The Commentariat -- December 22, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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

Erica Green of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is expected to nominate Miguel A. Cardona, Connecticut's education commissioner, to serve as his education secretary, tapping a Latino to be the nation's highest education policymaker, according to two officials familiar with his plans. Dr. Cardona, if confirmed by the Senate, would be tasked with bringing the elementary, secondary and higher education systems back from the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic and repairing the considerable damage done.... The selection of Dr. Cardona would fulfill Mr. Biden's campaign promise to appoint a diverse cabinet and a secretary of education with public school experience -- a blunt juxtaposition to President Trump's billionaire private-school champion Betsy DeVos." MB: Time for an op-ed condemning Dr. Cardona for using that honorific.

Shawn Hubler of the New York Times: "Alex Padilla, California's secretary of state, has been appointed to fill the Senate seat held by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday, capping months of intense political jockeying among Democratic factions in the state. The son of Mexican-born immigrants who settled in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, Mr. Padilla, 47, will be the first Latino senator from California, where Latinos are about 40 percent of the population." MB: Because in a state with a population of about 20 million women, the majority of them citizens, Gavin couldn't find one who was qualified to do the job.

Yeganeh Torbati of the Washington Post: "... tucked in the [big federal spending] bill was over $110 billion in tax breaks that strayed far from the way the bill was marketed to many Americans. These giveaways include big tax cuts for liquor producers, the motorsports entertainment sector, and manufacturers of electric motorcycles. Tax experts and good governance advocates have criticized such short-term tax relief extensions, arguing they hide the true cost of the cuts and advantage industries with the most well-connected lobbyists." MB: Thanks, Congress, because I'm so happy to subsidize NASCAR. Vroom, vroom.

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump, in his final days, is turning bitterly on virtually every person around him, griping about anyone who refuses to indulge conspiracy theories or hopeless bids to overturn the election, several top officials tell Axios.... Targets of his outrage include Vice President Pence, chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Secretary of State Pompeo and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.... Trump thinks everyone around him is weak, stupid or disloyal -- and increasingly seeks comfort only in people who egg him on to overturn the election results. We cannot stress enough how unnerved Trump officials are by the conversations unfolding inside the White House.... Pence's role on Jan. 6 has begun to loom large in Trump's mind, according to people who've discussed the matter with him. Trump would view Pence performing his constitutional duty -- and validating the election result -- as the ultimate betrayal." Swan has obtained secret tapes from inside the White House: ~~~

Julia Ainsley, et al., of NBC News: "Federal prosecutors have discussed making a legal request for Rudy Giuliani's electronic communications, two sources familiar with the probe tell NBC News, a sign that the investigation into ... Donald Trump's personal attorney remains active and may soon be ramping up. Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York have been in communication with Justice Department officials in Washington about gaining access to Giuliani's emails, the two sources said. The Southern District needs Washington's approval before its prosecutors can ask a judge to sign a search warrant for materials that may be protected by attorney-client privilege, according to department policy. It is not known whether Washington has been granted that approval."

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Marie: I added a few links before 10 am ET. They're marked by "NEW." You can find them easily with a search for NEW.

Rejoice. Now, and for roughly the next six months, the days are growing longer.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congress on Monday night overwhelmingly approved a $900 billion stimulus package that would send billions of dollars to American households and businesses grappling with the economic and health toll of the pandemic. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said hundreds of dollars in direct payments could begin reaching individual Americans as early as next week. The long-sought relief package was part of a $2.3 trillion catchall package that included $1.4 trillion to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. It included the extension of routine tax provisions, a tax deduction for corporate meals, the establishment of two Smithsonian museums, a ban on surprise medical bills and a restoration of Pell grants for incarcerated students, among hundreds of other measures.... Lawmakers hustled on Monday to pass the bill, nearly 5,600 pages long, less than 24 hours after its completion and before virtually anyone had read it. At one point, aides struggled simply to put the measure online because of a corrupted computer file.... In the Senate, the bill passed 92 to 6, with Senators Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott of Florida, all Republicans, voting no." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's story is here. Both papers gave the story banner headlines online. The AP story by Andrew Taylor, is here: "... the House approved the COVID-19 package by another lopsided vote, 359-53." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has an interactive feature that allows you to plug in some numbers to calculate what, if anything, you should expect to receive from the package. The article, by Heather Long & others, answers some frequently-asked questions.

Kate Sullivan of CNN: "President-elect Joe Biden received his first dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on live television Monday afternoon and reassured Americans of the vaccine's safety. The shot, which Biden received in his left arm, was administered at ChristianaCare's Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, by Tabe Mase who is a nurse practitioner and the head of employee health services at the hospital, according to the Biden transition team. 'We owe these folks an awful lot,' Biden said, thanking those involved in the vaccine's development and distribution and front-line health care workers. Biden said the Trump administration deserved 'some credit' for Operation Warp Speed, the federal government's vaccine program, and their role in making coronavirus vaccinations possible. '... I'm doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared, when it's available, to take the& vaccine. There's nothing to worry about. I'm looking forward to the second shot; so is Jill,' Biden said. 'She's had her shot earlier today. She loves shots, I know,' he said, taking his wife's hand as she laughed. Biden noted that the vaccine rollout was in beginning stages and cautioned Americans about the long road ahead. 'It's going to take time,'..." ~~~

More Real News

But the Emails! David Sanger & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Russian hackers who penetrated United States government agencies broke into the email system used by the Treasury Department's most senior leadership, a Democratic member of the Senate Finance Committee said on Monday, the first detail of how deeply Moscow burrowed into the Trump administration's networks.... The Treasury Department ranks among the most highly protected corners of the government because of its responsibility for market-moving economic decisions, communications with the Federal Reserve and economic sanctions against adversaries. [Sen. Ron] Wyden [D-Oregon] said the hackers had gained access to the email system by manipulating internal software keys. The department learned of the breach not from any of the government agencies whose job is to protect against cyberattacks, but from Microsoft, which runs much of Treasury's communications software, Mr. Wyden said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While I'm dismayed the Russians might be able to manipulate our data (though if all they gained access to were emails, that's unlikely), let's hope Putin got hold of Trump's tax returns & will publish them.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The House Oversight Committee intends to reissue a subpoena for ... Donald Trump's financial records next year, House Counsel Douglas Letter said in a federal court filing Monday. The House has been pursuing Trump's financial documents form his accounting firm, Mazars USA, since Democrats took power in early 2019 but the effort has been tied up in the courts. The case landed before the Supreme Court this year, and the justices determined that the lower courts had failed to scrutinize the subpoena closely enough, kicking it back to them for further review."

