A 54-year-old man from Staten Island, New York has been arrested by authorities after he posted a series of threats against the people celebrating the election victory of President-elect Joe Biden, as well as threats against police and politicians, CNN reports.

In a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, Brian Maiorana was charged by federal prosecutors for posting a series of threats in the months running up to the election and in the days since Election Day.

“He used words like ‘carnage,’ ‘extermination,’ ‘assassination.’ He encouraged people to take ‘offensive action’ in an effort to threaten to kill members of the government including law enforcement agents, even going so far as calling for the bombing of an FBI building and citing the Turner Diaries, which has been the inspiration for numerous acts of terrorism including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing,”  Assistant US Attorney Artie McConnell said in court.

The New York Times took a poll of the top officials in each of the fifty states to ask if they found any evidence of wide-spread voter fraud or irregularities during last week’s election.  Not one of them reported any such problems.

As the Times reported, “Officials in 45 states responded directly to The Times. For four of the remaining states, The Times spoke to other statewide officials or found public comments from secretaries of state; none reported any major voting issues.”

The last state, Texas, has no statewide official respond to the Times’ inquiry, although the top election official in Harris County, the state’s most populous, told the Times “we had a very seamless election.”

Texas Lt. Governor Republican Dan Patrick did not respond to the Times’ question, but he did offer a $1 million reward, paid for by his campaign funds, to anyone who could prove election fraud.  (The legality of offering campaign funds for such an endeavor is questionable.)

Amazing that I have to report this and hilarious that it’s going to piss off a lot of people out in MAGAmerica. Will update if/when I find video. Spotted by Peter Hamby.

Let’s look at some absentee voting history.

2012: Obama received 87,487
2016: Clinton received 98,417
2020: Biden received 849,182

Notice anything fishy?https://t.co/k179vL2B9Z

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) November 10, 2020

Trump campaign lawyers have challenged the validity of 180 votes in Maricopa County, Arizona in their quest to overturn the state tilting to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, according to KPNX NBC-12 in Phoenix.

The problem with that tactic:  incumbent Donald Trump trails Biden in the state by more than 12,000 votes.

Maricopa County, in which nearly two-thirds of the state’s ballots are cast, had more than 2 million votes cast.  The number being challenged by the Trump campaign is 0.0086% of the ballots from the county. 

Washington Post: “Six states where President Trump has threatened to challenge his defeat continued their march toward declaring certified election results in the coming weeks, as his advisers privately acknowledged that President-elect Joe Biden’s official victory is less a question of “if” than ‘when.’ Trump began the day tweeting about ‘BALLOT COUNTING ABUSE’ as he and his allies touted unproved claims that election fraud had tainted the election in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Vice President Pence gave a presentation to GOP senators on Capitol Hill about new litigation expected in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia — imploring them to stick with the president, according several Republicans in the room. But even some of the president’s most publicly pugilistic aides, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and informal adviser Corey Lewandowski, have said privately that they are concerned about the lawsuits’ chances for success unless more evidence surfaces, according to people familiar with their views.”

“Trump met with advisers again Tuesday afternoon to discuss whether there is a path forward, said a person with knowledge of the discussions, who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. The person said Trump plans to keep fighting but understands it is going to be difficult. ‘He is all over the place. It changes from hour to hour,’ the person said.”

Why would Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick feel compelled to do this? Because Republicans still can’t find any voter fraud.

Oh, and in the big case of alleged @USPS voter fraud, the whistleblower recanted.

Time for Republicans to respect the will of the American people. https://t.co/Ft7XanfTQw

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) November 10, 2020

A 19-year-old friend of Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse has been charged in state court with two felony counts of intentionally selling a dangerous weapon to a person under the age of 18, resulting in the death of another, NPR reports.

Dominick David Black bought a Smith & Wesson M&P15 rifle in Wisconsin with money the 17-year-old Rittenhouse gave him to specifically purchase the weapon.  Black falsified information on the purchasing paperwork, including stating that he was buying the weapon for himself.  The paperwork is designed to prevent strawman purchases in which individuals buy guns for people who cannot legally buy them themselves.  It is illegal in Wisconsin for a minor to buy a gun. 

The United States set records in two categories Tuesday concerning the coronavirus pandemic, with both pointing to continued case increases and hardship in the coming weeks.

According to the COVID Tracking Project, the US set all-time highs in the number of new daily confirmed coronavirus cases with 130,989 reported cases today.

Also, the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus topped 61,000 for the first time, with 61,964 patients hospitalized.

Both are the highest numbers recorded since the pandemic hit US shores in January, surpassing the previous highs set in during the previous peaks in April and July.

These milestone were hit six days after the date President Trump said the media would no longer report on the coronavirus.  That is evidently not true.

The 44 countries on the continent of Europe surpassed 300,000 coronavirus fatalities Tuesday, according to Reuters.

More than 730 million people live in Europe, compared to 33o million in the United States.  The per capita fatality rate in Europe is 40.4 per 100,000 population, versus 74.1 per 100,000 population in the United States.

The confirmed case rate in Europe is 1,707 per 100,000 population versus 3,143 per 100,00 in Europe.

According to a new Reuters/IPSOS poll, 79% of Americans–including more than half of those Republicans polled–feel that Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the presidential election outright, even if Donald Trump refuses to concede.

Reuters reports that virtually all Democrats said Biden was the clear winner, while 6 in 10 Republicans said Biden should be declared winner.

