With New Hampshire Win, Bernie Sanders Is the Democrats’ 2020 Front-Runner

https://time.com/5782619/bernie-sanders-2020-democratic-frontrunner-new-hampshire/

At first, the cheers for Bernie Sanders were so deafening he could hardly begin his speech. “This victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,” the Vermont Senator and newly minted Democratic presidential front-runner declared. “No matter who wins—and we certainly hope it’s going to be us—we are going to unite together and defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.”

 

Sanders holds off Buttigieg to clinch New Hampshire in tight primary race

https://www.timesofisrael.com/sanders-holds-off-buttigieg-to-clinch-new-hampshire-in-tight-primary-race/

  New Hampshire — Bernie Sanders was on track to beat Pete Buttigieg in the New Hampshire Democratic primary Tuesday night as the two men from different generations and wings of their party battled for front-runner status in the chaotic nomination fight to take on US President Donald Trump. With nearly 90 percent of ballots counted, Sanders — the flag-bearer for the party’s progressive wing — had 26 percent of votes, with Indiana ex-mayor Buttigieg narrowly trailing on 24.3 percent and fellow Midwesterner Klobuchar on 19.9 percent.

 

George F. Will On The Need To Defeat Trump | The Last Word | MSNBC

Every Prosecutor On Roger Case Quits In Protest After DOJ Lightens Sentencing Recommendation | MSNBC

Trump says US military may discipline dismissed security official Vindman

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/11/trump-alexander-vindman-impeachment-trial-us-military

 “I obviously wasn’t happy with the job he did,” Trump said of Vindman. “First of all he reported a false call … what was said on the call was totally appropriate.”

One of Vindman’s lawyers, David Pressman said, “There is no question in the mind of any American why this man’s job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House. Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth.”

Vindman’s twin brother, who served as a senior NSC lawyer, was also recalled last week, though he did not serve as a witness in the impeachment. The Vindman brothers will be reassigned to the defense department, according to a spokesperson.

 

‘We are not a banana republic’: National security adviser defends Vindman dismissals

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/11/banana-republic-obrien-vindman-dismissals-114212

 National security adviser Robert O’Brien on Tuesday defended the dismissal of Lt. Cols. Alexander and Yevgeny Vindman from the National Security Council, suggesting that the officials were trying to undermine the president.

“We’re not a country where a bunch of lieutenant colonels can get together and decide what the policy is of the United States,” O’Brien said during an event at the Atlantic Council think tank. “We are not a banana republic.”

 

O’Brien also insisted that the twin brothers — one of whom, Alexander, was a crucial witness against President Donald Trump in the investigation that led to his impeachment on a charge of abuse of power — were “absolutely” not retaliated against.

But Trump tweeted on Saturday that Alexander Vindman was “OUT” because he was “insubordinate” and had reported the contents of Trump’s July phone call with the Ukrainian president “incorrectly.” It also still isn’t clear why Yevgeny Vindman, an NSC ethics lawyer who was not involved in the impeachment process at all, was fired.

4 Prosecutors Quit After Justice Dept. Takes Extraordinary Step of Lowering Recommended Prison Time for Roger Stone

https://time.com/5782201/roger-stone-prison-recommendation-change/

The four attorneys, including two who were early members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia team, had made up the Justice Department’s trial team and had signed onto a Monday court filing that recommended up to nine years in prison for Stone.

The department’s decision to back off the sentencing recommendation raised questions about political interference and whether Trump’s views hold unusual sway over the Justice Department, which is meant to operate independently of the White House in criminal investigations and prosecutions.

 

Driver arrested for plowing into a tent of Trump supporters registering voters, police say

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/02/09/gop-voter-registration-attack/

Republican volunteers in Jacksonville, Fla., were registering people to vote in a shopping center Saturday afternoon when a man drove a van through their red tent, then fled, according to law enforcement officials, an incident that has drawn condemnation from prominent Florida lawmakers and President Trump.