Dominick Mastrangelo of the Hill: "A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed from the U.S. Capitol overnight. The statue has stood with America's first president, George Washington, as the state of Virginia's contribution to the National Statuary Hall Collection at the Capitol for more than 100 years. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, announced on Monday the state will seek to have it replaced with a statue of civil rights icon Barbara Johns.... Earlier this year, a state commission recommended the removal of the statue [of Lee] from the Capitol. The commission, led by state Sen. Louise Lucas (D), voted unanimously to remove it.... The statue will be transported to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond, Northam's office said." Here's the Wikipedia entry for Barbara Johns. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

"It's Scary." Kevin Liptak & Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "... Donald Trump has turned to a fringe group of advisers peddling increasingly dubious tactics to overturn the results of the election, creating a dire situation that multiple senior officials and people close to the President say has led to new levels of uncertainty at how Trump will resist the coming end to his tenure.... Conspiracist lawyer Sidney Powell, disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, onetime chief strategist Steve Bannon, hawkish trade adviser Peter Navarro and the eccentric founder of the retail website Overstock have all recently found themselves in the Oval Office or on the telephone advising Trump on new last-ditch efforts to reverse his loss. That's in addition to Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has been feeding the President's conspiracy theories for weeks and who, along with Powell, was seen again at the White House on Monday.... Trump has mostly shunned those working inside the government.... Trump has mostly abandoned the day-to-day running of government. At a Cabinet meeting last week, he spent much of the time complaining about his suspicions of voter fraud, according to a person familiar with the matter, leaving some attendees puzzled at the point of the gathering.... 'It's scary, said [an] administration official, who added that Trump appears 'obsessed' with far-flung scenarios to overturn the election results...."

Coup du Jour.* Joe Walsh of Forbes: "... Donald Trump met with several House Republicans Monday and reportedly discussed a plan to contest President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College votes when they're counted in Congress next month, a longshot gambit tacitly endorsed by Trump last week as he continues to deny his electoral loss. These representatives -- including Trump allies like Reps. Mo Brooks (Ala.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.) -- discussed whether to object to slates of pro-Biden electors when the Electoral College's votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, Fox News reported, a far-flung idea some House members have already publicly floated." *Thanks to Adam Silverman for the headline. ~~~

~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "With his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud rejected by dozens of judges and GOP leaders, President Trump has turned to a ragtag group of conspiracy theorists, media-hungry lawyers and other political misfits in a desperate attempt to hold on to power after his election loss. The president's orbit has grown more extreme as his more mainstream allies, including Attorney General William P. Barr, have declined to endorse his increasingly radical plans to overturn the will of the voters. Trump's unofficial election advisory council now includes a pardoned felon [Michael Flynn], adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a White House trade adviser [Peter Navarro] and a Russian agent's former lover [former Overstock chief executive Patrick Byrne].... After meeting with his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani on Monday, Trump met in the Oval Office with a group of Republicans from the House Freedom Caucus, including Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a public supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory whose campaign was marked by racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic statements. That was followed by a second meeting in the Cabinet Room among Giuliani, the House lawmakers and Vice President Pence, an administration official said.... Monday's meeting at the White House followed an Oval Office gathering Friday that was one of the most contentious yet of Trump's seven-week post-election push to reverse his fate.... 'They dropped hundreds of thousands of ballots in each state. It's all documented,' the president claimed falsely in a call Monday to a gathering of the pro-Trump youth organization Turning Point USA in West Palm Beach, Fla." ~~~

     (NEW. ~~~ About Those Turning Point Kids. Paulina Villegas & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Conservative student group Turning Point USA held two large events in Florida this weekend, including one at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's private club, allegedly violating local coronavirus restrictions and disregarding authorities' pleas to avoid such massive gatherings. Turning Point on Friday night held its annual winter gala at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. The party was attended by hundreds of students, organizers and GOP notables such as South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Mike Lindell, otherwise known as the 'MyPillow Guy.' Then on Saturday, thousands of students gathered indoors at the organization's 'Student Action Summit,' where they heard from conservative GOP speakers, including Donald Trump Jr., and cheered loudly as women shot money into the crowd with a cannon. Photos posted on social media showed Friday's maskless gala crowd mingling in apparent violation of Palm Bach County's coronavirus protocols, which require that face coverings be worn inside 'all businesses and establishments.'")

The Saboteur. Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "When President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on Jan. 20, the list of crises he will face includes a massive cyber intrusion, a still-raging global pandemic, a slowing economic recovery and a lingering reckoning over the nation's racial tensions. President Trump is not making his job any easier and, in several ways, appears to be actively making it harder -- going to extraordinary lengths to disrupt and undermine the traditional transition from one administration to another despite the nation's many crises.... In his final weeks in office, Trump is making a series of moves aimed at cementing his legacy and handicapping Biden's presidency -- from abruptly pulling troops from war zones to cracking down on Iran to encouraging the Justice Department to investigate his political enemies. The result is a situation without precedent in American history: One president ending his term amid crisis is seeking to delegitimize a successor and floating the prospect of mounting a four-year campaign to return to power." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some day somebody may find some compelling evidence that reveals the probable answer to the question: was Trump (a) a purposeful, traitorous Manchurian president* or (b) just a consummate asshole & flaming ignoramus? I don't know the answer, but I believe there is one, and it would not surprise me if (a) were the answer.

