Thursday, September 22, 2022

Trump Wanted to Bus Murderers to Democrat Cities—Former DHS Chief of Staff

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-wanted-bus-murderers-democrat-cities-former-dhs-chief-staff-1744773

"In January and February of 2019, Donald Trump directed us to go and take immigrants from the border and quote, 'bus and dump them into Democratic cities and blue states.'"

But Trump was "much more specific," Taylor added.

"He wanted us to identify the murderers, the rapists, and the criminals and in particular, make sure we did not incarcerate them, and we put them in those cities."

Appeals court allows DOJ to resume review of classified records in Trump case

 https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3654893-appeals-court-allows-doj-to-resume-review-of-classified-records-in-trump-case/

A three-judge appeals court panel on Wednesday granted the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to continue its review of classified documents seized in an FBI search as part of an investigation of former President Trump’s potential mishandling of the information.

The judges, two of whom were appointed by Trump and one of whom was appointed by former President Obama, also indicated in their opinion that there appeared to be no evidence that Trump declassified the documents while he was still president and that his legal team “resisted” in providing any evidence that he did so using officials channels.

They also questioned why Trump would “have an individual interest in or need for any of the one-hundred documents with classification markings.”

Trump claims presidents can declassify documents ‘even by thinking about it’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3655062-trump-claims-presidents-can-declassify-documents-even-by-thinking-about-it/

“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, ‘It’s declassified.’ Even by thinking about it.”

“There can be a process, but there doesn’t have to be. You’re the president. You make that decision. So when you send it, it’s declassified,” Trump added. “I declassified everything.”

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: 'The man running for Senate is not Dr. Oz'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/360226

“The man running for Senate is not Dr. Oz. This person is unrecognizable to me,” Boteach told Rolling Stone. Oz, he said, has become an “election-denying, genocide-denying caricature of an extremist.”

Who is 'Orange Jesus' and why is he trending? Spoiler alert: It's Trump

 https://www.jpost.com/omg/article-717648

The choice of phrase is humorous in and of itself, as it references how many people consider Trump as being "orange" in color, as well as his position of power and influence among Republicans. However, it also reflects what many consider to be a serious problem among the GOP.

DOJ can resume criminal probe of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, appeals court says

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/21/politics/appeals-court-mar-a-lago-criminal-classified-documents/index.html

A federal appeals court is allowing the Justice Department to continue looking at documents marked as classified that were seized from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and resort.

The emergency intervention upends a trial judge's order over those documents that had blocked federal investigators' work on the documents, and is a strong rebuke of the Trump team's attempt to suggest without evidence that materials were somehow declassified. Trump's options to block the criminal investigation are now dimming with one of his only remaining possibilities being an emergency request to the Supreme Court.

The ruling was issued by a three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals -- two of whom were nominated by Trump.

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Why is Earth spherical?

 Ohr HaChaim (Bereishis 2:1) Heaven and earth were completed. I have heard from Torah scholars (who were my teachers) that the reason G'd made the earth spherical is to enable its various parts to endure with equal ease. The rabbis meant that of all the desires, urges and feelings of love in the universe nothing matches in intensity the urge of the spirit which has recognised the light of G'd and its desire to cleave to G'd's light. Every living soul which has been fortunate enough to recognise even a small amount of that light longs to behold visions of the pleasantness that is G'd. Know that G'd has endowed each category of His creatures with a two-tiered intelligence. One tier is the power to perceive, the other tier is the power to analyse. Human beings, i.e. creatures who are endowed with the power of speech, as well as all lower forms of life or even the inert part of nature, all received a degree of intelligence commensurate with their status in the universe which enables them to recognise their Creator. By means of this intelligence we know that the globe continues to exist without faltering. G'd has revealed some of this secret to those who revere Him and by means of these explanations these facts became translated to our senses  The force holding up the globe is G'd's beautiful and all-embracing light which surrounds the globe in equal measure. Every section of the revolving earth derives additional strength from the power of the fiery urge that burns within it urging it to cling to the manifestations of G'd's spirit. This is why the globe remains in its position in the universe. 

