‘The Prodfather’: Orthodox rabbi with unorthodox criminal solutions

AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s false security on kids and COVID-19

https://apnews.com/573acbe835b0025551ff90c1a1e2b6e8

 President Donald Trump may be giving parents a false sense of security when it comes to kids and COVID-19.

In remarks Monday, Trump expressed a desire to have K-12 schools reopen in the fall in “full blast” while minimizing the risk that children and adults who are around them may face from the coronavirus.

TRUMP, on children: “They’ve come out of this at a level that’s really inconceivable. By the way, the regular flu, other flus, other things, SARS or H1N1, any of them, if you look at the young people they were affected like everybody else, but for whatever reason with respect to COVID, the numbers are very, very low.”

 

THE FACTS: Although it’s true that children are less likely than adults to develop COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has nevertheless counted more than 86,000 infections by the virus in Americans younger than 18.

Fact check: Trump makes at least 19 false or misleading claims in wild anti-Biden monologue

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/14/politics/fact-check-trump-biden-speech-rose-garden/index.html

President Donald Trump has long been fond of turning supposedly official events into de facto campaign rallies. Even by his own standards, though, his Tuesday speech was extreme.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, at what was billed as a "press conference" in which he would give remarks about China, Trump delivered a rambling 52-minute monologue filled with pre-scripted attacks on Democratic opponent Joe Biden.

As usual, Trump's comments were filled with egregious lies and other false claims. We haven't yet had a chance to comb through the entire transcript, but here is a list of the 19 false or misleading claims we have counted so far:

 

GOP to Trump: Change tune on mail-in voting or risk ugly November

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/16/politics/republican-reaction-trump-mail-in-voting/index.html

 Republican officials throughout the country are reacting with growing alarm to President Donald Trump's attacks on mail-in ballots, saying his unsubstantiated claims of mass voting fraud are already corroding the views of GOP voters, who may ultimately choose not to vote at all if they can't make it to the polls come November.

Behind the scenes, top Republicans are urging senior Trump campaign officials to press the President to change his messaging and embrace mail-in voting, warning that the party could lose the battle for control of Congress and the White House if he doesn't change his tune, according to multiple GOP sources. Trump officials, sources said, are fully aware of the concerns.

The impact could be detrimental to the GOP up and down the ticket, according to a bevy of Republican election officials, field operatives, pollsters and lawmakers who are watching the matter closely. Every vote will count in critical battleground states, they argue, fearful that deterring GOP voters from choosing a convenient option to cast their ballots could ultimately sway the outcome of races that are decided by a couple of percentage points.

The Trump Tax/Financials/Mazar's subpoena case was back in court in NY today. Here's how it went.

Second University of Minnesota study shows no hydroxychloroquine benefit in COVID-19 fight

https://www.startribune.com/second-u-study-shows-no-hydroxychloroquine-benefit-in-covid-19-fight/571791202/

 

An anti-malaria drug that doctors hoped would work against COVID-19, and that President Donald Trump championed and said he took himself, has failed to show substantial benefit in a second University of Minnesota trial.

U researchers compared 491 people with early symptoms of COVID-19 — with one group taking hydroxychloroquine for five days and the other taking a non-medicating placebo — and found no measurable differences in their outcomes.

Death rates of .4% were identical in the groups. Hospitalizations and persistent symptoms over 14 days were slightly more common in the placebo group, but not by a significant difference. Mostly mild side effects such as nausea were reported by 43% of patients taking the drug vs. 22% taking placebos.

The study adds to a volume of evidence that discourages the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 — including the first trial result that the U published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month that showed that the drug offered no protection for people who likely had been exposed to the virus and were at risk for infection.

White House: 'The science should not stand in the way' of reopening schools – live

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/jul/16/coronavirus-us-covid-donald-trump-anthony-fauci-joe-biden-live-updates

 

Following White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s suggestion that “The science should not stand in the way” of schools reopening, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) issued a scathing statement criticizing the administration’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

“Now the Trump administration wants to further risk the lives of teachers, children, staff, and their families just to soothe the president’s ego,” said Lily Adams, a DNC spokesperson. “This president would rather accept conspiracy theories and reject science than listen to public health experts. He can’t be trusted to make decisions about the lives of America’s children and their families.”

AP Fact Check: Trump Team's False Comfort on Schools, Virus

https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-politics/ap-fact-check-trump-teams-false-comfort-schools-virus

 President Donald Trump's aides are misrepresenting the record on kids and the coronavirus as they push for schools to reopen. 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday inaccurately characterized what the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said on the matter. A day earlier, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also was wrong in stating that the research shows there is no danger "in any way" if kids are in school. 

No such conclusion has been reached. 

Their comments came as Trump continued to spread falsehoods about a pandemic that is taking a disproportionate hit on the U.S. and is not under control.

