For some unknown reason, a large portion of the North Lawn of the White House, which borders Pennsylvania Avenue, was dug up, removing the grass over a large portion of the area, CNN’s Betsy Klein reports via Twitter.

Sometime between 5:30 am and now the White House North Lawn was dug up pic.twitter.com/3zEtPb3wkV

— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) November 9, 2020

The North Lawn, sometimes called the Front Lawn of the White House because of its location on Pennsylvania Avenue, faces the North Portico of the White House, where dignitaries are typically welcomed into the mansion.  It’s typically the area media congregate to do remove broadcasts from outside the White House.

There has been no public notice of work planned for the area, but a Bobcat, a small front-end loader/tractor, was seen in the area.

Politico: “Republican-controlled state governments on Monday began throwing their weight behind President Donald Trump’s legal drive to challenge the results of last week’s presidential election. The state of Ohio filed an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court urging the justices to formally take up and resolve a dispute from Pennsylvania over a ruling that the state’s Supreme Court issued in September granting three extra days for ballots in last Tuesday’s election to be received by officials.”

“Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s friend-of-the-court brief aligned his state with arguments from Trump’s presidential campaign, the Pennsylvania Republican Party and a pair of GOP state legislative leaders that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision usurped powers that the Constitution reserves for state legislatures. Meanwhile, a coalition of other GOP-controlled states led by Missouri was preparing to file its own amicus brief making similar arguments, according to Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow. Sekulow suggested that many of the states will argue that their interests are affected by the outcome of the Pennsylvania fight and other election-related litigation because malfeasance in any state dilutes the votes of electors in other states.

Early Monday afternoon, the United States surpassed 10 million confirmed coronavirus cases, roughly 20% of the confirmed cases worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker.

The JHU tracker is a more conservative aggregator than others.  The Worldometers.info tracker reported the US crossed that threshold three days ago.

It took 14 days for the United States to rack up one million cases.  It surpassed nine million cases just two weeks ago.

On February 26th, when the number of known cases in the US numbered around 35, now-outgoing-president Donald Trump declared that “within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”  That was evidently untrue.

A message dispatched via carrier pigeon in 1910 has been found in a field outside a French village, 110 years after it was sent by a German officer to another officer in a neighboring village when the area was a part of the Imperial State of Germany led by the Kaiser, CNN reports.

Found in a capsule that was typically tied to the body or leg of the bird, the message details troop movements as part of a military exercise four years before World War I.  The aluminum capsule was found in a field by a couple out for a hike in September.

“Platoon Potthof receives fire as they reach the western border of the parade ground, platoon Potthof takes up fire and retreats after a while,” the message reads, according to the AFP news agency. “In Fechtwald half a platoon was disabled. Platoon Potthof retreats with heavy losses.”

Outgoing president Donald Trump has tweeted that he has fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and appointed Chris Miller to be the fifth person to hold the position during Trump’s only term in office.  (Esper previously held the position as an acting secretary for 21 days in July 2019.)

…Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020

Like many others, Esper had gotten on the wrong side of Trump for taking independent actions, like removing the Confederate flag from the list of approved decorations in DoD offices and military bases, as well as putting into motion the process to rename military bases that were named after Confederate leaders.

This is Trump’s first official action since Election Night.  Other than two campaign-related statements made from the White House, Trump has tweeted scores of times and played golf twice.

National Zero is not responsible for any harm caused to the emotions of these creatures.

Putin0ntheRïtz • 8 days ago
I would rather get Covid a hundred times than submit to the fascism of Democratic rule. This year, Democrats gave us a preview of George Orwell’s “1984.” This November, we’re giving them a replay of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election LANDSLIDE!
Sun, 11/1/2020 6:36 PM on ‘Trump plans to declare victory if he takes Election Night lead: Axios’

Rob • 9 days ago
Democrats, this election will not be close. Rob’s official election prediction: Trump wins all the states he won in 2016 PLUS Minnesota, Nevada, and New Hampshire! On the Senate side, the GOP may lose Gardener in CO (due to voter fraud) and Collins in Maine, simply because she voted against ACB. The GOP picks up Alabama and Michigan and possibly Minnesota. On the House side, the GOP nets 41 seats. It will be an historic wipe-out, so get the popcorn ready and let the riots and Democrat tears begin!
Sat, 10/31/2020 2:08 PM on ‘The Memo: Trump retains narrow path to victory’

Occasional-Cortex • 9 days ago
Get ready, when Trump wins every Dem city will go up in flames like Philly.
Last chance to get get your free TV and finish Christmas shopping.
Sat, 10/31/2020 9:18 AM on ‘The Memo: Trump retains narrow path to victory’

Big John • 7 days ago
Trump is going to crush his opponent, and then the Left will go apeshite again. More even than 2016, which is saying something.
Sun, 11/1/2020 8:54 PM on ‘Trump’s ego defeating him, Biden not so much’

PawPatrol4Life • 2 months ago
After Biden loses this is the sort of thing libs will look back on and smack their head and think obviously this is part of the reason Biden lost.
Thu, 9/17/2020 3:18 PM on ‘CNN to host first ‘drive-in town hall’ with Biden on Thursday’

Axios: “Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) told CNN on Monday that no ‘credible incidents’ of systemic fraud or voter disenfranchisement had been reported to his office by the state’s attorney general or secretary of state. Duncan’s assessment contradicts President Trump’s baseless and unfounded claims that Democrats stole the 2020 election from him through widespread voter fraud and mail-in ballots. The Trump campaign is pursuing a likely doomed legal fight anyway. Georgia – which may determine control of the Senate through two runoff elections – currently shows President-elect Joe Biden holding a razor-thin margin over Trump. Georgia’s secretary of state announced last week that the race is close and a recount is inevitable.”

Secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, a former esteemed pediatric neurosurgeon whom President Trump appointed to run the nation’s low-cost housing programs because he lived in subsidized housing as a child, has tested positive for the coronavirus, CNN reports.

The Carson announcement comes just days after it was confirmed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and at least five other White House staffers tested positive for the virus, possibly marking a new outbreak in the administration.

.@BrianKempGA ran a great race in Georgia – he won. It is time to move on!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2018

President-elect Joe Biden announced his coronavirus advisory board Monday morning, in an effort to jump start his administration’s efforts to effectively address the COVID pandemic spiking across the nation.

According to Roll Call, the president-elect added one more co-chair to join David A. Kessler, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco and former FDA commissioner; and Dr. Vivek Murthy, surgeon general in the Obama administration.

Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of medicine at Yale University who focuses on equity in health care for various disadvantaged populations, will be the third co-chair to help focus efforts on minority and poor communities.

Per Roll Call, the other members of the advisory board are:

“President Trump’s refusal to accept the presidential election results is being reinforced in pockets of denial nationwide, but the anger continues to fall short of a coherent resistance movement that would threaten to overturn the vote. In states where Trump won and here in one where he lost a close race, elected Republicans and GOP voters called for the continuation of efforts to challenge the results, which in Pennsylvania give President-elect Joe Biden a roughly 45,000-vote margin of victory. Small clusters of Trump supporters gathered on several Philadelphia street corners Sunday to condemn a vote-counting process in which the president lost an early lead to Biden over several agonizing days. No evidence of improper counting procedures or any type of voter fraud has been presented” reports the Washington Post.

“‘If he won and you want to go communist, knock yourself out,’ said Joe Mullica, 56, a truck driver who grew up in south Philadelphia and demonstrated with a handful of others. ‘But when you consider Trump increased the Black vote, the Hispanic vote and yet you’re gonna tell me Biden won more than Obama? Hello? That don’t send up red flags?’ The flashes of defiance on the streets reflected the larger one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where Trump continued to insist, without evidence, that Biden and the Democratic Party stole the election. At five days, the lag between Election Day, on Nov. 3, and a result was not close to the longest in U.S. history. But the delay did represent perhaps the most perplexing one, based less on proof than petulance.”

Politico: “The first person Rudy Giuliani, the attorney for President Donald Trump, called up as a witness to baseless allegations of vote counting shenanigans in Philadelphia during a press conference last week is a sex offender who for years has been a perennial candidate in New Jersey. ‘It’s such a shame. This is a democracy,’ Daryl Brooks, who said he was a GOP poll watcher, said at the press conference, held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Northeast Philadelphia. “They did not allow us to see anything. Was it corrupt or not? But give us an opportunity as poll watchers to view all the documents — all of the ballots.’ Trenton political insiders watched with bemusement as Brooks took the podium.”

“Brooks was incarcerated in the 1990s on charges of sexual assault, lewdness and endangering the welfare of a minor for exposing himself to two girls ages 7 and 11, according to news accounts. Brooks has run for various offices, including U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. POLITICO left a message at a number for Brooks listed online. Brooks said at the press conference that he’s from Philadelphia. POLITICO could not immediately ascertain if and when he moved there. During the press conference, however, he said he moved to Philadelphia two years ago.”

Lol

The timing of this is pretty amazing. Nothing nefarious about the timing of this at all right? 🙄 https://t.co/nS5rkywKXT

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 9, 2020

Rick Hasen: “This is exactly the playbook that Republicans used when Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin sought to get the Kentucky Legislature to take away his Democratic opponent Andy Beshear’s victory in the 2019 governor’s race. Bevin alleged fraud without providing proof. GOP leaders in the Kentucky Legislature gave Bevin a few days to come up with the proof. When he produced nothing, they got impatient, and Bevin eventually conceded, blaming the ‘urban vote’ on his way out the door. The same thing is likely to happen with Trump.”

“Biden has a wide enough Electoral College lead, and a wide lead in enough states, that it is impossible to see Trump litigating his way to reversing a Biden victory unless facts come to light about a major failure in vote counting across multiple states. Trump has plenty of claims he can bring and every right to bring them. But the claims will not amount to anything substantial. He can ask for a recount in Wisconsin, for example, but the chances of overcoming a 20,000 vote deficit are practically impossible when the average statewide recount moves numbers by about 300 votes. Some have suggested the legal process gives Trump a way to save face, claiming fraud cost him the election on his way out the door. Others have said that the legal process just gives Trump time for psychological acceptance of the loss.”

Fox News: “More than 4,500 exoplanets have been discovered so far, with only a small portion thought to have the properties to contain life. A new study suggests that the galaxy may actually contain 300 million planets capable of supporting life. The research analyzed data from the Kepler space telescope and found approximately half the stars that have a similar temperature to the sun — plus or minus up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit — could also be orbited by rocky planets with liquid water on their surfaces. ‘Kepler already told us there were billions of planets, but now we know a good chunk of those planets might be rocky and habitable,’ said the study’s lead author, Steve Bryson, in a statement. ‘Though this result is far from a final value, and water on a planet’s surface is only one of many factors to support life, it’s extremely exciting that we calculated these worlds are this common with such high confidence and precision.'”

“Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla tells Dr Sanjay Gupta, ‘The vaccine will be available for free to all American citizens'” – CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins.

STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020