Teacher Trump

 https://yated.com/teacher-trump/

Trump was the ultimate akshan, hardening his heart and continuing to fight and fight until he succeeded in defeating them, embarrassing them, and now finally dismantling their designs to use the power of government to subjugate the people.

We must learn from Trump. Certainly, in this area, he must be our teacher. Remember, be an akshan. No matter what the yeitzer hara throws at you, no matter how difficult the nisayon, you can overcome it, and when you do, you will be so much more powerful as a result.

If you don’t believe me, just ask Trump.

Top haredi leader calls for Arab rule over Israel, says Zionism brought 'disasters'

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-841327

Rabbi Dov Landau, head of the Slabodka Yeshiva and one of the Lithuanian community leaders, called for the Arabs to rule Israel as they had in the past, haredi media reported Friday.

Reminiscing, he said, "It is possible to live well with the Arabs without a state."

He advocated for Arab rule over Israel, saying, "It would be quite good if the Arabs ruled here; the best situation, [if] the Arabs would rule, they would respect them (Zionists), not interfere with them, bring money to the country - the Arabs love money."

Cheating on the N.Y. Regents exams

Igros Moshe (CM II:30) You had heard that the yeshivos permit their students to cheat on the Regent Exams in order to falsely indicate they are ready to graduate and receive their diploma.  This is prohibited not only according to secular law but also according to Torah. It is not only deception which is also prohibited but is also actual theft.  That is because when he seeks employment in the future and the job usually requires high standards of secular education. When he shows his diploma as proof of his competence and the employer relies on it as proof of competence to hire him  – this is actual theft. Do not make the rationalization to say that since there is no reason that the job actually needs this level of education it doesn’t matter because it still is lying about your qualifications.. Even if it is not really needed the employer wants it and would fire the person who deceived him.  In general it is prohibited to lie even if it is not relevant. Furthermore if he knows you are a liar, he will not rely on you for anything. It will also cause others to suspect yeshiva students of being dishonest and possibly cause other frum Jews to lose their jobs because of suspicions of their dishonesty. In addition if he wants a high level of education – it might in fact be needed for this job so there is no justification for lying even if you think it will benefit Torah study. Because one is also prohibited to steal for the sake of learning Torah. Even if you desire to learn only Torah you should not be worried that by spending time mastering secular knowledge it will interfere with your Torah knowledge and you won’t accomplish as much as a Torah scholar. The truth is that this is not bitul Torah. Not mastering secular studies is simply laziness if you study it in a manner that you don’t master the material. That is because you still need to go to class and you are simply wasting the time.  Furthermore you are getting accustomed to not learning the material and you are developing lazy study habits. 

However it is clear that what you have heard about yeshiva students cheating on exams is false and comes from those that hate the yeshivos and wish to destroy them and they makeup baseless evil claims. It is known that yeshiva students are superior also in secular studies to public school students. Don’t pay attention to these false rumors even if they appear in a well known newspaper of those that hate Torah and Fear of G-d. You can say with confidence that these claims are lies made up by those that hate Torah and Judaism. 

Donald Trump Is Not the Victim of ‘Lawfare.’ He’s a Crook.

 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/donald-trump-is-not-the-victim-of-lawfare-he-s-a-crook/ar-BB1kCiOz?

One of the reasons Republicans were so reluctant to accept Donald Trump’s nomination in 2016 is that he was quite obviously a crook. “His business record reflects the often dubious norms of the milieu: using eminent domain to condemn the property of others; buying the good graces of politicians — including many Democrats — with donations,” editorialized National Review. Marco Rubio lambasted him as a “con artist.” The Wall Street Journal editorialized about Trump’s deep ties to the mafia and his fulsome praise of its work. (After Trump won the nomination, the Journal spiked a second editorial about his mob links.)

“Lawfare” means using the law as a weapon to get Trump. Conservatives ranging from the Trumpiest wing of the movement to the most Trump-skeptical — the ones who used to attack him as a crook — have all employed this term to describe the entire range of Trump’s legal problems, from his New York fraud conviction to his indictments in New York and Atlanta to both of Jack Smith’s federal cases.

The advantage of this catchall term is that it allows Trump’s defenders to ignore the specifics of Trump’s misconduct, or at least to analyze it in a highly selective way. There are indeed a couple instances in which Trump has faced legal challenges that are questionable (the attempt to disqualify him from the ballot based on the 14th Amendment) or downright weak (Alvin Bragg’s indictment over hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels). Conservatives tend to focus obsessively on these cases, and “lawfare” is a permission structure that allows them to use these cases to ignore or discredit the others, where Trump’s behavior is impossible to defend.

Musk Demands Judge Who Blocked DOGE at Treasury Be Impeached

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/musk-demands-judge-who-blocked-doge-at-treasury-be-impeached/

Elon Musk demanded the impeachment of the federal judge who blocked his federal spending task force from accessing the payment systems at the Treasury Department.

“A corrupt judge protecting corruption,” Musk tweeted in the early hours of Sunday morning. “He needs to be impeached NOW!”

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled Saturday that special government employees and officials outside of the Treasury ought to be prohibited from accessing systems that contain sensitive information, effectively booting out Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the process.

Trump Enrages Christian MAGA By Naming ‘Heretic’ Pastor to White House

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-enrages-christian-maga-by-naming-heretic-pastor-paula-white-cain-to-white-house/

The president signed an executive order establishing a White House Faith Office and chose Pastor Paula White-Cain, his ally and spiritual advisor, to lead it.

White-Cain, 58, is a megachurch preacher from Florida who has endorsed biblical interpretations that some evangelical Christians believe go too far.

