Donald Trump said he's done more for African Americans than any president. Historians disagree

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/aug/01/donald-trump-said-hes-done-more-african-americans-/

President Donald Trump has often claimed credit for African American economic success, such as touting the African American unemployment rate on his watch. But amid swirling controversies over his tweets attacking Rep. Elijah Cummings and his heavily African American district in Maryland, he took it to a new level during July 30 remarks to reporters at the White House.

"What I've done for African Americans in two and a half years, no president has been able to do anything like it," Trump said. "Unemployment at the lowest level in the history of our country for African Americans — nobody can beat that. You look at poverty levels, they’re doing better than they’ve ever done before. So many things. Opportunity zones. Criminal justice reform — President Obama couldn’t get it done."

When we took a closer look, we found that Trump does have a point about some of the economic and policy details he mentioned. His campaign also pointed to a double-digit funding increase he sought and signed for historically black colleges and universities.

However, Trump overstated his own standing within history. It’s exceedingly difficult for Trump to top the landmark efforts by his predecessors in the White House, including Abraham Lincoln, who fought the Civil War and pushed the constitutional amendments that ended slavery, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who fought for and signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act

Pelosi hits back at Trump's attacks on Cummings, calls Kushner a 'slumlord'

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/455803-pelosi-hits-back-at-trumps-attacks-on-cummings-calls-kushner-a-slumlord

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday fiercely defended Rep. Elijah Cummings in the wake of President Trump's attacks on the Maryland Democrat and the Baltimore-area district he represents.

Pelosi, who was born in Baltimore and whose father and brother were both mayors of the city, accused the president of projecting his own "insecurity" on Cummings. She also hammered Jared Kushner — Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, whose family operates a real estate empire — as a "slumlord."

"To see the president demean a great leader like Elijah Cummings shows his own insecurity and his own lack of understanding about what progress really is," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol.

"You really have to consider the source," she continued.

"The president without — and this comes as no surprise — really doesn't know what he's talking about. But maybe he could ask his son-in-law, who's a slumlord."

IRAN CLAIMS SAUDI ARABIA KILLED OVER '3000 AMERICANS' AND STILL GETS TO 'HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS

https://www.newsweek.com/iran-saudi-kill-americans-nuclear-1451951

Trump acknowledged in January that "Iran is killing ISIS," also known as the Islamic State militant group, and back in 2011 called Saudi Arabia "the world's biggest funder of terrorism." The president argued that the conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom "funnels our petro dollars, our very own money, to fund the terrorists that seek to destroy our people while the Saudis rely on us to protect them." He was also a vocal supporter of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) that would allow those affected by 9/11 to sue Saudi Arabia.

The so-called "28 pages" of the 9/11 Commission report indicated potential, yet unconfirmed links between two of the hijackers and the Saudi government, but some counterterrorism officials have alleged a deeper, joint effort to cover up these ties. Former President Barack Obama attempted to veto JASTA in 2016, a move Trump called "shameful" the same year he began instead describing revolutionary Shiite Muslim Iran as "the world's top state sponsor of terrorism" and ultimately won the presidency.

On Iran, Trump Is Shoving Israel Out Into the Cold

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/.premium-on-iran-trump-is-shoving-israel-out-into-the-cold-1.7584048

But if Tehran has concluded that it must talk with Trump, it’s going to have to give him something in exchange for ending the sanctions. Trump would then tout any concessions as a triumph for his re-election campaign. And if the Iranians offer him something substantive, such as ending the sunset clauses, that would have to be considered a genuine achievement.

But even if Trump is able to substantially improve the nuclear deal, that wouldn’t come close to fulfilling the Iran wish list of Netanyahu and pro-Israel U.S. conservatives. That includes items like forcing them to end funding for terrorism, as well as ending their entire nuclear and missile development programs.

So any new Iran deal may turn out to be a bitter disappointment to Bolton and the Israelis, not to mention Trump’s Jewish and evangelical donors and supporters.

How Healing Works" with Dr. Wayne Jonas

This ultra-Orthodox rabbi just took a job at an LGBT synagogue

https://bshch.blogspot.com/2019/07/blog-post_9460.html

Here is interview of Rabbi Moskowitz.

https://m.mixcloud.com/zevbrenner/orthodox-rabbi-embraces-transgenders-on-talkline-with-zev-brenner/

Zev Brenner alludes in the interview to Rabbi Weinreb's position on where a transgender sits in Shul. And sure enough, this article indicates

http://jewishjournal.com/culture/religion/182578/

that according to Rabbi Weinreb a man who thinks he's a woman sits in the women's section!

timesofisrael.

In many ways, Mike Moskowitz is a typical ultra-Orthodox rabbi.

He wears a black suit and black hat. He sports a thick, curly beard beneath a closely shaved head. He peppers his speech with liturgical Hebrew and Yiddish words. He quotes from Jewish legal texts.

