The Commentariat -- Nov. 23, 2020
Editor's Note: Sadly, Mrs. Bea McCrabbie has retired to an undisclosed location not far from the home of the Constant Weader. I am therefore taking over management of the site and will continue their acerbic but truthful review of daily political news. I shall forever miss & be grateful for their tireless assistance.
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Afternoon Update:
** Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "The General Services Administration has informed President-elect Joe Biden and his team that the Trump administration is ready to begin the transition process. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy sent a letter to Biden on Monday saying that Biden would have access to federal resources and services to facilitate a presidential transition, according to a copy obtained by The Hill. Trump in two tweets wrote that he had asked Murphy to being the transition, though he did not concede his loss to Biden and said he would keep fighting." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is kinda funny. Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "In her letter, Murphy also denied that she had been under pressure from the White House to delay the process.... Trump ... said [in a tweet], 'I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and hav told my team to do the same.'" Are we supposed to believe it's just a miraculous coincidence that Trump recommended Miss Emily to ascertain Biden as President-elect at the same moment she made the independent judgment to do so?
Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Michigan Board of Canvassers voted Monday to certify the state's election results, effectively awarding the state's 16 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden, who defeated President Trump with a margin of more than 154,000 votes. The decision dealt another blow to Trump's unprecedented effort to undo Biden's win by attempting to delay the certification of the election results in key states. Three out the four board members -- including one Republican -- voted for certification, capping a dramatic political dispute that had roiled the state. The Michigan canvassing board had never before refused to certify a statewide vote.... In the end, one of the Republican board members, Aaron Van Langevelde, joined the two Democratic board members in voting to certify the vote.... 'There's a lot of misunderstanding about this board's role and the power that we have and the authority that we have,' Van Langevelde said during the meeting. 'The law regarding certification gives us a clear duty,' he added later. 'There's nothing in the law that gives me the authority to request an audit as part of the certification process.'... The lone holdout was GOP board member Norman Shinkle, who told The Washington Post in an interview last week that he was leaning toward seeking a delay. Shinkle cited a debunked conspiracy theory aired by Trump that voting machines made by a company called Dominion deleted thousands of Trump votes." ~~~
~~~ Breaking! Republican May Act Like Normal Person. Annie Grayer of CNN: "One of the two Republican members of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers signaled that he will certify the election results. In his first public comments since the election, Aaron Van Langevelde gave a strong signal that he will vote to certify. 'I think we are pretty limited today. I think we have a duty to do this,' Van Langevelde said." ~~~
~~~ ** Breaking! And He Did! CNN: "The Michigan Board of State Canvassers certified results for the 2020 presidential election at a Monday meeting. The state's 16 electors will now go to the winner of the popular of the vote of the state, Joe Biden." According to MSNBC, the vote was 3-0 with one GOP member abstaining. (MB: I assume the abstaining member was Shinkle, but I don't know that.)
Short People Got Reason to Live! Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Former Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet L. Yellen is expected to be named Joe Biden's treasury secretary, according to three people in close communication with aides to the president-elect. Yellen, who was appointed chair of the Federal Reserve by President Obama, would be the first woman to lead the Department of Treasury."
Welcome Back, USA! Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. plans to name several top national security picks on Tuesday, his transition office said, including the first Latino to lead the Department of Homeland Security, the first woman to head the intelligence community and a former secretary of state, John Kerry, to be his climate czar. At an event in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden will announce plans to nominate Alejandro Mayorkas to be his secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, his transition office said, and Avril Haines to be his director of national intelligence. He intends to name Mr. Kerry as a special presidential envoy on climate. The transition office also confirmed reports on Sunday night that Mr. Biden will nominate Antony J. Blinken to be secretary of state and Jake Sullivan as national security adviser. Mr. Biden will also nominate Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be ambassador to the United Nations and restore the job to cabinet-level status, giving Ms. Thomas-Greenfield, an African-American woman, a seat on his National Security Council. Mr. Kerry will also be given a seat on the council, although his job is not a cabinet position and does not require Senate confirmation. The emerging team reunites a group of former senior officials from the Obama administration, most of whom worked closely together at the State Department and the White House and in several cases have close ties to Mr. Biden dating back years. They are well known to foreign diplomats around the world and share a belief in the core principles of the Democratic foreign policy establishment -- international cooperation, strong U.S. alliances and leadership but a wariness of foreign interventions after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Tom Hamburger & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "A group of leading GOP national security experts -- including former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge -- urged congressional Republicans on Monday to demand President Trump concede the election and immediately begin the transition to the incoming Biden administration.'President Trump's refusal to permit the presidential transition poses significant risks to our national security, at a time when the U.S. confronts a global pandemic and faces serious threats from global adversaries, terrorist groups, and other forces,' said a statement signed by more than 100 GOP luminaries. The signers included Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor who served as homeland security secretary under President George W. Bush, former CIA director Michael Hayden and John D. Negroponte, who served as director of national intelligence."
