Coronavirus yet again  We begin today by discussing the issue most on our minds at the moment - that coronavirus is once again (still) an extremely big problem in America and it is not going away anytime soon, no matter how much we might wish it to.
First up, a look at The Enraging Deja Vu of a Third Coronavirus Wave in ProPublica written by Caroline Chen. She tweeted, “My latest: Health care workers don’t need patronizing praise. They need resources, federal support, and for us to stay healthy and out of their hospitals.” Dick Tofel praised: “No health reporter has made sense of the questions surrounding the pandemic more effectively than Caroline Chen.” At The Atlantic, Ed Yong echoed the alarm with his piece: The Third Surge Is Breaking Health-Care Workers. Sarah Laskow suggested we “always read Ed Yong.” And Jeffrey Goldberg rightly reminded us, “This is important.” What NOT to do in this pandemic  According to Karen Kaplan at the LA Times, a super-spreading wedding party demonstrates the COVID-19 risk posed by holiday gatherings. Exactly how “super” was the spreading? “A small wedding in Maine: 177 infected with COVID. 7 dead,” MacKenzie Elmer revealed.
Even if you’re not attending mass gatherings like weddings, ordinary ongoings are also having an impact. At dinner parties and game nights, casual American life is fueling the coronavirus surge, Karin Brulliard warned in her Washington Post article. “A record-breaking surge in U.S. coronavirus cases by casual occasions that may feel deceptively safe, officials and scientists warn — dinner parties, game nights, sleepovers and carpools,” Annie Gowen shared from the piece. Also ignoring the coronavirus… is the current commander-in-chief.  As Trump stews over the election, he mostly ignores the public duties of the presidency, Washington Post’s David Nakamura revealed. Instead, Terri Rupar pointed out that “the president has tweeted criticism of Fox News and thanked Scott Baio.”
At the AP, Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller wrote that Trump, stewing over election loss, has been silent as the virus surges. “'It’s a big problem,' said Dr. Abraar Karan, global health specialist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. 'The transition is not going to happen until January and we're in a complete crisis right now.' We can't 'wait until the next president to address this,’” Matthew Daly tweeted. Jonathan Lemire shared the first graf of the story: “WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has publicly disengaged from the battle against the coronavirus at a moment when the disease is tearing across the United States at an alarming pace.” One popular quote from the piece has been: “Aides say the president has shown little interest in the growing crisis even as new confirmed cases are skyrocketing and hospitals intensive care units in parts of the country are nearing capacity.” Greg Harman shared another: “America is like a ship at storm, and the captain has decided to go play golf.” Craig Newman mentioned that Trump “actually said at his rallies he’d only do stuff if he won. This was his campaign promise.” And Ahmed Al Omran added that “Trump remains angry that an announcement about progress in developing a coronavirus vaccine came after Election Day.” As Diana Eva Maldonado summed up, “It’s always got to be about him. Egomaniac!” Meanwhile, More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign travel, Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig and Josh Dawsey reported. Sore-loser-in-chief  Trump Cries Election Fraud. In Court, His Lawyers Don’t, the Wall Street Journal published from Byron Tau and Sara Randazzo. “Under questioning from judges, at least two of President Trump’s lawyers have backed away from suggestions the election was stolen or fraudulent,” Ben Pershing wrote.
While things are going decidedly not well in court, one of Trump’s law firms has also quit. Porter Wright Stops Representing Trump Campaign in Pennsylvania Sui, the New York Times revealed via David Enrich, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, and Rachel C. Abrams’ reporting. According to their article, Porter Wright said in a court filing that it would no longer represent the campaign in a federal lawsuit alleging widespread voter irregularities. “You’re fired! A firm representing @realDonaldTrump in Pa. fraud lawsuit, drops the case. This comes just days after the firm defended its work for Trump,” Silver-Greenberg tweeted. For the definitive answer on what Trump is up to right now, we turn to Maggie Haberman at the New York Times for her “dispatch on the president’s attempt to deny the fact that Biden won.” She discovered that Trump is Floating Improbable Survival Scenarios as He Ponders His Future. “On Wednesday, Trump pushed advisors on whether state legislatures can be pushed to choose electors favorable to him, people briefed on the discussion said,” she tweeted. Another source told Haberman: “Mr. Trump is simply trying to survive from one news cycle to the next, seeing how far he can push his case against his defeat and ensure the continued support of his Republican base.” Why is Trump working so hard to ignore the election results and his glaring loss? William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser’s latest story in the New York Times might shed some light: As Soon as Trump Leaves Office, He Faces Greater Risk of Prosecution, they say. “When Donald Trump leaves the White House in January, he will lose the constitutional protection from prosecution afforded to a sitting president,” Mark Getzfred wrote. Michael Rothfeld tweeted, “UNPROTECTED: Without the shield of the presidency, Donald Trump will soon face the threat of prosecution, mostly from Manhattan DA Cy Vance… 'It would certainly not be pleasant for him,’ an ex-prosecutor says.” Jeremy Breningstall put it succinctly: “It’s going to be messy but Donald is headed for prison.” And Mara Gay shared the article with this quote: “‘Reality has a way of catching up with you.’ - Barack Obama.” Most secure election EVER  Unfortunately for the current (outgoing) president, Top officials revealed that the Nov. 3 election was most secure in US history, the AP’s Eric Tucker reported. “The state and federal officials and election technology companies who run U.S. elections say in the strongest such statement to date that the Nov. 3 presidential election was the most secure in American history,” Michael Tackett tweeted from the article.
