Thursday, November 27, 2025
Trump brushes off concerns about Witkoff’s interactions with Russians as leaked transcript roils Washington
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/26/politics/trump-witkoff-russian-call
The transcript generated concern among some GOP Russia hawks on Capitol Hill who asserted that Witkoff was too much under Russia’s spell. Rep. Don Bacon called for him to be fired.
“For those who oppose the Russian invasion and want to see Ukraine prevail as a sovereign & democratic country, it is clear that Witkoff fully favors the Russians. He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he?” Bacon wrote on X.
Russia rejects major concessions on Ukraine as leaked call shows Witkoff advising Moscow
https://www.jpost.com/international/internationalrussia-ukraine-war/article-876329
Russia will make no big concessions on a peace plan for Ukraine, a senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday, after a leaked recording of a call involving US envoy Steve Witkoff showed he had advised Moscow on how to pitch to Donald Trump.
The plan - and the leaked Witkoff call - prompted unusually harsh criticism from Trump's fellow Republicans, who have generally marched in lockstep with the president since he began his second term.
Senator Mitch McConnell, the party's former Senate leader, said Russia should not be rewarded. "A deal that rewards aggression wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on. America isn’t a neutral arbiter, and we shouldn't act like one," he said on X.
Trump, on Air Force One, brushed aside a question from a reporter about why Witkoff appeared to be coaching Russian officials as "what a dealmaker does" and "a very standard form of negotiation."
The Psychology of Hypocrisy – Why We Do it & How to Stop
https://www.straighttalkcounseling.org/post/the-psychology-of-hypocrisy-why-we-do-it-how-to-stop
At the root of hypocrisy is fear and low self-esteem. We use hypocrisy to avoid looking at our shortcomings and figure out our part in it. It typically stems from a sincere belief that we should not be held to the same standards as others because we have better intentions. Our belief is juster, nobler, and sincerer.
It feels good to be morally superior to someone else. It helps us to avoid humility, which is a very painful emotion. Even the best of us use hypocrisy when we feel attacked. For example, in the workplace, we may enjoy gossiping about our coworker’s poor performance but are secretly concerned about our own job performance. It’s a deflection to avoid dealing with our own problems because we don’t want to be judged.
The moral hypocrisy of Trump’s GOP enablers
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4713212-the-moral-hypocrisy-of-trumps-gop-enablers
So it was strange that Johnson has allied himself with the manifestly immoral Donald Trump. Wearing the uniform of the day, a blue suit festooned with a red tie, Johnson — who has supported outlawing pornography, penned op-eds opposing marriage equality and advocated against everything from abortion to LGBTQ rights — traveled to a dingy courthouse in downtown New York City to voice his support for Donald Trump on trial for committing 34 felonies related to hush money payments to a porn actress.
Johnson doesn’t share Trump’s interest in porn stars. He and his son have purchased the Covenant Eyes porn surveillance app, which scans all your online activity and “sends a report to your accountability partner,” Johnson told some Louisiana Baptists a couple of years ago. “My accountability partner right now is Jack, my son. He’s 17. … I’m proud to tell you, my son has a clean slate.”
Hypocrisy should come as no surprise in a politician, and perhaps it is not misplaced, but this one rivals Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn denying he was gay even as he was dying of AIDS.
Hypocrisy, Spinelessness, and the Triumph of Donald Trump
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/10/trump-gop-support-jd-vance-2024/679564
But I was struck by one theme that Trump kept pounding on over and over: that he was used to dealing with “brutal, vicious killers”—by which he meant his fellow ruthless operators in showbiz, real estate, casinos, and other big-boy industries. In contrast, he told me, politicians are saps and weaklings.
“I will roll over them,” he boasted, referring to the flaccid field of Republican challengers he was about to debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that September. They were “puppets,” “not strong people.” He welcomed their contempt, he told me, because that would make his turning them into supplicants all the more humiliating.
Amid measles outbreak, study finds skepticism of routine vaccines soared during COVID
As Israel contends with one of its most severe outbreaks of measles in decades, a Bar-Ilan University researcher says that the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic has diminished public trust in childhood vaccines, leading to the current outbreak.
