“There are Trump supporters outside my parents’ house shouting through megaphones ‘Lock Her Up,’ and I just keep thinking, I hope they’re wearing masks and some day get over 2016” Chelsea Clinton tweeted Sunday evening. Video posted by Disclose.TV, a right-wing-ish UFO conspiracy website – which naturally didn’t credit the original poster – appears to show at least a few dozen vehicles parked on the side of the road in the Westchester neighborhood where the Clintons live.

Washington Post: “The Trump administration is ending as it began: with a lie about crowd size. On Saturday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted out two overhead photos of President Trump supporters who had gathered for a pro-Trump march in Washington, writing, ‘AMAZING! More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support.’ McEnany was off by many orders of magnitude — the crowd of thousands was a notable show of force, perhaps, but a far cry from the million marchers she claimed.”

“Her hyperbolic assertion was reminiscent of another baseless claim made by another Trump press secretary nearly four years ago. Sean Spicer stepped behind the briefing room lectern on his first full day on the job and, at the president’s urging, told falsehoods about the size of Trump’s inauguration crowds. ‘The only tragedy about the lie about crowd size is he’s always capable of finding people willing to lie for him,’ said Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s communication director for 11 days and has since become an outspoken critic of the president. McEnany did not respond to requests for comment about how she arrived at the incorrect 1 million figure. Trump himself tweeted Sunday that ‘tens of thousands’ had demonstrated. The symmetry does not end with the exaggerations about crowd size. Trump’s one-term presidency is poised to come full circle in myriad ways, from a consistent lack of strategic vision to his enduring efforts to delegitimize his political rivals, whoever they might be.”

I'll still have a job on January 21st, though.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2020

It took the United States just six days to amass an additional million coronavirus cases, surpassing 11 million confirmed cases Sunday afternoon, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Sciences and Engineering COVID Dashboard.

The US has experienced an explosion in new cases in the last week, with more than 130,000 cases logged each week.  On Thursday, the country registered more than 170,000 cases.  Hospitalizations have also skyrocketed, stressing the nation’s health care systems.

Many of the court cases being filed all over the Country are not ours, but rather those of people that have seen horrible abuses. Our big cases showing the unconstitutionality of the 2020 Election, & the outrage of things that were done to change the outcome, will soon be filed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020

Daily Beast: “All of us try to resolve cognitive dissonance, but the Trump movement has been a years-long exercise in it. Election denial is its latest manifestation. But before that came COVID denial, science denial, climate denial, ‘alternative facts,’ the inability of Trump’s most devoted fans to see him for the obvious con man that he is, and, at the movement’s very core, denial of the social and demographic changes that are transforming America.

“In all of these cases, developments in history are contradicting deeply held beliefs—in fact, not mere ‘beliefs’ but organizing principles of the world that create one’s sense of place within it. If Donald Trump legitimately lost the election, most Americans can put up with Socialism or Black Lives Matter or the Liberal Media or whatever else. If America is really, legitimately changing, then the white-, male-, straight-, and Christian-dominated world is gone and will never come back. If climate change is real, then the way I’ve been living my life has been causing harm, and has to change, even if that means government regulations and restrictions. If the Republicans are just duping me into supporting massive benefits for the ultra-rich, I’m a stupid mark. If Trump really is a con man with a bad weave and even worse makeup, then I’ve been deluded for four years. And so on. Again, these aren’t mere beliefs; they are how people understand themselves and their communities. That’s what’s challenging about cognitive dissonance. It’s pointless to argue facts with someone in the throes of denial, because no twist of facts is too preposterous to entertain if the alternative is letting go of one’s entire worldview and sense of self.”

We won’t let a RIGGED ELECTION steal our Country! https://t.co/r0H4ZcDkHv

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020

CNN: “Georgia Republican Sen. David Perdue has declined an invitation to debate Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff ahead of the January runoff election for his seat, CNN has learned. Perdue declined an invitation to participate in a December 6 debate with his Democratic rival, said MaryLynn Ryan, the chair of the Atlanta Press Club, which is hosting two separate debates for both Senate runoffs. Ossoff’s campaign told CNN they have accepted the Press Club’s invitation, with Ossoff tweeting Sunday, ‘Looks like Sen. David Perdue is too much of a coward to debate me again. … Senator, come on out and try to defend your record. I’m ready to go.’ Perdue’s campaign did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is self-isolating after he was exposed to a member of his Party who tested positive for the coronavirus, Politico reports.

Johnson had a meeting with a small group of members of Parliament on Thursday, one of whom later tested positive for the virus.  Johnson has not shown any symptoms.

In April, Johnson was hospitalized with COVID-19 and spent time in the intensive care unit.  Because it’s currently unknown if a former COVID patient can get infected again or how long any natural immunity may last, isolation is a prudent measure.

Johnson is current in the midst of political unrest, as several senior members of his administration have resigned in the last week as he attempts to reboot his premiership given the UK continues to grapple with Brexit.

The man with the shiny new made-up title “Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict” for the next two months and five days, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, is an old MAGA conspiracy theory hero dating back to March 2017 when as the White House National Security Council’s “senior director for intelligence programs” he was involved in then-House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes’s gambit to expose the “unmasking” of Trump campaign contacts with Russian scumbags during the 2016 campaign and transition period.

After the 2018 Midterms, I looked forward to the 2020 campaign with dread. Between the MAGA bomber’s reign of terror and the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre and then the El Paso Walmart shooting in 2019, I had a lot of anxiety for bloodshed at either the run-up to the election or the immediate aftermath – never mind the amount of shit-talking that came from the right promising violence if things didn’t go their way.

