Rav Wolbe (Igros Kodesh #3):

 Rav Wolbe (Igros Kodesh #3): I received your precious letter yesterday and I saw from it that you received my first letter, But I already sent you a second letter by registered mail. So I was sure more or less that you had already received it in the mean time.  regarding your comments to my letter I see you have mixed two issues together – lust and pleasure. In my sefer Alei Shor, I write that matza should be eaten with appetite or else it is considered gluttonous eating (achila gasa), In other words, if there is no hunger there is no appetite and this is not considered eating. Back to our topic, there needs to be lust (taava) and this needs to be aroused. But this has nothing to do with pleasure seeking, in fact the opposite is true since this is done only to fulfill the mitzva and also possibly from kindness that she should have pleasure. But definitely not to do anything for your own pleasure! However it is almost impossible not to have pleasure as I mentioned from one of the chassidic gedolim .All that you find from our Sages and Shulchan Aruch is to negate pleasure seeking! My dear friend please forgive me, but I think you are too eager to express opinions in these matters even though it is still not possible that you can clearly understand them or even that which I am writing to you.  But only while involved in doing it will these things become clear.  Forgive me my friend for not clarifying the views of the Ran and Tur and the other things you mentioned because my intent is not to be involved in a scholarly discussion, but only to clarify those topics about marriage which many, including great scholars are confused. After the wedding you will see that in fact that there is no dispute and both the Ran and the Tur are legitimate and valid views, So after what you have already presented in the first two letters you should focus on the practical. I already said that after the initial preparation i.e. prayer as  stated in the Siddur of Rav Yakov Emden i.e. the prayer of Ramban, you should speak with her words of love and support as indicated by the Ramban, Many young men think that this is not relevant to our generation. And therefore when they are with their wife in bed they are already burning with lust. Therefore it is impossible for them to speak more than about love - about drawing down a great soul or having children that are great and righteous, Their excuse is : “We are not on that spiritual level” I say that they simply don’t care that their children will be ignorant and coarse people and that they only want to satisfy their lust,!! In fact if they only can find the strength in their heart to say to their wife these elevated things, which will penetrate deeply into her heart and make a greater impression than the divrei Torah that they tell her during the Shabbos meal! This is the real sanctity of intercourse! Now lets talk about the actions rather than the words. Kissing and hugging to arouse lust in her. It is important to know that the male is aroused much faster than the female So when the man is burning with lust she has not been aroused at all. So it is with all things connected to intimacy it is necessary to be patient and not rush things but to continue the preliminaries of hugging and kissing until she is also aroused. Look at Rav Emden’s siddur where he gives instruction how to arouse her lust also look at Shabbos(140) where Rav Chisda gives instructions to his daughter. Also look at the Rokeach(Sanctity of seclusion),: All that a man wants to do with his wife he can do in order that he doesn’t look at other women. “ This is the true aspect of sanctity - that all other women in the world are like chickens in his eyes! There is one additional common  error that needs to be mentioned i.e. that only the man is an active participant while the woman is expected to be passive. In fact she also needs to be active. She needs to get accustomed to this that she should not be embarrassed to do to him what she wants. Because she also needs to actively arouse his lust.This is stated in the Zohar and is cited in Reishis Chochmah ‘to be warmed by the holy fire” that means one arouses the other and when he realizes that her lust is aroused then it is time to start intercourse i,e, to insert his penis entirely [ but he should be aware especially in the beginning that the hymen might still be partially present because it is removed slowly and so she might experience pain when he enters. Also be aware that in the effort to push inside he might prematurely ejaculate so the advice is to lubricate it with oil]. Regarding the statement “In the reward of the righteous that they wait on the stomach they will have male children.” That means to delay ejaculation at the end of intercourse in order to greatly increase her lust. This is also described as the woman producing seed first. If in fact intercourse is finished early because of premature ejaculation she is deprived of her prime sexual satisfaction and this can cause her to be upset.

McConnell for the first time recognizes Biden as President-elect

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/15/politics/mitch-mcconnell-congratulates-joe-biden/index.html

 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the first time acknowledged Joe Biden's victory and referred to him as President-elect, six weeks after Election Day and amid President Donald Trump's continued refusal to accept defeat.

