History Bit: Zionism ≠ Judaism

American orthodox Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss comments on the differences between Zionism and Judaism.

News Bits: Evidence of Theia-Earth collision; Increasing radicalization of the radicals

nature.com writes: 

Strange blobs in Earth’s mantle are relics of a massive collision

Impact with a body called Theia 4.5 billion years ago left remnants deep inside Earth — and also created the Moon

The protoplanet Theia, which was roughly the size of Mars, slammed into 

proto-Earth 4.5 billion years ago (artist’s impression)

For decades, scientists have been baffled by two large, mysterious blobs in Earth’s mantle. These rock formations are thousands of kilometers long and slightly denser than their surroundings, hinting that they are made of different material than the rest of the mantle.

New computer modelling supports a dramatic origin story for these strange blobs: they are artefacts of a gargantuan collision 4.5 billion years ago between early Earth and another young planet — the same collision thought to have formed the Moon. The modelling suggests that this violent encounter caused material from the impacting world, called Theia, to embed itself in the lower half of Earth’s mantle. The collision also caused some of Theia’s remnants to be flung into orbit; these eventually coalesced into the Moon.

The idea that the mantle anomalies are remnants of Theia is not new, says Robin Canup, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “But this paper is the first in my mind to really take that notion seriously,” she says.  

A giant collision between the young Earth and a smaller protoplanet has long been the prevailing theory for the Moon’s formation. Such an origin would explain features such as the Moon’s lack of many volatile compounds, which would have been vaporized during the collision with Earth.

Computer simulation of the impact

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This is a very important bit to be acutely aware of. A NYT analysis (full article not paywalled) of what the ARR (authoritarian radical right) DJT is planning to do if he gets re-elected in 2024:

Close allies of Donald J. Trump are preparing to populate a new administration with a more aggressive breed of right-wing lawyer, dispensing with traditional conservatives who they believe stymied his agenda in his first term.

The allies have been drawing up lists of lawyers they view as ideologically and temperamentally suited to serve in a second Trump administration. Their aim is to reduce the chances that politically appointed lawyers would frustrate a more radical White House agenda — as they sometimes did when Mr. Trump was in office, by raising objections to his desires for certain harsher immigration policies or for greater personal control over the Justice Department, among others.

Now, as Trump allies grow more confident in an election victory next fall, several outside groups, staffed by former Trump officials who are expected to serve in senior roles if he wins, have begun parallel personnel efforts. At the start of Mr. Trump’s term, his administration relied on the influential Federalist Society, the conservative legal network whose members filled key executive branch legal roles and whose leader helped select his judicial nominations. But in a striking shift, Trump allies are building new recruiting pipelines separate from the Federalist Society.  

These back-room discussions were described by seven people with knowledge of the planning, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. In addition, The New York Times interviewed former senior lawyers in the Trump administration and other allies who have remained close to the former president and are likely to serve in a second term.  

The interviews reveal a significant break within the conservative movement. Top Trump allies have come to view their party’s legal elites — even leaders with seemingly impeccable conservative credentials — as out of step with their movement.

“The Federalist Society doesn’t know what time it is,” said Russell T. Vought, a former senior Trump administration official who runs a think tank with close ties to the former president. He argued that many elite conservative lawyers had proved to be too timid when, in his view, the survival of the nation is at stake.

In the past, DJT choose federal judge nominees from the ARR Federalist Society. The FS gave us all six of the ARR Republican politicians who now dominate the USSC. For the new and improved (more radical, enraged and virulent) DJT, those 6 FS guys are too wimpy. They don't even know what time it is. 

This another warning about the incredibly high the stakes in the 2024 and elections thereafter. A ferocious kleptocratic dictatorship is brewing among ARR elites if they ever get the chance to impose it on all of us. We have been warned.

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In a rare moment of bipartisanship, the House has proudly lowered the bar for what it takes to stay in congress. It’s called the foggy mirror test. If you put a mirror under the congressperson’s nose and it fogs from breathing, then they are qualified to stay in power. The Hill writes:

A total of 31 Democrats joined 182 Republicans in voting to keep Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in Congress on Wednesday, killing a Republican-led effort to oust the embattled lawmaker.

The lower chamber voted 213-179-19 against a resolution to expel Santos, marking the second unsuccessful attempt this year to eject the first-term lawmaker from the House. A two-thirds threshold is needed to expel a member of Congress.

A total of 31 Democrats and 182 Republicans voted against the resolution, while 24 Republicans and 155 Democrats voted to expel Santos.

