Sunday, April 21, 2019
The Attorney General Said There Was 'No Collusion.' But Trump Associates Still Interacted With Russians More Than 100 Times
Time
Attorney General William Barr’s message at a press conference Thursday morning was crystal clear: There was “no collusion” between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
While Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found that Russia interfered in the election in an effort to undermine the Clinton campaign, no one in Trump’s orbit — or “any American” for that matter, Barr added — knowingly assisted Russia in that effort.
But while Mueller may not have found any evidence that Trump associates conspired with Russia to interfere in the election, they nonetheless had a lot of contact with Russians leading up to Election Day. In fact, investigators have found that Trump and at least 17 of his campaign officials and advisors had more than 100 contacts between Trump associates and Russians, belying the campaign’s November 2016 claim that “there was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.” According to reporting, many others associated with Trump were told about contacts with Russian-linked individuals.
TWO MILLION ISRAELIS UNVACCINATED OR PARTIALLY VACCINATED FOR MEASLES
.jpost
More than two million Israelis are either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated for the measles, according to a Channel 13 report.
An outbreak of the measles has been worrying Israelis for months as it spread throughout the country, as well as in the rest of the world. But Israeli media reports on Tuesday night exposed the severity of the situation and the difficulty in solving the crisis.
The Health Ministry claims that it has only 115,000 doses of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine available and 100,000 additional doses of the MMRV vaccine, which combines the diminished measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, according to Channel 13.
State Comptroller Yosef Shapira has considered examining the Health Ministry’s handling of the recent measles outbreak, according to a report released in January.
The comptroller’s office contacted infectious disease and public health experts, and is working on compiling data about past efforts regarding the measles outbreak, examining if they were sufficient.
However, no formal decision has been made so far over the next steps to take in combating the outbreak.
The ministry released a statements in the past warning the general public about the dangers of measles, including that one out of every ten patients requires hospitalization after contracting the virus.
Mueller report unable to conclude 'no criminal conduct occurred' on obstruction
cnn
The 448-page report, which includes two volumes and appendixes, paints a starkly different picture than the one laid out by Attorney General William Barr. On Thursday morning, before the report was released, Barr said that Mueller's investigation did not establish a conspiracy with the Russian government and that Mueller did not make a decision on obstruction. But the full report lays out a significantly more complicated picture as Mueller's team weighed whether to prosecute cases.
The report includes multiple episodes that were previously unknown, stemming from both the collusion and obstruction investigations, which are likely to fuel investigations in Congress into Trump. It's also likely to add to the wave of criticism Barr has faced from Democrats, who were infuriated that he held a press conference Thursday morning.
Mueller wrote he accepted the Justice Department opinion that a sitting President cannot be indicted. But the special counsel report rejected the Trump team's legal argument that a President cannot commit obstruction of justice, leaving the door open for Congress to continue to investigate Trump.
"With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice," the report says.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, whose committee is investigating Trump, told reporters he thought it was "probably written with the intent of providing Congress a roadmap."
Sarah Sanders keeps digging herself in deeper after Mueller showed she lied
vox
Press secretary Sarah Sanders was caught lying several times in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, and now she’s defending herself with more misdirections.
During a string of media appearances following the release of the Mueller report on Thursday, Sanders has faced questions about a claim she made during a May 2017 press briefing that she later admitted was false during testimony to Mueller’s team. In an attempt to justify President Donald Trump’s decision to fire then FBI director James Comey, Sanders told reporters that “countless members of the FBI” had contacted her to say they had lost confidence in Comey, when in fact that wasn’t the case.
On Thursday evening and Friday morning, Sanders repeatedly downplayed that lie as a mere “slip of the tongue.” But as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pointed out to her in an interview on Friday morning, she used the line about “countless members of the FBI” multiple times in the days following Comey’s firing — a revelation undercutting her claim that she merely misspoke.
“You said it was a ‘slip of the tongue’ when you talked about ‘countless FBI members,’ yet you repeated it twice the very next day,” Stephanopoulos said. “That’s not a slip of the tongue, Sarah, that’s a deliberate false statement.”
Sanders, however, refused to own it, and bizarrely blamed her lie on Democrats.
Friday, April 19, 2019
Mueller had everything he needed to charge Trump with obstruction, but didn't
cnn
Mueller's report Thursday walked through excruciating detail of evidence in the obstruction of justice investigation and legal analysis, hitting over and over again how prosecutors had enough to meet the legal threshold for a case against Trump.
The special counsel examined multiple incidents for potential obstruction. It showed how Trump's actions crossed the threshold for a case when Trump confronted former FBI Director James Comey to "let" national security adviser Michael Flynn go; when Trump fired Comey; when Trump directed his former White House counsel Don McGahn to shut down Mueller; and when Trump tweeted about his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort's charges as he headed to trial.