Portman Joins the Slow Roll. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Monday said there is no proof of widespread voter fraud that could change President-elect Joe Biden's lead in the vote counts of key battleground states and urged the nation to 'resolve any outstanding questions and move forward.' Portman, who is poised to become the next chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also called on the General Services Administration to release funds to the Biden transition team to help prepare for Biden's inauguration in January." MB: This is ridiculous. It's as if Republicans feel they must coax Trump out of his hidey-hole (Trump has no public appearances on his schedule again Monday) by each offering up, one-by-one, teeny incentives for him to admit something that is an fait accompli.
"Just Bizarre and Weak." Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump's campaign filed a narrow appeal Sunday in its long-shot bid to have Trump declared the victor in the presidential race in Pennsylvania despite lagging more than 81,000 votes behind President-elect Joe Biden. With Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar set to certify the results of the election as soon as Monday, the Trump campaign filed an emergency motion with the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals asking that court to compel a lower court to accept a redrafted complaint contending that election officials excluded observers as part of an effort to process thousands of flawed mail-in ballots that largely favored Biden. The campaign did not seek an immediate order from the 3rd Circuit to block certification of Biden as the winner. Instead, the motion filed with the court Sunday evening said the campaign might seek decertification of the results 'if already certified.' Several prominent legal experts expressed puzzlement Sunday at the Trump lawyers' approach." ~~~
~~~ Marie: If Trump can't get the best GOP lawyers, he apparently can't get the best legal secretaries, either: a CNN reporter said the appeal was full of misspellings & other errors.
Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: "In a meeting initiated by the Vatican, Pope Francis on Monday hosted a group of NBA players to hear about their social justice activism at a time of deep American polarization. The meeting, with five players who have been vocal on matters ranging from White privilege to police violence, offers a glimpse into what aspects of U.S. society the pontiff feels are most important. The meeting also shows the reach of sports activism in the United States, where athletes, many of them Black, have become some of the highest-profile proponents for social change.... Notably, Francis in September elected not to meet with ... a delegation led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after Pompeo infuriated Vatican officials by criticizing the church's diplomacy with China.... According to the National Basketball Players Association, a Vatican official had reached out to set up the meeting. Three players' union executives met with the pope, as did players Kyle Korver, Sterling Brown, Marco Belinelli, Anthony Tolliver and Jonathan Isaac."
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New York Times Editors: "The 2020 election was not simply free of fraud, or whatever cooked-up malfeasance the president is braying about at this hour. It was, from an administrative standpoint, a resounding success. In the face of a raging pandemic and the highest turnout in more than a century, Americans enjoyed one of the most secure, most accurate and most well-run elections ever."
Lara Jakes, et al., of the New York Times: "Antony J. Blinken, a defender of global alliances and President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s closest foreign policy adviser, is expected to be nominated for secretary of state, a job in which he will try to coalesce skeptical international partners into a new competition with China, according to people close to the process. Mr. Blinken, 58, a former deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama, began his career at the State Department during the Clinton administration. His extensive foreign policy credentials are expected to help calm American diplomats and global leaders alike after four years of the Trump administration's ricocheting strategies and nationalist swaggering. Mr. Biden is also expected to name another close aide, Jake Sullivan, as national security adviser, according to a person familiar with the process. Mr. Sullivan, 43, succeeded Mr. Blinken as Vice President Biden's national security adviser, and served as the head of policy planning at the Stat Department under Hillary Clinton, becoming her closest strategic adviser. Together, Mr. Blinken and Mr. Sullivan, good friends with a common worldview, have become Mr. Biden's brain trust and often his voice on foreign policy matters." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's story is here. The AP story is here. An NPR story is here.
Hans Nichols of Axios: "Democrats close to President-elect Biden expect him to name Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the United Nations, looking to a Black woman and respected diplomat to restore morale."
Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: “President-elec Joe Biden's incoming chief of staff, Ronald A. Klain, said Sunday that some of Biden's first Cabinet picks will be revealed Tuesday, although he declined to say who or what positions will be announced. Klain made the comments during an interview on ABC News's 'This Week.'" A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
U.S. Senate. California. Carla Marinucci of Politico: "As speculation grows that Gov. Gavin Newsom is leaning toward California elections chief Alex Padilla to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, a crowd of top Democratic donors and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown are launching an aggressive campaign to argue that another woman of color should fill that seat instead. Brown, the former longtime speaker of the California Assembly, said he's launching a drive Monday to organize Black churches, pastors, civic leaders, fraternal organizations and prominent members of the Black press statewide to urge Newsom to consider leading Black women for the seat. Among the leading choices, he said, are Reps. Barbara Lee, Karen Bass and Maxine Waters; San Francisco Mayor London Breed; and state Sen. Holly Mitchell. 'There's no way that Gavin Newsom should allow anyone other than a Black woman to fill the seat of Harris, who's only the second Black woman in the history of the U.S. Senate,' Brown told Politico on Sunday. 'There should be no contest.' Brown's campaign comes as some 150 of the state's top female Democratic donors on Monday will publish full-page newspaper ads with an open letter urging Newsom to pick a woman of color, Vox reported Sunday.... It could amount to virtually a lifetime appointment, considering the way Democrats dominate California politics. Newsom is unlikely to pick a caretaker who would leave after two years."
Clown Car Wheels Continue to Spin
Jim Rutenberg & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "... President Trump and Republicans loyal to him have sought to overturn his defeat by making false claims about widespread voting fraud in Philadelphia..., Atlanta..., [and ] Detroit.... Lost on no one in those cities is what they have in common: large populations of Black voters. And there is little ambiguity in the way Mr. Trump and his allies are falsely depicting them as bastions of corruption. '"Democrat-led city" -- that's code for Black,' said the Rev. William J. Barber II, the president of the civil rights group Repairers of the Breach. 'They're coupling "city" and "fraud," and those two words have been used throughout the years. This is an old playbook being used in the modern time, and people should be aware of that.' Mr. Trump's fruitless and pyromaniacal campaign to somehow reverse President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory in the election rests on the wholesale disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of voters, a disproportionate number of them Black Americans living in the urban centers of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.... And, in a year in which the nation elected its first Black vice president, Senator Kamala Harris of California, the push represents a newly conspicuous phase of a decades-long effort by the Republican Party to expand power through the suppression of voters of color." ~~~
~~~ "A Plainly Racist Strategy." Aaron Morrison, et al., of the AP: "President-elect Joe Biden was in part powered to victory ... by Black voters, many of them concentrated in cities such as Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta.... Since Election Day..., Donald Trump and his allies have sought to expose voter fraud that simply does not exist in these and other overwhelmingly Black population centers.... Trump renewed his attack on Motown voters Thursday, tweeting without evidence, 'Voter Fraud in Detroit is rampant, and has been for many years.'... The Trump campaign sought a partial recount in Wisconsin - in Milwaukee and Dane counties, which include the majority of the state's Black population. On Thursday, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani renewed unproven claims of voter fraud and impropriety during mail-in vote counting in Pennsylvania, naming Philadelphia and nearby Camden, New Jersey, which is also predominantly Black.... Black voters are not the only targets. A Trump-allied group ... True the Vote filed a lawsuit alleging officials relaxed voter ID requirements for absentee voters in Menominee County, Wisconsin, which is essentially the Menominee Nation Indian reservation. Most of the group's lawsuits have been tossed out or withdrawn. In Nevada..., the Trump campaign and Nevada Republicans alleged the Nevada Native Voter Project illegally enticed Native American voters with gift cards, gas cards, raffle tickets and T-shirts if they voted early or on Election Day. That lawsuit has been dismissed. And in Arizona, the Trump campaign and the state Republican Party jointly asked courts to halt certification of votes in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and a significant portion of the state's Hispanic population.... A judge dismissed that lawsuit on Thursday." ~~~
~~~ Marie: We've been pointing at the racism here ever since Trump started caterwalling about 3 am tallies, etc. It's taken the major media a helluva a long time to catch up & join us. The GOP's racism should never be the quiet part.
