Obesity,
Impaired Metabolic Health and COVID-19: The Interconnection
of Global Pandemics. (SciTechDaily, January 24, 2021)
Obesity and cardiometabolic diseases do not only trigger a
more severe course of COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 infection could
promote the development of these conditions.
Sabine
Hossenfelder: Where do atoms come from? (9-min. video;
BackReaction, January 23, 2021)
Harvard
Scientists Reconstruct the Game-Changing Evolution From
Fin-to-Limb in Early Tetrapods. (SciTechDaily, January
23, 2021)
It’s hard to overstate how much of a game-changer it was when
vertebrates first rose up from the waters and moved onshore
about 390 million years ago. That transition led to the rise
of the dinosaurs and all the land animals that exist today.
Scientists have been trying for more than a century to unravel
exactly how this remarkable shift took place, and their
understanding of the process is largely based on a few rare,
intact fossils with anatomical gaps between them.
A new study shows how and when the first groups of land
explorers became better walkers than swimmers. The analysis
spans the fin-to-limb transition and reconstructs the
evolution of terrestrial movement in early tetrapods. These
are the four-limbed land vertebrates whose descendants include
extinct and living amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.
The researchers focused on the humerus, the long bone in the
upper arm that runs down from the shoulder and connects with
the lower arm at the elbow, to get around the dilemma of gaps
between well-preserved fossils. Functionally, the humerus is
invaluable for movement because it hosts key muscles that
absorb much of the stress from quadrupedal locomotion. Most
importantly, the bone is found in all tetrapods and the fishes
they evolved from and is pretty common throughout the fossil
record. The bone represents a time capsule of sorts, with
which to reconstruct the evolution of locomotion since it can
be examined across the fin-to-limb transition, the researchers
said.
In
Aleksei Navalny Protests, Russia Faces Biggest Dissent in
Years. (New York Times, January 23, 2021)
Demonstrations in support of the jailed opposition leader
swept the nation, beginning in the Far East, where people
braved subzero temperatures, and reaching the capital. Arrests
climbed into the thousands.
Over
3,400 arrested at Russia protests demanding Alexey Navalny's
release. (2-min. video; CBS News, January 23, 2021)
Russian police arrested more than 3,400 people Saturday in
nationwide protests demanding the release of opposition leader
Alexey Navalny, the Kremlin's most prominent foe, according to
a group that counts political detentions. The protests in
scores of cities in temperatures as low as minus-58 F
highlighted how Navalny has built influence far beyond the
political and cultural centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In Moscow, an estimated 15,000 demonstrators gathered in and
around Pushkin Square in the city center, where clashes with
police broke out and demonstrators were roughly dragged off by
helmeted riot officers to police buses and detention trucks.
Some were beaten with batons.
"The
problem is Putin": Protesters throng Russia's streets to
support Navalny. (The Guardian, January 23, 2021)
More than 2,500 are arrested at rallies across the country as
cities see huge turnouts in support of opposition leader.
For more than a decade, the Kremlin has used every tool at its
disposal to keep Russians off the streets, wielding fear and
boredom to make protesting against Vladimir Putin seem
pointless. And yet in defiant scenes on Saturday in cities
across Russia, from St Petersburg to Vladivostok and even in
Yakutsk, where protesters braved temperatures below -50C, tens
of thousands of Russians sent a message to a Kremlin that has
squeezed out all opposition in Russia: enough is enough.
As police fought to retake control of city squares, some
protesters fought back, throwing snowballs and trading blows
with officers in body armour. Many more chanted for Putin to
leave, swapped jokes, filmed Instagram stories, and ran to
stay one step ahead of the police, who chased them across the
city.
The spark was the arrest of Alexei Navalny, the Russian
opposition leader allegedly poisoned by the FSB. But many of
the tens of thousands out in Moscow said that the problems
went deeper, tied to Putin and his two decades of control over
the country.
Protests
Swell Across Russia Calling For The Release Of Kremlin
Critic Alexei Navalny. (NPR, January 23, 2021)
Tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets in protest
on Saturday to demand the release of jailed opposition leader
Alexei Navalny, braving the threat of mass arrests in what was
expected to be one of the largest demonstrations against the
Kremlin in years. From the port city of Vladivostok in the
east to the capital of Moscow seven time zones away in the
west, protesters swept across the country in open defiance of
warnings from Russian authorities that the demonstrations have
been deemed illegal.
On Tuesday, Navalny's team released a scathing investigation
accusing Putin of corruption and detailing the construction of
a lavish palace on the Black Sea allegedly build for the
Russian leader using a "slush fund."
The
investigation, titled "Putin's Palace. History of world's
largest bribe," has already been viewed more than 70 million
times since its
release on YouTube.
[From Navalny's 2-hour YouTube bombshell:
It was here, in Dresden (East Germany, 1987) that Putin
defined his main life principles:
1. Always say one thing and do another. Lying and hypocrisy
are the most effective methods of work.
2. Corruption is the foundation of trust. Your main friends
are those who have been stealing and cheating with you for
many years.
3. And the most important thing: There is never too much
money.
Hmm. Who else does that remind us of?]
Senate
ends standoff, agrees to start Trump’s impeachment trial
Feb. 9th. (Washington Post, January 22, 2021)
The impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump will
begin Feb. 9 under a deal reached Friday by top Senate leaders
— delaying by two weeks the high-stakes proceedings over
whether Trump incited the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S.
Capitol. The agreement was made by Senate Majority Leader
Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.) following a standoff over the timing of the
trial, which could permanently bar Trump from holding public
office.
Astronomers
Discover First Cloudless, Jupiter-Like Planet – “Smoking Gun
Evidence”. (SciTechDaily, January 22, 2021)
Astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard &
Smithsonian have detected the first Jupiter-like planet
without clouds or haze in its observable atmosphere. This
marks the second time astronomers have ever observed a
cloud-free exoplanet.
“Something
Is Happening to the Bees” – 25% of Known Bee Species Haven’t
Appeared in Public Records Since the 1990s.
(SciTechDaily, January 22, 2021)
“Figuring out which species are living where and how each
population is doing using complex aggregated datasets can be
very messy,” says Zattara. “We wanted to ask a simpler
question: what species have been recorded, anywhere in the
world, in a given period?” To find their answer, the
researchers dove into the Global Biodiversity Information
Facility (GBIF), an international network of databases, which
contains over three centuries’ worth of records from museums,
universities, and private citizens, accounting for over 20,000
known bee species from around the world.
In addition to finding that a quarter of total bee species are
no longer being recorded, the researchers observed that this
decline is not evenly distributed among bee families. Records
of halictid bees–the second most common family–have declined
by 17% since the 1990s. Those for Melittidae–a much rarer
family–have gone down by as much as 41%.
Biden
Signs Orders to Expand Food Stamps and Raise Wages, but Says
Economy Needs More Help. (New York Times, January 22,
2021)
The president called it an “economic imperative” to provide
more aid for millions of Americans who are struggling to make
ends meet as the virus exacts a bruising toll.
Thom
Hartmann: America is dying: three steps to bring us back
from the brink (Medium, January 21, 2021)
Other developed countries are doing all these things; we can,
too
Trump
hires impeachment lawyer, McConnell wants Senate trial in
February for Capitol riot incitement charge. (CNBC News,
January 21, 2021)
Former President Donald Trump hired South Carolina attorney
Butch Bowers to defend him at his second impeachment trial,
which the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, on
Thursday proposed should begin in mid-February. The New York
Times later Thursday noted that Trump’s other lawyers “had all
bowed out” of representing him in what will be his second
impeachment trial.
It is possible that Democrats could try to force the trial to
begin as early as next week. McConnell said it is “absolutely
imperative that we do not allow a half-baked process to
short-circuit the due process that former President Trump
deserves or damage the Senate or the presidency.”
McConnell on Tuesday had said on the Senate floor that Trump
was to blame for inciting the assault on the Capitol. “The mob
was fed lies,” McConnell said that day. “They were provoked by
the president and other powerful people.”
Jimmy
Kimmel's "Goodbye, Donald Trump!" (2-min. video; Jimmy
Kimmel Live, January 21, 2021)
Dancing national monuments celebrate the Trump dump.
Drug
Prevents Coronavirus Infection in Nursing Homes, Maker
Claims. (New York Times, January 21, 2021)
An unusual experiment to prevent nursing home staff members
and residents from infection with the coronavirus has
succeeded, the drug maker Eli Lilly announced on Thursday. A
drug containing monoclonal antibodies — laboratory-grown
virus-fighters — prevented symptomatic infections in residents
who were exposed to the virus, even the frail older people who
are most vulnerable, according to preliminary results of a
study conducted in partnership with the National Institutes of
Health. The researchers found an 80 percent reduction in
infections among residents who got the drug, compared with
those who got a placebo, and a 60 percent reduction among the
staff, results that were highly statistically powerful, Eli
Lilly said.
Tiny
corner of US has been isolated from mainland for 10 months.
(Accuweather, January 20, 2021)
[And is desperate enough to build a 22-mile ice road across
Lake of the Woods.]
'Don't
do it': McCarthy explicitly warns that attacking other
members is putting them in jeopardy. (Daily Kos, January
20, 2021)
Congressional Republicans have kicked into high gear
over the past week to minimize the fallout for the
Republican Party caused by Donald Trump and the murderous
mob he sicced on the lawmakers at the Capitol. On the one
hand, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell finally directly blamed Trump for inciting
the riot by feeding his cultists a steady diet of
disinformation and baseless lies about the election.
On the other is extraordinary leaked audio of House
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy explicitly warning members of his
caucus not to target other congressional members by name
because "it's putting people in jeopardy."
McConnell's
obstruction of Biden's agenda has already begun. (Daily
Kos, January 20, 2021)
The first half of this Inauguration Day has been devoted, at
least rhetorically, to unity. But Sen. Mitch McConnell is
still in charge of the Senate Republicans, and he's still
Mitch McConnell. The chamber is evenly divided, which does one
good thing: It makes Vice President Kamala Harris one of the
most—if not the most—powerful VPs the nation has ever had.
McConnell seems intent on making her work. In his discussions
with new Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on power-sharing in the
split chamber, McConnell is insisting that the agreement
contain a commitment from Schumer to retain the filibuster.
That tells you everything you need to know about McConnell's
intentions for helping President Biden, House Speaker Pelosi,
and the Senate save the country. Staff for each leader had
been operating on the assumption that the power-sharing
agreement from 2001 would be the default for this time around.
Then McConnell threw the filibuster curveball.
Biden’s
17 Executive Orders and Other Directives in Detail (New
York Times, January 20, 2021)
The moves aim to strengthen protections for young immigrants,
end construction of President Donald J. Trump’s border wall,
end a travel ban and prioritize racial equity.
Heather
Cox Richardson: “Where can we find light in this
never-ending shade?” (Letters From An American, January
20, 2021)
For the past four years we have lived under an administration
that advanced policies based on bullying; a fantasy of a lost,
white, Christian America; and disinformation. We have endured
the gutting of our government as the president either left
positions empty or replaced career officials with political
operatives, corruption, the rise of white supremacists into
positions of power, the destruction of our international
standing, an unchecked pandemic that has led to more than
400,000 deaths from Covid-19, an economic crash, and
unprecedented political polarization.
“And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it,” Gorman reminded
us.
"Overjoyed":
Hear from poet who stole the show at inauguration. (CNN
News, January 20, 2021)
CNN's Anderson Cooper speaks with Amanda Gorman, the nation's
first-ever youth poet laureate, after she delivered a poem at
the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
Amanda
Gorman’s Inaugural Poem Is a Stunning Vision of Democracy.
(New Yorker, January 20, 2021)
Among the firsts in Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem, “The Hill
We Climb,” is the concept of democracy that it assumed.
Democracy, according to the twenty-two-year-old poet, is an
aspiration—a thing of the future. The word “democracy” first
appears in the same verse in which Gorman refers to “a force
that would shatter our nation rather than share it.” The
insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th took place while
Gorman was working on the poem, although the “force,” one may
assume, is bigger than the insurrection—it is the Trump
Presidency that made the insurrection possible, and the forces
of white supremacy and inequality that enabled that Presidency
itself—“it / Would destroy our country if it meant delaying
democracy / And this effort very nearly succeeded” the poem
continues. “But while democracy can be periodically delayed /
it can never be permanently defeated.”
"The
Hill We Climb"; Read Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem.
(CNN, January 20, 2021)
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it's the past we step into and how we repair it.
We've seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it,
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy,
And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed,
it can never be permanently defeated.
Republican
Garth Brooks sang at Biden's inauguration. The internet
reacted with memes and history lessons. (Insider,
January 20, 2021)
[After performing, why didn't he replace his face mask before
hugging all those national leaders? And why haven't we seen
that reported?]
The Inauguration of Joe
Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice President of
the United States of America. (3.5-hr. video; Biden
Inaugural, January 20, 2021)
Proud
Boys are ditching Trump hours after he left the White House
for good, calling him a 'shill' and 'extraordinarily weak'.
(Business Insider, January 20, 2021)
Mitch
McConnel says Trump provoked the attack on the U.S. Capitol
building. (11-min. video; The Young Turks, January 19,
2021)
Attorney
General William Barr calls Trump claims "bulls***", Trump
freaks. (7-min. video; The Young Turks, January 19,
2021)
Paul
Krugmann: Evidence Makes A Comeback. (New York Times,
January 19, 2021)
"And I, for one, am thrilled that 23½ hours after this
newsletter goes out we’ll have an administration that
understands that."
Navalny,
From Jail, Issues Report Describing an Opulent Putin
‘Palace’. (New York Times, January 19, 2021)
As part of a dramatic battle with the Russian president
playing out before an online audience of millions, the
opposition leader and his team detailed a lavish compound
costing more than $1 billion.
Seventeen Ways
America is Less Democratic than other Major Western
Countries and How We Can Do Better. (Second Rate
Democracy, January 19, 2021)
A web project of Douglas J. Amy, Professor Emeritus of
Politics, Mount Holyoke College.
The United States is the country that democracy left behind.
At its founding, the U.S. was on the cutting edge of
democracy. Our Constitution rejected rule by kings and
pioneered democratic innovations like civil liberties. But in
the 200 years since, democratic institutions have continued to
evolve – with improvements in legislatures, elections, the
judiciary, party systems, and so on. Other Western nations,
with more modern constitutions, have taken advantage of these
institutional advances and made their democracies fairer, more
representative, and more accountable to their citizens. We
haven’t followed suit and we’ve become a second-rate
democracy, with a government mired in gridlock, dominated by
monied interests, and unresponsive to the public.
Rioter
planned attack, wanted to trap lawmakers and 'turn on gas':
Prosecutors. (ABC News, January 19, 2021)
Federal authorities are continuing to charge rioters who took
part in the siege on Capitol Hill. These are the most recent
charges:
The Justice Department has filed its first conspiracy charges
from the Capitol riot against a Virginia man who they allege
was an apparent leader of a group of militia members who were
part of the mob that stormed the building. Thomas Edward
Caldwell is identified in an FBI affidavit as a member of the
Oath Keepers. An agent alleges that he helped organize a group
of eight to 10 of his fellow members to storm the Capitol with
the intention of disrupting the counting of the Electoral
College vote. The group can be seen in video walking uniformly
through a crowd of rioters trying to gain entrance to the
Capitol. Those members included co-conspirators Jessica
Watkins and Donovan Crowl, who were charged for their role in
the riots earlier this week. In social media posts, both Crowl
and Watkins referred to Caldwell as "Commander," according to
the court documents. While inside the Capitol, Caldwell
allegedly received Facebook messages telling him to "seal" in
lawmakers in the tunnels under the Capitol and to "turn on
gas." Other messages appeared to be trying to give him updates
on the locations of lawmakers, the affidavit states. Other
texts reveal the extensive planning and even potential attacks
that he and other members of the Oath Keepers were mounting
leading up to the riots.
[And many others...]
Self-styled
militia members planned on storming the U.S. Capitol days in
advance of Jan. 6 attack, court documents say.
(Washington Post, January 19, 2021)
Self-styled militia members from Virginia, Ohio and other
states made plans to storm the U.S. Capitol days in advance of
the Jan. 6 attack, and then communicated in real time as they
breached the building on opposite sides and talked about
hunting for lawmakers, according to court documents filed
Tuesday. While authorities have charged more than 100
individuals in the riot, details in the new allegations
against three U.S. military veterans offer a disturbing look
at what they allegedly said to one another before, during and
after the attack — statements that indicate a degree of
preparation and determination to rush deep into the halls and
tunnels of Congress to make “citizens’ arrests” of elected
officials.
“This is the first step toward identifying and understanding
that there was some type of concerted conspiracy here,” said
one senior official with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
District of Columbia, which is leading the investigation.
“Whether everyone else just happened to be there and got
caught up in the moment, or if this is just the tip of the
iceberg, how much this will grow at this point I can’t tell
you, but we are continuing to investigate aggressively,”
according to the official, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to discuss a pending investigation.
Trump
Has Discussed Starting a New "Patriot" Political Party.
(Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2021)
It’s unclear how serious Mr. Trump is about starting a new
party, which would require a significant investment of time
and resources. The president has a large base of supporters,
some of whom were not deeply involved in Republican politics
prior to Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign. Third parties have
typically failed to draw enough support to play a major role
in national elections. Any effort to start a new party would
likely face intense opposition from Republican party
officials, who would chafe at the thought of Mr. Trump peeling
off support from GOP candidates.
Departing
Trump administration issues racist school curriculum report
on MLK day. (CNN, January 18, 2021)
A commission stood up by President Donald Trump as a rebuttal
to schools applying a more accurate history curriculum around
slavery in the US issued its inflammatory "1776 Report" on
Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Trump announced that he was establishing the commission last
fall, following a slew of Black Lives Matter demonstrations
across the country. He blamed the school curriculum for
violence that resulted from some of the protests, saying that
"the left-wing rioting and mayhem are the direct result of
decades of left-wing indoctrination in our schools." The
commission is an apparent counter to The New York Times'
"1619" Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning project aimed at
teaching American students about slavery. Trump, speaking last
fall, called the project "toxic propaganda."
[As one of his first-day actions, President Biden took down
this hypocritical "preserve the imbalance" report]
Trump
promoted N.M. official’s comment that "the only good
Democrat is a dead Democrat." Now the man is arrested in the
Capitol riot. (Washington Post, January 18, 2021)
President Trump’s culpability for the attempted insurrection
at the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago will be judged by U.S.
senators in a looming impeachment trial — and possibly by the
court system after he leaves the presidency. Now a man with a
personal connection to Trump — and whose violent rhetoric
Trump promoted to the world — has been arrested in the riot.
Otero County, N.M., Commissioner Couy Griffin was arrested
Sunday for illegally entering the Capitol on Jan. 6. Griffin,
the head of a group called Cowboys for Trump, claims he got
caught up with the crowd and didn’t actually enter the
building, but the affidavit says video on his personal
Facebook page showed him in restricted areas.
Griffin also pledged to return to Washington with guns for
President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday, and he
alluded to the prospect of violence and another incursion into
the offices of lawmakers. According to the affidavit, he said
in a video posted after the Jan. 6 riot: " …
We could have a 2nd Amendment rally on those same steps that
we had that rally yesterday. You know, and if we do, then it’s
gonna be a sad day, because there’s gonna be blood running out
of that building. But at the end of the day, you mark my word,
we will plant our flag on the desk of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck
Schumer and Donald J. Trump if it boils down to it."
FBI:
Texas man threatened to shoot family if they reported him
going in U.S. Capitol. (Houston Chronicle, January 18,
2021)
A Wylie man arrested over the weekend for going inside of the
U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 told his family he went there "to
protect the country" and threatened to shoot his children if
they turned him in, authorities say. Guy Reffitt took his gun
with him when they "stormed the Capitol" and recorded some of
the events on his Go Pro camera that he was wearing on his
helmet, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Reffitt was arrested Saturday at his Wylie home and faces
federal charges of obstruction of justice and knowingly
entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds
without lawful authority. Wylie is about 55 miles northeast of
Fort Worth. The Wylie man, who is a member of "Texas Freedom
Force," a militia extremist group, remained in federal custody
on Monday. FBI agents tracked down Reffitt through a news
video, showing a man outside the U.S. Capitol building using a
water bottle to flush out his eyes after apparently being
pepper-sprayed.
Biden
has a congressional shortcut to cancel Trump’s regulatory
rollbacks, but it comes with risks. (The Conversation,
January 18, 2021)
The Trump administration dedicated itself to deregulation with
unprecedented fervor. It rolled back scores of regulations
across government agencies, including more than 80
environmental rules.
The Biden administration can reverse some of those actions
quickly – for instance, as president, Joe Biden can undo
Donald Trump’s executive orders with a stroke of the pen. He
plans to restore U.S. involvement in the Paris climate
agreement that way on his first day in office.
Undoing most regulatory rollbacks, however, will require a
review process that can take years, often followed by further
delays during litigation.
There is an alternative, but it comes with risks. Biden could
take a leaf from the Republicans’ 2017 playbook, when
congressional Republicans used a shortcut based on an obscure
federal law called the Congressional Review Act to wipe out
several Obama administration regulations.
Breakthrough
Allows Inexpensive Electric Vehicle Battery to Charge in
Just 10 Minutes. (Sci Tech Daily, January 18, 2021)
Range anxiety, the fear of running out of power before being
able to recharge an electric vehicle, may be a thing of the
past, according to a team of Penn State engineers who are
looking at lithium iron phosphate batteries that have a range
of 250 miles with the ability to charge in 10 minutes.
NEW: Poison
squad stalked Alexei Navalny on 40 flights, says Bellingcat
investigator. (The Guardian, January 17, 2021)
As Russian opposition leader returns to Moscow, flight records
show how Kremlin agents have been following him for years
America's
soaring national debt is a looming disaster. (Business
Insider, January 17, 2021)
The problem in the United States today is that our use of debt
does not satisfy the conditions for "good" debt.
A
Single Gene “Invented” Hemoglobin Several Times. (Sci
Tech Daily, January 17, 2021)
Thanks to the marine worm Platynereis dumerilii, an animal
whose genes have evolved very slowly, scientists have shown
that while hemoglobin appeared independently in several
species, it actually descends from a single gene transmitted
to all by their last common ancestor.
Astronomers
Discover Earliest Supermassive Black Hole and Quasar in the
Universe – 1000x More Luminous Than the Milky Way. (Sci
Tech Daily, January 17, 2021)
The most distant quasar known has been discovered. The quasar,
observed just 670 million years after the Big Bang, is 1000
times more luminous than the Milky Way. It is powered by the
earliest known supermassive black hole, which weighs in at
more than 1.6 billion times the mass of the Sun. Seen more
than 13 billion years ago, this fully formed distant quasar is
also the earliest yet discovered, providing astronomers with
insight into the formation of massive galaxies in the early
Universe.
Sabine
Hossenfelder: Was the universe made for us? (9-min.
video; BackReaction, January 16, 2021)
Today I want to talk about the claim that our universe is
especially made for humans, or fine-tuned for life. According
to this idea, it’s extremely unlikely our universe would just
happen to be the way it is by chance, and the fact that we
nevertheless exist requires explanation. This argument is
popular among some religious people who use it to claim that
our universe needs a creator, and the same argument is used by
physicists to pass off unscientific ideas, like the multiverse
or naturalness, as science. In this video, I will explain
what’s wrong with this argument, and why the observation that
the universe is this way and not some other way, is evidence
neither for nor against god or the multiverse.
Mary
Koch: The Vaccine (Every New Season, January 16, 2021)
There are folks with “vaccine hesitancy.” It’s a national
phenomenon, especially among many front-line health care
workers whose responses range from “maybe later” to downright
“no.” A hospital in New York reported that only three of
nineteen full-time staff members in the respiratory therapy
department agreed to get vaccinated. These are the folks who
are at great personal risk as they intubate critically ill
coronavirus patients.
My own Patrick Henry stance is that I’ll fight for other
people’s right not to be injected, but I didn’t hesitate. I
rolled up my sleeve for the same reason I get a flu shot every
winter, for the same reason I wear a mask when around others.
It’s really not about me. It’s about living in a community.
The healthier each one of us is, the healthier we all are.
DuckDuckGo
surpasses 100 million daily search queries for the first
time. (ZDNet, January 16, 2021)
DuckDuckGo reaches historic milestone in a week when both
Signal and Telegram saw a huge influx of new users.
Misinformation
dropped dramatically the week after Twitter banned Trump and
some allies. (Washington Post, January 16, 2021)
Zignal Labs charts 73 percent decline on Twitter and beyond
following historic action against the president.
Selfie-Snapping
Rioters Leave FBI a Trail of Over 140,000 Images.
(Bloomberg, January 16, 2021)
Citizens and police sift online trove to find Capitol mob.
Facial recognition software used by at least one police
department. The FBI has quickly identified more than 275
suspects -- the number is expected to grow quickly -- related
to last week’s Capitol riot. More than 98 have been arrested,
often with the aid of video taken or social media posted by
the participants themselves. And investigators, academics and
citizen sleuths are still combing though broadcast footage and
websites such as Twitter Inc., YouTube and even archives of
the now-defunct Parler platform favored by right-wing
activists.
“Social media companies let this fester for years, but you’re
seeing a sea change,” said a global head of managed security
services. “They’re not going to stonewall any longer.” Like
social media companies, telecoms will be essential to
investigations, and be obligated to maintain and turnover
subscriber call logs and location data once subpoenaed or
presented with a warrant. Carriers and online companies say
they cooperate with law enforcement.
Historians
having to tape together records that Trump tore up. (The
Guardian, January 16, 2021)
Implications for public record and legal proceedings after
administration seized or destroyed papers, notes and other
information.
The public will not see Donald Trump’s White House records for
years, but there is growing concern the collection will never
be complete – leaving a hole in the history of one of
America’s most tumultuous presidencies. Trump has been
cavalier about the law requiring that records be preserved. He
has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out,
forcing White House workers to spend hours taping them back
together.
Bundy
warns he will 'walk towards guns' if Biden tries to collect
28 years of unpaid grazing fees. (Daily Kos, January 16,
2021)
Remember Cliven Bundy, the stubborn Nevada rancher whose
decades-long refusal to pay grazing fees for cattle he runs on
federal land led to a 2014 armed stand-off at his family ranch
and in 2016, another armed stand-off led by his son Ammon
Bundy in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge? Bundy wound up
in pre-trial detention for 18 months over the 2014 stand-off,
but because of prosecutorial misconduct, he was released and
his case adjudged a mistrial. New charges weren’t filed. He
and his large family continue to run cattle on federal land
without paying the modest grazing fees. By 2014, 21 years
after he began refusing to pay for this use of public land,
the back fees had accumulated to more than $1 million.
Currently, 24,000 permit holders are charged $1.35 per animal
per month for grazing—a very good deal. But not as good as
Bundy’s steal.
Now the 74-year-old rancher has advice for President-elect Joe
Biden’s administration: It better not come trying to collect
those unpaid fees, because he and his militant supporters are
willing to "walk towards guns" again if that happens.
What
motivates the motivated reasoning of pro-Trump
conspiracists? (Ars Technica, January 16, 2021)
New study suggests a desire to see society focus on men helps
drive support.
Motivated reasoning is the idea that our mental processes
often cause us to filter the evidence we accept based on
whether it's consistent with what we want to believe. During
these past few weeks, it has been on display in the United
States on a truly grand scale. People are accepting
context-free videos shared on social media over investigations
performed by election officials. They're rejecting obvious
evidence of President Donald Trump's historic unpopularity
while buying in to evidence-free conspiracies involving
deceased Latin American dictators.
If the evidence for motivated reasoning is obvious, however,
it's a lot harder to figure out what's providing the
motivation. It's not simply Republican identity, given that
Trump adopted many policies that went against previous
Republican orthodoxy. The frequent appearance of Confederate
flags confirms some racism is involved, but that doesn't seem
to explain it all. There's a long enough list of potential
motivations to raise doubts as to whether a single one could
possibly suffice.
A recent paper in PNAS, however, provides a single explanation
that incorporates a lot of the potential motivations. Called
"hegemonic masculinity," it involves a world view that places
males from the dominant cultural group as the focus of
societal power. And survey data seems to back up the idea.
A
Shocking List of 30+ Elected Officials at Trump's Rally,
Capitol Insurrection; It Keeps Growing. (Daily Kos,
January 16, 2021)
There is a new class of fringe radical right-wing trolls
entering Congress this year, including Reps. Madison Cawthorn,
crime enthusiast Lauren Boebert, QAnon fanatic Marjorie Taylor
Greene. They join resident right-wing conspiracy degenerates
like Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and Mo Brooks, among
others.
The latter three coordinated with the leaders of the coup
attempt, encouraging them and recording rally hype videos for
their followers. Boebert seems to have played an active role
on the day of the coup attempt, which is a whole new level of
treason. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a moderate Democrat from New
Jersey and a Navy veteran, suggested earlier this week that
she saw Republicans giving rioters tours of the Capitol the
day before the insurrection took place. Capitol Police confirm
that there is an active investigation into the accusation,
while Boebert seemed to accidentally confirm it on Twitter.
That QAnon and these far-right conspiracy lunatics have
infiltrated the national government is terrifying, but what’s
even scarier is the fact that so many more of them have wormed
their way into state and local governments.
Off-duty
police were part of the Capitol mob. Now police are turning
in their own. (Washington Post, January 16, 2021)
During the chaos at the Capitol, overwhelmed police officers
confronted and combated a frenzied sea of rioters who
transformed the seat of democracy into a battlefield. Now
police chiefs across the country are confronting the
uncomfortable reality that members in their own ranks were
among the mob that faced off against other law enforcement
officers. At least 13 off-duty law enforcement officials are
suspected of taking part in the riot, a tally that could grow
as investigators continue to pore over footage and records to
identify participants. Police leaders are turning in their own
to the FBI and taking the striking step of reminding officers
in their departments that criminal misconduct could push them
off the force and behind bars.
“We are making clear that they have First Amendment rights
like all Americans,” said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo,
who on Thursday accepted the resignation of an 18-year veteran
in his department due to his involvement in the riot, which
followed a rally at which President Trump urged his supporters
to not accept his defeat. “However, engaging in activity that
crosses the line into criminal conduct will not be tolerated.”
How
the rioters who stormed the Capitol came dangerously close
to Pence. (Washington Post, January 15, 2021)
According to the FBI, one man who was charged this week with
trespassing and disorderly conduct after making his way into
the Senate chamber said in a YouTube video: “Once we found out
Pence turned on us and that they had stolen the election,
like, officially, the crowd went crazy. I mean, it became a
mob.” At one point, a group of rioters began chanting, “Hang
Mike Pence!” as they streamed into the main door on the east
side of the Capitol.
The violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 came
perilously close to Vice President Pence, who was not
evacuated from the Senate chamber for about 14 minutes after
the Capitol Police reported an initial attempted breach of the
complex — enough time for the marauders to rush inside the
building and approach his location, according to law
enforcement officials and video footage from that day.
Twice the vice president’s agents told Pence that they
recommended he and his immediate entourage evacuate the
Capitol, according to two people briefed on the episode. Pence
declined the recommendation both times, saying he did not want
to be driven out of his own office and the Capitol by an
unruly mob. The third time, the Secret Service didn’t give
Pence a choice. Detail agents told Pence they were all going —
that instant. Secret Service officers spirited Pence to a room
off the Senate floor withhis wife, Karen Pence, his daughter,
Charlotte Pence Bond, and his brother, Rep. Greg Pence
(R-Ind.), who had come to the Senate and was watching its
debate over Arizona’s electoral vote with his sister-in-law
and niece.
About one minute after Pence was hustled out of the chamber, a
group charged up the stairs to a second-floor landing. ,
chasing Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman who drew them
away from the Senate. They arriving on the landing at 2:14
p.m., video footage shows — mere seconds after the vice
president had been whisked inside the office.
It would take several hours before Capitol Police — aided by
hundreds of D.C. police officers, FBI SWAT team members,
Secret Service officers and National Guard soldiers — ejected
the rioters from the grounds and secured the building. As
lawmakers debated where and how they should reconvene to
continue the electoral vote count disrupted by the violent
mob, Pence pushed to continue the session where it had begun —
in the Capitol.
Once the Capitol Police gave the all-clear, Pence left his
secure location and returned to the Senate chamber after 8
p.m. Before Congress resumed its work, the vice president
addressed the day’s violence in an unusual speech as president
of the Senate. “Today was a dark day in the history of the
United States Capitol,” Pence said, adding: “We will always be
grateful to the men and women who stayed at their posts to
defend this historic place. To those who wreaked havoc in our
Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom
wins. And this is still the People’s House.”
“Where
They Countin’ the Votes?!”: New Video Details Tense Moments
as Capitol Mob Sought Out Lawmakers. (3-min. video;
ProPublica, January 15, 2021)
More than 10 million people have seen the video shot by
HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic showing a Black Capitol Police
officer leading pro-Trump rioters away from where senators
were holed up in the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Now, ProPublica has uncovered new footage — amid a trove of
content archived from the now-shuttered social platform Parler
— that reveals the raw moments before Officer Eugene Goodman’s
actions. The clip, recorded minutes after crowds breached a
barrier outside, allows the public to see and hear new details
from a turbulent day that ultimately led to President Donald
Trump’s second impeachment.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced a bill to award
Goodman the Congressional Gold Medal for luring the mob away
from lawmakers. Goodman is a 40-year-old U.S. Army veteran and
was deployed with the 101st Airborne Division to Iraq for a
year.
Two
rioters claim Capitol officer told them, ‘It’s your house
now,’ FBI says. (Washington Post, January 15, 2021)
As rioters overran the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, an officer
guarding the building shook hands with two people in the mob
and admitted defeat, according to the account the men provided
FBI agents. Robert L. Bauer and Edward Hemenway told an FBI
agent that after they rushed into the building with the crowd,
one Capitol Police officer shook their hands, gave one a
partial hug and told them both that “it’s your house now.”
“Sorry,” Hemenway recalled telling the officer.
“It’s your house now, man,” he said the officer replied.
Bauer told the FBI he “believed that the policeman was acting
out of fear,” according to an affidavit filed Thursday in
federal court in the District.
The chief of the Capitol Police and House and Senate sergeants
at arms have all resigned in the wake of the attack that left
a Capitol Police officer and four rioters dead. It took nearly
four hours to secure the building from rioters seeking to
overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Biden
taps Eric Lander and Maria Zuber for senior science posts.
(MIT News, January 15, 2021)
Biden intends to elevate the Presidential Science Advisor, for
the first time in history, to be a member of his Cabinet.
Bill
Gates is now America's biggest private farmland owner, says
new report. (The Hill, January 15, 2021)
The Microsoft tech billionaire and his wife own 242,000 acres
of farmland across the U.S.
NRA
declares bankruptcy, plans to incorporate in Texas.
(Politico, January 15, 2021)
The announcement came months after New York’s attorney general
sued the organization over claims that top executives
illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish
personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other
questionable expenditures. The coronavirus pandemic has also
upended the NRA, which last year laid off dozens of employees.
The group canceled its national convention and scuttled
fundraising. The NRA's bankruptcy filing listed between $100
million and $500 million in assets and between $100 million
and $500 million in liabilities. Still, the NRA claimed in
announcing the move that the organization was “in its
strongest financial condition in years.”
Shortly after the announcement, New York Attorney General
Letitia James said she would not allow the NRA to “evade
accountability” or oversight. Her office's lawsuit last year
highlighted misspending and self-dealing claims that have
roiled the NRA and LaPierre in recent years— from hair and
makeup for his wife to a $17 million post-employment contract
for himself. “The NRA’s claimed financial status has finally
met its moral status: bankrupt," James said.
Hackers
alter stolen regulatory data to sow mistrust in COVID-19
vaccine. (Ars Technica, January 15, 2021)
Post titled “Astonishing fraud! Evil Pfffizer! Fake vaccines!”
found on the dark Web.
Federal
COVID-19 vaccine reserve is now empty, sparking angry
response. (The Hill, January 15, 2021)
The Trump administration had previously been stockpiling half
of available COVID-19 vaccine doses to ensure those who
received the first jab would have access to the required
second dose.
Parler
Tricks (Mozilla News Byte, January 15, 2021)
Parler touted itself as the social network that offered its
users unbridled free speech “without fear of being
‘deplatformed’ for your views.” But the site’s lax approach to
content moderation backfired last week. Apple and Google
suspended Parler from their app stores based on concerns about
its limited content moderation. Faster than you can say, “just
use the website,” Amazon removed Parler’s site from its AWS
web servers. Parler says the tech companies’ response was
anti-competitive in nature, and outlined this claim in its
lawsuit against Amazon.
Texas
realtor who flew on private jet to the Capitol arrested
after filming herself breaking in. (Daily Kos, January
15, 2021)
A real estate broker from Frisco, Texas, has been charged in
the Capitol building insurrection that took place in
Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. Jenna Ryan documented her crimes
on social media and is being charged with “knowingly entering
or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without
lawful authority” and “disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.”
The complaint includes Facebook posts from Ryan’s account
detailing her private jet flight, with images, from Denton,
Texas, to Washington to participate in a crime against our
democracy.
Ryan made headlines with her photos and video from the Capitol
siege, including one strange image of her in front of one of
the many broken Capitol building windows that showed her
smiling and putting up the victory sign (Lord knows it wasn’t
the peace sign), and writing this cryptic soliloquy: “Window
at The capital [sic]. And if the news doesn’t stop lying about
us we’re going to come after their studios next...” Ummm. Got
that?
FCC
fines white-supremacist robocaller $10 million for faking
caller ID. (Ars Technica, January 15, 2021)
The Federal Communications Commission finalized the fine
against Scott Rhodes of Idaho yesterday, nearly one year after
the FCC first proposed the penalty. "This individual made
thousands of spoofed robocalls targeting specific communities
with harmful pre-recorded messages," the FCC said in an
announcement. "The robocalls included xenophobic fearmongering
(including to a victim's family), racist attacks on political
candidates, an apparent attempt to influence the jury in a
domestic terrorism case, and threatening language toward a
local journalist. The caller used an online calling platform
to intentionally manipulate caller ID information so that the
calls he was making appeared to come from local numbers—a
technique called 'neighbor spoofing.'"
Rhodes in November 2018 "launched a campaign targeting Georgia
gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams," with 583 robocalls
that "purported to be from Oprah Winfrey, who was in Georgia
campaigning with Ms. Abrams," the FCC said in the forfeiture
order. The FCC order pointed to a CNN article from the time,
which said, "The group behind the robocall is The Road to
Power, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic video podcast
hosted by Scott Rhodes of Idaho." The robocall contained
"racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric," CNN wrote.
Another Rhodes campaign targeted Andrew Gillum, who was
running for governor in Florida. "Well hello there. I is the
negro Andrew Gillum, and I be asking you to make me governor
of this here state of Florida," the robocalls said, "with a
man speaking in a caricature of a Black dialect," CNN wrote at
the time.
As to Rhodes' claim that his actions are protected as "free
speech", because his robocaller's fake caller ID numbers were
allegedly chosen as neo-Nazi symbols, "The fact that
particular numbers may be intended to convey a political
message does not afford a caller the right to use the numbers
in violation of the Truth in Caller ID Act. The Truth in
Caller ID Act bars the knowing transmission of inaccurate or
misleading caller ID information with the intent to defraud,
cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value."
The FCC has a poor track record collecting fines against
robocallers, partly because proposed fines often don't lead to
forfeiture orders. In Rhodes' case, yesterday's forfeiture
order requires him to pay the fine within 30 days. If he
doesn't, the FCC said it "will refer the matter to the US
Department of Justice for further action." Issuing the
forfeiture order was one of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's final acts
before he leaves the commission next week. "With today's fine,
we once again make clear our commitment to aggressively go
after those who are unlawfully bombarding the American people
with spoofed robocalls," Pai said yesterday.
FDA
blindsided as Trump Admin cripples agency on its way out.
(Ars Technica, January 15, 2021)
It's “a full-frontal assault on public health," one official
said.
Last week, HHS said it had finalized a rule that would cause
all FDA regulations to expire after 10 years unless they are
reviewed. Critics of the rule, called Securing Updated and
Necessary Statutory Evaluations Timely or “SUNSET,” noted that
the FDA already has mechanisms to sunset outdated regulations,
making automatic expiration dates unnecessary. But in a
statement announcing the rule, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said
that “finalizing our SUNSET rule will deliver for the American
people better, smarter, less burdensome regulations in the
years to come.”
Next, the HHS moved to permanently waive FDA’s review
requirements of medical devices before they hit the market.
Seven types of medical gloves have already been permanently
exempted, and the HHS has proposed exempting 84 other medical
devices, including ventilators, fetal heart monitors, infusion
pumps, pediatric facemasks, and medical imaging equipment.
The HHS also moved to force the FDA to publish on its website
the time it takes to review new drug applications, claiming
that the agency’s current reviews are often too slow.
In yet another strike, Politico reported Thursday that the
Trump Administration is working to ram through term limits on
top career scientists at the FDA, Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, and other health agencies. The regulation
would mandate job reviews every five years, in which
scientists would either be renewed or reassigned. “It’s been a
step-by-step escalation in retaliation by HHS against career
scientists throughout the pandemic,” a current senior
administration official told Politico, blaming HHS Secretary
Azar for the flurry of attacks. “It’s a clear abuse of power
by Azar.”
Donald
Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the
Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years.
(ProPublica, January 14, 2021)
One of President Donald Trump’s lesser known but profoundly
damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national
debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that
he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades,
saddling our kids and grandkids with debt. The “King of Debt”
promised to reduce the national debt — then his tax cuts made
it surge. Add in the pandemic, and he oversaw the
third-biggest deficit increase of any president.
The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during
Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what
Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and
every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined,
according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every
person in the country.
Trump
seeks to freeze $27.4 billion of programs in final week of
presidency. (8-min. video; The Hill, January 14, 2021)
Rex
Tillerson is speaking out, and ooh boy, the stories he’s
telling about Donald Trump. (Daily Kos, January 14,
2021)
Thousands
of troops in Washington for inauguration. (9-min. video;
CBC/Canada, January 14, 2021)
“No
One Took Us Seriously”: Black Cops Warned About Racist
Capitol Police Officers for Years. (ProPublica, January
14, 2021)
Allegations of racism against the Capitol Police are nothing
new: Over 250 Black cops have sued the department since 2001.
Some of those former officers now say it’s no surprise white
nationalists were able to storm the building. The 2001 case,
which started with more than 250 plaintiffs, remains pending.
As recently as 2016, a Black female officer filed a racial
discrimination complaint against the department.
In her 25 years with the Capitol Police, Blackmon-Malloy spent
decades trying to raise the alarm about what she saw as
endemic racism within the force, even organizing
demonstrations where Black officers would return to the
Capitol off-duty, protesting outside the building they usually
protect. “Nothing ever really was resolved. Congress turned a
blind eye to racism on the Hill,” Blackmon-Malloy, who retired
as a lieutenant in 2007, told ProPublica. She is now vice
president of the U.S. Capitol Black Police Association, which
held 16 demonstrations protesting alleged discrimination
between 2013 and 2018. “We got Jan. 6 because no one took us
seriously.”
“The Capitol Police is terrible and pathetic when it comes to
threat assessment,” Chaffetz told ProPublica in an interview.
“They have a couple people dedicated to it, but they’re
overwhelmed. Which drives me nuts. ... It’s not been a
priority for leadership, on both sides of the aisle.” He said
he is not aware of any serious changes to the force’s
intelligence gathering following the debacle.
“For weeks, these people had been talking about coming to the
Capitol to do as much harm as they can,” Norton said.
“Everyone knew it. Except the Capitol Police.” Reports show
the force had no contingency plan to deal with an escalation
of violence and mayhem at last week’s rally, even though the
FBI and the New York Police Department had warned them it
could happen.
Judge
frees North Texan who faces charges in the Capitol riot,
despite warnings from the FBI. (Dallas News, January 14,
2021)
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton ordered Brock released
on restrictive conditions including house arrest. The North
Texas man is charged with one count of entering or remaining
in a restricted building without lawful authority and one
count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol
grounds. The siege of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6
left five people dead. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Weimer said
more serious federal charges against Brock are expected.
In ruling not to detain the defendant, Cureton cited his “long
and distinguished military career.”
Earlier in the hearing, John Moore, a Dallas FBI agent
specializing in domestic terrorism, testified that Brock had
become radicalized in recent months over unsubstantiated
claims of a stolen election. The agent also said Brock had
been fired from a job in 2018 for making threatening and
bigoted remarks. Moore said he had spoken to some of Brock’s
Air Force Academy classmates who said his “rhetoric started to
get pretty hostile” after the November election. Brock, they
said, had “made reference to a civil war.” Some blocked him on
social media because of his vague threats of violence, the
agent said.
Capitol
rioters included highly trained ex-military and cops.
(Associated Press, January 14, 2021)
“ISIS and al-Qaida would drool over having someone with the
training and experience of a U.S. military officer,” said
Michael German, a former FBI agent and fellow with the Brennan
Center for Justice at New York University. “These people have
training and capabilities that far exceed what any foreign
terrorist group can do. Foreign terrorist groups don’t have
any members who have badges.”
Among the most prominent to emerge is a retired Air Force
lieutenant colonel and decorated combat veteran from Texas who
was arrested after he was photographed wearing a helmet and
body armor on the floor of the Senate, holding a pair of
zip-tie handcuffs.
NEW: 'HOOYAH!'
Deadly attack on Capitol has retired Navy warfare operator
all but jumping for joy. (Daily Kos, January 13, 2021)
[Interesting Comments thread, as well.]
Dostoevsky
warned of the strain of nihilism that infects Donald Trump
and his movement. (The Conversation, January 13, 2021)
Heather
Cox Richardson: Republicans are in the same bind they’ve
been in for years. (Letters From An American, January
13, 2021)
At 4:22 this afternoon, the House of Representatives passed
the number of votes necessary to impeach Trump. In the end,
232 Representatives—222 Democrats and 10 Republicans—agreed
that the president had incited an insurrection and must be
removed from office. But 197 Republicans disagreed.
In the week since the attack, emerging information indicates
the insurgency was planned, not spontaneous, and that
lawmakers might be involved. Democrats have stood up to this
attack on our democracy, but Republicans are in the same bind
they’ve been in for years: how can they both keep Trump’s
voters and reject Trump himself? Only by ignoring the
Constitutional oath and the well-being of the nation.
This
Impeachment Is Different. (The Atlantic, January 13,
2021)
In 2019, Democrats voted to make a statement. Maybe the second
time’s the charm.
This afternoon, Donald Trump, the third president in American
history to be impeached, became the first to be impeached
twice. The House of Representatives voted 232–197 to impeach
Trump for inciting the attempted coup on January 6 and for
trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election as president. The
matter now goes to the Senate, where a trial is unlikely
before Biden’s January 20 inauguration.
Johnson
& Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine suggests strong
immune response. (The Hill, January 13, 2021)
One of the next vaccine candidates could change the game, but
is reportedly behind production goals.
Natick
"Boil Water" Alert (Town of Natick, January 13, 2021)
The Town received notice this afternoon of the presence of E.
coli bacteria within drinking water samples collected
yesterday, January 12th. Massachusetts Department of
Environmental Protection regulations require the Town to issue
a ‘boil water order’ effective immediately.
[And here are
the
CDC guidelines. On afternoon of Jan. 15th, Natick gave
all-clear; it was a lab-analysis error.]
"Too
little, too late": Extremism experts criticize payment
companies. (NBC News, January 13, 2021)
After violent Trump supporters stormed the Capitol last week,
several mainstream payment companies pledged to sever ties
with groups or individuals promoting hate and violence.
Stripe, PayPal and Square said that they had stopped providing
services to individuals and organizations connected to the
riot as part of a sweeping enforcement of policies against
inciting violence.
But extremism experts say it’s too little, too late. The
flurry of activity and public pledges follows years of efforts
by extremism and brand safety experts to get payment companies
to better police their platforms to ensure they don’t let hate
groups receive direct donations or provide them payment tools
for selling merchandise.
Extremists
flocking to encrypted apps could restart debate over law
enforcement access. (Washington Post, January 13, 2021)
Far-right chat rooms in Telegram have gained thousands of
members in the days since the assault on the Capitol,
particularly since Parler was suspended, where some extremists
are sharing instructions for making and hiding guns and bombs
to use against government officials on Inauguration Day. Other
rallies are being planned on the platform and Signal, another
encrypted app that's hard for government officials to monitor.
And the FBI is scrambling to identify those involved in the
Jan. 6 violence – a task that will surely be harder if they
move their open plotting to encrypted chats.
The migration could revive the encryption debate in
Washington. The chances for this issue to resurface are higher
if violence continues until and past President-elect Joe
Biden's inauguration – and exponentially so if law enforcement
deems the encrypted apps a blind spot.
Locals
Who Attended Pro-Trump Protest Return To MA As Pariahs.
(Natick Patch, January 13, 2021)
Town officials, business owners and others have returned home
to heavy criticism, calls for resignation and boycotts.
Parler
is offline, but violent posts scraped by hackers will haunt
users. (Washington Post, January 12, 2021)
Parler’s data was easily scraped from its site, a researcher
said, as it fell off the Internet this week.
Rioters who stormed the Capitol last week posted some of their
plans on Parler, a social media network that prides itself on
free speech. “Better advice … go armed and ready to shoot,”
one user posted on the site on Jan. 6, according to
screenshots shared on Twitter.
Over the weekend, Parler was removed from the Apple and Google
app stores. On Monday, Parler disappeared from the Internet
entirely as Amazon’s cloud provider dropped it. All the tech
giants cited the site’s incitements to violence and lack of
content moderation.
Parler quickly became a breeding ground for conspiracy
theories about the election and calls for violence in D.C. And
one by one, technical services in the days following the riot
dropped their support, culminating with Amazon’s decision. As
its fate became clear, a group of hackers worked to archive
the site so no posts — potentially incriminating or not —
would be lost. Users, who flocked to the site on the promise
of free speech and expression without censorship, were dealt a
parting blow from a researcher who said she is in the process
of archiving nearly all public posts on Parler and will make
them available to others online.
After
US Capitol assault, a different cybersecurity threat
emerges. (Engadget, January 12, 2021)
In which we acknowledge the big cyber-elephant in the room.
We all saw the images: threatening notes left on computers,
the House Speaker’s computer screen unlocked with email open,
MAGA terrorists looting — and taking electronic items yet to
be identified. Reports, with probably more to come, of laptops
stolen from the offices of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
and Senator Jeff Merkley. Now there are as-yet unconfirmed
reports that several classified laptops were stolen during the
mob’s assault on the Capitol -- left open and logged onto the
classified SIPRNet network.
Initial impressions of the January 6 attack made it seem like
the violent mob were costumed, unstable, virulently racist
clowns that were just doing it for the ‘gram. Infosec got the
quick impression that they “were unsophisticated opportunists
who were more interested in taking selfies than infiltrating
computer networks.”
As we now know, this masked an organized, well-equipped, and
pre-planned reality. Low-key, armed, ex-military teams with
flexicuffs. Militia (“Oath Keepers”) on radios and in body
armor, whose forums overflow with fantasies and plans to
execute people. In just one example of preparation, attackers
knew where to find (Black, Democrat) House Majority Whip James
Clyburn’s unmarked secondary office — bee-lining to where he
was supposed to be at the time.
Weeks of advanced notice, a loud and unpredictable mob as
cover, and a plan to breach and occupy the Capitol building.
It makes sense to think of it as an opportunity for a foreign
adversary to tag along, blend into the crowd and see what they
could get.
Let’s just hope the House of Representatives and Senate —
which each have their own Sergeant-at-Arms offices overseeing
cybersecurity — can think beyond the concept of “foreign
adversary” and acknowledge domestic, white supremacist
terrorist hackers as an extremely serious threat. Downplaying
or ignoring domestic cyber-adversaries, vis-a-vis everyone’s
first impressions about the Capitol mob, is likely to be a
deadly mistake.
Paul
Krugmann: The Economic Consequences of the Putsch (New
York Times, January 12, 2021)
Why Are Markets Optimistic? It actually makes sense.
At
impeachment hearing, lawmakers will deliberate over a deadly
weapon used in the attack on Capitol Hill – President
Trump’s words. (73-min. video; The Conversation, January
12, 2021)
Five days after supporters of President Donald Trump attacked
the Capitol building, the House of Representatives introduced
a single article of impeachment against the president. The
article accuses Trump of incitement of insurrection for his
continued propagation of lies and conspiracy theories about
the 2020 election, as well as his violent rhetoric immediately
preceding the attack on Capitol Hill. The article contends
that Trump’s lies and rhetoric directly led to violence with
the goal of undermining the counting of electoral votes. The
president, says the impeachment article, “willfully made
statements that, in context, encourage – and foreseeably
resulted in – lawless action at the Capitol, such as: ‘if you
don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country
anymore.’”
Impeachment proceedings that consider incitement to
insurrection are rare in American history. Yet dozens of
legislators – including some Republicans – say that Trump’s
actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
contributed to an attempted insurrection against American
democracy itself.
Such claims against Trump are complicated. Rather than wage
direct war against sitting U.S. representatives, Trump is
accused of using language to motivate others to do so. Some,
including the president, have countered that the connection
between President Trump’s words and the violence of Jan. 6 is
too tenuous, too abstract, too indirect to be considered
viable. However, decades of research on social influence,
persuasion and psychology show that the messages that people
encounter heavily influence their decisions to engage in
certain behaviors.
House
votes to call on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to strip
Trump of power. (New York Times, January 12, 2021)
The House voted on Tuesday night to formally call on Vice
President Mike Pence to use the 25th Amendment to strip
President Trump of his powers after he incited a mob that
attacked the Capitol, as lawmakers warned they would impeach
the president on Wednesday if Mr. Pence did not comply.
Lawmakers, escorted by armed guards into a heavily fortified
Capitol, adopted the nonbinding measure just before midnight
largely along party lines. The final vote was 223 to 205 to
implore Mr. Pence to declare Mr. Trump “incapable of executing
the duties of his office and to immediately exercise powers as
acting president.”
“We’re trying to tell him that the time of a 25th Amendment
emergency has arrived,” Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat
of Maryland and the author of the resolution, said before the
vote. “It has come to our doorstep. It has invaded our
chamber.”
In
letter to Pelosi, Pence rejects House effort to have him
strip Trump of powers. (w/link to full letter; New York
Times, January 12, 2021)
“I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best
interest of our nation or consistent with our Constitution,”
Mr. Pence wrote in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “I urge
you and every member of Congress to avoid actions that would
further divide and inflame the passions of the moment.” Mr.
Pence privately indicated last week that he did not support
invoking the 25th Amendment, and his public rejection of the
resolution all but ensured that the House would vote to
impeach Mr. Trump on Wednesday.
Pence
Reached His Limit With Trump. It Wasn’t Pretty. (New
York Times, January 12, 2021)
After four years of tongue-biting silence that critics say
enabled the president’s worst instincts, the vice president
would not yield to the pressure and name-calling from his
boss.
“You can either go down in history as a patriot,” Mr. Trump
told him, according to two people briefed on the conversation,
“or you can go down in history as a pussy.”
The blowup between the nation’s two highest elected officials
then played out in dramatic fashion as the president publicly
excoriated the vice president at an incendiary rally and sent
agitated supporters to the Capitol where they stormed the
building — some of them chanting “Hang Mike Pence.” It was an
extraordinary rupture of a partnership that had survived too
many challenges to count.
The loyal lieutenant who had almost never diverged from the
president, who had finessed every other possible fracture,
finally came to a decision point he could not avoid. He would
uphold the election despite the president and despite the mob.
And he would pay the price with the political base he once
hoped to harness for his own run for the White House.
Not everyone gave Mr. Pence much credit, arguing that he
should hardly be lionized for following the Constitution and
maintaining that his deference to the president for nearly
four years enabled Mr. Trump’s assault on democracy in the
first place. “I’m glad he didn’t break the law, but it’s kind
of hard to call somebody courageous for choosing not to help
overthrow our democratic system of government,” said
Representative Tom Malinowski, Democrat of New Jersey. “He’s
got to understand that the man he’s been working for and
defending loyally is almost single-handedly responsible for
creating a movement in this country that wants to hang Mike
Pence.”
Thomas
L. Friedman: Trump Is Blowing Apart the G.O.P. God Bless
Him. (New York Times, January 12, 2021)
There still will be a place for principled Republicans.
Republicans
begin backing impeachment in "vote of conscience". (CNN,
January 12, 2021)
Multiple House Republicans announced Tuesday evening they
would support the impeachment of President Donald Trump for
his role inciting last week's riot as congressional
Republicans made their clearest break with Trump to date after
he showed no remorse for the US Capitol mob.
While the vast majority of House Republicans are expected to
oppose the article of impeachment on Wednesday, there are
predictions ranging anywhere from as many as 10 to even 20 or
more Republicans who could vote to impeach, according to
Republican sources, with some estimates trending upward after
the first Republicans came out in favor of impeachment
Tuesday.
The first impeachment backers included the House's No. 3
Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, in a remarkable rebuke
with a President who has been unassailable in the House GOP
conference throughout his four-year term. While House Minority
Leader Kevin McCarthy is opposed to impeachment, House
Republican leaders are not lobbying their members to oppose
it, and Cheney told the conference Monday it was a "vote of
conscience." In another potentially significant blow to Trump,
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated that he
believes that impeaching Trump will make it easier to get rid
of the President and Trumpism from the Republican Party,
according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
McConnell
believes impeachment push will help rid Trump from the GOP,
but has not said if he will vote to convict. (4-min.
video; CNN, January 12, 2021)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated that he
believes that impeaching President Donald Trump will make it
easier to get rid of the President and Trumpism from the
Republican Party, according to a source with knowledge of the
matter. Another person with direct knowledge told CNN there's
a reason McConnell has been silent on impeachment as other
Republicans have pushed back: he's furious about last week's
attack on the US Capitol by the President's supporters, even
more so that Trump has shown no contrition. His silence has
been deliberate as he leaves open the option of supporting
impeachment.
McConnell has made no commitments on voting to convict Trump,
and wants to see the article itself before voting. It's a
stark contrast to the President's first impeachment when
McConnell repeatedly spoke out against Democratic intentions
to hold Trump accountable for a pressure campaign on the
Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and his family.
McConnell has been steadily moving his conference away from
Trump for weeks. While he knows they all aren't there with
him, the Kentucky Republican believes the party needs to turn
the page.
On
Eve of House Vote, McConnell Is Said to Be Pleased About
Effort to Impeach Trump. (New York Times, January 12,
2021)
Senator Mitch McConnell is said to believe that the
impeachment effort will make it easier to purge President
Trump from the party. And Representative Kevin McCarthy has
asked other Republicans whether he should call on Mr. Trump to
resign in the aftermath of the Capitol siege.
In
Extraordinary Move, Joint Chiefs Publicly Affirm That Biden
Will Be President. (w/full letter; Talking Points Memo,
January 12, 2021)
President Biden will take office on Jan. 20, the Joint Chiefs
of Staff said on Tuesday in a message to the armed forces. “As
we have done throughout our history, the U.S. military will
obey lawful orders from civilian leadership, support civil
authorities to protect lives and property, ensure public
safety in accordance with the law, and remain fully committed
to protecting and defending the Constitution of the United
States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” the
message, sent out on Tuesday to all troops, reads. “Any act to
disrupt the Constitutional process is not only against our
traditions, values, and oath: it is against the law."
It’s a stunning statement, if only for the fact of its
existence: the military feels the need to say that it will
stay apolitical, as it has done for nearly 250 years. The
message suggests that the country’s top generals feel the need
to remind the troops to “embody the values and ideals of the
Nation.”
Open
Letter to the United States Air Force Academy: “We told
you so.” (w/full text; Daily Kos, January 12, 2021)
The MRFF now calls on the Air Force Academy to not only
clearly and publicly condemn the actions of its graduate, Mr.
Brock, in the harshest possible manner, but also to call on
all other USAFA graduates who attended the insurrection to
identify themselves and either turn themselves in to police if
they broke the law or disavow the violence and storming of the
Capitol—if they, themselves, behaved in an otherwise peaceful
manner.
We know that one graduate, a newly elected Republican member
of Congress from Texas, August Pfluger, embarrassed a
multitude of fellow USAFA graduates by objecting to the
results of the largest and most scandal-free election in
American history—and for that he is complicit in encouraging
this mob and should be held responsible for the physical and
moral damage caused to our Capitol and the Republic.
The USAFA must address its decades old, complicit role in
developing fundamentalist Christian religious/political
extremists who are now widely serving in our military. It
must, as well, hold itself responsible for creating horrors
like Mr. Brock in the same way it does USAFA graduate heroes
whom we praise on the other end of the patriotic spectrum.
We told you this was happening. We told you the consequences.
It happened.
In
his first public appearance since the Capitol siege, Trump
expresses no contrition for inciting the mob. (New York
Times, January 12, 2021)
President Trump on Tuesday showed no contrition or regret for
instigating the mob that stormed the Capitol and threatened
the lives of members of Congress and his vice president,
saying that his remarks to a rally beforehand were “totally
appropriate” and that the effort by Congress to impeach and
convict him was “causing tremendous anger.”
Answering questions from reporters for the first time since
the violence at the Capitol on Wednesday, Mr. Trump
sidestepped questions about his culpability in the deadly riot
that shook the nation’s long tradition of peaceful transfers
of power. “People thought what I said was totally
appropriate,” Mr. Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews
in Maryland, en route to Alamo, Texas, where he was set to
visit the wall along the Mexican border. Instead, Mr. Trump
claimed that protests against racial injustice over the summer
were “the real problem.”
