Vaccines using mRNA are currently being studied for a wide range of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders like Type 1 diabetes and rare diseases like cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that results in excessively thick, sticky mucus that can plug the airways and damage the lungs.

 

5 Questions About mRNA Vaccines, Answered

 

We asked experts about how the technology works, its safety and its potential in medicine.

 

Listen to this article · 7:39 min Learn more

 

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly questioned the safety of mRNA vaccines against Covid-19. Scientists with funding from the National Institutes of Health were advised to scrub their grants of any reference to mRNA. Around the country, state legislatures are considering bills to ban or limit such vaccines, with one describing them as weapons of mass destruction.

While mRNA, or messenger RNA, has received widespread attention in recent years, scientists first discovered it in 1961. They have been studying it and exploring its promise in preventing infectious diseases and treating cancer and rare diseases ever since.

What is mRNA?

A large molecule found in all of our cells, mRNA is used to make every protein that our DNA directs our bodies to build. It does so by carrying information from DNA in the nucleus out to a cell’s protein-making machinery. A single mRNA molecule can be used to make many copies of a protein, but it is naturally programmed to die eventually, said Jeff Coller, a professor of RNA biology and therapeutics at Johns Hopkins University and a co-founder of an RNA therapeutics company.

How do mRNA vaccines work?

Right now, there are three FDA-approved vaccines available that use mRNA, two for Covid-19 and one for R.S.V., or respiratory syncytial virus, in older adults. These vaccines consist of strands of mRNA that code for specific viral proteins.

Say you get a Covid-19 vaccine. The strands of mRNA, packaged into tiny fat particles, go into your muscle and immune cells, said Robert Alexander Wesselhoeft, director of RNA therapeutics at the Gene and Cell Therapy Institute at Mass General Brigham. Protein factories in the cells then take instructions from the mRNA and manufacture a protein like the one found on the surface of a Covid-19 virus. Your body recognizes that protein as foreign, and mounts an immune response.

More on Covid-19

• Efforts to Thwart mRNA Therapies: The therapies, a key to Covid vaccines, hold great potential in treating several diseases, but some lawmakers want to ban them and the government is cutting funding. We asked experts about how the technology works, its safety and its potential in medicine.

• Vaccine Approvals: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to require all new vaccines to be tested against placebos and to develop new vaccines without using mRNA technology, moves that raise questions about whether Covid boosters will be available in the fall.

• Gut Issues: Why does Covid cause diarrhea, constipation, pain and bloating? Here are some suggestions for what to do about these conditions.

• Heart Problems: One recent study found that a Covid infection doubled the risk of a major cardiovascular event for up to three years afterward. People who had severe infections were especially vulnerable.

• Paxlovid and Long Covid: A new report suggested the drug might improve symptoms for some patients, but results were mixed.

• Retracing Covid’s Origins: Researchers contend that the Covid pandemic got its start from bats, which jumped to wild mammals in China that were taken by wildlife traders.

Most of the mRNA will be gone within a few days, but the body retains a “memory" of it in the form of antibodies, Dr. Coller said. As with other types of vaccines, immunity wanes both over time and as a virus evolves into new variants.

Why are mRNA vaccines being used now?

In the mid-2000s, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania figured out how to get foreign mRNA into human cells without it degrading first. That enabled researchers to develop it for use in vaccines.

The main use for such vaccines right now is to prevent infectious diseases, like Covid-19 and R.S.V., said Dr. Wesselhoeft, who founded a company that develops RNA therapies. The mRNA vaccines can be made very quickly because all of the components, other than the RNA sequence, remain the same across different vaccines.

This feature could be helpful for developing the annual flu vaccine, said Florian Krammer, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who has previously consulted for Pfizer and CureVac on mRNA therapies. Typically, scientists decide in February or March which influenza virus strains to include in a vaccine that will be rolled out in the United States in September. But by that time, a different strain may be dominant. Because an mRNA vaccine can be manufactured more quickly than the current flu shot, scientists could wait until May or June to see which strains are circulating, Dr. Krammer said, increasing the likelihood the vaccine will be effective.

Do these vaccines have risks?

A common question patients ask is whether an mRNA vaccine can affect their DNA, Dr. Boucher said. The answer is no. Our cells cannot convert the mRNA into DNA, which means that it can’t be incorporated into our genome.

The vaccine for Covid-19 can cause muscle aches and flulike symptoms, but these are expected side effects for vaccines generally, Dr. Krammer said.

It’s been more than four years since the Covid-19 vaccine was first rolled out “and there are not long-term safety signals,” said Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease specialist in New York. Many parents were concerned about myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle that was reported as a possible side effect of the vaccine. But, Dr. Ratner said, the risk of such inflammation from an actual Covid-19 infection, or of long Covid or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, was far greater.

What else can mRNA be used for?

Vaccines using mRNA are currently being studied for a wide range of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders like Type 1 diabetes and rare diseases like cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that results in excessively thick, sticky mucus that can plug the airways and damage the lungs.

In cancer, the idea is that the mRNA codes for a tumor protein that the immune system will recognize as foreign, telling the body to attack the tumor. In a genetic disorder like cystic fibrosis, it codes for a functioning version of a deficient protein to replace the faulty one and restore the mucus to healthy state.

A paper in the journal Nature earlier this year showed that an experimental mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer provoked an immune response in some patients after they had undergone surgery for the cancer. Patients who experienced that immune response lived longer without cancer than patients who did not.

Another recent paper showed that, in monkeys, an inhaled mRNA therapy could produce a protein needed to form cilia, the hairlike structures that line our airways and move mucus out of them. These proteins malfunction in a debilitating respiratory disorder called primary ciliary dyskinesia.

