Meanwhile everyone from New York is rushing to the "house on fire."
Thread. https://t.co/GNW1DpUQ65
— Brit Hume (@brithume) February 13, 2021
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES
And so the verdict is in. . . Hallelujah. It’s over.
The acquittal of former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial is a fitting outcome to a case that should not have happened. Never before has a former president been impeached and put on trial, and it should never happen again.
This was a show trial, an attempt by Democrats to humiliate Trump after his election defeat and force Republicans to side with him or against him. While the president’s speech before the Capitol riot was at times too angry and bitter, there was nothing in it that could reasonably be seen as intending to incite an insurrection, as the single House article charged.
In fact, the case was in many ways the mirror image of the partisan putsch that Dem leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer engineered over the Ukraine piffle almost exactly a year ago.
In the long history of our republic, there have been only four presidential impeachments, and two of them came courtesy of Pelosi and Schumer in the last two years. That’s making history in all the wrong ways.
They have normalized impeachment as a partisan weapon, which is the last thing our country needs. The growing instances of violence are being stoked by extremist demands for political purity, and the efforts to convict Trump and boot him from the ballot last year and in 2024 are dangerous provocations.
The final vote of 57-43 fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds needed for conviction, and was only a vote or two closer than was predicted before the circus began. The mutual decision to backtrack on the call for witnesses earlier in the day was a merciful sign that it was all over but the voting.
For Trump, the acquittal allows him to begin moving on with his life and focus on what role he wants to play in the 2022 midterms and whether he wants to run in 2024. He must also deal with the fact that various prosecutors are looking at his businesses and other issues.
Beyond that, expect Democrats to be especially creative in trying to keep Trump’s name in the headlines.
Nothing unites their fractured party like hating him, and Saturday’s failure will provide more fuel for their perpetual outrage.
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| Religious dissident Sun Yi, locked up by China in the Masanjia Labor Camp, used his sparse English vocabulary to pen numerous SOS letters -- one of which was found by Julie Keith. |
In 2012, Oregon mother Julie Keith opened a package of Halloween decorations from her local Kmart. Inside, she found something far more unsettling than a bunch of plastic skeletons and gravestones: an SOS letter from the prisoner who made them.
Written neatly in a blue pen, it read:
Please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right[s] Organization. Thousands [of] people here who are under the persecution of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever.
Julie froze.
“Is this a prank?” she thought.
The 42-year-old read on as the note detailed inhumane work conditions and the fact that many workers were imprisoned despite having committed no crimes. She Googled the name of the labor camp mentioned in the note: Masanjia. It was real. She tried contacting various human rights organizations and finally went to the Oregonian newspaper, which published a story about the SOS.
Then she waited.
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It’s happening. pic.twitter.com/yUfMHXrSCY
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) February 12, 2021
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| Mainz Cathedral aerial panoramic view, located at the market square of Mainz city in Germany |
According to Germany’s Ministry of Culture, the gravestones were used in the walls as fillers and may date as far back as the 11th century, Israel Newsstand reported on Thursday.
Ministry spokesman Markus Nöhl said the tombstones “are centuries-old evidence of Jewish roots and tradition in Mainz.”
He explained that after Jews were expelled from Mainz in 1438, ownership of the town’s Old Jewish Cemetery was turned over to the municipal. A section of the cemetery site was leased out as a vineyard, resulting in a large number of headstones being removed and reused as building materials.
“Many medieval headstones that were used as building material were rediscovered in the 19th and early 20th centuries, among other things, during works to regulate the Rhine River, during the construction of the Hessische Ludwigsbahn [railway] in the south of the city, and in connection with the de-fortification of the city,” he said, adding that this also applies to the headstones recently found.
The rediscovered headstones also feature inscriptions, many of which are written in Hebrew, that Nöhl said provide “valuable information about the deceased as well as historic events.” Some have engraved eulogies for community officials, scholars, benefactors and martyrs, “both men and women, and they offer a uniquely precise insight into the internal structure” of the surrounding communities, he told Israel Newsstand.
The headstones are now at a depot at the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage for further processing and will then be used for scientific research.
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Trump's defense team plays a compilation video of House Democrats objecting to the Electoral College results in 2017 pic.twitter.com/IzAyW7KqQQ
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 12, 2021
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We wrote about this on Jan 7 when the Jewish Mamzer Jonathan Greenblatt, of the ADL, bashed her when she rightfully said , ‘Hitler Was Right On One Thing whoever has the youth has the future."
