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.

The Commentariat -- December 17, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~~~~~~~~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

News Ledes

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

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