“The coronavirus is the common cold, folks."

 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/27/rush-limbaugh/fact-checking-rush-limbaughs-misleading-claim-new-/

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh accused the media of overhyping the 2019 coronavirus that’s infected nearly 80,000 people worldwide, calling it "the common cold" and claiming, without evidence, that it’s "being weaponized" as an attack on President Donald Trump.

Rav gestetner against maryland Get law

Lou Dobbs grills Azar in heated debate over coronavirus transparency

WAPO: Trump Aide Calls Coronavirus Response 'Complete Chaos' | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

Trump made coronavirus claim, but a scientist had to stop him

President Trump's Disgraceful Peace Deal with the Taliban

https://time.com/5794643/trumps-disgraceful-peace-deal-taliban/

The combination of the planned American retreat and the planned prisoner release would represent a substantial change in the balance of forces in Afghanistan. This would come without any agreement by the Taliban to cease hostilities against our allies.

 

The President Is Winning His War on American Institutions

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/04/how-to-destroy-a-government/606793/

James Baker, the former general counsel of the FBI, and a target of Trump’s rage against the state, acknowledges that many government officials, not excluding himself, went into the administration convinced “that they are either smarter than the president, or that they can hold their own against the president, or that they can protect the institution against the president because they understand the rules and regulations and how it’s supposed to work, and that they will be able to defend the institution that they love or served in previously against what they perceive to be, I will say neutrally, the inappropriate actions of the president. And I think they are fooling themselves. They’re fooling themselves. He’s light-years ahead of them.”

 The adults were too sophisticated to see Trump’s special political talents—his instinct for every adversary’s weakness, his fanatical devotion to himself, his knack for imposing his will, his sheer staying power. They also failed to appreciate the advanced decay of the Republican Party, which by 2016 was far gone in a nihilistic pursuit of power at all costs. They didn’t grasp the readiness of large numbers of Americans to accept, even relish, Trump’s contempt for democratic norms and basic decency. It took the arrival of such a leader to reveal how many things that had always seemed engraved in monumental stone turned out to depend on those flimsy norms, and how much the norms depended on public opinion. Their vanishing exposed the real power of the presidency. Legal precedent could be deleted with a keystroke; law enforcement’s independence from the White House was optional; the separation of powers turned out to be a gentleman’s agreement; transparent lies were more potent than solid facts. None of this was clear to the political class until Trump became president.

Sanders and Trump skip AIPAC, but take center stage anyway

https://www.timesofisrael.com/sanders-and-trump-skip-aipac-but-take-center-stage-anyway/

 But Trump also found himself on the wrong side of an applause line from Bloomberg, another Democratic presidential hopeful. Anti-Semitism “can be found both on the right and the left,” the former New York mayor said, “but there is one fact that we cannot ignore: Presidential leadership matters. It sets a tone. It is either inclusive or exclusive, divisive or uniting, incendiary or calming.”

Yes, it is worse than the flu: busting the coronavirus myths

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/02/worse-than-the-flu-busting-the-coronavirus-myths-face-masks-vaccine-covid-19

Claim: ‘It is no more dangerous than winter flu’

Many individuals who get coronavirus will experience nothing worse than seasonal flu symptoms, but the overall profile of the disease, including its mortality rate, looks more serious. At the start of an outbreak the apparent mortality rate can be an overestimate if a lot of mild cases are being missed. But this week, a WHO expert suggested that this has not been the case with Covid-19. Bruce Aylward, who led an international mission to China to learn about the virus and the country’s response, said the evidence did not suggest that we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg. If borne out by further testing, this could mean that current estimates of a roughly 1% fatality rate are accurate. This would make Covid-19 about 10 times more deadly than seasonal flu, which is estimated to kill between 290,000 and 650,000 people a year globally.

