Lending Money the Halachic Way

 https://torah.org/learning/business-halacha-5757-vol4no1/

Our Chazal forbade us from lending money to others without witnesses present, or without a contract signed by witnesses. The custom today is to rely on one witness seeing the transaction, or a note either handwritten by the borrower, or signed by him, affirming that he has borrowed money from the lender. It is also sufficient if the borrower gives the lender some collateral to guarantee repayment of the loan, such as a check made out for when the loan is due, or some item equivalent to or greater in value that the loan.Without any of the above, even today we may not lend.

The above prohibition applies even if the lender is a Talmid Chacham (Torah scholar), a relative to the lender, or a wealthy person about whom there is no doubt that he will easily be able to repay the loan. (1)However, if the lender knows the borrower to be a G-d fearing person who would never deliberately lie, and the lender decides that if this borrower should ever deny that he owes the money he will forgive the debt entirely and will not seek recourse in Bais Din, if necessary he may lend the money without witnesses, notes, or guarantees. It is still preferable to follow the words of our Chaza”l even in this case. (2)

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: 'Ben Shapiro only fired Candace Owens because of me'

 https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/article-804169?dicbo=v2-eOJ9xxM

Let’s be clear. Not only did Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro fail to speak out and their silence became deafening, but they actually did speak out and they defended her. Dennis Prager has been a friend and mentor to me for three decades. Our friendship has been severely tested by his choice to proactively defend the foremost female antisemite in America. I was shocked when he did that, and we discussed it. I said, ‘Dennis, I fear that you have forever stained your legacy. In the past, your legacy was being a champion of Israel, a champion of Jewishness, and now you’re defending the foremost Jew hater in America. A woman who says that Israel is genocidal, a woman who promotes the idea that Jews drink the blood of Christians. A woman who says that Jews control Hollywood and run sex rings there.’ She is psychotic, and he is defending her. Even worse, though, is Ben Shapiro. At the very least, Dennis Prager didn’t make money from it, but Ben Shapiro profited and we don’t even know how much. I’m guessing to the tune of millions of dollars because for two years after knowing what Candace Owens was, for two years after she came out and defended Kanye West, who said he loved and proclaimed Hitler, Ben Shapiro continued to profit from her daily broadcast.

Rashi was right: Machine learning confirms unique status of some Talmudic tracts

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/rashi-was-right-machine-learning-confirms-unique-status-of-some-talmudic-tracts/

Rabbinical commentators on the Talmud noted in the medieval era that a handful of sections of the great corpus stood out linguistically from the rest. Over generations of scholars, the existence of these so-called “special tractates” was considered to be a clue that could further elucidate how the Talmud was compiled and edited.

Now via modern data analysis, a team of contemporary researchers has shown that these “special tractates” do indeed display a distinct use of language. After feeding nearly the entire Talmudic corpus into machine learning algorithms to parse the Aramaic, they confirmed the theories of Rashi and other medieval scholars.

Lara Trump's Remarks About Larry Hogan Raise Eyebrows

 https://www.newsweek.com/lara-trumps-remarks-about-larry-hogan-raise-eyebrows-1907230

Peter Henlein, a self-described political junkie, wrote: "There you have it folks. The Co-chair of the RNC, Lara Trump, is going to withhold support for viable candidates if they don't worship Trump sufficiently. Saying nice things about Trump matters more than the GOP winning the senate. Larry Hogan represents a once in a lifetime opportunity for the GOP to pick up a seat in Maryland. Hogan won't win on a MAGA platform. He can't win talking about how awesome Trump is."

He added: "But now that Trump's daughter-in-law runs the RNC, that type of obvious reality doesn't matter. What is best for the party doesn't matter. Only what is best for the Trump family matters."

Emunas Chochomim

 Just received a disturbing email from a lawyer. 

He claims that a godol asked him to do legal work and promised to pay him. There was no written contract

The godol refuses to respond to requests for payment.

This brings up the issue of whether you are allowed to question the trustworthiness of a godol?

This applies to many fields. 

A woman goes to a rav for marriage advice. He does inappropriate things in the name of Torah. Should she submit?

The same applies when a parent or rebbe molests a child

We had the case of Rabbi Greenblatt giving a heter based on claims said in the name of a godol - without checking whether they were true

Bottom line a godol should not be given leniencies such as an oral contract or allowed to do disgusting things in the name of Torah

Trump Pretends He Never Called for Hillary to Be Locked Up

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-pretends-he-never-called-for-hillary-to-be-locked-up?ref=home?ref=home

Three months later, he told a North Carolina crowd that “for what she’s done, they should lock her up” and a Pennsylvania audience that “‘lock her up’ is right.”

He deployed the infamous phrase as recently as 2020. On the same January night the Justice Department closed its two-year probe into Clinton’s emails, Ohio fans chanted “lock her up” at a Trump rally. “You should lock her up, I’ll tell you,” he agreed.

“You should lock them up,” Trump added that October in Georgia. “Lock up the Bidens, lock up Hillary.”