Too Crazy for Rudy. John Bowden of the Hill: "The Trump campaign on Sunday sought to distance itself from attorney Sidney Powell despite her appearing with campaign lawyers at press events as recently as last week. In a brief statement released Sunday afternoon..., Rudy Giuliani and senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis said that Powell 'is not a member of the Trump Legal Team.... She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.'... The statement followed a series of media appearances from Powell during which she made baseless allegations of widespread nationwide election fraud.... Trump ... referred to Powell as a member of his legal team in tweets as recently as Nov. 14." OR, as NiskyGuy put it at the end of yesterday's thread Sidney got "thrown under the clown car." ~~~
~~~ Maggie Haberman & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The repudiation of Ms. Powell ... added unwanted drama for the president's legal team at a moment when it is losing case after case, offering a public window into the chaotic nature and amateurish tactics of most of its attempts so far to fight the election outcome. Even as many campaign aides, White House advisers and professional lawyers want nothing to do with the claims, a small group of lawyers for Mr. Trump's campaign has presided over a widely mocked, circuslike legal effort to try to invalidate votes and prevent states from certifying their results. People like Ms. Powell and Mr. Giuliani have been frequent guests on conservative news programs, where they have made spurious claims that have been rejected by judges or that the Trump campaign has refrained from echoing in court becaus they lack evidence.... Ms. Powell also made an easy target for deflection by Mr. Giuliani and others, as Mr. Trump vented his frustrations about [federal Judge Matthew Brann]'s scathing ruling [against a case Mr. Giuliani had argued against Joe Biden's win in Pennsylvania]. Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: As commentators & reporters on CNN repeatedly emphasized Sunday night, Sidney Powell is pushing many of the same false claims Trump & Giuliani are making. Here are a couple of cases on point:
~~~ Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "... President Trump spent Sunday at his private golf course in Virginia. Then, just before midnight, he took to Twitter to repeat more of the unfounded claims of mass voter fraud that have animated his weeks-long resistance to acknowledging defeat to President-elect Joe Biden. Trump's tweets, which included another false claim that he 'won' the election, were quickly flagged by Twitter with disclaimers.... In one tweet Sunday, the president claimed that 'in certain swing states, there were more votes than people who voted, and in big numbers,' while also alleging 'fake ballots' and 'egregious conduct.'" ~~~
Want evidence of fraud. In 70% of Wayne County, Detroit, there were PHANTOM VOTERS. There were more votes than registered voters. 120%, 150%, 200%, even 300%. -- Rudolph W. Giuliani, in a tweet on Nov. 22
The slapdash legal effort on behalf of the president is exemplified in this instance. Wild claims about Michigan were based on 1) a mix-up of two states, Michigan and Minnesota 2) a misunderstanding of 'estimated votes' 3) a misidentification of voting machines used in Wayne County. Yet even after this comedy of errors was exposed, the president's chief legal advocate shamefully continues to tout this fraudulent claim as 'evidence' to more than 1 million followers on Twitter. Giuliani apparently has given up on being a lawyer and turned to writing fiction. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post
Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "... Donald Trump and his allies are harking back to his own transition four years ago to make a false argument that his own presidency was denied a fair chance for a clean launch. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany laid out the case from the White House podium last week and the same idea has been floated by Trump's personal lawyer and his former director of national intelligence.... But the situations are far different. The day after her defeat in 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton conceded.... The next day, President Barack Obama who had portrayed Trump as an existential threat to the nation, invited the president-elect to the White House and visited with him in the Oval Office. Obama's aides offered help to Trump';s incoming staffers.... Trump's team is not wrong that his own transition was chaotic, but the disarray in many ways was of his own doing. Trump fired the head of his transition, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and abandoned months of planning in favor of a Cabinet hiring process that at times resembled a reality show. His team ignored offers of help from the outgoing Obama administration..., leaving briefing books unopened and ignoring special iPads loaded with materials. The lack of preparation left aides clueless even about how to work the overhead intercom in the West Wing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Several prominent Republicans said this weekend that President Trump's legal arguments had run their course, calling on him to concede to Joe Biden or at least allow the presidential transition process to begin. 'The conduct of the president's legal team has been a national embarrassment,' former New Jersey governor Chris Christie said Sunday on ABC's 'This Week.' Christie, a Trump confidant who helped run debate preparations, said the Republican Party needed to focus on trying to win Georgia's two runoff elections Jan. 5 to secure the Senate majority, rather than continuing with the unsuccessful legal challenges of the election results. 'The rearview mirror should be ripped off,' Christie said." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Axios: "Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said on 'Meet the Press' on Sunday that it is past time to 'cooperate with the transition' to President-elect Joe Biden, adding that he believes President Trump still has the right to continue fighting in court over election results.... 'It should happen tomorrow morning because it didn't happen last Monday morning,' Cramer said of the GSA administrator giving the go-ahead for the transition. 'Give the incoming administration all the time they need.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: This caveat "open-minded" Republicans add to every recommendation to approve the transition -- that Trump has the right to fight the election results in court -- is past its sell-by date. If you tried to bring nearly three dozen frivolous lawsuits into the courtroom, haranged the judge about fraud, abuse & corruption but never presented evidence of any of it, well, we wouldn't get to three dozen. If they were nice, courts would tell you to go away; if not, they'd fine you for wasting their time.
