Friday, June 10, 2022

Ivanka Trump Testimony 'Sinks Daddy': Donald Trump Critics React

 https://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-trump-testimony-sinks-daddy-donald-trump-critics-react-1714530

Ivanka Trump, one of his most trusted supporters and advisers, appeared in a previously unseen video clip saying that she didn't believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Following a video clip of Attorney General William Barr testifying that he told Trump at the time that the claims the election had been stolen were "complete nonsense," "crazy stuff" and "bulls***," as his team had not found evidence of voter fraud, Ivanka Trump said she accepted what Barr said.

Takeaways from the prime-time January 6 committee hearing

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/09/politics/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-thursday/index.html

Pence called for help -- not Trump
The committee also showed new video from its interview with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley saying it Pence was the one who ordered National Guard troops to respond to the violence on January 6, but that he was told by the White House to say it was Trump.
"Vice President Pence -- there were two or three calls with Vice President Pence. He was very animated, and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no question about that," Milley says in the video.
"He was very animated, very direct, very firm to Secretary Miller. 'Get the military down here, get the guard down here. Put down this situation, et cetera,'" he added, referring to Pence.
Milley also described his interactions with Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows that day, drawing a stark contrast between those conversations with Pence.
"He said: We have to kill the narrative that the vice president is making all the decisions. We need to establish the narrative, you know, that the President is still in charge and that things are steady or stable, or words to that effect," Milley says in the video, referring to what Meadows told him.

How to Seek Inspiration in the Torah

 https://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/dailywisdom_cdo/aid/2955561/jewish/Tuesday-How-to-Seek-Inspiration-in-the-Torah.htm

Therefore, when today’s rabbinic authorities apply the Torah’s teachings in innovative ways, we cannot try to live in the past, complaining that the leadership of previous generations did not see the need for such innovations. On the contrary: only by reading the Torah through the eyes of our “Joshua” – today’s Moses – can we be certain that the Torah will provide us with the inspiration to fulfill our Divine mission and live our lives to the fullest.1

Thursday, June 9, 2022

'החתן המתחזה' הגיע להוכיח יהדות; זה מה שענה בית הדין

 https://www.kikar.co.il/420671.html

יותר מחצי שנה לאחר הפרסום על החתן המתחזה מלבנון, הופיע עלי חאוויליה בפני הרבנות בישראל וביקש: "הכירו ביהדותי" • חאליוואה המשיך להתעקש כי היה יהודי - ובבית הדין הציעו פשרה 

Seeking Inspiration- It can't be true if it doesn't inspire

 I recently had a long discussion with someone I know and respect regarding hashkofa issues

Over and over the issue was "well that approach doesn't inspire me."

In other words truth and facts are not so important because if it inspires it must be true!

In fact for many of the issues that I find are important today - the course of action is largely decided - both by the masses and gedolim - by whether the path is inspiring or will cause a loss of inspiration.



Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Trump reacted with approval to 'hang Mike Pence' chants from rioters on January 6

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/25/politics/donald-trump-january-6-mike-pence-chants/index.html

A former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told the House January 6 committee that then-President Donald Trump had suggested to Meadows he approved of the "hang Mike Pence" chants from rioters who stormed the US Capitol, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide, also testified that Trump complained about his then-vice president being hustled to safety while Trump supporters breached the Capitol, the sources said.

EU foreign policy chief condemns Russian missile strike on Ukrainian grain terminal

 https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-06-07-22/index.html

The European Union's High Representative, Josep Borrell, condemned a Russian missile strike this weekend that destroyed a large grain storage terminal in the southern port city of Mykolaiv.

Borrell said the strike was at odds with recent pledges by Russian President Vladimir Putin to offer safe passage through the Black Sea from Ukrainian ports for merchant shipping.

Sunday, June 5, 2022

Trump’s Lawyers Stun Senate by Claiming Jared Made Him Do It

 https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trumps-lawyers-stun-senate-by-claiming-jared-made-him-do-it

The Senate listened in astonished silence as Trump’s lawyers coldly and methodically hurled Kushner under the bus.

According to Davis Logsdon, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, the lawyers’ new argument could be persuasive “because it fits into a larger pattern of everything Jared Kushner doing or saying turning into crap.”

Fact Check-COVID-19 face masks do not trap dangerous levels of carbon dioxide

 https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-masks-idUSL1N2T01U3

Experts told Reuters that the device would show the same result without a mask, and that breathable masks cannot trap CO2 to a dangerous level.

When Jews said Naaseh vnishma they thinking of idolatry

Shemos Rabbah 42:8.  R. Meir said: It was not even one complete day [before they sinned], for while they were yet standing near Sinai, exclaiming ’We will do, and obey’, their hearts were already concentrated on idolatry, for itsays, But they beguiled Him with their mouth, and lied unto Him with their tongue (Ps. LXXVIII, 36)

Fox Host Confronts Scalise on Whether GOP 'Out of Step' With Voters on Guns

 https://www.newsweek.com/fox-host-confronts-scalise-whether-gop-out-step-voters-guns-1712920

Roberts interviewed Scalise on Fox News Sunday, presenting him with polling data showing vast majorities of Americans support what Democrats and some Republicans refer to as "common sense" gun reforms.

"Let's take a look at where the public is on some of these policies regarding gun sales," Roberts said. "Do you support or oppose requiring background checks for all gun buyers? Eighty-nine percent of Americans say they support it. Eight percent oppose it," the Fox News journalist said, reading polling data from Quinnipiac University.

Friday, June 3, 2022

Why does a murdererer acknowledge he had been warned?

 Sanhedrin 40b) The Sages taught in a baraita: In a trial for murder, the court asks the witness: Do you recognize the accused? Did he kill a gentile? Did he kill a Jew? Did you forewarn him? Did he accept the forewarning on himself, i.e., acknowledge the warning?

In order for a murderer to be executed he needs to acknowledge he had been warned

Why would he acknowledge this when he knows he will lose his life?\ Rav R Margolis answers that if he doesnt admit he had been warned he will be killed anyway by have his stomach explode (cipah)

 He prefers a quick and relatively painless death

US House panel probes whether Kushner’s Mideast policies tied to business interests

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-house-panel-probes-whether-kushners-mideast-policies-tied-to-business-interests/

A US House committee on Thursday announced the launch of a probe into Jared Kushner over Saudi investment in his private equity firm, and whether his ties to the kingdom influenced American policy in the Middle East while he served as a senior adviser to his father-in-law, former president Donald Trump.

Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York, who heads the Committee on Oversight and Reform, sent a letter to Kushner seeking documents on Affinity Partners, which he set up last year. Among the investors was Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which put $2 billion into Kushner’s firm.

House panel investigates Saudi investment in Jared Kushner firm

 https://www.axios.com/2022/06/03/house-jared-kushner-firm-saudi-investment-investigation

A House committee has launched an investigation into former Trump White House adviser Jared Kushner and a $2 billion investment in his private equity company from a wealth fund controlled by Saudi Arabia's crown prince.