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Attorney Sidney Powell dropped a major court filing in Georgia, with sworn statements and affidavits attesting to an astonishing level of election fraud…Read more
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Good morning and Happy Belated Thanksgiving. Since you’re probably taking a break from your day-to-day routine, so are we. Which means that today and tomorrow, we’re excited to present special reports on one of the greatest challenges of our time: The incredibly complex and incredibly fascinating Covid-19 vaccine supply chain.
Day 1 (today) will break down the material logistics of vaccines: How they’re made, how they’re distributed, who’s doing the distributing, etc.
On Day 2 (tomorrow), we’ll focus on the human element: Who will get a vaccine? And how many people even want one?
P.S.: This newsletter is best enjoyed with leftovers.
Maybe Thanksgiving is getting us sentimental, but the concept of a vaccine is kind of…amazing? Someone injects a distorted version of a virus into you and then your body learns how to defend against it. It’s not not magical.
Here’s how those painful miracles of science come to be
The process that generates the lifesaving poky boys is grounded in cold, hard science and logistics. But, it’s mind-numbingly complicated; think Christopher Nolan film plus Gillian Flynn novel times your flightiest friend’s romantic status.
From a business POV, it’s also extremely risky. Regulators license the process behind making a vaccine in addition to the biological product itself. That means that any major tweaks to that process trigger additional rounds of tire-kicking. As a result, the failure rate in vaccine manufacturing is high and supply often runs short.
Plus, it’s not cheap. The total costs of vaccine development can run up to $500 million, one study found.
Methodologies vary, but the overall breakdown goes something like this:
Step 1: Create an antigen (a substance that provokes your immune system). Scientists do this by literally growing it in a cell—like the basil plant on your window, but tiny.
Step 2: Take the baby antigen out of the cell where it was grown. Basil’s gotta become pesto at some point.
Step 3: Next, the antigen is purified through processes that sound like words you’d make up when lying about doing science homework: chromatography and ultrafiltration.
Step 4 (optional): In some cases, some extra spices are added to strengthen the antigen, or to add shelf life.
Step 5: Distribution—mix up all the components in vials or syringes, load those suckers on trucks, and get them in some arms.
Vaccine manufacturing is Isla de Muerta
It’s an island that cannot be found, except by those who already know where it is. The field is dominated by legacy players, because only those with significant existing scale can foot the bill for the necessary raw material, facilities, regulatory compliance, and labor.
Did you know there’s currently a shortage of sand needed to make glass vials for vaccine storage? Or that one ingredient used in vaccines comes from the bark of the Quillaja saponaria Molina tree in South America—which is only harvested two months of the year? Probably not, but Pfizer does.
Zoom out: The companies currently vying to get a Covid-19 vaccine to market are pursuing different biological methods, in the hopes that a “throw everything against the wall” approach will lead to a few sticking.
…but it’s pretty dang fast. After the Manhattan Project and training dolphins to locate sea mines, Operation Warp Speed (OWS) could go down as one of the most successful government initiatives in recent memory. So what is it exactly?
The goal: To deliver 300 million doses of a safe and effective vaccine by Jan. 2021. It was created as a sort of “project manager” to coordinate all the moving parts between government agencies and private companies.
Budget: Up to $18 billion. More than $12 billion has already been doled out in vaccine-related contracts.
Why it matters: As you can see in the graphic above, OWS is trying to squeeze what’s typically a 73-month process into just 14 months. So far, it appears to be working.
Looking ahead…OWS leadership has said they can deliver a Covid-19 vaccine to every state less than 24 hours after FDA approval.
Leading vaccine candidates are more temperature-sensitive than your dad who doesn’t let anyone touch the thermostat.
To avoid spoiling,Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine must be transported and stored at -94°F, while Moderna’s prefers a balmier -4°F.
Maintaining these below-freezing temps puts enormous strain on distribution. Here’s what goes into the “cold chain:”
Airlines deliver doses in temperature-controlled holds. This could be the biggest bottleneck in the supply chain, given that one-in-four passenger airplanes (which ship the majority of air freight) has been grounded during the pandemic. Expect cargo companies to pick up the slack.
Storage is tight. UPS and Lufthansa have been scrambling to build massive “freezer farms” near airports to receive vaccines. Drug companies will also make use of existing cold storage facilities, but according to a JLL report, 78% of U.S. cold storage warehouses are at least 20 years old and don’t meet modern standards.
Dry ice is the cold chain’s best friend. Pfizer has designed temperature-controlled dry ice boxes that can maintain a roughly -94° Fahrenheit temperature for up to 10 days. Each box can hold about 5,000 doses.
Bottom line: Even with distributors and drug companies beefing up their cold chain capacity, pharma experts still expect a spoilage rate between 5% and 20%.
SimpliSafe are the security masterminds who give you 24/7 whole-home protection. It’s like if your guard dog was part cyborg and connected to Skynet—except in this scenario Skynet is good and not a horrible world-ending supercomputer.
What we’re saying is, it’s pretty much the best security system you can get your hands on.
Here’s a look at some of the stats that illustrate one of the largest logistical challenges in human history.
Vaccine candidates
67 vaccine candidates are currently in various stages of clinical trials around the world.
10 billion single doses could be available by the end of 2022 if all the frontrunner vaccine candidates are approved.
Purchase agreements
Five—the number of individual doses the U.K. has pre-bought for each citizen, which is the highest per-capita amount in the world.
$21—the difference in price between Moderna’s vaccine ($25/dose) and AstraZeneca’s vaccine ($4/dose), according to U.S. purchase agreements.
Sourcing
850 million syringes will be required for Covid-19 vaccine delivery in the U.S.
2% of the required amount of anticipated needles and syringes in the U.S. are located in the Strategic National Stockpile, the country’s repository of critical medical supplies.
Distribution
8,000 fully filled 747 cargo planes would be needed to distribute a single vaccine dose to the world’s 7.8 billion people, per the International Air Transportation Association.
15,000 total cargo flights would be required to vaccinate the entire planet, according to a DHL study.
While a global pandemic has put many companies in “unprecedented situations,” for others, like McKesson, it’s given them an opportunity to step up.
McKesson, based out of Irving, TX, is the country’s largest drug distributor. It handles the behind-the-scenes logistics of getting drugs and medical supplies—from flu shots to generics—to the places that need them: pharmacies, hospitals, and more.
It’s a lucrative business. With revenues of $231 billion last fiscal year, it ranked eighth on the Fortune 500 list…just ahead of AT&T.
Put me in, coach
Through Operation Warp Speed, the government has made McKesson the central distributor of Covid-19 vaccines (outside of Pfizer-BioNTech’s, which needs to live in sub-Arctic temps).
The company will not make decisions on where to send the vaccines, however. That’s up to local and state officials.
Because of McKesson’s expertise in schlepping life-saving material, the country has tapped it for similar programs before. In 2009, the U.S. government hired the company to distribute H1N1 vaccines (which was then the largest public health project in the CDC’s history).
Zoom out: McKesson’s playing Superman now, but it’s also been accused of participating in one of the darkest episodes in U.S. pharmaceutical history. Along with two rival distributors, McKesson said they could collectively pay up to $21 billion to resolve lawsuits alleging they fueled the opioid crisis.
We just spit a lot of information at you about the vaccine supply chain. To tie everything together, let’s explore the hypothetical journey of a single dose of a Moderna coronavirus vaccine from manufacturing → arm.
Our quest begins in the quaint New England town of Portsmouth, NH, where about 100 workers at Lonza Biologics are busy concocting Moderna’s vaccine.
Lonza signed a contract with Moderna in July to make the vaccine in small batches, and now it’s ramping up production in anticipation of emergency use authorization.
Where to next? The vaccine will fly in those Elsa-approved containers to a McKesson distribution facility in Irving, TX. There, they’ll be paired up with goody bags full of needles, syringes, and alcohol swabs in a process known as “kitting.”
Then, they’re on the road, this time to a regional distribution center. This could just be a local hospital, because the main requirement is enough freezer space to keep the vaccine cold.
And now, the final leg. The vaccine will head to an administration site like a mobile clinic or a Costco, where injectees will get a shot, a chicken bake, six gallons of salsa, and be on their way.
But not so fast: Moderna’s vaccine requires two doses 28 days apart. So hurry up on that salsa.
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House party: The Digital Mirage Friendsgiving festival starts this morning with livestreamed performances from Benny Benassi, The Glitch Mob, and more.
Follow Friday: Take a detour from Black Friday shopping to read the funniest reviews on Amazon products via this subReddit. Our favorites include…
A kangaroo word contains another word (a joey) within itself. A joey word is a synonym of the kangaroo word, and the letters must be in the same order.
Example: “rapscallion” contains the word “rascal”: RApSCALlion
See if you can find the joey words in these kangaroo words:
exists
deceased
barren
precipitation
prematurely
feasted (there are two joey words in here)
ANSWER
1. is (exISts)
2. dead (DEceAseD)
3. bare (BARrEn)
4. rain (pRecipitAtIoN)
5. early (prEmAtuReLY)
6. fed / ate (FEasteD / feAsTEd)Source
🚨 Breaking: An Iranian scientist who was the architect of the military’s nuclear program was assassinated near Tehran today, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports.
Israel, the prime suspect, didn’t immediately comment.
🛒 Happy Friday! Hope this is your sanest Black Friday in years.
Thank you for the thoughtful notes yesterday about the reasons you depend on, trust and enjoy AM — what a great vitamin shot!
Today’s Smart Brevity™ count: 912 words … 3½ minutes.
1 big thing: Cold December as safety nets expire
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
One-third of Americans in the weekly Census Household Survey say it’s hard to afford basic expenses — including food, rent/mortgage and student loans, markets reporter Courtenay Brown writes.
Why it matters: Safety nets will be yanked for millions of economically vulnerable Americans in December.
What’s happening: In a huge Washington fail, several major relief programs are expiring just as the recovery becomes more fragile than it’s been in months.
When economic support measures were created, lawmakers thought the pandemic would be under control by now.
Now that the deadlines are approaching, the virus is worse than ever — and Congress looks unlikely to re-up the support measures.
Programs set to vanish next month:
Unemployment: Over 13 million Americans are relying on weekly unemployment checks through two programs that are weeks away from expiration.
