https://www.ynetnews.com/article/SJk4FJkCP
Monday, January 4, 2021
Trump's Republicans have dumped Lincoln – they're the Confederacy now
On Wednesday, the Republicans’ transition to the party of the Confederacy will be complete. A day after Georgia’s runoff elections, at least a dozen lawmakers in the Senate and more than half of the party’s House membership will seek to overturn the results of the 2020 election and disenfranchise the majority of US voters. A coup attempt in all but name, this is how democracy dies.
President Trump, in Recorded Call, Urged Georgia Election Official to ‘Find’ Votes to Overturn Biden’s Win
https://time.com/5926038/trump-georgia-recorded-call/
President Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offense” if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation.
The phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. The president, who has refused to accept his loss to Democratic president-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results.
Trump tells Georgia election official to 'find' votes to overturn Biden win
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55524838
US President Donald Trump has been recorded telling Georgia's top election official to "find" enough votes to overturn the election result.
"I just want to find 11,780 votes," Mr Trump told Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a recording released by the Washington Post.
Mr Raffensperger is heard replying that Georgia's results were correct.
Joe Biden won Georgia alongside other swing states, winning 306 electoral college votes to Mr Trump's 232.
Since the 3 November vote, Mr Trump has been alleging widespread electoral fraud without providing any evidence.
COVID haredi unit head: Enforcement ineffective
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/covid-haredi-unit-head-enforcement-ineffective-654167
The head of the Health Ministry’s coronavirus department for the ultra-Orthodox community, Roni Numa, said on Sunday that there was a lack of coronavirus enforcement in the sector because of its political power and the upcoming elections.
Numa
denied, however, that the COVID-19 infection rate in the yeshiva system
is out of control, although he said that several factors had led to an
increase in the number of students being infected.
Former US defense secretaries: The time for questioning the election results has passed
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/294222
The 10 living former US defense secretaries on Sunday published an opinion piece in The Washington Post in which they said that the time to question election results has passed, adding there is no role for the military in changing them.
The authors of the op-ed include Trump’s two former defense secretaries, Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, as well as each surviving, Senate-confirmed Pentagon chief dating back to former vice president Dick Cheney, who was defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush.
“Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted,” the former defense secretaries wrote. “The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.”
A quarter of all new virus cases diagnosed are among ultra-Orthodox
https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-quarter-of-all-new-virus-cases-diagnosed-are-among-ultra-orthodox/
The Health Ministry official overseeing action to counter the coronavirus among Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population revealed Sunday that the community has recently accounted for over a quarter of all the new cases diagnosed, even though it makes up little more than a 10th of the total population.
During a video press briefing, Roni Numa said that enforcement of
lockdown restrictions and quarantine for virus carriers among the
ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredim, was not good enough, in part for
political reasons.
‘Find 11,780 votes,’ Trump recorded pressing Georgia official to overturn vote
US president heard warning state election chief and lawyer that they could be criminally liable if they fail to find that thousands of ballots were destroyed, despite no evidence
Trump urged Georgia election official to 'find' votes in phone call, insisting he won: report
President Trump insisted that he won the state of Georgia in the 2020 presidential race during a phone call with Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over the weekend, reportedly urging him to "find" enough votes to reverse the state’s results.
"He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more," Trump tweeted. "He has no clue!"
Raffensperger replied Sunday morning stating: "Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out."
Trump's bid to steal Georgia exposes GOP election ruse
Astonishing new evidence of a desperate President Donald Trump caught on tape trying to steal the election exposes the depth of his corruption and makes his Republican Capitol Hill allies complicit in his bid to thwart the will of voters.
In a fresh
abuse of power, Trump tried to bully a top Georgia GOP official into
finding votes to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's win in the state. The staggering telephone call, audio of which was obtained by CNN and first reported by the Washington Post, amounted to the most serious threat yet posed by his authoritarian instincts to American democracy.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Trump demands Georgia officials 'find' votes to tilt election
President Donald Trump pushed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" votes to overturn the election results after his loss to President-elect Biden, according to an audio recording of a phone call obtained by The Washington Post.
In
excerpts of the stunning one-hour phone call Saturday, Trump lambasted
his fellow Republican for refusing to falsely say that he won the
election in Georgia and repeatedly touted baseless claims of election
fraud.