This research is still in early stages: The pancreatic cancer study, a Phase I trial, included only 16 patients, and there may have been other differences between the two groups that accounted for the different survival times. There is a long history of research showing that interventions may lead to immune responses without actually changing patients’ outcomes, explained Dr. Steven Rosenberg, chief of the surgery branch at the National Cancer Institute and an expert in cancer immunotherapy.

Dr. Richard Boucher, a pulmonologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, noted that for lung diseases, it’s extremely difficult to safely get the particles carrying mRNA into exactly the right cells.

In general, Dr. Ratner said, mRNA vaccines are “exciting” in that they offer hope for disease treatments where prior technologies have failed. But mRNA therapy is still a drug technology like any other: In some diseases it likely will work, he said, “and in other cases it probably won’t.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/well/mrna-vaccines-safety.html

Haredi Battalion Celebrates Lag B’Omer Near Gaza Border

 After two months of intensive operations on the Lebanese border, the Haredi Netzah Yehuda Battalion has completed its mission in the north and has now been redeployed to the Gaza Strip in preparation for the next phase of ground operations.

During its time on the northern front, the battalion achieved a number of operational successes, including the seizure of weapons caches intended for use by terrorist cells. In several cross-border missions into Lebanese territory, Netzah Yehuda soldiers displayed initiative, resilience, and tactical skill, working closely with other units in the division.

As they transitioned between two high-intensity combat zones, the soldiers paused briefly to mark Lag B’Omer, drawing spiritual strength before returning to the battlefield. Organized by the Netzah Yehuda Association, the celebration honored Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and featured a festive atmosphere: the completion of a Talmudic tractate, a traditional mitzvah meal, singing and dancing, and the distribution of tzitzit garments to the troops.

Rabbi Shaul Abdiel, a spiritual leader with the Netzah Yehuda Association, joined the celebration and praised the battalion: “I was privileged to meet fighters of great spirit—courageous in defending the people of Israel, and equally committed to guarding their souls with Torah, joy, and unity. This is the essence of the Netzah Yehuda vision: the fusion of holiness and combat, spirit and strength, faith and duty. They are the spiritual heirs of the Rashbi—fighters of light and valor.”

Netzah Yehuda soldiers celebrate Lag B'Omer near Gaza border

Netzah Yehuda soldiers celebrate Lag B'Omer near Gaza border

Netzah Yehuda soldiers pray Maariv near Gaza border on Lag B'Omer

While you are being reduced to choosing between two dolls or owning five pencils in Trump’s tariff-ravaged economy (according to his own estimates), he needs a $400 million flying palace for all to be right with the world.

 1. Stop backing the swampiest of all swamp creatures.

2. Become more honest, and stay that way.

The Ben Shapiro "Honesty" Hustle

 

Has King Donald's Qatari private jet gift finally gone too far for MAGA? Don't hold your breath

Matt Labash

May 15, 2025

∙ Paid

Ben Shapiro, Making Hats Uncool Again

Sometimes, you have to laugh at today’s headlines. Or maybe you don’t, but I do. Since laughing helps ward off the wailing and gnashing of teeth. The latter of which I try to only do behind closed doors, or at least behind the paywall, in the interest of preserving what’s left of my dignity.

And so, I broke into hearty guffaws earlier this week when reading stories about Donald Trump being poised to receive a bribe “gift” of a $400 million 747 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar (“royal family” being an aspirational title for the Trumps these days). The idea, aside from personally enriching Trump, is to temporarily replace the aging Air Force One — still a luxe private plane by anyone’s standards — with a “flying palace” that will eventually become the property of Trump’s presidential library, the latter of which will doubtless include works of high scholarship like Lee Greenwood’s God Bless The USA Bible (“the only Bible officially endorsed by Lee Greenwood and President Trump” — still available for a cool 60 bucks), along with Trump’s long list of “authored” titles, such as Think Big And Kick Ass In Business And Life, one or two of which, he might have even skimmed before publication.

That’s right. While you are being reduced to choosing between two dolls or owning five pencils in Trump’s tariff-ravaged economy (according to his own estimates), he needs a $400 million flying palace for all to be right with the world. And you are a “world class loser” (again, his words) if you criticize him for it. Go Populism!

The Grifter's New Home!

It’s not that Trump’s grifterhood is particularly amusing. It’s old news, and we’ve always known he’s a two-bit hustler, going back to his days peddling Trump University (a scam so colossal it resulted in a $25 million settlement to students who were duped). Or Trump Vodka (the guy doesn’t even drink, though he’s driven plenty of us to do so). Or Trump ties (long enough to swaddle yourself like you were wearing a silky diaper, but tailored with the finest American craftsmanship, if by “American craftsmanship,” you mean “made in China”).

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Trump’s a con man, and always has been. But for the purposes of this piece, I’m more interested in his cast of subordinate flimflam artists, with many articles taking note of all the blowback Trump was getting even in usually friendly quarters for violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Though Trump’s bribe/gift passed muster with his ethics czar/Attorney General, Pam Bondi, which is no great surprise since ethics-wise, she doesn’t have any. For Trump wasn’t just taking fire from fake-news libs and media types — always a redundant classification in Trump’s world — but from reliable allies like Ben Shapiro, who called it “skeezy stuff.”

Shapiro’s right, of course. But news stories that breathlessly related his bold declaration nearly portrayed it as an act of integrity. Which, sorry, it isn’t. If you looked up the word “integrity,” you would not find a photo of Ben Shapiro next to it, unless it was an antonym dictionary. It’s just that the facts on the ground — the screamingly apparent corruption — sometimes become so incontrovertible, that even Trumpy fan-fiction writers like Shapiro occasionally have to acknowledge reality. Not to pick on Shapiro — there are much more extreme examples of MAGA knob polishers. See Benny Johnson, Speaker Mike Johnson (no relation), and the entire Fox primetime lineup, for starters. But what the hell? Shapiro’s a smart guy, which means he knows exactly what he’s doing. So scratch what I just said. Let’s go ahead and pick on him for a while!