Housing: After Dec. 31, homeowners can’t request penalty-free forbearance for federally-backed mortgage payments. The measure also stopped mortgage lenders from starting a foreclosure process.
Rent: The CDC order that halted evictions expires next month, too.
Student loans: The CARES Act paused payments on government-backed student loans without interest.
State aid: Whatever isn’t expended of the $139 billion allocated to states in the CARES Act will disappear at the end of the year.
IOC President Thomas Bach speaks Nov. 17 at Tokyo’s New National Stadium, the main Olympics venue. Photo: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Bloomberg via Getty Images
It seems hard to believe that 238 days from now — on July 23 — the Summer Olympics will open in Tokyo. But that’s still the plan, after the games were postponed a year because of the pandemic:
The Tokyo organizing committee today announced a series of 18 test events (some for operations), to begin in March and run into May, AP reports.
Why it matters: Games officials say a full complement of 11,000 athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes will be allowed into Japan, along with tens of thousands of judges, VIPs, sponsors, media and broadcasters.
At least four of the test events will involve athletes from abroad, including tests in swimming, gymnastics, diving and volleyball.
Hidemasa Nakamura, the games delivery officer, said none of the test events will allow fans from abroad, although some events will permit an unspecified number of fans from Japan.
IOC President Thomas Bach said athletes won’t be required to take a vaccine. He said young Olympic athletes were not a priority ahead of millions of health care workers, the elderly and other vulnerable populations.
The games plan social distancing, masks and near-quarantine conditions in the Athletes Village.
3. 📦 Amazon’s amazing hiring spree
Amazon’s 1.2 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Baltimore. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“Amazon added 427,300 employees between January and October, pushing its workforce to more than 1.2 million people globally, up more than 50 percent from a year ago,” the N.Y. Times’ Karen Weise reports from Seattle (subscription).
Amazon vacuums up “an average of 1,400 new workers a day.”
“Its number of workers now approaches the entire population of Dallas.”
Why it matters: The “extraordinary hiring binge” solidifies Amazon’s “power as online shopping becomes more entrenched.”
4. Pic du jour
Photo: Tom Brenner/Reuters
Hotel rooms were lit in the shape of a heart at the Washington Hilton on Thanksgiving night.
5. The Trump court
President Trump uses his phone as he golfs on Thanksgiving at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
With a Thanksgiving Eve ruling, Justice Amy Coney Barrett “dealt the chief justice a body blow,” the N.Y. Times’ Adam Liptak writes (subscription):
She shoved “the chief justice into dissent with the court’s three remaining liberals” when she cast the decisive vote in a 5-4 ruling that rejected New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s virus-driven restrictions on religious services.
All three of President Trump’s nominees — Justices Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — were in the majority on the virus ruling, Bob Barnes writes in the WashPost:
That was the first evidence that Chief Justice Roberts “may no longer play the pivotal role he occupied over the past couple of years.”
“He had been at the center of the court, with four consistently more conservative justices and four more liberal ones.”
6. Dems’ Senate sinkholes
Data: FEC, Edison Research for the National Election Pool. Graphic: Reuters
Democrats spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Senate races they wound up losing, Reuters reports.
Dems outspent Republicans on November Senate races by $280 million — 64% more than GOP candidates’ total spending. Yet they failed to win control, which will be decided Dec. 5 with a pair of Georgia runoffs.
Data: FEC, Edison Research for the National Election Pool. Graphic: Reuters
In South Carolina, Jaime Harrison (D) shattered fundraising records for a U.S. Senate race but lost to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) by 10 points.
In Kentucky, Amy McGrath (D) outspent Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell but lost by 20 points — Dems’ biggest loss in the race since ’02.
Marc Benioff autographs his book, “Trailblazer,” at the Economic Club of Washington last year: Photo: Kristoffer Tripplaar/Sipa USA via Reuters
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s bid for Slack — which is valued at $17 billion and would be his biggest acquisition yet — heats up his longtime rivalry with Microsoft, The Wall Street Journal’s Aaron Tilley writes (subscription).
Microsoft, which once tried to acquire Slack (and Salesforce), in 2016 launched its own workplace collaboration tool, Teams.
Slack would extend “the footprint of what Salesforce goes after,” said Jefferies analyst Brent Thill. “Not everyone uses a sales system, but everyone can use collaboration. The beauty of Slack and Teams is that it touches everything inside enterprises.”
Reality check: “Microsoft’s market valuation tops $1.6 trillion, about six times that of Slack and Salesforce combined.”
But the president vowed he would continue his fight to overturn the election he lost, and said it is “going to be a very hard thing to concede.” It was Trump’s first explicit commitment to vacate office.
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Nov 27, 2020
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AP MORNING WIRE
Good morning.
Today is Black Friday, the time after Thanksgiving when holiday shopping begins in earnest – and sometimes frantically. But this year, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, things may unfold differently.
After The Rundown, meet The Associated Press’ retail team and see:
How retailers are negotiating the challenges of a holiday season upended by the pandemic.
Why Black Friday could look very different than in years past.
How the virus is changing cherished holiday season traditions, including visiting Santa at the mall and deciding when to decorate (spoiler alert: this year it’s fine to get festive whenever you feel like it).
CARA RUBINSKY
Deputy Global Business Editor
PIA SARKAR
Retail Editor
The Rundown
AP PHOTO/PATRICK SEMANSKY
Trump at last says he’ll leave the White House if the Electoral College seats Biden
President Donald Trump finally said that he will leave the White House if the Electoral College formalizes President-elect Joe Biden’s victory even as he insisted such a decision would be a “mistake.”
The fact that a sitting American president even had to address whether or not he would leave office after losing reelection underscores the extent to which Trump has smashed democratic conventions and undermined the process over the past three weeks, Jill Colvin reports.
Zombie Election: Monday seemed like the end of Trump’s relentless challenges to the election, after the federal government acknowledged Biden was the “apparent winner” and Trump cleared the way for cooperation on a transition of power. But his baseless claims have a way of coming back. And back. And back. Colleen Long, Alanna Durkin Richer and Zeke Miller report.
Despite dozens of legal and procedural setbacks, his campaign keeps filing new challenges that have no hope of succeeding and making fresh, unfounded claims of fraud. But that’s the point. Trump’s strategy wasn’t to change the outcome, but to create a host of phantom claims that would infect the nation with doubt, even though the winner was clear and there has been no evidence of mass voter fraud.
“Zombies are dead people walking among the living — this litigation is the same thing,” says a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. “In terms of litigation that could change the election, all these cases are basically dead men walking.”
AP PHOTO/RICK BOWMER
Empty seats, grief, Zoom and delivered feasts as virus changes Thanksgiving: In Santa’s mailbag, a peek into children’s pandemic worries
Americans marked Thanksgiving amid an unrelenting pandemic that upended long-held traditions at dinner tables all around the country.
Far fewer volunteers helped at soup kitchens or community centers. A Utah health department delivered boxes of food to residents who are infected with the virus and can’t go to the store. And a New York nursing home offered drive-up visits for families of residents struggling with celebrating the holiday alone. Regina Garcia Cano, Matt Sedensky and Heather Hollingsworth report.
Letters to Santa: The notes that are pouring in by the tens of thousands into Santa’s mailbox offer a glimpse into the worries and hopes of children awaiting a pandemic-hit Christmas. Any letter addressed “Pere Noel” — French for Father Christmas — and popped into any post box around the world can wend its way to the postal sorting office in France’s Bordeaux region.
Along with the usual pleas for toys and gadgets, kids are also mailing requests for vaccines, for visits from grandparents, for life to return to the way it was. The office estimates that one letter in three mentions the pandemic, John Leicester reports. “My mother is a care-giver and sometimes I am scared for her…Take care of yourself Father Christmas, and of the Elves,” says one.
For decades, Black Friday has kicked off holiday buying in the United States. The name itself is a nod to when retailers’ fortunes would go from “in the red” to “back in the black.” But even before the pandemic, leaving the Thanksgiving leftovers behind to venture out in search of bargains had started to lose its luster.
So what will happen this year, with safety a huge concern? No one knows for sure, but U.S. retailers have taken steps to try to stop people from crowding stores in person, including spreading out bargains, encouraging online shopping and offering curbside pickup. In France, the government got supermarkets and e-commerce platforms like Amazon to delay Black Friday deals for a week so smaller shops that are closed due to a nationwide lockdown have a chance to compete.
And spare a thought for the retail workers who will be in the thick of whatever crowds there may be. Earlier this year, we wrote about how they had found themselves enforcing social distancing rules with little or no training. We’ll be checking in with them throughout the day to find out how they’re faring. You can follow AP’s Black Friday coverage here. If you’re out shopping and want to tell us what you’re seeing, you can email us at apfinancial@ap.org.
Retail Challenges:
The sharp rise in coronavirus cases is spooking customers and creating new challenges for America’s retailers just as the critically important holiday shopping season nears. With holiday sales expected to be weak and most shopping likely to be done online, retailers are doing whatever they can to bring in customers. People who have kept their jobs and are working from home may have more disposable income because they’re not spending on commuting and morning coffee. But many others are suffering _ weekly U.S. unemployment claims were up again last week for the second week in a row.
Some retailers are trying livestreams (think a digital version of QVC or the channel formerly known as the Home Shopping Network) to sell products to a captive audience.
The holidays are typically all about tradition, but this year those time-honored rituals look different. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade marched on with balloons, dancers, floats, Broadway shows and Santa, but made some major changes to keep performers safe, including pre-taping performances and scrapping the usual 2 ½-mile parade route. Malls will still offer visits with Santa Claus, but he might be behind plexiglass. Many people, seeking a little joy, started decorating for the holidays well before Thanksgiving, and you know what? No one is judging them.
Meet the Retail Team:
Pia Sarkar leads the retail team. Anne D’Innocenzio has been reporting on retail for 20 years. Joseph Pisani covers Amazon and all things online shopping. Dee-Ann Durbin covers food/beverage and hospitality. Alexandra Olson covers diversity and workplace issues. You can follow our coverage of the changing economy here or on Twitter.
