TRUMP’S USE OF ISRAEL TO ATTACK DEMOCRATS WILL BE COSTLY -ANALYSIS

jpost

There is no question that the Democratic Party is changing, and support for Israel is not what it used to be. Polls by the Pew Research Center show a growing gap between Republicans and Democrats, with nearly three times as many Republicans expressing more sympathy for Israel than for the Palestinians. As the Democratic Party keeps moving leftward, support for Israel will continue to decline.

Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the contribution Israel’s intimate relationship with Trump is also making to that decline. When Americans look at Israel and Netanyahu, they see Trump. And vice versa.

This leads many people to move away from Israel, even when it has nothing to do with what Trump might be doing. When the president uses Israel as his weapon against the Democrats, he only exacerbates that impression.

Smotrich: 'Rabbi Peretz has been lynched'

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265951

Earlier on Sunday, Rabbi Peretz responded at length to remarks made against him. "Since I entered politics, I have learned that there is truth and there is the world of tweets. There is freedom of speech for statements of one type and freedom of incitement for those who explain another complex position."

"Since last night, I have been attacked from every platform on a lengthy interview (I sat for three hours for the first time in my life in front of a camera of which, in the media world, only ten minutes are used) which caused headlines that don't correspond to reality. I believe that most people who heard the interview being blasted didn't actually watch any of it. These were gut reactions which distorted my words, cheap populism which mainly serves the continuation of the rift in Israeli society and for this, I feel pained."

"I love and respect every person as he or she is. This is the essence of my educational path, this is my approach to life. That is the education I've given to thousands of graduates of the preparatory academy. The combination of a rabbi and a politician doesn't obligate me to hide the truth."

"I was also asked about my relationship with the LGTBQ community. Anyone who wants to hear exactly what I said is invited to watch the interview and see that it is not like what everyone is shouting. I said that first of all, I respect every human being. I emphasized that I was not giving grades to anyone. When I was specifically asked about conversion treatments, I said from my own experience that when I was approached by Religious Zionist students and asked for guidance, I referred them to professionals at their request and saw that it was possible. I did not say that I was in favor of conversion treatments."

"I first gave my students a hug and spoke to them warmly. I also offered to study and look into it together, with the goal that the student opposite me will recognize himself better. From that point, the choice is his own and I respect and love each one regardless of their sexual orientation. Sometimes the most convenient thing is to swim with the stream and scream with everyone. You'll learn that there are other opinions, complex but inclusive. Accepting the other is not the possession of one side. I am not coercive and I do not intend to impose anything on anyone."

Multiple arrests at Gush Etzion daycare not tied to child abuse

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265946

Local authorities hinted that the rival group of daycare employees had filed a false complaint alleging child abuse in order to harm the three arrested staff members.

“After investigating the incident in regard to the management of the Tekoa day care center, we can clarify that we are talking about two groups of aides (sayatot) who last week got into an argument between themselves. As a result one of the aides threatened to call the police, and ended up doing so,” the Gush Etzion Regional Council said.

“We were informed that a thorough investigation is taking place NOT involving a case of child abuse, but rather these rumors are the result of the exploitation of the public atmosphere in Israel following other publicized incidents at day care centers,” the Council continued, referring to the recent arrest of 25-year-old Carmel Mauda, owner and operator of the ‘Baby Love’ daycare center in Rosh Haayin who was arrested recently for allegedly abusing 11 infants and toddlers placed in her care.

EDUCATION MINISTER PERETZ SLAMMED FOR ENDORSEMENT OF GAY CONVERSION THERAPY

https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Education-Minister-Peretz-endorses-gay-conversion-therapy-595564

Education Minister and Bayit Yehudi leader Rabbi Rafi Peretz caused a firestorm of protest Saturday night after stating he believes the highly controversial practice of “gay conversion therapy” - trying to change a gay individual’s sexual orientation - is effective. 

Peretz said that he himself has participated in providing such “treatment” to gay individuals in the past and that his approach is for the person in question “to get to know himself better and then decide” on their sexual orientation.

Changing Face in Poland: Skinhead Puts on Skullcap

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/world/europe/28poland.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

When Pawel looks into the mirror, he can still sometimes see a neo-Nazi skinhead staring back, the man he was before he covered his shaved head with a skullcap, traded his fascist ideology for the Torah and renounced violence and hatred in favor of God.

