Chinuch (231) And Rambam, said as the reason of the commandment that it is in order that the soul of the one that curses not be moved to vengeance and that he not become used to anger. And he wrote at further length about this in his book. And it appears to me from his words that, in his opinion, he does not see any injury to the one cursed from the curse, but rather that the Torah is distancing the matter from the perspective of the one that curses — that he not accustom himself to vengeance and anger and to lowly traits. And we shall accept all the words of our rabbis, though our hearts hold more of what we have written.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Amusing Ourselves to Death
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
Postman distinguishes the Orwellian vision of the future, in which totalitarian governments seize individual rights, from that offered by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where people medicate themselves into bliss, thereby voluntarily sacrificing their rights. Drawing an analogy with the latter scenario, Postman sees television's entertainment value as a present-day "soma", the fictitious pleasure drug in Brave New World, by means of which the citizens' rights are exchanged for consumers' entertainment.
Trump isn't a politician, he's an entertainer
https://www.salon.com/2017/10/14/the-entertainer_partner/
Trump is unquestionably our worst president. Yet, in terms of air time and occupying mental space, he is our most successful entertainer ever. He doesn’t care about the first. He clearly obsesses over the second.
Trump’s address proved he is a genius entertainer. Democrats ought to worry.
Whatever else I think of President Trump, and almost none of it is favorable, I know this much is true: He is an incredibly gifted entertainer. And his skills have almost never been more effective than during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, when Trump’s flair for reality television met up with his penchant for stories of bloody violence, sentimental anecdotes and bromides. You don’t have to like it to acknowledge that it’s a powerful thing for a president to function as a one-man television network.
Trump’s endorsement is starting to show its limits
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/26/trump-endorsement-losses-00165023
Mainstream GOP groups — who have spent big in primaries trying to cull hard-liners from the House Republican Conference — sought to block Williams and Burns. In those instances, Trump’s preferences clashed with Republicans’ desire to avoid adding to the group of rabble-rousers who have derailed their legislative agenda and ignited intraparty wars over the last two years.
Conservatives for American Excellence and America Leads Action, two super PACs that have played in safe-seat Republican primaries across the country this cycle in an attempt to thwart potential troublemakers, dropped about $2 million to boost Crank over Williams. Burns was also the target of more than $500,000 in outside spending from those two groups.
The loss of Williams and Burns is a huge relief to mainstream Republicans, as was attorney Jeff Hurd’s win in another Colorado district. He beat the far-right Ron Hanks, who proved so controversial that the top House GOP super PAC spent against him because it worried he could lose the red-leaning seat.
The Reason U.S. Arms Shipments to Israel Have Slowed
The current delivery pace is only a slowdown compared with the massive airlift of tens of thousands of weapons in the initial months after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, a State Department official said, and is currently similar to or even higher than peacetime levels.
“Our pace is normal, if not accelerated, but slow relative to the first few months of the war,” said a State Department official.
Jewish parents join suit challenging Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments in schools
The text of the Ten Commandments mandated by the law is a Christian version and “does not match any version or translation found in the Jewish tradition.”
Jews and different Christian denominations do number the commandments differently. The version prescribed by the bill omits part of the first commandment in Judaism, the section of the first verse about God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt.
Exasperated Biden Spokesperson Swats Away Trump’s ‘Silly’ Drug Test Demand
Trump, after setting the bar quite low for Biden by questioning his acuity, has recently reversed course by priming viewers to view the president as on some sort of stimulant. This about-face has been dutifully echoed on Fox News and other MAGA-friendly outlets. Similarly, Trump and his allies pushed the baseless narrative after Biden’s State of the Union address back in March.
Jamaal Bowman’s Defeat Is a Fatal Blow to the Anti-Israel Left
Democratic voters made their voices heard in New York’s 16th congressional district. Now all eyes will be on Missouri’s 1st, where another “Squad” member, Rep. Cori Bush, faces a competitive primary challenge.
And after that, the spotlight will be on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. There, we hope true progressives will stand up and stand strong for the values that reject hate, embrace justice, and can work to rebuild a truly inclusive movement that welcomes all who want to fight for progress—including Jews and Zionists.
Jamaal Bowman was a Democratic Trump. Now he’s gone
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/06/25/jamaal-bowman-democratic-donald-trump/
Bowman will soon be gone, and good riddance. There will inevitably be more like him; the right has no monopoly on bullies and demagogues. But it’s an encouraging sign that, at a time when the country is losing its collective mind, there is still a critical mass on the left who can say: Stop.
Israel critic Jamaal Bowman loses New York primary
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/392123
New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a notorious critic of Israel, will lose his Democratic primary to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, CNN and multiple other networks projected on Tuesday night.
His defeat is a first for a member of the so-called “Squad” of progressive lawmakers who are known for their anti-Israel stance.
The result in New York’s 16th Congressional District is also a victory for pro-Israel groups, which backed Latimer with historic levels of spending during the campaign.
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Trump presented plan to halt US military aid to Ukraine unless peace achieved with Moscow
https://www.jpost.com/international/internationalrussia-ukraine-war/article-807710
Under the plan drawn up by Trump's former advisers, a ceasefire would be established based on prevailing battle lines during peace talks.
MAGA World Now Wonders Whether Biden’s Doped Up on Mountain Dew
After spending the past few weeks peddling so-called “cheap fake” videos to depict Biden as senile and setting expectations for the president’s debate performance extremely low, MAGA media and Trump himself are now reversing course and preemptively providing a built-in excuse. The ex-president has even gone so far as to claim that Biden would be using illegal drugs and steroids during the debate.
Key food security org finds no famine in Gaza, says previous assumptions wrong
There is currently no famine in Gaza, a new report by the key Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) organization has found, despite the IPC having predicted in March that a full-blown famine would break out in the territory between March and July 2024.
The study released on Tuesday stated that assumptions the previous projection had made about the amount of food that would enter the territory turned out to be wrong, and that the supply of food to Gaza has increased instead of decreased during recent months.
“In this context, the available evidence does not indicate that Famine is currently occurring,” the report said.
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