"The electoral college has spoken," McConnell said in remarks from the Senate floor in the US Capitol, adding, "Today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden."

McConnell's comments are significant given that many Senate Republicans still wouldn't recognize Biden's victory on Monday evening even after the Electoral College made the win official.

NJ: Stop Educational Molestation -- Making Hellenist Legislation Grave Again (revision of 25 Kislev post)

 BS"D

NJ: Stop Educational Molestation  --  Making Hellenist Legislation Grave Again (revision of 25 Kislev post)

Chanukah 5781, Fifth Night (29 Kislev) « 15 Dec., '20 »  Parshas Mikaitz

Urgently Needed: assistance in stopping state-indoctrination of  immorality in NJ schools. A NJ bill, operating number A4454, would require NJ public schools to teach impressionable high-school students lessons on "inclusion" and tolerance of individuals who flaunt their immorality, specifically those sins deemed "abomination" in VaYikra (Lev.) 18:22 and 20:13. Unfortunately, A4454 ("An Act concerning diversity and inclusion instruction in school districts ... ") already passed the Assembly. Last Monday, Dec. 7, it passed out of the Senate Education Committee, despite overwhelming public protest. The battleground for NJ youth has now shifted to the entire NJ Senate, where a full floor vote could potentially come, G-d forbid, very soon - and on outrageously short notice. Therefore, it's imperative for all NJ residents to urge their own state Senator to vote against bill number A4454 (https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2020/Bills/A4500/4454_R1.HTM), as soon as possible.  Please call 609-847-3905 or email LegInfo@NJLeg.org, stating that "we'll be unable to vote for" them if they vote for LGBT indoctrination of high-schoolers.

Thankfully, the entire legislative body in NJ is up for election in '21. We must leverage that, and act on our commitment to vote against offending legislators next year, even if organizations that ostensibly speak for us sell out for financial and political considerations.

°  The average parent needs to understand that is a tyrannical bill. We as Jews have the ability to articulate that message to the broader public. Invariably, children caught expressing any healthy sentiment against perversion would be demonized, humiliated - and even possibly  terrorized - for expressing legitimate objections, G-d forbid. This rigid intolerance of morality and righteous dissent resembles the depraved, antireligious Greek edicts, against which the Chashmonayim fought to the death to eradicate, about 2,200 years ago.

° Furthermore, if we don't take a stand for NJ public school children now, then who will come to our defense when it's "our turn" - when OUR religious institutions have to face the "Tolerance" regime of the Left?  The direct assault against religious institutions is something we've being seeing in N.Y. State, in the subtle subversion of  "Educational Equivalency" Regulations. (See https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/09/lgbt-indoctrination-v-education.html, https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/09/making-educational-equivalency-threat.html.)  And if  religious communities DO take a stand for our values - before the Left targets our own institutions directly -  we'll have far more moral clout to protest against state intrusion into religious institutions later on.

We also must not forget about all of the Jewish kids unfortunately attending public schools, including some Orthodox youth as well. We will be judged by our level of concern for them.

°  How to Fight and Win:

This is a battle we can win.  True, this bill has not been stopped - as long as we've been derelict in not properly fighting it. That fact is no reason to buy the lie that this is a losing battle. It's clearly not, if we'd only intelligently engage. When the Orthodox community puts its efforts into a worthy cause for the right reasons, we generally see wonderful surprises.  To dub it a losing battle before beginning to really fight is a line of thinking that - if similarly applied in 1939 - would naturally have resulted in most WWII survivors speaking German today.

° What To Do:

We just need to properly alert the public, in time, that this legislation is not about saving innocent kids. Rather, it is all about *legitimizing* harmful choices, choices to flaunt unhealthy conduct, acts branded by the Torah as "abomination" (VaYikra 18:22, 20:13). 

Q) How bad really is it, from a Torah perspective?

A) Sodomy is the ONLY sin specifically branded "abomination" within the individual enumeration of sins, in VaYikra, Chapter18 (at the end of which all of those acts are branded "abominations"). Accordingly, the act of sodomy rises to the level of an "abomination among  abominations" - the most depraved of them all - as explained by the Maharal on the Gemara Chullin 92b.