“I still struggle every day to discard my past ideas,” said Pawel, a 33-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew and former truck driver, noting with little irony that he had to stop hating Jews in order to become one. “When I look at an old picture of myself as a skinhead, I feel ashamed. Every day I try and do teshuvah,” he said, using the Hebrew word for repentance. “Every minute of every day. There is a lot to make up for.”

Acosta Gets Called Out After His Press Conference | Deadline | MSNBC

DIVINE PLAN

 "Personally, I praise God that He sent Trump to the USA and Netanyahu to Israel..."

DO you also praise that He sent Obama and Clinton as well as Carter and Susan?

Trump rails against ‘Fake News’ in bizarre tirade, warns industry will fold when he leaves office

.foxnews

President Trump teed off on the news media in a bizarre Twitter rant Thursday morning ahead of a big social media summit at the White House slated for later in the day.

The string of tweets attacked the news media and claimed the industry would go out of business when he leaves office, even suggesting outlets would be forced to endorse him this cycle for the sake of their own survival.

He went on to alternately praise himself, lob insults at familiar targets in the 2020 Democratic field and even joke about serving more than two terms.

The president went on Thursday to slam 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, deploying his nicknames for former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren -- and suggesting the country would rather have him as president, as he praised his own physical and mental attributes.

“Could you imagine having Sleepy Joe Biden, or Alfred E. Newman or a very nervous and skinny version of Pocahontas (1/1024th), as your President, rather than what you have now, so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius!” Trump tweeted. “Sorry to say that even Social Media would be driven out of business along with, and finally, the Fake News Meia!”

HYPOCRISY: JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

A word derived from the Greek ὑποκρίσις="the playing a part on the stage." It denotes acting a false part in life; pretending to be pious or righteous when one is not. It is only in later Hebrew that "ḥanufah" and "ḥanef" refer to this failing; hence it is incorrect for the Authorized Version to use "hypocrisy" as the translation of the Biblical "ḥanufah" and "ḥanef," which really denote respectively "wickedness" or "impiety" and "the wicked" or "the impious"; so Isa. ix. 16 (A. V. 17), xxxii. 6, xxxiii. 14; Ps. xxxv. 16; Prov. xi. 9; Job viii. 13, xiii. 16, xv. 34, xvii. 8, xx. 5, xxvii. 8, xxxiv. 30. Hypocrisy is a vice scarcely known in primitive times when men are natural; it is practised only in a society that has established rules of piety and rectitude, and is deceived by appearances. The hypocrite is rebuked in Ecclus. (Sirach) xxxii. 15, xxxiii. 2: "Let God destroy them that live in hypocrisy in the company of the saints." "Let the ravens peck out the eyes of the men that work hypocrisy" (Psalms of Solomon, iv. 7, 22-25; hypocrites are called also "men-pleasers" in the heading of this psalm).

It is especially in the rabbinical literature that hypocrites are singled out as dangerous. "One should make known the hypocrites in order to avoid the profanation of God's name" (Tosef., Yoma, iv. 12; Yoma 89a; comp. Eccl. R. iv. 1). "Be not afraid of the Pharisees nor of the Sadducees [literally "of those who are not Pharisees"], but of the chameleon-like men ["zebu'im"] who simulate the Pharisees, and while they do the deed of Zimri [Num. xxv. 14] claim the reward of Phinehas" (ib. xxv. 12), said the dying King Jannæus to Queen Alexandra (Soṭah 22b, referring probably to the same class of men as is characterized in Psalms of Solomon, iv., quoted above). Such a class of Pharisees, who were mere pretenders and men-pleasers, is alluded to in Soṭah iii. 4, and characterized in Soṭah 22b; Yer. Ber. ix. 14b. The characterization of all the Pharisees as "hypocrites," as "whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of . . . all uncleanness," as "a generation of vipers" (originally probably also "zebu'im" = "many-colored vipers"; Matt. xxiii. 13-33; comp. vi. 2, 5, 16; xv. 7; xvi. 3; xxii. 18; Mark xii. 15; Luke xi. 44; xii. 1, 56), betrays a spirit of rancor and partizan prejudice.

Nothing was more loathsome to the Rabbis than hypocrisy. Gamaliel II. announced that no disciple "whose inside is not like his outside should enter the schoolhouse" (Ber. 28a); "he must be like the Ark of the Covenant, gold within as without" (Yoma 72b, after Ex. xxv. 11).