This isn’t to say 2020 hasn’t been brutal. According to The Guardian, as of October 31st “at least 11 Americans have been killed while participating in political demonstrations this year and another 14 have died in other incidents linked to political unrest, according to new data from a non-profit monitoring political unrest in the United States” which of course is bad, but isn’t remotely as bad as it could be considering the sheer volume of public demonstrations that occurred this year following the police murders of Breonna Taylor in March and George Floyd in May.

Wall Street Journal: “For nearly two years, allies of President Trump have been exploring ways to build up a formidable competitor to Fox News. One target they recently zeroed in on: the fledgling pro-Trump cable channel Newsmax TV. Hicks Equity Partners, a private-equity firm with ties to a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, has held talks in recent months about acquiring and investing in Newsmax, according to people familiar with the matter, part of a larger effort that could also include a streaming-video service.”

“Newsmax’s viewership has risen sharply since Election Day, as it wins over viewers loyal to Mr. Trump who are frustrated that Fox News and other networks have declared Democrat Joe Biden the president-elect. Newsmax hosts have promoted Mr. Trump’s claims that the election was stolen. No evidence of significant fraud has emerged or been presented. It is unclear whether Hicks Equity’s talks with Newsmax will move forward. The discussions show the belief among some investors and allies of Mr. Trump that there is room to mount a real challenge to Fox News, which has dominated the conservative media landscape for two decades. Mr. Trump and Fox News have had a complicated relationship. The network’s opinion hosts are highly supportive of the president. He devours Fox content, tweets and about it and is influenced by it in policy and personnel decisions, aides say. Yet he spars with the network when he feels it is criticizing or undermining him. The election’s aftermath has stoked those tensions: Mr. Trump has criticized Fox News on Twitter while promoting segments on the network favorable to him and heaping praise on Newsmax and One America News Network, another small, far-right channel.”

Axios: “Former President Obama told CBS’ ‘Sunday Morning’ that he often does not take President Trump ‘personally or seriously.’ In his first television interview since the 2020 presidential election, Obama responded to Trump’s claim that he has ‘done more for the African American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln.'”

“‘I think it’s fair to say that there are many things he says that I do not take personally or seriously — although I think they can often be destructive and harmful,’ Obama said. Obama said it ‘has been disappointing’ to see few Republicans stand up to Trump as he refuses to concede the election he lost to President-elect Biden. ‘I think we were in a circumstance in this election in which certain norms, certain institutional values — that are so extraordinarily important, had been breached. That it was important for me, as somebody who had served in that office, to simply let people know: ‘This is not normal.””

“President Trump is back at his Virginia golf club on a chilly Sunday morning. By my count, it’s his 100th time there, more than at any of his other clubs including Bedminster, NJ (all of part of 95 days) and West Palm Beach (83 visits)” reports CBS White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.

New York Times: “America’s two major parties had hoped the 2020 presidential election would render a decisive judgment on the country’s political trajectory. But after a race that broke records for voter turnout and campaign spending, neither Democrats nor Republicans have achieved a dominant upper hand. Instead, the election delivered a split decision, ousting President Trump but narrowing the Democratic majority in the House and perhaps preserving the Republican majority in the Senate. As Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepares to take office and preside over a closely divided government, leaders in both camps are acknowledging that voters seem to have issued not a mandate for the left or the right but a muddled plea to move on from Trump-style chaos. With 306 electoral college votes and the most popular votes of any presidential candidate in history, Mr. Biden attained a victory that was paramount to many Democrats, who saw a second Trump term as nothing less than a threat to democracy.”

“Yet on the electoral landscape, both parties find themselves stretched thin and battling on new fronts, with their traditional strongholds increasingly under siege. Indeed, Democrats and Republicans are facing perhaps the most unsettled and up-for-grabs electoral map the country has seen in a generation, since the parties were still fighting over California in the late 1980s. This competition has denied either from being able to claim broad majorities and prompted a series of election cycles, which could be repeated in 2022, in which any gains Democrats make in the country’s booming cities and states are at least partly offset by growing Republican strength in rural areas. The election represented a continuation of this trench warfare between two parties that are increasingly defined by their activist flanks and limited to only incremental advances.”

He only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020

Rasmussen Reports on Friday reported another majority approval for President Trump, putting just a point shy of his all time high of 53%. This is really bad news for Democrats, who have spent the last four years being extremely critical of the president with media coverage, memes, and not voting for Republicans. Still, Trump’s popularity endures in the well-respected Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll, which is extremely frustrating for libs, who never win.

“When President Trump leaves the White House in January, he will face some of the deepest financial and legal challenges in his family business empire in decades. No matter what he focuses on after the presidency, the businesses will require his attention. Two New York investigations will continue after he leaves office and the Trump Organization will need to avert a potential cash crunch caused by looming debt maturities at the firm’s real estate holdings. Personal guarantees Trump made on some of the organization’s debt add urgency to shoring up its financial position.”

“Trump Organization executives say a key focus will be growing the brand globally once Mr. Trump leaves office. Yet those plans will face hurdles. In China—a market long eyed by Mr. Trump—the president has become deeply distrusted after his trade war damaged U.S.-China relations. In Europe, some of the Trump trademarks have been eliminated by legal challenges. The Trump Organization might soon slim down. Several properties are for sale, including its Washington hotel and two skyscrapers in New York and San Francisco that are part-owned by the Trump Organization. The organization also has been considering selling its Seven Springs estate outside of New York City, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Any sales could help the family avert a lending crunch. The Trump Organization has more than $400 million of debt due in the next few years and many lenders have indicated they are wary of doing business with Mr. Trump. Additionally, the pandemic has hurt business at Trump hotels and resorts, and the financial benefits some get from Mr. Trump being in the White House could decline” – Wall Street Journal.