DONALD TRUMP'S SYRIA WITHDRAWAL COULD HELP ISIS STAGE MASS PRISON BREAKS, EXPERTS SAY

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-syria-withdrawal-isis-mass-prison-breaks-erdogan-kurds-1463566

ISIS has not been defeated, despite Trump's repeated erroneous statements claiming otherwise. Though weak, scattered and deprived of any contiguous "caliphate," thousands of fighters remain active in Iraq, Syria and further afield. A new Turkish front against the Kurds will ease the pressure on ISIS and could see the group recover its potency.

The looming Turkish offensive will weaken Kurdish forces and sow chaos that could be exploited by the prisoners and local ISIS cells, both in the immediate area of operations and other Kurdish-held territory.

As historian and academic Shiraz Maher explained on Twitter, "Trump may actually be on the cusp of creating on the worst national security crises of our time by—albeit inadvertently—fuelling the very circumstances in which all these ISIS prisoners escape. It's absolutely astonishing."

Brett McGurk, who served as the special presidential envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition until he resigned over Trump's Syria strategy in December 2018, warned that Turkey is unable and unwilling to take on responsibility for the largest detention centers in the area.

Trump goes against the consensus of experts and abandons the Kurds our allies fighting ISIS steps aside for Turkey to invade northern Syria, crush Kurds

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-says-turkey-to-invade-northern-syria-sparking-fears-over-kurds/

The White House said Sunday that US forces in northeast Syria will move aside and clear the way for an expected Turkish assault, essentially abandoning Kurdish fighters who fought alongside American forces in the years-long battle to defeat Islamic State militants.

For months, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to launch the military assault against Kurdish forces across the border he views as a threat to his country. US Republicans and Democrats have warned that allowing the Turkish attack could lead to a massacre of the Kurds, sending a troubling message to American allies across the globe.

TRUMP GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO TURKEY TO TAKEOVER SYRIA, DISPLACE U.S. PARTNERS


https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Trump-gives-green-light-to-Turkey-to-takeover-Syria-displace-US-partners-603927


The extraordinary reversal of US policy is part of an overall series of changing US policies that have left allies of the US wondering what Washington is doing and left adversaries knowing that pressure works with Washington. 

Former Trump Organization executive says she expects Trump will resign

'Peculiar, irrational, self-destructive': Trump's week of impeachment rage

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/05/trump-impeachment-inquiry-finland-china-tweets

As the walls of an impeachment inquiry closed in, Trump’s incoherent statements renewed fears about his fitness for office

The eye of a storm is deceptively calm. At the White House this week the sun was shining, a bust of Ronald Reagan reposed outside the West Wing office of the press secretary, a US marine saluted the president as he boarded Marine One and scores of African American millennials cheered him in the east room.

But inside Donald Trump’s head, there was no calm. The storm was a firestorm.

The president’s behaviour broke boundaries so stupendously that the fact he congratulated communist China on its 70th birthday, reportedly demanded alligators or snakes and flesh-piercing spikes for his border wall and wrote the unpresidential word “BULLSHIT” on social media were soon relegated to historical footnotes.

Instead, as the walls of an impeachment inquiry closed in, it will be remembered as Trump’s week of rage. His incoherent, wacky statements raised new fears over his state of mind. His brazen invitation to foreign powers to interfere in American elections raised new fears over his moral nihilism.

“It is without parallel,” said Larry Jacobs, the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “I have never seen a president behave in such a peculiar, irrational and self-destructive way as Trump in the last week.”

New Haven rabbi guilty on 4 felony counts, posts $750,000 bond

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/New-Haven-rabbi-guilty-on-4-felony-counts-bond-14467686.php

NEW HAVEN — Rabbi Daniel Greer today was handcuffed by judicial marshals and led away to lock-up after a jury found him guilty on all four counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Greer, dressed in a black suit, red tie and yarmulke, remained stoic as the verdict was announced. His wife, Sarah, seated behind him in the courtroom, also showed little emotion but she tried to speak with him before he was led off. A marshal said she could not have contact with him.

“I want to see my wife,” Greer told the marshals. But his attorney, William Dow III, told him: “These guys control the show.”