Kate Kelly & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "... more than 100 chief executives plan to ask the administration on Monday to immediately acknowledge Joseph R Biden Jr. as the winner and begin the transition to a new administration. As a way of gaining leverage over the G.O.P., some of the executives have also discussed withholding campaign donations from the two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia unless party leaders agree to push for a presidential transition.... In a letter they plan to send Monday, business leaders will demand that Emily W. Murphy, head of the General Services Administration, issue a letter of ascertainment affirming that Mr. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have won the election."
** Michigan. Jake Tapper & Annie Grayer of CNN: "A key Republican on the Michigan canvassing board is expected to vote against certifying the state's election results on Monday, a potential boon for the Trump campaign's conspiracy theory-fueled effort to delay the finalization of results. According to Michigan GOP Rep. Paul Mitchell, who said he spoke days ago with Norman Shinkle, one of the two GOP members on the board, Shinkle indicated last week he would vote against certifying the election results until an investigation is completed so as to push a delay even though there is no evidence of fraud or malfeasance that would necessitate such a move.... Depending on how Aaron Van Langevelde, the other GOP member of the board, casts his vote, Mitchell told CNN either members of the Trump team end up delaying the certification of the election results or they have something that they can point to as evidence of unfairness, even if it isn't. Van Langevelde's family told CNN he would have no comment on his expected vote.... 'State election law provides for no process or ability to conduct such an "investigation,'" Mitchell told CNN." ~~~
~~~ Marie: If Michigan's top Republicans were serious about certifying the election as is required under their own state laws, they could have put tremendous pressure on Shinkle to get with the program. It would appear they have not done so.
Georgia. Remember how Bill Barr tried to sic U.S. attorneys on voters, "directing investigators to pursue allegations of 'voting and vote tabulation irregularities'"? The prosecutors pushed back, urging him to rescind his memo because it endorsed Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud. After Georgia declared Joe Biden the state's winner, Trump asked for another recount. David Wickert of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Georgia is preparing to tally about 5 million votes in the presidential election for a third time as the FBI and GBI investigate threats against some state election officials.... On Saturday, Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting system manager, said on Twitter that he had received threats that prompted police protection around his home.... On Sunday, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said the FBI and the GBI are investigating threats to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger [R] and his team.... Trump has blasted [Gov. Brian] Kemp [R] and Raffensperger on Twitter, writing that another review of voter signatures on absentee ballot envelopes could have found 'illegal ballots.'... On Saturday, Trump's campaign continued to make unsubstantiated claims that Georgia's official results are tainted.... Such claims have not held up to legal scrutiny." MB: Looks as if the only voter problems worthy of the feds' scrutiny are attacks coming from Trump and his supporters, not from bent voters or election officials.
Yet Another Stupid Trump Trick: Whistling Dixie Past the Graveyard. Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump is threatening to veto legislation to fund the military as one of his final acts in office unless a widely supported, bipartisan provision to rename military bases honoring Confederate military leaders is removed, according to White House, defense and congressional sources. Since the Nov. 3 election, Trump has privately told Republican lawmakers that he won't back down from his position during the campaign that he would veto the annual National Defense Authorization Act if it includes an amendment to rename the bases." MB: In fairness to Trump, he is being consistent with his pre-election promise, his racist attacks on the election results and his lifelong racist views. Hobgoblin of little minds and all....