Shapiro, you probably know, is the founder and chief propagandist at the Daily Wire, which, even after recent cutbacks and layoffs, has made more money than the Sun King by milking MAGAbots until they moo. (Sample headline on his current podcast: “Trump’s Saudi TRIUMPH”). And yet, like any talented propagandist, Shapiro knows that the best way to push big lies is to bolster credibility by telling small truths along the way. So he’ll sometimes relate Trump’s unpardonable sins, which, of course, are always subject to later pardoning, since no sin seems to be disqualifying, and pointing out such iniquities doesn’t leave you in good standing with the cult or the cult leader, upon whom your media empire is financed.

Therefore Shapiro, who in 2016, wrote “I will never vote for Donald Trump,” by 2020, was indeed voting for Donald Trump, claiming “I wasn't really wrong about Donald Trump on character, but whatever damage he was going to do has already been done, and it's not going to help if I don't vote for him this time.” Whoops! Guess he hadn’t counted on Trump trying to overturn an election that he soundly lost, while sending his mob to invade Congress to reverse the results. Character, or lack of it, tends to keep counting long after you’ve counted it out. Which a screechy moralist like Shapiro knows, or used to know, before pretending to fall in love with Donald Trump.

At the time, Shapiro called January 6 “the worst thing to happen to America since 9/11. It was cataclysmically awful.” But by 2024, of course, a now amnesiac Shapiro — like most of the rest of the GOP — was practically a wholly-owned MAGA subsidiary. He not only voted for Trump, he co-hosted a fundraiser for him.

To illustrate Shapiro’s schizo behavior, I was prepared to delve deep into his recent oeuvre, though mercifully, Media Matters’ Jason Campbell spared me from that unenviable task by just cranking out a pretty handy one-stop-Shapiro-shopping guide. I should add that I kicked around right-wing world long enough in my former magazine-writer life to know that many old pals on the right would say something like, “Jeez, Labash’s TDS is now so acute, that he’s rewriting Media Matters press releases.” To which I’d say — as I often do to lippy commenters — Trump Derangement Syndrome is most evident when you tell obvious truths about Trump, and his supporters become deranged upon hearing the unwelcome news. And I will take truth wherever I can get it, since my old pals don’t seem to be much in the business of telling it anymore. Therefore, I will do no such thing as rewriting a Media Matters press release. Rather, I’ll reprint a large chunk of it verbatim.

Since Trump’s inauguration in January, Shapiro has thumped Trump on everything from his tariffs (“a massive tax increase on American consumers”), to Trump suggesting Ukraine started the war with Russia (“Ukraine absolutely did not start the war”), to Trump suggesting the impeachment of a federal judge (“obviously I don’t think that President Trump should be calling for the impeachment of judges based on decisions not going his way”), to saying that Trump’s “skeezy stuff” — from his free jet caper to his cryptocurrency schemes — “need to stop” (“I think if we switch the names to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, we’d all be freaking out on the right”).

So far, so good! Or good enough. To Shapiro’s partial credit, those are the closest approximations of honest admissions you’ll get from anyone in the MAGAsphere. And yet in spite of them — or perhaps because of them — Shapiro always seems to comfortably land back in Camp Trump, no matter how apparent it becomes that he’s backed a sleazy, self-dealing charlatan masquerading as a populist avenger, and not at-all-convincingly. Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s an abridged chapter-and-verse sampling of Shapiro’s shilling, from Media Matters:

· After Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde urged Trump to show mercy to migrants, Shapiro said, “Jesus was not in favor of free migration across all borders.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/22/25]

· After Trump fired several inspectors general, Shapiro said, “These inspectors general tend to be Democratic plants very often.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/27/25]

· Early in the administration, Shapiro said Trump could be “the most transformative president in American public life since LBJ, maybe since FDR.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/12/25]

· Shapiro downplayed Trump administration cuts to national park workers, saying, “You can cut all those people by just having an automatic parking meter.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/19/25]

· Shapiro launched an effort to pressure Trump to pardon former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for federal charges related to George Floyd’s 2020 death. [CNN, 3/7/25]

· Shapiro wrote, “The SignalGate story basically went nowhere because the truth is that everybody has, at one point or another, included somebody in a group chat by accident and it gets very awkward.” [The Daily Wire, 4/1/25]

· When a Maryland father with protected legal status was sent to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador, Shapiro said it was a “bureaucratic screw-up” but not a “human tragedy.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/1/25]

· Shapiro praised Trump’s “u-turn” on tariffs following so-called Liberation Day, saying the president showed “strength” in backtracking. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/10/25]

· Shapiro has been supportive of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, saying, “The White House should stand by Hegseth. He was their pick. He was an out of the box pick, and he remains the right pick for secretary of defense.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/22/25]

· Shapiro said, “I’m a voter for President Trump, supporter of President Trump’s. I gave money to his campaign, fundraised for him, campaigned with him. President Trump needs to succeed on the economy because if he does not succeed on the economy, everything else goes down in flames.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/28/25]

· Shapiro defended the Trump administration after a judge noted a two-year-old U.S. citizen may have been removed from the country with “no meaningful process.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 4/28/25]

How could a God-fearing winger with a healthy respect for our founders and the Constitution still support a guy who has now said he’s not sure if it’s his duty to uphold the Constitution (even if he swore to do so in his presidential oath, twice)? A guy who regularly defies judicial decisions including the Supreme Court’s, even though he appointed three of the justices? A guy who is brokering deals with third-world dictators to imprison those who have seen no due process? A guy who is essentially running a White House extortion racket, targeting everyone from law firms to media outfits, shaking down payments which directly benefit Trump? (The kind of Big Government power move that so-called conservatives like Shapiro used to decry before their favorite autocrat retook the reigns.)

