January 3, 2022

Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post:"President Biden assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday that the United States 'will respond decisively' if Russia invades the Eastern European nation, according to the White House. Days after a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden spoke with Zelensky and reaffirmed previous commitments to aid Ukraine amid Russia's military buildup on Ukraine's border that has prompted fears of an invasion, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by phone. The leaders 'expressed support' for upcoming diplomatic talks, she said, that will commence in the wake of Putin telling Biden that any economic sanctions imposed in response to military action by the Kremlin could result in 'a complete rupture of relations.'"

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The White House on Monday announced it will devote $1 billion to aiding independent meat and poultry producers, aiming to undercut the four powerful meat producers the Biden administration has alleged are responsible for surging consumer prices. Facing immense political pressure over inflation, the White House has responded in recent weeks by criticizing large corporations and arguing that breaking up monopolies will foster competition and drive down prices. In November, President Biden asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into whether oil and gas companies were improperly pushing up energy prices. The stakes are particularly high in the beef industry, where prices in November rose by a staggering 21 percent relative to last year, according to federal data. Food prices have also increased more broadly -- by a significant 6.4 percent -- with the index for meat, poultry, fish and eggs jumping 13 percent." Cheney looks at what's been done to improve the preparedness level -- and what has not. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: President Biden will meet virtually with small meat producers at 1:30 pm ET today; live here.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... the political blight that contributed to the [January 6] attack has only worsened, inside and outside the Capitol. So while leaders feel readier today than they did on Jan. 5, no one is rushing to declare the threat has passed.... Capitol Police officers remain overtaxed and exhausted, logging crushing amounts of overtime as they grapple with a depleted force. Threats against members of Congress are still spiking.... Many of those who fled from or responded to the violence are indelibly scarred.

David Siders of Politico: "Donald Trump has already telegraphed the remarks he plans to give at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. If he follows the script laid out in his announcement of the news conference, he will commit a whitewashing of the day, repeating the lie that the 2020 election was rigged and defending his part in fomenting the insurrection -- all while a solemn prayer service is held at the Capitol, in a vivid split-screen moment.... One year after the riot at the Capitol, nearly three-quarters of Republicans still believe Trump's baseless claim that Joe Biden won the presidency due to voter fraud, according to a Monmouth University poll.... And according to a Quinnipiac University survey, nearly 8 in 10 Republicans want Trump to run for president again in 2024." (Also linked yesterday.)