"The people of
Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry. And there's
nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you've recalculated,"
Trump said in one excerpt of the call. Raffensperger responded, "Well,
Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is
wrong."
In
another excerpt, Trump said, "So look. All I want to do is this. I just
want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we
won the state."
What does the future hold for Trump ally Mike Pompeo?
https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/what-does-the-future-hold-for-trump-ally-mike-pompeo-654098
Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo is arguably the most Trumpy of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet secretaries. He has aggressively pursued the president’s “America First” agenda, mimicked the commander in chief’s bombast and routinely flouted norms observed by his predecessors.
The Secretary of State’s tenure and adoption of Trump’s brash style, Republican operatives say, can best be seen as a calculated way to position himself as Trump’s heir in the 2024 GOP primaries.
240 Israelis found with COVID after vaccination, underscoring need for vigilance
But this process takes time, and studies of the vaccine so far have shown immunity to the virus rises only some 8-10 days after the first injection — and then only to around 50 percent effectiveness.
This is why the second dose of the vaccine, given 21 days after the first, is critical: It strengthens the immune system’s response to the virus, bringing it to 95% effectiveness and ensuring that immunity lasts. This level of immunity is only reached about a week after the second dose — or 28 days after the first.
Saturday, January 2, 2021
Why Rabbis Should Fight LGBT Exploitation
BS"D
Why Rabbis Should Lead the Culture Wars Against Immoral Indoctrination in Public Schools and Elsewhere
16 Teves, 5781/ Dec. 31, '20
Why
is it so crucial to divert so much time to fighting A4454/S2781, NJs
proposed legislation to intensity LGBT indoctrination in public schools,
as well as A2545, the transgenderization/ homosexualization of long
term healthcare? We're urging the public, and in particular the
Orthodox public, to bombard the legislators with emails from now until
the senate and assembly meetings on Jan. 7th and 11th. We must ensure
they feel the heat to kill both of these dangerous bills. (For more
details see http://daattorah.blogspot.
In
this post we focus explaining why it's so crucial to oppose the
education bill, although many points apply to all types of similarly
outrageous LGBT legislation.
The "Education"
bill A4454 seeks to escalate existing LGBT indoctrination in NJ public
schools (see link above regarding specific changes to current law). By
teaching children to respect even flagrant practitioners of LGBT sins,
the schools themselves erode the natural revulsion for such acts, and
even cultivate admiration for them, all under the pretext of
"education." We're not talking about extending compassion to those
struggling with the Evil Inclination. We're discussing the government
forcing schools to teach children to respect those who brazenly flaunt
their abominable conduct.
Clearly, to teach children such immoral ideas and attitudes is reprehensible, even it would never affect a single Jew. Furthermore, sodomy is a capitol crime (VaYikra 20:13, Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, Ch.9:6). In fact, that sin is specifically branded an "abomination" (VaYikra (Lev.) 18:22) - in the enumerated forbidden relationships in VaYikra 18, all of which are categorized as "abominations," That is to say that the homosexual act is "an abomination among abominations," as the renowned sage known as "the Maharal," (Prague, 1520-1609) explains on the Gemara (Babylonian Talmud tractate) Chullin 92b.
However,
some may still wonder, why the pronounced focus on THIS legislation?
There are several reasons, all of them quite simple. They include,
although may not be limited to the following:
1.
Some [irreligious] Jews (e.g. Bergen County senator Loretta Weinberg)
are prominent among the proponents of this and related legislation. We
must ensure that the broader community understand that Torah Jewry
stands unequivocally and unwavering in our Torah-based opposition to
anything remotely similar to this bill - and the extreme sins it seeks
to legitimize, under the rubric of teaching respect. Our communal
silence stands to be seen by some as acquiescence, even agreement, G-d
forbid. This concern is particularly relevant in light of all of the
anti-Torah, pro-LGBT propaganda circulating, in some cases under the
guise of being somehow "compatible" (sic) with Orthodox Judaism. (The
Baltimore-based "Coalition for Jewish Values" even saw it necessary to
issue a public statement recently to publicly debunk that
misconception.)
2. Secondly, as Torah sages
have publicly articulated since 1982, frum Jews are responsible for the
actions of their pro-LGBT legislative representatives, especially those
for whom they vote. The public Chillul HaShem here is indescribable.