The outcome of the trial was a dramatic comedown for Greer, 79, who has long been a respected rabbi in New Haven and a community leader who helped revitalize the Edgewood neighborhood.

But the prosecutors convinced the six jurors that in 2002-03 Greer repeatedly had illegal sexual contact with Eliyahu Mirlis, then 15, at Yeshiva New Haven. This was the school founded by Greer, who taught there and was its dean.

Revealed: US diplomat's wife, 42, who 'ran over and killed' British teen outside RAF base before fleeing and claiming diplomatic immunity is named

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7544167/US-diplomats-wife-42-ran-killed-British-teen-named.html

Mrs Charles, 44, told the Daily Mail: 'We would ask Boris Johnson himself, if he hasn't already, to call President Trump and urge him to right this wrong. It's inhumane what has happened to us. Please. I'm begging you. Please help us. We won't be able to grieve and move on and try put the pieces of our shattered lives together until we get justice for Harry.' 

5,000-YEAR-OLD NYC-STYLE METROPOLIS UNCOVERED IN NORTHERN ISRAEL

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/5000-year-old-NYC-style-metropolis-uncovered-in-northern-Israel-603854

The ruins of a 5,000-year-old megalopolis were uncovered in northern Israel, the Antiquities Authority announced on Sunday.

A Second Whistleblower on the Ukraine-Trump Call Has Come Forward, Lawyer for First Whistleblower Confirms

https://time.com/5693833/second-whistleblower-trump-ukraine/

A second whistleblower with first-hand knowledge of the accusations about President Donald Trump’s communications with Ukraine has come forward, an attorney for the original whistleblower confirmed on Sunday.

The second official, who is also a member of the U.S. intelligence community, has “first-hand knowledge” of some of the allegations outlined in the original whistleblower’s report, Mark Zaid, a lawyer for the two whistleblowers, wrote on Twitter. The first whistleblower’s complaint, which the House Intelligence Committee released on Sept. 26, alleged that President Trump pressured the Ukrainian President to investigate one of his leading Democratic rivals, Joe Biden, and Biden’s son, Hunter, and that the White House tried to keep records of a call between the two Presidents a secret.

FOX NEWS ANCHOR CONFRONTS GOP REP WITH DIPLOMATIC TEXTS AFTER HE INSISTS TRUMP HAD NO QUID PRO QUO WITH UKRAINE

https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-chris-wallace-gop-rep-diplomatic-texts-quid-pro-quo-1463445

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace confronted Republican Congressman Chris Stewart with text messages between U.S. diplomats discussing what many critics of the president see as clear evidence of a quid pro quo after the representative insisted no such expectation existed.

Stewart, who represents Utah and sits on the House Intelligence Committee, told Wallace during an interview on Fox News Sunday that Trump never linked his request that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky investigated Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden to military aid. "It's never even mentioned," the representative said, referring to a controversial July 25 phone call between the two leaders. "He [Trump] doesn't ever offer a quid pro quo."

But Wallace, later in the segment, pointed to text messages between American diplomats working with Ukraine that suggested Trump would only grant the $391 million in military aid and a meeting with Zelensky if the investigation into Biden was opened.

Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky Homosexuals Hakirah 12

   Vol 12 Goldberg on Scribd

Kaminetsky

Donald Trump thinks you're dumb

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/464407-donald-trump-thinks-youre-dumb

The president is his own worst enemy — and I, for one, am thankful for it. He strikes a hole in the heart of any decent defense of his behavior on a regular basis. There have been no breaches in whistleblower protocol, no matter what accusations the president hurls at House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) or the whistleblower himself.

According to guidance on “protected disclosures” from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), communication of urgent concern can go to congressional intelligence committees. There is bipartisan consensus on this, with spokespeople for Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) saying that it would be standard practice for the “intelligence committee to tell a potential whistleblower to hire counsel and file a complaint with an agency IG or the IC IG.”

There goes that argument. And with news trickling out about congressional testimony by Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine — which included a text message from Bill Taylor, the former top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, that read, “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance to help with a political campaign” — the president’s story will continue to look more and more ridiculous. (The text message exchange reveals pushback on that assertion and then a suggestion to take the conversation offline.) 

Americans are taking note. 