"Ḥanufah" in the Talmud denotes also flattery, which is another mode of simulation (so Soṭah 41b); wherefore it is difficult to say whether flattery or hypocrisy is meant when it is said: "He in whom there is ḥanufah brings wrath upon the world, nor will his prayer be heard" (after Job xxxvi. 13). "A just hin . . . shall ye have" (Lev. xix. 36) is interpreted to mean: "Thy yea ["hen"] shall be yea, and thy nay nay: thou shalt not speak one thing and mean another" (B. M. 49a). "I would rather rule over the whole world than over two judges wrapped up in their cloaks"—that is, hypocrites—said David (Midr. Teh. xviii. 34; Ab. R. N. xxv. [ed. Schechter, p. 82]).

Defending Trump and the Gedolim they are doing a great job even though they are repulsive and destroying America(Torah)

daas torah

article was just pointing out that people claiming moral principles are important support for trump even though his actions are inconsistent with the principles

Joseph Orlow  Daas Torah • 13 hours ago

Understood. Politics breeds hypocrisy. I'm aware of that. Personally, as much as I lionize Donald Trump, I have no desire to actually meet him in person.

The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/evangelical-christians-face-deepening-crisis/593353/

Many white evangelical Christians, then, are deeply fearful of what a Trump loss would mean for America, American culture, and American Christianity. If a Democrat is elected president, they believe, it might all come crashing down around us. During the 2016 election, for example, the influential evangelical author and radio talk-show host Eric Metaxas said, “In all of our years, we faced all kinds of struggles. The only time we faced an existential struggle like this was in the Civil War and in the Revolution when the nation began … We are on the verge of losing it as we could have lost it in the Civil War.” A friend of mine described that outlook to me this way: “It’s the Flight 93 election. FOREVER.”

Many evangelical Christians are also filled with grievances and resentments because they feel they have been mocked, scorned, and dishonored by the elite culture over the years. (Some of those feelings are understandable and warranted.) For them, Trump is a man who will not only push their agenda on issues such as the courts and abortion; he will be ruthless against those they view as threats to all they know and love. For a growing number of evangelicals, Trump’s dehumanizing tactics and cruelty aren’t a bug; they are a feature. Trump “owns the libs,” and they love it. He’ll bring a Glock to a cultural knife fight, and they relish that.

Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, one of the largest Christian universities in the world, put it this way: “Conservatives & Christians need to stop electing ‘nice guys.’ They might make great Christian leaders but the United States needs street fighters like @realDonaldTrump at every level of government b/c the liberal fascists Dems are playing for keeps & many Repub leaders are a bunch of wimps!”

There’s a very high cost to our politics for celebrating the Trump style, but what is most personally painful to me as a person of the Christian faith is the cost to the Christian witness. Nonchalantly jettisoning the ethic of Jesus in favor of a political leader who embraces the ethic of Thrasymachus and Nietzsche—might makes right, the strong should rule over the weak, justice has no intrinsic worth, moral values are socially constructed and subjective—is troubling enough.

But there is also the undeniable hypocrisy of people who once made moral character, and especially sexual fidelity, central to their political calculus and who are now embracing a man of boundless corruptions. Don’t forget: Trump was essentially named an unindicted co-conspirator (“Individual 1”) in a scheme to make hush-money payments to a porn star who alleged she’d had an affair with him while he was married to his third wife, who had just given birth to their son.

The Revolution of the Jewish Calendar: The Math & the Psychology - By Rabbi YY Jacobson

New Federal Charges Against Jeffrey Epstein Describe Familiar Pattern

Rabbi Moshe Hayim Luzzatto Jewish History Lecture Dr. Henry Abramson

Ehud Barak cites Talmud in attack on Israeli Right

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265621

But in his criticism of Netanyahu and the Israeli Right, Barak also made notable references to Jewish religious texts, the Jewish Press reported, citing the Talmud to justify his attack on Netanyahu and his allies on the Right.

During the interview with Reshet Bet, Barak cited the so-called “Three Oaths” – a passage in the Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Ketubot, 110b) which states that following the beginning of the exile, Israel was adjured “not to storm the wall” by forcing its way back into the Land of Israel and “not to rebel against the nations of the world”.

A third oath, directed at the non-Jewish nations of the world, obliged them “not to oppress Israel excessively”.

