Farrakhan: The 'Wicked Jews' Are Using Me to Break Up Women's March

Was the U.S. on the brink of war with North Korea before Trump? A review of the evidence

politifact

Was the United States on the verge of war against North Korea during the presidency of Barack Obama? Donald Trump has said he thinks so.

"If I had not been elected president of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea with potentially millions of people killed," Trump said during his State of the Union address.

He repeated the claim recently when announcing an emergency declaration on the U.S.-Mexico border wall, saying that Obama was particularly out to get North Korea.

"I said, ‘What’s the biggest problem?’ (Obama) said, ‘By far, North Korea.’ And I don’t want to speak for him, but I believe he would have gone to war with North Korea. I think he was ready to go to war," Trump said. "In fact, he told me he was so close to starting a big war with North Korea."

We asked a range of North Korea and foreign-policy experts whether they thought it was likely, or even plausible, that the United States was on the precipice of war with North Korea during Obama’s tenure.

Universally, the experts we contacted said no.

Revere of Brookings dismisses Trump’s line about being close to war under Obama as a distraction.

"In pointing the finger of blame at Obama, Trump is seeking to distract us from the fact that he was playing both the arsonist and the fireman in stoking the flames of war and then riding to the ‘rescue’ in the form of his bromance with Kim," Revere said. "It has made for great theater, even if it has done nothing to rid us of the North Korean nuclear and missile threat."

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Donald Trump

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"I believe Obama would have gone to war with North Korea. I think he was ready to go to war."

remarks at the White House – Friday, February 15, 2019

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Summit on Preventing Clergy Sex Abuse

US ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick defrocked over abuse claims

bbc.

A former Roman Catholic cardinal has been defrocked after historical sexual abuse allegations.

Theodore McCarrick is the most senior Catholic figure to be dismissed from the priesthood in modern times.

US Church officials said allegations he had sexually assaulted a teenager five decades ago were credible.

Mr McCarrick, 88, had previously resigned but said he had "no recollection" of the alleged abuse.

"No bishop, no matter how influential, is above the law of the Church," Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement.

"For all those McCarrick abused, I pray this judgment will be one small step, among many, toward healing."

'Our President Is An Idiot’: Trump Facing Both Sides Over Emergency Declaration | Deadline | MSNBC

אזהרה נגד התערבות ליצמן לכאורה - כבר לפני שנה

https://www.kan.org.il/item/?itemid=47287

חקירת סגן השר יעקב ליצמן – פרטים חדשים: הרופאה האוסטרלית הבכירה שהתלוננה על ההתנהלות בהליך הסגרת מלכה לייפר, החשודה בעשרות מעשי פדופיליה, הזהירה כבר לפני שנה במכתב להסתדרות הרפואית כי ליצמן מתערב כדי למנוע הליך הסגרה בצורה פסולה. מחר יתקיים דיון בבקשתה של לייפר להשתחרר ממעצר.

במכתב ללשכת האתיקה של ההסתדרות הרפואית כתבה הרופאה, ד"ר מרים קוטנר, המשמשת נשיאת הפדרציה האוסטרלית-יהודית לרפואה: "לד"ר צ'רנס (הפסיכיאטר המחוזי בי-ם) 'לא היה זמן' לחתום על חוות הדעת... נראה שליצמן מעורב במקרה הזה ומעורבותו נובעת מכוונות זדוניות – והיא שהובילה להתנהגות לא אתית של ד"ר צ'רנס".


בתוך כך, בחדשות הערב פורסם כי הרב יואל דירנפלד, מרבני קהילת חסידות בעלז באשדוד, מנסה לגייס כספים עבור לייפר, ופרסם מכתב בבתי הכנסת בעיר, שבו נכתב: "בקשה אישית ונרגשת מכל נדיבי הלב, אישה חשובה בת גדולים וצדיקים היושבת במעצר זמן רב בתנאים קשים ואכזריים, השם ישמור, על מנת להסגירה למדינת עכו"ם בחו"ל שסכנה מרחפת בכל המובנים. כדי להצילה, זקוקים לעורכי דין מומחים ומיוחדים שעלותם מסתכמת בסכומי עתק". הרב סירב להגיב לדברים בשיחה עם כאן חדשות.

