If Liquor Stores Are Essential, Why Isn’t Church?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/opinion/first-amendment-church-coronavirus.html

The new conundrums created by the coronavirus can be addressed by some very old materials: the principles of the First Amendment.

The White House Has Erected a Blockade Stopping States and Hospitals From Getting Coronavirus PPE

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/hospitals-face-a-white-house-blockade-for-coronavirus-ppe.html

Whenever you start to think that the federal government under Donald Trump has hit a moral bottom, it finds a new way to shock and horrify.

 

Trump Says He'll Win 2020 'In A Landslide' As U.S. Death Toll Tops 42,000 | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

“Baghdad Don': Trump Blasted For Most Inept Response To 'Any Crisis In History' | MSNBC

Pro-Trump protesters appear to contradict what Trump said

Dr. Fauci Says Easing Lockdown Measures Too Soon Will Lead to 'Big Spike' in Coronavirus Cases: 'It's Gonna Backfire'

https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-says-easing-lockdown-measures-too-soon-will-lead-big-spike-coronavirus-cases-its-1498944

 https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-says-easing-lockdown-measures-too-soon-will-lead-big-spike-coronavirus-cases-its-1498944

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has warned that reopening the economy too quickly by easing lockdown restrictions could lead to a "big spike" in new coronavirus cases.

Fauci, who serves as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has faced criticism from protesters urging state governments to end stay-at-home orders put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The public health expert was asked about these protesters and their criticism during a Monday interview with ABC's Good Morning America.

"Clearly this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics and the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus. But unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not gonna happen," Fauci explained.

Jews and Eyptians were equally immoral - Zohar

   Zohar (2:170a-b)  It is written: A psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Ps. XXIII, 1). The difference between “a psalm of David” and “of David a psalm” has already been explained. In this psalm the Shekinah came first and rested upon the Psalmist, for, as has already been remarked, “a psalm of David” indicates that the first impulse proceeded from the Shekinah. But in this psalm David prays for nourishment, so that we should have thought the initiative would have come from him. The fact is that the Shekinah did indeed first urge David to sing this hymn to the King, to pray to Him for nourishment for Her, which She needs in order to supply food to the whole world; and it is her will that all mankind should pray for food, for when the Holy One wishes to send down to the world nourishment, She first receives it, She being the organ by which the whole world is sustained. Therefore, indeed, did She precede David in this psalm, and She rested upon him to inspire him in this prayer for food. “The Lord is my shepherd”: as a shepherd leads his flock to those places where there is grass in abundance, in order to provide them with whatever they need, so does the Holy One also unto Me. Here is another interpretation. There is an ancient dictum that “to provide food for humanity costs the Holy One, blessed be He, as great a struggle as it did to divide the Red Sea”.[Tr. note: T. B. Pes., 118b.] Here are two statements, both of deep significance. On the one hand, since everything done by the Holy One is done according to justice and truth, on which qualities the world is based, and as He always apportions a lot to all according to justice, both to the righteous and the wicked, and all that come into the world-as it is written, “for the Lord is righteous and loveth righteousness” (Ps. XI, 7)-He finds it difficult, when He sees so many wicked people and sinners, to supply them continually with nourishment. He deals with them not according to the rigour of the law, and nourishes and sustains them to the full extent of the supernal Grace which issues forth and descends upon all the beings of the world, and therewith He feeds them, one and all, righteous and saints, wicked and sinners, all creatures whatsoever, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, from the “horns of the buffaloes to the eggs of vermin”. [Tr. note: v. T. B. Sabb., 107b.] There is nothing in the world to which His mercy does not extend, even though, on account of the evil works of men, this is all as difficult to Him as was the dividing of the Red Sea. But was that really difficult to Him? Is it not written: “He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry” (Nahum I, 4)? “He that calleth for the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth” (Amos v, 8)? Is it not true of Him that as soon asHe is resolved to do a thing all obstacles are as naught before Him? How was it that the dividing of the Red Sea was difficult to Him? This is the explanation. When the Israelites stood on the shore of the Red Sea and the Holy One was about to divide its waters for them, Rahab, the angel-prince of Egypt, appeared, and demanded justice from the Holy One. He stood before Him and said: “Lord of the world, why dost thou desire to punish Egypt and to divide the Red Sea for Israel? Have not all sinned against Thee? Thy ways are according to justice and truth. Those are idolaters and so are these. Those are murderers, so are these.” Then was it difficult for Him to waive justice, and had not the Holy One called to mind Abraham's obedience in rising early (Gen. XXII, 3) to sacrifice his only son, they would all have perished in the Red Sea, because all that night God was weighing Israel in the scales of Justice, as we have been taught that the expression, “so that the one came not near the other all the night” (Ex. XIV, 20) indicates that the supernal angels appeared on that night to sing hymns of praise to the Holy One, and the Holy One said unto them: “The works of My hands are about to sink into the depths of the sea, and ye desire to sing unto Me hymns of praise?” But “it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord looked...” (Ibid. v. 24); that is to say, He “looked” for Abraham's sake, He “looked” upon Abraham's merit, who “rose up early in the morning” to accomplish the will of the Holy One. Then it was that the waters “went back”, they fled before Israel. Similarly, it has been stated[Tr. note: Cf. Lev. R., ch. VIII.] that “marriage unions are as difficult for (lit. before) the Holy One as was the dividing of the Red Sea”. As at the dividing of the Red Sea those who stood on the one side of the sea were drowned, and the others were saved, so in marriages also there is weeping for some and singing for others; He allows one man to die and gives his wife to another man, and at times a bad man gets a good wife. These happenings are great mysteries, but it all conforms to justice, and all that the Companions have said on this subject is quite true; as is also that which they have stated concerning the difference between “before” (liphne, lit. the face of) and “from before” (miliphne). These matrimonial decisions are arranged by him who stands before the Holy One and ministers before Him. Therefore the aforementioned dictum does not run, “hard are unions to the Holy One”, but “before (to the face of) the Holy One”; i.e. to him who is appointed over the arrangement of marriages and over the supply of food, since the power is not his, he is merely the administrator and under authority. [Note : the last 14 lines of the Hebrew text do not appear in the translation