Again, I’m not picking on Shapiro because he’s some notable exception, but because he’s become the rule in the Republican Party, now so thoroughly corrupted that it can’t even remember the once-cherished principles it’s aggressively thrown over. Under Trump’s stewardship, it’s come less to resemble a political party than a criminal syndicate or a cartoonishly corrupt pol’s vanity project/slush fund.

As Shapiro himself had to recently admit:

Taking sacks of goodies from people who support Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, al-Jazeera, all the rest, that's not America first. Like, please define America first in a way that says you should take sacks of cash from the Qatari royals who are behind al-Jazeera. It just isn't America first in any conceivable way. So back to the original question — is this good for President Trump? Is it good for his agenda? Is it good for draining the swamp and getting things done? The answer is, no. It isn't. It isn't. If you want President Trump to succeed, this kind of skeezy stuff needs to stop.

Aside from Shapiro’s misguided notion about Trump not fulfilling his agenda (Trump’s agenda is to enrich Trump, which has been a stunning success by any measure), he makes a fair point. And yet, if Shapiro wants to pretend that he’s still interested in anything resembling swamp drainage, he’s going to have to do two things that are utterly foreign to him:

1. Stop backing the swampiest of all swamp creatures.
2. Become more honest, and stay that way.

https://mattlabash.substack.com/p/the-ben-shapiro-honesty-hustle

'Neocon' - Code Name -"Jew"

 

Prominent neoconservatives include figures who emerged as influential voices in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, often associated with a strong foreign policy stance, interventionism, and the promotion of democratic values globally. Key figures include Irving Kristol, considered the "godfather" of neoconservatism. Other notable neoconservatives include Paul Wolfowitz, Norman Podhoretz, William Kristol, Robert Kagan, Max Boot, Douglas Feith,  Elliot Abrams, Richard Perle, Paul Bremer, David Frum, Charles Krauthammer, Dennis Prager.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism

Trump Declares the 'Neocon' Era Over

 

The speech in Saudi Arabia promised a new course for U.S. policy in the Middle East. Can He Provide Overnight Delivery With The Qatari Bribe?

 

President Donald Trump has a vision of a "great transformation" in the Middle East. But it's not the transformation that American leaders have talked about bringing at gunpoint. At his Tuesday speech at a U.S.-Saudi investment summit in Riyadh, the president denounced the failures of "interventionists" and promised a future "where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence."

Those words came with action. In his speech, Trump promised to lift all U.S. sanctions on Syria, and the day after, he shook hands with new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who had a $10 million bounty on his head from the U.S. government just six months ago. In the weeks leading up to the summit, Trump ended the U.S. war in Yemen and negotiated the release of the last American in Hamas captivity. It remains to be seen whether he can follow through.

Riyadh was only the first stop in Trump's planned four-day tour of the Persian Gulf. He also plans to stop in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In his speech, Trump praised the oil-rich Arab monarchies of the Gulf—and used their success to attack the architects of past U.S. policy. 

 "The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation builders, neocons, or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Kabul, Baghdad, and so many other cities," Trump said. "Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves, the people that are right here, the people that have lived here all their lives, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions, and charting your own destinies in your own way."

He also offered Iran "a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future," emphasizing that "some of the closest friends of the United States of America are nations we fought wars against in generations past." Although Trump threatened Iran with more economic sanctions if it didn't accept a deal, he didn't bring out his usual threats to bomb the country.

The Trump administration is currently negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, and briefed the media that it was "encouraged" by the latest meeting in Oman last week. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the negotiations "more serious and more direct" than before. 

If Trump's brief war in Yemen was a dry run for war with Iran, his outreach to Syria demonstrated his eagerness to turn enemies into friends. There were two issues at play. One was that Congress and the White House had imposed intense economic sanctions on Syria designed to weaken the rule of Bashar al-Assad. Sharaa's new government inherited that embargo despite overthrowing Assad by force.

The second issue was that Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, was himself a former commander in Al Qaeda. (As Trump joked, Sharaa has a "very strong past.") There was intense debate in Washington about whether to continue pursuing economic pressure. In the end, Trump decided to offer Syria a clean slate. During his handshake, Trump asked Sharaa to join an alliance with Israel, deport Palestinian rebels, and assume responsibility for accused Islamic State supporters currently being held by Kurdish-led rebels, according to a White House statement.

"This is good for Israel, having a relationship like I have with these countries," Trump told reporters on the Wednesday flight from Saudi Arabia to Qatar.

But the Israeli government and its supporters are pretty nervous about being left behind by Trump's new policies. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) stated in a press release on Tuesday that he has "been in close contact with Israel, as they are extremely concerned about the state of play in Syria." And Trump's peace deal in Yemen does not forbid Houthi forces from attacking Israel, which they did in the middle of Trump's speech.

Perhaps most concerning for Israel, the Trump administration has begun direct talks with Hamas, via Arab Americans for Trump founder Bishara Bahbah. The U.S. did not inform Israel, which only discovered this backchannel through spies, according to Axios. Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday that there is "no way we will stop the war," even if more hostages are released, Trump said in his Tuesday speech that he would "work to get that war ended as quickly as possible."

On Monday, Hamas agreed to release Edan Alexander, an American teenager from New Jersey captured while fighting for the Israeli army. Alexander "wouldn't be there if it weren't for us, he wouldn't be living right now, probably none of the hostages would be living right now," Trump said during the Wednesday flight. Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who serves as foreign minister, told reporters on Wednesday that he was expecting "very courageous decisions" from Trump on "resolving the broader issues of Palestine."