AP PHOTO/CARLO FUMAGAlLI
Diego Maradona:1960-2020
A genius on the football pitch and a flawed, beloved character off it, Maradona is laid to rest in Argentina
They came in their tens of thousands during the day in the Argentine capital for the football superstar they worshipped, who had led their nation to World Cup glory in 1986 and troubled their hearts as he often struggled in life.
Diego Maradona was buried in a private ceremony attended by only two dozen people.
Only family members and close friends were permitted at Jardín Bella Vista cemetery for the final religious ceremony and the burial of Maradona next to the graves of his parents.
Napoli Tribute:Leave it to Maradona to draw fans to a stadium they couldn’t enter. Thousands of Napoli supporters made a pilgrimage to the San Paolo stadium to honor their hero. Fans were not permitted inside to see Napoli’s Europa League win due to the pandemic. So, the Napoli captain exited the stadium and joined the fans for a few minutes to lay a bouquet next to the supporters’ tributes. The entire city was declared in mourning Maradona led Napoli to its only two Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990. Andrew Dampf reports.
Brazil Mourns: Brazil and Argentina are long rivals for soccer supremacy in South America, and Brazilians naturally think of their own Pelé as the best footballer in history. But they put aside the argument to mourn the death of Maradona. Ex-presidents, author Paulo Coelho and former competitors were among Brazilians paying tribute A mural of Maradona was even painted on a wall in the Vila Cruzeiro favela in Rio de Janeiro, an honor that proud and soccer-crazy Brazilians rarely, if ever, give to foreigners, Mauricio Savarese reports.
Hopes of families for a quick release for six American oil executives detained in Venezuela for three years over an alleged corruption scheme have evaporated, with a judge finding them all guilty and quickly sentencing them to prison. Attorneys and relatives of the so-called Citgo 6 said the men were wrongly convicted. The judge in Caracas sentenced the defendants to prison for more than eight years each. The six had been lured to Venezuela for a business meeting and arrested. They are employees of the Houston-based Citgo refining company, which is owned by Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.
People are continuing to flee the capital of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region in fear of an imminent assault after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the army had been ordered to move in for the “final phase” of an offensive to arrest the defiant regional leaders. Fighting reportedly remains well outside the densely populated city of a half-million people, who had been warned of “no mercy” if they didn’t separate themselves from the Tigray leaders in time. Food and other supplies are now running out in the region of 6 million people. The United Nations urges immediate access for humanitarians that is neutral and impartial.
South Korea’s spy agency has told lawmakers that North Korea executed at least two people, banned fishing at sea and locked down its capital Pyongyang as part of frantic anti-coronavirus steps. The lawmakers cited the National Intelligence Service as saying that North Korea also ordered diplomats overseas to refrain from any acts that could provoke the United States as it worries about President-elect Biden’s possible new approach on the North.
A French Black man beaten up by several police officers said he is seeking justice after the publication of videos showing officers using a truncheon and tear gas against Michel Zecler with no apparent reason. The French Interior Minister ordered the officers involved in the case suspended. The incident came as President Emmanuel Macron’s government is pushing a new bill that restricts the ability to film police The video images obtained by the AP both from a security camera inside the studio and filmed by neighbors outside, show the violent arrest of the music producer.
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Good morning, Chicago. Black Friday, the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season, used to draw swarms of deal-hunting shoppers to stores. This year is going to look different.
With COVID-19 cases surging, Chicago and Cook County have issued stay-at-home advisories, and the CDC has recommended shopping online for Black Friday deals and using curbside pickup.
Here’s what you need to know about an unusual Black Friday.
Retailers were starting to see shoppers return to stores this fall. Now a surge in COVID-19 cases has brought new restrictions, just as Chicago-area stores were gearing up for the busiest shopping season of the year.
This year has taken many things from us — birthday celebrations, live concerts and simply hugging the people we love. But COVID-19 cannot take our holiday season. The Tribune staff has gathered lists of the best gifts for everyone on your list, even if you will be hosting your holiday parties over Zoom.
The initiative, called “Black Shop Friday,” includes a directory of Black-owned businesses by the type of products sold and neighborhood. The website, www.BlackShopFriday.com, launched Tuesday.
If you’re a Chicago arts lover, you can give twice this holiday season by choosing a gift that’s fun to give and receive and also that helps support Chicago’s artists, performers, musicians and venues, most of whom are in need of some extra holiday funds this year.
If you’re scratching your head trying to come up with good affordable gift ideas, look no further. BestReviews has compiled a list to help point you in the right direction of gifts that are thoughtful, but not too expensive.
On the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, the special legislative panel looking into House Speaker Michael Madigan’s dealings with Commonwealth Edison released hundreds of pages of emails and other documents shedding further light on the extent of their relationship and the federal investigation into it. The documents reveal a relentless drumbeat of requests by Madigan’s associates for jobs and favors from high-ranking ComEd officials. Get the full story here.
“I’m just happy to be a part of something that’s amazing in Chicago because you always hear about the bad stuff,” said Aleta Clark. “They don’t show stuff like this.”
Anti-Trump activists also marched to Millennium Park, where they shouted down the president’s backers as “losers.” The president’s attempts to fight the election results in court keep getting shot down.
The special House investigative committee is scheduled to meet again Dec. 14, the chair of that committee said after receiving more than 100 documents from the utility company.
A report from Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks, examined the impact COVID-19 will have on access to food. It projected Cook County will have 785,890 food-insecure people in 2020, the third-most in the country.
The Dec. 1, 1958, fire at the grade school at Iowa Street and Avers Avenue killed 92 students and three nuns. It resulted in stricter fire safety codes nationwide.
Moseley Braun wants to be Biden’s Interior Secretary. “I was there for him in the entire campaign. So in the event there is an opening, this is the one I would really like.”
President Trump’s Thanksgiving eve pardon of Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, is prompting questions about who else might win clemency in the president’s final weeks in office.
Speculation over whether Trump would offer pardons for allies and supporters who have been convicted of federal crimes or face serious legal liability has long been a subject in Washington.
President Trump on Thursday said he would leave the White House on Jan. 20 if the Electoral College declares President-elect Joe Biden the winner of the election, but indicated he was not prepared to concede defeat.
President Trump issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to gather “in homes and places of worship” ahead of Thanksgiving, even as his successor and public health officials have urged people to practice social distancing and avoid large gatherings during the holidays to curb the spread of COVID-19.
President Trump used a Thanksgiving tweet to renew his criticism of NFL players kneeling in calls for social justice, retweeting a tweet and image of Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson and Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, who both knelt during the national anthem at their holiday games Thursday.
President-elect Joe Biden campaigned on the promise that he would repair “the soul of the nation.” But now he faces the challenge of making that pledge a reality.
The Trump administration is shoring up policy changes long sought-after by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shifting the ground in the Middle East that will create challenges as well as opportunities for President-elect Joe Biden.
Electoral College meetings will convene next month in state capitals to formalize President elect-Joe Biden’s win. But the fast-approaching Dec. 14 date has done little to deter the Trump campaign from continuing a protracted election-related legal effort that an increasing number of Republicans have grown weary of.
The nation is seeing an alarming new rise in COVID-19 deaths that is following a spike in cases being recorded across the country, with the U.S. suffering 2,313 deaths on Wednesday, according to data collected by The New York Times.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is blaming the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court for a decision late Wednesday against his state’s COVID-19 restrictions on churches and places of worship.
OPINION | Thanksgiving dinners around the nation this year could come with a side of shame. College newspapers have called on students to confront their racist relatives, and Abigail Adams of Indiana University of Pennsylvania gave students instructions for how to “decolonize” Thanksgiving. Pundit Jason Johnson declared this holiday to be called “Colonizer Christmas,” while others have insisted it be called “Thankstaking.”
OPINION | “America is back,” President-elect Biden is telling world leaders. It is one of the surest bets that the first 100 days of a Biden foreign policy will involve rejoining international agreements, shoring up traditional alliances, and reinvesting in multilateral organizations.
Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested Thanksgiving may be the beginning of a dark holiday season as the surge in coronavirus cases is likely to persist, or even get worse, through December, January and February.
Amazon has embarked on an extraordinary hiring binge this year, vacuuming up an average of 1,400 new workers a day and solidifying its power as online shopping becomes more entrenched in the coronavirus pandemic.
Britain gave AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine a vote of confidence on Friday when it asked its regulator to assess it for a rollout after experts raised questions about trial data and the company said it may run another study to gauge the shot’s efficacy.
The number of people hospitalized in the U.S. due to Covid-19 surpassed 90,000 for the first time, as the pandemic loomed over Thanksgiving Day celebrations.
Lawmakers in Taiwan got into a fist fight and threw pig guts at each other Friday over a soon-to-be enacted policy that would allow imports of U.S. pork and beef.
POLITICO Playbook: The man who may be running Biden’s Covid response
Presented by Facebook
DRIVING THE DAY
NEW … TEAM BIDEN is considering JEFF ZIENTS for a role managing the mechanics of the Covid crisis response. ZIENTS managed the fixing of healthcare.gov, and is a former director of OMB. We reported yesterday there was buzz that ZIENTS could return to OMB — and, indeed, there is a lot of it — but he is not in the running for an economic policy job.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, WHILE YOU WERE TURKEYING … Q: “If the Electoral College does elect President-elect Joe Biden, are you not going to leave this building?” TRUMP: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will, and you know that.” AP on how 2020 is turning into the zombie election that Trump won’t die
TRUMP is going to Camp David today around 3 p.m. VP MIKE PENCE has no public events scheduled. President-elect JOE BIDEN and VP-elect KAMALA HARRIS have nothing on their schedules.
WHAT AMERICA IS READING … THE NATION’S FRONTS: San Diego Union Tribune:“COVID CASES SOAR IN U.S. CITIES” … Washington Post:“Remote learning is leaving children sad and angry” … Charlotte Observer:“Businesses wary of enforcing NC’s new mask rules” … Providence Journal:“R.I. to release $100M in aid to businesses, unemployed”
Good Friday morning. SPOTTED: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser walking with her detail on Hains Point on Thursday. Pic
TRACKING TRUMP’S PROMISE … WAPO: “The United States has closed at least 10 bases around Afghanistan. But drawdown details remain murky,”by Susannah George in Kabul and Dan Lamothe in D.C.: “The United States has closed at least 10 bases across Afghanistan since the signing of a deal with the Taliban in February, according to Afghan and U.S. officials, part of a drawdown process so murky that many here say they are uncertain of what’s to come despite a fast-approaching deadline.
