In other news, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the plaintiffs who claimed Harvard University's affirmative action policy is racist against Whites and Asians.
The appeals court rejected claims by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a nonprofit founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, which drew support from Republican President Donald Trump’s administration.
SFFA said Harvard engaged in impermissible “racial balancing” to make it easier for Blacks and Hispanics to win admission, and did not narrowly tailor its use of race.
Meanwhile, a federal judge has dismissed Trump's libel lawsuit against CNN over an op-ed published in 2019 that suggested his campaign would welcome more help from Russia. Where's the lie?
Finally, over 65,000 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 as if yesterday; a new record that will probably be broken today or tomorrow.
Across the country, the U.S. reported over 143,231 new cases on Wednesday, setting a new record one-day spike, according to CNBC’s analysis of Hopkins data. That brings the seven-day average to more than 127,400, up nearly 35% compared with a week ago. Over the past five days, the U.S. has reported a fresh record in daily new cases on three days, Hopkins data shows.
It’s not just cases that are rising. The seven-day average of hospitalized Covid-19 patients is up by at least 5% in 46 states, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project, which is run by journalists at The Atlantic. Across the country, there are more than 65,300 people currently hospitalized with Covid-19, more than at any other point in the pandemic.
If you were planning to attend or host a large gathering for Thanksgiving, you may want to reconsider. We could be looking at 200,000 to 300,000 infections per day by Thanksgiving if we don't do something fast.
Personally, I'll be cooking for a party of two. That's it. And I was sad about that since it will be my first Thanksgiving since coming out, but now I suppose it's a blessing. A large gathering would be too much of a risk.
There's been a lot of things I have not been able to do for the first time yet. I haven't been to a restaurant. I haven't gone to see a movie as my true self. I haven't sat at a bar as a woman. I didn't go out for Halloween and Thanksgiving will be limited. We've all lost a year, but some of us have lost more than that. All of this because Trump refused to take the pandemic seriously.
I try to remain positive by looking forward to things I'll be able to do next year. Sometime. Maybe. It's hard to describe the feeling of your entire life as a new person being held back because someone decided it would be good politics for them.
Programming note... I know it's been a short week here already, but I will be offline tomorrow. I'm cooking for my father tomorrow evening and tomorrow morning I have an appointment for a consultation for laser hair removal. That's one of those things I've been putting off until after the election.