The single most damning quote about the state of the GOP

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/03/politics/anthony-gonzalez-gop-cheney-trump/index.html

Asked by The Hill newspaper about efforts to remove Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from Republican Party leadership because of her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump, here's what Gonzalez said:

"If a prerequisite for leading our conference is continuing to lie to our voters, then Liz is not the best fit. Liz isn't going to lie to people. Liz is going to say what she believes. She's going to stand on principle. And if that's going to be distracting for folks, she's not the best fit. I wish that weren't the case."

 

Liz Cheney's fall shows that Trump is here to stay

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/06/politics/liz-cheney-donald-trump-gop/index.html

The Wyoming Republican congresswoman is about to lose her No. 3 House leadership post after a lonely defense of the truth that last year's election was not stolen and that Trump incited a riot in the US Capitol to try to overthrow it.

Those facts are unpalatable for most of Cheney's House Republican colleagues, who have ambitions to rise in a party controlled by the former President despite his two impeachments, botched reelection bid, failure to properly handle the pandemic and insurrectionist exit from power.

Cheney nevertheless warned her party in a valedictory op-ed in The Washington Post on Wednesday that the GOP was at a "turning point" at which the party must decide whether to "choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution" or bow down to Trump.

 

Fox News Has Completed Its Transformation Into Trump TV

 https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/08/fox-news-has-completed-its-transformation-into-trump-tv/

 Fox is ever more firmly entrenched in the official echo chamber of Trump Nation — and ever more divorced from reality. The National Enquirer, owned by Trump friend David Pecker, is Trump’s Pravda (its recent cover story: “Hillary Framed Trump Family! How she set up Donald’s son with dirt file emails!”). Breitbart, once chaired by Trump aide Stephen Bannon, is his Sputnik. Fox is the jewel in the crown — Trump’s own version of RT. “A lot of people wish President Trump was a dictator,” Fox host Jesse Watters said on July 27. Perhaps at Fox “News.”

Roger Ailes’ parting gift: Fox News is Trump’s Pravda

 https://whyy.org/articles/roger-ailes-parting-gift-fox-news-is-trumps-pravda/

Trump’s Pravda is not totally monolithic, however. Chris Wallace still practices real journalism on his Sunday show, and he recently clashed with “Fox & Friends” co-host Pete Hegseth. When Hegseth contended that Comey’s firing was no big deal, Wallace retorted: “This is a big story … This is the first time in history that a president has fired an FBI director who was conducting an investigation that was directly investigating him and his associates. It’s a big story, and I think it’s a legitimate story to cover.”

 

Facebook should make Trump's ban permanent

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/05/opinions/trump-facebook-medical-misinformation-emanuel/

Throughout the pandemic, variously emulating a physician, epidemiologist and public health expert, Trump was a fount of misinformation. Probably his worst bits of misinformation were suggesting researchers study the injection of bleach to fight coronavirus (which he later said was just sarcasm), that Covid would "just disappear" with warmer weather and that hydroxychloroquine might prevent Covid-19. This latter claim led some uninfected people to hoard the drug, take it, and tragically caused at least one person to die from an overdose.

Bill Barr's indefensible defense of Trump isn't fooling this federal judge

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/05/opinions/william-barr-indefensible-defense-honig/index.html 

 We know Barr misled the American people in his summary letter, first, because Mueller himself -- in an uncharacteristically confrontational move -- wrote a letter in which he pointedly noted that Barr's public summary "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office's work and conclusions."

Barr's misrepresentations were so flagrant, according to Walton, that they "cause the Court to seriously question whether Attorney General Barr made a calculated attempt to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump despite certain findings in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the contrary." This is how a judge calls a litigant a liar, politely.

Facebook Oversight Board upholds Donald Trump's suspension

Burnett: If you thought you’d heard it all, listen to this statement

'Cowardly follower': Tapper calls out GOP who stand with lies

Smerconish: Many GOP don't mean what they say about Cheney

The little-known ‘female Nicholas Winton’ who saved 10,000 Jewish children

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-little-known-female-nicholas-winton-who-saved-10000-jewish-children/

Liz Cheney becomes lightning rod, battling Trump over who’s lying about 2020

 https://www.foxnews.com/media/liz-cheney-becomes-lightning-rod-battling-trump-over-whos-lying-about-2020

 In interviews and statements, Trump continues to say he was cheated out of a second term, despite the failure of his own Justice Department and dozens of lawsuits to prove any widespread fraud. The other side, mostly among Democrats and the media, have branded this the Big Lie.

 In the latest round, the 45th president attempted to appropriate that term, emailing reporters that the last election "will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!"  

That prompted this tweet from Cheney: "The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system."

Not surprisingly, Trump issued another statement hours later, calling her a "big-shot warmonger" and, for good measure, insisting that Wyoming residents "never liked her much."

CNN reports that Cheney remained adamant at a private American Enterprise Institute conference on Monday, saying the party can’t swallow the "poison" of arguing the election was rigged.

Pleasure on Shabbos

 אִם־תָּשִׁ֤יב מִשַּׁבָּת֙ רַגְלֶ֔ךָ עֲשׂ֥וֹת חֲפָצֶ֖יךָ בְּי֣וֹם קָדְשִׁ֑י וְקָרָ֨אתָ לַשַּׁבָּ֜ת עֹ֗נֶג לִקְד֤וֹשׁ יְהוָה֙ מְכֻבָּ֔ד וְכִבַּדְתּוֹ֙ מֵעֲשׂ֣וֹת דְּרָכֶ֔יךָ מִמְּצ֥וֹא חֶפְצְךָ֖ וְדַבֵּ֥ר דָּבָֽר׃

Redak (Yeshaya 58:13) You should call Shabbos pleasure . It is a positive commandment to get physical pleasure on Shabbos. You should eat good tasting food. By enjoying pleasure on Shabbos this will lead to remembering the act of Creation and that G-d created the universe from nothing and rested on the seventh day and this will lead to praising G-d and glorifying Him verbally and in your heart and cause your soul to have pleasure.

Netanyahu returns mandate to the President

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305572

The mandate given by President Reuven Rivlin to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a government following the elections to the 24th Knesset expired at midnight on Tuesday.

Moments before the expiration of the mandate, the Likud released a statement indicating that the Prime Minister had returned the mandate to the President.

The Likud said, "Due to Bennett's refusal to commit to a right-wing government, which would certainly have led to the formation of a government with the addition of other Knesset members, Prime Minister Netanyahu has now returned the mandate to the President."