Moskowitz sometimes closes his eyes when he talks, swaying back and forth and rubbing his fingers together as if he’s engaged in deep Talmud study. He spent years upon years studying at traditional haredi yeshivas. Today he lives in Lakewood, a New Jersey shore town of some 100,000 residents well known for its largely haredi population.

https://www.rabbimikemoskowitz.com

rabbi Moskowitz has three ultra-orthodox rabbinic ordinations. He spent a decade in the largest yeshivas in the world and studied the entire Babylonian Talmud. He founded and headed a kollel - a sacred think tank, served as a rabbi at Columbia University, and of a congregation in Harlem. Rabbi Moskowitz explored academic Talmud at Yale and at Jewish Theological Seminary, where he is currently completing a Doctorate in Hebrew Literature.  As one of the leading thinkers at the intersection of trans issues and Jewish thought, he is a sought after lecturer, educator, and researcher. 

Donald Trump says he spent a lot time with 9/11 responders. Here are the facts

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/jul/30/donald-trump-says-he-spent-lot-time-911-responders/

President Donald Trump suggested that he spent "a lot of time" with first responders after Sept. 11 as he signed an extension of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.

"Many of those affected were firefighters, police officers, and other first responders. And I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you," Trump said July 29 in the Rose Garden.

Trump’s comment, which appeared ad-libbed compared to the rest of his speech, didn’t go as far as some previous ones he made about his role in helping clear the rubble or supplying workers to help. But it still raised eyebrows. Some critics took his comment to mean Trump was taking credit for helping in the rescue and cleanup effort at Ground Zero (inspiring #LostTrumpHistory).

On the campaign trail in 2016 Trump said he helped with clearing the rubble.

"Everyone who helped clear the rubble — and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit — but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing," Trump said at a rally in Buffalo. "Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn't know what was going to come down on all of us — and they handled it."

The Washington Post and the Associated Press sought information from the Trump campaign in 2016 about how he helped, and they didn’t receive responses. We also tried to verify his claim and could not.

Don’t Get Mad if a Doctor Says They Need to Screen Your Child for Abuse

https://time.com/5637675/child-abuse-screening-doctor-office/

If a doctor notices bruising on your child, you might be surprised to find yourself accused of abuse. The real-life drama that ensues from such encounters is playing out in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms across the country. Here are some of the things we’ve heard from our patients:

TRUMP FRIEND AIMED TO PROFIT FROM MIDEAST NUCLEAR DEAL -DEMOCRATS

https://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Trump-friend-aimed-to-profit-from-Mideast-nuclear-deal-Democrats-597113

Tom Barrack, a billionaire friend of US President Donald Trump, pursued a plan to buy Westinghouse Electric Corp even as he lobbied Trump to become a special envoy to promote the building by the firm of nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia, said a congressional report released on Monday.

While Barrack failed in both efforts, the report provides fresh evidence of the ease with which some corporate and foreign interests have gained access to Trump and other senior members of his administration.

UK woman who accused Israelis of rape in Cyprus indicted

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/266689

A British teenager was remanded in custody in Cyprus on Tuesday after she was arrested last week on suspicion of falsely accusing 12 Israeli tourists of gang rape.

The 19-year-old was indicted the Famagusta District Court in Paralimni in southeast Cyprus Tuesday, and now faces "public mischief".

If found guilty, she could potentially face a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine of around 1,700 euros ($1,900).

The young woman, who was not named, stood grim-faced during the court session Tuesday morning without speaking. Her mother was also present.

She covered her face with the hood of her sweatshirt as she left the court and was put into a police van.

Her lawyer, Andreas Pittadjis, said she is expected to enter a plea when she appears again on August 7. He asked the court for time to "collect videotapes and statements" gathered by the Cypriot police during the investigation.

Initially, the teenager had alleged that 12 Israelis gang raped her at the hotel where she was staying in the popular resort of Ayia Napa on July 17.

The Israeli tourists aged 15 to 18 were arrested shortly after the complaint was filed.

After five of the 12 Israeli teens were proven to have not been present at the time of the alleged rape, including some who had clear alibis placing them elsewhere during the incident, Cyprus authorities freed the five, who returned to Israel last Thursday and Friday.

WHY VOTE FOR TRUMP IN 2020 - new poll

I just added a new poll to the blog regarding voting for Trump in 2020

Senate Fails to Override President Trump's Vetoes, Allowing Saudi Arms Sales

https://time.com/5638324/trump-senate-veto-saudi-arabia-arms/

The Senate votes came as the House Oversight Committee released a report criticizing the Trump administration over its apparent willingness to allow the president’s friends and allies undue influence over U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia.

New documents obtained by the committee “raise serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the president’s friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons,” the report said.

The report “exposes how corporate and foreign interests are using their unique access to advocate for the transfer of U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel’s Democratic chairman.