What's
even worse is that some politically active parties within our
communities make sure to publicize their involvement in public advocacy
when it comes to seeking government assistance, but are generally
nowhere to be seen in addressing spiritual threats such as these. This
conveys the terrible and false misimpression that the average Orthodox
person cares more about financial needs than spiritual threats, even
threats of this nature.
In fact, daily we
repeat the Shema, in which we resolve to sacrifice all of our wealth,
even our lives, if necessary, to avoid transgression of any of the
cardinal sins - some of which are germaine here: Avoda Zorah [including
heretical beliefs, such as denying what the Torah tells us about the
sin of sodomy being an abomination (VaYikra 18:22, 20:13)]; forbidden
sexual relationships, including those being whitewashed in said LGBT
curriculum; and bloodshed. However, it's not enough to say Shema, we
must act on it too, even when it requires self-sacrifice. And the
Orthodox community responds exceedingly well when properly alerted to
the facts, and to the proper course of action, as illustrated so
astoundingly by Bnei Torah of Lakewood in the special US Senate race in
NJ in 2012, in which profamily republican Steven Lonegan got well over
99% in the.heavily Orthodox election districts 10 and 26, a state-wide
record.
3. Thirdly, consider how many Jewish
children, and even Orthodox ones, are being victimized by being forced
to sit in a classroom while the teacher waxes eloquent about the
importance of respecting flagrant homosexual advocates, in direct
contradiction to what the Torah emphasizes in multiple places.
4.
Fourthly, allowing this nonsense to be taught in public schools will
ultimately facilitate the push to teach it in Yeshivos and Bais Yaakov
schools, as we've seen in N.Y. In N.Y., years after the Legislature
passed the Dignity for All Students Act in early 2010, then Dept. of
Education Commissioner Elia acknowledged that the "Educational
Equivalency Regulations" she proposed in November 2018 would have
required teaching respect for LGBT conduct in religious schools, in line
with the N.Y. State Education Law requirement to do so in Public
Schools, under section 801(a) [as reported on in the Jewish Press about
two years ago].
5. Lastly, consider what types
of voters we'll have to deal with after several years of LGBT
indoctrination in public schools. One need not recourse to Guided
Imagery; we already got a foretaste, on Nov. 3. How many voters voted
for Mr. Biden in great measure because they erroneously IMAGINED Trump
to be genuinely anti-LGBT?
Why should Orthodox
Rabbis be so involved? In a war for the very souls of our children,
religious leaders must take the lead. They should be most capable of
understanding the stakes, and grasping the true goals of the
adversaries. The LGBT activist agenda is fundamentally an antireligious,
anti-child, anti-parent crusade. It must be fought by those who truly
recognize the depth of the evil operating behind their veneer of
"Tolerance."
May we merit a speedy Redemption in the merit of standing up for children who can't stand up for themselves
On another Culture Wars topic, for an update on the female military draft in Israel, see https://
 |
Importance of sense of Humor
Rav Shirkin said that when his daughter's future husband went to Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach for a Beracha he wasn't asked about his Torah learning or his midos He was only asked whether he could tell jokes When he said yes Rav Shlomo Zalman said it was a good shiduch
Senate overrides Trump's veto of defense bill
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/294125
The Senate voted on Friday to override US President Donald Trump's veto of the sweeping defense bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, CNN reports.
The NDAA passed both chambers of Congress earlier this month with large bipartisan majorities, but Trump vetoed the bill last week due to the fact that it did not include a provision repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that provides a legal shield to tech companies like Twitter and Facebook.
Trump also opposes the NDAA’s requirement to strip the names of Confederate generals from military bases and provisions seeking to halt US troop withdrawals in Afghanistan and Germany. He has also said the bill is too weak on China.
Trump and Hawley set off Republican meltdown with Georgia elections looming
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/02/politics/trump-hawley-electoral-college-georgia/index.html
President Donald Trump is stoking division in the Republican ranks days before control of the Senate -- and the balance of power in Washington -- is decided in a pair of runoff elections in Georgia.
After
more than four years of nearly unbroken fealty to the President, a
heavy majority of Senate Republicans broke with Trump in a Friday vote overriding his veto
of a bipartisan defense policy bill. With that loyalty test failed,
Trump is also lashing out at Republicans who are refusing to get on
board with a dead-end attempt to throw out the election results and
erase his loss to President-elect Joe Biden when Congress counts the
electoral votes next week.