It is no wonder then that our Sages exhort us (in the name of Rabbi Yossi) that recognition of same-sex marriages triggered the annihilation of Civilization via the Great Flood (VaYikra Rabbah 23:9, on VaYikra 18:3). This needs some explanation. From a Torah perspective, social recognition of sin, and - how much more so -  legislating sin - is far worse than individual commission of sin.

The Chassam Sofer (d. circa 1840, Pressburg, in "Toras Moshe," Ber. 6:13) explains that societal justification of sin perpetuates that sin, thereby closing the door to the prospect of repentance, leaving society as hopelessly lost. Society recognizing same-sex marriage is perhaps the ultimate vindication of the sin of sodomy (see B'nayahu, Chullin, ibid.) Thus, cause for the destruction of the world.

Consequences: Crime Doesn't Pay:

Our Sages add (ibid.; Tanchuma Ber., end; Bamidbar Rabbah 9:33) that rampant immorality prompts Divine punishment in the form of "Andarlomusia" (loosely translated as "Retribution of Mass- Destruction") - the mass-killing of bad people along with good ones* (something we've experienced a lot since March).

* [It's crucial to explain the flawlessness of Divine Justice here. There is unwavering Justice in every single punishment that G-d delivers. In most cases, good people avoid severe punishment for their sins, out of immense Divine Compassion, providing more than ample time for repentance. However, in extreme circumstances, G-d holds His Compassion back - perhaps because its continuity would result in irreparable harm - allowing Divine Justice a freer reign.]

Q) But How Can We Oppose "Inclusion"?

A) "Inclusion" Of Harmful Sin Encourages It:

To be effective in pushing back against the outbreak of such anti-moral legislation internationally, we must debunk the pervasive myth that "inclusion, welcoming, tolerance" et. al. is per se good, or even innocuous. Inclusion and tolerance are NOT morally neutral.  When specific categories of willful, hazardous conduct are enumerated in legislation [e.g, "sexual orientation," which perforce includes those who flaunt their commission of aforementioned sins with impunity] - then "inclusion" and tolerance et. al. are actually an endorsement by the State of those acts/sins. It's important to emphasize that this endorsement (to an extent, even prior to actual passage) encourages conduct which is physically harmful as well:

"Sell Them 'Liberty' - and Give Them Death:"

°  This pro-LGBT legislation poses a physical threat to youth by encouraging dangerous practices, as evidenced by the CDC itself (https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats18/msm.htm).  Undeniably, LGBT-identifying persons are at grave risk - physically, psychologically, and spiritually - but not from Biblical opponents of the LGBT agenda -- but rather from the very advocates of the LGBT "lifestyle."

Corona vs. STDs:

° The plague of Corona highlights the lethal hypocrisy of the Left. They go to extremes in the name of protecting people from the spread of the Corona. However, when it comes to homosexual acts - known to spread multiple diseases - they're actively proselytizing them to youth. When it comes to promoting the regressive agenda, lives don't matter.

Indoctrination is NOT Education:

° Moreover, this bill goes even further than legitimizing sodomy: it advances state-mandated LGBT indoctrination of high school youth.  

Furthermore, if we learned anything from the recent years of LGBT advocacy, it's that such advocacy encourages youth to experiment with these sins.  Thereby, it's aided and abetted LGBT recruitment of youth (at taxpayer expense, no less).

At the recent virtual Aguda Convention, Rav Aharon Feldman Shlit"a (Yeshivas Ner Yisroel) noted [in his artful demolition of a primary LGBT argument] that encouraging such "perversions" by teaching about LGBT role models is precisely the source of the problem (of reportedly peaking suicide rates of  LGBT identifying youth) - by no means its solution.

Rav Yosef B. Soloveitchik OB"M  refers to the desire by some people to commit a (moral) crime and feel good about it too. {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Ag-nYSfrk}  Passing A4454 would be far worse, requiring that the schools themselves encourage impressionable high school kids to sin - and feel good about it.

Additionally, this type of legislation  also encourages unbridled shamelessness about these sins. Shamelessness is a character trait that leads to the dissolution of society, inasmuch as in absence of the foundational human trait of shame, brazen theft and discord become rampant. Shamelessness becoming pervasive was another factor in the annihilation of civilization in the Flood (see Chassam Sofer, Droshos, vol. 2, 293a, "Bamidbar," quoted in Toras Moshe ibid., note 4). 

