The Commentariat -- December 20, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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."

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Sunday that he has spoken with Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville, the Alabama Republican who suggested last week that he supports a potential challenge to the electoral vote count when the House and Senate convene next month to formally affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory.... The conversation is the latest signal that Trump is exerting pressure on Republicans to overturn the results of November's presidential election.... the president and his supporters are redoubling their efforts to block the normal transfer of power, including a potential challenge on Jan. 6, when both chambers of Congress conduct the final tally of electoral votes."

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."

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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."

Real Government-in-Waiting. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday introduced members of his climate and energy teams in Wilmington, Del., nominees and appointees he said would lead his administration's plans to address climate change, 'the existential threat of our time.'... He noted that, this year alone, wildfires had burned more than 5 million acres across the West, hurricanes and tropical storms had pummeled the East and Gulf coasts, and droughts had ravaged parts of the Midwest.... His climate and energy teams would be ready on day one, he said, with a focus on creating new jobs in 'climate-resilient infrastructure' and clean energy. [Biden's team -- Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), Michael Regan, Brenda Mallory, Jennifer Granholm, Gina McCarthy & Ali Zaidi] shared the stage with Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris on Saturday at the Queen Theater in Wilmington. As in past events, where Biden introduced his Cabinet picks, the would-be nominees and appointees spoke as much about their personal histories as their qualifications and plans for the job." ~~~

      ~~~ The New York Times' story is here. Politico's report is here.

Frank Bajak of the AP: "It's going to take months to kick elite hackers widely believed to be Russian out of the U.S. government networks they have been quietly rifling through since as far back as March in Washington's worst cyberespionage failure on record. Experts say there simply are not enough skilled threat-hunting teams to duly identify all the government and private-sector systems that may have been hacked. FireEye, the cybersecurity company that discovered the intrusion into U.S. agencies and was among the victims, has already tallied dozens of casualties. It's racing to identify more." More on Vlad's Greatest Hack linked below.

