Senate Intel says FBI gave 'unjustified credence' to Steele dossier, Russia 'took advantage' of Trump transition team

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-intel-fbi-steele-dossier-russia-investigation-report

The committee found that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s “presence on the Trump campaign and proximity to then-candidate Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump campaign.”

The committee noted that prior to Manafort joining the Trump campaign in March 2016, Manafort “directly and indirectly communicated” with Russian national, Konstantin Kilimnik and other pro-Russian oligarchs in Ukraine.

“On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to secretly share internal Campaign information with Kilimnik,” the report stated, while noting that the committee was “unable to reliably determine why Manafort shared sensitive internal polling data or Campaign strategy with Kilimnik or with whom Kilimnik further shared that information.”

“The Committee obtained some information suggesting Kilimnik may have been connected to the GRU's hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election,” the report stated.

The committee found that “after the election, Manafort continued to coordinate with Russian persons, particularly Kilimnik and other individuals close to Oleg Deripaska, in an effort to undertake activities on their behalf.”

“Manafort worked with Kilimnik starting in 2016 on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election,” the report found.

The committee added: “Taken as a whole, Manafort's high- level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat.”

Senate Intel Report, Vol. 5: Trump Lied, Manafort Spied, Democracy Nearly Died

Watch Bill Clinton’s Full Speech At The 2020 DNC | NBC News

Chris Wallace calls Bill Clinton's DNC speech a 'cogent argument' against Trump's coronavirus response

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chris-wallace-bill-clinton-cogent-argument-coronavirus

 Despite former president Bill Clinton's diminished role in the Democratic Party, he made a "cogent argument" against President Trump's handing of the coronavirus pandemic on the second night of the Democratic National Convention, "Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace said Tuesday.

"It was only five minutes. As I say, it was pre-taped," Wallace said. "But I thought he made a more cogent argument ... about how Donald Trump has mishandled the coronavirus than any I've heard from anybody."

Why the U.S. Is Losing the War on COVID-19

 https://time.com/5879086/us-covid-19/

It is a frightening time to live in the United States. COVID-19, a novel disease as ruthless as it is seemingly random, is picking us off by the thousands; even many of those who “recover” may never truly be the same again. The pandemic has exposed the gulf between what this country promises for its citizens and what it actually delivers. And as the U.S. barrels toward Election Day, the outbreak is sure to complicate the voting process, with potentially disastrous results.

 The U.S. is surely losing the war on COVID-19, but it did not have to be this way. Of the G-7 countries—the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, Japan, Germany and Italy—only we have an outbreak that continues to spin out of control. Some other nations, like New Zealand, have even come close to eradicating COVID-19 entirely (a somewhat easier feat in a less populated and more isolated country, to be sure). Depressingly, in the months before the pandemic, the U.S. was considered to be among the countries best prepared to handle a major outbreak.

 

Editorial: GOP convention taps the McCloskeys to speak. A celebration of recklessness.

 https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-gop-convention-taps-the-mccloskeys-to-speak-a-celebration-of-recklessness/article_78eafd54-5c7f-5ae8-bec9-a1f6226d377b.html

 No, it’s not the setup of a Saturday Night Live skit. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who recklessly waved guns at protesters marching past their home in June, are actually slated to speak at the Republican National Convention next week. What does it say about today’s GOP that leaders would elevate this couple as representative of Republican values?

The McCloskeys are the personal-injury lawyer couple who stood barefoot outside their gated-street Central West End home brandishing firearms as protesters walked by en route to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house. He cradled a semi-automatic rifle; she held a small handgun. Their muzzle awareness was so sloppy, they pointed their guns at times directly at the crowd or at each other.

 Our anti-showboating stance applies equally to the McCloskeys, who no one should mistake as role models. As the Post-Dispatch has reported, these confrontation junkies have sued neighbors, employers, tenants, their own relatives. They’ve sued their neighborhood trustees because, neighbors allege, they wanted to bar gay couples. Mark McCloskey once destroyed a beehive placed near his home by Jewish school children as part of their curriculum, leaving a note threatening to sue. “The children were crying in school,” a rabbi told the Post-Dispatch.

UAE official reportedly rebuffs Netanyahu denial he okayed F-35 sale

https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-uae-official-says-netanyahu-approved-us-sale-of-advanced-jets/

A United Arab Emirates official on Tuesday night reportedly pushed back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s denial that last week’s normalization agreement included a provision green-lighting a US sale of advanced weaponry to the Gulf nation, claiming the Israeli leader was aware of the multi-billion-dollar arms deal and signed off on it.

The Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported on Tuesday morning, citing American and Emirati sources, that last week’s US-brokered agreement included language to supply the Arab Gulf nation with advanced weapons systems, including American F-35s.

Senate Intelligence Committee Report Says Trump Campaign Was Eager To Accept Help From Foreign Power

Trump Openly Hates Over Half The Country

Rabbi Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg, leading Israeli rabbi, hospitalized after stroke

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/285318

Over more than 50 years, Rabbi Goldberg has given hundreds of Torah lectures at Religious Zionist institutions, and he served as president of dozens of Religious Zionist institutions.

Rabbi Goldberg also served as the yeshiva dean of the Lev Academic Center, and the head of the Shevet Mechokek yeshiva for rabbinic judges.

The public is asked to pray for the complete recovery of Rabbi Zalman Nehemiah, the son of Freidel.

It’s time for the Harvey Weinstein scandal to refocus attention on Donald Trump

 https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/16/is-it-time-for-the-harvey-weinstein-sexual-assault-scandal-to-refocus-attention-donald-trump/

 As Donald Jr. asserts that Weinstein must clearly be guilty, given the number of accusers, and that Hollywood and Democrats are somehow complicit, he of course is engaging in President Trump’s habit of projecting his own questionable behavior on other people.

After all, Donald Jr.’s arguments could just as easily apply to his father’s own multiple sexual harassment allegations and the way that Republicans have stood by him, Blake and Helderman said.

 Weinstein has become a pariah in Hollywood and pretty much everywhere else.

Meanwhile, Trump is president of the United States, and leading Republicans rarely say anything negative about him. It is true that many in the Republican establishment haven’t actually jumped to use the Weinstein scandal against liberals, not like Donald Jr.

But in the end, liberals have taken action over their alleged predator — however belated and imperfect. And they aren’t done with the soul searching. But leading Republicans have done what with Trump over this issue?

 

Did Michelle Obama Praise Harvey Weinstein as a ‘Wonderful Human Being’ in 2013?

 https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/michelle-obama-harvey-weinstein/

 The former first lady thanked Weinstein for his role in a White House student film event — four years before dozens of women first publicly accused him of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment.

 

Michelle Obama delivers keynote speech from first night of the Democratic National Convention

Fox News Says Michelle Obama 'Flayed' Trump As Hosts Praise DNC Speech

 https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-praises-michelle-obama-dnc-speech-1525752

"When you talk about authenticity, she has it in spades. She has that voice, she has clarity, and she knows what she is out there wanting to do. She was trying to get everybody to really focus and then she had a call to action—ask for your ballot tonight. I think that the DNC, if they look over the course of the night, the first virtual convention of our history, they would say that Michelle Obama stuck the landing."

 Wallace agreed. "Michelle Obama, as she said, doesn't like politics and she said that this speech was her main contribution to the Biden campaign," he said.

 "It was a heck of a contribution. She really flayed, sliced and diced Donald Trump, talking about the chaos and confusion and lack of empathy, especially, coming from this president and from this White House."