°°°

° In summary, we need to put NJ Senators on defense here: *teaching* children tolerance, inclusion and welcoming of sinful acts clearly legitimizes said acts in their eyes, and for society.  State legitimization of such misconduct (1) constitutes an open rebellion against G-d (Rashi Ha'azinu 32:16); (2) runs counter to welcoming, including and tolerating of religious students; (3) is psychologically abusive and medically dangerous for kids; (4) is patently fraudulent - via marketing indoctrination as Education; and (5) thus extends well beyond the educational mandate of the government.

Exposing the LGBT Supremacist Movement:

It appears that the only reason that such legislation passes without much opposition is because it promotes LGBT, rather than other forms of immorality. Would they have the chutzpa to vote for bills explicitly pushing inclusion of flagrant practitioners of bestiality or adultery, even in localities in which they're legal?  So why is LGBT being given a pass?  Is it partly because the underlying agenda is to promote the ancient Greek lie that homosexuality is "the highest form of love (sic)?"

°  It's about time we send a clear, unapologetically direct message to every legislator:

"We encourage and enable the  immoral, destructive, exploitive, and lethal acts that we tolerate, 

'include,' and welcome."

Then and only then can we expect to defeat these inherently antireligious edicts, G-d willing, edicts whose sponsors seem to be channeling the ancient Greeks and their Hellenist enablers.

Wishing the readers an uplifting and fruitful Chanukah, and a Good Chodesh,

NSL

by Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter, Executive Director, Help Rescue Our Children, Combating sexual abuse and exploitation in the U.S. and abroad

......

TorahJewsForDecency@gmail.com

US: 845.642.1679

Israeli Hotline: 03.721.3337

###

recent posts on this topic:

https://www.jerseyconservative.org/blog/2020/12/9/action-needed-in-new-jersey

http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/12/nj-stop-educational-molestation.html

Supreme Court rejects Malka Leifer's appeal against extradition

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/malka-leifers-appeal-rejected-can-be-extradited-to-australia-652167

 The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Malka Leifer against her extradition to Australia, where she is wanted on 74 counts of sexual abuse.

The decision means that Leifer's extradition is all but certain.

Republicans Backing Trump Fraud Claims Even As Biden Wins Electoral College

 https://www.foxnews.com/media/republicans-backing-trump-fraud-claims-even-as-biden-wins-electoral-college

 With the Electoral College cementing Biden’s victory, some conservatives sympathetic to Trump are giving him some tough advice.

Wall Street Journal editorial page: “President Trump’s legal challenges have run their course, and he and the rest of the Republican Party can help the country and themselves by acknowledging the result and moving on.”

 Longtime Trump ally Chris Christie on ABC: “The legal theory put forward by his legal team and by the president is an absurdity. And the reason why the Supreme Court didn’t take it is because it’s an absurd idea to think that any state, or any number of states, no matter how good they are, can challenge another state’s right to run the election as they see fit. And also there’s no evidence.”

Fox commentator and former Bush White House official Karl Rove: “I think in the long run he’s not helping himself or the country. America likes comebacks, but they don’t like sore losers and he is on the edge of looking like a sore loser, and probably will look like it after January 6th.”

 But I disagree on this point. If tens of millions of Republicans believe Joe Biden is an illegitimate president--Trump actually used that phrase--it could well damage his administration. And at a deeper level, if much of one political party believes an election is being stolen--and next time it could be the Democrats--that seriously damages democracy.

Trump’s latest risky deal in the Middle East

 https://www.ft.com/content/4b3ecaa9-b03f-48f4-acb7-c553e9583dda

Even by his standards US president Donald Trump’s latest “peace” deal is among the strangest his administration has struck. In exchange for Morocco normalising diplomatic relations with Israel, the US will recognise Rabat’s claim to the disputed Western Sahara territory. In this quid-pro-quo arrangement are all the hallmarks of Mr Trump’s leadership style: an attempt to gratify his ego, the love for a deal whatever the long-term costs and an indifference to the damage the approach causes. 

Trump faces bipartisan, international pushback on Western Sahara recognition

 https://thehill.com/policy/international/529878-trump-faces-bipartisan-international-pushback-on-western-sahara

President Trump’s decision to recognize Morocco's sovereignty over the contested territory of Western Sahara in exchange for the nation resuming ties with Israel is coming up against bipartisan and international pushback.