“The base closures are part of the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan outlined in the deal. An Afghan official and a U.S. official confirmed the closure of the bases, several of which were previously unreported. The officials, like others in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss base closures with the media.
“Little is known about what remains of those bases, many in Afghanistan’s most volatile provinces where U.S. support for Afghan operations has been critical in pushing back the Taliban. Some have been completely handed over to Afghan security forces. Others may have been vacated and left in place in a way in which they could be occupied again in the future if U.S. and Afghan officials consider it necessary. It is also unclear how much equipment — more difficult to move than people — is left at each of the closed installations.”
SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO with Fox News’ BRET BAIER on Thursday … BAIER: “When it comes to Afghanistan, where are you on zero troops in Afghanistan?” POMPEO: “Well, it’s the mission set.”
BAIER: “But I mean before January 20th?” POMPEO: “Well, the president will obviously make the decision on that. The president to date has said that we’re going to go from where we are today, something just over 4,000, to around 2,500. But Bret, don’t fall in the trap of thinking about America’s security related to the number of soldiers on the ground in any one place. The threat from terrorism around the world — from Islamic extremism, Islamic terrorism — is real. It doesn’t just emanate from Afghanistan.
“We have the force posture right today. We’re going to keep it right. We’ll get our troops home when we can, and we’ll do the things we need to do. If Qasem Soleimani is a problem, we’ll go crush them. If Hamza bin Laden presents a risk, we’ll take him out. President Trump has been very clear we’re going to protect and secure the homeland, but we’re not going to have our young men and women in harm’s way when it doesn’t deliver real security benefits for the United States and for our allies.”
TROUBLE ON THE HORIZON? … VICTORIA GUIDA: “Progressives praise Yellen but could soon clash with Biden’s Treasury pick”: “Activist groups are hopeful that their views will get a hearing from Yellen, but there are key areas — pandemic relief, trade, financial regulations. student loan debt — where she could quickly disappoint them, based on her record.
“While she’s a strong advocate for a big new economic relief package, she has also spoken forcefully about the need to get the growth of the federal deficit under control. She is a long-time supporter of free trade, which many progressives consider a threat to American workers. And while she oversaw the imposition of tough new banking rules as Federal Reserve chair in the Obama era, she played little direct role in shaping them, raising questions about how aggressive she’d be about new financial regulations.”
THE CORONAVIRUS CONTINUES TO RAGE … 12.8 MILLION Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus … 263,462 Americas have died.
— WSJ: “U.S. hospitalizations surpass 90,000 for the first time,”by David Hall: “The number of people hospitalized in the U.S. due to Covid-19 surpassed 90,000 for the first time, as the pandemic loomed over Thanksgiving Day celebrations.
“The U.S. reported more than 110,000 new coronavirus cases for Thursday, sharply lower than totals in recent days, according to data compiled from Johns Hopkins University. Holidays and weekends often have an impact on the reporting of caseloads and deaths. As Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday, data could also be affected Friday and throughout the weekend, with numbers potentially falling and then rising, as testing and reporting decline and then catch up in the following days, according to the Covid Tracking Project.”
TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week” with Bob Costa: Yasmeen Abutaleb, Sarah Kliff and Fareed Zakaria.
SUNDAY SO FAR …
CNN
“State of the Union”: Adm. Brett Giroir … Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) … Reps.-elect Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) … Jon Osoff.
FOX
“Fox News Sunday”: Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson … New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. Panel: Jason Riley, Susan Page and Juan Williams. Power Player: Sandy Lerner.
CBS
“Face the Nation”: Deborah Birx … El Paso Mayor Dee Margo … Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan … David Beasley … Claire Babineaux-Fontenot … Scott Gottlieb.
NBC
“Meet the Press”: Anthony Fauci. Panel: Michael Eric Dyson, Hugh Hewitt and Kasie Hunt.
Gray TV
“Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren”: Rep.-elect Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) … Rep.-elect Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) … Kevin Cirilli.
Sinclair
“America This Week with Eric Bolling”: Brett Favre.
LITTLE ROCKET MAN — “S. Korea agency says N. Korea executed people, shut capital,” by AP’s Hyung-Jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea: “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered at least two people executed, banned fishing at sea and locked down the capital, Pyongyang, as part of frantic efforts to guard against the coronavirus and its economic damage, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Friday.
“Kim’s government also ordered diplomats overseas to refrain from any acts that could provoke the United States because it is worried about President-elect Joe Biden’s expected new approach toward North Korea, lawmakers told reporters after attending a private briefing by the National Intelligence Service.” AP
BUSINESS BURST — “Pushed by Pandemic, Amazon Goes on a Hiring Spree Without Equal,”by NYT’s Karen Weise in Seattle: “Amazon has embarked on an extraordinary hiring binge this year, vacuuming up an average of 1,400 new workers a day and solidifying its power as online shopping becomes more entrenched in the coronavirus pandemic.
“The hiring has taken place at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, at its hundreds of warehouses in rural communities and suburbs, and in countries such as India and Italy. Amazon added 427,300 employees between January and October, pushing its work force to more than 1.2 million people globally, up more than 50 percent from a year ago. Its number of workers now approaches the entire population of Dallas.
“The spree has accelerated since the onset of the pandemic, which has turbocharged Amazon’s business and made it a winner of the crisis. Starting in July, the company brought on about 350,000 employees, or 2,800 a day. Most have been warehouse workers, but Amazon has also hired software engineers and hardware specialists to power enterprises such as cloud computing, streaming entertainment and devices, which have boomed in the pandemic.”
HIGH TIMES — “How One of the Reddest States Became the Nation’s Hottest Weed Market,”by Paul Demko in Wellston, Oklahoma: “One day in the early fall of 2018, while scrutinizing the finances of his thriving Colorado garden supply business, Chip Baker noticed a curious development: transportation costs had spiked fivefold. The surge, he quickly determined, was due to huge shipments of cultivation supplies—potting soil, grow lights, dehumidifiers, fertilizer, water filters—to Oklahoma.
“Baker, who has been growing weed since he was 13 in Georgia, has cultivated crops in some of the world’s most notorious marijuana hotspots, from the forests of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle to the lake region of Switzerland to the mountains of Colorado. Oklahoma was not exactly on his radar. So one weekend in October, Baker and his wife Jessica decided to take a drive to see where all their products were ending up.
“Voters in the staunchly conservative state had just four months earlier authorized a medical marijuana program and sales were just beginning. The Bakers immediately saw the potential for the fledgling market. With no limits on marijuana business licenses, scant restrictions on who can obtain a medical card, and cheap land, energy and building materials, they believed Oklahoma could become a free-market weed utopia and they wanted in.
“Within two weeks, they found a house to rent in Broken Bow and by February had secured a lease on an empty Oklahoma City strip mall. Eventually they purchased a 110-acre plot of land down a red dirt road about 40 miles northeast of Oklahoma City that had previously been a breeding ground for fighting cocks and started growing high-grade strains of cannabis with names like Purple Punch, Cookies and Cream and Miracle Alien.”
BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) is 5-0 … Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) is 62 … Caroline Kennedy is 63 … Alex Wagner … Rich Verma, vice chair at the Asia Group (h/ts Ben Chang) … Mary Vought, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund … Sam Love … POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn, Fonda Fralin and Solomon Yeon … Paul Maslin (h/t Jon Haber) … Joe Solmonese … Jason Gold … Marissa McBride … Jen Broberg (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Brian McCormack … Andrea Koppel-Pollack … Nick Massella, senior director of brand strategy and comms for PBS NewsHour … former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is 6-0 … former Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.) is 47 … Sean Bartlett … Jasmin Aleman, legislative correspondent for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer …
… Nick Wittenberg, legal counsel at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy … WSJ’s Katie Honan … Kaiser Health News’ Victoria Knight … Libby Leist, EP of NBC’s “Today” show … Marie Logsden … Simon Taylor … Michael Starr Hopkins, founding partner of Northern Starr Strategies … Daniel Ducassi … Shai Korman, comms director at the Center for a New American Security, is 41 … Rob Towner … Barry Sternlicht is 6-0 … Sam Wainwright is 33 … Molly Logan Cox … John Aravosis … Ashley Robinson … Susan Falconer … Kathryn Ciano, product counsel at Google… Dina Cappiello, editorial director and EVP at Edelman … Katie Campo … Facebook’s Kaiya Waddell … Christine Taylor … Jess Byrne Knox … Joe Davila … Mary Anne Pintar … Chelsie Jeppson … Paul Nasella … Sid Burgess is 39 … Victoria Lai
While vising the home state of his Vice-President Lyndon Baines Johnson, November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas.
The youngest President ever elected, being 43 years old, he was also the youngest to die, barely serving 1,000 days.
Kennedy was on his way to the Dallas Trade Mart to deliver a speech, in which he had prepared to say:
“We in this country, in this generation, are – by destiny rather than choice – the watchmen on the walls of world freedom.”
“Watchman on the walls” referenced a well-known Bible passage out of the Book of Ezekiel 33:7-9:
“If the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned … his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand …
O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore … warn them …
When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked … thou hast delivered thy soul …
But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.”
Kennedy continued:
We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint,
and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of peace on earth, goodwill toward men (Luke 2:14) …
That must always be our goal – and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength.
For as was written long ago, ‘Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.'” (Psalm 127:1)
Warning of the deep state, John F. Kennedy candidly addressed the American Newspaper Publishers Association at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, April 27, 1961:
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society;
and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings …
We are opposed around the world by a … ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence – on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.
… It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published.
Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised.
No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”
Three days before Kennedy was inaugurated, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his final address, January 17, 1961, warning of “a military industrial complex” and “a scientific technological elite,” similar to today’s global big tech and pharma industries:
“We face a hostile ideology — global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method … of indefinite duration …
Whether foreign or domestic … there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties … development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research … suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.
But each proposal must be weighed in the light of … the need to maintain balance … between the private and the public economy … balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual …”
Eisenhower continued:
“But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise ……
Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction …
But now … we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions …
The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government … We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.
Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted.
Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Eisenhower warned of the tech industry:
“Akin to … sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields.
