IN TRANSITION: Speculation has begun on how much Donald Trump will pay off on campaign promises from tax cuts to deporting millions of immigrants.

  The Washington Post reports possible upheaval at the Pentagon if Trump follows through on threats to use the military against American citizens. Federal workers are reported to be preparing for job cuts and forced relocations.

  Trump’s first move was to announce that his chief of staff at The White House will be Susie Wiles, his chief political strategist for the past four years. The 67-year-old Wiles nicknamed “the ice maiden” would be the first female chief of staff.

  The announcement came after President Joe Biden basically said the country will survive Trump’s election. “I also hope we can lay to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system,” Biden said. “It is honest, it is fair and it is transparent and it can be trusted, win or lose.”

  Biden said he will welcome Trump to The White House as part of making a smooth transition to the new administration. After a bitter election, Biden once again asked the country to “bring down the temperature” and that, “I’ve said many times: You can’t love your country only when you win.”

  Republicans have won the Senate but the House remains uncalled. The balance this morning is 211 Republican seats and 199 Democrat with 218 needed to control and 25 yet to be decided. It could take weeks. At stake is whether Trump will have the backing of both houses of Congress to be able to steamroll the opposition for the next two years at least. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the current minority leader, said his party is not conceding yet.

ELECTION ROUNDUP: 

• San Francisco mayor London Breed who steered the city through the pandemic but presided as the city devolved into a nest of homelessness and street crime has conceded the city election to Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune who has never held elected office. 
• In the wake of the election Black college and high school students in the South report receiving texts about being “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.”

BAD HEALTH: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmental lawyer and former presidential candidate who’s been promised oversight of health matters in the new Trump administration has laid out some of his plans, including pushing public water utilities to eliminate cavity-fighting fluoride from their water.

  Kennedy has been a critic of childhood vaccinations, claiming they lead to autism and other health issues, despite long-term science to the contrary. He said fluoride in public water is “lowering I.Q. in our children,” also despite decades worth of science,  study, and fewer cavities in American teeth.

  President-elect Trump has been a critic of vaccine mandates in public schools and Kennedy said, “people ought to have a choice.” Vaccines have nearly eradicated measles, polio and whooping cough.

  Columnist Michael Hiltzik writes for the LA Times that the healthcare system may change radically for the worse under a new Trump regime. He says: “The Biden administration’s progress in making healthcare more accessible and affordable for all Americans, especially seniors on Medicare, is almost certain to be rolled back. RFK Jr. and other healthcare quacks, such as Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, may move into national policy-making. Religion-based policies may move to the fore, shouldering science-based policies aside. The plundering of healthcare institutions by private equity investors could pick up steam.”

  It’s a bad prognosis.

ECON 101: The Federal Reserve dropped interest rates by another quarter point yesterday, an indication that they believe inflation is finally coming under control. Too late for Kamala Harris and the Democrats.

  The Fed lowered rates to a range of 4.5 to 4.75 and avoided talk about the effects of Donald Trump returning to office next year. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell cautioned that, “The job’s not done on inflation.”

  Powell said he would not leave his position if asked by Trump … legally he wouldn’t have to. Trump has previously been critical of Powell who said, “I’m not going to get into any of the political things here today. But thank you.” 

WILDFIRE: About 200 homes and other structures have burned in the path of fast-moving wildfires between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara up the Pacific Coast. Winds up to 80 mph have carried embers like missiles attacking houses.

THE OBIT PAGE: Elwood Edwards, an announcer who was the original voice of the AOL “You’ve got mail!” email alert at the dawn of the internet, died on Tuesday at his home in New Bern, North Carolina. He was 74.

THE SPIN RACK: Three people have been charged and arrested in connection with the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne who fell from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. Two of the men arrested are accused of supplying Payne with drugs. — Capitol Hill rioter, Zachary Alam yesterday demanded a full pardon and “full restitution” before a judge said he lacked remorse and sentenced him to eight years in prison. Alam claimed the 2020 election was stolen and “four years later Americans were able to rectify the situation.” — Cuba was left in darkness for a second time in weeks when hurricane Rafael blew through on Wednesday night. Havana and about two million people were still without power yesterday. — Forty-three Rhesus macaque monkeys escaped from a compound used for medical research in South Carolina and authorities are trying to recapture them.

BELOW THE FOLD: The 47-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft is back in touch with NASA after rebooting a radio transmitter it hasn’t relied on since 1981, proving once again that everything was better back in the 80s. 

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