In each of these situations, Mueller found evidence that Trump took steps to harm an investigation, had the ability to harm an investigation and had a personal motivation to harm the investigation.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Mueller report
https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf
Less than a month after Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrapped up a nearly two-year investigation, Americans today can read Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — minus the portions redacted by the Attorney General William Barr’s Department of Justice, that is.
The almost 400-page report, which covers the special counsel’s findings on Russian interference and whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice, was publicly released after Barr held a press conference Thursday morning, during which he defended Trump.
There are a number of different ways to read the redacted version of the report. Here’s how you can read the findings yourself:
Directly from the Department of Justice:
The most direct way to see the Mueller report is to visit the special counsel’s website, which posted the redacted report after it was delivered to Congress on Thursday morning. The website also contains links to other documents related to the special counsel investigation, including Roger Stone’s indictment and Michael Cohen’s plea agreement.
FOX NEWS HOST SAYS WILLIAM BARR WAS ALMOST 'ACTING AS COUNSELOR FOR THE DEFENSE' OF DONALD TRUMP IN MUELLER REPORT PRESS CONFERENCE
Newsweek
Fox News host Chris Wallace suggested Thursday that Attorney General William Barr was “acting as counselor for the defense” of President Donald Trump during Barr's press conference in advance of his release of special counsel Robert Mueller's full report on Russian meddling in U.S. elections.
“Obviously, the president was very frustrated with the actions of his first attorney general, because of the fact that he felt that Jeff Sessions was not protecting him was not functioning in that role,” Wallace said, appearing as an analyst on Fox News' America’s Newsroom following the press conference. He suggested that Trump specifically chose Barr to then–former Attorney General Sessions with the expectation that he would be more loyal.
Brooklyn measles outbreak: How a glossy booklet spread anti-vaccine messages in Orthodox Jewish communitie
nbcnews
As New York officials declared a public health emergency in parts of Brooklyn this week, establishing mandatory vaccinations in an effort to stop the city’s worst measles outbreak in almost 30 years, health advocates pointed to what they believe is a major source of vaccine misinformation in the affected neighborhoods.
The false messages that they say convinced hundreds of New Yorkers not to vaccinate their children weren’t spread in a Facebook group or on YouTube, but through a glossy magazine written by and for Orthodox Jewish parents. Copies of the magazine were shared in a way that seems old-fashioned in the age of misinformation — through family, friends and neighbors.
“The Vaccine Safety Handbook” looks legitimate but is filled with wild conspiracy theories and inaccurate data. Published by an anonymously led group called Parents Educating and Advocating for Children’s Health, or PEACH, the handbook disputes the well-established dangers of illnesses like measles and polio, challenges the effectiveness of vaccines in eradicating those illnesses, and likens the U.S. government's promotion of vaccines to the medical atrocities of Nazi Germany.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Families sue DC synagogue preschool, alleging it ignored child sexual abuse
The families of eight children who attended the preschool at a prominent Washington, D.C., synagogue have filed a lawsuit accusing the school of ignoring signs that a teacher was abusing children.
The civil suit accuses the school of failing to protect the children from “a known and avoidable risk of sexual abuse” by a teacher employed at the Washington Hebrew Congregation’s Edlavitch-Tyser Early Childhood Center from 2014 until he was suspended in 2018 over allegations that he “may have engaged in inappropriate conduct involving one or more children.”
A spokeswoman for Washington Hebrew, Amy Rotenberg, said the temple is still reviewing the lawsuit, The Washington Post reported.
“In August 2018, Washington Hebrew Congregation immediately reported the allegations to DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPDC) and Child Protective Services as soon as we learned of them,” Rotenberg said in an email. “Since that moment and for the past eight months we have continually and fully cooperated with the ongoing criminal investigation.
“We have taken this matter seriously and have kept the community regularly apprised of what we know,” she wrote.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia told CNN on Monday evening that an investigation into alleged sexual abuse of children at the school is ongoing.
Washington Hebrew, which is affiliated with the Reform movement, has about 3,000 member families and is the oldest congregation in the city. The synagogue has deep roots in Washington’s political establishment and counts among its members prominent influencers of both parties.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Donald Trump's Changing Positions On Releasing His Taxes
time
Donald Trump said he would release his tax returns. Then he said he’d do it after an audit. Now he says the public doesn’t care.
Over the years, the president and members of his Administration have changed tactics several times on the question of whether he would follow a decades-old precedent and release his old tax returns.
In a 2014 interview, Trump said he would release the returns, without any qualifications.
“If I decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax returns, absolutely,” he told “Ireland AM.” “And I would love to do that.”