While welcoming the increasing number of countries normalizing relations with Israel, critics are concerned these deals are coming with a quid pro quo of large weapons sales and a disregard for human rights.

They also slam the president for throwing out decades of multilateral mediation and legitimizing forceful land grabs in violation of international law.

GOP senators still won't acknowledge Biden's win as some begin to recognize reality

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/14/politics/republican-senators-biden-electoral-college-reaction/index.html

 A bevy of Senate Republicans, after refusing for weeks to acknowledge Joe Biden's victory in the presidential race, still wouldn't do so Monday evening even after the Electoral College made the win official.

"I'm not going to comment on that," said Sen. Jim Inhofe, a veteran Republican from Oklahoma.

"I don't have anything for you on that," said Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican.

Tennessee's GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn added: "We're going to be watching it, thanks."

The comments were the latest sign of how President Donald Trump, even in defeat, holds enormous sway over his party, to the point where many refuse to publicly accept electoral reality or raise any concerns as the President continues to undermine the integrity of US democracy by lying that the election was rigged and stolen from him.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy both have yet to acknowledge Biden's victory -- and McConnell ignored questions about the topic in the Senate on Monday. Others also sidestepped the question.

Michigan election officials slam report on votes in Antrim County

 https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/14/michigan-judge-allows-release-report-antrim-county-voting/6537394002/

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a joint statement calling the report "another in a long stream of misguided, vague and dubious assertions designed to erode public confidence in the November presidential election."

"If the Trump campaign had any actual evidence of wrongdoing – or genuine suspicion thereof – they could have requested a hand recount of every ballot in the state," Benson said in a Monday statement. "They did not, instead choosing to allow shadowy organizations claiming expertise to throw around baseless claims of fraud in an effort to mislead American voters and undermine the integrity of the election."

But Trump, who lost Michigan by 154,000 votes, tweeted that the report showed "massive fraud." The report came from an organization called Allied Security Operations Group, which has previously made false claims about Michigan's election.

The group previously claimed there were six precincts with more than 120% turnout in the state's election. But its data was incorrect, according to publicly available turnout numbers.

Dominion voting machines didn't delete votes from Trump, switch them to Biden

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/14/fact-check-dominion-voting-machines-didnt-delete-switch-votes/6282157002/

A national coalition announced Thursday that there is no evidence that any voting software deleted or changed votes in last week's election, per USA TODAY.

In fact, the security group — which includes the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Association of State Election Directors — described the election as "the most secure in American history."

"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," the coalition concluded.

Joe Biden says 'time to turn the page' after victory confirmed

 https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55312272

In a speech after the announcement, he said the US democracy had been "pushed, tested and threatened" and "proved to be resilient, true and strong".

He condemned President Trump's attempts to overturn the result and said the "will of the people prevailed".

The confirmation was one of the steps required for Mr Biden to take office.

Under the US system, voters actually cast their ballots for "electors", who in turn, formally vote for candidates weeks after the election. Democrat Joe Biden won November's contest with 306 electoral college votes to Republican Donald Trump's 232.

President Trump, who shows no sign of accepting the result, has not commented. Shortly after the electoral college's vote, he announced on Twitter the departure of Attorney General William Barr, who had said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the election, despite the president's claims.

Attorney General William Barr resigns

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/14/politics/william-barr-out-as-attorney-general/index.html

 Attorney General William Barr on Monday said he would resign next week, ending a tenure in which the President Donald Trump loyalist carried the administration's "law and order" message but ultimately dealt the most credible blow to Trump's unfounded claims that the 2020 election was littered with fraud.

His departure was announced by the President on Twitter moments after counting in the Electoral College put President-elect Joe Biden over the 270 votes needed to formally secure the presidency.

Despite escalating tensions between Trump and Barr that had burst recently into public view, the President framed Barr's departure as amicable.