The 50-page Oversight report, released Monday, says Trump’s longtime personal friend, campaign donor and inaugural chairman, Tom Barrack, negotiated directly with Trump and other White House officials to seek positions within the administration, including special envoy to the Middle East and ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

At the same time, Barrack was promoting the interests of U.S. corporations seeking to profit from the transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia; advocating on behalf of foreign interests seeking to obtain U.S. nuclear technology; and taking steps for his own company, Colony NorthStar, to profit from the proposals, the report said.

One of the companies leading an effort to build nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia, IP3 International, repeatedly pressed the Trump administration not to require Saudi Arabia to commit to a rigorous “gold standard” in any agreement with the U.S., complaining it would lock them out of lucrative nuclear contracts, the report said.

IP3 officials had “unprecedented access” to the highest levels of the Trump administration, including meetings with Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Cabinet Secretaries Rick Perry, Steven Mnuchin, Mike Pompeo, Rex Tillerson, James Mattis and Wilbur Ross, the report said.

The report also criticized the White House for refusing to produce any documents in the investigation and said communications obtained from outside sources indicate that Kushner and other officials used personal email or text accounts to communicate about Saudi-related deals.

FOX NEWS ANALYST WARNS TRUMP IS 'LOCKING DOWN THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY FOR HIS PURPOSES'

https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-analyst-trump-locking-down-intelligence-community-1451620

Mary Anne Marsh, a political analyst for Fox News, raised concerns on Monday that President Donald Trump appeared to be consolidating his control over the U.S. intelligence community with the nomination of GOP Representative John Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence.

"It's more about protecting Trump than America," Marsh, who previously served as a senior adviser to Democratic Senator John Kerry, warned during a segment of Fox News' America's Newsroom on Monday. "John Ratcliffe has been all over the investigate the investigators [probe], who's doing that right now? [Attorney General] Bill Barr, so Donald Trump has consolidated his control over the intelligence committees at a time when he's given Barr unprecedented access and control over all the intelligence information, which we've never seen by an attorney general before," she said.

TRUMP ENDORSES FOX NEWS HOST JEANINE PIRRO'S CLAIM PRESIDENT HAS EXPOSED DEMOCRATIC AND 'DEEP STATE' CORRUPTION

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-endorses-fox-news-host-jeanine-pirros-claim-president-has-exposed-democratic-deep-state-1451462

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro got a public endorsement from President Donald Trump Sunday morning after the Justice with Judge Jeanine host claimed the president had unearthed corruption among Democrats and the so-called "Deep State."

Former New York City mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani appeared on Justice with Judge Jeanine this weekend to chat with Pirro about the recent testimony of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The meandering and conspiracy-laced conversation touched on a large number of conservative talking points around Mueller's Russia investigation and even drew the praise of the president, who quoted Pirro in one of his early morning Sunday tweets.

'I promise you, you're wrong': Fox News' Wallace shuts down Mulvaney claim Mueller vindicated Trump

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/07/28/chris-wallace-refutes-mick-mulvaney-meuller-testimony-exoneration-claim/1851843001/

Mulvaney, like Trump, claimed Mueller's testimony about his investigation into Russian election meddling had cleared the president of any wrongdoing, and falsely said Mueller had testified that he would "absolutely not" have indicted Trump if he weren't the president. 

"No, that's not what he said," said host Chris Wallace.

"He said we didn't because of the OLC, the Office of Legal Counsel guidelines," Wallace said, referring to a 2000 Justice Department determination that "a sitting President is constitutionally immune from indictment and criminal prosecution." 

"I actually just think you're wrong on that," Mulvaney said. 

"The record will show what it shows. I promise you, you're wrong," Wallace replied.

Fact check: Trump falsely claims Mueller exonerated him

FOX NEWS ANCHOR CONFRONTS TRUMP CHIEF OF STAFF MULVANEY OVER BALLOONING DEFICIT, POINTING OUT IT BEGAN DECREASING UNDER OBAMA

https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-anchor-confronts-trump-official-deficit-decreasing-under-obama-1451474

Although then-candidate Donald Trump promised in 2016 to eliminate the national deficit if he was elected president, the deficit has actually ballooned significantly since he took office and is projected to grow substantially moving forward. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace confronted acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney about this fact Sunday, pointing out that the deficit had begun decreasing under former President Barack Obama before Trump took over.

"After dealing with the Great Recession in his first term, the deficit under Obama dropped by an average of 11 percent a year in his second term," Wallace pointed out to Mulvaney — who also serves as Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget — on Fox News Sunday.

"The deficit has increased by 15 percent a year in President Trump's first two years. Under President Trump, our national debt has increased by more than $2 trillion," Wallace continued. He pointed out that estimates project that the amount will "top $4 trillion," if a bipartisan budget supported by the president goes through.

Gedolim are to be blamed for sins if they don't protest against those sins

 And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, who came from the battle.

