Just in time to run headfirst into Trump policies on the subject…
[IsraelTimes] ‘Hareni’ will operate according to ‘approved guidelines’ of YU’s senior rabbis, statement says; recognition follows years long legal struggle that included US Supreme Court hearing
Yeshiva University has approved a new club for LGBTQ students, reversing a policy it has spent years defending in court.
The school’s announcement on Thursday marks a significant shift for the Modern Orthodox flagship in Manhattan. For years, and particularly during a stretch of fall 2022, the school fought to avoid recognizing the Pride Alliance, a support group for LGBTQ students that launched unofficially in 2009 but had not received formal recognition as a student club.
The dispute revolved around Orthodoxy’s prohibition against homosexual relations. YU seeks to embody the idea that its students can live fully committed Orthodox Jewish lives while participating in modern society. The question of welcoming LGBTQ students has strained that mission for more than a decade as LGBTQ students, some of them anonymously, have sought a more supportive atmosphere on campus.
Now, the university, which is split between men’s and women’s campuses in two separate Manhattan locations, announced that it was ceasing its court battle and recognizing an LGBTQ-oriented club.
"The parties have reached an agreement and the litigation is ending," the statement said. "Current students will be implementing a club, to be known as Hareni, that will seek to support LGBTQ students and their allies and will operate in accordance with the approved guidelines of Yeshiva University’s senior rabbis."
The statement added, "The club will be run like other clubs on campus, all in the spirit of a collaborative and mutually supportive campus culture."
"The statement did not detail why YU decided to recognize the LGBTQ club now. But the announcement comes weeks after a student was allegedly assaulted on campus and called homophobic slurs. It also comes as YU has positioned itself as a refuge for Jewish students seeking to transfer from non-Jewish schools.
Immediately after YU’s announcement, the Pride Alliance WhatsApp group changed its name to "Hareni," according to the Commentator, the student newspaper.
"It is with great pleasure and excitement that we announce to everyone that we are now an official club at YU!" students Schneur Friedman and Hayley Goldberg wrote in the WhatsApp group, according to the Commentator. "We are honored to begin this official club as your co-presidents and will continue to foster a strong community within YU!"
Conditions at YU have changed since the school first mounted a legal battle to avoid recognizing an LGBTQ club. For one, the school has — since Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... ’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel — appealed to Jewish students at nonsectarian colleges to transfer as a way of avoiding the spread of campus antisemitism, which could draw a more religiously diverse student body.
"I have heard people talk about YU and the Pride Alliance as — ’People know what they’re getting into when they come here, and if they wanted a queer club, they should have gone somewhere else,’" said Rachael Fried, executive director of Jewish Queer Youth, which has provided support to the Pride Alliance. "That sentiment doesn’t work in the current climate. ... The message of, ’Go somewhere else and be a queer student somewhere else,’ it doesn’t land."
In addition, a March 6 column in the Commentator alleged that one of the organizers of the Pride Alliance had been assaulted at a student activities fair. A student was accused of taking photos of the organizer, then shoving him while calling him homophobic slurs and telling him that he did not belong at YU. The column said the victim reported the incident to campus security.
The university had previously argued in court that recognizing an LGBTQ club violated its religious liberty, though the plaintiffs argued that because it was chartered as a secular institution, that argument did not pass muster. The case at one point made it to the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 to send it back down to lower courts.
Shortly afterward, the university briefly suspended all student clubs rather than recognize the Pride Alliance. It later announced its own club to support LGBTQ students "under traditional Orthodox auspices."
he Pride Alliance and its allies rejected that club, but a YU spokesperson suggested in a statement that the school views Hareni as the current version of that club.
"Our students’ well-being is our primary concern," the statement said. "We have always been focused on providing our undergraduate students the right spaces that fit within the unique religious environment of YU, which is different than any other college campus. We are pleased that our current undergraduate students will be leading the new club announced today that was envisioned and approved by our Senior Rabbis over two years ago."
One of the plaintiffs in the case, Doniel Weinreich, said the school’s announcement was a milestone for LGBTQ Orthodox inclusion.
"This agreement affirms that there has never been a genuine conflict between Torah values and open LGBTQ+ identity," Weinreich said in a statement. "It demonstrates that fully committed Orthodox Jewish environments can also be affirming of LGBTQ+ constituents. This is a great moment for the entire Modern Orthodox community."
The new name for the club, Hareni, is the beginning of a Jewish statement of commitment to love one’s neighbor.
"This has been an ongoing conflict so there’s work that has to be done to make sure that YU actually feels like a space where queer students can feel like their whole selves," Fried said. "The administration working with the actual queer students is the right path to actually get to that place."