This passage was furnished by Orthodox opponents of the modern Zionist movement in support of their position that a Jewish state should not be established in the Land of Israel prior to the coming of the Messiah.

Barak, however, cited the Three Oaths in his more narrow criticism of the Israeli Right, while warning that Netanyahu and his allies were “straying” from the vision of Israel as a “Zionist, democratic, enlightened, liberal state.”

"Israeli control over from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the Jordan River will definitely either end Israel as a democracy, or as a Jewish state. That's the essence of what we are seeing. We support a Jewish, Zionist, democratic, enlightened, liberal state."

The path of "Herzl, Ben-Gurion, and Rabin and Peres and everyone else - Netanyahu has strayed from that. The extreme right has pushed Israel towards the directions which the Talmud has already warned against, with two catastrophes that happened in history as a result of this kind of politics, with false messianism which tries to hasten the End [of Days] and give God a schedule for bringing the Messiah, which amounts to 'storming the wall', 'provoking the nations of the world' and spreads 'baseless hatred'."

"These three Talmudic prohibitions are violated every single day by people wearing kippot and priding themselves on their title of rabbis, but in fact, they falsify and distort Judaism, Zionism and Israelism.”

Epstein sex trafficking charges could shine light on Clinton, Trump. Time for bipartisan revulsion.

chicagotribune

In 2002, around the same time Epstein allegedly was flying a plane that was nicknamed “the Lolita Express” to his private island and trafficking teenage girls, Trump described his friend as a “terrific guy.”

The future president told New York Magazine: “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Who helped Epstein land the secret nonprosecution agreement that gave him a mere slap on the wrist? It was Alexander Acosta, then the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Where is Acosta now? He’s President Trump’s labor secretary, running the federal department that oversees human trafficking laws.

Artist who drew anti-Semitic cartoon invited to White House

https://www.timesofisrael.com/artist-who-drew-anti-semitic-cartoon-invited-to-white-house/

An artist who drew a “blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon” which showed US government officials as puppets of George Soros and the Rothschilds has been invited to the White House by US President Donald Trump.

The Anti-Defamation League called Ben Garrison’s cartoon published in 2017 “blatantly anti-Semitic” and said that “the thrust of the cartoon is clear: (then-National Security Advisor HR) McMaster is merely a puppet of a Jewish conspiracy.”

The cartoon, which the ADL said was commissioned by right-wing radio host Mike Cernovich, shows left-wing Jewish philanthropist George Soros 

Rachel Maddow VERY SHOCK When Trump and Barr Finds Tool Against Political Enemies, Investigators!

מה קורה בקהילה של הרב שמואל טל? - מקור ראשון

https://www.makorrishon.co.il/magazine/150085/

1. 
   
2. "כחצי שנה לאחר שעברנו מצפת ליד־בנימין, יצרתי קשר עם הרב בשאלה משפחתית. בפגישה הרב התוודע לכך שאני מטפלת באנרגיות, ומאוד התעניין בתחום, שאל וחקר. הוא התעניין גם בי והציע לי ללמוד בבית הספר שלו לי​י​עוץ. (…) אחרי הפסקה של חודשיים הקשר התחדש בעקבות שיחה משמעותית ומקשרת שהייתה בינינו. חווינו חוויו​ת רוחניות חזקות אחד לגבי השני, והיה שדה אנרגטי מאוד חזק בינינו כל הזמן.
3. "ואז הרב קיבל 'מסר' שבו הוא רואה שהוא עתיד להתאלמן ואני עומדת להתגרש. הוא אמר שהוא נשמת דוד המלך, אני נשמת בת־שבע ואשתו היא נשמת מיכל. התפתח בינינו קשר עמוק וחזק, נפגשנו פגישות ארוכות כמה פעמים בשבוע, דיברנו בטלפון והסתמסנו המון. הייתה אהבה גדולה. כל הזמן היינו בחוסר ודאות: האם להאמין למה שאנחנו מקבלים? למה נראה לנו שהשם משתף פעולה עם הסיפור הזה? אבל לא יכולנו לנתק את הקשר בגלל המשיכה העצומה והמִגנוט החזק. 

Abusive daycare worker: I was a devil

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265601

Carmel Mauda, the daycare worker suspected of abusing toddlers in the home where she worked, initially denied an investigation into the allegations, Yediot Aharonot reported Sunday morning.

