Trump shows transition will be as turbulent as his presidency

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/donald-trump-transition-joe-biden-presidency/index.html

The question is not whether President Donald Trump is leaving. It's how much destruction, revenge and chaos he will wreak on the way out the door.

Trump's refusal to concede the election, delusional tweets about states tipping his way and failure to so far grant President-elect Joe Biden access to federal funding and resources to power up his administration mean America is in for a rocky 71 days. Trump may be a lame duck, but he retains the authorities of the presidency until noon on January 20, and his chokehold on the Republican Party was if anything strengthened by winning 70 million votes last week. So the President has the power -- institutional and political -- and apparently the motivation to create a great deal of disruption before returning to civilian life.

 

Mike Pence Falsely Takes Credit for Pfizer Vaccine

 https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/11/mike-pence-pfizer-vaccine

 As you’ve probably heard by now, over the weekend Donald Trump was projected as having lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, in part due to his disgraceful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein he effectively just let the virus spiral out of control, leading to the deaths of nearly 238,000 in the U.S. Because he’s mortifyingly delusional, though, he believes that (1) he still has a chance at being reelected, hence the refusal to concede, and (2) the news that Pfizer’s vaccine is more than 90% effective in early trials and may be available by the end of the year is somehow a credit to him.

 And because virtually everything out of this administration’s collective mouth is a lie, and an entire cottage industry of fact-checking has necessarily cropped up around it, Pence’s statement was immediately debunked—by Pfizer itself. Speaking to the New York Times, Dr. Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at the company, said, “We were never part of the Warp Speed,” referring to the government’s effort to rapidly develop a vaccine. “We have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.” As the Washington Post notes, back in July, the drugmaker agreed to partner with the government to distribute a vaccine, “leveraging what will be a massive, complicated effort run by the federal government to ensure that as many people as possible can be immunized.” But the actual developmental efforts had nothing to do with the Trump administration.

Trump supporters falsely tie Nancy Pelosi to broader election misfire scheme

 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/nov/09/blog-posting/trump-supporters-falsely-tie-nancy-pelosi-broader-/

 

• We found no connection between isolated vote-counting errors and a former Pelosi staffer. 

• In Michigan, a clerk’s error led to an incorrect early tally that was corrected within two days and was never an official result. In Georgia, early morning voting halted temporarily in two counties when individual machines malfunctioned.

• Trump won by large margins in all three counties, and there is no evidence of any broad lapse.
  

Pelosi says Esper firing shows Trump intent on sowing 'chaos'

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/525175-pelosi-says-esper-firing-shows-trump-intent-on-sowing-chaos

 Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday blasted President Trump for firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper just two days after Joe Biden was projected as the winner of the presidential election.

“The abrupt firing of Secretary Esper is disturbing evidence that President Trump is intent on using his final days in office to sow chaos in our American Democracy and around the world," Pelosi said in a statement.

"Continuity and stability are always important during a presidential transition; they are absolutely imperative at this moment, as this historically erratic Administration prepares for its departure," she added.

Pfizer CEO Dismisses Accusations that Vaccine Report Timed for After Election: 'We Announced It the Moment We Learned About It'

 https://www.newsweek.com/pfizer-ceo-dismisses-accusations-that-vaccine-report-timed-after-election-we-announced-it-1546161

 The CEO of Pfizer dismissed any suggestions that his company waited until the presidential election was decided before announcing the promising results of its COVID-19 vaccine trials.

 Albert Bourla, the chairman and CEO of Pfizer, completely rejected these suggestions in a Monday interview with CNN. "We announced it the moment we learned about it," Bourla said. "I said multiple times that the election for us is an artificial timeline."

Why Donald Trump’s Refusal to Give Biden Keys to Office Space Matters

 https://time.com/5909532/donald-trump-joe-biden-administration-transition/

 The General Services Administration is the federal government’s de facto real-estate firm. It provides incoming administrations with the basics — like office space and computers — to make the transition between election results and Inauguration Day as easy as possible. But the current head of the GSA, a former senior aide on Capitol Hill who was appointed by Trump, has said she has not seen any certification outside of the media that Biden won, thus she has no obligation to contradict her boss, who says he has. GSA aides say they are merely following precedent set in 2000, when there was a dispute and a recount.

Fox News cuts away from Trump campaign press conference

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/290911

 Fox News on Monday cut away from a Trump campaign press conference outlining its allegations of election fraud in the presidential election.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany began her press conference by saying Democrats were the only party opposing voter ID, verifying signatures, citizenship, residency, eligibility, and trying to keep observers out of the count room.

“You take these positions because you are welcoming fraud and you are welcoming illegal voting,” she said just before Fox News cut away.

