Scoop: Trump regrets Kushner advice on prison reform

https://www.axios.com/trump-kushner-second-thoughts-408d5a33-725d-442a-88e4-d6ab6742c139.html

 

President Trump has told people in recent days that he regrets following some of son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner's political advice — including supporting criminal justice reform — and will stick closer to his own instincts, three people with direct knowledge of the president's thinking tell Axios.

Between the lines: Trump never really wanted criminal justice reform, according to people who have discussed the subject with him privately. He's told them he only supported it because Kushner asked him to. Though he has repeatedly trumpeted it as a politically useful policy at times.

The president also pays close attention to Fox News' Tucker Carlson. A few weeks ago, in a brutal monologue, Carlson blamed Kushner for giving Trump bad advice.

Viewpoint: What Donald Trump gets wrong about Somalia

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53268582

President Donald Trump is making Somali-American congresswoman Ilhan Omar one of the bogeywomen of his campaign for re-election to the White House in November - and by proxy her country of birth, Somalia.

In his most recent attack, at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he tore into the 37-year-old alleging that she wanted to bring the "anarchy" of Somalia to the US.

"She would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came - Somalia. No government, no safety, no police, no nothing, just anarchy. And now, she's telling us how to run our country. No, thank-you."

Ms Omar, who arrived in the US as a child refugee in 1995, is the congressional representative for Minnesota, which includes the city of Minneapolis where African-American George Floyd was killed by police in May, reigniting Black Lives Matter protests.

 

But it was Ms Omar's Somali heritage the president chose to focus on in Tulsa, perhaps to distract from all the turmoil and unrest closer to home.

In response Ms Omar said his remarks were "racist". She added that his anger came out of a recent poll that had shown him trailing his rival, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, in her state, which is home to a large Somali-American community.

Top ultra-Orthodox MK threatens party will exit coalition if yeshivas shuttered

https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-ultra-orthodox-mk-threatens-party-will-exit-coalition-if-yeshivas-shuttered/

MK Moshe Gafni has threatened to withdraw his ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party from the coalition if the government decides to close down yeshivas in the face of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following reports that both the Health Ministry and National Security Council were pushing for yeshiva closures ahead of Monday’s coronavirus-focused cabinet meeting, Gafni told Hebrew media on Sunday that such a move would force him to turn to his party’s rabbinic leadership and “advise them not to be partners in such a government.”

 

Trump's 4th of July Speech on the National Mall. Trump's America vs. Our America

Republican Senator called out for slamming Obama for TWO Ebola deaths while Trump has 130,000

FDA commissioner refuses to defend Trump claim

Trump claims 99% of US Covid-19 cases are 'totally harmless' as infections surge

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/05/trump-claims-99-of-us-covid-19-cases-are-totally-harmless-as-infections-surge

“We got hit by the virus that came from China,” the president said, prompting a strange whoop and applause from someone in the audience. “We’ve made a lot of progress. Our strategy is moving along well. It goes out in one area, it rears back its ugly face in another area. But we’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned how to put out the flame.”

The number of infections now regularly tops 50,000 per day, higher than in April when the US was in the first grip of infections. Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, warned this week: “I think it’s pretty obvious that we are not going in the right direction.”

Trump returned to his now familiar and baseless complaint that America has a high caseload because it performs more tests. “Now we have tested almost 40m people. By so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless. Results that no other country can show because no other country has the testing that we have, not in terms of the numbers or in terms of quality.”

 

It was unclear how the president arrived at the “99%” harmless figure.

Trump uses July 4th address to put forward a dangerously misleading claim

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/05/politics/donald-trump-july-4-coronavirus/index.html

 As the nation marked a somber Fourth of July with many Americans confined to their homes amid an alarming rise in coronavirus cases, President Donald Trump used his stage on the White House's South Lawn Saturday to put forward a mystifying -- and dangerously misleading claim -- that 99% of coronavirus cases in America are "totally harmless."

The President's assertion without evidence about the virus was his latest attempt to minimize the threat of the coronavirus as it ravages the United States with cases rising across the country, and as an increasing number of top Republican officials from the nation's governors to members of Congress pleaded with Americans to redouble their efforts to curb the spread of the virus, warning of the dangerous consequences if current trends continue.