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[IsraelTimes] President Donald Trump says that Elon Musk should not be allowed to see top secret US plans for any war with China, in a rare admission that his billionaire ally’s business links raised potential conflicts of interest.
Trump strongly denies media reports that the world’s richest man, who is now leading the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), will receive a classified Pentagon briefing on its war strategy.
Tesla and Space X boss Musk has major business interests in China but also has huge US defense contracts, while his status as an unelected advisor to Trump has raised concerns about his influence.
“I don’t want to show it to anybody. You’re talking about a potential war with China,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office.
“Certainly you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much… Elon has businesses in China and he would be susceptible perhaps to that.”
Trump, who was unveiling a contract for Boeing to build the next-generation F-47 fighter jet, described Musk as a “patriot” and hailed his efforts to slash back the US federal government, including the Defense Department.
Musk was at the Pentagon today, but Trump attacked reports, first published in the New York Times, about the visit.
“They really are the enemy of the people,” Trump says of the Times, which reported Musk was to receive a briefing in a secure room dubbed “The Tank” on maritime tactics and targeting plans.
The paper said the briefing was called off after it was publicized.
[BREITBART] German luxury auto manufacturer Audi said it is considering moving car production to the United States to avoid tariffs from the Trump administration.
Volkswagen's subsidiary Audi brand said this week that it is examining various long-term strategies, including potentially shifting production to America, to deal with President Donald Trump's restrictions on foreign imports.
Audi CEO Gernot D llner said that the company is ''currently assessing various scenarios for additional localization in North America — among other things, to be closer to the needs of local customers and to make ourselves more resilient to global economic uncertainties.''
Although no firm decision was made this week, the German auto giant said that it would be announcing later this year where it intends to produce its primary vehicle models for the American market.
Currently, Audi does not have any production sites in the United States, having opted to produce top-selling models in the U.S. market, such as the Q5, in Volkswagen plants in Mexico.
This has put the brand at risk of being slapped with tariffs under the Trump administration, which has made the reshoring of auto manufacturing back to the U.S. a top priority.
#2
You can’t have an assembly plant operational before the end of the next four years. It just talk until they buy property.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/22/2025 9:04 Comments ||
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#3
Precedent:
Toyota’s first manufacturing investment in the United States came in 1972 when the company struck a deal with Atlas Fabricators, to produce truck beds in Long Beach, in an effort to avoid the 25% "chicken tax" on imported light trucks. By importing the truck as an incomplete chassis cab (the truck without a bed), the vehicle only faced a 4% tariff.[9] Once in the United States, Atlas would build the truck beds and attach them to the trucks. The partnership was successful and two years later, Toyota purchased Atlas (which had been financially struggling) and it would eventually be renamed Toyota Auto Body California (TABC) as part of the company's Toyota Auto Body manufacturing subsidiary.[10]
[FoxNews] DeSantis said Florida had been trying to return federal funds to the federal government over the 'ideological strings attached by the Biden Administration'
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said Friday that the state was returning more than $878 million to the federal government that it had been attempting to give back for the past few years during the Biden administration.
DeSantis' office informed the U.S. Treasury Department that $878,112,000 would be returned to the federal government.
The governor said the move came after a meeting with billionaire Elon Musk and his team at the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
"For years, Florida has been trying to return federal funds to the federal government due to the ideological strings attached by the Biden Administration—but they couldn't even figure out how to accept it," DeSantis wrote Friday on X.
"Today, I met with @elonmusk and the DOGE team, and we got this done in the same day," he continued.
DeSantis suggested that other states "should follow Florida in supporting DOGE's efforts!"
The governor's office said in its email to the Treasury Department that it will search for additional excess federal funds that can be returned.
"At the direction of Governor DeSantis and following his meeting with Elon Musk today, the State of Florida is formally returning $878,112,000 in taxpayer dollars to the federal government as part of DOGE's efforts," the email said. "We will also continue to identify other unused or surplus federal funding granted to Florida and determine if further refunds can be made. We hope our actions serve as a model for other states to follow."
Musk, who also serves as a senior advisor to President Donald Trump, responded to the governor's post on X.
"Almost a billion dollars of your taxpayer money saved," Musk said on the social media platform.
DeSantis announced last month the creation of Florida's DOGE task force to "further eliminate waste within state government, save taxpayers money, and ensure accountability in Florida."
"Florida has set the standard for fiscally conservative governance, and our new Florida DOGE task force will do even more to serve the people of Florida," DeSantis said at the time. "It will eliminate redundant boards and commissions, review state university and college operations and spending, utilize artificial intelligence to further examine state agencies to uncover hidden waste, and even audit the spending habits of local entities to shine the light on waste and bloat."