Christina Zhao of NBC News: "The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot has testimony that ... Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump asked him to intervene as his supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Sunday. 'The committee has firsthand testimony now that he was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television.... The briefing room at the White House is just a mere few steps from the Oval Office,' Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, said on ABC News' 'This Week.' She said that at any moment, Trump could have walked to the briefing room and appeared on television. 'We know, as he was sitting there in the dining room next to the Oval Office, members of his staff were pleading with him to go on television, to tell people to stop. We know Leader McCarthy was pleading with him to do that,' she said, referring to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. 'We know members of his family, we know his daughter -- we have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence,' she said." ~~~

~~~ David Cohen of Politico: “Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday she fears that if ... Donald Trump were to become president again, it could be a lethal blow to American democracy. 'He crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before,' the Wyoming Republican told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC's 'This Week,' days before the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot." (Also linked yesterday.)

Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "Twitter has permanently suspended Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Twitter account @mtgreenee, the company confirmed to CNN Sunday morning..., 'for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy.'Greene most frequently tweeted from the handle @mtgreenee. She still has access to and can tweet from her official congressional account @RepMTG." MB: Greene released a statement re: the ban, in which she said, "Communist Democrats can't stop the truth." O'Sullivan has her full statement. The New York Times' story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "To shed light on Trump's battle of the National Archives records, The Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery interviewed Don W. Wilson and John W. Carlin, who both served as the U.S. archivist. 'Given how frantic they are... there are things in those records that are going to make real trouble. I'm talking about prison time,' Carlin said. 'It reinforces the fact that they know they're in real trouble if these things are released -- particularly if they're released soon.'... Read the full report [firewalled]."

AP: "The late Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who served as majority leader during a 30-year career in the Senate, will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda next week. The leaders of Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, said in a statement Sunday night that ceremonies honoring Reid at the Capitol will take place on Jan. 12." The Washington Post's report is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Barbara Starr of CNN: "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has tested positive for Covid-19 and is exhibiting 'mild' symptoms, according to a statement from him released by the Defense Department on Sunday. 'I have informed my leadership team of my positive test result, as well as the President. My staff has begun contact tracing and testing of all those with whom I have come into contact over the last week,' Austin said."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "About eight and a half million gallons of untreated sewage have spilled into a flood-control waterway in Los Angeles County since Thursday afternoon, prompting at least five beaches to close, an official with the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts said.... The spill began after a concrete pipe 48 inches in diameter in Carson, Calif., collapsed. The sewage leaked out of a manhole on 212th Street on Thursday evening and much of Friday.... From there, the waste traveled through storm drain pipes and toward the Dominguez Channel, a flood-control waterway that runs more than 15 miles from Hawthorne, Calif., and discharges into Los Angeles Harbor. Water from the channel eventually flows to the Pacific Ocean. Officials are investigating what caused the pipe, which wa built in the 1960s, to collapse."(Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Sudan. Max Bearak & Miriam Berger of the Washington Post: "Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigned in a televised statement Sunday, ending a short-lived political agreement with the country's military, which had temporarily deposed him in an October coup before allowing him to return to power. Hamdok's resignation follows weeks of wrangling between civilian and military leaders over the formation of a new government, but their differences proved insurmountable. Meanwhile, a massive protest movement has repeatedly filled the streets of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, denouncing both the military and Hamdok, whom they saw as compromised for his cooperation with the forces that sought to sideline him." An AP story is here.

January 2, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.

California. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "About eight and a half million gallons of untreated sewage have spilled into a flood-control waterway in Los Angeles County since Thursday afternoon, prompting at least five beaches to close, an official with the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts said.... The spill began after a concrete pipe 48 inches in diameter in Carson, Calif., collapsed. The sewage leaked out of a manhole on 212th Street on Thursday evening and much of Friday.... From there, the waste traveled through storm drain pipes and toward the Dominguez Channel, a flood-control waterway that runs more than 15 miles from Hawthorne, Calif., and discharges into Los Angeles Harbor. Water from the channel eventually flows to the Pacific Ocean. Officials are investigating what caused the pipe, which was built in the 1960s, to collapse."

David Siders of Politico: "Donald Trump has already telegraphed the remarks he plans to give at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. If he follows the script laid out in his announcement of the news conference, he will commit a whitewashing of the day, repeating the lie that the 2020 election was rigged and defending his part in fomenting the insurrection -- all while a solemn prayer service is held at the Capitol, in a vivid split-screen moment.... One year after the riot at the Capitol, nearly three-quarters of Republicans still believe Trump's baseless claim that Joe Biden won the presidency due to voter fraud, according to a Monmouth University poll.... And according to a Quinnipiac University survey, nearly 8 in 10 Republicans want Trump to run for president again in 2024."

David Cohen of Politico: "Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday she fears that if ... Donald Trump were to become president again, it could be a lethal blow to American democracy. 'He crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before,' the Wyoming Republican told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC's 'This Week,' days before the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot."

Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "Twitter has permanently suspended Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Twitter account @mtgreenee, the company confirmed to CNN Sunday morning..., 'for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy.'Greene most frequently tweeted from the handle @mtgreenee. She still has access to and can tweet from her official congressional account @RepMTG." MB: Greene released a statement re: the ban, in which she said, "Communist Democrats can't stop the truth." O'Sullivan has her full statement. The New York Times' story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

