Saturday, July 4, 2020
President Trump Pushes Racial Division, Flouts Coronavirus Rules at Mt. Rushmore Speech
https://time.com/5862857/trump-mt-rushmore-speech-fourth-of-july/
At the foot of Mount Rushmore and on the eve of Independence Day,
President Donald Trump dug deeper into America’s divisions by accusing
protesters who have pushed for racial justice of engaging in a
“merciless campaign to wipe out our history.”
The president, in remarks Friday night at the South
Dakota landmark, offered a discordant tone to an electorate battered by
a pandemic and seared by the recent high-profile killings of Black
people. He zeroed in on the desecration by some demonstrators of
monuments and statues across the country that honor those who have
benefited from slavery, including some past presidents.
The discord was heightened as the Trump campaign confirmed during the
president’s speech that Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser for the
campaign and the girlfriend of Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr., had
tested positive for the coronavirus while in South Dakota. Both
Guilfoyle and Trump Jr., who serves as a top surrogate for the
president, are isolating themselves and have canceled public events,
according to Sergio Gor, chief of staff to the Trump campaign’s finance
committee.
Trump tries to drag America backward on a very different July 4th
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/04/politics/donald-trump-mount-rushmore-culture-wars-july-4th/index.html
In a jaw-dropping speech that amounted to a culture war bonfire, President Donald Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore Friday night
to frame protesters as a nefarious left-wing mob that intends to "end
America." Those opponents, he argued, are engaged in a "merciless
campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values,
and indoctrinate our children."
Friday, July 3, 2020
Speak Out Against Annexation!
https://cross-currents.com/2020/07/03/speak-out-against-annexation/
Given the guarantees that China gave to the former British colony which
are now being unilaterally broken, it is nothing less than an
annexation. It will bring far greater hardship and sorrow than the one
in the Middle East, to a population three times the size of the West
Bank. We’re not talking checkpoints and denied access to olive trees
here. We are talking about the overnight end to effective civil
liberties for everyone in Hong Kong, and the real prospect of
prosecution and incarceration by a government that has shown itself
willing and able to keep hundreds of millions under its thumb.[1]
Why are we not hearing any outcry from the World Council of Churches, or
the academic world, or the European Parliament? Why no marches on the
Capitol, like the Palestinian Lives Matter one of a few days ago?
Simply put, the morality of these churches and of the university campus ends when it butts heads with providers of cheap tchotchkes.
Hard to beat that for hypocrisy. Especially since this is only the
latest episode in the global game of moral blindness to the many
outrages perpetrated by the Chinese Communist regime. Had the EU
considered a boycott of China, Tibet might be free today, rather than
remaining – after decades of oppression, cultural repression, and murder
– under the thumb of the Communist Party, the only people who count in
the People’s Republic.
Duckworth vows to block over 1,000 military confirmations until Pentagon proves Vindman will be promoted
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., on Thursday announced her intention to block Senate confirmations for 1,123 senior U.S. Armed Forces promotions until Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirms he will not block the "expected and deserved" promotion of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.
Thursday, July 2, 2020
Duckworth threatens to block military nominees unless impeachment witness Vindman gets promotion
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/02/tammy-duckworth-alexander-vindman-military-nominees-348183
Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Thursday announced she'll hold up the
confirmation of more than 1,000 military promotions until Defense
Secretary Mark Esper confirms that the promotion of impeachment witness
Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman will move forward.
"Our
military is supposed to be the ultimate meritocracy," Duckworth said.
"It is simply unprecedented and wrong for any Commander in Chief to
meddle in routine military matters at all, whether or not he has a
personal vendetta against a Soldier who did his patriotic duty and told
the truth — a Soldier who has been recommended for promotion by his
superiors because of his performance. I won’t just sit by and let it
happen, and neither should any of my colleagues.
"This
goes far beyond any single military officer, it is about protecting a
merit-based system from political corruption and unlawful retaliation,"
she added.