Sam Mintz & Stephanie Beasley of Politico (Dec. 18): "The FAA has stymied congressional investigators, allowed Boeing to coach pilots so they performed better on simulator tests of the Boeing 737 MAX, and continued a decades-long pattern of punishing whistleblowers -- all at the expense of the safety of millions of passengers, a damning Senate report released Friday found. There are 'numerous systemic deficiencies in FAA oversight,' that could put the flying public at risk, the report from the Senate Commerce Committee read. And in some cases, it appears that agency supervisors have been aware of and sometimes complicit in efforts to impede that oversight, according to the report. It is a scathing indictment of the FAA's management, which the report suggests presided over a safety culture that allowed line inspectors to be overruled in favor of the companies the agency oversees and detailing a lack of understanding of whistleblower complaints or how to handle them. The report also accuses FAA 'senior leaders' of possibly obstructing a DOT Inspector General investigation into the MAX crashes."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here: "Gen. Gustave F. Perna, who heads Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's multiagency effort to get coronavirus vaccines out to Americans, apologized repeatedly on Saturday morning for confusion over vaccine deliveries to states. He attributed some of the problems to the federal government's miscalculation of how many doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine could be shipped. The discrepancies disrupted vaccination plans and stirred consternation in at least 14 states. General Perna is in charge of the logistics for distributing the coronavirus vaccines to the states, and he took full and sole responsibility for the delays and confusion around the vaccine rollout, and for the discrepancies between the number of doses states were expecting and what they are receiving. 'It was my fault,' he said. 'It was a planning error, and I am responsible.'

~~~ "On Saturday, General Perna noted that boxes of the Moderna vaccine, which was approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, were being packed and loaded, and that truckloads would begin rolling out on Sunday. He said that the government remained on track to allocate about 20 million vaccine doses across the country by the end of December, and that the distribution of those doses would be 'pushing into the first week of January.'" An AP story is here.

Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: The deployment of coronavirus vaccines this week "does not conceal the difficult truth, that the virus has caused proportionately more infections and deaths in the United States than in most other developed nations -- a result, experts say, of a dysfunctional federal response led by a president perpetually in denial.... The story of how America arrived at this final season of devastation ... is based on interviews over the past month with 48 senior administration officials, government health professionals, outside presidential advisers and other people briefed on the inner workings of the federal response. The catastrophe began with Trump's initial refusal to take seriously the threat of a once-in-a-century pandemic. But, as officials detailed, it has been compounded over time by a host of damaging presidential traits -- his skepticism of science, impatience with health restrictions, prioritization of personal politics over public safety, undisciplined communications, chaotic management style, indulgence of conspiracies, proclivity toward magical thinking, allowance of turf wars and flagrant disregard for the well-being of those around him.... The administration's overall response is likely to be scrutinized for years to come as a case study in crisis mismanagement."

Mike DeBonis, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senior lawmakers attempting to complete an emergency coronavirus relief package this weekend slammed into a major roadblock on Saturday over Republican demands to limit the authority of the Federal Reserve. A late push from Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) to rein in the nation's central bank had already divided lawmakers over the last several days. But the impasse appeared to grow significantly wider on Saturday, as congressional leadership and rank-and-file senators on both sides of the aisle dug in over the issue, imperiling prospects for a deal before Monday. Toomey, a conservative lawmaker on the Senate's banking committee, has demanded provisions be included in the covid relief package that would curb the ability of the Fed to restart emergency lending programs for localities and small businesses. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Senate Republicans on a private call Saturday afternoon that the party should stick by Toomey's plan, according to two people who requested anonymity to share details of the call. But senior Democrats have balked at agreeing to what they see as a nakedly political attempt to limit the economic tools available to the Biden administration." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Note to Joe: No, Mitch is not going to be your friend. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Marianne Levine, et al., of Politico: "Republican and Democratic senators on Saturday resolved a dispute over the Federal Reserve's emergency lending powers, according to congressional aides -- a significant breakthrough after a series of weekend negotiations on a broader coronavirus relief package. With the Fed compromise, negotiators cleared the final major hurdle on a nearly $1 trillion stimulus package ahead of a Sunday night government funding deadline.... A senior Democratic aide said [Sen. Pat] Toomey [R-Pa.] 'agreed to drop' some of his demands and said negotiators were finalizing 'compromise language.' As a result, the aide added, 'a final agreement on an emergency relief package is significantly closer.'" A CNN analyst said Democrats caved to Toomey's demands.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Lydia O'Connor of the Huffington Post: "Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul behind Fox News, received the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, even as hosts on his network stoke fears about it and spread vaccine misinformation. Murdoch, 89, received the coronavirus vaccine in the United Kingdom, where people over 80 years of age are among those deemed priority recipients.... Tucker Carlson, arguably the network's biggest star, veered into anti-vaccine territory on his show Thursday night.... [Carlson said Thursday night that] the vaccine's 'marketing campaign' seems 'a bit much, it feels false, because it is; it's too slick.'... He warned that two Alaska health care workers had an allergic reaction to the vaccine, the first doses of which have already been given to 2.9 million people across the U.S. Carlson is a huge moneymaker for Fox News and, in turn, for Murdoch.... Laura Ingraham, another one of Fox News' most well-known hosts, is also spreading vaccine misinformation. Earlier this week, she posited on her show that people in North and South Dakota don't need to get the COVID-19 vaccine because they're nearing herd immunity status, a claim that is dangerous and untrue." ~~~

~~~ Marie: A reader sends along this very nice ad, which might help Tucker overcome his fear of the Covid-19 vaccine. (Pfizer makes Viagra):

  

U.K. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Alarmed by a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson abruptly reversed course on Saturday and imposed a wholesale lockdown on London and most of England's southeast, banning Christmas-season gatherings beyond individual households. The decision, which Mr. Johnson announced after an emergency meeting of his cabinet, came after the government got new evidence of a variant first detected several weeks ago in Southeast England, which the prime minister asserted was as much as 70 percent more transmissible than previous versions. The new measures, which take effect on Sunday, are designed, in effect, to cut off the capital and its surrounding counties from the rest of England. They are the most severe measures the British government has taken since it imposed a lockdown on the country back in March, and reflect a fear that the new variant could supercharge the transmission of the virus as winter takes hold."

