December 22, 2021

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Under intense pressure from criminal justice reform advocates, the Justice Department has reversed a Trump-era legal opinion that could have required several thousand federal convicts to return to prison from home confinement if the Biden administration declares an end to the pandemic-related national emergency. With the rise of the Omicron variant, such a milestone seems remote, but the new opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel meets demands from reformers and lawmakers that officials find a way to allow prisoners who;ve typically been living at home for a year or more under pandemic-related legal authorities to remain at home to serve out the remainder of their sentences."

A Lot of Crooks Are Living off Your Tax Dollars. Eamon Javers & Scott Zamost of CNBC: "Criminals have stolen close to $100 billion in pandemic relief funds, the U.S. Secret Service said Tuesday. The stolen funds were diverted by fraudsters from the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and a another program set up to dole out unemployment assistance funds nationwide. More than $2.3 billion in stolen funds have been recovered so far, resulting in the arrest of more than 100 suspects who span the spectrum from individuals to organized groups, according to the agency. The government has shelled out about $3.5 trillion in Covid relief money since early 2020, when the pandemic began.... The Secret Service currently has more than 900 active investigations related to pandemic fraud, Dotson said."

The Anecdotal Excuse, Ctd. Marie: Yesterday I linked to a Huff Post story that claimed, "In recent months, Manchin has told several of his fellow Democrats that he thought parents would waste monthly child tax credit payments on drugs instead of providing for their children." I wrote, "This is the perfect argument. No matter that there is statistical proof that the child tax credit has been a boon to American children, Joe can always point to cases of parents squandering the benefits on drugs or other things that are of no benefit to their children.' So, ~~~

