Ron Paul Asks Trump: Please Pardon More Innocents!

Trump Pardons Flynn…It’s a Good Start!

Last week President Trump granted a “full pardon” to Gen. Michael Flynn, his first National Security Advisor. In a White House statement announcing the pardon, the Administration pointed out that the relentless pursuit of Flynn was a partisan effort to overturn the results of the 2016 election.

The pursuit of Flynn was spearheaded by people who refused to accept the results of the 2016 election and worked to undermine the peaceful transfer of power, said the White House. These same people are the ones accusing Trump of undermining the election by challenging what appears to be serious voting irregularities in the 2020 presidential election.

That is called “projection.”

The White House statement also cites partisans in politics, the media, and the Deep State which sought to prevent Trump from being elected, to prevent him from taking office once elected, and to remove him on false pretenses once in office.

In order to push the false narrative that Trump was somehow elected due to the intervention of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the coup-masters had to make it appear that a high-ranking official was involved in monkey business with the Russians. Flynn was the unlucky victim of their smear machine, accused of “Russia collusion” over an innocent telephone call with the then-Russian Ambassador in Washington during the transition to a Trump Administration.

Yet when Joe Biden’s transition people bragged recently that Biden was connecting with foreign officials before inaugurated, the media praised it as a welcome return of the “experts” to foreign policy.

While it is very good news that President Trump is in the mood to pardon those victims of the warmongering Deep State, I very much hope that he is only warming up. It would be a great tragedy if other Deep State victims are left to suffer for their non-crimes.

Tweeting about her legislation that calls for charges against Edward Snowden and Julian Assange to be dropped and the Espionage Act reformed, US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard told President Trump, “since you’re giving pardons to people, please consider pardoning those who, at great personal sacrifice, exposed the deception and criminality of those in the deep state.”

My good friend Rep. Thomas Massie, a Ron Paul Institute Board Member, is a co-sponsor of Rep. Gabbard’s legislation, making it a real bipartisan effort to restore the rule of law in the United States and to rein in the Beltway warmongers.

Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are not criminals. They are heroes for telling us the truth about what criminals in government were doing in our name and with our money.

The fact is we were lied into war over and over again. While those wars were profitable for the military-industrial-Congressional-media complex, they snuffed out the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people overseas and robbed our own children and grandchildren of trillions of dollars wasted on neocon lies. And meanwhile, as Ed Snowden showed us, the intelligence community declared us the enemy and set up an elaborate internal spy network that would make the East German Stasi green with envy.

President Trump: you have the incredible opportunity to right the terrible wrongs perpetrated by the Obama/Biden Administration. History will smile kindly upon you if you also grant full pardon to Julian Assange and Edward Snowden – and any other truth-teller who faces persecution for exposing the Deep State warmongers.

From LRC, here.

HALACHA PARAMOUNT – From Rabbi Sternbuch’s Parsha Sheet

And Yaakov awakened from his sleep, and he said, Indeed, Hashem is in this place, and I did not know it. (28:16). Rashi: For had I known, I would not have slept in such a holy place.

Rav Sternbuch heard several times from the Brisker Rov how amazed he was by this possuk. Even though Yaakov attained a giluy Shechinah in his sleep, and with Eisav planning to kill Yaakov, Elifaz having stolen all his money, and being about to encounter Lavan, he received a promise from Hashem in the dream that He would always protect him (“I am with you, and I will guard you wherever you go”), Yaakov nevertheless would have been willing to forego all these spiritual and material benefits rather than transgress the halocho of desecrating a holy place by sleeping there. This teaches us, concluded the Brisker Rov, that we cannot do “business” with Hashem by committing a forbidden act, even if the potential gains are very appealing. If there is any sin involved, no potential gain is worth it — even apparent spiritual gain.

To prove his point, he cited the Tosefta in Terumos that rules that if a non-Jew tells a group of Jews, “Give us one of you and we will kill him, and if you don’t, we will kill all of you,” it is forbidden to surrender even one Jew to be killed. Rather, they must allow themselves to all be killed instead. We see from here that we are not allowed to “do business” with the laws of the Torah. Murder is forbidden, and to transgress for the sake of the “greater good” is prohibited — because in reality, the “greater good” is following Hashem’s Torah in every minute detail.

He also cited the gemoro (Eiruvin 43b) that Eliyohu is not permitted to come on Shabbos to redeem the nation, since his coming would involve the prohibition of techumin derabbonon. Even though a delay in his coming might mean that the resumption will be delayed for a long time, because if the nation sins subsequently for a moment, causing a decline in its spiritual level, they would no longer be entitled to be redeemed, and the redemption would be postponed to an unknown future date. In other words, it is forbidden to transgress even a rabbinic prohibition in order to hasten the redemption.