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

** Maggie Haberman & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday discussed naming Sidney Powell, who as a lawyer for his campaign team unleashed conspiracy theories about a Venezuelan plot to rig voting machines in the United States, to be a special counsel overseeing an investigation of voter fraud, according to two people briefed on the discussion.... Most of his advisers opposed the idea, two of the people briefed on the discussion said, including Rudolph W. Giuliani.... In recent days Mr. Giuliani has sought to have the Department of Homeland Security join the campaign's efforts to overturn Mr. Trump's loss in the election. Mr. Giuliani joined the discussion by phone, while Ms. Powell was at the White House for a meeting that became raucous and involved people shouting at each other at times, according to one of the people briefed on what took place. Ms. Powell's client, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser whom the president recently pardoned, was also there.... During an appearance on the conservative Newsmax channel this week, Mr. Flynn pushed for Mr. Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to 'rerun' the election. At one point in the meeting on Friday, Mr. Trump asked about that idea. The White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, and the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, repeatedly and aggressively pushed back on the ideas being proposed...." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian has a summary report here. A Politico report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Drum of Mother Jones questions the NYT's editorial decision to bury this story "below the fold" (so to speak, inasmuch as Drum is referring to the online front page) and burying the lede in Paragraph 6: "The president of the United States asked a bunch of his advisors about the feasibility of imposing martial law and having the Pentagon run a new election. In other words, staging a military coup. Sure, everyone at the table shot it down, because even Rudy Giuliani isn't that far gone. But he asked! The president of the United States! What does Trump have to do these days to rate a bigger headline? Invade Canada?" MB: The thing is, Kevin, "Trump Said Something Dangerous & Crazy" is hardly news. As Paul Campos notes In LG&$, we're suffering from "Battered Nation Syndrome." I will say that after CNN confirmed the story, they aired it repeatedly, using adjectives like "deranged"; and at 5:30 am ET, it's still at the top of their home Webpage.

~~~ Jonathan Swan of Axios: "Senior Trump administration officials are increasingly alarmed that President Trump might unleash -- and abuse -- the power of government in an effort to overturn the clear result of the election.... These officials tell me that Trump is spending too much time with people they consider crackpots or conspiracy theorists and flirting with blatant abuses of power.... Their fears include Trump's interest in former national security adviser Michael Flynn's wild talk of martial law; an idea floated of an executive order to commandeer voting machines; and the specter of Sidney Powell, the conspiracy-spewing election lawyer, obtaining governmental power and a top-level security clearance. A senior administration official said that when Trump is 'retweeting threats of putting politicians in jail, and spends his time talking to conspiracy nuts who openly say declaring martial law is no big deal, it's impossible not to start getting anxious about how this ends.'" MB: And this is the lunatic most elected Republicans are afraid to confront. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'd like to hear one of those so-called advisors tell Trump, "C'mon, you're the worst president* in American history. Look upon your defeat as the majority of Americans do: as a great national correction. It's a blessing. Thank the Fates for Joe Biden & get out."

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump's campaign legal team sent a memo to dozens of staffers Saturday instructing them to preserve all documents related to Dominion Voting Systems and Sidney Powell in anticipation of potential litigation by the company against the pro-Trump attorney. The memo, viewed by CNN, references a letter Dominion sent to Powell this week demanding she publicly retract her accusations and instructs campaign staff not to alter, destroy or discard records that could be relevant. A serious internal divide has formed within Trump's campaign following the election with tensions at their highest between the campaign's general counsel, Matt Morgan, who sent the memo Saturday, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Though the campaign once distanced itself from Powell, Trump has been urging other people to fight like she has, according to multiple people familiar with his remarks. He has asked for more people making her arguments, which are often baseless and filled with conspiracy theories, on television."

** "Everything Is Well under Control." Trump Remains Largest National Security Risk. David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a conservative radio show host that 'we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians; behind the vast hack of the federal government and American industry, he was contradicted on Saturday by President Trump, who sought to muddy the intelligence findings by raising the possibility that China was responsible. Defying the conclusions of experts inside and outside the government who say the attack was a cybersecurity breach on a scale Washington has never experienced, Mr. Trump also played down the severity of the hack, saying 'everything is well under control,' insisting that the news media has exaggerated the damage and suggesting, with no evidence, that the real issue was whether the election results had been compromised. 'There could also have been a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election,' he wrote on Twitter in his latest iteration of that unfounded conspiracy theory. He tagged Mr. Pompeo, the latest cabinet member to anger him, in his Twitter post. With 30 days left in office, Mr. Trump's dismissive statements made clear there would be no serious effort by his administration to punish Russia for the hack, and national security officials say they are all but certain to hand off the fallout and response to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr." ~~~

     ~~~ Evan Semones of Politico: "Trump, in his first public comment since reports of the wide-scale breach surfaced last week, downplayed the attack in a series of tweets, suggesting without evidence that China may have been responsible and hacks on U.S. voting systems might have occurred as well. 'The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality....' Trump wrote. 'Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!).'... Chris Krebs, who ran the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency until the president fired him last month, appeared to respond to Trump in a tweet, writing that the cyberattack neither affected the results from November's election nor any of the subsequent recounts the Trump campaign requested in numerous states. 'Do not conflate voting system security and SolarWinds. The proof is in the paper,' Krebs tweeted." ~~~