How the Conservative Legal Movement Stopped Trump’s Attempts to Overturn the Election

 https://time.com/5921196/conservative-legal-election-blocked-trump/

To put this plainly, not one justice was willing to overturn the presidential election. Each of Trump’s three judicial appointees rejected the case. And with this single act, the Supreme Court dramatically exposed a fascinating division within the conservative movement. Time and again, elected officials supported quixotic and frivolous judicial challenges to the outcome (for example, Senator Ted Cruz even offered to argue election challenges at the Supreme Court) or remained silent. At the same time, the conservative legal movement—especially its members of the judicial branch—crushed Trump’s fever dream of an improbable second term.

 

 

Ben or bas nida - Rav Moshe Feinstein

 Igros Moshe (E.H. 4:14) Avoiding marrying a woman over concerns that she is a bas nida as her parents are not observant Jews, even though she is modest and a good person is G-d fearing and loves Torah,. The Rambam (Issuei biah 15) and Shulchan Aruch (E.H. 4:13) state that the child of a nida is blemished but is not a mamzer. All the commentaries state that the child is fit to marry even a cohen but the problem is he is blemished and therefore best to avoid.  Therefore the question is whether to avoid marrying them because of this blemish? In particular this woman even though she is modest and a good person and refined and apparently has overcome the spiritual damage - that perhaps her chidren  will be bad. However it is also possible that the mother was not actually a nida because she mght have gone swimming in a lake - and even a bathing suit does not prevent her from becoming purified. Furthermore our Sages (Kallah) Rambam and Shulchan Aruch described the blemish of ben nida as being bad personality traits such as brazzeness. And even though we have authorities that a mamzer is a brazen person, we don’t rely on that to say that if the person is not brazen  he can’t be a mamzer The Nachlas Yakov said that this just means if a person is brazen he should be suspected of being a mamzer and needs investigation. However since a ben nida is not prohibited to marry either by the Torah or rabbis it is possible to rely on the existence or absence of bad personality traits to determine whether she is a bas nida,and in this case with her good midos to assume she is not a bas nida and that the mother must have gone swinming in a body of water simiar to a mikve. Similary the son of sinners who is modest and refined can be assumed not to be a ben nida. .

Rav Sternbuch (5:313): Should a Ben Torah marry a bas Nida?

 Rav Sternbuch (5:313): Should a Ben Torah marry a bas Nida? Regarding the status of bnei nida there is a dispute between the Taz and the Shach in Shulchan Aruch (Y,D.196:12). The Taz views it has a problem of yichus (pedigree) and is the result of a prohibited relationship while the Shach views that it causes the child to have a  bad personality because of the spiritual impurity. I have already cited the view of the Chazon Ish said that Torah and mitzvos have the power to purify a person from this blemish and thus rise higher than a person borne in kedusha and is not a ben nida. Thus he and other major authorities actually ruled not like the Taz… It is possible to determine whether she has good midos and if so he should act quickly and not delay. So even though yichus is very important, it is not a reason to delay marriage. After getting engaged you should have minimal meetings with her prior to the wedding. You noted in your letter that a local rabbi advised you not to marry her for the sake of you families honor. In my opinion this is not a concern for the future, rather you should not delay for this reason because delaying might cause sin and damage your spirituality

Guide to Monday's Electoral College votes: How they work, how to watch and what comes next

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/guide-to-the-monday-electoral-college-vote

Monday's votes are the next step in the process of President-elect Joe Biden officially becoming the 46th president of the United States. They will inch the country closer to yet another peaceful transfer of power between presidents as the U.S. has done since the 1790s. 

In tweets Sunday night, Trump appeared to be backtracking earlier reports that he would accept an adverse Electoral College result, saying, "THIS ELECTION IS UNDER PROTEST." But the mechanisms of the Constitution and its checks and balances continue to turn.

 

Vermont kicks off voting as first ballots cast in Monday's Electoral College meetings – live updates

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/14/electoral-college-meeting-monday-confirm-election-win-joe-biden/3896058001/

 Nearly six weeks after Americans voted Joe Biden the next president, the Electoral College is meeting Monday and will make President Donald Trump's electoral loss official

How Trump and Barr’s October Surprise Went Bust

 https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/11/durham-investigation-how-trumps-october-surprise-went-bust.html

Durham, who is the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, and Dannehy were also troubled that Barr had purposely misrepresented their work in numerous public comments, the two people said. According to two sources familiar with the probe, there has been no evidence found, after 18 months of investigation, to support Barr’s claims that Trump was targeted by politically biased Obama officials to prevent his election. (The probe remains ongoing.) In fact, the sources said, the Durham investigation has so far uncovered no evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden or Barack Obama, or that they were even involved with the Russia investigation. There “was no evidence … not even remotely … indicating Obama or Biden did anything wrong,” as one person put it.

