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.

Trump plans to revive campaign-style rallies as he pursues legal challenges to election results

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-plans-to-revive-campaign-style-rallies-as-he-pursues-legal-challenges-to-election-results

 According a report by Axios and confirmed by Fox News, Trumps’ campaign plans to take less traditional path to challenging the results of the election, including holding “a series of Trump rallies” focused on the campaigns ongoing legal efforts in numerous states across the country.

Along with the rallies, Trump is also planning to use obituaries of people who allegedly voted but are actually dead as evidence of the voter fraud he's been claiming. The campaign is also sending recount teams Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, with Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., heading up the effort in the Peach State.

President Trump refuses to concede

Mary Trump: ‘If he thinks he’s going down, he’s going to try to take the rest of us down with him.’

I Gave Donald Trump a Chance After He Was Elected. The President's Supporters Should Do the Same for Joe Biden Now

 https://time.com/5909222/i-gave-donald-trump-a-chance/

 I’m an optimist, but I’m not cock-eyed. As my friend, historian Jon Meacham says, disagreement is the oxygen of democracy. I’m just looking forward to, as Joe Biden said, lowering the temperature of our national thermostat and seeing each other as human beings, not bumper stickers or lawn signs. Perhaps then we can get back to work and start making progress on some enormous problems that won’t just go away on their own. I wanted Donald Trump to succeed and I gave him a chance. For all those who voted for him, please do the same for the incoming Administration. I’m excited to do my part. Are you?

 

 

Trump’s election challenges more about keeping base loyal than changing outcome

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/trumps-election-challenges-more-about-keeping-base-loyal-than-changing-outcome/

 The Trump campaign’s strategy to file a barrage of lawsuits challenging US President-elect Joe Biden’s win is more about providing President Donald Trump with an off-ramp for a loss he can’t quite grasp and less about changing the election’s outcome, according to senior officials, campaign aides and allies who spoke to The Associated Press.

Cruz insists Trump 'still has a path to victory,' vote count lawsuits could 'easily' reach Supreme Court

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cruz-trump-path-to-victory-supreme-court

 Meanwhile, some Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, are criticizing Trump's strategy as Biden seems set to take the reins.

"The President is within his rights to request recounts, to call for investigation of alleged voting irregularities... He is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen—doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions," Romney said in a statement posted on Twitter.

 

 

WSJ: Trump Aides Warn ‘No Legal Effort’ Can Help Him Catch Up To Biden | All In | MSNBC

'Loser': Trump Headed For Court Losses In 2020 Cases, Per Obama’s SCOTUS Lawyer | MSNBC

President Trump Can't Sue His Way to a Second Term. Why He Is Trying Anyway

https://time.com/5908881/president-trump-cant-sue-his-way-to-a-second-term-why-he-is-trying-anyway/ 

Shortly after the Associated Press projected that Joe Biden would win enough electoral college votes to defeat President Donald Trump, Trump released a statement saying that his campaign would go to court Monday to fight the outcome. “Networks don’t get to decide elections,” Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said later at a press event at a landscaping company in Philadelphia, “Courts do.”

That is, of course, not the case. With the notable exception of the 2000 presidential race, which was effectively decided by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, it is voters who decide elections. And that, legal experts say, is the main flaw with Trump’s strategy: Biden has won too many votes for the Trump campaign to mount any legal challenge that would actually change the outcome.

For an election to be successfully litigated, experts say, the margins between the candidates have to be exceedingly close. The dispute between George W. Bush and Al Gore two decades ago, for example, hinged on just 537 votes in Florida. Election litigation is only consequential, says Nathaniel Persily, a professor at Stanford Law School, “if the number of contested ballots exceeds the margin of victory.”

 So why pursue a legal strategy that seems so clearly destined to fail? For Trump, some observers say, the goal may not be to win the election so much as to cast a pall of uncertainty over the results, thereby encouraging the perception, however unfounded, that he is the victim of fraud and remains the rightful leader of his fervent base. “This is all looking increasingly like disinformation through litigation, rather than plausible legal claims,” says Joshua Geltzer, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law.

Netanyahu breaks silence, congratulates Biden for winning US elections

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-november-8-2020/ 

 Some 12 hours after victory projected for Democrat over Trump, Israeli PM and president express optimism regarding future of Israeli-American partnership

 

Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis: Winner of Trump-Biden race will be determined by courts — we don’t know yet who won

 https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-election-lawsuits-biden-jenna-ellis

 Despite projections by many news organizations Saturday that former Vice President Joe Biden has won the presidential election and defeated President Trump, the media don’t have the power to decide the outcome of American elections. Legal challenges by the Trump reelection campaign, where I serve as a legal adviser, are still before the courts and we await judicial rulings on our challenges.