Thursday, July 16, 2020
מאמר היום על גיוס בנות, גם הודי'ה א. IDF vs. Teenage Girls
BS"D
¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:
Today, it was reported that the Israeli Army threatened a
(religious) teenage girl, Hodoya E. (see below), with arrest - over her
refusal to violate Torah Law by submitting to a Rayon Das (a military
"Religiosity"-Interrogation tribunal). Please keep posted to our update
link at the end of the article copied below.
What
can we actually do about it? As Jews of the Diaspora, we have an
additional capacity to impede such crimes against innocent girls
(religious or otherwise, Jewish or gentile). We have the ability to
share information intelligently within our spheres of influence,
specifically writing letters to the editor (of any publication), and
getting sincere Rabbonim and community activists informed,
prompting them to speak out against this religious persecution of noshim
tzidkoniyos (righteous women, in the merit of whom the Final
Redemption will come; see Kav HaYashar 82; Yalkut Shimoni on Rus 4, 606,
end). Please share (either of) these links:
¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
{The similar version below (posted today at https:// firstamendmentactivist. blogspot.com/2020/07/idf- targeting-religious-girls-in. html) was included in the weekly CJV email of this week, in the Israel section, as usual.}
Israeli Army Draft Office Flagging Girls in Less Religious Schools for Religious Interrogation
23 Tammuz, 5780 °° July 15, '20
Parshas Matos - Masei
By Binyomin Feinberg
feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com
Parshas Matos - Masei
By Binyomin Feinberg
feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com
As
reported previously, in a major development over the past several
weeks, the Draft Office of the Israeli Army (operating under the entity
"Meitav") is flagging teenage girls who study, or studied in
less-religious or non-religious schools - summoning them to a "Rayon
Dat" (a military "Religiosity Interview," or, more often,
interrogation). These girls are now receiving this order even without
stepping into the Draft Office. Until now, it was generally only after
entering the Draft Office that such girls would be identified, and only
then confronted with a summons to the Draft Office. Now, girls are
facing this formidable challenge earlier in the process, as young as
about 16-1/2 years old, soon after they obtain their religiosity
verification from the Rabbanut (Israeli Rabbinate). Apparently, there's a new Army protocol in place to flag all such girls on a wholesale basis.
Moreover, the Rabbanut itself - primarily in Jerusalem - has lately reported to have been asking multiple girls where they study, in a seemingly innocent, but potentially catastrophic departure from Rabbanut protocol. Coincidentally, girls asked that question are finding themselves suddenly summoned to the Draft Offices. Is the Rabbanut sharing that information with the Draft Office? Are we to assume it's merely coincidental that these same girls are shortly thereafter being ordered to appear before a military panel for religiosity interrogations?
Moreover, the Rabbanut itself - primarily in Jerusalem - has lately reported to have been asking multiple girls where they study, in a seemingly innocent, but potentially catastrophic departure from Rabbanut protocol. Coincidentally, girls asked that question are finding themselves suddenly summoned to the Draft Offices. Is the Rabbanut sharing that information with the Draft Office? Are we to assume it's merely coincidental that these same girls are shortly thereafter being ordered to appear before a military panel for religiosity interrogations?
Even
if the Rabbanut is in fact not providing that information to Army
headhunters, it's apparent - to volunteer women assisting these teenage
girls - that the recent Rabbanut shift in policy (questioning girls about their schooling while they are simply seeking religiosity documentation) is indicative of some form of Army-Rabbanut coordination.
Activist volunteers with "Chomosaich" report that about NINE such girls now are now facing Rayon Dat interview appointments - despite having followed proper procedures to avoid that. A lawyer active assisting the girls is running up against a brick wall.
Thus, these girls will likely need either a more expensive lawyer, or face the prospects faced by other female religious objectors, including threat of arrest, incarceration, and abuse by police, prison, and judicial authorities, as recently experienced by Hadasah Margolit Yakovov (20 y/o daughter of a Chareidi Bucharian immigrants), released after almost a month in Military Prison Four in wake of her refusal to enlist (see last week's post http://daattorah.
One
example is the current Army pursuit Hodoyah E. Noteworthy is that in a
written response this week to her attorney, Meitav conveniently neglects
to address the recent Rabbanut directive to provide Corona-period
extensions to girls requiring Rabbanut assistance, as raised in a letter
the attorney sent on behalf of Hodoyah in June.