Similarly, during World War I, when many Jews were being killed, one rabbi told Rav Chaim Brisker that it would all be worth it if it will expedite the coming of Moshiach. Rav Chaim responded that this was not so, and, for example, it is forbidden to deliver Jews to be killed even for the sake of bringing Moshiach, notwithstanding the fact that when he will come we will be privileged to witness Hashem’s honor increasing greatly in the world as well as an immense spiritual reawakening.

We are subject to halocho, and according to halocho it is forbidden to sacrifice Jews in order to save others, no matter the gain! The laws of the Torah were not given to us to bargain with, and we are not allowed to commit sins in order to reap other supposed gains.

In the same vein, the Brisker Rov explained that the passuk that Hashem does not accept bribery (Devorim 10:17) means that He does not accept bribes of good deeds. In other words, He does not forego strict adherence to halocho in return for other merits, because halocho is paramount.

Corbett Report Corona Lockdown Episode: TRANSCRIPT

In 2006, a 15-year-old high school student from Albuquerque, New Mexico won third place in the Intel science and engineering fair for her project on slowing the spread of an infectious pathogen during a pandemic emergency. Using a computer simulation that she developed with the help of her father, she argued that in order to slow the spread of the disease, governments should implement school shutdowns, keep kids at home and enforce social distancing.

Incredibly, that third place high school science fair project can be tied directly to the lockdown policies being implemented by governments around the world today. You see, that father that she developed her computer simulation with was no average doting dad, but a senior researcher at Sandia National Laboratories who at that time was working on pandemic emergency response plans for the US Department of Homeland Security. His proposal to implement school shutdowns and, if need be, workplace shutdowns in the event of a pandemic emergency was developed at least in part in response to his daughter’s high school project.

Now those advocating for lockdowns have seen the destruction and death that those policies have wrought this year and we are living through that right now. Not only are people being deprived of their livelihoods and forced into grinding poverty as a direct result of these shutdowns, but now the undeniable truth is that if you are advocating for lockdowns, you are advocating for some portion of the population to be consigned to death.

This is no longer debatable. It is even openly admitted—although months too late by the World Health Organization.

DAVID NABARRO: I want to say it again: we in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as a primary means of control of this virus. [. . .] We may well have a doubling of world poverty by early next year. We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition because children are not getting meals at school and their parents and poor families are not able to afford it.

This is a terrible, ghastly global catastrophe, actually. And so we really do appeal to all world leaders: stop using lockdown as your primary control method. Develop better systems for doing it. Work together and learn from each other. But remember, lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never, ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.

SOURCE: The Week in 60 Minutes #6

This is the point at which, no doubt, I’ll be expected to produce the data to back up the non-controversial observation that lockdowns kill, even though that data will do precisely nothing to penetrate the consciousness of those who have already decided that they occupy the moral high ground for advocating locking billions of people around the globe as prisoners inside their own homes. But persevere I will.

I’ll point, for example, to the letter signed by hundreds of doctors calling the lockdowns themselves a “mass casualty incident” and exhorting politicians to end the shutdowns.

I’ll point to the research that shows that thousands of people will die because of delays to cancer surgery treatments as a result of the medical shutdowns.

I’ll point to the research of the Well-Being Trust showing that 75,000 Americans are expected to die deaths of despair—including alcohol and drug misuse and suicide—this year alone as a result of the lockdowns.

I will point to the research of The Lancet showing that 265 million people are expected to be thrown into severe food insecurity as a result of these lockdowns.

I will even point to the research showing 125,000 children are expected to die from malnutrition as a result of these lockdowns.

But, as I say, none of these deaths will matter to those who have already decided that they are right and virtuous for advocating locking vast swathes of the human population inside their own homes to starve to death in the name of slowing the spread of a disease that even the epidemiologists who have been wrong about everything this year tell us will kill less than one percent of the infected.

Continue reading\listening on The Corbett Report here…

Rabbi Sacks: More Than a ‘Crown Rabbi’

Three Sides of Rabbi Sacks

by R. Gil Student

The passing of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l leaves thousands if not millions of people of faith — Orthodox and non-Orthodox, Jewish and gentile — mourning their teacher and source of inspiration. Everyone is unique but some of us, just a few, are irreplaceable. I doubt whether anyone can fill Rabbi Sacks’ oversized role in this world. In this age of disbelief, Rabbi Sacks improbably achieved great success in projecting an uncompromising pride and confidence in the wisdom of Jewish tradition, motivating non-affiliated Jews to come closer to tradition, inspiring faith in people across all nations and religions, and achieving respect for his global message of the societal importance of family, community, morality and religious faith. I know of at least three sides to Rabbi Sacks’ unique role, each of which is challenging but the combination of all three in one person seem quite remarkable.

