Out of Control: The US set another daily record for new coronavirus cases yesterday; 142,755. At least 1,431 people died, a 36 percent rise in deaths over the past two weeks.

  The US has had 10.4 million cases and 241,808 deaths. It was only on October 23rd that the US first hit 80,000 new cases in one day. Yesterday alone, 65,368 people were put in the hospital for treatment of  Covid-19. 

  Cases are spiking in the Great Lakes states and south to Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

  Reports say President Trump, who campaigned claiming the pandemic was going away, hasn’t attended a coronavirus task force meeting in months.

  New York, which originally was ground zero for the virus in the US and brought it under control, is fighting a resurgence. NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered that private gatherings, indoors or out, be limited to 10 people, and that gyms, bars and restaurants close by 10 pm. 

Georgia on Our Minds: Amid claims of fraud in a race that so far favors Democrat Joe Biden, Georgia’s republican secretary of state announced a hand recount of the ballots in all 139 counties.

  “This will help build confidence. It will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass all at once,” Brad Raffensperger said at a press conference. “It will be a heavy lift.”

  Repeating the Republican mantra, Raffensperger said, “every legal vote will count.” At the moment, Biden leads by more than 14,000. 

  Meanwhile, Alaska’s Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan has been declared the winner in his race, giving Republicans 50 seats and leaving control of the Senate to be decided by two runoff elections January 5^th  in Georgia.

  Georgia law requires a runoff when neither candidate gets 50 percent of the vote. Democrats Jon Ossoff just edged David Perdue with 48 percent and Raphael  Warnock got 32.9 percent to Republican Kelly Loeffler’s 25.9. 

  If the Democrats win, they get 50 seats and control of the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker. 

Fraud and Fakery: In his continuing campaign to overturn the results of the election, President Trump is personally attacking Al Schmidt, a Republican  election commissioner in Philadelphia who says he’s seen no systematic fraud or illegal voting.

  Trump tweeted yesterday that, “A guy named Al Schmidt, a Philadelphia Commissioner and so-called Republican (RINO), is being used big time by the Fake News Media to explain how honest things were with respect to the Election in Philadelphia. He refuses to look at a mountain of corruption & dishonesty. We win!”

  “RINO” is a big Republican insult — “Republican in Name Only.” That’s a Republican who dares to disagree.

  Schmidt not only hasn’t seen the mountain, he’s affronted by the attack on election officials. He says they’ve received death threats and told “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker, “In the birthplace of our Republic, counting votes is not a bad thing. Counting votes cast on or before Election Day by eligible voters is not corruption. It is not cheating. It is democracy.”

Follow the Money: Despite having lost the election, President Trump has stepped up his fund raising. His emails say he’s doing it to fight the election results, but the fine print says he can take most of the money for any purpose he wants.

  One email says, “We need EVERY Patriot, like YOU, to step up and make sure we have the resources to keep going. … Please contribute ANY AMOUNT RIGHT NOW to DEFEND the Election.”

  But Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank writes that the first 60 percent of every contribution up to $5,000 goes to President Trump’s  “Save America” leadership PAC, not to challenging the election. He can use the money to pay himself or anyone in his family or circle of supporters.

  Milbank writes, “President Trump isn’t really trying to overturn the election. He’s simply running one more scam before he leaves office that would enable him to enrich himself.”

Overexposed: The New Yorker magazine has fired its star reporter Jeffrey Toobin who exposed himself during a video conference last month. He’d been with the magazine 27 years. 

  Toobin had simultaneously tapped into some kind of porn site and thought he couldn’t be seen by his New Yorker colleagues. They saw everything. Toobin has also disappeared from CNN political panels.  

The Bulletin Board: President Trump appeared for 10 minutes in the rain yesterday at  Veterans Day Services at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He said nothing and has said nothing publicly for a week. — Former Vice President Joe Biden has appointed Washington veteran Ron Klain to be his presidential chief of staff. Klain first worked with Biden when he was a senator and was Biden’s vice presidential chief of staff. — Tropical storm Eta made landfall in Florida for the second time this week, bringing flooding, downed trees, and flying debris. The Hurricane season has produced a record 29 named storms  this year.

The Obit Page: Lucille Commadore Bridges, who in 1960 shattered segregated schooling by enrolling her 6-year-old daughter Ruby in an all-white elementary school in New Orleans, has died at home in Uptown New Orleans at 86.

  It was an event that rocked the country. A famous Norman Rockwell painting portrays little Ruby being escorted to school by four towering white US Marshals, but in reality, Lucille Bridges was also there to escort her daughter the first day and every day of the school year.

 On that first day they were met with chants of “Two, four, six, eight, we don’t want to integrate” as angry white people through eggs and tomatoes at Bridges and her daughter. She later said in an interview, “I wanted it better for my kids than it was for us.”

The Wood: At least 34 people were infected with the coronavirus after attending a big wedding on New York’s Long Island. The headline on the front of the NY Post says, “I THEE SPREAD.”

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