Trump goes on wild tweetstorm to distract from Fauci testimony

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/12/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-reelection/index.html

 Hours before his top medical adviser is expected to contradict his assurances that it's safe to reopen America, President Donald Trump is on a Twitter tear amplifying conspiracy theories and covering up for his own racially-tinged rhetoric to distract from his failures during the pandemic.

Trump is making unfounded charges against his predecessor Barack Obama and wading into the row over his treatment of an Asian American journalist ahead of an appearance before a Senate committee by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease specialist, and oral arguments before the Supreme Court about Trump's attempt to keep his financial information and tax returns from Congress and New York prosecutors.

 

Trump on Monday accused Democratic-led states of deliberately slowing openings of their economies to hurt him politically in an election year and is ignoring warnings of global health experts that reopening societies will spark new spikes in infections without the massive testing and tracing program that he has failed to put in place.

Fauci testifies on Trump's coronavirus response

https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/fauci-testifies-coronavirus-05-12-2020/index.html

He was responding to GOP Sen. Mitt Romney's question about President Trump's recent suggestion that Obama was responsible for the lack of a vaccine.

"The President said the other day that President Obama is responsible for lack of vaccine. Dr. Fauci, is President Obama — or by extension President Trump — did they do something that made the likelihood of creating the vaccine less likely?" Romney asked.

 Neither President Trump nor his predecessor President Obama are responsible for the lack of a coronavirus vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

Sages not concerned with absolute truth but rather correct procedure

אמת ליעקב ויקרא פרק כא פסוק ב

ונראה בביאור דבריהם, ע"פ מה שביארתי באריכות בחידושי לעיל בפרשת בראשית [א' פכ"ו] דהתורה מסרה לנו את המדות שהתורה נדרשת על ידיהן, ועל ידי אותן המדות אנו פוסקין כל ספק שנולד לנו באיזו הלכה - ואין לו לדיין מה שעיניו רואות, וכשהללו מזכין - אף שהאמת לאמתו שהוא חייב, מ"מ אם הרוב מזכין הרי הוא זכאי על פי דין תוה"ק דאחרי רבים להטות, ואף שאפשר שהמיעוט כיון לאמיתת האמת מ"מ התורה מסרה לנו את הדין איך שנדרוש עפ"י השכל האנושי, ועיי"ש5. ועיין בים של שלמה [בהקדמתו למסכתות ב"ק וחולין] איך שביאר הא דאמרו בגמ' אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים.

והנה בעירובין [דף י"ג ע"ב] איתא: ג' שנים נחלקו ב"ש וב"ה הללו אומרים הלכה כמותנו והללו אומרים הלכה כמותנו יצאה ב"ק ואמרה אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים הן והלכה כב"ה, ועיי"ש. ולכאורה מאי שנא מכל פלוגתא דתנאי או אמוראי שודאי כל אחד אומר שהלכה כמותו, ומאי שנא מחלוקת ב"ש וב"ה דמשמע דכאן היתה מלבד כל מחלוקתם גם מחלוקת אחרת שהללו אומרים הלכה כמותנו והללו אומרים הלכה כמותנו. והנראה לבאר הגמ', דבאמת היתה כאן מחלוקת חדשה - והיא כללית - מלבד כל פרטי דינין שנחלקו בכל התורה כולה, שב"ש אומרים הלכה כמותנו וב"ה אומרים הלכה כמותנו, כלומר שנחלקו היכא דישנו רוב ומיעוט אלא שהמיעוט הוא חריף טפי - דב"ש אזלי בתר החריפי ומשום דהחריף יכול לכוון יותר אל האמת לאמיתו, וב"ה סברי דאזלינן בתר השכל האנושי - ואף שזה אינו אמיתת האמת, אבל מכיון שלפי השכל האנושי נראה שכן הוא האמת הרי הדין כאותו הרוב. ולפ"ז נמצא דלב"ש לעולם יש להשגיח בב"ק, שהרי הב"ק בודאי הנהו האמת האמיתי, וכיון שבפלוגתא זו נפסקה ההלכה דאזלינן בתר השכל האנושי גם לדעת ב"ש, א"כ ע"כ אית לן למיפסק כדברי ב"ה בממה נפשך - דלדידהו הא לעולם הילכתא כוותייהו, ולב"ש הא לדידהו משגחינן בב"ק, ודו"ק.