Covid-19 Is a Plot Against Trump. Emily Czachor of Newsweek: "... Trump has routinely referenced a nonspecific Democratic plot to oust him from office when discussing the election's outcome. After posting a series of messages to Twitter that quickly earned fact-checking labels from the social media platform, Trump retweeted a video on Sunday that showcased a number of conspiracy theories related to the election.... In addition to holding media coverage, polling data and voting software responsible for Trump's failure to secure another term in the White House, the video suggests that COVID-19, and its consequences, were engineered to taint his reputation." (Also linked yesterday.) MB: There was a Democratic plot to oust Trump. We usually call it "an election," an exercise where two or more people vie for the same political job. Only one can win, and the way to win, usually, is to get the most votes. That's what one Democrat did.

Trump Trashes Mitch. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump lashed out at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday night for acknowledging Joe Biden won the election, sending a slide to Republican lawmakers taking credit for saving McConnell's career with a tweet and robocall.... It's an extraordinary broadside against McConnell by the sitting president and most popular Republican in the party, ahead of a crucial runoff election in Georgia on Jan. 5 that will determine control of the Senate. 'Sadly, Mitch forgot,' reads the top of the slide sent to Republican senators by Trump's personal assistant, written in red for emphasis. 'He was the first one off the ship.'... [The message] also carried a subtle warning to other Republicans who may follow suit as the president grasps at the last straws of his election-fraud claim." MB: Uh, not so subtle.

Beautiful!Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump decreed on Monday that all new US federal buildings should be 'beautiful', in a long-expected executive order which excoriated architectural modernism but stopped short of demanding that all such projects should be in the classical style. The Pulitzer prize-winning architectural critic Paul Goldberger said the order was 'mostly symbolic' and 'just a chance [for Trump] to lob another grenade on his way out the door'. When a draft of the order first surfaced, in February, critics reacted with horror to its promise to 'make federal buildings beautiful again' by mandating a return to 'the classical architectural style'.... Given his career in real estate developments marked by a love for gold, gilt, black marble and baroque excess, not to mention the brutal treatment of beloved old buildings, Trump's professed love for classicism has attracted critical comment."

Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump has taken to asking some aides and advisers about the process of naming airports after former U.S. presidents, according to two people who've heard him recently inquiring on this. One of the two sources relayed that, in the past three weeks, Trum mentioned that 'no president' wants an American airport that has a bad reputation or crumbling infrastructure named after them. The other knowledgeable source said that Trump had, at one point since the 2020 election, offhandedly asked what kind of 'paperwork' was necessary to get an airport named after a former president." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I can't think of an airstrip or heliport insignificant enough to name after Trump. The Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, N.J., where the airship Hindenburg exploded, came to mind. However, I don't wish to be disrespectful to the actual victims of the Hindenburg explosion, so maybe a cattlefield in Kansas where someone once made a successful emergency landing would be more appropriate. Possible souvenirs: gold-plated cowpies. ~~~

     ~~~ As Forrest M. pointed out in yesterday's Comments, "It appears there are already a number of airports named after Trump. Deadhorse Airport in Alaska; Shafter Airport in California; Eek Airport in Alaska; and if he moved to Argentina, Moron Airport."

On His Way Out the Door. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr said Monday that he saw no reason to appoint special counsels to oversee the Justice Department's ongoing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden ... or to investigate President Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, again undercutting Mr. Trump's efforts to bend the department to his political will and to overturn the results of the election. At a news conference to announce charges in an unrelated terrorism case, Mr. Barr said that he did not 'see any reason to appoint a special counsel' to oversee the ongoing investigation into the younger Mr. Biden. 'I have no plan to do so before I leave,' Mr. Barr said. 'To the extent that there is an investigation, I think that it's being handled responsibly and professionally.' He also said that he would name a special counsel to oversee an inquiry into election fraud if he felt one was warranted. 'But I haven't and I'm not going to,' Mr. Barr said. He added that he saw 'no basis' for the federal government to seize voting machines." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Nick Niedzwiadek & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "During a final news conference at Justice Department headquarters Monday, Barr did little if anything to hide his disagreements with the president.... With Trump mulling extreme actions to investigate claims of widespread voter fraud, including the use of an executive order to seize voting machines the president's lawyers say are likely to contain evidence of manipulation, Barr made clear he isn't on board." (Also linked yesterday.)

NEW. Spencer Hsu & Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "The U.S. government is weighing a request to declare Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman immune from a federal lawsuit accusing him of targeting for assassination a former top intelligence officer who could disclose damaging secrets about the prince's ascent to power, according to legal documents related to the case. The Saudi government has asked that the prince be shielded from liability in response to a complaint brought by Saad Aljabri, a former Saudi counterterrorism leader and longtime U.S. intelligence ally now living in exile in Canada. A State Department recommendation could also lead to the dismissal of the prince as a defendant in other cases recently filed in the United States, including ones accusing him of directing the death and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018; and of targeting a hack and leak operation to discredit an Al Jazeera news anchor, Ghada Oueiss, in retaliation for her critical reports on Mohammed and the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates."

Sarah Burris of RawStory: "The son of a billionaire friend of President Donald Trump's scored a no-bid contract in Florida thanks to a favor from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). According to the Florida Bulldog, DeSantis's administration handed more than $4 million in no-bid, COVID-19-related contracts to a New York City social media startup founder. Hedge fund billionaire Nelson Peltz's son 'Diesel,' 27, scored a $2.75 million contract for Twenty Labs, LLC in June for a customer relationship management platform to do contact tracing." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Kansas/Missouri. Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Mike Fannin, editor & publisher of The Kansas City Star: "Today we are telling the story of a powerful local business that has done wrong. For 140 years, it has been one of the most influential forces in shaping Kansas City and the region. And yet for much of its early history -- through sins of both commission and omission -- it disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians. It reinforced Jim Crow laws and redlining. Decade after early decade it robbed an entire community of opportunity, dignity, justice and recognition. That business is The Kansas City Star.... It still pains me personally to know that in The Star's monopolistic heyday -- when it had the biggest media platform in the region -- the paper did little to unify the city or recognize the inherent rights of all Kansas Citians. But our history doesn't have to own us. We are grateful for how far we've come. We are humbled by how far we still have to go." --safari: Imagine the contribution to rewriting the wrongs of history if every state's major newspaper took on a similar project.