Paulina Firozi of the Washington Post: "The United States has formally withdrawn from the Treaty on Open Skies, a decades-old pact meant to reduce the chances of an accidental war by allowing mutual reconnaissance flights by parties to the 34-nation agreement. The exit comes six months after President Trump first announced his intention to withdraw, saying Russia has been violating the pact.... The move risks sowing further divisions between the United States and European allies, some of which called on the administration to stay in the pact despite concerns about Russia. In a statement in May, Joe Biden said that in announcing the intention to withdraw, Trump 'doubled down on his short-sighted policy of going it alone and abandoning American leadership.' 'I supported the Open Skies Treaty as a Senator, because I understood that the United States and our allies would benefit from being able to observe -- on short notice -- what Russia and other countries in Europe were doing with their military forces,' his May statement added." The Hill's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "G20 leaders meeting remotely pledged on Sunday to 'spare no effort' to ensure the fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide, but offered no specific new funding to meet that goal.... The bulk of the summit focused on ensuring that the coronavirus vaccines expected to hit the market imminently are available for distribution at affordable prices in poorer countries.... The virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia was an awkward swan song for Donald Trump, who skipped some sessions on Saturday to play golf, paid little attention to other leaders' speeches and claimed the Paris climate agreement was designed not to save the planet but to the kill the US economy. Joe Biden has promised to rejoin the accord on day one of his presidency...." ~~~
~~~ Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "A final communique [from the G-20 summit] heralded achievements, including an offer of debt relief to developing nations and a commitment to ensuring equitable access to coronavirus treatments. But it also laid out a frightening litany of challenges facing economies and societies that the scaled-back summit, or any global gathering, would be hard-pressed to meet.... [Its] plea for a coordinated response [to the coronavirus pandemic] reflected the struggles faced by countries such as France, India and Turkey as infection rates soar. It was also a retort to the Trump administration and its go-it-alone approach to international challenges ranging from the pandemic to climate change.... On Sunday, Trump addressed a summit session on the environment titled 'Safeguarding the Planet.' The president, whose administration has weakened regulations intended to reduce pollution generated in the United States, called his record on protecting the environment 'historic' and attacked the Paris climate accord.... 'The Paris accord was not designed to save the environment,' Trump told the summit. 'It was designed to kill the American economy.'"
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.
William Booth & Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: "The coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is up to 90 percent effective when administered at a half dose and then a full booster dose a month later, scientists said Monday. The announcement follows upbeat results from two other front-running vaccine candidates, by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, in the last two weeks. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is likely to be cheaper than those made by Pfizer and Moderna, and it does not need to be stored at subzero temperatures but can be kept in ordinary refrigerators in pharmacies and doctor's offices. AstraZeneca executives said the vaccine is already being manufactured. The first 4 million doses could be ready in December, and 40 million could be delivered in the first quarter of 2021, they said. By the spring, the company and its global partners in India, Brazil, Russia and the United States could be cranking out 100 million to 200 million doses a month."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd., Especially for Trump Donors. Todd Frankel of the Washington Post: "A company owned by a major donor to President Trump that operates auto-title loan stores with names such as LoanStar and Moneymax secured a $25 million low-interest loan from a government pandemic aid program, using what consumer advocates describe as a loophole to a rule designed to prevent most lenders from getting this federal help. The cash infusion to Wellshire Financial Services -- part of a multi-state title loan empire run by Atlanta businessman Rod Aycox -- came from the Federal Reserve's $600 billion Main Street Lending program for small- and medium-size businesses.... Wellshire's government-backed, five-year loan came with a 3.15 percent interest rate, Fed records show. Loans to consumers at Wellshire's auto-title loan stores can carry a 350 percent annual rate, thanks to high fees and interest supercharging the cost of borrowing, according to corporate disclosure documents." Emphasis added.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Ben Hubbard, et al., of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel flew to Saudi Arabia for a covert meeting Sunday night with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an Israeli cabinet minister confirmed on Monday. The visit was the first known meeting between high-level Israeli and Saudi leaders and could signal an acceleration of gradually warming relations between the two powers.... The visit follows agreements by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan to establish formal relations with Israel, moves that the Trump administration had pushed for to crack a boycott of Israel by most Arab states in solidarity with the Palestinians. A similar agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel would be much more significant because of the kingdom's size, wealth and standing in the Muslim world as the protector of many of Islam's holiest sites. But there had been little indication that such a move was imminent."
Kim Wilsher of the Guardian/Observer: "Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, will make history on Monday when he appears in court accused of corruption and influence peddling. The case is the first of several investigations against the rightwing politician who led France between 2007 and 2012 to come before judges after years of attempts to have the charges dropped or nullified. In a case known as the 'bugging affair', the prosecution alleges Sarkozy and his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, attempted to bribe a senior magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, to hand over secret information from a separate investigation against the former French leader. In return, Sarkozy is accused of offering to help secure Azibert a cushy job on the Côte d'Azur." MB: Hmmm, I would accept a bribe promising ";a cushy job on the Côte d'Azur."
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