For those following public opinion on the impeachment issue, a new poll from USA Today and Ipsos finds that 45 percent of Americans support impeaching Trump, compared to 38 percent who oppose it. Critically, 44 percent support the Senate removing Trump from office, and 35 percent oppose it. The rise in support for removing Trump from office represents a shift in attitude toward impeachment from independent voters. Nearly a third feel there is reliable evidence to impeach, compared to 34 percent who say no, but those independents support impeaching Trump by a 37-33 percent margin. Overall support for removing Trump is now up to 37 percent in favor and 31 percent opposed.

This is before any formal inquiry has even begun. 

In the same poll, 52 percent say they believe Trump asking Ukraine to investigate Biden is an abuse of power, compared to just 21 percent who don’t. The gap among independents is noteworthy: 45 percent see it as an abuse of power, versus 16 percent who don’t. It’s even close among Republicans, with 30 percent reporting that it’s an abuse of power and 40 percent saying that it isn’t. And 44 percent believe the whistleblower is a patriot, versus 21 percent who think he’s a traitor.

Unfit for Office

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/george-conway-trump-unfit-office/599128/

And so it is, or ought to be, with Donald Trump. You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, and you don’t need to be a mental-health professional to see that something’s very seriously off with Trump—particularly after nearly three years of watching his erratic and abnormal behavior in the White House. Questions about Trump’s psychological stability have mounted throughout his presidency. But those questions have been coming even more frequently amid a recent escalation in Trump’s bizarre behavior, as the pressures of his upcoming reelection campaign, a possibly deteriorating economy, and now a full-blown impeachment inquiry have mounted. And the questioners have included those who have worked most closely with him.

'The Reboot of US-UKRAINE Relationship.' Here's What To Know About Newly-Released Texts Between Trump Diplomats and Ukrainian Presidential Aide

https://time.com/5693172/ukraine-impeachment-volker-text-messages-explained/https://time.com/5693172/ukraine-impeachment-volker-text-messages-explained/

In the exchange widely seen as the most damaging, Volker seemed to imply a quid-pro-quo arrangement ahead of Trump’s now-infamous July 25 call with Zelensky, in which Trump asked him to work with Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to look into the origins of the Russian election probe, and the work Joe Biden undertook in Ukraine as Vice President while his son Hunter was on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.

“Heard from White House — assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington,” Volker wrote to Yermak.

While Trump has freely admitted that he wanted Zelensky to investigate the Bidens, and released the transcript of the call with his Ukrainian counterpart because he thought it would lay bare that he did not link aid money to an investigations, an explicit quid-pro-quo discussion made on his behalf is likely to make the burgeoning impeachment crisis that much harder to fight.

It is not illegal for one country to solicit help from another; however, as Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub first noted in June, seeking foreign intervention in a U.S. election is against the law. “Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office. It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election,” she said. In this vein, Trump’s focus on a potential 2020 rival, Biden, could potentially be viewed as attempting to affect the election.

In another chain of messages on Aug. 9, Sondland and Volker discuss the timing of what was a then-prospective White House visit, set to be scheduled “as soon as Yermak confirms.” Texts that follow seem to refer to a “deliverable” allegedly requested by President Trump — a written statement in which Zelensky would announce that Ukraine was investigating 2016 election interference and whether malfeasance was involved in an investigation into Burisma.

“Once we have a date, will call for a press briefing announcing upcoming visit and outlining vision for the reboot of US-UKRAINE relationship, including among other things Burisma and election meddling in investigations,” Yermak wrote to Volker on Aug. 10.

Volder and Sondland proceeded to discuss the specifics of what the press statement should include on both Aug. 13 and 17, sharing passages they expected it to include.

“Special attention should be paid to the problem of interference in the political processes of the United States especially with the alleged involvement of some Ukrainian politicians. I want to declare that this is unacceptable. We intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving Burisma and the 2016 U.S. elections, which in turn will prevent the recurrence of this problem in the future,” Sondland said in the first conversation which Engel, Schiff, and Cummings say occurred after Volker had reached out to Giuliani for guidance.

In the follow-up exchange on Aug. 17th, Sondland tells Volker he wants Ukraine to send them a “clean draft” of the statement.

derech eretz - what is it?