     ~~~ Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has refused to support Democrats' Build Back Better Act, partly because he worries the bill's continuation of monthly child tax credit payments would subsidize drug use among some parents. Manchin's concern about the benefits may stem from complaints he heard from constituents, including a grandmother who he said complained to the senator's office that her daughter wasn't using the monthly payments to support her child.... JoAnna Vance, an advocate for the child tax credit, attending a meeting with Manchin, According to Vance,] 'He said he's gotten phone calls from one grandmother specifically talking about her crackhead daughter ― he used the word crackhead three times ― talking about her crackhead daughter running around using the child tax credit to buy drugs and get high instead of it going where it needs to go.'..." ~~~

~~~ Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Amid the swirl of recriminations and second-guessing that followed the announcement by Senator Joe Manchin III that he would not support President Biden's signature domestic policy plan, one point of contention stood out: their differences over an expansion of the child tax credit." Cochrane digs into Manchin's objection to this aid to families but doesn't mention that alleged "crackhead" mom. MB: There's nothing obviously wrong with Cochrane's and the NYT's style of reporting, but you can see how what you might call "elevated style" also elevates Manchin by making his objections to the tax credit seem more reasoned.

Matt Egan of CNN: "A day after the West Virginia Democrat appeared to kill Build Back Better, America's largest coal mining union put out a statement lauding the legislation's provisions and pushing Manchin to take a do-over.... The 131-year-old UMWA called out several items that it believes are crucial to its members and communities, including extending the fee paid by coal companies to fund benefits received by victims of black lung." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Joseph Choi of the Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on Tuesday she is open to discussing proposals to overhaul an expanded child tax credit included in President Biden's American Rescue Plan that is set to expire in the next few days.... If the expanded child tax credit is allowed to expire then monthly payments would end for the families of about 60 million children.... Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued that there is still time to work out a deal for the tax credit. McConnell echoed Collins' concerns about the lack of a work requirement tied to the credit."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Two allies of ... Donald J. Trump took steps on Tuesday to try to stonewall the House committee investigating the Capitol attack as Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, filed a lawsuit against the panel, and a House Republican [-- Scott Perry of Pennsylvania -- ] who played a key role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election refused to meet with investigators.... The House committee has said it wants information from Mr. Flynn because he attended a meeting in the Oval Office on Dec. 18 in which participants discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers and continuing to spread the false idea that the election was tainted by widespread fraud. That meeting came after Mr. Flynn gave an interview to the right-wing media site Newsmax in which he talked about the purported precedent for deploying military troops and declaring martial law to 'rerun' the election.... Mr. Perry, the incoming chairman of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, called the committee 'illegitimate.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unfortunately, the Constitution requires a 2/3rds vote of the House to expel a member, and that isn't going to happen. So the next worst thing is censure, which requires only a majority vote. The House should censure Perry.

GOP Perpetuates the Big Lie. Daniel Dale of CNN: "Five Republican candidates for governor of Minnesota were asked at a forum last Wednesday whether they thought President Joe Biden won a 'constitutional majority in the Electoral College.' None of them was willing to utter a plain 'yes.' Their responses, which ranged from explicit inaccuracies to feeble dodges, made national news. But they weren't unusual.... A refusal to endorse the legitimacy of Biden's victory has become a key requirement in Republican primaries across the country. From conservative Alabama to the swing states of the Midwest, numerous Republicans trying to win party nominations in 2022 have joined ... Donald Trump in refusing to publicly admit that Trump just plain lost. Some candidates are aggressive, turning the lie that Trump was the rightful winner into a central part of their campaign pitches. Other candidates are evasive, straining to sidestep a direct answer on the question of Biden's legitimacy." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Danger They Pose. Gina Harkins of the Washington Post: "As Donald Trump began contesting the presidential election results in November 2020, CNN's chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, received a text from a man describing Stelter's mother's home, 'implying he was there.' It wasn't the only threatening message Stelter said he received from the man.... Stelter detailed the threats Monday night after testifying at the sentencing hearing for Robert Lemke, a California man who federal investigators say threatened about 50 people over their truthful 'statements expressing that then-President Trump had lost the 2020 presidential election.' On Monday, Lemke, 36, from Bay Point, Calif., was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty in October to threatening an unspecified journalist's New York-based family.... 'We are nearby, armed and ready,' [a] text message [from Lemke to a journalist's family member] said, according to court documents. 'Thousands of us are active/retired law enforcement, military, etc. That's how we do it.' That day, the brother of an unnamed congressman representing New York received a similar message from Lemke." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ AND there's this: ~~~

     ~~~ A Standing O for a Killer. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Weeks after Kyle Rittenhouse said he wanted to 'lay low' when he was found not guilty of homicide, attempted homicide and other charges related to last year's fatal shootings that rocked Kenosha, Wis., the teen was welcomed Monday at a conservative conference to music, pyrotechnics and a standing ovation from thousands of attendees.... Those in attendance chanted 'Kyle! Kyle! Kyle!' in the moments before he walked onstage, the Arizona Republic reported.... 'You're a hero to millions,' Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk told Rittenhouse during the group's AmericaFest gathering in Phoenix. 'It's an honor to be able to have you.'... Rittenhouse ... suggested Monday that lawsuits could be filed against media outlets for how they covered his murder trial.... In a 45-minute panel discussion..., Rittenhouse said he was a scapegoat in an alleged government effort to take away people's guns. 'My trial was an example of them trying to come after our Second Amendment rights, our right to defend ourselves and trying to take our weapons,' he told the crowd." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, vigilante Rittenhouse carried an illegally-obtained semi-automatic rifle to a city & state where he didn't live for the purpose of taking on protesters against the police shooting of a Black man. If I were the "government," I definitely would take away his gun.

** By Any Means. Linda So & Jason Szep of Reuters: "A member of Donald Trump';s 2020 presidential campaign arranged and participated in a meeting at which a Georgia election worker says she was pressed by a Chicago publicist to falsely admit voting fraud. The revelation directly ties a senior figure in the former president's political operation to an extraordinary late-night Jan. 4 meeting in which a $16-an-hour election worker faced pressure to implicate herself in a baseless conspiracy theory, stoked by Trump himself, as he sought to overturn his Georgia election loss. Harrison Floyd - who was executive director of a national campaign coalition called Black Voices for Trump in 2020 - told Reuters on Monday that he asked Chicago publicist Trevian Kutti to visit the Atlanta area to speak with 62-year-old temporary election worker Ruby Freeman. Floyd said he then participated by phone in a meeting Kutti held with Freeman at a police station in Georgia's Cobb County. Kutti was accompanied at the meeting by another Trump campaign figure: Garrison Douglas, who was a Georgia leader in Black Voices for Trump during the campaign and now works as a Republican Party spokesperson in the state.... Floyd said he recruited Douglas and Kutti because he was unable to attend himself."

Tatum Hunter & Gerrit De Vynck of the Washington Post: "On Dec. 9, word of a newly discovered computer bug in a hugely popular piece of computer code started rippling around the cybersecurity community. By the next day, nearly every major software company was in crisis mode, trying to figure out how their products were affected and how they could patch the hole. The descriptions used by security experts to describe the new vulnerability in an extremely common section of code called log4j border on the apocalyptic.... Log4j is a chunk of code that helps software applications keep track of their past activities.... A few weeks ago, the cybersecurity community realized that by simply asking the program to log a line of malicious code, it would execute that code in the process, effectively letting bad actors grab control of servers that are running log4j.... Experts say it's the biggest software vulnerability of all time in terms of the number of services, sites and devices exposed. The fact that log4j is such a ubiquitous piece of software is what makes this such a big deal.... The best thing regular computer users can do is make sure the apps they use are updated to their most recent versions...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Congressional Races

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Senate Republican and a potential future leader, is seriously considering retiring after next year, a prospect that has set off an intensifying private campaign from other Republicans urging him to seek re-election. Mr. Thune is only 60, but a combination of family concerns and ... Donald J. Trump's enduring grip on the Republican Party have prompted the senator, who is in his third term, to tell associates and reporters in his home state that 2022 could be his last year in Congress.... That Mr. Thune would even entertain retirement with the chance to ascend to Senate Republican leader illustrates both the strain of today's Congress and the shadow Mr. Trump casts over the party."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Veteran Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) plans to retire at the end of his eighth term, bringing to 23 the number of Democrats who have said they won't seek reelection during next year's midterms, in which the party risks losing control of the House.... Sires, who plans an official announcement of his retirement early next year, told local media that he is backing Robert Menendez Jr., the son of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), as his successor for his northern New Jersey district."

AP: "A Harvard University professor charged with hiding his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program was found guilty on all counts Tuesday. Charles Lieber, 62, the former chair of Harvard's department of chemistry and chemical biology, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of making false statements, and two counts of failing to file reports for a foreign bank account in China." The New York Times story is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd., Brought to You by the Unvaccinated

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.

Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Tuesday outlined plans to expand coronavirus testing sites across the country, distribute a half-billion free at-home tests and deploy more federal health resources to aid strained hospitals, as the omicron variant drives a fresh wave of infections.... The president said Americans have an obligation to get vaccinated, calling it a 'patriotic duty,' and pointed to former president Donald Trump's comment that he got his vaccine booster shot. Biden stressed that while the number of covid cases have soared to levels not seen since 2020, the outlook was far different with vaccines and other treatment. 'This is not March of 2020. Two hundred million people are fully vaccinated. We're prepared. We know more,' he said." ~~~

** Mike Schneider of the AP: "U.S. population growth dipped to its lowest rate since the nation's founding during the first year of the pandemic as the coronavirus curtailed immigration, delayed pregnancies and killed hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents, according to figures released Tuesday. The United States grew by only 0.1%, with an additional 392,665 added to the U.S. population from July 2020 to July 2021, bringing the nation's count to 331.8 million people, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. has been experiencing slow population growth for years but the pandemic exacerbated that trend. This past year was the first time since 1937 that the nation's population grew by less than 1 million people."

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Samantha Pell of the Washington Post: "The NHL will halt its season Wednesday amid a spike in coronaviru cases and the rise of the omicron variant, the league announced Monday night, becoming the first major pro sports league in North America with plans to halt play entirely, albeit briefly. Team facilities will be closed from Wednesday through Saturday, and players will return Sunday for coronavirus testing and practice. Games are in line to resume Monday, Dec. 27. The league's previously scheduled holiday break was Friday through Sunday." (Also linked yesterday.)

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Anthony Fauci ... on Tuesday called on Fox News to fire host Jesse Watters for targeting him with violent rhetoric at a conservative conference earlier this week. '...The guy should be fired on the spot.' Speaking on Monday at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest conference, Watters encouraged attendees to rhetorically 'ambush' Fauci with dubious questions about the National Institutes of Health allegedly funding 'gain-of-function' research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 'Now you go in for the kill shot. The kill shot? With an ambush? Deadly. Because he doesn't see it coming,' Watters said.... Fox News declined to comment on the record on whether it endorses Watters' remarks or plans to take disciplinary action against him. Fox News also did not respond to a request for comment on Fauci's critique of the network.... Lara Logan, a Fox News personality and host on its streaming service, compared him to the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele earlier this month.... Fauci rebuked Fox News for not taking disciplinary action against Logan...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Watters made his name on Fox ambushing public figures and others with stupid questions when his was a regular on Bill O'Reilly's now-defunct Fox show. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Emma Goldberg of the New York Times: "Fox Corporation, the owner of Fox News, told employees on Friday that those working in New York City would have to show proof they'd had at least one dose of the Covid vaccine by Dec. 27, removing the option to get tested weekly instead. The new policy was in keeping with New York City's vaccine rule, which Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in early December and which is more stringent than a contested Biden administration rule requiring vaccine mandates or weekly testing at larger employers. The New York City mandate, which requires on-site workers at all businesses to be vaccinated, is the country's most sweeping local vaccine mandate and affects some 184,000 businesses. 'Our policy reflects the guidelines of the mandate,' a spokesman for Fox Corporation said in an email on Monday. More than 90 percent of Fox's employees are vaccinated, the company said." (Also linked yesterday.)

New York. Emma Fitzsimmons of the New York Times: New York City Mayor-elect Eric "Adams, who takes office on Jan. 1, canceled [his inauguration] ceremony on Tuesday, one of several developments that underscored how the latest wave of coronavirus cases has thrown New York City's recovery into doubt and shifted priorities as the year ends. The number of reported cases in the city has surged in recent days to more than 15,000 on Monday, the highest level since at least January and about four times the number of cases recorded just one week earlier."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Susan McCord of the Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle: "Lincoln County is trying to close all but one [of seven] polling place[s] for next year's elections, a move opposed by voting and civil rights groups.... The move was made possible after the Georgia General Assembly [MB: controlled by Republicans] passed legislation earlier this year disbanding the Lincoln County Board of Elections. The chief sponsor of Senate bills 282 and 283 was Sen. Lee Anderson, R-Grovetown, whose district includes Lincoln County.... Aunna Dennis, executive director for Common Cause Georgia, said the move is an extension of Senate Bill 202, which tightened restrictions on voting and gave the state the authority to take over elections boards.... With multiple voting changes from Senate Bill 202 already underway, adding the precinct closures in a county that lacks a public transportation budget -- and attempting to pass them over the holiday season -- is too much, Dennis said."

December 21, 2021

Marie: The edit function still is not working right. If I can access Reality Chex over the Christmas holiday, I'm going to see if I can "migrate" the site to a Squarespace upgrade that supposedly has better tech support (better than "none," that is). Squarespace's tech support has always been terrible, so if the whole thing blows up, you'll find me on Twitter for a while. ~~~

     ~~~ BTW, I kept posting links till about 9:30 am ET, so if you stopped by earlier, you might want to scan the page to see if there are any new entries of interest to you.

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

GOP Perpetuates the Big Lie. Daniel Dale of CNN: "Five Republican candidates for governor of Minnesota were asked at a forum last Wednesday whether they thought President Joe Biden won a 'constitutional majority in the Electoral College.' None of them was willing to utter a plain 'yes.' Their responses, which ranged from explicit inaccuracies to feeble dodges, made national news. But they weren't unusual.... A refusal to endorse the legitimacy of Biden's victory has become a key requirement in Republican primaries across the country. From conservative Alabama to the swing states of the Midwest, numerous Republicans trying to win party nominations in 2022 have joined ... Donald Trump in refusing to publicly admit that Trump just plain lost. Some candidates are aggressive, turning the lie that Trump was the rightful winner into a central part of their campaign pitches. Other candidates are evasive, straining to sidestep a direct answer on the question of Biden's legitimacy." ~~~