A spokesperson for Esper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rep. McCaul admits Trump 'did deserve, probably' to know about Russian bounty intelligence
https://www.foxnews.com/media/mccaul-trump-deserved-know-russian-bounty-intelligence
Congressman Michael McCaul discusses Russian bounty reports and if the intel rose to the level of briefing the president
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told "America's Newsroom" Thursday that President Trump "did deserve, probably, to know" about intelligence that Russian officials had paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants in exchange for the deaths of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee pointed out that Russians working in coordination with the Taliban to kill American troops would be a "significant" divergence from working together to defeat ISIS.
As I examine this whole thing, though, I think the president
did deserve probably to know that this was out there only because [of]
the timing of the peace deal with the Taliban itself that was going on literally two days after this presidential daily briefing came in," he remarked.
Although
the president and the White House have insisted Trump was never briefed
on any intelligence about Russian bounties before The New York Times
reported on the matter June 26, a separate source within the military
told Fox News on Monday that special operations forces raided a Taliban
outpost this year and recovered roughly $500,000. A subsequent interrogation of an Afghan fighter revealed that the money came from Russia.
Trump 2020 campaign accused of ‘ripping off’ Nazi eagle logo
https://globalnews.ca/news/7130932/trump-nazi-eagle-logo-america-first/
Donald Trump‘s re-election campaign has a new “America First” logo — and it looks a lot like the Nazi eagle used by Adolf Hitler and modern white supremacist groups, according to many critics on Twitter.
The logo, which can be found on T-shirts sold through the Trump campaign website,
shows a stylized eagle grasping a circle containing the American flag.
The eagle has its wings spread and its head turned to show its profile.
The Primary Model (2020) 91-95% Certain Trump Will Be Re-elected
Caution: The massive disruptions caused by the Coronavirus outbreak may prompt me to revise the forecast, especially if there is a crack in Trump support.
The Primary Model gives President Trump a 91% chance of winning a possible match-up with Democrat Joe Biden in November, based on primary performance in New Hampshire and South Carolina, plus the first-term electoral benefit. Trump would get 362 electoral votes, Biden 176.
Winning the early primaries is a major key for electoral victory in November. On the Democratic side, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders split the primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina while Trump handily won the Republican Primary in New Hampshire (the GOP primary in South Carolina was cancelled this year).
What favors Trump in 2020 as well is the cycle of presidential elections operating for nearly 200 years, as illustrated by the snapshot since 1960. After one term in the White House the incumbent party is favored to win re-election unlike the situation when it has held office for two or more terms.
'The plague is back big-time - watch out for the weak'
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/282887
Former Defense Minister
Naftali Bennett issues statement warning coronavirus transfers from
young to old; urges meeting elderly only in open
"So I ask that when you go to visit grandparents you meet them outside, in the garden, in the yard, in the open air. The chance of contagion in the open air is a fraction of that in a closed room. If it still has to be indoors, open windows and doors and turn on a fan; the ventilation dramatically reduces the chance of getting infected," he claimed.
Bennett added, "That's why I ask, so that we can continue to open the country, guard the vulnerable, the weak, guard your grandparents and meet them in the open air. Don't underestimate coronavirus, it's not a conspiracy, it's a real thing. We don't deny coronavirus, but we can deal with it together."
"So I ask that when you go to visit grandparents you meet them outside, in the garden, in the yard, in the open air. The chance of contagion in the open air is a fraction of that in a closed room. If it still has to be indoors, open windows and doors and turn on a fan; the ventilation dramatically reduces the chance of getting infected," he claimed.
Bennett added, "That's why I ask, so that we can continue to open the country, guard the vulnerable, the weak, guard your grandparents and meet them in the open air. Don't underestimate coronavirus, it's not a conspiracy, it's a real thing. We don't deny coronavirus, but we can deal with it together."
