Rep. Eric Swalwell On Russian Bounty Reports: ‘It’s Not A Hoax’ | The Last Word | MSNBC

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.

NYT Op-Ed: ‘You Want A Confederate Monument? My Body Is A Confederate Monument’ | MSNBC

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

 http://primarymodel.com/2020

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."

'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.

Schiff: The One Person Not Outraged By Russian Bounties Is Trump | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Pompeo's Pathetic Press Conference on Russian Bounties on US Troops Contains NO Criticism of Putin

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.

Court sides with publisher of tell-all book by Trump's niece

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/01/media/mary-trump-book-reliable-sources/index.html

 

Bad news for President Trump and his younger brother, Robert Trump, who has been trying to block an unflattering tell all book by the President's niece, Mary Trump, that Simon & Schuster is set to publish in July.

On Wednesday evening, a New York appellate court lifted the temporary restraining order against Simon & Schuster, a decision that allows the publisher to move forward with printing copies of the book and shipping them to retailers. The court left the temporary restraining order in place for Mary Trump until a hearing on July 10.

Make no mistake: This is a blow to Robert Trump's attempt to block the book. Simon & Schuster had already said that it had printed 75,000 copies of the book and shipped copies to booksellers. By July 10's hearing, the publisher will be further along in its preparation for publishing the book on its scheduled release date of July 28. In other words, the horse will be that much closer to being out of the barn.

The appellate court also noted that "while parties are free to enter into confidentiality agreements, courts are not necessarily obligated to specifically enforce them" and said that such agreements are "alternatively enforceable through the impassion of money damages." The suggestion that money damages might be a way to resolve the legal dispute, instead of an injunction, also doesn't appear to bode well for Robert Trump's case...

Partisan divide over virus deepens as Republicans push Trump on masks

https://www.foxnews.com/media/partisan-divide-over-virus-deepens-as-republicans-push-trump-on-masks

At the same time, a whole bunch of prominent Republicans are urging people to wear masks to protect themselves and others. These include Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Chuck Grassley and Dick Cheney. Such Fox News hosts as Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy have also joined the chorus. They were, in effect, breaking with the president.

 

“The recent shift on the political right has left Trump isolated, with the president and his White House staff openly resisting the calls for mask-wearing,” the Washington Post reported.

Sen. Lamar Alexander nailed it at a hearing: “Unfortunately this simple life-saving practice has become part of a political debate that says: If you’re for Trump, you don’t wear a mask. If you’re against Trump, you do.”

The Tennessee Republican says he’s suggested that the president wear a mask occasionally, even though it’s not necessary, because others will follow his lead.

Trump has resisted wearing a mask in public and sounded ambivalent about whether it’s good advice. But yesterday, the message from his party seemed to have gotten through.

“I’m all for masks. I think masks are good,” Trump told Fox Business Network. He said he has worn one and “I sort of liked the way I looked.”

Trump Falsely Asserts Biden Was Fed Questions

https://www.snopes.com/ap/2020/07/01/trump-falsely-asserts-biden-was-fed-questions/

President Donald Trump has fabricated a complaint that Democratic rival Joe Biden was fed questions at a news conference and read his answers from a teleprompter.

 

Fact Check: Trump Falsely Asserts Biden Was Fed Questions

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/ap-fact-check-trump-falsely-asserts-biden-was-fed-questions/2399301/

President Donald Trump has fabricated a complaint that Democratic rival Joe Biden was fed questions at a news conference and read his answers from a teleprompter. This didn't happen.

 

New Information Bolsters Reports On Russian Bounty Intelligence | Andrea Mitchell Reports | MSNBC

Taliban's Confirmation Of Russia Bounties For Americans Is 'Concerning' | MTP Daily | MSNBC

‘Entirely Inadequate’: Gillibrand Slams Intelligence Briefing On Russian Bounties | All In | MSNBC

Fellow Traveler

Ed Henry fired from Fox News over sexual misconduct allegation

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/01/media/ed-henry-fired-fox-news/index.html

 Fox News said Wednesday that Ed Henry, one of its top news anchors, had been fired after the network received a complaint last week of sexual harassment from years ago.

 

Months after Henry was sidelined, Ailes was forced out of Fox News after numerous women came forward and accused him of sexual harassment and assault. The scandal exposed deep-rooted cultural problems at Fox, sparked numerous lawsuits and led the Murdochs to make sweeping changes.

Bill O'Reilly, once the network's top star, was forced out of the network less than a year later after facing allegations of sexual harassment, which he also denied.