NEW. New York State. Tom Vanden Brook of USA Today: "More than 70 cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point were accused of cheating on a math exam, the worst academic scandal since the 1970s at the Army's premier training ground for officers. Fifty-eight cadets admitted cheating on the exam, which was administered remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them have been enrolled in a rehabilitation program and will be on probation for the remainder of their time at the academy. Others resigned, and some face hearings that could result in their expulsion. The scandal strikes at the heart of the academy's reputation for rectitude, espoused by its own moral code, which is literally etched in stone: 'A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If I were the kids, I'd plead the Trump: "West Point made us come back to the Academy to listen to Donald Trump, and he's the biggest cheat in the world. He told a lot of lies during the speech. He lied about running down a ramp, when we could see he barely managed to totter down it. Donald Trump is the Commander-in-Chief. We were just following in his footsteps, so to speak."

Oregon. Winston Ross & Pilar Melendez of the Daily Beast: A group of about 300 demonstrators attempted to force their way into two separate entrances of the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, outraged lawmakers were holding a special session closed to the public. The crowd was a loose collection of members of the Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer and other far-right groups, many of them are armed with pistols and rifles." Chaos ensued. "Despite the chaotic protest, some protesters managed to continue selling pro-Trump merchandise at a tent set up outside the Capitol -- including 'Stop The Steal' sweaters.... The state government's agenda dealt with pandemic relief and whether to allow restaurants and bars to serve cocktails to go, both touchy subjects for a crowd that calls restrictions enacted by local lawmakers and Gov. Kate Brown 'tyranny.'"

Way Beyond

Israel. Reuters: "Facebook has taken down content that spread lies in Israel about coronavirus vaccinations, the Israeli justice ministry has said, as the government sought to drum up support for its vaccination programme. On Saturday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, became the first person to be vaccinated in Israel. Opinion polls show two-thirds of the public want to follow suit.... Such 'fake news' included arguments that vaccines would be used to plant government tracking chips in recipients' bodies; to poison them; or to subject them to medical experimentation, the ministry said." --s

