CNN’s Jake Tapper blasted for questioning disabled veteran GOP rep’s patriotism for opposing impeachment

CNN anchor Jake Tapper faced intense backlash Wednesday for questioning the patriotism of Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., an Army veteran and double amputee, after Mast opposed President Trump’s impeachment. 

GOP lawmakers in the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted against Trump’s second impeachment over his conduct surrounding last week’s riot on Capitol Hill, though ten Republicans did join Democrats to support a resolution of impeachment.

Tapper, who has become one of the most outspoken anti-Trump personalities on the liberal network, slammed Republicans who didn’t back impeachment, suggesting they belong to the “QAnon caucus.”

He then singled out Mast, who lost both legs in 2010 after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan, over the lawmaker’s argument against impeaching Trump. At the same time, Tapper invoked the Republican’s military service.   

“Congressman Brian Mast, a Republican from Florida — who lost his legs, by the way, fighting for democracy abroad, although I don’t know … about his commitment to it here in the United States,” Tapper told a panel before rebutting Mast’s comments.

Tapper, who has prided himself on his support of the troops and veterans, was met with fierce condemnation on social media and critics urging him to apologize.

“Representative Mast, along with myself and many others in Congress and across the country, served in the military so Americans can have freedom of speech, regardless of how repulsive or disgusting it may be,” reacted Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., who is also a veteran.

“Tapper comments are so wrong in so many ways,” former Trump White House aide Mercedes Schlapp wrote. 

“This might be the most vile thing ever said on cable news,” “The Rubin Report” host Dave Rubin tweeted. “Tapper was CNN’s last hope and he turned out to be the absolute worst.” 

“So @jaketapper has written so many books-pandered enough on Twitter about other people’s heroic service he truly believes he has some assumed moral authority on it. What a disgusting thing to say about @BrianMastFL thankfully those of us who’ve done something can laugh it off,” said Fox Nation host Joey Jones, also a double-amputee veteran. 

“This is the equivalent of rage-tweeting something gross and maybe deleting it except he did it live on CNN,” Tablet Magazine associate editor Noam Blum wrote. 

“This is DISGUSTING,” former Trump campaign social media director Mike Hahn reacted. “Is @jaketapper planning on apologizing for this egregious comment? Does @CNNPR have comment?”

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Biden Administration Will Likely Open Dialogue with Hamas

 A key to Hamas’ agreement to run in upcoming elections in the Palestinian Authority (PA) is the understanding that the Biden administration will likely open dialogue with Hamas as part of the PA leadership, a senior source in Hamas told TPS.

Hamas has been a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization in the US since 1997.

The PA, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas, and the various factions in the PA are moving towards the finalizations of a date for general elections in the PA, the first such event in almost a decade.

The January 2005 presidential election was won by PA head Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, while the January 2006 legislative election was won by Hamas.

Abbas on Monday approved amendments introduced to the elections law that have several components and aim to overcome all obstacles related to the electoral process.

Abbas is expected to announce a date for elections by January 20.

Hisham Kuhail, executive director of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC), said he is meeting with Abbas on Friday, and Abbas may issue the decrees setting the date of the elections after the meeting, which could be in May.

TPS previously reported that President-elect Joe Biden’s team has conveyed a message to the PA’s leadership through unofficial channels that it will not be able to work with the PA and resume ties before legislative and presidential elections in the PA.

The latest polls show that Hamas stands to gain control of the Legislative Council and possibly the presidency.

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Parler CEO says social media app may not return

 

Parler CEO John Matze said his controversial social media platform may never get back online after major service providers accused it of failing to police violent content and booted it from their networks, according to a report.

Matze said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that he didn’t know when, or if, the fledgling outfit would be back.

“It could be never. We don’t know yet,” he said, but later sounded a more optimistic note.

“It may take days, it may take weeks but Parler will return and when we do we will be stronger,” Parler told the news outlet.

On Tuesday, the CEO slammed efforts to silence his app as “sick” and “evil,” saying the actions tech companies have taken against Parler went against the spirit of the Constitution.

