The United States surpassed 160,000 new daily cases reported on Monday, just the fourth time it has passed that mark since the pandemic started, with three states recording more than 11,000 cases, according to data aggregators COVID Tracking Project and Worldometers.

An equally concerning statistic:  for the first time, more than 70,000 people were hospitalized due to the coronavirus in the US.  According to the COVID Tracking Project, more than 73,000 people were in hospitals for COVID-related issues, a 4.3% increase from the previous day.  The number of people hospitalized in the US due to COVID has jumped 50% in just two weeks.

Texas, Illinois and California all reported more than 11,000 cases Monday, with Tennessee, Ohio and Minnesota each reporting 7,000 or more cases.  Texas led the nation with 78 fatalities due to the virus, more than 10% of the COVID-related deaths on Monday in the US.

Biden and Harris, Daily Press Guidance [1]: On Tuesday, November 17, President-elect Joe Biden will receive a briefing on national security in Wilmington, Delaware, which will include a photo spray. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will also participate.

Trump and Pence, Daily Press Guidance [2]: THE PRESIDENT has no public events scheduled.

The Federal District Court for Middle Pennsylvania has denied a Trump campaign motion to postpone arguments in its lawsuit against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar relating to counties that allowed election workers to correct flaws in ballots by transposing them onto new forms.

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1328510458421186561

“Republican leaders are increasingly alarmed about the party’s ability to stave off Democratic challengers in Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections — and they privately described President Trump on a recent conference call as a political burden who despite his false claims of victory was the likely loser of the 2020 election.”

“Those blunt assessments, which capture a Republican Party in turmoil as Trump refuses to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, were made on a Nov. 10 call with donors hosted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It featured Georgia’s embattled GOP incumbents, Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, and Karl Rove, a veteran strategist who is coordinating fundraising for the Jan. 5 runoffs. The comments by the senators and Rove were shared with The Washington Post by a person who provided a detailed and precise account of what was said by each speaker on the call. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to divulge the contents of the private discussion” – Washington Post.

Politico: “Most Republicans have been reluctant to contradict Trump’s claim that he can still hold the White House, but there’s been a steady trickle of GOP lawmakers defecting from Trump’s false contention that he was robbed by fraudsters. After Trump tweeted Monday, ‘I won the election,’ Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) told reporters, ‘I wouldn’t have advised he put it that way.’ Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Trump can and should continue his legal challenges but has ‘every confidence on Jan. 20 we’re going to inaugurate a president. And it will probably be Joe Biden.’ ‘It grows increasingly unlikely that a remedy would involve overturning the election,’ said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who said he nonetheless supports Trump’s goals of exposing even small cases of malfeasance on ballots.”

“Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, referred to Biden as the president-elect unprompted, saying ‘that’s what the results, the preliminary results, seem to indicate, and we certainly have to anticipate that that’s the highest likelihood at this point.’ ‘We have to assume right now, based upon the current electoral count, that we are getting closer to the point where the facts on the ground will bear that out,’ Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said when asked about Trump’s lawsuits fizzling in court. ‘Right now, it looks like it will be President Biden. We understand that.’ Yet acknowledging the fact that Biden will soon be president risks angering Trump and his legion of supporters — including those the GOP needs to turn out in a pair of Georgia runoffs to determine Senate control. Most Republican leaders still won’t do anything to push Trump to accept the inevitable.”

“Joe Biden has successfully claimed the role of the 46th president of the United States. Though his official duties don’t start until his inauguration in January, the president-elect is already at the center of many frantic conversations with individuals worrying about his allegedly harsh tax plans” – Excerpt of a blog post on ScaringiLaw.com, website of new Trump Campaign Pennsylvania attorney Marc Scaringi, retained to replace the three other lawyers who withdrew from Donald J. Trump for President v Kathy Boockvar on Monday.

New York Times: “President Trump asked senior advisers in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday whether he had options to take action against Iran’s main nuclear site in the coming weeks. The meeting occurred a day after international inspectors reported a significant increase in the country’s stockpile of nuclear material, four current and former U.S. officials said on Monday. A range of senior advisers dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike. The advisers — including Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Christopher C. Miller, the acting defense secretary; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — warned that a strike against Iran’s facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of Mr. Trump’s presidency.”