~~~ Veronica Stracqualursi, et al., of CNN: "White House officials had drafted a statement assigning blame to Russia for the attack and were preparing to release it Friday afternoon but were told to stand down, according to people familiar with the plans. Officials initially weren't told why the statement was pulled back. The statement, the people said, placed blame on Russia for orchestrating the attack but left open the possibility that other actors were involved. The people familiar told CNN on Saturday it wasn't clear whether the statement will be released, and instead described a scramble inside the administration as officials work to reconcile the competing statements from Trump and Pompeo. The President was briefed on the attack on Thursday."

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is rushing to approve a final wave of large-scale mining and energy projects on federal lands, encouraged by investors who want to try to ensure the projects move ahead even after President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes office.... These projects, and others awaiting action in the remaining weeks of the Trump administration, reflect the intense push by the Interior Department, which controls 480 million acres of public lands, and the Forest Service, which manages another 193 million acres, to find ways to increase domestic energy and mining production, even in the face of intense protests by environmentalists and other activists. When he takes office on Jan. 20, Mr. Biden, who has chosen a Native American -- Representative Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico -- to lead the Interior Department, will still have the ability to reshape, slow or even block certain projects."

Colin Jost reviews some of Trump's greatest moments:

The Commentariat -- December 19, 2020

Real News

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.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration and the Biden team were at odds on Friday after the acting Pentagon chief abruptly postponed transition meetings and Biden's representatives expressed concern about the decision.... Acting defense secretary Christopher Miller said in a statement that the Defense Department 'will continue to provide all required support' to the transition team, and that defense officials were working to reschedule 'approximately 20 interviews with 40 officials until after January 1.' Those meetings, initially scheduled for Friday, were postponed after legal officials in the Pentagon raised concern that they could not keep up with the work, said a senior U.S. official.... The Pentagon did not dispute that Miller's decision about meetings on Friday were a surprise to the Biden team.... Yohannes Abraham, the executive director of the transition, said in a call with reporters that there 'was no mutually agreed upon holiday break' and while the Biden team has received 'widespread cooperation on transition,' there have been 'pockets of recalcitrance, and DOD has been one of them.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: "President-elect Joe Biden's transition team expressed concern Friday about what it described as an 'abrupt halt' in cooperation with the Defense Department. The Pentagon had said it was rescheduling meetings with the transition team originally planned for Friday until after the new year, but insisted the change was part of a 'mutually agreed' pause for the holiday season.... 'Let me be clear: there was no mutually agreed upon holiday break,' [Biden transition director Yohannes] Abraham [said]. 'In fact, we think it's important that briefings and other engagements continue during this period, as there's no time to spare.'"

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Russia is behind the massive, ongoing cyber spy campaign against the federal government and private sector, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday -- the first Trump administration official to publicly blame Moscow for the computer hacks.... The department he leads is one of a growing list of federal agencies discovered in recent days to have been breached.... President Trump ... has not publicly addressed the issue.... Pompeo did not specify which branch of the Russian government carried out the campaign, but U.S. officials have privately said they believe it is the foreign intelligence service, the SVR, which is a successor organization to the KGB. Moscow has denied involvement." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