Earlier, he asserted that it was the impeachment charge, not
the violence and ransacking of the Capitol, that was “causing
tremendous anger.”
Mr. Trump had been largely silent since Friday, when Twitter
permanently suspended his account. When asked directly on
Tuesday morning if he would resign with just nine days left in
office, Mr. Trump said, “I want no violence.”
He did not address his own role in inciting the mob of his
supporters. Instead, Mr. Trump framed himself as a victim,
calling impeachment a "continuation of the greatest witch hunt
in the history of politics. I think it’s causing tremendous
anger."
“The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me,” he said. “But it
will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden
administration. As the expression goes, be careful what you
wish for.”
Professor
Dr. John Dennehy: What Does SARS-CoV-2 Evolution Mean for
the Future of the Pandemic? (59-min. video; Queens
College, January 12, 2021)
Dr. Dennehy’s laboratory researches virus evolution, ecology,
population dynamics, and the emergence of viruses in new host
populations. Currently, the laboratory’s main focus if
two-fold: modeling the persistence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 in
the built environment and monitoring SARS-CoV-2 genetic
diversity in NYC wastewater.
[Excellent presentation, with good charts.]
House
Democrats propose $1,000 fine for members of Congress who
don't wear masks on Capitol grounds. (USA Today, January
12, 2021)
The bill was filed less than a week after a pro-Trump mob
stormed and ransacked the Capitol, causing members of Congress
to be in lockdown in secure locations within the Capitol
complex, where officials say they may have been exposed to the
deadly virus.
“It is not brave to refuse to wear a mask, it is selfish,
stupid, and shameful behavior that puts lives at risk,”
Dingell said in a press release. “We’re done playing games.
Either have some common sense and wear a damn mask or pay a
fine. It’s not that complicated.”
“No Member of Congress should be able to ignore the rules or
put others at risk without penalty,” Brown said. “As the
people’s representatives, it is critical that we set an
example for the rest of the country. If Members jeopardize the
safety of others, they should face fines.”
Many Democratic lawmakers have complained that several
Republican colleagues refused to wear personal protective
equipment offered during the Capitol riots last week. In the
days since, Reps. Bonnie Coleman, D-N.J., Brad Schneider,
D-Illin., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., have all tested
positive for the virus. "Any Member who refuses to wear a mask
should be fully held accountable for endangering our lives
because of their selfish idiocy," Jayapal tweeted after her
positive diagnosis.
Thom
Hartmann: Will the “Trump Train's” 3rd attempted coup be
successful? (Medium, January 12, 2021)
Twice before, oligarchs have attempted to overthrow the
government of the United States. This time they might succeed.
It’s all one thing, an effort to overthrow the elected
government of the United States, and the oligarchs and
fascists aren’t done yet. They want complete control of
America.
When Donald Trump first ran for president, it was a stunt to
squeeze more money out of NBC and to polish his brand.
But when he was unexpectedly elected, he took cues from the
corrupt oligarchs he admired around the world and began a
serious project to remake and remold America in their image.
The first country he visited as president, in fact, was the
oligarchy of Saudi Arabia, which he effusively praised.
When he proclaimed after his election that there were
3,000,000 “illegal votes” for Hillary Clinton, he was setting
up today’s oligarchic takeover attempt by denigrating the
American electoral system. He knew from the example of what
oligarchs elsewhere in the world had successfully done that if
he could convince enough Americans that our election system
was “rigged,” he could ignore elections in the future.
House
Democrats Briefed On 3 More Terrifying Plots To Overthrow
Government. (Huffington Post, January 12, 2021)
On a private call Monday night, new leaders of the Capitol
Police told House Democrats they were closely monitoring three
separate plans that could pose serious threats to members of
Congress as Washington prepares for Democrat Joe Biden’s
presidential inauguration on Jan. 20. Democrats were told that
the Capitol Police and the National Guard were preparing for
potentially tens of thousands of armed protesters coming to
Washington and were establishing rules of engagement for
warfare. In general, the military and police don’t plan to
shoot anyone until one of the rioters fires, but there could
be exceptions.
The first is a demonstration billed as the “largest armed
protest ever to take place on American soil.”
Another is a protest in honor of Ashli Babbitt, the woman
killed while trying to climb into the Speaker’s Lobby during
Wednesday’s pro-Trump siege of the Capitol.
And another demonstration, which three members said was by far
the most concerning plot, would involve insurrectionists
forming a perimeter around the Capitol. Lawmakers were told
that the plot to encircle the Capitol also included plans to
surround the White House ― so that no one could harm Trump ―
and the Supreme Court, simply to shut down the courts. The
plan to surround the Capitol includes assassinating Democrats
as well as Republicans who didn’t support Trump’s effort to
overturn the election ― and allowing other Republicans to
enter the building and control government.
Parler
scrape puts some Capitol rioters in legal jeopardy.
(Washington Post, January 12, 2021)
Researchers and analysts say a trove of data archived from
conservative-favored social media app Parler poses a real risk
for those who used the platform to share their involvement in
a pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol. “It's
mind-blowing. The potential effects go well beyond tagging who
participated in the takeover of the Capitol,” said Peter
Singer, a strategist and senior fellow at the New America
think tank.
The archive, which was scraped by a self-described hacker who
goes by the Twitter handle @donk_enby, represents up to 99.9
percent of the data from Parler before Amazon's cloud services
took it offline Monday, Gizmodo's Dell Cameron first reported.
Some of the rioters who attacked the Capitol last week, hoping
to overturn the presidential election, had posted their plans
on Parler, which was also removed from Apple and Google's app
stores in the riot's aftermath.
Law enforcement officials have since used the rioters own
social media accounts to help track them down and arrest them.
That means information archived from sites like Parler, which
also includes millions of posts that users deleted, could be
used to implicate those who stormed the Capitol and committed
possible crimes. The underlying data attached to the posts,
including location data, could be matched with information
from other online forums, such as Facebook, Singer says.
Natick
Residents Petition To Oust Official Seen At Capitol Riot.
(Patch News, January 12, 2021)
In Natick, over 500 residents signed a petition to oust a Town
Meeting member after she was photographed inside the U.S.
Capitol during Wednesday's riot. Sue Ianni was photographed in
the Capitol building with her fist raised in a large crowd.
[On Jan. 9th (see below), Sue Ianni refused to say whether she
entered the Capitol or not. Also: Bedford Town Flag Spotted At
Capitol Riot.)
"We
get our President or we die": FBI issued dire warning day
before Capitol riots. (36-min. video; USA Today, January
12, 2021)
The FBI issued a dire internal warning on the day before the
Capitol riots that violent extremists were planning an armed
uprising in Washington that the attackers described as "war"
to coincide with Congress' counting state-certified Electoral
College votes to confirm the election of Joe Biden, The
Washington Post reported Tuesday. The intelligence report,
prepared by the FBI's Norfolk office, described an array of
preparations for an assault to include a map of Capitol-area
tunnels and staging areas in in Kentucky, Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania and South Carolina. “An online thread discussed
specific calls for violence to include stating ‘Be ready to
fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being
kicked in,'" the Post reported, quoting from the document's
contents. "Go there ready for war. We get our President or we
die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”
FBI
warns of plans for nationwide armed protests next week.
(Politico, January 11, 2021)
An internal FBI bulletin warned that, as of Sunday, the
nationwide protests may start later this week and extend
through Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
Before
Capitol Riot, Republican Lawmakers Fanned the Flames.
(New York Times, January 11, 2021)
A “1776 moment”: Several of the president’s closest allies in
Congress used bellicose language to urge their supporters to
attend the Jan. 6 rally that turned into a deadly riot.
How
should schools teach kids about what happened at the US
Capitol on Jan. 6? We asked 6 education experts. (The
Conversation, January 11, 2021)
Teachers shouldn't avoid this topic, no matter how
uncomfortable it might make them to discuss it with children
and teens.
Bill
Belichick Turns Down Trump's Offer, Cites Freedom,
Democracy. (Patch News, January 11, 2021)
The New England Patriots coach said in a statement that he
will not accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom this week.
The
military has a hate group problem. But it doesn't know how
bad it's gotten. (Politico, January 11, 2021)
The rise of extremism in the ranks is seen as a "crisis issue"
but the military's efforts to weed out radicals are
"haphazard" at best.
N.Y.P.D.
Concludes Anti-Harassment Official Wrote Racist Online
Rants. (New York Times, January 11, 2021)
The official, James F. Kobel, who will now face a departmental
trial, filed for retirement as the inquiry was winding down.
An
N.J. lawmaker tests positive after being in lockdown in
Capitol. (New York Times, January 11, 2021)
Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey tested
positive for the coronavirus on Monday — an infection she
believes is linked to the time she spent in a secure location
with colleagues who refused to wear masks during Wednesday’s
siege of the U.S. Capitol. “It angers me when they refuse to
adhere to the directions about keeping their masks on,” Ms.
Watson Coleman, a Democrat, said in an interview. “It comes
off to me as arrogance and defiance. And you can be both, but
not at the expense of someone else.”
Parler
Is Gone, But Hackers Say They Downloaded Everything First.
(Vice, January 11, 2021)
Right-wing social network Parler was taken offline in the
early hours of Monday morning, but not before a hacker found a
way to download all data posted by users — including messages,
images, videos, and users’ location data — shared during last
week’s attack on the Capitol. The downloaded data is now being
processed before being uploaded to the Internet Archive, where
anyone will be able to view or download it — including the
open-source intelligence community and law enforcement
agencies.
Trump supporters are already voicing their concerns about what
the data dump could expose about them and their activity in
Washington, D.C. last week. “Bad news. Left extremists have
captured and archived over 70TB of data from Parler servers.
This includes posts, personal information, locations, videos,
images, etc,” a Telegram account called North Central Florida
Patriots said on Monday morning. “The intent is a mass dox and
a list to hold patriots ‘accountable’. It is too late to scrub
your data, and it’s already archived. There is nothing you can
do to prevent what’s already happened. All you can do is
prepare for the fallout. Accountability may come in many forms
for our free speech, doxing, jobs might be called, addresses
leaked and people coming to your house, etc.”
Majority
of Republicans Blame Biden for the Capitol Riot!
(25-min. video; The Young Turks, January 11, 2021)
The
Roots of Josh Hawley’s Rage (New York Times, January 11,
2021)
Why do so many Republicans appear to be at war with both truth
and democracy?
In today’s Republican Party, the path to power is to build up
a lie in order to overturn democracy. At least that is what
Senator Josh Hawley was telling us when he offered a
clenched-fist salute to the pro-Trump mob before it ransacked
the Capitol, and it is the same message he delivered on the
floor of the Senate in the aftermath of the attack, when he
doubled down on the lies about electoral fraud that incited
the insurrection in the first place. How did we get to the
point where one of the bright young stars of the Republican
Party appears to be at war with both truth and democracy?
The line of thought here is starkly binary and nihilistic. It
says that human existence in an inevitably pluralistic, modern
society committed to equality is inherently worthless. It
comes with the idea that a right-minded elite of religiously
pure individuals should aim to capture the levers of
government, then use that power to rescue society from eternal
darkness and reshape it in accord with a divinely-approved
view of righteousness.
At the heart of Mr. Hawley’s condemnation of our terrifyingly
Pelagian world lies a dark conclusion about the achievements
of modern, liberal, pluralistic societies. When he was still
attorney general, William Barr articulated this conclusion in
a speech at the University of Notre Dame Law School, where he
blamed “the growing ascendancy of secularism” for amplifying
“virtually every measure of social pathology,” and maintained
that “free government was only suitable and sustainable for a
religious people.” Christian nationalists’ acceptance of
President Trump’s spectacular turpitude these past four years
was a good measure of just how dire they think our situation
is. Even a corrupt sociopath was better, in their eyes, than
the horrifying freedom that religious moderates and liberals,
along with the many Americans who don’t happen to be
religious, offer the world.
Although many of the foot soldiers in the assault on the
Capitol appear to have been white males aligned with white
supremacist movements, it would be a mistake to overlook the
powerful role of the rhetoric of religious nationalism in
their ranks. At a rally in Washington on Jan. 5, on the eve of
Electoral College certification, the right-wing pastor Greg
Locke said that God is raising up “an army of patriots.”
Another pastor, Brian Gibson, put it this way: “The church of
the Lord Jesus Christ started America,” and added, “We’re
going to take our nation back!” In the aftermath of the Jan. 6
insurrection, a number of Christian nationalist leaders issued
statements condemning violence — on both sides. How very kind
of them. But few if any appear willing to acknowledge the
instrumental role they played in perpetuating the fraudulent
allegations of a stolen election that were at the root of the
insurrection.
Over the past few days, following his participation in the
failed efforts to overturn the election, Mr. Hawley’s career
prospects may have dimmed. Two of his home state newspapers
have called for his resignation; his political mentor, John C.
Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, has
described his earlier support for Mr. Hawley as “the biggest
mistake I’ve ever made”; and Simon & Schuster dropped his
book. On the other hand, there is some reporting that suggests
his complicity in efforts to overturn the election may have
boosted his standing with Mr. Trump’s base. But the question
that matters is not whether Mr. Hawley stays or goes, but
whether he is simply replaced by the next wannabe demagogue in
line. We are about to find out whether there are leaders of
principle left in today’s Republican Party.
‘We’re
in a Worse Place Today Than We Were Before He Came In.’
(Foreign Policy, January 11, 2021)
Former U.S. Secretary of State (and Exxon CEO) Rex Tillerson
on the mess Donald Trump is leaving behind.
Trump’s
New Criminal Problem (Politico, January 11, 2021)
The president could face charges for inciting the Capitol
riot—and maybe even for inciting the murder of a Capitol
Police Officer. The federal criminal code (18 USC 373) makes
it a crime to solicit, command, induce or “endeavor to
persuade” another person to commit a felony that includes the
threat or use of physical force. Simply put, it is a crime to
persuade another person, or a mob of several thousand, to
commit a violent felony.
From the early results of the investigation, we know that
several insurrectionists already have been charged with
felonies. However, the crime posing the biggest problem for
the president could be having solicited the mob into a
seditious conspiracy. The federal criminal code makes it a
crime for “two or more persons … to oppose by force the
authority [of the United States] or by force to prevent,
hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United
States” (18 USC 2384). That felony, including the use of
force, clearly was committed by the mob after being encouraged
by the president.
House
to vote Wednesday as Pelosi gets the votes to impeach Trump.
(Politico, January 11, 2021)
Momentum to impeach the president a second time has only grown
since last Wednesday's attack. Key members of the House
Judiciary Committee introduced a single article of impeachment
Monday that has already gathered at least 218 cosponsors,
according to a congressional aide involved in the process,
meeting the majority needed for passage in the House.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team informed members
on a private call Monday they will need to return to the
Capitol — for many, the first time since the Jan. 6 attacks —
on Tuesday night. Impeachment is scheduled for consideration
at 9 a.m. Wednesday, if Trump refuses to resign and Vice
President Mike Pence won’t initiate other procedures to remove
him.
An
impeachment charge against Trump is introduced as
Republicans block a measure demanding Pence act. (1-min.
video; New York Times, January 11, 2021)
House Democrats on Monday introduced an article of impeachment
against President Trump for inciting a mob that attacked the
Capitol last week, vowing to press the charge as Republicans
blocked a separate move to formally call on Vice President
Mike Pence to strip him of power under the 25th Amendment.
The dual actions came as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her caucus
sought to ratchet up pressure on Mr. Pence to intervene and
push Mr. Trump to resign. If they did not, the Democrats
promised immediate consequences for Mr. Trump’s role in an
attack that put the lives of the vice president, members of
Congress and thousands of staff working on Capitol Hill at
risk as officials met to formalize President-elect Joseph R.
Biden Jr.’s victory. “The president’s threat to America is
urgent, and so too will be our action,” Ms. Pelosi said on
Monday.
AOC
cuts to the point: "We came close to half of the House
nearly dying on Wednesday." (Daily Kos, January 10,
2021)
“Our main priority is to ensure the removal of Donald Trump as
President of the United State,” Ocasio-Cortez told
Stephanopoulos. “Every minute and every that he is in office
represents a clear and present danger not just to the United
States Congress but to the country. But in addition to
removal, we’re also talking about completely barring the
president—or rather, Donald Trump—from running for office ever
again. And in addition to that, the potential ability to
prevent pardoning himself from those charges that he was
impeached for.”
A number of Republicans who implored President-elect Biden to
forego impeachment for the sake of “unity,” arguing that it is
“unnecessary” and “inflammatory.” The group of House
Republicans, led by Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, wrote: “In the
spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution, we ask
that you formally request that Speaker Nancy Pelosi
discontinue her efforts to impeach President Donald J. Trump a
second time.”
To that, Ocasio-Cortez hammered down on the point that what
happened this past week was an “insurrection against the
United States.” The New York City progressive argued that
“healing” requires “accountability.” She pointed out that if
we allow insurrection to happen with impunity, “we are
inviting it to happen again. We came close to half of the
House nearly dying on Wednesday. If a foreign head of state,
if another head of state, came in and ordered an attack on the
United States Congress, would we say that should not be
prosecuted? Would we say that there should be absolutely no
response to that? No. It is an act of insurrection. It is an
act of hostility.” She stressed that without accountability,
“it will happen again.”
[And from its Comments thread:
- When 45% of the House is in favor of a radical right-wing
revolution even after its first fascistic sortie fails, it’s
time to stop calling it a "conservative electorate".
- There are a lot of rats who can’t be trusted who are now
pleading for unity. History has shown over and over again that
dictators, fascists and autocrats often play the accepted
mainstream political game until they get their opening to make
their move. I feel a lot of these Trump supporters (not all)
who now condemn him and what happened would be singing a
different tune if Trump had succeeded. They can never be
trusted to put their country first….as the term goes “ALL
enemies foreign and domestic”. They have shown they won’t
stand up for their country because they have supported Trump
bringing us to this point. A lot of the wolves are trying to
pass themselves off as sheep because Trump screwed up and blew
it as is his lifelong historical pattern. If they manage to
get a more competent leader they will be back at it again,
trying to tear down our democracy and dismantle our government
and trying to remove or nullify our checks and balances.
- Thank you for including: “ALL enemies foreign and domestic”.
The GOPers somehow keep forgetting.
- By dangling the lure of national “Unity” in front of
optimistic democrats, the GOP has managed to drag the whole
country toward the extreme right wing, step by traitorous
step.]
The
House could vote as soon as Tuesday on an impeachment
article. (New York Times, January 10, 2021)
The No. 3 House Democrat said on Sunday that the chamber could
vote as soon as Tuesday on an article of impeachment charging
President Trump with inciting a violent mob that attacked the
Capitol — but then delay sending it to the Senate for trial.
Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the
Democratic whip, said that the vast majority of House
Democrats believed the president must be impeached for his
conduct but that top leaders were still trying to determine
how to punish Mr. Trump without hamstringing the first days of
Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidency with an all-consuming Senate
trial. They recognized it would be impossible to impeach and
hold a trial before Mr. Trump leaves office in 10 days, he
said. “If we are the people’s house, let’s do the people’s
work and let’s vote to impeach this president,” Mr. Clyburn
said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The Senate will decide later what
to do with that impeachment.”
Trump’s
‘Make America Great Again’ Myth Reaches Its Catastrophic
Conclusion. (Huffington Post, January 10, 2021)
Reflections on violence in the heart of the American empire.
A deranged mob of Americans, fueled by lies about election
fraud peddled by the president of the United States along with
multiple senators and House members, sacked the U.S. Capitol
on Wednesday as part of an insurrection encouraged by Donald
Trump to stop the constitutional process allowing for the
peaceful transfer of power taking place within the building.
“[Y]ou’ll never take back your country with weakness,” Trump
told the rioters immediately before they marched on the
Capitol. “You have to show strength and be strong.”
On the grounds outside, rioters erected a giant wooden cross
and a gallows with a noose. Reporters were beaten and
threatened with death. Their cameras and equipment were
smashed and burned. Echoing Trump’s long-standing calls that
the press were the enemy of the people, rioters scrawled
“Murder the media,” on a Capitol doorway. A rioter murdered a
police officer with a fire extinguisher. Another rioter was
shot dead by a police officer while trying to break into House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s chambers. In perhaps the most indelible
image, rioters commandeered a scaffold and used it to take
down an American flag and replace it with a Trump “Make
America Great Again” flag. This was the catastrophic and
prophetic culmination of the Make America Great Again myth.
Trump’s supporters were not taking his words either literally
or seriously, they were taking them mythically. When Trump
entered the political fray in 2015, he gave the supporters of
the conservative movement that came to dominate the Republican
Party since the end of World War II a political myth they
could die for. And myths, for the believer, cannot be refuted.
A political myth is a narrative cast in dramatic form that
provides a practical explanation of present events to a
specific group at a time or place. Political myths provide
meaning, direction and purpose through an interpretation of
what the group of believers takes to be reality. They
mythologize and interpret real events, and historical facts
can be altered to suit the myth’s purpose. There are many
kinds of political myths. There are foundation myths, like the
Myth of the American Founding Fathers and the 1776 Revolution,
the Roman Foundation Myth or the Soviet Myth of the October
Revolution. And there are other political organizing myths,
like the Myth of Norman Yoke, the Confederate Lost Cause Myth
or the Myth of the U.S. Constitution.
But what Trump presents under the banner of “Make America
Great Again” is an apocalyptic, or eschatological, myth. It is
a myth foretelling a great and cataclysmic future event where
deliverance will arrive through the exertion and sacrifice of
the believers. The present order will be swept away and either
a new one will take its place or an older order will be
majestically restored. “Politicians have used you and stolen
your votes,” Trump said while campaigning in 2016. “They have
given you nothing. I will give you everything. I will give you
what you’ve been looking for for 50 years. I’m the only one.”
The catastrophic Make America Great Again myth came to
fruition, and it played out on Capitol Hill. What it
ultimately amounted to is not clear, but that is beside the
point, as Sorel argued when he defended the myth of the
general strike and its utility for socialism. “Even if the
only result of the idea of the general strike was to make the
socialist conception more heroic, it should on that account
alone be looked upon as having an incalculable value,” Sorel
wrote. The same holds true for the Make America Great Again
myth. Non-believers, however, will have to wait to see what
catastrophe it anticipates next.
Arnold
Schwarzenegger calls Trump 'worst president' ever, 'failed
leader' after Capitol riot. (
8-min.
video; Huffington Post, January 10, 2021)
The former California governor released a video message on
Sunday addressing the deadly riot in which he slammed Trump
supporters and “complicit” members of the Republican Party,
who he said have “enabled [Trump’s] lies and his treachery”
for far too long. “I grew up in Austria. I’m very aware of
Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass. It was a night of
rampage against the Jews in 1938 by the Nazi equivalent of the
Proud Boys,” he explained, in the nearly eight-minute-long
video. “Wednesday was the Day of Broken Glass right here in
the United States,” he continued. “The broken glass was in the
windows of the United States Capitol. But the mob did not just
shatter the windows of the Capitol. They shattered the ideas
we took for granted. They did not just break down the doors of
the building that housed American democracy; they trampled the
very principles in which our nation was founded.”
“President Trump sought to overturn the results ... of a fair
election. He sought a coup by misleading people with lies,” he
said. “I know where such lies lead. President Trump is a
failed leader. He will go down in history as the worst
president ever. The good thing is he will soon be as
irrelevant as an old tweet.”
Schwarzenegger went on to reproach his fellow Republicans,
asserting that those who’ve stood by Trump should be held
accountable. “A number of members of my own party, because of
their own spinelessness ... They’re complicit with those who
carried the flag of self righteous insurrection into the
Capitol,” he said.
He concluded the video by wishing President-elect Joe Biden
“great success” when he takes office later this month, and
calling for bipartisan unity. “We need to heal, not just as
Republicans or as Democrats, but as Americans,” he said. “Now
to begin this process, no matter what your political
affiliation is, I ask you to join me in saying to
President-elect Biden, ‘President-elect Biden, we wish you
great success as our president. If you succeed, our nation
succeeds. We support you with all our hearts as you seek to
bring us together.’”
The
Narcissist in Chief Brings It All Crashing Down. (New
York Times, January 10, 2021)
An ending as terrible as it was predictable engulfs the
president and the country.
Our president has never been a very stable man. But I’m trying
to think of what threshold of loco he had to clear in order
for one of his senior advisers to confide in my colleague
Maggie Haberman that Donald J. Trump “lost it” on the day of
the insurrection. Or for an administration official to
describe him as “a total monster” to The Washington Post the
next day. Or for Representative Adam Kinzinger, a member of
Trump’s own party, to call for the cabinet and the vice
president to invoke the 25th Amendment because we require “a
sane captain of the ship” to steer us through the
administration’s final days, and “all indications are that the
president has become unmoored, not just from his duty, or even
his oath, but from reality itself.” Our president has always
been out there. But on Jan. 6, 2021, he clearly reached escape
velocity and hurtled into space.
We shouldn’t be surprised. The president’s flight into the
ozone of crazy was as inevitable as the country’s descent into
anarchy — and almost certainly intertwined. Trump, as I and
many others have noted, impeccably meets the criteria of a
malignant narcissist, and he has a defect in moral conscience
that is emblematic of psychopaths. People like this do not
react well to being fired, divorced or kicked out of any club.
They’re ego hemophiliacs. Their self-esteem cannot
self-repair. And so the president is now doing exactly what
all pathological narcissists of the malignant, conscience-free
variety do when they’ve been given the boot. They behave
dangerously. They claim they are victims. They lie, reject
facts and call foul play. They blame everything — and everyone
— for their failures except themselves. They accuse even their
most loyal supporters of treachery.
And most important, they lash out with a mighty
vindictiveness, often destroying the very institution — or
spouse, family, whatever it is — they were once sworn to
nurture. Which in this case is democracy itself. Trump is a
man who found failure so intolerable, so humiliating, that he
was willing to incite an acre-wide mob to violent
insurrection, both in and around the Capitol, on Congress’s
election certification day. Either he would get what he wanted
or no one would. Five are now dead.
Congress
member declared "Today is 1776," tweeted re Pelosi's
location during insurrection. (Daily Kos, January 10,
2021)
Lauren Opal Boebert, 34-year-old firearms enthusiast,
covid-restrictions refusenik, QAnon sympathizer, somehow or
other brand-new newly-sworn-in member of Congress from the
third district of Colorado (western slice of the state), and
electoral-vote rejecter, tweeting 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday,
before the coup attempt started: "Today is 1776." Another
connection that may shed light on Boebert’s, “Today is 1776.”:
“(Ali) Alexander led a host of activists threatening to
'1776'...opponents of Trump’s re-election.”
And here is her comment on the state of things today: "In the
past 5 days the left has shown us what vile hypocrites they
truly are. They are driven by hate, projection and endless
conspiracy theories." - which probably deserves some kind of
Olympic award for gaslighting.
Rifle-Toting
Militia Men Rail Against Mitch McConnell In Kentucky, Hail
D.C. Rioters. (Huffington Post, January 10, 2021)
Dozens of heavily armed self-described militia members dressed
in camouflage descended on Kentucky’s statehouse Saturday to
loudly bash Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and
praise the Donald Trump-supporting rioters who stormed the
nation’s Capitol. The men, toting rifles and zip ties, also
railed against socialism, communism, and Kentucky’s Democratic
Gov. Andy Beshear. They were there to demand the democratic
election for president be overturned.
FBI
arrests Nashville zip-tie suspect and another from assault
on U.S. Capitol. (Nashville TN NewsChannel5 TV, January
10, 2021)
A self-described "hidden patriot" from Nashville, outed on
social media as a rioter who invaded the U.S. Senate chambers
Wednesday with a weapon and zip-tie handcuffs, was arrested
Sunday on federal charges. FBI agents took Eric Gavelek
Munchel, age 30, into custody on a federal arrest warrant
charging him with one count of knowingly entering or remaining
in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority
and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on
Capitol grounds.
A video, livestreamed in the hours after the riot, showing the
pair having drinks in the lobby of a Washington, D.C., hotel.
Munchel was still wearing the same camouflage clothing. One of
the interviewers noted that he had an empty holster on his
right side. "It's just a Taser, but the police came and took
it away from me," Munchel said. "They didn't like it because
of tonight. They said I couldn't open carry a Taser." Munchel
described himself as "a hidden patriot ready to jump off."
From there, the crowdsourcing effort led Internet sleuths to
Munchel's Facebook page, where his own livestreamed video
showed him walking to the Capitol with the same woman and
other Trump supporters.
Munchel is believed to be employed at a Nashville bar that has
opposed Cooper's restriction on bars in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic. After he became the object of social media
speculation, he apparently disabled his Facebook page.
The U.S. Department of Justice also announced agents had also
arrested Larry Rendell Brock, of Texas. Brock was identified
as one of the individuals who unlawfully entered the U.S.
Capitol wearing a green helmet, green tactical vest with
patches, black and camo jacket, and beige pants holding a
white flex cuff, which is used by law enforcement to restrain
and/or detain subjects, the DOJ said.
Capitol
Police Officer Eugene Goodman hailed a ‘hero’ for diverting
mob from Senate chambers. (Independent/UK, January 10,
2021)
The officer appears to strategically divert the mob away from
Senate entrance, where lawmakers were convening to certify the
2020 presidential election.
Huffington
Post reporter Igor Bobic describes Officer Goodman's saving
maneuver in the Capitol riot. (4-min. video; Good
Morning America/ABC, January 7, 2021)
Igor Bobic, who was in the Capitol building when protesters
pushed their way in, filmed them as they entered the Senate
chamber.
A
Black Police Officer saved America on Wednesday. Say His
Name. (Daily Kos, January 10, 2021)
I saw Officer EUGENE GOODMAN make himself bait as white
domestic terrorists chased him up several flights of stairs in
the Capitol on Wednesday. I watched the footage and wondered
why did he repeatedly stop to goad them, then lead them on,
stop to goad again, then lead them on. Well, now we know. This
man risked his life to give the members of the Senate enough
time to clear the area. This country did not earn in any way,
shape, or form, the sacrifice this man made to save the
nation. And he was able to do what he did WITHOUT FIRING A
SHOT. Cause if he did shoot… oh boy White America would have
had some thoughts. And not just on the right. I am grateful he
did not lose his life. Cause Lord knows white America would
have gladly just made him a martyr and political talking
point. Black America has given this country enough martyrs. If
not for the action of this one person, democracy might have
died on Wednesday.
Inside
the Capitol siege: How barricaded lawmakers and aides
sounded urgent pleas for help as police lost control.
(Washington Post, January 10, 2021)
By around 1 p.m., as the joint session began, the mood in the
crowd outside began to shift. Trump had just given a one-hour
speech to thousands of supporters amassed on the Ellipse near
the White House, excoriating his enemies and reiterating his
baseless claims of fraud. GOP lawmakers, he emphasized, needed
to take a stand. “We’re going to the Capitol,” he said. “We’re
going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that
they need to take back our country.” The president added: “If
you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country
anymore.” Trump returned to the White House; he did not go to
Capitol Hill. But his supporters began streaming east along
Pennsylvania Avenue.
Lawmakers inside were still being evacuated when, around a
side entrance, the mob came much closer to breaking their way
onto the House floor — less than 10 feet away from an open
door into the chamber. Dozens of rioters pressed against
police trying to block their entry into the Speaker’s Lobby.
Several officers left their post seconds before much heavily
armed reinforcements showed up. But in those few seconds, the
rioters smashed in the windows of the doors to the Speaker’s
Lobby and were on the verge of entering the House chamber.
“There’s a gun! There’s a gun!’ one rioter screamed, then an
officer fired into the crowd. Trump supporter and Air Force
veteran Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old California native, was
killed.
At 2:11 p.m. on the Senate side, Vice President Pence sat in
the chair of the presiding officer when aides started
motioning to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) that he had to
replace him. The vice president hurried out a door. At that
moment, one floor below, rioters had crashed through windows
and climbed into the Capitol and clashed with police,
including a lone Black Capitol police officer who tried to
prevent them from ascending toward the Senate chamber. A video
captured by Igor Bobic, a congressional reporter for HuffPost
on the scene, shows the officer trying to hold back a few
dozen rioters who push him back and up the steps leading
almost directly to the chamber. For almost a minute, the
officer held them back — at the exact moment that, inside the
Senate, police were frantically racing around the chamber
trying to lock down more than a dozen doors leading to the
chamber floor and the galleries above. “Second floor!” the
officer yelled into his radio, alerting other officers and
command that the mob had reached the precipice of the Senate.
Had the rioters turned right, they would have been a few feet
away from the main entrance into the chamber. On the other
side of that door, had they made their way into the Senate,
were at least a half-dozen armed officers, including one with
a semiautomatic weapon in the middle of the floor scanning
each entrance for intruders.
A
Natural Phenomenon, Rime Ice, Has Been Popping Up In
Massachusetts And It’s Breathtaking. (w/fine photos;
Only In Your State, January 10, 2021)
While this kind of ice has many names from rime ice to hoar
frost, it leaves a breathtaking scenery no matter what you
call it. Let’s learn about the natural phenomenon that tends
to pop up throughout Massachusetts in the winter.
Sabine
Hossenfelder: The Mathematics of Consciousness (11-min.
video; BackReaction, January 9, 2021)
Physicists like to think they can explain everything, and
that, of course, includes human consciousness. And so in the
last few decades they’ve set out to demystify the brain by
throwing math at the problem. I find it to be a really
interesting development that physicists take on consciousness,
and so, today I want to talk a little about ideas for how
consciousness can be described mathematically, how that’s
going so far, and what we can hope to learn from it in the
future.
White
House Forced Georgia U.S. Attorney to Resign. (Wall
Street Journal, January 9, 2021)
Pressure for resignation was part of broader push by President
Trump to overturn state’s election results.
Georgia
Officials Reveal Third Trump Call Trying to Influence
Election Results. (New York Times, January 9, 2021)
More than a week before President Trump called Georgia’s
secretary of state, pressuring him to “find” votes to help
overturn his electoral loss, the president made another call,
this one to a top Georgia elections investigator, in which he
asked the investigator to “find the fraud” in the state. The
earlier phone call, which Mr. Trump made in late December, was
first reported today by The Washington Post.
In the December call, Mr. Trump said the investigator would be
a “national hero” for finding evidence of fraud. The call
occurred as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office
was conducting an audit of more than 15,000 ballots in
Cobb County, a populous suburb of Atlanta that was formerly a
Republican stronghold but voted against Mr. Trump in both 2016
and 2020. The audit appeared to be an effort to placate
Mr. Trump and his allies, who repeatedly, and baselessly,
argued that he lost the election in Georgia by around 12,000
votes due to a “rigged” system. The president also repeatedly
alleged that there were problems with the signature-matching
system by which elections officials in the state verify the
identity of absentee voters. On December 29, the office of Mr.
Raffensperger, a Republican, announced that the audit had
found no evidence of fraud.
Earlier in December, Mr. Trump made a third call, this one to
Gov. Brian Kemp, urging him to call a special session of the
Georgia legislature in hopes that lawmakers would overturn the
election results. In a television interview on Monday, Mr.
Raffensperger was asked if his office would open an
investigation into the president’s phone call with him. He
replied that because he had been on the Jan. 2 call, he might
have a conflict of interest and suggested instead that such an
investigation might be in the works by the Fulton County
district attorney, Fani Willis.
Mr. Kemp and Mr. Raffensperger have rejected all of Mr.
Trump’s efforts to get them to help him overturn the election
results, even though both are conservative Republicans and
Trump supporters. Mr. Trump has publicly attacked both men,
spreading a baseless conspiracy theory about Mr.
Raffensperger’s brother and promising that he would back a
candidate in the Republican primary to challenge Mr. Kemp, who
is up for re-election next year.
The new details about the president’s personal pressure
campaign on Georgia officials comes as Democrats in the House
of Representatives announced their plans to introduce an
article of impeachment against the president for “willfully
inciting violence against the government of the United
States,” a reference to the pro-Trump mob that violently
attacked the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. Mr. Trump is also facing
growing calls to resign, while his cabinet is under pressure
to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.
Facing
Backlash, Republicans Confront Trump’s Effect on Their
Party. (1-min. video; New York Times, January 9, 2021)
In encounters with their constituents this week, Republican
lawmakers have grappled with the consequences of their
years-long alliance with President Trump: an angry,
misinformed base.
When a distraught constituent accosted her on Tuesday night at
a restaurant in the nation’s capital, Representative Nancy
Mace confronted an impossible task that sprang from President
Trump’s false promises: getting them to understand why she and
other Republicans in Congress could not simply overturn the
results of the election. Driven by Mr. Trump’s fictitious
claims that the election had been stolen from him — and that
lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence could clinch him
another four years in power during Congress’s official
electoral count — the voter had come all the way from Ms.
Mace’s home state of South Carolina to witness it. Now, the
voter, shaking and in tears, demanded to know why Ms. Mace, a
first-term congresswoman, had refused to join the effort.
Calm but firm, Ms. Mace tried to explain that it was not
Congress’s role to subvert the results of an election — and
that to do so would defy the Constitution. “It didn’t matter
what I said,” Ms. Mace said in an interview. “They didn’t
believe it.”
Similar scenes — sometimes painful, always unresolvable —
played out again and again in Washington this week in the
hours before and after a violent mob urged on by Mr. Trump
stormed the Capitol, as Republican voters loyal to the
president cornered Republican lawmakers who voted to certify
the election results, demanding answers and promising revenge.
The confrontations — and the scenes of mayhem that unfolded on
Wednesday — have brought Republicans face to face with the
consequences of their years-long alliance with Mr. Trump,
providing human evidence of the downside of his deep influence
on the voters who form their party’s base. It helps explain
the searing anger that has prompted many Republicans to
belatedly turn against Mr. Trump after years of enabling him
and seeking his validation. But it also reflects the conundrum
in which the Republican Party finds itself, beholden to voters
who have internalized the president’s falsehoods and been
emboldened by his divisive talk.
“Their hearts, minds and wallets were taken advantage of,” Ms.
Mace said, her voice rising in fury. “Millions of people
across the country who were lied to. These individuals, these
hardworking Americans truly believe that the Congress can
overturn the Electoral College.” Many Republican members of
Congress stoked that belief this week when they objected to
Mr. Biden’s victory in battleground states and backed the
challenges in votes that illustrated their party’s rift. In
the House, more than half the Republicans, including the
party’s top two leaders, voted in support of the challenges,
while in the Senate, fewer than 10 Republicans did so and the
leaders were vocally opposed.
The videos that emerged from the standoffs dramatized the
yawning distance between elected Republicans in Washington who
are increasingly desperate to peel away from the president and
their constituents who say they will never let go.
Alleged
lectern thief and horn-helmeted suspect arrested in
connection with Capitol riot. (ABC News, January 9,
2021)
Federal authorities say they've arrested two of the alleged
Capitol rioters who went viral for their part in the siege of
the building.
Adam Johnson, 36, of Parrish, Florida, who was seen in a viral
photograph carrying Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern through the
halls, is being held in Pinellas County Jail and pending
charges after federal marshals picked him up Friday night,
according to the United States Attorney’s Office of the
District of Columbia.
The U.S. Attorney's office also arrested Jacob Anthony
Chansley, a.k.a. "Jake Angeli," Saturday. Investigators said
he was the man seen in viral photos of the siege dressed in
horns, a bearskin headdress, red, white and blue face paint,
shirtless, and tan pants and carrying a 6-foot spear with an
American flag tied below the blade.
Amazon
cuts off Parler’s Web hosting following Apple, Google bans.
(Ars Technica, January 9, 2021)
The app will need to find new Web hosting by Sunday or go
offline.
Twitter
warns of plans for new violence, brewing again on social
media, as reason for Trump ban. (3-min. video;
Washington Post, January 9, 2021)
These demonstrations are scheduled to culminate with what
organizers have dubbed a “Million MAGA March” on January 20th
itself, as President-elect Biden is to be sworn in on the same
Capitol grounds that rioters overrun on Wednesday.
Given the very clear and explicit warning signs for January
6th — with Trump supporters expressing prior intent to ‘storm
and occupy Congress’ and use ‘handcuffs and zip ties,’ clear
plans being laid out on public forums, and the recent
precedent of the plot to storm the Michigan Capitol building
while the legislature was in session — it is truly
mind-boggling that the police were not better prepared.
Will
Joe Biden’s inauguration be marred by the insurrectionists
who stormed the Capitol? (Los Angeles Times, January 9,
2021)
To people who study right-wing militia groups and QAnon
fanatics, the idea that armed insurrectionists would storm the
Capitol while Congress was in session was not merely possible.
It was predictable. Long before the mob began its march up
Pennsylvania Avenue, it was obvious that hordes of
anti-democratic loonies had been swayed by the outlandish lies
of President Trump and his echo chamber of co-conspirators,
who maintained that President-elect Joe Biden had stolen the
election. On Twitter, Parler, Facebook, 4chan, 8chan and the
dark web, momentum was building.
For weeks, quite publicly, a growing number of Trump
supporters had been whipping themselves into a frenzy, talking
about doing something big on Jan. 6, when Congress met to
count the votes of the electoral college. We now know, of
course, that their seditious plans, inflamed by Trump himself,
came to pass.
The armed insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol may have
seemed disorganized, but their goal was clear: disruption of
the highest levels of government. They succeeded in sowing
terror and upending, at least temporarily, the peaceful
transfer of power in America. Five people, including a Capitol
Police officer, died.
We talked about how social media works against the common good
and how anger-driven right-wing groups flourish as a result.
“Facebook’s algorithms decide what to show you based on what
keeps you on Facebook the longest. And the content that keeps
you scrolling and clicking is content that makes you angry.
Facebook has chosen not to fix this. Essentially, social media
makes more money if we are mad at each other.”
Trump has exploited this aspect of social media like no other
political figure.
In April, the Wall Street Journal published an article based
on internal 2016 Facebook documents about the site’s
contribution to social and political divisiveness. A high
number of extremist groups use the site, and Facebook found
that its own recommendation tools — “Groups You Should Join”
and “Discover” — were responsible for 64% of new followers for
extremist pages. What did the social media giant do? Nothing.
The
American Abyss (New York Times Magazine, January 9,
2021)
Timothy Snyder, a historian of fascism and political atrocity,
writes on Trump, the mob and what comes next.
When Donald Trump stood before his followers on Jan. 6 and
urged them to march on the United States Capitol, he was doing
what he had always done. He never took electoral democracy
seriously nor accepted the legitimacy of its American version.
Even when he won, in 2016, he insisted that the election was
fraudulent — that millions of false votes were cast for his
opponent. In 2020, in the knowledge that he was trailing
Joseph R. Biden in the polls, he spent months claiming that
the presidential election would be rigged and signaling that
he would not accept the results if they did not favor him. He
wrongly claimed on Election Day that he had won and then
steadily hardened his rhetoric: With time, his victory became
a historic landslide and the various conspiracies that denied
it ever more sophisticated and implausible.
People believed him, which is not at all surprising. It takes
a tremendous amount of work to educate citizens to resist the
powerful pull of believing what they already believe, or what
others around them believe, or what would make sense of their
own previous choices. Plato noted a particular risk for
tyrants: that they would be surrounded in the end by yes-men
and enablers. Aristotle worried that, in a democracy, a
wealthy and talented demagogue could all too easily master the
minds of the populace. Aware of these risks and others, the
framers of the Constitution instituted a system of checks and
balances. The point was not simply to ensure that no one
branch of government dominated the others but also to anchor
in institutions different points of view.
In this sense, the responsibility for Trump’s push to overturn
an election must be shared by a very large number of
Republican members of Congress. Rather than contradict Trump
from the beginning, they allowed his electoral fiction to
flourish. They had different reasons for doing so. One group
of Republicans is concerned above all with gaming the system
to maintain power, taking full advantage of constitutional
obscurities, gerrymandering and dark money to win elections
with a minority of motivated voters. They have no interest in
the collapse of the peculiar form of representation that
allows their minority party disproportionate control of
government. The most important among them, Mitch McConnell,
indulged Trump’s lie while making no comment on its
consequences.
Yet other Republicans saw the situation differently: They
might actually break the system and have power without
democracy. The split between these two groups, the gamers and
the breakers, became sharply visible on Dec. 30, when Senator
Josh Hawley announced that he would support Trump’s challenge
by questioning the validity of the electoral votes on Jan. 6.
Ted Cruz then promised his own support, joined by about 10
other senators. More than a hundred Republican representatives
took the same position. For many, this seemed like nothing
more than a show: challenges to states’ electoral votes would
force delays and floor votes but would not affect the outcome.
Letter
to Natick Select Board and Chief Hicks (Metrowest Daily
News, January 9, 2021)
On January 6th, 2021, Town Meeting Member Sue Ianni organized
multiple busloads of people to attend what became an act of
insurrection targeting the United States Capitol. Through
photos readily available on social media, it is clear that
social distancing and other COVID protocols were not followed.
What is additionally clear is that Natick residents
participated in the assault on the Capitol and violence
against the United States. This assault threatened the
integrity of the American government, breaching the Capitol
for the first time since a foreign invasion in the War of
1812, and did so in the midst of a pandemic that is ravaging
our nation, our commonwealth, and our town.
Natick
woman who attended violent protest in D.C. still believes
'illegal election' is at play. (Metrowest Daily News,
January 8, 2021)
Sue Ianni organized 11 buses to ride down to D.C. for the
protest. She is concerned she, and all Trump supporters, are
targets of retribution.
Ianni declined to comment when asked if she marched to the
U.S. Capitol and entered the building, offering that “too many
people were arrested wrongly for a peaceful protest after
being waived in by Capitol police.”
American
Amnesia (The Cut, January 8, 2021)
Despite the very American efforts to obscure past pain every
time there’s progress and treat horrific events as one-offs,
there is no amount of change that can wipe our memories or the
slate clean. We witnessed this process at its absolute apex on
January 6, a day that will live in infamy unless we do our
American thing of pretending as if the worst parts of us are a
fringe.
Wednesday’s insurrection was not a singular event in our
history. It was the result of a decades-long plan for white
nationalists to wreak havoc on the U.S. government. With the
encouragement of a sitting president, they did exactly that
with little consequences. Five people died. The majority of
the insurrectionists left the U.S. Capitol unscathed. There
were no tanks to greet them, no militarized police force with
batons at the ready, no eagerness to push them to the ground,
break their bones, and leave them traumatized. Of course
righteous anger spread on social media. There were mumblings
about removing Trump from office. The very senators who
encouraged the violence, including Missouri senator Josh
Hawley and Texas senator Ted Cruz, released statements
condemning it. Once the Capitol Police finally dispersed the
crowd and cleared the building, Congress restored order and
continued its procedural vote — allowing representatives and
senators who helped incite the insurrection to still object to
specific election results in specific states — and business
continued as normal. Because it always does.
This kind of whiplash is as common in the United States as
mythmaking exceptionalism and double standards in policing.
America was built on violent theft, enslavement enforced
through brutality, and congressional leaders manipulating the
levers of power to suppress the vote, but whenever there’s
perceived progress, including Barack Obama being elected to
the presidency and Warnock becoming the first Black Democratic
senator from the South, we’re asked to bury all of the ugly
history. We’re at a new dawn, so we should pretend as if the
darkness never existed — until we’re forced to face the next
tunnel.
It
took a mob riot for Twitter to finally ban Trump. (Los
Angeles Times, January 8, 2021)
Whose megaphone will President Trump use now? In the wake of
the horrifying attack on the U.S. Capitol, major social media
companies have all “deplatformed” Trump and some of his fellow
traffickers in false claims about the November 2020 election.
The last to join in the cancel ceremonies was Twitter, Trump’s
favorite vehicle for spreading deception and calumny. After
Twitter finally started labeling Trump’s deceptive tweets for
what they were last May, I wrote that the company had waited
three years too long. That delay, combined with Twitter’s
ongoing refusal to make Trump abide by the rules that apply to
everyone else on the network, made Friday’s ban inevitable.
The long-overdue deplatforming could be an analgesic for the
Trumpists’ fever dreams about overturning Joe Biden’s victory
in November, which Congress formally certified several hours
after the Capitol was cleared. No other micro-blogging or
messaging service has the reach in the United States of
Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. None can have the sort of
impact for Trump that Twitter has.
Twitter’s analysis of Trump’s last two tweets, issued after
the president’s personal account had been suspended for a day,
is instructive. The first tweet proclaimed that “The
75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA
FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE
long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated
unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” The second stated, “To
all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the
Inauguration on January 20th.”
The company looked across the Twitterverse to see how the
tweets were being interpreted by Trump’s seditious followers.
And what it found was chilling. Trump’s use of the phrase
“great American Patriots,” Twitter said, was “being
interpreted as support for those committing violent acts at
the U.S. Capitol.” Trump’s announcement that he’s blowing off
the Inauguration was seen by some “as further confirmation
that the election was not legitimate” and as a disavowal of
the president’s stated support for an orderly transition of
power. “The second Tweet may also serve as encouragement to
those potentially considering violent acts that the
Inauguration would be a ‘safe’ target, as he will not be
attending,” Twitter wrote.
But for heaven’s sake, why did it take a mob of Trump zealots
storming the Capitol, and five deaths that resulted, for
Twitter to look at what Trump has been signaling across its
network? Or for Facebook to cut off Trump’s use of its network
to micro-target his snake oil? Promoting a free speech culture
does not mean amplifying all speech.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he doesn’t feel
comfortable playing the role of speech police. But he’s
created one of the world’s most powerful amplifiers, and he’s
rightly set standards — low standards, sadly — for what people
can do with it. World leaders should be held to the same rules
as everyone else; otherwise, social networks are giving those
politicians a means to communicate which is less transparent
and public than the powerful soapboxes that come with their
offices.
Twitter
permanently suspends Trump’s account. (Politico, January
8, 2021)
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump
account and the context around them — specifically how they
are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we
have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of
further incitement of violence," Twitter said in a statement
Friday afternoon.
Two days after throngs of his supporters staged a violent
rampage through the Capitol, the social media company said
Trump broke its rules yet again. This came even after the
company had publicly warned Wednesday that additional
violations would result in his indefinite expulsion.
After his account was reactivated Thursday, Trump tweeted out
two messages saying his supporters "will not be disrespected
or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form," and announcing
he would not attending President-elect Joe Biden's
inauguration. Twitter cited those messages as motivating their
decision to deactivate his account. "These two Tweets must be
read in the context of broader events in the country and the
ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by
different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as
in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in
recent weeks," the company said in its statement. It added the
tweets violated its policy on glorification of violence.
Trump's ouster culminates years of friction between the
outgoing president and Twitter, the platform he has long used
to promote conspiracy theories, personal grievances and
surprise policy decisions to his nearly 89 million followers.
But it came too late for many critics of both Trump and
Twitter, who say the company has allowed him to flout its
rules with rhetoric such as threats of war or violence against
racial justice protesters.
The final straw came shortly after pro-Trump rioters breached
the Capitol during a deadly assault, when Trump posted a
series of tweets that urged his supporters to leave but
continued to claim falsely that the November election had been
stolen from him. Those included a tweet attacking Vice
President Mike Pence for refusing to overturn the election
results, and another describing the rioters as "great
patriots." Twitter and Facebook, where Trump posted some of
the same messages, temporarily locked Trump’s account in
response. Further rule-breaking, Twitter said, "will result in
permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account."
Facebook and Instagram subsequently locked Trump's accounts
at least through Inauguration Day. “We believe the risks
of allowing the President to continue to use our service
during this period are simply too great,” Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg wrote in a statement posted to his personal page
the day after the mayhem.
"Coward":
MAGA internet turns on Trump. (Politico, January 8,
2021)
The president acknowledged his defeat and urged for political
reconciliation. His online faithful didn’t take it well.
After years of fidelity, Donald Trump's most ardent online
fans have finally turned on him. All it took was for the
president to acknowledge the reality of his loss a little over
a day after they, the MAGA faithful, stormed the Capitol in a
violent attempt to stop the certification of President-elect
Joe Biden’s win.
“People were willing to die for this man and he just threw
them all under the bus. That’s the only thing that’s shameful
about the events of the past 36 hours,” Nick Fuentes, the host
of the America First podcast and the unofficial leader of the
white nationalist Groyper Army, angrily tweeted, shortly after
Trump released a video Thursday night in which he conceded
that Biden would be the next president and called for
political reconciliation.
Hawley
Faces Fierce Backlash From Colleagues, Donors After Capitol
Riot. (Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2021)
Missouri senator’s objection to election results has drawn
widespread condemnation, raising questions about his political
future.
Mr. Hawley, an ambitious 41-year-old former Missouri attorney
general, last week became the first senator to say he would
object to the results of the 2020 presidential election,
bucking GOP leaders and sending shock waves through his
conference. By law, an objection requires the backing of at
least one House member and one senator to trigger a debate and
vote on whether to disqualify a state’s electoral results.
Once Mr. Hawley had signed on, there was enormous pressure on
other Republican senators to follow suit or risk being seen as
betraying President Trump.
Now he has become a pariah among Senate Republicans, many of
whom blame him for what they see as his role instigating a
riot that overwhelmed the Capitol and resulted in the deaths
of five people, including a Capitol Police officer. Mr. Hawley
also is contending with fallout beyond the Capitol: The former
Missouri senator who recruited him to run for Senate has
denounced him, Simon & Schuster canceled publication of
his upcoming book on big tech, the president of his Jesuit
high school called on him to reflect and atone, and a
multimillion-dollar donor has said the Senate should censure
him. Some Democrats are demanding his resignation.
Biden:
Trump skipping inauguration a "good thing". (Politico,
January 8, 2021)
"He exceeded even my worst notions about him," the
president-elect said. "He’s been an embarrassment to the
country.”
Trump
awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to three golfers in a
closed-to-the-public ceremony less than 24 hours after his
supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. (Daily Mail/UK,
January 8, 2021)
On Thursday, President Donald Trump awarded three golfers the
Presidential Medal of Freedom during a closed-door ceremony.
Two of the recipients, Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player, are
retired, and the third, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, was awarded
the medal posthumously. It comes less than 24 hours after
Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a riot that led
to five deaths. Many have called the timing of the ceremony
'tone deaf,' including Player's own son, Mark, who called on
his father to turn down the award.
Only four other golfers have ever received the nation's
highest civilian honor, including Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer,
Jack Nicklaus and Charlie Sifford.
Impeachment
strikes back. (Politico, January 8, 2021)
A fissure in the Republican party split wide open today. Some
GOP members are now considering voting for a second
impeachment of Trump. The Nightly chatted with Congressional
reporter Kyle Cheney over Slack about what this week’s events
mean for the days and weeks ahead.
Support
for New Trump Impeachment Rises After Death of Police
Officer. (Slate, January 8, 2021)
On Thursday, congressional Democrats including both Speaker of
the House Nancy Pelosi and incoming Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer said Donald Trump needs to be removed from
office for his role in inciting the mob attack on the Capitol
that took place during Electoral College counting Wednesday.
Some Democrats wanted to begin impeachment proceedings
immediately. Others, like Pelosi and Schumer, said they would
first like to see if Vice President Mike Pence invokes the
25th Amendment process to take away Trump’s authority. As of
Thursday night, Pence was reportedly unwilling to do so;
whether or not he changes his mind, developments overnight and
this morning have strengthened the case, and the visible
support, for removal.
Congressman
Cohen Will Introduce Resolution to Abolish the Electoral
College. (w/full text; Congressman Steve Cohen, January
8, 2021)
In the past 20 years, the archaic institution has twice
awarded the presidency to a candidate who did not win the
popular vote, defeating the will of the American people.
The
Journey of Ashli Babbitt (Bellingcat, January 8, 2021)
Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was shot and
killed by Capitol Police while attempting to enter the
Speaker’s Lobby on the second floor of the US Capitol in
Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021. Babbitt was part of a
thousands-strong mob that stormed the building after the
conclusion of the #StopTheSteal rally at the Washington
Monument earlier in the day. At that event, President Donald
Trump had encouraged rally goers to head to the Capitol to
protest the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
His comments came after weeks of false and inflammatory
statements to the effect that he had won the election, and
that his enemies had rigged it against him.
Babbitt’s shooting was captured on several videos that were
recorded and shared by people in the crowd. Her own social
media history also reveals her movements on the morning and
afternoon of January 6. But looking back further shows an
ideological journey that saw her travel from stating she had
backed President Barack Obama to engaging in damaging
right-wing conspiracy theories. We have looked at Babbitt’s
social media footprint, as well as other open source
information, to trace both journeys.
Congresswoman
Pramila Jayapal on surviving the siege: "It Was No
Accident!" (The Cut, January 8, 2021)
On Wednesday, January 6, Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic
congresswoman from Washington State, was sitting in the
gallery above the House chamber, watching the proceedings to
count the Electoral College vote and certify the result of the
presidential election, when armed right-wing rioters breached
the Capitol Building and began to make their way inside,
toward the lawmakers and administrative, custodial, and
food-service staff working inside. Jayapal, a longtime
immigration activist who worked to negotiate Seattle’s $15
minimum wage before being elected to Washington’s state senate
in 2015, then to the U.S. Congress in 2017, heads the House
Progressive Caucus. We spoke about Wednesday’s siege, about
the particular vulnerability of Black and brown women to
violent incursion, and about how her party must now move
forward, both in response to the attack and as the governing
party moving into a new administration.
"I
Was There When The Rioters Stormed The Capitol."
(Newsweek, January 8, 2021)
Trump eventually took to the stage, more than an hour late, to
the roar of the crowd. Immediately he called the result
"bulls***" to great cheers and laughter before continuing in
his usual, off-script rambling style. Yet one part of his
speech really resonated with those stood staring up at him.
"We will never give up; we will never concede," Trump said to
thunderous applause. "We will stop the steal," he told the
crowd, and later: "We're going to walk down Pennsylvania
Avenue, and we're going to the Capitol...We're going to try
and give our Republicans, the weak ones...the kind of pride
and boldness that they need to take back our country."
Video
of the Moment When Pro-Trump Rioters Clashed With Police in
Capitol Corridor. (3-min. video; Wall Street Journal,
January 8, 2021)
New footage shows a moment when pro-Trump rioters stormed the
U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. The violent day resulted in the
deaths of five people, including a U.S. Capitol police
officer.
Ignorance
and Ideology Meet at the Capitol. (HistoryNet, January
8, 2021)
On Wednesday as pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in
Washington, DC in an unprecedented domestic attack on the
institution of democracy, further chilling scenes unfolded on
the steps of the Capitol as photographs of rioters were seen
dressed in clothing with brazenly anti-Semitic messages. Some
proudly displayed shirts with the insignia 6MWE — meaning “six
million Jews weren’t enough.” A reminder that if democracy
becomes vulnerable, genocidal forces in the wings are ready to
rise. Yes, even in America.
Among the rioters were members of the Proud Boys and other
alt-right, neo-fascist organizations. Hundreds or more of the
mob broke into the Capitol, sparking hours of chaos and
violence in which dozens were injured and five people —
including a U.S. Capitol police officer — were killed.
One man wore a black sweatshirt with a skull-and-crossbones
logo with the words “Camp Auschwitz” emblazoned above it and
“work brings freedom.” The Nazi death camp notoriously had the
phrase Arbeit macht frei or “Work sets you free” on the
entrance of the camp gates.
Eleven million men, women, and children perished during the
systematic, Nazi state-sponsored persecution and murder of
Jews, Slavic peoples, Roma, people with disabilities, Soviet
prisoners, homosexuals, and others deemed “inferior.” Of those
11 million, more than six million Jews perished during the
Holocaust.
They
Were Out for Blood. (Slate, January 8, 2021)
The men who carried zip ties as they stormed the Capitol
weren’t clowning around. Call the zip ties by their correct
name: The guys were carrying flex cuffs, the plastic double
restraints often used by police in mass arrest situations.
They walked through the Senate chamber with a sense of
purpose. They were not dressed in silly costumes but kitted
out in full paramilitary regalia: helmets, armor, camo,
holsters with sidearms. At least one had a semi-automatic
rifle and 11 Molotov cocktails. At least one, unlike nearly
every other right-wing rioter photographed that day, wore a
mask that obscured his face.
These are the same guys who, when the windows of the Capitol
were broken and entry secured, went in first with what I’d
call military-ish precision. They moved with purpose, to the
offices of major figures like Nancy Pelosi and then to the
Senate floor. What was that purpose? It wasn’t to pose for
photos. It was to use those flex cuffs on someone.
In October, the FBI and state authorities charged 13 men with
plotting to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor
of Michigan. Members of that plot attended protests at the
Michigan Capitol in April, real planners of violence mixing
easily with those for whom guns are fun protest props. The
plotters discussed a summary execution—“knock on the door,”
one wrote in the group chat, “and when she answers it just cap
her”—but settled on a kidnapping, pulled off while police were
distracted by a nearby explosion. Think of that plot, as these
men surely did, as a dress rehearsal for what the zip-tie guys
wanted to accomplish at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
They went into the Capitol, as Congress was counting electoral
votes, equipped to take hostages—to physically seize
officials, and presumably to take lives. The prospect is
terrifying. But just because it seems unthinkable doesn’t mean
we shouldn’t think hard about what almost happened. Don’t
dismiss the zip-tie guys as “LARPers” or “weekend warriors.”
First of all, given the well-documented overlap between
ex-military, law enforcement, and right-wing militias, it’s
entirely possible these guys were weekday warriors using their
training in service of extracurricular interests. (One of the
Twitter sleuths who are now trying to track them down sure
seems to think they’re ex-military.) More importantly, the
long awful course of history reminds us how slippery the slope
is from playacting as a strike force to actually behaving as a
strike force.