** New York Times Editors: "One year after from the smoke and broken glass, the mock gallows and the very real bloodshed of that awful day, it is tempting to look back and imagine that we can, in fact, simply look back.... But peel back a layer, and ... Jan. 6 is not in the past; it is every day. It is regular citizens who threaten election officials and other public servants, who ask, 'When can we use the guns?' and who vow to murder politicians who dare to vote their conscience. It is Republican lawmakers scrambling to make it harder for people to vote and easier to subvert their will if they do. It is Donald Trump who continues to stoke the flames of conflict with his rampant lies and limitless resentments and whose twisted version of reality still dominates one of the nation's two major political parties. In short, the Republic faces an existential threat from a movement that is openly contemptuous of democracy and has shown that it is willing to use violence to achieve its ends. No self-governing society can survive such a threat by denying that it exists." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Meryl Kornfield & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "A year after a pro-Trump mob ransacked the Capitol in the worst attack on the home of Congress since it was burned by British forces in 1814, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll finds that about 1 in 3 Americans say they believe violence against the government can at times be justified. The findings represent the largest share to feel that way since the question has been asked in various polls in more than two decades.... [The poll found] 40 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of independents saying [violence against the government] can be acceptable. The view was held by 23 percent of Democrats, the survey finds."

Sarah Lyall of the New York Times writes a longish article about how customers are always outraged and that's so unfair to "public-facing" employees. Marie: Maybe so. But I don't think when I call for customer service at a company where I drop hundreds of dollars every month that I should have to run a gauntlet of stupid questions demanded by an automaton, only to be put on hold for 45 minutes and then when I miraculously get through to a real person I'm told my "problem" is handled by another department so there will be another 45-minute wait and so on. The last time that happened, which was maybe a couple of weeks ago, I very nicely suggested to a human tele-clerk that she might get a big bonus if she put in the suggestion box a proposal to turn the company into a torture-for-hire outfit because they were a lot better at torture than they were at customer service. She laughed. I reckon being waterboarded is worse than listening to an hour-and-a-half of tinny, staticky Mariah Carey tracks from your crappy little phone speaker, but not by all that much.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here: "Airlines had canceled more than 2,500 flights across the United States by afternoon on Saturday, by far the worst day in the industry's weeklong struggle with bad weather and crew shortages. The cancellations mounted amid reports of heavy snowfall across much of the nation's midsection, and if the pattern of the last week holds, many more could be canceled by day's end." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Louisiana. Vimal Patel of the New York Times: "A Louisiana judge who could be heard on a video using a racial slur while watching security footage of a foiled burglary outside her home has resigned.... 'I take full responsibility for the hurtful words I used to describe the individual who burglarized the vehicles at my home,' the judge, Michelle Odinet, of the City Court of Lafayette, La., wrote in a letter dated Friday to the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.... 'There was never going to be a situation where African Americans would appear before her and not file motions to recuse,' ... Ms. Odinet's lawyer, Dane S. Ciolino..., said.... Mr. Ciolino said there were efforts in New Orleans to scour Ms. Odinet's files for evidence of racism in how she had handled cases involving Black people.... In an earlier statement, Ms. Odinet confirmed to The Current, a nonprofit news organization in Lafayette that reported on the video, that the footage had been recorded in her home, but she did not acknowledge that she had used a slur." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The problem isn't that Odinet used a racial slur so much as it is that she thought of the burglar not as a lowdown miscreant but as a Black lowdown miscreant. If the SOB had been white, my guess is that she would not have been calling him a honky or whatever.

News Lede

New York Times: Rescuers risked their own lives to save 21 people trapped on the tram that leads up to the top of Sandia Peak near Albuquerque, New Mexico. "Rescuers had to get to a tower, climb to the tram and set up a rope system to lower people to safety, he said. From there, they hiked with the passengers about 100 yards to a landing site where a helicopter whisked them away a few at a time. Rescuers battled treacherous conditions, said Larry Koren, the pilot who flew the stranded to safety by landing his helicopter on a narrow ridge." An ABC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I used to live near that tramway (actually, on the other side of the mountain). Nothing could have got me to go up it then, and nothing could get me to take any aerial tram now. Some tame funiculars, yes.

New Year's Day 2022

Afternoon Update:

** New York Times Editors: "One year after from the smoke and broken glass, the mock gallows and the very real bloodshed of that awful day, it is tempting to look back and imagine that we can, in fact, simply look back.... But peel back a layer, and ... Jan. 6 is not in the past; it is every day. It is regular citizens who threaten election officials and other public servants, who ask, 'When can we use the guns?' and who vow to murder politicians who dare to vote their conscience. It is Republican lawmakers scrambling to make it harder for people to vote and easier to subvert their will if they do. It is Donald Trump who continues to stoke the flames of conflict with his rampant lies and limitless resentments and whose twisted version of reality still dominates one of the nation's two major political parties. In short, the Republic faces an existential threat from a movement that is openly contemptuous of democracy and has shown that it is willing to use violence to achieve its ends. No self-governing society can survive such a threat by denying that it exists."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here: "Airlines had canceled more than 2,500 flights across the United States by afternoon on Saturday, by far the worst day in the industry's weeklong struggle with bad weather and crew shortages. The cancellations mounted amid reports of heavy snowfall across much of the nation's midsection, and if the pattern of the last week holds, many more could be canceled by day's end."

Louisiana. Vimal Patel of the New York Times: "A Louisiana judge who could be heard on a video using a racial slur while watching security footage of a foiled burglary outside her home has resigned.... 'I take full responsibility for the hurtful words I used to describe the individual who burglarized the vehicles at my home,' the judge, Michelle Odinet, of the City Court of Lafayette, La., wrote in a letter dated Friday to the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.... 'There was never going to be a situation where African Americans would appear before her and not file motions to recuse,' ... Ms. Odinet's lawyer, Dane S. Ciolino..., said.... Mr. Ciolino said there were efforts in New Orleans to scour Ms. Odinet's files for evidence of racism in how she had handled cases involving Black people.... In an earlier statement, Ms. Odinet confirmed to The Current, a nonprofit news organization in Lafayette that reported on the video, that the footage had been recorded in her home, but she did not acknowledge that she had used a slur." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The problem isn't that Odinet used a racial slur so much as it is that she thought of the burglar not as a lowdown miscreant but as a Black lowdown miscreant. If the SOB had been white, my guess is that she would not have been calling him a honky or whatever.