However, after being confronted by police investigators with photographs of the security videos documenting the abuse, she changed her version of the events.

"Here I had a black day," she said in response to one video and when the researchers showed her another video in which she appeared to hurt one of the children, she said: "On this day I was a devil."

Yesterday morning, Mauda's house was set on fire. apparently as the result of arson.

Jeffrey Epstein Arrested for Sex Trafficking of Minors

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-arrested-for-sex-trafficking-of-minors-source

Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was arrested for allegedly sex trafficking dozens of minors in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005, and will appear in court in New York on Monday, according to three law enforcement sources. Saturday's arrest by the FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force comes about 12 years after the 66-year-old financier essentially got a slap on the wrist for allegedly molesting dozens of underage girls in Florida.

For more than a decade, Epstein’s alleged abuse of minors has been the subject of lawsuits brought by victims, investigations by local and federal authorities, and exposés in the press. But despite the attention cast on his alleged sex crimes, the hedge-funder has managed to avoid any meaningful jail time, let alone federal charges.

Trump administration is 'inept and insecure', says UK ambassador

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48898231

The Trump administration has been labelled "inept", insecure and incompetent in leaked emails from the UK ambassador to Washington.

Sir Kim Darroch said that the White House was "uniquely dysfunctional" and "divided" under Donald Trump.

But he also warned that the US president should not be written off.

The Foreign Office said the leak of the memos to the Mail on Sunday was "mischievous" but did not deny their accuracy.

The White House has not yet responded to the revelation of the contents of the memos, but it could test the so-called "special relationship" between the US and UK.

In the messages, Sir Kim said: "We don't really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction-riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept."

He questioned whether this White House "will ever look competent".

Top rabbi blows lid off rabbinic scandal, rocking national religious public

https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-rabbi-blows-lid-off-rabbinic-scandal-rocking-national-religious-public/

In consultations with Rabbi Asher Weiss — a prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbi whose rulings have been accepted by members in the national religious camp as well — Eliyahu said that it was decided that a special rabbinic court be assembled in order to rule on the allegations made against Tal.

In the meantime, Weiss issued a ruling of his own stating that Tal could continue functioning as head of Torat HaChaim before the court of three rabbis debated his fate. In addition, he called on members of the Yad Binyamin community to come forward before this coming Friday if they had any allegations against Tal.

President Trump Said Revolutionary War Troops 'Took Over the Airports' in His Fourth of July Speech

https://time.com/5620936/donald-trump-revolutionary-war-airports/
President Trump made a bit of a historical blunder during his Fourth of July “Salute to America” speech Thursday when he said that the Continental Army “took over the airports” from the British during the American Revolutionary War in the 1770s.

During his hour-long speech at the grounds of Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Trump stayed largely off politics.

Trump praised the Americans’ military efforts in the war against Great Britain. “Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rockets’ red glare, it had nothing but victory,” he said.

Rabbi Sacks on the 25th yartzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Rabbi Shmuel Tal - Update

Israel Reader	3:33 PM (46 minutes ago)

https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/05/top-rabbi-blows-lid-off-rabbinic.html

Top rabbi blows lid off rabbinic scandal, rocking national religious public

Update:

בית הדין הרבני שהוקם בעקבות הסערה סביב הרב שמואל טל קבע כי הרב טל יוכל להמשיך לכהן כראש ישיבת תורת החיים, אולם לא יוכל להעניק ייעוץ בנושאי זוגיות ומשפחה, ויצטרך להתרכז בלימוד תורה.

https://www.inn.co.il/News/Flash.aspx/682750

Translation:

The rabbinical court established in the wake of the storm surrounding Rabbi Shmuel Tal, ruled that Rabbi Tal could continue to serve as head of Yeshivat Torat Hayyim, but would not be able to provide counseling on matters pertaining to relationships and family matters, and will need to concentrate on studying Torah.

Please find attached a copy of the Beis Din's ruling.

Note:

The rabbinical court was appointed by Rabbi Asher Weiss, and consisted of Rabbis Michael Bleicher, Tzvi Gartner, and Ovadiah Yosef Toledano.

Without denying that there was problematic behavior on the part of Rabbi Tal, they were able to forensically determine that the were was never any pornography on his computer, and he never had any inappropriate physical contact with any woman.