Federal judge throws out Gohmert lawsuit asking Pence to interfere in Electoral College count
A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit from Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and several Arizona Republicans seeking to force Vice President Mike Pence to help throw the election to President Donald Trump next week when Congress meets to count the Electoral College votes.
Judge
Jeremy Kernodle of the Eastern District of Texas said on Friday that
Gohmert and the others lacked standing to sue. In a filing late Friday,
Gohmert and other plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal to the Fifth
Circuit of the US Court of Appeals.
Gohmert's
suit was part of the desperate and extraordinary GOP attempt to
overturn the presidential election using baseless and unproven
allegations of mass voter fraud and charging that multiple states that
President-elect Joe Biden won illegally changed their voting rules due
to the pandemic.
Those arguments have failed dozens of times in state and federal courts over the past two months.
Gohmert
and a slate of would-be Trump electors from Arizona had said only Pence
could decide what electoral votes count -- a remarkable argument
suggesting vice presidents can directly determine who wins a
presidential election, regardless of the results.
Friday, January 1, 2021
Women and authority
Igros Moshe (Y.D. 02:044):Can the widow of a mashgiach be a mashgiah in her husband’s place? From the aspects of trustworthiness there is absolutely no concern and she could be relied upon. However there is a concern based on the Rambam (Melachim 1:5) who stated that all appointments to positions of authority have to be men, even though I don’t’ know the justification for his position. The Sifre cited by the Kesef Mishne, Radvaz and Migdal Oz only says king but not queen but not a general rule that applies to all positions of authority. It would appear that this is simply the Rambam’s personal thought and is not that of the Sifre. It appears from Kiddushin (76) that it is proper since a comparable position of supervising weights is permitted.It seems that even though the Rambam is opposed to appointing women but others appear to disagree, For example the Chinuch does say a king but not queen but doesn’t say that all other positions of authority are limited to men and also Tosfos(Sotah 41) as well as Rashi and Ran in Kiddushin (76) as I mentioned before. Therefore in a situation of great need one can rely on those who disagree with the Rambam and appoint her to replace her late husband.
The real reason you need to worry about Hawley's objection to Biden victory
Don't be too nervous about Republican Sen. Josh Hawley's announcement that he will object to the certification of Joe Biden as President when Congress meets on Jan. 6. His ploy won't stop Biden from taking the oath of office on Jan. 20. But it should make everyone concerned about the long-term health of our democracy.
Unrealistic effort underway to unseat President-elect Joe Biden
In a tactical gambit to change the outcome of the November 3 US elections that has almost no chance of succeeding, a group of Republicans led by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas, 1st District) sued Vice President Mike Pence on Monday. Their goal is to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
A lawsuit filed against the Republican vice president by Republicans?
According to the Washington Post, this situation would be a violation of the law, and could land Pence in court. As such, political analysts and legal experts have indicated that these efforts have almost no chance of succeeding.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Trump's Push for $2,000 Checks Flops as the GOP-led Senate Won't Vote
https://time.com/5925606/2000-dollars-senate-vote-covid19-relief/
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all but shut the door Wednesday on President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks, declaring Congress has provided enough pandemic aid as he blocked another attempt by Democrats to force a vote.
The GOP leader made clear he is unwilling to budge, despite political pressure from Trump and even some fellow Republican senators demanding action. Trump wants the recent $600 in aid increased threefold. But McConnell dismissed the idea of bigger “survival checks” approved by the House, saying the money would go to plenty of American households that just don’t need it.
IAF Commander opposes US sale of F-35 to UAE
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/294034
Amikam Norkin, Commander of the Israel Air Force, on Wednesday commented on the deal to sell F35 aircraft from the United States to the United Arab Emirates.
Speaking during a discussion at the Weizmann Institute, Norkin said, "We want to maintain our qualitative advantage. We have no quantitative advantage."
"I feel a deep American commitment, that was also agreed upon with the Minister of Defense two months ago, to the qualitative advantage. It is not so good for us to have advanced aircraft in the region," he added.
Poll: 78% of Haredim back health rules, 60% broke them to send kids to school
A majority of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox believe in the importance of lockdown restrictions to curb the coronavirus, but a majority of the community also sent their children to school in violation of the rules, according to a survey published Wednesday.