Both Governor DeSantis and VP Vance are retired military men. No doubt they could figure out how to work together as president and VP in the future…
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
We had a bare tweet about the raid on Thursday, expanded in a comment by Mercutio with a link to a very dense Times of India article on the subject. This Colonel Cassad piece explains more simply what happened in Bangalore, Karnataka State.
[ColonelCassad] According to The Indian Express, the raids are being conducted as part of an investigation into violations of local legislation and the fight against financial crimes.
It will be specified that Soros's organization was classified by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs in a special category back in 2016, which restricts uncontrolled donations to local NGO projects. At the same time, law enforcement officials suspect that the Indian office of the Open Society Foundation circumvented the restrictions by bringing funds into the South Asian republic under the guise of economic investments or payment for consulting services. In fact, the money was used to finance the activities of various NGOs, which was contrary to Indian laws.
Earlier, representatives of the ruling BJP party in India said that billionaire Soros and his Open Society Foundation, which was financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID, whose activities were terminated and banned in the Russian Federation), were involved in interfering in the internal affairs of India.
The day before, it became known that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs had written to the US Embassy in New Delhi with a request to urgently provide detailed information on the projects implemented in the country with the support of USAID since 2015.
"In connection with the recent reports on USAID funding in India, the Ministry of External Affairs has formally written to the US Embassy with a request to urgently provide detailed information on the expenditure incurred on all projects supported by USAID in India over the last 10 years," the Indian Foreign Ministry said in response to a corresponding query by members of the Indian Parliament. "While some information is available from open sources on this issue, the Government of India, understandably, awaits a formal response from the US Government," the ministry added.
The Indian Foreign Ministry also noted that the US administration had withheld some details about the beneficiaries of USAID, citing legal provisions of the US law. As the ministry explained, this was about cases where we are talking about "information that could jeopardize the health or safety of an implementing partner or program beneficiary," or "harm the national interests of the United States."
And then your red curls will become familiar and they will simply start beating you (c).After the defeat of USAID, many suddenly began to question what was financed through this line.
Well, the very fact that the Soros Foundation is working in your country is a sign of a disregard for your own security.
The most correct attitude towards the Soros Foundation is to close all of the foundation’s structures on the territory of the country and to bring to criminal and administrative responsibility those who receive funding through this line.
Oh my. Do they somehow sense that President Trump will not leap to the defense of the Soros people?
[CityJournal] For the sake of both American national security and industrialization, the Trump administration should keep a close eye on the Tech Right.
A grand experiment in “defense transformation” is underway at the Pentagon. New Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has promised to field emerging technologies, reform the acquisition process, and build a resilient defense industrial base. He has also directed an 8 percent budget cut—some $50 billion—to shift funds toward new priorities, including technologies such as unmanned systems.
Proponents of this shakeup argue that the U.S. grew complacent after the Cold War, consolidating its defense industry into a handful of bloated “prime” contractors, like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Meantime, China and other adversaries developed cheap technologies that could neutralize America’s powerful, but expensive, platforms. Unless the U.S. deploys its own arsenal of cheap, software-enabled weapons, it will face a prohibitive “cost exchange ratio” in a war with China—losing multibillion-dollar warships, for instance, to missiles that cost a few hundred thousand dollars. Research and recent developments (like drone deployment in the Russo-Ukrainian War) seem to confirm this challenge.
Hegseth’s experiment joins the priorities of several parts of President Donald Trump’s coalition. The Tech Right—including upstart defense contractors such as SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril and their venture capital supporters—believes that it can revolutionize U.S. warfighting readiness with cheap, mass-produced weapons and cutting-edge software. The more populist “New Right,” for its part, sees a military build-up primarily as a way to restore American industry and the middle class.
For now, both sides think they can have it all: build an unmatched military, create jobs, and save money. But this ambitious project faces several problems.
Continued on Page 47
#1
Both Boeing and Lockheed should not get the contract. Lockheed will cost three or four times the contracted amount, possibly more and delay delivery till maybe the next century.
Boeing right now has such poor quailty control, we'll be locky if the planes remain in flying condition and still be intact after a few flight cycles.
Both their planes would most likely requires a 1housand hours maintenance for every hour the plane fly.
Frankly I wouldn't trust them to do the job right, on time and within contacted costs.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/22/2025 4:04 Comments ||
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#3
The number of military contractors for builds has severely contracted since 1960s. That's the problem with mergers and the resultant pseudo-competition. It's also compounded since certain national security issues means that foreign competition is out.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