IsraelReader

Trump incoherently claims homelessness “started 2 years ago”

mamzer alert

'SICK OF USING US AS PROPS': VETERAN CALLS TRUMP'S JULY 4 MILITARY-STYLE CELEBRATION 'INSANELY INAPPROPRIATE'

https://www.newsweek.com/veterans-trump-july-4-parade-inappropriate-1447480

.Trump is being criticized for ordering a military-style celebration with stationed tanks on display and Air Force One and Blue Angels flyovers while he delivers a speech at Lincoln Memorial in the evening

Having military personnel transport tanks from distant bases to Washington, D.C., over Fourth of July week is "insanely inappropriate," Marine Corps veteran Kyle Bibby told Newsweek on Wednesday, "And flies in the face of everything that I understood about training as Marines."

"We just don't do that," Bibby, 33, said. "We just don't do parades, there's no tactical training value in that."

Bibby, who was a captain and had a deployment in Afghanistan in 2010, acknowledged that military equipment is used for events like Fleet Week "but it's never about an individual person, they don't have a political party handing out tickets."

Trump's celebration is public but the Republican National Committee received prime seating tickets to pass out, turning it into a campaign rally of sorts.

Rav Sterbuch - signature forged

   Rav Sternbuch       - Forgery  - see bottom of second page

   Rav Sternbuch       - Forgery
https://daattorah.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2019-06-30T17:33:00%2B03:00&max-results=12&start=12&by-date=false

President Donald Trump Wants To Go Around Supreme Court Census Ruling | The Last Word | MSNBC

Ivanka Trump isn’t a diplomat. So why is she acting like one?

Column: Welcome to Donald Trump’s Big Dumb Fourth of July Festival of Narcissism! A real show of farce.

chicagotribune.

For the first time in our nation’s history, we have a president (Donald J. Trump) who is recognizing the Fourth of July and the important role it plays in American history, as well as the important role he (President Donald J. Trump) has played in finally getting Americans to celebrate the Fourth of July, a holiday never celebrated under previous presidents.

We’re so glad you decided to join us (and patriotically donate to President Donald J. Trump’s reelection campaign) and we’re VERY EXCITED to share with you all the America-loving fun you’re about to experience thanks to our great and benevolent president. (Shout his name! And buy something with his name on it from one of the President Donald J. Trump merchandise kiosks located throughout the National Mall.)

This day will be a celebration of all the things America holds dear: the honoring of one man above all others; the flaunting of giant machines of war; and soldiers marching in unison before a political leader who personally involved himself in every detail of a celebration for which he is the keynote speaker.

While media outlets like The Washington Post are reporting that the National Park Service “is diverting nearly $2.5 million in entrance and recreation fees primarily intended to improve parks across the country to cover costs associated with President Trump’s Independence Day celebration” and the event will also “likely cost taxpayers millions of dollars," we want to assure you that we will, as the Founders intended, patriotically call that Fake News without providing any evidence that’s true.

The last thing you should be worrying about while you’re in Washington, D.C., for the FOURTH OF JULY EVENT OF A LIFETIME (brought to you by President Donald J. Trump) is what it might be costing or whether bridges at your local parks might collapse. Lighten up! Worrying is for liberals!

The best way you can honor American greatness is to enjoy all this event has to offer, which includes:

— A first-ever Fourth of July fireworks display. The president himself had the idea to develop these decorative sky explosions that he dubbed “fireworks.” The night will conclude with a massive fireworks show, with Donald Trump Jr. lighting all the fuses himself!

— Jumbo high-definition television screens will be located throughout the Salute to America event grounds showing streaming video of DANGEROUS illegal immigrants being patriotically deprived of basic human rights in camps along the country’s southern border.

— A Virtual Reality Outrage Booster tent will allow visitors to put on VR headsets and watch as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton do some of the same things President Trump has done. Your blood will boil as you watch Obama making money off foreign diplomats staying at a Washington, D.C., hotel he owns. And you’ll be filled with anger as you see Clinton letting her daughter, Chelsea, act as a representative of the U.S. government at high-profile meetings with world leaders! Can you imagine anyone besides President Trump doing that?!? The fury will engulf you for days!

— The Indoor Skydiving Trump Donation Experience uses a giant wind turbine to simulate skydiving while also sucking all the money out of your pockets and shooting it into a life-sized replica of President Trump’s pockets. You’ll have no idea you’re being taken for a ride!