תורה תמימה במדבר פרק לא פסוק יד

ל פקודי החיל - מגיד שאין הסרחון תלוי אלא בגדוליםטז) [ספרי]: 

רש"י פרשת מטות

(יד) ויקצף משה על פקודי החיל - ממונים על החיל, ללמדך שכל סרחון הדור תלוי בגדולים שיש כח בידם למחות:

[רבינו] בחיי במדבר פרק לא פסוק יד

(יד) ויקצוף משה על פקודי החיל. באור "פקודי" מלשון: (ישעיה כד, כא) "יפקוד ה'":

שרי האלפים ושרי המאות. הם קל"ב. ולמדנו שכל סרחון הדור תלוי בגדולים שיש כח בידם למחות ואינם מוחים. 

רש"ר הירש במדבר פרק לא פסוק יד

(יד) פקודי החיל הם המנהיגים שכוח הצבא הופקד בידיהם, הוה אומר: אלה שהיה עליהם להנהיג את פעולות הצבא והם היו אחראים לכך.

משך חכמה במדבר פרק לא פסוק יד

(יד) ויקצף משה על פקודי החיל, שרי האלפים ושרי המאות וכו'. הא דלא קצף על פנחס! נראה דסרחון הדור תלוי בגדולים, שיש כוח בידם למחות. 

If the Gedolim do not protest sinning than the sins are attributed to them

If Rav Kaminetsky Feinstein and Greenblatt and others do not protest adultery than they are to be blamed for it

GOP GROUP WILL RUN AD ON 'FOX & FRIENDS' HIGHLIGHTING TRUMP'S 'EXONERATION' LIE AFTER MUELLER TESTIMONY

https://www.newsweek.com/gop-group-will-run-ad-fox-friends-highlighting-trumps-exoneration-lie-after-mueller-1451452

In response, RRL will air a clip next week on Fox News' Fox & Friends, the president's preferred network, that will disprove Trump's "total exoneration" claims. The video, shared with Newsweek, opens on a tweet posted by Trump after Mueller's testimony, which reads: "TRUTH IS A FORCE OF NATURE!," before cutting to the former special counsel answering questions from House Judiciary committee chairman Jerrold Nadler and House Intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff.

They Tried to Start a Church Without God. For a While, It Worked.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/secular-churches-rethink-their-sales-pitch/594109/

For religious communes, the more sacrifices demanded, the longer they lasted; however, this connection didn’t hold for secular communes. The implication, Norenzayan said, was that challenging rituals and taxing rules work only when they’re part of something sacred; once the veil of sacrality is removed, people no longer care to commit to things that demand their time and dedication. “If it’s ‘Come and go as you wish,’ that’s not going to work,” he said. Even if secular congregations could create a sense of the sacred, they tend to attract people who are explicitly looking for a community without costly rituals—one that lets you do what you want.

Trump says he's "draining the swamp," but is he?

Trump attacks another African American lawmaker, and calls Baltimore a 'disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess'

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/27/politics/elijah-cummings-trump-baltimore/index.html

Trump's morning tirade against Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is the latest verbal assault against a minority member of Congress who is a frequent critic of the President. Two weekends ago, Trump -- in racist language that was later condemned by a House resolution -- told four progressive Democratic congresswomen of color to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came." Three of the four were born in the US, and the fourth is a naturalized US citizen.

Trump attacked Cummings, 68, who is originally from Baltimore and represents Maryland's 7th Congressional District, for erupting at acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan over border conditions during a congressional hearing on July 18. Cummings' committee has also launched a number of investigations into the Trump administration related to Trump's finances and White House practices, including security clearancesand Hatch Act violations.

Beyond Mueller’s ‘Purview’

https://www.wsj.com/articles/beyond-muellers-purview-11564097665

Trump: ‘This Was Treason’ — ‘This Should Never Be Allowed to Happen to Our Country Again’

.breitbart

In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, his first since former special counsel Robert Mueller testified before the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, President Donald Trump decried the Mueller “fake witch hunt.”

Hannity asked Trump about the importance of determining the origins of the special counsel probe, to which Trump argued this should not be allowed to happen to another president and likened it to “treason.”

“This should never happen to another president of the United States again,” Trump said on Thursday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.” “This is an absolute catastrophe for our country. This was a fake witch hunt, and it should never be allowed to happen to another president again. This was treason. This was high crimes. This was everything as bad a definition as you want to come up with. This should never be allowed to happen to our country again.”

AFTER MUELLER'S DEVASTATING TESTIMONY, THE TRUTH IS BEYOND DENYING: CONGRESS IS FAILING US

https://www.newsweek.com/after-muellers-devastating-testimony-truth-beyond-denying-congress-failing-us-opinion-1451135

Led through the narrative of Trump's unpatriotic corruption of American democracy by an adept Chairman Adam Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee, special counsel Robert Muller finally rose to the occasion, as one could see a glimmer of the United States Marine who had earned the Bronze Star for valor in Vietnam in December 1968.