The prince added that he "fully supports nuclear talks between America and Iran and hopes for positive results." Trump also joked in his speech that lifting the sanctions on Syria was one of the "things I do for" Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

Trump has always been close to the Gulf monarchies. Saudi Arabia has invested $2 billion into a business run by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Just before the summit, Qatar gifted the White House a $400 million luxury airplane. In the past, these states were an influence for more U.S. intervention. They used much of their influence trying to incite Washington against their mutual enemies, such as Iran and Syria, and against each other.

But the Gulf states' outlook has changed. On one hand, they're satisfied with the victories they've won so far; the Syrian government was overthrown and Iran was cut down to size. On the other hand, the success of Yemeni and Iranian missile attacks has demonstrated that even direct U.S. protection can't shield the Gulf states from the cost of further war. And the Gulf leaders seem genuinely scared that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could spill over to threaten their rule.

Of course, the Gulf states still fundamentally want U.S. protection, despite their shifts on some issues. Along with his peaceful gestures, Trump signed a new $142 billion weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. The next day, he publicly signed off on a previously agreed $2 billion drone sale to Qatar. While Trump mocked the "Western interventionists flying people in beautiful planes" to the Middle East, these arms deals historically bring hundreds of U.S. military advisers and defense contractors to the region—along with unspoken promises of more direct U.S. military assistance.

Before Trump soured on the Yemeni war, Saudi Arabia was reportedly egging on U.S. escalation. The influence that the kingdom is now using to encourage diplomacy could easily be used to encourage war again.

After all, former President Barack Obama made the same promises as Trump early in his presidency, telling an audience in Egypt that there would be "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect." Over the next eight years, he ended up permanently entrenching U.S. military involvement in the region.

"In a meaningful way, this is Trump delivering Obama's Cairo speech…only this time in Riyadh, and with notable tweaks, of course. But at its core, the message is much the same," wrote New Lines Magazine Editor in Chief Hassan Hassan. The only question is whether Trump can succeed where his predecessor failed.

https://reason.com/2025/05/14/trump-declares-the-neocon-era-over/?

The Choice --- Seriously Ill Vs. Seriously Ill. Seriously Ill Won! As of May 13, 2025, the estimated population of the United States is 341,762,685. This estimate is based on the current data from the U.S. Census Bureau. How Ill Are The American Public?

 58.7 million US adults, or 22.8% of the adult population, experienced a mental illness. This translates to about 2 out of every 9 adults in the United States. Mental illnesses are common health conditions that affect a wide range of individuals, with various degrees of severity - and the American public chose one!

 

A Damning Portrait of an Enfeebled Biden Protected by His Inner Circle

 

“Original Sin,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, depicts an aging president whose family and aides enabled his quixotic campaign for a second term.

---

Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s “Original Sin” chronicles a different fall from grace. The cover image is a black-and-white portrait of Joe Biden with a pair of hands clamped over his eyes. The biblical story is about the danger of innocent curiosity; the story in this new book is about the danger of willful ignorance.

“The original sin of Election 2024 was Biden’s decision to run for re-election — followed by aggressive efforts to hide his cognitive diminishment,” Tapper and Thompson write. On the evening of June 27, 2024, Democratic voters watched the first presidential debate in amazement and horror: A red-faced Donald Trump let loose a barrage of audacious whoppers while Biden, slack-jawed and pale, struggled to string together intelligible rebuttals.

Trump’s debate performance was of a piece with his rallies, a jumble of nonsensical digressions and wild claims. But for many Americans, the extent of Biden’s frailty came as a shock. Most of the president’s appearances had, by then, become tightly controlled affairs. For at least a year and a half, Biden’s aides had been scrambling to accommodate an octogenarian president who was becoming increasingly exhausted and confused. According to “Original Sin,” which makes pointed use of the word “cover-up” in the subtitle, alarmed donors and pols who sought the lowdown on Biden’s cognitive state were kept in the dark. Others had daily evidence of Biden’s decline but didn’t want to believe it.

Tapper is an anchor for CNN (and also served as a moderator for the presidential debate); Thompson is a national political correspondent for Axios. In an authors’ note, they explain that they interviewed approximately 200 people, including high-level insiders, “some of whom may never acknowledge speaking to us but all of whom know the truth within these pages.”

The result is a damning, step-by-step account of how the people closest to a stubborn, aging president enabled his quixotic resolve to run for a second term. The authors trace the deluge of trouble that flowed from Biden’s original sin: the sidelining of Vice President Kamala Harris; the attacks on journalists (like Thompson) who deigned to report on worries about Biden’s apparent fatigue and mental state; an American public lacking clear communication from the president and left to twist in the wind. “It was an abomination,” one source told the authors. “He stole an election from the Democratic Party; he stole it from the American people.”

This blistering charge is attributed to “a prominent Democratic strategist” who also “publicly defended Biden.” In “Original Sin,” the reasons given for saying nice things in public about the president are legion. Some Democrats, especially those who didn’t see the president that often, relied on his surrogates for reassurance about his condition (“He’s fine, he’s fine, he’s fine”); others were wary of giving ammunition to the Trump campaign, warning that he was an existential threat to the country. Tapper and Thompson are scornful of such rationales: “For those who tried to justify the behavior described here because of the threat of a second Trump term, those fears should have shocked them into reality, not away from it.”

 President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again

 

 

 

 

 

Biden announced that he would be running for re-election in April 2023; he had turned 80 the previous November and was already the oldest president in history. Over his long life, he had been through a lot: the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972; two aneurysm surgeries in 1988; the death of his son Beau in 2015; the seemingly endless trouble kicked up by his son Hunter, a recovering addict whose legal troubles included being under investigation by the Justice Department.