** Russia. Navalny Pwned Underpants Poisoner. Tim Lister, et al., of CNN: "A Russian agent sent to tail opposition leader Alexey Navalny has revealed how he was poisoned in August -- with the lethal nerve agent Novichok planted in his underpants. The stunning disclosure from an agent who belonged to an elite toxins team in Russia's FSB security service came in a lengthy phone call following the unmasking of the unit by CNN and the online investigative outfit Bellingcat last week. In what he was told was a debriefing, Konstantin Kudryavtsev also talked about others involved in the poisoning in the Siberian city of Tomsk, and how he was sent to clean things up. But the agent was not speaking to an official in Russia's National Security Council as he thought. He was talking to Navalny himself, who almost died after being poisoned in August. Navalny has long been a thorn in the side of President Vladimir Putin, exposing corruption in high places and campaigning against the ruling United Russia party. Putin essentially confirmed last week that FSB agents tailed Navalny but said if Russia had wanted him dead, 'they would've probably finished it.'" MB: Cannot help but think of John le Carré, who died a little more than a week ago. An amazing true spy story, if not so well told as in a novel by le Carré. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As a going-away present, couldn't Putin at least send Trump -- ruthless, murderous dictator to would-be dictator -- a pair of underpants steeped in poison ivy?

~~~ Sean Ingle of the Guardian: "Athletes and anti-doping groups have reacted with outrage after a four-year ban on Russia for state-sponsored doping offences was halved -- and its athletes were told they could compete at next year's Olympics and the 2022 World Cup wearing red shirts with the word Russia on them.... Under the ruling, official Russia teams will still be barred from next summer's Olympics in Tokyo, as well as the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as a punishment for covering up a massive state-sponsored doping programme." --s

The Commentariat -- December 21, 2020

A Solstice to Remember. New York Times: Today "we will be treated to no fewer than three astronomical occurrences on the same day: a great alignment of our solar system's largest planets, the winter solstice and a meteor shower at its peak."

A Very Special Solstice. Charles Choi in Scientific American: "On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will meet in a 'great conjunction,' the closest they could be seen in the sky together for nearly 800 years.... 'If you have a telescope, you'll be able to see both the rings of Saturn and the Galilean moons of Jupiter close together at the same moment,' says astronomer Jackie Faherty at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.... 'But the best part about it is we'll be able to watch it with the naked eye.'... The last time Jupiter and Saturn appeared so close was July 16, 1623, back when Galileo was still alive, a little more than a decade after he first used a telescope to discover Jupiter's four largest moons that now collectively bear his name. The odds are low, however, that Galileo or anyone else on Earth managed to witness that great conjunction, which was virtually impossible to see because of its apparent position near the sun. The last great conjunction to appear as close and as visible as the upcoming one occurred on March 4, 1226." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The Saboteur. Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "When President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on Jan. 20, the list of crises he will face includes a massive cyber intrusion, a still-raging global pandemic, a slowing economic recovery and a lingering reckoning over the nation's racial tensions. President Trump is not making his job any easier and, in several ways, appears to be actively making it harder -- going to extraordinary lengths to disrupt and undermine the traditional transition from one administration to another despite the nation's many crises.... In his final weeks in office, Trump is making a series of moves aimed at cementing his legacy and handicapping Biden's presidency -- from abruptly pulling troops from war zones to cracking down on Iran to encouraging the Justice Department to investigate his political enemies. The result is a situation without precedent in American history: One president ending his term amid crisis is seeking to delegitimize a successor and floating the prospect of mounting a four-year campaign to return to power." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some day somebody may find some compelling evidence that reveals the probable answer to the question: was Trump (a) a purposeful, traitorous Manchurian president* or (b) just a consummate asshole & flaming ignoramus? I don't know the answer, but I believe there is one, and it would not surprise me if (a) were the answer.

Covid-19 Is a Plot Against Trump. Emily Czachor of Newsweek: "... Trump has routinely referenced a nonspecific Democratic plot to oust him from office when discussing the election's outcome. After posting a series of messages to Twitter that quickly earned fact-checking labels from the social media platform, Trump retweeted a video on Sunday that showcased a number of conspiracy theories related to the election.... In addition to holding media coverage, polling data and voting software responsible for Trump's failure to secure another term in the White House, the video suggests that COVID-19, and its consequences, were engineered to taint his reputation."

Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump has taken to asking some aides and advisers about the process of naming airports after former U.S. presidents, according to two people who've heard him recently inquiring on this. One of the two sources relayed that, in the past three weeks, Trump mentioned that 'no president' wants an American airport that has a bad reputation or crumbling infrastructure named after them. The other knowledgeable source said that Trump had, at one point since the 2020 election, offhandedly asked what kind of 'paperwork' was necessary to get an airport named after a former president." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I can't think of an airstrip or heliport insignificant enough to name for Trump. The Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, N.J., where the airship Hindenburg exploded, came to mind. However, I don't wish to be disrespectful to the victims of the Hindenburg explosion, so maybe a cattlefield in Kansas where someone once made a successful emergency landing would be more appropriate. Possible souvenirs: gold-plated cowpies.

On His Way Out the Door. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr said Monday that he saw no reason to appoint special counsels to oversee the Justice Department's ongoing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden ... or to investigate President Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, again undercutting Mr. Trump's efforts to bend the department to his political will and to overturn the results of the election. At a news conference to announce charges in an unrelated terrorism case, Mr. Barr said that he did not 'see any reason to appoint a special counsel' to oversee the ongoing investigation into the younger Mr. Biden. 'I have no plan to do so before I leave,' Mr. Barr said. 'To the extent that there is an investigation, I think that it's being handled responsibly and professionally.' He also said that he would name a special counsel to oversee an inquiry into election fraud if he felt one was warranted. 'But I haven't and I'm not going to,' Mr. Barr said. He added that he saw 'no basis' for the federal government to seize voting machines." ~~~

     ~~~ Nick Niedzwiadek & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "During a final news conference at Justice Department headquarters Monday, Barr did little if anything to hide his disagreements with the president.... With Trump mulling extreme actions to investigate claims of widespread voter fraud, including the use of an executive order to seize voting machines the president's lawyers say are likely to contain evidence of manipulation, Barr made clear he isn't on board."

Dominick Mastrangelo of the Hill: "A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed from the U.S. Capitol overnight. The statue has stood with America's first president, George Washington, as the state of Virginia's contribution to the National Statuary Hall Collection at the Capitol for more than 100 years. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, announced on Monday the state will seek to have it replaced with a statue of civil rights icon Barbara Johns.... Earlier this year, a state commission recommended the removal of the statue [of Lee] from the Capitol. The commission, led by state Sen. Louise Lucas (D), voted unanimously to remove it.... The statue will be transported to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond, Northam's office said." Here's the Wikipedia entry for Barbara Johns.

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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders on Sunday reached a hard-fought agreement on a $900 billion stimulus package that would send immediate aid to Americans and businesses to help them cope with the economic devastation of the pandemic and fund the distribution of vaccines. The deal would deliver the first significant infusion of federal dollars into the economy since April.... While the plan is roughly half the size of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law enacted in March, it is one of the largest relief packages in modern history.... It was expected to be merged with a sweeping catchall spending measure that would keep the government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year, creating a $2.3 trillion behemoth whose passage will be Congress's last substantive legislative achievement before adjourning for the year. The deal came together after a weekend of frenzied negotiating only hours before the government was set to run out of funding and two weeks before the next Congress was to convene on Jan. 3." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Rachel Siegel, et al., of the Washington Post: "The bill would extend aid to millions of struggling households through stimulus checks, enhanced federal unemployment benefits and money for small businesses, schools and child care, as well as for vaccine distribution. It also repurposes $429 billion in unused funds provided by the Cares Act for emergency lending programs run by the Federal Reserve.... The legislation includes $600 stimulus checks per person, including adults and children. That means a family of four would receive $2,400, up to a certain income threshold.... Congress will extend unemployment benefits of up to $300 per week. The benefit could kick in as early as Dec. 27 and run at least through March 14.... The bill includes more than $284 billion for first and second forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans, expanded PPP eligibility for nonprofit organizations and news outlets, and modifications to the program to serve small businesses, nonprofits and independent restaurants.... The agreement extends until Jan. 31 a moratorium on evictions that was slated to expire at the end of the year. The incoming Biden administration can extend the deadline further.... The bill includes $25 billion in emergency assistance to renters, although it remains unclear how the money will be distributed.... The bill includes $20 billion for the purchase of vaccines 'that will make the vaccine available at no charge for anyone who needs it.'... Colleges and schools will have $82 billion to help cover HVAC repair and replacement to reduce the risk of coronavirus infections and reopen classrooms."

