Erin Burnett: For the 100th time, Trump is wrong

Pentagon opens investigation into media leaks amid Russian bounty reports

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/09/pentagon-investigation-media-leaks-russia-bounty-355360

Defense Secretary Mark Esper told lawmakers on Thursday he has launched an investigation into leaks across the Pentagon, in response to a series of "bad" disclosures of sensitive information to the news media over the past year and amid reports that Russians paid militants in Afghanistan to kill U.S. troops.

"We are aggressively pursuing leaks within the Defense Department," Esper told the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing about the military's role in civil law enforcement, adding that leaks are a problem across the U.S. government. "It's bad and it's unlawful and it needs to stop."

 In response to additional questioning later, Esper acknowledged that he was in fact briefed on intelligence reports that Russia made "payments" to militants to kill American troops in Afghanistan.

Esper added that the intelligence reports on the bounty program was not produced by the Defense Department, and defense intelligence agencies have been unable to corroborate them.

New York City paints Black Lives Matter mural outside Trump Tower in Manhattan

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/09/us/trump-tower-black-lives-matter-mural-new-york-trnd/index.html

 New York City is painting a Black Lives Matter mural on the street directly outside of Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.

City employees began painting a stretch of Fifth Avenue, just in front of the Trump Organization's headquarters, on Thursday morning. Mayor Bill de Blasio authorized the stark yellow mural earlier this month.

The New York mayor rolled up his sleeves and painted a bit of the mural, too, clad in a mask and flanked by civil rights leader, the Rev. Al Sharpton.

 

Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen back in federal prison

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-back-in-federal-prison/

 US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, was returned to federal prison on Thursday, weeks after his early release to serve the remainder of his sentence at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, the federal Bureau of Prisons said.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the US Bureau of Prisons said Cohen had “refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a result, has been returned to a BOP facility.” His return to prison comes days after the New York Post published photos of him and his wife enjoying an outdoor meal with friends at a restaurant near his Manhattan home.

A federal judge had denied Cohen’s attempt for an early release to home confinement after serving 10 months in prison and said in a May ruling that it “appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle.” But the Bureau of Prisons can move prisoners to home confinement without a judicial order.

Flynn judge asks appeals court to reconsider dismissal order

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/09/flynn-judge-calls-on-appeals-court-to-review-355389

A federal court judge is putting up a highly unusual fight against an appeals court ruling seeking to immediately shut down the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn for making false statements in the FBI’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Lawyers for U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan filed a petition Thursday asking the full bench of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a 2-1 decision a panel of that court issued last month, directing Sullivan to cancel his plans for a hearing and instead grant the government’s request to drop the case.

 

Trump spins political victory out of Supreme Court defeat

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/09/trump-political-victory-supreme-court-defeat-355454

 

So essentially, even though the nation’s highest court rejected several of Trump’s legal arguments, he got what he wanted politically — his financial records will likely remain private until after voters go to the polls in November.

It’s the way Trump has gotten by his whole life, in business and politics. Nothing is a loss, just an opportunity to delay and attack. Trump the businessman countersued when facing loan collectors or allegations of wrongdoing. Trump the politician counterattacks when faced with any staffer who disagrees with him, any opponent who questions his behavior, or any judge who rules against him.

How the Supreme Court Delivered Trump a Short-Term Political Win — and a Long-term Loss to His Quest for Broader Power

https://time.com/5865242/trump-supreme-court-financial-records/

The Supreme Court handed a short-term political win to Trump on Thursday when justices punted on rulings that will likely keep his financial records out of public view until after the November election. But while the rulings spared Trump that immediate scrutiny, they were ultimately a long-term loss to his claims of sweeping executive power. The decisions fenced in Trump’s authority by denying both his claim to be immune from prosecution as President and his insistence that the separation of powers between Congress and the executive limits how deeply Congress can reach into his personal papers.

 

Trump seethed in response, taking the judicial ruling as a personal attack. “Courts in the past have given ‘broad deference’ BUT NOT ME!” he wrote on Twitter. Trump described being investigated by the Manhattan district attorney as “a political prosecution,” adding on Twitter: “Now I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York. Not fair to this Presidency or Administration!”

