'The Report Is My Testimony.' Robert Mueller Signals He'd Rather Not Testify to Congress

Special Counsel Robert Mueller formally ended his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, refusing to take questions from reporters and signaling that he would prefer not to testify to Congress.

“The report is my testimony,” he told a group of reporters hastily assembled at the Justice Department on Wednesday.

During the nine-minute statement, Mueller reiterated the conclusions of his his team’s 448-page report: that Russians systematically interfered in the 2016 election by hacking, that investigators found “insufficient evidence” to find any Americans conspired with the Russians in that effort, that his team pointedly did not say whether or not President Donald Trump obstructed justice during the investigation and that Congress could make that decision on its own.

“I have not spoken publicly during our investigation,” he said, in his first public remarks since the report came out. “I am speaking out today because our investigation is complete, the attorney general has made the report on our investigation largely public, we are formally losing the special counsel’s office and as well I am resigning from the Department of Justice to return to private life.”

WORST DEEP STATE CONSPIRACY EVER': JAMES COMEY SHOOTS DOWN DONALD TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN SPYING CLAIMS ABOUT FBI RUSSIA PROBE

https://www.newsweek.com/comey-trump-fbi-russia-conspiracy-theory-1437797

Ex-FBI Director James Comey derided the “dumbness” of President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theory that the bureau sought to use its Russia investigation to take down his 2016 campaign.

Trump claims that Comey and others at the top of the FBI were corrupted by bias against him and in favor of his Demcratic rival Hillary Clinton. He also claims that the FBI conducted generalized spying on his campaign, which is so far unsubstantiated.

The president has in recent weeks called Comey a “dirty cop,” and accused those involved in running the FBI’s Russia investigation of treason, tweeting: “My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on. Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!”

Writing in The Washington Post, Comey called Trump a liar who does not care about the damage his rhetoric and false allegations are doing to America’s institutions, such as the FBI.

Comey said the FBI investigated evidence that the Russians were interfering in the 2016 election and potential links to the Trump campaign through its advisers. The investigation was kept secret by the FBI during the election.

We Orthodox Jews desperately need gay rabbis

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/we-orthodox-jews-desperately-need-gay-rabbis/

The halachic reason is that gay Jews are asked to meet a virtually impossible standard of behavior. If they violate that standard, they are either censured or thrown out of the Orthodox community. The enforcers of this contract – rabbis, parents, educators and fellow adult students – know deep down that this agreement will never work. The stipulations, such as remaining in the closet or being celibate for life, are fanciful rejections of reality.

‘The Jews always flip,’ Trump said after Cohen plea deal, according to new book

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-jews-always-flip-trump-said-after-cohen-plea-deal-new-tell-all-book/

“The Jews always flip,” US President Donald Trump reportedly said after being told that three Jewish associates had agreed to cooperate with the Mueller probe, according to a new tell-all book on the Trump administration.

Trump reportedly made the comments after being told of witness plea deals from former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, David Pecker of American Media, and Trump Organization accountant Allen Weisselberg, according to the book, “Siege: Trump Under Fire,” by Michael Wolff.

Hasidic Jews In Staten Island Remove Eruv After Anti-Semitic Backlash

https://forward.com/fast-forward/424973/hasidic-jews-in-staten-island-remove-eruv-after-anti-semitic-backlash/

An eruv, or symbolic boundary for Sabbath-observant Jews, was removed from a neighborhood on Staten Island.

The eruv had been put up on utility poles around the neighborhood by a group of Hasidic Orthodox Jewish residents. They removed it after other residents put up lawn signs expressing opposition to an influx or religious Jews in their neighborhood. The residents had not yet secured the necessary permission from Con Ed, Verizon, or the Transportation Department, Spectrum News reported.

The lawn signs, created by the Westerleigh Improvement Society, read: “Westerleigh Strong. We’re Not Selling.” They reportedly referred to 

U.S. Evangelical Church Cancels Israel Event After Israeli Diplomats Join Local Gay Pride Parade

https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/alternative/2019/3684127.html

Consul General Lior Hayat and other staff from Israel’s diplomatic mission carried Israeli flags and rainbow flags bearing a Star of David at the gay pride parade in Miami in April. They posted photos of their participation in the gay parade on the diplomatic mission’s Twitter.

Pastor Alberto Delgado, who had scheduled at his Alpha and Omega Church in Miami an event honoring Israel with the participation of Israeli diplomats, later canceled the event in May.

The pastor “was worried that the Israeli participation in the pride parade will hurt the support for Israel within his community (especially in light of how close the two events were to each other).”

“The consul general met with the pastor and clarified that the consulate represents all Israeli citizens and works with different constituencies,” said the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.

לראשונה אי פעם: הומו מוצהר הוסמך לרב אורתודוקסי

https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/661137

בצעד חסר תקדים הוסמך ביום ראשון האחרון חבר הקהילה הלהט"בית לתפקיד רב אורתודוקסי בטקס חגיגי בתיאטרון ירושלים, זאת לאחר שבישיבה מפורסמת בארצות הברית סירבו להסמיך אותו בשל זהותו המינית. יצוין כי מדובר במהלך הצהרתי בכל הקשור לרבנות הראשית לישראל, מכיוון שמדובר בהסמכה פרטית. 