Every U.S. president since 1976 has declared at least one national emergency

snopes

In general, the President may initiate a state of emergency by issuing a declaration (typically via executive order). An existing state of emergency can be terminated by the President himself, or by a joint resolution by Congress. The President can veto such a resolution, however, requiring both houses of Congress to then override the veto by a two-thirds vote.

When President Donald Trump hinted in early 2019 his intention to bypass Congress and secure funding for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border by declaring a national emergency — and then followed through on that plan — the subject of “national emergencies” suddenly became a hot topic of public discussion. Since the public tends to associate that term with dire threats such as terrorist attacks, epidemics, or the outbreak of war, many people were surprised to learn that several dozen national emergencies had been declared since the passage of the NEA in 1976 — as reflected in a viral social media post:

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The gist of the social media post displayed above is therefore correct, in that every U.S. president since 1976 (excluding Gerald Ford, whose term ended in January 1977) has declared at least one national emergency, although we came up with some slightly different numbers. (Our tally based on the Brennan Center’s list has Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush each declaring one more emergency than stated above, and President Barack Obama declaring one fewer than stated.) In additional, the majority of those emergency declarations remain in effect as of this writing.

Japan’s PM nominated Trump for Nobel at Washington’s request – report

Times of israel

US President Donald Trump claimed Friday that Japan’s prime minister had nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize for opening a dialogue with North Korea, a move that Japanese media said had come at Washington’s “informal” request.

Trump also complained about his predecessor Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize and doubted he would be similarly honored.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “gave me the most beautiful copy of a letter that he sent to the people who give out a thing called the Nobel Prize,” Trump said at a White House news conference when asked about his late February summit in Vietnam with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “He said, ‘I have nominated you, respectfully, on behalf of Japan. I am asking them to give you the Nobel Peace Prize.'”

The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported Sunday that Abe had indeed written a five-page letter recommending Trump to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, but had done so only after the US administration had “informally” asked for it following Trump’s summit with Kim in Singapore in June.

Ann Coulter after Trump's order: ‘The only national emergency is that our president is an idiot’

usatoday

President Donald Trump's announcement Friday that he was declaring a national emergency wasn't received well by all Republicans, none more vocal than Ann Coulter. 

The conservative commentator had for weeks been bashing Trump for what she said was him caving to Democrats over his demands for additional funding to construct a wall along the southern border, even calling him the "biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States". 

On Friday, the bickering made its way into a nationally televised news conference where Trump announced his plans to use executive powers to declare a national emergency to free up billions in funds for the proposed wall. 

A Weak and Rambling President Declares a Fake National Emergency

newyorker

On Friday morning, Donald Trump walked up to a lectern in the White House Rose Garden to make an announcement of monumental importance that clearly couldn’t wait a moment longer. “Before we begin,” he said, “I’d like to just say that we have a large team of very talented people in China. We’ve had a negotiation going on for about two days. It’s going extremely well.” Then Trump brought up North Korea, Syria, and the state of the U.S. economy. Finally, he moved on to the business of the moment: a desperate effort to put the best possible face on the humiliating defeat that he suffered on Capitol Hill over funding for his border wall. “We are going to be signing today, and registering, a national emergency,” he said. “And it’s a great thing to do because we have an invasion of drugs, an invasion of gangs, an invasion of people, and it’s unacceptable.”

He didn’t leave it at that; he doesn’t know the concept. Instead, he sought to justify his action by trotting out some of his old lies about undocumented immigrants, and some he’s added to his repertoire more recently. “We have far more people trying to get into the country today than probably we’ve ever had before.” (The number of interdictions at the southern border is running at roughly half the level it was a decade ago.) The crime and drug problem in El Paso is “a hundred per cent” better since the construction of a border barrier. (El Paso has long had one of the lowest crime rates of any city in the country.) Federal prisons are full of illegal immigrants. (Even setting aside people being held for immigration offenses, undocumented immigrants make up a tiny proportion of the federal-prison population.)

