Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Israel deserves a better friend than President Trump
https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/08/10/israel-deserves-a-better-friend-than-president-trump/
Whether he likes it or not, Foxman still finds himself someone to whom American Jews turn to ask the age-old Jewish question: who and what is “good for the Jews?”
Presidential elections inevitably spawn this question, and this one is no exception. Asked whether it is President Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden whom American Jews should support, Foxman misses even fewer beats than usual. “I have always been asked before every election: who is better for Israel and the Jews?” Foxman says. “And my answer is always the same: Israel and the Jews need a strong, stable, credible and caring America. So vote for the candidate that will secure such an America.” No longer encumbered by the need for discretion that comes with running a major nonprofit organization, Foxman says aloud what other Jewish leaders cannot. “There is no question in my mind,” he continues, “that the answer this time to all those concerns is Joe Biden.”
Foxman rightly observes that Jewish communities around the world are served well by an America that is democratic, respected and even feared, and served ill by an America that has lost its way and looks weak. Trump, himself a weakling, has turned America into one as well, the object of international derision. Beholden to Vladimir Putin and afraid to confront him, even when it comes to the subversion of American elections, Trump has made America not great but pitiable. Instead of pressing China when COVID-19 emerged, he gushed about it. His ring-kissing of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un hasn’t been merely embarrassing. It has been pathetic.
Trump says U.S. needs ‘more Jews that love Israel’
https://forward.com/news/national/452340/trump-says-us-needs-more-jews-that-love-israel/
President Trump told a group of Jewish supporters at a fundraiser Sunday that “we need more Jews in the U.S. that love Israel,” the Orthodox news outlet Belaaz reported.
Chera also described the president as a warrior against Covid-19. He described the virus that killed his father as “recklessly or maliciously released onto our shores from China,” and thanked the president for making time to “offer your assistance to us.”
Stanley Chera was a real estate developer and a philanthropist for many Jewish causes, well-known in the Syrian Jewish community in New York City and in Deal, N.J. for his generosity. He was the owner of several high-end properties in Manhattan, including the St. Regis New York Hotel and the Cartier Mansion. Chera also donated more than half a million dollars to Trump’s election and re-election campaigns, The New York Times reported.
The Wedge Issue That’s Dividing Trumpworld
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/07/wedge-issue-dividing-trumpworld-392323
A cohort of establishment Republicans, social libertarians and new GOP converts oppose the strategy. Among them are Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his wife, Ivanka. They point to a raft of evidence—from the volatile bathroom debate in North Carolina that lost the GOP the governor’s race in 2016 to a bitter Republican primary in Pennsylvania’s 2018 gubernatorial race—that pushing anti-LGBTQ issues is slowly destroying the Republican Party, one high-profile race at a time. Kushner, the de facto leader of Trump’s 2020 operation, and Ivanka have previously worked to kill anti-LGBTQ measures inside the White House. One of the president’s favorite officials, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, is a gay conservative who helped persuade Trump to use the power of American diplomacy to end the criminalization of homosexuality abroad.
Is Lindsey Graham Actually in Trouble in South Carolina?
On his desk, Jaime Harrison keeps a quote from Ben “Pitchfork” Tillman, the former South Carolina governor and senator who, in 1876, led a white paramilitary gang that murdered six innocent African Americans in what was known as the Hamburg Massacre. “We have done our level best,” Tillman said of the state’s efforts to disenfranchise Black voters. “We have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed.”
Trump’s Misleading Spin on Roger Stone’s Conviction
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/07/trumps-misleading-spin-on-roger-stones-conviction/
Russia Investigation Was Not ‘Absolutely Baseless’
In its statement, the White House falsely described the special counsel’s investigation as “absolutely baseless.”
“Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency,” the statement read. “There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or the Trump Administration, with Russia.”
It went on to say: “The simple fact is that if the Special Counsel had not been pursuing an absolutely baseless investigation, Mr. Stone would not be facing time in prison.”
There was ample evidence to justify opening an investigation — even if the investigation “did not establish that the Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities,” as Mueller’s report said.
Is it okay to ask a deceased tzaddik to pray on my behalf?
Question:
I was always under the impression that Judaism firmly believed that there are no intermediaries between man and G‑d, and to pray to the deceased is blasphemous and outlawed by the Bible. If so, why is it permissible to ask the Rebbe to intercede on one's behalf at the Ohel?
What To Watch For In Michael Flynn’s Case On Tuesday
https://www.justsecurity.org/71936/what-to-watch-for-in-michael-flynns-case-on-tuesday/
The Flynn case has become about much more than Michael Flynn. It’s become, as Katyal and I explained,
the most concrete instantiation of President Donald Trump and Attorney
General William Barr’s assault on federal law enforcement and attempt to
portray it as the villain. What’s more, the Flynn episode has become
emblematic of the claim Trump and Barr insist on making repeatedly that
somehow federal law enforcement acted improperly in 2016 when it tried
to investigate counterintelligence threats to the United States that,
ultimately, proved all too real.
But, on Tuesday, all of that will be merely the backdrop. The spotlight
will be on the law. And it’s worth Americans listening carefully for
what ten judges will be saying as they grapple with what particular
areas of law that intersect in this unusual matter mean for the next
steps in the Flynn case.
Monday, August 10, 2020
Homes explode in Baltimore, killing 1 and injuring 6 others
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/10/us/baltimore-maryland-house-explosion/index.html
One woman died and six people were hospitalized in serious condition after a major explosion in a residential area of Baltimore, according to Baltimore City Fire Department spokeswoman Blair Adams.
'Yo Semite' t-shirts are a big hit for one Jewish museum following President Trump's blunder
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/yo-semite-shirt-trnd/index.html
Boosted by President Trump's blooper mispronouncing the name of Yosemite National Park, the National Museum of American Jewish History has seen sales for a t-shirt with the saying "Yo Semite" skyrocket.