US hits record coronavirus hospitalizations . . . Coronavirus hospitalizations and infections have hit single-day highs across the United States - but nationwide deaths are still about half of what they at the initial peak in April. There were 61,964 people being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals nationwide on Tuesday, according to COVID Tracking Project data. That toll surpassed the previous single-day high of 59,780 hospitalizations recorded back in April at the peak of the first coronavirus wave and the peak 59,718 hospitalizations in July. Daily Mail

 

Biden coronavirus advisor says 4-6 week lockdown needed . . . A member of apparent President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force advocated for a new lockdown in the United States, saying it would invigorate the economy and decrease the number of coronavirus cases. Dr. Michael Osterholm said the federal government would need to enact a new lockdown that spans over a month to drive down cases of COVID-19 before the release of a vaccine. He pointed to reported success stories in Australia and New Zealand. Washington Examiner

 

 

Key Biden advisor opposes "vaccine nationalism" . . . So we develop the vaccine, but we should not give it to our people first. Makes sense, for a Democratic administration. The advisor in question, Ezekiel Emanuel, will be very influential. He’s a former top Obama health care advisor who is the brother of Rahm Emanuel.

He’s also the guy who thinks anyone over 75 should drop dead.

According to Fox News: “Oncologist Dr. Zeke Emanuel, one of 10 advisory board members named to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force, has pushed the U.S. and other countries to not hoard a coronavirus vaccine. White House Dossier

 

As Biden takes the front seat, America will take the back seat to the world.

 

Black market for negative Covid tests pops up worldwide . . . A black market for negative COVID-19 tests has popped up across the globe as more countries require travelers to prove their negative status before entering, a report said Wednesday. In France, seven people were arrested last week for allegedly hawking doctored coronavirus tests at Charles de Gaulle International Airport, The Associated Press reported. The suspects, who were not identified, were charging up to $360 for the fake tests. New York Post 

 

Many Trump aides resigned to defeat . . . The president's aides are growing more certain that legal challenges won't change the outcome of the election, according to seven campaign and White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the thinking of the president and others in the executive mansion. And the president himself has also somewhat resigned himself to losing, according to insiders, who say he is only continuing to fight to keep up the performance for his fans. Officials said he hasn't attended an intelligence meeting in weeks, has done little to tackle the surge of coronavirus cases and is spending much of his time watching TV and making phone calls to governors of red states and Sean Hannity. Daily Mail

 

 

Trump aides plot flurry of moves in final ten weeks . . . On Monday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows gathered senior aides on a call.  One of his goals: to plot the conservative policy moves they could push through in their final 10 weeks on immigration, trade, health care, China and school choice. Staffers have compiled a list of roughly 15 moves they could make through executive orders, executive actions or finalizing agency rules that they plan to pursue in the coming days, according to interviews with three administration officials. Politico

 

 

Donations under $8K to Trump "election defense" fund go instead to Trump Pac, RNC . . . As President Donald Trump seeks to discredit last week’s election with baseless claims of voter fraud, his team has bombarded his supporters with requests for money to help pay for legal challenges to the results: “The Left will try to STEAL this election!” reads one text. But any small-dollar donations from Trump’s grassroots donors won’t be going to legal expenses at all, according to a Reuters review of the legal language in the solicitations. A donor would have to give more than $8,000 before any money goes to the “recount account” established to finance election challenges, including recounts and lawsuits over alleged improprieties, the fundraising disclosures show. The fine print makes clear most of the money will go to other priorities. A large portion of the money goes to “Save America,” a Trump leadership PAC, or political action committee, set up on Monday, and the Republican National Committee (RNC). Under Federal Election Commission rules, both groups have broad leeway in how they can use the funds. Reuters

 

Biden taps Ron Klein for White House chief of staff . . . Joe Biden has named longtime aide Ron Klain as his White House chief of staff, the transition team announced late Wednesday. Klain is the first White House official the president-elect has announced since winning last week’s election. A veteran Democratic operative, Klain first worked for Biden in the late 1980s when Biden was a senator from Delaware and later served as Vice President Biden’s chief of staff. Politico

 

 

Biden transition team stocked with Soros operatives . . . Joe Biden's transition team includes several people affiliated with organizations bankrolled by the left-wing billionaire George Soros.

Biden's "Agency Review Teams," which include lists of individuals "responsible for understanding the operations" of each government agency, will prepare "President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris … to hit the ground running on Day One." Sarah Cross, an advocacy director at Soros's Open Society Foundations, received a seat on Biden's State Department transition team. Michael Pan, a special adviser in the executive office of the Open Society Foundations, will join the United States Mission to the United Nations team. Diane Thompson, who is listed as "self-employed" and a member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau team, is a current Leadership in Government Fellow at the Open Society Foundations. Washington Free Beacon

 

Senior House Democrat Clyburn compares Trump to Hitler . . . Where are my fellow Jews to scorn this kind of outrage? It’s not just an insult to President Trump, it’s an insult to those who died in the Holocaust and in World War II, because it diminishes what Hitler was. House Minority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top deputies, should lose his leadership position over this. Of course, he won’t. He also complains that “the American people” may be less intelligent than he had thought. Which is kind of what I’m thinking about him. White House Dossier

 

 

 

 

Trump says he "easily" won Pennsylvania and Michigan . . . President Donald Trump doubled down on his allegation of voter fraud Wednesday night and claimed he had now received '73 million legal votes'. The president also doubled down on his claims he won Pennsylvania and Michigan, shortly after sharing a video showing ballots being collected after Election Day in California. The president tweeted Wednesday night that he had 'easily won both states', saying 'hundreds of thousands of votes' should be thrown out because GOP poll watchers were prevented from observing ballot counting. Daily Mail

 

