The Commentariat -- December 21, 2020

A Solstice to Remember. New York Times: Today "we will be treated to no fewer than three astronomical occurrences on the same day: a great alignment of our solar system's largest planets, the winter solstice and a meteor shower at its peak."

A Very Special Solstice. Charles Choi in Scientific American: "On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will meet in a 'great conjunction,' the closest they could be seen in the sky together for nearly 800 years.... 'If you have a telescope, you'll be able to see both the rings of Saturn and the Galilean moons of Jupiter close together at the same moment,' says astronomer Jackie Faherty at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.... 'But the best part about it is we'll be able to watch it with the naked eye.'... The last time Jupiter and Saturn appeared so close was July 16, 1623, back when Galileo was still alive, a little more than a decade after he first used a telescope to discover Jupiter's four largest moons that now collectively bear his name. The odds are low, however, that Galileo or anyone else on Earth managed to witness that great conjunction, which was virtually impossible to see because of its apparent position near the sun. The last great conjunction to appear as close and as visible as the upcoming one occurred on March 4, 1226." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The Saboteur. Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "When President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on Jan. 20, the list of crises he will face includes a massive cyber intrusion, a still-raging global pandemic, a slowing economic recovery and a lingering reckoning over the nation's racial tensions. President Trump is not making his job any easier and, in several ways, appears to be actively making it harder -- going to extraordinary lengths to disrupt and undermine the traditional transition from one administration to another despite the nation's many crises.... In his final weeks in office, Trump is making a series of moves aimed at cementing his legacy and handicapping Biden's presidency -- from abruptly pulling troops from war zones to cracking down on Iran to encouraging the Justice Department to investigate his political enemies. The result is a situation without precedent in American history: One president ending his term amid crisis is seeking to delegitimize a successor and floating the prospect of mounting a four-year campaign to return to power." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some day somebody may find some compelling evidence that reveals the probable answer to the question: was Trump (a) a purposeful, traitorous Manchurian president* or (b) just a consummate asshole & flaming ignoramus? I don't know the answer, but I believe there is one, and it would not surprise me if (a) were the answer.

Covid-19 Is a Plot Against Trump. Emily Czachor of Newsweek: "... Trump has routinely referenced a nonspecific Democratic plot to oust him from office when discussing the election's outcome. After posting a series of messages to Twitter that quickly earned fact-checking labels from the social media platform, Trump retweeted a video on Sunday that showcased a number of conspiracy theories related to the election.... In addition to holding media coverage, polling data and voting software responsible for Trump's failure to secure another term in the White House, the video suggests that COVID-19, and its consequences, were engineered to taint his reputation."

Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump has taken to asking some aides and advisers about the process of naming airports after former U.S. presidents, according to two people who've heard him recently inquiring on this. One of the two sources relayed that, in the past three weeks, Trump mentioned that 'no president' wants an American airport that has a bad reputation or crumbling infrastructure named after them. The other knowledgeable source said that Trump had, at one point since the 2020 election, offhandedly asked what kind of 'paperwork' was necessary to get an airport named after a former president." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I can't think of an airstrip or heliport insignificant enough to name for Trump. The Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, N.J., where the airship Hindenburg exploded, came to mind. However, I don't wish to be disrespectful to the victims of the Hindenburg explosion, so maybe a cattlefield in Kansas where someone once made a successful emergency landing would be more appropriate. Possible souvenirs: gold-plated cowpies.

On His Way Out the Door. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr said Monday that he saw no reason to appoint special counsels to oversee the Justice Department's ongoing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden ... or to investigate President Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, again undercutting Mr. Trump's efforts to bend the department to his political will and to overturn the results of the election. At a news conference to announce charges in an unrelated terrorism case, Mr. Barr said that he did not 'see any reason to appoint a special counsel' to oversee the ongoing investigation into the younger Mr. Biden. 'I have no plan to do so before I leave,' Mr. Barr said. 'To the extent that there is an investigation, I think that it's being handled responsibly and professionally.' He also said that he would name a special counsel to oversee an inquiry into election fraud if he felt one was warranted. 'But I haven't and I'm not going to,' Mr. Barr said. He added that he saw 'no basis' for the federal government to seize voting machines." ~~~

     ~~~ Nick Niedzwiadek & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "During a final news conference at Justice Department headquarters Monday, Barr did little if anything to hide his disagreements with the president.... With Trump mulling extreme actions to investigate claims of widespread voter fraud, including the use of an executive order to seize voting machines the president's lawyers say are likely to contain evidence of manipulation, Barr made clear he isn't on board."