It was in that same speech that he made his latest puzzling claim about the virus, as he described the administration's flawed and lagging response to the pandemic as a great American success story and falsely suggested, once again, that the rise in cases in the US is due to increased testing.

It is unclear how the President could be under the impression that 99% of cases are "totally harmless." There have now been at least 2.8 million cases of coronavirus in the United States, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. While the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 35% of cases are asymptomatic, those patients can still spread the virus. As of Saturday, Johns Hopkins estimated that the fatality rate for the US was 4.6%. The White House has not returned CNN's request for comment on the President's claim.

The commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration on Sunday declined to defend the President and repeatedly refused to say whether Trump's remark is true or false.

Trump faces a now historical disadvantage

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/05/politics/polls-july-analysis/index.html

Now, the past isn't necessarily prologue. There is time for volatility. The polls will probably bounce around during the convention period. (Part of the reason the first 10 days of July are a good snapshot is that it is usually after the primary season but before the conventions.) Trump could close the gap and could very well win.

But make no mistake: An incumbent trailing by double-digits in early July with an opponent over 50% is a heavy underdog for reelection.

The ADL’s data proves it: The right owns anti-Semitism in America

https://forward.com/opinion/446360/the-adls-data-proves-it-the-right-owns-anti-semitism-in-america/

For all that headlines like to talk about anti-Semitism as a phenomenon that clusters on the ideological extremes of both sides of the political spectrum, the ADL data confirms that in the United States today, the vast majority of ideologically-linked anti-Semitism is committed by the political right.

 

To be clear, the left is not blameless in the rise of anti-Semitism in the US. And, of course, Jews in other countries such as the United Kingdom face very different threats. But the ADL’s US numbers suggest that out of the 270 anti-Semitic incidents committed by known political extremists in the US in 2019, at least two-thirds were committed by known white supremacist groups.

Duckworth to Trump: I won't be lectured by draft dodger

Trump's powerful message of rage

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/04/opinions/trump-mount-rushmore-speech-monuments-rhetoric-dantonio/index.html

 

Breathe easy, America. President Donald Trump's got this. A deadly pandemic is tearing through the country, but the statues are going to be all right.

Trump swooped into the heartland on Friday and delivered this news, along with a message of rage at the foot of Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Ignoring the fact that nearly 130,000 Americans have already died from Covid-19, with new cases topping 50,000 a day, he stoked fears of an "angry mob" engaged in "a merciless campaign to wipe out our history." In an address that could be called "American Carnage II" for following the emotional blueprint he laid out in his inaugural address, Trump declared that federal officers would be dispatched to protect monuments and statues wherever they were threatened.

Trump's 40-minute speech was a master class in rhetorical deception. He lumped together the racists of the Confederacy with the figures on Mt. Rushmore, insisting they are all being reconsidered in the same way. Several elected officials have ordered the removal of Confederate monuments in an effort to recognize the painful legacy of slavery, while the debate over monuments of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt is more nuanced, given their positive contributions to the nation. No sweeping effort is being made to remove all of these monuments and to suggest one exists amounts to sounding a false alarm.

In his speech, Trump appeared to want to associate himself with the more admired figures of the past; as he spoke of Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and others, Trump sounded like a fifth-grader reading random pages of a history book. There was Washington crossing the Delaware, Jefferson dispatching Lewis and Clark and Roosevelt overseeing the construction of the Panama Canal.

In the simpleton's view of history offered by Trump, there is no room for the slaves owned by Washington and Jefferson or for Roosevelt's white supremacy. According to this perspective, sins and flaws must be denied; otherwise the greats of history cannot be honored. This is, of course, what a child might think upon learning that his or her parents are not quite perfect. But with maturity, children, like citizens, can both revere their heroes for their strengths and criticize them for their failings -- and judge who, in the end, deserves to be on a pedestal.

Kansas paper published by Republican posts cartoon likening masks order to Holocaust

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/04/kansas-paper-republican-cartoon-masks-holocaust

A Kansas newspaper whose publisher is a county Republican chairman posted a cartoon on its Facebook page likening an order from the state’s governor requiring people to wear masks in public to the round-up and murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

The cartoon on the Anderson County Review’s Facebook page depicts Democratic governor Laura Kelly wearing a mask with a Jewish Star of David on it, next to people being loaded on to train cars. Its caption is: “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask ... and step on to the cattle car.”