The survey said that 78 percent of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi,
Israelis believe there is “great” or “moderate” importance to adhering
to the Health Ministry’s rules during the pandemic.
Trump's ridiculous exit strategy
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/21/opinions/trump-oval-office-transition-dantonio/index.html
Behold the crackpot presidency nearing its end.
After years of conspiracy theories, lies, and rage, the President seems to be turning the Oval Office into a stage set for the final scenes of a Biblical quality drama -- and more specifically, the tale
of the super-strong Israelite warrior Samson, who declared "Let me die
with the Philistines!" and in toppling the temple, died along with his
enemies.
Trump isn't Samson. America isn't a
Philistine temple. Thank God there are still people around the President
who resist the ridiculous drama.
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
GOP senator to delay affirming Biden victory by forcing votes on Electoral College results
Rep. Mo Brooks, the Alabama Republican
spearheading the effort to object in the House, said earlier this month
Republicans were considering objecting to six states that Biden won,
meaning as much as 12 hours of debate that would turn the process into a
political circus and could spill into a second day of debate.
The last time the chambers voted on an
objection was in 2005, when then-Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California
Democrat, joined with then-Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat,
to object to Bush's Ohio win. Hawley cited the objection in his
statement Wednesday.But Boxer told CNN earlier this month the circumstances of the objection were starkly different to the GOP efforts to overturn Biden's election win.
"Our
intent was not to overturn the election in any way. Our intent was to
focus on voter suppression in Ohio," said Boxer, who has retired from
the Senate. "They're talking about the vote that the presidency was
stolen from Donald Trump. It's not even a close comparison."
Vaccines Are Safe, No Matter What Bobby Kennedy Says
As a doctor, and as a member of the Kennedy family, I feel I must use whatever small platform I have to state a few things unequivocally. I love my uncle Bobby. I admire him for many reasons, chief among them his decades-long fight for a cleaner environment. But when it comes to vaccines, he is wrong.
Though his Facebook post linked to a dubious source — a website aligned with the Children’s Health Defense organization that publishes conspiratorially tinged stories on “Big Pharma” and “Big Food” — the basic premise was correct: two U.S. health care workers did suffer allergic reactions, one anaphylactic, the other more mild, to the Covid vaccine.
Shaking hands with women
Igros Moshe (E.H. 04:032.9):Shaking hands with women as greeting. It is obviously prohibited as I have written previously (O.C. 113) because of concerns for sexual arousal and pleasure. However I wrote (E.H. 56) that if you see religious Jews who are lenient to judge them favorably and assume that they are relying on the absence of sexual arousal and pleasure but I also wrote there that it is difficult to rely on this. I don’t see any inconsistency between prohibiting shaking hands but permitting riding on buses (E.H. 2:14) since there is no affection involved there for almost everyone
What We Know About AstraZeneca’s Head-Scratching Vaccine Results
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/health/astrazeneca-covid-vaccine.html
Surprisingly, the vaccine combination in which the first dose was only at half strength was 90 percent effective at preventing Covid-19 in the trial. In contrast, the combination of two, full-dose shots led to just 62 percent efficacy.
Fewer than 2,800 volunteers got the half-strength initial dose, out of the more than 23,000 participants whose results were reported on Monday. That’s a pretty small number of participants on which to base the spectacular efficacy results — far fewer than in Pfizer’s and Moderna’s trials.
How the Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine Works
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/oxford-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine.html
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is based on the virus’s genetic instructions for building the spike protein. But unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which store the instructions in single-stranded RNA, the Oxford vaccine uses double-stranded DNA.
The researchers added the gene for the coronavirus spike protein to another virus called an adenovirus. Adenoviruses are common viruses that typically cause colds or flu-like symptoms. The Oxford-AstraZeneca team used a modified version of a chimpanzee adenovirus, known as ChAdOx1. It can enter cells, but it can’t replicate inside them.
PA Lt. Guv Trolls Republicans on Voter Fraud: Trump Got ‘100% of the Dead Mother Vote’
https://news.yahoo.com/pa-lt-guv-trolls-republicans-040549807.html
Democratic Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman on Monday night trolled Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other Republicans over Patrick’s offer of reward money for proof of voter fraud, pointing that the only documented fraud cases in the Keystone state involve President Donald Trump.