Pro-Israel groups to Trump: Let Israel decide on sovereignty
Twenty diverse pro-Israel organizations sent a joint letter to President Trump today, urging the President to permit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a free hand to extend Israeli sovereignty over Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. The letter comes in response to one from left-wing groups, dominated by arms of the American Reform and Conservative Jewish movements, calling upon the President to indicate that he will "not support any Israeli proposals to annex the West Bank, in whole or in part."
The new letter was organized by Rabbi Pesach Lerner and Rabbi Yaakov Menken of the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) and Rabbi Yechezkel Moskowitz of the Jewish Heritage Preservation Society. "It is important for those who believe in traditional values, who believe in a strong and safe State of Israel, who appreciate the actions of President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, to speak up," said Rabbi Lerner, President of the CJV. "We cannot allow the liberal left to be the only voice."
Signatories on the new letter included well-known organizations such as the Endowment for Middle East Truth, the Rabbinical Alliance of America, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Zionist Organization of America, and Turning Point USA. "We are delighted to see such a strong alliance of Jewish and non-Jewish, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, political and apolitical organizations joining together in a single letter supporting Israel's right of self-determination," added Rabbi Moskowitz. "But what made this possible is that the letter simply rebuts an effort to pressure Israel to bow to anti-Israel advocates."
The pro-Israel coalition letter fails to address some of the demands found in the first, as some signatories would have preferred. Mort Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America, maintained that "the 'two-state solution,' endorsed as the 'only formulation to resolve the conflict' in the earlier letter, is a euphemism for creating an Iranian-Hezbollah-Hamas-Fatah-Palestinian-Arab terror state in the Jewish homeland. It would place all of Israel in existential danger."
Rav Kook on Pesach
We are charged to sing out in joy - God answered our prayers and rescued us from the bondage of Egyptian slavery:
| "I am Eternal your God Who raises you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." (Psalms 81:11) |
What is the connection between our redemption from Egypt and "opening our mouths wide" to receive God's blessings?
Ongoing Elevation
A careful reading of this verse will note two peculiarities about the word ha-ma'alcha, 'Who raises you up.' First of all, it does not say that God 'took you out' of Egypt, but that He 'raises you up.' It was not merely the act of leaving Egypt that made its eternal impact on the destiny of the Jewish nation, and through it, all of humanity. The Exodus was an act of elevation, lifting up the souls of Israel.
Additionally, the verse is not in the past tense but in the present - 'Who raises you up.' Is it not referring to a historical event? We may understand this in light of the Midrash (Tanchuma Mikeitz 10) concerning the creation of the universe. The Midrash states that when God commanded the formation of the rakiya, the expanse between the upper and lower waters (Gen. 1:6), the divide between the heavens and the earth began to expand. This expansion would have continued indefinitely had the Creator not halted it by commanding, 'Enough!' In other words, unless they are meant only for a specific hour, Divine acts are eternal, continuing forever. So too, the spiritual ascent of 'raising you up from Egypt' is a perpetual act of God, influencing and uplifting the Jewish people throughout the generations.
There is no limit to this elevation, no end to our spiritual aspirations. The only limitations come from us, if we choose to restrict our wishes and dreams. But once we know the secret of ha-ma'alcha and internalize the message of a Divine process that began in Egypt and continues to elevate us, we can aim for ever-higher spiritual goals.
It is instructive to note the contrast between the Hebrew word for 'Egypt' - Mitzrayim, literally, 'limitations' - and the expression, 'open up wide.' God continually frees us from the confining restraints of Mitzrayim, enabling us to strive for the highest, most expansive aspirations.
Now we may understand why the verse concludes with the charge, 'Open your mouth wide.' We should not restrict ourselves. We need to rise above all self-imposed limitations and transcend all mundane goals and petty objectives. If we can 'open our mouths wide' and recognize our true potential for spiritual greatness, then 'I will fill it' - God will help us attain ever-higher levels of holiness.
Seven common myths about quantum physics
I have been popularising quantum physics, my area of research, for many years now. The general public finds the topic fascinating and covers of books and magazines often draw on its mystery. A number of misconceptions have arisen in this area of physics and my purpose here is to look at the facts to debunk seven of these myths.
Don't worry, you don't need to know much about quantum physics to read this article. I will mostly be explaining what quantum physics isn't, rather than what it is…
1. "Quantum physics is all about uncertainty"
Wrong! Quantum physics is probably the most precise scientific discipline ever devised by humankind. It can predict certain properties with extreme accuracy, to 10 decimal places, which later experiments confirm exactly.
This myth originated partly in Werner Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle". He showed that there is a limit to how accurately two quantities – for instance a particle's speed and its position – can be measured simultaneously. When quantum physics is used to calculate other quantities, such as the energy, or the magnetic property of atoms, it is astounding in its precision.
2. "Quantum physics can't be visualised."
