The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

CNBC: “The pace of price increases over the past year was higher than forecast in September while jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both readings were 0.1 percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus. The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.”

The New York Times' live updates of Hurrucane Milton consequences Thursday are here: “Milton was still producing damaging hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall to parts of East and Central Florida, forecasters said early Thursday, even as the powerful storm roared away from the Atlantic coast and left deaths and widespread damage across the state. Cities along Florida’s east coast are now facing flash flooding, damaging winds and storm surges. Some had already been battered by powerful tornadoes spun out by the storm before it made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane. In [St. Lucie] county [Fort Pierce], several people in a retirement community were killed by a tornado, the police said.... More than three million customers were without power in Florida as of early Thursday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Weater Channel's live updates.

CNN: “The 2024 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to Han Kang, a South Korean author, for her 'intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.' Han, 53, began her career with a group of poems in a South Korean magazine, before making her prose debut in 1995 with a short story collection. She later began writing longer prose works, most notably 'The Vegetarian,' one of her first books to be translated into English. The novel, which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, charts a young woman’s attempt to live a more 'plant-like' existence after suffering macabre nightmares about human cruelty. Han is the first South Korean author to win the literature prize, and just the 18th woman out of the 117 prizes awarded since 1901.” The New York Times story is here.

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The Ledes

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Washington Post: “Hours before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, a spate of unusually strong and long-lived tornadoes touched down across the state, flipping tractor-trailers and ripping off roofs. The twisters surprised anxious residents, even as the storm’s eye still loomed. Authorities said there had been 'multiple' deaths after the intense and destructive tornadoes.” MB: I'm still on Florida's emergency-call list, and I received several calls from Lee County, urging me to shelter in place.

The Washington Post's live updates of Hurricane Milton developments are here: “Hurricane Milton, which has strengthened to a 'catastrophic' Category 5 storm, is closing in on Florida’s west coast and is expected to make landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane, which could bring maximum sustained winds of nearly 160 mph with bigger gusts, poses a dire threat to the densely populated zone that includes Tampa, Sarasota and Fort Myers. As well as 'damaging hurricane-force winds,' coastal communities face a 'life-threatening' storm surge, the center said.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here: “Milton carved a path of destruction after crashing ashore Wednesday evening on Florida’s Gulf Coast, making landfall near Sarasota as the second powerful hurricane to pound the region in less than two weeks. The storm battered the state for much of the day, with heavy winds, pelting rain and a spate of tornadoes.... By around midnight, the storm had destroyed more than 100 homes, killed several people in a retirement community and ripped the roof off Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays.”

Washington Post: “The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to David Baker at the University of Washington and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of Google DeepMind.... The prize was awarded to scientists who cracked the code of proteins. Hassabis and Jumper used artificial intelligence to predict the structure of proteins, one of the toughest problems in biology. Baker created computational tools to design novel proteins with shapes and functions that can be used in drugs, vaccines and sensors.”

Sorry, forgot this yesterday: ~~~

Reuters: “U.S. scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries and inventions in machine learning that paved the way for the artificial intelligence boom. Heralded for its revolutionary potential in areas ranging from cutting-edge scientific discovery to more efficient admin, the emerging technology on which the duo worked has also raised fears humankind may soon be outsmarted and outcompeted by its own creation.”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Thursday
Dec172020

The Commentariat -- December 18, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "Vice President Pence and second lady Karen Pence got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the White House on Friday, on live TV in an effort to vouch for the vaccine’s safety and efficacy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: And MSNBC is reporting that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, third in line to the presidency, has received her first vaccination.

Mike Allen & Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller ordered a Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation with the transition of President-elect Biden, shocking officials across the Defense Department, senior administration officials tell Axios.... A top Biden official was unaware of the directive. Administration officials left open the possibility cooperation would resume after a holiday pause. The officials were unsure what prompted Miller's action, or whether President Trump approved.... Miller's move ... was the biggest eruption yet of animus and mistrust toward the Biden team from the top level of the Trump administration.... In a statement released after the publication of this story, Miller said: 'At no time has the Department cancelled or declined any interview.... After the mutually-agreed upon holiday, which begins tomorrow, we will continue with the transition and rescheduled meetings from today.'"

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Congress appears likely to let funding for the federal government expire Friday at midnight, triggering the beginning of a shutdown, as lawmakers scramble to complete a $900 billion economic relief package, multiple aides and lawmakers involved in deliberations.... Lawmakers had hoped to introduce the relief legislation as early as Thursday but have been delayed by numerous contentious issues, particularly a push from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to curb the emergency lending authority of the Federal Reserve.... The nation would face a ... significant disruption if the federal shutdown continued on Monday, when shutdown orders would go into effect." Politico has a related story here.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "We are not off to a good start in the coverage of the Republican Party in the post-Trump era.... It is time to stop giving air to Republicans' phony outrage and to hold them accountable for their own language and conduct on race and gender. First, as a general rule, when Republicans say they are upset or outraged, they almost never are. They do not care about foul language (after four years of President Trump), or about deficits (after four years of Republican government), or comity in the Senate (after more than four years being led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky). The media should stop taking seriously politicians' harping, especially from those who have lied about the election, about Trump's record, about Trump's own words and about their knowledge of Trump's words. Second, it is no coincidence that the Republican or right-wing columnists who complain about Democratic women are almost always men.... Third, throughout the last four years, the media seemed to gloss over the appalling lack of diversity in Republican ranks."

Supremes (More or Less) Decide Not to Decide. Again. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's plan to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the calculations used to allocate seats in the House, saying it was premature. The court's ruling handed the Trump administration an interim victory, allowing it to continue to pursue an effort that could shift the allotment of both congressional seats and federal money to states that are older, whiter and typically more Republican.... 'We express no view on the merits of the constitutional and related statutory claims presented,' the opinion said. 'We hold only that they are not suitable for adjudication at this time.' The court's three liberal members dissented. They said the case was far enough along for a decision and that they would have ruled the plan unlawful."

Annals of "Journalsim," Ctd. David Folkenflik of NPR: "The New York Times has retracted the core of its hit 2018 podcast series Caliphate after an internal review found the paper failed to heed red flags indicating that the man it relied upon for its narrative about the allure of terrorism could not be trusted to tell the truth. The newspaper has reassigned its star terrorism reporter, Rukmini Callimachi, who hosted the series. Caliphate relayed the tale about the radicalization of a young Canadian who went to Syria, joined the Islamic State and became an executioner for the extremist group before escaping its hold. Canadian authorities this fall accused the man, Shehroze Chaudhry, of lying about those activities. He currently faces criminal charges in a federal court in Ontario of perpetrating a terrorism hoax.... Caliphate made a huge splash for The Times, winning awards, acclaim, new listeners for its podcasts and new paying subscribers. And it further propelled Callimachi into the journalistic stratosphere.... The Times resisted revisiting Chaudhry's story until his arrest this fall, when Canadian officials charged him with lying about participating in terrorist activities. It then published the findings into Chaudhry's activities by its distinguished national security reporter, Mark Mazzetti, who cast significant doubt on the Canadian's claims." ~~~

~~~ Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "... Shehroze Chaudhry, the central figure in the 2018 podcast 'Caliphate,' by The New York Times, was a fabulist who spun jihadist tales about killing for the Islamic State in Syria, Canadian and American intelligence and law enforcement officials contend. Mr. Chaudhry, they say, was not a terrorist, almost certainly never went to Syria, and concocted gruesome stories about being an Islamic State executioner as part of a Walter Mitty-like escape from his more mundane life in a Toronto suburb and in Lahore, Pakistan, where he spent years living with his grandparents." ~~~

~~~ Marc Tracy, et al., of the New York Times: "After an internal review that took more than two months, The New York Times has determined that 'Caliphate,' its award-winning 2018 podcast, did not meet the standards for Times journalism. The 12-part audio documentary featuring Rukmini Callimachi, a Times correspondent who has frequently reported from conflict zones, sought to shed light on the Islamic State terrorist group. The Times found that 'Caliphate' gave too much credence to the false or exaggerated accounts of one of its main subjects, Shehroze Chaudhry, a resident of Canada who claimed to have taken part in Islamic State executions. Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, said the blame fell on the newsroom's leaders, including himself.... The Times started its review of 'Caliphate' after Canadian authorities arrested Mr. Chaudhry on Sept. 25 and charged him with perpetrating a terrorist hoax. In an Editors' Note on Friday, The Times said its investigation had 'found a history of misrepresentations by Mr. Chaudhry and no corroboration that he committed the atrocities he described in the "Caliphate" podcast.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Funny, I don't see anything in the reporting about how the Times is going to return the awards -- including a Peabody -- it received for its fake reporting.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "After accelerating through the fall, the coronavirus is spreading in the United States at a consistently rapid rate, with each day bringing an average of more than 200,000 new reported cases.... The total number of confirmed infections surpassed 17 million on Thursday, five days after eclipsing the 16-million mark.

