Secret plans helped Brooklyn synagogue pull off massive, maskless wedding

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/secret-plans-helped-brooklyn-synagogue-pull-off-massive-maskless-wedding

 A Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn planned the wedding of a chief rabbi’s grandson with such secrecy it was able to host thousands of maskless celebrants without the city catching on.

Despite a surge in COVID-19 cases, guests crammed shoulder-to-shoulder inside the Yetev Lev temple in Williamsburg for the Nov. 8 nuptials — stomping, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs without a mask in sight, videos obtained by The Post show.

 The synagogue’s stunning willingness to host a potential super-spreader event underscores what critics call the Hasidic community’s ongoing disregard and outright defiance of efforts to control the deadly coronavirus, which has killed nearly 25,000 people in New York City.

 Ironically, the synagogue’s own president, R’Mayer Zelig Rispler, who openly urged Brooklyn’s Orthodox community to abide by coronavirus safety measures, died of COVID-19 last month at age 70.

Facing an Election Loss, President Donald Trump Turns to Raw Political Power to Try to Bend the Outcome

 https://time.com/5914407/facing-an-election-loss-president-donald-trump-turns-to-raw-political-power-to-try-to-bend-the-outcome/

 During his failed campaign to win another four years in office, President Donald Trump repeatedly used the power of his office to boost his chances, employing the White House as a campaign backdrop, having his Secretary of State give a campaign speech during an official diplomatic trip, and spreading baseless claims about voting fraud from behind the presidential seal.

Now he’s using his office to try to reverse his loss.

 

 

Pennsylvania judge throws out Trump lawsuit, clearing way for Biden win

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pennsylvania-judge-throws-out-trump-lawsuit-biden-win

Even if Trump had been able to successfully overturn the state’s vote tabulation and win Pennsylvania, the state’s 20 electoral votes would not have been enough to secure him re-election after Georgia confirmed Biden flipped the traditionally red state Friday.

Pennsylvania Republican senator says Biden won, after court deals blow to Trump

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/pennsylvania-republican-senator-says-biden-won-after-court-deals-blow-to-trump/

 A Pennsylvania judge on Saturday threw out Donald Trump’s claims of widespread electoral fraud there, dealing a new blow to the Republican’s bid to overturn his loss in the US presidential election.

The decision — announced in a scathing judgment which excoriated the Trump team’s legal strategy — paves the way for Pennsylvania to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory there, which is scheduled to take place Monday.

Trump tries to drum out GOP election officials who won’t play his games

 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/21/trump-gop-elections-challenge-438938

 President Donald Trump has driven senators into retirement and tweeted wayward Republicans into primary defeat during four years leading the GOP. Now, as a lame duck, he’s launched a new campaign against GOP election officials who won’t bend to his will.

Trump’s drive to discredit the results of an election he lost has put him at odds with the Republican elected officials and administrators who oversaw the vote in key states — and called it what it was: a free and fair election. Being at odds with Trump doesn’t go over well in today’s Republican Party, and Trump has turned their political bases against them, even unleashing threats from his most rabid supporters.

Trump spotlighted great weakness of US democracy

The real danger in Trump's charade

Trump options narrow as Michigan backs Biden win

 https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55025997

 Two Republican legislators pledged to follow "normal process" in validating the vote after a White House meeting.

Earlier on Friday, Georgia dealt the US president another blow by certifying Mr Biden's razor-thin margin of victory.

The Democrat is set to take office on 20 January as the 46th US president.

Trump takes credit for Pfizer vaccine development, says Americans wouldn’t have one yet without his leadership

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-pfizer-vaccine-leadership

  President Trump on Friday claimed the U.S. would not have a coronavirus vaccine on the way had he not been in the Oval Office to oversee its development.

 

Biden's margin of victory widens as Trump's subversion efforts grow more frantic

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/21/politics/donald-trump-joe-biden-transition/index.html

 While most of GOP leadership continues to back Trump's efforts to contest those results, a growing number of veteran Republicans pushed back on Trump's tactics and expressed frustration about the transition being held up.

"If there is any chance whatsoever that Joe Biden will be the next president, and it looks like he has a very good chance, the Trump administration should provide the Biden team with all transition materials, resources, and meetings necessary to ensure a smooth transition so that both sides are ready on day one," said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman, who's retiring at the end of this year.

"That especially should be true, for example, on vaccine distribution," he added in his statement.

"I think that it's time to move on," 12-term Rep. Kay Granger of Texas said Friday when asked about Trump's efforts to overturn the election results.

"I think it's time for him to really realize and be very clear about what's going on."

Leaders

Romney rips Trump in late-night tweet, calls president's actions effort to ‘subvert’ will of people

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/romney-rips-trump-in-tweet-calls-actions-effort-to-subvert-will-of-people

 Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, took to Twitter late Thursday to rip President Trump, saying the president had failed to make “even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before a court of law” pertaining to the 2020 presidential election.

Romney said earlier this month that he did not have a problem with Trump challenging the election results and told “Fox News Sunday” he once considered challenging the 2012 election results when he lost to President Obama.

He said he thought it was “appropriate for the president to make sure that the vote count has been done properly.”

How history judges sore losers: Donald Trump, be warned

 https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-donald-trump-sore-loser-20201111-gpzb45misrhxbl3xne7pp5fwja-story.html

 Whether Trump eventually demonstrates the same dignity and graciousness is hard to say. He is beyond unconventional and his deepest base of supporters have a cultish affection enjoyed by few previous losing candidates. But no one gets to defy every convention.

By not leaving on a high note, he may find himself in a political purgatory that Thomas Dewey, the losing Republican candidate of 1944 and 1948, likened to the drunk who passed out at a wake. “If I am alive,” the man said, “what am I doing in this coffin? If I am dead, why do I have to go to the bathroom?”

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