Furthermore,
whatever explanation the Army may proffer to explain this needs to be
seen in context of timing. They're embarking on this new policy just as
Corona is resurgent. Does the risk of not drafting a few girls actually
justify the risk of endangering yet more people within the Army and in
the civilian population?
Volunteers
with "Chomosaich" observe that if this latest Army escalation against
traditional and Mizrachi girls is left unchecked, then soon - G-d forbid
- the only girls guaranteed their religious service exemption
entitlements will be Chareidi girls of politically- connected affiliations.
###
"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."
-- Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)
.....
Update link for the month of Tammuz to check in case we post during the week between our regular Wednesday/ Thursday posts:
https://docs.google.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This week's post ends there, but for additional reportage and perspective, these links may be useful:
Selected reports on conscription of girls/ women into the Israeli military:
http://firstamendmentactivist. blogspot.com/2020/01/never- again.html
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2020/01/protesting- antireligious-persecution-by. html
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/12/modern-day- yedudis-heroism.html
~~~
These 2 appeared in the weekly email of the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) week of Parshas Vayishlach 5780 (12 Dec.,19)
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/12/facilitating- suicide_51.html
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/ 2019/12/crime-wave-strikes- israeli-girls.html
~~~~~~~~~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/11/breaking- heartbreaking-news-army.html
(Nov. 7, '19)
~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/11/breaking-very- laws-they-make.html
(Nov. 6, '19)
~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/10/racial-profiling- or-pure-antireligious.html
(Oct. 30, '19)
~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/11/female-idf- refuseniks-cheshvan.html
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/11/to-even-close- yeshivos.html
~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/10/outrage-upon- outrage.html
(Parshas Beraishis)
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/10/making-racism- great-again.html
(Oct 8, 2019)
~~~
Violating the Vineyard:
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/08/alh-report-2-28- augviolating-vineyard.html
(28 Aug.)
~~~
Update:
https://daattorah.blogspot. com/2019/09/violating- vineyard-update.html
(4 Ellul, '79; see Jewish Press, Sept.13,'19).
http://firstamendmentactivist.
https://daattorah.blogspot.
https://daattorah.blogspot.
~~~
These 2 appeared in the weekly email of the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) week of Parshas Vayishlach 5780 (12 Dec.,19)
https://daattorah.blogspot.
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot.
(Nov. 7, '19)
~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot.
(Nov. 6, '19)
~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot.
(Oct. 30, '19)
~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot.
https://daattorah.blogspot.
~~~
https://daattorah.blogspot.
(Parshas Beraishis)
https://daattorah.blogspot.
(Oct 8, 2019)
~~~
Violating the Vineyard:
https://daattorah.blogspot.
(28 Aug.)
~~~
Update:
https://daattorah.blogspot.
(4 Ellul, '79; see Jewish Press, Sept.13,'19).
Struggling with Latinos, Trump hypes Goya food fight
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/15/trump-latino-support-goya-2020-364856
For the past week, Latinos have warred on social media after the CEO of Goya Foods effusively praised President Trump at a White House event. Democratic critics like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called
for a boycott and other liberals posted social media videos of
themselves dumping the iconic brand’s signature spices down the drain.
Conservatives fumed about cancel culture or mocked the boycott on
Facebook with memes like “Black Beans Matter.”
On Wednesday, Trump fueled the controversy, posting an Instagram image
of his trademarked thumbs up sign of approval as he sat in the Oval
Office with an array of Goya products in front of him — appearing to
provide an endorsement to a private company from the historic Resolute
Desk.
“@GoyaFoods is doing GREAT. The Radical Left smear machine backfired, people are buying like crazy!” Trump claimed earlier on Twitter.
For
the president, it’s the latest cultural wedge issue to seize on in an
effort to persuade Hispanic voters that the left is too radical — from
redefining Spanish to remove gendered nouns so that Latinos are instead
called “Latinx” to attacking a popular brand that’s synonymous with
Latin American cooking.
Ivanka Trump's love for Goya beans violates ethics rules, say US rights groups
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/16/ivanka-trump-goya-foods-ethics-rules
The White House has defended Ivanka Trump
tweeting a photo of herself holding up a can of Goya beans to buck up a
Hispanic-owned business that she says has been unfairly treated,
arguing she had “every right” to publicly express her support.
Government watchdogs countered that President Donald Trump’s daughter
and senior adviser doesn’t have the right to violate ethics rules that
bar government officials from using their public office to endorse
specific products or groups.