“Any strike — whether by missile or cyber — would almost certainly be focused on Natanz, where the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Wednesday that Iran’s uranium stockpile was now 12 times larger than permitted under the nuclear accord that Mr. Trump abandoned in 2018. The agency also noted that Iran had not allowed it access to another suspected site where there was evidence of past nuclear activity. Mr. Trump asked his top national security aides what options were available and how to respond, officials said. After Mr. Pompeo and General Milley described the potential risks of military escalation, officials left the meeting believing a missile attack inside Iran was off the table, according to administration officials with knowledge of the meeting. Mr. Trump might still be looking at ways to strike Iranian assets and allies, including militias in Iraq, officials said. A smaller group of national security aides had met late Wednesday to discuss Iran, the day before the meeting with the president.”

CNN’s Jim Sciutto tweeted a pic of the withdrawal motion in the Trump campaign’s case against Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathryn Boockvar. If the headline looks familiar that’s because on Friday a very similar one was published here. It’s unclear whether this is a separate case or these three lawyers are backbenchers who filled in for the Porter Wright Morris and Arthur team whom the New York Times reported as having withdrawn on Friday.

A Google search of the attorneys listed shows Linda A Kerns’ website, which, holy shit, is freaking insane to think this is who the Trump Campaign could find to represent them and still she quits on them. Douglas Bryan Hughes is a GOP Texas State Senator, so that’s equally embarrassing for the Trump Campaign. John B. Scott died in 1854.

“Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots in an effort to reverse President Trump’s narrow loss in the state. In a wide-ranging interview about the 2020 election, Raffensperger expressed exasperation with a string of baseless allegations coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia’s voting machines, is a ‘leftist’ company with ties to Venezuela that engineered thousands of Trump votes not to be counted.”

“In the interview, Raffensperger also said he spoke on Friday to Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has echoed Trump’s unfounded claims about voting irregularities. In their conversation, Graham questioned Raffensperger about the state’s signature-matching law and whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with nonmatching signatures, according to Raffensperger. Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said. Raffspenger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. Absent court intervention, Raffensperger doesn’t have the power to do what Graham suggested, as counties administer elections in Georgia. ‘It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,’ he said” – Washington Post.

It looks like coronavirus messed with Texas, and coronavirus is winning.

Thousands of drivers lined up for miles in Dallas over the weekend to get food from a charity, a result of the impact the coronavirus and its effect on the economy.

Thousands of cars lined up to collect food in Dallas, Texas, over the weekend, stretching as far as the eye can see. pic.twitter.com/xLFGOcBkPK

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 16, 2020

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “A recount in Georgia’s presidential race found more than 2,600 ballots in Floyd County that hadn’t originally been tallied, likely helping President Donald Trump reduce his 14,000-vote deficit to Joe Biden. Trump could gain about 800 net votes from the newly discovered ballots, said Luke Martin, chairman of the Floyd County Republican Party. The problem occurred because county election officials didn’t upload votes from a memory card in a ballot scanning machine, according to the secretary of state’s office.”

“The previously uncounted votes were cast during in-person early voting at the Floyd County Administration Building, which includes the county’s elections office, Martin said. Over half of 5,000 printed-out ballots cast on an optical scanner weren’t initially recorded. ‘It’s very concerning,’ Martin said. ‘But this doesn’t appear to be a widespread issue. I’m glad the audit revealed it, and it’s important that all votes are counted.’ The uncounted ballots in Floyd County is the most significant issue found so far during Georgia’s recount. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said that other counties’ recounted figures closely match their original numbers.”

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said he is pulling an “emergency brake” on plans to reopen the state as the entire state is seeing explosive growth in new confirmed cases, Politico reports.

The nation’s most populous state will reimplement restrictions on in 41 of California’s 58 counties, impacting 94% of California’s population.  The renewed restrictions will mean churches, indoor dining and gyms will remain closed until the state deems them safe to reopen.

The need for the shutdown became urgent as the number of infections throughout the state skyrocketed.  “Bottom line is, we’re moving from a marathon to a sprint,” Newsom said. 

