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.

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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.

 

'Proud' Retired General Responds to Lindsey Graham's Vindman Attack: 'We Thought You Guys Were Rock Stars…Where Are You Now?'

https://www.newsweek.com/retired-general-responds-lindsey-graham-alexander-vindman-attack-rock-star-1486644

Retired Brigadier General Peter Zwack was responding to Graham's appearance on CBS' Face the Nation show Sunday, in which the South Carolina senator said Vindman's removal was "justified" and suggested the NSC staffer could no longer "be effective" in his role. Vindman was a key witness in Trump's impeachment and detailed alleged wrongdoing by the president.

Zwack told CNN on Monday that Graham's argument was "ridiculous" and described Vindman—who he once supervised—and other NSC staff who testified as "great Americans." As a "proud" retired member of the intelligence community, Zwack joked that he is "a card-carrying member of the deep state."

 

Sheldon, Miriam Adelson to spend $100 million for Trump re-election bid

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Sheldon-Miriam-Adelson-to-spend-100-million-for-Trump-re-election-bid-617187

 The Guardian on Monday quoted three Republican fundraisers it did not name as saying that the couple, known for their generosity to Republicans, pro-Israel causes and medical research, was ready to spend nearly the same amount, $124 million, as they did in the 2016 cycle. One of the Guardian’s sources said it could reach $200 million.

 

In New Hampshire, Democratic Voters Are Paralyzed by Fear of Making the Wrong Choice

https://time.com/5781797/new-hampshire-democratic-primary/

 If Sanders wins here, will he be unstoppable? And if so, then what? The party mandarins are sure he’s a disaster in the making, a recipe for re-electing Trump—that American voters will never go for a 78-year-old democratic socialist with an expensive, disruptive agenda. That, in the words of the celebrity consultant James Carville, who’s been stumping in New Hampshire for the long-shot moderate Michael Bennet, “we don’t have time for left-wing fantasies in this country.”

It’s a weird moment for a party that for three years has poured its energy into fighting Trump at every turn. Suddenly, the Democrats seem gripped by a low-grade panic, confronting the reality of a difficult primary with no consensus to be had. Somehow, up against a president they regard as a joke, a failure and a threat to the republic, they’re all flogging unity while running in different directions. A field that began with an embarrassment of riches—a record-setting 25 major candidates, including many truly big-time resumes—is now down to this odd lot of flawed hopefuls. Partisans find themselves seized by the paralyzing fear of making the wrong choice—or the sense that the right one doesn’t exist.