~~~ The Danger They Pose. Gina Harkins of the Washington Post: "As Donald Trump began contesting the presidential election results in November 2020, CNN's chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, received a text from a man describing Stelter's mother's home, 'implying he was there.' It wasn't the only threatening message Stelter said he received from the man.... Stelter detailed the threats Monday night after testifying at the sentencing hearing for Robert Lemke, a California man who federal investigators say threatened about 50 people over their truthful 'statements expressing that then-President Trump had lost the 2020 presidential election.' On Monday, Lemke, 36, from Bay Point, Calif., was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty in October to threatening an unspecified journalist's New York-based family.... 'We are nearby, armed and ready,' [a] text message [from Lemke to a journalist's family member] said, according to court documents. 'Thousands of us are active/retired law enforcement, military, etc. That's how we do it.' That day, the brother of an unnamed congressman representing New York received a similar message from Lemke."

Tatum Hunter & Gerrit De Vynck of the Washington Post: "On Dec. 9, word of a newly discovered computer bug in a hugely popular piece of computer code started rippling around the cybersecurity community. By the next day, nearly every major software company was in crisis mode, trying to figure out how their products were affected and how they could patch the hole. The descriptions used by security experts to describe the new vulnerability in an extremely common section of code called log4j border on the apocalyptic.... Log4j is a chunk of code that helps software applications keep track of their past activities.... A few weeks ago, the cybersecurity community realized that by simply asking the program to log a line of malicious code, it would execute that code in the process, effectively letting bad actors grab control of servers that are running log4j.... Experts say it's the biggest software vulnerability of all time in terms of the number of services, sites and devices exposed. The fact that log4j is such a ubiquitous piece of software is what makes this such a big deal.... The best thing regular computer users can do is make sure the apps they use are updated to their most recent versions...."

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.