I. The Inspirer

The first side of Rabbi Sacks is the most recognizable. He was a superbly successful advocate for religion in general and Judaism in particular. Many people fail to realize that Rabbi Sacks actually filled two slightly contradictory roles in doing this. On the one hand, he was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations, speaking to the Jews of England and beyond. This was no simple matter, since many members of the United Hebrew Congregations had limited Jewish education and observance while many other Jews in England had intense traditional Jewish upbringing. Serving as Chief Rabbi meant balancing the messages that inevitably affected all Jews. Rabbi Sacks’ legendary weekly divrei Torah reflect this balance. The insights are, on the one hand, built on the text and classical commentaries. On the other hand, they incorporate stories and insights from philosophy, psychology and social science. His massive erudition and eloquence, his ability to speak to the heart and mind at the same time, gave his Torah lessons more gravity to the average reader. The combined impact of his messages are inherently traditional but dressed in contemporary garb. The net effect was spectacular, resonating with traditional Jews as well as those non-Orthodox with little education and even academic scholars of Judaism.

At his core, Rabbi Sacks was a story-teller. He had a rare sense for the right message for the time. His book, A Letter in the Scroll, is the most effective outreach book I have encountered. Carefully sidestepping all the difficult philosophical and scientific challenges that face many outreach arguments, Rabbi Sacks builds an emotionally and intellectually compelling case for the beauty and excitement of Jewish life. The Jewish story is the most exciting story in world history. Don’t you want to be a part of that story, a letter in the scroll? This book has changed countless lives by refocusing the Jewish story away from obscurity and persecution into a vibrant tale that enhances pride, instills faith in the Torah and Sages, and describes the excitement of living a committed Jewish life.

I remember once attending a shiur Rabbi Sacks gave on sippur yetzi’as Mitzrayim, a classic Pesach topic full of lomdus. Many of the attendees clearly had limited yeshiva background. Rabbi Sacks mesmerized the audience and asked a classical question based on a contradiction of Torah texts, reviewed answers of Rishonim and suggested a resolution worthy of any Acharon. He did this all without anyone noticing the technical weight he was carrying. To all onlookers, he seemed to be telling stories about Pesach, Jewish life and eternal spiritual aspirations. It was a master performance that engaged experienced yeshiva students and complete novices at the same time, commanding everyone’s full attention for a complete hour. Most of his Jewish writing functions in this way, conveying Divrei Torah along with inspiration, dressed in stories about philosophy and social science. He used new media — print, audio, video and animation — long before most rabbis began experimenting with them. Personally, even though I prefer reading, sometimes I listen to a recording of the written text just to hear his elegant accent and dramatic intonations make the message come alive even more. Rabbi Sacks was a master of enhancing his message through wise use of the medium.

Rabbi Sacks saw his role also as an advocate for religion in general society. Secularism is now the majority ideology throughout the Western World and religious belief of any kind is subject to ridicule. Most religious leaders are in retreat. Rabbi Sacks, through the force of his own celebrity and charm, defeated the cynicism of atheism and secularism with sincerity and introduced a generation of non-believers to the necessity of faith for both individual and societal flourishing. With society breaking down around us, Rabbi Sacks proposed a return to a covenantal community. He used his ample skills of Torah interpretation, combined them with a keen sociological analysis of the problems facing society, and produced a plan for societal reinvigoration. In a number of award-winning books, worldwide lectures and media appearances, Rabbi Sacks made a compelling case for traditional religious values.

II. The Rabbi’s Rabbi

A second side to Rabbi Sacks was his private interaction. He mentored young rabbis, offering sound advice and encouragement. The rabbinate is a difficult career. As the Chief Rabbi, and as someone with experience as a successful pulpit rabbi and educator, Rabbi Sacks had a store of experience and — of course — stories to help young rabbis navigate their vocations.

However, Rabbi Sacks was more than a rabbinic advisor. He was a charmer. Rabbi Sacks was one of those people with the natural ability to always have the right word for every circumstance. He knew how to make every individual feel like the most important person in the room. Some people work a crowd to network and establish business contacts. Rabbi Sacks worked a crowd to inspire and uplift.

I remember the first time I met Rabbi Sacks personally. It was the New York launch of the Koren Sacks Siddur, with his translation and commentary. Rabbi Shaul Robinson of Lincoln Square Synagogue, a British rabbi serving in New York, arranged for me to walk Rabbi Sacks to his seat as he entered the room. I had at most 20 seconds to speak with Rabbi Sacks during which he made me feel like his partner in inspiring the world and encouraged me to continue serving Klal Yisrael in my own way. He later signed my siddur with a genuine smile, solidifying the personal connection. Every time I saw him after that, he recognized my face and greeted me with great joy, offering encouragement that was specific enough to let me know that he was truly invested in my success. While I would like to feel special, I am told he treated every young rabbi this way, offering encouragement, advice and assistance. He gave blurbs to new books like Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson (author of the Sho’el U-Meishiv and jokingly called the “Sar Ha-Maskim”) gave haskamos, rabbinic approbations. He wanted people to succeed, books to sell, Torah teachers to solidify their achievements.

