Saturday, April 4, 2020
Defense Leaders Back Navy Secretary's Firing of Captain Over COVID-19 Warning. His Sailors Cheered Him as He Left His Ship
https://time.com/5815610/sailors-cheer-navy-captain-fired-coronavirus/
U.S. defense leaders are backing the Navy’s decision to fire the ship
captain who sought help for his cornonavirus-stricken aircraft carrier,
even as videos showed sailors cheering him as he walked off the vessel.
Videos went viral on social media Friday, showing
hundreds of sailors gathered on the ship chanting and applauding Navy
Capt. Brett Crozier as he walked down the ramp, turned, saluted, waved
and got into a waiting car.
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly abruptly fired
Crozier on Thursday, saying the commander created a panic by widely
distributing a memo detailing the escalating virus outbreak on his ship
and pleading his leadership for help. Modly said Crozier “demonstrated
extremely poor judgment” in the middle of a crisis.
Trump fires intelligence community watchdog who told Congress about whistleblower complaint that led to impeachment
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/03/politics/trump-fires-inspector-general-michael-atkinson/index.html
President Donald Trump on Friday fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who had told Congress about the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump's impeachment, the President told Congress in a letter obtained by CNN.
Atkinson
will leave his job in 30 days, Trump told the House and Senate
Intelligence committees, and he has been placed on administrative leave
effective immediately, according to a congressional source.
Trump did not name a permanent successor.
Fact check: Georgia governor says we only just learned people without symptoms could spread coronavirus. Experts have been saying that for months
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/fact-check-georgia-gov-brian-kemp-coronavirus-no-symptoms-stay-at-home/index.html
Atlanta (CNN)Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said on Wednesday that new information on the spread of coronavirus influenced his decision to issue a stay-at-home order.
In particular, Kemp pointed to what he said was the recent discovery
that the virus can be spread by people who are not exhibiting symptoms.
Friday, April 3, 2020
Alarm, Denial, Blame: The Pro-Trump Media’s Coronavirus Distortion
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/us/politics/hannity-limbaugh-trump-coronavirus.html?algo=top_conversion&fellback=false&imp_id=352627997&imp_id=996661251&action=click&module=trending&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer
The pervasiveness of the denial among
many of Mr. Trump’s followers from early in the outbreak, and their
sharp pivot to finding fault with an old foe once the crisis deepened,
is a pattern that one expert in the spread of misinformation said
resembled a textbook propaganda campaign.
Yochai Benkler, a professor at Harvard
Law School and co-author of a book on political manipulation called
“Network Propaganda,” said that as the magnitude of the virus’s effects
grew and the coverage on the right shifted, Mr. Trump’s loyalists
benefited from having told people not to believe what they were hearing.
“The same media that’s been producing this intentional ignorance is
saying what they’ve always been saying: ‘We’re right. They’re wrong,’”
he said. “But it also permits them to turn on a dime.”
Step 1: Blame China
Step 2: Play down the risks
Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/opinion/jared-kushner-coronavirus.html
Reporting on the White House’s herky-jerky coronavirus response,
Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman has a quotation from Jared Kushner that
should make all Americans, and particularly all New Yorkers, dizzy with
terror.
According to Sherman, when New York’s
governor, Andrew Cuomo, said that the state would need 30,000
ventilators at the apex of the coronavirus outbreak, Kushner decided
that Cuomo was being alarmist. “I have all this data about I.C.U.
capacity,” Kushner reportedly said. “I’m doing my own projections, and
I’ve gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn’t need all the
ventilators.” (Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top expert on infectious
diseases, has said he trusts Cuomo’s estimate.)
Even now, it’s hard to believe that
someone with as little expertise as Kushner could be so arrogant, but he
said something similar on Thursday, when he made his debut at the White
House’s daily coronavirus briefing: “People who have requests for
different products and supplies, a lot of them are doing it based on
projections which are not the realistic projections.”
Kushner has succeeded at exactly three
things in his life. He was born to the right parents, married well and
learned how to influence his father-in-law. Most of his other endeavors —
his biggest real estate deal, his foray into newspaper ownership, his
attempt to broker a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians
— have been failures.
Undeterred, he
has now arrogated to himself a major role in fighting the epochal health
crisis that’s brought America to its knees. “Behind the scenes, Kushner
takes charge of coronavirus response,” said a Politico headline on Wednesday. This is dilettantism raised to the level of sociopathy.
No 'magic pill': The fight over unproven drugs for coronavirus
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/coronavirus-drugs-fda-162411
The Food and Drug Administration’s
rush to greenlight unproven malaria medicines to fight the coronavirus
may derail clinical trials of other potential cures for the deadly
virus.
Right now, dozens of potential
therapies — from antivirals to antibodies taken from the blood of
coronavirus survivors — are being tested in people. The first results
from these studies could come within months if drugmakers enroll the
thousands of patients needed to complete the research.
But with the malaria drugs chloroquine
and hydroxychloroquine available by prescription from any doctor, and
the president touting them as coronavirus treatments at his daily
briefings, enlisting volunteers to enroll in clinical trials of other
potential therapies may be a tough sell.