Samantha Pell of the Washington Post: "The NHL will halt its season Wednesday amid a spike in coronavirus cases and the rise of the omicron variant, the league announced Monday night, becoming the first major pro sports league in North America with plans to halt play entirely, albeit briefly. Team facilities will be closed from Wednesday through Saturday, and players will return Sunday for coronavirus testing and practice. Games are in line to resume Monday, Dec. 27. The league's previously scheduled holiday break was Friday through Sunday."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Anthony Fauci ... on Tuesday called on Fox News to fire host Jesse Watters for targeting him with violent rhetoric at a conservative conference earlier this week. '...The guy should be fired on the spot.' Speaking on Monday at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest conference, Watters encouraged attendees to rhetorically 'ambush' Fauci with dubious questions about the National Institutes of Health allegedly funding 'gain-of-function' research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 'Now you go in for the kill shot. The kill shot? With an ambush? Deadly. Because he doesn't see it coming,' Watters said.... Fox News declined to comment on the record on whether it endorses Watters' remarks or plans to take disciplinary action against him. Fox News also did not respond to a request for comment on Fauci's critique of the network.... Lara Logan, a Fox News personality and host on its streaming service, compared him to the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele earlier this month. In response to those remarks, Fauci rebuked Fox News for not taking disciplinary action against Logan...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Watters made his name on Fox ambushing public figures and others with stupid questions when his was a regular on Bill O'Reilly's now-defunct Fox show. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Emma Goldberg of the New York Times: "Fox Corporation, the owner of Fox News, told employees on Friday that those working in New York City would have to show proof they'd had at least one dose of the Covid vaccine by Dec. 27, removing the option to get tested weekly instead. The new policy was in keeping with New York City's vaccine rule, which Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in early December and which is more stringent than a contested Biden administration rule requiring vaccine mandates or weekly testing at larger employers. The New York City mandate, which requires on-site workers at all businesses to be vaccinated, is the country's most sweeping local vaccine mandate and affects some 184,000 businesses. 'Our policy reflects the guidelines of the mandate,' a spokesman for Fox Corporation said in an email on Monday. More than 90 percent of Fox's employees are vaccinated, the company said."

~~~~~~~~~~

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "The U.S. economy has improved more in President Joe Biden's first year in office than it has under any president in the last 50 years. Bloomberg's Matthew A. Winkler made the observation in a column on Monday. 'U.S. financial markets are outperforming the world by the biggest margin in the 21st century, and with good reason: America's economy improved more in Joe Biden's first 12 months than any president during the past 50 years notwithstanding the contrary media narrative contributing to dour public opinion,' Winkler reported. According to Winkler, Biden's economy ranked either first or second in 10 key measures when compared to the previous 10 presidents."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced strengthened limits on pollution from automobile tailpipes in a bid to reduce a major source of the carbon dioxide emissions that are heating the planet. The more stringent rule -- the most significant climate action taken to date by the Biden administration and highest level ever set for fuel economy -- would require passenger vehicles to travel an average of 55 miles per gallon of gasoline by 2026, from just under 38 miles per gallon today.... The Biden administration is expected to lean heavily on executive action and regulations like the new tailpipe rule after the centerpiece of the president's climate agenda, far-reaching legislation that would have transformed the energy and transportation sectors, was essentially scuttled on Sunday by Senator Joe Manchin III, the West Virginia Democrat who holds the swing vote in an evenly split Senate."

Emily Cochrane & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "A day after announcing that he would not support his party's signature domestic policy legislation, Senator Joe Manchin III, the centrist Democrat from West Virginia, offered an unsparing critique of the efforts by the Biden administration and senior Democrats on Capitol Hill to pass the sprawling $2.2 trillion climate, spending and tax bill. In a 14-minute interview with a local West Virginia radio station, Mr. Manchin directly faulted White House staff and top Democrats for what Mr. Manchin described as a misplaced assumption that he could be pressured into accepting such a large package. He said that over six months of negotiations, they failed to adequately respond to his concerns and sufficiently cut down the scope and size of the measure. While he refrained from directly criticizing President Biden, he had harsh words for members of the president's staff, who he charged 'put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable.' Pressed further, he refused to specify what infuriated him, beyond that it had pushed him to 'the wit's end' and he believed it had been driven by White House staff members." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So according to Manchin -- an elderly man who has been in rough-and-tumble politics for decades -- he squelched a $2 billion bill that would have benefited all Americans (and the Earth), at least indirectly, because some White House staffers he won't name said or did something he won't reveal which irritated him. That's the lamest excuse I ever heard. ~~~