Rav Dessler

מכתב מאליהו:

(עמוד ריג)

עוד אמרו עליו על רבן יוחנן בן זכאי שלא הקדימו אדם שלום מעולם ואפילו נכרי בשוק. (ברכות י"ז). נתאר לעצמנו רבן יוחנן בן זכאי, "שלא הניח מקרא ומשנה גמרא הלכות ואגדות דקדוקי תורה ודקדוקי סופרים תקופות וגימטראות... שיחת מלאכי השרת... ומעשה מרכבה" (סוכה כ"ח), שהיה נשיא ישראל בתקופת חורבן הבית וכל צרכי ישראל עליו היו מוטלים... ומעולם לא קרה שיהיה כל כך טרוד במחשבותיו שישכח להקדים שלום אפילו לנכרי בשוק! איזו הרגשת חיוב היתה ממלאת את לבו שתבטיח מסירות נאמנה כזו לכבודו של זולתו!

ואל נחשוב שמדה זו היא ממדת חסידות, הרי לא הלל היה אלא שמאי שאמר "והוי מקבל את כל האדם בסבר פנים יפות" (אבות א' ט"ו), והנמנע מזה הריהו גוזל את חברו. כן אמרו ז"ל (ברכות ו') כל שיודע בחברו שהוא רגיל ליתן לו שלום יקדים לו שלום, שנאמר "בקש שלום ורדפהו", ואם נתן לו ולא החזיר נקרא גזלן... ואם זה אתה נוטל ממנו על ידי זלזול ברגשותיו, אין לך גזלה גדולה מזו.

שורש ענין עבדות הוא היות אדם קטן במדרגת "כלי" לאדם גדול במה שעוזר לו להגיע אל תכליתו הרוחנית... אבל במשך הדורות החליפו האומות את הכוונה הראשונה ונעשו הגבורים למושלים והחלשים לעבדים. מכל מקום ברצותם להראות כאילו הם ראויים למשול הנהיגו בעצמם כת המושלים קצת מנהגי עדינות ודרך ארץ, כי בזה רצו להראות הצטיינותם על עבדיהם. כאלה היה עפרון החתי שעליו נאמר "רשעים אומרים הרבה ואפילו מעט אינם עושים"... אך דבורו היה בנימוס גדול ובדרך ארץ רבה כמנהג האצילים. ועם צבועים כאלה נהג אברהם אבינו ע"ה כפי נימוסיהם בדייקנות רבה, אבל בכבוד ובדרך ארץ אמתיים. מכאן אפשר ללמוד את גודל חובת דרך ארץ.

בתקופות מאוחרות יותר נשתלשלו הדברים עד שהעבדים פרקו מעליהם את עול אדוניהם, אז ביזו לגמרי את יסודות דרך ארץ, וכל החצוף יותר מצליח יותר, ואדרבה החוצפה נעשית לכבוד והזלזול ליוקרה. מזה באה לדאבוננו החוצפה גם לרחובות ישראל, ונתקיים בנו "כמקולקלים שבהם" וכו' (סנהדרין ל"ט) רחמנא ליצלן.

ואמר ז"ל שביאור אז"ל שדרך ארץ קדמה לתורה כ"ו דורות (ויק"ר ט' ג') היינו הדורות קודם מתן תורה שבני אדם הוצרכו לסמוך על שכלם לבד להגיע אל האמת...

...ולפי מה שלמדנו במאמר הנפלא הנ"ל, שדרך ארץ היינו עבודת השכל, יצא לנו פשט חדש במה שאז"ל "אם אין תורה אין דרך ארץ, אם אין דרך ארץ אין תורה" (אבות ג' י"ז). כי אינם מדברים כלל בענין פרנסה גשמית אלא רק שצריך להגביר השכל להגיע אל האמת יחד עם התורה שהיא תורת אמת, ואם שניהם לא יבואו יחד גם האחד לא יתקיים. ובדרך זו אפשר לבאר גם משאז"ל "יפה תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ שיגיעת שניהם משכחת עון" (אבות ב' ב'). ומה שאמר אחר כך "וכל תורה שאין עמה מלאכה וכו' הוא דבר בפני עצמו. (