While 79% said Biden won the election, 13% believe the election has not yet been decided, 3% said Trump won, and 5% claimed they did not know who won the election.

Richard Hopkins, a US Postal Service employee from Erie, Pennsylvania who claimed that the local postmaster and others discussed postmarking ballots with an earlier date so the would be counted in the 2020 election has completed recanted his claim, the House Oversight Democrats tweeted.

BREAKING NEWS: Erie, Pa. #USPS whistleblower completely RECANTED his allegations of a supervisor tampering with mail-in ballots after being questioned by investigators, according to IG.

THREAD:

— Oversight Committee Democrats (@OversightDems) November 10, 2020

Hopkins signed a sworn affidavit claiming that he personally witnessed a discussion between Erie Postmaster Robert Weisenbach and other employees in which they plotted to date late-arriving ballots with a November 3rd postmark and then forwarding them to the local election commission.

The accusation was promoted by Project Veritas and was mentioned by Senate Judiciary Chairman Republican Lindsey Graham, who vowed to open investigations into the accusation.  Graham has not yet rescinded his call for hearings.

Anthony Tata, a retired Army brigadier general who’s nomination to a Pentagon position last year was squashed because of anti-Muslim statements and an assertion that former president Barack Obama was a “terrorist leader,” has been appointed the acting undersecretary for policy at the Pentagon, Politico reports.

The former undersecretary for policy, James Anderson, resigned after Trump terminated Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.

In addition, Kash Patel will replace Jen Stewart as the Pentagon’s chief of staff.

Outgoing Secretary of Defense Mark Esper send a final letter to the White House to outline the progress the Department achieved under Esper’s lead, but it never once discusses Trump, Trump’s leadership or the traditional “honor” of serving at the pleasure of the President.

Fox News obtains letter from Esper to President pic.twitter.com/uPgb4thqAZ

— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) November 9, 2020

Esper calls the US military “the world’s premier military force” and said he served “in full faith to my sworn oath to support and defend the Constitution, and to safeguard the country and its interests, while keeping the Department out of politics and abiding by the values Americans hold dear.”

Reportedly, Esper caught the wrath of Trump for failing to publicly defend Trump, use military in response to civil protests, and plan on renaming US military assets that were previously named for Confederates.

In a sign of how desperate conditions are, North Dakota’s Republican Governor Doug Burgum announced Monday that his state’s hospitals are at 100% capacity and that to alleviate staffing shortages, health care workers who test positive for coronavirus can continue working as long as they’re asymptomatic, the Grand Fork Herald reports.

Burgum said that COVID-positive health care staff would only be allowed to work on wards treating coronavirus patients, in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease.

North Dakota hospitals are seeing a surge in coronavirus patients, with the seven-day running average tripling in the state in the last month.  Additionally, patients who postponed non-emergency surgeries are also stressing hospital capacity.

“FBI agents arrested Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Pastor early Tuesday in what authorities describe as a brazen bribery scheme involving payoffs for help with city development projects. Federal prosecutors say Pastor, a Republican who joined council in January 2018, began soliciting money from developers within months of taking office and, in some instances, accepted bags of cash in return for his vote or other favorable treatment” – USA Today.

Daily Beast: “In yet another sign that the president is for now refusing to initiate a smooth, orderly transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden, Donald Trump’s White House is continuing to vet possible political appointees for a second term—despite the fact that there isn’t going to be one.”

“According to two sources familiar with the situation, as well as written communications reviewed by The Daily Beast, the White House Presidential Personnel Office (PPO) is still in the process of vetting candidates for job openings in various parts of the federal government, positions that the White House intended to fill by early next year. The office, which is tasked with staffing the federal agencies, is headed by Trump uber-loyalist and purge-overseer John McEntee. And it is still contacting listed references and conducting background checks, even though major networks called the 2020 presidential election for Biden on Saturday.“

I’ve been golfing exactly twice in my life–I’m far more comfortable when the course has a drawbridge or a clown’s mouth than a tee box–but you gotta have respect for an amazing golf shot.

At this week’s Master’s in Augusta, Georgia, PGA golfer Jon Rahm hit an amazing hole-in-one on the 16th hole, skipping it at least four times off the pond, jumping onto the green and then… rolling… rolling… IT’S IN THE HOLE!!!  IT’S IN THE HOLE!!!

https://youtu.be/YkWPRH6rMsw

The White House Budget Office has issued instructions to federal agencies to prepare for a February budget proposal by outgoing President Donald Trump for the next fiscal year, another sign that the Administration has no intention of honoring the results of last week’s election, the Washington Post reports.

The demand for information for a FY 2022 budget, when all independent outlets have already declared Democratic nominee Joe Biden the winner, is a load of work for civil servants on a task that will go nowhere once the Electoral College votes are cast.

It’s another sign of a major disconnect of the Trump team from reality:  there is no indication that any of the Trump campaign and GOP lawsuits will bear fruit and overturn enough ballots to hand Trump a second term.  It also highlights the obstruction the administration intends to put up for a transition to a Biden administration.

Vox and Business Insider have called the North Carolina Senate race for incumbent Thom Tillis, though no additional votes have been tallied on the official count.

Tillis had a 95,000 vote lead over Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham with 3% of the vote still outstanding.  The North Carolina race was one Democrats were relying on to turn the majority in the Senate.