 

 

Electoral College set to seal Trump's fate -- yet again

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/14/politics/electoral-college-donald-trump-joe-biden/index.html

 Veteran Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsberg told CNN's Ana Cabrera on Sunday that the blunt Supreme Court dismissals of Trump's cases were "the briefest and most summary of dismissals possible. That is a signal in lawyer talk about 'don't waste our time with these theories that you are spouting out.' "

Fox News has normalized a lie about the origins of the Russia investigation

 https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18277089/fox-news-steele-dossier-lie-trump-witch-hunt

 As America awaits special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report, Fox News has gotten in the habit of pushing a false talking point about the origins of his investigation — that it began after Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in 2016 alerted the FBI to the Steele dossier, an unverified intelligence document that contains a number of claims, some of them far-fetched, about the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia.

“Keep in mind that all of this seemed to have started with this dossier that was essentially an oppo research paper funded by the Democrats, after the Republicans originally started it — dirt on Donald Trump,” Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy said on Friday.

 

Dossier Not What ‘Started All of This’

 https://www.factcheck.org/2019/03/dossier-not-what-started-all-of-this/

 But Ratcliffe is wrong to say the dossier “started all of this.” Competing memos from the Republicans and the Democrats on the House intelligence committee both say that information about George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, had prompted the FBI investigation in July 2016.

 

 

The Inside Story of Christopher Steele’s Trump Dossier

 https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-inside-story-of-christopher-steeles-trump-dossier

 For nearly three years, President Trump has spun an alternate reality in which he was not helped and tainted by Russia during the 2016 Presidential campaign but, rather, his political opponents and his accusers were. During a rambling fifty-three-minute live phone interview with “Fox & Friends” on Friday, Trump insisted again that the plot to block his election and bring him down once he was installed in the White House was “perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country.”

 

Four in ten voters say Trump will go down as 'one of the worst presidents' in U.S. history as 58 per cent say they don't believe election was stolen

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9048655/42-voters-say-Donald-Trump-one-worst-presidents-U-S-history.html

 

• Forty-two per cent of registered voters think Donald Trump will go down in history as one of America's worst presidents of all time, a new poll revealed
• Only 22 per cent say he will be remembered as one of the greats 
• More than half of respondents said they don't think the election was stolen
• When broken down by party, however, 68 per cent of Republicans claim Trump was robbed of a second term in the election

Why Republican voters say there’s ‘no way in hell’ Trump lost

 https://fr.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-fraud-insight/why-republican-voters-say-theres-no-way-in-hell-trump-lost-idUSKBN2801D4

“If I’m being manipulated by Trump ... then he is the greatest con man that ever lived in America,” Caleb Fryar said. “I think he’s the greatest patriot that ever lived.”

 

George Conway: This is the most insane thing yet

Donald Trump's strange Mideast legacy

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/H1dWO873v

 And of course, there is also the Palestinian issue. King Mohammed made a phone call to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah immediately after Trump tweeted about the establishment of new-old ties with Israel, making it clear that the two-state issue is dear to his heart. He was also careful not to make a similar call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Stelter: This was Fox News' biggest story last week

NYC City Hall failed to stop massive Satmar funeral

 https://www.foxnews.com/us/nyc-failed-stop-massive-satmar-funeral

 City Hall and the NYPD knew in advance that an Orthodox synagogue would hold a massive funeral in Williamsburg Monday, and begged leaders to comply with COVID-19 restrictions — to no avail, The Post has learned.

In pleas before the event, Mayor de Blasio’s representatives, including Pinny Ringel, the mayor’s liaison to the Orthodox Jewish community, asked the Yetev Lev D’Satmar temple at 152 Rodney St. to hold the funeral more safely outside, or at least require that everyone wear masks. The Satmar sect leaders refused, agreeing only to announce that masks were available at the door, sources revealed.

When officials threatened to shut down the funeral, the synagogue leaders dared them to do so, saying in essence: “Go ahead, make a spectacle,” a source said.