Michael Cohen caught at New York City restaurant — and it could land him back in prison

https://www.foxnews.com/us/michael-cohen-new-york-restaurant-prison

Michael Cohen could soon be back to chowing down in a prison cafeteria.

The recently sprung jailbird was caught by The Post dining out on Manhattan’s Upper East Side — and the meal may cost him his freedom, legal experts said Friday.

But on Friday, Levine defended Cohen’s evening out, saying that Cohen “is currently on furlough” and that he “did not violate any of the terms and conditions of his release … and any assertion or suggestion to the contrary would be wholly inaccurate and untrue.”

The BOP form for furlough applications requires that an inmate provide a furlough address and acknowledge by signature that “I am authorized to be only in the area of the destination shown above and at ordinary stopovers or points on a direct route to or from that destination.”

 

Trump, in fiery Mount Rushmore address, decries rise of 'far-left fascism,' calls on Americans to rise up

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-in-fiery-mount-rushmore-address-decries-rise-of-far-left-fascism-calls-on-americans-to-rise-up
\

 

Speaking after the legendary U.S. Navy Blue Angels roared overhead, President Trump ushered in the July 4th weekend Friday night at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota with a full-throated condemnation of "far-left fascism" and a defense of "Judeo-Christian principles."

"This monument will never be desecrated," Trump declared to cheers and applause. "These heroes will never be defaced. Their legacy will never, ever be destroyed. Their achievements will never be forgotten. And Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers and to our freedom."

"We are the country of Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass," Trump said. "We are the land of Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill Cody. We are the nation that gave rise to the Wright Brothers, the Tuskegee Airmen — Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, Jesse Owens, George Patton — General George Patton — the great Louie Armstrong, Alan Shepard, Elvis Presley, and Mohammad Ali.  And only America could have produced them all. No other place."

Gettysburg

President Trump Pushes Racial Division, Flouts Coronavirus Rules at Mt. Rushmore Speech

https://time.com/5862857/trump-mt-rushmore-speech-fourth-of-july/

At the foot of Mount Rushmore and on the eve of Independence Day, President Donald Trump dug deeper into America’s divisions by accusing protesters who have pushed for racial justice of engaging in a “merciless campaign to wipe out our history.”

The president, in remarks Friday night at the South Dakota landmark, offered a discordant tone to an electorate battered by a pandemic and seared by the recent high-profile killings of Black people. He zeroed in on the desecration by some demonstrators of monuments and statues across the country that honor those who have benefited from slavery, including some past presidents.

The discord was heightened as the Trump campaign confirmed during the president’s speech that Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser for the campaign and the girlfriend of Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr., had tested positive for the coronavirus while in South Dakota. Both Guilfoyle and Trump Jr., who serves as a top surrogate for the president, are isolating themselves and have canceled public events, according to Sergio Gor, chief of staff to the Trump campaign’s finance committee.

Trump tries to drag America backward on a very different July 4th

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/04/politics/donald-trump-mount-rushmore-culture-wars-july-4th/index.html

In a jaw-dropping speech that amounted to a culture war bonfire, President Donald Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore Friday night to frame protesters as a nefarious left-wing mob that intends to "end America." Those opponents, he argued, are engaged in a "merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children."

 

Trump's Failures on Putin, Racial equality/BLM and COVID. But One Leadership Spot Trump has Earned

Speak Out Against Annexation!

https://cross-currents.com/2020/07/03/speak-out-against-annexation/

 

Given the guarantees that China gave to the former British colony which are now being unilaterally broken, it is nothing less than an annexation. It will bring far greater hardship and sorrow than the one in the Middle East, to a population three times the size of the West Bank. We’re not talking checkpoints and denied access to olive trees here. We are talking about the overnight end to effective civil liberties for everyone in Hong Kong, and the real prospect of prosecution and incarceration by a government that has shown itself willing and able to keep hundreds of millions under its thumb.^[1]

Why are we not hearing any outcry from the World Council of Churches, or the academic world, or the European Parliament? Why no marches on the Capitol, like the Palestinian Lives Matter one of a few days ago? 

Simply put, the morality of these churches and of the university campus ends when it butts heads with providers of cheap tchotchkes. Hard to beat that for hypocrisy. Especially since this is only the latest episode in the global game of moral blindness to the many outrages perpetrated by the Chinese Communist regime. Had the EU considered a boycott of China, Tibet might be free today, rather than remaining – after decades of oppression, cultural repression, and murder – under the thumb of the Communist Party, the only people who count in the People’s Republic.

Trump Says COVID-19 Crisis Is 'Being Handled' As U.S. Sets A New Case Record | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

remarriage without Get - Rav Sternbuch

Duckworth vows to block over 1,000 military confirmations until Pentagon proves Vindman will be promoted

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/duckworth-vows-to-block-over-1000-military-confirmations-until-pentagon-proves-vindman-will-be-promoted

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., on Thursday announced her intention to block Senate confirmations for 1,123 senior U.S. Armed Forces promotions until Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirms he will not block the "expected and deserved" promotion of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.

Duckworth threatens to block military nominees unless impeachment witness Vindman gets promotion

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/02/tammy-duckworth-alexander-vindman-military-nominees-348183

Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Thursday announced she'll hold up the confirmation of more than 1,000 military promotions until Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirms that the promotion of impeachment witness Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman will move forward.

"Our military is supposed to be the ultimate meritocracy," Duckworth said. "It is simply unprecedented and wrong for any Commander in Chief to meddle in routine military matters at all, whether or not he has a personal vendetta against a Soldier who did his patriotic duty and told the truth — a Soldier who has been recommended for promotion by his superiors because of his performance. I won’t just sit by and let it happen, and neither should any of my colleagues.

"This goes far beyond any single military officer, it is about protecting a merit-based system from political corruption and unlawful retaliation," she added.

A spokesperson for Esper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Eric Swalwell On Russian Bounty Reports: ‘It’s Not A Hoax’ | The Last Word | MSNBC

Rep. McCaul admits Trump 'did deserve, probably' to know about Russian bounty intelligence

https://www.foxnews.com/media/mccaul-trump-deserved-know-russian-bounty-intelligence

 Congressman Michael McCaul discusses Russian bounty reports and if the intel rose to the level of briefing the president

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told "America's Newsroom" Thursday that President Trump "did deserve, probably, to know" about intelligence that Russian officials had paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants in exchange for the deaths of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee pointed out that Russians working in coordination with the Taliban to kill American troops would be a "significant" divergence from working together to defeat ISIS.

As I examine this whole thing, though, I think the president did deserve probably to know that this was out there only because [of] the timing of the peace deal with the Taliban itself that was going on literally two days after this presidential daily briefing came in," he remarked.

Although the president and the White House have insisted Trump was never briefed on any intelligence about Russian bounties before The New York Times reported on the matter June 26, a separate source within the military told Fox News on Monday that special operations forces raided a Taliban outpost this year and recovered roughly $500,000. A subsequent interrogation of an Afghan fighter revealed that the money came from Russia.

NYT Op-Ed: ‘You Want A Confederate Monument? My Body Is A Confederate Monument’ | MSNBC