~~~ Tara Bernard & Ron Lieber of the New York Times take a "look at what the latest legislative package will mean for you." ~~~

~~~ AND If You're a Corporate Exec, You Can Count of Deducting That Three-Martini Lunch. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The draft language of the emergency coronavirus relief package includes a tax break for corporate meal expenses pushed by the White House and strongly denounced by some congressional Democrats, according to a summary of the deal circulating among congressional officials and officials who are familiar with the provision.... President Trump has for months talked about securing the deduction -- derisively referred to as the 'three-martini lunch' by critics -- as a way to revive the restaurant industry badly battered by the pandemic. But critics said it would do little to help struggling restaurants and would largely benefit business executives who do not urgently need help at this time." MB: Thanks, Donald! The Constant Weader, Mrs. McCrabbie & I are off to lunch to get drunk reviving the restaurant industry. Bottoms up! ~~~

~~~ One Good Thing. Dan Diamond of Politico: "Congressional negotiators on Sunday agreed to allow [Marshall Islanders] living in the United States to sign up for Medicaid, revising a drafting mistake in the 1996 welfare reform bill that barred the islanders from the program, according to three people with knowledge of the deal. Democratic lawmakers like Sen. Mazie Hirono and her Hawaii colleagues had spent about two decades trying to restore the islanders' coverage -- saying that the United States broke its promise to the Marshallese after using their homeland to test dozens of nuclear bombs -- but legislative proposals repeatedly died without Republican support. This spring, the House passed a bill to restore the islanders' Medicaid for the first time in more than 20 attempts, although it stalled in the Senate. The decision to bar the Marshallese from Medicaid has contributed to the islanders' greater rates of sickness and death, researchers have concluded, and those disparities were accelerated by this year's Covid-19 pandemic, which has ravaged the Marshallese community in the United States." ~~~

~~~ Pell Grants for Prisoners. Michael Stratford of Politico: "Congressional leaders have struck a deal to reinstate Pell grants for incarcerated students more than a quarter century after banning the aid for prison education programs, top Democrats and Republicans announced on Sunday. The legislation, which is expected to be included as part of the year-end spending deal, would lift the prohibition Congress imposed in the 1994 crime bill that then-President Bill Clinton signed and Joe Biden championed as a senator." ~~~

~~~ This Is a Bill, Not a Law. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Congress is buying itself more time to pass and send the deal to President Trump's desk, after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced that the House would pass a one-day stopgap bill instead of voting on the coronavirus-government funding package immediately.... That will delay passage through both chambers until at least Monday. The House is expected to pass the deal and send it over to the Senate by early Monday afternoon where leadership is eager to pass it quickly.... Congressional leaders are expected to need a separate days-long CR in order to give them time to get the mammoth bill to President Trump's desk and for him to sign it to avoid a government shutdown. The House is expected to tuck the longer CR, likely lasting seven days, into its package that governs the debate of the omnibus-coronavirus package. Once the House passes the rules for its debate, the longer, days-long CR will automatically go to the Senate for passage." ~~~

     ~~~ Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump signed a continuing resolution on Sunday night that will fund the government for the next 24 hours, preventing a shutdown just before midnight and giving Congress extra time to pass a coronavirus relief measure and an accompanying $1.4 trillion government funding bill."

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. Reminder: free to nonsubscribers. Also, these updates often include summaries of WashPo stories that are not free to nonsubscribers.

Lena Sun & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Grocery store employees, teachers, emergency workers and other people on the front lines of America's workforce should be next to get the coronavirus vaccine, along with adults ages 75 and older, a federal advisory panel said Sunday. The recommendations, which came two days after regulators authorized a second coronavirus vaccine, will guide state authorities in deciding who should have priority to receive limited doses of shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. More than 2.8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been distributed, and 556,208 of those shots were given as of 2 p.m. Sunday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The groups designated Sunday include about 49 million people, some of whom could begin getting shots early in the new year. The priorities represent a compromise between the desire to shield people most likely to catch and transmit the virus, because they cannot socially distance or work from home, and the effort to protect people who are most prone to serious complications and death." The article is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

     ~~~ A New York Times story is here. The AP's report is here. MB: One thing that is completely unclear, & will likely vary by state & even by community, is how an individual gets in the queue for a vaccination. I am a high-risk person (1-B on the CDC scale), but what do I do? Sit & wait for a call or letter from somebody? Call the state health agency? My doctor? My pharmacy?

Jill Colvin of the AP: "President-elect Joe Biden will receive his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort to convince the American public the inoculations are safe.... Biden and his wife, Jill, will also thank health care workers at the facility where they receive the shots, his incoming press secretary has said.... Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband are expected to receive their first shots next week. But missing from the action has been ... Donald Trump, who has spent the last week largely out of sight as he continues to stew about his election loss and floats increasingly outlandish schemes to try to remain in power."

Do As I Say, Not as I Do. -- Dr. Debbie. Aamer Madhani & Brian Slodysko of the AP: "As COVID-19 cases skyrocketed before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, warned Americans to 'be vigilant' and limit celebrations to 'your immediate household.' For many Americans that guidance has been difficult to abide, including for Birx herself. The day after Thanksgiving, she traveled to one of her vacation properties on Fenwick Island in Delaware. She was accompanied by three generations of her family from two households. Birx, her husband Paige Reffe, a daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren were present. [Birx & her family members often travel between a Washington, D.C., home & another home they own in Potomac, Md.]... Birx has expressed a desire to maintain a significant role on the White House coronavirus task force when President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated next month.... 'To me this disqualifies her from any future government health position,' said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security. 'It's a terrible message for someone in public health to be sending to the American people.'"