In the same fashion, the free university … has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity.
For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded …
We must also be alert to the … danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship … to balance …, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system — ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society …”
Eisenhower concluded:
“You and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow.
We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow …
This world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect …
You and I — my fellow citizens — need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice.”
Another person addressing the threat to freedom was Lutheran minister Richard Wurmbrand.
In 1948, he was arrested by Socialist Republic of Romania and was tortured 14 years in prison. His wife, Sabina, was sent to labor camp.
After years of persecution and international pressure, the Wurmbrands received amnesty. In 1965, he testified before the U.S. Senate’s Internal Security Subcommittee.
In 1967, Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand formed Jesus To The Communist World, renamed Voice of the Martyrs.
Richard Wurmbrand wrote:
“Every freedom-loving man has two fatherlands; his own and America … America is the hope of every enslaved man, because it is the last bastion of freedom in the world.
Only America has the power and spiritual resources to stand as a barrier between militant Communism and the people of the world.
It is the last “dike” holding back the rampaging floodwaters of militant Communism. If it crumples, there is no other dike, no other dam; no other line of defense to fall back upon.
America is the last hope of millions of enslaved peoples …
I have seen fellow-prisoners in Communist prisons beaten, tortured, with 50 pounds of chains on their legs – praying for America … that the dike will not crumple; that it will remain free.”
In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned, from 1945 to 1953.
After intense international pressure, he was released and traveled to Washington, D.C., where he stated June 30, 1975:
“At the height of Stalin’s terror in 1937-38 … more than 40,000 persons shot per month! …
It is precisely because I am the friend of the United States … that I have come to tell you …
Over there people are groaning and dying and in psychiatric hospitals. Doctors are making their evening rounds, for the third time injecting people with drugs which destroy their brain cells …
I would like to call upon America to be more careful with its trust and prevent those … using the struggle … for social justice to lead you down a false road …
They are trying to weaken you; the are trying to disarm your strong and magnificent country in the face of this fearful threat-one that has never been seen before in the history of the world.
I call upon … ordinary working men of America … do not let yourselves become weak.”
Dutch politician Geert Wilders was born the year John F. Kennedy was shot.
Echoing Kennedy’s admonition, that Americans are “watchmen on the walls of world freedom,” Geert Wilders gave a speech in New York, September 25, 2008, titled “America the Last Man Standing”:
“The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe …
Europe … is changing … by Muslim mass-migration … with mosques on many street corners … controlled by religious fanatics …
Muslim neighborhoods … are mushrooming in every city across Europe.
These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city …
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden …”
Wilders continued:
“In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim.
Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities … In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims.
Non-Muslim women routinely hear ‘whore, whore’ … In France school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims … The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity …”
Geert Wilders stated further:
“In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves …
Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II …
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe … 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now …
The numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate … Half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France.
One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks … One-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate …
They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar al-Islam …”
Wilders added:
“Much of this street violence … is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries …
Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored. Mohammed’s … behavior is an example to all Muslims …
If Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem …
Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza …
Islam means ‘submission.’ Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia.
If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies …”
Geert Wilders concluded:
“There is a danger greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing …
With an Islamic Europe, it would be UP TO AMERICA ALONE to preserve the heritage of ROME, ATHENS and JERUSALEM.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt had stated on Labor Day, September 1,1941:
“Preservation of these rights is vitally important now, not only to us who enjoy them-but to the whole future of Christian civilization.”
Winston Churchill addressed Britain’s House of Commons, June 18, 1940:
“Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization …
If we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”
Though John F. Kennedy was the youngest person “elected” President, it was actually Theodore Roosevelt who was the youngest person to become President.
Roosevelt was 42 years old as Vice-President when President McKinley was assassinated in 1901.
Roosevelt stated in 1909:
“The thought of modern industry in the hands of Christian charity is a dream worth dreaming.
The thought of industry in the hands of paganism is a nightmare beyond imagining. The choice between the two is upon us.”
Theodore Roosevelt addressed the American Sociological Congress (Fear God and Take Your Own Part, 1916, p. 70):
“The civilization of Europe, America and Australia exists today at all only because of the victories of civilized man over the enemies of civilization …
victories stretching through the centuries from Charles Martel in the eighth century and those of John Sobieski in the seventeenth century …
There are such ‘social values’ today in Europe, America and Australia only because during those thousand years the Christians of Europe possessed the warlike power to do what the Christians of Asia and Africa had failed to do – that is, to beat back the Moslem invader.”
Theodore Roosevelt stated in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 24, 1903:
“In NO OTHER PLACE and at NO OTHER TIME has the experiment of government OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people, been tried on so vast a scale as here in our own country …
Failure would not only be a dreadful thing for us, but a dreadful thing for all mankind … It would mean loss of hope for all who believe in the power and the righteousness of liberty.
Therefore, in thanking God for the mercies extended to us in the past, WE BESEECH HIM that He MAY NOT WITHHOLD THEM IN THE FUTURE.”
On February 9, 1961, President Kennedy remarked at a Breakfast for International Christian Leadership:
“Every President of the United States has placed special reliance upon his faith in God …
The guiding principle and prayer of this Nation has been, is now, and shall ever be ‘IN GOD WE TRUST.'”
A profound message to pastors is that the most important thing is to bring people to Christ; but the second most important thing is to preserve the freedom to do the most important thing.
President John F. Kennedy worded it this way, February 9, 1961:
“This country was dedicated to … two propositions.
… The Puritans and the Pilgrims of my own section of New England, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the Catholics of Maryland, the Presbyterians of North Carolina, the Methodists and Baptists who came later,
all shared these two great traditions which, like silver threads, have run through the warp and the woof of American History …
First, a strong religious conviction, and
secondly, a recognition that this conviction could flourish only under a system of freedom.”
I could not have been more wrong about how the election would affect the Great Pandemic Panic. I assumed that if Biden won, or the left could claim he won, the WuFlu would be consigned to the hazmat container of history. Why lockdown the country, bankrupt businesses and put school children under house arrest if …
On Thanksgiving Day, we thank God for the abundant blessings in our lives. As we gather with family and friends to celebrate this season of generosity, hope, and gratitude, we commemorate America’s founding traditions of faith, family, and friendship, and give thanks for the principles of freedom, liberty, and democracy that make our country exceptional in the …
Fair and free elections are the foundation of our democracy because they ensure the government gets its authority from the will of the people. As Jefferson said, “The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.’ Our founders so believed in this they outlined safeguards against fraud in Federalist Papers #68. …
The Supreme Court late Wednesday night sided with religious organizations challenging Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus restrictions and called the New York Democrat’s measures “discriminatory” in its injunction for emergency relief. The conservative justices, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, favored the religious organizations in the 5-4 ruling, while Justice John Roberts sided with the liberal justices. …
(Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Obama Thinks He Won the Election
Happy Black Friday, offbeat travelers on the Kruiser Morning Briefing way. I hope you all managed to work around the COVID-y weirdness and enjoy your Thanksgiving Day. All was quiet but well here at the Kruiser Bunker.
We will be doing another quick, holiday weekend affair today. There are leftovers and online deals to be dealt with after all.
Perhaps some day drinking as well.
Last week it became painfully clear to me that Barack Obama’s latest fit of spotlight-hogging wasn’t going to end any time soon. The book tour for what I believe is his seventy-fifth memoir may last until the next presidential election, given The Lightbringer’s attention fetish. What I find most curious is the timing of this tour. I mused about it a bit in a column last week:
The timing of the book release can mean only one of two things: either he thought Trump was going to win and wanted to steal his thunder or he thought Biden was going to win wanted to, well, steal his thunder.
Obama and his people will probably insist that the tour was set up by the publisher and the fact that it coincides with the immediate aftermath of the election is pure coincidence. One thing that we learned from his time in office, however, is that Obama and his people are pathological liars. The former Attention Sponge in-Chief knew exactly what he was doing when he ordered the publisher to release the book immediately after the election.
The disrespect for Joe Biden here is hard to deny, and it’s classic Obama. He begins to fade from existence if he goes more than five minutes without anyone paying attention to him. Since it’s RACIST to deny him, he knows he can just snap his fingers and get the cameras turned back on him. Obama obviously knew that his turn as the belle of the post-election Attention Whore Ball could potentially shove Grandpa Gropes into the background at a time when he should be enjoying his greatest triumph.
And he didn’t care.
I don’t really care that he’s crapping all over Biden, I’m just pointing it out as a reminder of how awful he is.
Not that Obama himself isn’t busy reminding us that he’s a terrible human being.
During the same interview, His Undeniably Messianic Divine Lightbringerliness also hit Trump with the “kids in cages” talking point, completely omitting the fact that it was his administration that began the practice.
Barack Obama has only a casual relationship with the truth. It doesn’t matter, because anyone who dares point out that he is lying is immediately branded a racist Klansman puppy-murdering Nickelback groupie.
The only real hope we have to get Obama out of the news for a while is to send him off to write another memoir. It’s not like he ever has to accomplish anything for one of these books, after all. Perhaps he can regale us with 400 ghost-written pages about his recent uncomfortable romantic encounter with quivering fan boy Stephen Colbert.
For the moment, I will just have to take comfort in the fact that he’s probably not irritating me nearly as much as he is Joe Biden’s puppeteers.
William Jacobson: “BUSY DAY – Thanksgiving Day was very busy at the website mostly because of breaking news overnight – including a Big Religious Freedom Win at SCOTUS and the release of The Kraken. Check them out.“
Kemberlee Kaye: “”May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13″
Mary Chastain: “I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends! I loved being with family and not sticking to my paleo diet.”
Leslie Eastman: “‘Happily, the power did not go out in San Diego and my lamb and muffins came out great!”
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For Her
The theme of 2020 is cozy (if we’re being polite). Whether it’s being comfortable in the home office or going on an organizing streak to calm the chaos, these are my favorite items to give her.Think what you want about the Kardashians, but KKW’s Skims loungewear and pajamas are seriously comfortable. This combo of a Henley Sleep Shirt and Rib Leggings is my absolute favorite. I am eagerly waiting for more colors to be available on the Skims website. Until then, Nordstrom has the black and grey in stock.These Butter Socks are great for the morning commute from bedroom to kitchen to laptop. And this plush robe from Target is now considered outerwear going into 2021.If she binge-watched Getting Organized with The Home Edit on Netflix, she’ll appreciate this Sunglasses Organizer that marries organization with admiration of things.