Yet Biden always bounced back. The fact that he defied the naysayers and beat the odds to win the 2020 election was, for him and his close circle of family and advisers, a sign that he was special — and persistently underestimated. They maintained “a near-religious faith in Biden’s ability to rise again,” the authors write. “And as with any theology, skepticism was forbidden.”

In 2019, when Biden announced a presidential run, he was 76. It was still a time when “Good Biden was far more present than Old Biden.” By 2023, the authors suggest, that ratio had reversed. Some of his decline was hard to distinguish from what they call “the Bidenness,” which included his longtime reputation for gaffes, meandering stories and a habit of forgetting staffers’ names.

But people who didn’t see Biden on a daily basis were increasingly taken aback when they finally laid eyes on him. They would remark on how his once booming voice had become a whisper, how his confident stride had become a shuffle. An aghast congressman recalls being reminded of his father, who had Alzheimer’s; another thought of his father, too, who died of Parkinson’s.

The people closest to Biden landed on some techniques to handle (or disguise) what was happening: restricting urgent business to the hours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.; instructing his writers to keep his speeches brief so that he didn’t have to spend too much time on his feet; having him use the short stairs to Air Force One. When making videos, his aides sometimes filmed “in slow motion to blur the reality of how slowly he actually walked.” By late 2023, his staff was pushing as much of his schedule as they could to midday.

When White House aides weren’t practicing fastidious stage management, they seemed to be sticking their heads in the sand. According to a forthcoming book by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, Biden’s aides decided against his taking a cognitive test in early 2024. Tapper and Thompson quote a physician who served as a consultant to the White House Medical Unit for the last four administrations and expressed his dismay at the idea of withholding such information: “If there’s no diagnosis, there’s nothing to disclose.”

Just how much of this rigmarole was desperate rationalization versus deliberate scheming is never entirely clear. Tapper and Thompson identify two main groups that closed ranks around Biden: his family and a group of close aides known internally as “the Politburo” that included his longtime strategist Mike Donilon and his counselor Steve Ricchetti. The family encouraged Biden’s view of himself as a historic figure. The Politburo was too politically hard-nosed for that. Instead, its members pointed to Biden’s record in office and the competent people around him. The napping, the whispering, the shuffling — all that stuff had merely to do with the “performative” parts of the job.

Tapper and Thompson vehemently disagree. They offer a gracious portrait of Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated Biden’s handling of classified materials and in his February 2024 report famously described the president as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Biden and his team were incensed and tried “to slime Hur as an unprofessional right-wing hack,” but the authors defend his notorious line. They emphasize that it is incumbent upon a special counsel to spell out how the subject of an investigation would probably appear to a jury — and that what Hur wrote about Biden was true.

Of course, in an election like 2024, when the differences between the candidates are so stark and the stakes are so high, nearly every scrap of information gets viewed through the lens of “Will it help my team win?” Even competently administered policy could not compensate for a woeful inability to communicate with the American people. In a democracy, this is a tragedy — especially if you believe, as Biden did, that a second Trump term would put the very existence of that democracy in peril.

Earlier this month, in what looks like an attempt to get ahead of the book’s publication, Biden went on “The View” to say that he accepts some responsibility for Trump’s victory: “I was in charge.” But he was dismissive about reports of any cognitive decline. In “Original Sin,” Tapper and Thompson describe him waking up the morning after the 2024 election thinking that if only he had stayed in the race, he would have won. “That’s what the polls suggested, he would say again and again,” the authors write. There was just one problem with his reasoning: “His pollsters told us that no such polls existed.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/books/review/originial-sin-jake-tapper-alex-thompson.html

TWISTED MOMZER! ---"We" Were Blessed With A New Pope"! “Rabbi Goldstein veiled over $2.8 million in fraud schemes he perpetrated with at least ten other co-conspirators by exploiting the non-profit statuses of the Chabad of Poway and the Friendship Circle of San Diego, organizations entrusted to him to serve the community....”

Press Release

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein Sentenced to Prison for Multi-Million-Dollar Fraud Schemes

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

For Immediate Release

U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of California

Assistant U. S. Attorneys Valerie H. Chu (619) 546-6750 and Michelle L. Wasserman (619) 546-8314

NEWS RELEASE SUMMARY – January 4, 2022

SAN DIEGO – Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, former director at Chabad of Poway, was sentenced in federal court today to fourteen months in custody for his years-long, multi-million-dollar schemes to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, several San Diego Fortune 500 companies, and multiple public and private agencies.  He was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $2,834,608.

According to his plea agreement, while Rabbi Goldstein was director of the Poway synagogue, he received at least $6.2 million in phony contributions to the Chabad and affiliated charities and secretly refunded up to 90 percent of the donations to the “donors.” After Rabbi Goldstein provided these donors with fake receipts, they illegally claimed huge tax deductions for these nonexistent donations, and the rabbi kept about 10 percent – more than half a million dollars over the course of the fraud - for himself. Tax losses to the IRS were more than $1.5 million.

Rabbi Goldstein also admitted that he defrauded three different Fortune 500 companies by tricking them into matching supposed charitable donations of their employees.  Working with the employees, Rabbi Goldstein fabricated receipts and then secretly returned their fake “donations.”  This allowed the employees to claim tax deductions for the completely fabricated donations, and allowed Rabbi Goldstein to collect the companies’ matching funds—including some that matched double their employees’ donations. Rabbi Goldstein helped to orchestrate this scheme with at least six taxpayer-employees and two other associates who helped recruit new donors or conceal the true recipient of the funds.  In total, Rabbi Goldstein defrauded the companies out of at least $144,000, and helped the taxpayer-employees to claim nearly as much in fictitious tax-deductible charitable contributions to the IRS.