These groups contend Ivanka Trump’s action also highlights broader
concerns about how the president and those around him often blur the
line between politics and governing. The White House would be
responsible for disciplining Ivanka Trump for any ethics violation but
chose not to in a similar case involving White House counselor Kellyanne
Conway in 2017.
Trump himself appeared to back up his daughter on Wednesday by
posting a photo on his Instagram account showing him in the Oval Office
in front of various Goya products arrayed on his desk. As president,
Trump is exempt from many of the rules that federal workers must follow.
Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics,
said the president’s tweet and photo amounted to “an official campaign
by the Trump administration to support Goya, making it all the more
clear that Ivanka’s tweet was a violation of the misuse of position
regulations”.
Shaub left government in 2017 after clashing with the Trump administration over ethics rules.
CNN anchors trash Trump over photo-op with Goya products
https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-jake-tapper-anderson-cooper-chris-cuomo-trump-goya
CNN's most prominent anchors took turns trashing President Trump on Wednesday for expressing his support for Goya products amid the boycott fueled by prominent Democrats.
Conservatives
have been rallying behind the iconic food company after its
president Bob Unanue received backlash for praising Trump at the White
House last week, saying the country is “truly blessed” to have a
president like Trump.
Democrats like New York Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio Cortez and former Obama HUD Secretary Julián Castro were among
those who called for a boycott of Goya products.
Trump’s approval rating on the economy tanks in new poll
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/15/trumps-approval-rating-on-the-economy-tanks-in-new-quinnipiac-poll.html
Key Points
- President Donald Trump’s approval rating on how he’s handling the economy has dropped dramatically in the last month, according to a new poll.
- The poll, from Quinnipiac University, shows that only 44% of people approve of the way Trump is handling the U.S. economy, compared with 52% from the month before.
- The results come just after the release of what Trump called a “spectacular” jobs report, which revealed that the economy in June added 4.8 million jobs, a figure that surpassed projections.
Fact check: Peter Navarro's claims about Dr. Anthony Fauci are misleading, lack context
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/15/fact-check-trump-adviser-navarro-claims-fauci-misleading/5443826002/
Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser to President Donald Trump, has taken aim at Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and a member of the president's coronavirus task force.
Navarro
wrote an opinion piece in USA TODAY that was initially published
Tuesday night – and then the next morning in print – as an "opposing
view" to a newspaper editorial that hailed Fauci a “national treasure” and that said efforts by President Donald Trump or his team to muzzle Fauci would be hazardous.
Bill
Sternberg, USA TODAY's editorial page editor, said
editors approached Navarro about writing the opposing view. The
newspaper has a tradition of offering opposing views to its
editorials. Some of the comments Navarro made echoed ones he had made
earlier about Fauci.
Brad Parscale replaced as Trump's campaign manager
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53426285
Facing a tough re-election campaign, US President Donald Trump has replaced his campaign manager.
Mr Trump said he had substituted Bill Stepien, a field director for his 2016 campaign, in place of Brad Parscale.
Mr
Parscale - who was reportedly blamed by Mr Trump's inner circle for a
poorly attended rally in Oklahoma last month - will stay on as senior
adviser.
Opinion polls show the president is trailing his Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead of November's election.
Mr
Trump's statement on Wednesday evening said: "Brad Parscale, who has
been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and
data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor
to the campaign."
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
IDF Targeting Girls in Non-religious Schools
BS"D
Israeli Army Draft Office Flagging
Girls in Less Religious Schools for Religious Interrogation - Wholesale
- With Apparent Cooperation of Some Rabbanut Rabbis
-- Traditional & National Religious Girls Bearing Brunt of Recent Escalation; Human-Trafficking Concerns Rise
23 Tammuz, 5780 °° July 15, '20
Parshas Matos - Masei
By Binyomin Feinberg
feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com
"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."
-- Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)
.....
Update link for the month of Tammuz to check in case we post during the week between our regular Wednesday/ Thursday posts:
https://docs.google.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As reported previously, in a major development over the past several weeks, the Draft Office of the Israeli Army (operating under the entity "Meitav") is flagging teenage girls who study, or studied in less-religious or non-religious schools - summoning them to a "Rayon Dat" (a military "Religiosity Interview," or, more often, interrogation). These girls are now receiving this order even without stepping into the Draft Office. Until now, it was generally only after entering the Draft Office that such girls would be identified, and only then confronted with a summons to the Draft Office. Now, girls are facing this formidable challenge earlier in the process, as young as about 16-1/2 years old, soon after they obtain their religiosity verification from the Rabbanut (Israeli Rabbinate). Apparently, there's a new Army protocol in place to flag all such girls on a wholesale basis.
