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?

 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/11/jaime-harrison-lindsey-graham-south-carolina-391886

 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.

Trump’s Executive Orders On Coronavirus Relief May Not Be As Helpful As He Portrays Them | MSNBC

Is it okay to ask a deceased tzaddik to pray on my behalf?

 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/562222/jewish/Is-it-okay-to-ask-a-deceased-tzaddik-to-pray-on-my-behalf.htm

 

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.

 

 

Bill Barr's Remarkable Interview on Fox News and a Preview of Tomorrow's Court Hearing in Flynn Case

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.

Three homes were reduced to rubble in the major gas explosion, Adams said.

'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.

During the signing of the Great American Outdoors Act on August 4, Trump pronounced Yosemite ("yo-sem-it-ee") as "yo semites" while extolling the beauty of the park's trees, and then repeated it -- bungling the name even more -- for good measure a moment later.

The "Yo Semite" shirt has been for sale since 2011, and it has been a popular item at the museum's physical and online stores, according to Emily August, its director of communications and public engagement.

 

Regret

Trump walks out of news conference after reporter asks him about Veterans Choice lie he's told more than 150 times

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/08/politics/trump-veterans-choice-paula-reid/index.html

 President Donald Trump abruptly ended a Saturday news conference after a reporter challenged him on a lie about veterans health care he has told more than 150 times.

Trump, speaking at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, had claimed again that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice program passed -- adding, "They've been trying to get that passed for decades and decades and decades and no president's ever been able to do it, and we got it done."

In fact, former President Barack Obama signed the Choice program into law in 2014. The law, which allowed eligible veterans to be covered by the government for care provided by doctors outside the VA system, was a bipartisan initiative spearheaded by two senators Trump has repeatedly criticized, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the late John McCain of Arizona.

 

 

Fox News clip discredits talking point of right-wing radio

Trump's executive actions 'unworkable, weak and far too narrow': Schumer | ABC News