How fear of a US retreat from the Mideast is driving Netanyahu toward annexation

https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-fear-of-a-us-retreat-from-the-mideast-is-driving-netanyahu-toward-annexation/

 

Why is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so keen on annexation? Theories range from the psychological — he’s seeking a legacy — to the political — to distract the public from his corruption trial — to the ideological — he’s an expansionist ideologue empowered by a right-wing American administration.

Some have spoken about the “window of opportunity” represented by the remaining months of the Trump presidency — assuming, as most Israelis do, that Donald Trump is not reelected.

Trump gives divisive 4th of July speech as US coronavirus cases soar | DW News

Who wrote the Torah?

     Bava basra 14b) Who wrote the Scriptures? — Moses wrote his own book and  Balaam and Job. Joshua wrote the book which bears his name and [the last] eight verses of the Pentateuch.19 Samuel wrote the book which bears his name and the Book of Judges and Ruth. David wrote the Book of Psalms, including in it the work of the elders, namely, Adam, Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, Heman, Yeduthun, Asaph,
 (22) ספר פרי צדיק פרשת בלק - אות ב
 דאיתא בגמרא (ב"ב י"ד ע"ב) משה כתב ספרו ופרשת בלעם ופירש"י אף על פי שאינן צורכי משה ותורתו וכו' וקשה למה נקט דוקא פרשת בלעם יותר משאר סיפורים שבתורה ככל ספר בראשית ואם בשביל צורך ישראל גם פרשת בלעם לצורך ישראל גם נזכרו אלה המלכים אשר מלכו וגו' וכהאי גוונא וכמו דחשב בזוהר הקדוש (בהעלותך ק"ב ב') מילין דהדיוטין כגון מילין דעשו מילין דהגר וכו' גם למה נקרא פרשת בלעם ולא פרשת בלק כמו שאנו קורין פרשה זו פרשת בלק. וכן הוזכרה בלשון זה בגמרא (ברכות י"ב ע"ב) בקשו לקבוע פרשת בלק בקריאת שמע וכו' גם בזוהר הקדוש שם מילין דבלק מילין דבלעם ובע"י כתב בשם ריטב"א שהיה ספר מיוחד שנקרא פרשת בלעם. וזה קשה לומר שהרי כל הספרים לבד התנ"ך לא ניתן לכתוב וקרי להו ספרים החיצונים. אך נראה הענין על פי מה שכתב בספרי (פרשת ברכה) ולא קם נביא עוד בישראל כמשה אבל באומות העולם קם ואיזה זה בלעם וכו' והוא על פי מה שכתב (ספרי מטות) שהנביאים נתנבאו בכה אמר מוסיף עליהם משה שנתנבא בזה הדבר. והיינו דהנביאים נתנבאו בכה אמר שמתחילה שמעו הנבואה מהשם יתברך ואחר כך אמרוה ומשה נתנבא בזה הדבר, היינו שבשעה שאמר הנבואה אז שכינה מדברת מתוך גרונו, והיינו זה הדבר כמורה באצבע ובזוהר הקדוש (פרשה זו ר"י ב') הרי כ"ה וכו' דכד תפתח פומך היא תמלל מילין וכו'. והיינו שהוא לא היה מדבר רק השכינה הוא המדברת. וזהו הענין מה שנאמר מקודם במאמר ה' לבלעם ואך את הדבר אשר אדבר אליך אותו תעשה ומה לשון תעשה והוה ליה לומר תדבר. ומקודם לעשות קטנה או גדולה שייך לשון עשיה אבל כאן שהוא רק דיבור מהו הלשון תעשה. אך הוא על פי האמור שהוא לא ידבר רק השכינה והוא יהיה עושה רק תנועות מוצאות הפה ועל דרך שאמרו (ב"מ צ' ע"ב) עקימת פיו הויא מעשה. ואחר כך במאמר המלאך לבלעם אשר אדבר אליך אותו תדבר כתיב


תלמוד בבלי מסכת בבא בתרא דף יד עמוד ב
ומי כתבן? משה כתב ספרו ופרשת בלעם ואיוב; יהושע כתב ספרו ושמונה פסוקים שבתורה;

רבינו גרשום מסכת בבא בתרא דף יד עמוד ב
ופרשת בלעם. אף על גב דבלעם גופיה הוה נביא. שמונה פסוקים שבתורה מן וימת משה. על ידי עשרה זקנים ועל ידי אדם הראשון. על ידי אדם הראשון היינו מזמור שיר

The Consequences of Attending a Trump rally - Stories from a Super-spreader

Disunity on display as US riven by divisions marks independence

https://www.timesofisrael.com/disunity-on-display-as-us-riven-by-divisions-marks-independence/

 

Demonstrators chanting “Black Lives Matter” exchanged words with activists waving pro-Trump signs outside a fortified White House as America’s Independence Day was marked Saturday in Washington and elsewhere by confrontations and disunity.