She is a proponent of “prosperity theology,” which teaches that God rewards the truly faithful with material wealth and personal success.

Critics say that by blaming financial woes on a lack of faith, prosperity theology can be used to exploit vulnerable churchgoers. Many Christians consider it a form of heresy, according to The New York Times.

Danon calls on UN's Guterres to condemn Hamas's 'cruel, inhumane' hostage treatment

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-841248

Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, wrote an official appeal to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, calling on him to condemn Hamas's "cruel and inhumane treatment" of the hostages following the release of three Israelis on Saturday.

Released hostages Or Levy, Eli (Eliyahu) Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami returned in critical condition, appearing starved after spending 491 days captive, and were said to have lost some 30% of their overall weight.

Trump's America—Land of Cruelty and Vengeance

 https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-americaland-cruelty-vengeance-opinion-2027498

Yet, for all his talk of "making America great again," it's evident that Donald Trump's version of greatness has nothing to do with leadership or moral rectitude. Trump's definition of greatness rests solely on the notion of power. To Trump, a great nation is not one that leads the world, but one that ignores its suffering in pursuit of self-interest.

Trump goes beyond simply promoting callousness, he relishes it. And now he's made this self-centered philosophy a cornerstone of our politics. Rather than extend helping hands to the world, we've made one hand into a stop sign and the other into a fist. "America First," we constantly hear from Trump's MAGA crowd; in truth they mean "America only."

Yet, as cruel and terrible as Trump has been and will undoubtedly continue to be, what's even worse is the fact that so many millions of Americans embrace his ideology, believing, as the antagonist Gordon Gekko once said that greed is good, and that our first and only priority is to look out for ourselves. If that means abandoning our allies, so be it. If it means mischaracterizing DEI efforts to maintain white hegemony, also OK. And if it means cutting off crucial medications to other countries, that's not our problem, they reason.

The MAGA world doesn't take issue with Trump going after political opponents or people in the Justice Department he doesn't like either because, as they see it, the world is a harsh and corrupt place, and no one else would do any different. They race to Trump because they see him as their glorious leviathan—the monster whose wings they can take shelter under to feel powerful. He justifies their every negative notion about the world, and for that they love him.

What they're all missing is that truly great nations are compassionate nations, and right now we're pretty far from greatness.

Trump Administration Hands Putin Three Major Wins

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-putin-sanctions-wins-2028230

Donald Trump's move to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been welcomed by the Kremlin, it has been reported, amid a suite of measures by the new U.S. administration which could play into Vladimir Putin's hands.

Trump's executive order to impose sanctions on the ICC, comes in a week in which Attorney General Pam Bondi halted a federal law enforcement effort to combat secret influence campaigns by Russia and other adversaries.

The U.S. Justice Department is also disbanding an effort to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin.

DOGE Staffer Resigns Over Racist Posts

 https://www.wsj.com/tech/doge-staffer-resigns-over-racist-posts-d9f11a93?mod=hp_lead_pos3

A key DOGE staff member who gained access to the Treasury Department’s central-payments system resigned Thursday after he was linked to a deleted social-media account that advocated racism and eugenics.

Musk vows to rehire deputy who apparently joked about annihilation of Israel and Gaza

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/musk-vows-to-rehire-deputy-who-apparently-joked-about-annihilation-of-israel-and-gaza/

 US tech billionaire Elon Musk said Friday he was reinstating a deputy who quit a job giving him access to the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans after the staffer was linked to a racist social media account.

Marko Elez, 25, resigned from Musk’s self-styled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Thursday when The Wall Street Journal uncovered a welter of offensive posts on the account, including a boast from last July stating, “I was racist before it was cool.”

Musk — US President Donald Trump’s close confidante and point man on spending cuts — asked his 216 million X followers if he should reinstate “@DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now-deleted pseudonym.”

Surgeon removed wrong organ then covered it up, widow alleges in suit

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/02/05/florida-surgeon-wrong-organ-lawsuit/

Thomas Shaknovsky removed a man’s liver instead of his spleen, and then the Florida hospital repeatedly lied about it, the lawsuit claims.

It’s Trump’s World and Kanye West Is Free to Post What He Wants

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-trumps-world-and-kanye-west-is-free-to-post-what-he-wants/

In the space of 11 hours, Kanye West broke almost every taboo.

Through 57 posts, the polarizing rap mogul launched an incredibly offensive machine-gun tirade of attacks on Jews, gays, feminists, the overweight, the mentally challenged, the woke, and other rappers. He supported Diddy. He lionized Adolf Hitler.

This time last year, there would almost certainly be serious consequences for any one of these posts.

“Ye” has a voice and now it is unfiltered. Elon Musk has other matters on his mind. He has made it clear he has no intention of censoring anybody on his X platform.

Amid the flurry of insults, West leaves his followers in no doubt that he is not backing down this time.

“If I get taken off of streaming services it’s only going to make me richer,” he wrote in one of his later, lower-case tweets. “Any and every control tactic you have at this point only makes me richer.”

Trump questions whether Time Magazine ‘still in business’ after Musk cover reveal

 https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5134297-donald-trump-time-magazine-elon-musk-influence/

President Trump weighed in on Time Magazine’s reveal of a cover featuring tech billionaire Elon Musk, seemingly mocking the outlet that named him its “Person of the Year” in 2024.

Asked on Friday if he had a reaction to the photo illustration of Musk behind the Oval Office’s Resolute Desk, Trump shook his head.

“No,” he said during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, “Is Time Magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that