Tuesday, June 30, 2020

'Blood is on their hands': Rep. Banks says NYT revealed sensitive details on Russia bounty intel

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-york-times-russia-bounty-story-rep-banks


"Having served in Afghanistan during the time the alleged bounties were placed, no one is angrier about this than me," Banks wrote. "Now it’s impossible to finish the investigation. All b/c the @nytimes will do anything to damage @realdonaldtrump , even if it means compromising nat'l security."
The White House said Monday that Trump wasn't briefed on U.S. intelligence assessments concerning the bounties because the information had not been verified.
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Monday that Trump — even now — had not been briefed on the allegations because the intelligence “would not be elevated to the president until it was verified."

The result was an odd situation in which eight Republican lawmakers attended a briefing at the White House on Monday about explosive allegations that the president himself was said to have not been fully read in on.

 

48 comments:

  1. Let's say Trump loses in November. By January he's out of the White House. What will you do next? You can't savagely attack Biden. You'll be out of material. I suppose for a while you can go with the "This is how bad Trump was" theme but that'll get tiresome after a couple of months.

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  2. the more important question is what will you do?

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  3. Well I'll keep checking to see if this blog goes back to the basics that made it one of the most important ones in the Jewish blogsphere - a focus on Jewish and Torah issues with important sources to support them

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  4. Back to Kamenetzky

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  5. Most of the readers of this blog seemed uninterested in what you claim you want

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  6. Did you poll them?
    I'm certainly much more interested in Torah topics this blog used to cover than the latest Trump gossip.
    But I'm only one reader and we can't go by anecdote, right?

    So how did you determine what most readers were interested in?

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  7. I agree with "Garnel". Unfortunately, you have become obsessed with anything relating to POTUS, and you have become like a משוגע לדבר אחד.
    What a waste of your sunset years!
    Is this what you want to be remembered for?

    Your website banner proclaims that you focus on: "Daas Torah - Issues of Jewish Identity", which was an attraction for me. My question is, of the last 50 posts you've made, how many of them fall under this rubric?

    I do occasionally check to see if you're back on track, but otherwise, until you start posting on Torah matters, you've lost me as a regular reader.

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  8. Actually the feedback on my comment suggest that, other than Berel and Kalonymous, we all agree with my comment.

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  9. most of the Torah matters I post seem to be ignored except by you and maybe two others. I have been posting Torah issues regularly

    People seem more comfortable at dealing with whether Trump is competent than dealing with Rabbinical misconduct. because they view gedolim as infallible

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  10. it is like finding a needle in a haystack - there are 1000 news reports about Trump, and maybe 1 or 2 Torah based articles.

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  11. My remark about Kam... was a form of sarcasm,

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  12. You claim to have been posting Torah issues regularly, yet ignored my question percentage of the last 50 posts were about Torah issues. I'll leave it to you to be intellectually honest, and accurately answer the question.

    Bringing "Rabbinical misconduct" into the discussion is a red herring. I never mentioned anything about it. The issue here is Torah issues vs. trump.

    The only to prove your claim, that people prefer to read here about Trump, is to post a poll on your home page, with the following question:
    What do you think about the coverage of President Trump on this blog?
    1. I love it. The more the merrier.
    2. I would prefer to see more Torah topics covered, and less about President Trump
    3. I don't care.

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  13. no a poll is not accurare

    see the number of comments the post elicits or check the column of most popular items in last 7 days

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  14. also, not every single Torah topic, even from the "good old days", will gather everyone's interest. You could do one on philosophy and I might get into a thread, or about zionism, and me and Berel get stuck in. If it is something from emet L'yaakov Kamenetsky, I don't always read through the entire Hebrew text whereas others might.

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  15. A reply to a Trump article is low hanging fruit. Most of the time I don't even bother reading the cited article. It is more time-efficient to craft a sarcastic response to the fakenews headline and go on my merry way. This merely serves to combat the constant stream of anti-trump mania. Do you think I actually sit down and read the 100th version of NeverTrumper (bolton, Brennan, Romney, etc) screed about how Trump's personality is rotten, or the latest CNN crybaby whining about the supposedly grave sin of being "divisive" or the latest chapter in the media's tinfoil hat Russian conspiracy theory? None of this drivel is worth reading or spending time on. So usually it's the headline, speed-read a few lines, type a little quip, and Bam! Done.
    A Torah post gets read and digested. Sometimes I won't have a comment to post because I defer to the expertise of others on topics in which I am not as qualified to speak about, or I simply don't have anything to say or don't have a relevant question. It does not mean the post is less worthwhile if it has fewer comments.