The best confirmation that Putin is responsible for this hacking attack on the United States is that Trump hasn't said anything. -- Garry Kasparov, in a tweet, December 17 ~~~

~~~ Matthew Lee of the AP: "The Trump administration has notified Congress that it intends to shutter the last two remaining U.S. consulates in Russia. The State Department told lawmakers last week that it would permanently close the consulate in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok and temporarily suspend operations at the consulate in Yekaterinburg just east of the Ural Mountains. The notice was sent to Congress on Dec. 10 but received little attention at the time. That timing predates by three days the public emergence of news about a major suspected Russian computer intrusion into U.S. government and private computer systems that has raised grave cybersecurity fears.... Following the closures, the only diplomatic facility the U.S. will have in Russia will be the embassy in Moscow."

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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. New Lede: "Congress on Friday evening approved a two-day extension in funding for the federal government to give lawmakers more time to resolve the remaining sticking points on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package. The measure was quickly approved within hours by both the House and Senate on Friday evening. President Trump still has to sign the measure into law. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said Friday evening that there were 'still some significant issues outstanding' in the way of a coronavirus relief deal. Hoyer added that House lawmakers should not expect to vote earlier than Sunday at 1 p.m. The two-day funding measure passed the House by a 320 to 60 vote margin, with all the no votes coming from Republican lawmakers and Rep. Justin Amash (L-Mich.). The measure passed the Senate unanimously." The Hill's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday signed a stopgap funding measure that will keep the government funded for another 48 hours while lawmakers attempt to finalize an agreement on an economic relief bill. Trump signed the bill just after 10 p.m., according to the White House."

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Nina Totenberg & Hansi Lo Wang of NPR: "The U.S. Supreme Court ducked a direct ruling Friday on whether President Trump can exclude undocumented immigrants from a key census count.... The court said it would be 'premature' to rule on the case right now because it is 'riddled with contingencies and speculation' and even the Trump administration doesn't know how many undocumented immigrants there are or where they live.... Though the court's opinion was unsigned, Chief Justice John Roberts almost certainly was the author.... Writing for the three [liberal justices, Stephen] Breyer noted that Trump's July memorandum explicitly stated his purpose, namely to take away congressional seats from mainly Democratic states that are now home to many unauthorized immigrants. 'The harm is clear on the face of the policy,' Breyer said. The 'costs' of Trump[']s census order, he said, are more than 'a departure from settled law.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I guess will have to wait & see if Rip Van Trumple rouses himself from his Big Sleep to try to bully the Census Bureau into coming up with some numbers toot sweet. He does hate both immigrants & Democrats. A lot.

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ 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.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ 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. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Elahe Izadi & Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "And late Friday came the announcement that the Times would also return the prestigious Peabody award won by the podcast."

Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump is convinced he won the 2020 election and is now telling aides that he is considering not leaving the White House on January 20th.... On Erin Burnett Out Front, the CNN host reported that Trump appears to have flip-flopped on accepting the reality of his defeat and now adamantly believes a number of conspiracy theories that falsely claim he won the 2020 election.... Host Erin Burnett explained, 'He used to privately accept the reality that he lost the election, but now, no. He's now starting to believe his own lies, that the election was stolen.... One adviser telling CNN, quote, "He's throwing a f*cking temper tantrum. He's going to leave. He's just lashing out,"' Burnett reported. 'Okay. That description is the behavior of a person not right in the mind.... Temper tantrums, lashing out, talking about not leaving the White House. Trump is not 4, right? He's 74. And despite his increasingly deranged delusions, he's still has the power to instill fear and sycophancy in others.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I do so want to see video of Trump kicking & screaming as federal marshals drag him across the South Lawn. Maybe Melanie could don her "I really don't care, do you?" jacket & pretend to be helping.

Another Piece of the Big Grift. Shane Goldmacher & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Lara Trump, President Trump's daughter-in-law and a senior campaign adviser, served on the board of a limited liability company through which the Trump political operation has spent more than $700 million since 2019, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. She was also named on drafts of the company's incorporation papers. The arrangement has never been disclosed. One of the other board members and signatories in the draft papers of the L.L.C., American Made Media Consultants, was John Pence, the nephew of Vice President Mike Pence and a senior Trump adviser. The L.L.C. has been criticized for purposefully obscuring the ultimate destination of hundreds of millions of dollars of spending. Ms. Trump is married to Eric Trump.... The newly disclosed records show an even more intricate intermingling of Mr. Trump's political and familial interests than was previously known.... By routing large campaign expenditures, such as television and digital ad buys, through an L.L.C., the Trump campaign and its joint committee with the national party..., was able to effectively shield many details of its spending, such as who was being paid and how much." ~~~