“I think it’s sick,” Matze told Fox News. “That’s not what the Constitution said. That’s not what the Constitution stands for, banning 10-plus million US voters from the internet, barring people from free speech.”

Parler’s users have been unable to access the Twitter-like platform since Amazon Web Services booted the site from its servers early Monday.

Apple and Google likewise pulled Parler from their app stores last week over the company’s alleged failure to remove threats of violence that its users posted.

The two-year-old company — which has come under scrutiny in the aftermath of last week’s riots at the US Capitol — has filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon Web Services of breach of contract and violating an antitrust law over its decision to stop hosting the site.

In response, AWS said it repeatedly warned Parler about its users’ violent posts and that the company failed to promptly remove them.

In his interview with Reuters, Matze said Parler was talking to more than one cloud computing service but declined to divulge names, citing the likelihood that the companies involved would be harassed.

He said the best outcome would be if the app could return to Amazon.com Inc.

“It’s hard to keep track of how many people are telling us that we can no longer do business with them,” Matze said.

He said the app also was kicked off online payments service Stripe and lost its Scylla Enterprise database, as well as access to Twilio and workplace messaging app Slack.

He also said it was booted by American Express, but the company said it did not have a direct merchant relationship with Parler, according to Reuters.

ScyllaDB and Twilio told the outlet that Parler violated their policies over violent content. Slack and Stripe did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

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WhatsApp Growth Slumps As Rivals Signal, Telegram Rise

 Encrypted messaging apps Signal and Telegram are seeing huge upticks in downloads from Apple and Google’s app stores. Facebook-owned WhatsApp, by contrast, is seeing its growth decline following a fiasco that forced the company to clarify a privacy update it had sent to users.

Mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower said Wednesday that Signal saw 17.8 million app downloads on Apple and Google during the week of Jan. 5 to Jan. 12. That’s a 61-fold increase from just 285,000 the previous week. Telegram, an already-popular messaging app for people around the world, saw 15.7 million downloads in the Jan. 5 to Jan. 12 period, roughly twice the 7.6 million downloads it saw the previous week.

WhatsApp, meanwhile, saw downloads shrink to 10.6 million, down from 12.7 million the week before.

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To help Israel fight the pandemic, ER doctor Deena Wasserman specializing in disaster relief makes aliyah

Emergency room doctor Deena Wasserman has, like nearly all medical professionals, been fighting the coronavirus pandemic since it emerged in early 2020. Wasserman, though, has the distinction of having served on the front lines on two continents — first in her native United States, and since this past August, in Israel, her new home.

As an ER doctor trained in disaster relief — she was a flight physician with a helicopter EMS team during her post-residency fellowship — Wasserman is without question a huge asset to her new employers at Samson Assuta University Hospital in the central Israeli city of Ashdod. But making the move across the Atlantic from Philadelphia in the middle of a pandemic has been a mission of its own.

Wasserman made the decision to emigrate to Israel long before the global health crisis hit — in fact, she knew the Jewish state was her final destination even before she started her medical training at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The 29-year-old has grandparents, aunts, and uncles already living in the Holy Land (not to mention a couple siblings, who took the leap before her), and traveled to Israel often, including a yearlong stint at a religious seminary after high school.

Dr. Deena Wasserman displays her new Israeli passport. (Courtesy)

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Health Ministry worker suspected of sending his ex to quarantine 4 times

DIN: I guess working for the Health Ministry has some benefits!

A man employed by the Health Ministry has been arrested on suspicion of sending his former partner into quarantine for no reason on four occasions, the Israel Police said Thursday.

The suspect, aged 35 and hailing from northern Israel, has been an external contractor for a Health Ministry coronavirus response center in charge of monitoring infections and quarantining those who have come in contact with confirmed patients.

But he has been questioned on suspicion of abuse of power, fraud, violation of privacy, breach of trust and falsely sending an individual to quarantine.

On four occasions, the man sent a woman who used to be his partner text messages falsely informing her that she had been near a COVID-19 patient and therefore has to isolate for 14 days.