Lastly, there’s nothing wrong with adding some glamour. More often I find myself adding a simple pair of Kate Spade earrings to level up a casual outfit before leaving the house. These “Pearls of Wisdom” drop earrings are a steal at $25.
For Him
I always have the hardest time buying for men. Gift guides have only seem to have a few categories of men – drinkers, sports lovers, and those who wear shirts.
Screenbid is my favorite place for buying gifts (admittedly mostly for myself) because you can buy actual set items used in movies and TV shows. Some of the current offerings include Mad Men, Empire, Gangs of New York, Justified, Breaking Bad, and more.
Another frequent gift guide category for guys is grill accessories. Sometimes stereotypes exist for a reason – guys love accessories and gadgets. These Flavor-Infusing Grill Wraps add a smoky flavor and make grilling vegetables more manageable.
Best Virtual Gifts
If you won’t be seeing someone in person and don’t want to deal with possible shipping delays, these are my favorite slightly-more-creative-than-a-giftcard ideas.
Bright readers know I love Audible, so an Audible membership (or credits if they already have a membership) is a great gift. You can buy a certain number of months, so you don’t have to worry about a reoccurring charge. If you want to give a specific book, here are some of my favorite audiobooks where the narration really adds to the enjoyment of the book: The Right Stuff (written by Tom Wolfe, narrated by Dennis Quaid), Greenlights (written and narrated by Matthew McConaughey), Daisy Jones & The Six (written by Taylor Jenkins Reid, narrated by Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer and more), A Polaroid Guy in a Snapchat World (written and narrated by David Spade).
I’m kind of obsessed with giving friends personalized videos from their favorite reality stars, actors, and sports stars via Cameo. You can use my code for $5 off your first Cameo. When writing your note to book the Cameo star, be specific about some unique things about the recipient. The good Cameos always include random information that makes a video extra thoughtful.
Finally, this is a tangible gift but a way to send virtual love and good thoughts at any time — a Long Distance Friendship Lamp. When you touch it, the other lamp (on the other side of town or the other side of the world) lights up. You can customize with different colors so that multiple family members can show someone love.
For Those on a Health Journey
Obviously, these are meant for someone who is open about this topic. Gifts aren’t meant to give unsolicited advice.
The FitIndex Scale is a fun gadget for tracking progress other than just weight. It also measures BMI, body fat, muscle mass, and resting metabolic rate.
Looking for keto or low-carb stocking stuffers and snacks? You can’t go wrong with anything from ChocZero. My favorites are the keto bark and peanut butter cups. They even have an Advent Calendar! I also love the Legendary Foods savory almonds and sweet almond butters. This variety pack is a great way to try all their best flavors.
Best White Elephant Gifts
They’re funny, useful and sure to get the virtual or in-person party started.
A wireless charger. An Investors Business Daily subscription (in one year, I went from knowing very little about personal investing, to being a confident investor thanks to IBD) A Bean Box subscription (best subscription box ever–someone got this for me last year and I love it. Every month you get a fresh, high-end coffee delivered from a different part of the world) A custom family portrait. A Drybar blowout kit (especially useful in this COVID world, when we can’t always get to the salon for an on-the-go blowout) A Whistle GPS pet tracker (this is SO great for dog lovers… I have one and it gives me such peace of mind. You put it on your dog’s collar, and can see where your dog is at all times on your phone using an app. If your dog ever gets loose or runs away, you’ll know where he is and can see him moving in real time) Lou and Grey Softblend set (the only thing I wear during quarantine–so comfy and soft) Goodnight Christmas (really cute book for kids, they also make “goodnight” books customized for every US city) Custom dog portrait (Another one for dog lovers… I ordered one of these for my mom last year, and this guy is amazing! He makes the portrait look just like your pet, but it’s still fun/cartoon-y… really great prices too)
Inez Feltscher Stepman, Wednesday Editor
The watchword for my choices this year is definitely “cozy.” Regrettably, we’re all going to be spending a lot more time cozying up by the fire or TV this holiday season than attending parties. Generally, I’d rather be dragged behind a bus than go shopping on Black Friday (prayers up for retail workers this year in particular), but there are usually lots of good deals online through Cyber Monday.
This cashmere jogger set with matching hoodie from Summersalt for when regular clothes seem pointless. There are five colors to choose from, but my favorite is the pinot/lava. Add these cashmere pom pom slippers on sale over at Saks, and you’ve got yourself (or your loved one) a hell of a “Christmas in” outfit.
I usually recommend stalking up on “experience” gifts for the holidays, and there’s still some that make sense this year, like grabbing annual passes for any national or state parks nearby. Shenandoah National Park, for example, is just $55 for the year.
This is a really great year to pick up gift certificates to support all your favorite restaurants and hand them out like candy.
These cozy and functional winter boots in the most delicious sounding color – “glazed pecan” – are already half off at J Crew (as are their puffers and coats).
For special gifts, I’m a big fan of Tiffany & Co’s sterling silver jewelry. Often, you can find a beautiful piece for a reasonable price, and a silver bracelet or pendant will look lovely peeping out from behind cozy pajamas
A Kiehl’s skincare set. I don’t spend a lot of money on skincare or beauty products, but when I splurge, Kiehl’s is my go-to brand. During the holidays, they offer amazing gift set deals, so now is the time to take advantage. My two favorite products are the Ultra Facial Cleanser (which this gift set includes), and the Super Multi-Corrective Anti-Aging Face & Neck Cream (which this gift set includes).A gift card to a local interior designer for her to redo her home office or another room. (No link…shop local! I can assure you; she’ll have fun with this.)
For Him
A “Make the house smell great again” candle. It’s both funny and practical. A men’s manicure set. (He’ll hate you for this present but then use it all the time—and more importantly, he’ll stop using yours.) A Rhoback polo (I get my husband one every year and usually sneak in a ladies hat for myself. If you do—buy one for your man, too.).A pair of L.L.Bean men’s Wicked Good Moccasins. My husband can confirm, they’re wicked good. At risk of objectifying your hubby, a Peloton for you to use, too.For the Kids Magnetic blocks. These are expensive for a set of blocks, but the endless hours of entertainment they’ll provide for kids makes them worth every penny. (Also, don’t be surprised when you discover that you enjoy playing with them, too.) An ice cream stand or any Tenderleaf toy. Let your kids imaginations run wild! Anything from Maisonette, which is having a 30% off cyber week sale. For baby girls, I’m in love with this strolley. (Sorry for the lack of boy suggestions… #GirlMom) For older kids, this play dough looks super fun.
Books, books, and more books! As a new mom, I can assure you that we’re always on the hunt for more books to add to our children’s libraries, so this is a gift that will make kids and the parents happy. For babies, I highly recommend a set of learning books they can hold themselves, and for kids of any age, I cannot recommend The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gaines more. (Yes, of course Joanna Gaines is good at writing children’s books, too!) For expecting parents, I recommend gifting them a copy of Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook, which educates parents on the importance of reading aloud to their children, along with offering helpful strategies and book recommendations along the way.
Paulina Enck, Friday Editor
Trish McEvoy Lash Curling Mascara and Intense Gel Eyeliner from bluemercury. These are the best eyeliner and mascara you will ever purchase. The eyeliner goes on smoothly and can be anywhere from subtle to bold. All of the colors are great, though “Arabian Nights” is especially fun. The mascara is long-lasting, providing volume and length without clumping. Further, it is easy to take off with water.Kate Spade is having a sale with many gorgeous purses, clothes, and shoes 65% or 70% off. For purses, there are elegant pastels, beautiful traditional offerings, and funcutesyoptions.
The Holiday Event at Tory Burch offers 30% off total purchase, up to 60% off on specific sale items, and with free shipping and returns. Tory Burch’s ballet flats are a classic, and there are some exciting variations on the theme. The patent cap-toe ballet flats, available in three colors, balance soft and patent leather to charming effect. The quilted flats add nice texture, as do the the suede offerings. The 90mm Lug Sole Bootie balances stability with a high heals in a cute combo. On the clothes front, the printed smock dress is very chic, and fits fantastically.
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During a Thanksgiving Day Press conference, President Donald Trump made it clear that he would continue fighting to overturn what many Americans and the commander in chief himself believe is a deeply flawed election result. While admitting that he would concede to Joe Biden if the Electoral College voted for his opponent, the president pointed to “massive fraud” and said that the final results “have a long way to go.”
The left-leaning media leads with President Trump’s acknowledgment that he will concede the election to Joe Biden if the Electoral College goes the Democrat’s way. The intent is to portray this as an admission of defeat, which it is not. Legal and other reviews of election results continue.
The media’s efforts to ratchet up the fear continue. Newsweek reports that a George Washington University professor predicts Thanksgiving celebrations will cause the COVID-19 fatality rate to double.
Some Huffington Post blogger is outraged that President Trump – should he lose the election – may not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration. Who would have thought that a politician might choose to boycott a presidential inauguration? Surely such a blatant act of disrespect has never before occurred. Surely.
LN’s Black Friday Best: Liberty and Style for the Season
Before the 2020 election has even been decided, some people are trying to predict who will run on the GOP ticket in 2024. White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien has been mentioned in media reports but dismisses the idea as speculation.
Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz says President Trump “should pardon everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic if he has to,” to quench the “bloodlust” of the radical left.
Joe Biden continues to play at being president-elect by staffing up his as yet purely hypothetical administration and White House team. It has not gone unnoticed that former Obama administration officials feature heavily among those tapped for key positions.
Something political to ponder as you enjoy your morning coffee.
Andrew Weissmann, who served as Robert Mueller’s deputy during the special counsel investigation into the Russia collusion hoax, says that a Biden-appointed attorney general should investigate President Trump. Critics of the 45th president continue to speak about unity while also issuing threats to exact revenge upon Trump and his supporters. They are playing with fire. Suppose he doesn’t secure a second term. In that case, Donald Trump could become the symbolic leader of conservative resistance to a Biden presidency, should Democrats continue their vendetta against him when (if) he leaves office in 2021. Politically-motivated persecution of Trump and those who voted for him could divide the country further – and with dangerous consequences.