~~~ AND. Jonathan Lemire of Politico: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and President Joe Biden spoke Sunday night after a major blowup in negotiations around the president's domestic agenda, three people familiar with the call told Politico. The conversation ended with a sense that negotiations would, in fact, resume ... in the new year. The tone of conversation was cordial.... White House staff had given Manchin a heads-up on Thursday that the president was soon to put out a statement accepting a delay in the Build Back Better Act and that it was going to mention the West Virginia senator by name. Manchin objected, asking that either his name be left out or that he not be alone because his family had already been the target of abuse.... But the statement went out anyway, and contained only Manchin's name. The senator then snapped at White House aides and told them that he was done negotiating. The West Wing interpreted that as meaning that current talks were done but could pick up again next year." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Several articles about "what went wrong" ran in Sunday's & Monday's papers, but Lemire's explanation seems the most likely. ~~~

~~~ Tara Golshan & Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "Publicly, [Joe Manchin's] biggest gripes [about the Build Back Better bill] are about the cost of the bill. But privately, Manchin has told his colleagues that he essentially doesn't trust low-income people to spend government money wisely. In recent months, Manchin has told several of his fellow Democrats that he thought parents would waste monthly child tax credit payments on drugs instead of providing for their children, according to two sources familiar with the senator's comments.... Manchin has also told colleagues he believes that Americans would fraudulently use the proposed paid sick leave policy, specifically saying people would feign being sick and go on hunting trips.... Continuing the child tax credit for another year is a core part of the Build Back Better legislation that Democrats had hoped to pass by the end of the year. The policy has already cut child poverty by nearly 30%. Manchin's private comments shocked several senators, who saw it as an unfair assault on his own constituents and those struggling to raise children in poverty." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is the perfect argument. No matter that there is statistical proof that the child tax credit has been a boon to American children, Joe can always point to cases of parents squandering the benefits on drugs or other things that are of no benefit to their children. Once you decide that most poor people are poor because they're irresponsible and not because of market forces or other factors largely beyond their control, end of discussion. I was wondering if Manchin drove his Maserati from his 65-foot yacht to the Fox studio. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Weisman & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Senator Joe Manchin III on Monday cited a litany of issues that drove him to oppose President Biden's $2 trillion Build Back Better bill.... But left almost unsaid was the issue that has always propelled his political career as a Democratic maverick: climate change. The version of the bill that passed the House last month devoted $555 billion to shifting the nation to renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar power, and away from fossil fuels like West Virginia coal. Mr. Manchin, who defied gale-force political headwinds in 2010 by running for the Senate on his opposition to President Barack Obama's climate change legislation, killed a provision in Build Back Better that would have imposed stiff penalties on electric utilities that continued to burn coal and natural gas. But even with the stick dropped from the House's bill, West Virginia's coal interests were working hard to kill off the measure's carrot, a package of tax credits to make clean energy more financially competitive, and, by extension, struggling coal even less so. Their lobbyists talked frequently to Mr. Manchin....

"West Virginia coal and gas, and policies designed to stop their burning, have always had a special place in Mr. Manchin’s politics. A Manchin family-owned business has made a small fortune selling waste coal from abandoned mines to a heavily polluting power plant in the state. The blind trust in which Mr. Manchin's interests lie held between $500,000 and $1 million last year, according to his most recent disclosure form. The company, Enersystems, valued at between $1 million and $5 million, delivered the senator $492,000 in dividends, interest and business income in 2020, the May disclosure states." MB: So exceptionally dirty coal is how he can afford to buy a Maserati & a yacht.

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, vowed on Monday to press forward with votes on a revised version of President Biden's $2.2 trillion marquee climate, tax and spending plan.... Votes on the plan would come in early 2022, Mr. Schumer pointedly noted in a letter to his colleagues, 'so that every member of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television.... We simply cannot give up.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Stymied by Republicans on voting rights legislation, Senator Chuck Schumer on Monday gave the clearest sign yet that he would try to force a fundamental change in Senate rules if needed to enact federal laws to offset voting restrictions being imposed by Republican-led legislatures around the country. In a letter to colleagues, Mr. Schumer, the New York Democrat and majority leader, said that the Senate would take up stalled voting rights legislation as early as the first week of January and that if Republicans continued to filibuster, the Senate would 'consider changes to any rules which prevent us from debating and reaching final conclusion on important legislation.' But it is not clear how far Democrats will be willing or able to go in working around the 60-vote requirement for most legislation and finding a way to pass voting rights legislation with a simple majority." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Sanger & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "... the United States and Britain have quietly dispatched cyberwarfare experts to Ukraine in hopes of better preparing the country to confront what they think may be the next move by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as he again menaces the former Soviet republic: Not an invasion with the 175,000 troops he is massing on the border, but cyberattacks that take down the electric grid, the banking system, and other critical components of Ukraine's economy and government. Russia's goal, according to American intelligence assessments, would be to make Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, look inept and defenseless -- and perhaps provide an excuse for an invasion."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The Pentagon on Monday issued new guidelines meant to root out extremism in the U.S. military, warning that 'liking' white nationalist and extremist content on social media and similar activities could result in disciplinary action. The guidelines come nearly a year after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, which dozens of current and former service members attended, leading to a reckoning at the Pentagon over extremism in the ranks. The participation of military personnel in the Capitol riot distressed senior Pentagon officials so much that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered a 60-day -stand down,' completed in April, to address the issue.... John F. Kirby, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said officials discovered that about 100 service members were involved in substantiated cases of extremist activity over the past year. In a memo to the department on Monday, Mr. Austin said the Pentagon was updating its screening of recruits and would also look at how to prepare troops who are retiring from being targeted by extremist organizations after leaving the military." See also Tom Boggioni's story, linked under "Elections" below.

** Michael Schmidt & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "... as investigators [on the House January 6 committee] sifted through troves of documents, metadata and interview transcripts, they started considering whether the inquiry could yield ... evidence of criminal conduct by ... Donald J. Trump or others that they could send to the Justice Department urging an investigation. That move ... could have a substantial political impact by increasing public pressure on Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who in his first year in office has largely sidestepped questions about what prosecutors are doing to examine the conduct of Mr. Trump and his aides as they promoted baseless allegations of voter fraud.... According to people briefed on their efforts, investigators for the committee are looking into whether a range of crimes were committed, including two in particular: whether there was wire fraud by Republicans who raised millions of dollars off assertions that the election was stolen, despite knowing the claims were not true; and whether Mr. Trump and his allies obstructed Congress by trying to stop the certification of electoral votes."

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The House select committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 sent a letter on Monday to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) requesting he provide information that could be crucial to the panel's examination of efforts to overturn the election. The letter from Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) cites Perry's efforts to install Jeffrey Clark, former Justice Department official, as acting attorney general.... Thompson ... cites having evidence of Perry's 'multiple text and other communications with President Trump's former chief of staff regarding Mr. Clark.'... 'We also have evidence indicating that in that time frame you sent communications to the former Chief of Staff using the encrypted Signal app.'... The text message sent to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and first revealed by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice chair of the select committee, asking him to 'Please check your signal,' was sent by Perry, according to a source.... The letter to Perry is the first significant action the committee has taken with regard to obtaining information from a sitting member of Congress...." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Marie: Clearly I was not paying close enough attention to Cheney's revelations in last week's hearings. Here are some important texts to Meadows which I missed; the one from the MyPillow Guy is a classic that defines gallows humor:

Marie: Not sure why I'm bothering to link the following. I'll chalk it up to my dedication to "journalistic activity": ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Pro-Trump broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is suing the Jan. 6 select committee to block the panel from obtaining his phone records and compelling his testimony at a deposition next month. In the suit, Jones says he intends to assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination -- confirming a statement he made on his show -- and that the committee rejected his offer to provide 'written responses' to their questions.... He also says he doesn't intend to produce documents, claiming his 'journalistic activity' is protected under the First Amendment." MB: And I'm a brain surgeon because I once stuck a pencil in my ear.

Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "Michael Fanone, the D.C. police officer who was dragged into a mob and beaten during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and later publicly excoriated lawmakers and others who downplayed the attack, said he submitted his resignation from the force Monday. The 41-year-old officer will officially depart on Dec. 31, after using previously acquired leave. Fanone, whose frequent appearances on national television caused consternation among police commanders, said he will be an on-air contributor to CNN on law enforcement issues. A CNN spokeswoman confirmed his new role."

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump is increasingly agitated by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, according to sources familiar with the matter, and appears anxious he might be implicated in the sprawling inquiry into the insurrection even as he protests his innocence. The former president in recent weeks has complained more about the investigation, demanding why his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, shared so much material about 6 January with the select committee, and why dozens of other aides have also cooperated. Trump has also been perturbed by aides invoking the Fifth Amendment in depositions - it makes them look weak and complicit in a crime, he has told associates - and considers them foolish for not following the lead of his former strategist Steve Bannon in simply ignoring the subpoenas.... He has started swearing about the negative coverage and bemoaned that the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, was too incompetent to put Republicans on the committee to defend him."

Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday against the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, seeking to halt her long-running civil investigation into his business practices and to bar her from participating in a separate criminal investigation. The suit, filed in federal court in Albany by Mr. Trump and his family real estate business, argues that Ms. James's involvement in both inquiries has been politically motivated. It lists statements she has made that Mr. Trump's lawyers argue are evidence of her bias against him." A CNBC story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Your Tax Dollars Are Rusting. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "According to an investigation by the Atlantic's John B. Washington, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of steel purchased by Donald Trump's administration to build his ill-fated border on the U.S.-Mexico border now sits rusting away in the desert with no concrete plans on what to do with it.... After Trump lost his re-election bid in 2020, the incoming administration of President Joe Biden pulled the plug on the controversial relic of the Trump era, with workers pulled off the job and materials left behind." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "QAnon cultists gathered in Dallas have started drinking an industrial disinfectant mixed into a chemical cocktail. Family members of a Delaware woman who left her husband and children to await John F. Kennedy's return have confirmed that she's drinking the chemical mixture containing chlorine dioxide from a communal bowl, in a rite that cult researchers find extremely alarming, reported the Dallas Observer. 'This feels like a progression,' said Mike Rothschild, author of the book The Storm is Upon Us that examines the QAnon movement. 'It immediately evokes images of Jonestown and Heaven's Gate.'"

Elections 2022, 2024

Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "According to a report from Newsweek's David Freedman, supporters of Donald Trump are ... making rumblings that they will not react peacefully if the former president makes a third bid for the White House and loses again.... Freedman wrote that guns rights activists who fear restrictions on their ability to purchase weapons unfettered are finding their interests dovetailing with supporters of Trump and a merger of the two groups could lead to violence -- particularly if the Biden administration pushes through the new gun laws that the majority of Americans support.... UCLA law professor Adam Winkler ... [told Freedman], 'The idea that people would take up arms against an American election has gone from completely farfetched to something we have to start planning for and preparing for.'" The Newsweek story, which is firewalled is here.

California. Scott Wong & Rafael Bernal of the Hill: "Longtime Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), the powerful chairwoman of an Appropriations subcommittee overseeing immigration issues, will not seek reelection in 2022.... She becomes the 23rd House Democrat to signal they are not running for reelection during a difficult election cycle in which Republicans are well positioned to win back the majority. Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a leader of the moderate Blue Dog Democrats, announced earlier Monday that she was retiring in 2022 to spend more time with her young children. Over the weekend, there were also reports Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) plans to retire."

Florida. Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a leading voice of House Democrats' moderate wing, announced Monday she won't seek reelection next fall in another stinging loss for her party. The Florida Democrat -- who flipped a GOP-held battleground seat in 2016 and helped write the party's playbook for its House takeover two years later -- said she is leaving the Hill to spend more time with her family.... The growing wave of departures comes as historical and political headwinds suggest a likely GOP midterm takeover, and as the House itself becomes a more toxic and stressful environment amid the twin calamities of Covid and the Capitol insurrection. Murphy, a member of the high-profile investigation into those Jan. 6 riots, has faced a dramatic uptick of threats against her and her family."

The Pandemic, Ctd.. Brought to You by the Unvaccinated

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Biden will announce new steps on Tuesday to confront a staggering surge in coronavirus cases, including readying 1,000 military medical professionals to help at overburdened hospitals, setting up new federal testing sites, deploying hundreds of federal vaccinators and buying 500 million rapid tests to distribute free to the public. The measures, outlined to reporters Monday night by two senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, come as coronavirus caseloads are rapidly rising around the country, particularly in the Northeast, fueled by the highly infectious new Omicron variant -- just as Americans prepare to gather for Christmas." The ABC News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I know what a leak is. Somebody with information -- a leaker/whistleblower -- surreptitiously contacts a reporter or media outlet & secretly gives them information. Sometimes the leaker is so secretive that s/he won't identify herself; other times she just speaks to the reporter on condition that her name/identity is withheld. They usually do this for their own protection. There are, of course, "authorized" leaks, somewhat similar to this one, where the boss wants something good said about her but doesn't want it to be known s/he's really the source. But why do "two senior administration officials," who apparently spoke to a bunch of reporters, have to impose a "condition of anonymity"? This is ridiculous. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: These anonymous "senior administration officials"' disclosures are so secret that the White House published a "fact sheet" (make that "FACT SHEET") on President Biden's "New Actions to Protect Americans and Help Communities and Hospitals Battle Omicron." ~~~

     ~~~ On another note, I'm way surprised Biden does not appear to be setting up concentration camps to warehouse the unvaccinated -- see the first two comments in today's thread.

Teaganne Finn of NBC News: "President Joe Biden has tested negative after coming into contact with a White House staff member last week who tested positive for Covid on Monday, press secretary Jen Psaki announced in a statement. The staff member 'spent approximately 30 minutes in proximity' to Biden on Friday aboard Air Force One during a flight from South Carolina to Pennsylvania, said Psaki, adding that the aide is not in regular contact with the president."

Mike Stobbe of the AP: "Omicron has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S., accounting for 73% of new infections last week, federal health officials said Monday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers showed nearly a six-fold increase in omicron's share of infections in only one week. In much of the country, it's even higher. Omicron is responsible for an estimated 90% or more of new infections in the New York area, the Southeast, the industrial Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. The national rate suggests that more than 650,000 omicron infections occurred in the U.S. last week."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "A booster shot of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine significantly raises the level of antibodies that can thwart the Omicron variant, the company announced on Monday.... Most coronavirus vaccines seem unable to stave off infection from the highly contagious variant. Moderna's results show that the currently authorized booster dose of 50 micrograms -- half the dose given for primary immunization -- increased the level of antibodies by roughly 37-fold, the company said. A full dose of 100 micrograms was even more powerful, raising antibody levels about 83-fold compared with pre-boost levels, Moderna said. Both doses produced side effects comparable to those seen after the two-dose primary series. But the dose of 100 micrograms showed slightly more frequent adverse reactions relative to the authorized 50-microgram dose." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dan Merica of CNN: "Donald Trump was booed by a portion of an audience in Dallas on Sunday when he said he had received a Covid-19 booster shot, according to video of the closed press event that was shared on social media. The comments by Trump ... came during a stop of his tour with former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. According to video tweeted by O'Reilly's 'No Spin News,' the former Fox News host says, 'Both the President and I are vaxxed' and then asks Trump, 'Did you get the booster?' 'Yes,' Trump says to a smattering of boos in the audience. 'Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't,' Trump says in the video, seemingly trying to quiet the boos. 'That's all right, it's a very tiny group over there.'" Trump went on to defend development of the vaccine, saying, "We saved tens of millions of lives worldwide." MB: Facing down a crowd of suicidal, homicidal fans is probably the bravest thing Trump ever did. I mean that.

Beyond the Beltway

Minnesota. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Twelve jurors began weighing manslaughter charges on Monday against Kimberly Potter, who fatally shot a man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb while seeming to think she was using her Taser. They began deliberating after hearing closing arguments from prosecutors and from lawyers for Ms. Potter, a white officer who resigned from the Brooklyn Center Police Department after killing [Daunte] Wright, a Black man who had been driving to a carwash. The jurors discussed the case for about five hours without reaching a verdict. They will be sequestered until they decide the case...."

New York. Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: "A federal jury in Manhattan began deliberations late on Monday in the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the former socialite charged with conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein over a decade to recruit, groom and sexually abuse teenage girls. The jury was sent home after deliberating for about an hour without reaching a verdict and will continue deliberations on Tuesday."