Bloomberg: “U.S. stocks rose to records after positive news on a Covid-19 vaccine sparked a rally in shares tied to an economic reopening while stay-at-home tech companies lagged behind. Oil climbed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index closed at all-time highs after Moderna Inc.’s vaccine was shown to be 94.5% effective in a preliminary analysis of a large late-stage clinical trial. Shares of the drugmaker surged almost 10%. Companies poised to benefit from a reopening, such as cruise lines and air carriers, were among the day’s best performers.”

Saying “I still think it’s more embarrassing to the country than debilitating,” President-elect Joe Biden says that the barriers outgoing president Donald Trump put up to transitioning to the next administration will not stop the inevitable from happening, CNN reports.

Biden also noted that more American lives will be lost if Trump doesn’t grow up and cooperate with the transition of the government to a Biden administration.

“More people may die if we don’t coordinate,” Biden said during a Monday afternoon press conference.  Biden cited the need to learn how far the Trump administration has gotten regarding the distribution of a potential vaccine in order to prepare his team from taking the reins on Day One of his administration. 

Recently released FBI data shows hate crimes in the United States jumped to a ten-year high in 2019 under Donald Trump’s leadership, with racial minorities being the primary target of the attacks, the Associated Press reports.

In 2019, there were 51 hate crime murders in the US through 18 incidents, including 22 people killed by a shooter targeting Mexicans at an El Paso Walmart.  In all, there were 7,314 hate crimes in the nation, with two-thirds of them targeting people versus one-third targeting property.

In 2019, 58% were race-based hate crimes, 20% were religiously-based, and 17% targeted people because of their gender identity or orientation.

Most hate crimes against people were acts of intimidation and simple assaults.  Most property crimes were minor destruction or vandalism.

“After saying he would step in if President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris still weren’t receiving detailed intelligence briefings Friday, Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) said over the weekend his comments had been blown out of proportion.”

“‘I’m not in a hurry, necessarily, to get Joe Biden these briefings, it’s been interesting how the media, the national media, not this network, but others have twisted this term ‘step in.’ I happen to chair the committee that oversees GSA, that is the entity that has to be able to make this call,’ Mr. Lankford said an interview with the pro-Trump Newsmax TV Saturday. On Wednesday, in an interview with KRMG radio in Tulsa, Okla., Mr. Lankford said: ‘If that’s not occurring by Friday, I will step in as well and be able to push and say, this needs to occur,’ Mr. Lankford said he was using the term “step in” to ask the General Services Administration about their process and act as a sounding board for the agency” – Wall Street Journal.

CNBC: “Hungary and Poland on Monday blocked the adoption of the 2021-2027 budget and recovery fund by European Union governments because the budget law included a clause that makes access to money conditional on respecting the rule of law. The veto is likely to cause a delay in the launch of the 1.8 trillion euro package that combines the EU’s long-term budget and the bloc’s economic recovery plan, but is unlikely to derail it altogether, a senior French official said.”

“‘Hungary and Poland blocking the European budget doesn’t put into question our determination on the recovery and the rule of law,’ French Europe Minister Clement Beaune said on Twitter. ‘A solution will be found in the coming weeks, France is fully involved to find one.’ Ambassadors of EU countries on Monday accepted a deal struck with the European parliament which establishes a clear link between EU money and the respect for the rule of law. They agreed because this vote required only a qualified majority and the opposition of Warsaw and Budapest could not stop it.”

ABC News: “The top General Services Administration official who’s blocking President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team from accessing government resources ahead of his inauguration appears to be looking for a new job, according to a message obtained by ABC News. Emily Murphy, head of the GSA, recently sent that message to an associate inquiring about employment opportunities in 2021, a move that some in Washington interpreted as at least tacitly acknowledging that the current administration soon will be gone.”

“Murphy has the power to decide – or ‘ascertain’ – when election results are evident enough to trigger a transition of power, allowing the winning team access to career staff at federal agencies and internal government information including national security matters and plans for administering a COVID-19 vaccine. Donald Trump appointed Murphy in 2017, and she’s so far refused to certify Biden as the election’s winner as Trump attempts to overturn the election result in court. A White House spokesperson referred ABC News to the GSA when reached for comment. A GSA spokesperson denied the account that Murphy was actively looking for a job, but noted that it wouldn’t be unusual for a political appointee to consider future opportunities.”