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Nov 27, 2020 01:00 am
America is on the verge of sanctioning a socialist takeover of the greatest government ever established on the face of the Earth. What are we doing about it? Read More…
Nov 27, 2020 01:00 am
When those saying COVID is a crisis act like it’s a big nothing burger, why would Americans watching such hypocrisy take any of this seriously? If it is a crisis, then act like it. Read More…
The left has a list …
Nov 27, 2020 01:00 am
Progressives have their lists of individuals they plan on punishing for their support of Donald Trump. Read more…
Joe ‘palm-tificates’ on Thanksgiving
Nov 27, 2020 01:00 am
Joe Biden, the Catholic who advocates for late-term abortion, shared Thanksgiving insights as well as Holy Scripture with a nation that recognizes insincerity when it hears it. Read more…
Obama wrong again
Nov 27, 2020 01:00 am
The man who built the cages lectures us about how to treat Hispanics. Read more…
Why civil disobedience is necessary
Nov 27, 2020 01:00 am
Americans are correct to protest anything that impinges on their Creator-granted liberties, violates the Bill of Rights or the U.S. Constitution. Read more…
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Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is the latest Democrat to get caught flouting his own guidance amid the coronavirus pandemic, after his office confirmed that he flew out of state Wednesday to visit family for Thanksgiving—just 30 minutes after a warning went out from his Twitter account urging people to “avoid travel” for the holiday. Wha … Read more
While Illinois continues to see climbing cases and deaths, outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, and CNN are choosing to hyperfocus on states with Republican leaders despite fewer per capita deaths.
Thanksgiving is a time to look back in gratitude on all that has been good in the past year. It’s also a chance to award the bad — and politicians have given lots from which to pick.
Contra your neighborhood hipster bar, there is no such thing as ‘craft vodka.’ Vodka is vodka, and there are only two kinds of it at the end of the day.
Removing time-tested classics and assigning easy fiction with leftist themes fails in cultivating any love of reading in the students that need it most.
The Supreme Court determined that the exorbitant restrictions on church attendence were in violation of the First Amendment’s protection of Free Expression.
While many presidential Thanksgiving proclamations are worth revisiting in 2020, President Grover Cleveland’s 1888 proclamation is especially resonant.
The losses we have experienced because of COVID-19 help us better understand the Pilgrims. Their courage and faith to give thanks despite their hardships can encourage us to give thanks in 2020.
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Morning Rundown
How to shop all the best deals on Black Friday: Thanksgiving has come and gone, but whether you met with family in person or on a Zoom call, chances are you’re now turning your thoughts toward Black Friday shopping. It’s true that things may be quite different for some shoppers than in years past, but much like your choice to go in-person or virtual for Turkey Day, you’ll have the same options for picking out gifts for loved ones. “GMA” has curated dozens of collections of great gift ideas, from shoes, to home products, to skin care, to gifts for your pet and much more, many of which you can see below and all of which you can check out from the comfort of your home. We’ve even rounded up some of the tools that will help make your shopping experience that much easier by keeping track of coupons, reward points and cash back to help you get the perfect gifts for less. Happy shopping!
GMA Must-Watch
This morning on “GMA,” Chef Kevin Gooding, one of Walt Disney World’s culinary geniuses, joins us to share how to make Disney’s famous stuffing waffles. Plus, Rosie Perez talks about her role in the new HBO Max series “The Flight Attendant” and shares her favorite Thanksgiving recipe. And Becky Worley has “out of this world” deals for Black Friday. All this and more only on “GMA.”
President Donald Trump confirmed he will leave the White House on January 20 if the Electoral College formally certifies President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Here is what’s happening this day after Thanksgiving, aside from Black Friday sales.
Trump says it will be ‘a very hard thing’ to concede to Biden
The president said Thursday that it’sgoing to be difficult for him to concede the 2020 presidential election to Biden even when the Electoral College is expected to soon formally certify his opponent’s victory.
“It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede,”Trump told reporters on Thanksgiving evening as he took questions from the press for the first time since the Nov. 3 election.
Pushed about whether he would vacate the White House if the Electoral College finalizes Biden’s victory next month, he replied: “Certainly I will.”
But he went on to claim victory during the feisty 35-minute question-and-answer session that came after he conducted a series of Thanksgiving video conferences with military service members.
He falsely told reporters that he won the election by a “tremendous” amount and reiterated his baseless claims about the election being stolen from him because of fraudulent votes in key battleground states.
Biden won the Electoral College by 306 votes to Trump’s 232, and received more than 80 million votes to 73.8 million for Trump, according to projections by the NBC News Decision Desk and other major news organizations.
Trump and his allies have filedover 30 lawsuitsacross six swing states in an attempt to contest the election results. Most of them have been shot down or withdrawn, and no court has found even a single instance of fraud.
Nevertheless, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and many other elected Republicans still haven’t acknowledged Biden as the president-elect or condemned Trump’s unprecedented attempts to overturn the election results.
Meantime, ex-presidents are usually entitled to classified briefings. However, some former intelligence officials are openly questioning whether or not Trump can be trustedwith America’s national security secrets once he leaves office.
“He’s shown as president that he doesn’t take secret-keeping terribly seriously,” said Jack Goldsmith, a senior Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration. “He has a known tendency to disrespect rules related to national security. And he has a known tendency to like to sell things that are valuable to him.”
WithCovid-19 cases already increasing at an alarming rate across the country and approaching 13 million, according to NBC News tallies, health officials fear that the spike in holiday travel will only lead to more infections.
It’s tough keeping up with all the latest news about the pandemic — and the misinformation that surrounds Covid-19. When questions come up about the virus, be sure to be armed with the science.
Check out our handy Covid-19 fact generatorfor answers to your questions on everything from Covid-19 symptoms to the status of vaccines.
Some argue the Brazilian Pele won more trophies, or that fellow Argentine Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo have approached comparable skill levels.
But there are none like Maradona— “the golden kid” — who rose from the impoverished barrios of Buenos Aires to become a true international icon.
“He transcended the sport,” Jon Smith, a leading British sports agent who represented Maradona between 1986 and 1991, told NBC News.
“He went to some very dark corners,” he added, “but history will be kind to Diego because his talent was so supreme and he never lost that desire to help the unfortunate.”
With a helmet, aviator sunglasses and a custom motorcycle jacket, Bogie, an 11-year-old mixed breed dog in the Philippines, has captured attention for touring the country on a motorcycle with his owner.
Let’s be honest. Ted Cruz owning Congresswoman AOC over a political thing isn’t a stunning accomplishment. It’s as stunning as me owning my two-year-old nephew when I say “got your nose.” Yet Sen. Cru … MORE
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REALCLEARPOLITICS MORNING NOTE
11/27/2020
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Carl Cannon’s Morning Note
‘Boy Scout’ Governor; Fighting Fraud; Quote of the Week
By Carl M. Cannon on Nov 27, 2020 09:51 am
Good morning, it’s Friday, Nov. 27, 2020, the day of the week I relate a quote meant to be inspirational or thought-provoking. Today is also the day after Thanksgiving during a year when it has been difficult to even see our nation’s blessings, let alone thank a higher power for them, which is what Abraham Lincoln urged Americans do when he designated the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.”
Think about that for a moment. Lincoln’s proclamation was issued on Oct. 3, 1863, three months after Gettysburg, and only 10 days after Union forces were routed at Chickamauga in the second bloodiest engagement of the Civil War. It seems incongruous, to say the least.
Life is often that way, isn’t it? “Incongruous” is too mild a word for the colonists who founded a new nation devoted to “freedom” at a time when slavery was woven into the fabric of the society they were carving out of a wilderness — land that was not, by the way, uninhabited when they arrived from Europe.
(Seventy-four years to the day before Lincoln’s Thanksgiving pronouncement, George Washington issued a similar proclamation of thanks “for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war…in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and …for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed.”)
Yet, the evolution of freedom and liberty continued apace after 1789, as it did after 1863. By 2003, George W. Bush extended this concept to its ultimate conclusion: “The liberty we prize is not America’s gift to the world,” Bush said in his 2003 State of the Union address. “It is God’s gift to humanity.”
This perception, which Bush had expressed before, wasn’t universally appreciated among his contemporaries. For one thing, the 43rd U.S. president was employing an attractive idea in service of decidedly unattractive foreign policy — another war in Iraq. It also raised consequential metaphysical questions: How do we measure freedom? Should we trust, not just government, but our own eyes and ears? Can we safely rely on our personal perceptions of liberty? Of reality? Of the beautiful things in the world?
For an answer to those questions I’ll turn this morning not to presidents or philosophers, but to three young women from the 20th century who expressed themselves from their own personal experiences, and did so from the heart.
First, I’d point you to RealClearPolitics’ front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors, including the following:
* * *
Utah’s “Boy Scout” Governor-Elect: Oddity or Exemplar? Phil Wegmann profiles Spencer Cox, whose get-along messaging counters the oppositional ethos of U.S. politics.
The Electoral College Works Against Fraud. Tara Ross argues that the best way to restore confidence in our elections is to let our time-honored process play out.
Five Facts on Appropriation Bills. With a Dec. 11 deadline looming, No Labels has this primer at RealClearPolicy.
No Matter How Georgia Goes, Golden Gridlock Is Here to Stay. At RealClearMarkets, Ken Fisher writes that razor-thin electoral margins mean big legislative change is highly unlikely, which is good news for stock markets.
Free Speech Suffers Most on New England Campuses. At RealClearEducation, Samuel J. Abrams spotlights more findings from the 2020 college survey.
* * *
In early December 1957, a girl from Lithuania — a refugee — won an oratory contest in the Washington, D.C., area called “I Speak for Democracy.” In her speech, she described liberty as “something that is felt with the heart rather than seen by the eyes.” Quote-smith Garson O’Toole, who unearthed this reference, was struck by how similar it is to a well-worn Helen Keller quotation one finds on T-shirts and various (and highly dubious) Internet quotation collections.
I’m struck by it, too. The famous Helen Keller line is: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.”
But did Helen Keller really say this? If so, was the poignant thought hers to begin with? The answers are that, yes, she wrote something quite similar — and although it wasn’t originally her idea, the sentiment was meant for her. The observation was related to Keller by her extraordinary teacher, Anne Sullivan, as a way to inspire Helen to overcome her disabilities.