Stelter: This can be just as damaging as the coronavirus

המחלוקת והאגדה על ה... "משנה ברורה"

https://www.kikar.co.il/349499.html

לאחר נאומו הנוקב של החפץ חיים ב'ועידת פטרבורג', נפוצה בעולם התורני האגדה שהחפץ חיים, כדי לפייס את רבי מאיר שמחה מדווינסק, הזכיר את שמו המלא במשנה ברורה (מעניין)

 

Sanders defends attacks on Israel’s Netanyahu

 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/01/sanders-defends-position-israel-118408

Sanders has often criticized Israel's policy toward Palestinians, particularly those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as being racist and inhumane. Speaking at the annual AIPAC conference in Washington on Sunday morning, Danon dug into Sanders for the criticism, saying: "We don't want Sanders at AIPAC. We don't want him in Israel. Anyone who calls our prime minister a 'racist' is either a liar, an ignorant fool, or both."

Netanyahu saw Trump plan as asset, but now polls show surge of angry Arab voters

https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-saw-trump-plan-as-asset-but-now-polls-show-surge-of-angry-arab-voters/

 Netanyahu has championed the Trump plan as unprecedentedly good for Israel, and formulated solely because of the extraordinary relationship he has managed to build with Trump and the US administration.

Euphoric over its content, he plainly anticipated that it would help him win Monday’s elections. It would be a momentous irony if that plan — and especially the provision for redrawing the border; a provision that a worried Netanyahu last week said he rejects — were to wind up costing him a Knesset majority, again.

 

Avraham was concerned that Sarah was pregnant from Avimelech or Pharoh

מדרש תנחומא (ורשא) פרשת תולדות סימן א
בא וראה כח השלום שבשעה שנתטלטלה שרה מיד פרעה ליד אבימלך ונתעברה ביצחק היו אומות העולם אומרים הלבן מאה שנה יולד אלא היא מעוברת מאבימלך או מפרעה והיתה חשד בלבו של אברהם על אלו הדברים מה עשה הקדוש ברוך הוא אמר למלאך הממונה על יצירת הוולד עשה כל אקונין שלו כדמות אביו כדי שיעידו הכל שהוא בנו של אברהם

Tanchuma(Toldos#1):
Look how great is the power of peace. After Sarah was saved from Avimelech and Pharoh (25 years later)- - she became pregnant with Yizchok. People gossiped and said,”Is it conceivable that a 100 year old can produce a son? Obviously not therefore she must have become pregnant from either Avimelech or Pharoh” This aroused suspicion in Avraham. Consequently G-d told the angel who was in charge of forming the embryo, to make its appearance  in the image of his father – to clearly testify that this was the son of Avraham

Rashi (Toldos) רש"י בראשית פרשת תולדות פרק כה פסוק יט

אברהם הוליד את יצחק - על ידי שכתב הכתוב יצחק בן אברהם הוזקק לומר אברהם הוליד את יצחק,ב לפי שהיו ליצני הדור אומרים מאבימלך נתעברה שרה, שהרי כמה שנים שהתה עם אברהם ולא נתעברה הימנו, מה עשה הקדוש ברוך הוא, צר קלסתר פניו של יצחק דומה לאברהם, והעידו הכל אברהם הוליד את יצחק, וזהו שכתב כאן יצחק בן אברהם היה, שהרי עדות יש שאברהם הוליד את יצחק:
 

BAVA METZIA 87A):                   And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck?28 How many children then did Sarah suckle?29 — R. Levi said: On the day that Abraham weaned his son Isaac, he made a great banquet, and all the peoples of the world derided him, saying, ‘Have you seen that old man and woman, who brought a foundling from the street, and now claim him as their son! And what is more, they make a great banquet to establish their claim!’ What did our father Abraham do? — He went and invited all the great men of the age, and our mother Sarah invited their wives. Each one brought her child with her, but not the wetnurse, and a miracle happened unto our mother Sarah, her breasts opened like two fountains, and she suckled them all. Yet they still scoffed, saying, ‘Granted that Sarah could give birth at the age of ninety, could Abraham beget [child] at the age of a hundred?’ Immediately the lineaments of Isaac's visage changed and became like Abraham's, whereupon they all cried out, Abraham begat Isaac.30