Rabbi Goldstein admitted that he also helped his brother Mendel Goldstein conceal approximately $700,000 in income by allowing him to use Chabad bank accounts to deposit his income, thereby hiding it from the IRS.  As his cut, Rabbi Goldstein kept 10 percent of this individual’s income—more than $70,000. 

Separate and apart from the tax evasion scheme, Rabbi Goldstein and another defendant, Alexander Avergoon, used false information and fabricated invoices and other records to pretend to be eligible for emergency funds, grants or donations, and private loans. These frauds on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), and private foundations resulted in losses to these programs of at least $860,000. 

According to sentencing documents, the United States Attorney’s Office recommended departures from the sentencing guidelines for Goldstein because of his cooperation against other individuals, and because of the extraordinary events he suffered as a victim of the April 27, 2019 shooting at the Chabad of Poway. 

In imposing sentence, U.S. District Judge Cynthia A. Bashant commented, “You dragged down so many congregants.  Many of those individuals thought that they were committing these offenses to benefit the Chabad or the synagogue in general, when in fact it was to benefit you.  I just can’t ignore that. … I think time in custody is important.  It’s important to send a message to the community, and it’s important to send a message to you.” 

“Yisroel Goldstein exploited his position and stature as a faith leader to commit well-planned and carefully executed crimes of greed,” said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman. “As his serious criminal conduct was under investigation, the rabbi became a victim in a devastating attack on the synagogue he led.  Today’s sentence accounts for these extraordinary circumstances and our office’s mission to always seek justice.” Grossman thanked the prosecution team, the FBI and the IRS for their excellent work on this case.

“The defendant used the Chabad of Poway’s tax-exempt status as a religious organization to compile millions of dollars in fraudulent ‘donations’,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner. “This scheme enabled Rabbi Goldstein to line his own pockets; reward his fake ‘donors’ with reimbursement for their contributions; and provided receipts enabling the ‘donations’ to be written off as charitable contributions, all in furtherance of the scheme. The FBI will continue to root out fraud disguised as charitable donations which ultimately hurts those organizations relying on the generosity of donors.”

“Rabbi Goldstein veiled over $2.8 million in fraud schemes he perpetrated with at least ten other co-conspirators by exploiting the non-profit statuses of the Chabad of Poway and the Friendship Circle of San Diego, organizations entrusted to him to serve the community,” said Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Korner of IRS Criminal Investigation's Los Angeles Field Office.  “IRS Special Agents were proud to work alongside the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in this multimillion-dollar tax and grant fraud investigation that uncovered decades of illegal conduct.  In addition to holding Rabbi Goldstein accountable for cheating U.S. taxpayers and businesses for personal gain, my fervent hope is that today's sentencing brings closure and healing to all who were affected by his crimes.”

Rabbi Goldstein was ordered to surrender into federal custody by noon on February 23, 2022. 

DEFENDANT                                   Case Number 20CR1916-BAS              

Yisroel Goldstein                                Age: 60                       Poway

SUMMARY OF CHARGES          

Conspiracy to Defraud the United States and Commit Wire Fraud, in violation of Title 18, USC 371
Maximum Penalty: Five years in prison

INVESTIGATING AGENCIES:

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation

Updated January 4, 2022

 

 

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Topic

Financial Fraud

Component

USAO - California, Southern

Press Release Number: CAS22-0104-Goldstein

 

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/rabbi-yisroel-goldstein-sentenced-prison-multi-million-dollar-fraud-schemes

 

‘Challah’ and ‘tefillin’ were code words in the Chabad of Poway’s  fraud scheme

Former rabbi of the synagogue targeted in 2019 by an antisemitic shooter received a 14-month term for his part in the scheme; as a co-conspirator is sentenced, new details emerge

https://www.timesofisrael.com/challah-and-tefillin-were-code-words-in-the-chabad-of-poways-tax-fraud-scheme/

 

More Christians In Their Programs, Than Your Local Church:

 

https://www.chabadpoway.com/

 

Rabbi YY Jacobson- Community Awareness, Child Safety, Child Rape and the Aguna Crisis - "In Every Jewish Cemetery There Are Children That Committed Suicide"

A Somewhat Cogent & Conflicting Analysis of the "Dear Leader" On The Middle East - From Sam Harris & Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

 

Understanding Trump

 

it seems that Trump’s grievance with Netanyahu is the PM's insistence on safeguarding Israel’s vital interests in the case of Trump's characteristic desire to 'strike a deal' - this time, with Saudi Arabia.

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Understanding Donald Trump is a hazardous sort of punditry as he is mercurial, a man of contradictions, not entirely coherent in his policy pronouncements, and given to abrupt changes without explanation.

That he is now reportedly “frustrated” with Prime Minister Netanyahu is not entirely surprising (join the club). The report may be untrue – the media “reports” some rumor or scandal almost daily; most are usually forgotten the next day when what was reported does not materialize – and almost always are promoted by someone with an agenda. Stuff is made up all the time and quickly forgotten after the initial shock and outrage dissipate.

Nonetheless, if Trump’s frustration with Netanyahu is real, why would that be? And should it be a cause for concern? First, a word about Trump.

President Trump is an American Trump patriot who rightly construes what he perceives as the best interests of TRUMP US as paramount in his considerations. He is blustery but seldom acts on his threats. He is a materialist who thinks that one’s primary objective in life is to obtain as much money and become as wealthy as possible. He is not an ideologue and has little use for ideology when it interferes with the pursuit of (personal) material gain. He will passionately espouse and try to implement a particular policy, and if it does not immediately bear fruit, he will abandon it for its antithesis with the same ardor with which he first pursued it, and without any explanation.