Yes, Mueller agreed, all distracting legalisms finally left behind, it was a disgrace to the office he now holds that Trump and those around him had sought, welcomed, benefited from and remained potentially compromised by the Kremlin's criminal hacking into American computers and the campaign strategy formulated around the leaking of the hacked material. Yes, the danger such an invasion of our electoral sovereignty posed and continues to pose to our ability to govern ourselves is real and pressing. No, that danger has not been acknowledged, much less addressed, by Trump and his allies in Congress—lest they confess the unthinkable: that they are pretenders to the power they wield.

That Trump and his minions systematically lied and dangled the prospect of pardons and discouraged witnesses from coming forward and otherwise committed abuses of power to cover up that dangerous truth—something that the morning hearing tried without much success to dramatize—becomes almost an afterthought once the enormity of the underlying and ongoing crime is acknowledged. That anyone but a sitting president would have long since been indicted for what the special counsel uncovered Trump had done should be obvious to anyone with half a brain and a modicum of honesty but clearly isn't moving the system into high gear.

This Might Be the Most Important Exchange in the Mueller Testimony

 https://time.com/5635276/mueller-testimony-obstruction-conspiracy-analysis/

As we continue to review Mueller’s testimony, determine what it means and what should come next, it’s critical that we focus on the seriousness of the evidence in Volume I of the report regarding the multiplicity of contact Trump and his campaign had with the Russians and the open arms with which they accepted Russian activity designed to turn American voters toward him. Mueller wanted focus on his conclusion that it was not possible to exonerate the President on charges of obstruction. As Ohio Republican Mike Turner pressed him near the end of the Intelligence Committee hearing on whether DOJ had the power to exonerate people and whether it was appropriate for him to say that the investigation had not exonerated the President, Mueller suddenly pushed back. He told Turner that he included his conclusion on the lack of exoneration in the report because the Attorney General might not know this was their conclusion and “he should know it.” Mueller was not writing a report for the public. He was writing the confidential report to the Attorney General that the special counsel regulations called for.

The Attorney General ignored Director Mueller’s conclusion. In fact he navigated 180 degrees from it to declare that the investigation had given the President a clean bill of health – no collusion, no obstruction. But that is not the case in either regard, and in fact, it may be that it was the obstruction that led to the absence of conspiracy charges. We would do well to take Mueller’s unheeded warning to the Attorney General to heart as we move forward.

REPUBLICANS BLOCK FOURTH ELECTION SECURITY BILL DESPITE MUELLER'S WARNING RUSSIA IS INTERFERING 'AS WE SIT HERE'

newsweek

Robert Mueller issued a stark warning to Congress on Russian election interference Wednesday: "They're doing it as we sit here."

Still, Senate Republicans have blocked four pieces of legislation that sought to bolster the security of U.S. elections since the former special counsel's daylong congressional testimony, the latest of which came on Thursday when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, blocked two unanimous consent votes.

"The Republican leader has already indicated his intention to bury this bill in the legislative graveyard," said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, on the floor just prior to McConnell's block. Schumer was one of two Democrats who tried to force a vote on one of the bills. "That's a disgrace."

In his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday, Mueller elaborated on his report, which concluded that Russia tried to interfere in 2016 in a "sweeping and systematic fashion."

"It wasn't a single attempt. They're doing it as we sit here, and they expect to do it during the next campaign," Mueller said of Russia. "Much more needs to be done in order to protect against these intrusions—not just by the Russians, but others as well."

OFFICIALS FAILED TO SOUND ALARM ON 2016 RUSSIAN MEDDLING TO AVOID PORTRAYING VOTING SYSTEMS AS 'INSECURE

<https://www.newsweek.com/officials-failed-sound-alarm-russian-election-meddling-2016-voting-systems-insecure-1451218

Government officials feared that warning the public about ongoing efforts by Russia to subvert the 2016 U.S. elections would sow discord in the integrity of America's voting systems, according to a report released Thursday by a Senate panel's bipartisan investigation into election interference.

The 67-page report issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee, although largely redacted, reaffirms much of which is already known about Russia's extensive efforts to undermine an American election.

The report revealed that officials at "all levels of government" were concerned with eroding election integrity and thus chose not to offer detailed warnings to staffers at the state level, which in turn led local officials to not react with "any additional urgency," causing "confusion and a lack of information."

"In 2016, officials at all levels of government debated whether publicly acknowledging this foreign activity was the right course," the report stated. "Some were deeply concerned that public warnings might promote the very impression they were trying to dispel—that the voting systems were insecure."

Following a breach in Illinois by Russian actors in June 2016, FBI "flash alerts"—warnings of potential cyber security threats alerted to local authorities—were issued to several unidentified states in August. But the alerts flagging specific IP addresses lacked enough information for state officials to properly address them.