Trump
Still Has the Power to Blow Up the World. (Slate,
January 8, 2021)
And as long as he’s in office, there’s not much anyone can do
about that.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, summoning the ultimate fear of
Trump’s unbounded powers for the next 12 days, said Friday
that she has asked Milley about “available precautions for
preventing an unstable president from initiating military
hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a
nuclear strike.” If Milley was honest in his reply, he would
have told Pelosi that there are no such formal
precautions—that, in fact, the nuclear command-control system
was designed to allow the president, and only the president,
to launch nuclear weapons as quickly as possible. This system
was put in place so that the United States could respond to
(or preempt) an enemy nuclear attack before the enemy’s
missiles landed on American soil. But the system’s designers
made no distinction between responding to a nuclear attack and
launching a nuclear first strike out of the blue. In both
cases, the president has untrammeled monopoly control.
At the dawn of the republic, James Madison wrote in the
Federalist No. 10, “Enlightened statesmen will not always be
at the helm.” This was why he and the other founders devised
checks and balances to a potential autocrat’s power—a
legislature, judiciary, free press, and (they hoped) an
educated public. Yet from the dawn of the nuclear age till
now, no one has devised checks or balances to keep an
“unenlightened statesman” from obliterating life on the
planet.
It’s extremely unlikely that Trump will try to launch nukes in
the final 12 days of his presidency, but several lawmakers,
officials, and officers are worried that they don’t know what
Trump might do. The possibility that he might do something
destructive was what drove all 10 of the living former
secretaries of defense to sign a Washington Post op-ed,
reminding current officials and officers that it would be
“dangerous, unlawful, and unconstitutional” for the military
to play any role in settling a political election. Their main
fear was that Trump might call on the armed forces to extend
his term of power. His former national security adviser, Lt.
Gen. Michael Flynn (who was later indicted, then pardoned),
had recently (and incorrectly) claimed the president possessed
the power to declare martial law and redo the election under
military supervision. The secretaries were also concerned
about Trump taking military action abroad. Shortly after the
election, Trump had fired the top echelon of Pentagon
civilians and replaced them with loyalists, some of them
inexperienced ideologues. In mid-December, these new acting
officials stopped meeting with President-elect Joe Biden’s
transition team. The former secretaries wondered: Was Trump
planning something and relying on his lackeys to execute his
orders out of sight?
One silver lining to Trump’s Jan. 6 incitement of an attempted
insurrection is that more people in Congress, the armed
forces, and elsewhere—including many erstwhile supporters—are
on heightened alert. The report that Vice President Mike Pence
authorized the Defense Department to send the National Guard
to Capitol Hill—an act that the president would normally
take—suggests that high officials are crafting workarounds to
Trump’s powers in moments of urgency. (This isn’t a totally
positive thing, by the way.)
But for as long as he’s president, Trump continues to possess
powers like the world has never seen. If American politics
calm down in the next few years, to the point where
Republicans and Democrats can hold rational discussions,
premised on a common reality (even if not common views), it
might be good for Biden to lead a discussion on paring down
these powers.
Nancy
Pelosi says she spoke to Gen. Milley about Trump and the
nuclear codes. (CNN, January 8, 2021)
"This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for
preventing an unstable president from initiating military
hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a
nuclear strike," Pelosi wrote in a letter. "The situation of
this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we
must do everything that we can to protect the American people
from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy."
After speaking with Milley on Friday, Pelosi told her caucus
that she has gotten assurances there are safeguards in place
in the event Trump wants to launch a nuclear weapon.
Nancy
Pelosi's letter on speaking with the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs about Trump and the nuclear codes (CNN, January
8, 2021)
Biden
plans to release nearly all available vaccine doses in an
attempt to speed delivery. (New York Times, January 8,
2021)
In a sharp break with the Trump administration,
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. intends to release nearly
all available doses of the coronavirus vaccine soon after he
is inaugurated, rather than hold back millions of vials to
guarantee second doses will be available. The decision is part
of an aggressive effort to “to ensure the Americans who need
it most get it as soon as possible,” the Biden transition team
said on Friday. The vaccination plan, to be formally unveiled
next week, also will include federally run vaccination sites
in places like high school gyms and sports stadiums, and
mobile units to reach high-risk populations. The
president-elect has vowed to get “at least 100 million Covid
vaccine shots into the arms of the American people” during his
first 100 days in office.
45's
Falsehoods and Failures: COVID-19 (People For the
American Way, January 8, 2021)
This week’s news has been largely dominated by the Senate
runoff races in Georgia and Trump supporters’ terrorism at the
U.S. Capitol. But even as news coverage focused on these
events, the pandemic continued its dangerous spread through
our communities.
At Trump’s rally that preceded the assault at the Capitol, his
supporters urged the crowd to “turn to the person next to you
and give them a hug” – creating a “mass-spreader event.” That
same day, the United States experienced its most deadly day of
the pandemic so far: More than 3,900 deaths and 255,000 new
cases were reported on January 6. And neither Trump nor his
Republican allies have indicated any concern about the ongoing
severity of the pandemic or that their failures and misdeeds
have further exacerbated it.
Despite the ongoing devastation, Trump and his federal allies
continue to obstruct the orderly transition of coronavirus
information to the Biden-Harris administration’s incoming team
of public health experts. During a pandemic, every day can
make a life-or-death difference. Trump’s callous indifference
to protecting the American people has already taken a
needlessly tragic toll on the country.
Trump’s failure to lead us through the pandemic will be among
the greatest failures of his presidency. And although he will
soon lack any governing power, the impact of his failures will
continue to hurt the American people. President-elect Joe
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have outlined
their extensive plans to combat the virus and speed up the
production and dispersal of COVID-19 vaccines – and their
leadership couldn’t come soon enough.
Donald
Trump’s Final Days (Wall Street Journal, January 7,
2021)
If Mr. Trump wants to avoid a second impeachment, his best
path would be to take personal responsibility and resign. This
would be the cleanest solution since it would immediately turn
presidential duties over to Mr. Pence. And it would give Mr.
Trump agency, a la Richard Nixon, over his own fate.
This might also stem the flood of White House and Cabinet
resignations that are understandable as acts of conscience but
could leave the government dangerously unmanned. Robert
O’Brien, the national security adviser, in particular should
stay at his post.
We know an act of grace by Mr. Trump isn’t likely. In any case
this week has probably finished him as a serious political
figure. He has cost Republicans the House, the White House,
and now the Senate. Worse, he has betrayed his loyal
supporters by lying to them about the election and the ability
of Congress and Mr. Pence to overturn it. He has refused to
accept the basic bargain of democracy, which is to accept the
result, win or lose.
It is best for everyone, himself included, if he goes away
quietly.
Donald
Trump Finally Concedes Election to Biden: Full Text of
Speech. (Newsweek, January 7, 2021)
After weeks of refusal, President Donald Trump conceded the
November election to President-elect Joe Biden in a video
posted to social media on Thursday.
[While, on Twitter, Trump posted the still-deceptive: “Even
though
I totally disagree with the outcome of the
election, and the facts bear me out,
nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January
20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure
that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the
end of
the greatest first term in presidential history,
it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great
Again!”]
Trump
Has Now Been Suspended From Four of the Six Most Popular
Social Media Platforms. (Newsweek, January 7, 2021)
Inauthentic
Editing: Changing Wikipedia to Win Elections and Influence
People (Stanford Internet Observatory)
Wikipedia celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. This is
the first of two blog posts exploring the use, misuse, and
ultimate resilience of this open, community-edited platform.
“God
Have Mercy on and Help Us All.” (Slate, January 7, 2021)
How prominent evangelicals reacted to the storming of the U.S.
Capitol.
Michelle
Obama Calls on Social Media to "Stop Enabling Trump's
Monstrous Behavior." (Newsweek, January 7, 2021)
"Now is the time for those who voted for this president to see
the reality of who they've supported – and publicly and
forcefully rebuke him and the actions of that mob," Obama
said. "Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop
enabling this monstrous behavior – and go even further than
they have already by permanently banning this man from their
platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their
technology from being used by the nation's leaders to fuel
insurrection."
After
Delays and Tumult, Trump Finaly Tells Political Appointees
to Submit Resignations. (New York Times, January 7,
2021)
Until Thursday, the White House had still not told its
political appointees to step down, a routine request to smooth
presidential transitions that usually happens within weeks of
an election.
The White House formally asked for the resignations of its
ambassadors and other political appointees on Thursday, as a
wave of senior officials announced their departure from the
government after President Trump incited supporters who had
assaulted the Capitol a day earlier. The storming of the
Capitol to disrupt the official Electoral College tally on
Wednesday sent shock waves across the United States and around
the world, and prompted Mr. Trump to promise early Thursday
that he would ensure an “orderly transition” to the
administration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Trump
Administration Officials Who Resigned Over Capitol Violence
(New York Times, January 7, 2021)
Several officials announced that they were stepping down,
after a mob of the president’s supporters disrupted the
process of certifying the election results yesterday.
Trump
Erases His Legacy. (3-min. video; Wall Street Journal,
January 7, 2021)
Mr. Trump's obsession with the results helped to lose the GOP
the Senate and to encourage Wednesday's mob.
A politician has to work hard to destroy a legacy and a future
in a single day. President Donald J. Trump managed it.
Peter
Bart: Washington Won’t Miss Donald Trump, Nor Will Hollywood
Miss His Enabler Rupert Murdoch. (Deadline, January 7,
2021)
The Donald Trump era is passing like a dark cloud, but I’d
offer a second headline of equal importance: The Rupert
Murdoch era also is history. As the media lord nears 90, his
ominous hold on the politics and pop culture of three nations
is lifting as well. Hollywood, too, will be healthier in his
absence.
The Trump legacy is one of hatred and betrayal – that much has
come into alarming focus in the last 48 hours. But that
shouldn’t distract from the reality that Murdoch’s media
arsenal helped build Trumpism – Fox News, the Wall Street
Journal, the New York Post and even those assets overseas.
Murdoch has profited from splintering American society.
Cybersecurity
experts warn about Congress's information security after
Capitol riots. (CNN, January 7, 2021)
Digital security experts are raising the alarm over
Wednesday's breach of the US Capitol, which not only
threatened lawmakers' physical safety but also created
potential national security and intelligence risks, they say.
As rioters stormed the Capitol building, they broke into
congressional offices, ransacked papers and in at least one
case, stole a laptop, according to a video shared on Twitter
by Sen. Jeff Merkley. Merkley's office wasn't the only one
robbed, according to authorities. On a call with reporters
Thursday afternoon, US officials said multiple senators'
offices were hit.
"This is probably going to take several days to flesh out
exactly what happened, what was stolen, what wasn't," said
Michael Sherwin, acting US attorney for the District of
Columbia. "Items, electronic items, were stolen from senators'
offices. Documents, materials, were stolen, and we have to
identify what was done, mitigate that, and it could have
potential national security equities. If there was damage, we
don't know the extent of that yet."
A
Riot Amid a Pandemic: Did the Virus, Too, Storm the Capitol?
(New York Times, January 7, 2021)
The mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday did not just
threaten the heart of American democracy. To scientists who
watched dismayed as the scenes unfolded on television, the
throngs of unmasked intruders who wandered through hallways
and into private offices may also have transformed the riot
into a super-spreader event. The coronavirus thrives indoors,
particularly in crowded spaces, lingering in the air in tiny
particles called aerosols. If even a few extremists were
infected — likely, given the current rates of spread and the
crowd size — then the virus would have had the ideal
opportunity to find new victims, experts said. “It has all the
elements of what we warn people about,” said Anne Rimoin, an
epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“People yelling and screaming, chanting, exerting themselves —
all of those things provide opportunity for the virus to
spread, and this virus takes those opportunities.”
President Trump has downplayed the pandemic almost since its
beginning, and many of his supporters who entered the Capitol
yesterday did not appear to be wearing masks or making any
effort at social distancing. Under similar conditions,
gatherings held in such close quarters have led to
fast-spreading clusters of infection.
Pence
is said to oppose invoking 25th Amendment to strip Trump of
his duties. (New York Times, January 7, 2021)
Vice President Mike Pence is opposed to a call by Democrats in
Congress and some Republicans to invoke the 25th Amendment to
strip President Trump of his powers before his term ends, a
person close to the vice president said.
It is unclear when Mr. Pence will alert Congress of his
position. But the decision by Mr. Pence is said to be
supported by several Trump cabinet officials. Those officials,
a senior Republican said, viewed the effort as likely to add
to the current chaos in Washington rather than deter it.
Democrats
Threaten Impeachment if Pence Won’t Act After Capitol Siege.
(New York Times, January 7, 2021)
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House could be ready to impeach
President Trump again within days if the vice president does
not invoke the 25th Amendment to strip his powers.
Pelosi
calls for Trump's immediate removal through 25th Amendment.
(Reuters, January 7, 2021)
Sen.
Romney: This was "an insurrection incited by the President".
(3-min. video; CNN, January 7, 2021)
Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) called the riots at the US Capitol
"an insurrection incited by the President of the United
States," while addressing his colleagues at a ceremonial
counting of electoral votes that will confirm President-elect
Biden's win.
Mike
Pence was livid 'after all the things I've done' for Trump.
(Business Insider, January 7, 2021)
Pence
took lead as Trump initially resisted sending National Guard
to Capitol. (CNN, January 7, 2021)
Vice President Mike Pence, not President Donald Trump, helped
facilitate the decision to mobilize members of the DC National
Guard Wednesday when violence at the US Capitol building
started to escalate, according to a source familiar with the
move and public comments from top officials.
As the chaos unfolded, doubts were raised about whether Trump
would order the DC National Guard to respond due to the
slowness of the response. Public statements by acting Defense
Secretary Christopher Miller and other top officials suggested
it was Pence who ultimately approved the decision. Miller's
statement Wednesday seems to indicate he did not even speak
with Trump, discussing the matter with his deputy instead as
sources told CNN the President was reluctant to even denounce
the violence being carried out in his name.
Trump, who has proven over the past year to be eager to deploy
the National Guard when violence breaks out, initially
resisted doing so on Capitol Hill Wednesday as a mob of his
supporters breached the building, per a source familiar. Pence
played a key role in coordinating with the Pentagon about
deploying them, and urged them to move faster than they were.
The news raises questions about who was acting as commander in
chief on one of America's darkest days, which saw the
country's legislature overrun for the first time since the
British attacked and burned the building in August 1814.
Industry
Labor Leaders Condemn Trump Supporters’ Attack On Capitol:
“Shocking And Unacceptable”. (Deadline, January 7, 2021)
A growing chorus of entertainment industry union leaders is
condemning Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol building by
supporters of President Donald Trump – and the politicians who
incited the violence.
“It took three years, 50 weeks and four dead at the Capitol
for far too few Republicans to abandon him. Trump didn’t
destroy their party — they did,” tweeted WGA East president
Beau Willimon, who also called for Trump to be impeached for a
second time. “For those who think, ‘Only two weeks left, why
impeach?’ — consider this: Would you be comfortable with a
deranged and violent amateur piloting the plane you’re on for
even 30 seconds? And, don’t you want to send a message that we
will never allow such a pilot at the yoke again?”
Thom
Hartmann: Tyrants often turn on their own people: it’s time
to remove Trump from office. (Medium, January 7, 2021)
Tyrants very rarely leave power voluntarily. In almost every
case they’ve committed so many crimes in the process of
acquiring and holding power, and exploiting that power to
enrich themselves, their friends and allies, that they know if
they step down they will be facing, at the very least, a long
stretch in prison.
A dear friend of mine, Armin Lehmann, was the 16-year-old
courier who brought Adolf Hitler the news that the war was
totally lost, and thus was in the Führerbunker when Hitler
committed suicide. Armin told me how a few weeks earlier, on
March 19, 1945, Hitler had ordered the remnants of the German
Air Force and tank crews to bomb Berlin and reduce other
German cities to rubble. Germans still refer to it as his Nero
Decree.
This is why it’s so vital that Donald Trump be removed from
power immediately. Be it through the 25th Amendment or
immediate articles of impeachment and a vote in the Senate, it
must be done.
On
His Way Out, Trump Trashes America—and the GOP.
(Newsweek, January 7, 2021)
This piece was initially about the GOP and where it stands
after four years of being controlled by Donald Trump and his
family. The party has been in lockstep with him, but perhaps
things are finally changing. In addition to being the first
incumbent to lose reelection in nearly 30 years, the GOP lost
the House in 2018 and the Senate just yesterday. The Senate
loss is especially galling, as Republicans only had to win one
of two Georgia runoff races. Though Trump campaigned for
Senators Perdue and Loeffler, he focused far more on his
grievances, especially his loss in the Georgia popular vote in
November, than in boosting their prospects. He repeatedly
complained of electoral fraud and in a widely publicized call
just before the runoff election pressured the Republican
Secretary of State to change the state's vote totals, despite
three recounts that confirmed he had lost. His baseless
conspiracy mongering could very well have deterred Republicans
from voting, or soured other voters on supporting Loeffler and
Perdue.
Trump's biggest problem has always been his lack of any core
convictions or governing philosophy. As president, Trump
focused on stoking resentment, Twitter threats and insults.
'Found
one': Rep. Karen Bass identifies lead instigator in
attempted coup at Capitol as Donald J. Trump. (Daily
Kos, January 7, 2021)
Democratic Rep. Karen Bass has been calling for President
Donald Trump’s leave of office for more than a year now. She
punctuated the urgency of that call Thursday by answering an
FBI tweet seeking the individuals who instigated violence in
Washington, D.C. with a photo of Trump. “Found one,” Bass
captioned.
Trump incited an entitled mob that climbed fences, stole
property, and shattered glass doors of the U.S. Capitol
Wednesday in what was by no exaggeration an attempted coup. It
ended with four people dead, 14 police officers injured, and
52 arrests, authorities said. The riot was intended to block
lawmakers from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s election
victory, but it achieved no such thing.
In a CNN interview Thursday, Bass also pointed out the brazen
double standard in how authorities peacefully responded to
Trump protesters versus how they have brutally responded to
Black Lives Matter protesters over the last year. She said
it’s “demoralizing” for people of color who “know if you could
even imagine if tens of thousands of young, old African
Americans attacked the Capitol like that what would have
happened.”
Jan.
6 Was 9 Weeks — And 4 Years — in the Making. (Politico,
January 7, 2021)
I spent the last election cycle immersed in the metastasizing
paranoia behind Wednesday’s assault on Congress. Nobody should
be surprised by what just happened.
I certainly never expected to see platoons of insurrectionists
scaling the walls of the U.S. Capitol and sacking the place in
broad daylight. Still, shocking as this was, it wasn’t a bit
surprising. The attempted coup d'état had been unfolding in
slow motion over the previous nine weeks. Anyone who couldn’t
see this coming chose not to see it coming. And that goes for
much of the Republican Party.
Make no mistake: Plenty of the people who stormed the U.S.
Capitol complex on Wednesday really, truly believed that Trump
had been cheated out of four more years; that Vice President
Mike Pence had unilateral power to revise the election
results; that their takeover of the building could change the
course of history. I know this because I know several people
who were there, and several more who planned to go. They bear
responsibility for their actions, of course. But the point
remains: They were conned into coming to D.C. in the first
place, not just by Trump with his compulsive lying, but by the
legions of Republicans who refused to counter those lies,
believing it couldn’t hurt to humor the president and stoke
the fires of his base.
"Is
This Really Happening?": The Siege of Congress, Seen From
the Inside. (Politico, January 7, 2021)
On Wednesday, when the waves of pro-Trump rioters overwhelmed
U.S. Capitol Police and surged through the building’s lobbies
and stairways, they trapped journalists and nearly all members
of Congress. Some of them had ways out; Vice President Mike
Pence, there to preside over the Senate, was quickly ushered
to safety. Some didn’t. Members dove to the gallery floor;
rooms were quickly pressed into service as safe spots for
journalists covering the session.
Five of the journalists in the building were congressional
reporters for POLITICO, whose normal beats cover the far more
bureaucratic daily business of Congress. We asked them—as well
as a photographer and two more reporters outside—to describe,
by phone, what happened in those frenzied, confusing hours
when the threat to American democracy came from inside the
building. This is their account.
Donald
Trump, In New Statement, Says There Will Be “Orderly
Transition Of Power”. (Deadline, January 7, 2021)
Donald Trump released a new statement in which he said that
there would be an “orderly transition of power,” amid the
uproar over his role in fomenting a mob of protesters who went
on to storm the U.S. Capitol.
Shortly after Congress affirmed the victory of Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris, one of Trump’s aides, Dan Scavino, tweeted out
the statement. The president continued to make unfounded and
false claims of election fraud. “Even though I totally
disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear
me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on
January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight
to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this
represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential
history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America
Great Again!”
Kamala
Harris will be able to break Senate ties. Why her staff
hopes she won't need to. (Los Angeles Times, January 7,
2021)
The victories by the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in
Tuesday's high-stakes races create a 50-50 split between
Democrats and Republicans, including two independent senators
who caucus with Democrats. The rare circumstance sets Harris
up for a starring role on Capitol Hill — presiding at the
Senate dais to deliver for the administration the final "yes"
vote on key bills, Cabinet confirmations and judgeships.
Harris' advisors are hoping the Senate duties don't distract
from her other responsibilities and priorities too much,
hindering travel, dominating her schedule or interfering with
her ability to become an active player in the Biden White
House. To that end, although Harris will have a pair of
offices in the Senate, like all vice presidents, don't expect
her to be hanging out there all day, supervising debate or
trolling committee meetings. And expect the administration to
work with Republicans to avoid 50-50 ties whenever possible.
Congress
completes electoral count, finalizing Biden's win after
violent delay from pro-Trump mob. (CNN, January 7, 2021)
As they reconvened, Democrats and some Republicans condemned
Trump's rhetoric in the lead-up to Wednesday's session, saying
he deserved some of the blame for inciting the pro-Trump
rioters who stormed into the Capitol. "This mob was a good
part President Trump's doing, incited by his words, his lies,"
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. "Today's events
almost certainly would not have happened without him."
The Senate voted 93 to 6 to dismiss the objection raised by
Republicans to Arizona's results, and 92 to 7 to reject the
objection to Pennsylvania.
In the House, a majority of Republicans voted to object to the
results, but they were still soundly rejected, 303 to 121 for
Arizona and 282 to 138 for Pennsylvania, with all Democrats in
opposition. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was among the House
Republicans to vote to reject the two states' results.
The riots prompted several Senate Republicans who had planned
to object to decide they would no longer do so.
Republicans and Democrats alike condemned the protesters for
breaching the US Capitol, and several blamed Trump -- who
pushed for Republicans and Pence to use the joint session of
Congress to overturn the election result -- for the dangerous
situation that unfolded. "We gather due to a selfish man's
injured pride and the outrage of supporters who he
deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred
to action this very morning," said Sen. Mitt Romney, the Utah
Republican and 2012 GOP presidential nominee. "What happened
today was an insurrection incited by the president of the
United States," Romney added, warning those who voted to back
Trump's objections would "forever be seen as being complicit
in an unprecedented attack against our democracy."
Warnock,
Ossoff win in Georgia, handing Dems Senate control.
(Associated Press, January 6, 2021)
Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats — and with them, the
U.S. Senate majority — as final votes were counted Wednesday,
serving President Donald Trump a stunning defeat in his
turbulent final days in office while dramatically improving
the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s progressive agenda.
Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Democratic challengers who
represented the diversity of their party’s evolving coalition,
defeated Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler two
months after Biden became the first Democratic presidential
candidate to carry the state since 1992.
Warnock, who served as pastor for the same Atlanta church
where civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
preached, becomes the first African American from Georgia
elected to the Senate. And Ossoff becomes the state’s first
Jewish senator and, at 33 years old, the Senate’s youngest
member.
This week’s elections were expected to mark the formal finale
to the tempestuous 2020 election season, although the
Democrats’ resounding success was overshadowed by chaos and
violence in Washington, where angry Trump supporters stormed
the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s
victory. Wednesday’s unprecedented siege drew fierce criticism
of Trump’s leadership from within his own party, and combined
with the bad day in Georgia, marked one of the darkest days of
his divisive presidency.
NEW: Giuliani
to Senator: "Try to Just Slow it Down." (complete 2-min.
audio; The Dispatch, January 6, 2021)
The president’s lawyer tries to block the count of the
Electoral College votes. With the Capitol building barely
cleared of Trump’s seditious invaders, Giuliani left a
voicemail intended for Senator Tommy Tuberville (a Trump
diehard, and former college football coach, newly elected to
the Senate from Alabama).
Except Giuliani called the wrong number and actually left his
message with a different senator, who leaked it to the media.
Here’s some of what Giuliani said:
“Senator Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is
Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer. I'm calling you because
I want to discuss with you how they’re trying to rush this
hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to
just slow it down ... I know they’re reconvening at eight
tonight, but ... the only strategy we can follow is to object
to numerous states ...”
It’s not clear whether Giuliani—who opens the call by
referring to himself as “the president’s lawyer”—was directed
to call Tuberville by President Trump. One longtime Trump
adviser still talking to top White House officials says Trump
is in constant communication with Giuliani. Asked if such a
call is something Trump would know about, he said: “Oh, yeah,
100 percent.”
"He
screwed the country": Trump loyalty disintegrates.
(Politico, January 6, 2021)
Wednesday’s Capitol Hill riot will reverberate for years,
shaping Trump’s legacy and pushing Republicans to confront the
GOP’s future.
Was
it a coup? No, but siege on US Capitol was the election
violence of a fragile democracy. (The Conversation,
January 6, 2021)
Supporters of President Donald Trump, following his
encouragement, stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6,
disrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
Waving Trump banners, hundreds of people broke through
barricades and smashed windows to enter the building where
Congress convenes. One rioter died and several police officers
were hospitalized in the clash. Congress went on lockdown.
While violent and shocking, what happened on Jan. 6 wasn’t a
coup. This Trumpist insurrection was election violence, much
like the election violence that plagues many fragile
democracies.
Chaos,
violence, mockery as pro-Trump mob occupies Congress. 4 die.
(Associated Press, January 6, 2021)
This began as a day of reckoning for President Donald Trump’s
futile attempt to cling to power as Congress took up the
certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. It
devolved into scenes of fear and agony that left a prime
ritual of American democracy in tatters.
Trump told his morning crowd at the Ellipse that he would go
with them to the Capitol, but he didn’t. Instead he sent them
off with incendiary rhetoric. “If you don’t fight like hell,
you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said. “Let the
weak ones get out,” he went on. “This is a time for strength.”
His lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told the crowd, “Let’s have trial
by combat.”
What happened Wednesday "was nothing less than an attempted
coup", said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. Sen. Ben Sasse,
R-Neb., a frequent Trump critic, said, “Today, the United
States Capitol — the world’s greatest symbol of
self-government — was ransacked while the leader of the free
world cowered behind his keyboard.” Sasse went on: “Lies have
consequences. This violence was the inevitable and ugly
outcome of the president’s addiction to constantly stoking
division.”
Police said they recovered two pipe bombs, one outside the
Democratic National Committee and one outside the Republican
National Committee and a cooler from a vehicle that had a long
gun and Molotov cocktail on Capitol grounds.
Police evacuated the chamber at 2:30 p.m., grabbing boxes of
Electoral College certificates as they left - before the mob
could burn them.
Yet Trump, in a video posted 90 minutes after lawmakers were
evacuated, told the insurrectionists “We love you. You’re very
special,” while asking them to go home. The police did allow
most of them to leave.
“This is how a coup is started,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez,
D-Calif. “This is how democracy dies.”
"Not
Only Did He Incite It, He Didn't Do Anything To Stop It!"
-Sen. Amy Klobuchar On Trump's Failed Coup (11-min. video;
Late Show, January 6, 2021)
Moments after voting on the Senate floor, Senator Amy
Klobuchar joins us from a secure location inside the Capitol
Building and says the president is responsible for today's
failed attempted coup, and she wants every person involved to
be prosecuted.
Stephen
Colbert: Hey, Republicans Who Supported This President: Are
We Great Again Yet? (14-min. live monologue; Late Show,
January 6, 2021)
After the unprecedented assault on democracy that took place
in the Capitol Building today, Stephen Colbert kicks off his
monologue with a message for "the cynical cowardly Republican"
lawmakers who for five years have coddled the president's
fascist rhetoric: "There will be a terrible price to pay."
[Stephen Colbert calls it like it is - and has been, for far
too long. Stunning!]
The
Late Late Show’s James Corden Says Today Was Trump’s “Last
Dance At The Worst Party Ever” But Urges Viewers To Have
Hope. (8-min. video; Deadline, January 6, 2021)
Today has been a tough day and this evening’s late-night shows
are likely to reflect that. James Corden, host of CBS’ The
Late Late Show, was the first late-night star to address what
happened earlier when a mob burst into the Capitol and caused
chaos. James Corden begins The Late Late Show reflecting on
what was a dark day at the United States Capitol, but sees
hope on the horizon. After, he looks at Rev. Raphael Warnock
and Jon Ossoff's victories in the Georgia Senate run-off
election. “Today was [Trump’s] last dance at the worst party
any of us have ever been to, so if you can, have hope, we’ve
seen in these past few weeks that voting counts, change is
coming, science is real, vaccines are on the way. I really do
believe that there are better times ahead,” he said.
He talked about being an “outsider”, growing up in England. “I
used to look to America as this beacon of light and
possibility, a place where anything can happen and you’d be
lucky to work, a place where many people I knew used to
fantasize about living in, a place that gives an individual
more opportunity than they would get elsewhere, yet cares for
their fellow man. And yet today people across the world would
have looked at these pictures of Washington and they would
have wondered what on earth has happened to this great
country.” He said that the country had been “hijacked” by a
“lunatic and his crazy army” for the past four years. “But
that’s about to end because in two weeks on those same steps,
where the mob fought and pushed past the police, Joe Biden
will be sworn in as President of the United States and Kamala
Harris will be sworn in as Vice President of the United
States.”
Lawmakers
call for Trump's impeachment or invoking 25th Amendment in
wake of Capitol Hill violence. (ABC News, January 6,
2021)
"We can't allow him to remain in office."
Gen.
Barry Mccaffrey: "Rogue' Trump Must Be Removed From Office -
TONIGHT!." (5-min. video; MSNBC, January 6, 2021)
Retired Four-Star U.S. Army General and MSNBC Military Analyst
Gen. Barry McCaffrey reacts to Trump's role in the violent mob
that stormed Capitol Hill on Wednesday, saying Congress needs
to remove Trump from office now.
Jim
Acosta: Trump is "traumatized" and "out of his mind" over
his election loss. (2-min. video; CNN, January 6, 2021)
Presidential Cabinet "lackeys" not expected to invoke 25th
Amendment, but they ARE discussing it.
[And it was Pence, not Trump, who finally called in the
National Guard.]
Obama:
'A Moment Of Great Dishonor And Shame For Our Nation' — But
Not A Surprise. (NPR, January 6, 2021)
Former President Barack Obama said that the violence that
gripped the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was the unsurprising
result of two months of instigation by President Trump and his
enablers.
"History will rightly remember today's violence at the
Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to
baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a
moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation," Obama said
in a statement Wednesday evening. "But we'd be kidding
ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise. For two months
now, a political party and its accompanying media ecosystem
has too often been unwilling to tell their followers the truth
— that this was not a particularly close election and that
President-Elect Biden will be inaugurated on January 20. Their
fantasy narrative has spiraled further and further from
reality, and it builds upon years of sown resentments. Now
we're seeing the consequences, whipped up into a violent
crescendo," wrote Obama, whose eight-year administration
directly preceded Trump's.
Obama also pointed a finger at a larger group of Republicans
for their role in inciting the fracas, as many denied for
months that Biden was the lawful winner of November's
election.
Trump's Stochastic Terrorism
becomes Actual Terrorism as defined under US law. (Daily
Kos, January 6, 2021)
Stochastic terrorism is the use of mass communications to stir
up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts
that are statistically predictable but individually
unpredictable. For four years, Trump has probed the depths of
Stochastic Terrorism, stirring up death through terrorists in
El Pas, Charlottesville, Charleston, Kenosha and elsewhere.
Today he crossed the line to direct, immediate incitement to
terror.
Manufacturers
Call on Armed Thugs to Cease Violence at Capitol.
(National Assn. of Manufacturers, January 6, 2021)
Washington, D.C. – National Association of Manufacturers
President and CEO Jay Timmons released the following statement
in response to large groups of armed Trump adherents who have
violently stormed the U.S. Capitol building as members of
Congress meet to count the electoral votes:
“Armed violent protestors who support the baseless claim by
outgoing president Trump that he somehow won an election that
he overwhelmingly lost have stormed the U.S. Capitol today,
attacking police officers and first responders, because Trump
refused to accept defeat in a free and fair election.
Throughout this whole disgusting episode, Trump has been
cheered on by members of his own party, adding fuel to the
distrust that has enflamed violent anger. This is not law and
order. This is chaos. It is mob rule. It is dangerous. This is
sedition and should be treated as such. The outgoing president
incited violence in an attempt to retain power, and any
elected leader defending him is violating their oath to the
Constitution and rejecting democracy in favor of anarchy.
Anyone indulging conspiracy theories to raise campaign dollars
is complicit. Vice President Pence, who was evacuated from the
Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to
invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy.
“This is not the vision of America that manufacturers believe
in and work so hard to defend. Across America today, millions
of manufacturing workers are helping our nation fight the
deadly pandemic that has already taken hundreds of thousands
of lives. We are trying to rebuild an economy and save and
rebuild lives. But none of that will matter if our leaders
refuse to fend off this attack on America and our
democracy—because our very system of government, which
underpins our very way of life, will crumble.”
This
Is a Coup. Why Were Experts So Reluctant to See It Coming?
(Foreign Policy, January 6, 2021)
Today, rioters incited by President Donald Trump have stormed
the U.S. Capitol building. Both the House and the Senate have
suspended their counting because of security threats.
Reportedly, shots have been fired. A photograph of a rioter
occupying the House speaker’s chair shows that the Capitol is,
essentially, being occupied. C-SPAN is reporting that senior
members of leadership of the legislative branch are being held
in an “undisclosed location.” Reporters are refusing to
divulge their locations on the grounds—entirely
reasonable—that doing so could endanger their safety. The
National Guard has been deployed.
It’s undeniable at this point. The United States is witnessing
a coup attempt—a forceful effort to seize power against the
legal framework. The president has caused the interruption of
the process that would certify his removal from office. The
mechanics of constitutional government have been suspended.
Americans are in danger of losing constitutional government to
a degree unmatched even during the Civil War, a period when
secession itself did not postpone either the holding of
elections or the transition of power between presidents.
NEW: Trump
Justifies Supporters Storming Capitol: "These Are The Things
And Events That Happen." (Forbes, January 6, 2021)
President Donald Trump called on his supporters who stormed
the U.S. Capitol building to “go home” in a video message and
subsequent tweet Wednesday, which Twitter has now removed, but
defended the destructive mob for infiltrating the building and
said he “loves” his supporters who forced their way into the
Capitol.
Donald
Trump speaks to insurrectionists occupying Capitol: 'I love
you. You're very special.' (Daily Kos, January 6, 2021)
Multiple sources have reported that several people inside the
White House, including Mike Pence, have called on Trump to
issue a stronger statement to his followers. However, Trump is
said to be angry at Pence for failing to overturn the election
results … so he’s holding the whole nation hostage to his
pout.
Pence has issued his own statement saying that “those involved
will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” However,
that also remains to be seen. Having gathered his followers
together under the promise of a “wild” time; having spent
months inflaming them with lies about a stolen election; and
having spent years teaching his followers to disregard every
other source … there is every reason to expect that, far from
prosecuting the terrorists, Trump will issue a blanket pardon.
At 4 PM EST, President-elect Joe Biden issued a statement in
which he said: “This is not protest. It is insurrection.” He
called on Trump to go on national television and end this
attempted overthrow of the nation.
Fifteen minutes later, Trump issued a statement to the
terrorists saying: “I love you. You’re very special. I know
how you feel.” In the video, Trump continued to insist that
the election was stolen and he won in a landslide.
President-elect
Joe Biden calls Capitol riot ‘insurrection,’ urges President
Trump to ‘end siege’. (many photos; USA Today, January
6, 2021)
“What we’re seeing is a small number of extremists dedicated
to lawlessness. This is not dissent, it’s disorder, it’s
chaos. It borders on sedition. And it must end, now,” Biden
said from The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware. “I call
on this mob to pull back now and allow the work of democracy
to go forward.”
Biden told Trump to go on national television “to demand an
end to this siege.”
“It’s not protest, it’s insurrection,” said Biden, a former
36-year senator and former vice president who presided over
the Electoral College count in 2017 that seated Trump.
Trumpists
intended to take members of Congress hostage, hold show
trials, conduct executions. (Daily Kos, January 6, 2021)
Approaching four hours after the Capitol Building was overrun
by Trumpist insurrectionists, police are finally beginning to
move in force, backed by National Guard forces from both D.C.
and Virginia. However, at least one improvised explosive
device has been located, and many of those currently occupying
the halls of Congress are thought to be armed. So it may be
some time before the full crowd can be safely removed, and
those who invaded the Capitol arrested. Of course, none of
this might have been necessary had the Capital Police taken
action to halt the terrorists, rather than opening doors for
them and sticking around to take selfies with them while
making no move to arrest, or even impede, their invasion.
After a year in which police repeatedly treated Black Lives
Matter protesters with extreme action, to say these Trump
supporters were treated with kid gloves doesn’t come close.
Police didn’t even bother to gear up for what they knew would
be a large event including members of militia and white
supremacist organizations.
Parler
withdraws support for legal liability protection.
(Washington Post, January 6, 2021)
The social media platform Parler, a favorite among
conservatives, has withdrawn its support for the legal
liability protection granted to social media companies,
separating itself from competitors such as Twitter and
Facebook that say eliminating the protection would prompt them
to crack down on their users’ posts.
Parler CEO John Matze defended the Section 230 shield from
lawsuits as recently as last month but this week reversed
course. Parler Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Wernick told
The Washington Times that the company made the decision to
change its view of the protections afforded under Section 230
of the Communications Decency Act after consulting its
lawyers, not in response to users on its platform.
The
storming of Capitol Hill was organized on social media.
(New York Times, January 6, 2021)
Just after 1 p.m., when President Trump ended his speech to
protesters in Washington by calling for them to march on
Congress, hundreds of echoing calls to storm the building were
made by his supporters online. On social media sites used by
the far-right, such as Gab and Parler, directions on which
streets to take to avoid the police and which tools to bring
to help pry open doors were exchanged in comments. At least a
dozen people posted about carrying guns into the halls of
Congress.
Calls for violence against members of Congress and for
pro-Trump movements to retake the Capitol building have been
circulating online for months. Bolstered by Mr. Trump, who has
courted fringe movements like QAnon and the Proud Boys, groups
have openly organized on social media networks and recruited
others to their cause. On Wednesday, their online activism
became real-world violence, leading to unprecedented scenes of
mobs freely strolling through the halls of Congress and
uploading celebratory photographs of themselves, encouraging
others to join them.
Renee DiResta, a researcher at the Stanford Internet
Observatory who studies online movements, said the violence
Wednesday was the result of online movements operating in
closed social media networks where people believed the claims
of voter fraud and of the election being stolen from Mr.
Trump. “These people are acting because they are convinced an
election was stolen,” DiResta said. “This is a demonstration
of the very real-world impact of echo chambers.” She added:
“This has been a striking repudiation of the idea that there
is an online and an offline world and that what is said online
is in some way kept online.”
Capitol
breached by pro-Trump mob during 'failed insurrection,'
woman shot inside dies. (ABC News, January 6, 2021)
This comes as the Senate met about the election.
Mary
Trump Predicts A “Dangerous” Next Two Weeks Under the Trump
Administration. (15-min. video; Katie Couric, January 6,
2021)
I chatted with President Donald Trump’s niece Mary, the author
of “Too Much and Never Enough,” on her uncle’s behavior
today. “Donald is feeling on the one hand emboldened
they got away with it,” Mary said. “On the other hand
he’s locked out of Twitter, he’s probably more desperate than
he’s ever been in his life. Short of the congress stepping in
impeaching and removing him the next two weeks are going to be
the most dangerous in our countries history and after today
that’s really saying something.”
Pence
defies Trump, says he can’t reject electoral votes.
(Associated Press, January 6, 2021)
Infuriating President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence
acknowledged Wednesday he does not have the power to throw out
the electoral votes that will make Democrat Joe Biden the next
president, dashing Trump’s baseless hopes that Pence somehow
could find a way to keep them in office.
Pence, under intense pressure from Trump and his allies to
overturn the election results, issued a lengthy statement
laying out his conclusion that a vice president cannot claim
“unilateral authority” to reject states’ electoral votes. “It
is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend
the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral
authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted
and which should not,” Pence wrote in a letter to members of
Congress before he gaveled in the joint session of Congress.
In a remarkable moment underscoring the dramatic split between
Trump and his once most loyal lieutenant, Pence released the
statement just after he arrived at the Capitol to tally the
electoral votes and even as the president was telling
thousands of supporters gathered near the White House that
Pence could overturn those results. “If Mike Pence does the
right thing we win the election,” Trump told supporters, who
later marched through Washington and stormed the Capitol.
Trump tweeted his disapproval of Pence after returning to the
White House. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what
should have been done to protect our Country and our
Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected
set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they
were asked to previously certify,” he wrote. “USA demands the
truth!”
Against
the odds, Georgia Democrats make history with Senate
runoffs. (3-min. video; ABC News, January 6, 2021)
Democrats have a majority in the House and are projected to
control the Senate.
QAnon
Is Taking Over the Republican Party. (Vice, January 5,
2021)
President Trump's new favorite member of Congress, Marjorie
Taylor Greene, is a QAnon believer.
How
the Insurgent and MAGA Right are Being Welded Together on
the Streets of Washington D.C. (Bellingcat, January 5,
2021)
On January 6th, 2021, a vast constellation of American
right-wing groups and individuals will converge on Washington
D.C. to protest what they falsely believe to be a stolen US
Presidential election. The organizations currently planning
rallies range from the comparatively moderate, Women for
America First, to violent extremist groups like the Proud
Boys. Several different rallies are planned for the 6th,
including a “Wild Protest” named in reference to a tweet
President Donald Trump made urging his followers to attend.
This will be the third set of right-wing rallies in D.C. since
the election. If it follows the same pattern as the previous
gatherings, the day will be filled with mostly peaceful
speeches and marches while the night will bear witness to
horrific street violence. The last such rally, in December,
led to four stabbings and 33 arrests.
Chilling
threat sent to air traffic controllers vowing revenge for
killing of Iranian general is under investigation.
(2-min. audio recording; CBS News, January 5, 2021)
Multiple air traffic controllers in New York heard a chilling
threat Monday in audio obtained exclusively by CBS News: "We
are flying a plane into the Capitol on Wednesday. Soleimani
will be avenged." The threat refers to Qassem Soleimani, the
Iranian general killed last year in a U.S. drone strike
ordered by President Trump. It was made on the one-year
anniversary of Soleimani's death, for which Iranian officials
have long vowed revenge.
Tesla
vs. NIO: Battle for the World’s Largest EV Market.
(6-min. video; Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2021)
Gone are the long waits at charging stations: Chinese
electric-vehicle startup NIO is pioneering battery-swap
systems, challenging Tesla and other rival car makers. Here’s
how NIO and Tesla are racing for the world’s largest EV market
in China.
Viral
mutations may cause another ‘very, very bad’ COVID-19 wave,
scientists warn. (Science Magazine, January 5, 2021)
This time it is not a completely new threat, but a rapidly
spreading variant of SARS-CoV-2. In southeastern England,
where the B.1.1.7 variant first caught scientists’ attention
last month, it has quickly replaced other variants, and it may
be the harbinger of a new, particularly perilous phase of the
pandemic. “One concern is that B.1.1.7 will now become the
dominant global variant with its higher transmission and it
will drive another very, very bad wave,” says Jeremy Farrar,
an infectious disease expert who heads the Wellcome Trust.
Whereas the pandemic’s trajectory in 2020 was fairly
predictable, “I think we’re going into an unpredictable phase
now,” as a result the virus’ evolution, Farrar says.
NEW: Unprecedented
Rollback of Bird Protections Cemented in Trump
Administration’s Final Days. (National Audubon Society,
January 5, 2021)
Finalized bird-killer policy sidesteps the courts in a clear
attempt to hamstring incoming administration from being able
to protect birds. The outgoing administration has severely
weakened the Migratory Bird Treaty Act—a cornerstone of bird
conservation, which protects over 1,000 species. With just two
weeks left in their term, they have finalized their rollback,
despite the federal courts ruling their attempts illegal.
We cannot let that stand. Because unless we shore up the MBTA,
corporations won’t be held accountable when they recklessly
kill birds. They won’t have to pay to fix the damage they’ve
caused, like when birds are swamped in oil spills or in the
waste pits left by oil and gas extraction, and that means
they’ll have little incentive to take proper care.
Trump
claims he and Pence agree on VP's election authority,
contradicting prior Pence statement. (3-min. video; CBS
News, January 5, 2021)
The New York Times and other news outlets reported Tuesday
that Pence told Mr. Trump he doesn't believe he possesses the
power to block Congress' certification of President-elect Joe
Biden's win.
On Tuesday night, Mr. Trump called that report "fake news."
Mr. Trump, in a statement issued by the Trump campaign,
claimed he and Pence are on the same page. Pence has not
issued such a statement independently.
Senate
GOP opposition grows to Electoral College challenge.
(Politico, January 5, 2021)
The effort to overturn Trump's loss may be defeated
overwhelmingly while fracturing his party.
The Senate Republicans opposed to certifying President-elect
Joe Biden’s win are heading toward a hefty defeat on
Wednesday. The only remaining question is this: how badly do
they lose? Just 11 GOP senators have signaled support for
separate efforts led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh
Hawley (R-Mo.). That makes 13 supporters — and many more have
come out swinging against it.
“To challenge a state’s certification, given how specific the
Constitution is, would be a violation of my oath of office —
that is not something I am willing to do and is not something
Oklahomans would want me to do,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe
(R-Okla.), who announced his decision Tuesday.
Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), John Boozman (R-Ark.) and
Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) also said Tuesday that they would not
object to the election results. In a statement, Moran said
that doing so "would risk undermining our democracy — which is
built upon the rule of law and separation of powers" and that
"no victory for one’s cause today can be worth what we would
lose tomorrow." Moran is up for reelection in 2022.
“Congress would take away the power to choose the president
from the people and place it in the hands of whichever party
controls Congress,” wrote Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in an op-ed
posted Tuesday. “This action essentially would end our
tradition of democratic presidential elections, empowering
politicians and party bosses in Washington.”
Wednesday’s vote will amount to Senate Republicans’ most
significant rejection of Trump, who continues to make false
claims about widespread voter fraud in the election he lost.
While the president this week attacked Republicans who
rejected his efforts, some of his strongest supporters argue
that breaking with the president this time should not erase
their ardent support over the past four years.
“I support President Trump and have worked with the president
to advance policies important for North Dakota and our
nation,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said. But “the people of
North Dakota do not want Congress to determine their vote, and
we should not set the precedent by doing it for other states.
Why
Trump’s Senate supporters can’t overturn Electoral College
results they don’t like – here’s how the law actually works.
(The Conversation, January 5, 2021)
On Jan. 6, the United States Congress will gather in a joint
session to tally the votes of the Electoral College, which
cast its ballots in state capitols last month. In his role as
president of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence is slated
to officially announce Joe Biden as the country’s next
president.
This formal certification process – the final step in the U.S.
presidential election – is the latest target of President
Donald Trump’s desperate, untenable and possibly criminal
effort to overturn the 2020 results. In his refusal to
concede, Trump is pressuring Pence and Republicans in Congress
to delay or oppose certification.
Can they really subvert the Electoral College? The answer,
both legally and politically, is no.
To minimize the likelihood that they would ever again decide
the outcome of a presidential election, lawmakers in 1887
passed the Electoral Count Act. It puts the onus for resolving
electoral disputes on the states. As long as they do so,
certifying their election results no later than six days
before the Electoral College meets to cast its votes, then
states will enjoy “safe harbor” protection. That means their
results will be considered “conclusive” when Congress convenes
to certify the vote on Jan. 6.
On Jan. 6, at least a dozen Republican Senators in Congress
say they will oppose the results in Georgia, Pennsylvania,
Arizona and Michigan over discredited concerns of election
fraud in an attempt to swing 63 electoral votes from Biden to
Trump. There is no chance Democrats, who control the House of
Representatives, will vote to uphold this challenge. Unless he
recuses himself and hands the job over the Senate president
pro tempore – as Vice President Hubert Humphrey did in January
1969 – Pence will have the ceremonial but politically
consequential role of presiding over a contested
certification. After the sealed certificates of vote from the
50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., are brought into the
joint session in ceremonial mahogany boxes, the vice president
opens the 51 envelopes one at a time and hands them to the
designated “tellers.” As the tellers announce each state’s
results aloud and record the votes for tabulation, the vice
president “calls for objections, if any.” If Republicans
object, a vote follows in both chambers of Congress. When the
challengers cannot gain the necessary support, Pence should
declare Biden president-elect.
Pence is constitutionally bound to perform this duty, but
Trump says confirming Biden’s win would be a betrayal. An
American president orchestrating an attempt to reverse an
election – with at least a dozen senators falling in step –
does profound harm to democracy, which hinges on the peaceful
transfer of power. Republicans, and most visibly Mike Pence,
face a choice between fidelity to the Constitution and
fidelity to Trump.
”
The
biggest threat to the Georgia runoff may be Trump. (Four
1-to-4-min. videos; Washington Post, January 5, 2021)
Georgia election officials say Trump's voter fraud claims have
shaken voter confidence. Their task is now to reassure voters.
“Everybody's vote is going to count. Everybody's vote did
count,” Georgia's voting system manager Gabriel Sterling said.
More than 3 million voters have already cast their ballots,
setting a record turnout for a runoff in the state. Trump's
claims, which persist after Georgia certified Joe Biden's win
last month after three counts of ballots, are “all easily,
provably false,” Sterling said at the news conference. “Yet
the president persists and by doing so undermines Georgians’
faith in the electoral system, especially Republican
Georgians.”
[
Stephen Colbert
reimagines Trump's Georgia call as a love ballad.
(2-min. video; Late Show Fake News Alert; also see Colbert on
December 18, 2020, below.]
NEW: Incredible
3D Video Microscopy Shows Human White Blood Cells Use
Molecular Paddles to Swim. (0.2-min. video;
SciTechDaily, January 4, 2021)
Human white blood cells, known as leukocytes, swim using a
newly described mechanism called molecular paddling,
researchers report in the
Biophysical Journal. This
microswimming mechanism could explain how both immune cells
and cancer cells migrate in various fluid-filled niches in the
body, for good or for harm.
Seth
Meyers: Trump’s Phone Call with Georgia Election Officials
Could Be a Crime. (20-min. video; A Closer Look, January
4, 2021)
Nicola
Sturgeon warns Donald Trump against coming to Scotland amid
speculation. (1-min. video; The National/Scotland,
January 4, 2021)
With covid cases rising rapidly, the Scottish Government has
brought in a raft of new rules, limiting travel into and
around the country.
Asked about the possibility of a visit from the outgoing
American Commander-in-Chief, First Minister of Scotland Nicola
Sturgeon said she hoped that Trump’s immediate travel plan was
“to exit the White House”. She added: “We are not allowing
people to come into Scotland without an essential purpose
right now and that would apply to him just as applies to
anybody else, and coming to play golf is not what I would
consider to be an essential purpose.”
The White House have not denied the reports Trump is coming to
Scotland, though they’ve moved to downplay the speculation.
Here’s
where all the COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently stand.
(Popular Science, January 4, 2021)
More than a dozen frontrunners have reached late-stage
clinical trials.
A
simple chart shows why the new coronavirus variants are so
worrisome. (New York Times, January 4, 2021)
Donald
Trump could flee to Scotland in bid to avoid Joe Biden's
inauguration. (The National/Scotland, January 4, 2021)
Donald Trump could be set to flee to his loss-making Ayrshire
golf course in a bid to avoid Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Prestwick has been told to expect the arrival of a US military
Boeing 757 aircraft, that is occasionally used by Trump, on
January 19 – the day before his Democrat rival formally
becomes president. A source at the airport told the Sunday
Post: “There is a booking for an American military version of
the Boeing 757 on January 19, the day before the inauguration.
That’s one that’s normally used by the Vice-President but
often used by the First Lady. Presidential flights tend to get
booked far in advance, because of the work that has to be done
around it.”
The golf course is currently closed because of the coronavirus
pandemic. The resort says that they will remain closed until
Friday February 5, 2021, "to ensure the health and safety of
our guests and associates". Currently, under Level 4
restrictions, golf clubs can still allow groups of up to four
golfers with no restrictions on number of households to play.
Though, club houses and shops must all close.
Speculation of the tycoon’s visit to his mother’s homeland
comes as his flagship Turnberry course posted a loss of more
than £2.3 million in 2019. Documents filed with Companies
House at the end of the year show the resort had a turnover of
£19,667,000 and made a loss of £2,307,000 in 2019. That’s the
sixth year in a row that it’s made a loss. Trump’s other
Scottish golf resort, at Menie in Aberdeenshire, made a loss
of more than £1m for the eighth consecutive year.
Heather
Cox Richardson: Whether or not America will be a democracy
((Letters From An American, January 4, 2021)
We are right now fighting over whether or not America will be
a democracy. On the one hand are Americans, Republicans as
well as Democrats, who might agree on virtually nothing else,
standing on the reality that Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020
election fair and square, and by a significant amount, and are
recognizing that he is the president-elect. On the other hand
are Trump and his supporters, who are arguing without any
evidence that the president has somehow been cheated of
reelection, and who are using the uncertainty their own words
have created to argue that the election now must be
reexamined.
Georgia
Secretary of State’s office holds a news conference after
leaked Trump call. (entire 31-min. video; The Hill,
January 4, 2021)
Georgia’s voting systems manager on Monday delivered an
impassioned point-by-point repudiation of President Trump's
numerous claims of fraud and malfeasance in the 2020
presidential election while urging voters to look past the
president's rhetoric and “turn out to vote.” Speaking to
reporters at the Georgia state Capitol, Gabriel Sterling
warned that the president's rhetoric threatened to suppress
turnout in the state's two upcoming Senate runoff elections.
“Given the nature of the president’s statements and several
other people who have been aligned with him previously … we
are specifically asking you and telling you: Please turn out
and vote tomorrow,” said Sterling, a Republican who has
emerged as a regular critic of Trump’s allegations.
Georgia
election official shoots down Trump's election conspiracy
theories. (2-min. video; CNN, January 4, 2021)
A top Georgia election official said Monday that "everybody's
vote did count" in the state's November elections as he shot
down a list of voter fraud conspiracy theories President
Donald Trump aired in a call with Georgia Secretary of State
Brad Raffensperger this weekend. "The reason I'm having to
stand here today is because there are people in positions of
authority and respect who have said their votes didn't count,
and it's not true," said Gabriel Sterling, the voting systems
implementation manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's
office, during a news conference.
Trump
Declares Republican Party “Weak and Ineffective” for Not
Backing His Attempts To Subvert the Results of the 2020
Presidential Election, Which Was Decisively Won by
President-Elect Joe Biden. (PoliticusUSA, January 4,
2021)
“The ‘Surrender Caucus’ within the Republican Party will go
down in infamy as weak and ineffective ‘guardians’ of our
Nation, who were willing to accept the certification of
fraudulent presidential numbers!”, the president wrote.
How
the Supreme Court set up the authoritarian takeover of
America (Medium, January 4, 2021)
Donald Trump's phone call to Georgia's Secretary of State Brad
Raffensperger is the latest illustration of his lifelong
criminality. Over the last 40 years, career criminals like
Trump have increasingly moved out of the business world and
the streets and into politics, something for which we can
thank the Supreme Court.
There are, among us, a small number of individuals who are
career criminals. They have literally spent their entire lives
skirting or outright breaking the law, and not only believe
the law doesn't apply to them, but actually delight in getting
away with their crimes.
Being successful in the world doesn’t mean someone isn’t a
career criminal. Witness the numerous members of Congress
who’ve been busted or at least outed for everything from
giving no bid contracts to their own companies (Cheney and
Halliburton) to putting bricks of bribe cash into their
freezers (Rep. Jefferson). Even Forbes magazine called Trump’s
commerce secretary, billionaire Wilbur Ross, a professional
“grifter” for all the scams he has perpetrated in his career.
While fundamentally dishonest people has been a problem for
our society and business community for centuries, it has
particularly become a problem in our political world since
1976 and 1978, when the Supreme Court explicitly ruled that
billionaires or corporations giving massive amounts of money
to politicians and political parties is no longer considered
bribery or corruption but, instead, is “free speech“ protected
by the First Amendment. Never before in all of American
history had bribing politicians been considered free-speech,
until the Buckley v Valejo and First National Bank v Belotti
Supreme Court decisions. In 2010, conservatives of the court
doubled down on these decisions and even expanded their scope
with Citizens United.
Trump's
Call To Georgia Election Officials Sparks Debate Over
Legality, Ethics. (NPR, January 4, 2021)
Most of Trump's detractors on social media said the
president's intentions were clearly to intimidate Georgia
officials to change the state's election results. His critics
argue Trump violated a federal law that criminalizes the
actions by election officials or by someone in federal office
that "knowingly and willfully intimidates, threatens, or
coerces" another during the election process. The federal code
also criminalizes actions that "knowingly and willfully
deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the
residents of a state of a fair and impartially conducted
election process."
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder cited that federal
criminal statute in a tweet Sunday: "As you listen to the tape
consider this federal criminal statute."
Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general at the Department
of Justice, tweeted that Trump's "best defense would be
insanity."
Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California,
Irvine, wrote in an article in Slate on Monday that Trump
"likely broke both federal and state law" in the phone call
and that he "certainly committed an impeachable offense that
is grounds for removing him from the office he will be
vacating in less than three weeks, or disqualifying him from
future elected office."
Richard W. Painter, a professor of corporate law at the
University of Minnesota and former associate counsel to
Republican President George W. Bush, agreed, calling for
Trump's impeachment, so he "can never hold public office
again."
Trump's message during the call also violates Georgia law,
according to Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University
law professor, who spoke with Politico on Sunday. "The Georgia
code says that anybody who solicits, requests or commands or
otherwise attempts to encourage somebody to commit election
fraud is guilty of solicitation of election fraud," Kreis
said. " 'Soliciting or requesting' is the key language. The
president asked, in no uncertain terms, the secretary of state
to invent votes, to create votes that were not there. Not only
did he ask for that in terms of just overturning the specific
margin that Joe Biden won by, but then said we needed one
additional vote to secure victory in Georgia."
Chris Krebs, the Republican cybersecurity and election
security official hired by and then fired by Trump, called the
president's actions "un-American and anti-democratic." He said
Sunday, "An incumbent should NEVER be able to put their thumb
on the scale of national elections."
Georgia
authorities may investigate Trump phone call and Schiff
calls it 'possibly criminal'. (Daily Kos, January 4,
2021)
Trump is extremely unlikely to face any criminal prosecution,
let alone the five-year prison sentence a Texas woman received
for voting when she did not know she was ineligible to vote
while on supervised release from prison after a felony
conviction. Because when you’re a powerful white man, using
your power to try to bully elections officials into
overturning a state’s entire presidential election by
“finding” the precise number of votes you need is not
something that carries any consequences, just as nothing Trump
has ever done wrong has carried any negative consequences,
which is why he keeps doing it. One system of justice and
accountability for those at the top, a completely
different—harsher and more punitive—one for those at the
bottom.
Thom
Hartmann: Trump Isn’t Our Biggest Problem: It’s the
Authoritarian Fascist Movement He’s Launched. (Medium,
January 4, 2021)
Pundits across the American political spectrum are wringing
their hands about the fate and future of the “dirty dozen“
Republican senators challenging Biden‘s election. One of the
most widespread stories about their motivation is that they’re
“afraid of Trump” or are “worried about being primaried.” Both
ideas are wrong.
These people are not taking Trump’s side because they’re
afraid. They’re not motivated by what they might lose.
Instead, they’re looking to what they might gain in the
future. They’re doing it because Trump has launched an
authoritarian fascist movement, with the help and
encouragement of a few American and foreign billionaires, and
they’re competing with each other to be the next leader or a
major player in the senior levels of that movement.
The big mistake so many political observers make is assuming
that Trumpism is all about Trump. It’s not. It’s all about a
21st century American version of authoritarian fascism.
All
10 living former defense secretaries: Involving the military
in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory.
(Washington Post, January 3, 2021)
As former secretaries of defense, we hold a common view of the
solemn obligations of the U.S. armed forces and the Defense
Department. Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the
Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did
not swear it to an individual or a party.
American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that
result are hallmarks of our democracy. With one singular and
tragic exception that cost the lives of more Americans than
all of our other wars combined, the United States has had an
unbroken record of such transitions since 1789, including in
times of partisan strife, war, epidemics and economic
depression. This year should be no exception.
Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been
conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the
courts. Governors have certified the results. And the
electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the
results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the
electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and
statute, has arrived.
As senior Defense Department leaders have noted, “there’s no
role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of a
U.S. election.” Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in
resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous,
unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military
officials who direct or carry out such measures would be
accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties,
for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.