The Trick To Tracking Trump’s Lies And Corruption | MSNBC

Chris Hayes: Trump Is Weak, And Beatable | All In | MSNBC

Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security: Trump's Proposed Budget Slashes Entitlements—and Campaign Promises

https://www.newsweek.com/medicare-medicaid-social-security-trumps-proposed-budget-slashes-entitlements-campaign-1486595

President Donald Trump has vowed over the course of his presidency not to cut federal spending for entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. But his $4.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2021, unveiled Monday, seeks to do just that.

The White House budget, which is a proposal that congressional appropriators can choose whether to take into consideration when it's offered by the administration each year, would cut billions from the three major safety-net programs over the next decade. It's unclear in what way and by how much the slash in funding to agencies that oversee the programs would affect recipients' benefits.

 

In Extraordinary Step, Justice Dept. to Lower Recommended Prison Time for Roger Stone: AP Source

https://time.com/5782201/roger-stone-prison-recommendation-change/

  The Justice Department will take the extraordinary step of lowering the recommended prison time for Roger Stone, an ally of President Donald Trump, a federal official said Tuesday, just hours after the president condemned the recommended sentence as “very horrible and unfair.”

Federal prosecutors also recently softened their sentencing position on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying that they would not oppose a probation of punishment after initially saying that he deserved up to six months in prison for lying to the FBI. The Flynn prosecution is also being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington.

response to Giyus Banos

Maybe if we eased up a little regarding the boys we could gain some leverage to save the girls

 

 

BSD

Rabbi ...,

A darhoibeneh Chamisha Asar beShvat,

I agree we must look inward.

I think we ought start by identifying the somewhat pervasive rot in the frum/chareidi world that's at the root of the government crusade against the girls. The government couldn't possibly dare to embark on this persecutory Giyus Banos program without hefty Chareidi betrayal from within.

1 

I'm referring to the elevation of power-grabs from an art form to an addiction, by some frum askonim. 

2. 

Not to mention the pervasive worship of government money.

3.

Then you have the unhinged, "blind as a bat," Kool-Aid devotionalism - to various intrepid "frum" party hacks, political climbers who unabashedly deny the very existence of Giyus Banos, because it's only being perpetrated against girls other than "unzereh..." (And then they have the azus to brand that cultism as "Daas Torah." )

4.

Then you have frum people out there being bodaik the tzitzis of every girl arrested, and some more satanic ones even being mozti la'az on the incarcerated and persecuted girls*, claiming that they're not "frum." (My father reminded me that "FRUM" sometimes stands for "Fill mit Rishus, U'vainig Mitzvos.")

[*Sounds similar to what Reb Elchonon Wasserman speaks about in Kovetz HeOros, Agada 10, regarding Zera Amalek, see there.]

5. Then you have a large crowd of useful idiots in the frum world who serve as consumers of this nonsense, perhaps out of convenience.

6. Compound that with the common cowardice of many functionaries/Rabbonim, and others, who see the truth - but are too afraid or apathetic to speak out when girls are being abused in the Army, in jail, in court, and by frum slanderers.

So is it a surprise?

So if we deal with that, I think we're well taken care of.

PS Btw, the aforementioned corruptiles eased up on the boys long ago; they beat you to the idea. It's just that they didn't intend to help the girls either - having abandoned them too ... in favor of the finer things in life...

THIS is, in part, what I meant when I mentioned to you, a few years ago, that one thing that scares me more than an Israeli government filled with Chilonim is an Israeli government filled with Chareidim...

I do agree that broader Israeli society needs to see frum people caring about people other than themselves. I think the dealing w/ the aforementioned issues will address that, in part.

We as individuals need to set an example by not emulating the aforementioned.

Marie Yovanovitch: These are turbulent times. But we will persist and prevail.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/06/marie-yovanovitch-ukraine-ambassador-american-institutions-need-us/

When civil servants in the current administration saw senior officials taking actions they considered deeply wrong in regard to the nation of Ukraine, they refused to take part. When Congress asked us to testify about those activities, my colleagues and I did not hesitate, even in the face of administration efforts to silence us.