~~~~~~~~~~

Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Friday that he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin in a call that there would be 'a heavy price to pay' if Russia invades Ukraine again. Biden said he 'made it clear' that any further military action by the Kremlin would result in 'severe sanctions' but did not go as far as to say that Washington would respond to Russia's continued military presence near the border with Ukraine. 'I'm not going to negotiate here in public,' Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Del., where he is spending New Year's Eve. 'But we made it clear he cannot, I'll emphasize, cannot invade Ukraine.' Following his call on Thursday with Putin, Biden plans to speak by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday amid growing alarm over Russia's military buildup near its border with Ukraine." A CNBC report is here.

Buh-bye. Lananh Nguyen of the New York Times: "The Republican chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, who was appointed by ... Donald J. Trump, said on Friday that she was cutting short her term after a clash with Democratic banking regulators. Jelena McWilliams, who started a five-year term as chair in June 2018, will resign effective Feb. 4, she wrote in a letter to President Biden. She is also stepping down as a director of the F.D.I.C.'s board. Ms. McWilliams is the only Republican currently on the five-member board, and her departure will add a second vacancy.... Her exit came after Rohit Chopra, a member of the F.D.I.C. board and the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, complained earlier this month that Ms. McWilliams had refused to recognize attempts by Democratic regulators to review rules about bank mergers. Ms. McWilliams called the conflict a "hostile takeover' by other board members in an essay in The Wall Street Journal. Ms. McWilliams has mostly adhered to Republican ideological lines during her tenure." Politico's report is here.

Keith Alexander of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors in the District have charged more than 725 individuals with various crimes in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, when hundreds of rioters forced their way into the U.S. Capitol, the U.S. attorney's office said Friday. As the country nears the first anniversary of the storming of the Capitol, the U.S. attorney's office in the District, the largest office of federal prosecutors in the nation, released a breakdown of the arrests and convictions associated with the attack." MB: An Herculean effort indeed, but you-all missed a Florida man & other ringleaders, like made man Bernie Kerik: ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Wu & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A key adviser to Donald Trump's legal team in their post-election quest to unearth evidence of fraud has delivered a trove of documents to Jan. 6 investigators describing those efforts. Bernard Kerik, the former New York City Police commissioner and ally of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, also provided a 'privilege log' describing materials he declined to provide to the committee. Among the withheld documents is one titled 'DRAFT LETTER FROM POTUS TO SEIZE EVIDENCE IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL SECURITY FOR THE 2020 ELECTIONS.' Kerik's attorney Timothy Parlatore provided the privilege log to the panel, which said the file originated on Dec. 17, a day before Trump huddled in the Oval Office with advisers including former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, where they discussed the option of seizing election equipment in states whose results Trump was attempting to overturn.... It is unclear if Kerik would appear for a deposition instead of an interview. A Dec. 23 letter to the panel from Parlatore had included disputed claims that the Jan. 6 panel was structurally invalid and called its deposition process "fatally flawed." The panel has previously rejected those arguments."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Capitol Hill's Jan. 6 investigators are exploring ways to Trump-proof future presidential elections by tightening up how lawmakers certify the results. There's one problem: A future Congress might simply ignore them.... [Congress] has agreed to abide by the Electoral Count Act [of 1887] every four years, even if, as a constitutional matter, the statute may be little more than a glorified suggestion.... Experts are split on whether any Congress can pass a law that would dictate how its successors certify presidential elections.... If a future Congress decides the Electoral Count Act can't govern the Jan. 6 certification, these fringe theories would serve as a blueprint -- and there's little recourse to overrule them.... There's also the unsettled possibility that courts would avoid weighing in on a future Electoral Count Act dispute." MB: Of course a real solution -- and one that won't happen -- lies in popularly electing the president & vice president, although such a Constitutional amendment would certainly raise new questions.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Amid a drop in public confidence in the Supreme Court and calls for increasing its membership, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. devoted his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary on Friday to a plea for judicial independence." The AP's report on the report is here. Roberts' report is here; it comes with photos! maybe of crooked judges!