Georgia announces hand recount . . . Georgia’s chief election official announced Wednesday that the state will conduct a recount by hand of every ballot cast in the presidential race, with President-elect Joe Biden narrowly leading President Donald Trump in the state’s vote count. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said that he would designate the presidential contest as the race to undergo a “risk-limiting audit,” an election verification procedure that uses a statistical formula to determine how many electronically tabulated ballots need to be manually checked in order to rule out the possibility of fraud or errors. Politico

 

Trump performs "near total decapitation" of Pentagon leadership . . .  President Donald Trump has performed a “near-total decapitation” of civilian leadership within the Department of Defense this week, with speculation flying that the officials disagreed with plans for a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Esper’s chief of staff, top Pentagon policy official Mark Tomb and other senior officials this week. A Trump administration official explained the firings to The Intercept as necessary for ending America’s longstanding military deployments in the Middle East, which Trump has termed “forever wars.” Daily Caller

 

GOP senator "will get involved" if Biden not receiving intel briefings by Friday . . . A Republican senator from Oklahoma said that he "will get involved" if President Trump does not begin sharing intelligence briefings with President-elect Joe Biden. Sen. James Lankford stopped short of affirming that Biden won the presidential election but said that "there's nothing wrong" with him receiving the briefings so that "whichever way [the election] goes, people can be ready." Washington Examiner

 

Sweden imposes lockdown for first time . . . After not employing many of the coronavirus restrictions seen around the world, Sweden is imposing a partial lockdown on bars and restaurants by banning businesses from serving alcohol after 10 p.m., Bloomberg reported. The latest measure is effective Nov. 20 and will require all businesses with a license to serve alcohol to close by 10:30 p.m. The guidelines come amid a spike of ICU patients being treated for coronavirus in the past 10 days. Daily Caller

 

Hong Kong opposition stages final protest before resigning . . . Hong Kong’s opposition staged a final show of defiance in the legislature on Thursday before resigning to protest against the dismissal of four of their colleagues in what they see as another bid by Beijing to suppress democracy in the city. The withdrawal of the opposition from the city legislature will mean an end for what has been one of the few forums for dissent after Beijing’s imposition of national security legislation in June and coronavirus restrictions ended pro-democracy protests that began last year. Reuters

 

 

Jobless claims decline but remain high . . . The number of people collecting unemployment benefits through regular state programs, which cover most workers, dropped to 6.8 million for the week ended Oct. 31 from 7.2 million. Continuing claims are well below their spring levels, reflecting that many laid-off workers have been recalled to jobs or hired elsewhere. Others, though, have exhausted state benefits, a sign many are facing long periods of joblessness. Wall Street Journal

 

California to guide US environmental policy under Biden . . . CalEPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld, the state’s top environmental official said California officials are eager to help Biden model federal policy in the Golden State’s image. “The really ambitious goals that he has in his plan, a lot of them are modeled on California,” he said. “We really want to work with the administration to show what is possible. Whether it's his goal of getting 2035 carbon-free energy or how we think about zero-emission vehicles or building standards or all the things we've done over the last 30 years, what we want to do is work with him to scale that.” Politico

 

Maryland suburban school district to spend $450,000 on "Anti-racist audit" . . . Maryland's Montgomery County plans to spend more than $450,000 on an "anti-racist audit" intended to create "equitable outcomes for every student's academic and social-emotional well-being." According to a Tuesday memo from the county's superintendent of schools, Montgomery County Public Schools will award a one-year "anti-racist" consulting contract to the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium for $454,680. The consulting firm will investigate the district's culture, hiring practices, and pre-K-12 curriculum, which Montgomery County says should be tailored so that it "strengthens students' sense of racial, ethnic, and tribal identities, helps students understand and resist systems of oppression, and empowers students to see themselves as change agents." Washington Free Beacon

 

 

Conservative social media options gain . . . America's crisis of political segregation – we increasingly don't live alongside, associate with or even marry people who think differently from us – is increasingly leading conservatives to congregate together on social media outlets designed specifically for people who think like them. The recent rise of Parler raises the specter of further political polarization through digital means. Parler and others, like MeWe and Gab, are gaining momentum with a promise not to censor their users for behavior that might violate the policies of their rivals. USA Today

 

Jeffrey Toobin fired by New Yorker . . . Longtime staff writer Jeffrey Toobin was fired by the New Yorker weeks after he was seen by colleagues exposing himself during a Zoom call.  A representative with the New Yorker confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that Toobin is "no longer affiliated with the company" after an investigation into an incident, during which insiders said Toobin accidentally left his Zoom call on while touching himself. In a tweet following the news, Toobin confirmed his firing before noting how much he enjoyed his time with the magazine. Washington Examiner

Leftist Democrats blaming Pelosi freezer for loss . . . Left-wing Democrats attempting to analyze why there was no 'blue wave' in the election are claiming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's freezer drawer filled with ice cream may be partly to blame. During an interview for The Late Late Show with James Corden, Pelosi showed off a pricey sub-zero freezer in her kitchen at her California home that was full stocked of $12-a-pint ice cream. The groups criticized Pelosi for 'showing off' her $24,000 fridge packed with Jeni's premium ice cream. Daily Mail

 

Critics furious over nude statue honoring feminists icon . . . A monument honoring “mother of feminism” Mary Wollstonecraft was unveiled in London Tuesday — and immediately sparked backlash for containing a statue of a nude, toned female form. The silver sculpture erected in Newington Green shows a small, naked woman emerging from a swirling mass of bronze, apparently meant to represent the pioneering 18th-century writer’s spirit. But critics were offended by the “pubic” display. “Any passing teenage boy is not going to think, oh, that’s an icon of feminist education. They are going to think – ‘tits!’” British writer Tracy King told the newspaper. New York Post