~~~ Wyoming Will Be Their New Home. Debbie Cenziper & Will Fitzgibbon of the Washington Post: "In recent years, families from India to Italy to Venezuela have abandoned international financial centers for law firms in Wyoming's ski resorts and mining towns, helping to turn the state into one of the world's top tax havens. A dozen international clients who created Wyoming trusts were identified in the Pandora Papers, a trove of more than 11.9 million records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with The Washington Post.... The documents offer a rare look at Wyoming's discreet financial sector and the people who rely on its services.... In Wyoming, with the support of state lawmakers, the industry charged ahead, promoting a suite of financial arrangements to potential customers around the world. At the heart of those arrangements are trusts, legal agreements that allow people to stash away money and other assets so they are protected from creditors and incur few or no tax obligations for themselves or their heirs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Haiti. Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: "The 12 missionaries who were freed from captivity in Haiti last week had staged a dramatic escape on Wednesday night, making their way past guards and traveling on foot for about 10 miles while carrying two small children, their missionary organization said on Monday. 'They found a way to open the door that was closed and blocked, filed silently to the path that they had chosen to follow and quickly left the place that they were held, despite the fact that numerous guards were close by,' Weston Showalter, the spokesman for Christian Aid Ministries, said at a news briefing at the organization’s home office in Ohio, recounting the story for the first time. The account of the escape comes solely from the U.S. missionary group.... It was not clear how the missionaries escaped their guards after weeks of being held captive under close watch." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The report suggests skepticism of the missionaries' accounts. Anyhow, their sponsor's general director attributed their escape to “God work[ing] in a miraculous way to enable the hostages to escape.” It would seem that part of the miracle involved the passing of silver. Apparently God & Mammon sometimes work together. 'Tis the season, I guess. I'm glad they've been freed, however the escape came down.

December 20, 2021

Marie: Squarespace is messed up again. The company now offer absolutely no technical assistance at all no matter how much they screw up. Realty Chex was down for a while, then the edit function was down, now the edit function is iffy. So I don't know what to expect. But if there's crap on the site and/or if it's down for days, it's not because I'm sick or dead.

Afternoon Update:

Tara Golshan & Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "Publicly, [Joe Manchin's] biggest gripes [about the Build Back Better bill] are about the cost of the bill. But privately, Manchin has told his colleagues that he essentially doesn't trust low-income people to spend government money wisely. In recent months, Manchin has told several of his fellow Democrats that he thought parents would waste monthly child tax credit payments on drugs instead of providing for their children, according to two sources familiar with the senator's comments.... Manchin has also told colleagues he believes that Americans would fraudulently use the proposed paid sick leave policy, specifically saying people would feign being sick and go on hunting trips.... Continuing the child tax credit for another year is a core part of the Build Back Better legislation that Democrats had hoped to pass by the end of the year. The policy has already cut child poverty by nearly 30%. Manchin's private comments shocked several senators, who saw it as an unfair assault on his own constituents and those struggling to raise children in poverty." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is the perfect argument. No matter that there is statistical proof that the child tax credit has been a boon to American children, Joe can always point to cases of parents squandering the benefits on drugs or other things that are of no benefit to their children. Once you decide that most poor people are poor because they're irresponsible and not because of market forces or other factors largely beyond their control, end of discussion. I was wondering if Manchin drove his Maserati from his 65-foot yacht to the Fox studio.

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times:"Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, vowed on Monday to press forward with votes on a revised version of President Biden's $2.2 trillion marquee climate, tax and spending plan.... Votes on the plan would come in early 2022, Mr. Schumer pointedly noted in a letter to his colleagues, 'so that everymember of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television.... We simply cannot give up.'"

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Stymied by Republicans on voting rights legislation, Senator Chuck Schumer on Monday gave the clearest sign yet that he would try to force a fundamental change in Senate rules if needed to enact federal laws to offset voting restrictions being imposed by Republican-led legislatures around the country. In a letter to colleagues, Mr. Schumer, the New York Democrat and majority leader, said that the Senate would take up stalled voting rights legislation as early as the first week of January and that if Republicans continued to filibuster, the Senate would 'consider changes to any rules which prevent us from debating and reaching final conclusion on important legislation.' But it is not clear how far Democrats will be willing or able to go in working around the 60-vote requirement for most legislation and finding a way to pass voting rights legislation with a simple majority."

~~~ Wyoming Will Be Their New Home. Debbie Cenziper & Will Fitzgibbon of the Washington Post: "In recent years, families from India to Italy to Venezuela have abandoned international financial centers for law firms in Wyoming's ski resorts and mining towns, helping to turn the state into one of the world's top tax havens. A dozen international clients who created Wyoming trusts were identified in the Pandora Papers, a trove of more than 11.9 million records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with The Washington Post.... The documents offer a rare look at Wyoming's discreet financial sector and the people who rely on its services.... In Wyoming, with the support of state lawmakers, the industry charged ahead, promoting a suite of financial arrangements to potential customers around the world. At the heart of those arrangements are trusts, legal agreements that allow people to stash away money and other assets so they are protected from creditors and incur few or no tax obligations for themselves or their heirs."

Your Tax Dollars Are Rusting. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "According to an investigation by the Atlantic's John B. Washington, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of steel purchased by Donald Trump's administration to build his ill-fated border on the U.S.-Mexico border now sits rusting away in the desert with no concrete plans on what to do with it.... After Trump lost his re-election bid in 2020, the incoming administration of President Joe Biden pulled the plug on the controversial relic of the Trump era, with workers pulled off the job and materials left behind."

Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday against the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, seeking to halt her long-running civil investigation into his business practices and to bar her from participating in a separate criminal investigation. The suit, filed in federal court in Albany by Mr. Trump and his family real estate business, argues that Ms. James's involvement in both inquiries has been politically motivated. It lists statements she has made that Mr. Trump's lawyers argue are evidence of her bias against him." A CNBC story is here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here.

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "A booster shot of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine significantly raises the level of antibodies that can thwart the Omicron variant, the company announced on Monday.... Most coronavirus vaccines seem unable to stave off infection from the highly contagious variant. Moderna's results show that the currently authorized booster dose of 50 micrograms -- half the dose given for primary immunization -- increased the level of antibodies by roughly 37-fold, the company said. A full dose of 100 micrograms was even more powerful, raising antibody levels about 83-fold compared with pre-boost levels, Moderna said. Both doses produced side effects comparable to those seen after the two-dose primary series. But the dose of 100 micrograms showed slightly more frequent adverse reactions relative to the authorized 50-microgram dose."

~~~~~~~~~~

** Emily Cochrane & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said on Sunday that he could not support President Biden's signature $2.2 trillion social safety net, climate and tax bill, dooming his party's drive to pass its marquee domestic policy legislation as written.... In a statement released shortly after [his Fox 'News" announcement], he was scathing toward his own party, declaring that 'my Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face.'... Mr. Manchin's comments on Sunday provoked an unusually blistering broadside from Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, who accused Mr. Manchin in a lengthy statement of reneging on his promises.... 'If his comments on Fox and written statement indicate an end to that effort,' she said, 'they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator's colleagues in the House and Senate.'... Ms. Psaki said Mr. Manchin ... had submitted his own offer for a bill in person at the White House last week, a meeting the officials had not previously divulged." An NPR story is here. Politico's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Here's Psaki's full statement, via the White House. Definitely worth reading. ~~~

     ~~~ Pamela Brown of CNN says that President Biden signed off on Psaki's statement before she made it. ~~~

     ~~~ The Arrogance of Being Joe Manchin. Ryan Lizza & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Less than 30 minutes before he killed the Democratic Party's most important piece of legislation, an aide was dispatched by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to give the White House and congressional leadership a heads up.... At the White House, there was panic and disbelief. He sent an aide to tell the president of the United States that he was about to go on Fox News and put a bullet in BBB? Top White House officials scrambled to call the senator and talk him out of what he was about to do. 'We tried to head him off,' a senior White House official told Playbook, but Manchin 'refused to take a call from White House staff.'" Emphasis removed. ~~~

     ~~~ Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "Coming from a White House that prides itself on collegiality, pragmatism and a we-can-work-it-out attitude, [Jen Psaki's] statement was a remarkable rebuke of one of their own. It was similar in tone and substance to the fury directed at [Joe] Manchin by House liberals, who worried aloud for months that Manchin couldn't be trusted. On Sunday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, accused Manchin of betraying the party: 'He routinely touts that he is a man of his word, but he can no longer say that.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So the best thing to do is kidnap Manchin, hide him in an undisclosed location, get a look-alike to vote for the bill, and when Manchin claims this all has happened, say he's insane. More seriously, what a rotten, cruel, lying, duplicitous, attention-manic SOB. ~~~

~~~ Matt Egan of CNN: "Senator Joe Manchin's opposition to the Build Back Better Act prompted Goldman Sachs to swiftly dim its US economic outlook. The Wall Street firm told clients Sunday it no longer assumes President Joe Biden's signature legislation will get through the narrowly divided Congress, citing the West Virginia Democrat's announcement that he's a 'no' on the $1.75 trillion bill. 'A failure to pass BBB has negative growth implications,' Goldman Sachs economists, led by Jan Hatzius, said in the research report. Citing the 'apparent demise' of Build Back Better, Goldman Sachs now expects GDP to grow at an annualized pace of 2% in the first quarter, down from 3% previously."

** Edward-Isaac Dovere & Manu Raju of CNN: "Senate Republicans are poised to deny President Joe Biden an appointment to the Supreme Court if they take the majority in the 2022 midterm elections.... Biden has so far avoided the kind of pressure [on Stephen Breyer] that Barack Obama tried to exert on Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2013, when the President hosted the aging justice at the White House for lunch to nudge her toward the exit. But in the West Wing and among civil rights leaders, the frustration is about more than just a Supreme Court seat: every day that Breyer remains on the bench is a day that Biden isn't able to fulfill his campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.... Meanwhile, Senate Republicans aren't shy about laying out how they'd handle a nomination from Biden if they take the majority: They wouldn't. 'You know what the rule is on that,' said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. 'You go back to 1886 and ever since then, when the Senate's been of one party and the president's been of another party, you didn't confirm.' There is no such rule."

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican who succeeded Newt Gingrich in the House of Representatives, and in 15 years in the Senate was a moderate conservative, often championing bipartisan cooperation, until his resignation for health reasons in 2019, died on Sunday at his home in Atlanta. He was 76."

Nicole Asbury of the Washington Post: "A Watkins Elementary School staff member told third-graders in library class to reenact scenes from the Holocaust, directing them to dig their classmates' mass graves and simulate shooting the victims, according to an email from the school's principal. The instructor was placed on leave Friday.... The instructor allegedly made antisemitic comments during the reenactment. The parent said that when the children asked why the Germans did this, the staff member said it was 'because the Jews ruined Christmas.'"

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times: "A growing body of preliminary research suggests the Covid vaccines used in most of the world offer almost no defense against becoming infected by the highly contagious Omicron variant. All vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protection against serious illness from Omicron, which is the most crucial goal. But only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced by a booster, appear to have initial success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world. The other shots -- including those from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and vaccines manufactured in China and Russia -- do little to nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, early research shows. And because most countries have built their inoculation programs around these vaccines, the gap could have a profound impact on the course of the pandemic."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Two prominent Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, announced separately on Sunday that they had tested positive with a breakthrough case of the coronavirus. Both senators disclosed their cases on Sunday, and said they were experiencing mild symptoms after being vaccinated and receiving a booster shot. Ms. Warren said she received the positive result Sunday, while Mr. Booker said his test result came back after he began experiencing symptoms Saturday. The cases come barely a day after the Senate left Washington for the year, after senators labored through hours of votes on nominations that ended in the predawn hours Saturday." A CNN story reports that Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) says he also tested positive for a breakthrough case of Covid-19.

One Man Who Wasn't Afraid of the Big Bad Oaf. Deirdre McPhillips & Devan Cole of CNN: "The outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health said Sunday that he faced political pressure from ... Donald Trump and other Republicans to endorse unproven Covid-19 remedies such as hydroxychloroquine and to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Francis Collins, whose last day as NIH director is Sunday, told CBS News that he got a 'talking to' by Trump, but that he held his ground and would have resigned if Trump made him endorse remedies for Covid-19 that were not based in science."

Hunter Walker of the Uprising: "On Dec. 12, Reuters published a story detailing how 'a Chicago publicist for hip-hop artist Kanye West' visited the home of a Georgia election worker in the final days of Donald Trump's presidency to warn that there would be dire consequences if she did not admit to bogus voter fraud allegations. Among many other wild details, the story claimed the publicist, Trevian Kutti, told the election worker she was going to put 'a man named "Harrison Ford" on speakerphone' because he had 'authoritative powers to get you protection.'... 'There are federal people that are involved here,' Kutti added.... However, there are multiple indications that Kutti did not actually use the name of the famous actor and instead referred to Harrison Floyd, who was a staffer on Trump's presidential campaign. Floyd ... was the executive director of 'Black Voices For Trump.'... Cooperation between Kutti and Floyd could ... tie West's circle to Trump's election team."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Chile. Pascale Bonnefoy & Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "Chileans on Sunday elected Gabriel Boric as their next president, entrusting the young leftist lawmaker with helping to shape the future of a nation that has been roiled by protests and is now drafting a new Constitution. At 35, Mr. Boric will be the nation's youngest leader and by far its most liberal since President Salvador Allende, who died by suicide during the 1973 military coup that ushered in a brutal 17-year dictatorship."

China. Chris Buckley of the New York Times: "Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis star whose account of sexual coercion by a former Communist Party leader ignited weeks of tensions and galvanized calls for boycotts of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, has reversed her assertion that she had been sexually assaulted by the official. Ms. Peng made the comments in an interview that was published on Sunday by a Singaporean newspaper. But the retraction appeared unlikely to extinguish concerns about her well-being and suspicions that she had been the target of well-honed pressure techniques and a propaganda campaign by Chinese officials."