 

How a Struggling Company Won $1.6 Billion to Make a Coronavirus Vaccine

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/health/coronavirus-vaccine-novavax.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Novavax just received the Trump administration’s largest vaccine contract. In the Maryland company’s 33-year history, it has never brought a vaccine to market.

 

Even Donald Trump knows he is in deep, deep trouble in the 2020 race

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/16/politics/donald-trump-brad-parscale-2020-campaign/index.html

 

While there's long been a massive disconnect between Trump's public bluster and private worries, anger and anxiety, the demotion of Parscale is a shining example of that chasm. The truth that any politician knows is that you don't get rid of your campaign manager unless things are not going well. And you especially don't get rid of your campaign manager 111 days before the election -- unless things are going REALLY badly.

Which, for Trump, they are. Remarkably so. A new Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday showed former Vice President Joe Biden with a massive 52% to 37% lead over the incumbent. An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll also released Wednesday showed Biden up 11 on Trump. Polling in swing states like Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin show Biden comfortably ahead -- and there's even polling in typically red states like Arizona, Texas and Georgia that suggest Biden is competitive with Trump in those places.

Trump Is Waging a Losing War Against the Bad News of COVID-19

https://time.com/5867511/trump-coronavirus-bad-news/

 

Throughout the pandemic, President Trump has repeatedly contradicted the advice of his public health officials, and the CDC in particular, in a bid to control the messaging about the virus to Americans. When the CDC issued new guidelines for Americans to cover their faces on April 3, Trump emphasized it was “voluntary” and said he wouldn’t be wearing a mask, and was not seen wearing one in public until last week. When Trump started pushing hard for the economy to reopen in May, he stopped holding daily task force briefings. After the CDC released guidelines about schools reopening, Trump said they were impractical and pushed hard for all schools to return to in-person classes.

Megachurch pastor says he's suspending worship services

מאמר היום על גיוס בנות, גם הודי'ה א. IDF vs. Teenage Girls‎

BS"D

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BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: 

Today, it was reported that the Israeli Army threatened a (religious) teenage girl, Hodoya E. (see below), with arrest - over her refusal to violate Torah Law by submitting to a Rayon Das (a military "Religiosity"-Interrogation tribunal).  Please keep posted to our update link at the end of the article copied below.

What can we actually do about it?  As Jews of the Diaspora, we have an additional capacity to impede such crimes against innocent girls (religious or otherwise, Jewish or gentile).  We have the ability to share information intelligently within our spheres of influence, specifically writing letters to the editor (of any publication), and getting sincere Rabbonim and community activists informed, prompting them to speak out against this religious persecution of noshim tzidkoniyos  (righteous women, in the merit of whom the Final Redemption will come; see Kav HaYashar 82; Yalkut Shimoni on Rus 4, 606, end).  Please share (either of) these links:

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http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/07/idf-targeting-girls-in-non-religious.html

{The similar version below (posted today at https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/07/idf-targeting-religious-girls-in.html) was included in the weekly CJV email of this week, in the Israel section, as usual.}

Israeli Army Draft Office Flagging  Girls in Less Religious Schools for Religious Interrogation 

23 Tammuz, 5780 °°  July 15, '20

Parshas Matos - Masei

By Binyomin Feinberg

feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com 

As reported previously, in a major  development over the past several weeks, the Draft Office of the Israeli Army (operating under the entity "Meitav") is flagging teenage girls who study, or  studied in less-religious or non-religious schools - summoning them to a "Rayon Dat" (a military "Religiosity Interview," or, more often, interrogation). These girls are now receiving this order even without stepping into the Draft Office. Until now, it was generally only after entering the Draft Office that such girls would be identified, and only then confronted with a summons to the Draft Office. Now, girls are facing this formidable challenge earlier in the process, as young as about 16-1/2 years old, soon after they obtain their religiosity verification from the Rabbanut (Israeli Rabbinate). Apparently, there's a new Army protocol in place to flag all such girls on a wholesale basis.

Moreover, the Rabbanut itself - primarily in Jerusalem - has lately reported to have been asking multiple girls where they study, in a seemingly innocent, but potentially catastrophic departure from Rabbanut protocol. Coincidentally, girls asked that question are finding themselves suddenly summoned to the Draft Offices. Is the Rabbanut sharing that information with the Draft Office? Are we to assume it's merely coincidental that these same girls are shortly thereafter being ordered to appear before a military panel for religiosity interrogations?

Even if the Rabbanut is in fact not providing that information to Army headhunters, it's apparent - to volunteer women assisting these teenage girls - that the recent  Rabbanut shift in policy (questioning girls about their schooling while they are simply seeking religiosity documentation) is indicative of some form of Army-Rabbanut coordination.