In this carefully concocted narrative, the wall isn’t a mere stretch of concrete or steel fencing stretching along the border; it’s a symbol of national sovereignty and regeneration. But, if it’s so important, why didn’t Trump get it built during his first two years in office, when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress? Trump’s failure to get his own party to support what was arguably his signature campaign pledge demonstrates that he is fundamentally a weak and isolated President. But, of course, he can’t admit that publicly, either. Instead, he said, “It would have been great to have done it earlier. But I was a little new to the job, a little new to the profession. And we had a little disappointment for the first year and a half. People that should have stepped up did not step up. But we’re stepping up now.” Take that, Paul Ryan!

This official unveiling of the former House Speaker as Trump’s 2020 whipping boy didn’t come as a surprise. Neither did the declaration of a national emergency. Trump has been threatening to make this move for months, and Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader in the Senate, had announced his intentions from the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon. Earlier on Thursday, according to a tick-tock by the Washington Post, Trump was still threatening to veto the bipartisan spending deal that allotted $1.375 billion to border barriers. In order to get him to sign the bill and keep the government open, McConnell agreed to support the declaration of an emergency and encouraged other Republicans to support it.

Here was yet another example of how the G.O.P. leadership’s Faustian pact with Trump has driven them to enable his more authoritarian tendencies. During his Rose Garden address, Trump freely conceded that his emergency decree will immediately be challenged in the lower courts, and quite likely get snagged there. But citing what happened to his travel ban, he said he was hopeful of prevailing in the Supreme Court—an outcome that can’t be ruled out given its conservative tilt.

If this happens, Trump will have succeeded in undermining the principle that the President proposes and the Congress disposes, which is contained in Article I of the Constitution. And, as Democrats and Republicans were quick to point out, he will have set a precedent. In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina, invoked the prospect of “President Elizabeth Warren declaring a national emergency to shut down banks and take over the nation’s financial institutions.”

DONALD TRUMP NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARATION SLAMMED BY CONSERVATIVE GROUPS: ‘ERODES’ 200 YEARS OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

newsweek

President Donald Trump is facing criticism from all sides of the political spectrum having declared a national emergency over the southern border in order to access more funds to build his controversial wall.

Not only are progressives and Democrats lamenting the decision, but a collection of right-leaning business groups and think tanks—generally aligned with the Republican Party—have also joined the chorus warning Trump’s declaration could set a dangerous precedent for American politics.

According to The Hill, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, FreedomWorks and the Heritage Foundation all expressed concern that any future liberal presidents could use Trump’s example to circumvent Congress and secure funds for major health care reform, climate change initiatives or other progressive policies.

Thomas J. Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—a business-oriented lobbying group that has supported climate change-denying candidates but also opposed Trump’s executive order ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program—said the emergency declaration constituted a threat to the American political system.

“The declaration of national emergency in this instance will create a dangerous precedent that erodes the very system of government that has served us so well for over 200 years,” he said.

Adam Brandon, the president of FreedomWorks—a libertarian think tank that helped the emergence of the Tea Party movement—said Trump’s maneuver had dangerously undermined the power of Congress.

“No matter whether a Republican or a Democrat sits in the Oval Office, the concentration of power in the executive branch is alarming,” he said. “We’re concerned that this executive action only make matters worse. After all, no president looks at the powers left by his predecessor as a ceiling.”

Kay Coles James, president of the Heritage Foundation—described by CNN as a major influence on Trump’s transition team—said declaring a national emergency could have a “significant downside.”

“This creates a dangerous precedent for future administrations and exposes the critical need for border security to the whims of activist federal judges,” he said. “The omnibus legislation coupled with today’s announcement is an unacceptable resolution to a genuine national crisis.”

Republican senators and representatives also voiced their concern over the emergency, which Trump declared after Democratic lawmakers denied him $5.7 billion in funding for 234 miles of wall on the southern border. The emergency plus other executive measures will allow him to access as much as $8 billion from other government funds.