In Seattle, one woman was killed and another was seriously hurt when a speeding car barreled into a Black Lives Matter protest. In Baltimore, protesters yanked a statue of Christopher Columbus free and threw it into the city’s harbor, and in Washington, US President Donald Trump railed against protesters as the Independence Day holiday put some of the nation’s deepest divisions on display.

Republican Governors Hate Themselves For Taking Trump's Advice

'Shattered The Previous Record': Florida Records More Than 11,000 Coronavirus Cases In One Day

'Trump Is A Threat To Our Nation’: Hundreds Of Ex-Staffers Under George W. Bush Endorse Biden

Incitement? Hatred? Look no further than Israeli campuses

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/282961

 

Here in our snug little corner of the Middle East, we often cry foul about the plethora of anti-Israel injustices occurring at universities worldwide, and for good reason. These wrongdoings have been steadily rising for years, and continue to threaten Jewish and Zionist students. However, a bastion of misinformation and terrorist sympathizers exists right here in our own backyard that doesn’t face nearly the opposition it should: Israeli universities.

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the

‘Almost hard to believe’: Joe Biden attacks antisemitism on the left in US and UK

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-biden-antisemitism-us-uk-israel-trump-palestine-a9524056.html

Joe Biden has issued criticism against those whose condemnation of Israeli politics veered towards antisemitism.

“Criticism of Israel’s policy is not antisemitism,” the presumptive Democratic nominee for president told donors on Tuesday. “But too often that criticism from the left morphs into antisemitism.”

 

From Left to Right, Jewish Groups Condemn ‘Repellent’ Black Lives Matter Claim of Israeli ‘Genocide’

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/from-left-to-right-jewish-groups-condemn-repellent-black-lives-matter-claim-of-israeli-genocide

On Monday, an alliance of groups affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement unveiled their first official platform. The 40,000-word manifesto contained many recommendations, including concrete policy proposals, for rectifying the wrongs perpetrated against America’s African-American citizens in the past and present. Unfortunately, the platform also contained a vicious bigoted slur against the Jewish state, which the document’s foreign policy section accused of perpetrating “genocide” against Palestinians. (The platform also labeled Israel an “apartheid state” and joined with the BDS movement in calling for the total academic, cultural, and economic boycott of the country—a demand made for no other state.)

 

Coronavirus burning through Haredi, Arab areas of Jerusalem

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/coronavirus-burning-through-haredi-arab-areas-of-jerusalem-633876

Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) areas of Jerusalem are becoming hot spots for the coronavirus, reminiscent of the first wave, a new report shows.According to a report released Friday by the Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center, which is overseen by the IDF Intelligence Corps in cooperation with the Health Ministry, most of the new infections in Jerusalem in the past week are concentrated in haredi neighborhoods.

 Some 37% of Jerusalem’s coronavirus patients are in the following neighborhoods: Ramot, Kiryat Sanz-Belz, Geula, Neve Yaakov, Mea She’arim, Tel Arza, Mahanayim, Ramot Bet, Har Nof, Habukharim, Makor Baruch, Kiryat Mattersdorf, Givat Hamivtar and Sanhedria Murhevet.

 

 

 

COVID trials halted for hydroxychloroquine after failure to reduce death

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/hydroxychloroquine-hiv-drugs-covid-trials-halted-fail-to-reduce-death-633869

WHO said the decision to halt the trials does not affect other studies where the drugs are used for non-hospitalized patients or as a prophylaxis.

 

Michael Cohen caught at New York City restaurant — and it could land him back in prison

https://www.foxnews.com/us/michael-cohen-new-york-restaurant-prison

Michael Cohen could soon be back to chowing down in a prison cafeteria.