Activist volunteers with "Chomosaich" report that about NINE such girls now are now facing Rayon Dat interview appointments - despite having followed proper procedures to avoid that. A lawyer active assisting the girls is running up against a brick wall.
Thus, these girls will likely need either a more expensive lawyer, or face the prospects faced by other female religious objectors, including threat of arrest, incarceration, and abuse by police, prison, and judicial authorities, as recently experienced by Hadasah Margolit Yakovov (20 y/o daughter of a Chareidi Bucharian immigrants), released after almost a month in Military Prison Four in wake of her refusal to enlist (see last week's post http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/07/israeli-army-fighting-to-make.html). That is, unless sufficient public awareness can be raised as to obviate the need to fight the Army on the legal front.

One example is the current Army pursuit Hodoyah E. Noteworthy is that in a written response this week to her attorney, Meitav conveniently neglects to address the recent Rabbanut directive to provide Corona-period extensions to girls requiring Rabbanut assistance, as raised in a letter the attorney sent on behalf of Hodoyah in June.

Furthermore, whatever explanation the Army may proffer to explain this needs to be seen in context of timing. They're embarking on this new policy just as Corona is resurgent. Does the risk of not drafting a few girls actually justify the risk of endangering yet more people within the Army and in the civilian population?

To provide a broader perspective, as was reported in The Jewish Press last December, the Ma'ariv (Nov. 5, '19) reported on the Army declaration of a shocking target goal, aiming to enlist a whopping 40% of national religious high school girls for enlistment in the military. The recent Rayon Dat dragnet fits neatly into that declared Army paradigm (in a modification of a popular expression, "if you can't get them to join you - beat them"), inasmuch as the main target here are teenage girls from traditional and national religious backgrounds. National religious girls are a natural target because their ideological affinity for the declared goals of the Army impedes their families from identifying illicit Maitav attempts to traffic their teenage daughters for less than idealistic purposes.  Traditional girls are simply easy targets, because, in addition to the aforementioned ideological sympathies, their religiosity is more easily disqualified by (often antireligious) Rayon Dat military officers, seeking to draft every non-secular girl they can (for trafficking-related reasons obvious enough render elaboration superfluous).

Volunteers with "Chomosaich"  observe that if this latest Army escalation against traditional and Mizrachi girls is left unchecked, then soon - G-d forbid - the only girls guaranteed their religious service exemption entitlements will be Chareidi girls of politically- connected affiliations.

###

"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."

--  Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)

.....

Update link for the month of Tammuz to check in case we post during the week between our regular Wednesday/ Thursday posts:


https://docs.google.com/document/d/19P6537IM3H-v_UlYsRzeiukw9uBWq3M0GjaoYJhIQUk/edit?usp=sharing


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week's post ends there, but for additional reportage and perspective, these links may be useful:

Selected reports on conscription of girls/ women into the Israeli military:

http://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/01/never-again.html

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/01/protesting-antireligious-persecution-by.html

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/12/modern-day-yedudis-heroism.html
~~~

These 2 appeared in the weekly email of the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) week of Parshas Vayishlach 5780 (12 Dec.,19)

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/12/facilitating-suicide_51.html

http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/12/crime-wave-strikes-israeli-girls.html

~~~~~~~~~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/11/breaking-heartbreaking-news-army.html

(Nov. 7, '19)
~~~

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/11/breaking-very-laws-they-make.html

(Nov. 6, '19)
~~~

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/10/racial-profiling-or-pure-antireligious.html

(Oct. 30, '19)
~~~

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/11/female-idf-refuseniks-cheshvan.html 

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/11/to-even-close-yeshivos.html 

~~~

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/10/outrage-upon-outrage.html
(Parshas Beraishis)

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/10/making-racism-great-again.html

(Oct 8, 2019)

~~~
Violating the Vineyard:

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/08/alh-report-2-28-augviolating-vineyard.html

(28 Aug.)
~~~
Update:
 
https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/09/violating-vineyard-update.html
(4 Ellul, '79; see Jewish Press, Sept.13,'19).

Struggling with Latinos, Trump hypes Goya food fight

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/15/trump-latino-support-goya-2020-364856

For the past week, Latinos have warred on social media after the CEO of Goya Foods effusively praised President Trump at a White House event. Democratic critics like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for a boycott and other liberals posted social media videos of themselves dumping the iconic brand’s signature spices down the drain. Conservatives fumed about cancel culture or mocked the boycott on Facebook with memes like “Black Beans Matter.”

 

On Wednesday, Trump fueled the controversy, posting an Instagram image of his trademarked thumbs up sign of approval as he sat in the Oval Office with an array of Goya products in front of him — appearing to provide an endorsement to a private company from the historic Resolute Desk.

“@GoyaFoods is doing GREAT. The Radical Left smear machine backfired, people are buying like crazy!” Trump claimed earlier on Twitter.

For the president, it’s the latest cultural wedge issue to seize on in an effort to persuade Hispanic voters that the left is too radical — from redefining Spanish to remove gendered nouns so that Latinos are instead called “Latinx” to attacking a popular brand that’s synonymous with Latin American cooking.