RABBIS MAKING IT HARDER FOR ISRAELI IMMIGRANTS TO PROVE THEY’RE JEWISH

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Rabbis-making-it-harder-for-Israeli-immigrants-to-prove-theyre-Jewish-596760

A study recently released by the Israel Democracy Institute and Itim warns that over the next two decades, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens from the former Soviet Union or of Ethiopian descent may need to undergo a process to validate their Judaism.

The study showed an increase in the proportion of cases that ended with a ruling that the applicant was not Jewish, from 2.9 percent in 2011 to 6.1 percent in 2016 to 6.7 percent in 2017.

FactChecking the Mueller Hearings

https://www.factcheck.org/2019/07/factchecking-the-mueller-hearings/

While former special counsel Robert S. Mueller reiterated in congressional testimony what he said in his voluminous report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, politicians reiterated some claims about the inquiry and its findings.

Mueller testified before the House judiciary and intelligence committeeson July 24. A redacted version of the special counsel’s 448-page report had been released three months earlier, on April 18. It concluded that “[t]he Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,” detailing the hacking and social media operations involved, as we’ve explained before. 

The report said the “investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government.” It “did not establish that the Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.” See our April 18 story “What the Mueller Report Says About Russian Contacts” for more on that. 

On the issue of potential obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump, the report “found multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations,” but it “did not draw ultimate conclusions about the President’s conduct,” Mueller wrote, because investigators refrained from making a prosecutorial judgment. As he repeated in his congressional testimony, Mueller wrote in the report that an opinion issued by the Office of Legal Counsel finding that a sitting president couldn’t be indicted factored into the decision to not weigh in on prosecution. For more on the “key events” the report examined regarding  obstruction, see “What the Mueller Report Says About Obstruction.”

Attorney General William P. Barr told Congress in a March 24 letter that the Department of Justice wouldn’t bring charges against Trump, concluding that “the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

For an overview of key moments during the Russia investigation, see our timeline of the probe.

Let’s take a look at some repeated claims made during and about Mueller’s testimony.

Trump's lies are getting bolder and the press is stuck in the middle

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/25/media/mueller-hearing-trump-lies/index.html
Big Lies

Either you reject the lies, or you accept the lies.

Of all the divides in American life today, this is the divide I keep thinking about. President Trump and his allies lie with reckless abandon. They make dishonest politicians from the past look like amateurs. When they get called out, they lie about the lying. Trump did this on Wednesday after Robert Mueller contradicted several of the president's fictions about the Mueller Report. When PBS "NewsHour" correspondent Yamiche Alcindor pointed this out to him, citing Mueller's own words, Trump denied it and insulted Alcindor.

I'm often told that people are "numb" to Trump's noise and nonsense. But let's examine this for a minute:

President Trump blasts Robert Mueller after hearings

A look at whether Robert Mueller broke the rules for special counsels

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/jul/24/john-ratcliffe/look-whether-robert-mueller-broke-rules-special-co/\\\

Our ruling

Ratcliffe said Mueller overstepped the rules for prosecutors by writing about potential crimes that were not charged. This is wrong.

Federal regulations specifically require special prosecutors to explain their decisions not to prosecute. That explanation goes to the attorney general, who then decides what to make public.

We found no legal scholar who agreed with Ratcliffe.

We rate this claim False.

The Most Revealing Exchange of the Mueller Hearing

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/mueller-wont-say-it-but-trump-clearly-obstructed-justice/594634/

There’s a logical disconnect in volume 2 of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report that is unmissable to any careful reader.

As Mueller explains in the report, a charge of obstruction of justice requires three elements: an obstructive act, a nexus with an official proceeding, and corrupt intent. And in the report, Mueller’s team laid out several cases where President Donald Trump committed an obstructive act, in connection with an official proceeding, with what Mueller’s team concluded could be a corrupt intent.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-mueller-testimony-highlights-hearing-special-counsel-report/

Robert Mueller Is Testifying Before the House. Here's Everything to Know

https://time.com/5629528/robert-mueller-testimony-live-updates/

The hearing was characterized by partisan politics, with House Democrats asking questions about Trump’s moves to interfere with the Mueller investigation through former White House Counsel Don McGahn and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Meanwhile, Republicans tried to discredit or minimize the investigation with questions about Peter Strzok, the former FBI employee who texted anti-Trump text messages, and Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer.

Trump says only 11 percent favor impeachment hearings — lower than recent polls show

washington Post

President Trump cited an unidentified poll Tuesday that he said showed only 11 percent support for starting impeachment hearings against him, a figure notably lower than results from several reputable polling organizations.

“Newest Poll: Only 11% in favor of starting ridiculous impeachment hearings,” Trump said in morning tweets. The posts also touted what he sees as his accomplishments in office and accused Democrats of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

The White House did not respond to a question about which poll the president was citing, and Trump did not specify what category of people was purportedly surveyed.