Pentagon chief confirms he was briefed on intelligence about Russian payments to the Taliban

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/09/politics/esper-briefed-russian-payments-to-taliban/index.html

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper confirmed Thursday that he had been briefed on information regarding Russian payments to the Taliban, seemingly acknowledging that Russia's support for the militant group in Afghanistan is not a "hoax," as President Donald Trump has claimed. However, Esper also made clear that he has not seen intelligence that corroborates claims that American troops were killed as a result of the "bounty" payments, walking a delicate line between acknowledging a well-known threat and potentially clashing with the President.

 

Ari Melber: Trump’s Claim To Immunity On Taxes Rejected In ‘Broad, Bipartisan Voice’ | MSNBC

Tammy Duckworth's history of US military and public service

Supreme Court says Trump not immune from subpoena, sends tax case back to lower courts

Judge refuses to dismiss Flynn case, petitions full appellate court for review

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-sullivan-refuses-dismiss-flynn-cases

Washington, D.C. federal District Judge Emmett Sullivan is refusing to dismiss the criminal case against former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and is now arguing that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals erred when it ordered him to do so last month in a 2-1 ruling.

 

Sullivan, through his attorney Beth Wilkinson, filed a petition on Thursday for a so-called "en banc" review by the entire D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the three-judge panel was improperly trying to force the district court "to grant a motion it had not yet resolved ... in reliance on arguments never presented to the district court."

Israeli Army Fighting to "Make Redemption Delayed Again," R"L? The Latest Escalation in the Antireligious War Against Israeli Girls, and the Latest Success of a Girl Resisting the Draft

Israeli Army Fighting to "Make Redemption Delayed Again," R"L?

The Latest Escalation in the Antireligious War Against Israeli Girls, and the Latest Success of a Girl Resisting the Draft

17 Tammuz, 5780 °°  July 9, '20

Parshas Pinchos


By Binyomin Feinberg


feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com



"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."

--  Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)


.....

Here's the update link for the month of Tammuz to check in case we post during the week between our regular Wednesday/ Thursday posts:


https://docs.google.com/document/d/19P6537IM3H-v_UlYsRzeiukw9uBWq3M0GjaoYJhIQUk/edit?usp=sharing


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

###  GOOD NEWS:  ###

1.  Appropriate to parshas Pinchos, B"H, Hadassah Margolit bas Miriam Y. (20 y/o), a religious girl from an immigrant Bucharian family, was finally freed from Israeli Military Prison Four on Monday, July 6, after almost a month of incarceration. Her imprisonment and mistreatment was accompanied by relentless protests in Israel (and one in NYC). She was held in wake of her steadfast refusal to submit to the military draft.  We've been following her case (e.g. see https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/07/every-refusenik-matters.html) since soon after Israeli military police barged into her her home - at about 3AM early Thursday June 11 - to arrest her, for the "crime" of adherence to the Torah, which prohibits girls from enlistment in the military, to the extent of sacrificing one's very life if necessary.

Miss Y. endured physical,  psychological, and religious mistreatment at the hands of Military Prison officers.  That was all in addition to the sexual mistreatment to which she was initially subjected; they took away her skirt and forced her to wear pants [even in public] for almost two days. (Recall that these are the same cast of characters who grandstand about "Equality," even gracing Israel's south with all-female tank crews (JNS), ostensibly to protect against enemies.)

2.  If this mistreatment of girls - religious or otherwise - is the price of having ostensibly religious Knesset members on the receiving end of government largesse, then the one thing that should scare us more than an Israeli government filled with Chilonim is one filled with purportedly religious and Chareidi MKs.  Their overall (or "coverall," as my spellchecker phrased it) silence on the issue of the SYSTEMIC drafting, intimidating, terrorizing, mistreatment, and downright abuse of hundreds, even thousands of Jewish girls by "our own" (sic) is intolerable. If the broader religious Jewish public would know even a fraction of what the government and collaborating elements are covering up, they'd be in an uproar.