The recently sprung jailbird was caught by The Post dining out on Manhattan’s Upper East Side — and the meal may cost him his freedom, legal experts said Friday.

But on Friday, Levine defended Cohen’s evening out, saying that Cohen “is currently on furlough” and that he “did not violate any of the terms and conditions of his release … and any assertion or suggestion to the contrary would be wholly inaccurate and untrue.”

The BOP form for furlough applications requires that an inmate provide a furlough address and acknowledge by signature that “I am authorized to be only in the area of the destination shown above and at ordinary stopovers or points on a direct route to or from that destination.”

 

Trump, in fiery Mount Rushmore address, decries rise of 'far-left fascism,' calls on Americans to rise up

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-in-fiery-mount-rushmore-address-decries-rise-of-far-left-fascism-calls-on-americans-to-rise-up
\

 

Speaking after the legendary U.S. Navy Blue Angels roared overhead, President Trump ushered in the July 4th weekend Friday night at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota with a full-throated condemnation of "far-left fascism" and a defense of "Judeo-Christian principles."

"This monument will never be desecrated," Trump declared to cheers and applause. "These heroes will never be defaced. Their legacy will never, ever be destroyed. Their achievements will never be forgotten. And Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers and to our freedom."

"We are the country of Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass," Trump said. "We are the land of Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill Cody. We are the nation that gave rise to the Wright Brothers, the Tuskegee Airmen — Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, Jesse Owens, George Patton — General George Patton — the great Louie Armstrong, Alan Shepard, Elvis Presley, and Mohammad Ali.  And only America could have produced them all. No other place."

Gettysburg

President Trump Pushes Racial Division, Flouts Coronavirus Rules at Mt. Rushmore Speech

https://time.com/5862857/trump-mt-rushmore-speech-fourth-of-july/

At the foot of Mount Rushmore and on the eve of Independence Day, President Donald Trump dug deeper into America’s divisions by accusing protesters who have pushed for racial justice of engaging in a “merciless campaign to wipe out our history.”

The president, in remarks Friday night at the South Dakota landmark, offered a discordant tone to an electorate battered by a pandemic and seared by the recent high-profile killings of Black people. He zeroed in on the desecration by some demonstrators of monuments and statues across the country that honor those who have benefited from slavery, including some past presidents.

The discord was heightened as the Trump campaign confirmed during the president’s speech that Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top fundraiser for the campaign and the girlfriend of Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr., had tested positive for the coronavirus while in South Dakota. Both Guilfoyle and Trump Jr., who serves as a top surrogate for the president, are isolating themselves and have canceled public events, according to Sergio Gor, chief of staff to the Trump campaign’s finance committee.

Trump tries to drag America backward on a very different July 4th

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/04/politics/donald-trump-mount-rushmore-culture-wars-july-4th/index.html

In a jaw-dropping speech that amounted to a culture war bonfire, President Donald Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore Friday night to frame protesters as a nefarious left-wing mob that intends to "end America." Those opponents, he argued, are engaged in a "merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children."

 

Trump's Failures on Putin, Racial equality/BLM and COVID. But One Leadership Spot Trump has Earned

Speak Out Against Annexation!

https://cross-currents.com/2020/07/03/speak-out-against-annexation/

 

Given the guarantees that China gave to the former British colony which are now being unilaterally broken, it is nothing less than an annexation. It will bring far greater hardship and sorrow than the one in the Middle East, to a population three times the size of the West Bank. We’re not talking checkpoints and denied access to olive trees here. We are talking about the overnight end to effective civil liberties for everyone in Hong Kong, and the real prospect of prosecution and incarceration by a government that has shown itself willing and able to keep hundreds of millions under its thumb.^[1]

Why are we not hearing any outcry from the World Council of Churches, or the academic world, or the European Parliament? Why no marches on the Capitol, like the Palestinian Lives Matter one of a few days ago? 

Simply put, the morality of these churches and of the university campus ends when it butts heads with providers of cheap tchotchkes. Hard to beat that for hypocrisy. Especially since this is only the latest episode in the global game of moral blindness to the many outrages perpetrated by the Chinese Communist regime. Had the EU considered a boycott of China, Tibet might be free today, rather than remaining – after decades of oppression, cultural repression, and murder – under the thumb of the Communist Party, the only people who count in the People’s Republic.