Trump shocks in time of crisis with his standard approach

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/20/politics/trump-coronavirus-all-about-him/index.html

 Even after three tumultuous years in which President Donald Trump has shredded the decorum of his office, his unwillingness to provide unifying leadership still has the power to shock.

Trump's daily coronavirus task force press briefing has become the chief exhibit in this deficit of national stewardship and has largely shed any purpose in conveying useful information at a fraught moment — if that was ever the aim.

Instead, the President spends his time perpetually trying to repair his own image by disguising his belated and faulty response to the emergency.

But his refusal to accept any responsibility at all raises questions about what he thinks the presidency, a problem-solving job of last resort where the buck stops, is actually for.

The President's plan to use Sunday's briefing to polish his own personal narrative became clear when he read out and held up a Wall Street Journal opinion column praising his leadership.

 

 

Trump, Head of Government, Leans Into Antigovernment Message

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/us/politics/trump-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

With his poll numbers fading after a rally-around-the-leader bump, the president is stoking protests against stay-at-home orders.

But the president, who ran as an insurgent in 2016, is most comfortable raging against the machine of government, even when he is the one running the country. And while the coronavirus is in every state in the union, it is heavily affecting minority and low-income communities.

Recovered from coronavirus, United Hatzalah chief Eli Beer to return to Israel

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/278902

Eli Beer, United Hatzalah's president and founder, has made a full recovery and will land in Israel on Tuesday.

 

GOP Governor Criticizes Trump for Encouraging State Protests Against Stay-at-Home Orders: 'It Just Doesn't Make Any Sense'

https://www.newsweek.com/gop-governor-criticizes-trump-encouraging-state-protests-against-stay-home-orders-it-just-1498814

Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan questioned the logic of President Donald Trump encouraging demonstrations against stringent "stay-at-home" and "shelter-in-place" orders in several states, noting that the demonstrators were essentially protesting guidelines put forward by the White House's Coronavirus Task Force.