Representative Mary Miller (R-Ill.) met with the Rabbinic Board of the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) and other rabbinic leaders last week, who defended her after she was condemned for a Nazi comparison she made at the Jan. 6 Trump rally.
“She was subjected to shameful attacks that, if one views the video of her remarks, unquestionably distorted her intent and perspective,” said Rabbi Ze’ev Samson, Midwestern Regional Vice President of the CJV.
Prior to the Capitol riots, Miller had said to the crowd, “If we win a few elections, we’re still going to be losing unless we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”
Democrats quickly pounced on Miller’s comments, focusing on the Hitler comparison, which the congresswoman explained in a tweet the next day was meant as “a denunciation of evil dictator’s efforts to re-educate young people and similar efforts by left-wing radicals in our country today.”
Miller, who later apologized for making the comparison, had been referring to increasing efforts in U.S. schools to educate children to adopt a left-wing worldview, a trend that has accelerated in recent years. The New York Post recently ran the testimony of a father with two children in the Manhattan public school system who complained of left-wing “brainwashing.”
Another rabbi at the meeting, Moshe Parnes, Southern Regional Vice President of the CJV, said that Miller in fact mirrored an approach common in Jewish thought – to learn lessons from one’s enemies.
“Representative Miller is clearly sympathetic to the Jewish community and emphasized that she wants to be responsive to our concerns. So we were happy that we responded to her invitation and gave her the opportunity to further clear the air,” he said.
Other participants expressed their support and asked Miller about her perspective on Israel and the BDS movement.
At the meeting, Miller again apologized and expressed regret for her choice of words. She explained that her intent was to highlight the importance of guiding our youth in the right direction. She answered questions from Jewish community members and learned more about their concerns.
“While I do regret the words I used to illustrate my message about instilling values in our children, I believe God is using this experience for good,” Miller said.
“The great discussion from our meeting only proves this. Connecting and learning from the Jewish community becomes more important every day with anti-Semitism on the rise. I am grateful to be a small part of the solution,” she added.
“I am thankful to have had the opportunity to meet and speak with the Rabbinic Board of the Coalition for Jewish Values and other rabbinic leaders,” Representative Miller said after the meeting.
The CJV represents over 1,500 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in American public policy. CJV has previously issued a statement in support of Miller.
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By Paul Shindman, World Israel News
Members of an ultra-Orthodox synagogue were furious when they found out a member who died of the coronavirus had refused to get vaccinated because he believed false rumors spread in the community that the vaccine could make him sterile, the haredi news website Kikar Shabbat reported Wednesday.
Avraham Bedman, 36, had existing coronary problems and died this week due to complications from the coronavirus. His synagogue in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot said Bedman had been “murdered” by fake news in the community and launched a campaign against the people who spread the rumor that the vaccine against coronavirus could make men sterile.
An announcement sent to members of the Mishkan Shraga synagogue said Bedman died because someone had talked him out of getting the vaccine.
“Now, when the blood is boiling, it should be noted that Avraham – who was at a certain risk – refrained from getting vaccinated for fear of harming his fertility,” the announcement said. “The same person who told him this nonsense, and those who distribute it at all, are murderers.”
The synagogue said that everyone in their community “should use this painful case to arouse and warn of the duty to get vaccinated and prevent the death of adults and young people.”
“He had the opportunity to be vaccinated, already at the beginning of the vaccination operation, because he was at risk, but he said he heard that it might cause him not to be a father,” congregation member Rabbi Yishai Lesser told Kikar Shabbat, adding that “Avraham was a cheerful man full of joy of life.”
Rabbi Lesser said another resident of the Ramot neighborhood is currently hospitalized with the virus because he, too, was afraid of getting vaccinated.
“We must publish and warn against these lies,” Lesser said.
Widely read in the ultra-Orthodox community by those who use the internet, Kikar Shabbat has regularly posted calls from leading rabbis of different haredi communities urging their followers to get vaccinated.
After the Health Ministry released figures showing that members of the Bukharan community in Israel had low vaccination rates, senior rabbis of the community published a letter saying it was a Torah precept for everybody to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Rabbi Zavdia Cohen, senior leader of the community, wrote that the rabbis gave a “a clear Torah opinion on the sacred duty of each and every young man and woman to receive vaccination immediately.”