Meanwhile, an Economist-YouGov poll this month found that 36 percent of adults support efforts in the House to impeach Trump, while 45 percent were opposed.

In that poll, 11 percent of Republicans supported efforts to impeach Trump. It’s possible that that is the figure Trump was referencing in his tweet, but the poll was conducted more than a week ago and would not be the “newest.”

Three daycare assistants suspected of abuse

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/266384

Israel Police opened an investigation into three daycare assistants suspected of attacking children in their care, Israel Hayom reported.

A restraining order has been issued against assistants, who are employed by a daycare center in Rosh Ha'ayin's Psagot Afek neighborhood.

There is also a suspicion that the abuse caused one of the children to suffer a broken leg.

According to Israel Hayom, the investigation was opened after parents submitted a complaint against the daycare assistants, claiming the assistants had acted violently towards their children. One of the mothers, whose son broke his leg in daycare, submitted a complaint claiming that the assistants caused the break.

The child's parents have removed him from the center until additional details became clear, and other children have been removed from the center as well.

Israel Police investigators interrogated the assistants and issued a two-week restraining order. Investigators have also taken security footage from the center, in order to investigate whether any abuse was documented.

Earlier this month, 25-year-old Carmel Mauda, a daycare provider also from Rosh Ha'ayin, admitted to abusing the children in her care, saying she had a "black day" and "was a devil.

No, Mexico didn't take 30% of U.S. auto business as Trump claims

https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2019/jul/23/donald-trump/no-mexico-didnt-take-30-us-auto-business-trump-cla/

Our ruling

Trump said Mexico "took 30 percent of our automobile business."

Experts say there isn’t one example of an automaker closing a plant in the U.S. in order to open one in Mexico, much less enough to total 30% of anything.

And Mexican-built cars still account for only 15% of sales in the U.S.

It’s noteworthy that car production has decreased in the U.S. while increasing in Mexico in recent years, and that Mexico has landed the majority of the new vehicle plants built in North America in the last decade.

But neither of those trends match Trump’s description in the more detailed CNBC claim, of plants being closed and workers let go in the U.S. as work moves to Mexico.

We rate Trump’s claim False.

WHAT DO WOMEN WANT sexually?

Had a long talk yesterday with a rabbi who does a  lot of of marriage counselling He said one of the biggest problems  he deals with is the lack of awareness that women have different sexual needs than men

 He repeated the well known  claim that men have a great physical need for sex while women are primarily focused on being loved i.e emotion.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/201308/what-do-women-really-want

I challenged him on this saying there are no Torah sources for this claim.

He responded rather weakly in my opinion with two sources.

1. Rav Wolbe says the husband should sit on the bed after sex(couldn't find it)

2. Rambam says not to be drunk or angry during sex.

Does anyone know of better more explicit sources.

The sources I have seen explicitly emphasize the need of the wife to satisfy physical sexual needs  of the husband i.e., moredes or shibud

the above research shows that while women have greater physical lust than men as the result of physical stimuli - they apparently are not aware of it or deny its existence. this fits with the following psak  of  ..IGROS MOSHE

שו"ת אגרות משה אבן העזר חלק ג סימן כח
ובדבר מה שחדשו האחרונים שהביא הפ"ת סימן ע"ו סק"ג בשם מעיל צדקה שיש לת"ח בזה"ז לקיים עונה שתים בשבת ובבאור הלכה סימן ר"מ הביא כן גם מהחכ"א בשם צואת ר"י מפראג וכתר"ה כותב שכן הורו גם גאוני זמננו, הנה גם אני אומר כן, ואני מוסיף דלפ"מ שכתבתי שעיקר העונה הוא מה שהאשה משתוקקת ומתאוה, וכיון שכתב הפ"ת בשם ספר מעיל צדקה דהוא משום פריצת הדור וקנאת ירך חברתה הרי בא מזה תשוקה ותאוה ליותר מפעם אחת שלכן נמצא שהוא מעיקר העונה ואף שלא הכיר בעלה בזה יש לתלות שהוא מצד הבושה וגודל הצניעות דהרי בשביל זה קבעו הזמנים כדכתבתי לעיל ולכן שפיר הורו דיש ליעץ וגם לחייב שתי פעמים בשבת. והנני ידידו מוקירו מאד, משה פיינשטיין


Sexual matters were apparently viewed differently in the old pre Victorian days

 NEDARIM 20B Imma Shalom2 was asked: Why are thy children so exceedingly beautiful? She replied: [Because] he [my husband] ‘converses’ (HAS SEXUAL RELATIONS RAN )with me neither at the beginning nor at the end of the night, but [only] at midnight; and when he ‘converses’, he uncovers a handbreadth and covers a hand breadth, and is as though he were compelled by a demon. And when I asked him, What is the reason for this [for choosing midnight], he replied, So that I may not think of another woman,1 lest my children be as bastards.2 — There is no difficulty: this refers to conjugal matters;3 the other refers to other matters.