Trump has a positive attitude towards Jews but properly puts America First. He does not mind, and perhaps even enjoys, opposing views among his staffers, but also enables the sparring sides to feel that they each have Trump’s support. And he has always been against war, any war, which he sees as bad for business.

Above all, he prides himself on being a deal maker, with the art of the deal being the heart of the deal – not so much its implementation or consequences but the deal itself. As a real estate baron, Trump was known to renege on agreements, to hondle merchants, workers, and suppliers when the due date for payment came, and welcomed lawsuits – as plaintiff or defendant – because those were just preludes to more deal-making. Contracts and the written word were meaningful only as a guide to general principles but did not bind him if circumstances changed (which they always did, as in “the job is done, so why should I pay you?”).

That is why Trump did not hesitate to breach US trade agreements with other countries. Circumstances, to wit: his election, changed. Paradoxically, he is decisive until he changes his mind – but he does make decisions, seeks finality, and will walk away from negotiations if the prospects are strong for stalemate, no deal, or an inconclusive outcome.

Trump also wants to be seen as a winner; hence the abrupt reversal of his tariff plans when the stock market tanked. He ordered the justified, targeted assassinations of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (and good riddance to the both of them) and chalked those up as victories, even though Iran has since become an even more nefarious force and ISIS still exists. A deal with Iran, Syria, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Hamas, the PA, Saudi Arabia, the Houthis is the goal. The deal is the win, whatever happens later is incidental. That is how Trump sees the world.

Therefore, he will not tolerate endless negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, with sundry countries and their trade arrangements with the USA, or between Israel and our many adversaries. For Trump, the deck is cleared once an agreement is signed regardless of future consequences. He prides himself on being a conflict solver, especially in the short term.

By contrast, as stated here not long ago, PM Netanyahu is a conflict manager, not a conflict solver. He has made an art form of kicking the can down the road until there is no road left. What he may see as caution has become a sort of paralysis – an inability to resolve anything – which also cleverly enables him to prevail in every election promising to resolve the problems that he never resolves.

For the duration of Netanyahu’s long tenure – he has served as Israel’s prime minister far longer than FDR served as US president – he has dedicated his life to preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb, now closer than ever. Rockets and missiles have been falling on our heads incessantly throughout his term, the only change being their points of origin. Repeated mini-wars have degraded the enemy’s capabilities but never really change anything because he allows them to rebuild and become more violent and dangerous. He is no closer to judicial reform than he was fifteen years ago. And he still looks to others to fight our battles – especially to the US, as if Trump will invade Iran and destroy their reactors on our behalf. But we can rely only on our Father in Heaven and ourselves.

When the report emerged that Trump is “frustrated” with Netanyahu, I assumed it was because of Netanyahu’s hesitations in Gaza and his reluctance to do what is necessary to prevail. Even Netanyahu’s various choices for senior positions – including head of the Shin Bet and the new Chief of Staff – tend to impede his policies rather than strive to implement them, and for that he too is to blame. So if Trump’s frustration with Netanyahu stems from the latter’s inability to “finish the job,” it is a frustration shared by many Israelis.

Yet, it seems that Trump’s grievance with Netanyahu is not because of the latter’s weakness and vacillation but because of his strength, and his insistence in this case on safeguarding Israel’s vital interests. That is, Trump is reportedly “frustrated” because his goal of expanding the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia is foundering because of Netanyahu’s rejection of Saudi demands that Israel end the war in Gaza short of victory and Israel publicly commit to the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state. Both are rightly non-starters, and to his credit – again, if the reports are accurate – Netanyahu has appropriately dismissed them. Good for him, and for us.

In the alternative, Trump has allegedly asserted, he will make a deal with Saudi Arabia that includes strategic attainments for both countries, but no recognition of Israel by the Saudis, to which I say, great. It is far better to have shared strategic objectives and an unofficial alliance with the Saudis than enter into an official agreement that endangers our future. We have survived for 3700 years without peace with the Saudis and can survive until Messiah comes without it as well.

Trump may well feel that Israel should sign any agreement, end the war, get the hostages out, withdraw from Gaza, make peace with the Saudis – and then just renege on the agreement and do what is necessary, citing “a change in circumstances.” The Saudis may want Israel’s commitment to a Palestinian Arab state to mollify the Arab street, but I am more concerned with the Jewish street, and the implications of agreeing to allow a Nazi-like foe to survive as well as renouncing a signed agreement, which will subject Israel to even more international opprobrium but now with a tinge of legitimacy.

Moreover, before these Abraham Accords are expanded, we would do well to remind ourselves of the original Abraham Accords, the covenant our forefather enacted with the Creator that promised and entrusted the descendants of Abraham with the land of Israel. That is a religious right – and a divine gift – that should not be repudiated even if Saudi Arabia agrees to open a Chabad House in Mecca. The ancient Abraham Accords are far more important, meaningful, and enduring than the current one may prove to be.

Rapprochement with the Saudis should be between two nations that respect each other’s rights, interests, values, and heritage. It should not come at the expense of the land of Israel, and certainly not by empowering an enemy still sworn to our destruction. Having good relations with the USA is an Israeli strategic interest that should not be dismissed lightly, but we should have the fortitude to say to President Trump that certain concessions are not worth our participation in any deal, and if the US and the Saudis have their own agreement, that is fine by us.

We should not say “no,” but we should say “no, thank you.” Mr. President, make your deal, reap the Saudi investment in America, address Saudi concerns about Iran, and feel like a winner. And if Trump still feels “frustrated” with Netanyahu, so be it. In that, he will echo the feelings of most Israelis and even many of Netanyahu’s supporters. At least in this case, though, PM Netanyahu’s caution here is well founded.

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky teaches Torah in Modiin, and serves as the Senior Research Associate at the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP.ngo).

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/408087