The Daily Valet. - 11/5/20, Thursday

✔️ Everyone's on Edge

Thursday, November 5th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

It's like we're stuck in an episode of ‘Veep.’

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

A Nation on Edge

Voters wait as Biden camp urges patience, Trump team mounts challenges

Election Day has turned into Election Week. But here's where we stand this morning ... Joe Biden got within striking distance Wednesday, racking up wins in Michigan and Wisconsin. President Trump’s team said it hoped to flip Arizona back to its column and pursued legal actions to try to blunt the Democrat’s advance.

As ballots continued to be counted, Biden amassed small but stable leads in critical states and gained on Trump in states like Georgia, which provided him multiple paths to winning the necessary 270 electoral votes.

According to the Associated Press, Trump spent much of Wednesday in the White House residence, huddling with advisers and fuming at media coverage showing his Democratic rival picking up battleground states. Trump used his Twitter feed to falsely claim victory in several key states and amplify conspiracy theories about Democrats “stealing” the election as absentee and early votes were tabulated.

Biden delivered brief remarks on Wednesday afternoon, sounding confident and offering a conciliatory message to a nation whose deep divisions were laid bare by the election results. He encouraged Americans “to put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us” and “to lower the temperature, to see each other again.”

But that didn't happen. Protests arose around the country as the ballot tabulation in the final battleground states continued, with some demonstrators demanding that every vote be counted and others insisting that the counting be shut down. Some of the president's most adamant supporters actually stormed polling locations, ultimately delaying the reporting of updated totals.

Trump also demanded a recount in Wisconsin. And while most Republicans have remained silent about Trump's flurry of falsehoods about the election and his dangerous premature declaration of victory, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Marco Rubio are some of the few who spoke out against it, reports Newsweek. Here's hoping we get some more clarity today.

↦ Dig Deeper: Take a look at Trump's high-stakes swing-state legal blitz—where his campaign says it's suing, and why.

A Clear Winner? Drugs

There are blue states and there are red states. But the green states are the great equalizer.

While we await the final results of the presidential race, let's celebrate the fact that drugs won big at the polls this year. A wide range of decriminalization and legalization initiatives appeared on ballots across the country and all of them passed. Which is good because you probably want to do drugs right about now.

In a groundbreaking decision, Oregon voted to support Measure 110, which will decriminalize all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Oregon also voted to legalize access to psychedelic mushrooms for medicinal purposes. Voters in the District of Columbia passed a measure to decriminalize shrooms too.

According to Esquire, recreational marijuana legalization is slowly eking out victories on a state-by-state basis. New Jersey, Arizona, Montana and South Dakota all voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Even Mississippi legalized medicinal marijuana, reports BuzzFeed.

The outcomes are a boon for drug reform advocates and the cannabis industry, making the possibility of federal weed decriminalization more feasible. Currently, 33 states allow medical cannabis and 11 have recreational regimes.

↦ FYI: Expansion of gambling in America also won big, with three states authorizing legal sports betting and three others either approving or expanding casino gambling.

COVID Is Spiking

The number of new cases soar but is a vaccine not too far away?

The election took our attention off the pandemic, if only for a day or so, but during that time, the United States set a one-day record for new coronavirus cases with at least 102,591 new infections on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally.

Nine states reported record one-day increases in cases on Wednesday: Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin while hospitals in several states reported a rising tide of patients.

Meanwhile, a study of the lungs of people who have died from COVID-19 has found persistent and extensive lung damage in most cases and may help doctors understand what is behind a syndrome known as “long COVID,” in which patients suffer ongoing symptoms for months.

Meanwhile, there's a small chance that one of the leading Covid vaccine contenders will be ready by Christmas. CNBC reports the vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, is a viral vector vaccine made from a weakened version of a common cold virus that causes infections in chimpanzees.

Need to Ease Some of That Stress?

Demand for de-stressing apps has surged during a year of one crisis after another

If you watched some of CNN's election coverage, you might've noticed a savage little sponsorship onscreen. The key race alert were sponsored by the Calm meditation app, which Adweek calls "the most 2020 brand partner" you could have.

It was something of a brilliant marketing move for the brand, which has been investing in advertising during this more-stressful-than-average year. Calm’s election strategy goes beyond its CNN sponsorship: As election officials continue to count votes in key battleground states, the San Francisco-based startup anticipates stress levels to remain elevated.

And it's not just Calm. Other health and wellness apps are seeing unprecedented spikes in activity this week ... which is good for biz, but ain't so pretty for citizens. For instance, Aura—a meditation app with 4 million users—said that anti-anxiety usage was up more than 50% on election day.

Headspace, another popular app, has been reporting more and more downloads since the quarantines began back in March. And experts agree that even sporadic usage can ben beneficial. Psychiatrist Dr. Seema Desai told CBS News it can help regulate emotions and counter the negative physiological effects of stress.

↦ Dig Deeper: Here's how to start a morning meditation.

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

That Gap hoodie

This grooming game plan

Indie whiskeys

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