     ~~~ All in the Family. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Jared Kushner helped set up a shell company that secretly paid ... Donald Trump's family members and spent nearly half of his 2020 campaign's funds. The president's son-in-law and White House senior adviser directed his sister-in-law Lara Trump, Vice President Mike Pence's nephew John Pence and Trump campaign CFO Sean Dollman to sit on the shell company's board, a source familiar with the operation told Business Insider.... 'Nothing was done without Jared's approval,' said a former advisor to Trump's 2016 campaign.... The Department of Justice may open a criminal investigation if the government suspects the payments were a 'knowing and willful' violation of election law." ~~~

     ~~~ When the Marks Are Happy to Be Scammed. Paul Waldman of the Washington Post cites the Business Insider report: "'... Donald Trump's most powerful advisor, Jared Kushner, approved the creation of a campaign shell company that secretly paid the president's family members and spent almost half of the campaign's $1.26 billion war chest.... The operation acted almost like a campaign within a campaign. It paid some of Trump's top advisors and family members, while shielding financial and operational details from public scrutiny....' ... The whole point of shell companies is to hide something; in this case, the campaign was able to show over $600 million in payments to the shell company, American Made Media Consultants Corp., on its Federal Election Committee filings, without the details that would be known if whatever they were spending money on was paid directly to vendors.... Trump's supporters couldn't care less, even if it's their money. That's because he has spent years convincing them that self-dealing and graft are perfectly fine."

** Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump's latest 'investigate the investigators' probe increasingly looks like it will fail to produce his long-sought evidence of a huge Deep State plot against him, much like all the others that preceded it. During a long interview with Wall Street Journal editorial board member [MB: and right-wing loon] Kimberly Strassel, Attorney General Bill Barr dropped a bombshell that he and Special Counsel John Durham have concluded that the nation's top spy agency did not violate the law or act outside its purview in the Russia collusion probe of Trump. '... Mr. Barr was initially suspicious that agents had been spying on the Trump campaign before the official July 2016 start date of Crossfire Hurricane, and that the Central Intelligence Agency or foreign intelligence had played a role. But even prior to naming Mr. Durham special counsel, Mr. Barr had come to the conclusion that he didn't "see any sign of improper CIA activity" or "foreign government activity before July 2016," he says. "The CIA stayed in its lane."'"

Ali Zaslav & Daniella Diaz of CNN: "... Donald Trump lauded Tommy Tuberville this week after the Republican Alabama senator-elect said he is not ruling out joining a House member to object to the election results when Congress meets in a joint session to accept the votes of the Electoral College. Trump is continuing to push senators to overturn the election while Tuberville's efforts would put his party in an awkward spot to vote on whether to accept the will of the voters or side with him.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ... has privately urged his Republican colleagues not to join House conservatives in their planned objection next month. Tuberville, while stumping in Georgia for the Senate runoff elections which will determine control of the chamber, said in a video that resurfaced this week that senators should also object on January 6 when Congress ratifies the election results." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Tuberville, who will not be seated until a few days before the joint session, is already working very hard to replace Ron Johnson as the Stupidest Senator. And that's not easy.

Tina Nguyen of Politico: "An 1807 law invoked only in the most violent circumstances is now a rallying cry for the MAGA-ites most committed to the fantasy that Donald Trump will never leave office. The law, the Insurrection Act, allows the president to deploy troops to suppress domestic uprisings -- not to overturn elections.... Only once ... has [the law] been used in the wake of an election -- and that was to stop a literal militia from seizing the Louisiana government on behalf of John McEnery, a former Confederate officer who had lost the 1872 governor's race.... While scattered theories about a 'deep state' arrayed against Trump have long circulated in MAGA circles, calls for troops to stop a democratically elected president from taking office have taken those ideas to a more conspiratorial and militaristic level. It also displays the exalted level to which Trump has been elevated among his most zealous fans as his departure looms."

Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "The leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, said he participated in the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner that had been ripped from the facade of a historic Black church during unrest in downtown Washington following a rally earlier this month for President Trump. Tarrio, the chairman of the male-chauvinist organization with ties to white nationalism, said in an interview with The Washington Post he would plead guilty to destruction of property, pay the church the cost of the banner and surrender to authorities if that criminal charge is filed.... Tarrio wrote he was speaking out against the advice of his attorney: 'So let me make this simple. I did it.'" MB: No doubt Tarrio thinks this is good publicity for his little organization. ~~~