Last month, in an effort to support Trump’s attempt to overthrow President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive victory, Patrick offered up $1 million for evidence of fraud during the Nov. 3 election. Patrick’s reward offer, however, essentially revealed that Republicans had no proof of systemic fraud and that he was hoping the money would entice someone to produce evidence.
Fetterman has spent weeks now throwing Patrick’s proposal back in his face, relentlessly hounding his Texas counterpart to pay up after highlighting a handful of individual instances of voter fraud. Fetterman really began ramping it up over the past few days after a Pennsylvania man was charged with registering dead relatives to vote for Trump.
Last month, in an effort to support Trump’s attempt to overthrow President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive victory, Patrick offered up $1 million for evidence of fraud during the Nov. 3 election. Patrick’s reward offer, however, essentially revealed that Republicans had no proof of systemic fraud and that he was hoping the money would entice someone to produce evidence.
Fetterman has spent weeks now throwing Patrick’s proposal back in his face, relentlessly hounding his Texas counterpart to pay up after highlighting a handful of individual instances of voter fraud. Fetterman really began ramping it up over the past few days after a Pennsylvania man was charged with registering dead relatives to vote for Trump.
Trump’s latest — and final? — voter fraud Hail Mary
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/29/trumps-latest-final-voter-fraud-hail-mary/
Until Tuesday morning, the claim was promoted mostly by credulous websites that did nothing to fact-check it and the conspiracy-theory site Gateway Pundit. But Newsmax is now citing the release, and Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” made a brief mention of it Tuesday morning, and Trump and his campaign quickly seized upon it.
The apparent explanation for this is actually rather simple, and it’s the same as many of Trump allies’ claims about supposed voter fraud and allegedly inflated coronavirus death tolls: It’s based on incomplete and lagging data.
UK is 1st to approve use of AstraZeneca’s cheap, easily stored COVID-19 vaccine
Britain on Wednesday authorized use of a second COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first country to greenlight an easy-to-handle shot that its developers hope will become the “vaccine for the world.” The Department of Health said it had accepted a recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to authorize the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and Cambridge-based British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca.
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Trump lashes out at Republicans after they override his veto
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/29/politics/donald-trump-house-votes/index.html
President Donald Trump's ability to scramble American political lines continues even from the golf course, with House votes Monday showing that his feverish hold over the GOP -- and US government -- is hurtling toward a humbling end.
But be warned: Following along could induce some whiplash.
The
House of Representatives took a pair of votes Monday night with mixed
results for the President: Conservatives joined Democrats in voting to
increase coronavirus stimulus checks, but they also joined forces to
override his veto of the massive defense spending bill, a solid rebuke
and sign of his waning power.
In
a series of Tuesday morning tweets, Trump simultaneously called on the
Senate to uphold his veto of the National Defense Authorization Act
while claiming that "Weak and tired Republican 'leadership' " will allow
the legislation to pass as-is.
If
it were to pass, Trump said it would be a "disgraceful act of cowardice
and total submission by weak people to Big Tech," a stinging criticism
of his Republican allies.
In
another tweet, Trump called on the Senate to expand stimulus checks
from $600 to $2,000, a measure also passed by the House Monday.
Trump
attacked Republican leadership without naming names, saying,
"Republican leadership only wants the path of least resistance. Our
leaders (not me, of course!) are pathetic."
The Post says: Give it up, Mr. President — for your sake and the nation’s
https://nypost.com/2020/12/27/give-it-up-mr-president-for-your-sake-and-the-nations/
Mr. President, it’s time to end this dark charade.
We’re one week away from an enormously important moment for the next four years of our country.
On Jan. 5, two runoff races in Georgia will determine which party will control the Senate — whether Joe Biden will have a rubber stamp or a much-needed check on his agenda.
Unfortunately, you’re obsessed with the next day, Jan. 6, when Congress will, in a pro forma action, certify the Electoral College vote. You have tweeted that, as long as Republicans have “courage,” they can overturn the results and give you four more years in office.
In other words, you’re cheering for an undemocratic coup.