'I'm all for masks,' says Trump in change of tone
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53258792
US President Donald Trump, long
opposed to wearing a face covering in public, says he is "all for masks"
and they make him look like the Lone Ranger.
With 'Partial Human Remains' Found in Texas, Family of Missing Soldier Vanessa Guillen Say They Believe She Is Dead
https://time.com/5862245/missing-fort-hood-soldier-vanessa-guillen-remains-found/
Guillen’s family allege that the 20-year-old was sexually assaulted
before her disappearance, and said Wednesday that a man they believed to
be the perpetrator of that assault had recently killed himself. Fort
Hood officials announced
separately on Wednesday that one military suspect is dead after killing
himself in Killeen, Texas; authorities said that as law enforcement
agents, not including the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command Special
Agents, tried to “make contact with the suspect, the suspect reportedly
displayed a weapon and took his own life.” The deceased man’s name has
not been released.
Natalie Khawam, the family’s lawyer, said they believe that the man
had sexually harassed Guillen by walking in on and watching her while
she was taking a shower in a locker room.
“How can this happen on a military base?” Lupe Guillen, Vanessa
Guillen’s sister, said through tears.”They didn’t keep my sister safe.”
Khawam explained that Guillen did not report the sexual harassment to
an internal agency because she indicated that “she was afraid to
because the sexual harassment was coming from her superiors” and she
worried about potential retaliation. “She wanted to have a career in the
military and she didn’t want [this] to ruin her career,” Khawam said.
(Guillen did, however, disclose the incident to her sisters, her mother,
her friends and other soldiers on the military base, she said.)
What Vanessa experienced “was not an isolated incident,” Khawam says.
“They are brave soldiers protecting us, and especially now, we need
legislation.”
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is an Iraq war
veteran, also spoke at Wednesday’s event, saying that Congress has
pushed the Department of Defense to adopt necessary for reforms for
years, and while “some changes have been made,” they “have not gone
nearly far enough.”
“What is happening here today is evidence of that,” Gabbard said.
Trump's anti-mask crusade is coming back to bite him
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/02/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-masks-politics-joe-biden-election-2020/index.html
President Donald Trump's refusal to set an example by wearing a face covering, despite growing evidence that it may be one of the most effective ways to slow America's increasingly disastrous coronavirus pandemic, was always a political statement.
Now, as the clinical and electoral damage builds from a resurgent virus that is close to racing out of control after another record day for new cases on Wednesday, the President may be edging, very slowly, toward a rethink.
Yet Trump's position has left him increasingly isolated even from the Republican leaders who have facilitated his unchained presidency, as public health officials and local and state leaders of all political stripes plead with Americans to cover up in public so the country can heal itself.
Far from becoming a mark of strength and defiance, Trump's isolated crusade against masks-- he dubbed himself a "LONE WARRIOR" in a recent tweet, is now emblematic of his denial of a fast-worsening national disaster, a botched federal government response and his refusal to take even the most basic steps to save American lives.
Trump's mask apostasy is an act of rebellion against the establishment figures and scientists and professional officials of the government with which he has been waging an internal war ever since he took his office. It's a natural fit for a lifelong outsider who is personally and politically compelled to break the rules.
The President's slight softening of position Wednesday on wearing a mask came after many of his political allies implicitly repudiated his stance, stressing repeatedly that wearing a mask was not a political act but a gesture of humanity.
"We must have no stigma, none, about wearing masks," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on Tuesday. In hard-hit Texas over the weekend, Vice President Mike Pence -- who has himself spent weeks undermining government messaging on the issue and is loath to get crossways with his boss -- backed wearing a mask. Pence is still, however, not going all in -- typically saying that mask wearing should be done where it is "indicated" by local authorities.
Several of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have begun to worry about the President's reelection chances and have urged a focus on the economy. But other advisers believe he has suffered severe damage amid the pandemic.
"There is a fair amount of concern," one adviser said, describing the President as "frustrated" by recent polling indicating Biden could win the November election by a wide margin.
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