In her 1905 autobiography, “The Story of My Life,” Keller republished a letter she’d written at age 10 to the Rev. Phillips Brooks, one of her benefactors.
“I used to wish that I could see pictures with my hands as I do statues, but now I do not often think about it because my dear Father has filled my mind with beautiful pictures, even of things I cannot see. If the light were not in your eyes, dear Mr. Brooks, you would understand better how happy your little Helen was when her teacher explained to her that the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart. Every day I find out something which makes me glad.”
Below is a sneak peek of this content! Welcome to this week’s Premium Q&A session for Premium Interactive members. I appreciate you all signing up and joining me. Thank you. Editor’s note: If you enjoy these sessions (along with the weekly columns and audio commentaries), please use the Facebook and… CONTINUE Read More »
Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news, is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. He has covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 13 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He won six Emmys at CBS, and seven at HBO, where he now reports for the widely acclaimed broadcast Real Sports. [Read More…]
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November 27, 2020
New Study Highlights Alleged Accounting Error Regarding…
By Ethan Yang | The accounting error has likely led to a number of policy decisions that have drastically crippled our ability to support the general welfare of society, economically, socially, and spiritually. Going forward these findings should…
By Michael Fumento | What’s driving the anti-Dakotas vendetta is that the mainstream media overwhelmingly support authoritarian measures and governors of both states have resisted them. It’s all about politics, sensationalism, and possibly envy.
By Jeffrey A. Tucker | This bureaucratic hydra of federal, state, and local governments tried to delete Thanksgiving. And this is at a time of unprecedented sadness and depression when people are most in need of family and companionship. This…
By Jenin Younes | The substantial evidence that these mechanisms are not effective, particularly beyond their duration, has been automatically rejected for too long. This is not science: it is politics, and those within the profession who have…
By Barry Brownstein | We need not surrender to authoritarian politicians our own moral agency to care for others. While some try to tear the ties that bind us, we can express gratitude for the great chain of human connection holding us together…
By Ethan Yang | Alongside the immediate consequences of lockdowns, our leaders should consider the long-term problems as well to ensure we do not pass along a degraded shell of our society to our posterity in exchange for a short-term goal…
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New York Times: “Republicans who had privately fretted about her demise offered hearty congratulations, professing to have always known she would survive. Senator Joe Manchin III, the centrist Democrat from West Virginia, reached out wanting to know how soon he could get a meeting with his fellow moderate to begin breaking through the impasse on a coronavirus relief package. And President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. made a brief call to congratulate a former Senate colleague and legislative ally whose vote he will badly need to push through his agenda and staff his administration.”
“The ring-kissing reflected the prime perch of Ms. Collins, who, after having survived the steepest re-election challenge of her career with a comfortable margin, has emerged more powerful than ever, poised for a fifth term in which her brand of bipartisan deal-making will be crucial.”
“The question is how Ms. Collins, who has long held sway as one of the few swing votes in a narrowly divided Senate, will use that power.”
“The Trump administration published an analysis Friday finding that its rule easing companies’ liability for killing birds would not cause significant environmental harm, clearing the way for it to finalize a major rollback before the president’s term ends on Jan. 20,” the Washington Post reports.
Several members of the top federal advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Defense have been suddenly pushed out, multiple U.S. officials told Foreign Policy, in what appears to be the outgoing Trump administration’s parting shot at scions of the foreign-policy establishment.
President Trump railed against Twitter in late night tweets, criticizing its trends algorithm and blaming what he called “big Conservative discrimination.”
Politico: “Driven by Trump’s insistence that Georgia’s elections are indelibly rife with fraud, conspiratorial MAGA figures are calling for a boycott of the two Senate runoff races, slated for Jan. 5, that will determine which party controls the upper chamber.”
“Their reason: The two GOP candidates, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, are not only insufficiently pro-Trump, they may be complicit in Georgia’s electoral fraud.”
“An Iranian scientist that Israel alleged led the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program until its disbanding in the early 2000s was ‘assassinated’ Friday,” the AP reports.
“Israel declined to immediately comment on the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once called out in a news conference saying: ‘Remember that name.’ Israel has long been suspected of carrying out a series of targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists nearly a decade ago.”
Will Wilkinson: “Democrats, struggling to make sense of it all, are locked in yet another round of mutual recrimination: They were either too progressive for swing voters — too socialist or aggressive with ambitious policies like the Green New Deal — or not progressive enough to inspire potential Democratic voters to show up or cross over.”
“But they should understand that there was really no way to avoid disappointment. Three factors — the logic of partisan polarization, which inaccurate polling obscured; the strength of the juiced pre-Covid-19 economy; and the success of Mr. Trump’s denialist, open-everything-up nonresponse to the pandemic — mostly explain why Democrats didn’t fare better.”
“This shocking strategy worked for Republicans, even if it didn’t pan out for the president himself. Moreover, it laid a trap that Democrats walked into — something they should understand and adjust for, as best they can, as they look ahead.”
“For a US president obsessed by size –- his hands, his wealth, his crowds -– Donald Trump made something of a bold U-turn on Thursday night by addressing the country from a desk seemingly designed for a leprechaun,” The Guardian reports.
“Trump said on Thursday he would leave the White House if the electoral college votes for the Democratic president-elect, Joe Biden -– the closest he has come to admitting defeat -– but his furniture stole the limelight.”
“While he harangued reporters and repeated unfounded allegations of electoral fraud, the internet zeroed in on his unusually small desk. Some called it symbolic of Trump’s diminished stature, some wondered if it was photoshopped (it wasn’t), most just laughed.”
“Lawmakers in Taiwan got into a fist fight and threw pig organs at each other Friday over a soon-to-be enacted policy that would allow imports of U.S. pork and beef,” the AP reports.
One lawmaker wrestled another lawmaker to the floor in the scuffle.
Washington Post: “The infighting now threatens to turn off the very Republican voters Perdue and Loeffler need to stave off challenges from their Democratic rivals, Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock.”
“Trump and his allies have repeatedly, and falsely, accused Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, of presiding over a fraudulent election. Trump has pushed the baseless claim that the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Georgia were rigged as part of a global conspiracy, and Perdue and Loeffler have called for Raffensperger’s resignation.”
“But therein lies the conundrum: Perdue and Loeffler are traveling the state pleading with Republican voters to turn out on Jan. 5 — effectively asking Trump supporters to put their faith in the same voting system their president claims was manipulated to engineer his defeat.”
CNN: Trump says he’ll travel to Georgia to support Republican senate candidates in runoff.
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered at least two people executed, banned fishing at sea and locked down the capital, Pyongyang, as part of frantic efforts to guard against the coronavirus and its economic damage,” the AP reports.
“Kim’s government also ordered diplomats overseas to refrain from any acts that could provoke the United States because it is worried about President-elect Joe Biden’s expected new approach toward North Korea.”
Associated Press: “The 2020 presidential race is turning into the zombie election that Trump just won’t let die. Despite dozens of legal and procedural setbacks, his campaign keeps filing new challenges that have little hope of succeeding and making fresh, unfounded claims of fraud.”
“But that’s the point. Trump’s strategy, his allies concede in private, wasn’t to change the outcome, but to create a host of phantom claims about the 2020 presidential race that would infect the nation with doubt and keep his base loyal, even though the winner — Biden — was clear and there has been no evidence of mass voter fraud.”
Pope Francis criticized groups protesting COVID-19 restrictions in a New York Times op-ed:
“It is all too easy for some to take an idea — in this case, for example, personal freedom — and turn it into an ideology, creating a prism through which they judge everything.”
With anti-coronavirus restrictions being reimposed in many areas, Americans are less likely to do any in-person Black Friday shopping this year, while online holiday shopping appears ready to edge past last year’s record pace.
Update : while there was some initial confusion if Fakhrizadeh had been killed on location, or merely wounded, with Reuters reporting that “Fakhrizadeh was injured in an assassination attempt near Tehran on Friday and was being treated…
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News, YouTube found out that Americans are in no mood for yet another woke lecture about their holidays this week when it received overwhelming backlash for posts slating Thanksgiving. The Google owned…
Update (1338ET): Responding to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to block New York from setting capacity limits at houses of worship during the pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said the ruling was ‘irrelevant.” During a Thanksgiving Day…
Submitted by Swiss Policy Research, A Joe Biden presidency means a “return to normality” simply because it means a return of the US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In 2008, Barack Obama received the names of his entire future cabinet…
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the shortcomings of the global health-care system, while also exposing how developed and developing world economies could demonstrate such unexpected responses. Tiny South Korea has managed to suppress…
The naval forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Thursday conducted large-scale exercises in the Strait of Hormuz at a moment Tehran believes Israel will launch a preemptive strike aimed at drawing Trump into ordering…
Virginia stock-picking millionaire says, Forget diversification! Buy one single $3 stock – that trades under a secret name – and it could help make your retirement. His instructions are here.
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A man on a mission. No matter what the media says, THIS IS NOT OVER! President Trump once again displayed his resiliency and determination to… Read more…
The Trump administration removed globalists and warhawks from the Defense Policy Board on Wednesday including Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, Jane Harman and Eric Cantor. That… Read more…
On Thanksgiving eve Attorney Sidney Powell filed a 104 Page BOMBSHELL COMPLAINT on massive voter fraud in the Georgia election this year. General Flynn Attorney… Read more…
Far left nuts who shutdown the economy and schools due to the China coronavirus (COVID) are not going to test students next year. They claim… Read more…
On Thanksgiving eve Attorney Sidney Powell filed a 104 Page BOMBSHELL COMPLAINT on massive voter fraud in the Georgia election this year. General Flynn Attorney… Read more…
Thanksgiving Day is an annual holiday to celebrate the blessings of the past year. But not everyone is grateful to be from the United States… Read more…
After channeling her inner Brezhnev last week and urging people to call police on their neighbors who host Thanksgiving gatherings, Oregon Governor Kate Brown is… Read more…
On Thanksgiving eve Attorney Sidney Powell filed a 104 Page BOMBSHELL COMPLAINT on massive voter fraud in the Georgia election this year. Then it was… Read more…
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