'A humanitarian disaster'

In the last 24 hours, California became the second state to cross 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, Chicago issued a 30-day stay-at-home order, and news broke that Doctors Without Borders—the organization that assists struggling countries with public health crises—is here, in the United States of America, to help the nation's healthcare workers contend with the pandemic. Let that sink in. On Wednesday, 1,549 people died of the virus, the highest toll since April and very close to the nation's daily death toll from cancer.

• — "Our hospitals are full." The rapid rise in hospitalizations could foreshadow a long period of rising deaths, says Scott Gottlieb, former director of the Food and Drug Administration. The distribution of hospitalizations across the country means it will be hard for healthcare workers from one region of the country to serve as backup in another area.
   
• — Covid-hell. Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, who was recently named to President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus task force, said ballooning numbers of infections nationwide mean more hospitals could soon look like those in El Paso, Tex., where healthcare workers are bringing in mobile morgues and airlifting patients to other cities.
   
• — The White House cluster grows. More than 130 Secret Service officers have recently been ordered to isolate or quarantine because they tested positive for the coronavirus or had close contact with infected co-workers. The spread of the virus, which has sidelined roughly 10% of the agency's core security team, is believed to be partly linked to a series of campaign rallies that President Trump held in the weeks before the Nov. 3 election. —The Washington Post

Biden flips Georgia

President-elect Joe Biden has won Georgia, becoming the first Democratic presidential nominee to triumph in the state since former President Bill Clinton in 1992. Biden's victory adds 16 electoral votes to his total, bringing him to 306—matching President Trump's self-described "landslide" victory in 2016. With Trump likely winning North Carolina, the final electoral tally is 306-232. The whole world—from China to the Vatican—has acknowledged Biden's victory, except for Trump, his Republican loyalists, and a contingency of hardcore supporters who plan to march in Washington, D.C., tomorrow. —CNN

• — Forging ahead. While Trump has so far blocked the start of the official transition process, Biden is moving foward. His team has had initial discussions with people who worked for former Defense Sec. Jim Mattis about helping with the transition at the Pentagon and possibly serving in the new administration. Biden appears to be building an effective, bipartisan Defense Department leadership team, according to one former Pentagon official. —Politico
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• — Comforter-in-chief. When six American service members were killed in a helicopter crash during a peacekeeping mission in Egypt yesterday, Biden offered the first public condolences to the families. By that time, Trump had issued nearly four dozen critical tweets and retweets about the election results and Fox News, and thanked actor Scott Baio for posting a photo of a craft store's candle display. —The Washington Post
   
• — Facing reality? Lawyers for the Trump campaign have dropped a lawsuit in Maricopa Co., Ariz., seeking a review of all ballots cast on Election Day after finding that the margin of victory for the presidential contest could not be overcome. Earlier, the judge in the case threw out paper and electronic affidavits the Trump campaign had submitted after Trump's own attorneys acknowledged that some of the forms were "spam" and not legitimate voters. —CNN

MORE: Trump campaign's challenge of election results push U.S. toward 'loss of democracy' —USA Today

Kerr & Phillips: Fighting disinfo? Look to Taiwan

"Simply responding to disinformation is not enough. Nor will profit-driven corporations like Facebook magically solve the disinformation problem—although they bear considerable responsibility for creating it in the first place. Building resilient societies that can fight back against disinformation comes from the hard work of increasing the public's media literacy and creating and sustaining relationships among people over time, not better algorithms alone. Learning from innovators like Taiwan should be an overarching priority for liberal democracies in the 2020s." —Walter Kerr & Macon Phillips in Foreign Policy

Walter Kerr, a former U.S. diplomat, leads global partnership development at Zenysis. Macon Phillips is the former coordinator for the Bureau of International Information Programs at the U.S. State Department and the former director of new media at the White House.

