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.