Ron Paul: Is Beating Russia Really Worth World War III and Nuclear Destruction?!

The Vietnamization of Ukraine

As Ukraine’s defeat in the war moves closer, the neocons are desperate to draw the US further into the fight. Over the weekend, former US State Department official Victoria Nuland told ABC News that the US must help facilitate Ukrainian missile attacks deep inside Russian territory. The Biden Administration has to this point avoided involvement in such attacks, likely because Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia will strike any facility that supplies or facilitates strikes inside of Russia, wherever they may be.

It’s a clear warning from a nuclear power, but as Nuland and her fellow neocons see their Ukraine project failing, they demand escalation. This is just what they did in their previous disastrous projects like the Iraq War, the attacks on Syria and Libya, and the 20-year occupation of Afghanistan. For them the failure is never because it was a bad idea in the first place, but that not enough lives and resources were poured into that bad idea to create a good outcome.

But Russia is no Iraq nor is it Libya. This time they are playing with World War III and nuclear destruction and no one in DC seems concerned.

Last Thursday the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown, said that NATO trainers deployed within Ukraine was inevitable. “We’ll get there eventually, over time,” he said. This, of course, is exactly how we got the Vietnam War, but Russia in 2024 is hardly late-1950s Vietnam. Russia of today is a country that can fight back and can project military power all the way to the source, which means the United States.

Is Nuland’s Ukraine project worth dying in a nuclear war over?

The whole US involvement in this proxy war has been based on lie after lie. They said we had to help Ukraine defeat Russia because democracy itself was at stake. Then Ukrainian president Zelensky cancelled elections, so they told us we have to help Ukraine defeat Russia because Putin won’t stop there – he’ll soon be marching through Berlin, London, and maybe even New York!

Doesn’t it remind you of how the neocons were warning us that Saddam was going to attack the US mainland with drones and that he was operating mobile weapons labs? Anything to get the public on board for their war.

The fact is the neocons and warmongers lie constantly. They will do whatever it takes to get their wars and sadly we do not have an independent media in the US to challenge them on their lies. Our media is so closely tied to the military-industrial complex that it is also a stakeholder in war profits, so they aren’t about to rock the boat.

Anyone who thinks we cannot get sucked into another war like we were with George W. Bush’s lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction is not paying attention. It is happening again, in real time.

The fact is we live in a deeply corrupt society dominated by individuals who do not believe in truth. When you don’t believe in truth you will have no qualms about manipulating others to do your will. So unless they are stopped, neocons like Nuland will demand more attacks on Russia, more US troops in Ukraine, more escalation. Until Russia fights back. Then it will all be over. Is this what we want?

From LRC, here.

BEHAR: R’ Shimshon Raphael Hirsch Against the Modern Welfare State

Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch on Behar: Should we have a welfare state?

Helping people is wonderful, indeed obligatory, but there are principles involved.

Mixing politics and Torah is a precarious affair, but what can you do when a Midrash quoted by Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch seems to make a strong argument against the American welfare state as it’s currently constituted?

 

The Torah declares, “And if your brother becomes impoverished and his hand wavers beside you, then you shall support him…so that he may live beside you (imach)” (Leviticus 25:35). Says the Midrash: “Yachol afilu atah mafsido l’tarbus ra’ah? Talmud lomar ‘imach.’” Rav Hirsch explains:

 

Don’t support him in such a way that you “reduce him to a condition of sloth and loss of self-respect.” For the Torah uses the word “imach,” which indicates: “you are to support [an impoverished person] to be an independent breadwinner imach, next to you.” You are to “assist him in such a manner that he does not sink below you morally.”

 

Helping people is wonderful, indeed obligatory. But if a person uses your help to pay for a drug habit he couldn’t otherwise afford or to stay at home watching Netflix all day rather than engage in productive work, then you are not helping him at all.

 

The Torah envisions a society where everyone helps his neighbor. Some people suggest that the Torah therefore sanctions a welfare state. Others disagree. But one thing is clear according to Rav Hirsch’s elucidation of this Midrash: If a society is to have a welfare state, it cannot be one that generally encourages dependency, subsidizes harmful behavior, and destroys a person’s moral character. Such a welfare state the Torah frowns upon.

 

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) – head of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, Germany for over 35 years – was a prolific writer whose ideas, passion, and brilliance helped save German Jewry from the onslaught of modernity.

 

Elliot Resnick, PhD, is the host of “The Elliot Resnick Show” and the editor of an upcoming work on etymological explanations in Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s commentary on Chumash.

From Arutz Sheva, here.

Lag Ba’Omer: Alternative Views

Other Opinions

              שנים עשר מי יודע

1) Where is Kever רשבי located?

According to ר’ מנחם החברוני (13th century) רשב”י is buried in Kfar Chananya *(15 km. south of Meron)

2) What day in the עומר was רשבי niftar?

According to the חיד”א, there is no מקור anywhere that רשב”י was niftar on Lag Baomer**.

3) Who wrote the Zohar?

According to the יעב”ץ, (The Chasam Sofer seems to agree) it was R. Moishe d’Leon (not רשב”י)

4) What day did the Talmidei R. Akiva stop dying?

According to many Poskim, they still died on Lag Baomer but stopped on the 34th day of the עומר.

5) How many Talmidim of R. Akiva died between
Pesach & Shavuos?

The גמרא (Yevamos 62) says 12,000 pairs of Talmidim.The מדרש says it was only 300 Talmidim.

6) How did they die?

The גמרא says they all died of a disease called Askera.

According to Harav Hagaon Y. Henkin zt”l and others, the גמרא uses Askera as a code for getting killed fighting the Romans.

7)  How can you bring Nachas to רשבי (guaranteed)?

The שואל ומשיב  5 – 39  writes “If you distribute the  money to עניי ארץ ישראל instead of spending it to go to his  Kever etc., he guarantees רשב”י will have  much more Nachas Ruach.

8) Why do we celebrate Lag Baomer?

According to the Chasam Sofer, the קצת שמחה has nothing to do with רשב”י but because it’s the Sefirah of הוד שבהוד*** and to commemorate the first day the מן came down in the מדבר.

9)  Why you should not celebrate לג בעומר with
dancing & music in 
חוץ לארץ?

According to the   מנחת אלעזר ח”ד:ס because it is only a Minhag Eretz Yisroel Celebrating in Chutz Laaretz is onsidered strange & haughty כזרות יחשב וכיוהרא

10) Why the מנחת אלעזר waited till the morning to
travel to Meron?

When the מנחת אלעזר was in Eretz Yisrael during לג בעומר he spent the night in צפת not willing to celebrate in Meron together with the Zionists.

11) Why is it forbidden to dance in front of a fire?

The תוספתא (Shabbos 7:1) says clapping hands or dancing in front of a fire is אסור because of דרכי אמורי.

12)  Years ago they had women dancing in Meron on Lag Baomer לכבוד התנא רשבי

*R. Binyomin Todelo mentions being at the Kever of Hillel & Shammai but no mention of Rashbi
**The first to mention Yahrzeit of Rashbi on Lag Baomer is the Sefer “Chemdas Hayamim” (controversial Sefer)
*** Kabbalah

From The Torah Matzav, here.