Moreover, the Rabbanut itself - primarily in Jerusalem - has lately reported to have been asking multiple girls where they study, in a seemingly innocent, but potentially catastrophic departure from Rabbanut protocol. Coincidentally, girls asked that question are finding themselves suddenly summoned to the Draft Offices. Is the Rabbanut sharing that information with the Draft Office? Are we to assume it's merely coincidental that these same girls are shortly thereafter being ordered to appear before a military panel for religiosity interrogations?
Even
if the Rabbanut is in fact not providing that information to Army
headhunters, it's apparent - to volunteer women assisting these teenage
girls - that the recent Rabbanut shift in policy (questioning girls about their schooling while they are simply seeking religiosity documentation) is indicative of some form of Army-Rabbanut coordination.
Activist volunteers with "Chomosaich" report that about NINE such girls now are now facing Rayon Dat interview appointments - despite having followed proper procedures to avoid that. A lawyer active assisting the girls is running up against a brick wall.
Thus, these girls will likely need either a more expensive lawyer, or face the prospects faced by other female religious objectors, including threat of arrest, incarceration, and abuse by police, prison, and judicial authorities, as recently experienced by Hadasah Margolit Yakovov (20 y/o daughter of a Chareidi Bucharian immigrants), released after almost a month in Military Prison Four in wake of her refusal to enlist (see last week's post http://daattorah.
One
example is the current Army pursuit Hodoyah E. Noteworthy is that in a
written response this week to her attorney, Meitav conveniently neglects
to address the recent Rabbanut directive to provide Corona-period
extensions to girls requiring Rabbanut assistance, as raised in a letter
the attorney sent on behalf of Hodoyah in June.
Furthermore,
whatever explanation the Army may proffer to explain this needs to be
seen in context of timing. They're embarking on this new policy just as
Corona is resurgent. Does the risk of not drafting a few girls actually
justify the risk of endangering yet more people within the Army and in
the civilian population?
Volunteers
with "Chomosaich" observe that if this latest Army escalation against
traditional and Mizrachi girls is left unchecked, then soon - G-d forbid
- the only girls guaranteed their religious service exemption
entitlements will be Chareidi girls of politically- connected affiliations
Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on: Peter Navarro
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/todaysdebate/2020/07/14/anthony-fauci-wrong-with-me-peter-navarro-editorials-debates/5439374002/
Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with
the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted
with him on.
In late January, when I was making the case on behalf of the president to take down the flights from China, Fauci fought against the president’s courageous decision — which might well have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives.
When
I warned in late January in a memo of a possibly deadly pandemic, the
director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
was telling the news media not to worry.
Trade adviser Peter Navarro tears into Fauci in blistering op-ed: ‘Wrong about everything
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trade-adviser-peter-navarro-tears-into-fauci-in-blistering-op-ed-wrong-about-everything
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro tore into Dr. Anthony Fauci in
a stunning op-ed on Wednesday, saying the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases director, who has been a leading voice on the
Coronavirus Task Force, has been “wrong about everything.”
“Dr.
Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has
been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on,” Navarro
wrote in a blistering op-ed for USA Today.
All the Ways the Influential Hydroxychloroquine Study Was Crap
https://gizmodo.com/all-the-ways-the-influential-hydroxychloroquine-study-w-1844378680
A controversial, highly influential study touting the drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid-19—one that helped launch months of research and failed clinical trials—has now been sharply criticized within the pages of the same scientific journal that published it. The new post-publication peer review highlights a variety of serious flaws in the study and concludes that the authors were “fully irresponsible” in how they presented their findings.
The original paper, authored by a team of researchers in France, was published in late March in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. It was said to involve 20 hospitalized patients with confirmed covid-19 who were treated with hydroxychloroquine, some of whom were also given the antibiotic azithromycin. Compared to a control group of patients, the study claimed, people on hydroxychloroquine had lower levels of the virus on average or cleared the infection more quickly; the addition of azithromycin was associated with even faster recovery.