His alleged actions were revealed after the Health Ministry received four appeals from the same woman against quarantine instructions, which prompted the ministry to order an inquiry into the matter.

After being questioned, the suspect was released under restrictive conditions.

Police said they would hand the case over to prosecutors in the coming days.

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MK Chiloni Asks Israel AG Mandelblit If Prohibiting Jews from Davening With a Minyan but Allowing Protests Isn't a Chillul Hashem?

השר אמסלם שואל את מנדלבליט איך הוא לא מתבייש לאסור תפילה בציבור

 

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Harvard Univ Caves Into "the woke left" and Kicks Out Rep Elise Stefanik From Advisory Committee

New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik is accusing her alma mater, Harvard University, of caving to “the woke Left” after the school’s Institute of Politics on Tuesday dropped her from an advisory committee, citing her public remarks about fraud in the 2020 election.

Harvard distanced itself from the upstate congresswoman as a result of Wednesday’s Capitol riot by President Trump’s supporters after he told them he was robbed of re-election by fraud. 

“Congratulations, Harvard, the entire Board of the Institute of Politics now consists only of Joe Biden voters — how reflective of America,” Stefanik said in a statement.

“As a conservative Republican, it is a rite of passage and badge of honor to join the long line of leaders who have been boycotted, protested, and canceled by colleges and universities across America,” she said.

“The decision by Harvard’s administration to cower and cave to the woke Left will continue to erode diversity of thought, public discourse, and ultimately the student experience. The Ivory Tower’s march toward a monoculture of like-minded, intolerant liberal views demonstrates the sneering disdain for everyday Americans and will instill a culture of fear for students who will understand that a conservative viewpoint will not be tolerated and will be silenced.”

Stefanik, 36, graduated from Harvard in 2006 with an undergraduate degree in government.

Douglas Elmendorf, dean at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said he asked Stefanik to resign after reviewing her public statements about the election. He said he was not displaying political bias.

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Over 11,000 Kosher ice-cream containers recalled for having metal shards ....

 

Not only is this ice cream add-on not tasty — it’s not edible. 

The US Food & Drug Administration this month announced a recall of 11,371 Weis Markets ice-cream containers for being “contaminated with extraneous material, specifically metal filling equipment parts.” 

Of the recalled treats, the majority (10,869 containers) are of 48-ounce Weis’ Quality Cookies and Cream, and 502 are for commercial-sale only 3-gallon bulk containers of Klein’s Vanilla Dairy flavor. 

The recall follows an ice cream eater making a very unwanted finding in their dessert.

“There has been one report of a customer who discovered an intact piece of metal equipment in the Weis Quality Cookies and Cream Ice Cream,” the FDA wrote. “There is concern of an additional piece of equipment present in the ice cream product(s) possibly presenting a choking hazard.” 

The product was sold at 197 Weis Markets’ stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Delaware and West Virginia. Anyone who bought the product — which has a sell-by date of 10/29/2020 — can return it for a full refund. 

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Nancy Pelosi wore the same funeral dress for both impeachments

 Nancy Pelosi has an impeachment dress. 

When lawmakers gathered to impeach President Trump for a second time Wednesday, the House Speaker donned the same black dress she wore the first time it happened. 

The sleek black business frock, which some likened to funeral garb, immediately caught the eye of Twitter denizens who realized the look matched Pelosi’s Dec. 2019 impeachment outfit. 

“I KNOW this shouldn’t be the focus but Nancy Pelosi in the same dress for both impeachments is the exact kind of trolling our grandmothers taught us and the exact kind of business I am here for,” Jen Curran quipped. 

“the fact that nancy pelosi wore the same dress to both of trump’s impeachment hearings is so iconic,” Isabell Austin tweeted. 

Not only did the dress match, Pelosi opted for the same gold necklace she paired the look with in 2019. It’s not clear if the shoes also matched. 

“Pelosi, ever the powerful wielder of dress as symbol, chooses a funeral, somber black for her impeachment outfit, which is a striking, potent choice,” @Potenspuella wrote. 

Aides later confirmed the dresses were the same. 

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