U.K. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "... officials in Britain on Saturday sounded an urgent alarm about what they called a highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus circulating in England.... In South Africa, a similar version of the virus has emerge.... Several experts ... [said] it would take years -- not months -- for the virus to evolve enough to render the current vaccines impotent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Pan Pylas of the AP: "British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to chair a meeting of the government's emergency committee later Monday after France closed its borders to arrivals from the U.K. to stem the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus circulating in London and the southeast of England. The meeting of the COBRA civil contingencies committee comes amid warnings of 'significant disruption' around the ports in the English Channel, with tailbacks going back miles into Kent, the county in southeastern England. The tailbacks came after France announced Sunday that it was closing its borders for 48 hours, which means lorries cannot get across the English Channel by boat. Goods arriving on containers are unaffected." ~~~

~~~ BBC: "India is the latest state to suspend flights from the UK, joining Hong Kong, Canada, Switzerland and Germany. On Sunday evening, France shut its border with the UK for 48 hours, meaning no lorries or ferries will be able to sail from the port of Dover. Belgium and the Irish Republic have also suspended flights.... Austria is also set to bring in a ban, while Bulgaria has suspended flights to and from the UK from midnight. Unlike the short-term measures in many other nations, its ban lasts until 31 January. European Union member states are currently meeting in Brussels to discuss a co-ordinated response.... Meanwhile, coronavirus cases in the UK rose by 35,928 on Sunday - nearly double the number recorded seven days previously." ~~~

~~~ Reuters: "Canada is halting passenger flights from the United Kingdom for 72 hours, the health ministry said on Sunday, joining a growing list of countries barring British travelers to prevent the spread of a new coronavirus strain from the country.... The decision came after Canadian officials, including the prime minister and health minister, met on Sunday afternoon to discuss the new variant, which officials say is up to 70% more transmissible than the original."

One President at a Time, Ctd. Hope Yen of the AP: "Once in office, President-elect Joe Biden will punish Russia for its suspected cyberespionage operation against the United States with financial sanctions and measures to hobble the Kremlin’s ability to launch future hacks, his chief of staff said Sunday, as a GOP senator [Mitt Romney] criticized ... Donald Trump for having a 'blind spot' when it comes to Moscow. 'Those who are responsible are going to face consequences for it,' said Biden chief of staff Ron Klain. 'It's not just sanctions. It's also steps and things we could do to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to repeat this sort of attack or, worse still, engage in even more dangerous attacks.'"

Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "To preserve his hold on power, Trump has spent the weeks since Election Day promoting falsehoods about voting problems in Georgia and five other states, successfully persuading tens of millions of his supporters to believe a lie -- that the election was stolen from him, and from them. He has done so by harnessing the power of his position, using his pulpit at the White House and his Twitter feed to let loose a fusillade of conspiracy theories. His assault on the integrity of the election has gotten a hefty assist from pro-Trump media outfits and an assortment of state lawmakers and lawyers who gave oxygen to the debunked allegations -- and a majority of congressional Republicans, who called on the Supreme Court to overturn the results in four states.... Along the way, Trump has willfully damaged two bedrocks of American democracy that he has been going after for years: confidence in the media as a source of trusted information and faith in systems of government. It might be one of his lasting legacies."

There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election. -- Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy & top Army Gen. James McConville, in a joint statement ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has intensified efforts to overturn the election, raising a series of radical measures in recent days, including military intervention, seizing voting machines and a 13th-hour appeal to the Supreme Court. On Sunday, Trump said in a radio interview that he had spoken with Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) about challenging the electoral vote count when the House and Senate convene on Jan. 6 to formally affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory. 'He's so excited,' Trump said of Tuberville. 'He said, "You made me the most popular politician in the United States."... He's great. Great senator.' Trump's conversation with Tuberville is part of a much broader effort by the defeated president to invalidate the election. He is increasingly reaching out to allies like [Rudy] Giuliani and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro for ideas and searching his Twitter feed for information to promote.... In recent days, Trump has expressed frustration that his Cabinet is not doing more to assist. At a Cabinet meeting last week at the White House, Trump vented about the election and made unsubstantiated allegations of fraud, officials said, but did not give Cabinet members specific orders.... On Sunday, the Trump campaign said it was filing a suit with the Supreme Court over Pennsylvania's mail-in voting rules." (An earlier version of this story was linked yesterday afternoon.) MB: Apparently Trump is unaware that "great senator" Tommy Tuberville is not, in fact, a senator at all, much less showing the slightest indication he will be a great one. ~~~

~~~ Jill Colvin & Marc Levy of the AP: "Undeterred by dismissals and admonitions from judges..., Donald Trump's campaign continued with its unprecedented efforts to overturn the results of the Nov 3. election Sunday, saying it had filed a new petition with the Supreme Court. The petition seeks to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases having to do with mail-in ballots and asks the court to reject voters' will and allow the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pick its own slate of electors. While the prospect of the highest court in the land throwing out the results of a democratic election based on unfounded charges of voter fraud is extraordinary unlikely, it wouldn't change the outcome. President-elect Joe Biden would still be the winner even without Pennsylvania because of his wide margin of victory in the Electoral College."

Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Seldom has the leader of an American political party done so much to strike fear into the hearts of his allies, but done so little to tackle challenges facing the country during his final days in office. Far from presenting the vaccine breakthroughs from Pfizer and Moderna as testaments to private-sector ingenuity and innovation -- once a conservative creed -- [Donald Trump] was fixated on menacing Republicans who might dare to acknowledge Joseph R. Biden Jr. as president-elect. That duality in Mr. Trump's behavior -- acting as a bystander while other leaders answered a crisis and simultaneously raging at Republicans who have inched away from him -- also amounts to a preview of Mr. Trump's post-presidency." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Sanger & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Confronted with a vast cyberattack believed to have been carried out by Russia, the Trump administration is suddenly reviving an old idea: Strip the general who leads the United States Cyber Command of his second title as the director of the National Security Agency, the country's largest spy operation.... But when the idea was revived in recent days with a recommendation en route to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark A. Milley, for action before President Trump leaves office next month, it led to a firestorm of protest on Capitol Hill. Democrats and Republicans alike say that the two institutions are too intertwined to be managed separately and that any unilateral action by the administration to change the current structure would violate legal requirements for extensive assessments before altering it. They said it was also unclear how such a step, especially carried out hastily during a presidential transition, would help with the current crisis." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't know much about much, but I do know that the cable news networks have been littered during the past week with pundits of all political stripes who blame the Trump administration for not detecting the attack in part because it has balkanized cybersecurity experts into their respective agencies. To further diminish the government's right hand from knowing what its left hand is doing would seem unwise, at least on the surface. Then there's this: ~~~