S.N.A.F.U. Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Officials in multiple states said they were alerted late Wednesday that their second shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine had been drastically cut for next week, sparking widespread confusion and conflicting statements from Pfizer and federal officials about who was at fault.... A senior administration official ... said the revised estimates were the result of states' requesting an expedited timeline.... But Pfizer released a statement Thursday ... saying, 'We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions [from the federal government] for additional doses.'... Another person involved in the planning ... said Pfizer executives were baffled that the administration was not immediately distributing all of its vaccine, instead leaving much of it on the shelves." An AP story is here.

Denise Grady, et al., of the New York Times: "As the nation buckled from uncontrolled spread of the disease, with 3,611 deaths on Wednesday setting yet another horrific record, a panel of independent experts recommended by a vote of 20 in favor and one abstention, that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the Moderna vaccine for emergency use. The formal decision, expected on Friday, would clear the way for some 5.9 million doses to be shipped around the country starting this weekend.... The Moderna vaccine can be distributed more widely because it can be stored at normal freezer temperatures and, unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, does not require ultracold storage. It also comes in much smaller batches, making it easier for hospitals in less populated areas to use quickly." A CNN story is here.

The New York Times' live Covid-19 updates Thursday are here.

One-Man Superspreader. Celine Castronuovo of the Hill: "Department of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has tested positive for COVID-19 following days of meetings with political appointees, a department spokesman confirmed to The Washington Post Wednesday. Interior spokesman Nicholas Goodwin told the Post in an email that Bernhardt, 51, received the diagnosis ahead of a scheduled Cabinet meeting with President Trump Wednesday, which Bernhardt did not attend following his positive test."

Sarah Mucha & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, who will join the incoming Biden administration as a White House senior adviser and director of the Office of Public Engagement, tested positive for Covid-19, Biden transition spokesperson Kate Bedingfield said Thursday in a statement. Richmond recently traveled to Atlanta for a Tuesday campaign event for the Senate runoff elections in Georgia, where President-elect Joe Biden was also present. Bedingfield said that Biden on Thursday underwent PCR testing for Covid-19 and the virus was not detected. 'Richmond's interactions with the President-elect happened in open air, were masked and totaled less than 15 consecutive minutes, the CDC's timeframe for close contact,' Bedingfield said."

Tuning Out Covid. Neal Rothschild of Axios: "States that voted for President Trump tend to have high coronavirus caseloads compared to how much COVID content they read online, while the opposite is true of states that voted for President-elect Biden, according to ... social media management platform SocialFlow.... The trend highlights a widespread rejection of coronavirus news and information in states that supported Trump, even in areas where the virus has gotten particularly deadly."

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Jobless claims unexpectedly rose last week as states reimposed coronavirus restrictions as lawmakers struggle to push through new government aid, according to a Labor Department report Thursday. The number of first-time unemployment-benefits filers totaled 885,000 in the week ending Dec. 12, the most since the week of Sept. 5. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected initial claims to fall to 808,000. Initial claims for the previous week were revised higher by 9,000 to 862,000."

Sweden. Reuters: "Sweden's king said his country had failed in its handling of COVID-19, in a sharp criticism of a pandemic policy partly blamed for a high death toll among the elderly. Carl XVI Gustaf, whose son and daughter-in-law tested positive last month, used an annual royal Christmas TV special to highlight the growing impact of the virus, in a rare intervention from a monarch whose duties are largely ceremonial. Sweden has stood out from most countries by shunning lockdowns and face masks, leaving schools, restaurants and businesses largely open and relying mainly on voluntary social distancing and hygiene recommendations to slow the spread. An official commission said on Tuesday systemic shortcomings in elderly care coupled with inadequate measures from the government and agencies contributed to Sweden's particularly high death toll in nursing homes."

More Real News

This is looking like it's the worst hacking case in the history of America. They got into everything. -- U.S Official ~~~

~~~ "A Grave Risk." David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Federal officials issued an urgent warning on Thursday that hackers, who American intelligence agencies believed were working for the Kremlin, used a far wider variety of tools than previously known to penetrate government systems, calling the cyberoffensive 'a grave risk to the federal government.' The discovery suggests that the hacking, which now appears to have extended to the Energy Department agency that designs nuclear weapons and the federal agency that protects the nation's power grid, vastly complicates the challenge for federal investigators as they search through computer networks trying to assess the damage and understand the scope of what had been stolen. A central question is whether the access could go beyond espionage, to destructive attacks.... Minutes after the statement from the cybersecurity arm of the Department of Homeland Security, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued a strong statement -- especially in comparison with Mr. Trump, who has said nothing about the attacks. Mr. Biden warned that his administration would impose 'substantial costs' on those responsible.... After playing down the episode -- in addition to Mr. Trump's silence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has deflected the hacking as one of the many daily attacks on the federal government, suggesting China was the biggest offender -- the government's new alert left no doubt the assessment had changed." ~~~

     ~~~ Politico broke the story. The Washington Post's story is here. More under "The Last Days...." ~~~

~~~ Ben Fox of the AP: "Members of Congress said they feared that taxpayers' personal information could have been exposed because the IRS is part of Treasury, which used SolarWinds software. Tom Kellermann, cybersecurity strategy chief of the software company VMware, said the hackers are now 'omniscient to the operations' of federal agencies they've infiltrated 'and there is viable concern that they might leverage destructive attacks within these agencies' in reaction to U.S. response. Among the business sectors scrambling to protect their systems and assess potential theft of information are defense contractors, technology companies and providers of telecommunications and the electric grid. A group led by CEOs in the electric power industry said it held a 'situational awareness call' earlier this week to help electric companies and public power utilities identify whether the compromise posed a threat to their networks." ~~~

~~~ Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Democrats and some Republicans raised the alarm Thursday about a massive and growing cybersecurity breach that many experts blame on Russia, with President-elect Joe Biden implicitly criticizing the Trump administration for allowing the hacking attack to occur. 'We need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant cyber attacks in the first place,' Biden said in a statement. 'Our adversaries should know that, as president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation.'... The president's silence about an organized attack on the U.S. government marks the latest example of his persistent reluctance to criticize Russia.... Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) ... assailed the administration's handling of the attack." Here's Biden's full statement.

Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "Nearly a dozen immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement were kept in solitary confinement for more than two months, including two people who were isolated for more than 300 days, according to a draft Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's report obtained by BuzzFeed News. The draft, which highlighted a February inspection of the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico, California, also documented how food at the facility had expired and gone moldy."

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) has been selected to lead the Interior Department in President-elect Joe Biden's administration, making history as the first Native American tapped for a Cabinet position. Haaland, who has been backed by a number of progressive groups as well as tribes, would take over a sprawling, 70,000-person agency with a mandate from Biden to help deliver on his climate promises. If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland would likely deliver a significant turnaround for an agency that has rolled back environmental and endangered species protections and expanded oil and gas drilling. Biden has pledged to bar any new oil and gas leasing on public lands -- an effort likely to require action from Interior." * The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ * Marie: Yeah But. We did have a Native American vice president.

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will nominate Michael S. Regan, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to three people on the Biden transition team. Mr. Regan became Mr. Biden's top choice only in recent days, two people familiar with the selection process said.... A longtime air quality specialist at the E.P.A. working under both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, Mr. Regan later worked for the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group. In 2017, Roy Cooper, a Democrat, defeated Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, in North Carolina and tapped Mr. Regan to lead the state environmental agency. There he replaced Donald R. van der Vaart, a Trump administration ally who has questioned the established science of climate change and fought Obama-era rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and championed a pro-business agenda of deregulation in North Carolina. Supporters of Mr. Regan said he improved low morale and emphasized the role of science at the department. Several called it an obvious parallel to what he would be expected to do at E.P.A." MB: As to Regan's improving morale, the photo of Regan that accompanies the article depicts a man who could make me smile on my worst day. Politico's story is here.

Marie: Joe Biden's administration really is going to "look like America," and it will come as a shock to white Americans. White Americans' answer to Stephen Colbert's "I don't see color" is "The only color I see is white."

Marina Pitofsky of the Hill: "Jennifer Horn, the former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party and a co-founder of the anti-Trump GOP group The Lincoln Project, announced Thursday in a new op-ed that she is leaving the Republican Party as President Trump and his allies continue their efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election. Horn said she 'became a Republican' because she viewed the party's values as 'a voice for equality, freedom and constitutional conservatism, with a rich history of fighting for what was right because it was right.... For the past five years, however, I have found myself fighting for what I thought were the principles of my party in the face of the ever-deteriorating character and integrity of party representatives,' Horn wrote in the op-ed published Thursday by USA Today. 'They have revealed their impotence and decrepitude as they have fallen, one by one, at the feet of the most corrupt, destructive and unstable president in the history of our country.'"

Supremes Decide Not to Decide. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday denied a Kentucky Christian academy's plea that it should be exempt from the governor's order requiring all K-12 institutions to temporarily cease in-person classes because of rising coronavirus cases. The Danville Christian Academy, joined by Kentucky's attorney general [R], said it should not be compared to other schools, but to businesses that have been allowed to remain open with reduced capacities, and doing otherwise was a violation of religious rights. But the court, in an unsigned order, noted that schools are about to begin their holiday breaks, and Gov. Andrew Beshear's mandate expires before schools reopen Jan. 4. If Beshear (D) reissues the restriction, the court said, the plaintiffs could return to court. Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch ... agreed with the Christian schools' argument that they were being treated differently than businesses." The New York Times' story is here.

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "Two of a group of billionaire Sackler family members that own Purdue Pharma, the US pharmaceutical manufacturer of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, refused to apologize for their role in the opioids crisis that has killed almost half a million Americans, during a hearing in Washington on Thursday. Kathe Sackler and David Sackler, former board members of Purdue, both said sorry for the pain endured by individuals suffering from addiction and those who lost loved ones to overdoses, but they avoided admitting any personal culpability. It was the first time members of the family faced such public scrutiny in person for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic.... The House committee hearing is part of a congressional investigation into 'the role of Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family in the opioid epidemic'."

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

As it was in the beginning ...AWOL, as Usual. Kevin Liptak of CNN: "When ... Donald Trump convened his Cabinet at the White House Wednesday as Washington absorbed news of a massive data breach, the heads of most agencies relevant to the intrusion -- including the Department of Defense, the State Department, the Justice Department, the director of national intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency -- were absent. After the meeting, Trump said nothing about the attack, which went undetected by his administration's intelligence agencies for months. As those agencies now mobilize to assess the damage..., the President himself remains silent on the matter, preoccupied instead with his election loss and his invented claims of widespread voter fraud. The massive data breach, revealed in the final weeks of Trump's administration, amounts to a dramatic coda for a presidency clouded by questions of deference to Russia and unsuccessful attempts to warm relations with its President, Vladimir Putin. Just as he has largely ignored the latest surge in coronavirus cases, Trump appears to have all but abdicated responsibility in his final weeks in office." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't think Trump ever grasped, even for a minute, that the presidency is the most burdensome job in the U.S. He always thought it was about pomp, perks & parades. He thought it was about bossing everybody around & his "Article II right to do whatever I want." While he did hold the title of "president," he never, ever was president. ~~~

     ~~~ Red Painter of Crooks & Liars: "Was this Donald Trump's final payment to Putin? Turning a blind eye to the literal hack of our national secrets, including nuclear weapons? We were worried about him selling national secrets and intelligence AFTER he left office. No one considered he would let it happen while he was STILL IN OFFICE." MB: I don't think Trump gave away all of our secrets on purpose; I think he did it through wilful negligence and sabotage. Trump believes the "deep state," especially within the intelligence community, was trying to undo him, so he behaved in kind, doing his best to scramble their work to the point they became ineffective.

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "White House aides intervened Thursday to prevent President Trump from issuing a statement calling for substantially larger stimulus payments for millions of Americans, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... On a phone call Thursday afternoon, Trump told allies that he believes stimulus payments in the next relief package should be 'at least' $1,200 per person and possibly as big as $2,000 per person, the officials said. Congressional leadership is preparing a stimulus package that would provide checks of $600 per person. Trump was in the middle of formally drafting his demand for the larger payments when White House officials told him that doing so could imperil delicate negotiations over the economic relief package...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Remember that Trump favors these "stimulus checks" because he wants millions of Americans to see his big fat scrawl at the bottom of a fat bonus check. The checks are not nearly as effective at alleviating financial suffering as, say, additional unemployment benefits would be, because the checks go out to everyone below a certain income level, whether or not s/he's lost income because of the virus. An out-of-work waitperson gets the same check as a delivery truck driver who got a raise to $75,000/year.

Maeve Reston of CNN: "When the history of the pandemic is written, one of the great mysteries will be what ... Donald Trump was doing in the waning days of his presidency as the number of Covid-19 deaths in the US soared past 3,000 each day, the virus spread unchecked and Congress dithered over the details of an emergency relief package that could be the difference between people being able to eat and being forced to sleep on the streets this holiday season. Trump ran for president pretending he was the consummate dealmaker.... He will go down in history as a president who worsened the grief and tragedy of the most consequential pandemic in 100 years by being contemptuous of masks and the safety precautions designed by his own administration -- a man incapable of empathy, who chose to remain cocooned in his White House bubble at a time when leadership would have mattered." And so forth. MB: Reston is fairly unsparing of Trump, but she let's Mitch McConnell & John Thune get away with their lying spin.

Mark Follman of Mother Jones: "... Donald Trump is engaged in a deliberate campaign of terrorism aimed at Americans who oppose him politically. That ... is the assessment of veteran national security experts, whose view of the political violence being stoked by the outgoing president is echoed by law enforcement and political leaders. As Trump has pushed a litany of lies and conspiracy theories claiming that the 2020 election was 'stolen' from him through 'massive fraud,' he has stirred his most extreme supporters into menacing public officials, election workers, and his Democratic and Republican critics alike. Over the past four years, numerous perpetrators of threats and violence have directly invoked the president and his rhetoric, and recent gatherings by far-right groups in support of Trump's efforts to reverse his election defeat have led to beatings, stabbings and a shooting. Trump is using a tactic known as 'stochastic terrorism,' says Juliette Kayyem, a ... former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. It's a method of political incitement that provokes random acts of extremist violence, in which the instigator uses rhetoric ambiguous enough to give himself and his allies plausible deniability for any resulting bloodshed. Violent threats or attacks linked to the rhetoric usually generate muted denials and equivocal denunciations, or claims to have been 'joking,' as Trump and those speaking on his behalf have routinely hidden behind."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Dominion Voting Systems sent a blistering letter on Wednesday night to the right-wing lawyer Sidney Powell, demanding that she publicly retract her 'wild, knowingly baseless and false accusations' about the company's voting machines, which have repeatedly found themselves at the heart of conspiracy theories surrounding the election. The letter, a preparatory step to formal legal action, accused Ms. Powell of engaging in 'reckless disinformation' about Dominion's machines at news conferences, rallies in support of President Trump and on conservative media outlets.... Ms. Powell has also filed unsuccessful federal lawsuits seeking to overturn the election in four key swing states, lodging claims that were 'predicated on lies,' the letter says, and that have 'endangered Dominion's business and the lives of its employees.'" ~~~

~~~ Marie: There must be corporations and wealthy people who can't wait for January 20, when they can sue Donald Trump for defamation for false statements he has made about them.

Gabby Orr & Nahal Toosi of Politico: "On Jan. 6, Vice President Mike Pence will oversee final confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Then he'll likely skip town.... According to three U.S. officials familiar with the planning, the vice president is eyeing a foreign trip that would take him overseas for nearly a week, starting on Jan. 6.... For Pence, visiting [Middle East] countries is ... a way to bolster already-strong credentials with the Christian right, which strongly supports Israel. And it allows Pence -- once again -- to put distance between himself and Trump's complaints about the election outcome that are likely to intensify after Congress affirms Biden's win."

Quint Forgey & Matthew Choi of Politico: "Jen O'Malley Dillon, President-elect Joe Biden's campaign manager and incoming White House deputy chief of staff, walked back comments [link fixed] she made in a recent interview suggesting that congressional Republicans were 'a bunch of f---ers.'... O'Malley Dillon acknowledged she 'used some words that I probably could have chosen better' when speaking with author Glennon Doyle for a Glamour magazine interview published Tuesday.... O'Malley Dillon's remarks became that target of fierce condemnation this week from Republican officials and conservative media figures.... But the backlash to the Glamour interview also in turn provoked its own fury from Democrats and some pundits, who accused O'Malley Dillon's critics of faux outrage -- especially those who had remained largely silent for years of ... Donald Trump's incendiary and often off-color rhetoric.... After Sen. Marco Rubio criticized O'Malley Dillon's language on Twitter, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) accused the Florida Republican of having a double standard for failing to speak out when Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) called her a 'f---ing b---'. '.@marcorubio you stood by in total silence when your GOP colleague called a Congresswoman a 'f- b-' on the Capitol steps in front of press.... BTW that is the right word for those who fleece & scam working families,' Ocasio-Cortez tweeted." ~~~

~~~ If you have a subscription to the Washington Post, it's worth reading Karen Tumulty's commentary on Marco Rubio's (and other Republicans') taking umbrage at Jennifer O'Malley Dillon -- soon to be a top Biden staffer -- use of the word "fuckers" in a Glamour magazine interview. Tumulty is surprised Marco is reading way down to the last grafs of a Glamour story, but later she hints that maybe he didn't really read the interview because he took Dillon's remark out of context. MB: Here again, it's fine with me if Marco wants to wet himself over a woman's using blue language. He can complain about Dillon every day, just as Tucker Carlson complains about Dr. Jill Biden's using an honorific she earned.

Georgia Senate Race. Turns out Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) really enjoys posing for photos with far-right extremists & white supremacists. She does so often. Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post reports.

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Wednesday
Dec162020

The Commentariat -- December 17, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) has been selected to lead the Interior Department in President-elect Joe Biden's administration, making history as the first Native American tapped for a Cabinet position. Haaland, who has been backed by a number of progressive groups as well as tribes, would take over a sprawling, 70,000-person agency with a mandate from Biden to help deliver on his climate promises. If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland would likely deliver a significant turnaround for an agency that has rolled back environmental and endangered species protections and expanded oil and gas drilling. Biden has pledged to bar any new oil and gas leasing on public lands -- an effort likely to require action from Interior." * The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ * Marie: Yeah But. We did have a Native American vice president.

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will nominate Michael S. Regan, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to three people on the Biden transition team. Mr. Regan became Mr. Biden's top choice only in recent days, two people familiar with the selection process said.... A longtime air quality specialist at the E.P.A. working under both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, Mr. Regan later worked for the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group. In 2017, Roy Cooper, a Democrat, defeated Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, in North Carolina and tapped Mr. Regan to lead the state environmental agency. There he replaced Donald R. van der Vaart, a Trump administration ally who has questioned the established science of climate change and fought Obama-era rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and championed a pro-business agenda of deregulation in North Carolina. Supporters of Mr. Regan said he improved low morale and emphasized the role of science at the department. Several called it an obvious parallel to what he would be expected to do at E.P.A." MB: As to Regan's improving morale, the photo of Regan that accompanies the article depicts a man who could make me smile on my worst day. Politico's story is here.

The New York Times' live Covid-19 updates Thursday are here.

One-Man Superspreader. Celine Castronuovo of the Hill: "Department of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has tested positive for COVID-19 following days of meetings with political appointees, a department spokesman confirmed to The Washington Post Wednesday. Interior spokesman Nicholas Goodwin told the Post in an email that Bernhardt, 51, received the diagnosis ahead of a scheduled Cabinet meeting with President Trump Wednesday, which Bernhardt did not attend following his positive test."

Tuning Out Covid. Neal Rothschild of Axios: "States that voted for President Trump tend to have high coronavirus caseloads compared to how much COVID content they read online, while the opposite is true of states that voted for President-elect Biden, according to exclusive data from social media management platform SocialFlow.... The trend highlights a widespread rejection of coronavirus news and information in states that supported Trump, even in areas where the virus has gotten particularly deadly."

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Jobless claims unexpectedly rose last week as states reimposed coronavirus restrictions as lawmakers struggle to push through new government aid, according to a Labor Department report Thursday. The number of first-time unemployment-benefits filers totaled 885,000 in the week ending Dec. 12, the most since the week of Sept. 5. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected initial claims to fall to 808,000. Initial claims for the previous week were revised higher by 9,000 to 862,000."

Gabby Orr & Nahal Toosi of Politico: "On Jan. 6, Vice President Mike Pence will oversee final confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Then he'll likely skip town.... According to three U.S. officials familiar with the planning, the vice president is eyeing a foreign trip that would take him overseas for nearly a week, starting on Jan. 6.... For Pence, visiting [Middle East] countries is ... a way to bolster already-strong credentials with the Christian right, which strongly supports Israel. And it allows Pence -- once again -- to put distance between himself and Trump's complaints about the election outcome that are likely to intensify after Congress affirms Biden's win."

Marina Pitofsky of the Hill: "Jennifer Horn, the former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party and a co-founder of the anti-Trump GOP group The Lincoln Project, announced Thursday in a new op-ed that she is leaving the Republican Party as President Trump and his allies continue their efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election. Horn said she 'became a Republican' because she viewed the party's values as 'a voice for equality, freedom and constitutional conservatism, with a rich history of fighting for what was right because it was right.... For the past five years, however, I have found myself fighting for what I thought were the principles of my party in the face of the ever-deteriorating character and integrity of party representatives,' Horn wrote in the op-ed published Thursday by USA Today. 'They have revealed their impotence and decrepitude as they have fallen, one by one, at the feet of the most corrupt, destructive and unstable president in the history of our country.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "... the broad Russian espionage attack on the United States government and private companies, underway since spring and detected by the private sector only a few weeks ago, ranks among the greatest intelligence failures of modern times.... Over the past few years, the United States government has spent tens of billions of dollars on cyberoffensive capabilities, building a giant war room at Fort Meade, Md., for United States Cyber Command, while installing defensive sensors all around the country -- a system named Einstein to give it an air of genius -- to deter the nation's enemies from picking its networks clean, again.... President Trump has said nothing, perhaps aware that his term in office is coming to an end just as it began, with questions about what he knew about Russian cyberoperations, and when. The National Security Agency has been largely silent, hiding behind the classification of the intelligence." MB: And for National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, the worst part was the discovery cut short his excellent all-expense-paid vacation to Europe with his wife. ~~~

~~~ AND There's This: "Curiously, the Russian attack barely featured as a footnote at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee [run by Stupidest Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)] hearing on Wednesday, which featured testimony from Christopher Krebs, the cybersecurity chief who was fired last month after refusing to back Mr. Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud. The hack took place during Mr. Krebs's tenure as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, but senators did not ask him about it at the hearing, instead focusing on the hack that wasn't: baseless allegations of fraud in the November election." MB: Nothing "curious" about it at all: there's nothing in it for Johnson, the dimwitted master of Trumpish conspiracy theories.

The New York Times' live Biden transition updates Wednesday are here: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday formally introduced Pete Buttigieg as his nominee for transportation secretary, a role that will be key to advancing Mr. Biden's ambitious agenda on rebuilding the nation's infrastructure and on climate change.... Mr. Biden appeared with Mr. Buttigieg at an event in Wilmington, Del., calling him 'a policy wonk with a big heart.' Vice President-elect Kamala Harris joined via video because of the winter storm on the East Coast. 'We selected Pete for transportation because the department is at the intersection of some of our most ambitious plans to build back better,' Mr. Biden said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Zack Colman & Tyler Pager of Politico: "President-elect Joe Biden will tap Brenda Mallory to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, according to two people familiar with selection, which would put the veteran environmental lawyer in charge of an office with sweeping purview over how the federal government assesses environmental effects of policies, permits and infrastructure projects. The Senate-confirmed post would mark a return to the office for Mallory, who worked as general counsel there during the Obama administration. Mallory currently leads the Southern Environmental Law Center's regulatory practice."

Emily Davies of the Washington Post: "... the coronavirus pandemic will dramatically change President-elect Joe Biden's swearing-in ceremony and stoked calls for a more festive celebration around July 4. Members of Congress typically receive 200,000 tickets to distribute among their constituents for inaugurations. This year, tickets will be for the member and one guest only. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who leads the committee, said the decision to limit attendance was made in consultation with public health officials and a separate Biden-appointed committee working on planning.... On Tuesday, Biden's planning team formally announced the president-elect would be sworn in on the west side of the Capitol but also urged Americans to stay home and refrain from gathering during the inauguration." ~~~

~~~ Ken Vogel & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s allies have begun an ambitious campaign to raise millions of dollars from corporations and individuals by offering special 'V.I.P. participation' in reimagined inaugural festivities that will be largely virtual because of the coronavirus pandemic.... To create an air of celebration, Mr. Biden's inaugural committee said it was raising private funds to pay for virtual events that will echo the Democratic convention this year, which featured a 50-state roll call from spots around the nation. There are also plans for a 'virtual concert' with major performers whose names have not yet been released -- and possibly for an in-person event later in the year.... President Trump's inauguration ... became an access-peddling bazaar of sorts, and aspects of its record fund-raising and spending emerged as the subjects of investigations."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued in a new interview that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer should no longer lead Democrats in Congress, and complained that the party had failed at grooming a 'next generation' of younger lawmakers to succeed them. 'I do think that we need new leadership in the Democratic Party,' Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told The Intercept in an interview published Wednesday.... But Ocasio-Cortez observed in the interview that even the party's more moderate members have found it difficult to produce 'viable alternatives' to challenge her leadership. 'I think one of the things that I have struggled with -- I think that a lot of people struggle with -- is [that] the internal dynamics of the House has made it such that there's very little option for succession, if you will,' she said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Carol Lee & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "... Donald Trump has come so close to firing FBI Director Christopher Wray in recent months that the White House counsel's office has warned him not to do so because it could put him in potential legal jeopardy, according to a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the discussion and a U.S. official familiar with the discussion. White House lawyers 'strongly' advised Trump against firing another FBI director out of concern that doing so would risk creating the perception that a 'loyalty test' was being imposed on a position that traditionally has maintained independence from the White House, according to the senior administration official. The lawyers, led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, specifically said that firing Wray could spark legal issues similar to those raised after Trump ousted James Comey as FBI director in 2017 in the midst of the Russia investigation, the officials said."

When You Think Trump Can't Get More Insulting. Jewish Telegraph Agency: "... Donald Trump named three White House aides to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, including the son of his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, on Wednesday. Along with Andrew Giuliani, who works in the Office of Liaison, which interacts with interest groups, the others named to the voluntary posts are Mitchell Webber, a lawyer in the Office of the White House Counsel, and Nick Luna, Trump's 'body man.'... Only Webber, who is Jewish and wrote about Jewish and Israeli issues for the conservative New York Sun over a decade ago, seems to have any record of experience in [Jewish affairs].... Andrew Giuliani..., whose designated special interest group in the Public Liaison office is the sports community, at one point aspired to be a professional golfer.... Luna is a former actor who featured in films like 'Sammy and Sherlock Can't Get Any.' The Internet Movie Database summarizes the movie as 'A stoner couple spends the day trying to score weed in their dry suburban town.' His LinkedIn page says he trained in comedy."

The Coming Pardonpalooza. Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "Since Trump lost the election six weeks ago, calls and emails have been flooding into the West Wing from people looking to benefit from the President's powers of clemency.... Trump, who refuses to acknowledge his loss and who officials say is devolving further into denial, has nonetheless been eager to engage on who is requesting what. He's been handed case summaries to review and, in some instances, has polled his network of associates about whom he should pardon."

Because Trump Is Stupid. AFP: "Dutch prosecutors have confirmed that Donald Trump's Twitter account was hacked in October despite denials from Washington and the company, but said the 'ethical hacker' would not face charges. The hacker, named as Victor Gevers, broke into Trump's account @realDonaldTrump on 16 October by guessing the US president's password, Dutch media reports said. Both the White House and Twitter strenuously denied reports that the account had been hacked. Gevers, 44, disclosed the hack immediately, saying the password he guessed was 'maga2020!'" MB: Trump's new password, I'd guess, is "Trump2020."

North Carolina, Virginia. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "On Facebook, North Carolina state Sen. Bob Steinburg (R) ... [suggested] President Trump should declare a national emergency, suspend civil rights and remain in power over his baseless claims of election fraud. Asked by a local TV station on Tuesday whether he stands by those sentiments, Steinburg doubled down, insisting that nefarious forces had corrupted President-elect Joe Biden's victory.... 'President Trump must declare a national emergency,' the 72-year-old state senator wrote in the post, which has since been deleted. 'Trump should also invoke the Insurrection Act.' The Insurrection Act, which was signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807, would allow the president to deploy military forces on U.S. soil.... Steinburg also suggested in the Facebook post that the president suspend habeas corpus.... Virginia state Sen. Amanda F. Chase (R) on Tuesday also called for martial law, echoing a suggestion floated by Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser pardoned by the president last month." ~~~

     ~~~ Musical Accompaniment: "Dixie Land." Here's a nice version posted by something called "MAGA News." Comments suggest YouTube took the video down at least once. One recent commenter writes, "Texas secead then the rest of the South will and play Dixie so loud."

Leo Shane of the Military Times: "The nation's leading veterans groups on Wednesday formally requested that ... Donald Trump fire Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie immediately from his Cabinet post, saying that the VA administrator 'no longer has the trust or confidence of America's veterans.' The letter -- signed by leaders from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, AMVETS and Vietnam Veterans of America -- is the latest damning assessment of Wilkie's ability shepherd the department following the release of an inspector general report last week criticizing his handling of a sexual assault allegation late last year.... Since the report’s release, 21 lawmakers have also called for Wilkie's removal, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.... No Republicans have publicly called for Wilkie's firing." The White House has not commented.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Finally, significant fraud has been identified in the 2020 election. It is being perpetrated by Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin.... Though passively admitting 'the conclusion has collectively been reached' that any fraud was too small to reverse President-elect Joe Biden's win, Johnson then spent nearly four hours in a hearing Wednesday trying to suggest otherwise.... Other Republicans on the panel echoed the election-fraud alarm.... Johnson ... accused the ranking Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters (Mich.), of leaking 'a false intelligence product' about his attacks on Hunter Biden echoing Russian disinformation. When Peters tried to respond, Johnson interrupted: 'You lied! ... Outright lie! ... I told you to stop lying!' Peters replied, civilly, 'Mr. Chairman, this is not about airing your grievances. I don't know what rabbit hole you're running down.'... The Republicans displayed a distinct lack of self-awareness as they wondered aloud why most Trump voters believe there was fraud." Here's video of Johnson blowing up at Peters.

How Fox "News" Will Carry on without a Kaiser to Praise. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Fox News host Tucker Carlson obsessed over Jill Biden's doctorate in education for the third night in a row on Wednesday, this time devoting roughly ten minutes to mocking her dissertation while claiming the incoming first lady is 'borderline illiterate.'... [Carlson] has repeatedly bestowed the 'doctor' title on Sebastian Gorka, whose doctorate in political science has been questioned in the past. He's also addressed several other political scientists as 'Dr.' on his program." MB: As far as I'm concerned, Tucker can keep "obsessing" over Jill Biden for Joe Biden's entire presidency. What nonsense.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

New York Times: "Officials across the United States on Wednesday reported the highest daily number for new coronavirus since the pandemic began, as well as the most deaths in a single day. New infections were put at 244,365, and deaths at 3,607 -- nearly 500 more than the record set only a week ago. The previous case record, 236,800, was set last Friday (though a reporting anomaly in Texas made it appear still higher.) The latest figures capped day on which health experts warned Americans, buoyed by the rollout of a vaccination campaign, that it is far too soon to abandon common-sense precautions for halting the spread of the virus." From the Times' live updates for Wednesday, also linked below. ~~~

~~~ NBC News: "The U.S. on Wednesday saw its highest numbers yet of the pandemic, setting records for both the number of new cases and deaths. Across the nation, 232,086 Covid-19 cases were reported, with 3,293 deaths, according to NBC News' count.... By Thursday morning, the number of cases in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic passed 17 million, according to NBC News' count. More than 308,000 people have died."

Jeff Zeleny & Kate Sullivan of CNN: "President-elect Joe Biden is expected to get his first Covid-19 vaccination early next week, CNN has learned, and plans to get his shot in public. 'I don't want to get ahead of the line, but I want to make sure we demonstrate to the American people that it is safe to take,' Biden told reporters Wednesday in Wilmington, Delaware. 'When I do it, I'll do it publicly, so you can all witness my getting it done,' the President-elect said. People familiar with the plans say Biden is likely to get his shot next week. The delay has not been borne out of hesitation, aides say, but rather logistics of administering the shot in a public setting." ~~~

~~~ Joey Garrison & Michael Collins of USA Today: "Vice President Mike Pence is set to receive a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus Friday, while President-elect Joe Biden is expected to be vaccinated as soon as next week. Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence will receive the vaccine at the White House. Pence's office said they will get the shot 'publicly' to promote the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and 'build confidence among the American people.' The Pences will be joined by Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who will also receive the vaccine, Pence's office said.... Donald Trump has not announced plans to take the vaccine...."

Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "Congressional negotiators are on the brink of a coronavirus rescue package that would include a second round of direct payments and boost unemployment benefits, but would leave out state and local funding and a liability shield, according to lawmakers and sources briefed on the talks. The price tag of the emerging deal is roughly $900 billion, and a deal could be finalized on Wednesday, those sources said. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said the proposal would likely include direct checks to individuals of $600 to $700 and a weekly unemployment boost of $300 through March." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "Pharmacists have found a way to squeeze extra doses out of vials of Pfizer's vaccine, potentially expanding the nation's scarce supply by up to 40 percent. The Food and Drug Administration said late Wednesday that those extra doses could be used, clearing up confusion that had caused some pharmacists to throw away leftover vaccine for fear of violating the rules the agency set last week. 'Given the public health emergency, FDA is advising that it is acceptable to use every full dose obtainable,' an agency spokesperson told Politico, mirroring language that a federal health official sent to state vaccine providers Wednesday morning."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The Trump administration is negotiating a deal to use its power to free up supplies of raw materials to help Pfizer produce tens of millions of additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine for Americans in the first half of next year, people familiar with the situation said. Should an agreement be struck, it could at least partially remedy a looming shortage that the administration itself arguably helped create by not pre-ordering more doses of the vaccine Pfizer developed with its German partner, BioNTech." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here: "... a health-care worker in Alaska had a serious allergic reaction and was hospitalized after getting the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and is in stable condition, according to two people.... Authorities have not released further details about the incident, which echoes two similar cases in the United Kingdom last week...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dr Jeremy Faust, et al., in a New York Times op-ed: "In research published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, we found that among U.S. adults ages 25 to 44, from March through the end of July, there were almost 12,000 more deaths than were expected based on historical norms. In fact, July appears to have been the deadliest month among this age group in modern American history.... The trends continued this fall.... We know Covid-19 is the driving force behind these excess deaths.... What we believed before about the relative harmlessness of Covid-19 among younger adults has simply not been borne out by emerging data.... We need to tell young people that they are at risk and that they need to wear masks and make safer choices about social distancing."

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled his final major holiday party of the year Wednesday after his exposure to a person who tested positive for the coronavirus forced him into quarantine, according to two officials familiar with the situation. The decision caps a run of indoor holiday parties hosted by Pompeo, his wife, Susan, and his top aides that health experts and U.S. lawmakers warned could turn into superspreader events.... Pompeo was scheduled to give remarks at [a Tuesday] gathering [for which 900 invitations were sent] but canceled without explanation."

Dan Diamond of Politico: "A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a 'herd immunity' approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained by a House watchdog.... 'There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD,' then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote on July 4 to his boss, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo, and six other senior officials. Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk ... so we use them to develop herd ... we want them infected...,' Alexander added. '[I]t may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected' in order to get 'natural immunity ... natural exposure,' Alexander wrote on July 24 to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, Caputo and eight other senior officials.... Officials told Politico that they believed that when Alexander made recommendations, he had the backing of the White House.... 'Herd immunity is not the strategy of the U.S. government with regard to coronavirus,' HHS Secretary Alex Azar testified in a hearing before the House coronavirus subcommittee on Oct. 2." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

France. Emma Reynolds of CNN: "France's President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for Covid-19, the Elysee Palace said in a press release.... It said the president was diagnosed after he was tested 'at the onset of the first symptoms.... In accordance with current health regulations applicable to all, the President of the Republic will isolate himself for 7 days. He continues to work and carry out his activities remotely.'" At 4:40 am ET, this is a breaking story.


Major League Baseball Steps Up. At Long Last. Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post: "... on Wednesday, in a monumental change for the sport, Major League Baseball announced it was elevating the 1920-48 Negro Leagues to major league status, a move that not only seeks to right a cosmic wrong that has shadowed the game for a century -- the segregation of baseball that famously ended when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 -- but also forces a wholesale recalibration of its record book.... 'All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game's best players, innovations and triumphs against a backdrop of injustice,' Commissioner Rob Manfred said in the statement.... In effect, the move reverses the decision of MLB's Special Baseball Records Committee -- a five-person, all-White group commissioned in 1969 to codify the historical standards that define the major leagues -- which bestowed big league status on six leagues (including the Union Association, which played its only season in 1884) but never even considered including the Negro Leagues."

Katie Benner & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "... the Justice Department ... plans to unseal criminal charges in the coming days against another suspect in the [1988] bombing [of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland], a Libyan bomb expert named Abu Agila Mas'ud, according to two people familiar with the case. Monday will mark the 32nd anniversary of the attack.... The case against Mr. Mas'ud in part relied on the work of a journalist named Ken Dornstein, who was working at the PBS news show 'Frontline' when he began his own exhaustive investigation into the bombing. His brother, David, was among those killed aboard the plane...."

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Winter Storm Gail is hammering the Northeast as a high-impact nor'easter packing heavy snow, strong winds and coastal flooding. This storm's impacts aren't confined to the interior Northeast, but are also occurring near parts of the Interstate 95 corridor from New England to New York City. Over 40 inches of snow has been reported in south-central New York and snowfall from Gail, heavy in some areas, continues to fall in much of New York and New England. Ten inches of snow has been measured at Central Park as of Thursday morning. The National Weather Service has posted winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories from portions of New England to the mid-Atlantic." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of the winter snowstorm Gail hitting the Northeast U.S. are here. MB: My VW bug, sitting in my snow-hidden driveway, looks less like a vehicle than an igloo with rearview mirrors. ~~~

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Tuesday
Dec152020

The Commentariat -- December 16, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "Congressional negotiators are on the brink of a coronavirus rescue package that would include a second round of direct payments and boost unemployment benefits, but would leave out state and local funding and a liability shield.... The price tag of the emerging deal is roughly $900 billion, and a deal could be finalized on Wednesday, those sources said. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said the proposal would likely include direct checks to individuals of $600 to $700 and a weekly unemployment boost of $300 through March."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The Trump administration is negotiating a deal to use its power to free up supplies of raw materials to help Pfizer produce tens of millions of additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine for Americans in the first half of next year, people familiar with the situation said. Should an agreement be struck, it could at least partially remedy a looming shortage that the administration itself arguably helped create by not pre-ordering more doses of the vaccine Pfizer developed with its German partner, BioNTech." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here: "... a health-care worker in Alaska had a serious allergic reaction and was hospitalized after getting the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and is in stable condition, according to two people familiar with the situation. Authorities have not released further details about the incident, which echoes two similar cases in the United Kingdom last week...."

The New York Times' live Biden transition updates Wednesday are here: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday formally introduced Pete Buttigieg as his nominee for transportation secretary, a role that will be key to advancing Mr. Biden's ambitious agenda on rebuilding the nation's infrastructure and on climate change.... Mr. Biden appeared with Mr. Buttigieg at an event in Wilmington, Del., calling him 'a policy wonk with a big heart.' Vice President-elect Kamala Harris joined via video because of the winter storm on the East Coast. 'We selected Pete for transportation because the department is at the intersection of some of our most ambitious plans to build back better,' Mr. Biden said."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued in a new interview that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer should no longer lead Democrats in Congress, and complained that the party had failed at grooming a 'next generation' of younger lawmakers to succeed them. 'I do think that we need new leadership in the Democratic Party,' Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told The Intercept in an interview published Wednesday.... But Ocasio-Cortez observed in the interview that even the party's more moderate members have found it difficult to produce 'viable alternatives' to challenge her leadership. 'I think one of the things that I have struggled with -- I think that a lot of people struggle with -- is [that] the internal dynamics of the House has made it such that there's very little option for succession, if you will,' she said."

Dan Diamond of Politico: "A top Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to adopt a 'herd immunity' approach to Covid-19 and allow millions of Americans to be infected by the virus, according to internal emails obtained by a House watchdog and shared with Politico. 'There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD,' then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote on July 4 to his boss, Health and Human Services assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo, and six other senior officials. Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk ... so we use them to develop herd ... we want them infected...' Alexander added. '[I]t may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected' in order to get 'natural immunity ... natural exposure,' Alexander wrote on July 24 to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, Caputo and eight other senior officials.... Officials told Politico that they believed that when Alexander made recommendations, he had the backing of the White House.... 'Herd immunity is not the strategy of the U.S. government with regard to coronavirus,' HHS Secretary Alex Azar testified in a hearing before the House coronavirus subcommittee on Oct. 2."

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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Jeff Stein & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Congressional leaders are near an agreement to add a new round of stimulus checks to a roughly $900 billion relief package as they rush to complete a deal before the end of the week, according to three people familiar with the talks...." The story has some of the details of the package, but it looks as if they remain a bit fluid. MB: What's there there at this point doesn't look as bad as a GOP-generated bill.

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

William Wan of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized the first rapid coronavirus test that can be taken at home without prescription and that yields immediate results. The test could be a vital tool in the country's fight against the virus -- especially in the months before most Americans are vaccinated. Unlike previous home tests, this version does not require samples to be sent to a lab and can be taken without doctor's orders by anyone older than 2. The test, developed by Australian company Ellume, is just one of several positive developments for coronavirus testing. The newly approved home test will cost about $30, and the first batches will be shipped out the first week of January, according to Ellume. After months of failures, long lines and continued shortages, the country's testing capacity is finally expected to increase rapidly in the coming two to three months, reaching many times its current levels, experts said.... The FDA allowed the test under an emergency use authorization."

Noah Weiland, et al., of the New York Times: "Newly released data confirmed on Tuesday that Moderna's coronavirus vaccine is highly protective, setting the stage for its emergency authorization this week by federal regulators and the start of its distribution across the country. The Food and Drug Administration intends to authorize use of the vaccine on Friday, people familiar with the agency's plans said. The decision would give millions of Americans access to a second coronavirus vaccine beginning as early as Monday. The review by the F.D.A. confirms Moderna's earlier assessment that its vaccine had an efficacy rate of 94.1 percent in a trial of 30,000 people. Side effects, including fever, headache and fatigue, were unpleasant but not dangerous, the agency found. The success of Moderna's vaccine has become all the more crucial to fighting the pandemic as other vaccine efforts have faltered." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Insidious Grasp of Tiny Hands. Noah Weiland of the New York Times on how the White House political shop controlled the CDC. As one employee put it, "... like a hand grasping something, and it slowly closes, closes, closes, closes until you realize that ... it has a complete grasp on everything at the C.D.C."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders scrambled on Tuesday to reach agreement on a stimulus bill and a catchall omnibus funding package to keep government funding flowing, meeting to try to hammer out critical spending deals ahead of a Friday deadline. Their talks broke up about 10 p.m. Tuesday, with lawmakers voicing some optimism as they left the Capitol. Stopping to speak to reporters after the meeting, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said, 'We're making significant progress.'"

Florida. Jamie Ross of the Daily Beast: "The South Florida Sun Sentinel has noticed an extremely strange anomaly in the state's coronavirus-related death figures. On Oct. 24..., the state stopped including the backlog of unrecorded fatalities, leading to smaller death totals in the days when Floridians started heading to the polls for early voting. Officials only started including the number in the overall totals again on Nov. 17, weeks after the vote. It's not clear why the anomaly happened, and state officials refused to explain it to the newspaper. Read it at South Florida Sun Sentinel." MB: Gee, that's the same gang who fired data scientist Rebekah Jones for refusing to manipulate coronavirus data. Recently, law enforcement agents, at the behest of the same gang (state health department), raided Jones' home, pointing weapons at her & her children. The state's treatment of Jones & its manipulation of Covid-19 data warrant a criminal investigation.

More Real News

Rick Rojas & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday urged Georgia voters to cast ballots for two Democratic Senate candidates in a pair of critical runoffs early next month that he hopes will give his party control of the Senate and help Democrats advance the agenda he promised during his campaign. 'You all did something extraordinary in November,' Mr. Biden said to cheers and honks at a drive-in campaign rally intended to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. 'You voted in record numbers in order to improve the lives of every Georgian. And you voted as if your life depended on it. Well, guess what?' he added. 'Now you're going to have to do it again.'"

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden will nominate Jennifer M. Granholm, a former governor of Michigan and a longtime champion of renewable energy development, to be the next secretary of energy, according to four people close to the president-elect's transition team. If confirmed, Ms. Granholm, 61, will be the second woman, after Hazel R. O'Leary, who served under President Bill Clinton, to lead the vast department, which oversees the United States nuclear weapons complex as well as 17 national laboratories and a wide range of energy research and development initiatives." A Politico story is here.

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is expected to pick Gina McCarthy, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama and the architect of some of his most far-reaching regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions, to serve as senior White House adviser on climate change, according to three people close to the Biden transition team. As White House adviser, Ms. McCarthy will coordinate domestic climate policies across the United States government, playing a central role in helping Mr. Biden make good on his campaign promise of putting the United States on track to reach carbon neutrality before 2050. Mr. Biden also intends to name Ali Zaidi, the deputy secretary for energy and environment for New York State, who helped write Mr. Biden's climate plan, as Ms. McCarthy's deputy.

Dan Merica of CNN: "President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, elevating the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to a top post in the federal government. Buttigieg would be the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet secretary should his nomination make it through the chamber. The choice vaults a candidate Biden spoke glowingly of after the Democratic primary into a top job in the incoming administration and could earn Buttigieg what many Democrats believe is needed experience should he run for president again. The role of transportation secretary is expected to play a central role in Biden's push for a bipartisan infrastructure package." The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Turtle Has Spoken. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Tuesday, marking the first time he has directly acknowledged their victory. 'The Electoral College has spoken, so today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He's devoted himself to public service for many years,' McConnell said." Update: A New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Breaking with President Trump's drive to overturn his election loss, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Tuesday congratulated President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on his victory and began a campaign to keep fellow Republicans from joining a doomed last-ditch effort to reverse the outcome in Congress. Although Mr. McConnell waited until weeks after Mr. Biden was declared the winner to recognize the outcome, his actions were a clear bid by the majority leader, who is the most powerful Republican in Congress, to pu an end to his party's attempts to sow doubt about the election." ~~~

~~~ Maybe Moscow Mitch Was Waiting for Vlad's Okay. Mary Ilyushina of CNN: "Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the US presidential election Tuesday, six weeks after the vote and a day after the Electoral College officially affirmed Biden's win." The WashPo's item on Putin's congrats was posted at 6:52 am ET. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live Biden transition updates Tuesday are here.  (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: In his seventh acceptance speech Monday, President-elect Biden noted that he had won the same number of Electoral College votes as Trump did in 2016. While that's true, Biden actually received two more votes than Trump did in 2016, because of faithless electors. So if Trump's win was a "landslide" (it wasn't), then I guess Biden won a "huge landslide."

** Nathaniel Rakich & Elena Majia of 538: "Joe Biden may have won the White House, but down-ballot races were much better for Republicans. In fact, the GOP's victories in state-level elections could pay dividends long after Biden leaves office, thanks to their influence over next year's redistricting process.... [T]he end result was just about the best-case scenario for Republicans.... Republicans are set to control the redistricting of 188 congressional seats -- or 43 percent of the entire House of Representatives. By contrast, Democrats will control the redistricting of, at most, 73 seats, or 17 percent.... The GOP is in almost as good a position as it enjoyed in the last redistricting process, when Republicans controlled the drawing of 55 percent of congressional districts and Democrats controlled only 10 percent after 2010's GOP wave. As a result, the House map has been more biased toward Republicans this decade than at any point since the 1970s.... Democrats were able to win the House and several state legislatures in 2018 thanks to shifting vote patterns in the suburbs in particular, but Republicans in many states will now have the opportunity to draw new gerrymanders that account for this realignment.... That said..., at least 167 districts, or 38 percent of the House, will be drawn by independent commissions or by both parties sharing power. That’s up from 145 (33 percent) in 2011[.]" --s

Nicole Brodeur of The Seattle Times: "MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist, author and former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced Tuesday that she has given away $4.1 billion in the past four months to 384 organizations, part of a giving pledge she announced last year.... In a Medium post that went live Tuesday morning, Scott explained the thinking behind her pandemic-era philanthropy. She wrote of the poet Emily Dickinson, whose isolation was voluntary and focused on death -- but also on hope. That is what Scott chose to focus on, she wrote, as winter approached and the pandemic dragged on. She described the coronavirus pandemic as 'a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,' and noted is has been worse for women, people of color and those living in poverty. 'Meanwhile,' she wrote, 'it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.'" --s

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Right up to Monday's Electoral College vote, President Trump held the false hope that Republican-controlled state legislatures would replace electors with allies who'd overturn Joe Biden's win, two people who discussed the matter with him told Axios.... Through the past week, the sources said, the president browbeat GOP legislators in multiple states, launched tirades against Republican Govs. Doug Ducey of Arizona and Brian Kemp of Georgia, vowed to make Fox News 'pay' for accurately calling the race, and tested ways to say he didn't win without acknowledging he had lost." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: I do think there's a good chance that the German-speaking von Trump (typo; that's von Trapp) family, appearing in the great hall of a lavish castle (note gold upholstery on chairs), could impress upon the Kailser that it's time to decamp to other digs. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link: ~~~

~~~ But Maybe Not to Palm Beach. Manuel Roig-Franzia & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Next-door neighbors of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump&'s private club in Palm Beach, Fla., that he has called his Winter White House, have a message for the outgoing commander in chief: We don't want you to be our neighbor. That message was formally delivered Tuesday morning in a demand letter delivered to the town of Palm Beach and also addressed to the U.S. Secret Service asserting that Trump lost his legal right to live at Mar-a-Lago because of an agreement he signed in the early 1990s when he converted the storied estate from his private residence to a private club. The legal maneuver could, at long last, force Palm Beach to publicly address whether Trump can make Mar-a-Lago his legal residence and home, as he has been expected to do.... The contretemps sets up a potentially awkward scenario, unique in recent history, in which a former Oval Office occupant would find himself having to officially defend his choice of a place to live during his post-presidency. It also could create a legal headache for Trump because he changed his official domicile to Mar-a-Lago.... (Trump originally tried to register to vote in Florida using the White House in Washington as his address, which is not allowed under Florida law. He later changed the registration to the Mar-a-Lago address.)"

Michael Stratford of Politico: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged career employees at the Education Department on Tuesday to 'be the resistance' when the Biden administration comes into power next month, according to a recording of her remarks obtained by Politico. During a department-wide virtual meeting to discuss the shift to the new administration, DeVos acknowledged that most of the agency's thousands of career employees 'will be here through the coming transition and beyond.' 'Let me leave you with this plea: Resist,' DeVos said. 'Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what's right for students. In everything you do, please put students first -- always.'... The secretary's remarks come after nearly four years of frequently sparring with the career employees of her department." MB: Here are a few ways Betsy, uh, put students first.

Brett Wilkins of Common Dreams: "The Trump administration on Tuesday finalized a rule that wildlife advocates say will weaken the Endangered Species Act and severely limit the federal government's ability to protect habitat critical to the survival and recovery of imperiled species including grizzly bears and whooping cranes.... Under the new rule adopted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the definition of 'critical habitat' for an endangered species will be limited to places that could currently support such animals, not areas where they once lived and could be restored with the proper care and protections.... 'President [Donald] Trump has cemented his legacy as the most anti-wildlife president in history,' Stephanie Kurose, a senior policy specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement on Tuesday." --s

Roque Planas of the Huffington Post: "After being hit with a lawsuit in federal court, and after months of being pressed by Democratic lawmakers, the U.S. Postal Service finally released Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's calendar on Tuesday.... But the calendar released Tuesday is almost entirely redacted. From June 15 to Nov. 7, DeJoy held more than 450 meetings and conference calls, his electronic calendar says. But the agency's Freedom of Information Act office blacked out nearly every word[.]" --s ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What on earth is DeJoy doing that's so secret? Is his every clandestine activity corrupt? I think we should assume so. He's sure acting like a criminal.

Ho Ho Ho. John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Only a tiny fraction of the more than 900 guests invited to an indoor holiday party hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan showed up on Tuesday following an outcry from public health officials and U.S. lawmakers warning that the reception bore all the hallmarks of a superspreader event, said two U.S. officials familiar with the event. Pompeo, whose name was on the invitation and who was scheduled to speak at the event, canceled his speech and tapped a substitute speaker, said the two officials. The event was dedicated to the family members of diplomats serving overseas in dangerous postings that require them to leave their spouses and children behind, such as in Iraq or Afghanistan. The State Department did not respond to questions about why Pompeo canceled the speech and whether it was due to his own health concerns about holding a large indoor event. About 70 people RSVP'd for the event as of Monday night and even fewer showed up...." MB: All this went down precisely as contributor Patrick predicted a couple of weeks ago.

Mitch Threw Down the Gauntlet. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The position of the Senate GOP leader [Mitch McConnell] is now clear, pretty much negating any chance that Senate Republicans would participate in some kind of unlikely end-run not to accept the verdict of the electoral college.... McConnell is basically signaling he won't participate in such shenanigans.... Shortly after McConnell [congratulated Joe Biden & Kamala Harris], Trump made clear he's not giving up on his doomed crusade. 'Tremendous evidence pouring in on voter fraud,' Trump [tweeted] falsely. 'There has never been anything like this in our Country!' [Twitter flagged the tweet.]... Now is when we find out who is truly running this party from this point forward because its two top leaders' positions are completely irreconcilable." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Marianne Levine & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Republican senators Tuesday during a private caucus call not to object to the election results on Jan. 6, according to two sources familiar with the matter. McConnell told his caucus that challenging the results would force Republicans to take a 'terrible vote' because they would need to vote it down and appear against ... Donald Trump. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) also echoed McConnell's remarks. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said that no one objected on the call to McConnell encouraging members to accept the election results..., though Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) hasn't ruled ... out a challenge." ~~~

     ~~~ AND Steve M. points out that soon-to-be Senator Tommy Tuberville (MB: who is challenging Ron Johnson for the title of Stupiest Senator) has been sending coup-y tweets. (It is clear from Tuberville's tweets, BTW, that he thinks of the Senate as a football field. Thanks, Alabama!) And still-King of the Stupid Johnson is another possible challenger. ~~~

