Meiri (Sanhedrin 101a) ואלו שמאמינים במציאות השדים ובפעולותיהם אסור להם לשאול בהם אף בחול ויש להתיר בשרי בהן ושרי ביצים אלא שאינם אלא דברי הבאי והגירסא לפי דעת זה אלא שמכזבין וגדולי הפוסקים גורסין מפני שמכזבין כלומר שעיקר התירם מפני שהם דברי הבאי ואין אדם מצוי לימשך אחריהם וכן עיקר והוא נמשך למה שכתבנו בסוף פרק ארבע מיתות בענין המעוננים והוא מה שהתירו בתלמוד הרבה בלחישות המוניות והדומים לאלו:
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
The return of Hunter Biden’s laptop
https://www.vox.com/22992772/hunter-biden-laptop
But the emails were indeed being put out as part of an orchestrated campaign by Trump’s team to try to drive negative media coverage toward Joe Biden shortly before the election. And whatever the revelations about Hunter, claims from conservatives that the leaked emails proved Joe Biden acted corruptly in some way were false — they proved no such thing.
Did Study Link More Strokes in Young People to COVID Vaccine?
False.
The 2022 study provides no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine is responsible for the increasing stroke rate in under 55s. The data used in this study was collected between 2002 and 2018 and therefore bears no relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the vaccine has been associated with a small increase in blood clots, the absolute risk is much lower than the risk of blood clotting and stroke associated with COVID-19 infection. Therefore vaccination may reduce overall stroke risk for individuals exposed to SARS-CoV-2.
How a Trump-supporting election-denier has gained footing in this solidly blue state
But Zeldin has made a compelling case for himself: If Hochul wants to stick her closing argument, she needs to make it clear that his claims about crime are disingenuous, that he is vehemently anti-abortion, and that he would sow chaos and gridlock in a Democratic legislature, making meaningful change impossible.
Donald Trump’s conspiracy theory about broken glass at the Pelosi house
Trump claimed that at the Pelosi house, "the glass it seems was broken from the inside to the out, so it wasn’t a break-in, it was a break out."
This is refuted by police and accounts Pelosi and DePape told officials.
A Justice Department criminal complaint says DePape told authorities he broke into the house through a glass door and that he wanted to take Nancy Pelosi hostage.
Trump’s claim isn’t supported by evidence. We rate it Pants on Fire!
Rambam - how could he learn from heretics?
Chida (Pesach Einayim 1:202b): R’ Meir found a verse and interpreted it. The gemora did not simply say, “R’ Meir found a verse.” This implies that only R’ Meir interpreted the verse as permission to learn from a heretic while the rest of the sages disagreed with him. Thus according to the majority position there is no distinction between an adult and child learning from a heretic. That is why the Rambam omitted such a distinction in the Mishneh Torah. This is also the understanding of the Shach (Yoreh Deah 246). Others disagree with this interpretation However if the Rambam rejected R’ Meir’s position that a mature adult can learn from a heretic - how could he himself have learned secular knowledge. He writes in one letter that he learned all the books of idol worship… Furthermore we find that the Rivash (#45) said that the Rambam learned philosophy because he accepted the view of R’ Meir that a mature adult is allowed. The Rivash also notes that the Rambam cites the verse of R’ Meir in the introduction to Moreh Nevuchim! I think the resolution of these difficulties is what I wrote elsewhere. The Rambam’s definition of mature adult is not great in years but rather great in Torah and with an advanced mind even in matters of the world as was R’ Meir. Therefore, if the Rambam wrote in the Mishneh Torah that a G-dol was permitted to learn from a heretic, everyone would view themselves as a Godol and permit themselves to learn from a heretic. Therefore, he deleted this distinction. The spirit of G d spoke in him, in particular in our orphaned generation where every student thinks he is a rabbi. They are in fact naked and yet they are not embarrassed…
The Dark Heart of the Republican Party
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/11/the-dark-heart-of-the-gop/671965/
In terms of actual damage, January 6 was far worse than one violent crime in San Francisco. Republican leaders—and here I will leave aside Donald Trump, who is in a class of hideousness all by himself—have said far worse things over the past five years. But a parade of Republicans somehow think that an unhinged, hammer-wielding intruder putting an old man in the ICU is funny.
Kari Lake Makes Light of Pelosi Attack, Draws Laughter at Campaign Event
https://www.newsweek.com/kari-lake-makes-light-pelosi-attack-draws-laughter-campaign-event-1755901
Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has drawn laughter and applause after making a flippant remark about the violent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Trump joins conspiracists stoking doubts about Pelosi attack
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/01/trump-paul-pelosi-attack-conspiracy-theory-00064417
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Rick Scott repeats false claim that Democrats cut $280 billion from Medicare
In an interview on CNN’s "State of the Union," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., repeated a talking point previously used by the National Republican Senatorial Committee — which Scott chairs — in campaign ads.
The ad cited Senate roll call vote 325 to back up its assertion. This was the final vote to approve the Inflation Reduction Act, a Biden-backed bill that included provisions addressing climate change, the taxation of very large corporations, and Medicare drug pricing, among other topics. It passed both chambers with only Democratic votes, and it received Biden’s signature.
The $280 billion — technically, somewhere between $237 billion and $288 billion, depending on how the numbers are estimated — stems from a provision in the Democratic bill that would end the longstanding bar that kept Medicare from negotiating with drugmakers over the price of certain medicines. Not being able to negotiate prices has meant that Medicare — the pharmaceutical market’s biggest single buyer — could not leverage its weight to secure lower prices for taxpayers. This has been part of the reason U.S. pharmaceutical prices have been higher than those in any other major country.
Prominent conservatives share online disinformation about Paul Pelosi assault
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/31/conservatives-disinformation-paul-pelosi-assault-00064208
“The Left is going crazy because not only are we not BUYING the wacky, implausible Paul Pelosi story but we are even LAUGHING over how ridiculous it is,” Dinesh D’Souza posted Sunday morning to his 2.5 million Twitter followers. “What this means is that we are no longer intimidated by their fake pieties. Their control over us has finally been broken.”
Attacker wanted to ‘kneecap’ Nancy: Partisan conspiracies in Paul Pelosi assault
Clay Higgins, a Republican House member from Louisiana, tweeted something he must have found amusing.
After the vicious assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul, the member of the Homeland Security Committee tweeted an apparently doctored image of the speaker with one eye looking bruised. The caption: "That moment you realize the nudist hippie male prostitute LSD guy was the reason your husband didn’t make it to your fundraiser."
Donald Trump Jr.'s Paul Pelosi Post Receives Huge Backlash
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-jr-paul-pelosi-posts-backlash-1755787
Many social media users are condemning Donald Trump Jr. for a message he posted over the weekend on Twitter and Instagram that references the violent attack on Paul Pelosi.
‘Absolutely no evidence:’ Police, FBI affidavit debunk salacious conspiracy about Pelosi attack pushed by conservatives
Prominent figures on social media, including some of the loudest voices on the political right, are pushing a salacious and false conspiracy theory about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, in an apparent attempt to shift the narrative about the assault.
The claim that big names like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Jr., and Dinesh D’Souza have promoted to millions of their followers: Paul Pelosi and the man who attacked him were gay lovers who had gotten into a fight.