Though there had been earlier, promising trials of hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 elsewhere in the world, the French study sparked massive scientific and political interest in the drug. President Trump himself tweeted about the study the day after it came out, heralding the combination therapy as a “game changer” for the pandemic. Soon after, the U.S. government and others, including the World Health Organization, announced that they would start large-scale trials to test out hydroxychloroquine and the related drug chloroquine.
But it wasn’t long before other scientists began to raise questions about the study, how it was carried out, and the scientists who conducted it, particularly the senior author, a physician and microbiologist named Didier Raoult. Though Raoult had genuinely contributed to important research in the past, he and his lab were also previously accused of glaring errors and misconduct in their published work, with one episode leading to a year-long ban from a prominent microbiology journal. Once his hydroxychloroquine study began making waves, researchers unearthed other alleged examples of data fakery in some of his earlier research.
Rosendaal’s scathing review echoes many of the same criticisms made by outside scientists following the study’s publication. In particular, he condemns the decision by Raoult’s team to exclude from the study’s final results six patients who took hydroxychloroquine, including four whose condition worsened, one of whom eventually died during the study period (none in the control group died). There were also other inconsistencies, such as supplemental material mentioning that a number of asymptomatic patients were included for study while the study’s actual language claimed that it was an examination of hospitalized patients (people without symptoms are unlikely to have been hospitalized for covid-19).
Ex-Harvard Medical School faculty member warns COVID-19 herd immunity is ‘wishful thinking'
https://www.foxnews.com/health/clay-ackerly-coronavirus-herd-immunity-wishful-thinking
A Washington D.C.-based internist and former Harvard Medical School faculty member has claimed the idea that herd immunity may slow the coronavirus pandemic is "wishful thinking" after a 50-year-old patient was infected for a second time with COVID-19.
"During
his first infection, my patient experienced a mild cough and sore
throat," Dr. Clay Ackerly explained in an opinion piece for Vox. "His
second infection, in contrast, was marked by a high fever, shortness of
breath, and hypoxia, resulting in multiple trips to the hospital.
"It
is possible, but unlikely, that my patient had a single infection that
lasted three months," Dr. Ackerly added. "Some Covid-19 patients (now
dubbed 'long haulers') do appear to suffer persistent infections and
symptoms.
"My patient, however, cleared his infection — he had two
negative PCR tests after his first infection — and felt healthy for
nearly six weeks."
Israeli Data Show School Openings Were a Disaster That Wiped Out Lockdown Gains
https://www.thedailybeast.com/israeli-data-show-school-openings-were-a-disaster-that-wiped-out-lockdown-gains
The assessment of Israel’s trajectory has direct bearing on the heated debate underway in the United States between President Donald Trump, who is demanding a nationwide reopening of schools for what appear to be largely political reasons, and health authorities who caution it could put the wider population at risk.
Importantly, on May 17 in Israel it appeared the virus
not only was under control, but defeated. Israel reported only 10 new
cases of COVID-19 in the entire country that day. In the U.S., the
debate often is about reopening schools where the disease is not only
not in decline, but surging.
On Sunday, for instance, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday,
“There’s nothing in the data that suggests that kids being in school is
in any way dangerous.” But that is not the case in Israel, where the
data from June, the last month for which there is a full set of
statistics, appear all too clear.
Galia Rahav, who chairs the department of infectious diseases at the
Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, said in an interview that “what
happened in schools is just too much gathering, day after day, and kids
come home and infect mom and dad. The top numbers of new infections were
in kids.”
Due to the large number of infections among children, she noted, “the
average age of an Israeli with COVID-19 has gone down to between 20 and
39,” while infections in citizens over 65 have held steady. In
Jerusalem, the Israeli city with the highest rate of infection, most of
the people with COVID-19 are under the age of 35.
Article 10: Freedom of expression
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights-act/article-10-freedom-expression
Are there any restrictions to this right?
Although you have freedom of expression, you also have a duty to behave responsibly and to respect other people’s rights.
Public authorities may restrict this right if they can show that
their action is lawful, necessary and proportionate in order to:
- protect national security, territorial integrity (the borders of the state) or public safety
- prevent disorder or crime
- protect health or morals
- protect the rights and reputations of other people
- prevent the disclosure of information received in confidence
- maintain the authority and impartiality of judges
An authority may be allowed to restrict your freedom of expression
if, for example, you express views that encourage racial or religious
hatred.