Calls
Grow For Criminal Investigation Into Trump Election Fraud.
(PoliticusUSA, January 3, 2021)
Neal Katyal, who served as acting solicitor general under
former President Obama, said on MSNBC: Trump asked the Georgia
officials to find him 11,780 votes. Maybe that works in the
Soviet Union, but it is not the way that American government
has operated. It's really truly an impeachable offense, the
abuse of power that our founders worried about so much, the
idea that a government official can use the power of his
office to stay in office to try and browbeat other officials
that disagree with them. I see two questions. Has a
misdemeanor been committed? The tape makes it sound like there
has. The second question is whether that is a criminal
offense, and the Federal Code 53USC.2511 prohibits a federal
official from interfering in a state election process. Again,
that sure seems like what we heard on the tape. and so I think
the Justice Department has to open an investigation if not
now, then at least on January 20th. I think that is the least
of what will happen here.
Carl
Bernstein: "This is the ultimate smoking gun tape."
(2-min. video; CNN, January 3, 2021)
Legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein reacts to audio
obtained by the Washington Post of President Donald Trump
pushing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to
"find" votes to overturn the election results in the state.
"This is something far worse than what occurred in Watergate!
We have both a criminal president of the United States in
Donald Trump, and a subversive president of the United
States."
Ex-solicitor
general says Trump "talking like a mafia boss, and not a
particularly smart mafia boss." (The Hill, January 3,
2021)
Trump’s
pressure on Georgia election officials raises legal
questions. (15-min. audio recording; Politico, January
3, 2021)
In audio from a Saturday phone call, the president is heard
urging the officials to reverse his loss.
Fox
News Opinion: "The best way to stop McConnell is to elect
Ossoff and Warnock." (Daily Kos, January 3, 2021)
As
the Virus Spikes, Vaccine Distribution Is One More Hurdle
for States. (New York Times, January 3, 2021)
Mass vaccination would be a challenge under any circumstances.
But doing it during an out-of-control pandemic is straining
states, cities and health departments.
Another obstacle looms now, one that Dr. Adams said he is
“terribly concerned” about: persuading enough Americans to
take the vaccine. In Ohio, for instance, Gov. Mike DeWine has
said that about 60 percent of nursing home workers in the
state have declined to be vaccinated so far. The low figures
are attributed to misinformation and fear.
Is
Time Real? What does this even mean? (10-min. video;
Sabine Hossenfelder, January 2, 2021)
"Science without the gobbledygook."
Rep.
Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) is now explicitly calling for
violence to overturn election results. (Daily Kos,
January 2, 2021)
Louie Gohmert on Newsmax: "But if bottom line is, the court is
saying, 'We're not going to touch this. You have no remedy' --
basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you gotta go
the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM."
Pence
Welcomes Futile Bid by G.O.P. Lawmakers to Overturn
Election. (New York Times, January 2, 2021)
Vice President Mike Pence signaled his support as 11
Republican senators and senators-elect said that they would
vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.
A
New Strain of Drug-Resistant Malaria Has Sprung Up in
Africa. (Scientific American, January 2, 2021)
Here’s how we fight back.
Some
Covid Survivors Are Haunted by Loss of Smell and Taste.
(New York Times, January 2, 2021)
As the coronavirus claims more victims, a once-rare diagnosis
is receiving new attention from scientists, who fear it may
affect nutrition and mental health.
More
Than 12 Million Shots Given: Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker
(Bloomberg, January 2, 2021)
The U.S. has administered 4.28 million doses; Europe’s rollout
begins.
How
researchers are making do in the time of Covid (Ars
Technica, January 1, 2021)
The pandemic has shuttered labs and sidelined scientists all
over the world.
Trump
vetoes bipartisan driftnet fishing bill. (The Hill,
January 1, 2021)
The measure passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan
support last month. It was authored in the Senate by Sens.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)
and by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.)
in the House. The measure passed the House 283-105 and cleared
the Senate by voice vote. “The recreational fishing and
boating community has long advocated for transitioning away
from large-mesh drift gillnets which needlessly kill
non-target species including sportfish,” Jeff Angers,
president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy, said in a
statement at the time. “Today marks a significant victory for
marine conservation, and we are grateful for the bipartisan
effort to get the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction
Act across the finish line.”
Proponents of the measure will have to wait until the new
Congress because there is no time left in this session to
overturn Trump's veto. Feinstein has indicated she will press
again for the legislation during the incoming Biden
adminstration.
Mapped:
The Top Surveillance Cities Worldwide (Visual
Capitalist, January 1, 2021)
Drones celebrate
Edinburgh's Hogmanay 2020! (3 spectacular New Year
videos; YouTube, December 31, 2020)
Three short films titled ‘Fare Well’, showing a swarm of 150
glowing LED drones dance in the wintry Scottish skies above
the Highlands, with later footage of the Forth bridges and
Edinburgh. See them accompany a poem by Jackie Kay, poet
laureate of Scotland. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
The
stock market is ending 2020 at record highs, even as the
virus surges and millions go hungry. (Washington Post,
December 31, 2020)
The S&P 500 gained more than 16 percent in 2020, a strong
return in a year of steep job losses and widespread pain.
Wall
Street minted 56 new billionaires since the pandemic began —
but many families are left behind. (NBC News, December
30, 2020)
The coronavirus has destroyed the lives, savings and small
businesses of innumerable Americans — but the year wasn’t a
financial washout for everyone.
Killer
Robots Learn to Dance... Just when you thought 2020 couldn't
get any worse. (8-min. video; Double-Down News, December
30, 2020)
Professor Stuart Russell, one of the world’s leading
scientists in Artificial Intelligence, has come to consider
his own discipline an existential threat to humanity. In this
video he talks about how we can change course before it's too
late.
That
time physicist John Wheeler left classified H-bomb documents
on a train (Ars Technica, December 30, 2020)
The whereabouts of the documents remains a mystery to this
day.
Girlfriend
warned Nashville police Anthony Warner was building bomb a
year ago. (Tennesean, December 30, 2020)
Nashville
bombing froze wireless communications, exposed 'Achilles'
heel' in regional network. (USA Today, December 29,
2020)
Wounded
Knee Massacre of December 29th,1890: 130th Anniversary
(Daily Kos, December 29, 2020)
It is worth noting that
Adolph
Hitler expressed admiration for the "efficiency" of the
American genocide campaign against the Indians, viewing
it as a forerunner for his own plans and programs.
[To honor this sad anniversary, we viewed
"Neither Wolf Nor Dog".]
Trump’s
worst pardon is one you haven’t heard about. (Washington
Post, December 29, 2020)
Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner, Stephanie Mohr.
You’ve probably heard about President Trump’s odious
pre-Christmas pardons for the first three — and nothing about
Mohr, a former Prince George’s County police officer. But
Mohr’s pardon — for violating a homeless man’s civil rights by
unleashing her K-9 on him — is equally, if not more
undeserving. Of all the acts to pardon in a year that
witnessed the killing of George Floyd, it is the most
insensitive and inflaming.
Trump’s pardon of Mohr sends a reckless message to law
enforcement and emboldens bad officers. It shows the
president’s disdain, not just for the victims of police abuse,
but for honest law enforcement officers who follow their
training, see the humanity in all people, and do their job
with respect and decency.
Will
Pence Do the Right Thing? (New York Times, December 29,
2020)
President Trump recently tweeted that “the ‘Justice’
Department and FBI have done nothing about the 2020
Presidential Election Voter Fraud,” followed by these more
ominous lines: “Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January
6th.”
The unmistakable reference is to the day Congress will count
the Electoral College’s votes, with Vice President Mike Pence
presiding. Mr. Trump is leaning on the vice president and
congressional allies to invalidate the November election by
throwing out duly certified votes for Joe Biden. On Jan. 6,
the vice president will preside as Congress counts the
Electoral College’s votes. Let’s hope that he doesn’t do the
unthinkable — and unconstitutional.
A
Far-Right Terrorism Suspect With a Refugee Disguise: The
Tale of Franco A. (New York Times, December 29, 2020)
A German officer is facing trial on terrorism charges. At a
volatile time for Western democracy, his story mirrors the
story of Germany itself.
Visualizing
the U.S. Population by Race (Visual Capitalist, December
28, 2020)
Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the U.S.: "We become not a
melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people,
different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes,
different dreams."
Journey
to the Center of the Earth (Outside, December 28, 2020)
For nearly half a century, legends of a giant cave in the
Andes—holding artifacts that could rewrite human history—have
beckoned adventurers and tantalized fans of the occult. Now
the daughter of a legendary explorer is on a new kind of
quest: to tell the truth about Cueva de los Tayos in order to
save it.
NEW: The
Plague Year (The New Yorker, December 28, 2020)
The mistakes and the struggles behind America’s coronavirus
tragedy.
Trump
caves — but not before putting the GOP in an ugly spot.
(Washington Post, December 28, 2020)
To the extent Donald Trump’s ascent to the presidency was
about something besides raw partisanship and a desire to shake
up Washington, it was touted as putting a dealmaker in charge.
Trump tried to assure voters that his business acumen was just
what the country needed to “drain the swamp” and reverse
decades of poor negotiations with nefarious adversaries, both
foreign and domestic. With less than a month to go in his
presidency, Trump put a significant ding in whatever exists of
that portion of his legacy.
Trump decided over the Christmas holiday to threaten not to
sign a combination coronavirus relief package and spending
bill. Trump’s chief complaints: The deal delivered only $600
payments to the American people, rather than his desired
$2,000, and he didn’t like the so-called pork — and especially
foreign funding — in the legislation.
The exercise was bizarre from the jump for a number of
reasons. First was that this was a deal forged by his own
administration, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin serving
as lead negotiator and hailing it shortly before Trump decided
to call it “a disgrace.” Second was that Trump raised
virtually none of these concerns before the bill’s passage,
instead waiting until after the hard work had (apparently)
been done to hijack the process. And third was that the pork
that Trump and his media allies criticized not only wasn’t in
the coronavirus relief bill but was rather in an accompanying
omnibus spending bill — actually by and large money that Trump
himself had requested in his own proposed budget.
The whole gambit has now fallen apart in a spectacular but
utterly predictable way, with Trump relenting and signing the
bill Sunday night. Trump dubiously claimed nonspecific
concessions from Congress in voter fraud. He also said he will
send lawmakers a “redlined” version of the bill “insisting
that those funds be removed” from it. But Trump can insist all
he wants; Congress has no duty to actually follow through on
his demand to that. In other words: Trump got nothing. The
whole thing was a waste. It appears to have been some
combination of a fit of pique, posturing for his
post-presidency political efforts, and an effort to leverage
Republicans into supporting his attempts to overturn the 2020
election results.
But while it was all utterly pointless, that doesn’t mean it
won’t have repercussions.
Murdoch’s
New York Post Blasts President’s Fraud Claims. (New York
Times, December 28, 2020)
With a scathing front-page editorial, the Trump-friendly
tabloid joined another of Rupert Murdoch’s papers, The Wall
Street Journal, in attacking the president’s attempts to undo
the election result.
“Give it up, Mr. President — for your sake and the nation’s.”
In a blunt editorial, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, a
tabloid that promoted Donald J. Trump long before he went into
politics, told the president to end his attempts to overturn
the result of the 2020 presidential election. The Monday front
page showed a downcast president and the all-caps headline
“Stop the Insanity.” The publication’s website also featured
the editorial, written by The Post’s editorial board, at the
top of the home page. “Mr. President, it’s time to end this
dark charade,” began the editorial.
Rep.
Louie Gohmert files lawsuit claiming Mike Pence has ability
to overturn election results. (Daily Kos, December 28,
2020)
The important thing to know is that lawsuit has roughly zero
chance of working, because (1) the Constitution does not say
that, (2) the claim that Gohmert has standing because as a
congressthing, counting electors he doesn't want counted will
make him officially Sad, and (3) all the rest of it. It's a
broadly dishonest retread of the previous Dumbest Lawsuit in
the Land, with some of the most egregious errors removed and
new ones added.
The backstory here, though, is mildly more interesting.
Exactly a week ago, Gohmert and a host of Republican
fascism-peddlers met with both Donald Trump and Mike Pence to
plot out strategies for sabotaging the acceptance of the
Electoral College results. House Republicans have been
strongly pressuring Pence to cause a scene at the Jan. 6
tally, Donald Trump's pseudolegal bullshitters have been
hyping conspiracy theories rallying the base around the same
premise, and we can gather that this lawsuit against Pence was
either a planned move between House Republicans and Pence to
give him plausible deniability for creating a scene or,
perhaps more likely, a disgruntled loner move from Gohmert
himself after Pence refused to explicitly promise House
crackpots that he'd go along with their ridiculous, seditious,
and doomed-to-failure plan.
Republicans
Propping Up the Fossil Fuel Industry Is Borderline
Socialist. (Slate, December 28, 2020)
Technically it’s crony capitalism, but it’s closer to
socialism than what Democrats want.
The point of capitalism is that competition causes some
industries to fail. But protecting industries from failure in
exchange for political benefit is far worse: It is a
dangerously short step to socialism. And traditional socialism
necessarily implies authoritarianism—how else is a country to
undertake central economic planning except by an authoritarian
government? That is actually where the Republican Party is
taking us.
NEW: Here's
a breakdown of all 126 seditious Republicans who signed on
for a coup d'état. (Alternet, December 27, 2020)
Here is a list of the 126 Republican officials who, whether
charged with sedition and treason or not, are guilty of trying
to, at the very least, thwart the will of the American people
and overturn our democratically-elected president.
Snail,
Fish and Sheep Soup, Anyone? Savory New Finds at Pompeii
(1-min. video; New York Times, December 26, 2020)
The ancient site is the archaeological gift that keeps on
giving. A food shop excavated this month suggests that its
ancient residents had singular culinary tastes.
Anthony
Quinn Warner biography: 10 things about Tennessee man
(2-min. video; Conan Daily, December 26, 2020)
- White, age 63, single. Has a brother and a sister.
- On November 29, 1993, an explosive handling permit was
issued to him in Tennessee and it was scheduled to expire on
November 30, 1998.
- He has experience with alarms and electronics.
- He has been living in a two-story red brick house at 115
Bakertown Road in Antioch, Tennessee (about a 15-minute drive)
since 1995.
- On November 25, 2020, he gave his house in Antioch via a
quit claim for $0 to Michelle Louise Swing, an unmarried woman
born in 1991 and a resident of Los Angeles, California, USA.
She grew up in Knoxville TN and lived there and hen in
Nashville through 2012.
FBI,
ATF search homes of Antioch man in connection to Nashville
explosion. (WKRN News/Nashville, December 26, 2020)
investigators are searching properties connected with Anthony
Quinn Warner, age 63. Investigators also found human remains
at the scene and are working to determine whether Warner was
the person blown up inside an RV on Christmas morning. The FBI
and the ATF arrived Saturday at homes in Antioch associated
with Warner to conduct their searches.
Neighbors said they had seen an RV sitting in the driveway of
a home in the 100 block of Bakertown Road for several weeks. A
picture taken of Warner’s address in Antioch via Google street
view shows an RV in a fenced-in section of the yard. The RV
appears to match the one captured on a security camera in
downtown Nashville before the explosion.
A
day later, everything about the bombing in Nashville remains
as puzzling as it was on Christmas. (4-min. video; Daily
Kos, December 26, 2020)
In its Comments thread: My current educated guess as to
motive is Q-related (“COVID is a hoax, the illnesses are being
caused by 5G.”) We already know that this particular
“belief" has motivated numerous assaults on telecoms workers,
not only in the US but also in Britain. Those assaults
have become a labor issue with the union representing British
Telecom field engineers. Re reports of the TN Governor asking
for a declaration of emergency by Trump: my educated guess on
that is a) to get federal funds for rebuilding the affected
area, b) additional law enforcement assistance in Nashville,
and/or c) additional LE assistance in outlying areas where 911
service is down and landline & mobile telephone service is
down.
Nashville
explosion: Businesses and celebrities pledge $315,000
reward. (BBC News, December 26, 2020)
Police have not yet identified those responsible for a camper
van blast in the US city of Nashville, Tennessee.
The explosion rocked Nashville early on Christmas Day,
injuring three people. Police emergency systems were knocked
out across the surrounding state of Tennessee. Telephone,
internet and fibre optic TV services were also disrupted in
Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia,
according to telecoms firm AT&T.
Police believe the powerful blast was caused deliberately. No
motive has yet been established for the explosion, and no-one
has yet said they were behind it. Possible human remains were
later found near the blast site. Police have over 500 tips and
a person of interest, connected to the vehicle that exploded,
has been identified.
The
CDC’s failed race against covid-19: A threat underestimated
and a test overcomplicated (1-min. video; Washington
Post, December 26, 2020)
Thai scientists deployed a coronavirus test within hours. The
CDC took 46 days to roll out a working test as the virus
spread.
Unemployment
Aid Set to Lapse Saturday as Trump’s Plans for Relief Bill
Remain Unclear. (New York Times, December 25, 2020)
At least a temporary lapse in expanded unemployment benefits
for millions of Americans is now inevitable because of
President Trump’s delay in signing a $900 billion pandemic
relief bill.
Randy
Cassingham: Beating the Vaccine Scare-Mongers (Medium,
December 25, 2020)
Something to consider before getting the vaccine — or deciding
not to.
Ashes
of Star Trek’s Scotty were smuggled onto International Space
Station. (1-min. video; The Times, December 25, 2020)
"Beam me up, Scotty!" A secret mission to give James Doohan a
celestial resting place has been revealed 12 years later.
Peter
Wehner: "The Forgotten Radicalism of Jesus Christ" (New
York Times, December 24, 2020)
We human beings battle with exclusion, self-righteousness and
arrogance, and have a quick trigger finger when it comes to
judging others. Jesus knew how easily we could fall into the
trap of turning “the other” — those of other races,
ethnicities, classes, genders and nations — into enemies. We
place loyalty to the tribe over compassion and human
connection. We view differences as threatening; the result is
we become isolated, rigid in our thinking, harsh and
unforgiving.
Trump
Mocked After He Claims Twitter Censorship Leads To
Communism. (Huffington Post, December 24, 2020)
President Donald Trump gave snarky Twitter users an early
Christmas gift Thursday when he tried to blame communism on
Twitter censorship. The president railed against what was once
his favorite social media platform, claiming that Twitter is
stifling free speech by ― and this is a slight paraphrase ―
not allowing him to spew lies.
Coronavirus
Briefing: Reconsidering herd immunity (New York
Times, December 24, 2020)
In the pandemic’s early days, scientists forecast that the
coronavirus would be under control when 60 percent to 70
percent of a population had resistance to the virus, either by
antibodies or by vaccination. That’s herd immunity, when there
just aren’t enough available hosts.
Initially, Dr. Fauci, the top epidemiologist in the U.S.,
hewed to that same ballpark, which is drawn from animal
studies. “When polls said only about half of all Americans
would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70
to 75 percent,” he recently said.
But Dr. Fauci acknowledged that he had been incrementally
increasing his estimate. About a month ago, he began saying
“70, 75 percent” in television interviews. Last week, he
pushed it up to “75, 80, 85 percent.” “When newer surveys said
60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this
up a bit,’” he said on the phone call.
Dr. Fauci said he was initially cautious about publicly
raising his estimate because Americans seemed hesitant about
vaccines. But now, as health care workers proudly post their
bandaged biceps on social media, some polls are showing that
many more Americans are ready, even eager, to receive the
shot. Based partly on gut feeling and partly on new science of
how the virus operates in human populations, Dr. Fauci
deliberately moved the goal posts. Now, he believes that it
may take close to 90 percent immunity in a population to halt
the virus. That’s about what’s needed to stop measles, which
is thought to be the world’s most contagious disease. The new,
more infectious variant of the coronavirus appearing in
Britain, South Africa and possibly other places may further
increase the necessary percentage.
House
Republicans pile on to the stupid, dishonest part of Trump's
temper tantrum. (Daily Kos, December 24, 2020)
Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler paved the way for
stupid, dishonest Republicans Wednesday when she tried to
deflect the question of whether or not she supported Donald
Trump’s demands for $2,000 survival checks to Americans.
Loeffler seized on the stupid part, the “wasteful spending.”
That was where Trump argued that the foreign assistance
included in the spending part of the project—the foreign aid
that was in the Trump budget, that the Republican Senate
Foreign Operations Committee approved, and that congressional
Republicans passed this week—was bad. Money that Trump asked
for.
Now we’ve got the stupidest Republican in leadership, Rep.
Kevin McCarthy (the guy who thinks Putin pays Trump) seizing
on this as his excuse to oppose the $2,000 survival checks.
House
Republicans Block $2,000 Coronavirus Stimulus Checks,
Defying Trump. (Huffington Post, December 24, 2020)
House Republicans defied President Donald Trump’s wishes on
Christmas Eve, blocking the passage of a proposal to include
$2,000 stimulus checks — something the president demanded in
an angry video posted to Twitter on Tuesday night while
threatening to upend months of negotiations over government
funding and coronavirus relief.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) dared Republicans to
object to Trump’s call for bigger direct payments, something
Democrats have been arguing in favor of for months, by putting
up a clean bill for $2,000 stimulus checks on the House floor,
while most lawmakers weren’t in town, and trying to pass it
via unanimous consent. In what was less than a minute of
action on the House floor, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) rejected
the unanimous consent attempt, as Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Republicans would do.
Trump
vetoes defense bill, setting up showdown with Congress.
(Politico, December 23, 2020)
President Donald Trump vetoed major defense policy legislation
Wednesday, sending the measure back to Congress for what could
be the first successful override of his presidency if enough
Republicans are willing to defy the commander in chief. In a
statement rejecting the National Defense Authorization Act,
Trump cited lawmakers' refusal to repeal online liability
protections, known as Section 230, and a provision that would
force the renaming of military bases that honor Confederate
leaders, among other gripes.
Congress plans to return the week after Christmas to vote to
override the veto. The House has scheduled a vote for next
Monday, and if that succeeds, the Senate will come back into
session on Tuesday to deal with the issue. Two thirds of the
House and Senate must vote in favor of the legislation in
order to nullify the veto.
NEW: Inside
Trump and Barr’s Last-Minute Killing Spree (ProPublica,
December 23, 2020)
ProPublica obtained court records showing how the outgoing
administration is using its final days to execute the most
federal prisoners since World War II.
Officials gave public explanations for their choice of which
prisoners should die that misstated key facts from the cases.
They moved ahead with executions in the middle of the night.
They left one prisoner strapped to the gurney while lawyers
worked to remove a court order. They executed a second
prisoner while an appeal was still pending, leaving the court
to then dismiss the appeal as “moot” because the man was
already dead. They bought drugs from a secret pharmacy that
failed a quality test. They hired private executioners and
paid them in cash.
Trump
pardons Manafort, Stone, father of Jared Kushner.
(Politico, December 23, 2020)
Trump issued full pardons to 26 individuals and commuted the
sentences of three others.
President Donald Trump issued a provocative new batch of
pardons Wednesday, granting clemency to his former campaign
manager Paul Manafort, longtime adviser Roger Stone and
Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law and senior
adviser Jared Kushner.
The pardons of Manafort and Stone effectively nullify the most
significant convictions won by special counsel Robert Mueller
and his team.
Stone was convicted in November 2019 for lying to the House
Intelligence Committee about his efforts to make contact with
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and for threatening a
witness connected to the probe. Trump commuted Stone’s
sentence earlier this year shortly before he was slated to go
to prison.
Manafort was convicted for a series of financial crimes
stemming from his overseas lobbying work and was sentenced to
seven-and-a-half years in prison. However, after serving about
two years behind bars, he was moved from prison to house
arrest in May due to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the
Trump pardon, Manafort may not be entirely in the clear.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. has been pursuing
criminal fraud charges against Manafort in state court, but
the case has been rejected by a trial and appeals court due to
a strict double jeopardy law in New York. A spokesman for
Vance said Wednesday that Trump’s pardon of Manafort
reinforces the need for him to face justice in New York. "This
action underscores the urgent need to hold Mr. Manafort
accountable for his crimes against the People of New York as
alleged in our indictment, and we will continue to pursue our
appellate remedies,” Vance spokesman Danny Frost said in a
statement.
The pardon of Manafort, in particular, will likely be
unwelcome by some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The
Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee issued a scathing
report on Manafort’s activities during the 2016 presidential
election, including his close ties and collaboration with an
associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who the panel assessed to be a
Russian agent.
Adam Schiff: The message from Trump is clear: "If you lie for
me, if you cover for me, if you're loyal to me, I'll protect
you, reward you, and get you out of jail. But if, on the other
hand, you expose corruption or stand up to me, I'll come after
you." It’s grotesque. It’s corrupt. And Republicans know it
and just don’t care. No matter what damage that Trump does to
our democracy and the rule of law on his way out. Pardons can
right a wrong, cure an injustice, and give those who are sorry
a second chance. There are thousands of Americans who deserve
pardons, who have reformed and repented, and who deserve a
second chance. This isn't that. Not by a long shot. We all
fear what this is leading up to: pardons for Trump’s family,
his closest aides still in the White House, and perhaps Trump
himself.
Trump
throws McConnell, Perdue, and Loeffler under the bus: Ossoff
and Warnock pounce. (Daily Kos, December 23, 2020)
Whether or not it was his intent, impeached two-time popular
vote sore loser Donald Trump threw Mitch McConnell under the
bus Tuesday with his demand that Congress come back with
$2,000 stimulus checks for everyone. He also put the
Republican Senate as a whole on the spot, particularly the two
in Georgia who are in the middle of tight runoff elections.
In reporters' inboxes first thing this morning: "Reverend
Warnock Calls On Kelly Loeffler To Support $2,000 Stimulus
Checks For Georgians." Warnock's statement is simple: "Donald
Trump is right, Congress should swiftly increase direct
payments to $2,000. Once and for all Senator Loeffler should
do what's best for Georgia instead of focusing on what she can
do for herself." Tuesday night, following Trump's bizarre
statement, Jon Ossoff jumped on board.
Trump
leaves Washington in limbo. (Politico, December 23,
2020)
President Donald Trump has once again thrown Washington into
chaos, making uneven demands that have left lawmakers baffled
and Americans coping with a global pandemic uncertain when
they’ll be getting long-promised financial help. On Tuesday
night, Trump blindsided all of Washington — including his own
staff — with a series of eleventh-hour demands to amend
coronavirus relief and government funding legislation that his
own administration had helped carefully craft and supported.
Overnight and into Wednesday, senior Republicans, Hill aides
and even White House officials scrambled to figure out what
Trump actually wanted, just as lawmakers — and Trump — prepare
to leave town for the holidays.
There’s no clear answer, though. No one on either side of
Pennsylvania Avenue appears to know what Trump’s plan is — or
even if there is one.
The repercussions of inaction could be dramatic. If lawmakers
and White House aides can’t convince the president to sign a
funding and Covid relief package by Monday, the government
will enter the fourth shutdown of Trump’s presidency. And
millions of Americans had been told to expect another round of
direct payments from the government shortly, while businesses
across the country were expecting more financial assistance.
Yet Trump left town Wednesday afternoon without saying a word
about the bill, departing for his South Florida Mar-a-Lago
resort, where he plans to stay through the new year. And no
one seems to know what will happen next.
The sudden limbo reflects how Trump has combatively approached
his final days in office. Trump’s main goal, said those close
to the president and White House, is to grab attention and
send a message to his base that he’s more supportive of
Americans than Congress as he plots a run for reelection in
2024. And, in some ways, the strong GOP support for the bill
has given Trump little reason to publicly support it. The
measure is expected to eventually become law, whether by Trump
relenting, Congress overriding a veto or President-elect Joe
Biden entering office.
In recent weeks, Trump has shown no qualms about trying to
best position himself politically for his post-presidency,
even if it means holding up legislation his own party supports
and attacking one-time congressional allies, like Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Trump made a similar
veto threat earlier this month for the annual defense policy
bill, which also passed with wide Republican support. On
Wednesday, he followed through and vetoed the bill, setting up
a showdown with lawmakers.
The last-minute Covid stimulus demands from Trump — who has
been preoccupied with fighting the election results, leaving
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to negotiate the long-delayed
rescue bill — have put Republicans in a particularly tough
spot. In addition to the confusion it has caused on Capitol
Hill, the move has also complicated a Republican push to win
two Georgia runoff races next month that will decide the
Senate majority.
At the crux of Trump’s objections appears to be the $600
direct payments the bill was set to send to many Americans.
Trump had publicly and privately said he wanted the direct
payments to be higher, but he did not say he was unwilling to
accept the $600 checks. In fact, he had said that he would
sign the bill, which White House deputy press secretary Brian
Morgenstern reiterated Tuesday to reporters. Hours later,
Trump released a five-minute video he recorded in the
Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House residence,
surprising many of his aides. He did not threaten to veto the
bill, but he did express displeasure. Trump also complained
about spending levels in the measure that he has previously
approved and even requested. "I'm asking Congress to amend
this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000,"
he said. “I’m also asking Congress to immediately get rid of
the wasteful and unnecessary items in this legislation or to
send me a suitable bill.”
But there isn’t a huge appetite in the GOP for the $2,000
stimulus checks that Trump is now calling for. "It's a really
foolish egg-headed, left-wing, socialist idea to pass out free
money to people, so I part ways with the president on giving
people free money,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who wants Trump to
veto the bill for fiscal reasons, said Wednesday on Fox News.
Meanwhile, Democrats — who have been pushing for higher checks
all along — could make life even more painful for the GOP in
the coming days. “Just when you think you have seen it all,
last night, the President said that he would possibly veto the
bicameral agreement negotiated between Republicans and
Democrats,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a “Dear Colleague”
letter circulated to Democrats. “If the President truly wants
to join us in $2,000 payments, he should call upon [House
Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy to agree to our Unanimous
Consent request.”
A last-minute veto could also have implications in the Georgia
runoffs Jan. 5. McConnell had promised Sens. Kelly Loeffler
and David Perdue that the chamber would not leave for
Christmas without a deal, and both senators started touting
the stimulus package in their campaigns this week. Both Jon
Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is challenging Loeffler,
say they agree with Trump’s push for higher payments and are
seizing on the moment to hammer their opponents. "Trump has
put Loeffler and Perdue in an impossible situation repeatedly
throughout the entirety of the runoff. And this is just the
latest chapter of the book of humiliation he has made them
characters in," said one Georgia Republican strategist. “What
do they do? Do they defy the president and stand by what they
had been saying or do they once again look like weak puppets
with no backbone?”
While Democrats from across the political spectrum rallied
around Trump’s calls for more stimulus money, they also made
clear they don’t want him to veto the package, which also
includes enhanced unemployment benefits, small business aid
and funding for distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine. Adding
to the sense of the urgency, a slew of critical
pandemic-related aid programs are set to expire on Dec. 26.
The
Secret to Longevity? 4-Minute Bursts of Intense Exercise May
Help. (New York Times, December 23, 2020)
Including high-intensity training in your workouts provided
better protection against premature death than moderate
workouts alone.
The
Saga of the Monolith Isn't Over Yet. (Outside, December
23, 2020)
It showed up, attracted a flood of selfie seekers, and
disappeared four days later. But now, after death threats and
a federal investigation, it's with BLM officials trying to
figure out where it came from in the first place.
Rare
'great conjunction' of Jupiter and Saturn wows skywatchers
around the world. (Space, December 22, 2020)
It was a sight not seen since 1623!
SARS-CoV-2’s
spread to wild mink not yet a reason to panic. (Ars
Technica, December 22. 2020)
A monitoring program picked up a single case and no
indications of wider spread.
FBI:
White supremacists plotted attack on US power grid.
(Associated Press, December 22, 2020)
White supremacists plotted to attack power stations in the
southeastern U.S., and an Ohio teenager who allegedly shared
the plan said he wanted the group to be “operational” on a
fast-tracked timeline if President Donald Trump were to lose
his re-election bid.
Can
Joe Biden ‘heal’ the United States? Political experts
disagree. (The Conversation, December 22, 2020)
A: The image of two monolithic cultures at loggerheads, though
perhaps intuitive and appealing, is a myth that doesn’t hold
up on closer scrutiny. As a political psychologist who has
investigated radicalization, polarization and populism, I
believe a “two tents” metaphor would be more accurate. If you
look at 2020 election data, you’ll find both the Trump and
Biden camps contained diverse points of view, interests and
concerns.
B: In his victory speech, Joe Biden said that partisanship “is
not due to some mysterious force” but “a choice we make,”
asking Americans to “give each other a chance.” His advice for
doing that: “listen.” Other political analysts have advised
listening, too, as a way to heal America’s divide.
But lack of listening isn’t the problem here. My research on
polarization shows political divisions have more to do with
negative feelings toward opponents than with misunderstanding
their views. When those feelings are intense, as they are
right now, listening can actually deepen divisions. So when
opponents speak, partisans hear only distortion and hypocrisy.
As a result, Americans today see their opponents as
untrustworthy, dishonest, unpatriotic, threatening and even
harmful to the nation, according to recent polling by the Pew
Research Center. Bitter partisanship has rendered Americans
unable to treat their opponents as democratic partners.
Research shows that momentary exposure to political messages
that slightly oppose our own typically intensifies animosity
toward rivals. And when opponents attempt to correct us, we
commonly double down and escalate. That’s why even
fact-checking Trump’s tweets amplifies divisions: When Twitter
marks a Trump tweet as misleading, research finds, Republicans
grow more inclined to believe it, while Democrats grow less
inclined.
A
Trump executive order set the stage for Jerry Falwell’s
political activities. (Politico, December 22, 2020)
By discouraging investigations of religious organizations,
Trump appeared to clear the way for Liberty University to
spend millions on his own causes.
Trump
is prepared to lay waste to everyone around him in election
loss tantrum. (Daily Kos, December 22, 2020)
Trump’s
Military Coup Moment Has Arrived. (Medium, December 21,
2020)
This may very well be the first moment in Trump’s life where
he’s met a problem he can’t buy, lie, or cheat his way out of.
Will Trump cross the proverbial Rubicon?
Make no mistake, the stuff Michael Flynn has been talking
about over the last few weeks are dangerous. He said Trump
could give the order to steal voting machines in order to hold
a new election, a mock election, functionally undoing the vote
of the American People. And Trump asked about the idea, poking
around for details that might help him in his quest to remain
president at all costs. Trump seems to have forgotten the
raging pandemic that’s claimed over 300,000 American lives.
One has to wonder what’s going through the minds of these
people. Can they not accept the fact that they lost? For me,
it’s hard to put myself into the mental state of the kind of
person who would burn down the Republic because they couldn’t
handle losing, but it seems that Trump, Flynn, Powell, and the
surprising (read: alarming) amount of followers who’ve still
clung to the Trump brand like a fading trend they’d invested
their life savings on, are just those kinds of people.
Incapable of accepting reality as it is.
NEW: "If
it Hadn't Been for the Prompt Work of the Medics": FSB
Officer Inadvertently Confesses Murder Plot to Navalny.
(w/49-min. recording in Russian; Bellingcat, December 21,
2020)
During his year-end press conference on Thursday of last week,
Russian president Vladimir Putin did not deny Bellingcat’s
findings, which detailed how these FSB operatives had been
tailing Navalny, including on his trip to Tomsk. However, the
Russian president claimed – without presenting evidence – that
this was due to alleged cooperation between Navalny and
“United States intelligence agencies”. Putin also denied that
the FSB had any role in his poisoning, and stated that “if
[the FSB] wanted to, they would have taken their job to the
end”. He did not explain why a suspect would need to be
surveilled by officers with chemical-warfare and medical
backgrounds, nor why these agents communicated with leading
Russian experts in nerve toxins in the days and hours before
Navalny’s poisoning, as disclosed by Bellingcat.
Bellingcat can now disclose that it and its investigative
partners are in possession of a recorded conversation in which
a member of the suspected FSB poison squad describes how his
unit carried out, and attempted to clean up evidence of, the
poisoning of Alexey Navalny. The inadvertent confession was
made during a phone call with a person who the officer
believed was a high-ranking security official. In fact, the
FSB officer did not recognize the voice of the person to whom
he was reporting details of the failed mission: Alexey Navalny
himself.
Heather
Cox Richardson: Breakdown in the White House (Letters
from an American, December 21, 2020)
In the past two days, stories in major papers have focused on
the president’s deteriorating mental state. The Atlantic ran a
story by Peter Wehner titled “Trump is Losing His Mind.” It
describes “Trump’s descent into madness.” Politico ran Michael
Kruse’s story titled “Is Trump Cracking Under the Weight of
Losing?””[T]he actual fact of the matter,” it said, is that
“Trump is a loser.” Kruse points to Trump’s uncharacteristic
absence from the public eye to wonder if he is breaking down
mentally.
Senior White House officials are worried about what Trump
might do in the next month as he spends more and more time
with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who is under active
investigation by federal prosecutors; conspiracy lawyer Sidney
Powell; disgraced former national security adviser Michael
Flynn; Steve Bannon, who has recently been indicted for fraud;
Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser; and now Patrick Byrne,
the founder of the Overstock retail website. Trump is turning
to this group of misfits rather than advisers like his chief
of staff, Mark Meadows, or White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
The new advisers are encouraging him to declare martial law or
to seize state voting machines to examine them for fraud or to
appoint a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden’s son
Hunter. Trump has floated the idea of naming Powell as a
special counsel inside the White House Counsel’s office to
investigate the election. Meadows and Cipollone argue,
correctly, that this is crazy.
Previous loyalists are opening up water between themselves and
the president. Evangelical leader Pat Robertson, who famously
said Trump was part of God’s plan for America, made the news
today with his declaration that, for all the good he claims
Trump has done, the president “lives in an alternate reality,”
and has been “very erratic.” Robertson says it is time to
recognize that Biden is the president-elect and it is time for
Trump “to move on.”
Attorney General William Barr also broke with Trump today,
saying that he saw no need to appoint a special counsel to
investigate voter fraud or to investigate Hunter Biden, and
that there was no evidence of voter fraud that would have
changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Barr also confirmed
that it was Russia, rather than any other country, that hacked
the United States government and prominent companies over the
course of the past year. Barr will leave office on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, right-wing media outlets Fox News Channel, Newsmax,
and One America News are also concerned with the law. They are
madly backpedaling as they face the consequences of their
baseless accusations against election software company
Smartmatic. Although that company was involved in the 2020
election only in Los Angeles County, right-wing media
personalities have accused it of altering votes in several
states in the 2020 presidential contest. The lawyer for the
company’s founder, Antonio Mugica, has sent letters to the
FNC, Newsmax, and OAN demanding that they retract their
stories and warning them to keep documents for a forthcoming
defamation suit. Voting machine manufacturer Dominion Voting
Systems, also included in the news stories, has also hired
legal counsel. The threat of lawsuits has prompted the FNC and
Newsmax to “clarify” at some length that they had no evidence
of any of the improprieties they alleged. On Newsmax, John
Tabacco also had to clarify that there was no relationship
between Dominion Voting Systems and Dianne Feinstein, the
Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, George Soros, Hugo Chavez, or the
government of Venezuela.
As he descends into the fever swamps, Trump has largely given
up any pretense of governing. His public schedule remains
empty, and his private meetings appear to focus on how he can
stay in office. Today we learned that Russian hackers broke
into the email system used by the leadership of the Treasury
Department, but the cyberattack from Russia has gone
unaddressed except to the extent the president tried to blame
the attack on China (although he has made no move to retaliate
against China for the attack). He has made little attempt to
shepherd any sort of an economic relief bill through Congress.
And, most crucially, he is silent about the epidemic that is
killing us. As of this evening, more than 18 million Americans
have been infected with the coronavirus, and at least 319,000
have died.
[And there's more...]
Secular
‘values voters’ are becoming an electoral force in the US –
just look closely at 2020’s results. (The Conversation,
December 21, 2020)
The voting patterns of religious groups in the U.S. have been
scrutinized since the presidential election for evidence of
shifting allegiances among the faithful. Many have wondered if
a boost in Catholic support was behind Biden’s win or if a dip
in support among evangelicals helped doom Trump. But much less
attention has been paid to one of the largest growing
demographics among the U.S. electorate, one that has increased
from around 5% of Americans to over 23% in the last 50 years:
“Nones” – that is, the nonreligious.
I am a scholar of secularism in the U.S., and my focus is on
the social and cultural presence of secular people –
nonreligious people such as atheists, agnostics, humanists,
freethinkers and those who simply don’t identify with any
religion. They are an increasingly significant presence in
American society, one which inevitably spills into the
political arena.
U.S.
doesn't join countries cutting off U.K. travel, as new
highly infectious COVID-19 strain emerges. (Daily Kos,
December 21, 2020)
News of a new strain of COVID-19 that could be up to 70% more
infectious has led many countries to suspend travel from
Britain. That includes Canada and France, among many others,
but not the United States.
The good news, such as it is, is that experts expect the
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that have begun distribution to be
effective against the new strain. But the virus was already
spreading faster than the vaccines, and this will make that
effect much worse. Already the mutation has been found not
just in Britain but in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and
Iceland.
Congress
passes massive stimulus package as virus rages.
(Politico, December 21, 2020)
Congress approved a $900 billion coronavirus relief package
late Monday night after months of inaction and partisan
bickering, sending desperately needed aid to Americans reeling
from a global pandemic. Last-minute drama over a series of
provisions delayed final passage of the bill for days, but the
major pillars remained the same: $600 direct payments to
individuals and families, enhanced unemployment benefits,
small business aid, and funding for distribution of the
Covid-19 vaccine.
The long-delayed measure, which included $1.4 trillion to fund
the government through next September, ultimately passed both
chambers with overwhelming bipartisan majorities: 359-53 in
the House and 92-6 in the Senate. President Donald Trump is
expected to sign the mammoth bill into law, allowing at least
some of the emergency aid to start flowing quickly.
The
Death Knell for Trumpism is Sounding. (Daily Kos,
December 21, 2020)
As the Mad Wannabe King spends his final days in office, the
world no longer wonders what his fate will be: On December 14,
the Electoral College vote confirmed his humiliating defeat at
the hands of Joe Biden. When Trump departs the White House on
January 20, 2021, he will likely be pursued by creditors and
legal authorities alike.
In the much-anticipated sunset of Trump’s failed presidency,
some political analysts are concerned that Trumpism – that
corrupt brew of hubris, personality cult, faux
authoritarianism, hucksterism, xenophobia, populism, and
nativism – could continue. While inconstancy always surrounds
anything Trumpian, I believe that Trumpism cannot outlast its
progenitor. The bogus doctrine has suffered a series of
life-threatening wounds that make its survival highly
questionable.
Trump
Threatens SCOTUS with "Disruption" If They Don't Take His
Case. (Daily Kos, December 21, 2020)
Trump is once again
asking
the Supreme Court (PDF) to overturn the Pennsylvania
Supreme Court’s multiple rulings on the mail-in ballots in the
election. The accompanying motion to expedite contains some
VERY disturbing language:
Finally, if this matter is not timely resolved, not only
Petitioner, but the Nation as а whole may suffer injury from
the resulting confusion. Indeed, the intense
national and worldwide attention on the 2020 Presidential
election only foreshadows the
disruption that may well
follow if the uncertainty and unfairness shrouding this
election are allowed to persist. The importance of а
prompt resolution of the federal constitutional questions
presented by this case cannot be overstated.
[Emphasis added. But hey, that's what a mob boss does.]
NEW: Is
Trump Cracking Under the Weight of Losing? (Politico,
December 20, 2020)
Getting the boot from the White House is an undeniable ego
blow for a man who has never admitted defeat.
Donald Trump has never had a week like the week he just had.
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s knock-back and the
Electoral College’s knockout, some of his most reliable
supporters—Mitch McConnell, Vladimir Putin,
Newsmax—acknowledged and affirmed the actual fact of the
matter. Trump is a loser.
Consequently, he is plainly out of sorts, say former close
associates, longtime Trump watchers and mental health experts.
It’s not just his odd behavior—the testy, tiny desk session
with the press, the stilted Medal of Freedom ceremony that
ended with his awkward exit, the cut-short trip to the
Army-Navy football game. It’s even more pointedly his
conspicuous and ongoing absences. The narcissistic Trump has
spent the last half a century—but especially the last half a
decade—making himself and keeping himself the most
paid-attention-to person on the planet. But in the month and a
half since Election Day, Trump has been seen and heard
relatively sparingly and sporadically. No-showing unexpectedly
at a Christmas party, sticking to consistently sparse public
schedules and speaking mainly through his increasingly manic
Twitter feed, he’s been fixated more than anything else on his
baseless insistence that he won the election when he did not.
Over the course of a lifetime of professional and personal
transgressions and failures, channeling lasting, curdled
lessons of Norman Vincent Peale and Roy Cohn, Trump has
assembled a record of rather remarkable resilience. His
typical level of activity and almost animal energy has at
times lent him an air of insusceptibility, every one of his
brushes with financial or reputational ruin ending with Trump
emerging all but untouched. His current crisis, though, his
eviction from the White House now just a month out, is
something altogether different and new. “He’s never been in a
situation in which he has lost in a way he can’t escape from,”
Mary Trump, his niece and the author of the fiercely critical
and bestselling book about him and their family, told me. “We
continue to wait for him to accept reality, for him to
concede, and that is something he is not capable of doing,”
added Bandy Lee, the forensic psychiatrist from Yale who’s
spent the last four years trying to warn the world about Trump
and the ways in which he’s disordered and dangerous. “Being a
loser,” she said, for Trump is tantamount to “psychic death.”
“His fragile ego has never been tested to this extent,”
Michael Cohen, his former personal attorney and enforcer
before he turned on him, told me. “While he’s creating a false
pretense of strength and fortitude, internally he is angry,
depressed and manic. As each day ends, Trump knows he’s one
day closer to legal and financial troubles. Accordingly, we
will all see his behavior deteriorate until it progresses into
a full mental breakdown. ... You have to remember, Trump
doesn’t see things the way that you do. He sees things in his
distorted reality that benefits him. He’s able to right now
embrace that distorted reality because he still wakes up in
the White House. But what happens each and every day as he
gets closer to not only leaving, but also it comes with a
sense of, in his mind, humiliation, right? And he knows that
he is destined for legal troubles.”
“Psychological disorders are like anything else,” said Mary
Trump, who’s also a psychologist. “If they’re unacknowledged
and untreated over time, they get worse.”
In Lee’s estimation, it’s not something that could happen.
It’s something that is happening, that’s been happening for
the past four years—and will keep happening. “His pathology
has continued to grow, continued to cause him to decompensate,
and so we’re at a stage now where his detachment from reality
is pretty much complete and his symptoms are as severe as can
be.” She likened Trump to “a car without functioning brakes.”
Such a car, she explained, can look for a long time like it’s
fine, and keep going, faster and faster, even outracing other
cars. “But at the bottom of the hill,” Lee said, “it always
crashes. ... The probability of something very bad happening
is very high, unacceptably high, and the fact that we don’t
have guardrails in place, the fact that we are allowing a
mentally incapacitated president to continue in the job, in
such an important job, for a single day longer, is a truly
unacceptable reality,” said Lee, the Yale psychiatrist. “We’re
talking about his access to the most powerful military on the
planet and his access to technology that’s capable of
destroying human civilization many times over.”
A
President Who Can’t Put Aside Grudges, Even for Good News.
(New York Times, December 20, 2020)
The past week served as a preview of Mr. Trump’s
post-presidency: no leadership on debates within his party,
but keen attention to waging personal vendettas and
cultivating his supporters.
It was among the most consequential weeks of President Trump’s
tenure: Across the country, health care workers began
receiving a lifesaving coronavirus vaccine. On Capitol Hill,
lawmakers closed in on a deal for economic relief aimed at
averting a deeper recession. And on Friday, federal regulators
authorized a second vaccine. Yet Mr. Trump was largely absent
from those events. It was Vice President Mike Pence who held a
call with governors on Monday to hail a “medical miracle,” and
who received the Pfizer vaccine at week’s end on live
television. Legislative leaders were the ones working late
into the nights on a stimulus deal eventually reached on
Sunday.
All the while Mr. Trump was conducting a Twitter-borne assault
on Republicans for not helping him overturn the election
results, even warning Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the
majority leader, to “get tougher, or you won’t have a
Republican Party anymore.” By this weekend, the president was
considering naming a conspiracy theorist as special counsel to
investigate voting fraud, for which there’s no evidence,
asking his advisers about instituting martial law and
downplaying a massive hack his own secretary of state
attributed to Russia.
Seldom has the leader of an American political party done so
much to strike fear into the hearts of his allies, but done so
little to tackle challenges facing the country during his
final days in office.
As
pandemic deaths top 300,000, Trump follows through on Making
Bathrooms Great Again. (Daily Kos, December 20, 2020)
Pandemic deaths in the United States have now topped 300,000,
so you can guess where the Trump administration's attention is
focused in its waning days. That's right, showerheads. The
administration has just finalized Donald Trump's perhaps
greatest infrastructure achievement, rolling back water
efficiency standards to allow rich people to waste more water
than you do.
Specifically, the new rule keeps in place Congress' mandated
2.5 gallon-per-minute maximum water usage for showerheads—it
being required by Congress, after all—but modifies the rules
so that "fixtures" with multiple showerheads can have each
head dispensing that maximum amount, side-by-side-by-side,
rather than having to limit itself to 2.5 gpm in total.
The best part about this new rule, however, is not the
Trumpite Energy Department skirting prior congressional
mandates through creative tweaks of language, it is the sheer,
raw, soggy pettiness of the move. It comes from Donald Trump,
personally. Donald Trump had the powers of the presidency
handed to him, and he was apathetic at best about pandemic
deaths, saw national security primarily as a tool for
self-enrichment, and showed such complete disinterest in each
underling's policy moves that he was at near-total loss to
explain any of them during public appearances.
But this? This, Donald Trump insisted on. Given the supreme
powers of the United States presidency, Donald Trump used them
to apply pressure on regulators over all matters of housely
excretions. He had strong opinions on the flushing power of
toilets. He returned time and time again to anecdotal
housewife complaints about washing machines and clothes
dryers. He complained bitterly to public audiences about The
Showerheads These Days.
Sunlight
floods inner chamber of Newgrange tomb. (Raidió Teilifís
Éireann, December 20, 2020)
Sunlight flooded the inner chamber of the Neolithic Passage
Tomb at Newgrange this morning, on the first day of three that
the Office of Public Works is live-streaming the event.
Newgrange was built 500 years before the Pyramids in Egypt and
more than 1,000 years before Stonehenge.
When conditions are right on the solstice, a narrow beam of
light penetrates the roof-box above the entrance to the
passage at Newgrange and reaches the floor of the chamber,
gradually illuminating the entire chamber. The event lasts for
17 minutes. You can
view
tomorrow and Tuesday's solstice event here.
Mutant
coronavirus in the United Kingdom sets off alarms, but its
importance remains unclear. (Science, December 20, 2020)
On 8 December, during a regular Tuesday meeting about the
spread of the pandemic coronavirus in the United Kingdom,
scientists and public health experts saw a diagram that made
them sit up straight. Kent, in southeastern England, was
experiencing a surge in cases, and a phylogenetic tree showing
viral sequences from the county looked very strange, says Nick
Loman, a microbial genomicist at the University of Birmingham.
Not only were half the cases caused by one specific variant of
SARS-CoV-2, but that variant was sitting on a branch of the
tree that literally stuck out from the rest of the data.
Less than 2 weeks later, that variant is causing mayhem in the
United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.
Congress
seals agreement on $900 billion COVID relief bill.
(Associated Press, December 20, 2020)
The agreement, announced by congressional leaders, would
establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless
benefit and a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans,
along with a new round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses
and money for schools, health care providers and renters
facing eviction.
The final agreement would be the largest spending measure yet.
It combined $900 billion for COVID-19 relief with a $1.4
trillion government-wide funding plan and lots of other
unrelated measures on taxes, health, infrastructure and
education. The government-wide funding would keep the
government open through September.
Passage neared as coronavirus cases and deaths spiked and
evidence piled up that the economy was struggling. The
legislation had been held up by months of dysfunction,
posturing and bad faith. But talks turned serious in recent
days as lawmakers on both sides finally faced the deadline of
acting before leaving Washington for Christmas.
“This bill is a good bill. Tonight is a good night. But it is
not the end of the story, it is not the end of the job,” Chuck
Schumer told reporters. “Anyone who thinks this bill is enough
does not know what’s going on in America.”
Trump's
obsession with overturning the election is out of control.
(1-min. video; CNN, December 20, 2020)
Trump's
talk of martial law sends White House staffers rushing to
the press. (CNN, December 20, 2020)
With only a month remaining until President-elect Joe Biden
will be sworn into office, Trump has been ramping up his
efforts to remain president, while also trying to convince
millions of Americans that election fraud is to blame for his
presidential loss.
That's nothing new. But a heated Oval Office meeting Friday in
which Trump heard arguments about invoking martial law to stay
in office had some Trump officials sounding the alarm to the
press. Michael Flynn, Trump's pardoned former national
security adviser, discussed the martial law plan on right-wing
television network Newsmax last week and was invited to the
White House Friday.
Trump dismissed reports of the martial law discussion as 'fake
news' in a tweet Sunday, but two people familiar with the
matter told CNN that the the plan was argued in the Oval
Office Friday -- although it remains unclear if Trump endorsed
the idea.
After
legal threat, Fox airs news package debunking election fraud
claims made by its own hosts. (
3-min.
Fox video; CNN, December 20, 2020)
After voting technology company Smartmatic sent Fox News a
blistering legal threat that accused the network of
participating in a "disinformation campaign" against it, the
network has started airing a remarkable news package debunking
claims its hosts and guests have propagated. The package aired
for the first time Friday night on Lou Dobbs' show. Fox News
said the same package would air Saturday night on Jeanine
Pirro's program as well as Sunday morning on Maria Bartiromo's
show. All three hosts, who use their platforms to air
pro-Trump propaganda, are close with the President.
The stunning news package featured an interview with voting
technology expert Eddie Perez, who poured cold water on a
series of conspiracy theories that have been amplified and
promoted on the shows of Dobbs, Pirro, and Bartiromo.
[FLASH: A Fox News clip you'll WANT to hear!]
Heather
Cox Richardson: Trump and the Republicans are fighting tooth
and nail to retain their hold on power, while
President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala
Harris are quietly trying to move forward. (Letters from
an American, December 19, 2020)
Today, New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Zolan
Kanno-Youngs reported that Trump held a long meeting at the
White House yesterday with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani; disgraced
former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, whom Trump
recently pardoned for lying to the FBI; and Flynn’s lawyer
Sidney Powell. These four are the heart of those
insisting—without evidence—that Trump won the 2020 election.
They have talked of Trump declaring martial law and holding
new elections. In the meeting, Trump apparently asked about
appointing Powell as special counsel to investigate voter
fraud in the 2020 election. White House advisers in the room,
including White House counsel Pat A. Cipollone and White House
Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, pushed back strongly, noting that
Powell has yet to prove any of her accusations. Axios
journalist Jonathan Swan reported that senior Trump officials
think Trump is spending too much time with crackpots who are
egging him on to seize power. One told Swan: when Trump is
"retweeting threats of putting politicians in jail, and spends
his time talking to conspiracy nuts who openly say declaring
martial law is no big deal, it’s impossible not to start
getting anxious about how this ends."
This week, the United States learned of a massive hack on our
government and business sector. Intelligence agents as well as
Trump's Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, say Russia is behind
the attack. Once again, though, Trump refuses to criticize
Russian President Vladimir Putin. He claimed that the attack
wasn't as bad as the "Fake News Media" says it is, and he
suggested the culprit could have been China, rather than
Russia. Then, once again, he insisted he won the election.
And yet, if the Trump administration models an assault on our
country by a group of oligarchs determined to seize power, the
incoming Biden administration is signaling that it takes
seriously our future as a true multicultural democracy.
Nothing signals that more than the nomination of
Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM) as Secretary of the Interior
Department. Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo people
who have lived in the land that is now New Mexico for 35
generations. She is the daughter of two military veterans. A
single mother who earned a law degree with a young daughter in
tow, she was a tribal leader focused on environmentally
responsible economic development for the Lagunas before she
became a Democratic leader.
The Interior Department today manages our natural resources as
well as the government’s relationship with Indigenous tribes.
Placing Haaland at the head of it is more than simply
promoting diversity in government. It is a recognition of 170
years of American history and the perversion of our principles
by men who lusted for power. It is a sign that we are finally
trying to use the government for the good of everyone.
[Read on online, for her brief and accurate history of U.S.
mistreatment of Native Americans.]
Kazakhstan
spies on citizens’ HTTPS traffic; browser-makers fight back.
(Ars Technica, December 19, 2020)
Kazakhstan gov required citizens to install self-signed root
certificate (again).
John
Schindler Stop Blaming Foreigners for America’s Awful
Cybersecurity. (Top Secret Umbra, December 19, 2020)
These debacles will keep happening until we get serious about
security in general, cyber or otherwise. There are big
obstacles to getting better. Politics remains a problem, when
our political parties are only interested in security when it
can be used as a cudgel to beat the other party with. In
addition, Americans of all stripes have had an unserious
attitude towards counterintelligence for decades, as I
highlighted in my last Top Secret Umbra column.
Counterintelligence and security work can be a drag:
difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes downright depressing.
The SpyWar never sleeps. Victories there are incremental,
never total, and sometimes difficult to detect at all.
This dismissive attitude towards counterintelligence was
painful enough during the last Cold War, with traitors costing
us lives, battles, and uncounted treasure. However, this
fundamental unseriousness about protecting secrets is
seriously lethal in the online age, when every government
agency is fully networked and virtually every American is
walking around every waking moment carrying around an
espionage device that spies on everything they do, buy, and
say, while offering Internet and telephone access in exchange.
Mike
Pompeo admits Russia was behind series of cyber attacks,
Trump immediately slaps him down. (Daily Kos, December
19, 2020)
For months, Russian hackers have been racing around inside
systems at the highest levels of the U.S. government,
exploiting a weakness in “SolarWinds” networking software that
went completely unnoticed until it was pointed out by a third
party. Those hacks have included intrusions into systems that
contain critical information about the nation’s power grid, as
well as those having stewardship over the nuclear stockpile.
All the while, Donald Trump has refused to even mention Russia
(outside of repeating lies about the Mueller investigation)
and is even promising to veto a national defense spending bill
that includes a program to fight Russian cyber warfare.
So when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted on Friday that
Russia was behind the widespread hacks, it should not be news.
After all, this has been in the news for over a week. It
affects at least half a dozen federal agencies. And there is
no doubt about the origin of the attacks. But in the Trump
White House, just getting an admission that Russia can do
something wrong, is an effort.
Michael
Cohen: Trump's legal and financial problems have him headed
for a 'full mental breakdown'. (Raw Story, December 19,
2020)
The president is looking at losing the protections of his
office, his family is being investigated by both Manhattan
District Attorney General Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York
Attorney General Letitia James and he reportedly has over $400
million in debt coming due in the near future. As Kruse
explains, "This is new territory for Trump, who over the
course of a lifetime of professional and personal
transgressions and failures has assembled a record of
remarkable resilience, emerging all but unscathed from every
one of his brushes with ruin," with Trump niece -- and
psychologist -- Mary Trump telling him, "He's never been in a
situation in which he has lost in a way he can't escape from."
Former Trump attorney Cohen, who has an intimate knowledge of
Trump's financial dealings before he became president, claims
he doesn't see the president holding up under the stress. In
an interview with Kruse, Cohen stated, "His fragile ego has
never been tested to this extent. As each day ends, Trump
knows he's one day closer to legal and financial troubles.
Accordingly, we will all see his behavior deteriorate until it
progresses into a full mental breakdown."
Yale forensic psychiatrist Bandy Lee concurred by explaining,
"We're at a stage now where his detachment from reality is
pretty much complete and his symptoms are as severe as can
be," adding the president is currently like "a car without
functioning brakes" that "always crashes."
The
inside story of how Trump’s denial, mismanagement and
magical thinking led to the pandemic’s dark winter
(Washington Post, December 19, 2020)
As the number of coronavirus cases ticked upward in
mid-November — worse than the frightening days of spring and
ahead of an expected surge after families congregated for
Thanksgiving — four doctors on President Trump’s task force
decided to stage an intervention. After their warnings had
gone largely unheeded for months in the dormant West Wing,
Deborah Birx, Anthony S. Fauci, Stephen Hahn and Robert
Redfield together sounded new alarms, cautioning of a dark
winter to come without dramatic action to slow community
spread.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, among the many Trump
aides who were infected with the virus this fall, was taken
aback, according to three senior administration officials with
knowledge of the discussions. He told the doctors he did not
believe their troubling data assessment. And he accused them
of outlining problems without prescribing solutions.
Moderna
OKed — Second COVID vaccine approved for use in the US.
(Ars Technica, December 19, 2020)
More vaccines will help ease shortages, work through priority
list.
Britain
tightens lock-downs over virus mutation with ‘significantly
faster’ transmission rates. (Washington Post, December
19, 2020)
Faced with a newly emerging coronavirus mutation with
"significantly faster" transmission rates, Britain on Saturday
announced tightened pandemic restrictions that returned London
and parts of the country to virtual lock-down and reversed
earlier promises for relaxed rules over theChristmas holiday.
The new mutation, or variant, was first detected in southeast
England in September and is quickly becoming the dominant
strain in London and other regions in Britain. Experts said it
does not appear more deadly or resistant to vaccines, but may
be up to 70 percent more transmissible than previous versions
of the virus here. “This is spreading very fast,” said British
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announcing local and
international travel bans and other extreme measures for about
18 million people in England beginning Sunday. Wales and
Scotland followed with their own tightened restrictions,
including banning all but essential movement around the isle.