Dominick Mastrangelo of the Hill: "A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed from the U.S. Capitol overnight. The statue has stood with America's first president, George Washington, as the state of Virginia's contribution to the National Statuary Hall Collection at the Capitol for more than 100 years. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, announced on Monday the state will seek to have it replaced with a statue of civil rights icon Barbara Johns.... Earlier this year, a state commission recommended the removal of the statue [of Lee] from the Capitol. The commission, led by state Sen. Louise Lucas (D), voted unanimously to remove it.... The statue will be transported to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond, Northam's office said." Here's the Wikipedia entry for Barbara Johns.

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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders on Sunday reached a hard-fought agreement on a $900 billion stimulus package that would send immediate aid to Americans and businesses to help them cope with the economic devastation of the pandemic and fund the distribution of vaccines. The deal would deliver the first significant infusion of federal dollars into the economy since April.... While the plan is roughly half the size of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law enacted in March, it is one of the largest relief packages in modern history.... It was expected to be merged with a sweeping catchall spending measure that would keep the government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year, creating a $2.3 trillion behemoth whose passage will be Congress's last substantive legislative achievement before adjourning for the year. The deal came together after a weekend of frenzied negotiating only hours before the government was set to run out of funding and two weeks before the next Congress was to convene on Jan. 3." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Rachel Siegel, et al., of the Washington Post: "The bill would extend aid to millions of struggling households through stimulus checks, enhanced federal unemployment benefits and money for small businesses, schools and child care, as well as for vaccine distribution. It also repurposes $429 billion in unused funds provided by the Cares Act for emergency lending programs run by the Federal Reserve.... The legislation includes $600 stimulus checks per person, including adults and children. That means a family of four would receive $2,400, up to a certain income threshold.... Congress will extend unemployment benefits of up to $300 per week. The benefit could kick in as early as Dec. 27 and run at least through March 14.... The bill includes more than $284 billion for first and second forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans, expanded PPP eligibility for nonprofit organizations and news outlets, and modifications to the program to serve small businesses, nonprofits and independent restaurants.... The agreement extends until Jan. 31 a moratorium on evictions that was slated to expire at the end of the year. The incoming Biden administration can extend the deadline further.... The bill includes $25 billion in emergency assistance to renters, although it remains unclear how the money will be distributed.... The bill includes $20 billion for the purchase of vaccines 'that will make the vaccine available at no charge for anyone who needs it.'... Colleges and schools will have $82 billion to help cover HVAC repair and replacement to reduce the risk of coronavirus infections and reopen classrooms."

~~~ Tara Bernard & Ron Lieber of the New York Times take a "look at what the latest legislative package will mean for you." ~~~

~~~ AND If You're a Corporate Exec, You Can Count of Deducting That Three-Martini Lunch. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The draft language of the emergency coronavirus relief package includes a tax break for corporate meal expenses pushed by the White House and strongly denounced by some congressional Democrats, according to a summary of the deal circulating among congressional officials and officials who are familiar with the provision.... President Trump has for months talked about securing the deduction -- derisively referred to as the 'three-martini lunch' by critics -- as a way to revive the restaurant industry badly battered by the pandemic. But critics said it would do little to help struggling restaurants and would largely benefit business executives who do not urgently need help at this time." MB: Thanks, Donald! The Constant Weader, Mrs. McCrabbie & I are off to lunch to get drunk reviving the restaurant industry. Bottoms up! ~~~

~~~ One Good Thing. Dan Diamond of Politico: "Congressional negotiators on Sunday agreed to allow [Marshall Islanders] living in the United States to sign up for Medicaid, revising a drafting mistake in the 1996 welfare reform bill that barred the islanders from the program, according to three people with knowledge of the deal. Democratic lawmakers like Sen. Mazie Hirono and her Hawaii colleagues had spent about two decades trying to restore the islanders' coverage -- saying that the United States broke its promise to the Marshallese after using their homeland to test dozens of nuclear bombs -- but legislative proposals repeatedly died without Republican support. This spring, the House passed a bill to restore the islanders' Medicaid for the first time in more than 20 attempts, although it stalled in the Senate. The decision to bar the Marshallese from Medicaid has contributed to the islanders' greater rates of sickness and death, researchers have concluded, and those disparities were accelerated by this year's Covid-19 pandemic, which has ravaged the Marshallese community in the United States." ~~~

~~~ Pell Grants for Prisoners. Michael Stratford of Politico: "Congressional leaders have struck a deal to reinstate Pell grants for incarcerated students more than a quarter century after banning the aid for prison education programs, top Democrats and Republicans announced on Sunday. The legislation, which is expected to be included as part of the year-end spending deal, would lift the prohibition Congress imposed in the 1994 crime bill that then-President Bill Clinton signed and Joe Biden championed as a senator." ~~~

~~~ This Is a Bill, Not a Law. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Congress is buying itself more time to pass and send the deal to President Trump's desk, after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced that the House would pass a one-day stopgap bill instead of voting on the coronavirus-government funding package immediately.... That will delay passage through both chambers until at least Monday. The House is expected to pass the deal and send it over to the Senate by early Monday afternoon where leadership is eager to pass it quickly.... Congressional leaders are expected to need a separate days-long CR in order to give them time to get the mammoth bill to President Trump's desk and for him to sign it to avoid a government shutdown. The House is expected to tuck the longer CR, likely lasting seven days, into its package that governs the debate of the omnibus-coronavirus package. Once the House passes the rules for its debate, the longer, days-long CR will automatically go to the Senate for passage." ~~~

     ~~~ Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump signed a continuing resolution on Sunday night that will fund the government for the next 24 hours, preventing a shutdown just before midnight and giving Congress extra time to pass a coronavirus relief measure and an accompanying $1.4 trillion government funding bill."

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. Reminder: free to nonsubscribers. Also, these updates often include summaries of WashPo stories that are not free to nonsubscribers.

Lena Sun & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Grocery store employees, teachers, emergency workers and other people on the front lines of America's workforce should be next to get the coronavirus vaccine, along with adults ages 75 and older, a federal advisory panel said Sunday. The recommendations, which came two days after regulators authorized a second coronavirus vaccine, will guide state authorities in deciding who should have priority to receive limited doses of shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. More than 2.8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been distributed, and 556,208 of those shots were given as of 2 p.m. Sunday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The groups designated Sunday include about 49 million people, some of whom could begin getting shots early in the new year. The priorities represent a compromise between the desire to shield people most likely to catch and transmit the virus, because they cannot socially distance or work from home, and the effort to protect people who are most prone to serious complications and death." The article is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

     ~~~ A New York Times story is here. The AP's report is here. MB: One thing that is completely unclear, & will likely vary by state & even by community, is how an individual gets in the queue for a vaccination. I am a high-risk person (1-B on the CDC scale), but what do I do? Sit & wait for a call or letter from somebody? Call the state health agency? My doctor? My pharmacy?

Jill Colvin of the AP: "President-elect Joe Biden will receive his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort to convince the American public the inoculations are safe.... Biden and his wife, Jill, will also thank health care workers at the facility where they receive the shots, his incoming press secretary has said.... Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband are expected to receive their first shots next week. But missing from the action has been ... Donald Trump, who has spent the last week largely out of sight as he continues to stew about his election loss and floats increasingly outlandish schemes to try to remain in power."

Do As I Say, Not as I Do. -- Dr. Debbie. Aamer Madhani & Brian Slodysko of the AP: "As COVID-19 cases skyrocketed before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, warned Americans to 'be vigilant' and limit celebrations to 'your immediate household.' For many Americans that guidance has been difficult to abide, including for Birx herself. The day after Thanksgiving, she traveled to one of her vacation properties on Fenwick Island in Delaware. She was accompanied by three generations of her family from two households. Birx, her husband Paige Reffe, a daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren were present. [Birx & her family members often travel between a Washington, D.C., home & another home they own in Potomac, Md.]... Birx has expressed a desire to maintain a significant role on the White House coronavirus task force when President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated next month.... 'To me this disqualifies her from any future government health position,' said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security. 'It's a terrible message for someone in public health to be sending to the American people.'"

U.K. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "... officials in Britain on Saturday sounded an urgent alarm about what they called a highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus circulating in England.... In South Africa, a similar version of the virus has emerge.... Several experts ... [said] it would take years -- not months -- for the virus to evolve enough to render the current vaccines impotent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Pan Pylas of the AP: "British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee later Monday after France closed its borders to arrivals from the U.K. to stem the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus circulating in London and the southeast of England. The meeting of the COBRA civil contingencies committee comes amid warnings of 'significant disruption' around the ports in the English Channel, with tailbacks going back miles into Kent, the county in southeastern England. The tailbacks came after France announced Sunday that it was closing its borders for 48 hours, which means lorries cannot get across the English Channel by boat. Goods arriving on containers are unaffected." ~~~

~~~ BBC: "India is the latest state to suspend flights from the UK, joining Hong Kong, Canada, Switzerland and Germany. On Sunday evening, France shut its border with the UK for 48 hours, meaning no lorries or ferries will be able to sail from the port of Dover. Belgium and the Irish Republic have also suspended flights.... Austria is also set to bring in a ban, while Bulgaria has suspended flights to and from the UK from midnight. Unlike the short-term measures in many other nations, its ban lasts until 31 January. European Union member states are currently meeting in Brussels to discuss a co-ordinated response.... Meanwhile, coronavirus cases in the UK rose by 35,928 on Sunday - nearly double the number recorded seven days previously." ~~~

~~~ Reuters: "Canada is halting passenger flights from the United Kingdom for 72 hours, the health ministry said on Sunday, joining a growing list of countries barring British travelers to prevent the spread of a new coronavirus strain from the country.... The decision came after Canadian officials, including the prime minister and health minister, met on Sunday afternoon to discuss the new variant, which officials say is up to 70% more transmissible than the original."

One President at a Time, Ctd. Hope Yen of the AP: "Once in office, President-elect Joe Biden will punish Russia for its suspected cyberespionage operation against the United States with financial sanctions and measures to hobble the Kremlin’s ability to launch future hacks, his chief of staff said Sunday, as a GOP senator [Mitt Romney] criticized ... Donald Trump for having a 'blind spot' when it comes to Moscow. 'Those who are responsible are going to face consequences for it,' said Biden chief of staff Ron Klain. 'It's not just sanctions. It's also steps and things we could do to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to repeat this sort of attack or, worse still, engage in even more dangerous attacks.'"

Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "To preserve his hold on power, Trump has spent the weeks since Election Day promoting falsehoods about voting problems in Georgia and five other states, successfully persuading tens of millions of his supporters to believe a lie -- that the election was stolen from him, and from them. He has done so by harnessing the power of his position, using his pulpit at the White House and his Twitter feed to let loose a fusillade of conspiracy theories. His assault on the integrity of the election has gotten a hefty assist from pro-Trump media outfits and an assortment of state lawmakers and lawyers who gave oxygen to the debunked allegations -- and a majority of congressional Republicans, who called on the Supreme Court to overturn the results in four states.... Along the way, Trump has willfully damaged two bedrocks of American democracy that he has been going after for years: confidence in the media as a source of trusted information and faith in systems of government. It might be one of his lasting legacies."

There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election. -- Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy & top Army Gen. James McConville, in a joint statement ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has intensified efforts to overturn the election, raising a series of radical measures in recent days, including military intervention, seizing voting machines and a 13th-hour appeal to the Supreme Court. On Sunday, Trump said in a radio interview that he had spoken with Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) about challenging the electoral vote count when the House and Senate convene on Jan. 6 to formally affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory. 'He's so excited,' Trump said of Tuberville. 'He said, "You made me the most popular politician in the United States."... He's great. Great senator.' Trump's conversation with Tuberville is part of a much broader effort by the defeated president to invalidate the election. He is increasingly reaching out to allies like [Rudy] Giuliani and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro for ideas and searching his Twitter feed for information to promote.... In recent days, Trump has expressed frustration that his Cabinet is not doing more to assist. At a Cabinet meeting last week at the White House, Trump vented about the election and made unsubstantiated allegations of fraud, officials said, but did not give Cabinet members specific orders.... On Sunday, the Trump campaign said it was filing a suit with the Supreme Court over Pennsylvania's mail-in voting rules." (An earlier version of this story was linked yesterday afternoon.) MB: Apparently Trump is unaware that "great senator" Tommy Tuberville is not, in fact, a senator at all, much less showing the slightest indication he will be a great one. ~~~

~~~ Jill Colvin & Marc Levy of the AP: "Undeterred by dismissals and admonitions from judges..., Donald Trump's campaign continued with its unprecedented efforts to overturn the results of the Nov 3. election Sunday, saying it had filed a new petition with the Supreme Court. The petition seeks to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases having to do with mail-in ballots and asks the court to reject voters' will and allow the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pick its own slate of electors. While the prospect of the highest court in the land throwing out the results of a democratic election based on unfounded charges of voter fraud is extraordinary unlikely, it wouldn't change the outcome. President-elect Joe Biden would still be the winner even without Pennsylvania because of his wide margin of victory in the Electoral College."

Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Seldom has the leader of an American political party done so much to strike fear into the hearts of his allies, but done so little to tackle challenges facing the country during his final days in office. Far from presenting the vaccine breakthroughs from Pfizer and Moderna as testaments to private-sector ingenuity and innovation -- once a conservative creed -- [Donald Trump] was fixated on menacing Republicans who might dare to acknowledge Joseph R. Biden Jr. as president-elect. That duality in Mr. Trump's behavior -- acting as a bystander while other leaders answered a crisis and simultaneously raging at Republicans who have inched away from him -- also amounts to a preview of Mr. Trump's post-presidency." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Sanger & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Confronted with a vast cyberattack believed to have been carried out by Russia, the Trump administration is suddenly reviving an old idea: Strip the general who leads the United States Cyber Command of his second title as the director of the National Security Agency, the country's largest spy operation.... But when the idea was revived in recent days with a recommendation en route to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark A. Milley, for action before President Trump leaves office next month, it led to a firestorm of protest on Capitol Hill. Democrats and Republicans alike say that the two institutions are too intertwined to be managed separately and that any unilateral action by the administration to change the current structure would violate legal requirements for extensive assessments before altering it. They said it was also unclear how such a step, especially carried out hastily during a presidential transition, would help with the current crisis." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't know much about much, but I do know that the cable news networks have been littered during the past week with pundits of all political stripes who blame the Trump administration for not detecting the attack in part because it has balkanized cybersecurity experts into their respective agencies. To further diminish the government's right hand from knowing what its left hand is doing would seem unwise, at least on the surface. Then there's this: ~~~

~~~ Alexandra Villarreal of the Guardian: "Frontline healthcare workers saw their hopes dashed last week when a botched algorithm, crashing scheduling platforms and other logistical mishaps thwarted their efforts to be among the first in the US to receive a long-awaited coronavirus vaccine.... More than 100 Stanford doctors protested on Friday, standing up for respiratory therapists, environmental services workers, nursing staff, residents and fellows who interact with patients. They were unable to lay claim to initial doses of the vaccine, even as they learned that employees doing telehealth from home had nabbed slots.... On the east coast, doctors in Boston's Mass General Brigham system were also distraught. After the online scheduling platform crashed, employees filed into a long line on Thursday morning to sign up for shots in-person. But staff in emergency departments couldn't abandon their patients. Once appointments came back online, availability vanished in minutes...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So if the system doesn't work for medical personnel working in relatively closed, controlled facilities, how well will it work for us ordinary people out here in the hinterlands?

The Enablers. Erica Newland in a New York Times op-ed/confessional: "I was an attorney at the Justice Department when Donald Trump was elected president. I worked in the Office of Legal Counsel, which is where presidents turn for permission slips that say their executive orders and other contemplated actions are lawful.... My job was to tailor the administration's executive actions to make them lawful -- in narrowing them, I could also make them less destructive.... But there was a trade-off: We attorneys diminished the immediate harmful impacts of President Trump's executive orders -- but we also made them more palatable to the courts.... I now see what might have happened if, rather than nip and tuck the Trump agenda, responsible Justice Department attorneys had collectively -- ethically, lawfully -- refused to participate in President Trump's systematic attacks on our democracy from the beginning. The attacks would have failed [because Trump would have had to rely on incompetent lawyers like Rudy Giuliani]. No matter our intentions, we were complicit."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Potential Lawsuits That Could Disable Right-Wing Media. Ben Smith of the New York Times: Antonio Mugica's company Smartmatic, "and a competitor, Dominion ... were at the center of [Rudy] Giuliani's and Sidney Powell's theories, and on the tongues of commentators on Fox News and its farther-right rivals, Newsmax and One America News.... Here's the thing: Smartmatic wasn't even used in the contested states. The company ... pulled out of the United States in 2007 after a controversy over its founders' Venezuelan roots.... Last week, [Mugica's high-powered defamation] lawyer [J. Erik Connolly] sent scathing letters to the Fox News Channel, Newsmax and OAN demanding that they immediately, forcefully clear his company's name -- and that they retain documents for a planned defamation lawsuit. He has, legal experts say, an unusually strong case.... Dominion Voting Systems has hired another high-powered libel lawyer, Tom Clare, who has threatened legal action against Ms. Powell and the Trump campaign.... [The lawyers have made] legal threats any company, even a giant like Fox Corporation, would take seriously.... And so Newsmax and OAN appear likely to face the same fate as so many of President Trump's sycophants, who have watched him lie with impunity and imitated him -- only to find that he's the only one who can really get away with it."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Middle East, Mostly. Stephanie Kirchgaessner & Michael Safi of the Guardian: "Spyware sold by an Israeli private intelligence firm was allegedly used to hack the phones of dozens of Al Jazeera journalists in an unprecedented cyber-attack that is likely to have been ordered by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to leading researchers. In a stunning new report, researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto said they discovered what appears to be a major espionage campaign against one of the world's leading media organisations, which is based in Qatar and has long been a thorn in the side of many of the region's autocratic regimes. The report, written by some of the world's top digital surveillance researchers, also raises troubling new questions about the apparent vulnerability of the Apple iPhone, which has sought to promote a reputation for security and commitment to privacy. Researchers at Citizen Lab said the apparent malicious code they discovered, which they claim is used by clients of Israel's NSO Group, made 'almost all' iPhone devices vulnerable if users were using an operating system that pre-dated Apple's iOS 14 system, which appears to have fixed the vulnerability."

Comments

[PD Pepe]

@Ken: I want to thank you for your kind words yesterday; coming from you it was an honor.

I was struck with Erica Newland's piece this morning:

" We attorneys diminished the immediate harmful impacts of President Trump’s executive orders — but we also made them more palatable to the courts.... I now see what might have happened if, rather than nip and tuck the Trump agenda, responsible Justice Department attorneys had collectively — ethically, lawfully — refused to participate in President Trump’s systematic attacks on our democracy from the beginning."

"NO MATTER OUR INTENTIONS, WE WERE COMPLICIT." (emphasis mine)

Finally–-and we have lived with those consequences along with a myriad number of others and suffered terribly as individuals as well as the country itself. Ms Newland need not be the only confessor. We need a reckoning because we cannot let this happen again; if so, we might not be able to resuscitate ––anyone or anything.

If Marie doesn't know much about much then I will "eat my hat" as they used to say when hats were on most men's heads. What she gives us day in and day out is not much about nothing but much about EVERYTHING ! and we thank her profusely.

It's a foggy day––so thick I can barely make out the trees out back. But in London town there's another kind of fog that's going to cripple commerce due to many countries closing their borders because of another strain of the virus popping up. I often wonder if at the end, if indeed there is an end, the only things living will be insects and pathogens.

[Akhilleus]

Fatty doesn’t know that Coach Potato Head is not (yet) a senator. Potato Head doesn’t know anything about government or how the senate works, so they’re perfect for each other. This is what the Republican Party has given us. Indolent ignoramuses who congratulate each other for their wonderfulness despite knowing and doing nothing.

[Akhilleus]

I was a bit hasty about that “doing nothing” part. They are heavily committed to lying, cheating voters, and destroying democracy, and they’re doing a bang up job of it, and proud of it too, I’m sure.

[Akhilleus]

The Balkanization of cyber security apparatuses in the US, as Marie puts it, is a Trump specialty. Sow dissension in the ranks, put people at each other’s throats, keep everyone guessing about what’s really going on, severely restrict access to solid information, then rule over the rubble once chaos has taken its toll.

This insanity may be acceptable in a dysfunctional, shithole satrapy like the Trump organization, but the US government and its agencies do not belong to the Fat Fascist. Nonetheless, he has turned national security into yet another snake pit too confused and undermanned to do its job, stripped of most of its best agents, who don’t pass the Trump loyalty test.

This puts idiots like Trump and Pompeo and other Fatty loyalists in charge. Meaning no one knows what’s going on. In walks Putin who says “Thank you very much, Donald. We’ll take it from here.”

If this isn’t treason, I’ll eat MY hat.

[Ken Winkes]

Have we stumbled onto something?

I kinda like this CR protocol, funding the government one day at a time.

A once a day CR signing keeps the Pretender occupied with something besides tweeting nutty things and planning tomorrow's insurrection.

How about daily CR's for another 29 days?

[Forrest Morris]

How an individual gets on the queue for a covid vaccination. I emailed my doctor this morning with that question and she replied that she would notify her patients when the time comes. We'll see.

[PD Pepe]

Ditto Forest's answer to Marie: Yes, your doctor or health care personal will notify you. Yale has already done so for us and according to info on the messages this is the protocol. If, however, you do not get an email or a ring-a-ding then contact your provider and say "what's the story?" in a tone slightly off key.

[Marie Burns]

@Forrest Morris: Thanks. I spoke to a person in my doctor's office, and she said "We don't know anything." When I called my pharmacy to renew a subscription, I got a message to log into pharmacy's Website for the latest; it wasn't the latest. Then I checked my state's Covid-19 plan; it's not up-to-date, either. So it's SNAFUs all around.

In the meantime, there's no way for anyone with a hypodermic in her hand to know I'm out here with my sleeve rolled up.

I'll try again in another few days, but, uh, holidays.

[Victoria]

I did hear on MSNBC that the 1B's are happening well into January 2021. And no risk adults are getting their shot in the arm starting probably in June and July.

[Jeanne]

Stephanie Ruhl this morning mentioned how people are probably shrieking at the tv screens, on seeing and hearing treasonous GOP congressmonsters receiving vaccine ahead of, say, grocery clerks, when the grocery clerks have kept everyone moving forward and the congressional varmints do their damnedest to keep everyone moving backward. I would like to see evidence of that-- daughter said Little Marco caught a lot of crap on twitter...
Husband mailed a package this morning, and some man behind him did not have on a mask and was chastised by a man in front of husband, and again by husband. On exiting the teensy post office, the culprit said to him he wouldn't wear a mask that was going to KILL HIM... So, deranged followers of a deranged maniac and his deranged network of liars... sigh.
We are also prospective 1Bers-- I guess I will call our clinic...always a wonderful experience...

[Ken Winkes]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/21/attorney-general-barr-wont-name-special-counsel-for-hunter-biden-probe.html

Don't know if it's possible to extract oneself from quicksand when you're already in it up to your double chin, but Barr is certainly trying.

Of course, Rosen may jump in head first.

[Forrest Morris]

It appears there are already a number of airports named after trump.
Deadhorse Airport in Alaska
Shafter Airport in California
Eek Airport in Alaska
And if he moved to Argentina, Moron Airport.

[citizen625]

Forrest: point taken about the airports. The good people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta surely don't want their airport named after Orange Turd any more than most of the good people of Anchorage want their International Airport named after Ted Stevens.

Orange's name belongs on the little doggie turd bags that you find at the head of the trail. On the opposite side of the bag put the confederate flag.

[RAS]

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny dupes spy into revealing how he was poisoned
"A Russian agent sent to tail opposition leader Alexey Navalny has revealed how he was poisoned in August -- with the lethal nerve agent Novichok planted in his underpants.
The stunning disclosure from an agent who belonged to an elite toxins team in Russia's FSB security service came in a lengthy phone call following the unmasking of the unit by CNN and the online investigative outfit Bellingcat last week. "

[unwashed]

There are only a few things that I can think of the could/should be named after the Orange Menace:
1. A National Cemetery
2. A COVID Memorial wall
3. A particularly nasty form of diarrhea
4. A new classification of mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
5. ...

[Marie Burns]

@unwashed: Excellent suggestions. I'm especially drawn to Option 4: Trumposis.