Gov. Cuomo lifts restrictions on Jewish neighborhoods as COVID rates drop

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/gov-cuomo-lifts-restrictions-on-jewish-neighborhoods-as-covid-rates-drop-648579

 Parts of Brooklyn that had high COVID test positivity rates in early October, including some with large Orthodox Jewish communities, will face fewer restrictions after seeing the rates fall.

The neighborhoods labeled “red zones” last month have been reduced to “orange,” the middle level for restrictions. One of the neighborhoods is Midwood, which has a sizable Orthodox population.

Trump accuses FDA, Pfizer of deliberately delaying vaccine news until after vote

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-accuses-fda-pfizer-of-deliberately-delaying-vaccine-news-until-after-vote/

US President Donald Trump on Monday falsely accused the US Food and Drug Administration, drugmaker Pfizer and the Democrats of apparently conspiring to delay an announcement of progress on a coronavirus vaccine until after last week’s elections.

Pfizer Inc. said Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine may be a remarkable 90 percent effective, based on early and incomplete test results that nevertheless brought a big burst of optimism to a world desperate for the means to finally bring the catastrophic outbreak under control.

DOJ's top election crimes prosecutor quits in protest after Barr tells federal attorneys to probe unsupported allegations of voting irregularities

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/william-barr-voting-irregularities/index.html

 The Justice Department's top election crimes prosecutor resigned Monday in protest after Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors that they should examine allegations of voting irregularities before states move to certify results in the coming weeks.

Richard Pilger, director of the elections crimes branch in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, told colleagues in an email that the attorney general was issuing "an important new policy abrogating the forty-year-old Non-Interference Policy for ballot fraud investigations in the period prior to elections becoming certified and uncontested." Pilger also forwarded the memo to colleagues in his resignation letter.

 

An unusual medrash about King David

 Yalkut HaMakiri  Tehilim (118 28): Tehlim (51:7) Behold I was born in sin. One view is that Dovid’s mother was the son of a beloved wife while another  says  a hated wife.. Yishai was separated from his wife for three years. After three years he had a pretty maid servant that he lusted for. He said to the slave,”My daughter; I prepared myself for you tonight to free you.” The slave went to his wife, “ “Save yourself and the soul of your husband from Hell.”She replied, “What is happening?”The slave told her everything. She replied, “My daughter what can I do since he hasn’t touched me for three years?. Go prepare yourself and so will I” And she did. That evening, the slave got up and extinguished the candle. and closed the door. The wife entered and the slave left. The wife was with her husband the whole night and became pregnant with Dovid. Because of his strong passion for the slave  Dovid was born very ruddy compared to his brothers. His brothers wanted to kill him seeing that he was red {a sign of adultery]. However their father told them to leave him alone so instead of killing him they treated him instead as a slave and shepherd. 

 http://www.daat.ac.il/he-il/tanach/iyunim/neviim/rishonim/shmuel/prakim/grosman-ahavati.htm

A Dose of Optimism, as the Pandemic Rages On

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/health/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-optimism.html

Clearly, the pandemic has not ended. So far some 215,000 Americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus, and reliable estimates suggest that the number could reach 400,000. Health experts agree that, with stronger leadership, the death toll would have been far lower.

Since January, when I began covering the pandemic, I have been a consistently gloomy Cassandra, reporting on the catastrophe that experts saw coming: that the virus would go pandemic, that Americans were likely to die in large numbers, the national lockdown would last well beyond Easter and even past summer. No miracle cure was on the horizon; the record for developing a vaccine was four years.

Events have moved faster than I thought possible. I have become cautiously optimistic. Experts are saying, with genuine confidence, that the pandemic in the United States will be over far sooner than they expected, possibly by the middle of next year.

Brooklyn rabbi accused of molesting kids dies of COVID-19

 https://nypost.com/2020/11/07/brooklyn-rabbi-accused-of-molesting-children-dies-of-covid-19/

 Rabbi Joel Kolko, one of NYC’s most notorious accused pedophiles, has reportedly died of COVID-19 while in Israel, sources told The Post.

Kolko, 74, was visiting the country for recent holidays and fell ill with the coronavirus, they said.

 n 2016, Torah Temimah agreed to pay an unprecedented $2.1 million [https://nypost.com/2016/10/23/brooklyn-yeshiva-settles-with-sexual-assault-victims-for-2-1m] to two former students who charged that Kolko sexually assaulted them.

Biden’s call for unity a welcome change from pain, mistrust and division under Trump

 https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-victory-speech-election-richard-fowler

  Unfortunately, many Republicans have been quick to attack Biden’s call for unity. That’s a mistake. Perhaps once Trump’s term of office is over, at least some Republicans will accept Biden’s olive branch and agree to work in the national interest instead of fanning the flames of division.