Shocking Photos Show 'Ticking Time Bomb' In Trump Migrant Centers | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC

The viral video of Ivanka Trump at the G20 perfectly captures the problem with nepotism

.vox

The glaring disconnect between how President Donald Trump views his daughter’s diplomatic skills and how the rest of the world sees them came to a very public head this weekend thanks to a viral, cringeworthy of Ivanka Trump attempting to interact with world leaders at the G20 in Japan.

Ivanka has no real qualifications to serve as a diplomatic representative of the United States. She hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate for a government position. Her signature Trump Organization real estate projects were linked to alleged money laundering, and she only received a security clearance after her father reportedly overruled top aides who thought giving her one was a bad idea.

In short, it’s unfathomable Ivanka would be one of the most powerful people in the White House if nepotism wasn’t at play.

Ivanka Trump and Don Jr. put on a ludicrous show

.cnn

Amid all the other craziness surrounding Donald Trump's foray onto the world stage this weekend, nothing exceeded the farcical roles assumed by his daughter Ivanka Trump — who is now, like her husband Jared Kushner, a self-styled diplomat with a heavy footprint — and her brother Donald Jr., who reprised his father's racist birtherism, this time with a retweet aimed at Sen. Kamala Harris. (Then, lacking a full measure of the old man's nerve, Jr. suddenly retreated).

Although Donald Trump Jr.'s maliciousness was shocking, it was Ivanka Trump's arrogance that was truly breathtaking. Moment by moment — from the G20 at Osaka, to a jaunt into the DMZ — she inserted herself into the middle of high-level conversations, assuming the role of equal among people with vastly greater qualifications. In a sea of serious black and grays, she stood out in colorful high fashion that seemed designed to steal the limelight.

Her father's commentary about her presence — "She's going to steal the show" — betrays much truth. This is a showbiz family, treating world affairs like a performance, and in the process making the United States look ridiculous

3 Reasons Not to Worry About Trump’s Fourth of July—and 1 Big Reason to Worry

.politico

Since President Donald Trump announced his proposal for a military display and presidential speech on the National Mall, Trump’s critics across the political spectrum, have reached a consensus: The president’s intrusion into Independence Day is a hijacking. New York Times columnist Michelle Cottle complains that Trump is "trampling a longstanding tradition of keeping these events nonpartisan — apolitical even — and focused on bringing the nation together.” The same sentiment came from the Washington Post’s editorial page, and from conservative Trump skeptics like radio host Charlie Sykes and former GOP Congressman David Jolly.

It's true that the president has upended many of the traditions of the celebration; the location of the fireworks have been moved; the president has demanded a heavy military presence, including tanks in the streets of Washington, and he plans to deliver a speech in front of a crowd where the choicest locations will be reserved for ticket holders, a feature somewhat at odds with Trump’s rhetorical scorn for the elites and D.C. insiders.

By one measure, the criticism is overwrought. There have been presidents who've appeared during celebrations at the Capitol, most recently Harry Truman in 1951. President Richard Nixon offered up a videotaped speech aired on the Mall in 1970; other presidents, including Calvin Coolidge and John Kennedy, traveled to Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to mark the occasion. (If you want one measure of how far we have traveled since JFK’s time, note that he devoted much of his speech to celebrating the emerging European Union: “The United States looks on this vast new enterprise with hope and admiration,” JFK said “We do not regard a strong and united Europe as a rival but as a partner.”)

As for the parade—well, if Trump wants military armored vehicles to accompany the flyover by the Navy’s Blue Angels, stealth fighters and Air Force One, maybe he’s just trying to emulate Thomas Jefferson, who watched a military parade from the White House back in 1801, rather than the celebrations of military might more common to Moscow and Pyongyang.

The utter absurdity of Trump's July Fourth bash

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/25/politics/donald-trump-july-fourth/index.html

But consider what we are talking about here: The President of the United States is planning to give a speech that, knowing him, will almost certainly be political in nature.  And he is going to give it on the day in which we, as Americans, celebrate our independence.

The thing is: We already have a big celebration on the Fourth of July! In Washington! I've been. It's wonderful! The National Symphony Orchestra plays! There are fireworks!

Given that fact, it's not hard to see what Trump is doing here. He wanted a giant military parade in Washington on Veterans Day. That got postponeddue to cost concerns -- and concerns that rolling tanks and other military equipment through the streets of our nation's capital might actually not be the most, uh, American thing ever.