BERACHOS 62A. It has been taught: R. Akiba said: Once I went in after R. Joshua to a privy, and I learnt from him three things. I learnt that one does not sit east and west but north and south; I learnt that one evacuates not standing but sitting; and I learnt that it is proper to wipe with the left hand and not with the right. Said Ben Azzai to him: Did you dare to take such liberties with your master? He replied: It was a matter of Torah, and I required to learn. It has been taught: Ben ‘Azzai said: Once I went in after R. Akiba to a privy, and I learnt from him three things. I learnt that one does not evacuate east and west but north and south. I also learnt that one evacuates sitting and not standing. I also learnt it is proper to wipe with the left hand and not with the right. Said R. Judah to him: Did you dare to take such liberties with your master? — He replied: It was a matter of Torah, and I required to learn. R. Kahana once went in and hid under Rab's bed. He heard him chatting [with his wife] and joking and doing what he required. He said to him: One would think that Abba's mouth had never sipped the dish before! He said to him: Kahana, are you here? Go out, because it is rude.1 He replied: It is a matter of Torah, and I require to learn.

SOTAH 20A  R. JOSHUA SAYS: A WOMAN PREFERS ONE KAB8 AND SEXUAL INDULGENCE TO NINE KAB9 AND CONTINENCE. HE USED TO SAY, A FOOLISH PIETIST, A CUNNING ROGUE, A FEMALE PHARISEE, AND THE PLAGUE OF PHARISEES10 BRING DESTRUCTION UPON THE WORLD.

R. JOSHUA SAYS: A WOMAN PREFERS etc. What does he intend? — He means that a woman prefers one kab and sensuality with it to nine kab with continence.

רש"י מסכת סוטה דף כא עמוד ב

רוצה אשה בקב ותיפלות - חפיצה ליזון במזונות מועטין ויהא תיפלותה מצוי לה בתשמיש מט' קבין ופרישות לפרוש מן התיפלות לפיכך אין טוב שתלמוד תורה.

Conservative Conference Avoids Trump as They Rebrand Nationalism and Economic Policy

https://time.com/5630848/conservative-conference-avoids-trump/

Scrupulous avoidance of the president was hardly the confab’s only paradox. Take foreign policy. One of the keynote speakers, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, has repeatedly criticized Trump for bombing Syria and reportedly convinced the president not to strike Iran. He has called Trump’s hawkish national security advisor John Bolton a “bureaucratic tapeworm” who “seems to live forever in the bowels” of Washington. Yet the following day, said tapeworm slithered into the Ritz for his own keynote appearance, which, like Carlson’s, was well-received by the audience.

The Rise and Rage of Donald Trump : The Fire Breather - the fifth estate

New Letter in Support of the Beis Din's Ruling in the Case of R' Shmuel Tal

The Perilous State of the University: Jonathan Haidt & Jordan B Peterson

Stimulating discussion, with relevance to social and intellectual state of Orthodox Judaism, from about the 30 minute mark, but you need to listen to what precedes it, for context: 

ראש הישיבה שהותקף מינית בילדותו: "זה כמו רצח, לא יעזוב אותי בחיים"| כיכר השבת

Fox News host destroys Trump aide Stephen Miller over racism

In a Reversal, President Trump Disavows Criticism of 'Send Her Back' Chant

https://time.com/5630923/reversal-trump-send-her-back-chant/

President Donald Trump has reversed his previous criticisms of a North Carolina campaign crowd that chanted “send her back” about a Somali-born congresswoman.

Trump on Friday defended the rally-goers as “patriots” while again questioning the loyalty of four Democratic lawmakers of color. His comments marked a return to a pattern that has become familiar during controversies of his own making: ignite a firestorm, backtrack, then strongly reaffirm his original, inflammatory position.

When reporters at the White House asked if he was unhappy with the Wednesday night crowd, Trump responded: “Those are incredible people. They are incredible patriots. But I’m unhappy when a congresswoman goes and says, ‘I’m going to be the president’s nightmare.'”

It was another dizzying twist in a saga sparked by the president’s racist tweets about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who moved from Somalia as a child, and her colleagues Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

The moment took an ugly turn at the rally when the crowd’s “send her back” shouts resounded for 13 seconds as Trump made no attempt to interrupt them. He paused in his speech and surveyed the scene, taking in the uproar, though the next day he claimed he did not approve of the chant and tried to stop it.

But on Friday, he made clear he was not disavowing the chant and again laced into Omar, the target of the chant.

“You can’t talk that way about our country. Not when I’m president,” Trump said. “These women have said horrible things about our country and the people of our country.”

He also tweeted that it was “amazing how the Fake News Media became ‘crazed’ over the chant ‘send her back’ by a packed Arena (a record) crowd in the Great State of North Carolina, but is totally calm & accepting of the most vile and disgusting statements made by the three Radical Left Congresswomen.”