Stephen Marche in a Washington Post op-ed: There are secessionist movements in the U.S. that prominent politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene & Ted Cruz encourage (or don't discourage), and secession would be a far less bloody way than civil war to break up the nation. "The rest of the world is busily [breaking up nations] all the time. Separatism is a global political trend. The number of nations in the world has tripled since 1945. And there will soon be more.... And the United States might well be better off as separate countries. It might be healthier, more rational, less prone to violence.... But the legal process of separation is profoundly complicated, and the laws of the United States render it much more difficult to achieve than it is elsewhere."

Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post: "Four hundred years after the Mashpee Wampanoag in Plymouth, Mass., helped the Pilgrims from the Mayflower survive, they have been fighting to get their ancestral homeland back. Last week, they won a major victory in a ruling from the U.S. Department of the Interior that will give them substantial control of roughly 320 acres around Cape Cod. The decision opens the door for the Wampanoag tribe to move forward on economic development projects -- such as a casino resort or housing -- that tribal leaders say will bring much-needed revenue to their community of roughly 2,800 members.... In 2015, the Obama administration put about 320 acres in federal trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag, under a law that allows the Department of the Interior to acquire the title to property and hold it for the benefit of a Native American tribe.... But ... Donald Trump's administration ordered that the land be taken out of trust, jeopardizing the Mashpee Wampanoag" ability to develop it." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hedgpeth writes a very brief historical overview of the Wampanoag in Massachusetts, and it is not what I read in my 5th-grade history book. This is the "critical race theory" that right-wingers object to. It isn't critical race theory at all, of course; but it is based on facts that those people Ted Koppel met on the bus (see yesterday's Commentariat), for instance, don't want to face and don't want their children & grandchildren to learn. These Americans are not indulging in nostalgia for a happier, simpler time; they're suffering from a pandemic of denialism. BTW, if you didn't see Koppel's "60 Minutes" segment, embedded in yesterday's Commentariat, it's worth checking out.

David Gerson of the Washington Post: "The default ethical stance of Christianity is the Golden Rule.... This principle was developed in a variety of other religious and moral traditions. (See the Babylonian Talmud: 'What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah.')... There is no version of the Golden Rule that would recommend Christian resistance to basic public health measures during a pandemic. This is heresy compounded by lunacy.... Evangelical Christians are generally known as people who loudly defend their own rights. They show not radical generosity but discreditable selfishness.... And when Christians are asserting a right to resist basic public health measures, what is the actual content of their religious-liberty claim? The right to risk the lives of their neighbors in order to assert their autonomy? The right to endanger the community in the performative demonstration of their personal rights? This is a vivid display of the cultural and ideological trends of a warped and wasted year. It just has nothing to do with real Christianity." (Also linked yesterday.)