ואפשר6 דלפי מושגם באמת נחלקו ג"כ בפרק האשה שנתארמלה [כתובות דף י"ז ע"א] בענין כיצד מרקדין לפני הכלה, דב"ה סברי דיאמר כלה נאה וחסודה, וב"ש ס"ל דיש בזה חשש שקר, והיינו דב"ש סברי שבשום אופן אסור לשנות מהאמת לאמיתה, ולכן אפילו אם אחד קנה מקח רע מן השוק אסור לשבחו - שהרי לפי האמת האמיתית הרי זה מקח רע, וב"ה סברי דכיון דלעולם בעינן שתהיה דעתו של אדם מעורבת עם הבריות א"כ אין זה נחשב לשקר, והיינו שצריך להתחשב עם האמת של רגשי האדם, ודו"ק היטב.
ונבין לפ"ז מה דאיתא בספרי קבלה דלעתיד לבוא תיפסק ההלכה כבית שמאי, והיינו משום דרק בעולמנו צריכים אנו להתחשב עם האמת הנראית לרוב בני אדם, אבל לעתיד לבוא שאז תתגלה האמת האמיתית בודאי תהיה ההלכה כב"ש, ודו"ק.

A man's wife is subordinate to him to the degree he is subordinate to G-d

Netziv  (Bereishis 2:24): And therefore man leaves…and cleaves to his wife . from this point on there is no advice to be his ezer knegdo as was intended by her creation and as Adam felt that he was missing except from the aspect that he is leaving his father and his mother cleaving to his wife and then becoming one flesh as he loves her as if they were one person as it states in Yevamos (62b).”one who loves his wife as himself….”And even then she is not entirely subordinate to him as was the first woman who was literally considered as part of him. Rather they are considered one flesh. That means that what he thinks is good for him and desirable and she completely fulfills his wants. She  should have the same attitude concerning what she wants for herself and that he comply with her wishes. Nevertheless since the reason that the first woman was made  to have the inherent nature to be supportive, even though women are not exactly the same as the first woman was originally but rather as she became after eating from the fruit from the Tree of knowledge as we will discuss later in Bereishis (3:20) while he is amongst those created during the first 6 days of creation. And only one who merited that achieves the love of his wife with total abnegation as Eve was before the sin. It was because of this that there are two types of cleaving of Adam and Eve  in order that for all time there should be two types of helping of a wife to her husband. Therefore  they were on the sixth day of creation two modes of love of Eve to Adam  in order that there should always be two modes of love of a woman to her husband. And just as we spoke about two modes that man has to serving G-d. All this was made on the first day that he was created as we explained before Bereishis (2:4). And thus the nature of love of a man’s  wife and life with her husband  This is similar to what R Shimon Ben Eliezer stated in Kiddushin (82b). “I was created to serve my Maker and they were created to serve me.”To the degree he serves G-d will be the degree That his wife serves him or according to mazel as all other aspects of man’s life. Either things happen as the result of Divine providence  based on his deeds or by good or bad mazel and this is the nature of the world.

What Judge Sullivan Should Do

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/what-judge-sullivan-should-do/611488/

The Justice Department has requested that he dismiss the case against Michael Flynn. Here are 13 questions the judge should ask of government counsel.

 

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan probably has little choice but to accede to the Justice Department’s outrageous motion that he dismiss the case against Lieutenant General Michael Flynn—notwithstanding Flynn’s guilty plea to false-statements charges more than two years ago. Existing law provides him little discretion in deciding whether to let the case go. That said, he does not have to dismiss the case without comment.

“Arguably, You Sold Your Country Out”: Could a Judge Override Barr in the Flynn Affair?

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/could-a-judge-override-barr-in-the-flynn-affair

What’s telling about the government’s unprecedented motion, which Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general and longtime Department of Justice official, called “a pardon by another name,” is that it tries really hard to rewrite history, if not ignore it altogether. To the Justice Department, all revolves around a single instance, four days into the new administration, when Flynn, a sophisticated official with decades of government service, including in the nation’s intelligence apparatus, found himself in the crosshairs of an overreaching FBI. “The Government is not persuaded that the January 24, 2017 interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn’s statements were material even if untrue,” Timothy Shea, the loyalist Barr installed as acting U.S. attorney in Washington earlier this year, wrote. “Moreover, we [do] not believe that the Government can prove either the relevant false statements or their materiality beyond a reasonable doubt.” No other career official who had been on the case signed the filing—one of them, Brandon Van Grack, a Mueller veteran in the department’s national security division, had abruptly withdrawn from the Flynn case moments earlier on Thursday, in apparent protest of the Justice Department’s reversal.