Trump Says COVID-19 Crisis Is 'Being Handled' As U.S. Sets A New Case Record | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

remarriage without Get - Rav Sternbuch

Duckworth vows to block over 1,000 military confirmations until Pentagon proves Vindman will be promoted

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/duckworth-vows-to-block-over-1000-military-confirmations-until-pentagon-proves-vindman-will-be-promoted

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., on Thursday announced her intention to block Senate confirmations for 1,123 senior U.S. Armed Forces promotions until Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirms he will not block the "expected and deserved" promotion of Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.

Duckworth threatens to block military nominees unless impeachment witness Vindman gets promotion

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/02/tammy-duckworth-alexander-vindman-military-nominees-348183

Sen. Tammy Duckworth on Thursday announced she'll hold up the confirmation of more than 1,000 military promotions until Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirms that the promotion of impeachment witness Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman will move forward.

"Our military is supposed to be the ultimate meritocracy," Duckworth said. "It is simply unprecedented and wrong for any Commander in Chief to meddle in routine military matters at all, whether or not he has a personal vendetta against a Soldier who did his patriotic duty and told the truth — a Soldier who has been recommended for promotion by his superiors because of his performance. I won’t just sit by and let it happen, and neither should any of my colleagues.

"This goes far beyond any single military officer, it is about protecting a merit-based system from political corruption and unlawful retaliation," she added.

A spokesperson for Esper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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

Rep. McCaul admits Trump 'did deserve, probably' to know about Russian bounty intelligence

https://www.foxnews.com/media/mccaul-trump-deserved-know-russian-bounty-intelligence

 Congressman Michael McCaul discusses Russian bounty reports and if the intel rose to the level of briefing the president

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told "America's Newsroom" Thursday that President Trump "did deserve, probably, to know" about intelligence that Russian officials had paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants in exchange for the deaths of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee pointed out that Russians working in coordination with the Taliban to kill American troops would be a "significant" divergence from working together to defeat ISIS.

As I examine this whole thing, though, I think the president did deserve probably to know that this was out there only because [of] the timing of the peace deal with the Taliban itself that was going on literally two days after this presidential daily briefing came in," he remarked.

Although the president and the White House have insisted Trump was never briefed on any intelligence about Russian bounties before The New York Times reported on the matter June 26, a separate source within the military told Fox News on Monday that special operations forces raided a Taliban outpost this year and recovered roughly $500,000. A subsequent interrogation of an Afghan fighter revealed that the money came from Russia.

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

Trump 2020 campaign accused of ‘ripping off’ Nazi eagle logo

https://globalnews.ca/news/7130932/trump-nazi-eagle-logo-america-first/

Donald Trump‘s re-election campaign has a new “America First” logo — and it looks a lot like the Nazi eagle used by Adolf Hitler and modern white supremacist groups, according to many critics on Twitter.

The logo, which can be found on T-shirts sold through the Trump campaign website, shows a stylized eagle grasping a circle containing the American flag. The eagle has its wings spread and its head turned to show its profile.

 

The Primary Model (2020) 91-95% Certain Trump Will Be Re-elected

 http://primarymodel.com/2020

Caution: The massive disruptions caused by the Coronavirus outbreak may prompt me to revise the forecast, especially if there is a crack in Trump support. 

The Primary Model gives President Trump a 91% chance of winning a possible match-up with Democrat Joe Biden in November, based on primary performance in New Hampshire and South Carolina, plus the first-term electoral benefit. Trump would get 362 electoral votes, Biden 176.   

Winning the early primaries is a major key for electoral victory in November.  On the Democratic side, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders split the primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina while Trump handily won the Republican Primary in New Hampshire (the GOP primary in South Carolina was cancelled this year). 

What favors Trump in 2020 as well is the cycle of presidential elections operating for nearly 200 years, as illustrated by the snapshot since 1960.  After one term in the White House the incumbent party is favored to win re-election unlike the situation when it has held office for two or more terms.

'The plague is back big-time - watch out for the weak'

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/282887

 

Former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett issues statement warning coronavirus transfers from young to old; urges meeting elderly only in open

"So I ask that when you go to visit grandparents you meet them outside, in the garden, in the yard, in the open air. The chance of contagion in the open air is a fraction of that in a closed room. If it still has to be indoors, open windows and doors and turn on a fan; the ventilation dramatically reduces the chance of getting infected," he claimed.
Bennett added, "That's why I ask, so that we can continue to open the country, guard the vulnerable, the weak, guard your grandparents and meet them in the open air. Don't underestimate coronavirus, it's not a conspiracy, it's a real thing. We don't deny coronavirus, but we can deal with it together."