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  16. JOE_THE_PROFESSORJuly 1, 2020 at 4:39 AM

    Are you really concerned that he will have nothing to blog about? Really

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  17. JOE_THE_PROFESSORJuly 1, 2020 at 4:44 AM

    One interesting possibility: Trump was not briefed because he was considered a security risk. In the event that he was briefed and was actually paying attention he would, I am sure, have warned Putin.

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  18. yes there is a silent audience that silently reads and great;y approves Torah articles and their silence is proof of their appreciation

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  19. Just the opposite the constant Trump revelations and CNN re-posts! wipe any torah comments off the front page making them irrelevant.

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  20. I happen to
    like

    Trump! I hate the socialists and the Demonic Party and so did the Chofets Chaim and the Brisker Rov!

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  21. Most Trump Posts have not even one comment!

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  22. if trump loses it will be NWO

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  23. https://youtu.be/iydhVG_zlGo

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  24. If you agreed with what I wrote, you wouldn't be spending your time here posting here, over and over, on anything but Torah topics.

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  25. If the ratio were to be reversed, it would be more pallatible.
    7 of 10 items should be regarding Torah issues, and maybe 3 out of 10 about Trump and other political issues.

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  26. Your claim that "there is a silent audience that silently reads and greatly approves Torah articles, and their silence is proof of their appreciation", undermines your previous arguments that Trump posts are more interesting and important than Torah related posts.

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  27. I was just rephrasing your claim

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  28. but the interest is what the readers have not what you want!

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  29. If you really were so concerned with more Torah posts you would be sending me guest posts

    i am open to guest posts especially on Torah Topics
    You tube videos are not guest posts

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  30. Others have upvoted my comments, so it seems that they want that too.
    Also, the point isn't what I might want. The point is what does Hashem want from you? Do you really think that Hashem wants you to spend the last few years of your life copying and pasting about Trump and other politicians? Is that why your life was spared, from the medical crisis that you survived, and the other health issues that you have?

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  31. I'm not a blogger. I have other fish to fry.
    You're the one who hung out a shingle.
    If you don't have Torah topics to post, then there's no mitzvah to post other inane stuff, especially when your banner claims to be built on a Torah based theme.

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  32. your concern with directing me iis heartwarming but as you noted you must have more important concerns. And I will continue posting what I think is important

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  33. The 3 oaths were only given to prevent more bloodshed after 2 failed rebellions against Rome - the churban and bar kochba.
    The Roman Empire collapsed over 1000 years ago. So the oaths are no longer relevant. Arizal gives the same kind of timeline.

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  34. How about a sh'eila and teshuvot format. Not necessarily a practical halachic qn, but also theoretical?

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  35. So we will start a readers Union, and boycott commenting on Trump related stories.

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  36. Kalonymus HaQatanJuly 1, 2020 at 1:46 PM

    As in Eroom's law?

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  37. Kalonymus HaQatanJuly 1, 2020 at 1:52 PM

    I have a question regarding the "yeshiva paradox".
    Hareidi gedolim reasoned that we need to produce more Torah gedolim - so need to mass produce yeshiva scholars. So the numbers of yeshivas and kollelim grew industrially, avreichim grew exponentially. More than anything that existed before the holocaust.
    However, the result is that there are no more gedolim. Perhaps a few left who were born in 1905, but nothing exists that would be considered a gadol 50 years ago.
    How is this paradox explained?

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  38. this was disussed previously.
    yeshivas don't produce gedolim and never have

    the purpose of yeshiva education is to produce those who appreciate gedolim.

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  39. Kalonymus HaQatanJuly 1, 2020 at 3:06 PM

    Many gedolim did go to yeshiva. Just an example, the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Israel, under R Isser Zalman ztl produced an entire generation of Gedolim. If not "produce", at least graduated. But the question I am asking is why the expansion of the Yeshiva programme has resulted in the opposite of what we would expect - i.e little or no new gedolim? that means there will be nobody left to appreciate!

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  40. Kalonymus HaQatanJuly 1, 2020 at 4:14 PM

    Look at the students in this wiki
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isser_Zalman_Meltzer

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  41. It's your blog, so obviously you get to make the choice of what content to post. However as someone who knows you personally, and cares about you, I thought that I should take some time, and fulfill the mitzvah of הוכח תוכיח את עמיתך. Among friends here, please take it in a spirit of love, and coming from a good place.

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  42. Kalonymus HaQatanJuly 1, 2020 at 8:46 PM

    Add rav elyashiv to the list.
    Moshe learned everything through direct nevuah.

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  43. Who will they appreciate if we run out of gedolim?

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  44. Ha, good analogy

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  45. Kalonymus HaQatanJuly 2, 2020 at 1:31 AM

    Most frum view gedolim as infallible - but that's limited to the ones they nominated as true gedolim.

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  46. Proud Conservative MomJuly 30, 2020 at 1:43 AM

    How disturbing!!

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