~~~ Alexandra Villarreal of the Guardian: "Frontline healthcare workers saw their hopes dashed last week when a botched algorithm, crashing scheduling platforms and other logistical mishaps thwarted their efforts to be among the first in the US to receive a long-awaited coronavirus vaccine.... More than 100 Stanford doctors protested on Friday, standing up for respiratory therapists, environmental services workers, nursing staff, residents and fellows who interact with patients. They were unable to lay claim to initial doses of the vaccine, even as they learned that employees doing telehealth from home had nabbed slots.... On the east coast, doctors in Boston's Mass General Brigham system were also distraught. After the online scheduling platform crashed, employees filed into a long line on Thursday morning to sign up for shots in-person. But staff in emergency departments couldn't abandon their patients. Once appointments came back online, availability vanished in minutes...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So if the system doesn't work for medical personnel working in relatively closed, controlled facilities, how well will it work for us ordinary people out here in the hinterlands?

The Enablers. Erica Newland in a New York Times op-ed/confessional: "I was an attorney at the Justice Department when Donald Trump was elected president. I worked in the Office of Legal Counsel, which is where presidents turn for permission slips that say their executive orders and other contemplated actions are lawful.... My job was to tailor the administration's executive actions to make them lawful -- in narrowing them, I could also make them less destructive.... But there was a trade-off: We attorneys diminished the immediate harmful impacts of President Trump's executive orders -- but we also made them more palatable to the courts.... I now see what might have happened if, rather than nip and tuck the Trump agenda, responsible Justice Department attorneys had collectively -- ethically, lawfully -- refused to participate in President Trump's systematic attacks on our democracy from the beginning. The attacks would have failed [because Trump would have had to rely on incompetent lawyers like Rudy Giuliani]. No matter our intentions, we were complicit."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Potential Lawsuits That Could Disable Right-Wing Media. Ben Smith of the New York Times: Antonio Mugica's company Smartmatic, "and a competitor, Dominion ... were at the center of [Rudy] Giuliani's and Sidney Powell's theories, and on the tongues of commentators on Fox News and its farther-right rivals, Newsmax and One America News.... Here's the thing: Smartmatic wasn't even used in the contested states. The company ... pulled out of the United States in 2007 after a controversy over its founders' Venezuelan roots.... Last week, [Mugica's high-powered defamation] lawyer [J. Erik Connolly] sent scathing letters to the Fox News Channel, Newsmax and OAN demanding that they immediately, forcefully clear his company's name -- and that they retain documents for a planned defamation lawsuit. He has, legal experts say, an unusually strong case.... Dominion Voting Systems has hired another high-powered libel lawyer, Tom Clare, who has threatened legal action against Ms. Powell and the Trump campaign.... [The lawyers have made] legal threats any company, even a giant like Fox Corporation, would take seriously.... And so Newsmax and OAN appear likely to face the same fate as so many of President Trump's sycophants, who have watched him lie with impunity and imitated him -- only to find that he's the only one who can really get away with it."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Middle East, Mostly. Stephanie Kirchgaessner & Michael Safi of the Guardian: "Spyware sold by an Israeli private intelligence firm was allegedly used to hack the phones of dozens of Al Jazeera journalists in an unprecedented cyber-attack that is likely to have been ordered by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to leading researchers. In a stunning new report, researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto said they discovered what appears to be a major espionage campaign against one of the world's leading media organisations, which is based in Qatar and has long been a thorn in the side of many of the region's autocratic regimes. The report, written by some of the world's top digital surveillance researchers, also raises troubling new questions about the apparent vulnerability of the Apple iPhone, which has sought to promote a reputation for security and commitment to privacy. Researchers at Citizen Lab said the apparent malicious code they discovered, which they claim is used by clients of Israel's NSO Group, made 'almost all' iPhone devices vulnerable if users were using an operating system that pre-dated Apple's iOS 14 system, which appears to have fixed the vulnerability."

The Commentariat -- December 20, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "... officials in Britain on Saturday sounded an urgent alarm about what they called a highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus circulating in England.... In South Africa, a similar version of the virus has emerge.... Several experts ... [said] it would take years -- not months -- for the virus to evolve enough to render the current vaccines impotent."

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

Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Seldom has the leader of an American political party done so much to strike fear into the hearts of his allies, but done so little to tackle challenges facing the country during his final days in office. Far from presenting the vaccine breakthroughs from Pfizer and Moderna as testaments to private-sector ingenuity and innovation -- once a conservative creed -- [Donald Trump] was fixated on menacing Republicans who might dare to acknowledge Joseph R. Biden Jr. as president-elect. That duality in Mr. Trump's behavior -- acting as a bystander while other leaders answered a crisis and simultaneously raging at Republicans who have inched away from him -- also amounts to a preview of Mr. Trump's post-presidency."

~~~~~~~~~~

A Very Special Solstice. Charles Choi in Scientific American: "On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will meet in a 'great conjunction,' the closest they could be seen in the sky together for nearly 800 years.... 'If you have a telescope, you'll be able to see both the rings of Saturn and the Galilean moons of Jupiter close together at the same moment,' says astronomer Jackie Faherty at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.... 'But the best part about it is we'll be able to watch it with the naked eye.'... The last time Jupiter and Saturn appeared so close was July 16, 1623, back when Galileo was still alive, a little more than a decade after he first used a telescope to discover Jupiter's four largest moons that now collectively bear his name. The odds are low, however, that Galileo or anyone else on Earth managed to witness that great conjunction, which was virtually impossible to see because of its apparent position near the sun. The last great conjunction to appear as close and as visible as the upcoming one occurred on March 4, 1226."

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

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

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

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

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  

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

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Colin Jost reviews some of Trump's greatest moments: