which a participant in the excitement of a melee — tear gas and other instruments for combating citizens — exclaims: “It’s like ‘Call of Duty’! So cool huh?” “Call of Duty” is a video game, away from which some new agents were perhaps lured by the signing bonuses, some up to $50,000, that have fueled the agency’s breakneck expansion.
Policing is a hard, dangerous profession. Done well, it demands of its practitioners discipline and judgment, and deserves from society a respect approaching reverence. The current administration, by erasing the distinction between police work and military operations — by allowing marauding ICEmen to pose as police — has grievously wounded the dignity of policing.
This is unsurprising. In a July 2017 speech to a law enforcement audience, President Donald Trump urged police, “don’t be too nice” to suspects taken into custody. The International Association of Chiefs of Police responded tartly:
Some administration louts have said that the most recent (as of this writing) person killed in Minneapolis by a federal officer was a “would-be assassin” and, of course, a “domestic terrorist.” Because Republicans control congressional committee gavels, and because today’s president controls congressional Republicans, there will be no oversight of ICE’s rampages. The Senate, which disgraced itself by confirming Noem and others unqualified for Cabinet positions, is especially unlikely to suddenly acquire the inconvenience of a conscience.
So, expect more killings, and more political smearing of the victims. That ICE’s disgraces will continue is, in its revolting way, a promise kept: loutocracy.
Notorious NYC pedo nearly walks free — till he ‘forgets’ details of his crimes at hearing, infuriating ADA
A notorious Brooklyn Hasidic pedophile nearly walked free during a resentencing Tuesday — till he pretended to forget details of his crimes and the furious prosecutor reversed course and pushed for more time.
Nechemya Weberman ended up with a sentence slashed down from 103 years to 18 years, although with time served, that amounts to just five years left on the clock for the pedo — and with good behavior, he could be out by 2028.
Weberman, a former counselor at a Williamsburg yeshiva now in his 60s, appeared vivacious, smiling and jovial on video feed from the maximum-security Shawangunk Prison in upstate New York — despite his supporters painting an image of a feeble man at death’s door.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office — under pressure from some members of the convict’s religious community for years — was prepared to effectively push to free the convicted sicko, having sought the resentencing on the grounds his 103-year stint was excessive and that he had already served enough time.
But Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Joseph Alexis changed course mid-hearing when Weberman claimed to forget the gory details of his misdeeds.
Noem faces mounting criticism from Republicans, Democrats after Minneapolis killing
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5709357-kristi-noem-criticism-minneapolis-shooting/
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed dismay with Noem’s comments immediately after a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at a local Veterans Affairs hospital, as she compared him to a “domestic terrorist.”
Senate Republicans other than Tillis also indicated they are frustrated at the missteps, with some members arguing she is hemorrhaging support from the conference.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who has sided with Republicans on key votes, on Tuesday lobbed a “direct appeal to immediately fire” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary.
'Must be held accountable': Trump admin. sued over deaths in boat strike off Venezuela's coast
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-884721?utm_source=jpost.app.android&utm_medium=share
Family members of two men killed in a US missile strike against a suspected drug boat near Venezuela filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday, alleging the pair were murdered in a "manifestly unlawful" military campaign targeting civilian vessels.
"These are lawless killings in cold blood; killings for sport and killings for theater, which is why we need a court of law to proclaim what is true and constrain what is lawless," Baher Azmy, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement.
In Wake of Alex Pretti Shooting, Trump Is Betraying His Base on Gun Rights. They’re Not Happy
https://time.com/7357961/ice-shooting-alex-pretti-guns-trump/
"Any gun owner knows that when you are carrying a weapon, when you are bearing arms, and you are confronted by law enforcement, you are raising the assumption of risk and the risk of force being used against you,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a feisty briefing on Monday.
This he-had-it-coming mentality is one that stems from the top of this administration. After the Saturday killing of Pretti in the streets of Minneapolis—one filmed from just about every possible angle as officers shot him at least 10 times in five seconds—administration officials sought to cast Pretti as the aggressor, an “assassin” aiming to “massacre law enforcement.”
It’s almost impossible to square support for Second Amendment rights for the likes of McCloskeys and Rittenhouse alongside a denial of them when employed by Pretti. For decades, guns have been a birthright among conservatives. (To be fair, it’s the top issue for few voters, usually in the 3% to 5% range in polls.) Any challenge to gun rights was immediate heresy, disqualifying in any measure. Yet here is Trump, elected with strong support of those who cited his support for guns, undermining that very orthodoxy in the name of suppressing growing dissent in Minneapolis.
This all might sound like some of the country’s most prominent Republicans have rethought their views on the Second Amendment. But intellectual consistency is often optional in Trump’s orbit. The President himself has shown an open indifference to absolute truths. If it sounds good, it’s true enough, he likes to say.