Yes, We Need to Measure Lives Against Money. Here’s How.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/02/coronavirus-economy-reopen-deaths-balance-analysis-159248
When can America reopen from its coronavirus shutdown?
The answer depends how you weigh human health against the economy. We
asked experts how to think about the tricky calculus.
Doctor Drops Some Coronavirus Truth Bombs On Fox News, Lights Up Twitter
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doctor-rishi-desai-fox-news_n_5e8578ecc5b6f55ebf47e55b
A doctor’s no-holds-barred analysis of coronavirus testing shortcomings is going viral ― not just because of his blunt talk but because of where he made his case: live on Fox News.
Dr. Rishi Desai, chief medical officer of the Osmosis website, vigorously shook his head “no” as Fox News host Martha MacCallum mentioned, as President Donald Trump has, that there were supposed to be millions of tests available. She also said people were still waiting for a quick test for COVID-19.
Desai responded with a fact-check.
“Yeah, they’re working on it,” he said. “They should’ve been working on it for months.”
ההכרעה נפלה: אין בעיה להתפלל במרפסות
https://www.kikar.co.il/354446.html
לאחר הפולמוס ההלכתי בנוגע לתפילות דרך המרפסות, הגר"מ שטרנבוך הכריע שמותר. ומסביר את התנאים הנדרשים לכך, איך קוראים בתורה ואיך
zהכהנים נושאים את כפיהם
Israeli Corona Forces / צה"ל = צבא הקורונה לישראל
\
8 Nissan 5780 °° April 3, '20 (v.2, updated)
By Binyomin Feinberg,
FeinbergBinyomin@gmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Last week we mentioned the hypocrisy of the Israeli government in allowing the Army to be exempt from the same Coronavirus health precautions most of the world is taking seriously. We quoted the informative non-response we received from the Health Ministry (https://
~~~~~~
To check for updates, please visit the Adar Update link:
https://docs.google.com/
~~~~~
BS"D
IDF: Israeli Corona Forces
/ צה"ל: צבא הקורונה לישראל
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"T'zva Ha'Karona Le'Yisroel?" *** "Israeli Corona Forces"?
8 Nissan 5780 °° April 3, '20 (v.2, updated)
By Binyomin Feinberg,
FeinbergBinyomin@gmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Last week we mentioned the hypocrisy of the Israeli government in allowing the Army to be exempt from the same Coronavirus health precautions most of the world is taking seriously. We quoted the informative non-response we received from the Health Ministry (https://
2. What we didn't quote was the blistering critique launched against the Army brass - from within and without - over their reckless disregard of human life, national security, and compliance with the very same basic lifesaving hygiene guidelines the government is requiring of the entire country. Reportedly, the Army had been continuing to draft about 700 to 900 Israelis a day, in the midst of the international and national epidemiologic crisis (according to a mother of a female Army recruit, quoted in Arutz Sheva, March 21). Furthermore, as reported by Arutz Sheva, the Army deems itself exempt from basic Coronavirus infection-control precautions, even denying soldiers the very right to protective gear, reportedly to avoid scaring recruits. Thirdly, and most ominously, IDF General (Res.) Yitzchak Brick, on Facebook, raised the alarm over the tens of thousands of "home front" soldiers return home nightly, after mingling in the military by day without restrictions, thereby advancing the spread of the virus throughout Israeli society (reported in that same Arutz-7 expose). This, courtesy of the same government now greatly curtailing just about everyone else, all in the name of fighting Corona. Currently, the biggest epidemiologic threat to Israeli residents appears to be Army brass themselves, who (perhaps out of subconscious nostalgia for the ill-fated self-esteem of the Yom-Kippur War Labor regime) put the entire country at risk.
~~~~
Drafting Girls Continues, Unrelentingly:
3. "Chomosaich" volunteers recently came into contact with an 18 y/o religious girl, Ofek E., who, for technical reasons (apparently somewhat beyond her control), had been switched to a non-religious school. As is recent Army policy, they targeted her for a "Rayon Dat" (often taking the form of a religiosity interrogation), and then a "Shimu'ah" (a "hearing" akin to an indictment, essentially ordering her to enlist in the Army). Her repeated pleas to recognize her religiosity as basis for securing her legal right to an exemption from military service were rejected, and early this week she was ordered to enlist on Sunday, April 5.
Update:
4. After the posting of the first version of this report, we received late word that Ofek's draft date has been deferred a couple of weeks, until after Pesach.
5. This may have been related to the closing of the Jerusalem draft offices this week, due to Coronavirus. It is noteworthy that as recently as last Thursday, the Jerusalem draft offices were open for business.
6. We like to remind our readers about the management choices of the Jerusalem draft office. We've previously reported on the antireligious Head of the Jerusalem Draft Office, Col. Keren Levy (see our brief report in the Jewish Press, Sept.13,'19, as well as https://daattorah.blogspot.
Ms. Levy is the draft official who bullied the mother of a religious girl simply seeking a religious exemption, Avigail Leah Hausband, in February of '19, threatening:
"I will decide if your daughter is religious. I will profane (or "violate", "achalel et ha'Kerem") "The Vineyard," and I will start with your daughter."