Peter Eisler, et al., of Reuters: "Reuters has documented more than 850 threatening and hostile messages aimed at election officials and staff related to the 2020 election. Virtually all expressed support for ... Donald Trump or echoed his debunked contention that the election was stolen. The messages spanned 30 jurisdictions in 16 states. They came via emails, voicemails, texts, letters and Internet posts.... The messages collected by Reuters are only a sample of all threats to election workers nationally, taken mostly from states, counties and cities where officials were specifically targeted with false fraud allegations by Trump and his allies. Nearly a quarter of those hostile messages suggested the targets should die." MB: This is a big file and I found the page hard to navigate on my crap computer. But the messages I did see were horrible and give a good idea about the warped mindsets of quite a few Trump backers. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Carl Zimmer & Azeen Ghorayshi of the New York Times: "In studies on mice and hamsters, Omicron produced less damaging infections, often limited largely to the upper airway: the nose, throat and windpipe. The variant did much less harm to the lungs, where previous variants would often cause scarring and serious breathing difficulty.... The reason that Omicron is milder may be a matter of anatomy.... [Researchers] found that the level of Omicron in the noses of the hamsters was the same as in animals infected with an earlier form of the coronavirus. But Omicron levels in the lungs were one-tenth or less of the level of other variants."

Beyond the Beltway

Alaska. Brad Dress of the Hill: "Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) on Thursday accepted the endorsement of former President Trump, which came on the condition the governor does not, in turn, endorse Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in her reelection bid. Trump issued a statement Thursday evening saying that Dunleavy, who is running for a second term as governor, had accepted the endorsement. 'Please tell the president thank you for the endorsement,' Dunleavy said in the statement. 'With regard to the other issue, please tell the president he has nothing to worry about. I appreciate all 45 has done for Alaska and this country.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Colorado. Jason Samenow, et al., of the Washington Post: "The raging inferno that erupted in Boulder County, Colo., on Thursday afternoon became the most destructive wildfire in the state's history as it burned through hundreds of homes in densely populated suburbs. The fire was fueled by an extreme set of atmospheric conditions, intensified by climate change, and fanned by a violent windstorm. The fire came at a time of year when a blaze of such violence is unprecedented; Colorado's fire season typically spans May though September. But exceptionally warm and dry conditions through this fall, including a historic lack of snowfall, created tinderbox conditions ripe for a fast-spreading blaze." Related stories linked under Thursday's & Friday's News Ledes.

Florida. Steve M.: "Florida governor Ron DeSantis has disappeared from public view, and there's been a great deal of speculation about why.... The governor's press office released a photo of DeSantis at a bagel shop, but it was two weeks old.... In response to the speculation, his press secretary tweeted this [Thursday]: '... @GovRonDeSantis has a wife and 3 kids ages 1-5, and it's not surprising if he wants to take a few days off at Christmas to spend time with his family, especially as his wife is battling cancer....' And now we have a fuller response, at Fox News, DeSantis's favorite media outlet: 'Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis accompanied his wife to her cancer treatment while critics were accusing the governor of taking a vacation as coronavirus cases spiked, Fox News has learned....' If DeSantis or his press secretary had simply said this days ago, the governor's critics would have cut him some slack.... [But] For DeSantis, politics is total war. And this Fox story is clearly intended to shame his critics." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gee, I criticized Ron, and I'm not a little bit ashamed. If you had an "ordinary" job and your spouse got sick & needed your fulltime attention, would you just not show up at work till the crisis was over or would you call in, apprise your boss or coworkers of the situation & request time off? Yeah, I thought so.

News Ledes

Colorado. AP: "A Colorado official says nearly 1,000 homes and other structures were destroyed, hundreds more were damaged, and three people are missing after a wildfire charred numerous neighborhoods in a suburban area at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle also said Saturday that investigators are still trying to find the cause of the wind-whipped blaze that erupted Thursday and blackened entire neighborhoods in the area located between Denver and Boulder. Pelle said utility officials found no downed power lines around where the fire broke out. He said authorities were pursuing a number of tips and had executed a search warrant at 'one particular location.' He declined to give details. A sheriff's official who declined to provide his name confirmed that one property was under investigation in Boulder County's Marshall Mesa area, a region of open grassland about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) west of the hard-hit town of Superior." ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "Just two days after they fled a firestorm, residents of two Colorado suburbs that had been gutted by flames slogged back home on Saturday through nearly a foot of snow and single-digit temperatures to confront a new list of woes: frozen pipes and water damage, thanks to an abrupt turn in the weather."