Five moments in the Alex Pretti shooting that raise red flags for policing experts
The tactics U.S. Border Patrol agents used against Alex Pretti in Minneapolis probably violate modern policing guidelines, several experts said, and add to a growing body of evidence that federal immigration officers are deviating from professional norms.
Just as the officers secured Pretti’s weapon, another officer could be seen unholstering his own firearm from his right hip and pointing it toward Pretti’s back. In a split second, the first crack of gunfire erupts.
But Mannino noted that multiple rounds were fired after Pretti was lying motionless.
“It’s difficult to articulate a reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm at that point,” he said.
Donald Trump Contradicts Stephen Miller on Alex Pretti
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-disputes-assassin-claim-alex-pretti-stephen-miller-11425513
President Donald Trump on Tuesday publicly rejected a senior aide’s characterization of slain Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti as an “assassin,” even as his administration navigated backlash over the fatal shooting that has highlighted tensions over gun rights and federal protest enforcement.
The shift marked a step back from initial statements by senior administration officials following Pretti’s death. It came the same day Trump dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, a move that appeared to place him above Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, who had been overseeing federal operations in Minneapolis.
No publicly released video shows Pretti unholstering his concealed firearm, which he was legally permitted to carry under Minnesota law. In several clips, an officer appears to remove Pretti’s gun and walk away with it just before shots are fired.
“Showing up at a protest is very American. Showing up with a weapon is very American,” said Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Faison, the GOP caucus leader, in a social media post.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
What did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk’s killing?
During one of his evening monologues – which was recorded before Utah prosecutors released more information about the alleged killer, Tyler Robinson – Kimmel suggested Trump’s political movement, Maga, wanted to exploit the situation.
“The Maga gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said.
It was not clear if Kimmel was suggesting Robinson was a literal supporter of Maga, or that his alleged political violence was part of a broader shift towards bloodshed and force in US politics, particularly among the far right.
Still, this comment appears to have deeply angered Trump supporters and officials.
Monday, January 26, 2026
Conservatives, liberals shift gun rights arguments after shooting
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/25/alex-pretti-gun-debate-second-amendment/
The killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis has scrambled America’s gun debate, another reflection of the bitterness and polarization that have engulfed the dispute over the national crackdown on immigration by federal agents.
With Americans split between those supporting the Trump administration and those backing anti-ICE protesters, multiple conservatives — including those strongly supportive of gun rights in the past — have justified Pretti’s shooting on the grounds that his carrying of a holstered gun showed he had violent intentions.
Those positions are at odds with the usual stance of many gun rights supporters, who often defend the rights of Americans to carry firearms in almost all situations.
NRA Makes Rare Statement Against Trump Admin Over Alex Pretti Shooting
The National Rifle Association (NRA) criticized comments by a senior federal prosecutor warning that approaching law enforcement with a gun could justify a fatal police response, saying such statements risk "demonizing law‑abiding citizens" as the nation reels from the killing of a man in Minneapolis by a U.S. border agent.
The NRA was responding to remarks by Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, who said that "if you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you," adding, "Don’t do it." In a statement, the gun‑rights group called that view "dangerous and wrong," urging public officials to refrain from broad generalizations and to wait for the outcome of a full investigation into Alex Pretti’s death.
"Furthermore, we condemn the untoward comments of Bill Essayli. Federal agents are not ‘highly likely’ to be ‘legally justified’ in ‘shooting’ concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm. The Second Amendment protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon.
Assisted-Suicide Chapter Amendments coming to a vote in Albany this week, by Wed
BS"D
https://links.mkt3536.com/
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
Executive Director,
Help Rescue Our Children
845.642.1679
Direct: 771.215.8892
Israeli Helpline: 03.721.3337
Tomim Tih'yeh [countering "New-Age" infiltration]:
Presentations on New-Age dangers: 605-313-6831 ext. 2
Heard weekly on New Jersey's WSNR Radio 620AM, co-hosting the renowned Levin At Eleven program, every Thursday evening, 11pm to midnight (ET).
The unjust killing of Alex Pretti marks a turning point in Trump’s second term
The unjust killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse in Minneapolis, marks a turning point in President Donald Trump’s second term. His mass deportation campaign has been a moral and political failure, leaving American citizens feeling outraged and unsafe.
The outrageous refusal by the feds to allow local authorities to properly secure the crime scene or gather evidence further inflames tensions with state and city police. The lack of accountability for federal officers has undermined the administration’s claims that this is about law and order. The local population clearly wants the roughly 3,000 immigration officers now deployed around the Twin Cities to leave.
It’s essential that federal immigration officers don’t think they can act with impunity, because that will only encourage more fatal encounters. An independent probe of this shooting is an important step. On Saturday night, a federal judge ordered DHS not to destroy evidence related to Pretti’s killing in response to a lawsuit filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D).