In a subsequent phone conversation with the Lishkas HaGiyus, the office confirmed that the then ongoing effort to draft Avigail - by forcing her into a Rayon Dat - despite her being undeniably religious - was being directed by the very same Keren Levy.
"I will decide if your daughter is religious. I will profane (or "violate", "achalel et ha'Kerem") "The Vineyard," and I will start with your daughter."
In a subsequent phone conversation with the Lishkas HaGiyus, the office confirmed that the then ongoing effort to draft Avigail - by forcing her into a Rayon Dat - despite her being undeniably religious - was being directed by the very same Keren Levy.
One noteworthy facet of that unforgettable government vendetta was that it was orchestrated in a manner literally placing the life of the mother (who'd been fighting cancer for seven years) at serious risk. The fact that the mother, a Ba'alas Teshuva, served as a captain in the Israeli Air Force didn't insulate her or her family from this ongoing Israeli government hate-crime.
Thank G-d, their attempt to "violate the vineyard" failed. Ultimately, with the assistance of Shalhevet and Shomrei Torah, Avigail took legal action and obtained her religious exemption, without sacrificing her religious principles by submitting to a Rayon Dat.
7. Please daven for Ofek bas Ester, and all of the other girls, both religious girls (like Ziva bas Mazel and Olga Shamilov), as well as other girls, who are still being pursued, duped, harassed, or persecuted by Israeli draft officers.
Perhaps we should also daven that these draft officials immediately experience a massive priority shift, so that they stop chasing teenage girls for their "legal" human-trafficking quotas, in the midst of the Coronavirus epidemic -- and while Israelis are under the threat of some 150,000 rockets being upgraded to become guided-missiles R"L (drastically raising their lethality level; please read the full article at the MEF link below).
8. Note the sheer absurdity of drafting girls, or boys, into the Army in the midst of an unprecedented epidemic, when the Army itself has been outed (by one of their own) as infecting the Israeli population with Coronavirus, via its own soldiers.
9. Also note the sheer wickedness of drafting girls, and even religious girls, in blatant violation of Torah law, and basic human decency - despite the global manifestations of Divine Wrath that we are all currently enduring, to one extent or another. Our Sages warn us that the wicked refuse to repent even at the Gates of Hell. (Infamously, the European experience eloquently testified to that Chazal.)
10. Consider how external threats have not disappeared in the New Corona Order, e.g. see "Iran's New Guided Rocket Kit Is Certain to Raise Tensions with Israel" by Michael Peck, in The National Interest, March 21, 2020 (https://www.meforum.org/
~~~
11. The gravest epidemiologic concern right now may be the threat to the viability of the healthcare system, as Netanyahu has so eloquently articulated. How his hawkish posture balances with the recklessness of his own military brass is an interesting question. Perhaps this is yet another small part of his ongoing campaign to posthumously validate the timeless maxim of Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY"D, "Israel
doesn't have an Arab problem -- Israel has a Jewish problem." Instead of shutting down the whole country, perhaps just replacing Army brass may do the trick (as long as the replacement team isn't even more cocky). Or, given current events within the government, perhaps Corona will perform that task for us.
12. What's at the root of this lemming-like recklessness? Perhaps sheer secularist arrogance... "Kochi v'Otzem Yadi." Or perhaps there's another, more calculated agenda afoot.
13. Whatever the reasons, the fact is that Torah observant Jews have an obligation and opportunity to reach out to the broader non-religious Jewish community on this issue, as well as regarding our shared opposition to forcibly drafting girls into the often lawlessly immoral, exploitive military.
14. We need not unite with non-religious Jewry to speak to their concerns. And, remember, it is not the non-religious Jews who pose the primary spiritual and physical threats, it's the core of diehard antireligious Jews that are much of the primary source of our problems.
~~~~~~~
15. Regarding the escalating Corona crisis, we suggest circulating the crucial information regarding ventilator alternatives at this link. These low-tech improvised but effective ventilator devices can save many, many lives, globally. (Those with accurate, updated information about their manufacture and distribution are requested to update us.)
~~~~~~
To check for updates, please visit the Adar Update link:
https://docs.google.com/
~~~~~
Wishing all of our upstanding readers around the world an uplifting and safe Shabbos and Pesach,
Pakistan re-arrests four men acquitted in Daniel Pearl murder case
https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism/Pakistan-re-arrests-four-men-acquitted-in-Daniel-Pearl-murder-case-623475
Pakistani authorities ordered on Friday four men, including a
British militant, convicted of the 2002 murder of US journalist Daniel
Pearl, to be detained for three months despite a lower court's ruling to
overturn their convictions.
Police deploy in force as virus-struck Bnei Brak becomes ‘restricted zone’
https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-deploy-in-force-as-virus-struck-bnei-brak-becomes-restricted-zone/
Over 1,000 officers set up checkpoints to close off ultra-Orthodox city; police official says some residents will be removed to quarantine, troops can use ‘proportionate force’
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