Quantum physics describes objects that are often "strange" and difficult to put into pictures: wave functions, superimposed states, probability amplitude, complex numbers to name but a few. People often say that they can only be understood with mathematical equations and symbols. And yet we physicists are always making representations of it when we teach and popularise it. We use graphs, drawings, metaphors, projections and many other devices. Which is just as well, because students and even veteran quantum physicists like us need a mental image of the objects being manipulated. The contentious part is the accuracy of these images, as it is difficult to represent a quantum object accurately.
Working together with designers, illustrators and video makers, the Physics Reimagined research team seeks to "draw" quantum physics in all its forms: folding activities, graphic novels, sculptures, 3-D animations, and on and on.
3. "Even scientists don't really understand quantum physics"
One of the leading lights in the field, Richard Feynman himself said: "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." But he then immediately added: "I am going to tell you what nature behaves like." Niels Bohr, one of the founding fathers of the discipline, gives a good summary: "Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it."
Physicists do understand what they're doing when they're manipulating the quantum formalism. They just need to adapt their intuitions to this new field and its inherent paradoxes.
4. "A few brilliant theorists came up with the entire concept of quantum physics"
Monday, April 15, 2019
Measles outbreak sparks fears, renews tensions over mandatory vaccination
Over 200 cases of measles have been confirmed in the U.S. in the past few months. About half of them occurred in the Pacific Northwest, leading Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to declare an emergency and the state legislature to propose further restricting, or even eliminating, inoculation exemptions. Nonetheless, opposition to mandatory vaccines remains fierce. Special correspondent Cat Wise reports
Palestinian state likely not in US proposed peace plan: Report
newsweek
aljazeera
JARED KUSHNER'S MIDDLE EAST PEACE PLAN PANNED BY FORMER EUROPEAN LEADERS BEFORE IT'S EVEN RELEASED
European leaders have criticized the Trump administration’s approach to a Middle East peace plan, arguing that the current U.S. government had abandoned international norms.
In an open letter written to The Guardian on Sunday, a group of nearly 40 former high-ranking European leaders, including Sweden’s former Prime Minister Carl Bildt, Germany’s former foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel, the U.K.’s former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and Belgium's former Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, argued that Europe must continue to support a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine regardless of what the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan looks like.
“Unfortunately, the current U.S. administration has departed from longstanding US policy and distanced itself from established international legal norms,” the letter reads. “It has so far recognized only one side’s claims to Jerusalem and demonstrated a disturbing indifference to Israeli settlement expansion. The U.S. has suspended funding for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and for other programs benefiting Palestinians—gambling with the security and stability of various countries located at Europe’s doorstep,” it continued.
aljazeera
A United States's proposal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, dubbed "the deal of the century", will likely not include a fully sovereign Palestinian state, the Washington Post reported.
According to sources familiar with the main elements of the deal, the agreement pledged practical improvements in the lives of Palestinians but stops short of securing a Palestinian state.
The White House is expected to reveal its long-awaited peace deal, spearheaded by Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, later this year.
While officials have kept details of the plan secret, comments from Kushner and other US officials suggest that it "does away with statehood as the starting premise of peace efforts", the Washington Post reported.
The plan is likely to focus heavily on Israeli security concerns.
It revolves around a proposal that foresees major infrastructure and industrial work, particularly in the besieged Gaza Strip.
For the plan to succeed or even pass the starting gate, it will need at least initial buy-in from both Israel and the Palestinians as well as from the Gulf Arab states, which officials say will be asked to substantially bankroll the economic portion.
NYC bus driver refuses to stop for haredi man over measles fears
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/261846
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is investigating a complaint by a haredi man, who alleges that a bus driver refused to stop for him at a Brooklyn bus stop over the current measles outbreak.
The man said that the bus driver drove past the stop in the largely Orthodox-populated neighborhood of Williamsburg last week but that he caught up with it after it got stuck in traffic. The bus driver eventually let him on, covered her face with her sweater, and refused to accept the man’s transfer, while shouting “Measles! Go in!” the Brooklyn Paper reported.
The incident was reported to the MTA on Thursday by the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, which is working with the city to curb the measles outbreak by educating the community and encouraging vaccination, according to The Forward.
“The measles outbreak should not be used as an excuse for antisemitism,” the group said in a tweet.
A second tweet from the group added that: “Facts are, about 95% of the community is vaccinating. We, the Rabbis and community leaders, are working hard to increase it. Not justification to attack the entire community for the shortcomings of a few.”
The incident reportedly occurred several days before New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a public health emergency over the measles outbreak in Brooklyn’s haredi Orthodox community.
There have been 285 reported cases of measles in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community since October, including 246 children. The Brooklyn outbreak has been tied to an unvaccinated child who contracted the disease during a trip to Israel, The Washington Post reported.
Rabbi David Niederman, president of United Jewish Organization, told the Brooklyn Paperthat haredi Jews in Williamsburg are being harassed on the streets with people shouting “Jews, measles” at them.
Sunday, April 14, 2019
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