Therefore, the media cannot remain silent. True, properly researching these cases is often painstaking. (The military draft office and collaborating parties do their best to ensure that.) However, exposing the systemic persecution of religious and traditional teenage girls by "Maitav" (the Israeli Army entity under which the Draft Office operates) is absolutely vital for Jewish continuity, to ensure that spiritual survival of future generations.  Girls who fall into the morally corrosive military environment generally don't come out capable of building healthy homes, and properly raising Jewish families.

3.  Furthermore, we know that in the merit of righteous women we were redeemed from Egypt (Talmud tractate Sotah 11b), and that in the merit of righteous women we'll merit the Ultimate Redemption (sefer Kav HaYashar). Drafting girls at that age into the notoriously promiscuous military sabotages the natural process of raising righteous Jewish women.

Accordingly, on a deeper level, the draft actually impedes the Final Redemption. And those courageous individuals who stand up and fight these evil designs against Jewish girls and women are helping expedite the Redemption. Perhaps their noble efforts, often undertaken in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, can be aptly qualified as "Raishis Tzemichas Ge'ulasinu."

Bad News: 

4.  The Israeli Draft Office is currently escalating their discrimination against religious girls who attended non-religious schools, as we'll explain shortly.

5.  Furthermore, and perhaps more ominously, the Rabbanut has reportedly started to themselves ask the girls which school they attend.

6.  That may appear innocuous to those unfamiliar with the process. However, even posing such a question alone constitutes a hazardous shift in what is supposed to be the military service *exemption* process. It's a slippery slope, leading to actual participation in the Selectzia process, whereby the Draft Office identifies girls to pursue, or persecute, with the aim of robbing them of their opportunity to avoid falling into the immoral and exploitive military.

7.  What is even more of a concern is that the Rabbanut thereby projects the appearance that they've lent their approbation to the female draft discrimination process by their own participation therein, albeit perhaps only in a token manner, at this juncture.

8.  Recent Changes for Girls who attended non-religious schools:

Recently, since around the time Coronavirus hit Israel, a number of girls have reported that in the process of obtaining their religiosity verification from the Rabbanut, they were asked by the Rabbanut which school they attended. These girls report subsequently being summoned by the Draft Office to show up for a Rayon Dat, without ever stepping foot into the Draft Office.

Until now, girls who were wise enough to comply with the Halacha, and refused to enter the Draft Office, were generally able to obtain an exemption without being summoned to a Rayon Dat. Now, avoiding entering the Military Draft Office no longer provides that same degree of security.

9.  Background: In the recent past, religious girls who attended non-religious schools, when identified as such, would often be targeted unfairly. The Draft Office had been summoning them to a Rayon Dat. A  Rayon Dat is a religiosity interview, or, more often, interrogation.  It's performed by a battery of trained military officers, intimidating a lone teenage girl; she is not allowed to be accompanied by anyone, not even a lawyer or family member.

10.  The Draft Office does this to dupe or pressure the girls into enlisting, or to find a pretext to challenge their religiosity, and thereby deny them their legal entitlement to a religious exemption from military service.

11.  Nevertheless, with the assistance of the appropriate organizations, the girls who had been fortunate enough to obtain the correct guidance would be able to avoid the Rayon Dat trap by sending in letters from Rabbis, or, at least, by sending the Draft Office firm letters from attorneys.

12.  However, lately, there's been a alarming turn. The Draft Office is no longer backing off in the face of intervention. Thus, they're, in effect, obligating these girls to hire an attorney. 

13.  For those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer, and don't have a sponsor, there are two "options:" enlist (which is absolutely prohibited, on pain of sacrificing one's very life, as articulated by prominent Rabbis, see Yoreh Daiyoh 157:1) - or face the spectre of being terrorized by the Draft Office, with the threat of arrest and Military Jail.  According to Jewish Law, these girls have no choice but to stand up - even if all alone - and fight.

14.  Against whom are they defending themselves? None other than the Israeli Military Draft Office, the Military Police, the Military Prison System, and the Military Justice System. And they need to do all of this without a lawyer. Of course, procurement of an attorney for such a girl in need is absolutely incumbent on anyone else who can help facilitate that.

15. Such heroic individuals certainly are reminiscent of the timeless words of Rav Hirsch, relevant to this week's Torah portion (quoted above):

"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."

--  Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)

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