'I'm all for masks,' says Trump in change of tone

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53258792

US President Donald Trump, long opposed to wearing a face covering in public, says he is "all for masks" and they make him look like the Lone Ranger.

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

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

With 'Partial Human Remains' Found in Texas, Family of Missing Soldier Vanessa Guillen Say They Believe She Is Dead

https://time.com/5862245/missing-fort-hood-soldier-vanessa-guillen-remains-found/

 Guillen’s family allege that the 20-year-old was sexually assaulted before her disappearance, and said Wednesday that a man they believed to be the perpetrator of that assault had recently killed himself. Fort Hood officials announced separately on Wednesday that one military suspect is dead after killing himself in Killeen, Texas; authorities said that as law enforcement agents, not including the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command Special Agents, tried to “make contact with the suspect, the suspect reportedly displayed a weapon and took his own life.” The deceased man’s name has not been released.

Natalie Khawam, the family’s lawyer, said they believe that the man had sexually harassed Guillen by walking in on and watching her while she was taking a shower in a locker room.

“How can this happen on a military base?” Lupe Guillen, Vanessa Guillen’s sister, said through tears.”They didn’t keep my sister safe.”

Khawam explained that Guillen did not report the sexual harassment to an internal agency because she indicated that “she was afraid to because the sexual harassment was coming from her superiors” and she worried about potential retaliation. “She wanted to have a career in the military and she didn’t want [this] to ruin her career,” Khawam said. (Guillen did, however, disclose the incident to her sisters, her mother, her friends and other soldiers on the military base, she said.)

What Vanessa experienced “was not an isolated incident,” Khawam says. “They are brave soldiers protecting us, and especially now, we need legislation.”

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is an Iraq war veteran, also spoke at Wednesday’s event, saying that Congress has pushed the Department of Defense to adopt necessary for reforms for years, and while “some changes have been made,” they “have not gone nearly far enough.”

“What is happening here today is evidence of that,” Gabbard said.

Trump's anti-mask crusade is coming back to bite him

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/02/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-masks-politics-joe-biden-election-2020/index.html

 President Donald Trump's refusal to set an example by wearing a face covering, despite growing evidence that it may be one of the most effective ways to slow America's increasingly disastrous coronavirus pandemic, was always a political statement.

Now, as the clinical and electoral damage builds from a resurgent virus that is close to racing out of control after another record day for new cases on Wednesday, the President may be edging, very slowly, toward a rethink.

Yet Trump's position has left him increasingly isolated even from the Republican leaders who have facilitated his unchained presidency, as public health officials and local and state leaders of all political stripes plead with Americans to cover up in public so the country can heal itself.

Far from becoming a mark of strength and defiance, Trump's isolated crusade against masks-- he dubbed himself a "LONE WARRIOR" in a recent tweet, is now emblematic of his denial of a fast-worsening national disaster, a botched federal government response and his refusal to take even the most basic steps to save American lives.

Trump's mask apostasy is an act of rebellion against the establishment figures and scientists and professional officials of the government with which he has been waging an internal war ever since he took his office. It's a natural fit for a lifelong outsider who is personally and politically compelled to break the rules.

The President's slight softening of position Wednesday on wearing a mask came after many of his political allies implicitly repudiated his stance, stressing repeatedly that wearing a mask was not a political act but a gesture of humanity.

"We must have no stigma, none, about wearing masks," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on Tuesday. In hard-hit Texas over the weekend, Vice President Mike Pence -- who has himself spent weeks undermining government messaging on the issue and is loath to get crossways with his boss -- backed wearing a mask. Pence is still, however, not going all in -- typically saying that mask wearing should be done where it is "indicated" by local authorities.

Several of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have begun to worry about the President's reelection chances and have urged a focus on the economy. But other advisers believe he has suffered severe damage amid the pandemic.

"There is a fair amount of concern," one adviser said, describing the President as "frustrated" by recent polling indicating Biden could win the November election by a wide margin.

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Partisan divide over virus deepens as Republicans push Trump on masks

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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