‘Cynical, craven’ Republicans out to bash Biden, not Putin, over gas prices

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/12/republicans-joe-biden-russia-gas-prices

Factcheckers have pointed out that the main cause of increasing gas prices over the past year is disruptions to global supply and demand following the coronavirus pandemic. Only a 10th of the Keystone XL pipeline was complete when Biden cancelled it and it was not likely to become operational until 2023 at the earliest.

Revisiting The Blame For High Gas Prices

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2021/09/26/revisiting-the-blame-for-high-gas-prices/?sh=36eb55c8e31e

Note when oil and gasoline prices began to rise. That rise started in May 2020. Between the first week of May 2020 and the last week of December 2020, oil prices had tripled. Was President Trump to blame for this?

No, the reason oil and gasoline prices rose is that the economy started to open back up from the Covid-19 shutdowns. Those shutdowns had negatively impacted a couple of million barrels of U.S. oil supplies, and those supplies were slow to bounce back once the economy opened back up. That’s why we have soaring oil and gasoline prices.

Keep in mind that the entire world has experienced this. Do people honestly believe that cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline drove up gasoline prices in Tokyo? Further, this price rise has taken place across most commodities. We have seen soaring lumber prices, base metals prices, cotton, oats, sugar — all primarily associated with the Covid-19 impacts on the economy.

2 more polio cases detected in Jerusalem

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/20220311/cb2eb7fdbf304475ba71acaa324c8d96/c.html

Two new polio infections were detected in Jerusalem, said the Israeli Ministry of Health on Thursday, four days after it reported the first case since 1989.

One of the new cases was a close contact of the first infected 4-year-old child who had not been vaccinated against the virus, and the other one was found via a blind survey in Jerusalem.

The ministry called on the public to fulfill routine vaccinations at the recommended times and for those unvaccinated to complete them as soon as possible.

Amalek

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalek

The commandment to kill Amalekites is not practised by contemporary Jews, based on the argument that Sennacherib deported and mixed the nations, so it is no longer possible to determine who is an Amalekite. For example, Rabbi Hayim Palaggi stated:

We can rely on the maxim that in ancient times, Sennacherib confused the lineage of many nations.[43]

In addition, many rabbinic authorities ruled that the commandment only applies to a Jewish king or an organized community, and cannot be performed by an individual.[44] According to Haggahot Maimuniyyot, the commandment applies only in the future messianic era and not in present times; this limitation is almost a consensus among medieval authorities.[45]

Maimonides explains that the commandment to destroy the nation of Amalek requires the Jewish people to peacefully request that they accept upon themselves the Seven Laws of Noah and pay a tax to the Jewish kingdom. Only if they refuse must they be physically killed.[46]

In addition, the Amalekites, as a physical nation, have been extinct since the time of Hezekiah's reign, according to the Hebrew Bible.[47]

A few authorities have ruled that the command never included killing Amalekites. R' Samson Raphael Hirsch said that the command was to destroy "the remembrance of Amalek" rather than actual Amalekites;[48] the Sfat Emet said that the command was to fully hate Amalek rather than performing any action;[49] and the Chofetz Chaim said that God would perform the elimination of Amalek, and Jews are commanded only to remember what Amalek did to them.[50]

US House approves $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome after months-long delay

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-house-approves-1-billion-for-israels-iron-dome-after-months-long-delay/

Despite that fraught debate, the House overwhelmingly approved the standalone $1 billion for additional Iron Dome spending in September. The Senate was also set to push it through, when a single senator — a Republican this time, Rand Paul of Kentucky — used his prerogative to hold up the bill.

Ready to Die? Why Most People Flunk the Zelenskyy Test.

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/10/zelenskyy-ukraine-courage-00015972

Even the most interventionist voices are not urging the United States or NATO countries to directly join the war to save Ukraine. But, in what now promises to be a long and costly conflict in a multitude of ways, it’s becoming impossible to avoid the Zelenskyy test: What are you willing to sacrifice in the name of your ideals?

Fact check: The various flavors of dishonesty that GOP candidates used to promote 2020 election lies this month

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/23/politics/fact-check-2020-election-lies-arrington-marchant-ramthun-lake-hanks-perdue/index.html

Numerous Republican candidates running in 2022 primaries across the country continue to baselessly cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election.

Some of these candidates are just plain lying that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump or was rife with massive fraud. Others are professing to be merely asking questions. Still others are walking an evasive tightrope, trying to avoid angering Trump and his devotees while also not saying anything explicitly inaccurate.

All of that is dishonesty.

The GOP wants you to think of Joe Biden when you fill your tank

 https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/record-high-gas-prices-are-not-joe-biden-s-fault-n1291238

In the race to politically exploit the high cost of gas, Republicans are banking on voters not caring that they’re lying through their teeth about how much of this is Biden’s fault. The president does not, as they would have you believe, have a dial in the Oval Office that he uses to set gas prices. Meanwhile, suggested fixes the GOP has offered up would do nothing to shrink Americans’ costs, which suits them just fine for now.

America can’t solve its gas price problem (or its Russia problem) with drilling

 https://www.vox.com/22959903/russia-ukraine-oil-gas-price-europe-us-exports-climate-change

The four myths Republicans have been spreading about oil and gas prices, explained.