Hm, maybe the House didn’t lower the bar, but instead dropped in on the ground. Or, maybe they just tossed the bar in the trash can. At the least, we can know that if a person in congress fails the foggy mirror test, they will be out of power. Probably.

Test passed or failed?

Well, lookie here...

I was just taking a gander at our sample ballots for next Tuesday, and lo and behold, Ohio’s finally getting with the program that 23 other states have already adopted.

Link here.

Yes, we are voting on legalizing marijuana. 

Do you think it will pass?

“If passed, the new law would take effect a month after the election.”

Merry Christmas?

News bits: Israel bombs refugees; CN note; The one-way ratchet to kleptocratic tyranny

That speaks for itself. Source.

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A NYT opinion comments about Mike Johnson and the radicalized GOP:

Mike Johnson is the first person to become speaker of the House who can be fairly described as a Christian nationalist, a major development in American history in and of itself. Equally important, however, his ascension reflects the strength of white evangelical voters’ influence on the House Republican caucus, voters who are determined to use the power of government to roll back the civil rights, women’s rights and sexual revolutions.

“Johnson is a clear rebuttal to the overall liberal societal drift that’s happening in the United States,” Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University, wrote by email in response to my query. “His views are far out of step with the average American and even with a significant number of Republicans.”

Robert Jones, president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute, described Johnson in an email as “the embodiment of white Christian nationalism in a tailored suit.”

What is Christian nationalism? Christianity Today describes it as the “belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way. Popularly, Christian nationalists assert that America is and must remain a ‘Christian nation’ — not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future.”

Johnson’s election as speaker, Jones went on to say, “is one more confirmation that the Republican Party — a party that is 68 percent white and Christian in a country that is 42 percent white and Christian — has embraced its role as the party of white Christian nationalism.”  

The MAGA movement, in Podhorzer’s view, was unleashed with the Tea Party movement in 2010, well before Donald Trump emerged as a dominant political figure, and the elevation of Johnson marks the most recent high point in the movement’s acquisition of power: “Mike Johnson becoming speaker is better understood in terms of the ongoing white Christian nationalist takeover of the American government through MAGA,” he writes.

White Christian nationalists, Podhorzer contends, “were once reliable votes and loyal foot soldiers for almost any Republican candidate since the 1970s,” but they “rebelled when John McCain and other establishment Republicans treated Obama’s win as legitimate.”

Notice what radicalized the right into an authoritarian monster, i.e., the legitimate election of a black president. Consider the implications of that.

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From my cognitive biology and social behavior-colored view of politics, it has seemed to me that for years, the ARR (authoritarian radical right) has figured ways to slowly force the two dominant authoritarian ideologies into power (aggressive Christian nationalist theocracy and brass knuckles (unregulated) capitalism). The workings of this kind of authoritarian politics strike me as sometimes akin to a one-way ratchet that inches closer and closer to the goals of killing democracy and establishing some form of kleptocratic authoritarianism.

The Hill published an article that exemplifies the one-way nature of anti-democracy politics designed to force pro-democracy forces into losing situations: 

GOP sets political trap for Democrats with Israel bill

House Democrats will face a tough vote this week when Republicans, led by newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), consider a $14.3 billion Israel aid bill that includes cuts to IRS funding to pay for the package but no assistance to Ukraine.

The vote is sure to highlight the long-standing chasm between Israel’s staunchest Democratic allies, including President Biden, and pro-Palestinian liberals who have accused Israeli leaders of human rights abuses and war crimes in Gaza. Illustrating that divide, 15 Democrats last week declined to endorse a nonbinding resolution proclaiming U.S. support for Tel Aviv following Hamas’s deadly attacks last month.

But Republicans’ inclusion of the IRS cuts adds an additional complication, forcing the bulk of Democrats into the no-win scenario of sacrificing one priority in defense of another.  

If one looks at the tactic here, it is clear that the ARR can keep setting up loser scenarios for Dems on many occasions, maybe most of the time. All the ARR forces need to do is package something they like or are neutral to with something they dislike. By forcing Dems to save one thing they want by being forced to sacrifice another, the ARR ratchet takes another step toward its ultimate goals.

 

Sure, one can argue that the Dems would then need to restore what was lost to reverse the original sacrifice. But as we know, the American federal government was set up for it to be hard to do much of anything. The ARR has the powerful advantage of it being far easier to block or kill something than it is to build and then maintain it. When one want to get rid of a democratic government and regulations, the defenders are in a much weaker position and in the long run, they are likely to lose.

Q: Is the one-way American ratchet to kleptocratic tyranny (theocracy, autocracy, plutocracy) something mostly real, or is it mostly a mirage in Germaine's mind?