"Trump derangement syndrome" is real — but it's not what they say it is

 https://www.salon.com/2023/12/10/trump-derangement-syndrome-is-real--but-its-not-what-they-say-it-is/

We can apply the diagnosis of TDS to the man-child himself or his followers, but not those of us over here in the reality-based community. If we react reflexively to Trump, it's because he lies reflexively, claiming that he's got good ideas and is the man for the job. He’s proven, time and again, that he’s not the man for any job. Now he increasingly speaks of himself in divine terms, which as many experts agree is terrifying, whether it represents genuine delusion or just another cunning maneuver to draw his cult members in even deeper.

Applied to those who see him for who he is, TDS was always a psychological projection. But it is real — and it's a clear and present danger.

5 takeaways from Jim Jordan’s NYC hearing into Alvin Bragg and crime

 https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3955513-5-takeaways-from-jim-jordans-nyc-hearing-into-alvin-bragg-and-crime/

The centrality of the former president to the proceedings was obvious from the opening moments.

Jordan, in the process of making the broader argument that Bragg was too lenient on criminals, asserted that “the scales of justice are weighed down by politics” in Manhattan.

The GOP aimed to hit Bragg with a combination punch — arguing that the DA and his party are soft on crime, while also suggesting Bragg is wrongfully focused on Trump’s alleged wrongdoing for partisan reasons.

Trump ally complaints aside, crime is down in Manhattan

 Trump ally complaints aside, crime is down in Manhattan

 In a statement, Trump’s campaign claimed that “[r]ather than stopping the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, [Bragg] is doing Joe Biden’s dirty work.” Again: Crime in New York is not “unprecedented” and is, in fact, on the decline.

‘Now he’s seen as a symbol’: Republicans rally around Trump

 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/01/republicans-rally-around-trump-while-dems-chant-lock-him-up-00161154

House Speaker Mike Johnson intensified his defense of Donald Trump before headlining a party fundraiser in Illinois on Saturday, as even this deep blue state’s Republicans seized on a Manhattan jury’s guilty verdict as a rallying cry for the former president.

Johnson, who like many one-time critics of Trump has long since come to his defense — and who said immediately after the verdict in Trump’s hush money case that the Supreme Court should “step in” — told reporters here Saturday that if he was Trump’s attorney, “I think I would make an appeal to the Supreme Court.”

How a Mysterious Tip Led to Trump Conviction

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-hush-money-stormy-daniels-707fa959?mod=hp_lead_pos7

When The Wall Street Journal uncovered an illicit payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, the now-former president tried to brush it aside. It didn’t work.

Trump’s post-conviction monologue was filled with false claims

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/31/politics/fact-check-trump-post-conviction-speech/index.html

Trump repeated a claim he has made before about “the Congo” and migration, again without specifying whether he was referring to the Democratic Republic of Congo or the neighboring Republic of Congo. He said: “The Congo has just released a lot of people from jail – Congo, Africa – just released a lot of people, a lot of people, from their prisons and jails, and brought them into the United States of America.”

Facts First: Trump’s claim is baseless. Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo, plus both pro-immigration and anti-immigration organizations in the US, told CNN they have not seen any evidence of Congolese prisons being emptied, let alone evidence of either country somehow having “brought” ex-prisoners into the US. Trump’s presidential campaign and an allied super PAC did not respond to requests to provide any evidence. A CNN search of two media databases turned up no evidence. And federal figures show that there is no “very big” influx of Congolese migrants of any kind, let alone former prisoners in particular.

Rav Moshe and Rav Aharon

 https://mishpacha.com/standing-up-for-greatness/

Rav Aharon then picked up the phone and called Rav Moshe in what turned out to be a discussion that lasted close to 40 minutes. And for the duration of the entire phone call, Rav Aharon remained standing. Rav Elyashiv told me that he tried several times to push a chair closer to Rav Aharon so he could sit down, but he just ignored his overtures.

When the call finally ended and Rav Aharon shared Rav Moshe’s psak with him, Rav Elyashiv thanked the Rosh Yeshivah for his time, and then asked him why he would not sit down while on this long phone call.

Rav Aharon responded, “Is it possible to sit down while talking to Rav Moshe Feinstein?”

Conrad Black

 Garnel IronheartMay 31, 2024 at 8:01 PM

Conrad Black has written on the corrupt state of US justice because of his experiences, again being harshly punished for a minor crime because it was politically expedient to do so.

As I've told DT over and over, this isn't a team sport. The entire system is corrupt. Stop taking sides when each side is terrible.

Your proof of the corruption of the syatem is rather weak if you read the facts of his case instead of simply accepting everything he claims

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

On 15 May 2019, US President Donald Trump granted Black a full pardon.[104][105] Trump noted "broad support from many high-profile individuals who have vigorously vouched for his exceptional character".[106] Black is a friend of Trump and has written flatteringly about him in opinion articles and in the 2018 book Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other.[107][108] Many news sources linked Black's recent book and his long friendship with Trump to the pardon.[109] The Washington Post noted, "In addition to his book, Black frequently writes columns praising Trump and considers the president a friend".[3] Upon his release from prison, Black had been deported to Canada and was previously barred from entering the US for 30 years.[110] The pardon allows him to travel to the US.[111]