You had every right to investigate the election. But let’s be clear: Those efforts have found nothing. To take just two examples: Your campaign paid $3 million for a recount in two Wisconsin counties, and you lost by 87 more votes. Georgia did two recounts of the state, each time affirming Biden’s win. These ballots were counted by hand, which alone debunks the claims of a Venezuelan vote-manipulating Kraken conspiracy.
Joe Biden: 'Enormous damage' to US security agencies by Trump
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55470625
Mr Biden said his team was not getting the information it needed, including from the Department of Defense, as it makes its transition to power.
He spoke after a briefing by national security and foreign policy aides.
Mr Biden takes office on 20 January but President Donald Trump has refused to accept defeat in November's election.
For weeks after the 3 November election, Mr Biden was blocked from receiving key intelligence briefings, an essential and normally routine part of a presidential transition.
Monday, December 28, 2020
New York State Probes 'Fraudulently Obtained' COVID-19 Vaccines, Criminal Investigation Opened
https://time.com/5925135/new-york-covid-vaccines-fraud/
A hyperlocal Orthodox Jewish news site, BoroPark 24, published a story on Dec. 21, saying ParCare had received a shipment of Moderna Inc.’s vaccines, and showed boxes of the vaccines in what appeared to be a refrigerator. It also had what appeared to be a copy of a ParCare advertisement touting availability of “The Newest Healthcare Revolution!” on a “first come first serve” basis.
Gary Schlesinger, chief exeuctive officer of ParCare, was cited saying people who are a “health care worker, are over 60, or have underlying conditions” can register online to get a vaccine. That differs from state guidelines, which allow only frontline health care workers, or staff and residents of nursing homes, to get the first batch of vaccines.
“We take this very seriously and DOH will be assisting State Police in a criminal investigation into this matter,” said Zucker in the statement. “Anyone found to have knowingly participated in this scheme will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Trump got nothing
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2020/12/28/trump-got-nothing-491250
WHAT A BIZARRE, embarrassing episode for the president. He opposed a bill his administration negotiated. He had no discernible strategy and no hand to play — and it showed. He folded, and got nothing besides a few days of attention and chaos. People waiting for aid got a few days of frightening uncertainty.
Trump chooses chaos with delayed signature of Covid relief bill
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/28/politics/donald-trump-covid-relief-bill/index.html
President Donald Trump is driving the country through chaos from behind the wheel of his golf cart.
Over
the Christmas weekend, he was the only man with the power to forestall a
government shutdown on Tuesday, restore jobless benefits to millions of
laid-off Americans and prevent further economic calamity in the days
ahead.
Trump appeared interested in doing none of that until Sunday, when days after receiving it, he reluctantly signed a Covid relief and government funding bill his own administration helped negotiate and that his own aides claimed he'd approved days ago.
But his Sunday night signature was too late to prevent unemployment aid from lapsing.
Sunday, December 27, 2020
SHIUR 3 - RABBIS, PROPHETS AND RUACH HAKODESH
The Ramban explains that there are two types of Nevuah - (a) classic prophecy of the Nevi’im which is seen throughvisions; and (b) Nevuah of the Chachamim, which is ‘through wisdom’ whereby the truth speaks to them through an inner‘ruach hakodesh’.
The Halacha Corner: Appointing Students as Mentors
http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/english/education/bleich-1.htm
The Dilemma
In yeshivot no less so than in other schools, teachers of
elementary grade classes occasionally leave the classroom for brief
periods. When that occurs it is common for the teacher to leave an
assignment and to appoint a student monitor to supervise performance of
the assigned work and to assure that discipline is maintained. It is the
monitor's duty to record misbehavior and to report occurrences of
inappropriate conduct to the teacher when he/she returns to the
classroom. The question that presents itself is whether the appointment
of such a monitor and charging a monitor with such duties is prohibited
by halacha. In reporting negative information regarding his/her
classmates is the monitor guilty of transgressing the prohibition
concerning lashon ha-ra or improper speech?
The issues raised by this question serve to illuminate aspects of the technical prohibition of lashon ha-ra but also highlights the concerns that accompany an educator's responsibility to mold character as well as to impart knowledge.
Trump's wrecking ball of a transition
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/26/opinions/trump-destructive-transition-zelizer/index.html
But we have learned once again just how much leeway there is within our political system for Presidents to misuse their power and create immense instability. Even if Congress doesn't shorten the transition period, there are safeguards it can put into place. This transition has given us more than enough reason to revisit our election laws, provide more clarity about the Electoral College certification process, and rein in the executive power that a lame duck President can wield.