Those findings, published in a recent study, come as 11 children, most of them unvaccinated, have died of measles in Israel since May. As of late October, according to the Health Ministry, there were 1,644 reported cases of infections and 577 hospitalizations.
Trump wants a bigger White House ballroom. His architect disagrees.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/26/trump-ballroom-architect-james-mccrery
President Donald Trump has argued with the architect he handpicked to design a White House ballroom over the size of the project, reflecting a conflict between architectural norms and Trump’s grandiose aesthetic, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.
Trump’s desire to go big with the project has put him at odds with architect James McCrery II, the people said, who has counseled restraint
Judge dismisses Georgia criminal case against Donald Trump
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/26/georgia-donald-trump-electon-case-00669703
The criminal case against Donald Trump in Georgia is officially dead.
“There is no realistic prospect that a sitting President will be compelled to appear in Georgia to stand trial on the allegations in this indictment,” wrote Peter Skandalakis, a prosecutor who assigned himself the case after failing to find another prosecutor to take it over. “Donald J. Trump’s current term as President of the United States of America does not expire until January 20, 2029; by that point, eight years will have elapsed” since the alleged crimes in question.
Skandalakis ultimately said he lacked the resources to take the sprawling case to trial and it would be unwise to do so even if it was feasible.
“Continuing this litigation under these circumstances would neither serve the citizens of Georgia nor fulfill our statutory obligations. Our agency is simply not equipped to carry out this case while meeting the essential duties required under the current budget — or under any realistically conceivable budget the State could provide,” wrote Skandalakis, who heads up a state prosecutors’ council in Georgia. “In my professional judgment, the citizens of Georgia are not served by pursuing this case in full for another five to ten years.”
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Can military members refuse orders?
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/explainer-military-members-refuse-orders/story?id=127865412
Members of the U.S. military have the legal right to refuse orders they believe are unlawful, but they risk violating military laws of obedience if the order is in fact lawful, experts in military law say.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA officer who participated in the video, told ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday that the lawmakers put out the video because they had been approached directly by military officers with concerns.
"We've had report after report of legal officers, JAG officers, coming forward and saying, 'Look, I push back on this. I'm not sure that this is legal,'" Slotkin said. "There is such things as illegal orders. That's why it's in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Going back to Nuremberg, right? And it's just a -- it's a totally benign statement."
Trump Envoy Steve Witkoff’s Ties to Russia Come Under Scrutiny. Here’s What to Know
https://time.com/7336906/steve-witkoff-russia-call-trump-ukraine-peace-plan/
President Donald Trump appears unfazed that a Cabinet-level envoy appeared to be advising the other side in ongoing foreign-policy negotiations.
After Bloomberg published a bombshell report on Tuesday revealing a purported transcript of U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff, who has been credited with helping to broker the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and who is currently working on U.S. efforts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, guiding Vladimir Putin’s senior foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov on how the Kremlin could best get through to Trump.
Putin apparently followed through. A Kremlin readout of an Oct. 16 call with Trump said that Putin “started out by congratulating Donald Trump on his successful efforts to normalise the situation in the Gaza Strip.” A few weeks later, the Trump Administration unveiled a 28-point peace proposal for Ukraine that was reportedly drafted by Witkoff. Observers said it heavily favored Russia’s priorities, and Reuters reported that it drew significantly from a paper outlining Russia’s conditions for an end to the war.
Atstrogy and Magic are real
Ramchal (Fundamentals Magic) Stars actually influence events. All the influences coming from above for the purpose of the lower ones pass through the stars. However their influence is only according to what is drawn from above. To all these spiritual beings, God gave permission to influence the lower worlds with actions that are not in accordance with the natural way, That which is closer beneath them is more influenced. When the lowest are influenced by the middle forces you should know that they were prepared and selected for this. However none have in them the power to act independently with its own volition to do everything they want. Everyone is limited and restrained as to what it can do. |In these things there are matters which are permitted and those that are forbidden .This is the subject of Sefer Yetzira and Kishuf.