MORE: Myths about vote tampering could persist for years, say experts —Defense One

You're fired...for competence

Two more officials have been dismissed from duty by the White House. This time, two senior Department of Homeland Security officials have been forced to resign, including Bryan Ware, who has served as assistant director for cybersecurity at DHS' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. DHS assistant secretary for international affairs Valerie Boyd has also resigned amid pressure from the White House. CISA was responsible for spearheading federal election protection efforts. —CNN

• — "The most secure in American history." Echoing assertions by election experts and state officials, CISA released a statement just yesterday declaring, "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."
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• — The statement, which was the most direct repudiation to date of President Trump's efforts to undermine the integrity of the contest, was tweeted out by CISA's director, Christopher Krebs. Krebs suspects he'll be the next to be let go. —Associated Press
   
• — The White House is angry at Krebs for rejecting a conspiracy theory that falsely claims an intelligence agency supercomputer and program, purportedly named Hammer and Scorecard, could have flipped votes nationally. No such system exists, according to Krebs, election security experts, and former U.S. officials. Now he may lose his job for, well, telling the truth. —Reuters

Buckley: Tackling hate and extremism

"Many people have asked, how can the problem of hate be solved? That is a very tough question to answer. I believe the cure for hate is education and healing from one's own issues and trauma. Many extremists who I have encountered suffer from similar emotional and physical issues that I dealt with. ... If we think of hate as a public health crisis and a disease, we should treat it as such. It is the only way to effectively combat the rise of extremism." —Christopher Buckley on CNN

Christopher Buckley, an Afghanistan combat veteran, is a former White supremacist who now spreads awareness and educates the public about the dangers of extremism through his work with the nonprofit group Parents For Peace.

China's oppression of Hong Kong expands

China could face new U.S. sanctions after four pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong were disqualified earlier this week. Hong Kong's remaining opposition lawmakers resigned en masse yesterday, leaving mostly pro-Beijing members in office. National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said Wednesday that the Chinese Communist Party has "flagrantly violated its international commitments."

• — Hong Kong's Beijing-backed government disqualified the opposition members for endangering national security under its punitive national security law. The law purports to outlaw acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces, but is essentially just a tool for curbing dissent. 
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• — Activists and international observers say the law breaches the longstanding freedoms afforded to the city by "One Country, Two Systems"—the constitutional principle that affords Hong Kong various democratic freedoms not permitted on mainland China.
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• — "The democratic process has been sabotaged by the political will of the party-state," Eliza Lee, professor of politics at the University of Hong Kong, said. "All elected lawmakers are now subjected to the discipline of the red line drawn by Beijing," with "external pressure" likely to be the only potential constraint. —NBC News

Prusher: Are we still the shining city on a hill?

"[H]ow can America continue to play a supporting role in encouraging these processes and maintain legitimacy as a kind of global schoolmarm who metes out punishments for not behaving nicely, when at home there's denial of an election's legitimate outcome? How can [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo hope to retain credibility and influence when he chides countries for breaking democratic norms, as he did with the former Nicaraguan president Monday or in decrying voter disenfranchisement in Myanmar on Tuesday, if he himself is discrediting America's own election?" —Ilene Prusher in NBC News

Ilene Prusher is a writer, author, and lecturer who teaches journalism at Florida Atlantic University. 

MORE: What protectors of democracy can learn from the history of Italian fascism —OPB

'He never gave up. He just kept going'

The Ironman race is the ultimate test of endurance for anyone, but for 21-year-old Chris Nikic of Maitland, Fla., it was an extraordinary testament to the human spirit. Nikic made history last weekend as the first athlete with Down syndrome to claim the title of Ironman—completing a consecutive 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run in an impressive 16 hours, 46 minutes, and nine seconds. For Nikic, the journey has been a mix of miracles and unrelenting determination.

• — In January 2018, Nikic signed up for a newly launched triathlon program through Special Olympics Florida. It began with a series of group training sessions on the bike, on the running trails, and in the open water. Two local race organizations, Epic Sports and Sommer Sports, soon included Special Olympics divisions within their triathlons. 
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• — Race officials required that Nikic be tethered to his coach for the swim and run for safety reasons, but there was no pulling or propelling. Nikic had to do all the work on his own within the same time limit as everyone else—despite the chilly surf, a handful of ant bites, and a spill that bloodied his right knee.
   
• — "Because this is a first for us, we had to work out some logistics," said Beth Atnip, Ironman's vice president of global operations. "But I've met Chris, and he is so impressive. His heart is so big. And I think this will open doors for a lot of other folks who maybe just thought it was impossible." —Orlando Sentinel

How did any Democrats lose if the entire election, causing Trump to lose, was rigged by the Democrats? Why not run the table in the Senate? And state legislatures across the country? It may seem crazy, but if the Democrats just play nice, they will continue to lose to folks who have stated—like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich and others have done openly, going back many years—that Republicans should never negotiate, that it is up to the Democrats to compromise, but Republicans should always get 100% of what they want. And here we are years later, seeing it in action. —Bill T., Arizona

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.