South
Africa announces a new coronavirus variant. (New York
Times, December 18, 2020)
South African scientists and health officials announced on
Friday the discovery of a new lineage of the coronavirus that
has quickly come to dominate samples of virus tested in the
country. Scientists are examining this particular variant
closely because it includes several changes in the part of the
virus that allows it to attach to human cells, which is a key
target for antibody therapies and vaccines. The variant, named
501.V2, has also been associated in a preliminary analysis
with faster spread and a higher load of virus found in swabs.
It has not yet been linked to any difference in disease
severity, and the findings have not yet been reviewed by other
scientists or published in a journal.
The
wealthy scramble for COVID-19 vaccines: ‘If I donate $25,000
... would that help me?’ (Los Angeles Times, December
18, 2020)
With the first doses in short supply, California has laid out
a strict order of vaccinations based on need and risk:
Healthcare workers and nursing home residents, then essential
workers and those with chronic health conditions, then,
finally, everyone else.
But to those with power, money and influence, rules can always
be bent. California’s stern messaging about serving the
neediest first hasn’t stopped the rich from trying to leap
ahead of teachers, farmworkers and firefighters.
Stanford
hospital erupts in protest after vaccine plan leaves out
residents. [Ars Technica, December 18, 2020 and updated]
Only 0.5% of the medical residents at Stanford are in on the
first round of shots.
Update: Stanford Medicine shared the following
statement: "We take complete responsibility for the errors in
the execution of our vaccine distribution plan. Our intent was
to develop an ethical and equitable process for distribution
of the vaccine. We apologize to our entire community,
including our residents, fellows, and other frontline care
providers, who have performed heroically during our pandemic
response. We are immediately revising our plan to better
sequence the distribution of the vaccine."
Tracking
COVID-19 Vaccines Around the World (Visual Capitalist,
December 18, 2020)
In November 2020, the world received the exciting news that
the first COVID-19 vaccines were ready for roll out—and as of
now, nearly 7.25 billion doses have been pre-purchased by
countries and organizations around the globe. Today’s
visualizations highlight the number of vaccine doses that
different countries have purchased, as well as the companies
and organizations that have pre-sold them.
Georgia
Senate Runoffs Becoming Turnout Battle. (eBay Main
Street, December 18, 2020)
[We find its Massachusetts section to be interesting.]
Pentagon
halts Biden transition briefings. (Axios, December 18,
2020)
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.
The latest: Biden transition director Yohannes Abraham
contradicted the Pentagon's official response to this story on
Friday afternoon, telling reporters, "Let me be clear: there
was no mutually agreed upon holiday break. In fact, we think
it’s important that briefings and other engagements continue
during this period as there’s no time to spare, and that’s
particularly true in the aftermath of ascertainment delay",
referring to the Trump administration's delay in recognizing
Biden as president-elect.
Miller had said in a statement following the publication of
this story: "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."
Behind the scenes: Trump administration officials left open
the possibility that cooperation would resume after a holiday
pause. The officials were unsure what prompted Miller's
action, or whether President Trump approved.
[All this during publicity about the worst cybersecurity break
in American history.]
Kushner
helped create 'campaign' shell company that secretly paid
Trump's family members. (Daily Kos, December 18, 2020)
Donald Trump's son-in-law and chief adviser Jared Kushner
approved creation of a shell company that "secretly paid"
Trump's family members and "spent almost half of the
campaign's $1.26 billion war chest." That would amount to a
cool $617 million in cash supposedly meant for Trump's
reelection campaign that essentially disappeared without a
trace. The shell company appears to have served as a
pass-through entity - with the added benefit of shielding all
of its transactions from public view.
The shell company, called American Made Media Consultants
Corporation and American Made Media Consultants LLC (AMMC),
evaded federally-mandated disclosures that would have provided
insights into where Trump's campaign cash was being funneled.
Even some of Trump's top advisors and campaign staff—who were
aware of the company—say they knew next to nothing about its
operations. Campaign finance records reveal that more than
$600 million was spent through AMMC, but it's unclear exactly
where that money went.
Stephen
Colbert: 2020: The Year That Took Years (13-min. video;
The Late Show, December 18, 2020)
45's
Falsehoods and Failures (People For the American Way,
December 18, 2020)
This week, the United States continued to hit one dangerous
record high after another, with the country passing 300,000
deaths due to COVID-19. That toll is roughly the equivalent of
losing the entire population of Pittsburgh or St. Louis.
From day one, Donald Trump, his administration, and his
Republican allies in Congress have minimized or ignored the
crisis. Their negligence continues to exacerbate the
pandemic’s devastating impact on our country. This week was no
different.
Microsoft
president calls SolarWinds hack an “act of recklessness”.
(Ars Technica, December 18, 2020)
Of 18,000 backdoored servers, hackers followed up on only a
few dozen.
Microsoft
is reportedly added to the growing list of victims in
SolarWinds hack. (Ars Technica, December 17, 2020)
Other reported victims include the Energy Department nuke
security administration.
The
Senate seems to have a deal on virus relief — despite Mitch
McConnell’s “red line.” (New York Times, December 17,
2020)
When people talk about the Senate, they often imagine that
McConnell, as the majority leader, is all-powerful and can
prevent any bill he doesn’t like from coming up for a vote.
That’s not the case. Any senator can propose that a bill
receive a vote. If at least 50 other senators want it to
receive one, it will.
Looking
into the genetics of severe COVID-19 (Ars Technica,
December 17, 2020)
Genetics may underlie some of the variability in people's
symptoms.
DHS
Inspectors Found ICE Detainees Who Were Kept In Solitary
Confinement For 300 Days. (Buzzfeed News, December 17,
2020)
Inspectors also found that nearly a dozen immigrants detainees
were kept in solitary confinement for more than two months.
‘Everything’s
great’: GOP ditches election post-mortems. (Politico,
December 17, 2020)
Mitt Romney lost by 5 million votes in 2012 and sparked
a
100-page RNC autopsy report. Donald Trump lost by 7
million and there isn’t a peep.
Pence
makes plans to leave the country immediately after
overseeing Trump's final loss. (Daily Kos, December 17,
2020)
Google
committed “antitrust evils,” colluded with Facebook, new
lawsuit says. (Ars Technica, December 17, 2020)
The AGs of 52 US states and territories are joining the feds
to sue Google.
China
collects Moon samples, may not share with NASA due to Wolf
Amendment. (Ars Technica, December 17, 2020)
The country returned about 2kg of rocks from the Moon's
surface.
“Evil
mobile emulator farms” were used to steal millions from US
and EU banks. (Ars Technica, December 17, 2020)
The scale of the operation was unlike anything the researchers
have seen before. In one case, crooks used about 20 emulators
to mimic more than 16,000 phones belonging to customers whose
mobile bank accounts had been compromised. The thieves then
entered usernames and passwords into banking apps running on
the emulators and initiated fraudulent money orders that
siphoned funds out of the compromised accounts. Emulators are
used by legitimate developers and researchers to test how apps
run on a variety of different mobile devices. To bypass
protections banks use to block such attacks, the crooks used
device identifiers corresponding to each compromised account
holder and spoofed GPS locations the device was known to use.
The device IDs were likely obtained from the holders’ hacked
devices, although in some cases, the fraudsters gave the
appearance that they were customers who were accessing their
accounts from new phones. The attackers were also able to
bypass multi-factor authentication by accessing SMS messages.
The operation raises the usual security advice about using
strong passwords, learning how to spot phishing scams, and
keeping devices free of malware. It would be nice if banks
provided multi factor authentication through a medium other
than SMS, but few financial institutions do. People should
review their bank statements at least once a month to look for
fraudulent transactions.
Dutch
prosecutors say that hacker guessed Trump’s Twitter
password: Guess what it was? (Daily Kos, December 17,
2020)
Gevers also told a newspaper that this was the second time
he’s hacked the president’s Twitter account by guessing the
password.
SolarWinds
hack that breached gov networks poses a “grave risk” to the
nation. (Ars Technica, December 17, 2020)
Nuclear weapons agency among those breached by state-sponsored
hackers.
Little-known
SolarWinds gets scrutiny over hack, stock sales. (ABC
News, December 16, 2020)
Before this week, few people were aware of SolarWinds, a
Texas-based software company providing vital computer network
monitoring services to corporations and government agencies
around the world.
The revelation that elite cyber spies have spent months
secretly exploiting SolarWinds' software to peer into computer
networks has put many of its highest-profile customers in
national governments and Fortune 500 companies on high alert.
And it's raising questions about whether company insiders knew
of its security vulnerabilities as its biggest investors sold
off stock.
The
magnitude of this national security breach is hard to
overstate. (New York Times, December 16, 2020)
At the worst possible time, when the United States is at its
most vulnerable — during a presidential transition and a
devastating public health crisis — the networks of the federal
government and much of corporate America are compromised by a
foreign nation. We need to understand the scale and
significance of what is happening.
Last week, the cybersecurity firm FireEye said it had been
hacked and that its clients, which include the United States
government, had been placed at risk. This week, we learned
that SolarWinds, a publicly traded company that provides
software to tens of thousands of government and corporate
customers, was also hacked. The attackers gained access to
SolarWinds software before updates of that software were made
available to its customers. Unsuspecting customers then
downloaded a corrupted version of the software, which included
a hidden back door that gave hackers access to the victim’s
network.
On Dec. 13, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security
Agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security —
itself a victim — issued an emergency directive ordering
federal civilian agencies to remove SolarWinds software from
their networks. The removal is aimed at stopping the bleeding.
Unfortunately, the move is sadly insufficient and woefully too
late. The damage is already done and the computer networks are
already compromised. It also is impractical. In 2017, the
federal government was ordered to remove from its networks
software from a Russian company, Kaspersky Lab, that was
deemed too risky. It took over a year to get it off the
networks. Even if we double that pace with SolarWinds
software, and even if it wasn’t already too late, the
situation would remain dire for a long time.
The response must be broader than patching networks. While all
indicators point to the Russian government, the United States,
and ideally its allies, must publicly and formally attribute
responsibility for these hacks. If it is Russia, President
Trump must make it clear to Vladimir Putin that these actions
are unacceptable. The U.S. military and intelligence community
must be placed on increased alert; all elements of national
power must be placed on the table.
President Trump must get past his grievances about the
election and govern for the remainder of his term. This moment
requires unity, purpose and discipline. An intrusion so brazen
and of this size and scope cannot be tolerated by any
sovereign nation. We are sick, distracted, and now under
cyberattack. Leadership is essential.
How
suspected Russian hackers outed their massive cyberattack
(Politico, December 16, 2020)
A cybersecurity firm says a suspicious log-in prompted it to
investigate what turned out to be a gaping security hole for
the U.S. government and many large companies.
Russia’s
Hacking Frenzy Is a Reckoning. (Wired, December 16,
2020)
Despite years of warning, the US still has no good answer for
the sort of “supply chain” attack that let Russia run wild.
This week, several major United States government
agencies—including the Departments of Homeland Security,
Commerce, Treasury, and State—discovered that their digital
systems had been breached by Russian hackers in a months-long
espionage operation. The breadth and depth of the attacks will
take months, if not longer, to fully understand. But it's
already clear that they represent a moment of reckoning, both
for the federal government and the IT industry that supplies
it.
‘Like
a Hand Grasping’: Trump Appointees Describe the Crushing of
the C.D.C. (New York Times, December 16, 2020)
Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, and his deputy, Amanda
Campbell, go public on the Trump administration’s manipulation
of the agency. In a series of interviews, the pair has decided
to go public with their disillusionment: what went wrong, and
what they believe needs to be done as the agency girds for
what could be a yearslong project of rebuilding its
credibility externally while easing ill feelings and
self-doubt internally.
“Everyone wants to describe the day that the light switch
flipped and the C.D.C. was sidelined. It didn’t happen that
way,” Mr. McGowan said. “It was more of like a hand grasping
something, and it slowly closes, closes, closes, closes until
you realize that, middle of the summer, it has a complete
grasp on everything at the C.D.C.”
Last week, the editor in chief of the C.D.C.’s flagship weekly
disease outbreak reports — once considered untouchable — told
House Democrats investigating political interference in the
agency’s work that she was ordered to destroy an email showing
Trump appointees attempting to meddle with their publication.
The White House insisted on reviewing — and often softening —
the C.D.C.’s closely guarded coronavirus guidance documents,
the most prominent public expression of its latest research
and scientific consensus on the spread of the virus. The
documents were vetted not only by the White House’s
coronavirus task force but by what felt to the agency’s
employees like an endless loop of political appointees across
Washington.
Mr. McGowan recalled a White House fixated on the economic
implications of public health. He and Dr. Robert R. Redfield,
the C.D.C. director, negotiated with Russell T. Vought, the
White House budget director, over social distancing guidelines
for restaurants, as Mr. Vought argued that specific spacing
recommendations would be too onerous for businesses to
enforce. “It is not the C.D.C.’s role to determine the
economic viability of a guidance document,” Mr. McGowan said.
They compromised anyway, recommending social distancing
without a reference to the typical six-foot measurement.
Dr. Tom Frieden, the C.D.C. director under President Barack
Obama, said it was typical and “legitimate” to have
interagency process for review. “What’s not legitimate is to
overrule science,” he said.
Often, Mr. McGowan and Ms. Campbell mediated between Dr.
Redfield and agency scientists when the White House’s guidance
requests and dictates would arrive: edits from Mr. Vought and
Kellyanne Conway, the former White House adviser, on choirs
and communion in faith communities, or suggestions from Ivanka
Trump, the president’s daughter and aide, on schools. “Every
time that the science clashed with the messaging, messaging
won,” Mr. McGowan said.
Episodes of meddling sometimes turned absurd, they said. In
the spring, the C.D.C. published an app that allowed Americans
to screen themselves for symptoms of Covid-19. But the Trump
administration decided to develop a similar tool with Apple.
White House officials then demanded that the C.D.C. wipe its
app off its website, Mr. McGowan said.
Ms. Campbell said that at the pandemic’s outset, she was
confident the agency had the best scientists in the world at
its disposal, “just like we had in the past.” “What was so
different, though, was the political involvement, not only
from H.H.S. but then the White House, ultimately, that in so
many ways hampered what our scientists were able to do,” she
said. Mr. McGowan and Ms. Campbell, who have since opened a
health policy consulting firm, said they saw themselves as
keepers of the agency’s senior scientists, whose morale had
been sapped. Dr. Redfield, whose leadership has been
criticized roundly by public health experts and privately by
his own scientists, was rarely in Atlanta, consumed by
Washington responsibilities.
A
Glitch in Trump’s Plan to Live at Mar-a-Lago: A Pact He
Signed Says He Can’t. (New York Times, December 16,
2020)
Neighbors of the president say he has violated the 1993
agreement he made with Palm Beach that allowed him to convert
a private residence into a moneymaking club.
NEW: 5
ways MacKenzie Scott’s $5.8 billion commitment to social and
economic justice is a model for other donors. (The
Conversation, December 16, 2020)
In July 2020, Scott revealed that she’d already given away
nearly $1.7 billion to 116 organizations, many of which
focused on racial justice, women’s rights, LGBTQ equality,
democracy and climate change. All told, her 2020 philanthropy
totals more than $5.8 billion. Scott directed her latest round
of giving to 384 organizations to support people
disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. She made
dozens of gifts to food banks, United Way chapters, YMCAs and
YWCAs – organizations that have seen increased demand for
services and, in some cases, declines in philanthropic gifts.
In the two blog posts she has written to break the news, Scott
has encouraged donors of all means to join her, whether those
gifts are money or time. She says (and follows):
1. Don’t attach strings.
2. Champion representation.
3. Act first, talk later.
4. Don’t obsess about scale.
5. Leverage more than money.
Philanthropy that’s intended to bring about social change
inherently expresses the donor’s values, Scott acknowledged in
her announcement. She also recognized her immense privilege,
highlighting the need to address societal structures that
sustain inequality. And like many women donors, she is using
her position to amplify the voices of the leaders and groups
she supported. Her goal is to encourage others to give, join
or volunteer to support those same causes. As Scott noted, the
issues her philanthropy addresses are complex and will require
sustained and broad-based efforts to solve.
Previously married to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, the
world's second-wealthiest woman announced in July that from
now on she’ll be using her middle name as her new last name.
Rita
Payés and her family perform "Nunca vas a comprender".
(5-min. music video; YouTube, December 16, 2020)
New today: Beautiful music, in a season when we need it!
A
Day on Venus (5-min. podcast; Damn Interesting, December
16, 2020)
Compared to Earth, our astronomical next-door neighbor Venus
is 95 percent as large, 28 percent closer to the sun, and
almost identical in planetary composition. However, if one
wished to spend a day on Venus’s surface—from one sunrise to
the next—one would be confronted with a considerable array of
hindrances and novelties.
Google:
Here's what caused our big global outage. (ZDnet,
December 15, 2020)
Google fingers its storage quota system for the outage
affecting Gmail, YouTube and Google Cloud Platform.
Was
Jesus really born in Bethlehem? Why the Gospels disagree
over the circumstances of Christ’s birth. (The
Conversation, December 15, 2020)
Republicans
Need a Postmortem, But Trump Won’t Even Admit He’s Dead.
(New York Magazine, December 15, 2020)
One of the weird things about the aftermath of the 2020
presidential election is that those in the winning party are
engaged in all sorts of retrospective looks at what went
wrong, while those in the the losing party are bellowing
triumphantly that they actually won “by a landslide,” as
Donald Trump and his campaign keep asserting. (On Monday, the
Electoral College confirmed this is definitely not true.)
Georgia
GOP senators dig in on refusal to recognize Biden win.
(The Hill, December 15, 2020)
The developments from the top echelons of the GOP in the
Senate put Perdue and Loeffler in a difficult position. Going
forward, they will have to choose between siding with Trump
and the populist base of the party, or aligning themselves
with Republican leaders in the Senate, who — unlike Trump —
will remain in office after Jan. 20.
“These are very rough waters,” said veteran GOP strategist
Doug Heye. “They can’t make their best argument, which is a
check and balance on the Biden-Harris administration,” he
said. “But then they also can’t do the secondary message that
goes along with that which is ‘you need to go to the polls,
your vote is important’ because a part of the base is saying
‘my vote doesn’t matter, it’s going to get stolen anyways.' ”
McConnell
congratulates Biden on White House win. (The Hill,
December 15, 2020)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) congratulated
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala
Harris on Tuesday, marking the first time he has directly
acknowledged their victory. "The Electoral College has spoken,
so today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. The
president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He's devoted
himself to public service for many years. Many of us hoped
that the presidential election would yield a different result,
but our system of government has processes to determine who
will be sworn in on January 20."
McConnell
urges GOP senators not to object to Electoral College vote.
(The Hill, December 15, 2020)
Longtime
GOP strategist Steve Schmidt announces he's registering
Democrat. (The Hill, December 15, 2020)
“I spent 29 years as a Republican, I’ve spent two and a half
as an independent, and later this afternoon I will register as
a member of the Democratic Party. Because in America today,
it’s only the Democratic Party—which is the oldest political
party in the world—that stands for the ideas and ideals of
American liberty.”
Barr
exit hints at further tumult under Trump. (The Hill,
December 15, 2020)
Some Republicans believe Barr's exit was a sign that he hoped
to distance himself from Trump's unproven claims of voter
fraud and legal maneuvering in his final weeks in office,
where Trump is likely to try to exert pressure on the Justice
Department one final time.
"Bill Barr drew a line in the sand. The president stepped over
it with his ongoing effort to try to overturn the will of the
voters and Bill Barr apparently had enough," Sen. Mitt Romney
(R-Utah) told CNBC on Monday. "I'm not surprised that he could
no longer associate himself with the process that's going on
now," Romney added.
Mapping
the Recovery from the Global Recession of 2020
(Animation; Visual Capitalist, December 15, 2020)
The
F.D.A. greenlights a new at-home virus test. (New York
Times, December 14, 2020)
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday issued an
emergency authorization for the country’s first coronavirus
test that can run from start to finish at home without the
need for a prescription. People as young as 2 are cleared to
use the test, which takes just 15 to 20 minutes to deliver a
result. Unlike many similar products, which are only supposed
to be used by people with symptoms of Covid-19, this test is
authorized for people with or without symptoms.
The test, developed by the Australian company Ellume, detects
bits of coronavirus proteins called antigens. It’s slightly
less accurate than gold standard laboratory tests designed to
look for coronavirus genetic material using a technique called
polymerase chain reaction, or P.C.R. But in a clinical study
of nearly 200 people, Ellume’s product was able to detect 95
percent of the coronavirus infections found by P.C.R.,
regardless of whether the infected people felt sick. It also
correctly identified 97 percent of the people who received
negative laboratory test results.
A
new way to travel across the US (BBC, December 14, 2020)
Stretching an extraordinary 3,700 miles from Washington DC to
the Pacific Ocean, an ambitious new bike trail is aiming to be
“America’s Main Street”.
Biden
speaks in a primetime address on the electoral college vote
giving him the presidency. (Los Angeles Blade, December
14, 2020)
It is my sincere hope we never again see anyone subjected to
the kind of threats and abuse we saw in this election. It’s
simply unconscionable. We owe these public servants a debt of
gratitude. Our democracy survived because of them.
If anyone didn’t know it before, we know it now. What beats
deep in the hearts of the American people is this: Democracy.
The right to be heard. To have your vote counted. To choose
the leaders of this nation. To govern ourselves. In America,
politicians don’t take power — the people grant it to them.
The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago.
And we now know that nothing — not even a pandemic —or an
abuse of power — can extinguish that flame.
[The full text is included.]
Electoral
College Vote Officially Affirms Biden’s Victory. (New
York Times, December 14, 2020)
The vote made official Joe Biden’s victory, despite President
Trump’s attempt to subvert the nation’s democratic process,
and it put pressure on Republicans to acknowledge the outcome.
In an address on Monday night in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden
said that “it is time to turn the page” on the election.
Praising election officials who stood up for the integrity of
the voting system, he added: “It was honest, it was free and
it was fair. They saw it with their own eyes. And they
wouldn’t be bullied into saying anything different.’’
For all of the turmoil that Mr. Trump had stirred with his
conspiracy theories, lawsuits and baseless claims of fraud,
the Electoral College vote that sealed Mr. Biden’s victory was
mostly a staid, formal affair, devoid of drama. As it always
is.
Team
Trump was going to get priority access to COVID-19 vaccine,
until press found out about it. (Daily Kos, December 14,
2020)
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that top White House
staffers—specifically, those most in contact with Donald
Trump—had been given top priority for receiving the COVID-19
vaccine even though initial deliveries of the vaccine are in
such short supply that they are being rationed primarily to
front-line healthcare workers.
This lasted only a few hours before Trump's Twitter account
walked back the news, with a tweeter who sounded not much like
Trump announcing: "People working in the White House should
receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless
specifically necessary," and that "I have asked that this
adjustment be made. I am not scheduled to take the vaccine,
but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time. Thank
you!"
So either the Trump White House, which has relentlessly played
down the dangers of the pandemic and which continues to spread
the virus prolifically via the combination of mask aversion
and the refusal to cancel in-person events featuring dozens or
hundreds of guests, realized that the optics of redirecting
vaccine shipments to Team Donald Trump looked particularly
crappy even for them, or Donald and/or a Donald devotee got
wind of the plan and got personally outraged because a scurry
to vaccinate White House staff very much does not square with
the White House's policy of pretending that the pandemic is of
no particular danger to anyone.
Oh, but there's another catch here: The Trump White House lies
prolifically about everything, all the time, and there's no
actual reason to believe that they truly are releasing those
vaccines back to prioritized workers as opposed to simply
lying about it. They are absolutely that dishonest, and every
one of us knows it.
Trump
and the damage done (New York Times, December 14, 2020)
I’s hard to think of any person in my lifetime who so
perfectly epitomizes the politics of distrust, or one who so
aggressively promotes it. Trump has taught his opponents not
to believe a word he says, his followers not to believe a word
anyone else says, and much of the rest of the country to
believe nobody and nothing at all.
He has detonated a bomb under the epistemological foundations
of a civilization that is increasingly unable to distinguish
between facts and falsehoods, evidence and fantasy. He has
instructed tens of millions of people to accept the
commandment,
That which you can get away with, is true.
Voting
technology company sends legal notices to Fox News and other
right-wing media outlets over 'disinformation campaign'.
(CNN, December 14, 2020)
The company, Smartmatic, said that Fox News, One America News,
and Newsmax have helped spread false and defamatory claims
that are not supported by real evidence and could easily have
been debunked with basic research. "They have no evidence to
support their attacks on Smartmatic because there is no
evidence," Smartmatic chief executive Antonio Mugica said in a
statement. "This campaign was designed to defame Smartmatic
and undermine legitimately conducted elections."
As President Donald Trump continues to attack the integrity of
the voting system, some of his allies have homed in on
Smartmatic because of the services it provided Los Angeles
County for the 2020 election. The baseless conspiracy theories
peddled about Smartmatic, which mimic those pushed against
Dominion Voting Systems, falsely suggest that the company's
technology allowed the November vote to be rigged against
Trump. Some strains of the conspiracy theory have aimed to tie
the company to the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez and
George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who is portrayed
as a boogeyman in right-wing media.
Majority
in Fox News poll says Trump disputing results is weakening
democracy. (1-min. video; The Hill, December 13, 2020)
[But of its Republicans, majority disagree.]
Hijacking
the electoral college: The plot to deny JFK the presidency
60 years ago (Washington Post, December 13, 2020)
It was a bitter, close election, and there were furious
allegations of fraud. After Democrat John F. Kennedy barely
beat Republican Richard M. Nixon in the 1960 election, a
coalition of opponents plotted to deny him the presidency in
the electoral college. Most were White, conservative electors
from the south who opposed the young Massachusetts senator’s
liberal policies, especially his support for civil rights for
Black Americans. If these electors had succeeded,
segregationist Democratic Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia would
have been elected president. His vice president would have
been Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Both men had
nothing to do with the idea.
On Monday, the electoral college will meet to ratify the
victory of Democrat Joe Biden over President Trump, who has
refused to concede. Some Trump backers are pressing states to
release electors pledged for Biden. At least 33 states
prohibit such “faithless” electors, and most other states void
switched votes.
[History tends to repeat itself. So do cheaters.]
Biden
starts countering Trump’s messaging on vaccine.
(Politico, December 12, 2020)
With the first shots being prepared for delivery to states
next week, Biden’s team is already laying the groundwork for a
public education campaign.
Trump
maskless at Army-Navy football game. (1-min. video;
WRAL, December 12, 2020)
President Donald Trump did not wear a mask for some time while
standing closely to West Point cadets and Naval Academy
midshipmen -- all of whom wore masks -- at the Army-Navy
football game.
An
Indelible Stain’: How the G.O.P. Tried to Topple a Pillar of
Democracy (New York Times, December 12, 2020)
The Supreme Court repudiation of President Trump was also a
blunt rebuke to Republican leaders who had put their interests
ahead of the country’s.
‘The
last wall’: How dozens of judges across the political
spectrum rejected Trump’s efforts to overturn the election
(Washington Post, December 12, 2020)
Since the November election, they have all ruled in court
against Trump or one of his allies seeking to challenge or
overturn the presidential vote. In a remarkable show of
near-unanimity across the nation’s judiciary, at least 86
judges — ranging from jurists serving at the lowest levels of
state court systems to members of the United States Supreme
Court — rejected at least one post-election lawsuit filed by
Trump or his supporters, a Washington Post review of court
filings found.
The string of losses was punctuated Friday by the brief and
blunt order of the Supreme Court, which dismissed an attempt
by the state of Texas to thwart the electoral votes of four
states that went for President-elect Joe Biden.
In
photos: Maskless Trump supporters and counter-protesters
face off after D.C. rally. (Axios, December 12, 2020)
Iran
executes exiled journalist who encouraged 2017 protests.
(Politico, December 12, 2020)
Ruhollah Zam was one of several opposition figures
successfully seized by Iranian intelligence operatives abroad
in recent months.
The
problems with Apple aren't just outages, they are
injustices. (Free Software Foundation, December 11,
2020)
Each time a program is opened on macOS, it phones home via the
Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) to see if that
application is "okay" to launch: it asks the corporation
permission each time a new application is encountered, sending
potentially identifying information along with that request.
While this function only made news because of the recent
server outage caused by the release of the newest version of
macOS, Big Sur, research indicates that the report-back has
existed in the operating system since September 2018, with the
release of macOS Mojave. This is a classic case of proprietary
software serving as an instrument of unjust power.
Here’s
what happened when a Georgia lawmaker scrutinized the Trump
campaign’s list of allegedly illegal votes. (13-min.
video; Washington Post, December 11, 2020)
On Thursday, when a White House data analyst who
compiled the list told a panel of state lawmakers that it
proved thousands of voters cast ballots in Georgia who should
not have, Nguyen was ready. “I do want to share with you some
of the things that I found that appeared to be incorrect to
me,” the two-term lawmaker told Matt Braynard, whose research
has been cited in numerous suits filed by Trump and his
allies, several of which have been tossed out of the courts.
Nguyen’s 10-minute dissection of the data offered a rare
real-time fact check of the unsubstantiated claims of
widespread fraud that the president’s allies have promoted in
state hearings around the country, largely before friendly
Republican audiences. “If you are going to take the names of
voters in the state of Georgia and publish their first, middle
and last name, their home address, and accuse them of
committing a felony, at the very minimum there should have
been an attempt to contact these voters,” she said in an
interview after the hearing. “There was no such attempt.”
In Georgia and elsewhere, many state Republicans have given
Trump a platform to air the claims, holding legislative
hearings on election integrity that have largely been used to
recycle conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated allegations.
The forum was sharply criticized by officials with the
secretary of state’s office, who have defended the integrity
of the election and denounced efforts to undermine public
faith in the outcome. “Giving oxygen to this continued
disinformation is leading to a continuing erosion of people’s
belief in our elections and our processes,” Gabriel Sterling,
Georgia’s voting information systems manager, said during a
news conference Thursday afternoon.
Georgia certified its election results for the second time
this week after a second recount of presidential ballots
reaffirmed Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the state.
Head
of FDA on chopping block as Trump rages over vaccine
authorization. (Ars Technica, December 11, 2020)
Vaccinations could start early next week, but FDA head could
be out of a job by then.
FDA
advisor explains why she voted against recommending Pfizer’s
Covid vaccine for emergency use. (CNBC, December 11,
2020)
Dr. Archana Chatterjee told CNBC on Friday she voted against
recommending emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s Covid-19
vaccine because she did not believe 16- and 17-year-olds
should be included. “I want to be very clear that I am fully
supportive” of clearing the vaccine for use in people 18 years
and older, the dean of the Chicago Medical School said. “I
think that we were pleasantly surprised to see that this
vaccine has such good efficacy in tens of thousands of
participants that were included in the trial.”
Biden
says FDA panel's advisory vote on Pfizer vaccine a 'bright
light in a needlessly dark time'. (The Hill, December
10, 2020)
The advisory panel voted 17-4 in favor of approving the
vaccine, with one abstention. The FDA is not bound to follow
their recommendation but is widely expected to do so. The
development is a key marker in the battle against COVID-19,
which to date has infected more than 15.5 million Americans
and killed more than 290,000. The U.S. recorded more than
3,000 deaths due to the coronavirus in a single day Wednesday,
which Biden acknowledged in his statement Thursday.
Scientists
suggest US embassies were hit with high-power microwaves,
Here’s how the weapons work. (2-min. video; The
Conversation, December 10, 2020)
The mystery ailment that has afflicted U.S. embassy staff and
CIA officers off and on over the last four years in Cuba,
China, Russia and other countries appears to have been caused
by high-power microwaves, according to a report released by
the National Academies. A committee of 19 experts in medicine
and other fields concluded that directed, pulsed
radiofrequency energy is the “most plausible mechanism” to
explain the illness, dubbed Havana syndrome.
The report doesn’t clear up who targeted the embassies or why
they were targeted. But the technology behind the suspected
weapons is well understood and dates back to the Cold War arms
race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. High-power
microwave weapons are generally designed to disable electronic
equipment. But as the Havana syndrome reports show, these
pulses of energy can harm people, as well.
'Christmas
Star,' not seen in 800 years, will light up on longest night
of the year. (The Hill, December 10, 2020)
A planetary conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn on December
21st will be the closest to Earth since medieval times.
FTC
and 48 States Sue Facebook for Anticompetitive Practices.
(Tom's Hardware, December 9, 2020)
The coalition’s lawsuit calls for Facebook to be barred from
making any future acquisitions worth $10 million or more
without advance notice to state governments, as well as calls
for unspecified additional relief and for Facebook to end
other anticompetitive practices. The FTC’s lawsuit goes a step
further- it’s also pushing for advance notice of Facebook
mergers, but in addition, the FTC is seeking to unwind
Instagram and Whatsapp from Facebook’s control.
“Personal social networking is central to the lives of
millions of Americans,” FTC Bureau of Competition Director Ian
Conner said today in a press release. “Facebook’s actions to
entrench and maintain its monopoly deny consumers the benefits
of competition. Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s
anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that
innovation and free competition can thrive.”
Earth
Is Still Sailing Into Climate Chaos, UN Report Says, but Its
Course Could Shift. (New York Times, December 9, 2020)
The world as a whole is dangerously behind schedule in slowing
catastrophic climate change, and its richest people will have
to make big changes in their everyday lives in order to shift
course,
a major
United Nations report warned Wednesday. Emissions are
expected to drop by about 7 percent in 2020, because of the
economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the
report found. But that would have what its authors called a
“negligible” impact on the overall warming trend. The average
global temperature has increased already by 1 degree Celsius
since preindustrial times and is on course to rise by more
than 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, according to
the latest calculations. While those numbers appear small, the
increase in global averages is linked to record-breaking heat
waves, widening wildfires and storms that bring devastatingly
heavy rainfall.
The goal of the Paris accord is to limit average global
temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, in order to
have a good shot at averting the worst effects of climate
change, like food insecurity and the inundation of coastal
cities. The pledges announced by countries so far are not
enough to reach that goal, the United Nations report found.
What matters now is whether countries will sufficiently
upgrade their climate targets and detail what they will do in
the next 10 years, which are crucial, according to climate
scientists.
China has said that it would start reducing emissions in the
next decade and then rapidly reduce its emissions to net-zero
before 2060; it is expected to submit its revised national
targets under the Paris Agreement soon. The United Nations is
pressing countries to announce more ambitious climate targets
under the Paris accord by Saturday, when it convenes an online
meeting of world leaders to mark the agreement’s fifth
anniversary. The pact can’t force any country to do anything
about its own pollution trajectory. Rather, it leverages
diplomatic peer pressure, with each country setting voluntary
targets of its own to reduce the growth of emissions. Britain,
a center of the Industrial Revolution and the host of the next
international climate talks, which have been postponed to late
2021 because of the pandemic, has set out new climate targets,
promising to cut emissions by 68 percent by 2030, compared
with 1990 levels. European Union leaders have said they are
optimistic about reaching an agreement at their meeting
Thursday on a revised goal to reduce the continent’s total
emissions by 55 percent in the next 10 years, compared with
1990 levels. Japan and Korea, both large emitters, have
announced net-zero targets, too, in recent weeks.
Massachusetts
Vaccine Distribution Plan: General Public Waits Until April.
(Patch News, December 9, 2020)
The timeline on a new three-phase distribution plan starts
next week with hospitals receiving the first 60,000 Pfizer
doses.
Massachusetts
Coronavirus Restrictions, Masks May Be Here 6 to 9 More
Months. (Patch News, December 9, 2020)
Vaccine Advisory Group Chief says that's how long it will take
the state to vaccinate enough people to achieve herd immunity,
ease mandates.
What
You Need to Know About Getting Tested for Coronavirus
(New York Times, December 9, 2020)
Long lines, slow results and inconsistent advice have left
many of us confused about when and how to get tested. We
talked to the experts to answer your questions.
Covid-19
vaccine: Allergy warning over new jab (BBC News,
December 9, 2020)
People with a history of significant allergic reactions should
not have the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid jab, regulators say. The
warning came after two NHS workers had allergic reactions on
Tuesday. The advice applies to those who have had reactions to
medicines, food or vaccines, the Medicines and Healthcare
products Regulatory Agency said.
The two people had a reaction shortly after having the new
jab, had treatment and are both fine now. They are understood
to have had an anaphylactoid reaction, which tends to involve
a skin rash, breathlessness and sometimes a drop in blood
pressure. This is not the same as anaphylaxis which can be
fatal. Both NHS workers have a history of serious allergies
and carry adrenaline pens around with them.
How
Biden aims to Covid-proof his administration (Politico,
December 9, 2020)
Avoiding superspreader events, requiring masks and encouraging
remote work are all part of the transition's effort to keep
its staff safe. They also plan to have the White House — which
has seen numerous virus outbreaks among staffers and top
officials this year— meticulously sanitized. “It’ll be the
polar opposite of what you’re seeing now. I think the social
penalties for non-mask wearing will be great. Instead of
people being ridiculed for wearing masks, they’ll be pressured
in the other direction. It’ll be hard to be in a meeting and
not wear a mask or social distance.”
How
to get rid of the Electoral College (Brookings
Institution, December 9, 2020)
The
Electoral College is a ticking time bomb. (Brookings
Institution, December 9, 2020)
Schiff
says Trump faces "real prospect of jail time" after leaving
office. (7-min. video; CBS News, December 9, 2020)
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who is poised to
become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in
January, said President Trump faces the "real prospect of jail
time" after leaving the White House. "My takeaway is there's a
very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office,
the Justice Department may indict him — that he may be the
first president in quite some time to face the real prospect
of jail time," Schiff said on "Face the Nation" Sunday.
Schiff referenced a court filing by the U.S. attorney for the
Southern District of New York on Friday which recommended a
"substantial" prison sentence for Mr. Trump's former attorney
Michael Cohen, who prosecutors said violated campaign finance
law "in coordination with and at the direction" of the
president. Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Schiff said the court documents suggest the "president of the
United States not only coordinated, but directed an illegal
campaign scheme" to alter the outcome of the 2016 election.
Asked if the revelations in the filings meet the standard for
an impeachable offense, Schiff demurred and said more
investigative work needs to be completed by the House
Intelligence Committee and special counsel Robert Mueller,
particularly on any possible collusion or coordination between
Trump campaign associates and the Russian government. Still,
he said the separate memo by the special counsel on Cohen
includes other damaging information on Mr. Trump that
contradicts the president's repeated statements on the
campaign trail that he had no business ventures in Russia.
Chris
Krebs found another way to defend election after his firing:
Suing the Trump campaign. (2-min. video; Washington
Post, December 9, 2020)
Chris Krebs’s defamation lawsuit against President Trump's
campaign marks the most significant effort yet to hold the
president and his allies accountable for their violent
rhetoric and baseless attacks on the election’s outcome that
have led to threats against dozens of election officials. Such
threats – targeting everyone from Krebs to top state officials
and frontline poll workers – have continued to mount even as
the president's legal options to dispute the election dwindle.
The former federal election security chief may not prevail in
his suit— defamation cases are notoriously difficult to win —
but he will draw attention to the fear spreading throughout
state election offices that the verbal assaults could lead to
real-world violence and make it far tougher to run future
elections. It's also a way for the lifelong Republican fired
by Trump for publicly vouching for the 2020 election's
integrity to continue his quest to knock back the campaign's
increasingly outlandish fraud claims in a court venue.
Florida
Republican loudly resigns, in protest to questionable raid
on data scientist's home. (two 4-min. videos; Daily Kos,
December 9, 2020)
Former state data scientist Rebekah Jones shared on Twitter
that her home was raided by armed Florida state police while
her husband and two small children were home on Monday. In her
Twitter thread, she included a brief video of her answering
the door, where we hear her shout, “He just pointed a gun at
my children!,” though that isn’t visible either way from the
video itself. So, why did agents arrive at her home with guns
drawn? As reported by The Washington Post, they were executing
a search warrant and gathered her cellphone and computer.
Now, Ron Filipkowski, a lifelong Republican and attorney who
was actually appointed to sit on a panel that picks judges,
has resigned in protest over the raid. He wrote in part, “The
recent events regarding public access to truthful data on the
pandemic, and the specific treatment of Rebekah Jones has made
the issue a legal one rather than just medical.” He added in
the letter that he does not wish to serve Florida’s government
in any capacity. Remember: He was appointed by Republican Gov.
Ron DeSantis himself to a pretty prestigious position, so this
is actually a very big deal.
Asked if he thought there was any chance this raid could
happen without the governor’s office knowing, Filipkowski
described Jones as a “thorn” in the governor’s side
“throughout the whole pandemic” and a pretty “high-profile”
person. “She is not his favorite person,” he stated. “FDLE
[Florida Department of Law Enforcement] has to know when
they’re going to do a raid on her like this, it’s gonna make
news,” Filipkowski continued. “It’s gonna be big news. So, the
idea that a small law-enforcement agency like FDLE, which
reports directly to the governor, would do a raid like this on
a high-profile person without clearing it through the
governor’s office … There’s just no way.”
He also stated that he watched the video Jones tweeted and
“couldn’t believe” what he was seeing. Then, after reading the
search warrant, he couldn’t believe “how broad it was” and
what they were “alleging as a supposed crime.”
Rebekah Jones, Dec. 9th: "Got new info tonight. The judge who
signed the search order of my house was appointed by Governor
Desantis and sworn in less than a month before he signed that
warrant. In civil court. He's not even a criminal court judge.
It was one of his first actions as judge."
A
Political Obituary for Donald Trump (The Atlantic,
December 9, 2020)
The effects of his reign will linger. But democracy survived.
To assess the legacy of Donald Trump’s presidency, start by
quantifying it. Since last February, more than a quarter of a
million Americans have died from COVID-19—a fifth of the
world’s deaths from the disease, the highest number of any
country. In the three years before the pandemic, 2.3 million
Americans lost their health insurance, accounting for up to
10,000 “excess deaths”; millions more lost coverage during the
pandemic. The United States’ score on the human-rights
organization Freedom House’s annual index dropped from 90 out
of 100 under President Barack Obama to 86 under Trump, below
that of Greece and Mauritius. Trump withdrew the U.S. from 13
international organizations, agreements, and treaties. The
number of refugees admitted into the country annually fell
from 85,000 to 12,000. About 400 miles of barrier were built
along the southern border. The whereabouts of the parents of
666 children seized at the border by U.S. officials remain
unknown.
Trump reversed 80 environmental rules and regulations. He
appointed more than 220 judges to the federal bench, including
three to the Supreme Court—24 percent female, 4 percent Black,
and 100 percent conservative, with more rated “not qualified”
by the American Bar Association than under any other president
in the past half century. The national debt increased by $7
trillion, or 37 percent. In Trump’s last year, the trade
deficit was on track to exceed $600 billion, the largest gap
since 2008. Trump signed just one major piece of legislation,
the 2017 tax law, which, according to one study, for the first
time brought the total tax rate of the wealthiest 400
Americans below that of every other income group. In Trump’s
first year as president, he paid $750 in taxes. While he was
in office, taxpayers and campaign donors handed over at least
$8 million to his family business.
America under Trump became less free, less equal, more
divided, more alone, deeper in debt, swampier, dirtier,
meaner, sicker, and deader. It also became more delusional. No
number from Trump’s years in power will be more lastingly
destructive than his 25,000 false or misleading statements.
Super-spread by social media and cable news, they contaminated
the minds of tens of millions of people. Trump’s lies will
linger for years, poisoning the atmosphere like radioactive
dust.
A
GOP senator reveals just how deranged many in his party have
become. (Democratic Underground, December 9, 2020)
Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, has done
something truly extraordinary. He has now stated in
unequivocal terms that it’s unacceptable for his fellow
Republicans to try to subvert the will of American voters to
keep President Trump in power illegitimately.
Why have so few other Republicans proved willing to take this
simple step? Toomey’s declaration contrasts sharply with a new
development in the Georgia runoffs. GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler
and David Perdue just announced their support for a deranged
lawsuit filed by Texas that seeks to overturn popular vote
outcomes in four battleground states that Trump lost. Those
Georgia moves capture a broader state of affairs: It appears
that untold numbers of elected Republicans are trying to
inspire in GOP voters a state of what you might call permanent
warfare against our democratic institutions and the
opposition’s voters alike.
From
frivolous to frightening: 17 Republican states join Texas,
ask the Supreme Court for a coup. (Daily Kos, December
9, 2020)
Seventeen American states, all run by Republicans, have
decided to join Texas in its seditious and frivolous quest to
have the U.S. Supreme Court throw out the votes of 81,282,896
citizens and declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020
election. Those states: Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska,
North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.
All of these states gave their popular vote to Trump, though
Joe Biden is receiving one electoral vote in Nebraska's split
system. Each of these states is trying to get the justices to
throw out all the votes in all of the states that Biden won,
though the effort just names Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania,
and Wisconsin. In reality, they would have the Supreme Court
nullify the the entire election. And they argue in exceedingly
bad faith in their amicus brief.
The
Best Friend of U.S. National Parks Is ... a Car Company?
(Bloomberg, December 8, 2020)
Subaru’s pilot program has cut waste totals in half since
2015.
Church
nativity depicts Jesus, Mary and Joseph as family separated
at border. (NBC News, December 8, 2019)
"What if this family sought refuge in our country today?", the
Southern California church asked.
High
court rejects GOP bid to halt Biden’s Pennsylvania win.
(Associated Press, December 8, 2020)
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected
Republicans’ last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania’s
certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the
electoral battleground. The court without comment refused to
call into question the the certification process in
Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Wolf already has certified Biden’s
victory and the state’s 20 electors are to meet on Dec. 14 to
cast their votes for Biden.
The Republicans argued that Pennsylvania’s expansive
vote-by-mail law is unconstitutional because it required a
constitutional amendment to authorize its provisions. Biden
beat President Donald Trump by more than 80,000 votes in
Pennsylvania, a state Trump had won in 2016. Most mail-in
ballots were submitted by Democrats. The state’s high court
said the plaintiffs waited too long to file the challenge and
noted the Republicans’ staggering demand that an entire
election be overturned retroactively. In the underlying
lawsuit, Kelly and the other Republican plaintiffs had sought
to either throw out the 2.5 million mail-in ballots submitted
under the law or to wipe out the election results and direct
the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to pick
Pennsylvania’s presidential electors.
In court filings, lawyers for Pennsylvania and Gov. Tom Wolf,
a Democrat, had called the lawsuit’s claims “fundamentally
frivolous” and its request “one of the most dramatic,
disruptive invocations of judicial power in the history of the
Republic. No court has ever issued an order nullifying a
governor’s certification of presidential election results."
Having lost the request for the court to intervene
immediately, Greg Teufel, a lawyer for Kelly and Parnell, said
he will file a separate request to ask the court to consider
the case on its underlying merits on an expedited basis.
Dr.
Lance Dodes: Trump is "delusional at the core," will live in
"fantasyland till the day he dies". (Salon, December 8,
2020)
Former Harvard psychiatrist on Trump's "emptiness inside" and
the deepening paranoia of his last days in power.
As
Trump Rails Against Loss, His Supporters Become More
Threatening. (New York Times, December 8, 2020)
The president’s baseless claims of voting fraud have prompted
outrage among his loyalists and led to behavior that Democrats
and even some Republicans say has become dangerous. Absent a
single significant victory in his dozens of lawsuits — and
with a key defeat delivered by the Supreme Court on Tuesday —
the president’s crusade is now as much a battle against the
electoral process itself, as he seeks to cast doubt on free
and fair elections and undermine Joseph R. Biden Jr.
before he takes the oath of office.
“There is long-term damage when this kind of behavior is
normalized,” Jeff Flake, a former Republican senator from
Arizona, said on Twitter. “It is not normal, and elected
Republicans need to speak out against it.”
Republican
Sen. Pat Toomey calls Trump’s campaign to overturn
Pennsylvania election ‘completely unacceptable’.
(Philadelphia PA Inquirer, December 8, 2020)
“It’s completely unacceptable and it’s not going to work and
the president should give up trying to get legislatures to
overturn the results of the elections in their respective
states,” Toomey, Pennsylvania’s most prominent elected
Republican, said in a phone interview. His comments came a day
after it emerged that Trump called the Republican state House
Speaker to seek help in undoing the outcome. Toomey, one of
fewer than 30 congressional Republicans to openly acknowledge
Joe Biden’s victory, said he spoke with the president-elect by
phone late last week, congratulated him, and discussed some of
the few areas where they might be able to cooperate, such as
on international trade. “We had a very pleasant conversation,”
Toomey said. He added that the outcome was “clear” and that
“Joe Biden won the election.”
Toomey, who faces less direct political pressure because he is
not seeking reelection, has supported the vast majority of
Trump’s policies. He wrote key parts of the failed attempt to
repeal the Affordable Care Act and the GOP’s 2017 tax cuts. He
has a two-decades-long record of backing conservative causes
and supported Trump’s reelection. Yet Toomey slammed Trump’s
attempts to change the results after the Washington Post
reported that Trump called Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan
Cutler (R., Lancaster) twice to seek help in doing so.
Cutler told Trump the state legislature has no power to
overturn Pennsylvania’s chosen slate of electors, a Cutler
spokesperson said. But Cutler was also among 64 GOP state
lawmakers who wrote to Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation
urging it to object to the state’s electoral slate when
Congress formally receives the results in early January. At
least one member of the state’s congressional delegation,
Republican Rep. Scott Perry, told the Post he will indeed
dispute the state’s Electoral College slate.
Trump
is feasting on a dying GOP. (The Hill, December 7, 2020)
Watching President Trump’s conspiracy-mongering about his
defeat in last month’s presidential election, I flashed back
to something former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in
2018. “There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump Party,”
Boehner said. “The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap
somewhere.”
Or is it a dying political party? The last rites started a
month ago. Trump lost the presidential race to Joe Biden,
including a stunning defeat in Georgia, a state dominated by
Republicans for nearly 30 years.
The wheezing death rattle for the GOP continued this past
weekend. Trump arrived in Georgia to campaign for two Senate
Republicans facing runoff elections on Jan. 5, Sens. David
Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. But his message twisted his knife
into the Republicans. After weeks of saying the presidential
election was rigged in Georgia and elsewhere, Trump spent most
of his rally ranting his baseless grievances and telling his
fans not to accept his loss because Democrats "steal and rig
and lie."
So, why should Republicans vote in those races if they believe
Trump’s claim that the presidential election was rigged? That
makes no sense unless he is trying to get the party to kill
itself.
But what if this backstabbing among Republicans makes sense to
Trump? What if Trump’s lie that the election was stolen is
fatal to the GOP but gives him new life with an infusion of
money from the hard-right conspiracy crowd, the most gullible
Republicans? Then there is a method to the madness.
Here’s the proof that Trump may be on to something. Enough
Republicans swallowed Trump’s bait to send him more than $170
million in the month after he led them to defeat. That money
went to an entity described on the Trump campaign website as
the “Official Election Defense Fund.” But according to The
Washington Post, “there is no such account.” As one former
Biden aide told The New York Times, this is “plain and simple
grift.”
Three-time
loser Donald Trump just lost Georgia again, starts pointing
fingers at Georgia GOP. (Daily Kos, December 7, 2020)
Armed
protesters alleging voter fraud surrounded the home of
Michigan’s secretary of state. (4-min. video; Washington
Post, December 7, 2020)
“They shouted baseless conspiracy theories about the election,
and in videos uploaded to social media, at least one
individual could be heard shouting ‘you’re murderers’ within
earshot of her child’s bedroom,” Michigan Attorney General
Dana Nessel (D) and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy (D)
said in a joint statement on Sunday. “This mob-like behavior
is an affront to basic morality and decency. Terrorizing
children and families at their own homes is not activism.”
Vitriolic rhetoric has led bipartisan leaders to warn that
Trump’s baseless attacks on the election are endangering
election officials’ lives. Multiple Michigan officials have
reported being threatened and harassed over the election
results, as have officials in Georgia, Arizona, Vermont,
Kentucky, Minnesota and Colorado.
Federal
judge upholds Michigan election: 'The people have spoken.'
(Detroit News, December 7, 2020)
A federal judge has rejected a last-minute push by Michigan
Republicans who sought an emergency order to overturn
President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the state, saying the
effort aimed to "ignore the will of millions of voters." The
suit seemed "less about achieving the relief" the GOP
plaintiffs sought and "more about the impact of their
allegations on people’s faith in the democratic process and
their trust in our government," wrote Detroit U.S. District
Court Judge Linda Parker of Michigan's Eastern District. "The
People have spoken," wrote Parker, who issued the ruling in
the early morning hours of Monday, a week before the nation's
presidential electors will meet.
Trump lost Michigan 51%-48% or by 154,000 votes to
President-elect Joe Biden, and the Board of State Canvassers
certified the tally on Nov. 23. On Nov. 25, six Michigan
Republicans, represented by conservative attorney Sidney
Powell, filed their lawsuit asking for "emergency relief,"
including a court order requiring Michigan Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer to sign off on certified election results that state
"President Donald Trump is the winner of the election." The
suit also asked the federal judge to impound "all voting
machines and software in Michigan for expert inspection." The
defendants in Powell's suit are Whitmer, Secretary of State
Jocelyn Benson and the Board of State Canvassers.
Powell is a Trump supporter who has previously appeared with
his legal team and is filing similar challenges in multiple
states. Her suits have relied heavily on conspiracy theories
and debunked claims of voter fraud. In Michigan, the challenge
focused on murky claims about election tabulation software and
data "analyses" that attempted to call into question
Michigan's results. But the plaintiffs presented only
"speculation and conjecture" that votes for Trump were
destroyed, discarded or switched to votes for Biden, wrote
Parker. The closest plaintiffs get to alleging that election
machines and software changed votes for President Trump to
Vice President Biden in Wayne County is an amalgamation of
theories, conjecture, and speculation that such alterations
were possible," she said.
Parker wrote that Powell's plaintiffs were seeking judicial
action that was "stunning in its scope and breathtaking in its
reach. If granted, the relief would disenfranchise the votes
of the more than 5.5 million Michigan citizens who, with
dignity, hope, and a promise of a voice, participated in the
2020 general Election."
Barr
may leave Trump administration before Inauguration Day.
(2-min. video; Washington Post, December 7, 2020)
Regardless of when and how Barr leaves the job in the next
month and a half, Barr’s less than two-year tenure was marked
by controversy and criticism. When he assumed the job in
February 2019, he was initially hailed by many former Justice
Department officials as someone who understood the institution
and would safeguard it. His handling of the special counsel
investigation of Trump advisers and Russian interference in
the 2016 election soured many department veterans, as did a
September speech in which he castigated career employees of
his own agency. Given the many controversial decisions he has
made, it’s unclear that a resignation, as opposed to a firing
or uneventful departure, would much alter public perception of
his tenure. Barr has repeatedly brushed aside any questions
about his legacy, insisting that he is not concerned about
such things. In recent days, some conservatives have increased
their criticism of the attorney general, accusing him of
undermining the president’s efforts to throw out ballots in
key states, or have Republican-controlled state legislatures
choose electors instead.
'This
is disturbing': Judge demands Trump admin explain why it
withheld family separation data. (Daily Kos, December 7,
2020)
The Trump administration withheld additional contact
information that could help reunite separated families—and a
federal judge is demanding to know why. Last week, the federal
government turned over additional data as part of efforts to
find the deported parents of hundreds of children who remain
without their moms and dads after being separated at the
southern border beginning in 2017. But advocates tasked with
reunification efforts said the administration had been sitting
on that data and disclosed it only after new attention was
drawn to its inhumane policy. The judge in litigation around
the case is now demanding an explanation from officials.
Trump
Officials Passed When Pfizer Offered to Sell More Vaccine
Doses in Late Summer. (New York Times, December 7, 2020)
Trump's
allies say Rudy Giuliani tested negative before his
three-state swing, but might be lying. (Daily Kos,
December 7, 2020)
Like nearly all people in Donald Trump's close orbit, Giuliani
has been contemptuous of pandemic safety measures like masks
and social distancing. He has largely ignored those measures
in recent weeks while flying all over the country to promote
lawsuits seeking to overturn the United States elections on
Trump's behalf, usually as a part of a cabal of like-minded
Trump allies. Now we await news of the damage.
The obvious question is whether Giuliani spread the gift of
Trump-supporting COVID-19 to at least three
Republican-governed state legislatures, or whether it was the
mask-condemning Republicans of one of those three states that
gave the virus to him for further dispersal around the
country. So far, Team Trump is vigorously insisting that
Giuliani put none of the three statehouses at risk, claiming
that he "tested twice negatively immediately preceding" the
trip.
The problem with that statement, of course, is that the Trump
White House and Trump campaign infamously lie about
everything, all the time. We only learned after Donald Trump's
hospitalization for COVID-19 that his White House and
physicians hadn't been testing him at all for the virus, after
months of White House claims that he was being tested daily or
near-daily or at least frequently—they simply lied, brazenly,
about the testing. We can infer absolutely nothing from their
similar testing claims here.
Georgia
state senate hearing featuring maskless Giuliani came just
days before COVID diagnosis. (1-min. video; 13WMAZ/GA,
December 6, 2020)
The president's top attorney met in close quarters with state
senators on Thursday. On Sunday, Donald Trump announced Rudy
Giuliani had COVID-19.
The maskless attorney is seen in multiple photos speaking to
members of the state senate. One of those photos shows
Giuliani face-to-face with Democratic state senators Jen
Jordan and Elena Parent during the Thursday hearing. A message
shared by Jordan on Twitter a short time after the news of
Giuliani's diagnosis expressed frustration. "Little did I know
that most credible death threat that I encountered last week
was Trump's own lawyer," Jordan said. "Giuliani - maskless, in
packed hearing room for 7 hours."
As a result of the close contact, a spokesperson for the
Georgia Senate said that staff members who were present have
been instructed to work from home until they are able to get
tested - and receive the results.
[Was Guiliani trying to infect the Democratic senators? In the
video clip, pause at 00:25 and count the unmasked
bandits
Republicans.]
Trump
lawyer Rudy Giuliani positive for COVID-19 after wave of
travel challenging election results. (Reuters, December
6, 2020)
The 76-year-old Giuliani is the latest in a long string of
people close to the White House, including Trump himself,
sickened in a pandemic that has killed more than 280,000
Americans. “@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the
history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing
the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA,
has tested positive for the China Virus,” Trump said, using a
term for COVID-19 that has drawn backlash.
Giuliani has been spearheading Trump’s floundering effort to
overturn his Nov. 3 election loss to Democratic
President-elect Joe Biden through a flurry of lawsuits. Both
Trump and Giuliani have repeatedly claimed, contrary to
evidence, that the outcome was marred by widespread fraud.
State and federal officials have repeatedly said there is no
evidence of fraud on any significant scale.
Trump and many of his close associates have balked at public
health officials’ advice to wear masks and avoid crowds to
stem transmission of the respiratory illness, which has roared
to record levels in the United States as winter approaches.
Hundreds
ill, 1 dead due to unidentified illness in India.
(Associated Press, December 6, 2020)
At least one person has died and 200 others have been
hospitalized due to an unidentified illness in the southern
Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, reports said Monday. The
illness was detected Saturday evening in Eluru, an ancient
city famous for its hand-woven products. Since then, patients
have experienced symptoms ranging from nausea and anxiety to
loss of consciousness, doctors said. A 45-year-old man who was
hospitalized with symptoms similar to epilepsy and nausea died
Sunday evening, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Officials are trying to determine the cause of the illness. So
far, water samples from impacted areas haven’t shown any signs
of contamination, and the chief minister’s office said people
not linked to the municipal water supply have also fallen ill.
The patients are of different ages and have tested negative
for COVID-19 and other viral diseases such as dengue,
chikungunya or herpes.
Schools
confront ‘off the rails’ numbers of failing grades.
(Boston Globe, December 6, 2020)
Educators see a number of factors at play: Students learning
from home skip assignments — or school altogether.
Hear
John Ossoff, in tonight's U.S. Senate Runoff Debate in
Georgia. (26-min. video; PBS, December 6, 2020)
[Hear this key contestant's very coherent presentation!]
Georgia
Republican Loeffler debates challenger Warnock ahead of
runoffs that will set U.S. Senate control. (Reuters,
December 6. 2020)
As the debate began, Loeffler sidestepped a question about
whether she agreed with President Donald Trump’s baseless
claims that the Nov. 3 election was “rigged.” Trump has not
conceded to President-elect Joe Biden, instead insisting
without evidence that the result was due to widespread fraud,
claims that state and federal officials have repeatedly
rejected.
Georgia's
Senate runoffs show Democrats need a new message on
socialism. Here's what to do. (NBC News, December 6,
2020)
Republicans have called Democrats "socialist" since the New
Deal. What they're really deriding is our system of checks and
balances, applied to the market.
Trump's loss in November hasn't quieted the noise: In a recent
campaign speech in support of his runoff election, Sen. David
Perdue, R-Ga., told Georgians that he and the state’s other
Republican senator, Kelly Loeffler, are all that stand between
America and “a radical socialist agenda.” Democrats need an
effective counter to the “socialism” canard — preferably
before the critical Jan. 5 Georgia Senate elections — as well
as a way to bring together their progressive and moderate
wings. But to accomplish both objectives, it will take
something at which the party has long been notoriously poor:
messaging.