III. The Early Sacks

Rabbi Sacks’ third role became apparent during the early years when he served as a shul rabbi and educator. His abundance of natural talent led to success and a larger, more prestigious post until he rose to the position of Principal of Jews’ College and next in line for the position of Chief Rabbi. During those years, Rabbi Sacks was heavily involved in the publication of the magazine L’eyla, published by the Office of the Chief Rabbi and Jews’ College. As would be expected from a Cambridge-trained philosopher, he wrote about issues of the day in Jewish thought and reviewed important Jewish books, including the initial books published by Artscroll.

Perhaps surprising to many people, Rabbi Sacks also wrote the magazine’s contemporary halakhah column. In this column, he surveyed recently published responsa on a variety of interesting topics. For example, he discusses the permissibility of cosmetic surgery based on responsa of Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Eliezer Waldenburg and Rav Chaim David Halevi. When the first three volumes of Rav Ovadiah Yosef’s Yechaveh Da’as were published, Rabbi Sacks summarized a selection of responsa, offering readers a tour through the otherwise dizzying encyclopedic discussions about, for example, whether a kohen who killed while serving as a soldier can continue blessing the congregation, whether to recite a blessing on seeing a president, and more. In another issue, Rabbi Sacks contrasted the views of Rav Ovadiah Yosef and Rav Moshe Feinstein on the rabbi saying a devar Torah in between aliyos, summarized Rav Ovadiah Yosef’s responsum on whether the obligation to unload a donkey applies to a stranded motorist, analyzed Rav Eliyahu Bakshi Doron’s responsum on mourning a divorced parent who had severed relations with the child and forgiven all honor, and explored Rav Dr. Mordechai Halperin’s article on naming a baby before a delayed circumcision.

These articles demonstrate a rabbi fluent in the language of halakhah and capable of presenting to others the core ideas and sources of cutting edge responsa. In other writings of this era, we find Rabbi Sacks building arguments based on a deep reservoir of halakhic literature. His book, One People?: Tradition, Modernity and Jewish Unity, uses halakhah at length in order to articulate an authentic Jewish view on what pluralism is and is not. At the first Orthodox Forum conference convened by Yeshiva University in 1989, whose proceedings were published in a book titled Rabbinic Authority and Personal Authority, Rabbi Sacks presented a paper arguing against rampant creativity in halakhic decision-making in general, and against women’s ordination in particular, based on among other sources a teshuvah of the Chasam Sofer which Rabbi Sacks explains and expands with great perception. Perhaps most importantly, he rules out any kind of philosophical or functional approach to halakhah, arguing for a traditional fidelity to the sources and precedents.

Put differently, while not a halakhic decisor himself, Rabbi Sacks was intimately familiar with the ways of the leading decisors and a vocal defender of the traditional method of reaching halakhic decisions. He was a halakhic traditionalist. In addition to his opposition to women’s ordination mentioned above, in another of his contemporary halakhah columns, Rabbi Sacks covered the 1985 controversy over Women’s Prayer Groups. Rabbi Sacks discussed the prooftexts and critiques but gave the final word to Rav Hershel Schachter and Rav J. David Bleich, both of whom strongly opposed this innovation.

This was the early Rabbi Sacks, before he rose to the position of Chief Rabbi. He was a defender of Orthodoxy and tradition against liberal agitators. Once he ascended community-wide public position, he seems to have withdrawn from public discussion of practical halakhah, leaving that to the London Beth Din. He instead focused his attention on using his unique voice to inspire global religious revival. A wise man plays to his strengths and Rabbi Sacks was among the wisest of his generation, sharpening his already keen philosophical and homiletical skills for his later career. You have to look with great care at his later writings to see his earlier traditionalist halakhic views peek out from hiding.

With the passing of Rabbi Sacks we have lost a unique, multi-faceted voice of religious passion. Within this void, we each have to work harder to inspire ourselves and others. However, thanks to his prodigious creation of audio and video recordings, Rabbi Sacks characteristically leaves us with a new interpretation of the Talmudic phrase “sifsosav dovevos ba-kever, his lips move in the grave” (Yevamos 97a), and he can continue to inspire us and future generations. May his memory and teachings continue to generate passion toward greater religious devotion.

From Torah Musings, here.