“This call is within the scope of Torah and mitzvos [commandments] and … you should not pay any attention at all to those who slander against the vaccine because their words are nonsense and the Torah has already commanded us to heal.”
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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki gave a vague, rambling answer Friday when asked at a briefing to reporters whether the Biden administration considers Saudi Arabia and Israel to be “important allies.”
“Can you please just give us a broad sense of what the administration is trying to achieve in the Middle East?” a reporter asked — in follow-up to an earlier question asking why President Biden has yet to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“For example,” the reporter asked, “does the administration still consider the Saudis and the Israelis important allies?
Rather than saying simply, “Yes,” Psaki gave this answer, according to a White House transcript of the late-afternoon briefing.
“Well, you know, again, I think we — there are ongoing processes and internal interagency processes — one that we, I think, confirmed an interagency meeting just last week — to discuss a range of issues in the Middle East.
“We’re — we’ve only been here three and a half weeks, and I think I’m going to let those policy processes see themselves through before we give, kind of, a complete laydown of what our national security approaches will be to a range of issues,” she added.
Earlier in the press briefing, in insisting that Biden’s failure to call Netanyahu is “not an intentional diss,” Psaki said, “Obviously, we have a long and important relationship with Israel, and the president has known him and has been working on a range of issues that there’s a mutual commitment to for some time.
“It is just a reflection of the fact that we have been here three and a half weeks, he’s not called every single global leader yet, and he is eager to do that in the weeks ahead.”
A reporter followed up: “But he has called every other major ally in Europe and Asia,” to which Psaki answered, ‘He’s called many of them.”
“That is true,” she continued, adding, vaguely, “Some would argue they haven’t received calls yet, and they are still eager to receive them.”
“But I can assure you he will be speaking with the prime minister soon, and he’s looking forward to doing that.”
She declined to indicate when the call would happen, even to say if it would be a matter of days or weeks.
“They’ve known each other for some time,” she said. “There are certainly areas of mutual interest.”
“And as soon as he makes that call, we will let you all know.”
Psaki was also non-committal when asked more than a week prior about the lack of call to Netanyahu.
“We have a long and abiding relationship with Israel, an important security relationship, I’m sure they’ll discuss that and a range of issues when they do connect,” she said.
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| Preparing Cholent in Bnei-Brak for Vaxxers |
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In fact he said "No"!
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| Synagogue in Jewish quarter of Venice, Italy |
Poland’s “dignity” is offended by the truth—but only when that truth exposes a Polish official or citizen for having aided and abetted the Nazis and for having persecuted Polish Jews during the Nazi occupation. The Polish government has never tried any Polish historian or journalist for having described Polish individuals and clergy who fed, hid, and saved Polish Jews.
The honor of Poland is at stake and the Poles are deeply invested in presenting themselves as “victims”—of the Russians and of the Nazis, never also as the perpetrators of Jew-hatred and pogroms long before the Nazi armies came to town, and after they were driven out (Jewabne, Kielce).
Down the decades, I have learned bitter but complex truths about the French, Dutch, Belgian, Spanish, Hungarian, Greek, Croatian, Norwegian, and Ukrainian complicity in the Holocaust. Somehow, because I loved Italy (the art, the opera, the landscape, the cinema), I never looked too closely at their role during World War Two. Once, when I hired a guide to take me on a tour of Jewish Italy, she gave me a book which contained a fairly gruesome history of 2,000 years of Italian Jewish sorrows. And once, when I was living in Venice, it hit me hard when I learned that Venice—Venice! had also turned over its Jews to Hitler, albeit, not until 1943.
When I looked into the matter further, I understood that Italy had begun to disenfranchise its Jews in 1938, before Kristallnacht took place in Germany. Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend private schools, Jewish professors were exiled from all universities, from government and military service, as well as from banking and insurance industries. In 1939 and 1940, Jewish peddlers and shopkeepers’ licenses were revoked and all Jews who held stocks and bonds were required to turn them over to “Aryans.” If possible, matters worsened once Germany occupied Italy in 1943. According to Ms. Ilaria Pavan, a former Italian official investigating the “looting of property of Jewish Italian citizens,” as of 2010, such looting “totaled almost 1 billion in today’s values.”