A necessary — though insufficient — starting point will be to
make clear to voters that what the Republicans are denouncing
as "socialism" is nothing like the current systems in Cuba or
Venezuela or the old systems in the Soviet Union, China and
Eastern Europe. (Exit polls from Florida strongly suggest how
effective such messaging was there in 2020.) Rather, what
Republicans decry as "socialism" is a set of policies that a
large majority of Americans strongly favor — and from which
they already benefit. The supposed “socialism” that Democrats
support includes the military, police and fire departments,
public schools, roads, the Post Office, Social Security,
Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, requiring the wealthy to
pay their fair share in taxes, combating climate change,
protecting us all against contaminated foods, overseeing
essential scientific research and assuring that medications —
and vaccines — are safe and effective. The last of those are
both central to combating the current pandemic and a striking
illustration of the absurd lengths to which some Republicans
are willing to go to fight what they label "socialism."
Democrats should thus go on offense, both by showing Americans
the truth of what Republicans mean by "socialism" and by
giving the Republicans' approach a name that truly captures
what they believe. They want huge corporations and
billionaires to have free rein to accumulate most of the
nation’s wealth without concern about how miserably the rest
of the population may live — or whether they live at all. They
are, in fact, the present-day incarnation of the selfish
Gilded Age men who were called social Darwinists — but since
even their Darwinism is unconcerned with society’s needs,
let's call them
anti-social Darwinists. Most
importantly, though, Democrats need to start using a name for
their economic approach that is both attractive and emphasizes
what it really is — not socialism, but
capitalism with
checks and balances.
[Bingo!]
Protesters
descend on Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's home
after dark. (Detroit Free Press, December 6, 2020)
Benson said the protesters gathered in front of her home as
she and her 4-year-old son were finishing putting up Christmas
decorations, just when the two were preparing to watch the
Christmas classic, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." "I have
always been an energetic advocate for the right and importance
of peaceful protest as enshrined in the United States
Constitution, however there is a line crossed when gatherings
are done with the primary purpose of intimidation of public
officials who are carrying out the oath of office they
solemnly took as elected officials," Benson said in a
statement Sunday night. Through blatantly false press
releases, purely political legislative hearings, bogus legal
claims and so called 'affidavits' that fail to allege any
clear or cogent evidence of wrongdoing, those unhappy with the
results of this election have perpetuated an unprecedented,
dangerous, egregious campaign to erode the public’s confidence
in the results of one of the most secure, accessible and
transparent elections in our state’s history.
"The demands made outside my home were unambiguous, loud and
threatening. They targeted me in my role as Michigan’s Chief
Election Officer. But the threats of those gathered weren’t
actually aimed at me — or any other elected officials in this
state. They were aimed at the voters.
Trump's
Save America PAC is raking in donations — what can that
money be spent on? (CBS News, December 5, 2020)
The Trump campaign's fundraising shows no signs of abating,
though Election Day was over a month ago. Since November 3,
the campaign, Republican National Committee, Trump Victory and
Trump Make America Great Again joint committees, and President
Trump's new political action committee, Save America, have
collected $207.5 million in donations, his campaign announced
Thursday. As the president's election challenges continue with
lawsuits and recounts in battleground states — without a
change in the voting results in any state so far — his
campaign website is begging supporters to give to his
"election defense fund" with a meaningless pitch: "Please
contribute ANY AMOUNT in the NEXT HOUR and you can increase
your impact by 1000%!" (It had earlier claimed "ALL GIFTS
1000%-MATCHED," but that language has been removed.)
Despite the rhetoric on the website and Stepien's remarks
about supporting the "rightful, legal outcome" of the
election, the fine print states that the vast majority of
donations are not going toward funding Mr. Trump's litigation
to overturn the election, but rather, to his new leadership
PAC, Save America. Here's the way small donations are
allocated according to the campaign website: "75% of each
contribution first to Save America, up to $5,000/$5,000, then
to [Donald J. Trump's] Recount Account, up to a maximum of
$2,800/$5,000. The portion designated for Save America coffers
has increased since the leadership PAC was established on
November 9. The campaign website originally said 60% of
donations would go to the Save America PAC and then hiked it
to 75%.
The president has broad latitude in how he spends the cash
raised for his leadership PAC, but there are some
restrictions. He can't pay his campaign's legal bills with
those funds, for instance.
Although Trump cannot use campaign funds to pay himself or his
family members excessive salaries, or to buy enough copies of
Don Jr.'s book to land it on the bestseller list, he might try
to use leadership PAC funds for such purposes. The Campaign
Legal Center has also pointed out instances where politicians
have drawn from their leadership PACs to pay for trips to
Disney World, golf excursions, Broadway tickets and luxury
hotel stays.
NEW: William
Barr’s Break with Donald Trump (New Yorker, December 5,
2020)
What actually motivated Barr is unknown at this point, and
nothing is likely to become clearer until after Trump leaves
office, on January 20th.
Until now, Barr has delivered virtually everything that Trump
could possibly have wanted politically—from the Justice
Department arguing that Manhattan prosecutors should not have
access to Trump’s tax returns, to defying subpoenas from
congressional oversight committees. Those acts and others that
Barr has taken set legal precedents that have made Trump one
of the most powerful American chief executives, in legal
terms, since Congress and the courts curbed Presidential power
after Watergate.
In the final weeks of the campaign, though, Trump went too
far, apparently, even for Barr. In the pursuit of victory and
vengeance, Trump publicly called for him to open a criminal
investigation of the Biden family, and demanded that Barr
announce the results of the Durham investigation in time to
sway votes. After the election, Trump’s campaign pressured
Barr to become the first U.S. Attorney General to aid a
de-facto coup attempt—albeit a chaotic and, at times, comical
one.
How
Trump's fraud claims could backfire on the GOP in Georgia's
runoff elections (3-min. video; Washington Post,
December 5, 2020)
AP
FACT CHECK: Trump floods rally with audacious falsehoods.
(Associated Press, December 5, 2020)
Trump
assails vote integrity while urging turnout in Georgia.
(2-min. video; Associated Press, December 5, 2020)
Trump’s 100-minute rally before thousands of largely maskless
supporters came not long after he was rebuffed by Georgia’s
Republican governor in his astounding call for a special
legislative session to give him the state’s electoral votes,
even though President-elect Joe Biden won the majority of the
vote.
The Jan. 5 Senate runoffs in Georgia will determine the
balance of power in Washington after Biden takes office.
Republicans in the state are worried that Trump is stoking so
much suspicion about Georgia elections that voters will think
the system is rigged and decide to sit out the two races. The
latest futile attempt to subvert the presidential election
results continued Trump’s unprecedented campaign to undermine
confidence in the democratic process, but overshadowed his
stated purpose in traveling to Georgia — boosting Sens. David
Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
Trump
calls Georgia governor to pressure him for help overturning
Biden’s win in the state. (Washington Post, December 5,
2020)
President Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Saturday
morning to urge him to persuade the state legislature to
overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state and
asked the governor to order an audit of absentee ballot
signatures, the latest brazen effort by the president to
interfere in the 2020 election.
Hours before he was scheduled to hold a rally in Georgia on
behalf of the state’s two GOP senators, Trump pressed Kemp to
call a special session of the state legislature for lawmakers
to override the results and appoint electors who would back
the president at the electoral college, according to two
people familiar with the conversation, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to describe the private call.
Trump also asked the governor to demand an audit of signatures
on mail ballots, something Kemp has previously noted he has no
power to do. Kemp declined the president’s entreaty, according
to the people.
Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in
St. Louis, said that if Trump invoked his federal authority in
his conversation Saturday with Kemp, or made the call from the
Oval Office, he could have violated criminal provisions of the
Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from political
activity in their official roles. Though the civil penalties
of the Hatch Act do not apply to the president, the criminal
provisions do, she noted. Even if Trump did not commit a
crime, Clark added, his actions threaten to disenfranchise
voters in Georgia who participated in the November election.
“Such a move would undermine public confidence in our
constitutional system and do damage to future elections,” she
said.
Report
finds microwave energy likely made US diplomats ill in Cuba
and China. (Associated Press, December 5, 2020)
A new report by a National Academy of Sciences committee has
found that “directed” microwave radiation is the likely cause
of illnesses among American diplomats in Cuba and China. The
study commissioned by the State Department and released
Saturday is the latest attempt to find a cause for the
mysterious illnesses that started to emerge in late 2016 among
U.S. personnel in Havana.
The study found that “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy
appears to be the most plausible” explanation for symptoms
that included intense head pressure, dizziness and cognitive
difficulties. It found this explanation was more likely than
other previously considered causes such as tropical disease or
psychological issues. The study did not name a source for the
energy and did not say it came as the result of an attack,
though it did note that previous research on this type of
injury was done in the former Soviet Union.
I’m
an astronomer and I think aliens may be out there – but UFO
sightings aren’t persuasive. (2-min. video; The
Conversation, December 4, 2020)
Surveys show that nearly half of Americans believe that aliens
have visited the Earth, either in the ancient past or
recently. That percentage has been increasing. Belief in alien
visitation is greater than belief that Bigfoot is a real
creature, but less than belief that places can be haunted by
spirits.
Scientists dismiss these beliefs as not representing real
physical phenomena. They don’t deny the existence of
intelligent aliens. But they set a high bar for proof that
we’ve been visited by creatures from another star system. As
Carl Sagan said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence.”
There’s a long history of UFO sightings. Air Force studies of
UFOs have been going on since the 1940s. In the United States,
“ground zero” for UFOs occurred in 1947 in Roswell, New
Mexico. The fact that the Roswell incident was soon explained
as the crash landing of a military high-altitude balloon
didn’t stem a tide of new sightings. The majority of UFOs
appear to people in the United States. It’s curious that Asia
and Africa have so few sightings despite their large
populations, and even more surprising that the sightings stop
at the Canadian and Mexican borders.
International
Day Against DRM (IDAD) - Stand up against Netflix!
(Defective By Design, December 4, 2020)
Digital Restrictions Management is the practice of imposing
technological restrictions that control what users can do with
digital media. When a program is designed to prevent you from
copying or sharing a song, reading an ebook on another device,
or playing a single-player game without an Internet
connection, you are being restricted by DRM. In other words,
DRM creates a damaged good; it prevents you from doing what
would be possible without it. This concentrates control over
production and distribution of media, giving DRM peddlers the
power to carry out massive digital book burnings and conduct
large scale surveillance over people's media viewing habits.
If we want to avoid a future in which our devices serve as an
apparatus to monitor and control our interaction with digital
media, we must fight to retain control of our media and
software.
Fact
Checking Rudy Giuliani's Grandiose Georgia Election Fraud
Claim (GPB, December 4, 2020)
In a series of fantastical claims and statements from various
and sundry people touted as experts, Giuliani falsely told a
room of mostly Republican lawmakers that Georgia's voting
machines could not be trusted, tens of thousands of absentee
ballots were illegally cast and counted and that the
legislature should appoint its own slate of electors for
President Trump. Explosive claims made during the hearing have
further undermined confidence in Georgia's election integrity
among supporters of President Trump, even as the secretary of
state's office has debunked the concerns and called last
month's election one of the most secure and successful in
recent history.
[Photo shows a maskless Giuliani, likely exposing Georgia
state senators to the Covid-19 that he announced a few days
later.]
Trump
campaign files another election lawsuit in Georgia, suffers
more legal defeats. (Reuters, December 4, 2020)
The Trump campaign said in a statement its new lawsuit would
include sworn statements from Georgia residents alleging
fraud. Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a
Republican, like Trump, and other state officials have said
repeatedly they have found no evidence of widespread fraud in
the Nov. 3 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump’s team and various individuals backing him have suffered
a string of legal defeats around the country, including in
cases filed in Nevada and Wisconsin that sought court orders
to reverse those states’ election results. President-elect
Biden won the election with 306 Electoral College votes -
against the 270 required - to Trump’s 232.
A district judge in Nevada on Friday dismissed a case brought
by would-be Republican presidential electors and said they
must pay defendants’ legal costs after failing “to meet their
burden to provide credible and relevant evidence to
substantiate” any of the lawsuit’s claims.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision declined to act
on a case that sought to have the court nullify the
presidential election in the state and pave the way for the
state legislature to choose Wisconsin’s 10 presidential
electors. “Such a move would appear to be unprecedented in
American history,” Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian
Hagedorn wrote in his concurring opinion of four justices
issued on Friday.
Trump’s campaign has spent nearly $9 million on its
unsuccessful bid to overturn the results of the election,
including nearly $2.3 million to lawyers and consultants. The
campaign and the Republican National Committee have raised at
least $207.5 million since Election Day, much of it from
solicitations asking for donations to an “Official Election
Defense Fund”. The fine print made clear most of the money
would go to other priorities through Trump’s new political
action committee, which could fuel his future political
endeavors.
Falsehoods
and Failures: Trump During COVID-19 - 12/04 Update
(People For the American Way, December 4, 2020)
Eleven months after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in
the United States, coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and
deaths continue to skyrocket. This week, the U.S. reached
devastating pandemic milestones for the single deadliest day
and the most hospitalizations in a day since the first case of
coronavirus in the U.S. in January. Yet despite the danger,
Donald Trump continues to abdicate his duty to contain the
pandemic and ameliorate the many hardships that millions of
Americans are facing.
Donald
Trump threatens to defund military because Twitter keeps
pointing out that his lies are lies. (Daily Kos,
December 4, 2020)
On Thursday evening, Donald Trump once again promised to veto
a must-pass defense spending bill over one critical national
defense issue: Twitter keeps putting warnings on his lies. The
National Defense Authorization Act is required to authorize
spending across the military, and failing to pass it
immediately could actually have serious consequences—the exact
kind of failure to support both troops in the field and
defense at home that Republicans usually (and falsely) claim
when arguing for increases to the Defense Department budget.
Trump
Orders All American Troops Out of Somalia. (New York
Times, December 4, 2020)
While the number of forces — about 700 — is small, it is a
continuation of President Trump’s efforts to withdraw the
United States from what he has described as endless wars.
Supporters of the mission say it is important for the United
States to continue strikes on militants and to help train
government forces to prevent their territory from becoming a
haven for planning terrorist strikes, much like how Al Qaeda
plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks from a home base in
Afghanistan. Even some of Mr. Trump’s staunchest Republican
allies in Congress have warned against troop cuts in Somalia.
Feds
logged website visitors in 2019, citing Patriot Act
authority. (Ars Technica, December 4, 2020)
Privacy-minded lawmakers want feds to have to get warrants for
Web browsing data.
In
Final Defense Bill, Too Little Progress on ‘Forever
Chemicals’. (Environmental Working Group, December 3,
2020)
This joint-committee version of the National Defense
Authorization Act for FY 2021 falls far short of what’s needed
to address the contamination crisis facing our service members
and neighboring communities. PFAS have been confirmed in the
groundwater of 328 military installations and are suspected in
the groundwater at hundreds of other bases. Tragically, this
bill will do little to clean up the existing legacy
contamination at bases and nearby communities and does nothing
to hold polluters or the Pentagon accountable when they fail
to act to protect us. What’s more, the bill fails to expand
PFAS blood testing to all service members, even though growing
evidence suggests that the PFAS in our blood make vaccines
less effective.
Cyberattacks
Discovered on Vaccine Distribution Operations. (New York
Times, December 3, 2020)
IBM has found that companies and governments have been
targeted by unknown attackers, prompting a warning from the
Homeland Security Department. The motive is also unclear. The
attackers may simply be looking to steal technology to move
large amounts of vaccine across long distances at
extraordinarily low temperatures, which would constitute a
classic form of intellectual property theft.
But some cybersecurity experts say they suspect something more
nefarious: efforts to interfere with the distribution, or
ransomware, in which the vaccines would be essentially held
hostage by hackers who have gotten into the system that runs
the distribution network and locked it up — and who demand a
large payment to unlock it.
Covid-19
Live Updates: U.S. Hits Record Daily Death Toll, With Worse
Likely to Come. (New York Times, December 3, 2020)
With cases in the U.S. blowing past the spring peak, more than
100,000 people were hospitalized for Covid-19 on Wednesday.
Experts warn that the nation could be facing the most
difficult time in its public health history.
Wikipedia
page for Biden’s new Covid czar scrubbed of politically
damaging material. (Politico, December 3, 2020)
A Democratic consulting firm made numerous changes to Jeff
Zients' page as he became a more important figure on Biden’s
team this summer and fall.
The
Left’s Stupid Second-Guessing Of Biden (Politico,
December 2, 2020)
It’s possible many people making the arguments against
potential Biden appointees don’t know what they are arguing.
The most important debate in the Democratic Party right now
isn’t between centrists and the left on fundamental policy
aims but on how to present those aims to the public and then
achieve them. Both the centrists who want a robust expansion
of government and those on the left who want to go even
further have the same problem: Insufficient legislative power
to do more than modestly advance the goals of either wing. One
side, the side of AOC and her allies on the left, believe the
answer to this problem is a more creative politics of
mobilization—putting forth a bolder agenda and defiantly
drawing lines in a way that excites people who should
naturally vote Democratic but often don’t vote at all because
the stakes have not been framed sharply enough. The other side
believes the answer is a more creative politics of
persuasion—simultaneously engaging and reassuring voters who
are skeptical of undiluted progressivism but can be coaxed
into backing Democrats through more pragmatic appeals.
The alternative to stupid second-guessing isn’t simply to shut
up. It is smart second-guessing. AOC and others on the left
are surely right that an administration headed by a president
who came to Washington in the 1970s, and who is surrounded by
advisers who began their government service in the 1980s and
1990s, isn’t necessarily going to be fully attuned to the
challenges of the 2020s. They will benefit from being pushed.
But the left should push Biden on policy ideas—and help give
him the broad political support needed to implement those
polices. There is little benefit to trying to exert influence
with likely unsuccessful bids to pick off potential appointees
on the basis of spurious ideological arguments about who
really counts as a progressive.
Trump
headed to Georgia as run-off boost, but also a threat.
(Associated Press, December 2, 2020)
Some establishment Republicans are sounding alarms that
President Donald Trump’s conspiratorial denials of his own
defeat could threaten the party’s ability to win a Senate
majority and counter President-elect Joe Biden’s
administration. The concerns come ahead of Trump’s planned
Saturday visit to Georgia to campaign alongside Sens. David
Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who face strong Democratic
challengers in Jan. 5 runoffs that will determine which party
controls the Senate at the outset of Biden’s presidency.
Koreans
Believed America Was Exceptional. Then Covid Happened.
(Politico, December 2, 2020)
With American Covid-19 deaths sprawling and Trump raging
against the election result, South Koreans' respect for
American leadership is plummeting.
It
Seems Bad That the Guy the President Just Pardoned Is
Calling for Him to Execute a Military Coup. (Esquire,
December 2, 2020)
Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, a man
the president pardoned just last week for "any and all
possible offenses" related to the Mueller probe, has endorsed
a call for the president to "temporarily suspend the
Constitution," "declare limited martial law," have "the
military oversee a national re-vote," and "silence the
destructive media." Wow! Sounds a bit like a coup.
Those preaching calm over the last few weeks have not merely
ignored the guiding principles of the Trump era: never assume
there is a bottom to the shameless depravity, and never bet
against that shamelessness being rewarded. (This is a guy who
has never faced consequences for a single thing he's done, and
who continually gets things he does not deserve. Why would
that stop now?) These Savvy Observers suffer from a failure of
imagination. The increasingly deranged conspiracies propping
up Trump's tantrum have had the desired effect: millions of
the Republican rank-and-file do not believe Biden's (fairly
decisive) win was legitimate. Very few Republican
officeholders have openly acknowledged Biden's win—even if, as
we were reminded by Senator Ron Johnson today, they very well
know the truth and just regard speaking it as "political
suicide"—and that number does not include anyone in
congressional leadership. The official position of the
Republican Party is that the outcome is in doubt and in need
of investigation.
The military is not the only segment of our society with guns
that might theoretically attempt to achieve a desired
political outcome with force rather than through the
democratic process. Election officials in states targeted by
Trump and his allies are already facing a deluge of death
threats, and we all seem to have memory-holed the
attackers—from the mail bomber to El Paso to the Pittsburgh
synagogue—who engaged or attempted to engage in mass violence
while spouting off right-wing rhetoric over the last few
years.
And all the while, the president is starting to fire up the
Pardon Machine, both for those who do crime on his behalf and,
possibly, for himself. Because he faces such huge legal
jeopardy when he leaves office. Which is something he wants to
avoid at all costs. It is also straight out of the strongman
playbook to put a number of hare-brained schemes in motion,
hoping that at least one will play out in such a way that you
can profit off the chaos.
Trump
still claims - for 46 minutes - that 2020 election outcome
was result of fraud. (46-min. video; YouTube, December
2, 2020)
President Donald Trump released a bizarre 46-minute video that
he posted on Facebook where he called for the election to be
'overturned' and admitted his remarks would be 'disparaged.'
Rather than pick any number of venues where he might deliver
important remarks before an audience or with reporters present
who might ask questions, Trump spoke before cameras from the
White House, with repeated and awkward cuts by editors. 'Even
what I’m saying now will be demeaned and disparaged,' he
predicted as he laid out claim after claim, including several
that have been put forward by his legal team and been
debunked.
Trump said it 'may be the most important speech I've ever
made' – then got to work trying to make the case that the
election was fraudulent, that the results should be overturned
in multiple states where President-elect Joe Biden got more
votes than he did, and urged the Supreme Court to intervene.
[And the Washington Post said: "The most petulant 46 minutes
in American history. For maybe the first time in Trump’s
presidency, reality hasn’t been conforming to his nonsense."]
The
election is over, but voter fraud conspiracies aren’t going
away. (MIT Technology Review, December 2, 2020)
A month after Election Day, the volume of political
disinformation has dropped—but experts say the problems are
far from over.
Video
from White House Christmas Party Shows Trump Suggesting 2024
Run: 'I'll See You in Four Years.' (People, December 2,
2020)
Some of the party attendees were seen without masks and
standing closely together at the indoor gathering.
In a recent appearance on Good Morning America, Surgeon
General Jerome Adam said that indoor parties can be dangerous,
even with precautions. "We want everyone to understand that
these holiday celebrations can be super-spreader events," he
said then, adding that federal health guidelines against
holding indoor events "apply to the White House, they apply to
the American people, they apply to everyone."
White
House again flouts public health recommendations during
holiday party season. (CNN, December 1, 2020)
The White House kicked off its holiday party season on Monday,
marking the start of more than a dozen festive group
gatherings, even as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the
country. There are some safety protocols in place for the
events, but most, if not all, of the holiday parties will
still flout US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
guidelines for size restrictions, as well as Washington, DC,
restrictions for indoor gatherings, which is currently capped
at 10 people.
The Trump White House itself has already been the epicenter of
at least three Covid-19 outbreaks among staff and allies, and
a series of events such as holiday gatherings will likely put
in peril several hundred more guests, workers and staff.
Hours after White House Christmas decorations were unveiled,
first lady Melania Trump hosted a "thank you" party and tour
for several dozen of the volunteers who helped decorate the
people's house for the season, a White House official
confirmed to CNN. The volunteers, who traveled to the White
House for the week from across the country, were tested as
part of guidelines for decorating. However, publicly
accessible social media images posted by party-goers indicate
there was little social distancing at Monday's event and many
guests were not wearing masks. They clustered together tightly
in the White House Cross Hall foyer, in the social media posts
viewed by CNN.
Mysterious
Monolith Update: Romanian Monolith Disappears in Middle of
Night. 4 were spotted dismantling Utah Monolith. (Vice,
December 1, 2020)
Romania's monolith disappeared on St. Andrew's Day, a night
associated with supernatural superstition.
Mapped:
The Top 30 Most Valuable Real Estate Cities in the U.S.
(Visual Capitalist, December 1, 2020)
Paul
Krugman: Biden's bevy of deficit doves (New York Times,
December 1, 2020)
From 2010 until around 2014 much of the political and media
establishment was gripped by the idea that rising federal debt
was the most important threat facing America, and that being a
“deficit hawk” was the supreme political virtue. Sad to say,
President Barack Obama himself seemed to buy into the Beltway
consensus, trying to strike a “grand bargain” to reduce future
deficits by cutting social programs. He was only saved from
his own instincts by the intransigence of Republicans, who
refused to consider any tax hikes as part of the bargain.
In reality, the consensus about the evils of debt was
wrongheaded and destructive. Government debt didn’t pose any
significant economic threat, while spending cuts were
materially holding back recovery from the 2007-9 recession.
Worse, many of the most prominent deficit hawks were phonies.
They didn’t really care about government debt, they only
pretended to care as an excuse for trying to slash social
programs. The proof came when President Donald Trump inflated
the deficit with tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy —
and many of those who pretended to believe that deficits were
an existential threat under Obama cheered him on.
Still, some of us were worried about whether Biden would pick
up where Obama left off — whether he would choose people still
wedded to the old debt obsession for his economic team. The
good news is that he hasn’t.
How
Wrong Was Milton Friedman? Harvard Team Quantifies the Ways.
(Bloomberg, December 1, 2020)
Professor stresses impacts on society over shareholder value;
Analysis would add or cut billions from corporate bottom
lines.
George Serafeim wants to revolutionize the way businesses
calculate their success. Profit and loss aren’t enough, says
the Harvard Business School professor. Serafeim aims to do
what no one has done before: Put a dollar value on the impact
of products and operations on people and the planet, then add
or subtract it from companies’ bottom lines.
Intel Corp. provides an example of both. Serafeim and his
five-person team credited $6.9 billion to the chipmaker in
2018 for paying its employees well and for boosting local
economies where it has offices. But they deducted $3.1 billion
for what they said was a shortage of women employees, the
difficulty of career advancement and not enough attention paid
to workers’ health.
“Without monetizing impacts, we’re left with the illusion that
businesses have no impact,” Serafeim said. Companies that show
big profits can have enormous negative effects on society, he
said. “They’re just cheating because they’re operating in a
context that doesn’t price all those impacts.”
Serafeim’s research throws out the playbook of measuring
business performance primarily by shareholder value, which was
popularized last century by Nobel Prize-winning economist
Milton Friedman. Besides providing an antidote to “good
washing” -- corporate happy talk without follow-up -- his work
comes as companies increasingly search for ways to help boost
a society that, despite its wealth, suffers from woes that
include racism, a widening chasm between rich and poor, and
deepening damage to nature. The coronavirus pandemic has made
that quest more urgent.
Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, declared
that a corporation choosing social responsibility over
maximizing profits was practicing socialism -- a
“fundamentally subversive doctrine,” he called it in 1970. In
a free society, Friedman said, “there is one and only one
social responsibility of business -- to use its resources and
engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long
as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say,
engages in open and free competition without deception or
fraud.”
“What we’re doing is empowering capitalism to really have free
and fair markets,” Serafeim said. “Otherwise, it’s a crony
version of it.”
The
Supreme Court may finally rein in an outdated anti-hacking
law. (Washington Post, December 1, 2020)
The nation’s main anti-hacking law, which Congress hasn't
revised since 1986, has bedeviled cybersecurity researchers
almost since the birth of the Internet.
The high court heard arguments yesterday for the first time in
a case challenging the broadest interpretations of that law,
the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Those interpretations have
left cybersecurity pros fearing jail time for doing basic
Internet detective work. Critics say the CFAA is vaguely
worded and that its Reagan-era concerns haven't translated
well to modern technology.
Giant
Arecibo radio telescope collapses in Puerto Rico. (The
Guardian, December 1, 2020)
A huge radio telescope in Puerto Rico that has played a key
role in astronomical discoveries for more than half a century
collapsed on Tuesday. The telescope’s 900-ton receiver
platform fell onto the reflector dish more than 400 feet
below.
The US National Science Foundation had earlier announced that
the Arecibo Observatory would be closed. An auxiliary cable
snapped in August, causing a 100ft gash on the 1,000ft-wide
(305m) reflector dish and damaged the receiver platform that
hung above it. Then a main cable broke in early November.
The collapse stunned many scientists who had relied on what
was until recently the largest radio telescope in the world.
Scientists worldwide had been petitioning US officials and
others to reverse the NSF’s decision to close the observatory.
The NSF said at the time that it intended to eventually reopen
the visitor center and restore operations at the observatory’s
remaining assets, including its two Lidar facilities used for
upper atmospheric and ionospheric research, including
analyzing cloud cover and precipitation data. The telescope
has been used to track asteroids on a path to Earth, conduct
research that led to a Nobel prize and determine if a planet
is potentially habitable. Scientists had used the telescope to
study pulsars to detect gravitational waves as well as search
for neutral hydrogen, which can reveal how certain cosmic
structures are formed. About 250 scientists worldwide had been
using the observatory when it closed in August.
Trump
takes aim at another disloyal governor—and may foment a
primary challenge. (Daily Kos, December 1, 2020)
The
C.D.C. Recommends Nursing Homes and Health Workers Get
Vaccines First. (New York Times, December 1, 2020)
The new recommendation is the first of several expected from
the panel over the coming weeks, as vaccines developed by
Pfizer and Moderna go through the federal approval process, on
the thorny question of which Americans should be at the front
of the long line to get vaccinated while supply is still
scarce. The panel described it as an interim recommendation
that could change as more is learned about how well the
vaccines work in different age groups and how well the
manufacturers keep up with demand.
The roughly three million people living in long-term care and
those who care for them are a relatively clear target; 39
percent of deaths from the coronavirus have occurred in such
facilities, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
But states and health systems will ultimately have to decide
which of the nation’s 21 million health care workers should
qualify to receive the first doses, as there won’t be enough
at first for everyone.
Pfizer and Moderna have estimated that they will have enough
to vaccinate, at most, 22.5 million Americans by year’s end,
with the required two doses, a few weeks apart. The C.D.C.
will apportion the supply among the states, with the initial
allocation proportional to the size of each state’s adult
population.
Scott
Atlas Resigns After Whispering Controversial COVID-19 Advice
Into Trump’s Ear. (Huffington Post, December 1, 2020)
The doctor supported the idea of herd immunity to tackle the
virus and cast doubt on the effectiveness of face masks.
Trump
campaign lawyer calls for fired DHS election security
official to be 'shot'. (ABC News, December 1, 2020)
Joe di Genova said that former Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Chris Krebs
"should be drawn and quartered, taken out at dawn and shot."
Di Genova, speaking on the conservative outlet Newsmax, said
that Krebs was an idiot. "Mail-in balloting is inherently
corrupt and this election proved it,"
di
Genova told host Howie Carr (beginning at 20:20; this
quote at 33:05). "This was not a coincidence, this was all
planned. Anybody who thinks that this election went well like
that idiot Krebs," he said, "that guy is a Class A moron. He
should be drawn and quartered, taken out at dawn and shot."
Krebs was fired by the president last month after repeatedly
speaking out against the president's various claims, saying
the election had been the most secure in U.S. history. "The
recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020
Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive
improprieties and fraud," Trump said in a tweet. "Therefore,
effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as
Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security
Agency."
Krebs, on NBC's "Today" program Tuesday morning, said that di
Genova's comments were examples of "more dangerous language,
more dangerous behavior. We're a nation of laws, and I plan to
take advantage of those laws. I've got an exceptional team of
lawyers that win in court and I think they're going to be
busy." Adding that his team is exploring all options, but
warning that "they can know that there are things coming."
[Note: Trump lawyer di Genova didn't only threaten Krebs:
"ANYBODY WHO THINKS THAT THIS ELECTION WENT WELL like that
idiot Krebs, that guy is a Class A moron. He should be drawn
and quartered, taken out at dawn and shot." This is what
Republicans listen to.]
Pastor
Urges Trump Admin to 'Shoot' Democrats, Journalists if They
Conspired to 'Rig' Election. (Newsweek, November 30,
2020)
1918
Germany Has a Warning for America. (New York Times,
November 30, 2020)
Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign recalls one of the
most disastrous political lies of the 20th century.
‘Stop
The Stupid’: GOP Lawmaker Pleads With Trump To Drop Election
Lies. (Huffington Post, November 30, 2020)
Michigan Rep. Paul Mitchell called on the president to give it
up for the “sake of our Nation.”
Trump’s
Lawyers Call Rudy Giuliani “Deranged” As His Lawsuits Keep
Failing. (5-min. video; Ring Of Fire, November 30, 2020)
Lawyers for the Donald Trump campaign – the ones who aren’t
going to court and saying that there was widespread fraud –
have become openly mocking Rudy Giuliani and what they are
calling the “clown car” of lawyers that he has assembled. They
are calling Giuliani himself “deranged”, and they understand
that there is no evidence to back up any of these claims. Ring
of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.
Dominion Voting
Systems categorically denies false assertions about vote
switching and software issues with our voting systems.
(Dominion Voting Systems, December 1, 2020)
Dominion employees are being forced to retreat from their
lives due to personal safety concerns, not only for our
employees themselves, but also for their extended families.
ABC
News has reported on these security concerns, saying
that after "two weeks of false fraud claims," this is the
latest sign that "freewheeling online rhetoric has real-world
consequences."
Assertions of "supercomputer" election fraud conspiracies are
100% false. An unsubstantiated claim about the deletion of 2.7
million pro-Trump votes that was posted on the Internet and
spread on social media has been taken down and debunked by
independent fact-checkers. Our machines have no secret ‘vote
flipping’ algorithm. We have no ties to dictator Hugo Chávez.
All U.S. voting systems must provide assurance that they work
accurately and reliably as intended under federal U.S. EAC and
state certifications and testing requirements.
Dominion's voting systems are certified for the 2020
elections. There were no Dominion software glitches and
ballots were accurately tabulated. The results are 100%
auditable. Election officials provide writing instruments that
are approved for marking ballots to all in-person voters using
hand-marked paper ballots. Dominion Voting Systems
machines can read all of these instruments, including
Sharpies.
Trump’s
Disgraceful Endgame (National Review, November 30, 2020)
The chief driver of the post-election contention of the past
several weeks is the petulant refusal of one man to accept the
verdict of the American people. The Trump team (and much of
the GOP) is working backwards, desperately trying to find
something, anything to support the president’s aggrieved
feelings, rather than objectively considering the evidence and
reacting as warranted.
Almost nothing that the Trump team has alleged has withstood
the slightest scrutiny. In particular, it’s hard to find much
that is remotely true in the president’s Twitter feed these
days. It is full of already-debunked claims and crackpot
conspiracy theories about Dominion voting systems. Over the
weekend, he repeated the charge that 1.8 million mail-in
ballots in Pennsylvania were mailed out, yet 2.6 million were
ultimately tallied. In a rather elementary error, this
compares the number of mail-ballots requested in the primary
to the number of ballots counted in the general. A straight
apples-to-apples comparison finds that 1.8 million mail-in
ballots were requested in the primary and 1.5 million
returned, while 3.1 million ballots were requested in the
general and 2.6 million returned.
Flawed and dishonest assertions like this pollute the public
discourse and mislead good people who make the mistake of
believing things said by the president of the United States.
The idea, as the Trump team stalwartly maintains, that the
Supreme Court is going to take up this case and issue a
game-changing ruling is fantastical. Conservative judges have
consistently rejected Trump’s flailing legal appeals, and the
justices are unlikely to have a different reaction.
Trump’s most reprehensible tactic has been to attempt,
somewhat shamefacedly, to get local Republican officials to
block the certification of votes and state legislatures to
appoint Trump electors in clear violation of the public will.
This has gone nowhere, thanks to the honesty and sense of duty
of most of the Republicans involved, but it’s a profoundly
undemocratic move that we hope no losing presidential
candidate ever even thinks of again.
ICE
expelled group of children under Stephen Miller policy just
minutes after judge blocked it. (Daily Kos, November 30,
2020)
DeepMind’s
protein-folding AI has solved a 50-year-old grand challenge
of biology. (MIT Technology Review, November 30, 2020)
Today DeepMind and the organizers of the long-running Critical
Assessment of protein Structure Prediction (CASP) competition
announced an AI that should have the huge impact that Hassabis
has been after. The latest version of DeepMind’s AlphaFold, a
deep-learning system that can accurately predict the structure
of proteins to within the width of an atom, has cracked one of
biology’s grand challenges.
AlphaFold can predict the shape of proteins to within the
width of an atom. The breakthrough will help scientists design
drugs and understand disease.
A protein is made from a ribbon of amino acids that folds
itself up with many complex twists and turns and tangles. This
structure determines what it does. And figuring out what
proteins do is key to understanding the basic mechanisms of
life, when it works and when it doesn’t. Efforts to develop
vaccines for covid-19 have focused on the virus’s spike
protein, for example. The way the coronavirus snags onto human
cells depends on the shape of this protein and the shapes of
the proteins on the outsides of those cells. The spike is just
one protein among billions across all living things; there are
tens of thousands of different types of protein inside the
human body alone.
In this year’s CASP, AlphaFold predicted the structure of
dozens of proteins with a margin of error of just 1.6
angstroms—that’s 0.16 nanometers, or atom-sized. This far
outstrips all other computational methods and for the first
time matches the accuracy of experimental techniques to map
out the structure of proteins in the lab, such as
cryo-electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and x-ray
crystallography. These techniques are expensive and slow: it
can take hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of trial
and error for each protein. AlphaFold can find a protein’s
shape in a few days. The breakthrough could help researchers
design new drugs and understand diseases. In the longer term,
predicting protein structure will also help design synthetic
proteins, such as enzymes that digest waste or produce
biofuels. Researchers are also exploring ways to introduce
synthetic proteins that will increase crop yields and make
plants more nutritious.
Mysterious
Monolith Update: New Mysterious Monolith Appears in Romania.
(Vice, November 30, 2020)
A new monolith has appeared in Romania, a few feet away from
the site of an ancient fortress.
Earth
now 2,000 light-years closer to Milky Way's supermassive
black hole. (CNet, November 29, 2020)
This doesn't mean we're currently on a collision course with a
black hole. No, it's simply the result of a more accurate
model of the Milky Way based on new data.
Turkey’s
military campaign beyond its borders is powered by homemade
armed drones. (Washington Post, November 29, 2020)
Their impact has been substantial. The drones played a central
role in recent months in shifting Libya’s civil war in favor
of the Turkish-backed government based in the capital,
Tripoli, and they helped Azerbaijan, an ally of Turkey,
prevail over Armenian forces in the fighting over the
contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to military
analysts. In northern Syria, Turkish drones played a major
part this year in a series of devastating attacks on Syrian
armored forces that caught some military observers by surprise
and helped bring a Syrian government offensive against rebel
areas to a halt.
Trump
senior aide Kushner and team heading to Saudi Arabia, Qatar.
(Reuters, November 29, 2020)
Trump
Accuses Attorney-General William Barr And The FBI Of
Election Fraud. (Politicus USA, November 29, 2020)
"The mail-in ballots are a disaster. They sent millions and
millions and millions of mail-in ballots, I’m sure you know
people that got two, three, or four, because I do, where they
said you know, we got four ballots, they got one at the
country home, dead people were seeing ballots but even worse,
dead people were applying to get a ballot. They were making
application to get ballots, many. And you know we’re not
talking about 10 people, there are a lot of dead people that
so-called voted in this election, but dead people were, in
some cases, in many many cases, thousands of cases, voted but
also, dead people made application to vote. They were dead 10
years, 15 years and they actually made application.
"This is total fraud, and how the FBI and Department of
Justice, I don’t know, maybe they’ve involved but how people
are allowed to get away with this stuff is unbelievable. This
election was rigged. This election was a total fraud, and it
continues to be as they hide and the problem we have we go to
judges, and people don’t want to get involved. The media
doesn’t even want to cover it. I mean you’re doing something
you’re actually very brave because you’re doing something the
media doesn’t want to talk about it."
Donald Trump never had a single day as president with an
approval rating of 50% or more. It is common sense that one of
the most unpopular presidents in the history of polling lost
his bid for reelection. Trump can spin conspiracies and blame
the government, but he lost, and no conspiracy can undo a
historically humiliating defeat for Donald Trump.
The
flip side to Biden's appointments: All the Trumpers he can
fire. (Daily Kos, November 28, 2020)
Biden
gains 87 votes in Trump's $3M Wisconsin recount as Dane
County wraps up review; president plans lawsuit. (USA
Today, November 28, 2020)
The recount has not turned up evidence of fraud, prompting
Twitter to label his tweet as disputed. Trump's campaign has
alleged long-standing voting practices in Wisconsin are
illegal and sought to throw out about 238,000 ballots in Dane
and Milwaukee counties. The campaign claims all early
in-person votes in those counties are illegitimate, including
ones cast by GOP state Sen. Alberta Darling, GOP state
Rep. Jessie Rodriguez and Trump campaign attorney Jim Troupis.
Democrats, election officials and election attorneys have
called the claim preposterous, noting the state has been
conducting early in-person voting the same way for a decade
without any challenges.
Trump
reportedly wants to hold a 2024 campaign event during
Biden's inauguration. (Business Insider, November 28,
2020)
Visualizing
the Human Impact on the Earth’s Surface (Visual
Capitalist, November 28, 2020)
As it turns out, nearly 95% of the Earth’s surface shows some
form of human modification, with 85% bearing evidence of
multiple forms of human impact.
Heather
Cox Richardson: It seems as if Trump and President-Elect Joe
Biden are in a contest to see who can will their vision of
the future into life. (Letters From An American,
November 28, 2020)
That
Mysterious Monolith in the Utah Desert? It’s Gone, Officials
Say. (New York Times, November 27, 2020)
The metal structure has been removed, Utah officials said on
Saturday, adding that they had not taken it down.
Did
John McCracken Make That Monolith in Utah? (New York
Times, November 27, 2020)
It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, buried in the desert:
His dealer says yes. His son says maybe. His artist buddies,
like Ed Ruscha, say, no way the sculptor created this tall,
silvery object.
Prominent
Iranian nuclear scientist killed in attack outside Tehran.
(Washington Post, November 27, 2020)
A prominent Iranian nuclear scientist who was seen as a
driving force behind Tehran's disbanded effort to build a
nuclear weapon nearly two decades ago was killed Friday
outside Tehran in an apparent targeted ambush, Iranian
officials said. Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif,
described the attack on the scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, as
the work of “state terror” and implicated Israel as having a
possible role.
Fakhrizadeh was once at the pinnacle of Iran’s nuclear
program, including efforts to develop nuclear arms that U.S.
intelligence says was scrapped in 2003. But his latest role
was less directly involved in Iran’s nuclear sites, which
include an energy-producing reactor and extensive centrifuge
labs to enrich uranium.
Analysts also said the timing of the attack appeared linked to
the impending change of U.S. administrations. President Trump
— who withdrew the United States from a nuclear pact that Iran
struck with world powers five years ago — has pursued a
“maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran. President-elect
Joe Biden has pledged to work more closely with allies on Iran
policies and work to rejoin the nuclear agreement. “The
operation reflects thinking of those in the Netanyahu
government — and/or the Trump administration — who see these
next few weeks as their last chance to make relations with
Iran as bad as possible, in an effort to spoil the Biden
administration’s efforts to return to diplomacy with Tehran,”
said Pillar, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
5
Big-Picture Trends Being Accelerated by the Pandemic
(many charts; Visual Capitalist, November 27, 2020)
The
Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism (New York
Times, November 27, 2020)
Socialist-minded millennial heirs are trying to live their
values by getting rid of their money.
World’s
largest offshore wind farm secures $8-Billion investment.
(Electrek, November 27, 2020)
Dogger Bank, which will eventually become the world’s largest
offshore wind farm, is getting an $8 billion investment from
Norwegian oil giant Equinor and British energy company SSE.
The money will be used to construct the first two phases of
the project. SSE Renewables is leading the construction of the
3.6 GW project, and Equinor will lead on the wind farm’s
operations.
Equinor writes: With the strong interest from lenders, Dogger
Bank A and B were able to secure competitive terms, despite
unprecedented economic circumstances arising from the global
coronavirus pandemic. Dogger Bank, which will eventually
become the world’s largest offshore wind farm, is getting an
$8 billion investment from Norwegian oil giant Equinor and
British energy company SSE.
The three-phase project will include construction of a total
of 3.6 gigawatts of capacity in the British North Sea, (1.2 GW
per phase) and will power 6 million UK homes when it is fully
operational, or 5% of UK power demand.
If
athletes can get coronavirus tests, nurses ask, why not us?
(Washington Post, November 27, 2020)
Why
did Democrats bleed House seats? A top analyst offers
surprising answers. (Washington Post, November 27, 2020)
President-elect Joe Biden garnered an unprecedented 80 million
votes, will win the popular vote by as much as seven million,
and won fairly comfortably in the electoral college. Even if
the vote counts in swing states were pretty tight, that’s a
robust victory. Yet despite all that, Democrats lost a dozen
House seats, shrinking their majority and putting it at grave
risk in 2022, lost key Senate races that would have secured
control of the upper chamber, and failed to capture any state
legislatures, diluting their influence over redistricting for
the next decade. This has given rise to a lot of infighting
and a thousand explanations: Democrats suffered the taint of
“the Squad” of leftists in Congress and the “defund the
police” movement; they lost because squishy centrists talked
only to suburban Whites; they faltered as their standing with
non-college Whites grew more dire.
But what if there’s also another, more structural explanation,
one rooted in realities about high turnout on both sides and
already-built-in incentives for many GOP-leaning swing voters?
Can
Trump pardon his associates - or himself? (Reuters,
November 27, 2020)
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned his former
national security adviser Michael Flynn, kicking off what is
expected to be a string of pardons during the final weeks of
the Trump administration. Trump has granted clemency to
supporters before, most notably earlier this year when he
commuted the criminal sentence of Roger Stone, who was
sentenced to prison after being convicted of lying under oath
to lawmakers.
In 2018, Trump even said he had the “absolute right” to pardon
himself - a claim many constitutional law scholars dispute.
Here is an overview of Trump’s pardon power, which is sweeping
but not absolute.
Washington
Post Editorial Board Tears Into Donald Trump: ‘A Total
Disgrace’. (Huffington Post, November 26, 2020)
The newspaper’s board rebuked the president for pardoning his
former adviser, Michael Flynn.
Trump’s
baseless election fraud claims in Georgia turn Senate
runoffs into a ‘high-wire act’ for Republicans.
(Washington Post, November 26, 2020)
Trump and his allies have repeatedly, and falsely, accused
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian
Kemp, both Republicans, of presiding over a fraudulent
election. Trump has pushed the baseless claim that the
Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Georgia were rigged
as part of a global conspiracy, and Perdue and Loeffler have
called for Raffensperger’s resignation.
But therein lies the conundrum: Perdue and Loeffler are
traveling the state pleading with Republican voters to turn
out on Jan. 5 — effectively asking Trump supporters to put
their faith in the same voting system their president claims
was manipulated to engineer his defeat.
Trump
says he will step down if electoral college votes for Biden.
(Washington Post, November 26, 2020)
President Trump said on Thursday that he would leave the White
House if the electoral college voted for President-elect Joe
Biden next month, though he vowed to keep fighting to overturn
the election he lost and said he may never concede.
“Certainly I will, and you know that,” he said when asked if
he would leave the White House if the electoral college picked
Biden. Though advisers have long said he would leave on Jan.
20, it was Trump’s first explicit commitment to vacate office
if the vote did not go his way.
Trump said he planned to continue to make claims of fraud
about the results and said, without evidence, that Biden could
not have won close to 80 million votes. His legal team has
been widely mocked — and has lost almost every claim in every
state, as officials certify results for Biden. “It’s going to
be a very hard thing to concede,” he said of the election.
Aides have privately said Trump will never concede that he
lost.
Hyundai
Wants to Buy the Robot Dog So It Can Make Its Cars Look Like
This. (Popular Mechanics, November 26, 2020)
Softbank is reportedly in talks with the South Korean auto
manufacturer to sell off its robotics company, Boston Dynamics
Inc, according to a Bloomberg report. Supposedly, the
transaction could be worth up to $1 billion. If the deal does
go through, it wouldn't be the first time Spot got a new
owner. Back in 1992, Boston Dynamics spun out of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then in 2013, Alphabet,
Google's parent company, acquired the company for an
undisclosed sum in 2013. Four years later, Softbank purchased
Boston Dynamics. The specifics of that deal weren't made
public.
The
real Thanksgiving story hints at how future Americans will
talk about Covid-19. (MSNBC, November 26, 2020)
We love stories in America. Especially when we can see
ourselves in the heroes. That's part of why the tale of the
humble Pilgrims, rescued from starvation by kindly Natives,
has such a cherished place in our folklore.
Thanksgiving Day, for all its feasting and pageantry, is a
holiday built on the stories that we tell ourselves. This
year, though, it is being celebrated as we're in the throes of
a pandemic that a divided country can't properly define. It
makes me wonder: What stories will we eventually tell
ourselves?
This
Thanksgiving, millions of Americans are going hungry in the
midst of Covid. (MSNBC, November 26, 2020)
This Thanksgiving, millions of Americans face homelessness and
hundreds of thousands live on the street.
There are two lines that will tell you the story of the
American economy right now. The first is the one President
Donald Trump talks about — a lot: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average. It’s an index that measures the stock prices of 30 of
America’s largest and most representative companies. It tracks
the value of Apple, Caterpillar, Coca Cola, Goldman Sachs, and
companies like that.
The other line isn’t on a graph. It’s an image of thousands of
cars lined up to get food for Thanksgiving at the North Texas
Food bank in Dallas. In one week, the food bank distributed
6,000 pounds of food, including 7,280 turkeys — enough to feed
25,000 people this Thanksgiving. That’s just one food bank, in
one American city.
Those two lines tell the story of the "K-shaped" recovery in
America. The top line of the “K” is up and to the right, for
the investor class. The bottom line is down and to the right,
for the working class, the working poor and the unemployed.
As
Americans prepare to gather for Thanksgiving, the world
watches with dread and disbelief. (Washington Post,
November 25, 2020)
Foreign observers are watching with trepidation — and at times
disbelief — as coronavirus cases surge across the United
States, and masses of Americans are choosing to follow through
with plans to visit family and friends for this week’s
Thanksgiving holiday anyway. Decisions over whether to gather
have turned divisive, as experts warn that Thanksgiving
includes the key ingredients — a shared, indoor meal and
inter-household mixing — that could spark an even worse surge
in cases in the coming weeks.
How
Iceland hammered COVID with science (Nature, November
25, 2020)
The tiny island nation brought huge scientific heft to its
attempts to contain and study the coronavirus. Here’s what it
learnt.
Researchers at deCODE and the National University Hospital of
Iceland worked day in and day out to gather and interpret the
data. Their achievements aren’t merely academic. Iceland’s
science has been credited with preventing deaths — the country
reports fewer than 7 per 100,000 people, compared with around
80 per 100,000 in the United States and the United Kingdom. It
has also managed to prevent outbreaks while keeping its
borders open, welcoming tourists from 45 countries since
mid-June. The partnership again kicked into high gear in
September, when a second large wave of infections threatened
the nation.
The same approach could work in other countries that have
suitable resources, such as the United States, where all the
methods deCODE is currently using were developed, says
Stefánsson. In fact, early in the pandemic, many US labs
pivoted to offer coronavirus testing, but were stymied by
regulatory and administrative obstacles, which critics
attribute to a lack of federal leadership. “This was a
wonderful opportunity for academia in the United States to
show its worth, and it didn’t,” Stefánsson says. “I was
surprised.”
Trump
pardons Flynn. Judge Sullivan will love that as he considers
case against Trump. (Daily Kos, November 25, 2020)
Judge Emmet Sullivan has just been assigned a Voting Rights
Act case accusing Trump of engaging in an illegal strategy to
disenfranchise Black voters in an attempt to overturn the
election. The complaint, filed by attorneys with the NAACP
Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) on behalf of the
Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO) and three Black
citizens of Detroit, names Trump as an individual and his
campaign as defendants for trying to "pressure state and local
officials not to certify election results in key states and
then have state legislatures override the will of the voters
by installing" a "slate of electors" who are loyal to Trump
and the Republican Party. They claim that Trump, his legal
team, and his campaign have worked "in concert" and engaged in
conduct to "intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to
intimidate, threaten or coerce” election workers involved in
"aiding [a] person to vote or attempt to vote." And that, they
argue, is a direct violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Which is now going to be heard by Judge Sullivan. Who is also
the judge who valiantly fought back against Trump and
Postmaster General Louis Dejoy's efforts to sabotage the U.S.
Postal Service and the mail-in vote this fall. So that's fun.
Go ahead, Trump. Pardon Flynn. See how that works out.
Pro-Trump
Group Donor Sues Over Failure to Expose Election Fraud.
(Bloomberg, November 25, 2020)
When True the Vote failed to provide any reports on its
progress and with certification deadlines approaching,
Eshelman said it became obvious the group wouldn’t be able to
execute the plan he agreed to support. So, he asked for his
$2.5M back.
Eshelman is the former CEO of Pharmaceutical Product
Development and founding chairman of Furiex Pharmaceuticals.
[No wonder he didn't want Biden to make medicines affordable.]
Over
30 Trump Campaign Lawsuits Have Failed. Some Rulings Are
Scathing. (New York Times, November 25, 2020)
As President Trump continues to litigate the 2020 election,
some judges have lost all patience. Here are some excerpts of
their rulings.
Can
John Kerry revive America's climate leadership? (The
Conversation, November 25, 2020)
Five years ago, the U.S. was a global climate leader. Nations
around the world were about to approve the Paris climate
agreement, thanks in large part to negotiations by
then-Secretary of State John Kerry and his team. Fast-forward
to today, and the United States’ reputation lies in tatters.
Rebuilding that reputation is an enormous task with high
stakes. and it will soon be Kerry’s job again as the next U.S.
climate envoy.
Two international energy and climate policy experts analyze
what President-elect Joe Biden can do to rebuild trust and the
diplomatic work ahead.
Will
there be a monument to the COVID-19 pandemic? (The
Conversation, November 25, 2020)
How plague monuments were used to commemorate victims of past
disease outbreaks, temporary memorials for COVID-19, and why
plague memorials are not as prolific as war memorials.
How
to be resilient (Psyche, November 25, 2020)
Life is unpredictable. Brace yourself with a suite of coping
mechanisms, internal and external, then deploy them flexibly.
How
Albert Einstein Reconciled Religion to Science
(Nautilus, November 25, 2020)
- The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and
product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of
honorable, but still purely primitive, legends. No
interpretation, no matter how subtle, can change this for me.
- I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the
lawful harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns himself
with the fate and the doings of mankind.
- I am not an Atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as
a Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited
minds.
May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how
highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the
position of a little child, entering a huge library whose
walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different
tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those
books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the
languages in which they are written. The child notes a
definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious
order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.
That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even
the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe
marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand
the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the
mysterious force that sways the constellations.
I am fascinated by Spinoza’s Pantheism. I admire even more his
contributions to modern thought. Spinoza is the greatest of
modern philosophers, because he is the first philosopher who
deals with the soul and the body as one, not as two separate
things.
Mysterious
monolith puzzle has been solved by internet sleuths.
(CNet, November 25, 2020)
Sorry, but it's probably not aliens.
Mysterious
metal monolith discovered in rural Utah. (2-min. video;
NBC News, November 24, 2020)
Public safety officers spotted the object in a remote area of
red rock — something that appeared to be right out of a scene
from "2001: A Space Odyssey."
500-years-old
rock art in a California cave was a visual guide to
hallucinogenic plants. (Ars Technica, November 24, 2020)
It’s the first direct evidence that people used hallucinogens
at a rock art site.
On
the Decline: A Look at Earth’s Biodiversity Loss, By Region
(Visual Capitalist, November 24, 2020)
Earth’s biodiversity has seen an overall decrease across the
globe. And while each region has seen a decline, some places
have experienced higher drops than others.
Lord
of Misrule: Thomas Morton’s American Subversions (Public
Domain Review, November 24, 2020)
When we think of early New England, we tend to picture
stern-faced Puritans and black-hatted Pilgrims, but in the
same decade that these more famous settlers arrived, a man
called Thomas Morton founded a very different kind of colony —
a neo-pagan experiment he named Merrymount. Merrymount —
founded as Mount Wollaston in 1624 near present-day Quincy,
Massachusetts — was the brainchild of the Devonshire-born
lawyer, raconteur, libertine, rake, and crypto-pagan Thomas
Morton (1579–1647). His ideas for colonizing the New World
were distinct from either the Plymouth or the Massachusetts
Bay Colony.
While generations of historians have claimed that Americans
are intellectually the descendants of stern Calvinist Puritans
and Pilgrims, Morton (who stood in opposition to both groups)
had his own ideas. The utopian Merrymount, it has long been
argued, was a society built upon privileging art and poetry
over industriousness and labor, and pursued a policy of
intercultural harmony rather than white supremacy — a strange
and beautiful alternative dream of what America could have
been.
Again and again, Morton has emerged as an undercurrent in
American culture since the seventeenth century. Condemned by
John Adams, celebrated by Nathaniel Hawthorne, but more often
than not a historical footnote, Morton can be regarded as part
of a Manichean battle, where he and the Puritans grapple for
control of national self-definition. Indeed, the clashes
between Morton and his enemies provide a convenient metaphor
for those warring dichotomies in the American spirit —
puritanism and licentiousness, staidness and carnival, piety
and irreverence. Morton remains a powerful disruptive presence
in the common founding myth of American identity. What Morton
promises us is that things need not be done as they always
have been, for things have not always been done this way at
all.
Is
belief in God a delusion? (Live Science, November 24,
2020)
As the pandemic raged in April, churchgoers in Ohio defied
warnings not to congregate. Some argued that their religion
conferred them immunity from COVID-19. In one memorable CNN
clip, a woman insisted she would not catch the virus because
she was “covered in Jesus’ blood”.
Some weeks later, the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker
commented on the dangers of evangelical religious belief in
the coronavirus era. Writing on Facebook, he said: “Belief in
an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual
lives and discourages action that would make them longer,
safer, and happier.”
Evidence
Builds That an Early Mutation Made the Pandemic Harder to
Stop. (New York Times, November 24, 2020)
Scientists were initially skeptical that a mutation made the
coronavirus more contagious. But new research has changed many
of their minds.
Day
1 for Joe Biden (New York Times, November 24, 2020)
President-elect Joe Biden’s battle against the coronavirus
officially began today.
Biden’s
DHS pick adds cybersecurity chops to the incoming
administration. (Washington Post, November 24, 2020)
Alejandro Mayorkas worked on numerous international
cybersecurity agreements as deputy DHS secretary during the
Obama administration, including a landmark 2015 deal with
Beijing that briefly reduced Chinese hacking targeting U.S.
companies. He also helped significantly increase the amount of
cybersecurity intelligence that government shared with
industry.
If he wins confirmation, cybersecurity pros are hoping he can
help resume stalled efforts to boost international cooperation
in cyberspace and help restore ties between government and
industry on cybersecurity that frayed during the Trump
administration. Mayorkas will have to tackle low employee
morale across DHS, as Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti report.
That could be particularly difficult at the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency, which was rocked this month
when Trump fired the agency’s popular leader Chris Krebs for
fact-checking some of his false claims about the election.
Other CISA leaders were also asked to resign after the
election.
NEW: Joe
Biden Shouldn't Reverse All Trump Policies. (Newsmax,
November 24, 2020)
Donald Trump tried to undo all of the laws, executive orders,
regulatory rules, and international agreements introduced by
Barack Obama. Joe Biden should not imitate Trump's approach.
Biden’s
Transition to the Presidency Formally Begins. (New York
Times, November 24, 2020)
After weeks of delay, a key federal official designated Joe
Biden the apparent winner, allowing his team to access
government resources and information. Today, Mr. Biden will
announce his picks for cabinet offices including the secretary
of state and director of national intelligence. Trump vows to
keep fighting the results, but is renovating Mar-a-Lago as his
retirement home.
NEW: U.S.
Senator Jeff Merkley: This alternative to the electoral
college doesn’t require a constitutional amendment.
(Washington Post, November 23, 2020)
The right to vote for our president is one of the most
fundamental rights cherished by Americans. But when the will
of the voters is overturned by an electoral system that
undermines the principle of “one person, one vote” — a system
with origins in a centuries-old deal to preserve the power of
slaveholding states — it undermines the legitimacy of the
president and our system of government.
It is past time for us to abolish this arcane institution and
ensure that the person who occupies the Oval Office is the
same one the majority of Americans voted for. The most obvious
way to do this would be to pass a constitutional amendment
abolishing the electoral college. I have introduced such an
amendment in the Senate. But given the high bar for enacting
constitutional amendments, the odds of this happening — as The
Post noted — are slim. But the good news is that a
constitutional amendment is not the only way to ensure our
next president is chosen by popular vote. An alternative path
is called the
National
Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The idea is that states
would commit through legislation to award their electoral
votes to the winner of the national popular vote, in an
agreement that would go into effect if and only when enough
states agree to the compact that, together, their electoral
votes would add up to the required 270-vote majority.
This is an idea that has a real chance of success. Fifteen
states and D.C. have already agreed to join this pact and give
their 196 electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote.
If state legislatures representing 74 more electoral votes
join in, the United States would join the republics of the
world with the gold standard for electing a president: the
popular vote. This outcome would change presidential elections
overnight. Every citizen’s vote across our great land would
count equally. In addition, the popular vote would create a
powerful force working to break down the chasm separating our
U.S. political parties. Republican presidential candidates
would seek votes in every part of the country, including blue
states, and Democratic candidates would do the same in red
states. Candidates’ platforms would adjust to address the
interests of all regions of our nation, not just the swing
states. Over time, voters in “safe” states would have more
exposure to different ideas and opportunities to hear from
voices outside the comfort of our normal echo-chamber bubbles.
In this era, when so many citizens and so many states feel
left out of the process, this could be a powerful factor in
helping to bring America together.
