Sunday, September 13, 2020
McEnany calls out White House press corps for lack of interest in Mueller team wiping phones
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcenany-calls-out-press-mueller-phone-wiping
The White House press corps isn't paying enough attention to new and important developments surrounding the Justice Department's conduct in the Russia investigation, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on "Hannity" Friday.
"They don't care," McEnany told host Sean Hannity. "How many times have I been asked questions about very legitimate things like Michael Flynn, the injustice done to him?
"Now we learn what Mueller's team was doing," she said. "Several dozens, think about that, several dozens of devices returned damaged, wiped clean, some of them intentionally so. One of those devices was Andrew Weissmann's ... who was rebuked 9-0 by the Supreme Court for prosecutorial overreach and misconduct -- and Lisa Page too, among these offenders.
Trump officials interfered with CDC reports on Covid-19
The health department’s politically appointed communications aides have demanded the right to review and seek changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly scientific reports charting the progress of the coronavirus pandemic, in what officials characterized as an attempt to intimidate the reports’ authors and water down their communications to health professionals.
Trump aides review CDC coronavirus reports to better align with president's upbeat messaging: report
The president's political aides have successfully demanded to review and, in some cases, modify weekly Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports on the coronavirus to better align scientific reports with Trump's upbeat messages, Politico reported.
Top Senate Republicans pressing for investigation on Mueller team phones being 'wiped'
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/12/politics/senate-doj-mueller-phones/index.html
Trump Bragged About Protecting Saudi Prince Whose Goons Dismembered a Journalist via Bone Saw
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/donald-trump-mbs-saved-his-ass
In a world in which Donald Trump
is president, it can be hard to remember scandals that happened two
years ago, let alone last week. But try, if you can, to recall the
incident in which journalist, U.S. resident, and Saudi dissident Jamal
Khashoggi was kidnapped and dismembered via bone saw, allegedly on the order of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Trump let Prince Mohammed get a way with it, because the kingdom bought some weapons from the U.S. and the guy was bros with Jared Kushner. (Also, because he has a fondness for dictators.) While you’re recollecting, also remember that Trump continued to defend the de facto Saudi leader even after Saudi Arabia admitted the killing was premeditated and the CIA separately concluded the prince directed
the murder. (The prince, naturally, denies the whole thing.) All in
all, it was a pretty messed up situation, even for a guy who muses
about dating his own daughter. Also messed up? That Trump apparently
boasted about helping bin Salman get away with the whole thing,
according to—what else?— Bob Woodward’s new book. Per Business Insider:
Donald Trump bragged that he protected Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from congressional scrutiny after the brutal assassination of the American journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That’s according to the veteran reporter Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, Rage, set to be released next Tuesday.… Woodward wrote that Trump called him on January 22 shortly after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During the conversation, Woodward pressed the president about Khashoggi’s gruesome murder. Khashoggi, 59, a longtime Washington Post columnist known for his criticism of the Saudi kingdom, was assassinated and dismembered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, after going there to get paperwork for his upcoming marriage. “The people at the Post are upset about the Khashoggi killing,” Woodward told Trump on January 22, his book says. “That is one of the most gruesome things. You yourself have said.”
“Yeah, but Iran is killing 36 people a day, so—” Trump began, before Woodward redirected the conversation and continued to press Trump about MBS’s role in ordering Khashoggi’s killing. “I saved his ass,” Trump had said amid the U.S. outcry following Khashoggi's murder, the book says. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.”
It's hard to write a tell-all book when Trump is constantly telling on himself
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/12/opinions/woodward-book-impact-trump-zelizer/index.html
Veteran journalist Bob Woodward's new book, "Rage," hasn't even been released yet and it's already causing quite a stir. In it, President Donald Trump acknowledged in early February that the novel coronavirus was airborne and deadlier than the flu, even though he continued to downplay the threat of the virus in public.
This is hard to believe given that the President does little to evoke calm. Indeed, as the story broke, and Woodward released recordings of his conversations with Trump, the President continued to tweet about the alleged breakdown of law and order in the country, stoking fears of violence in response to largely peaceful protests.
Fast forward to 2020 and things are vastly different. It is possible that Woodward's book won't do much to sway public opinion. The intense partisan polarization in the electorate means that there are fewer undecided voters who might be swayed either way by the revelations in Woodward's new book.
Trump’s nomination makes a mockery of the Nobel Peace Prize
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-nobel-peace-prize-israel-peace-deal-uae-b421672.html
President Trump is unfit for nomination and his inclusion makes a mockery of this important accolade. This is not merely due to his incendiary Twitter rants and threats of nuclear war. Trump has not dealt with persistent systemic inequalities and has mostly refused to deal with the climate crisis – as well as leaving a large Covid-19 death toll in his wake. This is not peace.
“It’s hard to imagine an individual less worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize,” said Tim Wright, a 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, recognised for his work with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. “He has fomented violence against his own citizens, abandoned longstanding arms control agreements, and undermined multilateralism at every opportunity. His few diplomatic initiatives, such as the summits with North Korea, have been little more than photo-ops.” It is unlikely that Trump will win the Nobel Peace Prize, announced via a virtual ceremony on 9 October, but regardless he has been nominated by right-wing Norwegian MP Christian Tybring-Gjedde for his purported role in the Israel-UAE deal.