Trump Says Administration Is ‘Reviewing Everything’ About Minneapolis Shooting
President Trump declined to say whether the federal officer who fatally shot a man in Minnesota this weekend had acted appropriately and said the administration was reviewing the incident.
In a five-minute telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Trump didn’t directly answer when asked twice whether the officer who shot Alex Pretti had done the right thing. Pressed further, the president said, “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.” Administration officials have publicly defended the officer
Sunday, January 25, 2026
Federal agent secured gun from Minn. man before fatal shooting, videos show
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/01/25/minneapolis-shooting-video-gun/
Federal agents who were wrestling a man to the ground in Minneapolis early Saturday secured a handgun he was carrying moments before shooting him multiple times, according to a Washington Post analysis of videos that captured the incident from several angles.
As many as eight agents were attempting to detain Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, videos show. One emerged from the scrum holding Pretti’s gun, and less than a second later, the first of what appear to be 10 shots was fired. It is not clear from the video whether the other agents realized Pretti — who local authorities believe had a permit to carry the weapon — had been disarmed
US immigration officers kill man in Minnesota, apparently falsely saying he brandished a gun
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said during a news conference that federal officers blocked his agency from the shooting scene, and when they returned with a signed judicial warrant, they were still blocked.
Anger in Israel at US special envoy Steve Witkoff
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/421404
Israeli official claims: “Witkoff pushed to bring our major rival Turkey to the border. The clock is ticking backward toward a confrontation with Turkey."
AGUDACOLYPSE: Timing is not everything, but it is a statement about how unimportant Assisted Suicide in NY is on the Aguda Totem pole.
Rabbosai,
Minnesota officials at odds with DHS over account of man killed by federal agent as new videos emerge
https://edition.cnn.com/us/live-news/ice-minneapolis-shooting-01-24-26
• Deadly shooting: Video appears to show a federal officer had taken a gun away from a Minneapolis man prior to a Border Patrol agent fatally shooting him today. The man has been identified as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old who sources say worked as an ICU nurse. Police said he’s believed to have been a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.
• Clashing narratives: The Department of Homeland Security has said the agent killed Pretti in self-defense — a narrative Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called “nonsense” and “lies.” Minnesota authorities also sued the Trump administration, claiming its officials “took from the scene” of the shooting and prevented state officials from inspecting.
US immigration officers kill man in Minnesota, apparently falsely saying he brandished a gun
Video shows ICU nurse Alex Pretti, 37, was holding a phone, not a firearm, when officers accosted him and then shot him dead; local cops describe him as a lawful gun owner
State, federal officials offer starkly different accounts of Minneapolis shooting
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/01/24/federal-agents-minneapolis-shooting-investigation/
One of the officers pushes a person who appears to be a bystander or protester down onto the sidewalk. Pretti steps between them, and the officer pepper sprays him in the face.
Pretti begins to interact with the person who was pushed, but the exchange cannot be heard. An officer appears to try to pull him away, leading to the scuffle in which Pretti is fatally shot.
An unnamed witness to the shooting said in a sworn affidavit that they did not see Pretti with a gun.
Saturday, January 24, 2026
Trump rages at NYT survey, says ‘fake’ polling should be criminal offense?
https://thehill.com/homenews/5703471-trump-attacks-poll-voter-disapproval/?tbref=hp
This week, The New York Times and Siena University released a poll showing a majority of Americans disapprove of how President Trump is handling the economy, immigration, foreign policy and affordability. A full 51 percent say his policies have made life less affordable. Nearly half of voters — 49 percent — believe the country is worse off than a year ago.
But instead of addressing the substance of the concerns, Trump took to Truth Social to attack the poll itself.
Trump argues Republicans are fixing an economy damaged by President Biden. But Americans don’t live in talking points, they live in monthly bills. Inflation is up 2.7 percent year-over-year. The typical household is spending $184 more per month than last year, and $590 more each month than they did three years ago, according to Moody’s Analytics. Grocery prices haven’t meaningfully come down. Energy, medical care, coffee and ground beef all cost more.
Suing pollsters and attacking the press won’t lower grocery prices, won’t stabilize energy costs, and won’t make life more affordable. Governing will. And right now, voters are saying — clearly — they want less outrage and more results
Friday, January 23, 2026
Trump sparks anger over claim Nato troops avoided Afghanistan front line
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czr444j671vo
Donald Trump has sparked fresh outrage in the UK after saying Nato troops stayed "a little off the front lines" during the war in Afghanistan.
Labour MP Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, called it an "absolute insult" to the 457 British service personnel killed in the conflict, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: "How dare he question their sacrifice?"
Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in Afghanistan, said it was "sad to see our nation's sacrifice, and that of our Nato partners, held so cheaply".
The US president told Fox News on Thursday that he was "not sure" the military alliance would be there for America "if we ever needed them".