Armed Services Member: When Did We Know About Bounties? | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Black Lives Matter Risks Premier League Support Loss Over Anti-Israel Views

https://www.newsweek.com/premier-league-football-black-lives-matter-racism-equality-1514700

 The movement has been criticized over its comments on "defending the police" and criticism of Israel.

Curtailed by Coronavirus, What the Loss of Summer Camp Means for Kids

https://time.com/5862316/kids-miss-summer-camp-coronavirus/

It wasn’t just the leadership opportunities or seeing his best friends or even escaping months stuck at home because of the coronavirus pandemic that had Rory Sederoff thinking 2020 would be one of his best summers ever.

This would have been the Toronto teenager’s 15th year at Camp Walden, a sleepaway camp in upstate New York where he has spent every summer since he was 3 months old. He had already started rehearsing the speech he was going to give at the end-of-summer banquet, and imagined the exact tree by the waterfront that he would pick to be named in his honor.

Are Zionists and Evangelicals turning against each other in the Holy Land?

https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/are-zionists-and-evangelicals-turning-against-each-other-in-the-holy-land-36224

But for Simpson, it shouldn’t come as a surprise as missionary work is a founding principle of his organisation.

“This subject preaching about Jesus is a touchy one [in Israel]. We do understand that. We have to be sensitive to it,” Simpson admitted.  

“But that’s what we do. That’s what we are. We are Christians that we are called to go to all the world and preach the gospel. That’s what we’re trained to do, and that’s what we’re doing,” Simpson asserted.

 

Evangelicals to the left, Iran to the right

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/SkFIq00u78

Opinion: Trump thirst for more supporters both in conservative circles and voters has firmly brought the evangelical community into the halls of power and influence, but at what cost for him and for us? 

 One of the main differences between evangelicals and other strains of Christianity lies in their relationship with the Bible.

Conservative evangelicals believe that the Bible is the literal truth. For them, it is a sort of prophetic road map for modern life, with events described and prophesied within the scripture destined to come true.

For evangelicals, the most important prophecy is the second coming, the return of Jesus Christ to Earth. The Bible doesn't mention when this will happen, but it does mention where – the land of Israel.

Several senior evangelical pastors meet with Trump on a regular basis. These are the leaders of megachurches with tens of thousands of followers.

Many of these pastors follow the belief of Christian Zionism, the concept that the return of the Jewish people to Israel is just one of a series of events that will trigger the second coming of the Messiah.

According to this theology, God will reward those who help Israel and punish those who don't - a belief that leads directly to a clash with Iran.

 

Jews Welcome Evangelical Love, Money and Influence for Israel. But Call Our Christianity 'Poison'?

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-jews-welcome-evangelical-support-for-israel-but-call-our-preaching-poison-1.8851383

It seems disingenuous that Jewish leaders now blast fervently pro-Israel evangelicals’ faith as toxic, ugly and destructive – just because we won’t, and can’t, stop preaching to Jews

 

'Trump would lose Evangelical support if he doesn't support sovereignty'

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/282851

Evangelical leader Mike Evans, the founder of the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem warned that the Trump Administration risks losing the support of American Evangelicals if it does not recognize Israel's sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.

In an interview with Israel Hayom, Evans praised the Trump Administration for its close relationship with Israel. "Today we have a dream team. The Secretary of State is Mike Pompeo, an Evangelical, and he has changed the direction of the State Department, which has traditionally sought to weaken Israel. Vice President Mike Pence is Israel's biggest supporter in Washington as [Israeli] Ambassador Ron Dermer has stated. And above all is President Trump, who is the biggest supporter the Evangelical community has ever had and the most pro-Israel president who has ever lived."

Addressing the upcoming US presidential elections, Evens said that "the question now is whether Trump wants to be president. The Evangelical community gave Trump the presidency for two reasons: to be pro-life (meaning against abortions) and to support Israel. We have not forgotten who owns the land of Israel or the theological basis for it, We believe that the land belongs to the Jewish people, because that was G-d's decision in the Hebrew Bible and you cannot say that the bible is illegal,"

Trump threatens veto of defense bill over amendment renaming bases that honor Confederates

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-threatens-veto-of-defense-bill-over-amendment-renaming-bases

 

President Trump late Tuesday night threatened to veto the must-pass bill to fund the military for the 2021 fiscal year if it includes an amendment introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., aimed at renaming military assets named after Confederate leaders and generals.

 

Warren added: "Those who complain that removing the names of traitors from these bases ignores history ought to learn some history themselves. These bases were not named in the years following the Civil War. No. They were named decades and decades later, during the Jim Crow era, to strengthen a movement that tried to glorify the Confederacy and reinforce white supremacy."