~~~ Will Carless of USA Today: "Several hours before members of the extremist group the Proud Boys clashed with police and opponents on the streets of Washington, D.C., last weekend, the head of the group..., [Enrique Tarrio, wrote on Parler,] 'Last minute invite to an undisclosed location...,' posting photos on the steps of the White House. Tarrio's presence on a White House tour shows how he and the Proud Boys have moved closer to ... Donald Trump via a little-known booster group called Latinos for Trump.... Photos on social media show [Latinos for Trump]'s leaders attending events at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, rubbing shoulders with Vice President Mike Pence..., Rudy Giuliani, and Trump's sons Eric and Donald Jr. In the middle of it all is Tarrio, who serves as Latinos for Trump's chief of staff.... In Trump's final days, the Proud Boys have evolved into the thuggish face of the far-right movement, giving their support to everything from Trump's claims of voter fraud to anti-vaccination conspiracy theories. As the Proud Boys have gained notoriety, Latinos for Trump has seen its political star rise too."

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Erik Wemple of the Washington Post has reviewed critiques by writing coach (and former glossies writer & current Jill Biden basher) Tucker Carlson. Wemple figured out Carlson's secret to good writing: a conservative POV. MB: As Jen Rubin warns, and any sensible person knows, confederate critiques of liberals are hypocritical, at best.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

** Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday cleared the nation's second coronavirus vaccine, giving additional hope that the end of the pandemic could be in sight. The official emergency use authorization for the Moderna vaccine comes after an agency advisory panel voted 20-0 in favor of the vaccine Thursday. The authorization now allows the Trump administration to begin shipping nearly 6 million doses of the vaccine across the country. Once a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel meets and votes this weekend, vaccinations will be allowed to begin. Between Moderna and the vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech that has already been approved, health officials said they expect to deliver enough doses to vaccinate 20 million people with the first dose by the end of the year."

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to several on-air reports, pence wanted to make a big deal of his vaccination story, airing the event live in hopes news networks would carry it. Trump, meanwhile, was tweeting about unrelated stuff. Numerous pundits on the teevee have speculated on why Trump himself is not getting the vaccination. A common suggestion is that he thinks he already is immune as a result of having contracted the virus. Others said his doctors might have advised against a shot because of treatment he received when he had Covid-19. Someone thought he was afraid he would flinch when the needle poked his arm, which would make him look weak. But I thought John Heilemann, appearing on MSNBC, had the best idea: Trump doesn't want to risk losing any of his anti-vaxxer followers.

~~~ Axios: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) both received their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine from the attending physician of Congress on Friday.... The office of House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), chair of the oversight subcommittee tasked with looking at the coronavirus crisis, told Axios' Kadia Goba that he received the vaccine at 4 p.m. Friday. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) posted a photo on Twitter as he received the vaccine Friday afternoon.... Members of Congress, many of whom are elderly and in high-risk categories, are among the first people in the U.S. eligible to begin receiving the vaccine. Pelosi at age 80 and McConnell at age 78 -- are both at risk of severe infections from the coronavirus." ~~~

~~~ AP: "The justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are being provided with doses of the coronavirus vaccine. That is according to a letter by Capitol Physician Brian Monahan, which says the court, along with Congress and executive branch agencies are being given a limited supply of doses 'for continuity of government operations.' The doses are being provided under a directive by ... Donald Trump that established continuity of government as a reason for vaccine prioritization. The Supreme Court and the other branches of government are supposed to be treated 'in parallel.'"

Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Officials have taken the extraordinary step of closing the Washington Monument starting Friday as a precaution after Interior Secretary David Bernhardt -- who gave a private, nighttime tour to other Trump appointees this week -- tested positive for the coronavirus. Interior spokesman Nicholas Goodwin said the monument would reopen Monday, adding the department acted after consulting with federal health officials. Some National Park Service staff at the site said they were near the secretary during his tour and are now in quarantine, leading to a staffing shortage at the monument, Goodwin said." A USA Today story is here.

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.