Anybody can be nominated for a Nobel
Peace Prize but only “qualified nominators” may throw their hat into the
ring and offer suggestions for future nominees. You might be surprised
to learn who qualifies to make this important choice – and you may even
be able to make a qualified nomination of your own.
The Atlantic calls to 'end the Nobel Peace Prize' following Trump nominations
https://www.foxnews.com/media/the-atlantic-end-nobel-peace-prize-trump
The Atlantic magazine raised eyebrows on Friday when it published a piece calling for the abolition of the Nobel Peace Prize after President Trump was nominated for the prestigious honor.
The president's name was submitted for the 2021 prize by Norwegian lawmaker Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who cited Trump's role in brokering a peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Trump has since earned a second nomination from Swedish lawmaker Magnus Jacobsson for overseeing an economic deal between Kosovo and Serbia.
The nominations, however, apparently didn't sit well with the liberal magazine, which declared Friday that "peace had its chance, and blew it."
The First Clinical Trial to Support Vitamin D Therapy For Covid-19
Oral calcifediol, the main metabolite of vitamin D3, reduced ICU admission from 50% to 2% among Covid-19 patients.
Saturday, September 12, 2020
Britain is risking a car-crash Brexit of food shortages, another recession and isolation
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/12/business/brexit-no-deal-uk-economy/index.html
In the four years that have passed since Britain voted to leave the European Union, business executives have consistently delivered one message to the country's political leaders: Do not under any circumstances crash out of our largest export market without a deal to protect trade.
QAnon fans spread fake claims about real fires in Oregon
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/11/tech/qanon-oregon-fire-conspiracy-theory/index.html
Authorities in Oregon are pleading with the public to only trust and share information verified by official sources about the unprecedented wildfires sweeping the state. The pleas come as law enforcement agencies described 911 dispatchers being overrun with calls about a false online rumor that "Antifa" members had been arrested for setting the fires — a claim promoted by the anonymous account behind the QAnon conspiracy theories.
FBI Calls Rumors of Extremists Starting Oregon Wildfires ‘Untrue’
https://time.com/5888371/oregon-wildfires-antifa-proud-boys-rumors-false/
The FBI and other law enforcement officials issued statements on Friday to dispute rumors that wildfires in Oregon had been intentionally started by extremists.
“FBI Portland and local law enforcement agencies have been receiving reports that extremists are responsible for setting wildfires in Oregon. With our state and local partners, the FBI has investigated several such reports and found them to be untrue,” the FBI Portland Division said in a statement.
“Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away [from] local fire and police agencies working around the clock to bring these fires under control,” the statement continued. “Please help our entire community by only sharing validated information from official sources.”
Nora Dannehy, Connecticut prosecutor who was top aide to John Durham’s Trump-Russia investigation, resigns amid concern about pressure from Attorney General William Barr
Federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy, a top aide to U.S. Attorney John H. Durham in his Russia investigation, has quietly resigned — at least partly out of concern that the investigative team is being pressed for political reasons to produce a report before its work is done, colleagues said.
Trump administration admits defunding FDNY’s 9/11 healthcare program
The Trump administration admitted Friday to stripping millions of dollars from an FDNY fund that foots healthcare bills for 9/11 survivors and promised to try to put an end to the heartless practice.
The administration’s about-face came after the Daily News exclusively reported Thursday that the Treasury Department has over the past four years siphoned nearly $4 million from the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program, which helps cover medical services for firefighters, EMTs and paramedics still suffering from 9/11-related illnesses.
A Treasury Department official said in an email after repeated requests from The News that it was “an unfortunate situation” that the funds were being redirected from the FDNY program.
States Bow to Pressure to Reverse Course on HCQ
https://yated.com/states-bow-to-pressure-to-reverse-course-on-hcq/
As Covid-19 continues to burn its way across previously unscathed regions in the country, public pressure in ten states has forced governors and pharmaceutical boards to lift or ease restrictions on HCQ to fight the disease.
Kapporus and adultery
https://agudah.org/agudath-israel-reissues-kaporos-kol-korei-2/
R. Shmuel Kamenetzky clearly signs his name on a קול קורא stating that ladies and gentlemen should be separated during כפרות, which is a חומרא בעלמא. How much more so must Ms. Epstein move away from Mr. Fleischer, which is not a חומרא בעלמא, but a דין of יהרג ואל יעבור, as explained here:
Friday, September 11, 2020
Trump rally attendees open up to Lawrence Jones about their support: 'He tells it like it is'
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-rally-attendees-lawrence-jones-michigan-biden
Attendees of President Trump's Thursday rally in Michigan told "Hannity" election correspondent Lawrence Jones that they support the Republican because he "tells it like it is."
"Why are you supporting the president?" Jones asked one woman wearing a "MAGA" hat.
"Because he tells it like it is," she answered. Two other women told Jones that "he's real." One man indicated that Trump "tells the truth."