Trump continues to block pandemic relief package as shutdown looms
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/26/tump-us-coronavirus-relief-package-shutdown
“And maybe he sees this as the crowning achievement as he leaves office, where he is defeating Congress and his own party,” he added. “He’s probably more resentful toward members of his own party than he is the Democrats … He’s a hurt creature and he’s going to make all the other creatures hurt.”
Saturday, December 26, 2020
Prophesy ended?
Our Rabbis taught: Since the death of the last prophets, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachai, the Holy Sanhedrin (11a) Spirit [of prophetic inspiration] departed from Israel; yet they were still able to avail themselves of the Bath-kol.13 Once when the Rabbis were met in the upper chamber of Gurya's14 house at Jericho, a Bath-kol was heard from Heaven, saying: ‘There is one amongst you who is worthy that the Shechinah15 should rest on him as it did on Moses, but his generation does not merit it.’ The Sages present set their eyes on Hillel the Elder. And when he died, they lamented and said: ‘Alas, the pious man, the humble man, the disciple of Ezra [is no more].’
Once again they were met in the upper chamber at Jabneh, and a Bath-kol was heard to say: ‘There is one amongst you who is worthy that the Shechinah should rest on him, but his generation does not merit it.’ The Sages present directed their gaze on Samuel the Little. And when he died, they lamented and said: ‘Alas! the pious man, alas! the humble man, the disciple of Hillel [is no more].’ Samuel the Little also said shortly before he passed away: ‘Simeon16 and Ishmael17 will meet their death by the sword, and his friends18 will be executed; the rest of the people will be plundered, and many troubles will come upon the world.’ The Rabbis wished to use the same words of lamentation for R. Judah b. Baba;19 the troublous conditions of the time, however, did not permit it, for no funeral orations were delivered over those who were martyred by the [Roman] Government.20
Our Rabbis taught: A year cannot be intercalated unless the Nasi sanctions it. It once happened that Rabban Gamaliel was away obtaining permission from the Governor in Syria21 , and, as his return was delayed, the year was intercalated subject to Rabban Gamaliel's later approval. When Rabban Gamaliel returned he gave his approval with the result that the intercalation held good.
Psak is different for post-Talmudic authorites who lack ruach hakodesh
from Daas Torah - translation copyrighted
Kuntres HaSefekos (5:3): It seems to be me that Tosfos and the Nemukei Yosef are talking about a dispute between Tannaim and Amoraim as can be seen from their language. In such a case the judge does not need to struggle and find proofs to the validity of the different opinions. That is because it is impossible for us to refute the view of a particular Tanna or Amora with decisive proofs – because ruach hakodesh is manifest in them. Our Sages have already said about Talmudic sages, “These and those are the words of the living Gd. Therefore the judge must decide based on what makes sense to him – but he can’t prove or disprove whether a particular view is correct. In contrast the Rosh was describing the postTalmudic situation and wrote that when two gedolim are in disagreement about a matter then the judge needs to look for proper proofs to decide between them. That is because from the day that the Talmud was closed – the fountains of wisdom have been sealed and therefore each person has the right to disagree with his predecessors with what he considers proof. Thus in the post-Talmudic world it is within the realm of the possible to decide between views by bringing proofs to the reasoning of one side over the other. We see this in the books of the Achronim where they refute the words of their predecessors with clear proofs.
Rep. Kinzinger swipes at Trump, fellow House GOP for denying election loss: 'It's sad'
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-kinzinger-swipes-trump-fellow-house-gop-denying-election-loss
"My God. Trying to burn the place down on the way out because you can’t handle losing," Kinzinger tweeted. "No evidence, nothing but your temper tantrum and crazy conspiracies. Embarrassing. #RestoreOurGOP."
Kinzinger got backup from Michigan Rep. Paul Mitchell, who is "disaffiliating" with the GOP over Trump's ongoing election fraud claims.
"It is a scam of epic scale -- hundreds of millions raised," Mitchell tweeted of Trump's continued fundraising. "And if you look at the fine print -- little going to @realDonaldTrump legal fund the majority to his new PAC. And a non-profit has been formed to employ others of his minions. SCAMS!"
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