~~~ Alayna Treene of Axios: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called White House chief of staff Mark Meadows Tuesday morning to say he planned on congratulating Joe Biden on winning the Electoral College and would officially address him as president-elect on the Senate floor, two sources familiar with the call tell Axios.... The Kentucky Republican ... did not speak directly with Trump.... McConnell's courtesy call to the White House didn't stop Trump from tweeting an article quoting Rep. Mo Brooks. The Alabama Republican asserted: 'Trump Won the Electoral College - I Can Be a Part of the "Surrender Caucus" or I Can Fight for Our Country,' just moments after McConnell spoke." ~~~

~~~ Keith Griffith of the Daily Mail & AP: "Donald Trump says people are 'angry' after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated President-elect Joe Biden, and the sitting president's most ardent loyalists vented their fury at the high-ranking Republican.... Early on Wednesday, Trump tweeted this DailyMail.com article, writing: 'Mitch, 75,000,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot). Too soon to give up. Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!'... Recently pardoned former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn joined the outcry, retweeting a Twitter user who called on 'American patriots' to let 'McConnell know we aren't on board with his "President Elect Biden" mindset.' Flynn told Trump: 'millions & millions & millions of Patriots stand behind, alongside & in front of you during this crucible moment in US History where our very Republic is on the line. We won't fail or cower like some in the Republican Party have shown.'" ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Georgia Senate Race. Max Greenwood & Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Georgia's GOP senators [Perdue & Loeffler] are refusing to acknowledge Joe Biden as president-elect a day after Electoral College voters met to cast their ballots and officially name him the winner over President Trump." ~~~

~~~ AND Ron Johnson Is Still "Investigating." Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The Wisconsin Republican [Ron Johnson], who says he has not yet decided whether to seek a third term in 2022, has used his perch as the chairman of the Senate's chief oversight body to investigate Trump's political foes -- from Hunter Biden to Hillary Clinton and the slew of Obama administration officials who launched the Russia probe -- and is set to hold a hearing Wednesday on alleged 'irregularities' in the election even as ... Trump's allegations of voter fraud continue to crumble.... It also comes two days after the Electoral College sealed Biden's victory.... 'I'm just doing everything I can because I think it's important, when people go into an election and say, "I'm going to vote for that guy," they ought to know he has all kinds of foreign financial entanglements, and he's lied to you bold-faced about them,' Johnson said about the Biden family." --s

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times asks, but does not answer, how dangerous Donald Trump was. MB: I come down on the side of very dangerous. As Goldberg points out, George W. Bush lied us into a disastrous war. But when the lies were exposed, the Bush administration, for the most part, did not insist they were true. Moreover, millions of people -- even those who supported the Iraq war -- did not accept the lies per se, as dogma. And while millions of right-wing Americans, including Donald Trump, never accepted Barack Obama as a real American, much less a real president, there was no attempted coup, a la Trump & Co., to prevent Obama's inauguration. Mitch McConnell and others did try to destroy Obama's presidency from within the government, but they did so, more or less, under "regular order," both in the Congress & in the courts.

Joyce Vance in an MSNBC opinion piece: "Recently-resigned Attorney General William Barr left the Justice Department just like he came in -- with a lie. His lack of honesty and steadfast refusal to understand his duty to serve justice and the people, not the president's personal and political agenda, will be the legacy of his time in office.... Barr's resignation letter is a genuflection to the president, not the expression of gratitude for the opportunity to serve that typifies departures from the Department of Justice.... Barr will go down in history as the worst attorney general of our lifetimes." ~~~

~~~ Charles Pierce will not miss Bill Barr. Again. And Pierce loved that resignation letter, too!

What Trump Hath Wrought. Alex Kaplan of Media Matters: "Multiple influencers supporting the false QAnon conspiracy theory have praised the appointment of new Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, claiming that he will carry out mass arrests of ... Donald Trump's political opponents and fulfill the conspiracy theory.... In response to the change in Justice Department leadership due to Attorney General William Barr resigning, multiple QAnon supporters with major followings on social media have suggested that Donoghue will carry out the conspiracy theory, pointing to a 'Q' post from 2018 mentioning him and citing the fact that he served as a military judge and was in the same Army division as former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn -- who is a QAnon supporter himself and widely admired among the QAnon community." ~~~

~~~ Kansas. Alexander Mitchell, et al., of NBC News: "A Republican mayor in western Kansas announced in a letter to city officials and on social media Tuesday that she is resigning, effective immediately, because of threats she has received after she publicly supported a mask mandate. Mayor Joyce Warshaw of Dodge City said she was concerned about her safety after being met with aggression, including threats via phone and email, after she was quoted in a USA Today article on Friday supporting the mandate, The Dodge City Globe reported. The city commission voted 4-1 on Nov. 16 to impose a mask mandate, with several exceptions." MB: While I'm sympathetic to the mayor's plight, I remind her & all Republicans who have received threats for exercising good judgment that those threats come from their own standard-bearer & his followers. ~~~

~~~ Texas. KTRX Houston: "A former Houston Police Department Captain was arrested and charged for running a man off the road and pointing a gun at his head in an attempt to prove claims of a massive voter fraud scheme in Harris County, according to a news release from the Harris County's DA's office. Mark Anthony Aguirre, 63, was arrested by Houston police Tuesday and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.... According to court documents, Aguirre told police that he was part of a group of private citizens called the 'Liberty Center,' who were conducting a civilian investigation into the alleged ballot scheme. According to Aguirre, he had been conducting surveillance for four days on a man who was allegedly the mastermind of a giant voter fraud scheme. Aguirre told authorities the man was hiding 750,000 fraudulent ballots in a truck he was driving. Instead, the victim turned out to be an innocent air conditioner repairman, court documents said. Aguirre ran his SUV into the back of the truck to get the technician to stop and get out, according to court documents. When the technician got out of the truck, Aguirre pointed a handgun at the technician, forced him to the ground and put his knee on the man's back until police came, the court document said. Aguirre allegedly directed police to a parking lot nearby where another suspect, who has not been identified, took the truck. According to court documents, there were no ballots in the truck." ~~~

     ~~~Aguirre's Attack on the A/C Man Was Not a One-off. Erin Douglas of the Texas Tribune: "Mark Aguirre was working on behalf of a powerful Republican megadonor's group to investigate unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.... Prosecutors say Aguirre's election fraud claims were baseless and that he was paid $266,400 by the group Liberty Center for God and Country, whose CEO is prominent Texas right-wing activist Steven Hotze. Hotze was among a group of Republicans who unsuccessfully sued to have nearly 127,000 Harris County ballots tossed out this year. He was also among Republicans who tried -- and failed -- to stop Gov. Greg Abbott from extending early voting during the coronavirus pandemic...."

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Winter Storm Gail is spreading into the Northeast, where it will be a high-impact nor'easter packing heavy snow, strong winds and coastal flooding. Significant winter storm impacts are not only expected in the interior Northeast, but also near parts of the Interstate 95 corridor from New England to New York City and areas near or just west of Philadelphia. Snowfall from Gail is spreading from the Ohio Valley into Northeast. Freezing rain continues in parts of western Virginia and eastern West Virginia.... Among the cities in winter storm warnings are Boston, Hartford, Providence, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Roanoke, Virginia." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times is live-updating developments in the big storm.

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