"We've never needed them," he said, adding: "We have never really asked anything of them."
"They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan," he said, "and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines".
He said the US had "been very good to Europe and to many other countries", adding: "It has to be a two-way street."
What’s Going on With the Epstein Files? A Month After Deadline, the Vast Majority of Materials Remain Unreleased
https://time.com/7355932/epstein-files-release-doj-independent-monitor-house-investigation/
More than a month has passed since the deadline for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all its files related to the investigations into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And while the department has publicly shared thousands of documents since that date, those releases account for only a fraction of the materials it has in its possession—leaving the vast majority of the so-called “Epstein files” still unreleased.
In a letter to Comer, the Clintons’ lawyers said that the subpoenas they received “are invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers.” Their lawyers said that the couple has “already provided the limited information they possess about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the committee.”
Thursday, January 22, 2026
How Trump Outfoxed Himself
https://time.com/7353732/trump-outfoxed-himself/
President Donald Trump kicked off the new year with a cacophony of policy decisions which have diverted attention from his disastrous 2025.
The first year of Trump 2.0 has been soundly rated a failure in all major national polls and in each dimension of national and international priorities. Gallup found that only 36% of Americans approve of the President’s job performance. And according to a CNN poll, just 37% of Americans say that Trump places the good of the country above his personal gain and 32% say that he’s in touch with the problems ordinary Americans face in their daily lives.
Faced with high levels of unemployment, an affordability crisis, and being named in the Epstein files multiple times, Trump has unleashed a blizzard of divisive actions. He has attempted to change public discourse to focus on an alarmist hunt for enemies abroad, through his aggressions against Venezuela and Greenland, and at home, through his unpopular and violent ICE raids and attacks against Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell.
Some have concluded that Trump’s frenzy is the arbitrary approach of a deranged demagogue. “Trump does not appear to have control of his mental faculties,” asserts historian Heather Cox Richardson. “When people talk about that ‘Oh he shouldn’t do this? He can’t do this? Why is he doing this?’ and so on—you don’t make those arguments about people who don’t have any logical reason for anything they are doing excerpt perhaps, ‘I wanna feel good about myself and make lots of money.”
But this perspective misses an important point: Trump keeps getting what he wants.
The philosopher Abraham Kaplan referred to this as “the law of instrument.” Using the same hammer with increasing fevered frenzy is not going to address the challenge when a different approach, like perhaps a saw or a wrench, is needed. Trump needs to adopt new unfamiliar leadership tools which he has no experience using and which are unknown to his current sycophantic advisors.
Trump’s Greenland offramp
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/01/21/greenland-trump-tariffs-davos-nato/
At Davos, the president defuses a crisis he created.
The only good thing to say about the great Greenland crisis of 2026 is that it’s probably over. Anyone looking for any benefits associated with this exercise is wasting their time.
The retreat from confrontation came in response to backlash from global financial markets, especially bond futures. European leaders even showed some backbone. (Take note, congressional Republicans.)
The biggest risk of the Greenland kerfuffle is that Trump signaled to NATO’s adversaries that the U.S. is not fully committed to defending all member states if they come under attack in the future. On Denmark selling Greenland, for example, Trump said: “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no, and we will remember.”
Ty Cobb: ‘Significant decline’ in Trump mental faculties
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5698558-trump-health-fitness-cobb/?tbref=hp
Former White House attorney Ty Cobb claimed President Trump is experiencing a “significant decline” in his mental faculties, pointing to the commander in chief’s Tuesday appearance at a White House press briefing to mark the anniversary of his return to the Oval Office.
“I think there’s been a significant decline. He’s always been driven by narcissism. But I think the dementia and the cognitive decline are, you know, palpable, as do many experts, including many physicians,” Cobb told MS NOW’s Ari Melber on “The Beat,” in comments highlighted by
Progress toward peace in Ukraine was unlikely before Trump’s Davos rant. Now it looks all but impossible
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/21/europe/analysis-ukraine-greenland-trump-davos-latam-intl
There were hopes Davos would bring Trump together with Europe’s key leaders and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky around an $800bn “prosperity” deal for a peacetime Ukraine, and the cementing of US security guarantees for Kyiv. It did not. In a rambling speech that lasted more than an hour, Trump referenced both Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron being in the audience when in fact both had stayed away, believing little progress toward peace was likely.
What will greet Zelensky on arrival is more concerning: a hostile and unpredictable US president who seems to flippantly eviscerate his country’s longest-standing allies, mock their leaders, and then find he has loathing to spare for windmills. Trump repeated his claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted a deal on Ukraine – despite little public evidence to support it – and that Zelensky did too. Steve Witkoff, the presidential envoy to the war, is once again due to meet Putin Thursday, possibly after a Trump and Zelensky meeting in Davos. The mayhem of the past week radically decreases the already slim chance of a genuine peace deal.