 

Flynn: What Will Judge Sullivan Do?

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2020/05/11/flynn-what-will-judge-sullivan-do/?slreturn=20200412084852#

 

On May 8, The New York Times headline read “U.S. Drops Michael Flynn Case … .” I suppose that’s technically true. The article didn’t say that the Flynn case was dismissed. Indeed, it hasn’t been. The Justice Department clearly has no authority to dismiss a pending criminal case—particularly after a guilty plea has been entered by the defendant. All it can do is “ask” the court to dismiss the case. Given who the judge is, the Justice Department can’t be too certain of the outcome or what will happen along the way, and probably won’t be sleeping easily while awaiting the judge’s decision.

Trump's Attorney General Barr Called To Resign For 'Assaults On The Rule Of Law' | MSNBC

Ingraham: Obama to the rescue

Fact Check: Is Obama the only president to criticize a successor?

https://kslnewsradio.com/1924939/fact-check-is-obama-the-only-president-to-criticize-a-successor/

Among the hundreds of #ObamaGate retweets President Trump sent over the weekend was a widely circulated meme with a photo of former President Barack Obama stating, “First Ex-President To Speak Against Successor.” Mr. Trump retweeted the meme, writing, “He got caught, OBAMAGATE!”

The meme had been seen on the Internet in past years. Now it’s adding fuel to the current #ObamaGate fire on Twitter. 

Is Obama the only president in U.S. history to denounce his successor? 

The short answer is no. There are several presidents in recent history who have spoken out against their successors to different news and media outlets.

 

Trump increases attack against Obama with ‘Obamagate’ tweet

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-ups-attack-against-obama-with-obamagate-tweet

Last week, Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department dismissed the case against Flynn, Trump's first national  security adviser, who was seen as the key prosecution witness from Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign.

Trump, along with other Republicans, seized on the decision and framed it as an example of a Democrat-manufactured plot to remove him from office.

 

Trump's 'Obamagate' comments and Barr's Flynn meddling suggest troubling new pivot

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-obamagate-comments-barr-s-flynn-meddling-suggest-troubling-ncna1204856

In my 25 years as an FBI special agent and (now retired) head of the bureau's counterintelligence, I learned the value of predictive analysis. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI transitioned from an investigative agency adept at investigating what happened after the fact to an intelligence agency capable of forecasting and preventing harm from happening in the future.

Trump is clearly still sensitive about the 2016 election, and especially about concerns that he may not have beaten former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fairly. He therefore has a special interest in undermining accusations of Russian meddling, something he has done since entering the Oval Office. What better way to do this than to flip the script? He didn't have an advantage; in fact, he was the victim

As other commentators have pointed out, attempting this bait and switch would likely involve efforts to censure, discipline or even criminally charge current and former government officials, such as former CIA Director John Brennan, fired FBI Director James Comey, former national security adviser Susan Rice, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper and perhaps even Obama and Biden. During his Monday news conference in the Rose Garden, a reporter asked Trump what crime he might accuse Obama of committing. Trump responded: "Obamagate, it's been going on for a long time. It's been going on from before I got elected, and it's a disgrace that it happened. You look at, now, all of this information that's being released, and from what I understand, that's only the beginning."

What is 'Obamagate' and why is Trump so worked up about it?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/12/what-is-obamagate-and-why-is-trump-so-worked-up-about-it

The US president spent Mother’s Day diving into the rightwing fever swamps and unleashing a barrage of tweets and retweets assailing his predecessor

 

Senate Republicans break with Trump over ‘Obamagate’

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/11/senate-republicans-trump-obamagate-249734

After the Justice Department’s abrupt decision last week to drop the criminal case against Flynn, Trump shifted his public focus over the weekend to mount a three-day tear against his predecessor on Twitter, accusing Obama of committing the “biggest political crime in American history.” Trump sought to popularize the hashtag “Obamagate,” which he said makes the Watergate scandal “look small time.” Trump also said Obama “got caught” and later retweeted comments by Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, who said Obama was part of an effort to frame and entrap her client.