Russia, Out to Contain NATO, Instead Reignites the Alliance

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-ukraine-war-nato-military-11646843371

The invasion of Ukraine has given the group renewed focus after decades of seeking a purpose in the post-Cold War world

Ukraine and the Jews

https://aish.com/ukraine-and-the-jews-12-facts/

Poland’s invitation for immigrants to come attracted Jews who were fleeing massacres in central Europe in the wake of the Crusades and the Black Death. Jews settled throughout Poland, including in territories that form present-day Ukraine, most notably the region of Volhynia, which lies at the intersection of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. By the 1400s, up to 30,000 Jews were thought to be living in 60 different communities across Ukraine, including in the present day capital city, Kiev.

Chemelnicki - a Russian hero

 https://www.123rf.com/photo_38599314_ussr-circa-1954-a-stamp-printed-in-the-soviet-union-russia-shows-chmielnicki-proclaiming-reunion-of-.html

Contrary to KA Chelmiicki was a Russian hero like Putin

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bohdan-Khmelnytsky

Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ukrainian in full Bohdan Zinoviy Mykhaylovych Khmelnytsky, Polish Bohdan Chmielnicki, Russian Bogdan Khmelnitsky, (born c. 1595, Chigirin, Ukraine—died Aug. 6 [Aug. 16, New Style], 1657, Chigirin), leader (1648–57) of the Zaporozhian Cossacks who organized a rebellion against Polish rule in Ukraine that ultimately led to the transfer of the Ukrainian lands east of the Dnieper River from Polish to Russian control.

Khmelnytsky sought autonomy for his Cossack followers but succeeded only in devastating their formerly flourishing Dnieper lands and in subjecting them to the rule of Moscow, which gained control of Ukraine east of the Dnieper and gradually curtailed their liberties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohdan_Khmelnytsky

Bohdan Zynoviy Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky (Ruthenian: Ѕѣнові Богдан Хмелнiцкiи;[1] modern Ukrainian: Богдан Зиновій Михайлович Хмельницький; c. 1595 – 6 August 1657) was a Ukrainian[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] military commander and Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, which was then under the suzerainty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates (1648–1654) that resulted in the creation of an independent Ukrainian Cossack state. In 1654, he concluded the Treaty of Pereyaslav with the Russian Tsar and allied the Cossack Hetmanate with Tsardom of Russia, thus placing central Ukraine under Russian control.[9]

Khmelnytsky was viewed as a national hero of Russia for bringing Ukraine into the "eternal union" of all the Russias – Great (Russia), Little (Ukraine) and White (Belarus) Russia. As such, he was much respected and venerated during the existence of the Russian Empire. His role was presented as a model for all Ukrainians to follow: to aspire for closer ties with Great Russia. This view was expressed in a monument commissioned by the Russian nationalist Mikhail Yuzefovich, which was installed in the centre of Kyiv in 1888.[54][55]

Russian authorities decided the original version of the monument (created by Russian sculptor Mikhail Mikeshin) was too xenophobic; it was to depict a vanquished Pole, Jew, and a Catholic priest under the hoofs of the horse. The inscription on the monument reads "To Bohdan Khmelnytsky from one and indivisible Russia."[56] Mikeshin also created the Monument to the Millennium of Russia in Novgorod, which has Khmelnytsky shown as one of Russia's prominent figures.[57]

Abarbanel worship angels is prohibited

 Abarbanel (Rosh Amana 12) Concerning the Second question which was why the Rambam included in his fifth principle of faith that it is prohibited to make  intermediaries between man and G-d I  replied that I already mentioned in the introduction to the fifth principle that it includes  true faith in G-d

First of all G-d is the only being that acts with free will as opposed to even the angels,celestial spheres,stars and fundamental matter and all things made from this matter. While all these things have control over their activities  they don’t decide what to do. In contrast G-d acts solely according to  what He wants to do.  That is why worship and praise is only directed to G-d.

Secondly G-d is the only being that is omnipotent without any limitations, That is what is meant by saying “they all have domain and activities”. In other words all thes beings are limited and restricted to specific tasks. In contrast G-d can do anything He desires as it states in Tehilim (135), “All that G-d desires He does in the Heaven and Earth.” That is why He alone is worshipped since only He can accomplish anything like clay in the hand of the artisan. There is no thing who tells Him what to do.

The third point is that all the peoples and nations are uniquely dependent on the celestial powers that control them. In other words as has been stated there is the celestial ruler of the Greeks, Persians and all other nations except for the Jews who are not dependent on a celestial master or star Instead the Jews are uniquely dependent on G-d. This is as our master Moshe has said (Devarim 4:19-20) And lest you lift up your eyes to the skies, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of the skies, should you be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord your God has allotted to all nations under the whole sky. But the Lord has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be for him a people of inheritance, as you are this day. Ibn Ezra wrote it has been established that each people has a unique star and mazel. This is also true for each city. G-d gave the Jews a major and superior status in that He directly directs them and not through a star. Jews belong to G-d. Concerning this idea we find in Pirke de rabbi Eliezar  that the 70 celestial leaders cast a lottery as to which one of the 70 nations they would rule while G-d got the Jews by this lottery. That is why it says that the Jews are the property of G-d. In other words the relation of each nation to its celestial leader is that which G-d has with Jews without any intermediary of a star or any celestial being.  This is the basis for the absolute avoidance of  idolatry

[to be continued]