Trump’s Warped Definition of Free Speech
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/trumps-warped-definition-free-speech/612316/
Palin’s remarks were widely ridiculed at the time. The First Amendment,
commentators on the right and the left pointed out, protects the freedom
of speech, not the freedom from criticism. You have the right to speak,
and others have the right to praise, mock, or ignore you as they see
fit.
As absurd as it may sound, Palin’s bizarre interpretation of the
First Amendment has now been adopted by the president of the United
States. On Tuesday, the social-media company Twitter added a label to
one of the president’s tweets, which falsely declared that mail-in
ballots would be “substantially fraudulent,” urging users to “get the
facts about mail-in voting.” Twitter did not ban Trump from the
platform, or censor his tweet, although it would have been fully within
its rights to do so, and in accordance with its own terms of service. It
merely appended additional context showing that the president’s claim
was false.
In retaliation, Trump signed an executive order
yesterday afternoon directing the federal government to “reconsider the
scope” of Section 230, a provision of federal law that shields
companies from liability for content posted by their users. The First
Amendment was explicitly written to protect the right of citizens to
express opposition to their leaders; it says that Congress “shall make
no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” But to the
president, criticism of his falsehoods is a violation of his free-speech
rights. This position reverses the purpose of the First Amendment,
turning an individual right of freedom of expression into the right of
the state to silence its critics.
This should be obvious, but if your freedom to speak depends on the
president approving of what you say, then you simply don’t have freedom
of speech. The Trumpist defense of state censorship of social media is
that if you do not want your kneecaps broken, then you should make sure
you pay the protection money. Twitter is hardly the first media company
to face this kind of extortion from the president; as my colleague David Graham points out, Trump has attempted to use the authority of his office to silence criticism from the Washington Post, CNN, members of the White House press corps, and even ESPN.
Journalist Bari Weiss skewers New York Times in her resignation letter
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-07-14/bari-weiss-new-york-times-resignation
“Bari Weiss never actually got fired, she is in fact quitting because
she’s mad that all the people at the Times who don’t like her *didn’t*
get fired. But they’ll still turn this into some kind of crusade to
protect people from firing,” tweeted comedian Arthur Chu. “Which is at
least consistent, because Bari Weiss herself LOVES trying to get people
fired.”
“To say I’m against cancel culture is massive
understatement but there is a difference between criticism and getting
someone fired. @bariweiss quit, she wasn’t fired. She quit because
people hurt her feelings. Seems snowflakey to me. You can’t cancel other
people’s speech, either,” tweeted “The Young Turks” host Cenk Uygur.
Judith Miller: Rise and fall of New York Times writer Bari Weiss — a victim of far-left intolerance
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/new-york-times-bari-weiss-judith-miller
Weiss’s departure was quickly hailed by her many critics within and
outside of the paper on social media, among them Glenn Greenwald, who
has called her a “hypocrite” for her alleged efforts to suppress Arab
professors while in college, and for her defense of Israel and some of
its controversial policies as a newspaper writer.
Unemployed Should ‘Find Something New,’ Urge Heirs to Fred Trump’s Fortune
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/find-something-new-trump-donald-ivanka-unemployment.html
The White House has started
a new campaign urging Americans who have bad jobs or no jobs to “Find
Something New.” Ivanka Trump, who has spearheaded this initiative,
explains, “There has never been a more critical time for Americans of
all ages and backgrounds to be aware of the multiple pathways to career
success and gain the vocational training and skills they need to fill
jobs in a changing economy.”
Statistically
speaking, in fact, you probably will not find something. The labor
market is suffering two simultaneous crises: a pandemic that directly
prevents a lot of economic activity from taking place and a broader
failure of demand rippling through the rest of the economy. The more
than 10 percent of working-age adults unable to find regular work are
jobless not because they lack the skills for the needed jobs but because
there is not enough demand for labor.
Ivanka Trump, White House Blasted For ‘Tone Deaf’ Campaign Telling The Unemployed To Find Jobs
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/07/14/ivanka-trump-white-house-blasted-for-tone-deaf-campaign-telling-the-unemployed-to-find-jobs/#63dc86935275
Multiple social media users pointed out that the “Find Something New”
campaign launched on the anniversary of Bastille Day, a turning point
in the French Revolution that led to the dissolution of the country’s
monarchy. Those same users also likened Ivanka Trump’s involvement with
the campaign to Marie Antoinette’s infamous “Let them eat cake”
remark—and the storming of the Bastille was a pivotal event that led to
her eventual beheading.
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