As with Poland, all the European histories describe governments and individuals who were eager to expropriate Jewish property (real estate, homes, factories, art work, chinaware, clothing, bank accounts, furniture); eager to hand over the former Jewish owners to Hitler’s gas chambers. There are also accurate accounts of non-Jewish European who saved Jews and who fought Hitler’s armies as partisans.
There were heroes and villains, resisters and cowards, in every country.
What got me thinking about this all over again was my accidental discovery of a very moving eight-part miniseries, The War is Over, which is just now being live-streamed on MHZ in Italian with English subtitles. This RAI film is based on the book by Aharon Megged about the orphaned “children of Selvino,” and relates the true story of the 800 traumatized Jewish children who were rescued from concentration camps and ghettos all across Europe, who had no parents, no families, and who were physically, psychologically, spiritually, and sexually wounded, as well as educationally deprived.
From 1945-1948, the Milanese Jewish community, the municipality of Milan, soldiers of the Jewish Brigade (Moshe Ze-eri and Teddy Be’eri), the Jewish Agency, the Joint Distribution Committee, Youth Aliyah, and former anti-fascist partisan fighters, and Jewish and non-Jewish youth workers all took care of these children in an abandoned estate in northern Italy. They tried to heal them well enough so that they could make the journey to Palestine on those heroically “illegal” immigrant ships that the British stopped, fired upon, and forced to land in Cyprus. Eventually, some of these children joined Kibbutz Tze’elim in the Negev.
In 2019, after a seven year campaign, a museum opened in Selvino to commemorate this heroic rescue operation.
The miniseries is beautifully and soulfully acted (Michele Riondino, Isabella Ragonese, Valerio Binasco), but the children will steal your heart. Please watch it. Experience the past present.
Prof. Phyllis Chesler is a Ginsburg-Ingerman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, received the 2013 National Jewish Book Award,.authored 20 books, including Women and Madness and The New Anti-Semitism, and 4 studies about honor killing, Her latest books are An American Bride in Kabul, A Family Conspiracy: Honor Killing and A Politically Incorrect Feminist.
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Last weekend, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote a piece criticizing the rationale behind the forced ouster of Times reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr., but it was never published. Stephens told colleagues the column was killed by publisher A.G. Sulzberger. Since then, the piece has circulated among Times staffers and others — and it was from one of them, not Stephens himself, that The Post obtained it. We publish his spiked column here in full.
Every serious moral philosophy, every decent legal system and every ethical organization cares deeply about intention.
It is the difference between murder and manslaughter. It is an aggravating or extenuating factor in judicial settings. It is a cardinal consideration in pardons (or at least it was until Donald Trump got in on the act). It’s an elementary aspect of parenting, friendship, courtship and marriage.
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U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat elected to the Senate last month, is named as a respondent in the case because of his former ties to the group, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
It’s among 35 cases involving potential violations of election law being sent from the State Election Board to the attorney general or local prosecutors, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement Thursday.
The New Georgia Project, which bills itself as a nonpartisan effort to register voters, is accused of submitting 1,268 voter registration applications after the 10-day deadline to do so. The missed deadline caused voters to be disenfranchised in the March 19, 2019, special election, according to Raffensperger’s statement.
It’s among 35 cases involving potential violations of election law that the State Election Board is sending to the attorney general or local prosecutors, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement Thursday.
Warnock was listed as the CEO for the New Georgia Project at the time, but the organization says his actual position was chairman of its board. He resigned from that post on Jan. 28, 2020.
Warnock and the New Georgia Project didn’t immediately respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.
The New Georgia Project was founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams in 2014. It has registered nearly 500,000 people from underrepresented communities to vote in Georgia. The group also advocates for civil and human rights “and works to advance justice on behalf of historically marginalized communities,” it said in a recent news release.
Also among the cases being referred to prosecutors, some of which date back several years: Four instances of felons voting or registering to vote; four cases of non-citizens voting or registering to vote; and one case of misplaced ballots during the 2020 general election, which didn’t change the outcome, Raffensperger said in a statement.
“Election fraud is not tolerated in Georgia. When there is evidence of it, the people responsible face prosecution,” said Raffensperger, chairman of the five-member election board.
“Georgia has multiple safeguards in place that allow our team of investigators to discover fraudulent voting,” he said. “They worked to catch the wrongdoing in these cases, and they maintain the security of Georgia elections.”
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