Jewish groups take aim at Trump’s pick for ambassador to Germany

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/jewish-groups-take-aim-at-trumps-pick-for-ambassador-to-germany-637883 

 Jewish groups have put the man under fire for his past statements about Muslim immigrants and for downplaying the importance of Nazi history.

 The nomination of Douglas Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran who now frequently appears on Fox News, made headlines this week after CNN’s K File unearthed a long history of the retired colonel’s comments. In 2018 he said “There’s sort of a sick mentality that says that generations after generations must atone sins of what happened in 13 years of German history and ignore the other 1,500 years of Germany.”

Doctor vs doctor

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/magazine/covid-drug-wars-doctors.html

 In the absence of conclusive research for Covid-19 treatments, many doctors are having to rely on their experience to make judgment calls about medications.

Appeals court rejects key argument against McGahn subpoena

 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/07/appeals-court-rules-mcgahn-must-testify-392562

A federal appeals court dealt a major setback Friday to President Donald Trump’s bid to prevent his former White House counsel Don McGahn from being forced to testify to a House committee.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday, 7-2, that the House has legal standing to use the courts to compel McGahn to appear in response to a House Judiciary Committee subpoena.

 

Fact check: Trump makes multiple false claims about Covid-19 relief as he signs executive actions

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/08/politics/fact-check-trump-covid-executive-actions-bedminster/index.html

 President Donald Trump made multiple egregious false claims about Democrats during a Saturday "news conference" at his New Jersey golf club where he signed a series of pandemic-related executive actions.

Trump also denied having said something he said on camera during a news conference Friday. And he walked out of the room after he was challenged on one of his favorite lies -- the claim that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice health care program created.

Trump 1AM Rant: Biden Hates God, Guns, Yo-semites, Thighland, The Bible, Energy, but Loves Chyna!

Here’s What Trump Got Wrong About America’s COVID-19 Death Rate

https://time.com/5875411/trump-covid-19-death-rate-interview/

During an interview with Axios on HBO that aired Monday night, President Donald Trump mischaracterized the U.S. COVID-19 death rate and underplayed the high rate of deaths in proportion to the U.S. population.

During the interview, which was filmed on July 28, Axios reporter Jonathan Swan brought up the recent surge in COVID-19 related deaths in the U.S., pointing out that, at the time the interview was recorded, the U.S. was reporting over 1,000 deaths per day.

The President pushed back against Swan’s statement, referring to charts he had brought with him and saying, “Right here, the United States is lowest in numerous categories, we’re lower than the world, we’re lower than Europe.”

Doctors Combat Disinformation Campaign Against HydroxychloroQuine

 https://yated.com/doctors-combat-disinformation-campaign-against-hydroxychloroquine/

 

As the FDA and the media continue to insist that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is not a viable treatment for Covid-19, a coalition of doctors from across the United States gathered for a two-day summit to reach out to the American public with information about the drug’s safety and efficacy in treating the disease.

The group, calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors,” held a press conference on July 27 in front of the Supreme Court in Washington D.C. to combat what they call a “massive disinformation campaign” about HCQ.

 Sponsored by Tea Party Patriots, a conservative Republican group, and broadcast by Breitbart, the video was posted to the three biggest social media platforms and quickly went viral, attracting 18 million viewers on Facebook alone.

A Trump campaign ad used doctored photos of Biden

President Donald Trump Attacks Joe Biden, Claims He’s “Against God.” | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

'The Daily Show' mocks Fox News' one-sided treatment of gaffes in Trump montage

 <iframe width="590" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qG-njDHXZuw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Judge Denies Trump's Bid to Delay Defamation Suit From Woman Alleging Rape

 https://time.com/5877213/donald-trump-defamation-lawsuit-delay-denied/

 A New York judge knocked down President Donald Trump’s bid to delay a lawsuit from a woman who accused him of rape, ruling in a decision released Thursday that the presidency doesn’t shield him from the case.

Pointing to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the president isn’t immune from a New York prosecutor’s criminal investigation, Manhattan judge Verna Saunders said the same principle applies to E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit, in which Trump’s lawyers have argued that the Constitution bars presidents from being dragged into lawsuits in state courts.

“No, it does not,” Saunders wrote.

The decision allows Carroll — who’s seeking Trump’s DNA as potential evidence — to keep pursuing her suit. She says he slurred her in denying her claim that he raped her in the 1990s.

 

 

Multi-thousand Belz wedding: Police open criminal investigation

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/284847

Israeli police have decided to open a criminal investigation following the mega-wedding that hosted thousands last night (Wednesday) at the headquarters of the Belzer Rebbe’s grandson in Jerusalem, held in a closed hall in Jerusalem, in violation of the guidelines of the Ministry of Health.

Although police were on hand for the occasion, they refrained from intervening in the event.

Participants were instructed not to carry devices that could document the ceremony into the hall, and an official order was presented to wear masks.

 

 

 

Did Floyd Protests Lead to a Virus Surge? Here’s What We Know

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-protests.html

 

For more than two months, the authorities had been urging New Yorkers to stay indoors and keep their distance from others. But after the police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, tens of thousands of New Yorkers poured into the streets, day and night, to protest police brutality and racism.

Epidemiologists braced for a surge of new coronavirus cases. But it has not come yet.

On May 27, the day before the protests began in New York City, some 754 Covid-19 cases were diagnosed, according to the city’s Department of Health. That was the last time the city recorded more than 700 cases on a single day.

 By the end of the first week of protests, the city was recording slightly more than 500 cases a day. By the end of the second week of protests, the case counts were in the low 400s or high 300s a day. They’ve continued to drop slightly. According to revised numbers the city released on Wednesday, the last time New York City recorded more than 300 cases was on June 23.

“We’ve been looking very closely at the number of positive cases every day to see if there is an uptick in the context of the protests,” Ted Long, executive director of the city’s contact tracing program, said. “We have not seen that.”

Ex-acting AG Sally Yates defends FBI investigation into Flynn, calls Barr move to drop charges 'highly irregular'

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/05/politics/sally-yates-testimony-capitol-hill/index.html

 

Yates clashed with Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham over the FBI's interview of Flynn in January 2017. The South Carolina Republican charged that the FBI had moved to close its counterintelligence investigation into Flynn, before relying on allegations surrounding the Logan Act -- an obscure law that private citizens cannot interfere in foreign affairs -- but Yates argued that the interview was necessary to determine why Flynn had "neutered" then-President Barack Obama's administration sanctions against Russia in his calls with Kislyak.

Yates said that the recommendation to close the Flynn case came "before they knew about the conversations" between Flynn and Kislyak.

"They were absolutely material to a legitimate investigation," Yates said of the interview with Flynn. "Interviewing General Flynn was right at the core of the FBI's investigation at this point to try to discern what are the ties between the Trump administration and the Russians."