"Supreme
Revenge: Battle for the Court": An updated version of this
54-min. film will premiere Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020. (PBS,
November 23, 2020)
Inside the no-holds-barred war for control of the Supreme
Court. An investigation of how a 30-year-old grievance
transformed the court and turned confirmations into bitter,
partisan conflicts.
Secret
Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor
and Environmental Groups. (Vice, November 23, 2020)
Dozens of leaked documents from Amazon’s Global Security
Operations Center reveal the company’s reliance on Pinkerton
operatives to spy on warehouse workers and the extensive
monitoring of labor unions, environmental activists, and other
social movements.
Trauma
unmakes the world of the self. Can stories repair it?
(Aeon Psyche, November 23, 2020)
Human beings are storytelling creatures: we spin narratives in
order to construct our world. Whether on the cave walls of
Lascaux or the golden record stored on the Voyager spacecraft,
we want to share our selves and what matters to us through
words, actions, even silence. Self-making narratives create
the maps of the totality of our physical reality and
experiences – or, as philosophers sometimes say, of the
lifeworlds that we inhabit. And just as narratives can create
worlds, they can also destroy them.
Trauma, in its many guises, has been part of these narratives
since time immemorial, often by shattering the topographies of
our lifeworlds. Breaking our most fundamental, most
taken-for-granted means of self-understanding, it replaces our
familiar narratives with something dreadful, something
uncanny, sometimes something unspeakable.
No.
3 - AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine shows success: Here’s how
it stacks up to others. (Ars Technica, November 23,
2020)
AstraZeneca used two equal dosages and measured 62% average
effectiveness.
Halving the first dose upped it to 90%
average. Unlike its competitor vaccines, normal refrigeration
is sufficent - and its proven production methods permit early
- and probably less costly - distribution to more people.
‘Unnecessary
hardship’: The next few months have the potential to be very
unpleasant for the American economy. (New York Times,
November 23, 2020)
Many states are reimposing coronavirus restrictions, which
will likely lead to new reductions in consumer spending and
worker layoffs. As Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve
chairman, recently said, “We’ve got new cases at a record
level, we’ve seen a number of states begin to reimpose limited
activity restrictions, and people may lose confidence that it
is safe to go out.”
Adding to the economic risks, several of the government’s
biggest virus rescue programs are scheduled to expire next
month. It isn’t clear whether Congress will renew them,
because congressional Democrats and Republicans disagree on
how to do so. Democrats favor a larger rescue package than
Republicans do. Without a new stimulus package, a double-dip
recession is possible. In an analysis circulating among
President-elect Joe Biden’s aides, the research firm Moody’s
Analytics predicted that the economy would shrink during both
the first and second quarters of 2021, and the unemployment
rate would approach 10 percent next summer, up from 6.9
percent last month.
Transition
warning: Trump's mental illness is a growing danger.
(USA Today, November 23, 2020)
Psychiatrists must prevent harm and injustice, especially when
they are coming from a destructive government.
As the world celebrated a Biden-Harris victory, mental health
professionals braced for the two-and-a-half months that we
deemed would be the most dangerous period of this presidency.
Indeed, in just the days since announcement of election
results, Donald Trump has refused to concede, has obstructed a
peaceful transfer of power, has fired and replaced top
officials responsible for the nation’s security, and has
contemplated catastrophic war. All this is on top of
ignoring a surging pandemic that is now infecting more than
150,000 per day and killing more than 1,500 Americans per day.
Since Donald Trump’s election, mental health professionals
have come forth in historically unprecedented ways to warn
against entrusting the U.S. presidency to someone exhibiting
dangerous mental impairments.
The president’s dangerousness is no longer debatable. Our
warnings have now been realized exactly as we said they would
four years ago, as if on schedule, with abundant real-life
evidence. When the right information became available, a
peer-reviewed panel of independent experts performed a
standardized assessment of mental capacity, to the highest
rigor possible, in which the president failed every criterion.
This means he would be unfit for any job, let alone president.
Our evaluation fully predicted that he would disastrously
mismanage a pandemic, as our blow-by-blow account shows.
The Goldwater Rule … is a violation of your First Amendment
rights, and a violation of your duty to your country and to
human civilization. It is a basic understanding that to remain
silent against a critical medical need is a violation of our
professional “responsibility to society,” as outlined in the
first paragraph of the preamble of our ethics code. The APA
should no longer mislead the public and the media into
believing that its guild rule of restricting speech on public
figures, which no other mental health association has and is
not admissible on any state licensing board, is universal. The
truly universal Declaration of Geneva says that we must
prevent harm and injustice, especially when they are coming
from a destructive government.
Trump’s
unfounded fraud claims are endangering election officials.
(Washington Post, November 23, 2020)
The threats underscore the real-world dangers of efforts by
Trump and his supporters to sow unfounded doubts about the
integrity of the election. And the danger extends well beyond
Georgia. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) described
similar threats against herself, her family and staff members
in her office. She warned the president and lawmakers who were
spreading disinformation about the election results that it is
“well past time that they stop” and that “their words and
actions have consequences.”
We're
celebrating Thanksgiving amid a pandemic. Here's how we did
it in 1918 – and what happened next. (USA Today,
November 22, 2020)
On Thanksgiving more than a century ago, many Americans were
living under quarantines, and officials warned people to stay
home for the holiday.
NEW: America
Is Letting the Coronavirus Rage Through Prisons. (New
York Times, November 21, 2020)
It’s both a moral failure and a public health one.
NASA,
US and European Partners Launch Mission to Monitor Global
Ocean Levels. (
1-min.
video; NASA, November 21, 2020)
A joint U.S.-European satellite built to monitor global sea
levels lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space
Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
Saturday at 9:17 a.m. PST (12:17 p.m. EST). About the size of
a small pickup truck, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will extend
a nearly 30-year continuous dataset on sea level collected by
an ongoing collaboration of U.S. and European satellites while
enhancing weather forecasts and providing detailed information
on large-scale ocean currents to support ship navigation near
coastlines.
After arriving in orbit, the spacecraft separated from the
rocket's second stage and unfolded its twin sets of solar
arrays. Ground controllers successfully acquired the
satellite's signal, and initial telemetry reports showed the
spacecraft in good health. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will
now undergo a series of exhaustive checks and calibrations
before it starts collecting science data in a few months'
time.
On
Parler, a Pro-Trump Call For Georgia Runoff Boycott
Threatens Mitch McConnell's Plan to Restrain Biden.
(Newsweek, November 21, 2020)
The two Georgia runoff elections, scheduled for January 5 with
early voting starting on December 14, will determine control
of the Senate, meaning Biden's ability to push through a
Democratic agenda under his first term. But a number of
pro-Trump Republicans have taken to Parler, the "free-speech"
social media platform, to discourage members of their own
party from voting. Screenshots showed Trump supporters
invoking a conspiracy theory about "rigged" voting machines to
urge a boycott of the upcoming elections in Georgia. "Don't
vote! Don't be part of the corruption" one post read.
Federal
Judge Smacks Down Trump’s Effort to Overturn Election Result
in Pennsylvania. (
Pennsylvania
court opinion; New York Magazine, November 21, 2020)
In this action, the Trump Campaign and the Individual
Plaintiffs (collectively, the “Plaintiffs”) seek to discard
millions of votes legally cast by Pennsylvanians from all
corners – from Greene County to Pike County, and everywhere in
between. In other words, Plaintiffs ask this Court to
disenfranchise almost seven million voters. This Court has
been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought
such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms
of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated. One
might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a
plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal
arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption, such that
this Court would have no option but to regrettably grant the
proposed injunctive relief despite the impact it would have on
such a large group of citizens.
That has not happened. Instead, this Court has been presented
with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative
accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported
by evidence. In the United States of America, this cannot
justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone
all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people,
laws, and institutions demand more. At bottom, Plaintiffs have
failed to meet their burden to state a claim upon which relief
may be granted. Therefore, I grant Defendants’ motions and
dismiss Plaintiffs’ action with prejudice.
Trump
Says He Has Until Dec. 8 to ‘Decertify’ Pennsylvania Loss.
(Bloomberg, November 21, 2020)
Trump seeks to block Pennsylvania elections chief Kathy
Boockvar from certifying the result unless the state throws
out tens of thousands of what it claims are “illegal” mail-in
ballots. Those votes were cast, the Trump campaign contends,
as part of a nationwide Democratic conspiracy linked to
corrupt voting-machine software, Communist money, billionaire
George Soros, and the late Venezuelan ruler Hugo Chavez, who
died in 2013.
States must choose electors by Dec. 8; the Electoral College
vote is set for Dec. 14. After a string of court losses,
Trump’s campaign is seeking alternate routes to victory based
on what it contends is the ability of GOP-led state
legislatures to override the popular vote and select electors
on their own. It’s far from certain that Republican state
lawmakers would go along with such a plan.
On Friday evening, civil rights groups that intervened in the
lawsuit urged the judge to deny the campaign’s request for an
injunction and dismiss the case, arguing the claims are based
on “absurd” logic contradicted by the facts in its own
complaint. The campaign seeks “to justify mass
disenfranchisement with an incoherent conspiracy theory,” the
groups, including the Pennsylvania chapters of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the
League of Women Voters, said in the filing. “We did not
establish a representative democracy to ask courts to
‘declare’ who wins our elections,” the groups said.
When
the World Seems Like One Big Conspiracy (New York Times,
November 20, 2020)
Understanding the structure of Global Cabal theories can shed
light on their allure — and their inherent falsehood.
Global Cabal theories argue that underneath the myriad events
we see on the surface of the world lurks a single sinister
group. The identity of this group may change: Some believe the
world is secretly ruled by Freemasons, witches or Satanists;
others think it’s aliens, reptilian lizard-people or sundry
other cliques. But the basic structure remains the same: The
group controls almost everything that happens, while
simultaneously concealing this control.
The skeleton key of Global Cabal theory unlocks all the
world’s mysteries and offers me entree into an exclusive
circle — the group of people who understand. It makes me
smarter and wiser than the average person and even elevates me
above the intellectual elite and the ruling class: professors,
journalists, politicians. I see what they overlook — or what
they try to conceal.
Global Cabal theories suffer from the same basic flaw: They
assume that history is very simple. The key premise of Global
Cabal theories is that it is relatively easy to manipulate the
world. A small group of people can understand, predict and
control everything, from wars to technological revolutions to
pandemics. Particularly remarkable is this group’s ability to
see 10 moves ahead on the global board game. When they release
a virus somewhere, they can predict not only how it will
spread through the world, but also how it will affect the
global economy a year later. When they unleash a political
revolution, they can control its course. When they start a
war, they know how it will end.
David
Plouffe calls Trump’s legal fight ‘the biggest grift in
American history’. (6-min. video; MSNBC, November 20,
2020)
Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe says that the
president is “the most unpatriotic person in the country’s
history” and warns that Republicans backing his legal fight
are threatening the underpinning of our democracy
Conspiracy
theories are all that’s left in Trump’s effort to overturn
the election. (Washington Post, November 20, 2020)
The Trump campaign’s latest effort to overturn the election
results pits the allure of conspiracy theories against years
of efforts to create the most secure and auditable election in
U.S. history.
Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell
presented no evidence for their claims during a lengthy news
conference that the election was rigged by faulty voting
machines, foreign powers and an opaque cast of corrupt
politicians.
Officials who ran the election and are preparing to certify
it, meanwhile, have spent years improving security
protections, testing technology and ensuring there are paper
records of votes that can be audited after an election to
prove they were tallied correctly. Indeed, the same day
President Trump’s lawyers lobbed their baseless accusations,
Georgia completed a hand count audit of its votes that found
no evidence of fraud and upheld Joe Biden’s narrow win in that
state.
But the Trump argument now is based in paranoia and gut
feeling rather than evidence and logic.
US
coal jobs down 24% from the start of Trump administration to
latest quarter. (S&P Global, November 20, 2020)
Despite a campaign promise to put coal miners back to work and
support "beautiful clean coal," President Donald Trump is on
track to leave the White House with the nation posting the
lowest coal production and jobs figures in recent history.
"You watch what happens — if I win, we're going to bring those
miners back," Trump said at a 2016 rally. Despite a slight
increase in coal production in the third quarter compared to
the previous one, the period marked a new low in average coal
mine employment with just 40,458 jobs.
How
many is 250,000 deaths? (Washington Post, November 20,
2020)
In less than a year, the outbreak has killed:
- Four times as many Americans as have died in the decade-long
Vietnam War.
- Twice as many Americans as were killed over two years in
World War I.
- Nearly two thirds as many Americans as have died during four
years of fighting in World War II.
- More than one-third of an estimated 675,000 Americans who
died in the 1918-19 flu pandemic, which was the worst in
modern history.
Here's another way to think about it, from our Graphics team:
If all 250,000 victims had come from the U.S. heartland, a
region roughly the size of South Dakota would now be devoid of
human life.
Falsehoods
and Failures: Trump During COVID-19 (People For the
American Way, November 20, 2020 Update)
On November 18, the United States surpassed a quarter million
deaths due to COVID-19. This stark reminder of the danger we
continue to face stands in contrast to the near-silence on the
pandemic from Donald Trump for the second straight week, in
addition to his decision to eschew coronavirus task force
meetings for the past five months. Instead, Trump has remained
fixated on lying about the election’s results, spouting false
claims of nonexistent voter fraud and firing the senior
cybersecurity official who directly disputed Trump’s
falsehoods about the election.
The
Coronavirus Has Once Again Contracted Trump. (Gizmodo,
November 20, 2020)
The eldest Trump spawn, Donald Trump Jr., has reportedly
contracted the coronavirus. Honestly, given the rate at which
the virus has spread among the president’s staff and
associates in recent weeks, is anyone really surprised? Trump
Jr. is the latest among more than four dozen people associated
with the White House who have been infected by the virus,
including President Donald Trump himself. Among others on that
ever-growing list are first lady Melania Trump, the
president’s youngest son Barron, his chief of staff Mark
Meadows, longtime campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski, former
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, and several White
House aides and reporters.
On Friday, Andrew Giuliani, a White House aide and the son of
the Trump’s campaign ooziest lawyer Rudy Giuliani, announced
that he also contracted the virus. He said in a tweet that he
was in quarantine and had been “experiencing mild symptoms.”
One of Pence’s aides, Hannah McInnis, tested positive for the
virus earlier this month, according to two people familiar
with the matter who spoke with Bloomberg.
Trump Jr. was one of the hundreds of maskless guests at a
packed election night party at the White House, which is
starting to look more and more like the administration’s
second superspreader event in as many months. In October,
Trump and several others tested positive for the virus
following a Rose Garden ceremony to announce Amy Coney
Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination. The nation’s leading
infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci later dubbed the
gathering a superspreader event, and I wouldn’t be surprised
if he makes the same prognosis about Trump’s election night
rally in the coming days.
The U.S. set several grim new records on Thursday, recording
more than 182,000 new covid-19 cases as well as 1,971 deaths,
the highest death toll since May. With the holiday season
approaching fast, the Centers For Disease Control and
Prevention is begging people not to travel to avoid
potentially spreading the virus even further. As the Trumps
have demonstrated in their shining display of ignorance,
covid-19 is not something you want to keep in the family.
Most
coronavirus cases are spread by people without symptoms, CDC
now says. (CNN, November 20, 2020)
"CDC and others estimate that more than 50% of all infections
are transmitted from people who are not exhibiting symptoms,"
it added in the guidance posted Friday. "This means at least
half of new infections come from people likely unaware they
are infectious to others."
According to the CDC, 24% of people who transmit the virus to
others never develop symptoms and another 35% were
pre-symptomatic. It also said 41% infected others while
experiencing symptoms. Peak infectiousness comes five days
after infection, the agency said on the website. "With these
assumptions, 59% of infections would be transmitted when no
symptoms are present but could range (from) 51%-70% if the
fraction of asymptomatic infections were 24%-30% and peak
infectiousness ranged 4-6 days."
Why
does the avocado have such huge seeds? (Science Norway,
November 20, 2020)
What kind of animal is actually capable of spreading a huge
avocado seed? And why does the tree Maclura pomifera make huge
fruits that no one wants to eat? These are plants that are
still waiting for ‘friends’ that will never return. Meet the
plants that have lost their enormous partners.
NEW: Clinical
Outcomes Of A COVID-19 Vaccine: Implementation Over
Efficacy. (Health Affairs, November 19, 2020)
Using a mathematical simulation of vaccination, we find that
factors related to implementation will contribute more to the
success of vaccination programs than a vaccine’s efficacy as
determined in clinical trials. The benefits of a vaccine will
decline substantially in the event of manufacturing or
deployment delays, significant vaccine hesitancy, or greater
epidemic severity. Our findings demonstrate the urgent need
for health officials to invest greater financial resources and
attention to vaccine production and distribution programs, to
redouble efforts to promote public confidence in COVID-19
vaccines, and to encourage continued adherence to other
mitigation approaches, even after a vaccine becomes available.
NEW: Why
Should the Covid Vaccine Manufacturers Keep All the Profits?
(37-min. podcast; The Nation, November 19, 2020)
Monday we had good news on a Covid vaccine from Moderna,
created with a billion dollars of taxpayer funding. Why does
Moderna get to keep all the profits?
After
a long absence, the U.S. coronavirus task force returns with
a plea for vigilance. (New York Times, November 19,
2020)
Dr. Deborah L. Birx made the remarks after the White House
coronavirus task force met with Vice President Mike Pence —
who offered a far rosier assessment as he defended the
administration’s handling of a pandemic that has now claimed
more than 250,000 lives in the United States, and killed
nearly 2,000 Americans on Wednesday alone. The White House
briefing offered a stark reminder of the toll the pandemic has
taken on the nation and of vast disconnect between Mr. Trump
and Mr. Pence and the federal health officials who advise
them. Even as Dr. Birx implored Americans to wear masks — and
stood at the lectern wearing one as she spoke — Mr. Pence
greeted reporters with his face uncovered.
NEW: The
Marketing Theory Which Explains Why Trump Owns the GOP. It’s
the emotion, Stupid. (The Bulwark, November 19, 2020)
Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican party stems directly
from the remarkable connection he’s forged with his base. This
affinity stems not from Trump’s astute choice of
intellectually resonant issues, but rather from the way he
made his supporters feel—it’s the emotions he elicits that
drive his popularity. In the Trump-supplicant arrangement, the
agreement on specific issues followed the emotional
connection, and not the other way around.
Americus Reed, a professor of marketing at Wharton, has a name
for this type of relationship between a brand and consumers:
Identity Loyalty. Reed describes identity loyalty as the
“marketing utopia” where the consumer develops a deep
connection with “a brand you fervently believe in, a brand you
use to express yourself, and one you would recommend to
friends.” Identity loyalty, Reed says, “is when a product,
service, organization, or person is internalized as part of a
consumer’s sense of who they are.” And
that is Donald
Trump’s secret sauce.
NEW: Dominion
Voting Systems employees latest to face threats, harassment
in wake of Trump conspiracy. (8-min. video; ABC News,
November 19, 2020)
The voting machine company that has faced two weeks of false
fraud claims from President Donald Trump told ABC News
Wednesday their employees have been the subject of threats and
online harassment -- the latest sign that Trump's freewheeling
online rhetoric has real-world consequences. In the past week,
the president has tweeted or retweeted more than a dozen false
claims about Dominion Voting Systems used across the country
to his 89 million followers, calling the company "horrible,
inaccurate and anything but secure," despite no credible
evidence to suggest its platforms were compromised in any way.
Despite substantial vote margins in Biden's favor (more than 5
million in the popular vote and tens of thousands or more in
battleground states), a crumbling legal effort to challenge
election results and no evidence of widespread fraud or
irregularities, the president has yet to concede defeat.
Instead, he's resorted to promulgating progressively more
outlandish claims online as part of an effort to delegitimize
the outcome of the election. More than once, those claims have
subjected the president's targets to public attacks and
derision.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs released a statement on
Wednesday reacting to "ongoing and escalating threats of
violence directed at her family and her office." "There are
those, including the president, members of Congress and other
elected officials, who are perpetuating misinformation and are
encouraging others to distrust the election results in a
manner that violates the oath of office they took," Hobbs
wrote in a statement. "It is well past time that they stop.
Their words and actions have consequences."
In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he had
been the target of multiple death threats. "Other than getting
you angry, it's also very disillusioning," Raffensperger said
of the threats made against him, "particularly when it comes
from people on my side of the aisle."
The president's online rhetoric and public remarks have been
repeatedly cited in court cases over the past four years for
having inspired or been associated with alleged criminal
conduct. An ABC News
investigation in May found 54 criminal
cases where Trump's name was invoked in direct connection with
acts of violence, threats of violence or allegations of
assault.
Perhaps the most compelling response to the president's claims
about the voting machines came late last week, with a
statement from the Department of Homeland Security's
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The agencies
said they determined that "there is no evidence that any
voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in
any way compromised" -- a direct rebuke of a claim that
remains on the president's Twitter page. On Tuesday, Trump
responded to his administration's move to provide Dominion a
clean bill of health. In a tweet, he said he fired the head of
CISA, Christopher Krebs, for what he called an inaccurate
statement and once more repeated false allegations about with
the election, including that votes were switched from Trump to
Biden.
Dominion Voting Systems has not taken any further action
against the president's false allegations, some of which have
been repeated on conservative television talk shows. David
Greenberger, a New York-based employment and defamation
lawyer, said the company may have other options. "Operatives
who publish false information about the company, causing it
harm, or intentionally interfere with the company's contracts
or business relationships, are opening themselves up to legal
liability for causes of action like defamation and tortious
interference."
David
Perdue profited from a Navy contractor’s stock while
overseeing the Naval fleet. (New York Times, November
19, 2020)
Senator David Perdue, one of two Republican senators from
Georgia facing runoff elections in January, began making large
and ultimately profitable purchases of shares in a Navy
contractor in 2018 just before taking over as chair of a
Senate subcommittee overseeing the Navy fleet. The disclosure,
first reported Wednesday by The Daily Beast, comes as both Mr.
Perdue and Georgia’s other senator, Kelly Loeffler, have been
under fire for their stock trades.
Mr. Perdue, a millionaire and formerly a prolific trader of
individual stocks, announced in May that he would divest from
his large individual stock holdings after questions were
raised about his well-timed purchases of Pfizer stock in
February, after senators were briefed on the coronavirus
threat.
At a debate last month, Mr. Perdue’s Democratic opponent, Jon
Ossoff, called him a “crook” who sought to profit from the
pandemic. Mr. Perdue has since twice refused to debate Mr.
Ossoff.
What’s
the gold standard, and why does the US benefit from a dollar
that isn’t tied to the value of a glittery hunk of metal?
(The Conversation, November 19, 2020)
Some economists and others, including President Donald Trump
and his Federal Reserve Board of Governors nominee Judy
Shelton, favor a return to the gold standard because it would
impose new rules and “discipline” on a central bank they view
as too powerful and whose actions they consider flawed. This
is among several reasons Shelton’s nomination is controversial
in the Senate, which voted against confirming her on Nov. 17 –
though her Republican supporters may have an opportunity to
try again.
Shelton’s support for the gold standard is just one reason her
nomination has run into trouble. Others include her lack of
support for an independent Federal Reserve and apparent
political motivations in her policy positions. For example,
economists generally favor lower interest rates when
unemployment is high and the economy is faltering and higher
rates when unemployment is low and the economy is strong.
Shelton opposed low rates when a Democrat was in the White
House and unemployment was high but embraced them under Trump,
even though unemployment was low. While there is often
spirited debate about monetary policy, Shelton’s ideas are so
far out of the mainstream, and suspicions of the political
motivations of her positions are so prominent, that several
hundred prominent economists and Fed alumni have urged the
Senate to reject her nomination.
The Federal Reserve is an independent agency that is vital to
America’s economic stability and prosperity. Like the courts,
it is important that it acts with integrity and free from
political considerations. It’s equally important that it not
adopt discredited policies like the gold standard, which is a
very poor example of the aphorism it inspired.
NEW: The
Timing of Evolutionary Transitions Suggests Intelligent Life
Is Rare in the Universe. (Astrobiology, November 19,
2020)
It is unknown how abundant extraterrestrial life is, or
whether such life might be complex or intelligent. On Earth,
the emergence of complex intelligent life required a preceding
series of evolutionary transitions such as abiogenesis,
eukaryogenesis, and the evolution of sexual reproduction,
multicellularity, and intelligence itself. Some of these
transitions could have been extraordinarily improbable, even
in conducive environments. The emergence of intelligent life
late in Earth's lifetime is thought to be evidence for a
handful of rare evolutionary transitions, but the timing of
other evolutionary transitions in the fossil record is yet to
be analyzed in a similar framework. Using a simplified
Bayesian model that combines uninformative priors and the
timing of evolutionary transitions, we demonstrate that
expected evolutionary transition times likely exceed the
lifetime of Earth, perhaps by many orders of magnitude. Our
results corroborate the original argument suggested by Brandon
Carter that intelligent life in the Universe is exceptionally
rare, assuming that intelligent life elsewhere requires
analogous evolutionary transitions. Arriving at the opposite
conclusion would require exceptionally conservative priors,
evidence for much earlier transitions, multiple instances of
transitions, or an alternative model that can explain why
evolutionary transitions took hundreds of millions of years
without appealing to rare chance events. Although the model is
simple, it provides an initial basis for evaluating how
varying biological assumptions and fossil record data impact
the probability of evolving intelligent life, and also
provides a number of testable predictions, such as that some
biological paradoxes will remain unresolved and that planets
orbiting M dwarf stars are uninhabitable.
[The lack of attention to Climate Change on Earth indicates
that it's getting rare here, as well.]
Iconic
radio telescope in Puerto Rico to be demolished.
(National Geographic, November 19, 2020)
After two support cables broke at Arecibo Observatory, the
facility is in danger of a catastrophic collapse, prompting
the National Science Foundation to decommission the telescope.
These
Caribbean islands were poisoned by a carcinogenic pesticide.
(BBC, November 19, 2020)
"First we were enslaved. Then we were poisoned." That's how
many on Martinique see the history of their French Caribbean
island that, to tourists, means sun, rum, and palm-fringed
beaches. Slavery was abolished in 1848. But today the
islanders are victims again - of a toxic pesticide called
chlordecone that's poisoned the soil and water and been linked
to unusually high rates of prostate cancer.
"They never told us it was dangerous," Ambroise Bertin says.
"So people were working, because they wanted the money. We
didn't have any instructions about what was, and wasn't, good.
That's why a lot of people are poisoned." He's talking about
chlordecone, a chemical in the form of a white powder that
plantation workers were told to put under banana trees, to
protect them from insects.
How
to reduce Microsoft’s spying on your Office use (Office
Watch, November 18, 2020)
Whenever you’re running Office or Windows, it’s sending
information about how you use the software to Microsoft.
Microsoft says this is for diagnostic and development purposes
only but we only have their word for that. As noted
before, any information collected by US companies may be
shared with the government.
There’s a hidden registry hack which can reduce the amount of
information Office apps send to Microsoft. The main privacy
setting is an undocumented and unsupported registry setting:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\common\clienttelemetry\
Dr Aleksandar Milenkoski, working for the German Federal
Office for Information Security, has produced a 29-page report
on what information Microsoft Office software sends back to
the company. That’s information about when and how Office apps
are used. It applies to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
and the other Windows programs. An
English
version of the report is available from the German
government.
NEW: Million
MAGA March: Unravelling a Violent Viral Video
(Bellingcat, November 18, 2020)
On November 14, 2020, thousands of supporters of President
Donald Trump gathered in Washington D.C. to protest Joe
Biden’s presumptive victory in the US Presidential election.
The event was branded the Million MAGA March, with the bulk of
attendees being fairly mainstream conservative Trump
supporters, as noted by reporters on the ground. But more
extreme elements were also present.
While the daytime rally included several skirmishes, the
number of violent incidents escalated significantly after
sunset. There is ample evidence of violence from pro-Trump
demonstrators. One assaulted freelance journalist Talia Jane,
while a Proud Boy was filmed punching a French photographer in
the face. At one point, a large group of Proud Boys and Trump
supporters charged at counter-protesters en masse. To be
clear, there was also evidence of assaults by left-wing
demonstrators, as later highlighted by Trump. But the
President’s framing of events erased the violence of his own
supporters and painted a misleading, one-sided account.
The
World Is Never Going Back to Normal. (The Atlantic,
November 18, 2020)
Other countries are learning to live without America. Biden
can’t restore the pre-Trump status quo.
Here’s
what happened when Rudolph Giuliani made his first
appearance in federal court in nearly three decades.
(Washington Post, November 18, 2020)
It was Rudolph W. Giuliani’s first appearance in federal court
since the early 1990s, and by late afternoon Tuesday, it was
clear that U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann was losing
patience with President Trump’s personal attorney.
The president’s attorney opened his appearance in court with a
broad claim: that the Trump campaign was alleging “widespread
nationwide voter fraud.” But he was unable to provide evidence
of any fraud, and said later under questioning from Brann that
the lawsuit did not allege fraud as a matter of law and that
“this is not a fraud case.”
Trump is seeking to stop the certification of Pennsylvania’s
vote in the Nov. 3 election, alleging that Republican voters
in the state were illegally disadvantaged because some
Democratic-leaning counties allowed voters to fix errors on
their mail ballots. Two voters named as co-plaintiffs with
Trump’s campaign in the long-shot suit had their ballots
voided and allege that they were not given a chance to correct
their mistakes.
“You’re alleging that the two individual plaintiffs were
denied the right to vote,” Brann said. “But at bottom, you’re
asking this court to invalidate more than 6.8 million votes,
thereby disenfranchising every single voter in the
commonwealth. Can you tell me how this result can possibly be
justified?”
In response, Giuliani said that Trump’s campaign was seeking
only to throw out about 680,000 ballots cast in Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh, because, he said, Republican observers were
not allowed to watch them being counted. But Trump’s attorneys
had removed legal claims relating to that issue in an amended
version of the lawsuit they filed over the weekend, the judge
reminded him.
As
defeats pile up, Trump tries to delay vote count in
last-ditch attempt to cast doubt on Biden victory.
(1-min. Fox video; Washington Post, November 18, 2020)
Since President Trump lost the 2020 election, his campaign
aides have repeatedly appeared on Fox News to tease baseless
allegations of widespread voter fraud.
President Trump has abandoned his plan to win reelection by
disqualifying enough ballots to reverse President-elect Joe
Biden’s wins in key battleground states, pivoting instead to a
goal that appears equally unattainable: delaying a final count
long enough to cast doubt on Biden’s decisive victory. On
Wednesday, Trump’s campaign wired $3 million to election
officials in Wisconsin to start a recount in the state’s two
largest counties. His personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani,
who has taken over the president’s legal team, asked a federal
judge to consider ordering the Republican-controlled
legislature in Pennsylvania to select the state’s electors.
And Trump egged on a group of GOP lawmakers in Michigan who
are pushing for an audit of the vote there before it is
certified.
NEW: Threats
to Election Officials Piled Up as President Trump Refused to
Concede. (
"Whose
Vote Counts?", 53-min. film; PBS, November 17, 2020)
A FRONTLINE review, based on questions to a dozen election and
law enforcement agencies in five swing states, as well as
local media reports, found examples of threats or acute
security risks to election workers in Pennsylvania, Nevada,
Michigan, Arizona and Georgia.
“What we’re seeing this year — more than we have historically
— is we have, thus far, baseless accusations of fraud and an
unwillingness to acknowledge the results as being what they
are,” Hovland told FRONTLINE. “You’re seeing that spin out on
social media, in particular. You’re seeing it be amplified and
various pieces of mis- or disinformation being thrown in —
various conspiracy theories about the election administration
process.”
Lawrence Norden, director of the Election Reform Program at
the Brennan Center for Justice, said his conversations with
election administrators nationwide have made it clear the
frequency and severity of threats is much worse than in
previous election cycles. That ramping-up matters, Norden
said, because it could discourage people from wanting to take
on vital election work in future cycles. “I think election
workers did an extraordinary job this year,” he said, citing
challenges related to COVID-19, unprecedented early voting and
record-breaking turnout overall. “The amount of time they put
in to make this work, and then to have this reaction, the lies
and threats against them — it worries me, for what it’s going
to mean to get good people to continue to participate to
ensure our elections run.”
For Hovland, the increase in intimidation and harassment
represents a danger to both election workers and the health of
American democracy. “I’ve heard from election officials that
they’re concerned about the safety of their staff,” Hovland
said. “The foundation of our country and our democracy is
trusting in the vote. When you see people lose faith in that,
when you see people lose trust in that, it’s concerning.”
NEW: They
Are What They Say They Hate. (The Bulwark, November 17,
2020)
Trump is a triggered loser who embodies every trait
conservatives spent decades decrying.
He is trying to bring about an "End Of Discussion" by leading
an "outrage industry that shuts down debate and manipulates
voters".
He is "Triggered", "driven by hate", and "trying to silence
the voters".
He is stealing America.
He’s a loser who is up to his eyeballs in bullshit.
He is everything that they ever said their "evil" opponents
were. And worse. But they don’t care.
Heather
Cox Richardson: It was notable today that the media was
dominated not by the actions of the incoming
president-elect, as one would expect after a presidential
election, but by the actions of the lame-duck president,
Donald Trump. (Letters From An American, November 17,
2020)
Biden
approaches 80 million votes in historic victory. (Los
Angeles Times, November 17, 2020)
With more than 155 million votes counted and California and
New York still counting, turnout stands at 65% of all eligible
voters, the highest since 1908, according to data from the
Associated Press and the U.S. Elections Project.
The rising Biden tally and his popular vote lead — nearly 6
million votes — come as Trump has escalated his false
insistence that he actually won the election, and his campaign
and supporters intensify their uphill legal fight to stop or
delay results from being certified, potentially nullifying the
votes of Americans. “It’s just a lot of noise going on,
because Donald Trump is a bull who carries his own china shop
with him,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at
Rice University. “Once the noise recedes, it’s going to be
clear that Biden won a very convincing victory.”
Don't
rely on a negative test result to see your family for
Thanksgiving. (CNN, November 17, 2020)
It can take up to 14 days before a new infection shows up on a
Covid-19 test. Before that, you can be testing negative and
have no symptoms, but you could actually be harboring the
virus and be able to transmit it to others.
Adopting
mask mandates, some GOP governors give up the gospel of
personal responsibility. (Washington Post, November 17,
2020)
The flurry of new rules after President Trump’s loss
underscores the pressure he put on red-state governors to
spurn experts and downplay the virus.
No Republican governor embodies the party’s tortured response
to masks more than North Dakota’s Doug Burgum. Six months ago,
he fought back tears as he begged residents not to stigmatize
face coverings. “Dial up your empathy and your understanding,”
the Republican implored at a news conference in May. He cried
again last month acknowledging that his state was “caught in
the middle of a covid storm.” But empathy and understanding
alone have offered inadequate shelter from the storm buffeting
North Dakota, which has recently suffered under the
fastest-growing case count in the country. Hospitals are so
overwhelmed that some are asking infected but asymptomatic
workers to keep treating coronavirus patients.
Over the weekend, Burgum traded out tears for the tools of
government, implementing a statewide mask mandate. Face
coverings are now required inside businesses and at indoor
public settings, as well as in outdoor locations where
physical distancing is not realistic. Failure to comply could
bring a penalty of up to $1,000, though some local authorities
are already refusing to enforce the order. Burgum, a former
Microsoft executive whose net worth is estimated at about $1.1
billion, was for months among the GOP governors who did not
scorn masks yet shied from statewide mandates. They stressed
personal responsibility even as evidence mounted that sweeping
rules were associated with a slower growth rate of the virus.
Burgum’s about-face is perhaps the starkest example of the
broader shift underway in a handful of Republican-controlled
states. Health-care workers say Burgum and other Republicans
now have an opportunity to follow science rather than the
whims of the White House.
An aide to Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said
the longer the president refuses to accept the results of the
election, the longer his shadow will be over the coronavirus
response in states where he enjoys widespread support.
Herbert, while once favoring local control, resorted recently
to a statewide mask mandate because his “appeal to people’s
basic sense of decency” was not working, the aide said,
adding, “People still don’t believe in the science behind
masks.” Protesters appeared at the governor’s home over the
weekend to decry the measure.
Mapped:
The Top Export in Every Country (Visual Capitalist,
November 17, 2020)
I’m
Tired of Windows, So What Next? (Ask Bob Rankin,
November 17, 2020)
For a variety of reasons, many people are looking for
alternatives to running Windows 10. The most common complaints
center on cost, problems with forced updates, privacy
concerns, ease of use, and being trapped in a Microsoft
ecosystem. One may as well consider other operating systems if
there's going to be a learning curve anyway. Your options
include Linux, Mac OS, Android, Chrome OS, and others. Here
are several alternatives to running Windows on your desktop or
laptop…
US
DOI Harms Environmental Protections Until the End.
(Outside Online, November 17, 2020)
In its final months, Trump's Department of the Interior shows
its true colors by rushing through drilling leases in Alaska
and rewriting major components of the bipartisan Great
American Outdoors Act.
NEW: Report
outlines route toward better jobs, wider prosperity.
(MIT News, November 17, 2020)
MIT Task Force on the
Work of the Future identifies
ways to align new technologies with durable careers.
Decades of technological change have polarized the earnings of
the American workforce, helping highly educated white-collar
workers thrive, while hollowing out the middle class. Yet
present-day advances like robots and artificial intelligence
do not spell doom for middle-tier or lower-wage workers, since
innovations create jobs as well. With better policies in
place, more people could enjoy good careers even as new
technology transforms workplaces.
That’s the conclusion of the final report from MIT’s Task
Force on the Work of the Future, which summarizes over two
years of research on technology and jobs. The report, “The
Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of
Intelligent Machines,” was released today, and the task force
is hosting an online conference on Wednesday, the “AI &
the Future of Work Congress.”
2020
was the year that changed everything. (Maclean's/Canada,
November 17, 2020)
The pandemic, political upheaval and an economic crisis have
exploded truths and ideas that mere months ago seemed so
fundamental they were beyond question.
14 things we thought were true before 2020: Democracy is our
destiny? Not sure about that anymore. Rich countries can
overcome? Doesn't seem like it. In a crisis, leaders will
lead? If you're lucky. All the 'truths' 2020 has called into
question...
McConnell’s
First Act of Sabotage (The Atlantic, November 17, 2020)
The Senate majority leader is rushing to confirm a nominee to
the Federal Reserve Board, just in time for her to cause
trouble for President-elect Biden.
Georgia
secretary of state says Lindsey Graham implied he should try
to throw away ballots. (CNN, November 17, 2020)
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger stood firm
Monday on his account that Sen. Lindsey Graham had hinted that
he should try to discard some ballots in Georgia, where a
recount is underway after the state went for President-elect
Joe Biden in the presidential election. Graham, a South
Carolina Republican who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, also inquired if Raffensperger could discard all
mail-in ballots from counties that had shown higher rates of
unmatched signatures, the Republican secretary of state told
the Post on Monday.
There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the
2020 election, and fraudulently altering a federal election
vote tally is a federal crime.
Paul
Krugman: Coronavirus
Stockholm Syndrome (New York Times, November 17, 2020)
One of the odder twists in the terrible saga of America’s
failed Covid-19 response was the way the Trump administration
and many U.S. conservatives fell briefly in love with Sweden.
Yes, that Sweden, where universal health care is mostly
provided directly by the government, where taxes take 44
percent of G.D.P. compared with just 24 percent here, where
two-thirds of the work force is unionized. Most of the time,
in other words, Sweden is an example of everything
conservatives hate; its very existence is a rebuttal to their
claims that low taxes and harsh treatment of the poor are
essential to prosperity.
‘They’ve
been following the science’: How the Covid-19 pandemic has
been curtailed in the Cherokee Nation. (Stat, November
17, 2020)
While the United States flounders in its response to the
coronavirus, another nation — one within our own borders — is
faring much better. With a mask mandate in place since spring,
free drive-through testing, hospitals well-stocked with PPE,
and a small army of public health officers fully supported by
their chief, the Cherokee Nation has been able to curtail its
Covid-19 case and death rates even as those numbers surge in
surrounding Oklahoma, where the White House coronavirus task
force says spread is unyielding.
Covid: Think for
Yourself, Dammit! (This Is True, November 16, 2020)
Terry: “I’m tired of the state telling me I have to wear a
face diaper as a method of control. That is what is at stake
here.”
Randy: "Wrong. What’s at stake here is millions of lives —
with more than 1.3 million dead around the world so far. “The
state” isn’t trying to control you, it's trying to control
something that has evolved to kill you."
The
COVID Diaries: A first-hand account of contracting the virus
in Jackson Hole (Buckrail, November 16, 2020)
Written by Buckrail reporter Jacob Gore while quarantining
with the virus.
It’s very true that the virus affects everyone differently. My
roommate was COVID positive too and was only sick for about a
day. But after what I went through, and am still experiencing,
I can confidently say that no one would enjoy this feeling. I
know there’s a lot of debate about wearing a mask. I know they
aren’t the most comfortable and a departure from our old way
of life. But I also know that if I could avoid going through
these symptoms again, I would wear a hazmat suit every day if
I had to.
A majority of cases spreading in Teton County are young
adults, 20-something years old, hanging out in small
gatherings (similar to my case). This brought to light that
casually mingling between households is enough to spread the
virus far and wide. The whole process has made me much more
aware of how my daily brief interactions with peers can result
in a positive case.
I hope this message reminds the community to be as vigilant as
possible. And last but not least, I hope it encourages you to
wear a mask and reconsider plans to assemble with friends and
family in the weeks and months ahead.
The
ransomware landscape is more crowded than you think.
(ZDNet, November 16, 2020)
More than 25 Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) portals are
currently renting ransomware to other criminal groups.
America's President on 60 Minutes
(27-min. video; Daily Kos, November 16, 2020)
Former president Barack Obama shares the advice he would give
President Trump, his thoughts on the killing of George Floyd,
and what's behind the divisions in Washington and across the
U.S.
NEW: Michelle
Obama Calls for Smooth Transition: "Our Democracy Is So Much
Bigger Than Anybody's Ego." (Newsweek, November 16,
2020)
Former first lady Michelle Obama has broken her silence on
President Donald Trump's refusal to concede the election and
called on his administration to begin a smooth transition of
power for President-elect Joe Biden. In a post shared to her
Instagram account Monday, Obama urged elected officials "to
honor the electoral process and do your part to encourage a
smooth transition of power."
She began by looking back on Democrat Hillary Clinton's
concession in 2016, and the responsibility placed on her and
former President Barack Obama to prepare the White House for a
Trump administration. "This week, I've been reflecting a lot
on where I was four years ago," she wrote. "Hilary Clinton had
just been dealt a tough loss by a far closer margin than the
one we've seen this year. I was hurt and disappointed—but the
votes had been counted and Donald Trump had won. The American
people had spoken. And one of the great responsibilities of
the presidency is to listen when they do."
NEW: LittleSis
Tracks the Political Connections and Lobbying of the
Ultra-Rich and Corporations. (Democracy Labs, November
16, 2020)
Paul
Krugman: Why the 2020 Election Makes It Hard to Be
Optimistic About the Future (New York Times, November
16, 2020)
If we can’t face up to a pandemic, how can we avoid
apocalypse?
The 2020 election is over. And the big winners were the
coronavirus and, quite possibly, catastrophic climate change.
OK, democracy also won, at least for now. By defeating Donald
Trump, Joe Biden pulled us back from the brink of
authoritarian rule.
But Trump paid less of a penalty than expected for his deadly
failure to deal with Covid-19, and few down-ballot Republicans
seem to have paid any penalty at all. As a headline in The
Washington Post put it, “With pandemic raging, Republicans say
election results validate their approach.”
And their approach, in case you missed it, has been denial and
a refusal to take even the most basic, low-cost precautions —
like requiring that people wear masks in public. The
epidemiological consequences of this cynical irresponsibility
will be ghastly. I’m not sure how many people realize just how
terrible this winter is going to be.
Georgia
secretary of state says fellow Republicans are pressuring
him to find ways to exclude ballots. (Washington Post,
November 16, 2020)
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday that
he has come under increasing pressure in recent days from
fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.),
who he said questioned the validity of legally cast absentee
ballots, in an effort to reverse President Trump’s narrow loss
in the state.
In a wide-ranging interview about the election, Raffensperger
expressed exasperation over a string of baseless allegations
coming from Trump and his allies about the integrity of the
Georgia results, including claims that Dominion Voting
Systems, the Colorado-based manufacturer of Georgia’s voting
machines, is a “leftist” company with ties to Venezuela that
engineered thousands of Trump votes to be left out of the
count.
Professor
Lawrence Tribe calls out Trump enabler Ken Starr as a BS
election conspiracist live on air. (
10-min.
Fox News video; Daily Kos, November 16, 2020)
Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe did not mince his words
on Fox News Sunday. He explained why the foundation of
voter-fraud accusations are a fraud on the American people.
How can it be voter fraud when the same people who voted Trump
out by voting Biden in many times then chose Republicans down
the ballot. Would the enabling Republicans call that fraud as
well?
Ken Starr attempted to make the case one similar to Bush vs.
Gore but failed miserably. He also claimed that the lawsuit
process should go through since many Americans are feeling
disenfranchised. He failed to point out that some Americans
feel disenfranchised because Trump, his enablers, and
sycophants have misinformed and lied to their supporters about
mail-in ballots as suspicious voting.
Ken Starr alluded to a dangerous premise, even if said mildly.
He implies that the election should be left in the courts'
hands, a system packed with many incompetent Trump-appointed
judges. It is the foundation of the minority rule the
Republican Party is seeking, as explained here.
Lawrence Tribe had the winning message in response to Ken
Starr. "What he [Ken Starr] has been saying gives new meaning
to," Tribe said. "Dare I say it, BS. There is nothing in any
of these lawsuits." Professor Tribe said rightly that over 160
million Americans have spoken. Enough said.
A
delusion for which there is no cure (Daily Kos, November
15, 2020)
It is often hard to fathom why so many people act as if there
is no pandemic ravaging the country. Why is it that in a state
like South Dakota or Iowa or Nebraska, where the virus is
spreading like a prairie fire, that people refuse to wear
masks and appear fatalistic about the whole thing? And why is
it that so many just don't believe any of it?
In South Dakota, an ER nurse offers this gripping account on
Twitter of COVID patients refusing to believe the coronavirus
is anything other than a hoax:
They'll say, "Joe Biden is going to ruin the USA." All while
gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must
be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask
why you have to wear all that “stuff” because they don’t have
COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens.
From this article's Comments thread: The main factor I'm
seeing is the culture wars. They perceive everything as Jets
vs. Sharks - "our team all the way to the end", no matter
what. It's the (pretty well-known) secret to their
disproportionate political clout - but also the recipe for the
nation's downfall. Seeing >73M vote for the man who's
robbing and killing to continue, I'm all out of smart advice
to give about what to do.
And this: So many people are quite intelligent one-on-one, but
when you group them up in a crowd, the intelligence level
seems to drop to the lowest common denominator. The
tribalist psychology of groups is different from that of
individuals.
NEW: Un-Normalizing
America’s Third Wave (New York Magazine, November 15,
2020)
Over the last few months, election-preoccupied Americans have
normalized what was once an unthinkable, and certainly an
unconscionable, level of death and suffering. There have been
a thousand deaths from the coronavirus a day, roughly
speaking, producing a cumulative total that is today
approaching 250,000 — more than the number of people who died
in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “I just keep
thinking about this epidemic — on our soil, in our country,”
the Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina told me last month.
“What would the government do if we had 200,000 people die
from bombs being dropped on us? You know we would not be
sitting idly by.”
Public policy matters, especially now at the local level — and
American parents are right to be outraged that, in many parts
of the country, bars and restaurants remain open for indoor
business while in-person schooling is being shut down. Mask
mandates are still patchwork across the country, but new ones
are likely around the corner. We are also likely to see now a
wave of new restrictions — probably less like the blanket
shutdowns of the spring but nevertheless more meaningful
intrusions into everyday life than most Americans have
experienced in months. But it is also striking how much of the
present guidance — from president-to-be Joe Biden, for
instance, or from Obama’s CDC chief Tom Frieden — reflects
social behavior rather than public policy: mask-wearing,
hand-washing, social distancing. Those measures work to
suppress the spread rather than defeat it, but at this point,
for the time being, they might be the best tools we have. At
the height of its summertime second wave, which produced a
local peak of pandemic hysteria, the U.S. hit a rolling
seven-day average of 67,000 new cases a day. It will likely be
quite a while before we can drop down even to that high level.
‘A
Disservice’: Ex-DHS And NSC Officials Blast Trump For
Holding Up Biden’s Formal Transition. (Talking Points
Memo, November 15, 2020)
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and former
national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday rebuked the
Trump administration’s refusal to assist President-elect Joe
Biden’s formal transition process, which they warned poses
threats to national security.
Trump’s refusal to officially concede has already put a damper
to Biden’s formal transition. General Services Administration
chief Emily Murphy — a Trump appointee who has sole authority
over whether Biden’s transition can officially move forward —
has not signed the letter of “ascertainment,” which would
allow Biden’s transition team to contact federal agencies or
access the millions of dollars set aside for it.
With
Trench Warfare Deepening, Parties Face Unsettled Electoral
Map. (New York Times, November 15, 2020)
America’s two major parties had hoped the 2020 presidential
election would render a decisive judgment on the country’s
political trajectory. But after a race that broke records for
voter turnout and campaign spending, neither Democrats nor
Republicans have achieved a dominant upper hand. Instead, the
election delivered a split decision, ousting President Trump
but narrowing the Democratic majority in the House and perhaps
preserving the Republican majority in the Senate. As Joseph R.
Biden Jr. prepares to take office and preside over a closely
divided government, leaders in both camps are acknowledging
that voters seem to have issued not a mandate for the left or
the right but a muddled plea to move on from Trump-style
chaos.
With 306 electoral college votes and the most popular votes of
any presidential candidate in history, Mr. Biden attained a
victory that was paramount to many Democrats, who saw a second
Trump term as nothing less than a threat to democracy.
Yet on the electoral landscape, both parties find themselves
stretched thin and battling on new fronts, with their
traditional strongholds increasingly under siege. Indeed,
Democrats and Republicans are facing perhaps the most
unsettled and up-for-grabs electoral map the country has seen
in a generation, since the parties were still fighting over
California in the late 1980s. This competition has denied
either from being able to claim broad majorities and prompted
a series of election cycles, which could be repeated in 2022,
in which any gains Democrats make in the country’s booming
cities and states are at least partly offset by growing
Republican strength in rural areas.
The election also represented a continuation of this trench
warfare between two parties that are increasingly defined by
their activist flanks and limited to only incremental
advances. Already, there are mounting signs of just how
difficult it may be for either party to govern through
pragmatism and compromise. With Mr. Trump’s refusal to concede
the election and his talk of running again in 2024,
Republicans are worried about Trumpian retribution if they
break with a leader who remains the cultural and ideological
lodestar of the G.O.P. base.
At the same time, Mr. Trump’s defeat this month has removed
the single most important force holding the Democratic Party’s
eclectic coalition together: the president himself. With his
ouster, the détente that persisted throughout the year between
the Democratic left and center has begun to crumble, with open
sniping and blame-casting between figures like Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the party’s most
prominent young progressive, and Senator Joe Manchin III of
West Virginia, a centrist of vital importance to Mr. Biden’s
agenda in the Senate.
It remains to be seen whether either party will embrace a
head-on reckoning with its own electoral vulnerabilities.
Moderate Democrats have mostly just criticized the party’s
left wing for having promoted stances that they believe cost
them seats in Congress, while Republicans have largely
remained silent on Mr. Trump’s intransigence and
conspiracy-mongering.
Trump
Says Biden ‘Won’ — Then Claims Race ‘Rigged’ and Refuses to
Concede. (National Review, November 15, 2020)
Major networks including the Associated Press, Fox News, CNN,
and NBC, projected on November 7 that Joe Biden would win the
election. However, the president has claimed that Democrats
engaged in widespread voter fraud and that the election was
“stolen” from him. “[Biden] won because the Election was
Rigged,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday morning.
The president went on to criticize the “Radical Left privately
owned company, Dominion,” which sells electronic voting
machines and tabulators. Media outlets including One America
News and Gateway Pundit have floated allegations that the
company’s equipment switched votes from Trump to Biden. The
Homeland Security Department’s Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Association of
State Election Directors have concluded that no such incident
took place.
Trump
Finally Admits Biden Won, But Spews More Unfounded Election
Fraud Claims. (Talking Points Memo, November 15, 2020)
After more than a week of throwing a temper tantrum filled
with baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and refusing to
concede his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, President Trump
finally threw in the towel in a Sunday morning tweet — well,
sort of. In typical Trumpian fashion, the sitting POTUS fumed
that Biden won only because the election was supposedly
“rigged” — an unfounded claim adding to the saga of his recent
baseless allegations that Democrats are conspiring to “STEAL”
the election.
Major networks including the Associated Press, Fox News, CNN,
and NBC, projected on November 7 that Joe Biden would win the
election. However, the president has claimed that Democrats
engaged in widespread voter fraud and that the election was
“stolen” from him.
Federal
Judge Rules That Acting DHS Chief Didn’t Have Authority To
Suspend DACA. (Talking Points Memo, November 14, 2020)
A federal judge in New York ruled Saturday that Acting
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf assumed
his position unlawfully, a determination that invalidated
Wolf’s suspension of the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program, which shields young people from deportation.
“DHS failed to follow the order of succession as it was
lawfully designated,” U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis
wrote. “Therefore, the actions taken by purported Acting
Secretaries, who were not properly in their roles according to
the lawful order of succession, were taken without legal
authority.”
Wolf issued a memorandum in July effectively suspending DACA,
pending review by DHS. A month earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court
had ruled that President Donald Trump failed to follow
rule-making procedures when he tried to end the program, but
the justices kept a window open for him to try again.
The
Thousand MAGA March, LoL (Daily Kos, November 14, 2020)
The so-called Million MAGA March in DC today, as expected,
featured a few thousand attendees made up of proud boys,
Nazis, conspiracy theorists and assorted creatures of the
right. They came, they shouted, they cried their usual MAGA
rally cries, and they got a glimpse of their dear leader, who
spared a few waves from his armored motorcade at them and
quickly drove off to his favorite golf place.
We know that math is not their strong point and crowd size
inflation is built into their DNA, but even so, the White
House’s cookie-cutter claim about the million figure seems
moronic and sad; after all, there are videos and photographs.
The Freedom Plaza holds about 10,000 people. But then, they
know that their supporters are dumb as rocks anyways.
Thousands
of mask-less Trump supporters rally in D.C., falsely
claiming president won election. (Washington Post,
November 14, 2020)
President Trump’s supporters had celebrated for hours on
Saturday, waving their “MAGA” flags and blaring “God Bless the
USA” as they gathered in Washington to falsely claim that the
election had been stolen from the man they adore. After a week
in which more than 750,000 Americans were diagnosed with the
novel coronavirus, almost none of his backers was wearing
masks. Among their ranks were white nationalists, conspiracy
theorists and far-right activists carrying signs demanding
action that was already being taken: "Count the legal votes.”
The crowd had even reveled in a personal visit from Trump, who
passed by in his motorcade, smiling and waving.
But that was before the people who oppose their hero showed up
and the mood shifted, growing angrier as 300 or so counter
protesters delivered a message the president’s most ardent
backers were unwilling to hear: The election is over. Trump
lost.
On stark display in the nation’s capital were two
irreconcilable versions of America, each refusing to accept
what the other considered to be undeniable fact. In brief but
intense clashes, activists spewed profanity and shouted
threats, threw punches and launched bottles. On both sides,
people were bloodied, and at least 10 were arrested, including
four on gun charges.
The demonstrations were urged on by Trump, who refuses to
concede to Joe Biden or allow a formal transition to begin. On
Saturday morning, as the president’s devotees remained in D.C.
to fight for him, he headed to Trump National in the Virginia
suburbs for a round of golf.
On a day when the president’s supporters touted a vast array
of falsehoods, his spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, offered
perhaps the most ludicrous. “AMAZING! More than one MILLION
marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp
in support. Best base in political history — we LOVE you
guys!!!”, she tweeted, vastly exaggerating the crowd size.
Defense
secretary sent classified memo to White House about
Afghanistan before Trump fired him. (1-min. video;
Washington Post, November 14, 2020)
In the run-up to the election, President Trump’s tweet saying
that all U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be “home by
Christmas!” raised alarm among senior U.S. officials who had
been working on a more gradual withdrawal. The existing plan,
tied to precarious negotiations with the Taliban insurgent
group to sign a peace deal with the Afghan government, had not
yielded the progress that American officials wanted. While the
Pentagon was on its way to reducing the number of troops to
fewer than 5,000 this month, negotiations appeared to stall
and the Taliban continued to launch attacks across the
country.
After consulting with senior military officers, Defense
Secretary Mark T. Esper sent a classified memo to the White
House this month expressing concerns about additional cuts,
according to two senior U.S. officials familiar with the
discussion. Conditions on the ground were not yet right, Esper
wrote, citing the ongoing violence, possible dangers to the
remaining troops in the event of a rapid pullout, potential
damage to alliances and apprehension about undercutting the
negotiations.
Days after Trump lost his reelection bid, he fired Esper.
Trump, refusing to concede the election, has since allowed a
purge of other senior political appointees serving under
Esper, with several hardened loyalists to the president taking
their place.
Missing
From State Plans to Distribute the Coronavirus Vaccine:
Money to Do It (New York Times, November 14, 2020)
The government has sent billions to drug companies to develop
a coronavirus shot but a tiny fraction of that to localities
for training, record-keeping and other costs for vaccinating
citizens.
Right-Wing
Host about Trump: "We're held hostage by a petulant, bitter,
narcissistic and delusional man." (4-min. video; Daily
Kos, November 14, 2020)
Donald Trump, like a child, is pouting because he lost the
election. It is as if he wants to cause pain to Americans for
repudiating him. Charlie Sykes gets it right. With a pandemic
flourishing and our national security being at risk, what
Trump is doing is criminal negligence. America does not have
the time to cater to a child-like president who needs to be
coaxed to do the right thing to protect his ego and whatever
is left of his mental stability. As Charlie said, we cannot be
held hostage by a petulant bitter narcissistic, and delusional
man.
It isn’t only the president. The blame must go to the
president’s sycophants and enablers. After all, without their
support, the president could fulfill none of his bad deeds.
Biden
Implores Trump to Confront a Surging Pandemic. (New York
Times, November 13, 2020)
President Trump broke his near-total silence on the
coronavirus on Friday with an appearance in the Rose Garden in
which he threatened to deny New York access to a vaccine.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. demanded on Friday that
President Trump do more to confront the coronavirus infections
exploding across the country, calling the federal response
“woefully lacking” even as Mr. Trump broke a 10-day silence on
the pandemic to threaten to withhold a vaccine from New York.
In a blistering statement, Mr. Biden said that the recent
surge, which is killing more than 1,000 Americans every day
and has hospitalized about 70,000 in total, required a “robust
and immediate federal response.” “I will not be president
until next year,” Mr. Biden said. “The crisis does not respect
dates on the calendar, it is accelerating right now. Urgent
action is needed today, now, by the current administration —
starting with an acknowledgment of how serious the current
situation is.”
Mr. Biden released his statement less than an hour before the
president appeared in the Rose Garden at the White House,
where he announced no new measures to slow the virus’s
long-anticipated autumn surge, which he hardly acknowledged.
Mr. Trump hailed the news from Monday that a vaccine under
development by Pfizer appeared to be 90 percent effective. But
he vowed not to order widespread lockdowns as long as he
remained in office and threatened to withhold distribution of
the vaccine to New York because Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the
state intended to conduct its own review of the vaccine’s
approval by the federal government. But by the time broader
distribution of a vaccine is underway next spring, Mr. Trump’s
presidency will have long ended.
A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, responded on
Twitter, saying that Mr. Trump “has failed with his pandemic
response, lied to Americans about how bad it was when he knew
otherwise & was fired by voters for his incompetence.
@NYGovCuomo is fighting to ensure the communities hit hardest
by Covid get the vaccine. Feds providing 0 resources.”
Federal resources were very much on the minds of state
officials as they grappled with infection numbers shooting
skyward and hospitals on the verge of being overrun. Gov. Tony
Evers of Wisconsin, where the number of new cases reached a
daily record 8,256 on Thursday, said whatever Mr. Trump said
now could not make up for his refusals to wear a mask and his
embrace of large public gatherings, at campaign rallies and at
the White House. Jennifer Miller, a spokeswoman for the
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said much of the
department’s response had been paid for by the Coronavirus
Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, known as the CARES Act,
which is set to expire Dec. 31, thanks in part to Mr. Trump’s
failure to negotiate new relief despite months of wrangling
with Congress.
On Friday, Dr. Slaoui told The Financial Times that Mr.
Trump’s administration should share information about the
program with Mr. Biden’s transition team, something that has
not yet happened because Mr. Trump has refused to concede
defeat. “It is a matter of life and death for thousands of
people,” he told the newspaper. “The operation has always been
about making vaccines and therapeutics available faster for
the country and for the world.”
Mr. Biden’s statement on Friday underscored his pledge to make
the pandemic his top priority when he takes office. Since
claiming victory last Saturday, the president-elect has named
a 13-member Covid advisory board, delivered several speeches
about the topic, and repeatedly urged the public to wear masks
and practice social distancing.