Axios’ Shawna Chen cosigned the fact that the Department of Homeland Security calls this election "the most secure in American history." “Trump established @CISAgov in 2018. Now, his very own security officials are coming out against him,” she added on Twitter. For good measure, here is the official Joint Statement from Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) own website. “This assessment that the 3 Nov election would be seen as the most secure ever was an easy one to confidently make. Glad to see widespread agreement on this,” Bob Gourley said. Elsewhere, we hear — via Reuters exclusive — Senior U.S. cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs told associates he expects to be fired, according to Christopher Bing and Joseph Menn. Menn added on Twitter, “IMPORTANT: The man who has been knocking down voter fraud information for the US government, angering the White House, expects to be fired.” President-elect Joe Biden  While matters continue deteriorating with the Trump administration, CNN projected on Thursday that President-elect Joe Biden will carry Arizona, flipping a longtime Republican stronghold, Dan Merica reported. “Biden's win in the state that propelled Republican leaders like Barry Goldwater and John McCain to national prominence could foretell problems for the party going forward,” he wrote.
At press time, it was also revealed by the New York Times, that Biden also officially won the state of Georgia while Trump narrowly won North Carolina. That gives Biden a total 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232.
Further sealing the former VP’s win, China finally congratulated Biden on being elected US president, the AP revealed Friday morning. “We respect the choice of the American people,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said. “We congratulate Mr. Biden and (vice-presidential running mate) Ms. Harris.” Wang
kept it shady though, adding, “At the same time, the result will be confirmed according to U.S. laws and procedures. The culture desk  Vogue’s latest is Harry Styles on Dressing Up, Making Music, and Living in the Moment by Camilla Nickerson and Hamish Bowles. On the cover, Styles wears a Gucci jacket and dress and Bowles calls him “music’s legendarily charm-heavy style czar.” Enjoy it.
Also, take some time today to bask in the latest release from Phoebe Bridgers. It’s a cover of “Iris” in which the singer/songwriter duets with fellow rising star Maggie Rogers and all proceeds from this track will benefit Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight. You can find it right here on Bandcamp but only for 24 hours. Friday headlines - As another horrible side effect of the pandemic, beloved businesses are going bankrupt waiting for federal help. It will get worse, according to NBC News’ Stephanie Ruhle and Benjy Sarlin. “Many small businesses long exhausted PPP loans and are desperate for new aid. On paper, D’s and R’s agree. In practice, they keep holding out for better leverage while Trump acts erratically. @SRuhle and I talked to owners who couldn’t wait any longer,” Sarling wrote.
- In an all-staff meeting, Mark Zuckerberg said former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon has not violated enough policies for suspension, Reuters’ Katie Paul found out on Thursday. “We have specific rules around how many times you need to violate certain policies before we will deactivate your account completely,” Zuckerberg said.
- “Abby Phillip gets her New York Times profile. 👍🏽,” As Dave Levinthal applauded, linking to Abby Phillip of CNN on Donald Trump and More. Katherine Rosman, who wrote the piece, highlighted this quote from Phillip: “In some ways, Donald Trump has made a lot of reporters better reporters.” Alexandra Jacobs added, “Screen-addled America was glued anew to the tube this election season, and on the old-boy Cable News Network, this young woman was a breakout star.”
- At Politico, Tim Alberta wrote Elissa Slotkin Braces for a Democratic Civil War. Josh Kraushaar tweeted, “Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D): ‘We sometimes make people feel like they aren’t ‘woke’ enough. They aren’t smart enough or educated enough to just understand what’s good for them. … It’s talking down to people. It’s alienating them.’” Christopher Novembrino added, “‘Slotkin had won reelection by just 4 points, half the margin her very high-priced polling had foretold; Trump had once again carried her district, which her internal data had said was improbable.’ Hmmm. Hmmm.”
- The Outgoing Syria Envoy Admits to Hiding US Troop Numbers; Praises Trump’s Mideast Record, Katie Bo Williams revealed at Defense One. “‘We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,’ said outgoing Syria envoy James Jeffrey. The actual number in northeast Syria is ‘a lot more than’ the 200 that Trump agreed to leave there in 2019,” Christopher Woody tweeted. Jack Detsch called it an “illuminating exit interview,” adding, “Departing Syria envoy Jim Jeffrey: ‘[Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded ... That’s the story.’”
- And finally, the British Journalism Awards 2020 shortlist were announced in the Press-Gazette. Joanna Booth tweeted, “Ben Birchall, accused by Bristol's head of external comms of wanting to profit from photographing the toppled statue's removal, is shortlisted for his photo of Colston being toppled. Many congratulations. A moment shared around the world.” Mun Keat Looi is “Super proud of my colleagues - esp @zosiamk - nominated for campaign of the year @pressgazette British Journalism Awards! 🎊” Similarly, Rob Davies is “V happy to be shortlisted for business & finance journalist of the year at the British Journalism Awards for my work on ticket touting. Can't see how anything beats the astonishing job that @FD and co did on Wirecard but a pleasure to be in such company.” Congrats to all the nominees.
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Yesterday, we asked: Who performed the world’s first-ever flying trapeze act, on Nov. 12, 1859?
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