לפני כמה חודשים הודיעו לדניאל אטווד רבני ישיבת "חובבי תורה", מוסד אורתודוקסי ליברלי בניו יורק, כי לא יוסמך לתפקיד רב, זאת למרות שסיים את לימודיו במקום בהצלחה. הן בישיבה והן אטווד עצמו ניסו שלא לקשור בין נטייתו המינית של הסטודנט לבין ההחלטה, אך בין השורות נראה כי זו אכן הייתה הסיבה לביטול ההסמכה. יצוין כי בעבר הוסמכו רבנים שהיו דאז בארון, ולאחר מכן הם הצהירו על נטייתם המינית, אולם מדובר בפעם הראשונה שבה הומו מוצהר, שחי בזוגיות עם גבר, ביקש לקבל את ההסמכה.

"היינו מוכנים להסמיך אותו עד שהופיעו נסיבות מסוימות לפני כמה חודשים", כתב אז ראש הישיבה, הרב דב לינזר. "מכיוון שמדובר בנושא כל כך רגיש, לקחו לנו כמה חודשים להגיע להחלטה. ניסיתי להבין אם יש דרך אפשרית להמשיך להתקדם, אבל הגעתי למסקנה שלילית". לצד הרב לינזר התייצבו שורת רבנים מוכרים בארה"ב, בהם הרב אבי וייס, זאת למרות זעם כבד מצד ארגוני להט"ב וקהילות יהודיות במדינה. "אף מוסד אורתודוקסי לא אישר נישואים חד-מיניים או הסמיך רב גיי בגלוי", נימק הרב לינזר את החלטתו.

TRUMP CALLING FARMERS 'PATRIOTS' FOR SUFFERING IN CHINA TRADE WAR 'DOESN'T PAY THE BILLS,' GOP SENATOR SAYS

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-farmers-patriots-doesnt-pay-bills-gop-senator-1436443

The president has called our farmers ‘patriots,’” Ernst said later in the segment, “it doesn’t pay the bills, it doesn’t pay the bills,” she asserted. “But we will see in the upcoming months how long we can sustain.”

On Thursday, Trump unveiled a $16 billion bailout plan for farmers struggling to stay above water as a result of the trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

“The $16 billion in funds will help keep our cherished farms thriving and make clear that no country has veto on America’s economic and national security, can’t let that happen ever,” the president said.

“You could say with our farmers, they’re patriots, they stood up. We will ensure that our farmers get the relief that they need, and very, very quickly,” the president added with the plans announcement.

The Problem With Mussolini and His Trains

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2016/11/the-problem-with-mussolini-and-his-trains/507764/

“When you are trying to convince America that its new leader is not a fascist,” New York Magazine’s Margaret Hartmann and Chas Dannersuggested recently, “it’s best not to make any Mussolini references.”

Too late. That advice was directed at former Cincinnati mayor Ken Blackwell, a member of the Trump transition team. Blackwell just assured the Wall Street Journal that Reince Preibus, the RNC chair picked as White House chief of staff, would “utilize his personal connections with the speaker [Rep. Paul Ryan] and others, to make the trains run on time.”

Like other Italian Fascist-era coinages (turns out “drain the swamp”was a Mussolini thing, too), Il Duce’s timely trains are getting a workout these days. But, until recently, most Mussolini comparisons were being made by Trump opponents trying to remind American voters about the perils of embracing cartoonish autocrats. During the campaign, Gawker baited the GOP candidate into retweeting a Mussolini quote, and many others noted the parallels between the two characters, often packaged with the president-elect’s admiring comments about modern dictators. Now that sci-fi speculation about President Trump has broken into the real world, perhaps it’s time to finally confront the minor-but-enduring falsehood about Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his punctual trains.

Viral video of Nancy Pelosi slowed down her speech

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/may/24/politics-watchdog/viral-video-nancy-pelosi-speech-was-manipulated/

A video circulating on Facebook gives the impression that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke in a very slurred manner at a public event. That video isn’t an accurate representation of Pelosi’s speech — the audio is slowed down to a point that some social media users questioned whether she was drunk or medically impaired.

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on President Trump walking out infrastructure meeting: ‘It was very, very, very strange,’" said text accompanying the approximately three-minute clip.

The video was posted on the Facebook page for an account called Politics WatchDog.

The Washington Post published a story May 23 headlined, "Faked Pelosi videos, slowed to make her appear drunk, spread across social media." The story included Politics WatchDog’s video and mentioned other videos posted on YouTube that slowed her speech or suggested Pelosi spoke drunkenly.

Politics WatchDog’s post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

FOX NEWS' CHRIS WALLACE CHALLENGES LINDSEY GRAHAM ON HIS 1998 CLAIM THAT IGNORING SUBPOENAS IS IMPEACHABLE

https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-chris-wallace-makes-lindsey-graham-watch-1998-clip-himself-saying-1436467

Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday forced Senator Lindsey Graham to watch a 1998 clip of himself talking about the dangers of ignoring subpoenas from Congress during an era when he was leading the impeachment effort against former President Bill Clinton.

During Graham’s appearance on Fox News Sunday earlier today, Wallace challenged the Republican senator on his past comments about impeachment, which appears to contradict his current stance on calls by Democrats to impeach President Donald Trump.

"You call all of what’s going on in Washington a political circus, but you took a different view back when you were leading the impeachment effort against Clinton back in the late '90s. At that time, you said that any president, and you talked specifically about Clinton and Richard Nixon, who defied Congress when it came to subpoenas was in danger of impeachment,” Wallace said, before airing an old clip of Graham’s comments made in Capitol Hill.

“You’re becoming the judge and jury. It is not your job to tell us what we need. It is your job to comply with the things we need to provide oversight over you,” Graham can be seen saying in the December 18, 1998 clip. At the time, he was a member of the House of Representatives and one of the managers — de facto prosecutors — in Clinton's impeachment trial before the Senate.