By contrast, since Election Day, Mr. Trump has tweeted more
than 264 times, much of it falsely claiming that the election
was stolen from him and only twice about the virus. There have
been no public briefings by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and little public guidance on the pandemic’s
latest deadly surge.
To
shut down or not shut down? Officials implement new
coronavirus restrictions as cases skyrocket, but face angry
backlash. (Washington Post, November 13, 2020)
Governors and mayors are forced again to weigh coronavirus
deaths against anger and economic devastation.
More
than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected
with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign
travel. (1-min. video; Washington Post, November 13,
2020)
The spread of the coronavirus — which has sidelined roughly 10
percent of the agency’s core security team — is believed to be
partly linked to campaign rallies that President Trump held in
the weeks before the Nov. 3 election. In all, roughly 300
Secret Service officers and agents have had to isolate or
quarantine since March because they were infected or exposed
to infected colleagues.
The latest outbreak comes as coronavirus cases have been
rapidly rising across the nation, with more than 177,000 new
cases reported Friday. The virus is having a dramatic impact
on the Secret Service’s presidential security unit at the same
time that growing numbers of prominent Trump campaign allies
and White House officials have fallen ill in the wake of
campaign events, where many attendees did not wear masks.
In
a First, Astronomers Witnessed the Birth of a Supermassive
Magnetar Following a Glorious Kilonova. (1-min. video;
Smithsonian Magazine, November 13, 2020)
This year, astronomers witnessed a cosmic spectacle when two
neutron stars—the dense remains of collapsing stars—crashed
into each other billions of lightyears away. Their gargantuan
collision lit up the galaxy with a flash and gave rise to a
magnetar—a supermassive star with a hyper-powerful magnetic
field. Astronomers have known about magnetars, but this event
marks the first time they've ever witnessed one being born.
Using remarkably powerful equipment, including the Hubble
Space Telescope and the Swift Observatory, the scientists
observed a quick flash of light on May 22. The stars'
collision occurred 5.47 billion years ago, and its light had
just reached Earth.
Newly
Unearthed Skull Reveals How Ancient Hominids Evolved to
Survive a Changing Climate. (Smithsonian Magazine,
November 13, 2020)
“Paranthropus robustus” evolved sturdier skulls to be able to
eat new, tough vegetation. This 2-million-years-old find is
the first evidence of microevolution—the changes within a
population of one species over time—in early hominids.
Tech’s
Bizarre Beginnings & Lucrative Pivots (infographic;
Visual Capitalist, November 13, 2020)
The road to success is rarely paved, and hardly linear.
NEW: Fire
concern prompts 2017-2019 Chevy Bolt EV recall, owners asked
to charge to 90% for now. (Green Car Reports, November
13, 2020)
The recall includes 68,667 vehicles globally and 50,925 in the
U.S. GM is still unsure of the root cause of the fires. For
now, the recall remedy is effectively a band-aid—a software
flash that needs to be done at the dealership that helps limit
the Bolt EV’s maximum state of charge to 90%. With 2017-2019
models carrying a 239-mile EPA range rating, that potentially
takes about 24 miles out of the Bolt EV’s available range.
GM has released an info page and video, walking owners through
how to make sure their vehicle is set to charge to 90%—and to
activate the recommended Hilltop Reserve mode. If they choose
not to do this, it recommends that owners not park their car
in the garage
NY
Times Reveals FTI, Exxon Mobil As The Man Behind The Man
Behind The Curtain. (Daily Kos, November 13, 2020)
Thirteen years ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists
published a report detailing the millions of dollars
ExxonMobil pumped into climate denial groups, and in response,
it pledged to discontinue, as of 2008, its contributions “to
several public policy research groups whose positions on
climate change could divert attention from the important
discussion…” about environmentally responsible energy. And
that year, ExxonMobil did indeed cut off some of the biggest
groups, like Cato, CEI and Heartland.
But ExxonMobil never actually stopped funding disinformation,
even after coming under fire for it when investigators
revealed the depth of their understanding of the issue that
prompted these disinformation campaigns. And they’re still at
it, with hundreds of thousands given to at least eight climate
denial groups in 2019.
Trump’s
false claims of stolen election are unoriginal, and evoke a
dangerous historical precedent. (Daily Kos, November 13,
2020)
The Man Who Lost The Popular Vote (Again) and his smirking
Republican minions—Secretary Mike Pompeo, that mirthless
little smile absolves you of nothing—are currently undermining
our democracy by lying about a supposedly stolen election.
This is a thoroughly false claim for which they have no
evidence. Even Trump administration elections officials in the
Department of Homeland Security, as well as the head of the
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have
confirmed the baselessness of the charges.
However, the promulgation of these falsehoods evokes a piece
of history that loomed large in the rise of the greatest evil
our world has known. I’m referring to the “stab in the back”
myth that emerged on the far right in Germany after that
country’s defeat and surrender at the end of World War I.
According to this fantasy, the German military was not in fact
vanquished: Victory on the battlefield was instead stolen away
at the last moment by politicians at home—specifically
socialists, democrats, and Jews—who stabbed the soldiers in
the back while they were still fighting in enemy territory.
The word for that myth in German is
Dolchstoßlegende.
Judges
rule against Trump campaign in 6 Pennsylvania cases over
absentee ballots. (ABC News, November 13, 2020)
Two judges in Pennsylvania on Friday tossed a half dozen court
cases the Trump campaign had brought to invalidate thousands
of votes around Philadelphia, where voters carried
President-elect Joe Biden to a clear win in the battleground
state.
In total, the Trump campaign had sought to throw out almost
9,000 absentee ballots because their outer envelopes lack
names, dates or addresses or some combination of the three
that voters could have filled out.
In five related cases, Judge James Crumlish of Philadelphia
County’s Court of Common Pleas said the Trump campaign
couldn’t invalidate 8,329 ballots it alleged were improper.
The judge ruled those ballots should be processed and counted.
In another case, the President’s campaign sought for the
Montgomery County Board of Elections to throw out 592 mail-in
ballots where voters hadn’t filled out their addresses on the
outside envelopes. Those ballots will be counted, the second
judge, Richard Haaz of the Montgomery County Court of Common
Pleas, ruled on Friday. Haaz found that state law didn’t
require voters to fill out the address sections on the
envelopes, and the instructions on the ballots didn’t tell
voters they must fill them out. “Voters should not be
disenfranchised by reasonably relying upon voting instructions
provided by election officials,” Haaz wrote.
Joe
Biden becomes first Democrat in 28 years to win Georgia.
(CNN, November 13, 2020)
Joe Biden will win Georgia, CNN projected Friday, striking at
the heart of what has been a Republican presidential
stronghold for nearly three decades. The former vice president
is the first Democratic nominee to triumph in Georgia since
Bill Clinton did it in 1992.
Biden's victory adds 16 electoral votes to his tally, bringing
him to 306 -- matching President Donald Trump's 2016 total.
With CNN's projection that Trump will win North Carolina, the
final tally is 306-232, a landslide for the President-elect,
who flipped five states and a congressional district in
Nebraska from red to blue in 2020. The symmetry provides the
President with yet another bitter pill to swallow. Trump has
spent years tweeting and talking up his margin of victory
against Hillary Clinton -- one that has now been turned on its
head in a final, national rebuke of his presidency.
Because the presidential race was so close, with Biden up by a
little more than 14,000 votes, the state began an audit on
Thursday morning. It is due to be completed next week. But the
Trump campaign can, even if the margin is unchanged, request a
subsequent hand recount.
Biden’s
Education Department Will Move Fast to Reverse Betsy DeVos’s
Policies. (New York Times, November 13 2020)
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has presented an education
agenda that is starkly different from the Trump era, beginning
with a far more cautious approach to school reopenings.
As
Trump refuses to concede, his agencies awkwardly prepare
what they can for a Biden transition. (ABC News,
November 13, 2020)
Bulky briefing books and budgets are unopened. Office spaces
dedicated to the transition sit vacant. And planning
conversations between incoming and outgoing administrations
have been silenced for now.
The federal agencies were required by law to prepare for a
transition before the 2020 election, but the flurry of
activity that would normally be taking place during a
presidential transition sits on hold thanks to President
Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the election results. Agency
officials in the Trump administration put in charge of the
transition are in the awkward place of effectively twiddling
their thumbs until the General Services Administration, an
agency led by a Trump appointee, signs off on the election
results — a process that is normally not an issue.
Once
Loyal to Trump, Law Firms Pull Back From His Election Fight.
(New York Times, November 13, 2020)
Law firms that have represented President Trump and his
campaign are now distancing themselves from a quixotic effort
by Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the
election won by President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, the law firm leading the
Trump campaign’s efforts to challenge the presidential
election results in Pennsylvania, abruptly withdrew from a
federal lawsuit that it had filed on behalf of the campaign.
That followed a similar move by an Arizona law firm that was
representing the Republican Party as it challenged that
state’s results. And on Friday, a top lawyer at Jones Day,
which has represented Mr. Trump’s campaigns for more than four
years, told colleagues during a video conference call that
Jones Day would not get involved in additional litigation in
this election.
The moves by the law firms are the latest blows to Mr. Trump’s
efforts to use a barrage of litigation to challenge the
integrity of the election results. Some lawyers at Porter
Wright and Jones Day had become increasingly vocal about their
concerns that the work their firms were doing was helping to
legitimize the president’s arguments. One Porter Wright lawyer
resigned in protest over the summer.
One Porter Wright partner, Jeremy A. Mercer, spoke at a Trump
campaign news conference in Pennsylvania last week. Mr.
Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, introduced Mr.
Mercer as a volunteer election observer who had been
“obstructed in a horrible way.” Mr. Mercer added, “We’re
there, supposedly observing, but we can’t see.” Neither
mentioned that Mr. Mercer was a lawyer at the firm
representing Mr. Trump’s campaign. Reached on Friday, Mr.
Mercer declined to comment.
Porter Wright’s decision was especially remarkable, because
the firm stepped away from a federal lawsuit that it had filed
only days earlier.
The Trump campaign reacted angrily on Friday. “Cancel Culture
has finally reached the courtroom,” Tim Murtaugh, the
campaign’s communications director, said in a statement.
“Leftist mobs descended upon some of the lawyers representing
the president’s campaign and they buckled.” He added that Mr.
Trump’s team “is undeterred” and would continue its
litigation.
NEW: The
Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks
(The Atlantic, November 13, 2020)
The transparency organization asked the president’s son for
his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results
of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be
Australia’s ambassador to the United States.
Susan
Rice speculates on potential impact of withholding security
briefings from Biden transition team. (Daily Kos,
November 13, 2020)
I would suggest one reason the Trump people are denying
Biden’s team access to high-level intelligence as long as they
possibly can with respect to the three most predominant issues
(national security, the pandemic, and the economy): There are
virtually no policies put in place by the current
administration to address any of these concerns in any
meaningful, substantive way.
I believe that once Biden’s team does gain access to what is
happening from an internal perspective, they are going to be
appalled at the degree of inaction and wholesale lack of any
efforts whatsoever to address these challenges. They will find
instead a network of utter incompetence and indifference to
planning, strategy or policy, staggering in its depth, and the
Trump people know this. They will find security threats and
intel festering, ignored, or shunted aside in favor of
groveling to Trump’s every chimerical whim. They will find
communications from our overseas allies to have shriveled into
nothingness, and our intelligence services put at risk, if not
wholly ignored. They will find corruption, graft,
kickbacks and politicization to have completely replaced
national security policy.
They will find only token measures performed with respect to
the COVID-19 pandemic, and all of those measures redounding to
the Trump family’s personal coffers and the interests of those
still employed within the highest level of the administration.
They will find no coherent policies, plans, or measures in
place to address the economic calamity facing tens of millions
of Americans, and they will find our national security
apparatus on the cusp of disaster, with only half-baked plans
geared less to satisfy the interests and safety of American
citizens than to fulfill the wishlists of foreign adversaries.
The Trump people know this is what they are on track to leave
behind for the Biden people, which is why they’re very busy
right now, deleting or destroying as much information as they
can. They’re trying to stave off the horror they know will
ensue when Biden’s team gains access and finds out what really
has—and hasn’t—been going on.
Susan
Rice: Here’s How Trump’s Stalling Risks Our National
Security. (New York Times, November 13, 2020)
[Susan E. Rice was the national security adviser from 2013 to
2017 and a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.]
Transitions? I’ve seen a few. Since 2000, I have participated
in three presidential transitions from the vantage points of
both the departing and the incoming administration. Each
transition I experienced was different, but what they shared
was a recognition that our country’s national security is best
served when both sides endeavor to have a responsible hand-off
of power. Conversely, it is undermined when either side
refuses to engage the other seriously.
In the week since Joe Biden’s victory became clear, President
Trump and his administration have taken no steps toward
starting the process of transition. The risks to our national
security are mounting.
Mr. Biden and his top national security team have not been
provided the daily intelligence briefings to which they are
entitled. Mr. Biden’s team is not receiving classified
information. The Biden-Harris agency review teams are
constituted but have been denied access to every element of
the executive branch. Vital exchanges of information and
expertise that would help combat Covid-19 and jump-start the
economy remain stalled.
While we are extremely fortunate that Mr. Biden may be the
most experienced president-elect ever to take office and
brings with him a deep bench of highly qualified,
knowledgeable experts, the Trump administration’s continued
refusal to execute a responsible transition puts our national
security at risk. Without access to critical threat
information, no incoming team can counter what it can’t see
coming. If, today, the Trump administration is tracking
potential or actual threats — for instance, Russian bounties
on American soldiers, a planned terrorist attack on an
embassy, a dangerously mutated coronavirus, or Iranian and
North Korean provocations — but fails to share this
information in a timely fashion with the Biden-Harris team, it
could cost us dearly in terms of American lives. Indeed, the
9/11 Commission, which investigated the 2001 Qaeda terrorist
attacks on U.S. soil that killed some 3,000 Americans, found
that the truncated 2000 transition slowed the installation of
key national security officials and stressed the importance of
complete and thorough presidential transitions to U.S.
national security.
Instead of acting in the national interest to orchestrate a
responsible, democratic transition, Mr. Trump and many
Republicans are spending time sowing false doubts about the
legitimacy of Mr. Biden’s election. Tragically, but not
surprisingly, Mr. Trump appears determined to take a final
wrecking ball to our democracy and national security on
his inevitable way out the door.
NEW: Donald
Trump’s shameful endgame puts national security at risk.
(Rep. Adam Schiff, November 13, 2020)
The president’s rejection of the verdict of the American
people is without precedent. His baseless and repeated
accusations of vote rigging, fraud and cheating by Democrats
are not only a direct challenge to governance here at home,
they are also imperiling a pillar of American foreign policy
by casting doubt on the fairness and functioning of our system
of government at a time when the very idea of liberal
democracy is under assault around the globe. Dictators and
wannabe authoritarians will take notice, and emulate Trump,
just as they have before.
More than undermining our standing abroad, Trump’s refusal to
direct his administration to work with the incoming Biden team
is dangerous. Trump is thus far denying his successor access
to departments and agencies across the federal government and
to classified briefings by our intelligence agencies. In doing
so, Trump is preventing a seamless handoff during a deadly
pandemic — and damaging the country’s readiness if there is a
foreign policy crisis during Biden’s first few weeks in
office.
Biden’s first priority must be to stop the uncontrolled spread
of COVID-19. But he must also tackle a myriad of national
security threats. Across the globe, from North Korea to Iran,
from China to Russia to Afghanistan, and in dozens of other
places, the United States faces complex challenges that will
require the immediate attention of a fully briefed and
informed new national security team. Instead, Trump is
blocking intelligence briefings and access that the
president-elect and his senior advisers will need to better
understand North Korea’s missile program, the plans and
intentions of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russia’s ongoing
efforts to destabilize America and our allies, and more.
Trump also seems determined to exact revenge on his perceived
enemies and to reward his friends. Days after his reelection
loss, Trump unceremoniously fired Secretary of Defense Mark
Esper and other senior Pentagon officials and replaced them
with political actors whose only attribute is undying devotion
to the president. It is still unclear why Trump made these
moves other than personal pique, but the message is clear and
chilling: Absolute loyalty to Donald Trump is the only
relevant qualification, even when national security is at
stake.
And the bloodletting might not end here. The president’s
disdain for CIA Director Gina Haspel, who has vigorously
opposed his efforts to declassify material related to Russian
interference in the 2016 election and risk sources and
methods, is well known, as is his oft-expressed
dissatisfaction with FBI Director Christopher Wray. The simple
truth is that Trump will never place the national interest
above his personal interests; he never has and he never will.
So Congress must.
Two months is plenty of time for a man who cares not a whit
about the nation he leads, who reportedly disparages the men
and women who serve and risk their lives as “suckers” or
“losers,” to do the nation even greater harm. Now is the time
for all of us in Congress, and regardless of party, to put an
end to Donald Trump’s shameful endgame.
Officials
say firing DHS cyber chief could make U.S. less safe as
election process continues. (Washington Post, November
13, 2020)
News that Chris Krebs, the government's top election security
official, could be ousted in a post-election firing rampage at
the Department of Homeland Security sent shockwaves through
Washington. Krebs, who has been overseeing the largest-ever
operation to secure a U.S. election, has been presiding over a
24/7 war room with state and local election officials that
launched on Election Day and is still operating. The
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director is
widely credited with helping states dramatically improve their
defenses against hacking and keeping the election free of
foreign cyberattacks.
But Krebs, who scrupulously avoided partisan politics in an
effort to gain confidence and cooperation from both Republican
and Democratic election security officials, apparently drew
the ire of White House officials with a rumor control page
that knocked back phony claims about election fraud —
including some made by the president, who is refusing to
concede. He has told associates he expects to be fired.
Krebs’s deputy Bryan Ware already submitted his resignation,
as CyberScoop first reported. Ware declined to comment on the
terms of his departure. He told Nick: “I’m proud of the work
that I did. I’m proud of what the agency accomplished and
proud to have had the privilege to serve the country.”
Valerie Boyd, the top official for international affairs at
DHS, also resigned under pressure. The requests came from the
White House’s Presidential Personnel Office, whose 30-year-old
director, John McEntee, has recently intensified efforts to
purge appointees who have failed to demonstrate sufficient
fealty to the president.
The
rumor control
page marked the closest that CISA came to criticizing
the president’s frequent falsehoods about the election. The
site called out as false, for example, claims that results
that are announced after election night are illegitimate and
that it’s common and easy for fraudsters to vote on behalf of
dead people – both claims repeatedly made by Trump and his
allies. Krebs regularly touted the page to reporters as one of
the agency’s most important innovations, but he also
scrupulously refused to link any of the fact checks to Trump
directly. “It's not my job to fact check any candidate,
certainly on the presidential ticket,” Krebs said during a
pre-election media event. That position has become
increasingly untenable as Trump's false claims continue.
Joint
Statement from U.S. Elections Infrastructure Government
Coordinating Council & the Election Infrastructure
Sector Coordinating Executive Committees (CISA, November
12, 2020)
The November 3rd election was the most secure in American
history. Right now, across the country, election officials are
reviewing and double checking the entire election process
prior to finalizing the result.
When states have close elections, many will recount ballots.
All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential
race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to
go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added
benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for
the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors.
There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost
votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.
Other security measures like pre-election testing, state
certification of voting equipment, and the U.S. Election
Assistance Commission’s (EAC) certification of voting
equipment help to build additional confidence in the voting
systems used in 2020.
While we know there are many unfounded claims and
opportunities for misinformation about the process of our
elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in
the security and integrity of our elections, and you should
too. When you have questions, turn to elections officials as
trusted voices as they administer elections.
White
House pressuring CISA to stop debunking election nonsense.
(Ars Technica, November 12, 2020)
As Donald Trump and his allies have touted unproven claims of
election fraud over the last week, the U.S. Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency and its leader, Chris Krebs,
have swatted them down. CISA has set up a "Rumor Control" page
that debunks common claims about the election.
Now Reuters is reporting that the agency has come under
pressure from the White House to knock it off.
Biden
finds support among Republicans as Trump scrambles to
salvage his strategy to contest the election.
(Washington Post, November 12, 2020)
Biden
flips Arizona, further cementing his presidential victory.
(New York Times, November 12, 2020)
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has narrowly won Arizona,
capturing the state’s 11 electoral votes and strengthening his
Electoral College margin as President Trump continues to make
baseless attacks on the vote counts favoring Mr. Biden.
Mr. Biden, whose margin in Arizona is currently over 11,000
votes, or about 0.3 percentage points, is the first Democratic
presidential candidate to carry the state since President Bill
Clinton in 1996. Four years ago, Mr. Trump won the state by
3.5 percentage points. That Arizona — the home of the late
Senator John McCain and Senator Barry Goldwater, a founder of
the 20th century conservative political movement and the 1964
Republican presidential nominee — was in play for Democrats at
all is remarkable. Before the state voted for Mr. Clinton, the
last Democrat it had supported for president was Harry S.
Truman in 1948.
Mr. Biden’s win underscored a profound political shift in
Arizona, a longtime Republican bastion that has lurched left
in recent years, fueled by rapidly evolving demographics and a
growing contingent of young Hispanic voters championing
liberal policies. Last week, the Democratic challenger Mark
Kelly defeated the state’s Republican senator, Martha McSally,
in a special election, making Mr. Kelly and Senator Kyrsten
Sinema the first pair of Democrats to represent Arizona in the
Senate since the 1950s.
The Arizona victory brings Mr. Biden to 290 electoral votes,
20 more than the 270 required to take the White House.
The Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit in Arizona, alleging
that poll workers in the state’s largest county, Maricopa,
improperly pressured voters to enter their vote in a way that
would incorrectly reject votes. On Wednesday, Arizona’s
attorney general, Mark Brnovich, a Republican, told Fox News
that state officials had received about 1,000 complaints about
the election but had found “no evidence” of widespread voter
fraud. “If indeed there was some great conspiracy, it
apparently didn’t work,” he said.
Sam
Alito Delivers Grievance-Laden, Ultrapartisan Speech to the
Federalist Society. (Slate, November 12, 2020)
On Thursday night, Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito delivered
the keynote address at this year’s all-virtual Federalist
Society National Lawyers Convention. The Federalist Society, a
well-funded network of conservative attorneys, has come under
unusual scrutiny after Donald Trump elevated scores of its
members to the federal judiciary. Its leaders insist that it
is a mere debate club, a nonpartisan forum for the exchange of
legal ideas. But Alito abandoned any pretense of impartiality
in his speech, a grievance-laden tirade against Democrats, the
progressive movement, and the United States’ response to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Alito’s targets included COVID-related
restrictions, same-sex marriage, abortion, Plan B, the
contraceptive mandate, LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws, and five
sitting Democratic senators.
What
is Parler, and why is everyone suddenly talking about it?
(Ars Technica, November 12, 2020)
Twitter's been ramping up fact-checking. Parler promises the
opposite.
Hundreds of millions of Americans—and our counterparts
worldwide—watched the US election and its high-drama aftermath
unfold on social media over the past week or so. Most of us
were using Facebook or Twitter, but in the immediate wake of
Election Day, a new social media platform suddenly rocketed to
the top of the app download charts: Parler. Conservative
politicians, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Devin
Nunes (R-Calif.), have been evangelizing Parler to their
followers for more than a year and have been joined by
right-wing media personalities. Conservatives have now
redoubled their efforts to evade "censorship," as Twitter
works overtime to fact-check false claims about the election.
Donald
Trump has declared war on Fox News. (Daily Kos, November
12, 2020)
We’ve all heard it before, ad nauseam: Donald Trump demands
loyalty. That’s not exactly right, of course. Donald Trump
demands lickspittle obeisance 24/7.
"@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend
daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they
forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They
forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the
2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!" — Donald J. Trump
Donald’s actually been whining about the network for some time
now. For some reason, Trump thinks certain media outlets, by
virtue of their previous deference to him, should be nothing
but fawning propaganda outlets. And Fox largely is, but it
occasionally does journalism as well. Which is obviously
unacceptable.
Meanwhile, President Trump has told friends that, after he’s
rousted from the White House, he wants to start a digital
media company to clobber Fox News and undermine the
conservative-friendly network. This is quintessential Trump.
Demand loyalty — and demand that it go only one way. One wrong
step and it’s the Tower of London for the lot of you.
Watching Trump and Fox go at it after their five-year love
affair should be pretty interesting. Donald Trump is about 320
pounds of vindictiveness, with the other 40 pounds being
chicken grease. So, yeah, he very well could damage the
network. Let's watch.
Mike
Pence stayed loyal to Trump to the end. Now the joke's on
him. (Daily Kos, November 12, 2020)
Vice President Mike Pence has played a long, patient game
these last four years. He has embraced Donald Trump's every
white nationalist act. He has slathered Trump with praise at
every possible opportunity, and has aggressively declared
himself to have never seen any of Trump's buffooneries,
incompetence, or crimes. He protected Trump through
impeachable acts. He adopted, wholesale, Trump's notion that a
worldwide pandemic was No Big Thing and led a coronavirus task
force that was steadfast, absolutely steadfast, in doing
nothing of note to combat it.
Pence did all of this for the usual reason: power, and the
certainty that loyally holding Trump's pants up for four years
as Trump rampaged around the place would inevitably lead to
Pence's own nomination as Republicanism's next presidential
contender.
Sucker. Now Donald Trump's contemplating running again in 2024
(if the Secret Service eventually tosses him from the
building), and where does that leave Mike Pence? Screwed.
Whether he follows through with it or not, that means every
Republican who has devoted themselves to Trump for the last
four years now has their own presidential ambitions on hold,
full stop—or they will be considered an enemy of Trump and
Trump's base. Mike Pence can't run for president until Donald
Trump gets out of the way, and nobody has ever, in history,
been able to pry Donald Trump out of the way when Donald
didn't want to go. The man is willing to kill off his own
relatives out of spite; he would relish the chance to immolate
Mike Pence as he did Marco Rubio.
For now, though, Trump is moping. Multiple reports suggest
Trump has completely given up on his day job of being
president. CNN reports that "he has thrown relatively few
angry fits," which is how we judge American presidents these
days, but is despondent, pouting, and weighing the conflicting
advice being given to him by Uday and Qusay Trump, who want
him to press his coup-like position because they crave power,
and Ivanka, who wants him to pack things in while his (her)
brand still has cash value to it. The Wall Street Journal
reports that Trump has no interest in a lame duck agenda or
any other presidenting, no matter how much his staffers jingle
those keys.
The odds that Trump can successfully pull off a coup remain
near zero. Eventually he is going to be pried from the
building and, realistically, the only face-saving measure
available to him will be to claim he will win the next
election for sure. Probably. Maybe. For whatever length of
time he remains unindicted.
In the meantime, take a moment and pour one out for Mike
Pence. Mike Pence was a good fascist. Mike Pence protected
Trump even when it was long past obvious Trump was not only
incompetent at the job, but recklessly incapable of fulfilling
it. Even as Trump slid into delusion after delusion, Mike
Pence backed him. Even as he committed impeachable acts, Pence
was by his side. Even as Trump's indifference killed a quarter
million Americans, Mike Pence took to the podium to make damn
sure Trump was able to do it slickly and with minimal
interference.
What does Mike Pence have to show for it now? Not much. He
won't be able to run for president anytime soon, that's for
sure. He might be able to wrangle his way into a Celebrity
Apprentice cameo, if that's what it takes to pay the bills.
Trump's
eldest children split on his path forward. (CNN,
November 12, 2020)
Differing approaches have emerged amongst the Trump siblings:
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are telling their father to
aggressively fight to the end, echoing baseless claims that
the election has been rigged and the outcome should change.
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, meanwhile, are
weighing a different political calculus. Ivanka Trump and
Kushner would prefer the President concede the race as soon as
next week after the Georgia recount has concluded on November
20. Ivanka Trump has offered a more calibrated message to her
father, asking him whether it was worth damaging his legacy
and potentially his businesses to continue his refusal to
concede. She is privately realistic about the President's
loss, a source told CNN, but she also knows that her entire
future - now more than ever - is tied to her father's, and
must be handled delicately.
NEW: Introducing
“How to Fix the Internet,” a New Podcast from EFF
(Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 12, 2020)
Today EFF is launching How to Fix the Internet, a new podcast
mini-series to examine potential solutions to six ills facing
the modern digital landscape. Over the course of 6 episodes,
we’ll consider how current tech policy isn’t working well for
users and invite experts to join us in imagining a better
future.
How did we go astray and what should we do now? And what
would our world look like if we got it right? This podcast
mini-series will tackle those questions with regard to six
specific topics of concern: the FISA Court, U.S. broadband
access, the third-party doctrine, barriers to interoperable
technology, law enforcement use of face recognition
technology, and digital first sale. In each episode, we are
joined by a guest to examine how the current system is
failing, consider different possibilities for solutions, and
imagine a better future.
We are launching the podcast with two episodes:
The
Secret Court Approving Secret Surveillance, featuring
the Cato Institute’s specialist in surveillance legal policy
Julian Sanchez; and
Why
Does My Internet Suck?, featuring Gigi Sohn, one of the
nation’s leading advocates for open, affordable, and
democratic communications networks. Future episodes will be
released on Tuesdays.
We’ve also created a hub page for
How
to Fix the Internet. This page includes links to all of
our episodes, ways to subscribe, and detailed show notes. In
the show notes, we’ve included all the books mentioned
in each podcast, as well as substantial legal
resources—including key opinions in the cases we talk about,
briefs filed by EFF, bios of our guests, and a full transcript
of every episode.
What
Is a Particle? (Quanta Magazine, November 12, 2020)
It has been thought of as many things: a point-like object, an
excitation of a field, a speck of pure math that has cut into
reality. But never has physicists’ conception of a particle
changed more than it is changing now. With any other object,
the object’s properties depend on its physical makeup —
ultimately, its constituent particles. But those particles’
properties derive not from constituents of their own but from
mathematical patterns. As points of contact between
mathematics and reality, particles straddle both worlds with
an uncertain footing.
Studies
hint that over-the-counter treatments could be effective
against COVID-19. (Daily Kos, November 11, 2020)
Aspirin, melatonin, fluvoxamine … they may not seem like the
most obvious tools to use against a virus that has proven to
be so deadly. But they have the advantage of being extremely
widely used and well-understood.
The antidepressant fluvoxamine is not over-the-counter; it is
within a group known as “Selective Serotonin Reuptake
Inhibitors” (SSRIs), which have a powerful effect on
inflammation.
‘Million
MAGA March’ Saturday will commingle white nationalists,
conspiracists, Trump fans. (Daily Kos, November 11,
2020)
[And COVID-19...]
How
One Firm Drove Influence Campaigns Nationwide for Big Oil.
(New York Times, November 11, 2020)
FTI, a global consulting firm, helped design, staff and run
organizations and websites funded by energy companies that can
appear to represent grass-roots support for fossil-fuel
initiatives.
In early 2017, the Texans for Natural Gas website went live to
urge voters to “thank a roughneck” and support fracking.
Around the same time, the Arctic Energy Center ramped up its
advocacy for drilling in Alaskan waters and in a vast Arctic
wildlife refuge. The next year, the Main Street Investors
Coalition warned that climate activism doesn’t help
mom-and-pop investors in the stock market. All three appeared
to be separate efforts to amplify local voices or speak up for
regular people.
On closer look, however, the groups had something in common:
They were part of a network of corporate influence campaigns
designed, staffed and at times run by FTI Consulting, which
had been hired by some of the largest oil and gas companies in
the world to help them promote fossil fuels.
An examination of FTI’s work provides an anatomy of the oil
industry’s efforts to influence public opinion in the face of
increasing political pressure over climate change, an issue
likely to grow in prominence, given President-elect Joseph R.
Biden Jr.’s pledge to pursue bolder climate regulations. The
campaigns often obscure the industry’s role, portraying
pro-petroleum groups as grass-roots movements.
Why
is a lame duck so busy replacing national security and
military leaders with Trump loyalists? (Daily Kos,
November 11, 2020)
Donald Trump didn’t just lose the election, he lost it
definitively. In 2016, when AP called the race for Trump,
Hillary Clinton was on the phone to him in seconds, because
the margin of electoral victory was clearly beyond anything
that might be addressed with a potential recount or a
discrepancy in a single state. In 2020, Joe Biden’s margin of
victory is many times that of Trump, even as he runs up a five
million (and counting) edge in the popular vote. This is not a
close election.
But not only has Trump not conceded, his party is going along
with him in the pretense that there is still some question
about the outcome. While a handful of the most vulnerable
Republicans have acknowledged Biden’s victory, the great
majority aren’t just staying silent; they are actively
participating in a fraud that at the very least is damaging to
the integrity and security of the nation, and at the worst is
prelude to a coup. The actions that Trump is taking in
replacing both military and national security leadership drive
up concerns that there’s a lot more here than just a prolonged
pout from a sore loser.
'Barricaded'
Trump is classic counterintelligence risk: deeply in debt,
angry at the U.S. government. (Daily Kos, November 11,
2020)
Trump sold off his private helicopter after losing the
election, so perhaps he’s cash-short, even as he’s running
another grift, claiming he’d run again in 2024. Trump
unfortunately could become an even greater Russian asset than
his value as a useful idiot.
There’s other shenanigans possible in the remaining 70 days,
including a small-scale international military action that in
itself could cause a continuing problem for a Biden
administration, or simply serve as a diversion from
compromising US national security.
As a practical matter, there's little that the Biden
administration can do to stop Trump from blurting out national
secrets. Former presidents do not sign nondisclosure
agreements when they leave office. They have a right to access
information from their administration, including classified
records.
[Steve Breen cartoon:
Trump
Goes Nuclear.]
The
Cybersecurity 202: Trump’s refusal to begin the transition
could damage cybersecurity. (Washington Post, November
11, 2020)
The Trump administration’s refusal to concede could leave
President-elect Joe Biden and his team flatfooted in
responding to cyberattacks. Without a formal go-ahead from the
General Services Administration to start the transition,
Biden’s team won’t be able to get access to classified
information about cyberthreats and how the government is
addressing them. That could prove a severe handicap as the
former vice president’s team prepares to take office amid a
slew of threats from digital adversaries including Russia,
China and Iran. “The cyber world is eternally vulnerable
and it’s very important for the new administration to be
prepared to play offense and defense immediately on Jan.
20th,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge (R) who served as
the first leader of the Department of Homeland Security, told
me.
It highlights how Trump’s refusal to concede and commit to an
orderly transfer of power poses security risks to the country,
experts say, even after it came through the 2020 election
without any evidence of a major cyberattack. “Cyber attackers
thrive on flat-footed administration transitions and delays
will only shine a spotlight on the U.S. as a target,
especially for espionage campaigns,” Marcus Fowler, director
of strategic threats at the cybersecurity firm Darktrace and a
former CIA cybersecurity official, told me.
Some Republicans, such as former House Intelligence Chairman
Mike Rogers, said Biden should begin getting classified
briefings, as is tradition.
The GSA is refusing to sign paperwork that releases Biden’s
$6.3 million share of nearly $10 million in transition
resources.
One silver lining for security: Biden’s transition team has
been given government-issued computers and iPhones for
conducting secure communications, for example, and has been
granted 10,000 square feet of office space in the Herbert C.
Hoover Building in Washington.
But the lack of cooperation makes a transition complicated
even beyond wrangling digital risks. “Our country is in the
middle of twin crises: a global pandemic and a severe economic
downturn. The pandemic will make any transition more
complicated,” Ridge wrote in an open letter with the three
other homeland security secretaries that served during the
George W. Bush and Obama administrations. “At this period of
heightened risk for our nation, we do not have a single day to
spare to begin the transition.”
The danger could increase dramatically if Trump continues to
stonewall as Inauguration Day draws near.
From
Obscure To Sold Out: The Story Of Four Seasons Total
Landscaping In Just Four Days. (PBS, November 11, 2020)
Four Seasons Total Landscaping wants to "Make America Rake
Again." Just a day after the Philadelphia family business
became the unlikely backdrop for a belligerent Trump campaign
press conference, its owners cashed in on the viral fame — and
even crossed party lines.
On Sunday night, the company rolled out a line of T-shirts,
hoodies and stickers featuring the slogans "Lawn and Order"
and its riff on MAGA. On Monday, it started offering face
masks as well. By Tuesday, everything had sold out. Four
Seasons' pivot to apparel had clearly paid off.
It's still not entirely clear how the Trump campaign ended up
holding a press conference in Northeast Philadelphia near a
sex shop, a crematorium and a jail. The hoopla was kicked off
Saturday morning with a Trump tweet about an event at the
Philadelphia Four Seasons. That message was quickly deleted
and a new tweet clarified that instead of the swanky downtown
hotel, the presser would be held at the Four Seasons Total
Landscaping, a business that offers services such as mulching,
weed control, pruning shrubs and leaf removal, among other
jobs.
At the press event, Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed
without evidence that Joe Biden's victory in Pennsylvania was
due to voter fraud. Four Seasons Total Landscaping declined
requests for comment.
By Tuesday morning, much of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping
seemed back to normal, except for a small memorial to
Saturday's events outside the front door — a few candles and
some flowers.
Aficionados of the landscaping business now have another event
to look forward to: On Nov. 29, runners can take part in an
11-mile charity run from Four Seasons Total Landscaping to the
Four Seasons Hotel inside the Comcast Center.
Audio
recording shows Pa. postal worker recanting ballot-tampering
claim. (Washington Post, November 11, 2020)
In an interview this week with federal agents, a Pennsylvania
postal worker walked back his allegation that a supervisor had
tampered with mailed ballots, saying he had made “assumptions”
based on overheard snippets of conversation, according to an
audio recording of the interview posted online Wednesday by
activists who have championed his cause.
The two-hour recording shows that Richard Hopkins recanted
claims he had made in a sworn affidavit that top Republicans
cited over the weekend as potential evidence of widespread
election irregularities and fraud. Hopkins told federal
investigators on Monday his allegations were based on
fragments of conversation among co-workers in a noisy mail
facility in Erie, Pa., according to the recording. When an
agent from the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General
asked Hopkins if he stood by his sworn statement that a
supervisor “was backdating ballots” mailed after Election Day,
Hopkins answered: “At this point? No.” He also agreed to sign
a revised statement that undercut his earlier affidavit.
Those previous allegations had prompted Sen. Lindsey O. Graham
(R-S.C.) to call for the Justice Department to investigate.
The Trump campaign also cited them in a lawsuit seeking to
delay the certification of election results in Pennsylvania,
part of a broad effort to challenge the presidential election
results.
Hopkins surreptitiously recorded the interview on Monday, then
revealed to the agents that he had done so at the end of the
session, according to the recording. Project Veritas, an
organization that initially aired Hopkins’s claims last week,
released the recording on Wednesday, claiming that it showed
he was coerced and pressured into signing a “watered down
statement drafted by them using their words.” The conservative
nonprofit group has sought to bolster unproven allegations of
widespread voter fraud, offering a $25,000 reward for evidence
of election improprieties in Pennsylvania in recent days and
promoting fundraising efforts for Hopkins.
No
Self-Respecting Lawyer Should Touch Trump’s Election-Fraud
Claims. (The Atlantic, November 11, 2020)
Every year, incoming first-year law students are told a simple
truth: You can sue anyone at any time for anything, anywhere.
That does not mean you will win. And it does not mean doing so
is always consistent with a lawyer’s ethical and professional
obligations. Some of the lawyers at the firms handling the
litigation work for President Donald Trump’s campaign or
related Republican Party organizations are now raising
concerns internally about the legitimacy and purpose of the
legal claims they are currently being asked to advance. These
concerns have merit: Lawyers have ongoing obligations to
adhere to the ethical requirements of the state bars through
which they are licensed, as well as the relevant rules of the
court(s) before which they are practicing. Trump may not have
to worry about keeping a job after January 20, 2021, but the
lawyers doing his bidding at the moment certainly do.
The wave of quixotic lawsuits flying out of Trump’s legal team
is stretching the boundaries of anything remotely resembling a
coherent and evidence-based approach to litigation. In the
mere eight days since Election Day, the Trump campaign has
filed at least 10 different lawsuits in at least five
different states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia,
and Nevada). Some of these are run-of-the-mill lawsuits
fighting over minor issues, but several directly allege fraud,
and a few include documentation claiming to prove the
existence of that fraud.
Rule 3.1 of the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of
Professional Conduct—upon which most state bars rely at least
in part—stipulates that a lawyer shall not bring an action
unless a basis exists in law and fact for doing so. This rule
implies that lawyers must do due diligence to inform
themselves of the facts of the case and reasonably determine
that a good-faith argument can be made in defense of the
client’s legal claim. Rule 11(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure—many of which are designed to serve as “gatekeepers”
against frivolous lawsuits—requires lawyers to ensure that
their arguments are not frivolous, and that factual
contentions either have or are reasonably likely to have
evidentiary support. Although the courts do not often exercise
their discretion to enforce it, Rule 11(c) provides judges
with the authority to impose sanctions against lawyers who
have violated Rule 11(b).
These due-diligence obligations are of particular importance
in the cases Trump and his team are now litigating. Rule 9(b)
of the Federal Rules identifies certain “special matters” that
must be pled with greater specificity and are thus subject to
what courts call “heightened scrutiny.” One of these matters
is fraud: “In alleging fraud or mistake, a party must state
with particularity the circumstances constituting fraud or
mistake” (italics added). More than one court has held that
the “heightened scrutiny” Rule 9(b) requires also applies to
claims of election fraud.
But what does “with particularity” actually mean? In simple
terms, a plaintiff alleging fraud must describe the “who,
what, when, where, and how” of the alleged fraud. Vague
allegations of misconduct—especially those based on hearsay
(governed under Federal Rule of Evidence 802)—will often meet
their end against the edge of Rule 9(b)’s blade. And it looks
like the Trump team’s lawsuits are not faring any better.
We can assume that Trump’s lawyers are not incompetent, which
leads to the question: If they know these lawsuits are
unlikely to stick, why are they filing them? The ethical
dilemma confronting these lawyers is greater than merely
making their billable-hours quota and continuing their
advancement in their firms. The deeper they venture down the
Trump conspiracy rabbit hole, armed with nothing more than
futile lawsuits premised on flimsy evidentiary or legal bases,
the more their professional reputations and law licenses are
at risk.
This was a stinging lesson for Trump’s former personal
attorney Michael Cohen, who went to jail for committing
campaign-finance felonies to protect his client in the days
leading up to the 2016 election. Cohen’s current predicament,
and the seemingly incremental steps he took to arrive there,
serves as a perfect example of a lawyer crossing the line and
not knowing when to refuse a client’s demands. Even the most
zealous advocate for a client should not violate ethical or
legal obligations merely to advance a client’s interests.
Biden’s
vote lead hits 5 million. Trump’s loss shifts from
‘spanking’ to ‘shellacking’ – official. (Daily Kos,
November 11, 2020)
76,983,892 Americans who voted for Joe Biden as the 46th
president have had their votes counted by early Wednesday US
time, compared with just 71,915,939 for Donald Trump. That is
a lead in the popular vote of more than five million. This is
now a certified shellacking.
Several million more votes are yet to be added with just 69
per cent of votes tallied so far in Alaska, only 80 per cent
in New York, 87 per cent in New Jersey and 92 per cent in
California. Steadily over the days since last week’s vote,
Biden’s lead has increased. This is not a close election.
Frustratingly slow, yes. But close, no.
The
Times Called Officials in Every State: No Evidence of Voter
Fraud. (New York Times, November 10, 2020)
The president and his allies have baselessly claimed that
rampant voter fraud stole victory from him. Officials
contacted by The Times said that there were no irregularities
that affected the outcome.
Over the last several days, the president, members of his
administration, congressional Republicans and right wing
allies have put forth the false claim that the election was
stolen from Mr. Trump and have refused to accept results that
showed Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the winner.
But top election officials across the country said in
interviews and statements that the process had been a
remarkable success despite record turnout and the
complications of a dangerous pandemic. “There’s a great human
capacity for inventing things that aren’t true about
elections,” said Frank LaRose, a Republican who serves as
Ohio’s secretary of state. “The conspiracy theories and rumors
and all those things run rampant. For some reason, elections
breed that type of mythology.”
Perhaps none of the Trump campaign’s claims received more
attention than an allegation made over the weekend in
Pennsylvania by Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal
lawyer. On Saturday, Mr. Giuliani held a news conference in
the parking lot of a Philadelphia landscaping company and
claimed that the election in the city had been rife with
fraud.
The office of the state’s top law enforcement official said
that there was no evidence to support Mr. Giuliani’s claims,
and that the election in the state was fair and secure. “Many
of the claims against the commonwealth have already been
dismissed, and repeating these false attacks is reckless,”
said Jacklin Rhoads, a spokeswoman for Josh Shapiro, a
Democrat who is Pennsylvania’s attorney general. “No active
lawsuit even alleges, and no evidence presented so far has
shown, widespread problems.”
What emerged in The Times’s reporting was how, beyond the
president, Republicans in many states were engaged in a
widespread effort to delegitimize the nation’s voting system.
Some Republicans have even turned to lashing members of their
own party who, in their eyes, did not show sufficient
dedication to rooting out fraud. In Georgia, where Mr. Biden
is leading, the two Republican senators, Kelly Loeffler and
David Perdue, both of whom are in a runoff to gain
re-election, have called for the resignation of the Republican
secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger. “The secretary of
state has failed to deliver honest and transparent elections,”
the senators said in a statement.
In Washington, the losing Republican candidate for governor,
Loren Culp, has disputed the Republican secretary of state’s
determination that the election there was free of fraud. The
secretary of state, Kim Wyman, has in turn challenged Mr.
Culp, trailing by roughly 14 percentage points in the results,
to produce evidence. “It’s just throwing grass at the fence at
this point,” she said in an interview, “to see what sticks.”
The tension over voting has been most palpable in Georgia. The
Trump campaign and the two Republican senators have complained
about transparency, which Mr. Raffensperger, the secretary of
state, called “laughable.” “We were literally putting releases
of results up at a minimum hourly,” he said in a statement. “I
and my office have been holding daily or twice-daily briefings
for the press to walk them through all the numbers. So that
particular charge is laughable.” He added that while there
were likely small instances of fraud, he did not expect it to
be significant enough to affect the outcome.
The absence of any major findings of fraud or irregularities,
and the willingness of even Republican election officials to
attest to smooth operations, have also undercut Mr. Trump’s
legal efforts.
In Michigan, the Trump campaign has sued, saying that their
poll watchers were not given access to properly observe ballot
counting in Detroit. But election officials in the city deny
that, saying there were dozens of poll watchers from both
campaigns inside the main counting center there. Last week, a
judge denied a Trump campaign bid to halt counting based on
complaints about observers, dismissing key evidence as “vague”
and as “hearsay.”
The accusations of fraud from the president and his allies
were noticeably absent from states where Mr. Trump and his
fellow Republicans did well.
TikTok
says the Trump administration has forgotten about trying to
ban it, would like to know what’s up. (The Verge,
November 10, 2020)
The deadline to sell US assets expires this week.
[But this week, Trump is busy fighting Fox News, instead.]
Oil
field operations likely triggered earthquakes in California
a few miles from the San Andreas Fault. (The
Conversation, November 10, 2020)
The way companies drill for oil and gas and dispose of
wastewater can trigger earthquakes, at times in unexpected
places. In West Texas, earthquake rates are now 30 times
higher than they were in 2013. Studies have also linked
earthquakes to oil field operations in Oklahoma, Kansas,
Colorado and Ohio.
California was thought to be an exception, a place where oil
field operations and tectonic faults apparently coexisted
without much problem. Now, new research shows that the state’s
natural earthquake activity may be hiding industry-induced
quakes. As a seismologist, I have been investigating induced
earthquakes in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Our latest
study, released on Nov. 10, shows how California oil field
operations are putting stress on tectonic faults in an area
just a few miles from the San Andreas Fault.
At the root of the induced earthquake problem are two
different types of fluid injection operations: hydraulic
fracturing and wastewater disposal.
NEW: Can Joe
Biden and Kamala Harris unite America after Trump?
(6-min. video; Guardian News, November 10, 2020)
When Joe Biden formally takes over the presidency from Donald
Trump he will face some of the greatest crises the US has
faced in recent history: a pandemic that has killed more than
200,000 Americans, a devastated economy, a fractured nation
and a rapidly overheating climate.
The Guardian's Lauren Gambino looks at how Biden and
vice-president-elect Kamala Harris plan to 'heal' a bitterly
divided nation after four years of Trumpism - and the
challenges they will face with the prospect of having to
navigate these times without a majority in the Senate.
In
appealing to ‘give each other a chance,’ Biden recalls the
democratic charity of Abraham Lincoln. (The
Conversation, November 10, 2020)
On Nov. 7, in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Joe Biden
delivered his first speech as president-elect. In declaring
victory, Biden spoke directly to those who didn’t support him.
“And to those who voted for President Trump, I understand your
disappointment tonight. I’ve lost a couple of elections
myself. But now, let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to
put away the harsh rhetoric. To lower the temperature. To see
each other again. To listen to each other again. To make
progress. We must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We
are not enemies. We are Americans.”
I am a scholar of democracy and ethics, and Biden’s words call
to mind Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Delivered
on March 4, 1865, after his reelection and at a time when
Union victory was in sight, that speech – like Biden’s –
called for a new beginning after a time of extreme division.
Both speeches also reflect an idea of democratic charity –
that we all deserve to be heard, respected and given the
benefit of the doubt.
Michael
Cohen: 'I believe Trump does go to jail' (3-min. video;
Daily Kos, November 10, 2020)
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, knows
the Trump crime family better than almost anyone. And,
needless to say, he’s no longer impressed. After discussing
his unlikely friendship with Rosie O’Donnell, who visited him
in prison, Cohen told MSNBC’s Ari Melber he believes either
Trump or a member of his family will eventually go to jail,
too.
The
‘orchestrated’ push to discredit Georgia’s election sparks
more GOP infighting. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
November 10, 2020)
“Republicans in disarray.” That was the three-word response
from Senate Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff late Monday to the
extraordinary infighting that’s divided the Georgia GOP over
President Donald Trump’s effort to taint Joe Biden’s victory.
This was supposed to be the week that Republicans united
behind U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue for a pair
of Jan. 5 runoffs that could decide control of the Senate.
Instead, the two senators leveled unfounded claims of a
disastrous “embarrassment” of an election at fellow
Republicans who oversaw last week’s vote - and called for the
resignation of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. It was a
brazen effort to appease Trump, who has falsely claimed
electoral fraud despite no evidence of any wrongdoing as he
and his supporters try to discredit Biden.
We’re told the president and his top allies pressured the two
Republican senators to take this step, lest he tweet a
negative word about them and risk divorcing them from his base
ahead of the consequential runoff. And shortly after, Trump
and some of his inner circle started tweeting attacks at
Raffensperger, who was already unpopular with many in the
Georgia GOP base long before Tuesday’s vote. WSB radio analyst
Jamie Dupree called it “an orchestrated election move the
likes of which I’ve never seen before."
Trump
Is Fundraising For Legal Help Fighting A ‘Stolen’ Election.
Nearly All The Money Is Actually Going Elsewhere.
(Talking Points Memo, November 10, 2020)
The Trump campaign has been unrelenting in recent days with
its all-caps, bold font, exclamation-point-ridden fundraising
appeals: “THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO STEAL THIS ELECTION!” “We
can’t allow the Left-wing MOB to undermine our election.” They
urge supporters to make donations to President Donald Trump’s
election integrity defense, to ensure he has the “resources”
he needs to keep the election from being “stolen.”
In reality, there is no election defense fund; the donations
are siphoned into a mix of various committees. Up until
Tuesday, some of the money was being used to pay down the
Trump campaign’s debt. As of Tuesday morning though, the
formula was changed to funnel most of the money into Trump’s
new leadership PAC called Save America. “Donors who are giving
in response to this urgent fundraising message to help defend
the integrity of our election are actually helping fund
Trump’s post-presidential political vehicle,” Brendan Fischer,
director of federal reform at the Campaign Legal Center, told
TPM.
Steve
Bannon Caught Running a Network of Misinformation Pages on
Facebook. (Gizmodo, November 10, 2020)
Steve Bannon has been outed for his involvement in running a
network of misinformation pages on Facebook. Who could have
possibly seen this coming?
Facebook has talked a big game about monitoring election
misinformation, and yet the independent activist network Avaaz
said it had to alert the company to the pages before it
removed them for coordinated inauthentic behavior. The group
didn’t need an army of 35,000 moderators to figure this out,
and yet Facebook consistently fails to spot the troublemakers
that journalists and researchers with less funding and staff
seem to keep spotting. As they say: makes you think.
Avaaz said that it alerted Facebook to the pages on Friday
night. By that time, in aggregate, Avaaz says the top seven
pages—Brian Kolfage, Conservative Values, The Undefeated, We
Build the Wall Inc, Citizens of the American Republic,
American Joe, and Trump at War—had collectively gained over
2.45 million followers. In some cases, Bannon and Brian
Kolfage, co-conspirator in the “We Build the Wall, Inc.”
fundraiser/alleged scam, were co-admins.
Postal
worker recanted allegations of ballot tampering, officials
say. (Washington Post, November 10, 2020)
A Pennsylvania postal worker whose claims have been cited by
top Republicans as potential evidence of widespread voting
irregularities admitted to U.S. Postal Service investigators
that he fabricated the allegations, according to three
officials briefed on the investigation and a statement from a
House congressional committee. Richard Hopkins’s claim that a
postmaster in Erie, Pa., instructed postal workers to backdate
ballots mailed after Election Day was cited by Sen. Lindsey O.
Graham (R-S.C.) in a letter to the Justice Department calling
for a federal investigation. Attorney General William P. Barr
subsequently authorized federal prosecutors to open probes
into credible allegations of voting irregularities and fraud,
a reversal of long-standing Justice Department policy.
[In its Comments thread/Twitter: Installing friendlies at the
NSA/Pentagon, & likely soon the FBI & CIA, paves the
way for destruction of evidence and the selling of secrets to
pay Trump's debts. Would also explain preventing PDB and
transition for Biden. It's not a coup, it's a coverup.]
NEW: Joe
Biden Must Be a President for America’s Workers. (New
Yorker, November 10, 2020)
Biden isn’t someone with strong ideological views or a fixed
approach to economics. He sees himself as a problem solver,
which, in this instance, may be an advantage. His job is to
fashion a concrete economic agenda and use the
coalition-building skills that he demonstrated during the
campaign to get at least some of it enacted. He should begin
with the pandemic and build outward from there, pushing
policies designed to increase the bargaining power of workers,
and to restore the link between productivity growth and wage
growth. In the decades after the Second World War, this link
produced a more equitable U.S. economy, but, under the impact
of globalization, technological innovation, and conservative
policies, it has been sundered.
NEW: Why
America Needs a Reckoning with the Trump Era. (9-min.
video; New Yorker Magazine, November 10, 2020)
On Saturday evening, President-elect Joe Biden and
Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris gave their victory
speeches, reminding Americans and the world what a political
leader can sound like: thoughtful rather than ignorant,
authoritative rather than arrogant, empathetic rather than
callous. They promised healing and spoke of unity. The allure
of normalcy was immense.
Biden is poised to take office following the most divisive and
destructive Presidency in memory. Speaking to his supporters’
collective desire to leave behind the nightmare of the past
four years, he promised to end “this grim era of
demonization.” He stressed that, in choosing him, a majority
of Americans opted to “marshal the forces of decency and the
forces of fairness. To marshal the forces of science and the
forces of hope”—the forces of everything good, reliable, and
familiar that can help us shake the feeling of living in an
unstable and unrelentingly dark reality. Biden promised to
“restore the soul of America.”
We have to talk about what happened and about how we go on
living in such a way that it doesn’t happen again. Of course,
this process can’t succeed as long as nearly equal numbers of
Americans live in two non-intersecting realities. But such a
process is also our best hope for reclaiming a shared reality.
When you have a deep, festering wound, you do not heal it by
pretending there was no injury: you clean it out, and then you
stitch it up.
NEW: How
Trump Sold Failure to 70 Million People (The Atlantic,
November 10, 2020)
The president convinced many voters that his response to the
pandemic was not a disaster. The psychology of medical fraud
is simple, timeless, and tragic.
As
an ex-president, Trump could disclose the secrets he learned
while in office, current and former officials fear.
(Washington Post, November 10, 2020)
As president, Donald Trump selectively revealed highly
classified information to attack his adversaries, gain
political advantage and to impress or intimidate foreign
governments, in some cases jeopardizing U.S. intelligence
capabilities. As an ex-president, there’s every reason to
worry he will do the same, thus posing a unique national
security dilemma for the Biden administration, current and
former officials and analysts said.
All presidents exit the office with valuable national secrets
in their heads, including the procedures for launching nuclear
weapons, intelligence-gathering capabilities — including
assets deep inside foreign governments — and the development
of new and advanced weapon systems.
But no new president has ever had to fear that his predecessor
might expose the nation’s secrets as President-elect Joe Biden
must with Trump, current and former officials said. Not only
does Trump have a history of disclosures, he checks the boxes
of a classic counterintelligence risk: He is deeply in debt
and angry at the U.S. government, particularly what he
describes as the “deep state” conspiracy that he believes
tried to stop him from winning the White House in 2016 and
what he falsely claims is an illegal effort to rob him of
reelection.
As president, Trump has access to all classified information
in the government and the authority to declassify and share
any of it, for any reason. After he leaves office, he still
will have access to the classified records of his
administration. But the legal ability to disclose them
disappears once Biden is sworn in January.
The kinds of information Trump is likely to know include
special military capabilities, details about cyber weapons and
espionage, the kinds of satellites the United States uses and
the parameters of any covert actions that, as president, only
Trump had the power to authorize. He also knows the
information that came from U.S. spies and collection
platforms, which could expose sources even if he did not know
precisely how the information was obtained. In a now infamous
Oval Office meeting in 2017, Trump told Russia’s foreign
minister and ambassador to the United States about highly
classified information the United States had received from an
ally about Islamic State threats to aviation, which
jeopardized the source, according to people familiar with the
incident. By bragging about intelligence capabilities, Trump
put them at risk. And he has been similarly careless when
trying to intimidate adversaries. In August 2019, he tweeted a
detailed aerial image of an Iranian launchpad. Such photos are
among the most highly guarded pieces of intelligence because
they can reveal precise details about technical spying
capabilities.
Experts worry that Trump’s braggadocio may lead him to spill
secrets at a rally or in a tete-a-tete with a foreign
adversary. One former official imagined Trump boasting about
the technical features of Air Force One, or where the United
States had dispatched spy drones. Trump has also demonstrated
a willingness to declassify information for political
advantage, pushing his senior officials to reveal documents
from the 2016 probe of Russian election interference and
possible links to Trump’s campaign.
Many concerned experts were quick to note that Trump
reportedly paid scant attention during his presidential
intelligence briefings and has never evinced a clear
understanding of how the national security apparatus works.
His ignorance may be the best counterweight to the risk he
poses - but it has not been sufficient.
A President Biden could refuse to give Trump any intelligence
briefings, which ex-presidents have received before meeting
with foreign leaders or embarking on diplomatic missions at
the current president’s request. “I think that tradition ends
with Trump,” Priess said. “It’s based on courtesy and the idea
that presidents may call on their predecessors for frank
advice. I don’t see Joe Biden calling up Trump to talk about
intricate national security and intelligence issues. And I
don’t think Biden will send him anywhere as an
emissary.”
The last line of defense, like so many chapters in Trump’s
presidency, would pose unprecedented considerations: criminal
prosecution. The Espionage Act has been successfully used to
convict current and former government officials who disclose
information that damages U.S. national security. It has never
been used against a former president. But as of Jan. 20, 2021,
Trump becomes a private citizen, and the immunity he enjoys
from criminal prosecution vanishes.
NEW: The
Unknown Father (Damn Interesting, November 9, 2020)
Later in life, although Schicklgruber was described as
pedantic, temperamental, and humorless, he was a curiously
successful womanizer. He fathered multiple illegitimate
children of his own from various women, and occasionally
married.
Magnitude-3.6
earthquake shakes northeastern U.S. (Temblor, November
9, 2020)
A M3.6 quake shook the northeastern U.S. yesterday, including
major cities such as Boston and New York. Although earthquakes
of this magnitude are rare in this part of the world, they do
occur.
[Yes, we felt it a LOT stronger and longer than when trucks
hit a pothole out on Route 9.]
Zoom
lied to users about end-to-end encryption for years, FTC
says. (Ars Technica, November 9, 2020)
The settlement is supported by the FTC's Republican majority,
but Democrats on the commission objected because the agreement
doesn't provide compensation to users. "Today, the Federal
Trade Commission has voted to propose a settlement with Zoom
that follows an unfortunate FTC formula," FTC Democratic
Commissioner Rohit Chopra said. "The settlement provides no
help for affected users. It does nothing for small businesses
that relied on Zoom's data protection claims. And it does not
require Zoom to pay a dime. The Commission must change
course."
Under the settlement, "Zoom is not required to offer redress,
refunds, or even notice to its customers that material claims
regarding the security of its services were false," Democratic
Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said. "This failure of
the proposed settlement does a disservice to Zoom's customers,
and substantially limits the deterrence value of the case."
While the settlement imposes security obligations, Slaughter
said it includes no requirements that directly protect user
privacy.
Zoom is separately facing lawsuits from investors and
consumers that could eventually lead to financial settlements.
Europe
is adopting stricter rules on surveillance tech. (MIT
Technology Review, November 9, 2020)
The goal is to make sales of technologies like spyware and
facial recognition more transparent in Europe first, and then
worldwide.