Hogan, a Republican, faced a protest within his own state, as demonstrators drove cars, waved flags and honked their horns through Maryland's capital Annapolis on Saturday. The protesters were calling for Hogan to reopen businesses and the economy, despite guidelines put forward by the Trump administration and a growing number of cases of the coronavirus nationwide.

"I don't think it's helpful to encourage demonstrations and encourage people to go against the president's own policy," the GOP governor said during an interview with CNN's State of the Union Sunday. "For example, I mentioned earlier, the president's policy says you can't start to reopen under his plan until you have declining numbers for 14 days, which those [other] states [with protests] and my state do not have," he explained.

 

Trump's approval rally has disappeared

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/19/politics/trump-approval-rating-rally/index.html

Trump's approval rating is down significantly from 49% in March, while his disapproval rating is up 9 points from 45%.

What's the point: Trump received a clear boost in his approval rating as the coronavirus pandemic began to grip the country. His net approval rating (approval - disapproval) among voters shot up to its highest point since the first month of his presidency. But now, just weeks later, Trump's popularity has been dropping.

Looking at the data, Trump seems to have had one of the fastest retreats of a rally around the flag effect in modern polling history.

Trump's net approval rating stood at -10 points among voters in an aggregate of polls as late as March 11. Less than three weeks later, it got up to -4 points on March 27. Today, it's back down to -8 points.

 

Antibody Test, Seen as Key to Reopening Country, Does Not Yet Deliver

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/us/coronavirus-antibody-tests.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

 The tests, many made in China without F.D.A. approval, are often inaccurate. Some doctors are misusing them. The rollout is nowhere close to the demand.

The Food and Drug Administration has allowed about 90 companies, many based in China, to sell tests that have not gotten government vetting, saying the pandemic warrants an urgent response. But the agency has since warned that some of those businesses are making false claims about their products; health officials, like their counterparts overseas, have found others deeply flawed.

 

Fact check: Trump's Saturday coronavirus briefing was littered with false claims, old and new

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/18/politics/fact-check-coronavirus-briefing-april-18/index.html

 It's hard to know where to begin fact checking.

President Donald Trump's latest coronavirus press conference on Saturday afternoon was littered with false claims about both the pandemic crisis and various unrelated matters Trump decided to talk about, from North Korea and Iran to Chinese tariffs.

Trump continued to be dishonest on the critical subject of coronavirus testing, wrongly claiming he "inherited" faulty tests -- they were developed this year, during his presidency -- and painting an overly rosy picture of the US testing situation.

He also repeated several of the false claims he likes to make at his campaign rallies.

Here's a rundown of the claims and the facts.

Speaking about testing for the coronavirus, Trump said, "I inherited broken junk." This is a claim he has made multiple times, and which we have fact checked multiple times as well.

Facts First: The faulty initial test for the coronavirus was created during Trump's administration in early 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since this is a new virus that was first identified this year, the bad tests couldn't possibly be "inherited."

"He is lying. He is lying 100%. He is lying because he is trying to shift blame to others, even if the attempt is totally nonsensical," Gregg Gonsalves, an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health, said of an earlier version of this Trump claim.

 In addition to claiming President Obama left him with a depleted stockpile of medical supplies, Trump said Obama left him with "no ammunition."

"If you remember when I first came in, we didn't have ammunition," Trump said. "Not a good way to fight a war. President Obama left us no ammunition, OK."

Facts First: It's not true that the US had "no ammunition" at the beginning of Trump's presidency. Rather, according to the public comments of military leaders, there was a shortfall in certain kinds of munitions, particularly precision-guided bombs, late in the Obama presidency and early in the Trump presidency.

In the past, the President has attributed this claim to an unnamed general. While we don't know what a general might have told him in private, you can read a full fact check of Trump's claims about munitions levels here.