Holy people transcend and can change Nature

 Sefer HaIkkarim (1:21) We do find that the devotees of the Torah came into such close intellectual union with God that they were able to change the laws of nature, cause the latter to do their bidding and perform miracles against the laws of nature. Thus we find that the prophets proposed and God carried out their proposals. Elijah caused fire to descend, which is contrary to its own nature. He said, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven …, and it was so. He also divided the waters of the Jordan. Elisha cured Naaman’s leprosy and brought a dead body back to life during his own life time and also after his death. Many such incidents happened to him and the other prophets. The same thing is true of all believers. Pious men, even if they are not prophets, can change the laws of nature by prayer. Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were cast into the fire and were not burned. Rabbi Hanina the son of Dosa and Rabbi Phinehas the son of Yair made certain temporary changes in the nature and conduct of the world.

Sefer HaIkkarim (1:21) This shows that one who believes in God and in His Torah is above nature and not subject to natural law. On the contrary, the laws of nature are subject to him, and he can change them as he pleases. 

Q&A from the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

 https://baishavaad.org/qa-from-the-bais-havaad-halacha-hotline-103/

Finally, a pruzbul can only be written if the borrower owns land, rents land, or has a room and board agreement; he must have some connection to land. A young bachur, for example, may not have one, so some pruzbul texts include a clause wherein the lender gifts the borrower a tiny piece of land.

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Miracles and Nature (2)

 https://outorah.org/p/49755/

This teaches us a profound lesson regarding the way in which Hashem wishes to bestow His blessing on the world. Although there are times when Hashem has performed miracles for the Jewish people, these do not represent the ideal way that He wishes to run the world. Rather, it is the rules of nature, ordained by Hashem, that contain within them the capacity to provide for the needs of all life-forms. If the Jewish people follow the Torah, then the medium of nature will be maximized to produce plenty and fulfil all their needs.

Nature and Miracles

 https://etzion.org.il/en/philosophy/great-thinkers/rambam/nature-and-miracles

           Aristotle maintained that the world is eternal, with no beginning and no end. Some of the Sages of Israel were of the opinion that the world had a beginning and will have an end. Maimonides thinks that that it had a beginning, but that it has no end. So too he believes that the world's natural order is permanent, in accordance with the principle that the world follows its natural course. Within that order, however, miracles that deviate from the natural order are possible for a limited period of time. Thus, it has been established that the world is founded on Divine wisdom, but despite the natural order the revelation of Divine will is possible. On a deeper level, this deviation does not contradict the natural order, but rather is in accord with it, for the world thereby becomes "the best possible world," as befits the work of God.

How Judge Cannon broke with conservatives in Trump documents case

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/20/how-judge-aileen-cannon-broke-with-conservatives-00057647

“I think there’s a division there,” the liberal professor said. “Of the Federalist Society professors I follow and I know, the vast majority think this is incredibly wrong. Kudos to them.”

Trump team resists special master’s request to explain declassification of Mar-a-Lago documents

 https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3651209-trump-team-resists-special-masters-request-to-explain-declassification-of-mar-a-lago-documents/

Former President Trump’s legal team on Monday night resisted a request to elaborate on his claims around declassifying the documents recovered last month from his Mar-a-Lago home. 

In a filing to the court-appointed special master that Trump requested, his attorneys said the “time and place” for making such a disclosure would come in a motion in a criminal trial as an effort to recover his property. 

A Lesson From the Past for Ron DeSantis

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/18/reverse-freedom-ride-south-desantis-00057339

Earlier that year, council members in New Orleans and Little Rock dreamed up a public relations stunt: They would offer Black Southerners bus fare and relocation costs to undertake “Reverse Freedom Rides” to Northern cities, where, they told their victims, good jobs and housing awaited them. The idea was to embarrass and expose the hypocrisy of Northern liberals who cheered the real Freedom Rides, but whom, they suspected, would blanch at receiving thousands of Black transplants in their own communities. Harris was just the first of roughly 100 Black Southerners whom the councils shipped to Hyannis.